The Telanagna government on Sunday decided to pass an assembly resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act, joining the ranks of anti-CAA states.

The Telangana government took the decision in a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, while urging the Centre to repeal the last year's changes in the Citizenship Act.

It also appealed to the Centre "not to discriminate" on the basis of religion in granting citizenship to anyone.

The State Cabinet appealed to the Union Government, not to discriminate on the basis of religion for according Indian citizenship. It requested that all religions must be treated as equal before the law, an official release on decisions taken in the Cabinet meeting said on late Sunday night.

The Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Rao, felt the CAA would lead to discrimination on the basis of religion in grant of citizenship and jeopardise secularism envisaged in the Constitution.

The Cabinet further requested the central government to take measures to abrogate the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 which will lead to discrimination on the basis of religion while granting citizenship and thereby jeopardising secularism envisaged in the constitution, the release said.

The state Cabinet decided to pass the anti-CAA resolution in the state assembly on the lines of the ones passed by Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan and West Bengal, it said.

Coming out strongly against the CAA, Chief Minister Rao had said last month said he might convene a meeting of regional parties and chief ministers to oppose the amended citizenship law.

The state assembly may pass a resolution, like the other state assemblies did, against the CAA, he had said then.

The Cabinet meeting, which began on Sunday evening, concluded late in the night.

The Cabinet also decided to organize Pattana Pragathi' (progress of towns) programme, aimed at ensuring cleanliness, greenery and planned development in urban areas, for 10 days beginning February 24 in all towns and cities of the state, a separate official release said.

A state-level municipal conference', to be attended by mayors, municipal chairpersons, commissioners, MLAs and district collectors, would be held on February 18 here to finalise the guidelines for the proposed programme, it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Most residents didnt really need accused drug dealer Manuel Humberto Bolivar, also known as Little Sapo in addition to other street monikers, to make the point Albuquerque is a violent city. They already know that.

After all, we are coming off a year with a record 82 homicides  including a UNM baseball player shot and killed in Nob Hill last spring leading to a State Police surge, and a 55-year-old woman fatally shot in her driveway at 5 a.m. in November as she was leaving home to go to the gym.

But it really says something about a place when a guy like Bolivar  who is facing possible life in prison on a variety of narcotics and weapons charges after being arrested with methamphetamine, fentanyl, marijuana, opioids, a machine gun, five handguns, two rifles, thousands of rounds of ammunition and a bulletproof vest  tells arresting officers Albuquerque is very violent.

You think?

In fact, U.S. Attorney General William Barr pointed out during a visit here in December that Albuquerques violent crime rate is 3.7 times the national average and our aggravated assault rate is four times the national average. By comparison, Denvers violent crime rate is half ours.

Bolivar, 21, allegedly was part of a gang waging war on lower-level drug dealers and apparently had ties to an organization in Mexico.

Which brings us to the topic of sanctuary cities and the reason for Barrs visit  crime-fighting funding via the feds Operation Relentless.

The federal Department of Justice says Albuquerque, as one of seven selected cities, could receive up to $10 million in grant money to help crack down on violent crime in conjunction with enhanced enforcement by federal agencies like the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service.

But U.S. Attorney John Anderson said in an op-ed published in Mondays Albuquerque Journal the city isnt eligible for the money because it refuses to comply with grant requirements that include allowing a federal agency to audit forms city employees fill out saying they are legally allowed to work in the United States. Further, grant recipients departments and employees cant refuse to provide information to immigration authorities. Anderson said the city shouldnt balk at accepting federal immigration enforcement and pointed out that local officials at one time routinely cooperated with federal immigration enforcement agencies so that felony offenders in local jails who had no legal immigration status could be safely removed from our communities and not simply be released onto the streets.

City Council President Pat Davis, a Democrat who co-sponsored a resolution in 2018 strengthening the immigrant friendly status of Albuquerque, takes a dim view of the federal position.

To deliberately withhold money that they say will help Albuquerque because we dont want to sign off on an unconnected, unrelated political agenda in the presidents election year is just blatantly political bullying, he told reporter Elise Kaplan in the Feb. 13 Journal.

Deputy APD chief Harold Medina added, it kind of feels like political extortion.

There would seem to be a reasonable middle ground here. While an audit seems to be an overreach, there is absolutely no good reason the city (and county) should be trying to protect immigrants who are being held in felony cases and are in the country illegally.

And when it comes to grant money, barring successful litigation, the feds hold the cards. Just like they did back in 1974 when federal highway funding was tied to states adopting a 55 mph speed limit. Grants almost always come with strings attached.

It turns out that federal grant money to clear up the citys shameful backlog of rape kits also is being held up for the same reason. Ditto for the federal grant Albuquerque received in 2018 to hire a program director for the Crime Gun Intelligence Center.

Anderson wrote that the Justice Department shares the citys vision of Albuquerque as a welcoming community for people of all racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds and enforcement of federal immigration laws is not motivated by racisim or xenophobia.

Thats an argument that goes nowhere with critics of the current White House administration.

Perhaps more importantly, Anderson said in an interview that Operation Relentless has nothing to do with enforcing immigration law and is about violent crime.  The department does not take into account immigration status. So if people who are committing violent crime are U.S. citizens, were going to go after them. If theyre undocumented aliens, were going to go after them.

So the administration of Mayor Tim Keller and the Council have a political choice to make. Double down on sanctuary city  Medina says it is considering litigation if it does not get the funding  or, as Anderson argued in his op-ed, as a matter of principle, Albuquerque should use every tool at its disposal to reduce violent crime and make our city safer.

At the end of the day, to the too-many crime victims across the city, fighting rapes, assaults and murders, not filing a lawsuit, is the more compelling argument.

In the words of Little Sapo, Albuquerque is a very violent and crazy place. City leaders have the opportunity to find common ground with law enforcement partners and make it less so.

They need to call a cease-fire on the political posturing and get down to the business of making Albuquerque a safer city.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
States whose citizens died in a UIA airliner shot down by an Iranian missile reserve the right to apply to international institutions, said Ukrainian FM Vadim Prystayko to the correspondent of the Eurointegration in Munich, News.am reports.

As the source reported, the ministers of the five Iranian states in Munich made a joint statement that Iran was unable to decrypt black boxes and should send them to decrypt the other side. It says the need to conduct a criminal investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice, as well as the need to pay compensation to the families of the victims.

Prystayko noted that Ukraine expects relatively quick action by Iran.

He noted that if there is no action that Ukraine and other states are counting on, they can file a claim with international courts.

Canadian Foreign Minister Francois Champagne confirmed that the international community considers Iran to be obligated to carry out the actions that are required of it.
Were going to get back to living life, even if it kills us
16.02.2020 LISTEN

On Saturday, 15th February 2020, the former Member of Parliament and NPP Presidential aspirant, Francis Addai-Nimoh picked his nomination form from the Ashanti regional party office to contest in the impending NPP primaries.

Following his ability to pick nomination forms, there was a massive eruption of jubilation in Asante Mampong when news broke that Addai-Nimoh has picked his forms successfully from the regional party office.

Background

The NPP primaries have been characterized by many reported cases of aspirants being denied nomination forms. The phenomenon is particularly widespread in the Ashanti region where candidates have complained about party executives playing hide-and-seek with them concerning nomination forms.

The former Member of Parliament and presidential hopeful appear to be a victim of the situation. We gather that he was denied nomination form by the constituency chairman with the excuse that, all forms available to him had been sold off. Our checks further show that Addai-Nimoh petitioned both the regional and national offices of the party in accordance with the regulations and guidelines governing the primaries issued under the hands of the General Secretary of the party, John Boadu.

Agitations

A lot of party people have condemned the situation warning that it could lead the party to opposition and aggravate the problem of apathy if not addressed. Party stalwarts including former President Kufuour have asked the party to ensure level playing field for all candidates.

In an interview with Kumasi-based Otec FM, the former president queried whether nomination forms were mined at Obuasi. Other party youth groups including the Patriotic Youth Alliance, have joined the call for the party hierarchy to sanction executives who unjustifiably deny others from accessing nomination forms.

Situation In Mampong

Francis Addai-Nimoh comes up against incumbent Hon Apratwum- Kwaku Sarpong who unseated him in the last elections.

Some residents of Mampong revealed to our reporters they would not vote for the party in 2020 if Addai-Nimoh is not allowed to contest. "What has he done wrong to deserve all this. Is it wrong to aspire to become president"? - a resident said. Others were of the opinion that the party was deliberately doing this to frustrate the man they described as "humble and gentle" because of his presidential ambitions.

We report that Mampong was enlivened when the news finally came in that Addai-Nimoh had been given a copy of the nomination form with some sections of the town singing and dancing.
British Airways Embraer Airbus

British Airways

British Airways' chief operating officer and people director are leaving the company in the wake of a tense pilot walkout in September, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

The departures came as the airline's parent firm, International Consolidated Airlines Group, transitions to a new CEO.

The departing COO oversaw BA's pilots during their two-day walkout last year. The strike affected roughly 200,000 travelers and was the airline's first in 40 years.

Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

Two key executives at British Airways are leaving the airline after a tense faceoff between pilots and company leadership sparked its first strike in four decades, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

Chief Operating Officer Klaus Goersch and People Director Angela Williams will leave the company as its parent firm, International Consolidated Airlines Group, transitions to a new CEO. Williams led the airline's industrial relations while Goersch was in charge of British Airway's pilots, according to The Journal.

"We have made some changes in our leadership team to put us in the best possible position to deliver the next phase of our 6.5 billion customer and colleague investment, and to meet the challenges of the digital economy and changing consumer needs," British Airway told The Journal in a statement.

The shakeup follows a pilot walkout in September that crippled the company's operations over two full days. The airline canceled roughly 1,700 flights during the walkout, affecting about 200,000 travelers. The demonstration was fueled by disagreements over pilots' pay and benefits. The workers' union alleged that British Airway made huge profits on poorly paid pilots who helped keep the firm afloat while it faced tough times.

The strike was British Airway's first in nearly 40 years, according to The Journal.

British Airway has appointed former Director of Engineering Jason Mahoney as its new COO, while Stuart Kennedy, former people director at IAG Cargo, will replace Williams, the company told The Journal.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 19:18:27|Editor: zh

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DHAKA, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- All 312 Bangladeshi evacuees from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, have been released from a 14-day quarantine in the capital of Dhaka.

Meerjady Sabrina Flora, head of the country's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, made the announcement on Sunday.

"All the evacuees have tested negative for the virus," Flora said.

Flora said all of the returnees were sent home by Sunday morning after they underwent the last health check-up in Dhaka on Saturday.

"They were released with no signs of the coronavirus," she said.

The Bangladeshis were brought back from Wuhan onboard a special flight on Feb. 1.
Aldi Australia has shoppers cheering online after the supermarket giant re-released its popular frozen smoothie packs this week.

The $3.69 product gained a cult following for its ease and tastiness when it was first appeared on shelves, and shoppers have already rushed to the freezer aisle to stock up again.

Aldi Australia has brought back the frozen smoothie packs. Photo: Instagram/Aldi Lovers

The Aldi lovers Instagram page shared the news after spotting the return of the cultbuy at the supermarket, with the post quickly receiving over 700 likes. Normally known for the famous Aldi Special buys, this product appears to be a more permanent addition to the summer stock.

The frozen smoothie packs are back! So quick and convenient if youre a smoothie lover, the page captioned photos of the 450h varieties.

Flavours available include Strawberry Fantasy with strawberry and banana slices, Pineapple Sunset with pineapple and mango, and Green Dream with banana, lemongrass, kale and mango.

The pineapple sunset one is delicious, one fan commented.

Yay! Been waiting for these to come back, was another excited shoppers response.

The green dream as awesome!!! I love it, another revealed their favourite.

While a fourth added, Going to get these for the kids.

Aldi shoppers have shared their excitement at the return of smoothie packs. Photo: Getty

Not everyone was sold however, with some pointing out that the sugar content seems quite high.

According to the nutrition information, the Strawberry Fantasy bag contains an average of 11.2g of sugar per packet mix, while the Pineapple Sunset pack contains an average 16.7g, with even the Green Dream containing 13.5g of sugars.

Far too much sugar, one person wrote.

However both the Aldi page and others shoppers pointed out there is actually no added sugar, as most fruit is already high in natural sugar.

A fresh banana has around 12 grams of sugar and a cup of strawberries has seven grams of sugar, but it's natural, one customer explained.

Got a story tip or just want to get in touch? Email us at lifestyle.tips@verizonmedia.com.
They plan to evacuate only those citizens who do not have symptoms of coronavirus

Open source

Canada evacuates its citizens from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, quarantined near Japan due to the outbreak of the coronavirus COVID-19. The website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Canada reports.

"Honorary Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Health Patty Hajdu and Minister of National Defense Gardit Sajan today announced that the Canadian government has prepared a plane to evacuate Canadians aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which docked in Yokohama, Japan," the statement reads.

Only those citizens who do not have symptoms of coronavirus are planning to evacuate to Canada. After evacuation, liner passengers must go through a 14-day quarantine period.

The timing of the evacuation and the number of Canadians who are evacuated from the ship are not yet known.

"This decision was made due to the extraordinary circumstances faced by Diamond Princess passengers," - the ministry said.

About 3,700 people from more than 50 countries are on board the Diamond Princess.

As we reported, the cruise ship Diamond Princess staff confirmed 70 new cases of infection with coronavirus. This was announced by Minister of Health of Japan Kato Katsunobu, as Reuters reported. Thus, the number of patients on the liner increased to 355 people. Those who become infected were transferred to Japanese hospitals
Its gratifying to see the widespread outrage from elected officials and community members alike over the ordeal suffered by Michael Fesser at the hands of West Linn Police.

As The Oregonian/OregonLives Maxine Bernstein reported last week, legal filings show that the Portland man was illegally recorded, wrongfully arrested and charged with thefts that never took place as a result of a vendetta by Fessers boss  a friend of the then-West Linn Police chief. The racist hostility fueling the crusade against Fesser, who is African American, was clear in epithets and text messages about him that were uncovered as part of litigation proceedings.

And while Fesser secured a $600,000 settlement with West Linn, the extent of wrongdoing and the lack of serious consequences for those involved have ignited demands by local, state and federal officials for investigations into what happened.

That strong, immediate response by Gov. Kate Brown, the district attorneys of Clackamas and Multnomah counties, Oregons congressional delegation members and others is the only positive takeaway from this three-year saga. The investigations now underway are necessary and worthwhile  provided they are conducted with a focus on accountability and an unsparing analysis of what went wrong. The entitlement with which some officers abused their authority, as laid out in the lawsuit, should worry every Oregonian.

But agencies and community members should also resist the easy conclusion that the solution lies simply with getting rid of a few bad apples. Because while some individuals certainly drove the effort to railroad Fesser, his story exposes a much more troubling reality of how easily overt racism capitalizes off institutional racism to devastating effect. What started out as the vendetta of a single business owner snowballed into a multi-agency arrest and criminal charges because it was easier to believe the cliched narrative about a guilty black man than to question the many irregularities in the case.

Oregonian editorials Editorials reflect the collective opinion of The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board, which operates independently of the newsroom. Members of the editorial board are Therese Bottomly, Laura Gunderson, Helen Jung, John Maher and Amy Wang. Members of the board meet regularly to determine our institutional stance on issues of the day. We publish editorials when we believe our unique perspective can lend clarity and influence an upcoming decision of great public interest. Editorials are opinion pieces and therefore different from news articles. To respond to this editorial, submit an OpEd or a letter to the editor If you have questions about the opinion section, email Helen Jung , opinion editor, or call 503-294-7621.

Consider how this all began in February 2017. As Bernstein wrote, A&B Towing owner Eric Benson was angry with Fesser who had complained of co-workers racist comments and was, Benson believed, preparing to file a racial discrimination complaint. Benson contacted his fishing buddy, Terry Timeus, who was West Linn police chief at the time.

Timeus had one of his detectives, Tony Reeves, investigate Fesser  even though the towing company is in Portland and Fesser is a Portland resident. Reeves had Fesser unlawfully recorded at work, as the detective sought information to support speculation that Fesser could be stealing from the tow company owner. Although Reeves turned up nothing to support such claims, he and then West Linn Lt. Mike Stradley arranged for several Portland Police officers in the gang enforcement unit  Stradleys former colleagues  to descend on Fesser and arrest him as he drove home from work.

Why did West Linn officers go along with what was clearly an inappropriate assignment? Was doing the chiefs bidding simply a known expectation that came with the job? Why didnt Portland Police question why West Linn was coming into Portland territory for a supposed employment theft case that was in Portlands jurisdiction? Why didnt gang enforcement officers challenge Stradleys tenuous claim that Fesser was a gang associate  a claim that Stradley himself later acknowledged was based on recollections more than 20 years old of who Fesser hung out with in the 1980s and 1990s. Such a failure reflects that the gang enforcement unit, now called the Gun Violence Reduction Team, was either too willing to do a Stradley a favor or lacking the expertise it claims to have. Neither is acceptable.

The role played by the Multnomah County District Attorneys office also deserves scrutiny. The office initially dismissed the theft charge against Fesser in February 2017. But under prosecutor Christopher Shull, the case was revived with five charges filed in November  shortly after Fesser filed a lawsuit against Benson and A&B Towing for racial discrimination and retaliation. What prompted Shull at that point to take the case to a grand jury? Did he recognize the peculiarity of West Linn officers testifying on a case that had no apparent tie to West Linn?

There are so many more questions in this wide-ranging failure that deserve answers. But investigations are just one part of the equation. The various entities must also be willing to hold individuals accountable for their actions, particularly the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, which certifies police officers and now employs Stradley as an instructor. Fessers attorney has already established instances in which Reeves and Stradley were untruthful or unethical. The credibility of police officers throughout the state depends on the willingness of DPSST and other agencies to enforce expectations of professional conduct. Elected officials should keep close watch.

Because what finally halted this abuse of power wasnt any of the checks and balances supposedly in the current system. It was Fesser, a man who had every reason to not trust the system, and his attorney, Paul Buchanan, whose expertise is in employment law  not police litigation  who exposed the institutional racism that turned a boss grudge into a systemic assault.

Its telling that, according to Fesser, no one from West Linn has apologized for what the citys police put him and his family through. In fact, West Linn Mayor Russell Axelrod, in an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board, barely mentioned Fesser in answering questions about the citys failures. While Axelrod said he shared the feelings of disgust and dismay over these past incidents and the impact it has brought to our community and to all communities, he doesnt even note the impact on Fesser and his family.

But the mayor and others should know exactly the effects on Fesser, who runs a nonprofit that helps newly-released inmates transition to life outside prison. In a call with the editorial board, Fesser talked of his bewilderment that he, as a family man, a God-fearing man, someone who works with people coming out of the justice system, was suddenly in its crosshairs. He remembered feeling as if the entire police force was against him and acknowledged how terrified he was to go to West Linn. And he recalled seeing the pain and hurt on his 15-year-old sons face as the teen tried to understand why his father was being targeted, arrested, jailed and indicted. Its why Fesser insisted on a meeting with West Linn officials as a condition of the settlement  to help start the healing process for him and his family.

The trauma Fesser and his family suffered gave Oregonians a glimpse of the institutional racism that persists when those who know better fail to speak up. And while Fessers case may be settled, Oregons police agencies and elected officials should understand that this is just a start.

- The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board


By Bahk Eun-ji



As the coronavirus continues to spread, doctors are striving to find ways to fight this new virus, which has raised panic around the world.



The novel coronavirus has infected tens of thousands of people in China, with 28 confirmed cases here, and doctors are still struggling to track or predict its transmission pathways as the virus was previously unknown to scientists.



Korea's top infectious disease experts also said the novel coronavirus is not one scientists have encountered before and potentially developed over decades.



"Even if the virus and its hazards are fully unknown, our role in society is to give consultations based on our accumulated knowledge based on scientific grounds. However, even experts have various points of view for analyzing data when it comes to a new type of disease," said Peck Kyong-ran, president of the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases in a meeting with a group of reporters at the society's building in Seoul.



The 11 doctors of the society shared their understanding of the new virus in a recent meeting.



The experts who participated in the meeting were Peck Kyong-ran professor of Sungkyunkwan Medical School; Kim Nam-joong, professor of Seoul National University Medical School; Kim Tae-hyong, professor of Soonchunhyang Medical School; Sohn Jang-wook, professor of Korea University Anam Medical Center; Choi Won-suk, professor of Korea University Ansan Medical Center; Huh Joon-yeon, professor of Ajou University Hospital; Kim Sung-ran, chair of the Korean Association of Infection Control Nurses; Yoo So-hyun, professor of Gachon University Medical Campus, Lee Jae-gap, professor of Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital; Shin Young-shik, director of the National Medical Center's infectious disease department; and Song Young-goo, professor of Gangnam Severance Hospital.



Below are some questions asked at the meeting and the answers the experts gave to reporters.



Should the Korean government prohibit citizens from traveling abroad?



In addition to China, where the virus emerged, the Korean government has urged citizens to limit travel to Japan and to six regions in Southeast Asia including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said they have all reported community transmission of the virus, based on a report released by the World Health Organization.



The government said the decision is a part of its efforts "to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus in Korea from those who have visited other countries," which the experts all agreed was a positive measure in terms of virus control. However, many also said the treatment for the virus should be more focused on patients from regions where most of the cases have emerged.



"Control-wise, the spread of the virus can be contained when the inflow of the virus from outside is stopped. The restrictions on travel from regions which have reported transmission of the virus are reasonable in that sense," said Sohn Jang-wook, professor of the Korea University Medical Center.





Doctors of the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases share their understanding of the new coronavirus during a meeting with a group of reporters at the society office in Gangnam, Seoul. From left, Kim Nam-joong, professor of Seoul National University Medical School; Peck Kyong-ran professor of Sungkyunkwan Medical School; Kim Tae-hyong, professor of Soonchunhyang Medical School; Sohn Jang-wook, professor of Korea University Anam Medical Center; Choi Won-suk, professor of Korea University Ansan Medical Center; Huh Joon-yeon, professor of Ajou University Hospital; and Kim Sung-ran, chair of the Korean Association of Infection Control Nurses. /Courtesy of the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 07:28:27|Editor: yhy

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SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- A male and a female have been killed for allegedly using illegal drugs in Marin County, Northern California, a Bay Area TV station reported Saturday.

The couple, both from Marin County, about 61 km north of San Francisco, were found dead in a drive way of a neighborhood in the county's Sleepy Hollow area, local TV outlet KPIX 5 said.

The Marin County Sheriff's Office identified one of the victims as a 32-year-old man and the other a 30-year-old woman, saying preliminary findings suggested the couple's death was related to the use of illicit substance and their names will not be disclosed until their next of kin are notified.

Police said there is no threat to the community despite the drug-related death.
Let me begin by explaining the Wyle-Schwartz Theory of Political Primaries, so named for the political scientists Sherwood Schwartz and George Wyle, who are possibly better known for writing the theme song to Gilligans Island.

Schwartz is the key guy because he also wrote The Brady Bunch theme, and both songs lay out the premises of their shows.

If Sherwood Schwartz had written the theme song to Hamlet, it would go:

Heres a tale of a melancholic lad

Whose uncle killed his father.

That was very bad.

Then came slings and arrows by the dozen.

His uncle married his mother,

So he was his own cousin.

Sorry. Tangent. Schwartzs insight was that the human mind can comfortably hold a maximum of five people. Hence: Gilligan, the Skipper too, the Millionaire and his Wife, the Movie Star ...

There only two more characters but Schwartz knew there was no brain space for them, so the song continues and the rest.

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So the Connecticut 2018 Republican gubernatorial field was perfectly sized and could be sung to the tune of Gilligan. Try it at home: The white mayor Mark, the white guy Bob, the white guys Steve and David, the last white guy, Crazy Tim, all here on Primary Day!

The 2016 Republican president field? Way too many! You cant make a song about all those people. No wonder were in such a terrible fix.

The Democratic field was more like Gilligans Island if it dragged on too long without an adequate food supply Theres Hillary! And Bernie too. The other ones tasted good ...

Which brings us to 2020. From one perspective, we have a Gilli-minyan. The socialist. The schoolteacher. The gay mayor and Old Joe. The moderate, Klobuchar, is hard to categorize!

No. Theres someone else. Someone who has accomplished (Trump people, skip this part, contains abstractions) the quantum feat of being in Gilligans Island without being on Gilligans Island.

That person is Michael Bloomberg.

Last weekend, I announced on social media that I was Bloomberg curious and was surprised by how many people said they were too. I knew a lot of these people, and they exhibited a fair amount of (Democrat-leaning) ideological diversity.

Quite a few of them, if they were to make the trip to Bloombergland, would be making it from Warren Academy, despite the obvious gulf between her idealism and his whatever-works centrism.

(I was also called out for being Bloomberg curious by any number of Bernie bros, who were like, Curious? What else are you curious about? Girls? I bet you like girls. Youre disgusting, dude.)

Here are some reasons to be Bloomberg curious: (a) Having been mayor of New York is closer, as an experience, to being president of the United States than most things are. Being a senator or mayor of South Bend, Ind., is not much like being president of the United States. Actually, I would argue that Donald Trump, after three years in office, also has relatively little experience being president of the United States.

(b) Theres something devilishly alluring about having a person so much wealthier than Trump run against Trump, who is a sopping diaper full of insecurities, many of them connected to money. Bloomberg is worth about $58 billion. Trump is worth, maybe, $3 billion with $200 million liquidity. If you were to tell Bloomberg that you know a guy worth $3 billion with $200 million liquidity, his mental picture would be of a man in a pistachio-stained apron selling Dippin Dots outside Grizzly Jacks Waterpark in Utica, Ill.

(c) Bloomberg is kind of ruthless. Trump has already made it clear that, if he could get Emperor Palpatine to hack into Amy Klobuchars Discover card, hed do it in a heartbeat even it meant he had to start making Trump Steaks out of Ewok bellies. This is what people (including Bloomberg) mean when they talk about Bloomberg going toe-to-toe with Trump. When Bloomberg recently offered Instagram influencers $150 a pop to post nice things about him, one senses he didnt wrestle his way through some inner dialogue about whether this violated any sacred norms of American political expression.

Biggest downside: Bloomberg is, infamously, burdened with the legacy of New York Citys stop and frisk program, which was racial profiling carved onto stone tablets. If stop and frisk seems kind of Trumpy, thats only because it is. Citizen Trump loved the program, raved about it in 2013 and recommended that other cities, notably Chicago, try it. So, even though it strongly suggests Bloombergs shaky grasp on American ideals, its not something his opponent could run against.

Here in Connecticut, Bloomberg is doing his Bloomberg thing: quickly building an operation, hiring skilled people, paying more than the competition pays, shaking the tree for endorsements. Hes collected a bunch, including former New Haven mayor Toni Harp.

The devil appears in many disguises. In his current manifestation he purrs: How badly do you want to save democracy and the climate? Neither one of them will survive another four years of Trump. You know I can beat him. I might even be able to get a few things passed, which is more than I can say for the rest of these clowns. Do you want that? Do you want it enough to pledge yourself to ... me?

Its tempting. I believe the devil is known for being tempting.

Gosh, Skipper, the island used to be so peaceful.

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.
(Newser)  In a popular Catholic church in the Philippines, nearly half of the pews were empty for Sunday Mass. The few hundred worshipers who showed up, the AP reports, were asked to refrain from shaking others' hands or holding them during prayers to prevent the spread of the virus that started in China. In Hong Kong, Cardinal John Hon Tong, wearing a mask, announced the suspension of public Masses for two weeks and urged churchgoers to instead watch them online. Buddhist temples, Christian churches and Muslim mosques have been ordered closed in mainland China, where the new coronavirus strain was first detected in the central city of Wuhan. Mosques have canceled weekly Friday prayers under an order to avoid "collective religious activities." Religious leaders should encourage Muslims to "trust the party" and avoid crowds, the Communist Party-controlled body that oversees China's authorized mosques said.

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The restrictions and dwindling crowds in diverse places of worship underscore the extent of the scare. In Japan, there's been a sharp drop in tourists at Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. "Its obvious that many are scared, said a priest in Manila. Mass attendance, he said, "has really dropped." After consulting experts, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines advised avoiding hand contact at church. They urged replacing holy water more often in churches and putting a protective cloth on the grills in confessional boxes. Crowds have thinned at Bangkoks popular Wat Pho, a centuries-old Buddhist temple complex known for its giant reclining Buddha. A Protestant church in Seoul shut and switched entirely to online services after one of its followers tested positive for the virus. Some of the faithful consider going to religious gatherings during the outbreak a test of faith. "The virus cant dampen my faith," said a churchgoer in Manila. The Indonesian health minister said, "The key is to keep praying and maintain your immunity."

(Read more coronavirus stories.)
By Bikash Sangraula, KYODO NEWS - Feb 16, 2020 - 16:26 | World, All

Nepal, home to eight of the world's 14 highest peaks, will in April hold an inaugural forum aimed at steering global discourse on climate change toward the Himalayas, according to Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali.

In an exclusive interview Saturday with Kyodo News, Gyawali said the first edition of the Sagarmatha Dialogue will take place April 2 to 4, gathering 250 people, including experts and heads of state and government, from some 40 countries in Kathmandu. Sagarmatha is the Nepali name for Mt. Everest, the world's tallest mountain.

"Mountains are not at the center of (climate change) discussions," Gyawali said at his official residence in Kathmandu.

(Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali)

However, mountains, including those such as Mt. Everest in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya range spanning from Afghanistan to Myanmar are at the forefront of facing the worst impacts of climate change. The Hindu Kush-Himalaya is the source of freshwater for 2 billion people.

"Even if global warming stays at 1.5 C, it will mean warming of mountains by 2 C to 2.5 C," he said, stressing the need to bring the focus to the mountains.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an intergovernmental body of the United Nations, has recommended limiting global warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels.

Meanwhile, a report by the Nepal-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development last year warned that such a rise in temperature would wipe out two-thirds of the region's glaciers by 2100, leading to a significant rise in sea levels.

"If we want to stop sea levels from rising and coastal settlements from being submerged, we must stop the melting of snow," Gyawali said.

In August last year, Nepal's Cabinet endorsed a proposal to hold the Sagarmatha Dialogue in view of severe climate incidents in the country of late.

In March last year, Nepal witnessed its first ever tornado. Rapid changes in rain patterns have affected the country's agriculture.

"Though we were aware and were feeling the impacts of climate change in the past, it has now sped up at an alarming rate," he said.

The minister cited difficulties people in the plains area of Nepal are experiencing to access groundwater through boring and how alarmed trekking guides are at the rapidity at which snow is receding in high-altitude areas.

Gyawali said Nepal expects the event, to be held every two years, to bring together both coastal and mountain nations to fight climate change and to build green economies.

Nepal is endowed with hydropower resources allowing it to generate up to 40,000 megawatts of electricity.

It has already taken some concrete steps toward becoming a green economy. The customs duty for electric vehicles imported into the country stands at a maximum of 10 percent while the same for fossil fuel vehicles is a whopping 240 percent.

Also, the state-owned electricity distribution monopoly has revised electricity tariffs in such a way that those who consume more electricity end up paying less per unit.

"We will gradually replace fossil fuel vehicles with electric vehicles. For cooking purposes, we will replace the use of cooking gas with electricity," Gyawali said.

Additionally, Nepal will introduce 300 electric buses in Kathmandu this year, he said.

The minister, who previously held the tourism portfolio, lamented the withdrawal of the United States from climate change negotiations under Washington's current administration.

"Withdrawal of some big powers from the climate agenda is ironic. It is a matter of worry and concern," he said, expressing hope that the decision will be reversed in the near future.

Invitations have been sent out to experts and officials in the United States.

"Even if this takes time, the rest of the nations should join forces and do what we can," he said.

Nepal plans to pledge new initiatives to reduce emissions at the Sagarmatha Dialogue, which will double as a platform for outreach with many nations with which Nepal shares little in common except the global peril of climate change.
BLUFFS  Mayor Linda Sapp is asking people to watch their mail for U.S. Census-related information and to respond to a census questionnaire by April 1.

A census representative in Peoria told Sapp that a postcard would be sent out mid-March with a web address and a request that residents visit the website and answer seven questions.

Sapp also intends to include a notice with the villages water bills to let people know both to watch for the postcards and that they can make an appointment to use a village-owned computer to answer the questions, she said.

After April 1, census workers will begin going door to door in the community, trying to get responses to their questions, but Sapp is concerned they may not find residents at home, she said.

She stressed how important it is for residents to answer the census questions because grant money and other funding depends on the villages population.

In other business during the Bluffs village board meeting, the board discussed an addition business owner Gary Westermeyer wants to make to Plackes Restaurant in Bluffs.

During the boards January meeting, he asked about moving a fire hydrant that stands in the way of the build. The fire hydrant will cost an estimated $5,000 to $6,000 to relocate.

Board members subsequently learned that the expansion would be built directly over a main water line and a sewer line. They then questioned who would be responsible for the cost of repairing the line if something happened and how repairs to the main water line would be accomplished if Westermeyer were to build over it.

The board decided to pay half of the cost  up to $3,000  to move the fire hydrant, using money from the tax increment financing fund. They also voted to contact the village attorney to have a contract drawn up making the property owner Westermeyer  responsible for any costs or repairs for accidents or future problems with the main water line that may affect his building.
A head constable of Moga Police on Sunday allegedly shot dead his wife and three other members of his in-laws family with his service rifle and later surrendered before police.

Police said Kulwinder Singh, who is in his early 50s, had entered into an argument with his in-laws family over a dispute and in a fit of rage committed the crime. His wife had gone to her parent's house a few days ago.

Singh shot dead his wife, brother-in-law, sister-in-law and mother-in-law at Said Jalalpur village in Dharamkot sub-division of Moga district, police said.

In the firing incident, the 10-year-old daughter of his brother-in-law also sustained injuries, police said.

Later, he surrendered before police and deposited his AK 47 service rifle, which he had got released on Saturday evening from police lines as he had to proceed on official duty.

The accused was subsequently arrested and a case registered against him under relevant provisions of law, police said.

The dead were identified as Singh's wife Rajwinder Kaur (45), mother-in-law Satwinder Kaur (65), brother-in-law Jaskarn Singh (40) and sister-in-law Upinderjeet Kaur (32).

The bodies have been sent to the Moga Civil Hospital for postmortem.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three Kashmiri students have raised slogans of Pakistan Zindabad in Hubli, Karnataka. Students have commemorated the Harkat Pulwama terror attack. Angry people beat up Kashmiri students after the video went viral. Later, the police arrested these students. On this matter, the police commissioner of Hubli-Dharwad said that when we got the information, we arrested them and brought them to the police station. His college has also filed a complaint. We will investigate the matter and take appropriate action. It is too early to say anything.

The activists of the Hindu organization beat up three Kashmiri students in Hubli, Karnataka. These three students were raising slogans of Pakistan Zindabad on the anniversary of the terrorist attack in Pulwama, the video of which went viral. He studies at KLE Engineering College there. After video came on WhatsApp, people entered the college and beat up the students. Police has taken all three into custody.

For your information, let us tell you that the names of the three are Aamir, Basit and Talib. According to the police, they are second-year students in engineering colleges and live in all three hostels. In the video that has surfaced, all three are telling their names. The song "Khai ye kasam, Khai hai ye Kasam, Sun le dushman sabhi , Hai ye Dil Ki Sada, Pakistan Zindabad, Pakistan Zindabad" is playing in background."

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A BBC documentary about Dominic Cummings is set to stoke the growing tensions with the Government by interviewing a businessman who claims he was assaulted by Boris Johnsons all-powerful adviser.

The film, which will be fronted by Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis, will track Mr Cummings eccentric, self-mythologising trajectory into the heart of Mr Johnsons Downing Street  via a public school in the North East, a mysterious sojourn in Russia and an instrumental role in the pro-Brexit movement.

The documentary is being produced at a time when relations between No 10 and the BBC are under unprecedented strain, with Ministers boycotting its flagship programmes such as Radio 4s Today Programme and Mr Cummings threatening to rip up the licence fee.

The alleged clash reportedly came after Mr Cummings, who at the time was campaigning against Britain joining the euro, had been involved in an explosive radio debate with Colin Perry

As an indication of how provocative the film could be, the producers are understood to be planning to interview Colin Perry, who says that two decades ago Mr Cummings grabbed him by the lapels and pinned him to a wall.

The alleged clash reportedly came after Mr Cummings, who at the time was campaigning against Britain joining the euro, had been involved in an explosive radio debate with Mr Perry, a representative of the traditionally pro-EU Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

After Mr Perry said he thought Mr Cummings wanted the UK to leave the EU entirely, he claims Mr Cummings described it as a lie, pursued him to some stairs and pushed him from behind.

He says of Mr Cummings, who was 27 at the time: He then seized me by the collar and tie, slammed me against the wall and raised his fist as if to hit my face.

The film, which will be fronted by Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis, above, will track Mr Cummings eccentric, self-mythologising trajectory into the heart of Mr Johnsons Downing Street  via a public school in the North East, a mysterious sojourn in Russia and an instrumental role in the pro-Brexit movement

Mr Perry added: I thought that would be the last that we would hear of him.

Mr Cummings has said that the two men merely stumbled into each other.

It comes as Government sources say Mr Cummings, who has always regarded the CBI as the centrepiece of the pro-Remain establishment, has discussed stripping it of its Royal Charter.

The film will cover Mr Cummings childhood in Durham, where his parents were an oil rig project manager and a special educational needs teacher, his studies at Oxford and his post-university time in Russia where he helped set up an airline which flew only once.

He returned to the UK to work for Business for Sterling, the campaign against joining the Euro, and as a special adviser to Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Gove.

Mr Cummings stayed with Mr Gove after he became Education Secretary, terrorising Whitehall and David Camerons Downing Street with a myriad of guerrilla tactics to wage war on the blob civil service and unions he blamed for damaging childrens academic prospects.

In 2011, he married senior Spectator journalist Mary Wakefield, the daughter of a baronet, before masterminding the Vote Leave campaign in the 2016 referendum  a role which catapulted him to fame after he was portrayed by actor Benedict Cumberbatch in a Channel 4 docu-drama.

Last night, a CBI spokesman said: The CBI continues to work closely across Government departments through a series of strong and open relationships.

A BBC spokesman said no date had been set for the documentarys broadcast.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 14:41:01|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- China's National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ), also known as the "new third board," has seen a turnover of 10.78 billion yuan (1.5 billion U.S. dollars) since the beginning of this year, according to the exchange.

From Feb. 10 to 14, turnover on the board reached 1.4 billion yuan. As of Feb. 14, 8,834 companies had been listed on the NEEQ.

Launched in 2013, the new third board is the third national equity trading bourse after the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. It is designed for innovative, start-up and high-growth micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises.

China has outlined a series of reforms to better orient the NEEQ to the needs and features of small enterprises and support high-quality growth of the real economy.
The University of Pennsylvanias Lia Thomas competes in a swim meet against Dartmouth and Yale on Saturday. (Kylie Cooper)

After undergoing hormone replacement therapy, Thomas has posted fast times for the University of Pennsylvania's women's team, sparking debates from the starting blocks to online message boards to cable news networks.
There was need for introspection



and change in British-era laws keeping in view changes in society, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said at a law conference organised here by Maharashtra and Goa Bar Council on Sunday.

Speaking on the topic 'Marching Towards Speedy Modern Judiciary' at Law Conference 2020, Thackeray said all four pillars of democracy need to come together to think of amendments in law to ensure people get justice speedily.

"Many years after Independence, British-era laws still exist. As per the need of the society and changing situation, there is need for introspection and change in these laws," he said.

"It is our responsibility to create a society and judicial system where there will be no need to hand over cases of atrocities on women to fast track courts for speedy justice. In case of failure in creating an ideal society, crime will increase and there will be a dearth of court buildings," he told the gathering.

The importance of good values is more than laws and the time to nurture these values in society has arrived, he told the gathering that included Justice Bhushan Gavai of the Supreme Court, Bombay High Court Justices Makarand Karnik and Sandeep Shinde as well as state parliamentary affairs and transport minister Anil Parab.

Justice Gavai laid the foundation stone of a new court building here and CM Thackeray promised all help and funds to complete its construction quickly.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 13:08:53|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- China announced Friday that it would lift restrictions on the import of poultry and related products from the United States, according to a statement jointly released by the General Administration of Customs and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

Based on risk assessment, the statement, effective immediately, removed a series of restrictions imposed by the now-defunct General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the Ministry of Agriculture in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Amanat Holdings, the GCCs largest healthcare and education investment company, recorded a total income of Dh113.3 million ($30.85 million) in FY-2019, up 8% year-on-year, and a net profit of Dh60 million ($16.34 million), up 39.8% y-o-y.

The board of directors has proposed a cash dividend of 2.2 fils per share for the year ended December 31, 2019, subject to shareholders approval at Amanats Annual General Meeting to be held on April 13.

The dividend represents the fifth consecutive payout to shareholders, distributed yearly since Amanats listing on the Dubai Financial Market at the end of 2014 and is 46.7% higher compared to FY-2018.

Income from Investments increased 2.3% to Dh73.5 million in FY-2019. Improved performance at the Education Platform helped offset the expected negative contribution to investment income from the Royal Hospital for Women & Children (RHWC), which successfully commenced operations in March 2019 and is currently in its ramp-up phase.

RHWC has successfully launched 90% of its medical services, completed the recruitment of the clinical team and signed with key insurance companies, all of which should support the growth of higher patient footfall going forward.

Total expenses amounted to Dh51.7 million in FY-2019, down by 16% y-o-y versus the Dh61.5 million recorded in FY-2018. Lower expenses came as Amanat recorded an 11% decline in staff costs to Dh29.2 million, an 8% decline in G&A expenses to Dh16.7 million following cost reduction initiatives taken by management at the Holding level as well as a 45% reduction in project costs.

Amanats Chairman Hamad Abdulla Al Shamsi said: Throughout 2019 we remained focused on integrating and aligning our portfolio companies, both operationally and strategically, particularly after having deployed over Dh1.2 billion across four investments in 2018. The merits of our teams efforts are clearly reflected in Amanats performance, and we are well positioned to capitalise on favourable legislative and economic trends in the regional healthcare and education sectors.

Domestically, we have built a diversified education platform that comprises four quality assets and that sees us fully aligned with the UAEs 2021 vision of building a first-rate education system. On the healthcare front, we are excited to have brought RHWC to the fold, with the Bahraini asset now in its ramp-up phase, and we continue to provide our KSA healthcare assets with the resources necessary to capture the strong demand for quality healthcare services.

Dr Shamsheer Vayalil, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Amanat, added: We are pleased to have delivered a strong set of results for FY 2019 which were driven by the solid performance of our Education Platform recording a 54.8% increase y-o-y. We have continued to build our platforms and our team has worked intensely with our portfolio companies to help advance their service offering and operational performance. We have made significant headway during the year which has enabled us to deliver a 39.8% year-on-year increase in our net profit supporting Amanats solid growth trajectory.

We remain optimistic on the macro-economic backdrop, which is supported by growing populations and a rising demand for education and healthcare services. Amanat stands uniquely positioned as a market consolidator and an investment vehicle that can tap into two of the regions most resilient sectors. - TradeArabia News Service
Social media pages and accounts often turn into memorials when someone dies, giving people a chance to still feel connected to those they've lost. But after we're gone, who owns the information on our pages? Who can access them?

Faheem Hussain, a clinical assistant professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society (SFIS) at Arizona State University (ASU), will explore this topic in his discussion at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

"It's certain we're going to be dead, so where's the design for that?" said Hussain. "There's a huge design disconnection."

The dilemma of what happens to your digital self after you're gone is something Hussain has seen first-hand. He's witnessed family and friends struggling to gain access to a loved one's social media page after that person passed away, and he's gotten Facebook friend suggestions for a person who had died.

"We have normalized talking about safety and security of our data and privacy, but we should also start including the conversation of how to manage data afterwards," said Hussain. "It's a bit tricky because it involves death and no one wants to talk about it."

Hussain has spent several years researching technology in society, including the digital afterlife, social media and digital rights. He's been documenting the changes companies have made in terms of managing the data of people who have died, along with digital afterlife provisions.

In his research Hussain and his colleagues looked at digital afterlife policies, cases and user feedback, specifically in developing countries. They found that people in these countries are more vulnerable to the challenges associated with the digital afterlife, including privacy issues, digital ownership and legal framework. Hussain and his colleagues concluded that more needs to be done to lessen the gap in digital afterlife policies between developed and developing countries, to ensure solutions are inclusive and truly global.

Problems surrounding the digital afterlife are not slowing down anytime soon. A recent study found that Facebook could have nearly 5 billion dead users by 2100. Hussain will discuss the policies that need to be in place regarding digital products and platforms and what needs to be considered in their design.

"It's important for us to talk about the digital afterlife," said Hussain. "You need to manage what will happen when you are not here anymore."

In recent years, many digital platforms, including Facebook and Google have been making changes when it comes to the death of users. Facebook will turn your page into a memorial, and you can appoint a legacy contact to look after your account. With Google, you can set up a trusted contact who will get access to parts of your account if it's been inactive for a period of time. But much of this in the hands of the user, who has to set up these settings in preparation for death. Hussain said we need to talk about our concerns and communicate with the companies providing these digital services.

"I think it's important that we have a say in it," said Hussain.

###

Hussain will give his presentation of "Our Digital Afterlife" during the session "Death in the 21st Century: What is Left Behind" on February 16 at 4:00 p.m. PST.
Congressman Michael McCaul has represented District 10 for 15 years. District 10, which encompasses most of Katy, is growing at a fast pace, and the needs of the community are rapidly changing to accommodate that growth. McCaul has also co-authored multiple bills focused on humanitarian efforts.

RELATED: U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul opens Katy office

Katy is growing so rapidly. Theres been enormous growth even since you were elected. What are some of the biggest changes youve seen, and how has that impacted your work in Congress?

In my 15 years of Representing the 10th District, Ive never seen the economy perform so strongly. Currently, we are seeing the lowest employment rate in 50 years, Texas unemployment rate fell to 3.4 percent and in the last several years 895,000 Texas jobs have been created. The lowest-income workers are seeing the fastest pay increase in years. This is a great time for the American worker. This is all because of policies like Tax Reform, United States Mexico Canada Agreement and phase 1 of the China Trade Deal. People in cities like Katy, TX are benefiting directly from this soaring economy

In talking to your constituents, are there any issues that stand out more than others? What are some of the ways youre working to improve the district?

During my time as the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and now the Lead Republican of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I have supported and introduced legislation that secures our borders, bolsters our cybersecurity against our foreign adversaries and stimulates economic growth. Most recently, I have introduced legislation that would allow local and state officials to better identify human traffickers. As some may be familiar, Texas ranks second to California in reported human trafficking cases. This form of modern-day slavery must be stopped - it is not just some issue in Vietnam, it is in Katy, and am working tirelessly to raise awareness, educate the public, and ensure we can stop this from occurring. Over the years, I have introduced meaningful legislation to protect our kids in the battle against cancer.

District 10 covers a vast geographic territory. It spans from here to Austin, essentially. And obviously, Katy and Austin have very different needs. How do you make sure all areas get equal representation?

From my first campaign, I pledge to have four offices open and spread throughout the district. When I am in Texas, I make it a point to visit different areas of the district. This means driving between Houston and Austin to ensure I am able to meet with everyone, hear about their issues, and try to help them. If you look at many pieces of my legislation that address issues from combatting terrorism to tackling childhood cancer and supporting student farmers, they all point to the important needs of individuals and groups across the 10th District of Texas. I believe that legislation starts at the people you are trying to help. Aside from legislation, my office completed 581 casework requests, not to mentioned helped return over $634,800 owed to individuals right in the 10th District.

RELATED: America has saved a generation from extinction: Congressman Michael McCaul champions Global Fund to combat infectious diseases

It seems like there are so many different facets to your position. You represent your party, you represent your constituents and you crusade for these massive humanitarian efforts. Do you ever feel like these aspects of your job conflict?

Not particularly, whether you are dealing with humanitarian, economic, or national security issues, they all rely on one another in order to function properly. For instance, we have seen globally that strong economies and investment in humanitarian efforts can stop the rise of extremism and therefore be able to keep U.S. citizens safe by preventing terrorism abroad. This is what led me to introduce the Global Fragility Act. And just this past week we celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Womens Global Development and Prosperity Initiative (W-GDP). I have worked closely with members across the aisle, the White House and Ivanka Trump to help women across the globe because the greatest threat to extremism is an empowered woman.

On a similar note, how do you shift gears? Youre dealing with impeachment issues in Washington, but youre dealing with flood mitigation issues here. And whats that like, having so many different issues on your plate?

Well, for starters, I am glad we have put this impeachment ordeal behind us, so we can start focusing on the issues that really matter to the citizens of Katy.

One of the most gratifying aspects of this job is when I can give back by helping others. That is really what is all about. I feel very fortunate to be in a position where I can make a difference in the lives of others. But yes, there are a lot of issues to solve, and I have always been committed to working to solve them. Flood mitigation is one that always at the top of my mind. When Hurricane Harvey impacted the Houston area, I worked ensure that proper resources were directed to the impacted areas with nearly $140 billion secured for 2017 disasters. I will continue to advocate for ample funding, so we are prepared for the next natural disaster.

RELATED: Rep. McCauls Global Hope Act brings lifesaving cancer treatments to children in developing nations

What are some of your goals for the future of the district? Are there any bills or projects in particular that youre excited about?

Im looking forward to continue to work across the aisle to pass bipartisan legislation to lower the prices of prescription drugs, protect people with pre-existing conditions, expand rural broadband, properly fund flood relief and mitigation, strengthen our cybersecurity infrastructure to protect our Country from attacks and empower women across the world.

Whats your favorite place to eat in Katy?

That is tough question I would have to say Midway BBQ, but Antonias comes in a close second.

claire.goodman@chron.com
An ex-Groupon executive told how he started out selling clothes in the school playground before moving abroad for his first job at the age of 16.

Ainsley Duncombe, 41, was raised by strict middle-class parents in Chelmsford, Essex, but constantly had dreams of something bigger.

His big chance came shortly after his 16th birthday, when he accepted commission-only PR job in Tenerife.

Despite having no credit card and just 50 in his wallet, Ainsley took the opportunity and went from strength to strength, earning enough to buy his first home aged 24.

In the two decades since, Ainsley has worked around the world, including a stint in Dubai where he served as CEO of Groupon Middle East.

Now Ainsley lives in Kenya with his partner Paulette, 27, and their daughter Aria, two, and works for a hotel chain.

Ex-Groupon executive Ainsley Duncombe has told how he started out selling clothes in the school playground and now has an empire. Pictured, showing off a flash soft top Ferrari

Ainsley lives in Kenya with his partner Paulette, 27, and their daughter Aria, two, and works for a hotel chain. Pictured, the family pose for a photo in New York's Times Square on holiday

Ainsley Duncombe, 41, was raised by strict middle-class parents in Chelmsford, Essex, but constantly had dreams of something bigger. Pictured, posing by the pool with Paulette

'I used to sell clothes and belts in my school lunch hour to kids from two of the other local schools,' he said in an interview with FEMAIL.

'Myself and my two business partners were the first kids in school with mobile phones so we would coordinate sales via the devices.

'My friend Elliot also had his first car, a Ford Fiesta, so that's where we stored the stock whilst we were in class.'

At the age of 14 Ainsley was left devastated when his 18-year-old brother took his own life while on a school trip to Derbyshire.

Ainsley's advice for budding entrepreneurs Tip 1. Do it, do it, do it !!!! Too many entrepreneurs procrastinate and overthink a situation /idea as opposed to jumping in & getting started, you learn much more on the field as opposed to the sidelines. Tip 2. Don't let negativity drown you out, family friends & others may say it cannot be done, stay true to your cause & get it won. Tip 3. Take risks & do your homework the only way to be able to solidly move forward is to take educated calculated risks. Tip 4. Learn from your mistakes, I've learnt so much more from them than I have from many successes the mistakes are valuable so learn from them Tip 5. Listen to your gut, if your instinct tells, you something about a person, employee, investor or product listen to it & don't ignore it . Tip 6. Lastly stay hungry & most importantly stay humble but never lose the hunger to succeed. Advertisement

The entrepreneur said his life was turned 'upside down' and losing his brother made him realise that 'life is for living and the world was there to be conquered.'

Shortly after his 16th birthday, Ainsley saw an advert in the local paper for a job in Tenerife. The successful applicant would have their flight and one month's accommodation paid for in exchange for PR work.

'That was my opportunity to leave but I was flat broke,' Ainsley said. 'I applied for the job and went for the interview in a London hotel.

'I landed the role and I was supposed to buy my own flight ticket to Tenerife then get it reimbursed when I got there. I knew I had performed well in the interview and the boss wanted me to accept the role, so I told him I didn't have a credit card and neither did my parents.

'After much back and forth my new boss finally agreed to take a chance on me and brought my flight ticket on his own card.'

Without even enough money to get to the airport, Ainsley relied on a friend to buy his ticket to Heathrow.

'He bought us each a one way tickets to the airport and once at departures he gave me his last 50,' Ainsley continued. 'He told me that I would need it more than him for my new life in Tenerife.

'He then had to take the train back to Essex with no ticket as that was the last of his own money. I'll never forget that day or his kindness towards me.'

Shortly after his 16th birthday, Ainsley saw an advert in the local paper for a job in Tenerife and it became his big break. Pictured, on a business class flight with Paulette

The 41-year-old has since set up businesses in Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Saudia Arabia and Lebanon. Pictured, posing for a photo in front of the Taj Mahal

Ainsley, who left school with six GCSEs, explained the weather was a huge factor in his decision to move to Spain.

'I had a commission only job that meant if I didn't want to work, I didn't have to,' he explained. 'I still don't eat shellfish to this day because if I had eaten it while in Tenerife and gotten sick, it would have affect my opportunity to earn commission.'

By the age of 24 Ainsley had bought a townhouse in San Miguel, Tenerife.

His career since then has been international.

He said: 'I've lived and worked in London, New York, India, Tenerife as well as Dubai whilst launching businesses across Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Saudia Arabia and Lebanon.

Ainsley started out working for Groupon Middle East after accepting an unpaid role within their Dubai office. He became the regional CEO. Pictured, in a selfie with partner Paulette

'I've learnt the differences between cultures and how drastically different business is conducted in different parts of the world - even in markets for the same thing.

'Having this global knowledge has been very useful on numerous occasions when dealing with different situations in Saudia Arabia or New York.'

Ainsley started out working for Groupon Middle East after accepting a role within their Dubai office.

His friend had just set up a new recruitment company in the region and wanted to win business by sending Groupon a candidate for them to trial for a month without recruitment fees.

Shortly after leaving Groupon Ainsley, pictured, joined the UAE's leading property portal, Propertyfinder Group, and launched their regional expansion into five countries

Ainsley said if he was 16 today, he would invest his time in a photography company that charges tourist for advice on taking photos of famous landmarks

Ainsley said Groupon 'jumped at the chance'.

He continued: 'I started in the business development department and very quickly worked my way up to the Dubai CEO. The company was one of the fastest growing businesses in the world at the time and I learnt a lot.'

Shortly after leaving Groupon he joined the UAE's leading property portal, Propertyfinder Group, and launched their regional expansion into five countries.

He now lives in Kenya after being approached by a former colleague from the UK.

'He said I'm about to buy a hotel and I want you to come in on it with me,' Ainsley explained. 'I didn't know anything about Kenya or hotels at the time, so learning the ropes was an entirely new challenging experience.

'I relocated to Kenya to help him with the sales and marketing of that project.'

There Ainsley met his partner Paulette, 27. The couple welcomed daughter Aria two years ago.

Ainsley added: 'I'm fortunate that at this stage in my career I don't look for a salary. I'm more focused on equity within a business, to help the business grow and add value. It's a position that I've dreamed of being in, since I was 16 years old.

Ainsley secured a commission only job before moving to Tenerife and was able to earn enough to buy a three bedroom townhouse. Pictured, with Paulette and Aria

Sharing his advice for budding entrepreneurs: 'I would say if you have a phone and the internet you have no excuse not to be able to make money.

'If I was 16 today, one of my businesses would be learning about phone photography and teaching others. Experiences of how to take great photos around the city landmarks, while earning 50 per hour for the privilege of teaching others.

'I would also say to young people the world and opportunity is there but it's up to you to have the courage to chase it, if you want it badly enough. I have lots of young people that I mentor and help around the world but I'm a big action guy.

'I prefer the types of people that say, "I've done this, tried that and want some feedback on what I've done already", as opposed to the people that say I have this idea but I haven't done anything towards bringing it to life.'
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks in an interview with Reuters in Berlin, Germany, Feb. 14, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Qing)

BERLIN, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on the United States to respect the recommendations made by the World Health Organization on the epidemic of COVID-19 and to create favorable conditions for implementing the China-U.S. phase-one trade agreement.

In an interview with Reuters on Friday, Wang expressed his hope that the United States would not adopt unnecessary trade and personnel restrictions in the difficult times of epidemic.

"Given the U.S.' highest-level travel advisory against China, practically that will bring about some challenges to the implementation of the agreement," he said.

The Chinese people always honor their commitments, Wang said, adding that the phase one trade agreement has been reached between the two sides based on equality and mutual respect.

China stands ready to work with the United States to implement the agreement, which will truly benefit both China and the United States, as well as the whole world, Wang said.

The Chinese market is big enough to withstand the impact of the epidemic, which is temporary, Wand said, pointing out that when the epidemic is over, the subdued consumer demand will be released quickly, the dynamism of China's economy will rebound strongly, and the market will continue to grow.

There will be better conditions to implement the consensus in the phase-one deal as China deepens reforms and expands opening up in accordance with its own timetable and roadmap, said Wang.

He said that China will keep up its end of the bargain and hopes the United States will deliver its commitments to China as well.
China on Sunday announced a significant drop in coronavirus cases, as the WHO team scrambled to assist Beijing in containing the spread of the virus that has claimed 1,665 lives so far.

The death toll from China's coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic has climbed to 1,665 on Saturday after 142 more people died, mostly in the worst-hit Hubei Province, and the confirmed cases jumped to 68,500.

China's National Health Commission(NHC) confirmed 2,009 new cases across the country.

Hubei and its provincial capital Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December, reported 1,843 of the new cases. The latest report brought the total confirmed cases in Hubei to 56,249 cases.

Of the new deaths, 139 were in Hubei, two in Sichuan, and one in Hunan, the state-run Xinhua agency reported.

The report said 9,419 infected patients had been discharged from hospitals after recovery so far.

The Commission announced that the proportion of severe and critical cases of the novel coronavirus disease among all confirmed cases has decreased significantly in China.

"In Wuhan, the epicentre of the epidemic, the proportion of severe cases among the confirmed cases fell from a peak of 32.4 per cent on January 28 to 21.6 per cent on February 15," Mi Feng, a spokesperson with the NHC said during a media briefing here.

Mi said the proportion in other parts of Hubei Province also dropped from a peak of 18.4 per cent on January 27 to 11.1 per cent on February 15.

The percentage in other provinces in China also decreased significantly, falling from a peak of 15.9 per cent on January 27 to 7.2 per cent on February 15, Mi was quoted as saying by the Xinhua agency.

He said the change in status of the coronavirus cases has proven the current epidemic prevention and control measures were effective.

The authorities and medics are carrying out differentiated measures on the patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19, close contacts of the confirmed cases, and fever patients, he said.

"The differentiated measures ensure that a large number of mild cases are treated in time, reducing the possibility of becoming severe cases," he said.

Mi's assertion of the cases dropping significantly came as the 12 member World Health Organisation experts team is set to begin working along with the Chinese health experts to speed up the containment process of the deadly virus.

India said it would do everything within its means to assist the people of China to combat the deadly coronavirus outbreak and would soon send a consignment of medical supplies.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that international experts are now on the ground in China, working closely with their Chinese counterparts to understand the outbreak and to inform the next steps in the global response, the report said.

Tedros also met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Munich Security Conference.

Tedros said there is a need for all countries to unite and cooperate in the scientific approach and on the basis of factual evidence, instead of spreading fake and stigma.

"Given the misinformation about the novel coronavirus epidemic, WHO has communicated with some companies including Google to ensure that the public will get the authoritative information from the WHO," Tedros said.

He said that one of the goals of the joint mission is to rapidly inform the public of the next steps in the COVID-19 response and preparedness activities in China and globally.

"Particular attention will be paid to understanding the transmission of the virus, the severity of disease and the impact of ongoing response measures," he said.

In Beijing, China's NHC said that the joint mission with WHO experts will pay field visits to China's three provincial-level regions to learn the implementation and effectiveness of the epidemic prevention and control measures taken in China's urban and rural areas.

"One of the goals of the joint mission is to provide suggestions on the prevention and control of the coronavirus outbreak in China and globally," it said.

In addition, the expert team will visit epidemic-related institutions focusing on epidemiology, medical treatment, laboratory detection and scientific research, the NHC said.

Appropriate arrangements for the team's key inspection fields and schedules have been made after thorough consultation and communication between the Chinese relevant department and Bruce Aylward, a Canadian epidemiologist who led an advance team to assist the ongoing anti-virus fight, the Xinhua report said.

One task of the WHO team along with their Chinese counterparts is to come up with standard medicine to cure the disease.

On Saturday, Chinese officials said that more than half of the coronavirus patients are being treated with Traditional Chinese Medicine in Wuhan, which has helped many of them to recover.

China has also ordered filed trials of a number of drugs to treat the virus.

China has imposed more restrictions on the 60 million people living under lockdown in Hubei province - the centre of the outbreak - in an attempt to control the epidemic.

The use of private cars has been banned and residents have been told to stay at home unless there's an emergency.

Officials say there will be only one exception to this rule - every three days a single person from each household will be allowed out to buy food and other essential items.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Korea must evacuate nationals from virus-hit cruise ship in Japan



The U.S. government plans to evacuate Americans from a coronavirus-hit cruise ship docked in Yokohama since Feb. 5 amid growing skepticism about the Japanese government's capacity to deal with the outbreak.



South Korea should follow suit immediately before it is too late. What is happening on the ship is hardly understandable. The ship is the biggest virus infection center outside of mainland China, and the number of confirmed cases there is soaring. Japan's health authorities confirmed 70 additional cases from the virus-hit Diamond Princess, Sunday, bringing total infections there to 355.



The problem is that more than 3,400 passengers and crew are still in danger. Japan initially kept all the passengers and crew confined to the vessel, but let passengers aged 80 or older, as well as their traveling companions, leave before the end of the two-week quarantine, last Thursday, as the situation on the ship spun out of control.



The Shinzo Abe administration should be held responsible for this fiasco. No doubt, the government's misjudgment and poor handling of the crisis worsened the problem. This is why many people around the world say that what is happening on the Diamond Princess is a "man-made disaster."



The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo reportedly has sent an email to all Americans on board the ship to inform them of the U.S. government's "voluntary evacuation" plan. The passengers were asked to disembark and return to the U.S. on a chartered airplane for further monitoring.



South Korea should take similar measures immediately. The government has provided food, hygiene products and other commodities to 14 nationals  nine passengers and five crew members  via the consular office in Yokohama, but this does not protect them from the virus. The government should send a chartered plane to Yokohama and bring them home immediately, if they want to return, before it is too late. If Japan cannot handle the situation properly, the first thing it must do is to cooperate for a quick evacuation of foreigners from the ship. Reports show the 3,400 people who are still on board are from more than 50 countries.



For South Koreans, the disaster in Japan is reminiscent of the Sewol ferry sinking in 2014, in which 304 of 476 passengers  mostly young students  died. The tragedy is commonly regarded as a man-made disaster; many of the lives would have been saved if the government's rescue efforts had been conducted in a prompt and effective manner. The government's poor response to the tragedy and its questionable treatment of victims and their families worsened public sentiment toward then-President Park Geun-hye and ultimately became major factors for her impeachment two years later.



The Japanese government hastily implemented a lockdown of the ship to block the possible spread of the virus, but the measure left all passengers and crew vulnerable. Now many experts say the government's inappropriate quarantine measure helped the virus spread on the ship.



So far, the South Korean government has no responsibility for what has occurred on the ship. Fortunately, no South Koreans on board have yet tested positive for the virus. However, if the government leaves them in danger without taking adequate measures, it cannot avoid the responsibility if something goes wrong.


Chandigarh, Feb 16 : Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, here on Sunday, commended 14-year-old Amandeep Kaur for rescuing four children from the burning school van at Longowal town in the Sangrur district. Four minors died in the accident on Saturday.

"I salute the extraordinary bravery & valour of Amandeep Kaur who risked her life to put out the fire and rescued 4 children from the burning van," the Chief Minister said.

"I am so proud of you. I am looking forward to meeting you," he said.

The LPG-fuelled modified but discarded van was being run by Simran Public School. When the van caught fire, 12 students were in it on their way to home from the school.

The school authorities had purchased the discarded van a day earlier. The dead included two children of a family and a two-and-a-half-year-old child who was returning home after first day at the school.

According to eyewitnesses, passers-by raised alarm when they noticed fire on the rear side of the vehicle. They also pulled out children after breaking the windowpanes.

Meanwhile, the police booked van driver Dalbir Singh and owner-cum-principal of the school Lakhwinder Singh on charge of murder on the complaint of a victim's father. He alleged gross negligence on the school authorities' part to use the unfit van.

Earlier, a case under Section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) was registered against the school management, the principal and the van driver.

Punjab has announced Rs 750,000 compensation to the next of kin of the dead. Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the apex religious body of Sikhs, has announced Rs 1 lakh to the next of kin of the each victim.

SGPC chief Gobind Singh Longowal demanded strict action against officials whose negligence led to plying of unfit vehicles.
Hundreds gathered at four-old Keira Kagans funeral on Thursday, as her mother read her favourite books No Matter What and The Runaway Bunny aloud to her a final time.

Keira, you and mama will be together and love each other forever, Jennifer Kagan said.

Halton Regional Police are still investigating the deaths of the four-year-old girl and her father Robin Brown. Their bodies were found on Feb. 9 in Rattlesnake Point Conservation Area in Milton with injuries police have said are consistent with a fall. Kagan and step-father Philip Viater believe it was a murder-suicide.

Keira had been at the centre of a long-running and high-conflict custody dispute, and, according to court documents, her mother had recently asked a court for an emergency hearing to limit her fathers access.

The details of the protracted three-year court battle expose some of the challenges family courts face in high-conflict cases, which researchers say have become more common in Ontario, straining an already over-worked family court system.

I have never understood why we dont have the same sense of alarm around delays in family court as we do in criminal court, said Peter Jaffe, a professor at the University of Western Ontario and expert on family violence, speaking in general and not specifically about Kagans custody case. For children in a child-custody dispute, there needs to be timely intervention and there needs to be ways to expedite matters.

That means having enough judges with specialized training available to hear cases, and agencies with the resources to do parenting and risk assessments as soon as possible, he said. The vast majority of cases that do end up in litigation involve serious allegations around domestic abuse, child abuse and mental health. They have to be a priority, he said.

There should be a better way of handling these cases, said Claire Houston, a law professor at the University of Western Ontario who has researched high-conflict custody cases. While there is no clear definition of what those words mean, the cases usually involve hostility, parents who have an inability to communicate, allegations of abuse or neglect of the child or former partners, and a longer than usual time in the court system, Houston said.

Its not clear why the number of these cases is going up, she said. One theory is that fathers who are increasingly more active parents are seeking custody more frequently. Another is that unaddressed mental health issues are fuelling conflicts.

High-conflict cases often require significant court time and resources from child protection services, with frequent returns to court. And with more cases, it will only get worse, said Nicholas Bala, a professor at Queens University and family law expert.

We are seeing more cases and no increase in resources, or even cuts, so it takes longer to resolve these cases, he said, speaking in general. Cases are falling through the cracks.

The legal fights are a financial drain on the parents  access to legal aid is only available below a very low income threshold, and some previously free services were cut or limited by the Ford governments cuts to Legal Aid Ontario last year. There are now more self-represented people, which can, without the buffer of legal counsel, worsen the the hostility, Houston said. In some instances, the drawn-out and vicious litigation itself can become a form of abuse.

Family lawyer Russell Alexander says upcoming changes to make the language of the Divorce Act more neutral will reduce a harmful winner-loser mindset. The updated act uses words like parenting time instead of custody and access.

Alexander said the government could do a better job letting the public know about ways to avoid long and protracted custody battles, including mediation.

He practices collaborative family law, where both parties sign a contract agreeing to treat each other with respect and civility in pursing common goals  like the best interest of children  and not to go to court.

But for those cases that end up high-conflict and would not benefit from mediation, it is to get them into court as soon as possible, Jaffe said.

There should be a way to identify potential high-conflict cases at the start and getting them before a single judge who can follow the case to its conclusion  rather than having a number of judges hearing different motions and making conflicting rulings, Houston said, speaking in general.

The ongoing expansion of Unified Family Courts cannot happen fast enough, she said. They allow divorce, custody and child protection issues to be handled together by judges with expertise in family law, rather than in separate courts.

There also needs to be much better information-sharing between criminal, family and child-protection proceedings so that judges are making decisions with all the information available, Houston said.

A major issue is a lack of mental health supports available for the parents during the case, especially where those issues are contributing to the high-stress litigation, said Bala.

Do we have appropriate counselling and supervision for these high-conflict families after the court proceedings? he said. That support and monitoring can be crucial because cases are not static  the deterioration in mental health of one parent, or a change in circumstances can change the risk. Thats another reason why it can be important to get cases back to court quickly, he said.

Meanwhile, family court judges are faced with the difficult task of determining whether allegations of abuse can be proven. Bala says more resources for child protection services can help ensure thorough investigations and assessments are done faster so judges are able to have the information they need to make decisions. But it can be difficult for parents to provide evidence of physical or emotional abuse which often happens without witnesses. And if it is witnessed by family members, they may not be considered reliable in a hostile court case.

If you go to criminal court, its very clear who has what role, Jaffe said. There is the Crown, the police officer, there are victim services, there is access to counselling programs for perpetrators and victims. In family court, its every man and woman for themselves, he said. A lot depends on the credibility of each parent.

Then a final decision about custody has to be made that balances safety concerns with fair access  with the best interest of the child at the forefront.

Judges are only as good as the level of education they have received on domestic violence, he said. It means understanding that violence doesnt mean just physical harm, it includes emotional and psychological abuse. He said there is still a need for judges and lawyers to be educated about domestic violence and child abuse because as things stand now, its a crapshoot.

You arent guaranteed the same quality of judging if you live in one city compared to another, Jaffe said.

I think we can do a better job, he said. The answers are complex but one death is one too many and there have to be lessons learned.
It has been quite an eventful week for Bollywood with multiple fashion shows, events, movie releases and the coveted and looked forward to awards of India, the Filmfare Awards. On Saturday night, the biggies of Bollywood headed to Guwahati in Assam for the 65th Filmfare Awards. Celebrities including Ananya Panday, Ayushmann Khurrana, Kartik Aaryan, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Taapsee Pannu, Bhumi Pednekar, Urvashi Rautela, Vicky Kaushal, Alia Bhatt, Ranveer Singh were seen dressed to the nines as they walked the red carpet of the awards show. While the usual huge flock of celebrities werent seen at this years awards, on account of multiple fashion weeks like the Blenders Pride Fashion Tour, which is travelling across fours cities in India, and the Lakme India Fashion Week in Mumbai, those who did show up looked stunning and blew us away with their red carpet looks. Alia Bhatt who was nominated across multiple categories for her role in Gully Boy wore a beautifully draped light pink and pale yellow strapless gown with a thigh-high slit by designer Georges Hobeika. Her hair was gelled back and she sported minimal dewy make-up. She wore strappy silver stilettoes, no jewellery except a few rings completed her minimalistic look.

Ananya Panday won the debutante award for her role in Student of the Year 2, she wore a black bustier-style crop top with diamante embellishments and bows on the sleeves.

Her fluorescent green tulle skirt was huge and looked great on Ananyas petite, slender frame. Her outfit was by designer Dylan Parienty.

Taapsee Pannus outfit was a total scene-stealer, the one-shouldered multi-coloured dress inspired by the Admiral butterfly by Fouad Sarkis was absolutely stunning. Tapsee sported a high ponytail and dramatic eye make-up to complete her look. She looked absolutely stunning.

Urvashi Rautela wore a sizzling red tulle gown with a shimmery red strapless corset, and looked good, which was a surprise as most of her fashionable outings are usually meh!

Bhumi Pednekar looked gorgeous in a red gown with a thigh-high slit.

Ranveer Singh looked dapper as ever in a gorgeous black suit with structured and embellished shoulder pads and totally rocked the look. Also present at the event was Madhuri Dixit Nene, and she looked ethereal as always in a pale peachish-pink gown.

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Would you take a bullet for President Donald Trump?

"You mean metaphorically or literally?" Alabama Senate candidate Bradley Byrne answered.

It's a measure, an indication of the devotion for a president who has demanded and received unwavering support from his Republican Party.

In ads, on the stump, on social media, each of the leading GOP candidates for Senate in Alabama have taken turns professing their devotion to the president and his agenda.

No matter how Trumpy you are, one candidate might say to the other, I'm even Trumpier.

But would you take a bullet for him?

I dont know what that means, but I was the first one to endorse him at a time that that created a great deal of hostility, Senate candidate Jeff Sessions answered. People were shocked in Washington and even some in Alabama. I placed my full support behind him.

It's literal. It's metaphor. It means whatever you think it means. Would you take a bullet for President Trump?

"You're talking about, who do you owe your loyalty to?" asked Senate candidate Roy Moore. "Your loyalty is owed to the Constitution of the United States. It's not to a man. It's to principle. That's what you answer to. And that's what I think we should all do is uphold principles. It's not about principle anymore. It's about power."

No Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump. Only one Republican in the U.S. Senate trial voted not to acquit Trump. And two days after that acquittal, he held a mini-rally in the East Room of the White House to a hand-picked audience of supporters made up largely of those Republicans on Capitol Hill who seemingly laud his every decision, word and tweet.

But how high does the bar go? High enough to take a bullet for him? Thats a question AL.com posed to five Senate candidates at campaign events in north Alabama last weekend. Tommy Tuberville, a Senate candidate so staunch of a Trump supporter that he has the presidents name on his campaign bus, was scheduled to attend a forum last weekend in Huntsville but had a last-minute change of plans.

"I'd take a bullet for my brother in any case," Senate candidate Arnold Mooney said. "That's what we're called to do as believers is to lay down our lives for our friends. Whether it was President Trump or some radical leftist socialist, if somebody is taking a shot at them, we need to try to protect them. There's no question, my faith teaches me that and it's a conviction I have in life."

Oh, no. I dont think I need to take a bullet for President Trump, Senate candidate Stanley Adair, a businessman from Haleyville, said with a laugh. I think his security guys can do that.

For Sessions and Byrne  two of the top three candidates in the race, according to polls -- they point to the bullets they've already taken for Trump.

Sessions touted being the first senator to endorse Trump, to be a campaign surrogate for the unconventional campaign that led to the election of an unconventional president.

"I can't tell you how gratified I've been that he honored what he said he would do," Sessions said. "Because so many people told me they didn't believe he would. And I said I thought he would. I know we had difficulties over one issue but I believe what he's doing is good for America. I will defend him. I have defended him and I will continue to defend him."

The difficulties over one issue is a sort of another bullet Sessions took  the derisive comments from Trump after Sessions recused himself from the Russia election tampering investigation. It eventually led to Sessions, appointed U.S. attorney general by Trump, being forced from office. Nevertheless, Sessions remained steadfast in his support and resisted returning Trumps fire.

Byrne touted being among a group of Republicans in the House who entered uninvited a secure Capitol room where private testimony was being given as part of the Democrats' investigation that led to the articles of impeachment.

Byrne was yelling at Adam Schiff  who eventually became the Democrats lead impeachment manager -- as part of about two dozen GOP members of Congress who entered the secure room to protest the process by which the Democratic-controlled House was proceeding with the impeachment inquiry, CNN reported at the time.

"I stood up pretty hard for President Trump," Byrne said. "We went into that room, (Rep.) Mo Brooks was with me, and confronted Adam Schiff and we took some hard positions on the floor. I think (Trump) was being mistreated in this process horribly and he needed people like me to stand up with him and a number of us did and a number of us were invited to the White House the other day and he thanked us for it."

Indeed, Byrne got a shout-out from Trump during the post-acquittal event in the East Room.

Still, the question lingers. Would, or could, Republicans take a stand against Trump if he went a step too far? In the context of support from Washington Republicans and Alabama Senate candidates and Trumps norm-shattering presidency, the possibility seems difficult to grasp.

"There's so much more right about him than wrong about him," Mooney said. "It would be no problem taking a bullet."

But while Trump's unconventional presidency may subject him to what Republicans see as unwarranted criticism, Trump's unconventional presidency makes him a favorite as well.

"We elected a strong president and we wanted to change things in Washington and somebody who would fight and wouldn't back down and wouldn't let the politically correct crowd dominate," Sessions said. "So that creates hostility when he takes them on eyeball to eyeball, which he's done. He doesn't back down.

"So some people have tried to make everything that he does wrong. It's just a disagreement. They dont like what he's doing. I think the Republicans are correct to defend him because his basic agenda is to defend us on trade issues, end illegal immigration, to be cautious on foreign policy, cut taxes, cut regulations, (appoint) judges and defend religious faith. I think he deserves a vigorous defense. He's doing what I want him to do."

That sentiment was echoed by Sessions' opponents in the GOP Senate race.

"President Trump has his own style," Byrne said. "It's a style that works for him. It's not necessarily my style. So the way I look at it is, look, he's got his style and I've got my style. As a member of Congress, my job is to judge on the substantive policy prescriptions he puts forward, particularly bills.

"And so, 97 percent of the time (in votes), I agree with him. I think I'm up to 98 percent of the time. And that's because I read these bills and study these bills, I work with people in his administration and on the substance, I think they are correct."

Said Adair, "I think they could stop him if he went too far. But I think he's doing wonderful. I made the statement that I think Trump should go down as one of the greatest presidents ever. I believe that business mindset he has, he's getting things done  I think he's pretty much got this country headed in the right direction."

Said Mooney, "He's supported every issue he's run on. He's a guy that I can say I can do business with him because he does what he says he's going to do."

If a candidate has not booked a first-class seat on the Trump train, it's Moore. That's not to say he's not on the train, too, because the 2017 GOP nominee in the Senate special election has made it clear he supports the president as well.

But Moore said his unyielding devotion is to the Constitution rather than Trump  or any president.

If hes right, hes right, Moore said. And if the whole world opposed him and he was right, I would defend him. If hes wrong, Im not going to defend him.
Responding to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' offer to mediate over Kashmir, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Sunday rejected the proposal reiterating the fact that Kashmir remains a bilateral issue. It also added that the main focus should be on vacating the "territories illegally and forcibly occupied by Pakistan".

"India's position has not changed. Jammu and Kashmir has been, is and will continue to be an integral part of India. The issue that needs to be addressed is that of vacation of the territories illegally and forcibly occupied by Pakistan. Further issues, if any, would be discussed bilaterally. There is no role or scope for third party mediation," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said pointing out at Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. The MEA's reply came in response to a media query regarding comments made by Guterres in Islamabad.

READ | UN Chief Arrives In Pak On Four-day Visit

"We hope the UN Secretary-General would emphasize on the imperative for Pakistan to take a credible, sustained and irreversible action to put an end to cross-border terrorism against India, which threatens the most fundamental human right - the right to life, of the people of India, including in J&K," he added bringing the attention to terror activities against India sponsored and planned from Pakistan soil.

The UN chief, who arrived in Pakistan on a four-day visit, addressed a press conference along with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, wherein he also expressed his "deep concern" over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and tensions along the Line of Control (LoC).

READ | Drug Trail Probe: Punjab Police Claims Pakistan Link

Guterres also said that it was important for India and Pakistan to de-escalate the tensions and called for "maximum restraint", between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. He exchanged thoughts with Qureshi on the security situation in South Asia and said that mediation, as well as talks, were the only solution to regional conflicts.

After the Abrogation of Article 370, Pakistan has been trying with all its might on the international podium to gather support against the Indian government's move but failing miserably, though the abrogation has nothing to do with Pakistan as Kashmir remains India's internal matter. India has consistently maintained that the issue remains a bilateral dispute and no third party mediation is required in the matter.

READ | Pakistan Court Upholds Death Penalty For 9 Terrorists Involved In 2004 Attack

Moreover, India has repeatedly appealed to the international community to come together on the issue of terrorism and act against the terror-sponsoring nation. With India's consistent efforts, and Pakistan's failure to curb terror financing, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has put Pakistan on the grey list. However, it is reported that India's bid to move Pakistan from grey to blacklist will be a difficult one as Pakistan will be supported by China, Turkey and Malaysia.

READ | Pakistan Anti-corruption Officials Raid Properties Of Nawaz Sharif; Mother Leaves For London
The giant pythons he catches are escaped pets and are big enough to eat a cat

The snake wrangler said pythons aren't native to the Melbourne area

Cat-eating pythons are on the loose in Melbourne, with one snake catcher revealing he has captured four in the last week alone.

Raymond Hoser, 57, from Melbourne-based reptile removal company Snakebusters, said he was called out to capture monster pythons frequently.

The snake wrangler told Daily Mail Australia pythons aren't native to the Melbourne area and the ones he captures are escaped pets.

'All the pythons I catch are big enough to eat a cat,' he said. 'And I catch about 10 to 20 a year.'

Raymond Hoser is pictured with a large olive python

Mr Hoser said he has caught three black-headed pythons (pictured) within the last week

Mr Hoser said he had caught three black-headed pythons within the last week, along with more than 12 'seriously big' snakes.

'If anyone's lost their cat recently, well, there are a few fat snakes on the loose in Melbourne at the moment,' he wrote on social media.

He said pythons are not venomous to humans.

The snake catcher was called to Maling Street in Canterbury, Melbourne, at Christmas last year by frightened shopkeepers.

He was photographed grabbing two highly venomous tiger snakes and untangling them from the 'tree' - which consisted of tinsel wrapped around a lamppost.

'You can tell by their body language if they're going to bite you,' Mr Hoser said.

'I could tell these guys weren't going to.'

Raymond Hoser was photographed plucking two deadly tiger snakes from a Christmas tree

Mr Hoser said it wasn't unusual to find snakes in Christmas trees.

'People wonder how snakes get into cities and it's because they hitchhike in people's cars,' he said.

'Then they get scared and climb up the closet thing for safety, and sometimes it's a tree.

'It's not Christmas unless I've pulled at least one snake from a tree.

The snake man said his phone has been ringing off the hook this summer from people finding snakes in their homes.
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The head of NATO dismissed President Emmanuel Macron's call for a European "strategic dialogue" about the role of France's nuclear weapons, saying a "tried and tested" deterrent was already in place.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Saturday that thanks to the US and Britain's atomic weapons, Europe was already protected by a longstanding and effective nuclear umbrella.

While a NATO member, France does not make its atomic weapons available to the alliance, but in a major speech last week Macron called for dialogue among EU countries about what role the French nuclear deterrent could play.

Stoltenberg, who last year clashed with Macron over the French leader's claims NATO was suffering "brain death" in its geopolitical thinking, gave his latest suggestion a frosty reception.

"We have to remember that we have a European nuclear deterrent today -- 28 allies deliver that every day and it's not only a promise, but it's something that has been there for decades," Stoltenberg told reporters at the Munich Security Conference.

"It's tried and tested, we exercise it, and it's institutionalised, and it is the ultimate security guarantee for Europe." France is the EU's only nuclear power after Brexit and Macron has championed the idea of European "strategic autonomy" -- the ability to defend itself without relying on the US -- though he insists on his commitment to NATO.

Stoltenberg said France was a "highly valued ally" whose nuclear capabilities contributed to NATO's overall security.

German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer welcomed the French suggestion while insisting it did not mean undermining US nuclear protection.

"If we reinforce Europe, it means above all reinforcing the European pillar of NATO," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
ATLANTA, GA / ACCESSWIRE / February 16, 2020 / Findit, Inc. a Nevada Corporation that trades under the stock symbol OTC PINK: FDIT owner of Findit.com, a Social Networking Content Management Platform, welcomes fitness enthusiasts and personal trainers.

Certified Fitness Nutritionist and Personal Trainer Regan Patterson has been using the Findit platform to share her healthy lifestyle and weightless journey since May of 2018. Prior to sharing her content on Findit, Regan Patterson, found on Instagram under the handle "Regan_Patterson", had about 20,000 followers. Now, the Certified Fitness Nutritionist is up to ~41,500 followers at the time of this release. She has utilized the Findit platform to share her amazing recipes, her health and wellness tips, workouts, favorite workout clothes, grocery hauls and her favorite meals, all of which coincide with her passion for living a healthy lifestyle centered around effective fitness.

The people following Regan Patterson may have seen her posts within the Instagram platform through relevant hashtags or may have been following her personal account prior to the creation of her separate, healthy living and fitness based profile that followed her weightless journey. Posts created on Instagram stay within the Instagram platform and can only be shared to Facebook, which owns Instagram. Additionally, her increase in followers could be attributed to new people coming across her content throughout search engines and other social networking sites as a result of what she is sharing through Findit.

Each piece of content that Regan Patterson creates on Findit can include: text, photos, a video, a link, an audio file and more. Members have the ability to post the Right Now status update instantly, back-date them to fill in their feed, or post-date the post to become live in the future. Moreover, every post that is created can be shared socially to 80 other social networking sites by Regan Patterson herself or other members or visitors on Findit.

Clark St. Amant of Findit stated, "We love seeing people share their amazing weightless journey's like Regan Patterson has. It is inspiring to see what people can accomplish and learn from them as they share their tips. Those who use social media to educate others and find clients for personal training recognize that diversifying where your content is found is an important aspect of becoming a household name throughout the social media landscape. Regan Patterson has seen a tremendous boost in followers as a result of more people seeing, hearing, and sharing her content throughout social media. Because Findit is an open platform and anyone can share the content to their respective social sites, Regan and others that use Findit to share their message often see their content getting more shares, thus reaching more people."

Check Out Regan Patterson's Latest Posts

Happy Thursday and Bowmar Launch Day!!!

Happy Wednesday Friends!

Made This Delicious Low Calorie, High Protein Shake Yesterday And Just Wanted To Share!

Anyone looking to share their passion and reach more people can start posting through Findit free. For those looking to really brand themselves on Findit, claim your name on Findit now. Regan Patterson has claimed her name on Findit and you can visit her page at https://www.findit.com/reganpatterson.



Names on Findit exist only once and can not be duplicated, so once you own www.findit.com/personal-trainer-orlando or www.findit.com/weightloss-tips, no one else can get that name.

Findit is not just for personal trainers or healthy lifestyle activists. Any person, individual, artist, corporation, school, church, or other entity that simply wants to gain more exposure on the web for the goods or services they provide or the story they wish to tell, can use Findit to accomplish that goal. People love to share inspiring posts that have a great message and great pictures. Posts like Regan's can gain a lot of momentum when posted to the right place and seen by the right people. About Regan Patterson - 1,080 posts on Instagram, 41.5K followers Consistency > Perfection  80 lbs. down ?? Start reaching more people by utilizing Findit as the starting point for all your content or in addition to the content you publish on Instagram. Marketing professionals that handle celebrity accounts or the brand presence of companies should also be using Findit to further the reach the content they create on behalf of the celebrity or business. About Findit, Inc. Findit, Inc., owns Findit.com which is a Social Media Content Management Platform that provides an interactive search engine for all content posted in Findit to appear in Findit search. The site is an open platform that provides access to Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines access to its content posted to Findit so it can be indexed in these search engines as well. Findit provides Members the ability to post, share and manage their content. Once they have posted in Findit, we ensure the content gets indexed in Findit Search results. Findit provides an option for anyone to submit URLs that they want indexed in Findit search result, along with posting status updates through Findit Right Now. Status Updates posted in Findit can be crawled by outside search engines which can result in additional organic indexing. All posts on Findit can be shared to other social and bookmarking sites by members and non-members. Findit provides Real Estate Agents the ability to create their own Findit Site where they can pull in their listing and others through their IDX account. Findit offers News and Press Release Distribution. Findit, Inc., is focused on the development of monetized Internet-based web products that can provide an increased brand awareness of our members. Findit, Inc., trades under the stock symbol FDIT on the OTC Pinksheets. Safe Harbor: This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), including statements regarding potential sales, the success of the company's business, as well as statements that include the word believe or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Findit, Inc. to differ materially from those implied or expressed by such forward-looking statements. This press release speaks as of the date first set forth above, and Findit, Inc. assumes no responsibility to update the information included herein for events occurring after the date hereof. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated due to factors such as the lack of capital, timely development of products, inability to deliver products when ordered, inability of potential customers to pay for ordered products, and political and economic risks inherent in international trade. Contact Peter Tosto 404-443-3224 SOURCE: Findit.com

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/576631/Findit-Features-Member-Certified-Fitness-Nutritionist-and-Personal-Trainer-Regan-Patterson
Proper structures must be instituted to ...
14 Feb  It was revealed that Jericho Rosales' short film, "Basurero" has been selected to compete at another film festival.

As reported on Push, the news was shared by the actor himself who posted on Instagram, "Our short film Basurero has been selected as an official entry for the [Tampere Film Festival] in Finland!"

"Congratulations to our director Eileen Cabiling and the rest of the crew for this accomplishment and thank you for sharing your voice to speak for those who cannot," he added.

The movie stars Rosales as a fisherman who is battling with his own conscience as he makes a living dumping dead bodies of murder victims into the sea.

The 50th Tampere Film Festival, known as one of the most important European short film festivals, will be running from 4 to 8 March 2020.

"Basurero" previously competed in the Wide Angle Section of the 24th Busan International Film Festival.

(Photo Source: Jericho Rosales Instagram)
John Piper, Al Mohler address why God only answers certain prayers for healing

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Theologians John Piper and Al Mohler have weighed in on why God answers certain prayers for healing in this life, but not all, and the role faith plays in the outcome.

On an episode of his DesiringGod podcast, Piper responded to a reader who asked if greater faith would have saved his father from dying of a brain tumor.

[My] answer is that I dont know. I dont know, Piper said. What I do know is that I would go insane if I had to figure that out every time I preached  that when I preach, Ive got to know what would have happened if Id done things differently. And when I preach, its not just whats at stake here on Earth; its whats at stake eternally. Eternal lives are at stake when I preach, not just my dads few years of life on the planet. I cannot bear the burden  I cant bear it  of having to answer the question, What if? What if? What if?

So it is with our prayers for those we love, whether physical healing or spiritual salvation. Would more faith heal? Would more faith save? Maybe, but maybe not, he continued.

There are several instances in Scripture where Jesus healed when there was no faith, Piper contended.

He healed in response to little faith; He healed in response to great faith; He withheld healing for lack of faith, the pastor said. I think the way forward is to seek to grow in faith and to grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, according to 2 Peter 3:18. Never, never, never be content with what you already possess in faith. Always want more of all that God has to give. But realize that faith is a gift, and you can never presume that God owes it to you.

Piper further explained that God decides who lives and who dies, and He decides when, adding: Our main job is to trust His promise. And His promise is not to heal everyone we want healed. His promise is to do good to those who trust Him (Romans 8:28), and to conform us to Christ (Romans 8:29), and to give us the grace we need to persevere in love and holiness to the end (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, also weighed in on the issue of healing on a recent episode of the Gospel Coalition podcast.

The theologian suggests that it is always right to pray for healing, adding that the entire biblical worldview is that we will be ultimately healed in eternity.

Its always right to pray, its the right thing for the Church to do, he said. Theres nothing wrong with praying that God will heal me ... the entire biblical worldview is that, by the power of the Gospel and the promise of Christ, we will be healed, we will be perfect.

Mohler referred to the hymn O for a Thousand Tonguesto Sing by Charles Wesley, which says, And leap, ye lame, for joy, pointing to the truth that one day, every tear will be wiped away.

Its one of those reminders of the fact that one day that will be so, he said. Until then, we have to back up for a moment and remember that God is not absent from our sickness and God is not absent from our suffering. Its not as if were living a secular life and we just need a supernatural God to intervene. If we actually believe in God, we believe He has been sovereign over all of this.

Mohler also noted what Jesus says in John 9:3 about the blind man who is healed, that it was neither mother or father who sinned, but that the works of God may be shown. According to Mohler, Jesus was indicating that every moment of the blind mans life was meaningful because God had a perfect plan.

I have been sick, I have been at the point of death, and the Lord has rescued me, he explained. At times I was unconscious and could not pray for myself and others prayed for me. That gives me a renewed sense that God has a purpose in that for me, which points to the earthly future. But I also have to know theologically and biblically, my soul is to be secure in the fact that Gods purposes are going to be made perfect in me, even if my earthly horizon is brief.

Bryan Chapell, pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria, Illinois, added that when God rescues, that brings God glory. Additionally, when there is faith through a time of no earthly rescue but confidence in the eternal rescue, that gives God glory as well.

God always answers prayers for healing, He simply may not answer in the timing that we may be asking, Chapell said. God may heal in this life imperfectly, but He will always heal the Christian perfectly when we are with Him.

A 2016 study from the Barna group found that the majority of American adults (66%) believe people can be physically healed supernaturally by God.

Evangelicals are the most likely of any group to believe people can be physically healed supernaturally by God  almost nine in 10 (87%) agree strongly. Practicing Christians follow suit: six in 10 (61%) agree strongly.

When discussing why God heals some individuals and not others, the nature of God's goodness is often called into question, Bill Johnson, senior leader of Bethel Church in Redding, California, said, in a 2016 interview with The Christian Post.

"The conflict [in the church] is over the goodness of God," he said. "That spirit of accusation is welcomed in many circles as the voice of reason, the voice of discernment. My prayer is that through an arresting revival in the nations, we will see another Great Awakening that dismantles the tsunami of the demonic that thrives on our self-righteous theology and corresponding division it creates."

When people pray for things that don't come to pass, particularly for supernatural things like healing or miracles, the tendency for some is to jump to the conclusion that it was not God's desire to do it. And that's a grave mistake, he said.

"It's easier for people to say, 'God just doesn't do that anymore' than for them to set aside their life and pursue that kind of breakthrough," Johnson said.
Lucknow: At least seven people were charred to death when a truck and a van collided near a toll plaza along the Lucknow-Agra Expressway on Sunday evening, police said.

As per the preliminary probe, the truck was on way to Unnaos Bangarmau while the van was coming from the opposite direction. After the collision, the van caught fire, said policemen present on the spot. It seems that vans doors got locked after a fire engulfed it, said an official.

Locals informed police about the incident and soon fire brigade vehicles were also rushed to the spot.

Unnaos superintendent of police, Vikrant Vir, said, Seven bodies have been retrieved and rescue operation is still on. The identity of the seven was not immediately known.

Eye-witnesses said the Omini vans tyre burst and its impact pushed it on the wrong side of the road, causing the mishap, said Vir. He added they were trying to trace the families of the victims.

Police said the van was CNG-enabled and after it caught fire, its cylinder possibly burst.

Circle officer of Unnao, Gaurav Tripathi, said, The van is registered in the name of Ankit Vajpayee.

The truck driver fled the spot and police have constituted a team to nab him, he added.

The traffic on the expressway was disrupted for several hours after the accident.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the deaths in the accident. He asked the district magistrate and superintendent of police of Unnao to monitor the rescue operation and also ensure medical treatment to those injured.

At least 14 people were killed and more than 30 injured when a private sleeper bus slammed into a stationary truck on the Agra-Lucknow expressway on Wednesday last. The bus was going to Motihari in Bihar from Delhi. The accident took place near Nagla Khangar under the Sirsaganj police station of Firozabad district, about 50 kilometres from Agra.
Syracuse, N.Y. -- Dana Balter, who lost a 2018 bid against Rep. John Kakto by about 5 percentage points, will challenge the Onondaga County Democratic Committees pick in a primary this summer, according to Balters campaign.

This morning, Onondaga County Democrats picked Francis Conole as their designated candidate in the effort to unseat Katko, R-Camillus. Conole got 54 percent of the committees vote in a three-way race with Balter and Roger Misso.

But Balter is not stepping aside.

I believe Im the person who can beat John Katko this November, Balter said this afternoon. I am running for Congress because I believe every person in Central New York and Western New York deserves a fair shot at success.

Misso said earlier today he plans Wednesday to announce his decision about whether to enter the primary.

Earlier today Onondaga County Democratic Chairwoman Pam Hunter declined to specify the vote results, other than Conoles 54 percent take. Balter said she didnt remember the exact breakdown, but that she came in second and Misso came in third.

Both Misso and Balter spoke briefly to the committee members after this mornings loss. Neither indicated at the time their next steps. Lets go get John Katko, Balter said to the crowd of more than 200.

The primary will be June 23.

Conole has won the designation from Cayuga County Democrats and Onondaga County in the 24th Congressional District. The latter is a significant boost: About 74 percent of Democrats in the district live in Onondaga County.

Balter, though, won the designation from Oswego County Democrats. Wayne County Democrats have chosen not to designate in the race.

Two years ago, Balter was the local partys pick and faced a primary challenge from Juanita Perez Williams, a Syracuse lawyer who was backed by the national party in Washington. Balter won that primary election by more than 20 percentage points. But she lost to Katko by about 5 percentage points in the November election.

Today, Balter said the 2018 campaigns taught her that politics is about more than one campaign. If we are interested in really making things better, she said, its about building a movement for change.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 00:06:55|Editor: huaxia

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A countdown clock is projected onto the wall of 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, on Jan. 31, 2020.(Xinhua/Han Yan)

The new cabinet and the exit of Sajid Javid, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, shows that Boris Johnson has garnered "massive political strength," says Professor Anthony Glees from the University of Buckingham.

LONDON, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson held the first meeting of his new cabinet Friday following a reshuffle of his top team which saw further consolidation of Johnson's political strength after his landslide general election victory in December.

The fall-out from Johnson's shake-up following the dramatic resignation of Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid continued over the weekend with the big question being debated by political commentators: whether Javid's sudden departure was an unintended consequence or engineered from within Downing Street.

Johnson wanted closer liaison between Downing Street and the Treasury, but Javid reportedly refused to accept an order to fire his team of advisers, and instead resigned. Shortly after Javid's decision, Johnson named then Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak as the new chancellor of the exchequer.

Rishi Sunak leaves 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, on Feb. 13, 2020.(Photo by Ray Tang/Xinhua)

Professor Anthony Glees from the University of Buckingham said the new cabinet and the exit of Javid shows that Johnson has garnered "massive political strength".

With his new team, Johnson is more likely to "produce some tangible benefit for Brexit and for the new Red Wall Conservative voters," Glee told Xinhua, referring to the millions of voters in traditional Labour heartlands who switched their votes to the Conservatives. Some of the seats to fall in December had been in Labour hands for a century.

On Friday, Sunak sat next to Johnson in the Cabinet room at Downing Street, as the new-look ministerial team smiled for the cameras.

Sunak's elevation to the chancellorship was the only change in the top-four government positions. Prime Minister Johnson, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Home Secretary Priti Patel make up the other three.

Most of Johnson's top team survived the cull, with a small number being exited, including Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith, Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom, Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers and Attorney General Geoffrey Cox.

Johnson opened the debut meeting of his new cabinet with a rallying call, urging efforts to tackle such challenges as cutting crime, backing businesses and reducing waiting time in the NHS.

"We have to repay the trust of people who voted for us in huge numbers in December and who look forward to us delivering," he said.

Local Government and Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick told local radio that bringing together the Treasury and No. 10 would provide a "united front" working for the prime minister to deal with post-Brexit challenges and deliver his election pledges.

"It is right that there's a coordinated economic function between the Treasury and No. 10 which will enable them to work together as closely as possible to deliver the promises made in the general election."

"We left the EU in January, we want to ensure the (new) budget is a very strong one that really begins to deliver on what we promised in that general election. The prime minister is very much in charge. He chooses the top team and how they are structured."

It is still not clear whether the new chancellor will deliver the first post-Brexit budget in early March as scheduled, or whether it will be delayed. Some analysts point out that the differences between No. 10 and the Treasury is not entirely eliminated even with the departure of Javid.

After his exit, Javid told Johnson that it was "crucial for the effectiveness of government that you have people around you who can give you clear and candid advice."

Sajid Javid arrives at 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, on Feb. 13, 2020.(Photo by Ray Tang/Xinhua)

"I would urge you to ensure the Treasury as an institution retains as much credibility as possible," he warned.

Conservative politician and former MP, Daniel Finkelstein, who now sits in the House of Lords commented in the Times: "Even if the new chancellor does not have his own special advisers, he will have his own department, his own departmental position, his own department's interests and his own status."

"Over the centuries, the Treasury has shown repeatedly that it is not easily brought to heel," Finkelstein said. 
A private school in the city has landed in trouble after it allegedly issued a dictat to its students asking them not to converse in Kannada on the campus, prompting the Karnataka government to order a probe.

The international school at Channasandra here allegedly issued a recent communique to the students and parents not to use Kannada on its premises.

It warned that students found talking in Kannada would be slapped with a fine of Rs 50 initially and if repeated, the penalty would be doubled.

The matter was brought to the attention of Karnataka primary and secondary minister S Suresh Kumar by some parents, who submitted copies of the purported letter and apprised him of the school management's alleged disregard for the language of the state.

The minister has written to the Principal Secretary of his department to investigate the matter and submit an action taken report, official sources said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)


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Finance - 6.26bn up 510m

Boston-born John Grayken (63) is unlikely to have known what opportunities Ireland would present for his private equity firm when he renounced his US citizenship for tax purposes in 1999 and took Irish citizenship.

He is the founder and chairman of Lone Star, which became a household name during the recession due to its vulture fund status. Graykens modus operandi is to buy distressed property assets in countries experiencing economic turmoil, clean them up and flip the assets for a profit. He made a fortune in Japan and South East Asia during the late 1990s.
Many royal fans might not understand it, and some members of the British royal family are even scratching their heads. However, Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussexs decision to exit the British royal family as senior working royals has been one of the best things the couple has ever done for themselves.

After two years of trying to weather the storm that is the British public and press, the duke and duchess decided they had enough. They announced their exit from the royal fold, now called Megxit, and promptly moved their entire life from the U.K. to Vancouver Island in Canada.

Though the Sussexes are already garnering deals with JP Morgan and configuring their charity, what if it all doesnt work out?

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are even closer after Megxit

We could tell from their constant PDA  which is unusual for members of the British royal family, that the Sussexes adore one another. Now that they have chosen to put themselves and their son first, their bond has grown even stronger.

They are besotted and very sweet with each other, an insider explained to People. Archie is the priority. Its very much still about taking care of him and putting the family first. Hes a happy kidhe loves to laugh. Archie and Harry have such a good time together. And Meghan is a great mom. Shes very much about tending to him. They are trying to live their life as regular parents. They are real homebodies who love to chill out with Archie and the dogs.

The British royal family is open to revisiting the terms of Megxit

When Queen Elizabeth II gave her blessing for the Sussexes to go off on their own as financially independent private citizens, she put a safety net in place for them. Buckingham Palace said in a statement. As agreed in this new arrangement, they understand that they are required to step back from Royal duties, including official military appointments. They will no longer receive public funds for Royal duties. With The Queens blessing, the Sussexes will continue to maintain their private patronages and associations. While they can no longer formally represent The Queen, the Sussexes have made clear that everything they do will continue to uphold the values of Her Majesty.

This new arrangement is only temporary. The new changes  which will take effect in Spring 2020 will last for a year, at which point the royal family will revisit the arrangement, a source explained to People.

This is what will happen of Megxit doesnt work out

Thus far, Markle and Prince Harry are taking things one day at a time when it comes to their break with the royal family. Harry and Meghan have thrown the dice, gambling that the initial flurry of attention will fade, allowing them to forge a high-profile path through the commercial and philanthropic worlds while also controlling how much information is released about their most private moments, Canadian royal expert Patricia Treble revealed.

If things do go left  the royals would accept them back in the fold but it would certainly be awkward and uncomfortable. They are making contingency plans in case the Sussexes suddenly turn round and say: Can we come back under your wing?  an insider told The Sunday Times. You could bring them back to Frogmore to look after them. They wouldnt return to royal duties, but they could have a period of rehabilitation and recuperation.
Ten more Hongkongers on board the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise in Japan have been confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus, bringing the total to 21.

The Security Bureau updated the figure on Sunday night, hours after it announced plans to arrange chartered flights to bring home the more than 300 Hongkongers who have been stranded on the vessel for 11 days.

But some passengers have balked at the suggestion they spend another 14 days in quarantine when they return to the city, even as they welcomed the governments move.

The evacuation plan came as Japanese health officials on Sunday confirmed 70 more cases of Covid-19, taking the total number of infections aboard the vessel to 355.

Among the 330 passengers from Hong Kong, Young Wo-sang, who was stranded with his wife, welcomed the news, but said he did not understand the need for another two weeks in quarantine.

We have been placed in quarantine in Japan from February 5, and it has been nearly 14 days already. Why is there a need to quarantine us for another 14 days?

The Hong Kong Immigration Department said the move was to protect against the health risks associated with repatriating the residents, 260 of whom are SAR passport holders, with the remaining 70 travelling on other passports.

Young said his wife received text messages from the department in the early hours of Sunday, that said the couple would be notified when they could leave, once Japanese authorities had confirmed the detailed plans for disembarkation.

Hongkonger Sherry Tsang, in her early 60s, who has been stranded on the cruise liner with her husband, said the governments plan to put all passengers in quarantine centres for an additional 14 days upon their arrival in the city was unnecessary.

If we tested positive for the coronavirus, we would be hospitalised in Japan. Even the authorities would not allow us to leave the country, she said.

Story continues

If those tests come back negative, we should be allowed to go home. If the Hong Kong government is worried, just put us under home surveillance for two weeks. That would be better than those quarantine centres.

Another passenger from Hong Kong, surnamed Yeung, agreed that they should not be isolated again once they tested negative.

Those returning passengers from the World Dream cruise last week did not need to face another 14-day quarantine period. The Hong Kong government should be consistent with its quarantine policies, she said.

She added that fear continued to hang over passengers as more infected cases were confirmed on the cruise.

Passengers are now allowed to breathe air on open decks with face masks for one hour per day, but we do not want to go out to minimise risks of infection, she said.

Yeung added that Japanese health officials said her test result would be out soon, and hoped that Hong Kong officials could confirm the details of the flight with their Japanese counterparts as soon as possible.

On Saturday, passengers received a letter from the cruise companys president Jan Swartz telling them the Japanese government might start a new testing process on Tuesday, and it could take a few days to test everyone on board.

She added that as they were told it should take at least three days to get individuals test results back, passengers who tested negative on Tuesday may be able to disembark on Friday.

But Swartz added: At this time we do not know  and have no control over  the order in which the Japanese Ministry of Health will test guests.

On Sunday, Hong Kong executive councillor Dr Lam Ching-choi said the daily increase in confirmed infections had been worrying, and believed placing passengers under quarantine for an additional 14 days was a reasonable move to avoid any potential risk to public health.

The Hong Kong Security Bureau said the government would continue to urge Japan to confirm the detailed arrangements for the disembarkation of the passengers on board as soon as possible.

The ship, which has 3,700 passengers on board, left Hong Kong on January 25, and visited Vietnam, Taiwan and Okinawa.

Additional reporting by Chan Ho-him and Tony Cheung

More from South China Morning Post:

This article Coronavirus: 10 more Hongkongers on Diamond Princess cruise confirmed to be infected, bringing total to 21 first appeared on South China Morning Post

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I'm awaiting apologies from all the smug buffoons who told me that surrendering to the IRA in 1998 was a good thing to do. It brought peace, they said, ignorant of the true long-term price.

As the gruesome Sinn Fein approaches actual state power in Dublin, will these cowards and trimmers finally admit that they took the low road of superficial success, and left the real problem unsolved?

I am reminded (I often am) of an April 1940 cartoon by the great David Low, in which a defenceless Norwegian worker is menaced by a black Nazi tank and a squadron of dive-bombers.

We worry whenever some tiny band of neo-Nazis win a few votes in a backward corner of Germany. But this is as nothing to what is now happening in Dublin. Actual gangsters are now close to the offices of real national power. Masked IRA provisionals are pictured escorting the coffin at the funeral of hunger striker Bobby Sands

Beneath are written the cruel words 'The Iron Comes Back', a sneer at Norway's policy of selling its iron ore to Hitler's Germany.

Well, on this occasion, the lies have come back. We sold Ireland to gangsters for a few years' respite. Now we see exactly who we sold it to.

We worry whenever some tiny band of neo-Nazis win a few votes in a backward corner of Germany. But this is as nothing to what is now happening in Dublin. Actual gangsters are now close to the offices of real national power.

I note the BBC, tireless in getting everything wrong, has taken to describing Sinn Fein as 'Left-wing'.

Well, its supposed leader (we will come to this) Mary Lou McDonald cannot be accurately described as Left-wing. It's another wing that she stands on.

In August 2003, Ms McDonald stood willingly beside the grisly apostle of violence and convicted IRA bomber Brian Keenan. But that wasn't all.

I note the BBC, tireless in getting everything wrong, has taken to describing Sinn Fein as 'Left-wing'. Well, its supposed leader (we will come to this) Mary Lou McDonald, above, cannot be accurately described as Left-wing. It's another wing that she stands on

Both were there to 'pay respect' at the statue of one of the nastiest people who ever lived.

The memorial to Sean Russell in Dublin's Fairview Park is, as far as I know, the only monument to a Nazi collaborator still standing in democratic Europe.

Russell, the IRA's Chief of Staff in 1939, travelled on the eve of the Second World War to Nazi Germany to offer his services to Hitler. They gave him the use of a villa in Berlin, and provided him with a car and chauffeur.

He was taken to the Brandenburg military camp to study the latest techniques in sabotage and guerrilla warfare, and met Foreign Minister Joachim Von Ribbentrop.

After the fall of France, Russell urged the Germans to use the IRA to strike at British forces in Northern Ireland.

Luckily for the world and for Ireland, Russell died from a burst gastric ulcer in the U-boat (U-65) that Hitler provided to take him back to Ireland. He is a kind of litmus test.

Any decent Irish person shudders at this embarrassing memory of fanaticism beyond all bearing.

Only the real hardliners of pro-violence Republicanism, who hate Britain to the point of lunacy, still defend him.

Well, Ms McDonald, now coated in Euro-gloss, feminism and modern PR, did not have to go there.

The memorial to Sean Russell in Dublin's Fairview Park is, as far as I know, the only monument to a Nazi collaborator still standing in democratic Europe. Russell, the IRA's Chief of Staff in 1939, travelled on the eve of the Second World War to Nazi Germany to offer his services to Hitler

She did not have to listen without protest as the grisly Keenan praised the grislier Russell as a man 'who preferred freedom to slavery'.

But she did, and we can learn a great deal about her and what she stands for from this incident.

Quite how she rose to her position is a mystery.

Her 'election' to the leadership of her party was uncontested, and, having met some of Sinn Fein's leading lights in the USA back in the 1990s, I wouldn't have wanted to be a heckler on that occasion.

But who actually runs Sinn Fein, which, thanks to the 1998 surrender, is free to raise huge funds in the USA, unlike any other party in the UK?

Well, for that, I refer you to a November 2019 statement by the Police Service of Northern Ireland, reported in the Belfast 'News Letter'.

The newspaper said that the PSNI saw 'no change' from a 2015 government report that concluded Sinn Fein 'continues to be overseen by the deadliest terror group of the Troubles, which although much reduced in scale and 'committed to the peace process', still has 'specific' departments and 'regional command structures', gathers intelligence, retains weapons and may engage in 'isolated violence' including murder'.

They haven't gone away, you know. In fact, they'll soon be running the government of a major European country that has until now been a highly creditable law-governed democracy.

And it will be the fault of those who rewarded murder in 1998, and called it peace.

Boris really is turning into Blair

Well now, are any of you beginning to wonder if I wasn't right about Alexander 'Boar-iss' Johnson being the new Blair?

Why, he even has similar problems with his holidays. Where is the rule that says powerful people must have luxury long-haul vacations?

Harold Wilson used to spend his summers on the Isles of Scilly. Harold Macmillan liked a grouse-moor.

Clement Attlee paddled on Welsh beaches. Margaret Thatcher regarded holidays as a form of torture.

I'd prefer any of these to a man who takes his girlfriend to Mustique at the expense of, well, who?

He may say that Winston Churchill was given to grand getaways. But Churchill was the saviour of the nation.

He could do what he liked.

The shameful liars are STILL in business

When I learned many years ago that the truth about a man-made famine in Stalin's USSR had been suppressed with the help of Western media, I could not understand how such a thing could have happened. Now I do.

An interesting new film, Mr Jones, dramatises this extraordinary event.

The brave and independent Gareth Jones, above, and the equally courageous Malcolm Muggeridge (later to be a major figure in British broadcasting), both ventured into Ukraine and the Russian North Caucasus, and found starving men, women and children

The brave and independent Gareth Jones, and the equally courageous Malcolm Muggeridge (later to be a major figure in British broadcasting), both ventured into Ukraine and the Russian North Caucasus, and found starving men, women and children.

When a Soviet official denied that there was starvation, Jones flung a crust of his own bread into a brimming spittoon, and immediately a haggard figure grabbed it and ate it.

But the British-born Moscow correspondent of the New York Times, a one-legged libertine called Walter Duranty, first wrote a disgusting article under the headline 'Russians hungry but not starving', in which he described the brave and enterprising reports of Muggeridge and Jones as a 'scare story'. He knew that they were, in fact, true.

A few weeks later he lied again, writing 'any report of a famine in Russia is today an exaggeration or malignant propaganda'.

At the time he did so, people in the famine regions were going mad and eating their own children.

It now seems that the truth about the famine was seen as an obstacle to the USA's desire to open diplomatic relations with Stalin.

So the mass-murder had to be ignored and denied. How low we sometimes sink.

I don't in any way compare myself to great men such as Jones (who was later killed in strange circumstances) or Muggeridge, but I have been having a similar experience in the past few weeks.

I have reported on the bravery of two scientists at the poison gas watchdog OPCW who have raised serious concerns about the accuracy of important reports put out by that body, reports which led to major military action.

The two are hugely experienced non-political experts who sought for months to raise their concerns in private, and were ignored and worse.

An interesting new film, Mr Jones, dramatises this extraordinary event. James Norton is pictured as journalist Gareth Jones in the new film Mr Jones

They have nothing to gain by their actions. They serve no cause except scientific truth.

But the response of their employers has been to belittle them, to suggest wrongly that they were minor low-level figures barely involved in the issue.

And many in the media have either ignored their bravery, or  still more shamefully  joined in the chorus of smears.

One of these smears is that Ian Henderson, a chemical engineer who was sent by the OPCW into the Syrian war zone, was never in fact a member of the Fact Finding Mission (FFM) that went there.

Well, I can tell the OPCW, and others, that there exists in the OPCW's own archives a document (of its own) in which Mr Henderson is listed as a member of the FFM.

So it should just stop saying this. There is much more about this on the Peter Hitchens blog.

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A WA schoolgirl has been left distressed after she was allegedly sexually assaulted by a man in a public space in an inner-city Perth suburb.

Police will allege Arshia Adibi Garakani, 21, groomed the teenage girl through a social media application before meeting with her on Tuesday and sexually assaulting her in Mount Lawley.

The girl is between 13 and 16 years old. Credit:Stock image

Mr Garakani was arrested on Thursday by WA Police Child Abuse Squad detectives and Australian Federal Police.

The 21-year-old man from Kiara has been charged with one count of sexual penetration of a child aged between 13 and 16, which carries a potential maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment.
Photo: Google Maps

The courts have ordered two former cannabis dispensaries pay the City of West Kelowna more than $160,000 in fines and legal fees, but it's unclear if the city will be able to collect.

Last July, a Kelowna judge granted the City of Kelowna an injunction to shut down Black Crow Herbals and Okanagan Cannabis Solutions, despite the two cannabis stores closing their doors in October 2018, when cannabis was federally legalized.

The City of West Kelowna granted Black Crow Herbals a business licence from 2014 to 2017, while Okanagan Cannabis Solutions was operated as a non-profit beginning in 2016.

When the city chose to revoke Black Crow's business licence in 2017, and filed a petition in court to shut them down, the owners of the dispensaries challenged the validity of the city's amended bylaws. While the stores sold cannabis without business licences, the city levied daily $1,000 fines against them.

Selina Lau, the manager of the dispensaries and one of the societies' directors, told the court many of their customers were unhappy with the limited supply of products available through the Health Canada medical marijuana program at the time, and the two dispensaries were meeting the needs of their customers.

In July, a judge ruled the city did in fact have the authority to cancel Black Crow's licence and in a separate hearing, the courts have ruled the city is owed $150,000 in bylaw fines between the two societies.

On Wednesday, the court ruled the city is also owed more than $16,000 in legal fees.

The two societies have since been dissolved, but city lawyer Elizabeth Anderson says a society cannot simply dissolve itself to avoid litigation, and the societies' former directors could be on the hook for the money.

In court Wednesday, Andersen said Lau was the only director to file a response to the city's petition.

She's the only one on whose behalf a response was ultimately filed so she is the main person who would likely be the subject of collection proceedings should the city go ahead with that, Andersen said.

The city will then have to make the decision if it wants to expend the additional moneys to attempt to recover what it's owed.

It's unclear if the city will go through the efforts to collect the $166,000. The city's communication office could not provide an answer to Castanet by publication time.
FILE PHOTO: Internally displaced Syrians from western Aleppo countryside, ride on a vehicle with belongings in Hazano near Idlib

By Tuvan Gumrukcu and Polina Ivanova

ANKARA/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Turkey dismissed on Saturday Russian accusations that it has flouted de-escalation agreements with Russia and Iran in Syria's Idlib province, and threatened to take military action in the area if diplomatic efforts with Moscow fail.

Turkey and Russia, which back opposing sides in Syria's war, agreed in 2018 to set up a de-escalation zone in the northwestern province. But their fragile cooperation has been disrupted by a Syrian government offensive in Idlib, in which 13 Turkish soldiers have been killed in the past two weeks.

Ankara has said it will use military power to drive back the Syrian forces unless they withdraw by the end of February, and President Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey will strike government forces anywhere in Syria if another Turkish soldier was hurt.

Erdogan discussed the situation in separate phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday and U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday, but there was no immediate word of a diplomatic breakthrough.

Russia, which backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, says Turkey, which has poured military forces into Idlib, has aggravated the situation and failed to neutralise militants there.

But Turkey blames the situation on the advances by Syrian government forces in Idlib.

"We cannot overlook the cruelty happening in our neighbour," Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay told broadcaster NTV. "Turkey has fulfilled its responsibilities in Idlib."

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey wanted to resolve matters with Russia over Idlib through diplomacy. But, speaking during an international security conference in Munich, he added: "If it won't work through diplomatic channels, we will take the necessary steps."

Ankara has been angered by the seizure by Syrian government forces of Turkish military observation posts established in Idlib under the 2018 deal.

Story continues

"It is impossible for us to remain silent against their siege. We are doing what is necessary against them," NTV quoted Erdogan as saying on a flight back from Pakistan.

Erdogan also chided the United States, a NATO ally, saying U.S. statements of support did not instil trust.

Speaking in Istanbul later on Saturday, Erdogan again said Turkey would drive back Syrian forces unless they withdrew to the borders outlined by Ankara and Moscow in 2018. But he also appeared to bring forward his end-of-February deadline.

"The solution in Idlib is the (Syrian) regime stopping its hostility and withdrawing to the borders in the agreements. Otherwise, we will handle this before the end of February," Erdogan said.

"We would like to do this with the support of our friends. If we have to do it the hard way, we are also up for that," he said, apparently referring to Ankara's Western allies.

"Until we clear Syria of terrorist organisations and the cruelty of the (Syrian) regime, we will not rest easy."

TALKS

Despite the tough rhetoric, Russian and Turkish officials are talking behind the scenes. Turkish and Russian officials held talks in Ankara on Saturday and Cavusoglu said a Turkish delegation would go to Moscow on Monday for talks.

Cavusoglu also had talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Munich on Saturday - the first ministerial level meeting between Ankara and Moscow since the situation deteriorated in Idlib.

Cavusoglu tweeted that he had a "positive meeting" with Lavrov but that Turkey would not be "making an evaluation" until after Monday's talks in Moscow. Lavrov said Russia had very good ties with Turkey, but the sides did not always agree on issues.

Cavusoglu was also quoted by Russian news agencies as saying differences over Syria should not affect Ankara's relations with Moscow or disrupt a contract for the purchase of Russian S-400 missile defence systems which has strained Turkey's ties with Washington.

Erdogan said his phone call with Putin - his second since the Turkish troops were killed - had been positive and that statements by other Russian officials that criticised Turkey did not reflect the tone of the call.

However, Erdogan later criticised Russia for its support of Assad in the conflict: "Russia's efforts to capture land for a regime that is the enemy of its own people is nothing more than extending its life through a respirator. Soon even a respirator won't work and, God willing, the regime will suddenly turn into a corpse."

In the conflict in Syria, which began in 2011, Turkey has supported rebels looking to oust Assad. Erdogan said this week the Turkey-backed rebels launched an offensive to retake some areas they had lost to Syrian forces.

State-run Anadolu news agency said buses carrying commandoes and trucks with more military equipment had been sent to reinforce the Turkish observation posts.

The increased violence in Idlib has caused hundreds of thousands of people to abandon their homes and head north to the Turkish-Syrian border. Turkey, which hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees, has said it cannot handle a new influx.

Syrian state media said Syrian troops had began clearing barricades from a highway between Damascus and Aleppo after recovering full control of the road for the first time in more than seven years.

Syrian state media also reported advances by Syrian government forces towards rebel-held Atarib, some 24 km (15 miles) west of Aleppo, and three towns to its northwest.

On Friday, Turkish and Syrian state media reported Turkish-backed Syrian rebels shot down a government helicopter west of Aleppo in the Idlib region.

(Additonal reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut and Umit Bektas in Istanbul; Editing by Edmund Blair, Helen Popper and Timothy Heritage)
About 40 Americans who are being kept on a quarantined cruise ship held off the coast of Japan have contracted the mysterious new virus that has triggered mass lockdowns and supply chain shutdowns in China.

Forty of them have gotten infected, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, in a Sunday interview in reference to the U.S. citizens on board the Diamond Princess.

They are not going to go anywhere. Theyre going to be in hospitals in Japan, he told CBS News.

As he made those comments, U.S. officials were working to evacuate hundreds of Americans who are on board the vessel, which has been held in isolation since early February. More than 330 cases of coronavirus, or COVID-19, have been confirmed on the ship, which has about 3,700 passengers and crew members on board.

Outside of mainland China, where the virus is believed to have originated, the Diamond Princess has the most COVID-19 cases in the world.

When Americans are evacuated, those who have symptoms wont be allowed to return and will have to stay in Japanese hospitals, Fauci told the news outlet. But other passengers will be evacuated starting immediately, he said, adding that they will be chartered to Air Force bases across the United States for a 14-day quarantine.

Fauci said passengers who develop symptoms on the chartered flights will be segregated.

The reason for that is the degree of transmissibility on that cruise ship is essentially akin to being in a hot spot, he said. A lot of transmissibility on that cruise ship.

Japanese health officials over the weekend said that another 70 cases were confirmed, bringing the total onboard the ship to 355.

The U.S. State Department confirmed that a chartered flight will arrive in Japan to evacuate Americans late on Sunday, local time.

Should you choose not to return on this charter flight, you will be unable to return to the United States for a period of time, the U.S. Embassy told Americans in an email. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will make a final determination on this matter.

Thousands of people are believed to have been sickened with the new coronavirus in mainland China, although critics have accused the regime of lacking transparency in how it reports on its COVID-19 cases. The virus has spread to about two-dozen other countries, including the United States, where 15 cases have been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some of the confirmed virus cases to date have been on their second or even third transmission, Fauci told CBS, explaining that COVID-19 isnt technically classified as a global pandemic. However, it appears to be moving in that direction, he warned.

The [World Health Organization] wouldnt be calling this a global pandemic, he said on the program. But it certainly is on the verge of that happening reasonably soon unless containment is more successful than it is right now.

Outside of mainland China, five deaths have been reported. One death was reported in Taiwan on Sunday, and another was reported in Francethe first coronavirus death in Europe.

Taiwanese officials said a taxi driver who ferried people from China, Hong Kong, and Macau succumbed to the virus, but he also suffered from diabetes and hepatitis B. In France, an 80-year-old Chinese tourist died after testing positive, said officials.

From The Epoch Times
The UAE-Based Company NIMR part of EDGEs Platform & Systems Cluster and a global leader in the manufacturing of combat-proven light- and medium-weight wheeled military vehicles has invited a delegation from SAMI Defense from Saudi Arabia to visit its world-class armored vehicle manufacturing facility in UAE (United Arab Emirates).



A SAMI delegation, led by the CEO, visited NIMR Company factory in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Picture source Twitter account SAMI Defense)

Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) is a military industry company, launched in May 2017 to act as a sustainable platform to provide world-class military products and services to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its allies.

Established in 2000, and today part of the EDGEs Platform & Systems Cluster, NIMR brings nearly two decades of experience producing battle-provide platforms for clients, whilst adhering to the most demanding international standards. The company has risen to become a leader in high performance, light- and medium-weight wheeled military vehicles with unparalleled experience in regional conditions.

NIMRs military 4x4 and 6x6 chassis, as well as monocoque hull design, provide unmatched tactical mobility where it counts. Its versatile and rugged technical vehicle components including drivelines, transmissions, engines, suspension and protection systems meet the most demanding duty-cycle requirements across various mission-critical scenarios.



Incorporating the latest technologies into its vehicles and the ability to rapidly modify platforms  even mid-production  to meet field and combat experience support the ability to serve evolving customer operational requirements. In addition, the modular design of NIMR vehicle platforms ensures that a variety of weapon and mission systems can be easily integrated providing end-users with a true multirole capability.

Algeria and the United Arab Emirates announced in July 2012, they will jointly produce NIMR armored vehicles in the North African country. The agreement, signed on July 19, 2012, between the Algerian Ministry of Defences Mechanical Industry Promotion Group and the United Arab Emirates (UAEs) Tawazun Holdings, said the NIMR-Algerie Joint Stock Company will be established in Khenchela in the northeast of the country, according to Algerian Press Service.

Currently, the Company NIMR produces three families of wheeled combat vehicles including the Ajban 4x4 range, the Hafeet 6x6 range, and the JAIS range.

In 2017, NIMR has won a contract to supply more than 1,765 armored vehicles to the UAE Armed Forces including 1,500 JAIS 4x4 and 6x6 infantry fighting vehicles, more than 150 Hafeet 630A artillery support vehicles and 115 Ajban 440 vehicles equipped with guided missile systems. The same year, during IDEX defense exhibition in UAE, NIMR Automotive announced a contract of a Dh2.42 billion (US$ 658.8 million) deal to supply 400 8x8 armored vehicles to the UAE Armed Forces.
Freya Lewis was like any normal teenager when she went to see Ariana Grande at the Manchester Arena in May 2017. Yet in one split second she was robbed of her best friend, her innocence and almost her life. This is her unflinching story of grief, survival and love

Nell and I looked at each other, our faces glowing with happiness. She pulled me towards her as Ariana Grande sang her last song of the night, Dangerous Woman. We were both hot and sweaty from all the dancing, but we didnt care. We screamed out the lyrics, really going for it, as if it was the last song wed ever sing.

What Makes Us Stronger by Freya Lewis, to be published this spring, is a story of how she lost her best friend Nell at the Manchester bomb attack in 2017. Freya wears dress, Olivia Rose, selfridges.com

This is incredible, Nell said. Im going to remember it for ever.

I couldnt move my body and everything was blurry. A creeping fear slid over me

A shower of bright, fluorescent balloons floated down on the stage, such a magical end to a truly magical night.

Neither of us wanted to leave, but as we made our way to the foyer, Nell gave me a big smile.

Freya Lewis was like any normal teenager when she went to see Ariana Grande at the Manchester Arena in May 2017. Yet in one split second she was robbed of her best friend. Freya wears dress, H&M. Bracelet her own.

That was the best night of my entire life, she said.

Really? I beamed. Im so glad.

She linked her arms with mine, like we always did at school to keep each other close.

I was writing a text to Dad, telling him we were on our way, when I looked up and saw this guy. He stood ten metres away, dressed all in black, with a cap and glasses and a backpack. I could see the side of his face and thought his deadpan expression seemed a bit strange.

Freya stands against one of Manchester's many bee murals. Since the 2017 attack the insect thats synonymous with the citys workers has been reclaimed as a symbol of solidarity. Freya wears top and trainers, Vans. Jeans, Urban Outfitters.

I love you more than anything in the world, Nell said.

I love you, too, I replied, smiling and pressing send on the text.

In that exact moment, everything went wrong. There was a piercing sound  the loudest thing Id ever heard.

I kept torturing myself with thoughts that Nell had only been at the concert because of me

I was flown forwards into a giant bright light, everything was in slow motion, and then Nells arm slipped out of mine.



A barrage of noise crashed through my consciousness; clanking, shouting, murmurs of conversations. I couldnt move my body and a creeping fear slid over me. My eyes felt so heavy  like theyd been zipped shut  but I forced them open, and through my smudged vision I could see half-shapes floating around the dark room. Everything was blurry, making me feel dizzy and sick. I could make out drips, tubes, wires. A monotonous, high-pitched beeping rang in my ears. Dad sat next to me, his head in his hands. I felt a strange sense of emptiness, like a part of me was missing. Dad, wheres Nell? I croaked.

He held my hand, his face pale and drained, his eyes red.

Nell has died, Freya, he said, his voice choked with tears. His words sunk into me so hard it felt as if Id been stabbed. Sinking into the sheets, I started to cry, patchy moments from the night terrorising my memories as I groggily tried to make sense of what was real and what was not.

I would never see my beautiful friends smiling face again. I scrunched my eyes tight shut, trying to block out the horrifying reality I had woken up to.

There had been an explosion, and life would never be the same again.



In May 2017, I was 14 and in year nine at school. Studying for GCSEs began the following year, so life centred on friends and family. My biggest passions were music, make-up, writing and drama, having been brought up on an intoxicating mix of noughties pop music and Coronation Street.

We lived half an hours drive from Manchester in the small, safe village of Holmes Chapel in Cheshire, where nothing bad could ever happen to you.

When Mum and Dad gave me tickets to the Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena for Christmas, I knew straight away Id take Nell. Wed first met on day two of secondary school when she came bobbing up to me, all smiles and shiny brown hair. She was, for me, one of those rare people you meet and instantly feel as if youve known for years. Full of warmth and affection, shed give me a hug in the mornings and grab hold of my hand as we lined up for lessons. We bonded over our love of acting, fashion and our mutual hatred of PE.

She was an even bigger fan of Ariana Grande than I was, and when I gave her the ticket for her 14th birthday just weeks before the gig, she screamed with excitement.

We went shopping for clothes and make-up, and spent our lunch breaks and hours after school planning every little detail.

The night before the concert, wed chatted on FaceTime as usual.

Do I look grown-up in this? shed asked, posing in her new outfit, hands on hip, adjusting the frills on her pink top.

Freyas Manchester bee-motif necklace echoes her resilience: My second chance in life'. T-shirt, H&M. Necklace, Olivia Burton

Yes! Id shouted enthusiastically. That looks great on you.

Im not going to be able to sleep! shed squealed. In a flurry of goodbyes and I love yous, her smiley face flashed off the screen.

I had no idea it would be the last FaceTime chat wed ever have.



Ariana's fighting spirit filled me with hope. If she could do it so could I

I was face down on the floor. I dont know how long it took me, but I dragged myself to my feet. I felt completely numb and there was a huge weight on my arm pulling me down. I looked at my left shoulder, and I could just make out my whole bone as my arm hung off my body.

Dark patches were blooming all down my clothes, and although I couldnt see clearly I could sense that it was blood  lots of blood.

A high-pitched noise rang in my ears like a continuous car alarm going off inside my head. It was dark; I looked into the shadows and could see smudgy silhouettes of people standing, and some large, disturbing objects on the ground. I tried to call out, Help me! but the words wouldnt come out right.

Freya with Louis Tomlinson and Kym Marsh at the MHS heroes awards in 2018

My thoughts were jumbled, and I wondered if it was all a dream. Then I remembered Nell. I tried to say her name, but it came out as a noise. Strangers were helping me, their faces filled with horror, trying to stem the blood as I screamed out for Dad.

I was lifted on to a merchandise table, a makeshift stretcher, the pain unbearable.

Then, suddenly, my Dads voice. He was crying as he took my hand. Its all right, Im here, he said. I love you. I could tell by his face that he was horrified by what he saw. I really thought I was going to die.



I later learned that doctors at the Royal Manchester Childrens Hospital spent more than ten hours intricately bolting, drilling, sewing and bandaging me back together.

They had no idea what state Id be in when I woke up from surgery, whether I would be left brain damaged or able to walk again.

Everything I have experienced since the attack has changed my perspective on life

In total, I had 29 separate injuries from head to toe. These included a shattered left arm, two broken legs, a shrapnel wound to my left eye, a perforated eardrum, a broken nose, a busted mouth, the loss of several teeth, whiplash, bruising to my left lung, nerve damage in my left hand, and multiple lacerations and burns all over my body.

A bag Id been carrying had melted in the blast, the plastic seeping and melting into my hair, the drawstring stuck in my arm like a piece of cheese wire slicing through a wedge of cheddar.

As I drifted in and out of consciousness, Nells mum dropped off a small fluffy owl, Nells favourite toy from her childhood. Dad gently put him next to my cheek. I instantly smelled Nell and her home and felt the first cold slaps of guilt, which would haunt me for a long time to come: that I was here and Nell wasnt.



After 11 days Id had 23 hours of surgery over five sessions.

One day, blurry from another general anaesthetic, I was told I could expect a special visitor  Ariana Grande herself, who had come back to Manchester to visit the victims of the bombing.

Youve got to tell her our favourite songs! my older sister Georgia suggested, launching into One Last Time.

The rush of sadness came at me like a steam train. The last time Id heard that song I was with Nell on the night of the concert.

I could picture us so clearly, the scene replaying in my mind as if I were watching a film.

As the track had picked up pace, Nell and I had held hands tightly, moved to tears by the sheer beauty of the moment as we belted out the words into the glimmering darkness, not a care in the world for who was listening.

The silent tears streamed down my face and seeped into the neck of my hospital gown.

When Ariana arrived, we both sat together sobbing quietly. Nell would have loved to be here, I said.

What are you talking about? she smiled. Nell is here. Shes saying Oh my God! Its Ariana Grande!

I started to laugh as I pictured the look on Nells face. Thats exactly what shed say.

Later, I thought about how strong Ariana was for returning to Manchester, and putting on another concert, One Love, for the victims and their families.

Her fighting spirit had filled me with hope and I thought, If she can do it, so can I.

I fell asleep happy for the first time, a feeling which, if Im honest, I never thought Id properly have again.



As time went on, I had the chance to see how many heroes there are in the world. Well-wishers from my school and total strangers had sent cards, which lined my hospital room, and cuddly toys, which filled my bed, as if they were building a force field of strength around me, with Nells owl nestled close to my head. With each day that passed, I became more and more desperate for those messages. They were my window into my old life, reminding me that I went to school and drama classes and flute lessons.

The simple sound of another envelope being opened, releasing the kindness within, became a soothing antidote to the constant high-pitched beeping of the monitors, the doctors coming in four times a day for various checks and wound dressing, the daily excruciating ritual to clean the pin sites fixed into my arm, and the physios trying to make me do the simplest yet most impossible movements.

The cards were also a lifeline for my parents. Ill never forget the look on Dads face when he had to tell me about Nell  the pain it cost him.

Dad had spent a frantic hour searching for me and thought I was dead. Hed had terrible flashbacks to what hed seen in the carnage.

Mum was haunted by the smell of explosives in my hair every time she went to kiss me.

Their lives were on hold now, for me.

I made a silent vow to get better for them.



It wasnt easy. Id been in hospital for three weeks and the most Id managed to move my destroyed body on my own was lifting my right arm to scratch my head and shuffling to the edge of the bed. Id lost so much weight I felt like a shell. I was so angry at the bomber for doing this to me, for taking Nell away, for destroying the lives of so many people.

My nights were filled with terrifying hallucinations and, when I wasnt asleep, guilt. I kept torturing myself with thoughts that Nell had only been at the concert because of me; that Id let her down, let her parents down. I became convinced Nells mum must hate me because Id survived.

I wished it was me who had died and not my beautiful, funny, sweet friend.

One night, sleepless yet again, a nurse called Jenny sat down on my bed at 3am and asked me if Id talk about what Nell was like. It felt like a type of therapy, a tentative step in my healing process, though the wounds were still very raw.

I realised I needed to stop thinking how unlucky I was. Because it meant the terrorist would have won. And I was determined I wasnt going to let him rob any light from my life.



After five-and-a-half weeks, I was allowed home. Thanks to my new physiotherapist, Carol, I was becoming more confident walking around without my wheelchair  enough to go back to school.

Just before I was due to start, our family liaison officer, Dave, emailed to say he thought they had found the tan brown bag I had lost on the night of the attack. Inside was the red Mac lipstick Id bought on the shopping trip with Nell.

I had a flashback to the concert, remembering how Id got it out for a re-touch. Nell had asked, Can I use some, too?

Of course, Id replied. She dabbed some on her lips and smiled. Now, as I looked at the lipstick in my hands, I realised it contained a small part of her and I vowed never to use it again. As I prepared to go back to school, it seemed like she had sent me a sign that she would always be by my side.



Before 22 May 2017, I was not strong. I was scared of needles, I hated exercise, I lacked the confidence to stand up for my beliefs. I wanted to conform, follow the crowd, blend in. But everything Ive experienced since the attack has, bit by bit, changed my perspective on life.

I could either give up and allow myself to be consumed by fear and anger, or see it as a second chance in life, to grab hold of every opportunity that came my way, to understand how lucky I was  how lucky we as a family were  that I survived when others didnt.

Ariana grande performing at the One Love Manchester benefit concert in 2017

I chose the latter.

The moment the attack happened, I was engulfed in love  from the strangers who helped save my life and subsequently became my close friends; from the people of Manchester who all pulled together when the city was at its lowest ebb; from my community in Holmes Chapel, which rallied around us; from the hundreds of donations and messages from around the world; from my friends who showered me with their support; from the kind gestures from Nells parents even though they were nursing their own heartbreak and from my devoted family, who never left my side. People make us stronger: community, kindness, love.

HELP FREYA'S FUND Fact-box text Since the bombing, Freya has raised 60,634 for the Royal Manchester Childrens Hospital. As part of her fundraising she completed the junior course of the Great Manchester Run, which led to her winning an NHS Hero Award. A year after the attack, on the 70th anniversary of the NHS, she was invited to Westminster Abbey to give a speech, and she was later made an ambassador for the High Sheriff of Manchester. To support Freyas fundraising, text FREYA to 70085 to donate 5. This will cost your 5 donation plus a standard rate message charge. Or you can give any whole amount up to 20. Advertisement

My memories of Nell are so closely linked to these sentiments. Ill never forget our final moments together, as she linked her arm in mine, her face full of so much joy, as she said, I love you. She was the happiest Id ever seen her, and Im honoured that I was able to share that with her. There isnt a day goes by when I dont miss her immensely and think about how different life would be if she was still by my side. I will, however, take her ridiculous sense of humour and resilience with me everywhere I go.

Ill continue to learn to accept what has happened to me, and to not let it define me, but instead shape the way I live.

This is an edited extract from What Makes Us Stronger by Freya Lewis, to be published by Seven Dials this spring, price 14.99. To order a copy for 11.99 with free p&p until 9 March, call 01603 648155 or go to mailshop.co.uk. Also available as an ebook and audiobook.

- Hair and make-up: Caroline Piasecki using Skyn Iceland Skin Care. Art direction and production: Ester Malloy and Chloe Sharp
A string of government emails obtained this week by NJ Advance Media illustrates what happened during the last hours of the life of a wild turkey that had become a mascot in a New Jersey bedroom community before federal and state officials seized him on a rescue farm 40 miles away and put him to death.

Glenny, as he was known, was humanely euthanized hours after he was taken from the Funny Farm in Mays Landing, a federal wildlife official said.

Glenny had had been classified as nuisance wildlife. Complaints had piled up about him disrupting traffic on the busy Black Horse Pike, a road that intersects both Interstate 295 and the turnpike, in Haddon Heights, a 1.5 square-mile town 11 miles from Philadelphia.

Laurie Zaleski, owner of Funny Farm, a rescue refuge for more than 400 animals, including several other wild turkeys, wanted to help Glenny and Haddon Heights. She coaxed him into her arms nearly two weeks ago and ferried him off to what many had hoped would be a better life.

Instead, wildlife officials said Glenny had to die because he had been in contact with domestic birds and presented a disease risk to native wildlife.

A flurry of emails obtained by NJ Advance Media reveal how they came to that decision. The emails, exchanged among at least seven state and federal wildlife officials over the course of three days, were prompted by a Facebook post from Zaleski announcing that Glenny was at the farm, and soon going to be interacting with people.

Some of the emails were sent under the subject line, Wild turkeynapper.

She cannot legally possess the turkey, a state wildlife officer wrote of Zaleski. And despite the fact that the turkey has gotten celebrity status and has quite a following, the official said the rescue organization mishandled the bird.

Funny Farms Facebook page also showed the turkey was housed (with) chickens meaning that it must be euthanized because it cannot be released to (commingle with) wild turkeys now, he wrote. Also, this bird needs to be seized soon because the Funny Farm is planning a public release of Glenny the turkey.

After several other officials weighed in, all in agreement, the final email was sent at 5:02 p.m. on Jan. 29 from a conservation police officer: The turkey was seized without incident and euthanized/ disposed of by Dep AG personnel.

But Zaleski defends her actions with Glenny.

He should never have been killed, Zaleski said Thursday. He was such a friendly turkey. It was senseless.

Zaleski has started a petition on Change.org to bring attention to what happened to Glenny and try to prevent a similar incident from recurring.

Assemblyman John Burzichelli, D-Gloucester, supports her. Im very unhappy with the way this played out, Burzichelli said. The public interest was not handled well.

Burzichelli doesnt represent Mays Landing, Atlantic County, where Zaleskis farm is or Haddon Heights where the Glenny saga began six months ago. But the story of Glenny, named for the Glenwood Elementary School, where he liked to hang out, has warmed the heart of many, including legislators from other districts and more than 1,200 who have signed Zaleskis petition.

Burzichelli said he is exploring how federal wildlife officials swooped in, seized Glenny and killed him after it appeared he was out of harms way.

Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bduhart. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.
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Kathmandu, February 16

The European Investment Bank (EIB) will provide Rs 12.4 billion grant to the Government of Nepal for its electricity system upgrading project.

The chief of the International Economic Cooperation Coordination Division in the Ministry of Finance, Shree Krishna Nepal, and the director of the Department in the EIB, Maria Shaw-Barragan and legal counsel at the EIB, Borja Oxangoiti, jointly signed a loan agreement regarding the grant amid an event recently.

The grant would be utilised in expanding electricity access, increasing electricity supply and facilitating power trade in Province 5, Karnali and Sudurpaschim, the Ministry of Finance said, adding that the Nepal Electricity Authority, the state-owned parent generator and distributor of electric power, had set a deadline of December 2023 to complete the project.

RSS
40 Americans among the passengers of a cruise ship quarantined in a Japanese port have tested positive for coronavirus.

400 US citizens on board the Diamond Princess were were being screened for the virus ahead of being flown home.

The ship has been quarantined in Yokahama since the third of February with 3,400 on board.

US health official Dr Anthony Fauci has told CBS anyone infected with Covid-19 will not be allowed to get on a plane back to the US.

"Forty of them have gotten infected, they are not going to go anywhere, they are going to be in hospitals in Japan," said Dr Fauci.

"People who have symptoms will not be allowed on the evacuation plane.

"Others are going to be evacuated starting imminently."

So far 355 of the 3,500 people on board the ship have tested positive for the virus.

Meanwhile, British citizens on the cruise ship have accused their government of "forgetting" about them.

The USA, Canada and Italy have all said they will evacuate their citizens from the cruise ship, which is moored at Yokohama Port near Tokyo.

Passenger David Abel called for the UK Government to evacuate them from the ship in a video message today.

Mr Abel said: Every country except the UK has become involved, and that is really wonderful for the people on board the ship.

Every country except for the United Kingdom.

It feels that we have been forgotten. That you dont really care about us, and that youre actually not wanting us to come home.

Fellow British passenger Alan Steele  who was diagnosed with the virus and taken to hospital  said it was time for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to get the Brits back.

Mr Steele, who was celebrating his honeymoon on the cruise ship, has since said he has now tested negative for the disease.

He posted on Facebook: I think it is about time boris got the brits back to england as the japanese are being totally incompetent and do not realise you cannot keep ppl in solitary confinement for 28 days without damaging their mental health.

What does WHO [World Health Organisation] have to say about this and I am sure cruel punishment like this has to be illegal.[sic]

Their calls came as it emerged that some passengers fear they may be kept in quarantine beyond the initial February 19 deadline.

Princess Cruises president Jan Swartz said that Japanese officials may extend the quarantine for guests who have shared cabins with someone who has tested positive for the virus.

She added: We also now understand the Japanese may handle a select group of guests differently, anyone who had close contact with a person who tested positive  such as a cabin mate  may have to restart their quarantine from the date their close contact ended.

Additional reporting by Digital Desk.
Baghdad: Multiple rockets hit near the US embassy in Iraq's capital early Sunday, an American military source said, the latest in a flurry of attacks against US assets in the country.

The assault sent warning sirens blaring across the diplomatic compound but it was unclear exactly what was hit and how many rockets made impact, the US source and a Western diplomat based nearby told AFP.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

AFP's correspondents heard multiple strong explosions followed by aircraft circling near the Green Zone, the high-security enclave where the US mission is located.

It was the 19th attack since October to target either the embassy or the roughly 5,200 US troops stationed alongside local forces across Iraq.

The attacks are never claimed but the US has pointed the finger at Iran-backed groups within the Hashed al-Shaabi, a military network officially incorporated into Iraq's state security forces.

In late December, a rocket attack on the northern Iraqi base of K1 left one US contractor dead and unleashed a dramatic series of events.

Washington responded with retaliatory strikes against a hardline Hashed faction in western Iraq and days later, an American drone strike in Baghdad killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and his right-hand man, Hashed deputy chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

Hashed factions have vowed revenge for the pair's death, insisting US troops should immediately leave Iraq.

Sunday's attack came just hours after one of the Hashed's Iran-backed factions, Harakat al-Nujaba, announced a "countdown" to ousting American forces from the country.

He tweeted a photograph of what he claimed was an American military vehicle, adding: "We are closer than you think."
A man who allegedly followed a woman before choking her with a belt and sexually assaulting her in broad daylight has been arrested.

Muhummad Hassan, 23, was charged with a string of offences after he allegedly followed a woman from Chester Hill train station in Sydney's south-west on Thursday.

The 27-year-old woman left the station at 6.15pm and went to cross a road when Hassan allegedly looped a belt around her neck and choked her.

A man who allegedly followed a woman before grabbing and choking her with a belt and sexually assaulting her in broad daylight has been arrested and charged

She turned around and confronted the man before he ran away, police said.

The woman avoided physical injury and quickly went to her home a few hundred metres away before contacting police.

Hassan was arrested at a home in Chester Hill on Saturday before he was taken to Bankstown Police Station and charged with multiple offences.

They include attempting to take a person with an intent to commit a serious indictable offence, stalking, sexually touching another person without consent and common assault.

Chilling CCTV footage obtained by Seven News shows a man in the same area at the same time of the attack walking just metres behind a woman.

Police released separate footage of a man following the same woman on Saturday before Hassan's arrest.

Detective Assistant Inspector Paul Stamoulis said the accused had allegedly stalked the woman from the train station, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Chilling CCTV footage obtained by Seven News shows a man in the same area at the same time of the attack walking just metres behind a woman

'The male person has [allegedly] approached her from behind, placed the belt up over her head around her back and pulled her towards himself,' he said.

Inspector Stamoulis said the alleged attack was 'brazen and quite unusual' and said it is not expected to 'occur in a street at that time of the day'.

'It's broad daylight  she left the train station at 6.15pm and it's (allegedly) probably happened at around 6.20pm,' he said.

Hassan was bail refused is due to appear in Bankstown Local Court on Wednesday.
Pro Romania leader Victor Ponta called on his party colleagues "to rely only on themselves" in the electoral battles and to fight for the candidates of the party in the upcoming elections.

"I am in Pro Romania and only in Pro Romania will I be, and I rely only on Pro Romania. If I relied on someone else it would mean making the same mistake every time. (...) Please continue rely only on yourselves in the ensuing electoral battle, only on yourselves. (...) We are Pro Romania, we fight for the Pro Romania candidates," said Victor Ponta on Sunday.Asked at the end of the annual National Convention whether Pro Romania accepts an alliance with the Social Democratic party (PSD) for the local elections, Ponta said: "I don't think anyone spoke specifically about an alliance today.""As you can see, I think I am the most vocal as to the healthcare area for what PNL [the National Liberal Party] is doing wrong. Likewise, we have in our manifesto today some ideas and projects related to taxation, related to the administration. Should the PSD want to support them, after solving their internal problems, it would be very good," added the Pro Romania leader.Victor Ponta launched, on Sunday, at the annual Convention, the Pro Romania Manifesto 2020-2024, which proposes a series of priority measures to help Romania's development.The document proposes to change the fiscal system by switching to a differentiated, progressive taxation of salaries and large pensions, as well as the harmonization of the food quota with the one from the tourism services, respectively 5 percent VAT.Another measure aims at an administrative reform - reducing the number of counties from 41 to 15, reducing the number of territorial administrative units from 3,300 to no more than 1,500 and the number of parliamentarians to a maximum of 300 - 200 deputies and 100 senators.Pro Romania also supports a wage reform, namely the introduction of the European minimum wage in the form proposed by the European Parliament.
Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said here on Sunday that those protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are misled by a 'gang' which is spreading rumours about the new law.

"I request those who are protesting that they should not get misled by the gang which is spreading rumours. Such elements are not only harming themselves but also the protesters," said Naqvi.

"There is no substance of truth in it," he said.

A bunch of Shaheen Bagh protesters on Saturday said that they would be going to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence on Sunday over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and NRC while admitting at the same time that they have not sought an appointment with the minister.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
She recently broke up with her nightclub owner boyfriend, Jeremy Gordeno.

But Lizzie Cundy appeared in high spirits on Saturday when she stepped out to attend a VIP movie event in London.

The media personality, 50, was dressed to impress as she showcased her youthful figure in a busty mini dress.

Night out: Lizzie Cundy appeared in high spirits as she showcased her youthful figure in a busty mini dress to attend a VIP movie event in London on Saturday

The sequin number offered up a plunging neckline which showed off the star's ample cleavage, while a tie at the waist accentuated her tiny frame.

Lizzie teamed the metallic garment with a pair of black studded thigh-high boots that boosted her height while adding drama to her look.

The socialite completed her look with the addition of a black choker necklace, while she styled her chestnut hair in loose waves.

The film, which will be released on February 21, offers a behind the scenes look into the origins of the electronic music scene (pictured Rich Kids Go Skint star Jodie Weston, 26)

Seeing red: Actress Vicki Michelle, 69, stunned in a brightly coloured tunic style top as she enjoyed the film event

The event offered guests a first look at the United Nation three decades of drum and base film.

The film, which will be released on February 21, offers a behind the scenes look into the origins of the electronic music scene.

Also in attendance was actress Vicki Michelle, 69, X Factor star Talia Dean, 34, and Rich Kids Go Skint star Jodie Weston, 26.

Lizzie's night out comes after news emerged of her love rival being given a two-year restraining order for harassing the TV star.

Candice Hodge, 40, was handed a restraining order at Aldershot Magistrates' Court after storming onto the set of a private photo shoot and screaming abuse at Lizzie over millionaire Gordeno, 53 - her ex and Lizzie's then partner.

For the best part of last year, Ms Cundy had been locked in a feuding love triangle with Ms Hodge, a dog groomer from Surrey, over millionaire tycoon Gordeno, 53.

Ms Hodge had been dating Gordeno for two years and they had got engaged.

But when their relationship broke down, Ms Cundy started dating the businessman.

They were together for ten months last year but separated when Gordeno struck up a friendship with Ms Hodge's 21-year-old daughter, 32 years his junior.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal is all set to take oath as the chief minister of Delhi for the third straight time on Sunday in Ramlila Maidan as hundreds of people are expected to join him.

Kejriwal is scheduled to be sworn-in along with his six of his ministers, days after the AAP romped to a magnificent victory in the Delhi assembly election, in which the party won 62 seats in the 70-member House.

The 51-year-old bureaucrat-turned-politician has urged the people of the city to witness the son of Delhi taking oath on Sunday.

Here is all you need to know:

* More than 150,000 people are expected to be accommodated inside the Ramlila Maidan, in the heart of the national capital, and as many as 3000 AAP volunteers will help in crowd management.

* Kejriwal has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seven lawmakers of the Bharatiya Janata Party who represent the city and all the eight of its newly-elected members of legislative assembly to his swearing-in ceremony. The Prime Minister, however, is scheduled to visit his parliamentary constituency Varanasi to inaugurate various projects and may not attend the ceremony.

* Along with Kejriwal, six of his party leaders who will be part of his cabinet will also take an oath of office. Kejriwal is retaining all the six ministers who served his government in the previous term  Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Imran Hussain, Gopal Rai, Rajendra Gautam and Kailash Gehlot.

* Kejriwal held a dinner meeting on Saturday with his colleagues to discuss the roadmap for Delhis development, especially the initiatives that need to be prioritised in the next three months. Manish Sisodia said after the meeting that Kejriwal has asked all cabinet ministers to work dedicatedly towards fulfilling the promises listed in the guarantee card. Kejriwal had released the card, 10 guarantees of Kejriwal, ahead of the Delhi assembly polls.

* A group of 50 commoners will be sharing the stage with him under the banner of Dilli ke Nirmata or the architects of Delhi. They are the people who make Delhi what it is. They are the true architects of the city, Sisodia had in a press conference on Saturday.

* Among the special invitees are doctors, teachers, sanitation workers, bus conductors, bus drivers, marshals deployed for women security, auto-rickshaw drivers, farmers, anganwadi workers, athletes, IIT and medical students enrolled under scholarships, PWD engineers, businessmen, mobile ambulance operator, relatives of fire officials and police officials who lost their lives on the line of duty and the chief architect of Signature Bridge Ratan Jamshed Batliboi.

* This will also be the third consecutive time when Kejriwal will be sworn-in at the historic Ramlila Maidan. He had earlier taken the oath of office in 2013 and 2015 at the same venue.

* Kejriwals second oath-taking ceremony in 2015 was held on February 14 on Valentines Day. He had promised an end to VIP culture, vowed to eliminate corruption and continue to stand for the aam aadmi then.

* The AAP is associated with the iconic ground since 2011 when social activist Anna Hazare led the India Against Corruption movement. It is also the place where the AAP was born out of the anti-corruption movement.

* More than 5000 security personnel, including the personnel of Delhi Police and paramilitary forces, have been deployed for the oath-taking ceremony. Multi-layered security deployment has been made along with CCTV surveillance. Restrictions will be in place in the Ramlila Maidan area from 8am to 2pm.
Like much of the world, Hollywood star Jean-Claude Van Damme felt for Australia during its recent bushfire crisis.

And the Belgian actor, who is set to visit Down Under next month for a speaking tour- has shared a stern warning ahead of his arrival.

Speaking to the Herald Sun on Sunday, Jean-Claude, 59, said: 'I was told some of the fires were lit on purpose... I will hurt those guys!'

Watch out! Jean-Claude Van Damme, 59, has threatened to 'hurt' Australian arsonists responsible for bushfire crisis when he visits next month. Pictured in December 2017

Jean-Claude said it was painful watching the tragedy unfold from overseas, and claimed Australia didn't deserve the devastating event.

After being told some of the fires were lit by arsonists on purpose - a rumour that has never been officially confirmed.

'Thank God I don't see the people who do these things, because  and Im sorry Im saying this  but I will hurt those guys. These people are insane. We have to put them in an asylum,' the star said.

'These people are insane. We have to put them in an asylum': The Hollywood star said it was painful watching the tragedy unfold from overseas and was shocked by arsonist rumours

Jean-Claude said while he is known for his roles in action movies, he labels himself as a very sensitive person.

'Im very emotional. If I look at an animal being burned in Australia, I cannot eat for three days,' he said.

'I love animals because I respect nature and I respect the history of humankind. Animals are a part of me. I respect every animal on Earth because its my duty.'

Leading man: Jean-Claude one of the biggest action stars of all time, known for his hit movies, Universal Soldier and Bloodsport

Karate king: Reflecting on his Hollywood career and love of martial arts to Daily Mail Australia, Jean-Claude said he first started to train in the sport when he was just nine years old

The Belgian actor will be talking about his career and fitness when he comes to Australia next month for a question and answer series called An Evening With.

Reflecting on his Hollywood career and love of martial arts to Daily Mail Australia, Jean-Claude said he first started to train in the sport when he was just nine years old.

He also revealed he now wants to make one 'final and epic martial arts film.'

'I would like to make one more, one final, big martial arts, epic film. It's going to be a great film... I want to shoot a piece of it in Australia,' he explained.

He added he was 'excited' to come Down Under for the chat series, which will take place in Sydney on March 6 and Melbourne on March 11, and even wants to run a martial arts class while in Australia.

If you'd like to donate to the Australian Red Cross Disaster Relief, click here.

To donate to the St Vincent de Paul Society appeal for bushfire victims, click here.

For donations to Victoria's Country Fire Authority click here and here for the NSW Rural Fire Service.

To donate to Foodbank click here and here for the World Wildlife Fund.
Mr S.Q. Masood, a city-based social activist, and advocate Namrata Jaiswal who filed the PIL urged the court to quash the Gazette Notification No. SO 2753, issued by Union home ministry regarding the general citizen registration.

Hyderabad: A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed before the High Court seeking to declare Section 14-A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 as void and to declare the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) rules 2003 as ultra vires of the parent Act.

Mr S.Q. Masood, a city-based social activist, and advocate Namrata Jaiswal who filed the PIL urged the court to quash the Gazette Notification No. SO 2753, issued by Union home ministry regarding the general citizen registration.

The petitioners submitted in the high court that Section 14-A and Citizenship Rules were the violative of Articles 14,19 and 21 of the Constitution.

As for the new gazette the questions to be asked by the Census officers or enumerators to collect the population details were materially different than the questions asked under the updation of National Population Register, the petitioners said.

It was submitted to the court that the circulars suffers from legal malafides, because the clubbing of the National Population Register 2020 and Census 2021 was not a lawful exercise of powers conferred on the authorities under the Census Act, 1948 and the Citizenship Rules.

The questions asked under the Census do not seemingly offend the privacy of a person. However, the nature of the information sought for the updation of National Population Register is intrusive, the petitioners said.

The Union home ministry secretary, the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India and the Telangana State government were named as respondents.
Iranian Foreign Minister acknowledged his country's inability to decipher recorders without the help of Western experts

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif confirmed Tehrans decision not to decrypt the black boxes of the Ukrainian Boeing 737 without interested parties, and at the same time not to transfer them to any country. Zarif said this in an interview with the NBC News American television channel.

Zarif acknowledged his country's inability to decipher the data of the recorders without the help of Western experts. However, he defended the position of the government on the refusal to transfer this equipment to other countries. According to Zarif, Tehran turned to the United States for help in decoding but was refused.

The Iranian Foreign Minister noted that according to international air law, Iran has the right to lead an investigation into the downing of the Ukrainian Boeing.

On January 21, Iran asked the United States and France for equipment to decrypt the black boxes of the UIA plane shot down in Tehran.

In early February, the director of the accident investigation at the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization, Hassan Rezaifar, said that Iran would no longer transmit to Ukraine the data from the investigation into the crash of Boeing 737 near Tehran.

As we reported earlier, Canadian lawyers filed a lawsuit on behalf of victims aboard a Ukrainian plane shot down over Tehran last month, looking for at least $1.1 billion in compensation, Reuters informed.

The suit names Iran, its supreme leader, the elite Revolutionary Guards, and others as defendants.

It was filed on January 24 in Toronto, but it is still not clear whether it has been served on defendants in Iran.
Key takeaways from ABC News' Democratic debate originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

Just four days before the New Hampshire primary, seven candidates took the stage in The Granite State for one of their final moments to pitch themselves as the best Democratic choice for the 2020 election.

Here are the major takeaways from the ABC News Democratic debate.

(MORE: ABC News Democratic debate live updates: Should there be a litmus test for Supreme Court justices?)

Sanders, Buttigieg face heat as the top candidates out of Iowa

Despite an initial tout of unity from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, at the beginning of the debate, it didn't take long for the opponents to take aim against one another.

Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg unsurprisingly was a target after he and Sanders finished as the two possible winners out of Iowa. Buttigieg and Sanders both had 26% of the state delegates, according to the Iowa Democratic Party. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, had 18% and former Vice President Joe Biden had 16%, the results showed.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez called for recanvassing of the results Thursday after the caucuses were hit with continued reports of errors and inconsistencies.

In a striking moment, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, compared the former mayor's popularity to President Donald Trump's in 2016.

"It is much harder to lead and much harder to take those difficult positions, because I think this going after every single thing that people do because it's popular to say and makes you look like a cool newcomer," she said. "I don't think that's what people want right now. We have a newcomer in the white house and look where it got us. I think having some experience is a good thing."

Amy Klobuchar knocks idea of being a "cool newcomer": "We have a newcomer in the White House, and look where it got us. I think having some experience is a good thing." https://t.co/93QauZSK6e #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/OAjohZVqeT  ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) February 8, 2020

Biden described him as "a mayor of a small city who has done some good things but has not demonstrated he has the ability to -- and we'll soon find out -- to get a broad scope of support across the spectrum including African-Americans and Latinos."

Story continues

Sanders also faced heat. Buttigieg went after Sanders for what he described as "politics that says if you don't vote all the way to the edge, it doesn't count."

When asked if Buttigieg was referring to Sanders, he replied, "yes."

PHOTO: From left, Democratic presidential candidates Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, participate in a primary debate, Feb. 7, 2020 in Manchester, N.H. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Klobuchar similarly said that she thinks the country needs someone who "actually brings people with her instead of shutting them out." She was responding to a question of whether or not anyone on stage was nervous about having a democratic socialist at the top of the ticket.

Two days earlier, former Vice President Joe Biden launched an attack at Sanders for an embrace of a "socialist" label.

(MORE: Biden launches new attacks on Sanders, Buttigieg, outlines risks to nominating them as primary race enters critical stretch)

ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega said Sanders was "taking hits from all sides forced to defend his stance on socialism. And he came ready to fight back."

At the debate, Biden took aim at Sanders over health care and how much it would cost.

"He said, 'We'll find out,' or something to that effect. Imagine you're going to unite the country walking into the congress saying I got this bill that's going to require Medicare for everybody. I can't tell you how much it's going to cost. We'll find out later," Biden said.

PHOTO: Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidates Andrew Yang, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Senator Bernie Sanders, former Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Amy Klobuchar and billionaire activist Tom Steyer pose. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

Klobuchar has a big night

In one of the first moments on stage, Klobuchar point-blank said Americans are looking for someone who can attract the middle and not shut voters out.

"And I would submit that is me," Klobuchar said.

She also wasn't afraid to make cases against her opponents.

In defense of the Affordable Care Act, Klobuchar launched an attack against Sanders, Warren and Buttigieg.

PHOTO: Democratic presidential hopefuls Sen. Amy Klobuchar and billionaire activist Tom Steyer speak during the eighth Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. Feb. 7, 2020. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)

"I keep listening to this same debate, and it is not real," she said. "It is not real, Bernie, because two-thirds of the Democrats in the Senate are not on your bill and because it would kick 149 million Americans off their current health insurance in four years. And let me say what else. Elizabeth wants to do it in two years. And Pete, you sent out a tweet just a few years ago that said affirmatively you are for Medicare for All for the ages. So I would like to point out that leadership is taking a position, looking at things and sticking with them."

ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl said Klobuchar was having "her best debate."

"She's taking on her opponents, making contrasts, but also clearly articulating the case for her candidacy," Karl said.

ABC News Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran similarly said Klobuchar had her best debate.

"She's hit Buttigieg hard, and taken on Bernie to good effect as well. And she's done it while delivering her messagethat she is the most pragmatic, optimistic, centrist candidate on that stage," Moran said.

He noted it might be "too little, too late," but said, "she is shining here tonight."

While Klobuchar may have shined, Warren appeared to miss her moment.

ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Mary Bruce said she was surprised that Warren didn't dominate the stage as much as she had in previous debates.

"She just didn't seem to have that big standout moment, and she needs that because, as we had been discussing, she needs a win in early states," Bruce said. "I think she was hoping her near home state advantage might give her a boost, but I didn't really see that tonight."

Both women were endorsed by the New York Times, a surprising move and a break from the tradition of one candidate earning the paper's endorsement.

Race makes its way into the conversation

Nearly 90 minutes into the debate -- of which there was only one person of color -- the topic of race was brought up after billionaire Tom Steyer criticized his party for not talking about it before.

"We're in trouble," Steyer said. "And so the question is going to be, look at these people, who can pull together the Democratic party? And let me say this, we have not said one word tonight about race. Not one word. Are you kidding me? We have the most diverse party. We have a very diverse country. We have a very diverse party. The heart and soul of this party is diversity. Black people, Latinos, AAPI people, Native Americans, and white people."

PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer participates in the Democratic presidential primary debate in the Sullivan Arena at St. Anselm College on February 07, 2020 in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Klobuchar later took the opportunity to speak about voter suppression and how it disproportionately affects voters of color.

"There's something else insidious going on we haven't addressed, and that is the systemic racism when it comes to voting that moves across the country to limit people's right to vote. That is why I have been leading on these bills to automatically register every kid to vote in this country when they turn 18. There is no reason we can't do that across the country to stop the gerrymandering by setting up independent commissions in every state and yes, to stop the voting purges," Klobuchar said.

"We are not going to be able to get any of these things done if we don't give people the right to vote," she said.

ABC News "Nightline" co-anchor Byron Pitts noted that Latinos were all-but-entirely absent from the conversation.

"Thus far no discussion of Latinos by any of the candidates through healthcare, employment and criminal justice reform," Pitts said.

For the first time, Hispanic people are projected to be the largest racial or ethnic minority group in the electorate for the 2020 election, according to the Pew Research Center.

Democrats spar over health care again

Health care once more took center stage at the Democratic debate.

Sanders found himself defending his Medicare-for-all bill against moderate candidates Biden, Buttigieg and Klobuchar, all of whom decried it as a longshot.

"Bernie says that you have to bring people together, and we have to have Medicare for All. But Bernie says, and he says he wrote the damn thing, but he's unwilling to tell us what the damn thing's gonna cost," Biden said.

PHOTO: Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden gestures towards Senator Bernie Sanders during the eighth Democratic 2020 presidential debate at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, February 7, 2020. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

Sanders hit back saying that Biden's plan would cost $50 trillion on health care over the next 10 years.

"We are spending twice as much per capita on health care as do the people of any other country. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the healthcare industry last year made $100 billion in profits," Sanders said.

Buttigieg admitted that while the majority of Americans are ready to make sure there is no such thing as an uninsured American, "I think there's a better way. You know, it's true, the American people are ready.  Just so long as we don't command people to accept a public plan if they don't want to."

Biden touts his record after disappointing Iowa results

Biden used his onstage moment to come back from disappointing results in Iowa.

Aggressively touting his record, Biden said he "busted his neck" getting Obamacare passed, is the "only guy that beat the NRA twice" and is someone "who's already begun to make a down payment" on the opioid crisis.

He also went after Buttigieg and Sanders -- the two top contenders from the caucuses. The former vice president said Buttigieg did not have enough experience, while he slammed Sanders for not being upfront about how much Medicare for All would cost.

By the end of the night, Biden had the most speaking time at 19 minutes and 35 seconds.

Despite the technical issues, delay in reporting and unclear final results, with 100% of precincts reporting, Biden was in fourth place at 16% behind Buttigieg, Sanders and Warren. Biden's numbers in Iowa may not appear to be a good start, but the former Vice President is banking on a decisive victory in South Carolina, the last of the early states before Super Tuesday.
President Moon Jae-in puts war medals on the remains of 64 South Korean soldiers killed in North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, after they arrived at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Oct. 1, 2018, from Hawaii. The remains were found during a joint excavation project between United States and North Korea and later identified to be South Koreans through joint work by the U.S. and South Korea. Korea Times file



By Jung Da-min



The remains of 80 or more South Korean soldiers who died in the Korean War will be returned to the country around April this year from the U.S.' Hawaii after they had been moved there from North Korea by the U.S. government, according to media reports citing government officials, Sunday.



The reports said the remains, identified as those of South Korean soldiers, were among those returned from North Korea to the U.S. as a follow-up to the Singapore agreement between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in June 2018, and would be included in the 80 sets that will be delivered by the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).



The return of the war remains of South Korean soldiers is reportedly one of the projects pushed by the government this year to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of 1950-53 Korean War. It is the highest number of any such returns since October 2018, when South Korea received 64 sets from the U.S.



The two governments worked together in 2011, 2015, 2018 and 2019 to identify the remains of South Korean soldiers among those the U.S. had in their custody. The U.S. delivered 12 sets of remains to the South in 2012, 15 sets in 2016 and 65 sets in 2018 including the October delivery of 64 sets.



But the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said the number of sets of war remains to be returned and specific dates for the return have yet to be decided on. The Republic of Korea Air Force has also remained cautious over the reports that it will send a special transport plane to Hawaii for the return plan, saying this has yet to be decided according to negotiations between the two governments. In October 2018, the ROK Air Force sent a plane to Hawaii to repatriate the remains of South Korean soldiers.



Once the remains arrive in the country, the MND Agency for KIA Recovery and Identification will conduct the identification procedures of comparing DNA samples from the remains with those of the bereaved family members. The identified remains will be delivered to the bereaved family members to be buried in the National Cemetery. While the identification procedures for the 64 sets which arrived October 2018 are still ongoing, the defense ministry is planning to mount a publicity campaign for DNA sampling of those who lost family members during the Korean War.


Stumpy the labrador was bred to help blind humans with day-to-day life.

But when a deformed leg prevented him from becoming a guide dog, his owner found an alternative way for him to help others.

The golden labrador became a dog blood donor  and he has saved the lives of up to 120 other dogs thanks to his regular donations over the past nine years.

Stumpy the labrador pictured with Coventry vet Elly Pittaway. H has saved the lives of up to 120 other dogs thanks to his donations

After making his 30th blood donation at the start of this year, Stumpy was crowned Pet Blood Bank UKs highest donating dog.

Stumpys owner Elly Pittaway said she was delighted her beloved pet had been able to help so many others.

The 43-year-old vet from Coventry told the Daily Mail: Stumpy obviously has no idea what hes doing it for but Id love to think he did and Im sure hed be very proud of himself.

Stumpy gets plenty of treats and praise throughout the donation process, and Miss Pittaway says he actually really enjoys the whole thing. He looks forward to it.

The golden labrador giving blood with vet Elly Pittaway. Stumpy gets plenty of treats and praise throughout the donation process

He pulls me into the room because he knows that hell just get biscuits all the way through. Stumpy first began donating blood aged one  the youngest age that a dog can be to give blood  and has donated around three to four times a year ever since.

He has a negative blood type, which means that his blood can be given to any dog in an emergency, and with the ability to split blood donations into four, he could have helped up to 130 others.

But last week Stumpy celebrated his ninth birthday, so he is no longer able to give blood.

Stumpy has a negative blood type, which means that his blood can be given to any dog in an emergency

As a result Pet Blood Bank UK is appealing for more dogs to follow in Stumpys impressive pawprints. Breeds of dog the charity is particularly looking for, which are more likely to have negative blood type, include German shepherds, greyhounds and boxers.

Like the human service, Pet Blood Bank UK collects blood from donors at organised sessions nationwide, on average four to five times a week. The blood is then processed into packed red blood cells and fresh plasma, and delivered to veterinary practices when they need it most.

Miss Pittaway said that aside from giving blood, Stumpy loves to spend time in the park. She added: He just loves running around. Hes very good at fetching a ball.
While each investor has their own way of going about it, at the end of the day, the common theme unifying all is the universal pursuit of returns. The difficult part, of course, is recognizing the names which can outperform the market in the long run.

All stocks are different, though, and finding those which can potentially yield said returns requires due diligence. Naturally, the research should include what the pros on the Street think about a companys long-term growth narrative.

Using TipRanks Stock Screener, weve dug up two healthcare stocks that look especially promising. While each one is unique, the tickers have two things in common: all have room for upside of more than 100%, and whats more, each one currently boasts a Strong Buy consensus rating from the Street. Lets get started.

Applied Genetic Technologies (AGTC)

This rare retinal disease-focused biotech has started 2020 in the same way it exited the previous decade: by adding extra muscle to the share price.

2019s performance saw an addition of a considerable 84%. 2020 has started off in much the same vein, with the company giving market-trouncing Tesla a run for its money in January by shooting up over 100% in one day. The reason? Well, as this company is a biotech, its usually due to one of two reasons: either a regulatory approval for a drug, or, as in this particular case, positive data from a clinical trial.

AGTC recently presented updated data from its Phase 1/2 study of centrally-treated X-linked retinitis pigmentosa patients. The positive results showed that patients treated with the candidate exhibited durable improvement in visual function six months after dosing. The data backs up results reported in September and will be used in the pivotal trials design, which AGTC plans to initiate later this year. Not to mention secondary data showed encouraging improvements in Best Corrected Visual Acuity (vision impairment) and a favorable safety profile was demonstrated by all patients dosed with the drug.

Story continues

The results are music to the ears of H.C. Wainwrights Joseph Pantginis. Pantginis argues the "highly anticipated" data confirmed his expectations on the performance of the company's therapy. According to the analyst, an upcoming meeting with the FDA should provide critical guidance on endpoints, size and statistics, randomization protocol, and bilateral dosing.

To this end, the 5-star analyst reiterated a Buy rating on AGTC along with an $18 price target. The implication for investors? Further gains of a massive 252%. (To watch Pantginis track record, click here)

A fellow analyst beating the drum for the bulls is Wedbushs David Nierengarten. The 5-star analyst believes Applied Genetic is the market leader in X-linked retinitis pigmentosa and lists the company as one of his top picks for 2020. Accordingly, Nierengarten kept his Outperform rating on AGTC along with his $12 price target, too. (To watch Nierengartens track record, click here)

Does the Street concur? Yes, it does. 5 Buy recommendations add up to a Strong Buy consensus rating. The average price target of $13.33 implies gains of 160% could be lining investors pockets in the next year. (See Applied Genetic price targets and analyst ratings on TipRanks)

Sol-Gel Technologies Ltd (SLGL)

The other company on our list continues the pattern established by AGTC. Totally outpacing the market last year, this skin disease-focused company from Israel posted yearly gains of 172%, the majority of which came in the final week of the decade. It will be no surprise to learn why.

On December 30, Sol-Gel announced that its acne drug Twyneo met the primary endpoints in two late-stage trials. The company intends to file a new drug application (NDA) with the FDA for Twyneo in the second half of 2020, with hopes of bringing it to market in 2H21. The application will be the second one this year, as plans are already in place to submit one for Epsolay, the companys rosacea candidate, during the first half of 2020.

The global acne market is expected to be worth over $7 billion by 2025, a point not lost on H.C. Wainwrights Ram Selvaraju. The 5-star analyst believes the positive results for Twyneo have increased its probability of approval to 90%, up from his previous estimate of 70%. Selvaraju notes that should the drug get the go ahead, it will be the first once-daily acne vulgaris treatment to combine benzoyl peroxide and a potent retinoid in a cream.

The analyst, therefore, kept his Buy rating as is. The positive data, though, meant the price target got a boost, from $23 to $26. Investors stand to take home gains in the shape of 145% should his thesis play out. (To watch Selvarajus track record, click here)

The Street is with the H.C. Wainwright analyst. The acne warrior has 4 ratings, all Buys, which put together, amount to a Strong Buy consensus rating. The average price target of $22.75 implies potential upside of 115% in the next 12 months. (See Sol-Gel stock-price forecast on TipRanks)

To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights.
Chicago is the nations largest metropolitan area without three airports, he said. Additional capacity is needed to handle passengers and cargo, he said. Facilities in Rockford and Gary, Indiana are not equipped to meet demand, he said.
The Delhi Police on Sunday said they had asked the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protesters at Shaheen Bagh to give the details of the delegation to facilitate their meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah, but demonstraters said they all wanted to go. Due to this, the Police have denied permission to the protesters adding, "We will see what we can do".

'They all want to go'

Delhi Police: We have asked protesters(#ShaheenBagh) that who all are in the delegation which wants to meet HM Amit Shah today so that we can plan a meeting but they said that they all want to go. We have denied that but we will see what we can do pic.twitter.com/Xk4c1dauVR  ANI (@ANI) February 16, 2020

The development comes a day after protesters at Shaheen Bagh said they will start their march on Sunday to meet Shah. However, Home Ministry officials said no request has come for an appointment with Shah to discuss issues related to anti-CAA protests.

Speaking at a conclave on Thursday, the Home Minister had said that he was ready to meet the protesters, adding that an appointment would be given within three days of the same being sought.

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy on Saturday stated that there is not a "single paragraph or a word against the 130 crore people of India" in the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

READ | Ramdas Athawale makes big statement about Shaheen Bagh as BJP wilts in Delhi elections

READ | Shaheen Bagh protesters say 'Will meet Amit Shah on Sunday at 2 pm', urge 'India to join'

'What are they protesting against?'

Speaking to ANI in Hyderabad, Reddy said, "I want to ask those on dharna and protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act, why they are protesting for and against what? There is not a single para or a word against even one of the 130 crore people of India in the Act."

Talking about the people protesting against the amended citizenship law in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, the Union Minister said, "I want to ask whether they are on dharna for people residing in Pakistan and Bangladesh? In CAA, there is not a single word against any person, whether he is Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Sikh... If there is any, then the Government of India is ready to remove it."

READ | Congress' Jairam Ramesh questions Shaheen Bagh protest, says its serving BJP's agenda

READ | CAA Row: MoS Reddy defends Bill, says 'Not a single word in Act against Indian citizens'

(With ANI inputs)
(Natural News) Some might say its a bit of a stretch, but two different past episodes of The Simpsons eerily predicted the current outbreak of novel coronavirus, just like the series also did for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Though a mainstream media outlet tried to debunk the connection as fiction, a comparative look at the two episodes  Episode 21 of Season 4 and Episode 6 of Season 22  speak for themselves.

Episode 21 of Season 4 centers around a flu that spreads abroad from Osaka, Japan, infecting packages exported from the country to the United States. While the obvious disparity is that its Japan rather than China, whats depicted is suggestive of what were now seeing with the coronavirus, which experts say can persist on surfaces  including inside boxes  for up to nine days.

Please dont tell the supervisor I have the flu, one of the Japanese cartoon characters is heard stating to a fellow factory employee in a clip from the episode.

Ive been working with a shattered pelvis for three weeks, the fellow employee responds before both of them start laughing uncontrollably, a jab at the Asian stereotype that working conditions in that region are extremely poor.

As the duo finishes laughing, the first employee is seen coughing flu particles into a box containing a juice loosener being sent to Homer Simpson back in Springfield. The episode continues on, showing Homer and others in Springfield all receiving similar flu-infected boxes, which leads to an area-wide outbreak of the Osaka Flu.

Later episode of The Simpsons shows mainstream media heads plotting a new phony crisis to socially engineer the masses

All on its own, this episode could be disregarded as a coincidence. But when paired with Episode 6 of Season 22 of The Simpsons, the predictive programming becomes even more compelling.

In this later episode, a creepy group of globalist plotters is seen sitting around a large, oval table in some kind of bunker trying to come up with the next phony crisis to put Americans back where they belong, one of the characters is heard stating.

This more sinister plot line shows the heads of several popular television networks, including TBS, TNT, and Bravo brainstorming with the others about ideas. One of them suggests a good, old-fashioned health scare, to which they all agree, with one female character emphasizing, a new disease, no ones immune.

This cant be a made-up disease, one of the others also responds. The only moral thing to do is release a deadly virus into the general public.

After they all agree to this, another character states, Now, we just have to blame it on something thats in every household. The thing they chose was housecats, which are similar to the bats and snakes in China, which many people there eat, that authorities are blaming for the spread of novel coronavirus.

I find it extremely interesting that occultist Aleister Crowley died aged 72 on December 1st, 1947, wrote the uploader of the YouTube video containing this analysis of The Simpsons in its description, adding another layer of odd conspiracy to this whole saga.

[Seventy-two] years later on the same day was when the first patient was diagnosed with the coronavirus on December 1st, 2019.

Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, has already begun assessing damage being caused by government and media lies about this epidemic, which is quickly becoming a pandemic. Be sure to watch his analysis on an episode of The Health Ranger Report below:

You can also check out many other informative episodes of The Health Ranger Report dealing with the coronavirus at Brighteon.com.

For more late-breaking news about the coronavirus, also visit Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

YouTu.be

DailyStar.co.uk

NaturalNews.com
has been fighting for an independent Scotland since the age of 16

Nicola Sturgeon has claimed #MeToo has seen sexism and misogyny in politics manifest itself in different ways - and described Prime Minister Boris Johnson's alleged remark referring to her as 'that bloody Wee Jimmy Krankie woman' as 'abuse'.

The leader of the Scottish National Party, 49, who has been fighting for an independent Scotland since the age of 16, praised the movement for making a lot of women 'reassess' behaviours they may have once 'put up with'.

However, she mused that while new measures have been put in place within her party to protect its female members, they may have also provoked some men to find other means of hurling abuse at women.

She told The Sunday Times Magazine: 'I sometimes wonder if because they can't behave in these ways any more, that then fuels some of this abuse some men hurl at women.

Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon, 49, has said the #MeToo movement has helped women reassess behaviours they may have once 'put up with'

'They think, "I'm going to take it out on you in another way". I think some of the sexism and misogyny that was so rife in my younger days, it's not completely gone at all. It just manifests itself in different ways.'

Ms Sturgeon's comments come over a week after Boris Johnson allegedly referred to her as 'that bloody Wee Jimmy Krankie woman' during a Number 10 meeting to discuss this year's climate summit in Glasgow.

During the meeting, former minister Claire Perry O'Neill had suggested the Prime Minister offer the Scottish politician a formal role at the summit in a bid to stop the Scottish National Party from damaging the event.

However Mr Johnson allegedly replied: 'Over my f****** dead body. I'm not being driven out of Scotland by that bloody Wee Jimmy Krankie woman.'

The Krankies were a Scottish comedy duo during the 1970s and 1980s which featured Janette Tough, now 72, as the schoolboy Wee Jimmy Krankie and her husband husband Ian, also now 72, as the boy's father.

Ms Sturgeon's comments come over a week after Boris Johnson allegedly referred to her as 'that bloody Wee Jimmy Krankie woman' during a Number 10 meeting to discuss this year's climate summit in Glasgow. Pictured: Nicola Sturgeon welcomes Prime Minister Boris Johnson outside Bute House in Edinburgh in July

In response Ms Sturgeon, who admitted it was a nickname she'd heard before, claimed his alleged remark is 'meant as a term of abuse'.

She went on to explain how early in her career she had tried to fit in with how her fellow colleagues dressed, but due to the fact those around her were middle-aged men, she was always going to be called out for not being 'feminine enough'.

Speaking about the role of gender in her political career, Ms Sturgeon said #MeToo has shone a light on the inappropriate behaviour of male colleagues which she and female colleagues previously put up with, from leering to being touched in 'slightly uncomfortable ways'.

The Krankies were a Scottish comedy duo during which featured Janette Tough as the schoolboy Wee Jimmy Krankie

The politician recalled a particular incident early in her career which left her feeling uneasy.

She told how during a lunch with a political editor of a Scottish newspaper, he conducted most of the meeting while looking at her chest.

Ms Sturgeon admitted she did not say anything to him or anyone else at the time because that sort of behaviour at the time seemed 'normal' to her.

She added that the man in question probably didn't think he was doing anything untoward, and it was the sort of thing she was used to putting up with.

Ms Sturgeon recalled a particular incident early in her career which left her feeling uneasy

The #MeToo movement was founded in 2006 before it was propelled into the spotlight following the sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein in 2017.

Earlier this month, Ms Perry O'Neil publicly spoke about Mr Johnson's anger at the SNP leader.

She told BBC Radio 4: 'I did suggest Nicola Sturgeon be given a job, which the Prime Minister heartily and saltily rebutted'.

A Number 10 spokesman denied the PM made the Jimmy Krankie comment.
14-Year-Old Charged in Stabbing Death of Barnard Student Tessa Majors

A 14-year-old boy was arrested in the slaying of Barnard College student Tessa Majors, who was stabbed to death during an armed robbery in December, according to officials.

Sadly, it cannot bring back this young woman, this student, this victim, New York City Police Department Commissioner Dermot Shea said at a news conference on Sunday, referring to the arrest. That is something that even the best, most impartial investigation simply cannot do.

He said NYPD officials are confident they have arrested the suspect who stabbed her, adding that they will face justice. He was identified in the news conference as Rashaun Weaver.

Blood evidence, smartphone evidence, and the suspects statements are now being evaluated by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, who described the incident as a gruesome picture.

Majorss last words were help me, Im being robbed, Vance said. The 18-year-old student, he added, tried to fight back against three young teens who had attempted to rob her at a park in New York City.

Vance said that his office will be very careful to safeguard all the rights he has, referring to the charges against Weaver.

Only a fair process will result in true justice for Tessa Majors, he said. The 14-year-old will return to court on Wednesday.

The Epoch Times is naming the juvenile defendant due to the seriousness of the crime and because he has been charged as an adult. Weaver was charged with two counts of second-degree murder, one count of first-degree robbery, and three counts of second-degree robbery .

Weavers attorney, Elsie Chandler, told the New York Post that hes a 14-year-old child, and hes presumed not guilty.

A 13-year-old boy was previously taken into custody in Majorss slaying. He was charged with second-degree murder, robbery, and criminal possession of a weapon.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 16:58:15|Editor: huaxia

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) supports China's efforts to tackle the outbreak, and is confident that China's economy "remains resilient," IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has said.

by Xinhua writer He Fei

BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- An extended new year holiday has slowed down travel and business activities in China due to the unexpected novel coronavirus outbreak.

While adopting timely, comprehensive and stringent measures to combat the epidemic, China has announced its policy toolkit to shore up businesses. Analysts and business insiders of many countries have voiced their confidence that the Chinese economy will be left unscathed in the long run.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) supports China's efforts to tackle the outbreak, and is confident that China's economy "remains resilient," IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Twitter Feb. 3.





PRODUCTION RESUMPTION

On Feb. 10, the date of production resumption set by many provinces, transport networks saw increased passenger flow, a slew of wholesale markets and supermarket chains returned to normal operation, and manufacturers resumed operations with precautionary measures taken to prevent a further transmission of the virus.

Employees work at the workshop of Faurecia (Chongqing) Automotive Parts Co., Ltd, a Sino-French joint venture, in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, Feb. 12, 2020. (Xinhua/Tang Yi)

More than 80 percent of the 23,000 manufacturing subsidiaries of 96 centrally-administered state-owned enterprises have resumed production as of Wednesday, except those required by local governments to delay work resumption, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

By Wednesday, 83 percent of power grid and power generation companies have resumed work, while in the oil and petrochemical industry, the resumption rate reached 96.8 percent. Meanwhile, work on related key national projects have also begun to move forward in an orderly manner, the commission said.

More enterprises have adopted flexible forms of returning to work according to their own characteristics.

An employee works at a modern agricultural park in Weifang, east China's Shandong Province, Feb. 14, 2020. (Xinhua/Guo Xulei)

Foreign companies in China also joined the rank. European plane maker Airbus, for instance, in a statement released on Tuesday, announced the decision to gradually increase production at its China division.

According to a survey conducted by the Shanghai Association of Foreign Investment earlier this week, more than 80 percent of the 54 foreign companies surveyed in Shanghai have fully or partially resumed production.

Administrative measures have been offering a helping hand in time to businesses. China's central bank on Monday issued special loans totaling 300 billion yuan (about 43 billion U.S. dollars) at a preferential rate to policy and commercial banks, aiming to support business activities directly linked with epidemic control.

Fiscal authorities have also rolled out measures, such as supplying logistic services and financial assistance, to support small and micro-enterprises, which are a key force to underpin the labor market and protect economic vitality.

On financial markets, China's central bank has added a total of 1.7 trillion yuan (about 243 billion dollars) into the banking system to boost liquidity and stabilize market expectations.

Stephen Roach, a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, said he is "very optimistic on the prospects for the Chinese economy," and "there's plenty of opportunities for fiscal and monetary stimulus."

Tan Kok Wai, the Malaysian government's special envoy to China, said the Chinese government's effective handling of the outbreak will build business confidence and push everyone from small businesses to state-owned companies to move beyond this temporary problem.

"The message is clear -- this will pass and it will be back to business as usual," he said.

Aerial photo taken on Feb. 16, 2020 shows a China-Europe freight train departing from Zhengzhou Station, central China's Henan Province. (Xinhua/Li An)

IMPACT ONLY TEMPORARY

Noting the epidemic would pose an economic shock to China, experts have said they believe the world's second largest economy has leeway to cushion the short-term impact and sustain stable growth.

"We believe the coronavirus is a one-off negative shock, which should not alter the long-term growth trajectory of China's economy," United Bank of Switzerland (UBS) economists said in a research note on Tuesday.

"As the virus outbreak is contained and economic activities normalize, we see pent-up demand being released and businesses recover," they said.

The epidemic will not affect China's cross-border investments in the long run, though it will have a short-term impact on the Chinese economy, especially in the first quarter, said Horst Loechel, a professor of economics at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.

Business activities such as mergers and acquisitions, foreign direct investment, and private equity investment are related to the real economy, and the current epidemic will not have an impact on the long-term forces behind these investments, Loechel said.

An employee transfers polypropylene material for medical use with a forklift at Lanzhou Petrochemical Company in Lanzhou, northwest China's Gansu Province, Feb. 12, 2020. (Xinhua/Chen Bin)

Khairy Tourk, an economics professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology in the U.S. city of Chicago, told Xinhua that "one positive thing about the Chinese economy is that it has already developed a digital economy."

His remarks echoed the recent booming of a "homebody economy" across China, as online education, online healthcare, e-commerce, and working from home are on the rise. China's tech giant Tencent has upgraded its live-streaming and online conference services, as such demand has been growing in recent days.

"Chinese people are very inventive and they have taken so many steps to lessen the effect of the spread of the disease," Tourk said. "The country is moving in the right direction as to dealing with its crisis."





GLOBAL DEMAND ROBUST

China's long-term trends of moving towards a more consumption-oriented economy and of a rising services share in the overall structure should continue, UBS economists noted. Businesses are showing unabated interest in tapping the market that is too big to be missed.

A staff member picks up goods for online orders at a store of Hema Fresh in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 14, 2020. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

"China plays an important role in the international trading system. That role will evolve but I don't see reliance changing," said Doug Barry, senior director of communications and publications at the U.S.-China Business Council, who added that U.S. businesses "remain bullish" on China.

"Those taking a long-term view are betting the economy will continue to grow faster than in most other markets and that the Chinese consumer in particular will propel growth," Barry said. "Companies want to be in China. They need to be in China."

Urging British businesses to tap the potential of the Chinese market after Brexit, Colin Rainsforth, director of British food and drink export and marketing firm Absolute Advantage, said China is a big market with rapid growth and an increasing number of middle-class consumers who are keen for high-quality goods.

The timely and decisive measures of China to lessen the economic impact "will be beneficial both to China and the world economy," he said, adding that isolating China due to the coronavirus "is not the solution and will only create more obstacles to world trade."

A student takes an online class at home in Handan, north China's Hebei Province, Feb. 10, 2020. (Xinhua)

Tan, the Malaysian envoy, noted that China has remained Malaysia's largest trading partner for 11 consecutive years and accounted for 17.2 percent of Malaysia's trade in 2019, and that bilateral trade "will recover with a higher peak within reach" after the epidemic.

Jorge Valenzuela, president of the Chilean Federation of Fruit Producers, said that China accounts for nearly 30 percent of their exports, and that their "ties with China are deep and long-standing ... so this situation is not going to stop or slow down bilateral relations."

Tourk, the U.S. professor, called for worldwide efforts to fight the disease. "Nothing spares cooperation among nations like emergencies that deal with questions of life and death," he said. "A healthy China means a healthy world economy." Enditem

(Xinhua reporters Xu Yuan, Deng Xianlai, Xiong Maoling in Washington, Xu Jing in Chicago, Lin Hao in Kuala Lumpur, Zuo Wei and Shen Zhonghao in Frankfurt, and Zhu Sheng in Berlin also contributed to the story.)

(Video reporters: Deng Xianlai, Jin Yuelei, Xu Yuan, Zhang Xingjun, Jiang Chao; Video editor: Zhu Cong)
BRIDGEPORT  City firefighters rescued two people from a two-alarm fire on William Street Saturday afternoon, according to officials.

Fire units were dispatched to 715 William St. at 12:49 p.m. for a reported structure fire.

The first units on scene confirmed a fire on the second floor with extension to the third floor, according to Scott Appleby, director of emergency management/communications and homeland security in Bridgeport.

As units started to work to extinguish the flames, a second alarm was struck for additional firefighters to help put out the fire.

Appleby said two occupants  a woman and a child  were rescued from the fire and transported to the hospital to be checked out. He said there was no further information on the extent of their injuries later Saturday.

He said there was only one working smoke alarm in the home and it was on the first floor.

Personnel from Red Cross were called for those displaced by the blaze.

Greater Bridgeport Transit Authority was brought in to provide temporary shelter because of the cold weather, Appleby said.
(Natural News) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently announced a highly unusual alleged cure for the Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19) that definitely falls into the so-called alternative medicine category: cow urine.

The Hindu Mahasabha, a century-old group that promotes a system of Hindu nationalism known as Hindutva, or Hinduness, has officially declared, with Modis blessing, that consuming cow urine and cow dung will stop the effect of the infectious coronavirus.

The hard part, of course, is gulping the urine without getting kicked in the face.

Swami Chakrapani Maharaj, Hindu Mahasabhas current president, has publicly contended that a person who chants om namah shivay and applies cow dung to his body will be saved from the devastating effects of the Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19), thanks to the Hindu deity Shiva intervening on his behalf.

According to reports, orthodox Hindus, as you might call them, maintain a strong ideological bond with the swami, who also greatly respects Modi. Theyre all on the same page when it comes to things like this, in other words, as bizarre as it might sound to the average Westerner.

Ever since the Hinduist Bharatiya Janata Party, of BJP, rose to power in India back in 2014, viewpoints like this one have been crystallized into the nations scientific approach to medicine and healing. For better or for worse, supposed treatments like cow urine and cow dung are now superseding what many in the West would describe as science-based medicine in Indias official system of medicine.

While we support many valuable forms of natural medicine, indigenous medicine and botanical medicine, cow urine as a pandemic cure seems more than a little bizarre.

Extreme Hindus also believe that ancient Indians had test-tube babies, which somehow warrants modern genetic science and plastic surgery

Whats even weirder about the BJPs ideologies is that they also coincide with some modern medical procedures, including test-tube babies and even plastic surgery.

According to Modi, the ancient Hindu hero Karna, from the third century B.C. Mahabharata, was not born from his mothers womb, which in his mind means that genetic science was present at the time.

He also points to Ganesha, a famous elephant-headed Hindu god, as proof that there must have been some plastic surgery, at that time, who got an elephants head on the body of a human being.

Some news reports contend that Modi doesnt actually believe any of this, and is merely using it as political fodder to rally his nationalist support base. Other bizarre claims towards this end include the idea that the Indians beat Pythagoras by 300 years to the theorem that bears his name, as well as the idea that nuclear weapons were used during the great war depicted in the Mahabharata.

Hilariously, theres even the contention that the ancient Indians flew airplanes, even though theres no evidence whatsoever that even hints at this possibility.

India is on the path of destruction with Modi in charge, says Mike Mish Shedlock of Money Maven, obviously discarding the cow urine theory along with the rest. This is yet another example that shows the importance of separation of church and state.

In South Korea, coronavirus patients are reportedly recovering with oxygen therapy

On the other hand, there is evidence to support other alternative treatment ideas for the Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19), including oxygen therapy. New reports reveal that a Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19) patient from South Korea is getting better following treatments with natural oxygen, as some viruses apprently dont like an oxygen-rich environment.

Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the media that of the 21 confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19) in his country, only one is still in critical condition but rapidly improving thanks to oxygen therapy.

As far as we know, oxygen therapy is not currently being used in communist China, which is embroiled in a trail of lies over the true severity of the Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19).

More Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19) coverage is available at Outbreak.news.

Sources for this article include:

MoneyMaven.io

Breitbart.com

NaturalNews.com
A pipelines ripples, Feb. 13

The thing about the UN declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples is that it recognizes some projects are too big or too dirty, or both, for Indigenous peoples to say yes.

And it understands that First Nations have a different set of rules for looking at what we like to call development. Those rules are what the Saugeen Ojibway Nation listened to when their communities voted no to Ontario Power Generations proposal to bury nuclear waste beside Lake Huron.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau likes to talk about the rule of law. So do Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, B.C. Premier John Horgan and Ontario Premier Doug Ford. But in all such disputes between First Nations and Canada, you have to ask whose law?

First Nations have done a pretty good job of obeying Canadian laws over the years. They sent their children to residential schools. They went off to world wars and fought with courage. They ceased their customary ceremonies and hid their sacred things when we declared them illegal.

And they gave up their traditional governments  except for some, like the Wetsuweten.

Those traditional, hereditary chiefs tried to play by our rules in discussions with Coastal GasLink over the route of the pipeline. They said avoid this area and that area, they are necessary for our way of life. But Coastal GasLink ignored them and offered money to the elected chiefs and councils to get their way. And who can blame those elected chiefs and councils for wanting money to better the lives of the people they represent?

And so the standoff at Unistoten. And now it has spread into the traditional territories of other First Nations. All of whom have been harmed, one way or another, by following Canadas rule of law.

Racism against First Nations people is expressed by control over land or water, as Oka and Ipperwash and Burnt Church and 100 other standoffs, big and small, testify.

Maybe its time we just stopped developing for a minute and sat down with First Nations to learn what their rule of law has to say to us.

David McLaren, Neyaashiinigmiing, Ont.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finds himself at a crossroad and it is time for him to decide his legacy. Does he want to be remembered as the prime minister who kowtowed to the fossil-fuel industry during a climate crisis?

Does he want to be remembered as the Liberal leader who grovelled to voters in a province that is unlikely to support his party, while risking alienating support in the rest of the country?

Does he want to be remembered as a prime minister who apologized abundantly but then abandoned a true act of reconciliation with the First Nations?

Or does he want to be remembered as the prime minister who led his country, and hence the world, on a path toward an economically sound and sustainable energy future respectful of First Nations land rights?

Its time to decide.

Simon P. Valleau, Toronto

I dont think its fair to block the railway system for any length of time. The cost is astronomical.

I think Indigenous people and their supporters should use the court system to present their concerns. I also think they should be financially responsible for the losses imposed on CN.

I dont see how affecting the Canadian economy to the tune of millions of dollars per day is fair. Someone has to pay and most Canadians should not cover the cost for a few.

Gaston Ste-Marie, Belleville, Ont.

The blockade of the Toronto-Montreal railroad tracks should have been removed the first day. By delaying doing so, authorities have given the appearance of impunity and encouraged other disruptive actions elsewhere.

Maybe our globetrotting prime minister should stop trying to solve world problems and fix things in his own backyard.

Robert Drummond, Exeter, Ont.

Enough already. Instead of being very concerned about them, enforce the law and remove the illegal blockades. These actions amount to insurrection, not protest. Are we a country for all Canadians or do we just let relatively small mobs to take over at will, without any repercussions?

Garry Tate, Burlington

There are two salient points to this story. First, it is quite common for a government to expropriate land for the public good, if the owners of said lands are unwilling to settle for a fair price. Second, the Wetsuweten hereditary elders  comparable to the British Royal family  are claiming that only they represent the people, and not the duly elected chiefs  comparable to the British House of Commons  who are, actually, in favour of the gas pipeline.

Dirk D. van der Werf, Oshawa

Historical perspective of RCMP raids on Wetsuweten, Opinion, Feb. 12

Professor Sean Carleton gives a good historical perspective for the armed attacks by the RCMP on unceded Wetsuweten lands. I would add that this is within a context of 500 years of deception, encroachment and violence by settlers like me, destruction of the fish and game Indigenous peoples depended on, denigration and prohibition of Indigenous languages, culture and spirituality, theft of their children and the current horrendous rates of incarceration due to the poverty weve forced them into.

In fact, Canada has three founding peoples. Without help from Indigenous peoples in the first 300 years of European settlement, we would not have thrived. And without First Nations warriors on our side in the War of 1812, there might not be a Canada.

It is past time that we start honouring the Delgamuukw Supreme Court decision about First Nations control over unceded lands. Its time we honour it in B.C., where it is law but violated before the ink is dry. We have to stop forcing Indigenous peoples off their land any time we want another pipeline, mine, or housing development.

We must stop this racist persecution and do some serious listening, thinking and re-ordering of our laws and priorities.
Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during the F8 Facebook Developers conference on April 30, 2019 in San Jose, California. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Dennis Neymit, a 25-year-old San Francisco chemical engineer, had been trying to sell his tickets to an electro pop concert for a few days with no luck, so finally he decided to give them away. "Giving away my 2 tix to TENDER at GAMH tonight!" Neymit posted in a private Facebook group called Clever Girls, where more than 11,600 Bay Area music fans share songs, news, raptor memes and concert tickets with each other. "I can't make it anymore but hope two of y'all can enjoy their beatz and emotionz," Neymit posted, along with screenshots of his tickets and their QR codes. The tickets were soon claimed. "It made me feel better just knowing that someone else had a good time," Neymit said Neymit's use of Facebook reflects a shift in how many people are now experiencing the social network. Whereas years ago people's News Feeds were littered with auto-playing videos, news articles both real and fake, and nonsensical gibberish from their racist uncles or high school acquaintances, Facebook is now placing more emphasis on content from groups that users join.

"Clever girls" is a popular, music-focused Bay Area Facebook group that was started by a Facebook user known as "Concert Raptor" who wanted to bring people together and give away tickets to shows. Courtesy of Ari the Raptor

Since 2017, Facebook has dealt with the fallout from Russian interference during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018 and the launch of four separate antitrust-focused investigations into the company in 2019. Yet despite those obstacles and significant negative press coverage, Facebook usage has continued to grow, climbing from 1.86 billion monthly users in February 2017 to 2.5 billion monthly users in December. Although Facebook does not share detailed statistics about how users are spending time on the site, groups give people a new reason to check the site regularly. In April 2019, Facebook said that there were more than 400 million people in groups that they find meaningful. (The company determines "meaningful" through surveys and by seeing how they engage in those groups, such as whether they have friends there and how much they interact with people in them.) "The growth in focus on groups is strategic and well designed," said Daniel Newman, principal analyst at Futurum Research, which focuses on digital technology. "It's keeping users on the site longer and providing rich, harvestable data for Facebook and its advertisers." Users seem to love it as well. "Facebook groups are a great way for people to customize their social media experience by connecting with other people with similar interests and needs," said Hugo Cesar, who is an admin of "Bay Area Conscious Community Housing Board" a group that is used by more than 71,600 users to find housing in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Facebook began shift its emphasis away from the News Feed and toward groups following the 2016 U.S. presidential election. At the time, the company was under fire for not doing more to prevent the spread of fake news and misinformation. As part of its response, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg published a 6,000-word note in February 2017 outlining how the social network would improve by focusing on supporting and creating safe communities. Zuckerberg noted that more than 100 million users were members of "very meaningful" Facebook groups, but he said that most people don't seek out groups on their own. "There is a real opportunity to connect more of us with groups that will be meaningful social infrastructure in our lives," Zuckerberg wrote at the time. "If we can improve our suggestions and help connect one billion people with meaningful communities, that can strengthen our social fabric." Since then, Facebook has made strides to emphasize groups, showing content from them more often in users' timelines and using marketing to promote groups, including paying an estimated $10 million to run a 60-second commercial during Super Bowl LIV. "Whatever you rock, there's a Facebook Group for you," the company said in the ad, which showcased numerous groups, including a rock climbing group and another focused on rock collecting. There's no limit to the focus of these groups. There are groups dedicated to helping people find housing, others focused on niche interests like craft beer, groups that serve specific communities like army veterans, and groups focused on women in the trucking industry. "It is the new, modern-day AOL Chatroom organized by topics and interests," said Crystal Aminzadeh, an admin of the group "Scrubbing In with Becca Tilley & Tanya Rad" which is for fans of the podcast of the same name. The group counts more than 27,000 members. "It brings together people from all walks of life who may have just that one interest in common. In this case they share a common love for this podcast," Aminzadeh said.

Members of Soundboks Facebook groups often post photos of themselves with their beloved speaker. Photo courtesy of Dino Skrijelj

Brands can use Facebook groups to engage with fans. For example, Soundboks is a Danish company that makes a popular Bluetooth speaker. The company uses multiple Facebook groups to post announcements while fans use it to discuss different ways to accessorize the speakers, post videos of their Soundboks in action or compare the Soundboks to other speakers. Since Soundboks is still a young company, it also relies on people in its groups to showcase the company's speakers to potential customers. "It really drives a lot people to purchase when they see this active community," said Collin Burdette, Soundboks direct community support coordinator. "Seeing negative things, seeing positive things -- we're not trying to censor that."

So much depends on admins

Running these groups is no easy task. Group admins and moderators who spoke with CNBC said their efforts can easily take up 8 hours or more of their week. These users pore through red notifications on their Facebook tabs from users who have requested approval to join the groups or reports from group members who have flagged content as spam, harassment or simply off topic and breaking group rules, among other things. Facebook has given these users more tools to better run their groups. For example, admins of private groups can set up membership approval forms, requiring applicants to answer a few simple questions that can be used to filter out any bots or unwanted users. "Before I was an admin, there used to be a lot of bots and trolls," Aminzadeh said. "I added the questions for members who requested to join and they'd have to answer them. The questions were specific to the podcast so listeners would only be able to answer."

Members of the Facebook group "Scrubbing In with Becca Tilley & Tanya Rad" at a meet-up in Los Angeles at the People's Choice Awards in October 2019. Photo courtesy of Crystal Aminzadeh
Thirty-one subcontracted airline catering workers were arrested Friday afternoon after they blocked traffic outside the American Airlines terminal at San Francisco International Airport, a spokesman from a supporting labor union said.

The civil disobedience was by, and in support of, members of Unite Here Local 2, the hotel and restaurant workers' union of San Francisco and San Mateo counties. The union has been demanding higher wages and better benefits for its members who provide food service for commercial airliners around the country.
TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES -- The boat was pretty much deserted when Jim Woodward first stepped aboard.

It was 1995. Hed arrived in Pearl Harbor for his first posting on a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine.

The sub, the USS Alabama, is 560 feet long  as long as the Seattle Space Needle is high. Much of that space was empty, though. There was a new movie that had come to town.

I got there late, the day the movie made it to theaters, Woodward said. The whole crew went.

The name of the movie? Crimson Tide. It was about a mutiny aboard the USS Alabama.

Gene Hackman played the commanding officer in the film. One of his quirks was his attachment to a poofy little lap dog. The mutiny was a fiction, and that dog was, too.

There are no dogs aboard nuclear submarines, Woodward said with a laugh.

Now a first-term state senator from the Idaho panhandle town of Sagle, Woodward served seven years in the U.S. Navy, followed by another 14 years in the reserves. He earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Idaho, and was then recruited by the Navys nuclear power training program.

It was during that training period when he learned a lesson that could offer some comfort today.

It provided me with a belief in the ability of the institution to persevere, Woodward said.

In the military, people rotate assignments every two or three years, he said. Yet the institutional knowledge carries on, through standard operating procedures, operating manuals and well-defined programs.

As a lawmaker, Woodward said, that perspective allows me to operate with a little more freedom.

If you think of the Legislature as an institution, the individual members will come and go, Woodward said. But this branch of government continues to operate  hopefully for the good of the whole. It doesnt require self-preservation; whether Im here or not, the right answer should still come out in the end. The institution doesnt depend on any one person.

2020 the Lewiston Tribune (Lewiston, Idaho)

Visit the Lewiston Tribune (Lewiston, Idaho) at www.lmtribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Bahri, a global leader in logistics and transportation, has reiterated its support to Saudi Maritime Congress with the aim of driving local and global maritime sector growth.



In its capacity as founding strategic partner of the event, the company has also extended an official invitation to its global network of partners and customers as well as the wider international maritime community to participate in the kingdoms largest and most important industry event, said a statement.



The event is taking place from March 22 and 23, in Dammam.



Abdullah Aldubaikhi, chief executive officer, Bahri: Saudi Maritime Congress comes at a time when the industry is at a crossroads, faced by regional and global geopolitical developments as well as technology and regulatory disruptions.



The congress offers us a unique opportunity to discuss current and emerging trends in the logistics and transportation sector and create a roadmap for us stakeholders to play a vital role in shaping its future, he said.



At our company, we are confident that this will also provide us an unparalleled platform to further our collective contribution towards achieving the goals set out in Saudi Vision 2030 and are proud to underline our continuing support to this important event through encouraging our partners and customers to join and drive the conversation forward, he added.



As founding strategic partner of the event alongside the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani), Bahri will be participating in both the conference and the exhibition being held as part of Saudi Maritime Congress in order to provide the ideal platform to stimulate private sector investment in the maritime industry and further strengthen Saudi Arabias major efforts in boosting the role of the shipping sector in its economic transformation.



Abdullah Aldubaikhi, chief executive officer at Bahri, will participate in the Keynote session at Saudi Maritime Congress. In this headline session, leaders of the organisations driving maritime business and policy within the kingdom will discuss the opportunities for domestic and international maritime and logistics companies and the progress of key Vision 2030 objectives.



Abdulaziz Sabri, president of Bahri Ship Management, joins an important session reflecting on lessons learned since the implementation of the IMO 2020 Sulphur cap. The panellists will explore what alternatives  including battery power  will be available in the near future. A key discussion point will consider whether ship owners and fuel suppliers are fully prepared for a changing energy landscape.



Bahri will be exhibiting at Booth C10 at Saudi Maritime Congress and join a powerful group of maritime technology suppliers and marine service providers within the exhibition.



Chris Morley, event director, Seatrade Maritime, reiterated the significance of Saudi Maritime Congress and added: We have designed the conference programme and the exhibition floor of SMC 2020 to bring together shipowners, ship operators, shipyards, manufacturers and more in a stimulating blend to help grow networks, solidify maturing business deals and nurture new opportunities.



We have been fortunate enough to work closely with key influencers such as our Founding Strategic Partners, Bahri and Mawani, to ensure the event continues to evolve and support the objectives of the companies playing a fundamental role in one of the most prosperous economic developments in recent maritime history, he said.



The Saudi Maritime Congress is the largest and most important event in the kingdom for international and local maritime professionals designed to provide a platform for meeting, networking and discovering new business opportunities in Saudi Arabia, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- As the coronavirus outbreak grows in scale and scope, a nasty side effect spreads: discrimination. Inside China, people from Wuhan have been treated like lepers. Outside, were seeing numerous reports of verbal and physical abuse aimed at ethnic Chinese, and an aversion to Chinese restaurants and other places associated with the country.

Sadly, this is nothing new: Past outbreaks have often gone hand in hand with ugly prejudice, with various ethnic or racial groups blamed for the disease. But this behavior, however commonplace in the past, has always backfired for the most obvious of reasons: Diseases dont discriminate. Indeed, a pathogen like the coronavirus is the ultimate reminder of our shared humanity.

Consider the gold standard of pandemics: the bubonic plague, better known as the Black Death. It came roaring into Europe in 1348 and managed to kill off a quarter of the population within a few short years. As the death toll soared, many self-professed Christians looked for an explanation  and a way to put an end to the epidemic.

They fell back on anti-Semitism. Because some Jewish communities initially escaped the epidemic, Christians accused them of masterminding the outbreak. Lacking a germ theory of disease, they claimed that that Jews had poisoned the wells, or as one deranged medieval conspiracy theorist claimed, the Jews wished to extinguish all of Christendom, through their poisons of frogs and spiders mixed into oil and cheese.

These zealots proceeded with a bloodletting as horrifying as the plague itself. Hundreds of Jewish communities, many concentrated in what is now Germany, became the target of extermination campaigns. In town squares, mobs gathered together Jewish communities and burned them alive en masse. One chronicler, unusual because he betrayed sympathy toward the victims, reported that women and their small children [were] cruelly and inhumanly fed to the flames.

And yet the plague continued to rage, killing off these same communities. Genocide, it became apparent, was not going to keep the plague at bay.

Story continues

Mercifully, the response to subsequent outbreaks rarely rivaled the brutality of this episode. But the larger pattern of scapegoating outsiders continued, as did the quaint belief that eliminating those outsiders  or at least curtailing contact  would protect you from the disease.

Typical was the spread of syphilis in the fifteenth century. Unlike the plague, syphilis killed its victims very slowly (if painfully) and did not spark the same panic that accompanied the plague. But as it spread throughout Europe, each population inevitably blamed other foreigners for the gruesome chancres, sores, and eventual insanity that defined the disease.

As one historian wryly observed, the increased movement of people across national borders reinforced the need to protect social boundaries. Every national group in Europe defined syphilis as a disease of other nations. The Germans blamed the French, calling it the French Disease. Not to be outdone, the French blamed the Italians. Later, the Poles blamed the Russians, the Persians blamed the Turks, Muslims blamed Hindus, and the Japanese would blame the Portuguese.

This was ridiculous, of course, but no matter: the idea that one could avoid a disease by policing  and excluding  people different from oneself was (and remains) an immensely appealing, if deeply misguided, approach to managing disease. Indeed, as Germans studiously avoided French prostitutes and the French avoided Italian courtesans, syphilis continued to burn through Europe.

Something similar happened in the United States. Waves of immigration fundamentally transformed the country over the course of the nineteenth century. Inevitably, each ethnic group who arrived found themselves accused of carrying some dread disease. Then, as now, people held them in contempt  and avoided them if at all possible.

The Irish experience was typical. In the early part of the century, the Irish emigrated to the U.S. in growing numbers. Unfortunately, their arrival coincided with the outbreak of cholera in cities. For Protestant elites who hated Catholics, it was only natural to assume that the odd, alien newcomers must have brought what became known as the Irish disease.

This may explain why so many reputable doctors strongly advised patients to avoid consuming ardent spirits. Dont drink whiskey like the Irish, they said; drink water. Ironically, this just happened to be the best possible way to catch cholera in the first place: It was spread through contaminated municipal wells. Such was the stupidity of equating disease with ethnicity.

Other groups soon found themselves tarred by their association with disease. Jewish immigrants, scapegoated as carriers of the plague and typhus in Europe, were accused of carrying consumption, better known as tuberculosis, to the U.S.

This was the Jewish disease or the tailors disease, so-called because so many Jews followed that occupation. Prominent anti-Semites happily peddled this belief, arguing that Jews were sickly, weak, and diseased  unlike strapping, native-born Anglo-Saxons. This had no basis in fact. In reality, Jewish immigrants actually had longer life expectancies than their native counterparts, with lower levels of tuberculosis. But that didnt stop these race theorists from using these claims to justify draconian restrictions on immigration in the 1920s.

Other outbreaks followed this same script. In 1916, a major outbreak of polio in New York City lead misguided doctors and medical vigilantes to blame a host of culprits before settling on Italian immigrants as the cause. New Yorkers desperately avoided Italians, believing that they carried the disease. But polio spread anyway because it had actually infiltrated the larger population by the time that the Italians got the blame.

In fact, the practical problem with identifying a particular group as the exclusive carriers of disease (or the culprits behind the spread of it) is that it blinds people to the reality viruses and bacteria dont care if youre from Wuhan or Washington. If youve got a pulse, youll make an excellent host.

And at this point, with coronavirus cases scattered around the world, youre just as likely to catch the coronavirus from someone who looks exactly like you.

To contact the author of this story: Stephen Mihm at smihm1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mike Nizza at mnizza3@bloomberg.net

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Stephen Mihm, an associate professor of history at the University of Georgia, is a contributor to Bloomberg Opinion.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
West African ministers met on Saturday to search for solutions to regional powerhouse Nigeria's shock decision to close its borders last August to curb smuggling.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has been at loggerheads with Nigeria since Africa's largest economy shut its land frontiers with Niger and Benin to curb smuggling of rice and other commodities.

The move "strikes at the roots of our grouping -- the free circulation of people and goods", said Salou Djibo, Niger's army chief, from the conference in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou.

"The unilateral closure of the borders goes against all the commercial and free movement treaties signed by Nigeria in the framework of ECOWAS," he said.

The decision drew the ire of Nigeria's neighbours, particularly Benin, which shares an economically vital land border and where many citizens thrive from exporting to Africa's largest market of 190 million people.

The border has become a port of entry for tonnes of rice into Nigeria, which it has banned to boost local production.

Nigeria has also accused Benin of benefiting from the illegal importation of subsidised oil, costing the government billions of dollars.

"Our grouping is living through difficult times," said Ivorian Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, ECOWAS Commission president.

"We are enfeebled by the closure of borders between Niger, Nigeria and Benin since six months and this has negatively impacted on trade volumes in the bloc in 2019 and 2020.

"This closure has had profound repercussions on trade, on economic operators without fprgetting consumers who today doubt our community."
Oman is working to reduce tensions in the Persian Gulf and sees prospects of talks between arch-rivals Iran and the U.S., its foreign minister said.

"We are in touch with the U.S. and Iran," Yousef Bin Alawi, Oman's foreign minister, was cited as saying on Sunday by the state-run Oman News Agency at the Munich Security Conference. "We feel that there is a possibility of dialogue between them."
Like many teenagers the world over, Nadia Hamidi gets a thrill from watching scary movies. Ghosts, blood, gore  I love all of it, she says.

The fact that shes not squeamish may come in handy one day. Now at the top of her high school class here, she dreams of becoming a surgeon  to help my family, to help my country, to make them better.

Now 17, Nadia was born a refugee. Her parents fled Afghanistan 40 years ago, around the time of the Soviet invasion, and the family have lived in Pakistan ever since.

Nadia is among some 2.7 million Afghans registered as refugees worldwide. Their needs, and those of the communities hosting them, are the focus of a two-day conference that kicks off Monday in Pakistans capital, Islamabad. Speakers include UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

Afghan teen aspires to help her country heal (Alex St-Denis, camera-editor / Warda Al-Jawahiry, producer)

For decades now, Pakistan and Iran  which together host 90 per cent of the worlds Afghan refugees  have let refugees attend public schools and access national health-care systems. The conference aims to generate more international solidarity and support for such efforts, as well as more support for host communities like Quetta.

Nadia plans to return to Afghanistan someday, but not just yet. First, she says, her country needs peace. And until then, she is intent on studying medicine so she can help it rebuild when the time comes.

In Afghanistan we need educated people, she says. If we dont have educated people, we wont improve ourselves, and we wont improve our country.

Nadia Hamidi, an Afghan refugee who aspires to become a doctor, photographed at her family home in Ghousabad, on the outskirts of Quetta, Pakistan.  UNHCR/Ivor Prickett

Afghan refugee Nadia Hamidi (far left) attends her computer class at Safe from the Start, an initiative supported by UNHCR on the outskirts of Quetta.  UNHCR/Ivor Prickett

Nadia's father, Abdul Rashid, sells qabli  an Afghan dish made with rice, chicken, raisins and cumin  on a street in Quetta.  UNHCR/Ivor Prickett

People pass through a busy shopping area in Ghousabad, a Quetta neighbourhood where 60 per cent of residents are Afghan refugees.  UNHCR/Ivor Prickett

This weekend Nadia and her father, Abdul Rashid, who is in his early 70s, had a chance to meet the High Commissioner when he visited Balochistan ahead of the conference.

Speaking in English, a language she learned by watching television, she told him about her high school, where shes a star student, as well as the computer classes she takes at Safe for the Start, a programme for women and girls that is supported by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

Nadia knows her path will be challenging, as a refugee and as a woman, but she doesnt scare easily. If I want something, I have to work hard, she says. I should forget the difficulties because I want to become something.

If I want something, I have to work hard.

In Quetta, the High Commissioner also met with several groups of Afghans and Pakistanis, including women from both nations taking courses together in rug making, embroidery, cooking and hair care. Among the refugees, a hunger for more educational opportunities, particularly at university level, was a recurring theme.

On the question of return, the primary obstacle is insecurity. Im getting an education so I can go back to Afghanistan, said Mehbooba, a 19-year-old refugee who was born here. If the situation becomes stable, then I will definitely go back.

That Nadia and Mehbooba have come so far is a tribute to their families, and to the education they have received thus far.

I want to commend Pakistan for these efforts, which are always difficult for an asylum country, Grandi said, and really encourage the international community to do more to share this burden and this responsibility with the Pakistani people.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi meets with Afghan refugee women working to develop their handicraft skills through the Safe for the Start programme in Quetta, Pakistan.  UNHCR/Ivor Prickett

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi meets with Afghan refugees at the Women's Technical Training Centre in Quetta, Pakistan, where they are developing skills to help them earn a livelihood.  UNHCR/Ivor Prickett

Nadias father would also like to return to Afghanistan, a country he misses dearly.

The whole place is beautiful, he says, grateful that hes had a chance to visit his brother in Kunduz a few times in recent years. But continued violence and economic hardships have kept him from staying long. I cannot afford to go back and settle in that region. When you dont have enough food to eat, youre thankful for just one meal.

In Quetta, at least, he has been able to eke out a living. Each morning, he sets out with a cart of qabli  an Afghan dish made with rice, chicken, raisins and cumin  to sell on the street. He returns home late in the evening, weary from a slipped disc and a sore foot.

See also: Refugees and communities bank on a brighter future in Pakistan

Its up to Nadia if she wants to become a doctor, he says. Thats her choice. But we are happy for her to become a doctor so she can build her own life.

He adds: Im doing my best to help her take her studies forward. Its an achievement for both of us.

For now, Nadia has a plan to keep studying and working towards her dream of becoming a doctor. But the idea of settling down in Afghanistan is never far from her thoughts.

If peace comes, there is no more beautiful place than your own country, she says.
Targetting the Opposition amid speculation of "Operation Lotus" in the state in April this year, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday challenged BJP to pull down the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government if they can.

The MVA is a coalition of Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress that formed government in November last year.

"We (NCP-Sena-Congress) have come together with an aim to bring development for the common man. Since we have assumed office, the BJP has been constantly criticising us. The BJP leaders have been claiming that our coalition will not last long and that they would return to power. But the fact is that we stand united with a strong government," said Thackeray at a farmers' rally in Muktai Nagar, Jalgaon, in the presence of NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

"If you (BJP) are thinking about toppling our MVA government then I challenge you to pull it down today. I Balasaheb Thackeray's son and I would like to accept the challenge," he said.

Thackeray's response comes amid his ongoing spat with BJP in the backdrop of resentment within the MVA over the Chief Minister's decision to not oppose the Centre's move to hand over the Elgar Parishad probe to the Investigation Agency (NIA). Even Pawar and Congress's Maharashtra in-charge Mallikarjun Kharge have criticised Thackeray over the decision to allow probe by NIA in the matter.

Grabbing the opportunity, BJP has hit out at the ruling coalition and said that there will be "mid-term" polls in the state.

Without naming senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse, who said that the "ruling alliance in Maharashtra is set to break", Thackeray said: "Muktainagar, the hometown of Khadse, has become mukt (free) today. Everyone here knows who the town has become free from."

Muktainagar has been considered a stronghold of Khadse. However, BJP had denied him a ticket in the last Assembly polls in the state and instead fielded his daughter Rohini from Muktainagar, who suffered a humiliating defeat against an independent candidate Chandrakant Nimba Patil.

Maharashtra Chief Minister further assured farmers of better schemes and said: "The Shiv Sena had promised to clear the farmers' debts before coming to power. We will launch two more schemes for farmers and separate schemes for those farmers who regularly return their loans. In the next few days, the government will soon take concrete decisions about how to provide electricity and water for farmers in the daytime and how to make them completely debt-free."

On the occasion, the Sena chief described Sharad Pawar as a "competent guide". "The blessings of the people and a competent guide is with me, so all good things will be done," he said.

Meanwhile, Pawar said, "There is a need to put in efforts to improve the living conditions of farmers in the state. Also, the Centre should extend its support to the state to implement special schemes for farmers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bansy Kalappa By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: As summer sets in, tanks and ponds dry across the city and outskirts, but in striking contrast, once-dry stretches have turned green and water bodies are full as the process of recharging aquifers in the arid northern reaches of urban Bangalore right up to Chikkaballapura has started.



In a first, three dry tanks in Byatrayanpura are full. The Manchappanahalli-Arebinnamangala tank, Gopalpura Tank and Bagalur Tank have been filled with treated water supplied from Bengaluru.

Minister Dr. K Sudhakar, MLA from Chikkaballapura, said, People laughed when I suggested this idea saying I was getting wastewater to these parts. But I did not give up as I had seen similar efforts in Singapore and other areas, and I persevered. Originally, it was conceived for Chikkaballapura, but other MLAs along the way too wanted it and that is how these lakes have been filled en route.

These netas have learnt their lessons from the loss of former union minister Veerappa Moily in the parliamentary elections. He lost mainly because his promise, made 10 years ago, of getting Yettinahole water to these parts has not yet materialised.



The project pumps secondary treated wastewater from Hebbal, Horamavu and Hennur to Gudibande at a cost of around Rs 1,000 crore. Officials said, It will recharge 65 tanks in Chikkaballapura, Bangalore Rural and Bangalore North.

In 2016, the Siddaramaiah government had conceived this project to benefit parts of northern Bangalore all the way up to Kempegowda International Airport and beyond till Chikkaballapura.



The engineers have used Bangalores elevation to pump water over 115 km with a network of pumping stations and reservoirs.



In Gauribidanur, eight tanks will be filled up, in Devanhalli nine, in Gudibande three and in Siddalghatta nine, in addition to the 24 water bodies in Chikkaballapura.
Qualifying Certificate regime creates a win-win-win situation for the real estate developers, the capital markets, and policy makers

qualifying certificate regime

On 6th February 2020, the Ministry of Law and Singapore Land Authority announced that the exemption of publicly listed housing developers with a substantial connection to Singapore from the Qualifying Certificate (QC) regime will be allowed.

Under the Residential Property Act (RPA), any housing developer that is not considered a Singapore company has to apply for a QC when it purchases residential land for development, other than from the government. Under the QC regime, it is required to complete the development within five years and dispose of all units within two years of completion. The extension charge payable for an extension of time is: 8% of the purchase price of the land for the first year extension, 16% for the second year of extension and 24% for the third and subsequent years. The number of unsold units will be taken into consideration when computing the charge. This is to ensure that such housing developers build and sell the residential units in a timely manner, and do not hoard and speculate in residential land.

A housing developer that is a Singapore company is not subject to the QC regime. Currently, a Singapore company is defined in the RPA as one that is incorporated in Singapore, and all its directors and shareholders are Singapore citizens or Singapore companies. This definition however means that publicly listed housing developers that are essentially Singaporean will not be considered a Singapore company. If they have one foreign shareholder, they will not be considered a Singapore company.

Publicly listed housing developers can apply for Qualifying Certificate regime exemption on the basis that they have a substantial connection to Singapore.

The Qualifying Certificate regime exemption application will be assessed by reference to the following criteria:

1. Incorporation in Singapore;

2. Primary listing is on the Singapore Exchange and principal place of business is Singapore;

3. The chairperson and the majority of the companys board are Singapore citizens;

4. A significantly Singaporean substantial shareholding interest in the company; and

5. Track record in Singapore.

Story continues

The QC exemption changes will be implemented with immediate effect and reflected in legislation later this year.

The government is making no changes to the existing property market cooling measures, which were put in place to keep private residential property price increases in line with economic fundamentals. In particular, all housing developers continue to be subject to the prevailing Additional Buyers Stamp Duty (ABSD) regime. The regime requires, among other conditions, developers to sell all units in a residential project within a specified timeline, failing which they will be subject to the ABSD.

The Qualifying Certificate regime creates a win-win-win situation for the real estate developers, the capital markets, and policy makers, said Colliers International.

The QC rules, along with the additional buyers stamp duty (ABSD)  which was hiked to 30% (of which 25% is remittable) in July 2018  have been seen by developers as a double whammy, both carrying hefty penalties if they do not sell all units in a project within the stipulated timeframe. This exemption will certainly be greeted with much relief, particularly for developers who are concerned about clearing their inventory and potentially having to pay for QC extension.

With the QC exemption, we think land bid prices for larger sites may potentially improve as developers may not need to provision for both ABSD and QC penalties for failure to sell all units within five (ABSD)/seven (QC) years. This could further help to promote efficiency in the marketplace as developers have a clearer picture of their risk exposure.

We believe the QC exemption for eligible developers could have a positive spin-off effect in that it may help to deepen the capital markets: 1) by attracting new listings of developers on SGX; or 2) encouraging re-listings of developers who have de-listed over the years due to the QC rules.

For the policy makers, the various eligibility criteria (as outlined below) set out will continue to position as a competitive global business hub and promote the hiring of Singaporeans into leadership and directorship roles.

This Qualifying Certificate regime exemption is a welcomed news amid an uncertain business environment. Although the ABSD remains unchanged currently, we feel that this could be a lever that the government can pull should there be a deep economic downturn. For instance, there could be flexible adjustments to the ABSD by reducing the tax, or extending the timeframe beyond five years. Such fine tuning of the ABSD, particularly in difficult times, could help to ensure the property market remains viable as well as facilitate the rejuvenation of large ageing properties.

CBRE commenting on the Qualifying Certificate regime said:

This exemption will effectively remove the double whammy effect to some developers that have to contend with both the QC as well as the ABSD regimes. Successful applicants of the exemption of the QC regime will still have to ensure that all units in their residential projects are sold within a specified timeline under the overarching ABSD regime. Going forward, as such listed companies may not be categorised as a foreign entity following a successful application, some of these listed developers will be given a respite to continue to participate in the acquisition of land in the near to mid term.

This is a clear indicator that the government is constantly monitoring and fine tuning its policies. This policy further strengthens their support for local developers, as it is difficult to qualify listed developers as a 100% Singapore company.

The post Qualifying Certificate regime change a win-win for all stakeholders appeared first on iCompareLoan Resources.


RC Drilling Rig back at Kat Gap

Perth, Feb 17, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - WA-focused gold exploration and development company Classic Minerals Limited ( ASX:CLZ ) ("Classic", or "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has recommenced RC drilling at its 100% owned Kat Gap Gold Project covering exploration licences E74/422 and E74/467.Highlights:- Up to 3500m of RC drilling underway at Kat Gap after highly successful campaigns in November 2019 and January 2020;- Hole depths ranging from 40m to 170m;- Assay results expected mid-March;- RC Drilling program designed to follow-up deeper down-plunge high-grade mineralisation on the granite-greenstone contact over a 200m strike adjacent to the cross-cutting Proterozoic dyke previously tested by the Company;- RC Drilling also testing 200m along strike south of the cross-cutting Proterozoic dyke plus a further 150m north of current drill coverage bringing the overall potential strike length of the Kat Gap system to over 800m;- Understanding the down-plunge orientation of high-grade gold mineralisation will aid significantly in the planning of further RC drill holes on the south side of the Proterozoic dyke;- Previous RC drilling by Classic at Kat Gap has returned outstanding high-grade gold intercepts from shallow depths*.Classic CEO Dean Goodwin said:We are excited to be back at Kat Gap to undertake more follow up drilling so soon after the great results of our last two drilling programs, including multiple high-grade gold hits close to the surface, extensions at depth down plunge and along strike south of the dyke. This round will be focused solely on Kat Gap which has delivered outstanding results from the previous 8 drill campaigns. Drilling will again focus on the main granite - greenstone contact of which only 500m of a total 3.5km of potential strike has been tested by the Company.We are planning to drill down plunge of recent high-grade gold intercepts along a 200m section north of the cross-cutting Proterozoic dyke in an attempt to increase the width and strike length of this gentle northerly pitching shoot. RC drilling will also be carried out south of the dyke for around 200m and north along strike for 150m. The south side of the dyke has received very little attention to date. The program is designed to probe between 40m and 170m below surface.*To view tables and figures, please visit:About Classic Minerals Limited

Classic Minerals Limited (ASX:CLZ) is an exploration and development company focused on gold deposits in Western Australia's famous Goldfields region. In March 2017, Classic acquired the Forrestania Gold Project, with seven tenements stretching across 450km2. Strategically located in a very prospective region, the FGP is an underexplored package surrounded by multimillion ounce deposits such as Bounty (2Moz) and Yilgarn Star (1.5Moz).
Sanford addresses wastewater on Monday, has visit from county drain commissioner

During the regular meeting of the Midland Public Schools Board of Education, Mark Hackbarth...

The popular vocal group will be closing out the festival this year with a performance at the...
jennifer medina So theyre like, yeah  Oh. [interposing voices] jennifer medina Hi. Should we take a photo? [speaker] This is a perfect match. Come on. jennifer medina [LAUGHING] austin mitchell Describe what that was. jennifer medina So that was two showgirls with giant feather crowns. And they have, like, wings? clare toeniskoetter Wings. jennifer medina Wings on the back with black and white feathers. Knee-high black patent leather boots. austin mitchell Topless. jennifer medina Topless, but with rhinestones on the nipples. clare toeniskoetter Can we say that on the radio? jennifer medina I dont know. [MUSIC PLAYING]

jennifer medina

From The New York Times, this is The Field. Im Jenny Medina in Las Vegas, Nevada.

jennifer medina We have just entered a casino, and Im sort of overwhelmed by the number of sounds and lights. Oh, a cocktail waitress in a blue lace dress, short. This is roulette. This is blackjack. I think this is craps with dice, you roll the dice. I can imagine, like, a James Bond scenario, where you walk in, high heels, strutting. I sort of have a cigarette in my mind in this fantasy. Money is no object. Im just here to play with it. Im just here to have a good time, queen of the world for one day, or one night. Thats what Vegas is all about, this like complete fantasy life. But to make all that happen, behind that all, are thousands and thousands and thousands of people who often can kind of seem to almost blend into the scenery. Serving drinks, serving food, cleaning up, fulfilling whatever wish or dream youve got for the night. And theres something that unites most of them. clare toeniskoetter Is the staff here  are you in the union? speaker 1 Yes. clare toeniskoetter Which union? speaker 1 Culinary. clare toeniskoetter OK. jennifer medina Are you part of a union? speaker 2 Yeah. jennifer medina Which union are you a part of? speaker 2 Culinary. jennifer medina Culinary. OK, thank you so much. austin mitchell Just wondering, are you a part of a union here? speaker 3 Union? austin mitchell Yeah. speaker 3 Culinary. austin mitchell Culinary? speaker 3 Yes. jennifer medina The Culinary, which is Nevadas largest union. And its considered one of the most powerful players in Democratic politics.

jennifer medina

So the Culinary Union has about 60,000 people in the state of Nevada. And that is pretty remarkable, because its in a state where only 84,000 people participated in the last Democratic caucus. And the Culinary Union is a hugely diverse organization. Its overwhelmingly women. Its more than 50 percent Latino, with another large population of black and Asian-American workers. And with Nevada being the first predominantly nonwhite state to weigh in on the presidential race, that makes the Culinary Unions endorsement sought after by all the presidential candidates. And the union members really understand this power. They chant, When we vote, we win. They know that if they vote together they really have the power to influence elections. And this year, its particularly interesting because it all centers around one issue. And thats their very generous health care plan that the union has really fought hard to get.

clare toeniskoetter OK. You guys ready? car door closing

jennifer medina

So earlier this week, I went with producers Austin Mitchell and Clare Toeniskoetter to the Culinary Union Hall, an industrial group of buildings in the shadow of the Las Vegas strip. And we went to speak with two women, Gloria Hernandez and Elodia Muniz.

jennifer medina We met before. How are you?

jennifer medina

Theyre both in their 60s, very well-put-together, wearing jewelry, and nice manicured nails. And Elodia is wearing a red union t-shirt.

jennifer medina So tell us when you first became members of the Culinary Union? gloria hernandez Well, I can tell you was in October 1988.

jennifer medina

Thats Gloria.

jennifer medina And how about you? elodia muniz May 2, 1992.

jennifer medina

And thats Elodia.

jennifer medina Wow. You both know the exact date? gloria hernandez Yes.

jennifer medina

Why?

gloria hernandez First, because was my first union job in United States. And its something thats going to change my life and my family. So thats why I, I never forget the date. jennifer medina Where are you from? gloria hernandez Im from Mexico, South Mexico, Guadalajara. I just come in 1985. And I was like 27 years old.

jennifer medina

So the first couple years Gloria was here, she was raising her kids, working some odd jobs, mostly babysitting and cleaning apartments.

gloria hernandez And then this is what I do before I started working at The Frontier.

jennifer medina

Shes talking about The Frontier Hotel and Casino. Its not around anymore. But it was one of the first hotels and casinos on the strip. It had this Western theme. And in 1956 

archived recording Lets welcome, ladies and gentlemen, Elvis Presley.

jennifer medina

 it hosted a 21-year-old Elvis Presley in his first Las Vegas performance.

archived recording (elvis presley) (SINGING) Well, since my baby left me. Well, I found a new place to dwell. Well, its down at the end of Lonely Street at Heartbreak Hotel. gloria hernandez And I start working as a bus person.

jennifer medina

And when Gloria started in 1988, the hotel was unionized.

jennifer medina And you knew immediately that when you started working there that you would get health insurance. gloria hernandez Yes, because was a union.

jennifer medina

But then 

gloria hernandez When the Elardi family buy the property, she said Im not going to have a union. And I said, no way.

jennifer medina

there was a new owner who started to dismantle the contract.

gloria hernandez She just dropped the salary per hour. They also say no more medical insurance. So it was big change when the Elardi family took over the hotel.

jennifer medina

And thats about the time Elodia comes to town.

elodia muniz I moved to Las Vegas in 1989 from El Paso, Texas. I started working at the Frontier, basically housekeeping job. Yeah. And I hear, I hear from my co-workers they used to be a union, the casino used to be a union. And all the benefits they have about the vacations, because at that time, we dont have no vacations anymore. And we dont have, um, holidays pay neither. She  Margaret Elardi take away everything. So we just decided to organize to see what is the next step we have to do to fight.

jennifer medina

They both begin to organize with their co-workers. And then 

elodia muniz We just came, all our co-workers  jennifer medina Here. elodia muniz In the Culinary Union. Yes. And we just voted. archived recording The vote is: 464 strike, seven noes. [CHEERING] gloria hernandez We decided to go on a strike. Oh, I still feel goosebumps about it. archived recording 1 Good evening. Picket signs are going up in front of the Frontier Hotel. archived recording 2 Culinary workers are walking out on Frontier owner Margaret Elardi at 6 oclock in the morning. gloria hernandez So everybodys working. So at the time that we just going to say, OK, the strike is going to start at 6 oclock in the morning. Everybody just leave whatever they was doing. If theyre preparing a drink, the bartender or cocktails, they leave everything over there and they come out. archived recording (crowd) (CHANTING) Union! Union! Union! gloria hernandez You can see all the workers, the energy, the feeling. archived recording (crowd) (CHANTING) Union! Union! Union! Union! gloria hernandez We started union, union, union! And we was ready for that. archived recording 1 (SHOUTING) We need a union! archived recording 2 (IN SPANISH) This union feels tight, united, feels the warmth of the working day because it makes us stronger. archived recording 3 (SHOUTING) You have 550 people with families, with children, fighting for their health insurance!

jennifer medina

Workers began picketing outside the Frontier 24 hours a day.

archived recording The people on these picket lines today, they say either Elardi comes up with a decent contract, or this picket line becomes a permanent fixture on the strip. gloria hernandez When we come out over there and you make your decision, you dont know how long its going to be. archived recording (crowd) Vegas needs a union now! gloria hernandez Imagine every single day we feel that when its going to be ending.

jennifer medina

The strike goes on for a year, then two.

gloria hernandez Christmas, New Year, Thanksgiving, all those time. archived recording (crowd) (CHANTING) One day! Longer! One day!

jennifer medina

Then three.

archived recording (SHOUTING) What we are is union! What we are is family! We are brothers and sisters! Middle-class Americans, fighting! Fighting to make sure that this country is better during these four long years of this god forsaken strike because 

jennifer medina

Four years, five years, and its not ending. And then one day they get word.

gloria hernandez Now the union organizers, they call us  were going to have a meeting at the union hall. All the strikers. archived recording You know that when it comes to a labor issue, if you read it in The Las Vegas Sun, its more than likely true.

jennifer medina

At the meeting, one of the leaders holds up the front page of a local newspaper. And the headline reads Frontier Sold.

archived recording [CHEERING] gloria hernandez The hotel was sold. And the person who buy the property is decided to unionize. archived recording (CHANTING) Union, union, union, union, union, union! gloria hernandez And give it everything what weve fighting for. archived recording What weve been waiting for  the Culinary Union announced just a short time ago that the Frontier strike is finally reaching an end.

jennifer medina

The strike ended after six years, four months and 10 days. It was one of the longest strikes in American history. So much time went by that 107 children were born to strikers.

elodia muniz Many of my co-workers, you know, they pass away during those years when we were fighting for that.

jennifer medina

And 17 strikers died.

elodia muniz Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Im sorry. gloria hernandez It was a big message for this city. And I believe honestly, if I had to go in a strike again for these benefits and for these rights, I do with my eyes closed. jennifer medina If somebody were to ask you whats the most important benefit  I can guess your answer already. But first, what is the most important benefit? I dont want to assume. gloria hernandez Yes. The most important for me, honestly, is medical insurance. My husband used to pay $200 every paycheck for medical insurance. So $400 a month.

jennifer medina

The centerpiece of membership in the union, which this strike helped pave the way for, is their health care plan.

elodia muniz I have a heart surgery. clare toeniskoetter Heart surgery? elodia muniz Mm-hmm. I was eight days in intensive care. And I paid $0. clare toeniskoetter The whole procedure, all the different doctors, you paid $0? elodia muniz Mm-mmm. Its like Cadillac insurance for us.

jennifer medina

To be a housekeeper or a bartender, or really anyone with this kind of coverage, is really remarkable. Theres usually no copay. Theres usually no out-of-pocket expenses. It costs its members virtually nothing except for union dues.

jennifer medina I want to go to the caucasus, to the politics for a minute, if I can. When the candidates came through here, who did you each see? Which candidates did you hear speak? elodia muniz Amy. And also Peter.

jennifer medina

So all of the presidential candidates come on a sort of pilgrimage here, seeking both the support of the members and the endorsement from the leadership.

elodia muniz Our union is very powerful, you know? They know how powerful our union is.

jennifer medina

So today, Elodia and Gloria are both union organizers. And as part of the union leadership, they are particularly invested in protecting the health care that they fought for.

clare toeniskoetter Elodia, can you tell me about your shirt? elodia muniz Oh, we vote, we win. We vote, we win. Well, if everybody stand up and do the right thing, were going to have the victory, right? Were going to win. clare toeniskoetter So its about the power of the union of everybody  elodia muniz Yes, basically what it is. Yeah. clare toeniskoetter Do you think youll have that victory in this caucus? elodia muniz Well, yeah, we  why not? clare toeniskoetter Well, what will victory look like? elodia muniz To protect our insurance. Thats what were looking for. Thats the main thing for us, you know? So we just have to protect it.

jennifer medina

And this year is really the first year that leading presidential candidates have plans that would effectively eliminate it.

archived recording (bernie sanders) And one other thing that we are going to do, is were going to tell the wealthiest people in this country that theyre going to start to have to pay their fair share of taxes. Thats some of what were going to do. [APPLAUSE]

jennifer medina

A couple of months ago, Bernie Sanders came to the union hall to speak with the members.

archived recording We have a former Frontier striker, Elodia. Elodia, you want to ask a question. jennifer medina Elodia, when  tell me about the town hall with Senator Sanders. I was here for it, but  archived recording (elodia muniz) My name is Elodia. I am a Frontier striker. elodia muniz Well, yeah, I ask him about the medical insurance. archived recording (elodia muniz) We went to strike to protect our health care. We love our Culinary health care. We want to keep it. I dont want to change it. Why I should change it? elodia muniz I asking him because for me, the insurance means a lot. I mean, for all of members, including me. archived recording (crowd) [APPLAUSE] (CHANTING) 226, 226, 226, 226! archived recording (bernie sanders) Let me just say this. Thank you. We have in this country a dysfunctional, broken and cruel health care system, right? Now, let me deal with the issue thats on your mind. Because we spend so much for health care, your employer is spending a lot on your health care. Under Medicare for All, because we end the profiteering of the insurance companies and the drug companies that made $100 billion last year, we save many, many hundreds of billions of dollars. That means  excuse me  that means that your employer will not have to pay $15,000 a year for your health care. Your employer will pay $3,000. Thats a $12,000 differential. You know who gets that $12,000? You get that $12,000. [CHEERING] So in other words  jennifer medina He said something like if theres Medicare for all, youll have more money in your paycheck. elodia muniz Yeah. This is just um, um promises and hope. Wed like to keep what we have  what is real, what is true, not what we dont know. Its like a wish. We, we need to hear that he wants to protect our insurance, that he wants to listen to us.

[music]

jennifer medina

In the weeks leading up to Saturdays caucuses, the tension between Bernie Sanders and the union leadership has really escalated. Last week, the union began sending emails and texts to its members and began circulating these flyers, which compared candidates on three issues: Immigration, jobs and health care. On immigration and jobs, all the candidates were effectively the same. They would strengthen collective bargaining. They would protect DACA. They would create a pathway to citizenship. But on health care, they were presented as something very different. The more moderate candidates would quote, protect culinary health care. Elizabeth Warren would eventually replace it. And Bernie Sanders, they said, would quote, end it.

archived recording Late this morning, the Sanders campaign put out a response to the flier. It reads in part, The senator has stood for workers his whole career. And his Medicare for All plan is crafted for the working class and union members.

jennifer medina

And then 

archived recording The union yesterday said it received vicious attacks by Sanderss supporters, including hostile phone calls and tweets. The union released a statement saying 

jennifer medina

People who claimed to be Bernie Sanderss supporters launched online attacks at the leaders of the Culinary Union.

archived recording (bernie sanders) Obviously, that is not acceptable to me. And I dont know who these so-called supporters are. Were living in a strange world on the internet. And sometimes people attack people in somebody elses name. But let me be very clear. Anybody making personal attacks against anybody else in my name is not part of our movement.

jennifer medina

So theres this air of ill will between Sanders and the union. And its in this atmosphere, actually while were on our way to Vegas, that the union announces a press conference about its endorsement.

archived recording (geoconda arguello-kline) [APPLAUSE] Good morning, everybody. archived recording (crowd) Good morning. archived recording (geoconda arguello-kline) Welcome. Welcome to the Culinary Union. I know we want to talk about the endorsement. But before we do that 

jennifer medina

So they come out and say, yes. Health care is the big issue.

archived recording (geoconda arguello-kline) Every human being deserve to have a good health care. We believe in that. But we believe in choices too. We believe in that.

jennifer medina

But instead of endorsing a candidate 

archived recording (geoconda arguello-kline) And the official announcement is were going to endorse our goals, what were doing.

jennifer medina

 they endorsed their goals and their values.

archived recording (geoconda arguello-kline) We respect every single political candidate right now. We know Vice President Biden for many years. We know hes been our friend.

jennifer medina

Presumably because theyre worried about throwing their weight behind the wrong moderate. But by endorsing health care as a goal, they effectively have made an anti-endorsement of anyone who threatens to take away that health care. And its a pretty remarkable thing that theyre anti-endorsing Sanders. Sanders is really popular among Latinos. He is seen as extremely pro-union for his entire career. And hes received endorsements from other unions in the state. But for this union  the Culinary Union  all that other stuff might be less important than the message theyre hearing, which is that a vote for Sanders is a vote to eliminate the very thing theyve worked so hard to create. So with all this, were curious to see how members are reacting.

speaker 1 Are you all here to vote? Are you hear to vote? Yes?

jennifer medina

So were back at the Culinary Union Hall where early voting has started.

jennifer medina Do you mind if we ask you really quickly who youre voting for? jeanette hill Do I have to tell you? jennifer medina You dont have to do anything.

jennifer medina

And because Nevada has a caucus, its a little bit different.

jeanette hill Uh, my candidates are Joe Biden, Tom and Amy.

jennifer medina

Instead of picking one person, people rank their preferences.

jeanette hill Those are my three candidates. jennifer medina And why are they your three candidates? jeanette hill Now, Joe Bidens been with us ever since day one. And Amy, she even support the, uh, union as well. And Tom Sawyer helps about you can keep your insurance. So  jennifer medina And is the health insurance issue for you the most important issue? jeanette hill Of course. We get the best insurance in America. It take care of me and my family.

jennifer medina

As were walking around 

speaker 1 (IN SPANISH) Do you have the paper from the union?

jennifer medina

 we noticed that a lot of people are holding these pieces of paper.

austin mitchell So what are you holding? Its a, this is a paper  speaker 2 For the union. austin mitchell  the union gave out. speaker 2 Yeah.

jennifer medina

And we realized that its the same flier that had been texted and emailed and passed around in break rooms all over the strip.

speaker 2 I need to see, I see the paper right there.

jennifer medina

The union scorecard.

austin mitchell Yeah. So on the paper, youve highlighted Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer. Yeah. And Bernie Sanders you wrote no underneath. speaker 2 Oh, okay. I put a no. OK. austin mitchell Yeah, why? speaker 2 I dont know [INAUDIBLE].

jennifer medina

So its clear that many people are voting with the union in mind. And their health care. So then theres this sort of fascinating encounter we have.

jennifer medina I see youre wearing a Bernie pin. So is it correct to assume that thats who you voted for? speaker 3 Well, no. I was voting for insurance on uh, on a couple of candidates who were going to keep our insurance stuff going. jennifer medina So who did you vote for? speaker 3 Uh, Joe Buyer, Amy something and the other lady. jennifer medina So why are you wearing a Bernie pin if you voted for somebody else? speaker 3 Because Im a Bernie Sanders supporter. jennifer medina But you didnt vote for him. speaker 3 No. But that was something totally different. But I do, I did come in with a Bernie Sanders pin. jennifer medina Im sorry. Can you explain that to me, what it means to be a supporter but not vote for him? speaker 3 Well, the vote  this wasnt, we werent voting for presidents on this one. We were voting for, what do you call it, for our insurance. To keep our insurance going on. jennifer medina You were voting for who should be the presidential nominee. speaker 3 No. Thats not what I was voting for. jennifer medina What were you told? speaker 3 I dont want to do this anymore. OK, thank you.

jennifer medina

So this guy has clearly gotten the message this is about health care, so much so that he takes it literally, and thinks that hes voting on his health care, not choosing a presidential candidate. In which case he would have voted for Bernie Sanders.

jennifer medina Just curious to ask you about who you voted for. jean charles Bernie Sanders all the way. jennifer medina All the way. Why?

jennifer medina

Now we do meet Union members who chose Sanders.

jean charles Well I like Bernie Sanders so much because hes never changed.

jennifer medina

Interestingly, many of these people we speak with say that they havent gotten the message from the Union telling them that a vote for Sanders would take away their health care.

laura My first candidate is Bernie. jennifer medina Bernie. laura Bernie.

jennifer medina

Others have and they dont care, or they like him for other reasons.

laura Well, one of the biggest things to me is that Bernie is planning to give the free school for kids. My son is in college 

jennifer medina

Health care is just not their top issue.

austin mitchell Hi. Im reporting with The New York Times. Can I ask who you voted for? emigdio Uh, number one, Bernie. austin mitchell Bernie. emigdio Bernie Sanders. Yeah.

jennifer medina

So at some point, Clare and I see Austin talking to this guy, who looks to be in his 60s. And it turns out hes been in the Union for 29 years.

interposing voices Emigdio, Emigdio! (SPEAKING SPANISH) Facil.

jennifer medina

Emigdio works at a casino called the Golden Nugget.

emigdio A utility porter is clean carpets, polish the marble, working in the high place. jennifer medina So Im sure Austin already asked you this, but who did you vote for? emigdio [LAUGHING] Yeah, we answer already, yeah. austin mitchell Bernie. emigdio Yeah, Bernie. Yeah. We love Bernie. jennifer medina You love him. emigdio Yeah. austin mitchell Is there any  so we know that Bernie is talking Medicare for All and replacing  emigdio No, no. I think its a better system. Its for all, not for a few people. Its for all people. Yeah. austin mitchell Are you worried at all about your great medical care being changed? speaker Yeah, its OK. Its OK, because you know the minority people get access. A lot of people dont have access now. It costs money. jennifer medina If we want to follow up tomorrow, are you working? emigdio Im off tomorrow.

jennifer medina

So we say goodbye to Emigdio.

emigdio Well, pleasure to meet you. Mucho gusto. interposing voices Emigdio, Emigdio! [SPEAKING ITALIAN]

jennifer medina

And we notice that this woman, who had been sort of standing around hovering as we were talking with him, follows him to his car.

jennifer medina So they are listening to everything. austin mitchell So yeah, explain when you say they are listening, what do you mean? jennifer medina So somebody from the union is here kind of monitoring. And theres lots of press here, so its kind of easy to understand why. But theyre kind of listening to the conversations. And then they follow  after the conversations have ended, seem to be following up with them, I presume asking what theyve said. Yeah. austin mitchell I dont know with this, Im not hearing the left. Oh, thats why. clare toeniskoetter Oh, no. jennifer medina I mean, he might just not answer. clare toeniskoetter He might be working.

jennifer medina

A couple of days later, we call Emigdio back, wanting to understand what had

phone ringing emigdio Hello? jennifer medina Hi, Emigdio. This is Jenny Medina, the reporter you met from The New York Times. How are you? emigdio Good, good. How you doing? jennifer medina Good, good. Thank you. Are you working? emigdio Uh no, Im out now. jennifer medina OK. Emigdio, do you have a couple minutes? I just wanted to follow up  emigdio (SPEAKING SPANISH) Ahh, sabes que pasa? jennifer medina (SPEAKING SPANISH) No, no sabe que pasa. And as soon as we start talking to Emigdio, he seems to be questioning what he told us about his support for Sanders. emigdio I think we are confused about, you know, that this candidate is 

jennifer medina

He feels confused, he says.

emigdio The most important voting for the president is Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, si? But I dont follow nobody now, si?

jennifer medina

He sounds different than he did when we first met him, when he was so clear about his enthusiasm for Sanders.

jennifer medina Can you tell me what happened after you spoke with us? Somebody came over to talk with you. What happened?

jennifer medina

And so I asked him about the woman who followed him to his car.

emigdio Well, you know what? Its a little confused for me, you know? I dont know. I dont know what had happened with that representative from the union. Remember that last Saturday, the skinny lady? And they, and she said hey, do you want to get an interview with the press or TV? Dont do that by yourself, si? Yeah. Its the first time one person talked to me like that, si? Because I know my rights, si?

jennifer medina

He sounds, on the one hand, kind of indignant.

jennifer medina What do you think your rights are? emigdio I live in a freedom country, si? If I get interview, I do by myself. I dont care about, you know, somebody tell me that. Si?

jennifer medina

He knows his rights. He knows he has the freedom to speak to us.

jennifer medina You have a right to speak to anybody you want.

jennifer medina

But clearly what happened had some kind of an impact on him.

jennifer medina Can you tell me what the woman from the union said to you on Saturday? Did she mention Joe Biden? emigdio No. jennifer medina Did she mention Bernie? emigdio No. jennifer medina Then why did  emigdio No, maybe she did! jennifer medina She did. emigdio Maybe she did when, when we talk about Bernie Sanders. I think so, yeah. jennifer medina What did she say about Bernie Sanders? emigdio She dont mention, she dont mention nobody. Only she say, if you get interview with the press or TV, you have to go with one representative with you guys.

jennifer medina

Hes unclear on exactly what the woman said, except for he should not talk with us without a union representative present.

jennifer medina OK, OK. Emigdio. [SPEAKING SPANISH] emigdio [SPEAKING SPANISH] jennifer medina and emigdio (INTERPOSING VOICES IN SPANISH): Thank you for patience. Thank you for calling. Goodbye.

jennifer medina

Emigdio is not the only person who has told me that the union has discouraged them from speaking with the press. And Im finding this pretty confusing. Is the union trying to stop members from saying that theyre supporting Sanders? And if so, why? Are they trying to create this narrative where theres overwhelming disdain for Medicare for All? I dont know.

[music]

And on Tuesday night, The head of the Culinary Union, Geoconda Arguello-Kline, agrees to talk with us. So we go back to the Union Hall where theres this big event going on. There is music and theres tacos. Its a town hall with Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar. So we sit down with Geoconda after the event. The communications director of the union, Bethany Kahn, is also there.

jennifer medina So Geo, youre the leader of the Culinary Union here in Las Vegas. geoconda arguello-kline Yes. jennifer medina So I want to ask you about something weve seen in the last couple  happen over the last few days. So we spoke, for example, with one member on Saturday who had voted for Senator Sanders. And he was really enthusiastic  geoconda arguello-kline Yeah. jennifer medina  very excited to vote for him. But then the next day, we called him to ask him some follow-up questions, and he seemed to have really changed his heart. And he said that he was told by a Union representative that he should not voice his political preferences to the press  to us. Do union representatives have instructions to steer people away from speaking to the press? bethany khan Yeah, so we make sure that workers know their rights and that they know that you might follow up with them, right? And so we just let them know this was a reporter  jennifer medina And at this point, Bethany, the communications director, jumps in. bethany khan Thats pretty much it. We dont tell them anything, right? Were not telling  we havent endorsed. Its mostly about making sure that they know their rights and protecting them on the work. Weve talked about this, Jenny, before. I think youve accused me blatantly. And I think thats not acceptable. jennifer medina Whats not acceptable? bethany khan We represent the workers. And my job is to protect them even after youre gone. jennifer medina I understand that. So let me tell you what one person told us. He spoke with us. bethany khan OK. Who, who? jennifer medina Im not going to tell you his name. bethany khan Yeah, yeah. jennifer medina One person that we spoke to said that after he spoke with us, he was told that he should not speak to the press without a union representative present. Is that the policy of the union? geoconda arguello-kline Jenny, you make an accusation. jennifer medina Im not making an accusation, Geo. Im asking a question. geoconda arguello-kline Jenny, really, I dont know. Because if were talking to the press, were not going to say, oh, you need to have a union representative. jennifer medina So I am asking. Is it the policy of the union  and I want to make sure Im asking you both. bethany khan Yeah. jennifer medina Is it the policy of the union to tell members that they cannot speak to the press without a union representative present? geoconda arguello-kline We dont have policy to say dont talk to the press and like that, with the, with the Union rep in there. jennifer medina So why would this person be told not to speak to us without a representative present? geoconda arguello-kline Tell you the truth, I dont know. I really dont know. jennifer medina Would you discourage somebody, a member from  who supports Sanders  from speaking to the press? geoconda arguello-kline Thats their business, not mine. What I putting to you is the facts. What is the health care for you, and what is protecting your health care and what is not protecting your health care. You decide. Where we are upset is the way we be treated. I can show the texts my daughter sent me last night. Look. Look. Read this. This is from my daughter. Look. This is from Sena  from the follower of Senator Sanders. jennifer medina I cant  I honestly cant see. Can you read it? geoconda arguello-kline OK, yeah. [EXPLETIVE] you off. You know, you can read it better than me. Over here. Look at what did they say. jennifer medina [EXPLETIVE] off, Geoconda. If Sanders loses and we dont get Medicare for All, and a Union worker gets cancer and gets fired and he or she dies, their blood will be on Geoconda Arguello-Kline, who for selfish reasons decided to spread these lies.

jennifer medina

This is a text that Geocondas daughter sent her of some tweets, about Geoconda specifically, that Sanders supporters wrote after the union released its scorecard.

geoconda arguello-kline You think that thats right for a mother to see this, 9 p.m. after work all day? Im very upset. And Im going to keep in talking. Nobody going to quiet me. Nobody. Because this is what they doing to minorities. This is what they are doing to womans of colors. jennifer medina Whos they? When you say they. geoconda arguello-kline The Bernie supporters. They used to bully people. And nobody has stand them. jennifer medina But, Geo, theres also Bernie supporters who are women of color. geoconda arguello-kline But listen. But they attack these women of colors too. And you know why they attacking us, Jenny? Because we put the facts. Im not going to be quiet. They not going to put a tape in my mouth. They will not. Because, you know, I believe in democracy. I do. Ive been 40 years in this country. 30 years Ive been fighting for the working family have better life. 30 years. And right now, after 40 years, they tell me [EXPLETIVE] off, leave this country? Thats right? No. If any woman of color dont support what were saying, sorry for them. But Im going to fighting for the people who are a womans of color and they go through harassment. jennifer medina I want to ask you one other thing though. There are women of color who are supporting Bernie Sanders. What would you say to those women? geoconda arguello-kline I will say, look, you know what? If you had divisions in womans of color who are being harassing, do you really fight for a real movement? Do you really fight for the real movement? jennifer medina Movement. geoconda arguello-kline Yeah. Thats my question. Thats the only question. jennifer medina Thank you. geoconda arguello-kline Thank you. jennifer medina I appreciate it very much for your patience and for talking with us. geoconda arguello-kline Thank you. jennifer medina Someones backpack? austin mitchell Its mine. Thanks.

jennifer medina

So this is not at all what I had been expecting. I went there wondering why the union might be trying to keep its members from talking about their votes, if those votes went against the recommendation of the leadership. But it had turned into this complicated, messy thing, where its hard to know if Geoconda is upset about my questions, or about the messages shes receiving from Sanders supporters, who are furious at what they see as the unions effort to stop Sanders from winning the Nevada. Or about the threat that she thinks Sanders poses to this health care plan that she and others work so hard to get. And its just kind of feeling upside down. If you had described to me a working-class Latina woman active in a union, and then asked me who I thought that person would vote for in this election, knowing nothing else, I wouldve told you that that person would probably vote for Bernie Sanders. But the reality is, that same woman fought for years to get this health care plan that has become vital to the unions existence. And of course, this is just one union in one state. But its also the embodiment of the central question of a Sanders candidacy. If you have something that you like or thats working well enough, are you willing to give it up on the belief that theres something even better out there?

jennifer medina Are you part of the union? laura Yes. jennifer medina Part of the Culinary Union. laura The Culinary Union. jennifer medina And did you follow the fight 

jennifer medina

But there are also many people Ive spoken to who are ready to give it up.

jennifer medina And are you happy with the medical care that you get through them? laura Im happy with that, but of course, if we have another option to get something the same or almost the same, why not? And if its going to be for everyone, I think thats the best thing we can have. Yeah. jennifer medina And are you worried at all about losing the Culinary plan, which is what the leadership  laura No, Im not. jennifer medina Why not? laura Because I think if this plan that theyre proposing is good, why we want to be afraid, right? You keep your job, and you keep working, and you do what you supposed to do. I think theres nothing to worry about it, you know?

jennifer medina

These are people who say that the health care coverage they have should be available to everyone. That Medicare for All would mean that their friends and families have care like that too. Theyre not so worried about losing something. Theyre more focused on helping others gain something. And thats a value they say they learned from the union.

[music]

michael barbaro
Gigi Hadid, along with her younger sister Bella, has defined what an "It" girl looks like in 2020.

With her flowing locks, piercing eyes and striking bone structure, the 24-year-old is an unequivocal modern-day supermodel.

She has even almost broken the record for the most Vogue covers ever, with 35 under her belt to date (Lauren Hutton currently holds the title with 40.)

The Dutch-Palestinian beauty's first ever runway was for Desigual in 2014 when she was just 18 years old

Walking the Desigual catwalk in 2014 / Getty Images

Since then she's gone on to become a firm fixture on the catwalk, walking from big brands from Burberry to Dior to Versace, and most recently Chanel's autumn/winter 2020 show.

Hadid became an ambassador for Tommy Hilfiger in 2015 and has collaborated with the designer on collections since. She most recently walked for the American brand in February 2018 during Milan Fashion Week.
Let me tell you something: The way Michael Bloomberg treated employees, female employees who were under his wing . . . to have created that kind of culture, that unsafe workplace, to feel that youre being harassed because of your gender, that is problematic, and I think youre going to hear more of it, Conway said on Fox News Sunday.
KYODO NEWS - Feb 16, 2020 - 11:30 | All, World, Japan, Coronavirus

Japan and China agreed Saturday to continue preparations for a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping in April despite speculation the trip may be postponed as Beijing struggles to contain the new-coronavirus outbreak.

In a meeting on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich, Germany, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told Chinese State Councilor Wang Yi that Japan fully supports Beijing's efforts to contain the epidemic, which has killed more than 1,600 and infected over 68,000 in mainland China alone, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.

(Japanse Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, left, and Chinese State Councilor Wang Yi)[Courtesy of the Japanese Foreign Ministry]

The pneumonia-causing coronavirus apparently began spreading in late December from a seafood market in Wuhan, a commercial hub of about 11 million in central China that has since been put under lockdown.

Motegi expressed "great appreciation" for China's cooperation in evacuating Japanese citizens and their families from the city and elsewhere in Hubei Province on chartered planes. So far, 763 people have been repatriated on four flights, with a fifth set to return on Monday.

Meanwhile, Wang thanked Japan for sending emergency supplies including surgical masks and protective suits, and made assurances that despite receiving a setback the Chinese economy would be able to recover.

Regarding Xi's planned state visit to Japan, Motegi said the two countries share a responsibility to promote global peace and prosperity and that the visit would be an opportunity to show their commitment to fulfilling that duty, according to the ministry.

State visits entail an audience with Emperor Naruhito and a banquet at the Imperial Palace. The last Chinese leader to make one to Japan was President Hu Jintao in May 2008.

Wang said China is eager for the visit to go ahead and for the two countries to take their strategic relationship of mutual benefit to "new heights."

Asked by reporters after the meeting whether Wang suggested Xi's trip would happen as scheduled, Motegi said "that's what he meant, yes."

The visit was believed to be at risk of being postponed after a preparatory meeting slated for this month between government officials from the two countries was pushed back.

Yang Jiechi, China's top foreign policy official, will travel to Japan later this month to work out the timing of Xi's trip, government sources said.

Yang, a former state councilor, is a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.
Insurers race to help customers amid epidemic, photo AIA Vietnam

With the coronavirus, or nCoV, likely to continue spreading, Ralf Klos, a German living in Vietnam expressed his concerns. I have been trying to improve my immune system, and avoid crowds and potential threats, he said.

But I cannot be sure that I will be totally safe in this situation. I am particularly worried that my health insurance might not be helpful if I get infected, because as far as I know, they will not cover epidemics and pandemic cases like nCoV, he added. Klos is not alone with his worries, as many people have raised similar questions.

Chu Quang Minh, general director of Best Life JSC, said that it is not surprising that customers are worried as some insurance products do not cover pandemics, not only in Vietnam but throughout the world.

Representatives from life insurance groups in Vietnam have told VIR that they will cover any fees for customers who are affected by the nCoV, namely Manulife, AIA, Chubb Life, Dai-ichi, Fubon, Sun Life, and FWD.

We will cover costs and apply the usual waiting period as we would with a regular illness, a representative of Sun Life said.

Meanwhile, AIA Vietnam told VIR that until April 30, the firm will implement a special support policy for insured customers on hospitalisation support, reimbursement of hospital and surgical expenses, and health insurance.

In particular, the regular 30-day waiting period is void if the patients have to treat acute respiratory infections caused by nCoV, and all medical expenses arising from services prescribed by doctors during the treatment will be paid out within specified insurance policies.

Bao Viet Life confirmed that the company will still cover nCoV-related acute respiratory infections in terms of hospitalisation and risk of death, even as Vietnam acknowledged is as an epidemic. In cases when customers are exposed to coronavirus-borne risks, the company will compensate insurance benefits in accordance with the terms and conditions for risks due to other pathologies or causes.

Meanwhile, Prudential Vietnam is providing a special healthcare programme for customers infected with the virus in Vietnam from now to April 30, with an additional cash benefit equivalent to VND10-20 million ($435-870), based on the duration of quarantine treatment in hospital.

If the duration of treatment lasts three to nine days, the company will offer financial support equivalent to VND10 million ($435).

In the meantime, customers infected by the virus will still be entitled to the existing benefits of their policies, including for total and permanent disabilities, critical illnesses, hospital care, and death, in accordance with the policy terms and conditions.

Life insurers Dai-ichi and Fubon Vietnam have also pledged to protect their clients in nCoV-related events, adhering to the existing contracts.

However, some non-life insurance companies such as PTI, Bao Minh, and BSH will only pay compensation depending on the terms and conditions listed in the insurance contracts. Elsewhere, PVI said that an nCoV infection falls under the firms default insurance exclusion clause, which is specified in the insurance policy.

Travel insurances will only cover nCoV cases if the policy includes pandemic coverage. Therefore, it is important to check the plan's exclusions to make sure that the policy does not exclude pandemics or epidemics.

In addition, in order to be insured, customers should make sure they receive contractual documents issued by the insurance company.
Cultural content experts and officials of local governments attend the 2020 Senior Content Forum in a seminar room at the National Assembly in Seoul, Feb. 11, to discuss how to introduce the concept of "senior playground" in South Korean society. Korea Times photo by Jung Da-min



Local governments to build playgrounds for seniors



By Jung Da-min



It is common to see children run around, climb up and down a jungle gym, and hang from bars at a neighborhood playground.



But it is not common to see elderly citizens participate in such activities, maybe because there is no place exclusively for them to do so.



Cultural content experts and officials at local governments from across the nation had a forum over the issue at the National Assembly in Seoul, Feb. 11, to discuss how they would introduce the concept of a playground for the elderly, something that has been introduced in some European countries.



A playground for elderly people differs from those for children or a park for adults in general in that the facilities are adapted to accommodate the physical capacity of the elderly so that they can safely exercise and interact.



Co-hosted by Rep. Kim Boo-kyum of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, Rep. Jun Hee-kyung of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party and independent lawmaker Rep. Kim Song-sik, the 2020 Senior Content Forum was co-organized by the FunFun Cultural Foundation, a corporation supporting education, welfare and culture projects, and the Korea Manifesto Center, a civic organization promoting social values.



About 100 participants attended the forum, including the Korea Manifesto Center President Lee Kwang-jae; DPK Rep. Kang Byung-won; Lee Gun-woong, professor with the Global University who specializes in cultural marketing; and Ko Min-jung, head director of the FunFun Cultural Foundation.



"When dealing with the issue of the increasing number of senior citizens due to an aging population, Korean society does it with a biased view that it leads to an increased financial burden on the younger generations," Lee Kwang-jae said in an opening speech. He said Korea's policy for the elderly has only focused on the standards of productivity, which ended up "isolating" them at community centers for senior citizens.



"I hope the example of senior playgrounds in Finland, one of the European countries with the fastest rate of super-aging, will give an opportunity to the participants to reevaluate the current policy for senior citizens that has been isolating them and bring about a paradigm shift toward policies focused on their amusement," Lee said.



The participants noted that Korean society is rapidly turning into a super-aged society, which is a country where people over 65 years old make up more than 20 percent of the total population. According to government data, Korea became an aged society with an elderly population accounting for more than 7 percent in 2000 and will become a super-aged society by 2025.



Economic, social benefits of senior playgrounds



Presenting on behalf of Fei Lu, executive assistant to the CEO of a Finnish company called Lappset Group which has been developing playgrounds for seniors over the past decade, prof. Lee Gun-woong noted that introducing senior playgrounds to Korean communities will bring economic and social benefits by motivating elderly citizens to continue to exercise so that they could prevent possible injuries and have social platforms to continue community activities.



"The philosophy of Lappset Group lies in keeping in shape  The important factors for a healthy aged life are physical health, mental health and constant community activities," the professor said. "Now what we are trying to do is to find the answer for healthy aging and well-dying in the senior playground."





Taavetti Park in Helsinki, Finland / Courtesy of Lappset Group



Introducing cases of senior playgrounds in European countries including Finland, Sweden, Spain and Germany, Lee said such facilities help elderly citizens to strengthen flexibility and muscular strength as they use muscles and joints which they do not use in other everyday activities.



Ko of the FunFun Cultural Foundation noted that there has been low or little awareness of the concept of senior playgrounds in Korea where playgrounds have been considered the exclusive realm of children.



"The focus on introducing senior playgrounds lies not in that it makes senior citizens exercise but in that they exercise because it is fun. That is why it is not named a fitness center but a playground. There is a saying by George Bernard Shaw that 'We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing,'" Ko said.





A senior playground in Spain / Courtesy of Lappset Group
The charitable view is that it takes a big man to acknowledge that he may have been small-minded in the past.

The pragmatic view is that a seasoned male politician knows when its vital to jump on the bandwagon that decries the toxic masculinity endured by women in similar fields.

Either way, it was a quick turnaround from a defensive and accusatory state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, when he unexpectedly apologized to a woman who said that he threatened her verbally a decade ago.

Its not 1958 anymore, Steve. Its not even 2010 anymore.

The controversy came to light when labor leader Fran Ehret testified to an investigative panel in Fort Lee that Sweeney told her this: If you were a man, I would take you outside and kick your ass.

Perhaps under Sweeneys warped definition of chivalry, it was enough to declare that you would not physically attack a woman. As in, Me? Strike a female? Never.

Those who might think that Ehret made too much out of an offhanded comment may never have met Sweeney, a burly former ironworker who is now an executive with their international union. Large and in charge, he is an imposing figure who can seem especially scary to a woman not used to fending off physical altercations. Heck, the Senate president also frightens men of nearly comparable stature.

As soon as Ehret, a Communications Workers of America staffer, made her big reveal, Sweeney branded her as a troublemaker who shouldnt be believed. At the time of the alleged remark, he noted, he and other supporters of pension and health coverage limitations for public employees were in an extended tiff with the CWA and other unions representing state workers. A lot of heated words were exchanged among Sweeney, various union demonstrators and then-Gov. Chris Christie, who also supported the reforms.

But, to attack the messenger personally years later, as Sweeney did in his initial response to Ehrets claim, smacks of Trumpism.

This is someone who has organized public rallies against me, has tried to drown me out, shut me out, and shut me down, Sweeney told NJ Advance Media. Shes not an honest person. In fact, shes a very dishonest person.

Did Sweeney take too literally the observation from armchair analysts that when Donald Trump gets punched (verbally), he hits back 10 times harder?

Were not sure why the lawmakers beast mode shut down in 24 hours. He made an unequivical apology to Ehret, followed by this (and, Sweeney approves this message): I have done my best as a public official and as a person who respects the role of women in all areas of life, to help break down the barriers they have long encountered and to advance the laws, policies and programs that will help provide equal rights and equal opportunities for all women.

Did some consultant bearing horrible poll numbers among New Jerseys female voters get Sweeneys ear? Did he do some real soul searching, which hes actually capable of on some issues? For example, he genuinely regrets his former opposition to same-sex marriage.

How much does the reason matter, though? Frankly, change that wipes out Trentons misogynistic culture will have to come from various corners. Some will result from new lawmakers, especially women, enlightened from the day theyre sworn in. Some will be driven by activists dedicated to eradicating the unfairness that accompanies secrecy and unbalanced power dynamics.

And, some will be motivated by political expediency on the part of veteran officials who used to be part of the problem.

Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.com

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.
Labours civil war over transgender rights descended into even deeper bitterness last night after one of Jeremy Corbyns senior aides called leadership hopeful Rebecca Long Bailey a virtue-signalling coward for threatening to expel feminists from the party  and a crowdfunded legal challenge was mounted against the party.

Ms Long Bailey, the favoured candidate of the Corbynite Left, is one of several senior Labour figures who last week endorsed a controversial trans equality manifesto calling for anyone with transphobic views to be thrown out of the party.

But Lachlan Stuart, a personal friend of Corbyn who co-wrote the Labour manifesto, said Ms Long Bailey was not fit to lead because of her views on trans.

One of Jeremy Corbyns senior aides called leadership hopeful Rebecca Long Bailey (pictured above) a virtue-signalling coward for threatening to expel feminists from the party

I have publicly asked each of the endorsers of my accusers to specify the evidence of hate but, so far, none of the virtue signalling ill-informed cowards have responded, he said, referring to Long Bailey and fellow pro-trans leadership candidate Lisa Nandy.

A common complaint among Labour feminists is that trans- activists insistence that transwomen are women means that lesbians are put under pressure to sleep with transgender women who retain their full male anatomy.

Mr Stuart said that Ms Long Bailey and Ms Nandy were effectively fuelling that problem, telling them: You are a danger, especially to the young lesbians whose bullying and harassment you are now licensing. So youre not getting my vote.

Lisa Nandy said Labour should 'always be an open and safe space for all' as she tweeted the campaign pledges

It came as Labour was served with court papers over its policy of allowing anyone who says they are female to stand as a candidate on an all-women shortlist.

Campaigners raised more than 30,000 to pay for the case. Labours policy allows self-identifying transgender women  those who have not legally changed from male to female  to put themselves forward for all-women shortlists.

Opponents say the policy is unfair as it means candidates just have to tick a box to say they are female, and so could lead to a man being chosen to run for a parliamentary seat ahead of a woman.

It sets the stage for another battle between Left-wing feminists and transgender activists, after leadership candidates were asked to sign a pledge that called a womens rights organisation a hate group.

In a statement on the Keep All-Women Shortlists Female campaign website, barrister Amanda Jones wrote: We are seeking to challenge the Labour Partys policy that anybody who identifies as a woman (even to the extent merely of ticking a box to say that they identify as such) can stand as a candidate on an all-women shortlist.

Last night a Labour spokesman said: Labours all-women shortlists have always been open to trans women so the petition is not factually accurate and the claim has no merit.

Last week, Laura Pidcock, a former Shadow Cabinet Minister who lost her seat at the Election, came under fire from fellow Corbynites for arguing that womens groups should be given the space to discuss how trans rights might affect women.

Ms Long-Bailey urged Labour members to sign up to the group's 12 point plan amid a mounting backlash

Writing on his personal blog, Mr Stuart also renewed his criticisms of Dawn Butler, the shadow Equalities Minister.

The two were last year embroiled in a bizarre row when Stuart ridiculed Butlers claims that most male giraffes are gay, something she said justified gay equality laws.

During the General Election campaign last year, Ms Butler was one of several senior figures who criticised the partys official position on trans rights and equality law, which activists described as transphobic.

Mr Stuart revealed that in a private meeting to agree policies before the Election, Butler had voted for the very policies she later criticised.

He said: Dawn, who held the portfolio responsibility and had to respond to all the proposed amendments... And Dawn just said, Agreed.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 16

Trend:

The Armed Forces of Armenia blatantly violated the ceasefire regime and the serviceman of the Azerbaijani Army Seymur Alasgarov was killed by a sniper on Feb. 15, Trend reports with reference to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

"This provocation by the Armed Forces of Armenia just on the eve of the meeting of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia in the margins of the Munich Security Conference demonstrates that Armenia, as it was before the meeting of the foreign ministers of two countries in Geneva at the end of January in a provocative manner continuously and consistently, intends to jeopardize and even undermine the ongoing peace process under the auspices of OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs," the ministry's spokesperson Leyla Abdullayeva said.

"All responsibility for this bloody provocation which serves to rising tension lies with Armenia," Abdullayeva added.

"May the soul of our Martyr rest in peace."
The number of people infected with the new coronavirus in China passed 70,000 on Monday as international experts began meetings with their Chinese counterparts on how to tackle an epidemic that has caused global concern. The death toll jumped to 1,765 in mainland China after 100 more people died in Hubei province, where the virus first emerged in December before spreading across the country and overseas. Worries about its spread remain high and the epidemic's reach was highlighted by the US announcing that more than three dozen Americans from a cruise ship quarantined off Japan were infected. The number of new cases of the COVID-19 strain spiked last week when officials in Hubei changed their criteria for counting cases to include people diagnosed through lung imaging. The number of new cases in the province on Monday was around 100 higher than those on Sunday but still sharply down from those reported on Friday and Saturday. The latest figures came as the head of the World Health Organization said international experts in a WHO-led joint mission had arrived in Beijing and had had their first meeting with their Chinese counterparts. "We look forward to this vitally important collaboration contributing to global knowledge about the #COVID19 outbreak," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter. Mi Feng, National Health Commission spokesman, said Sunday that slowing case numbers nationally showed that China was controlling the outbreak. But Tedros has warned it is "impossible to predict which direction this epidemic will take". The UN health body has also asked China for more details on how diagnoses are being made. - Tightening movement - The scale of the epidemic ballooned on Thursday last week after authorities in Hubei changed their criteria for counting cases, retroactively adding 14,000 cases in a single day. Chinese authorities have placed about 56 million people in Hubei and its capital Wuhan under quarantine, virtually sealing off the province from the rest of the country in an unprecedented effort to contain the virus. Even as China insisted the epidemic was under control, Hubei authorities announced on Sunday a tightening of movement across the province. This includes broad instructions that residential compounds and villages be "sealed off" from unnecessary visitors, with tenants' outings "strictly managed". Local authorities elsewhere in China have also introduced measures to try and stop the virus spreading. Beijing's municipal government has enacted a rule requiring people coming to the capital to self-quarantine for 14 days, according to official media. Outside mainland China, Taipei officials reported the island's first death from the new coronavirus on Sunday, as a 61-year-old man from central Taiwan with underlying health problems but no recent overseas travel history died in hospital. He is the fifth person outside of the mainland to die from the virus, with the other deaths in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan and France. The biggest cluster outside China is on a quarantined cruise ship off Japan, with 355 infections confirmed. A top US health official on Sunday said 40 Americans from the ship have become infected and would be treated in Japan. Other Americans left the Diamond Princess into the early hours of Monday for chartered jets that would fly them home -- and into further quarantine. - Social stability - The virus spread last month as millions travelled across China for the Lunar New Year holiday, which was extended to try to prevent more infections. People have slowly started to return to work in the past two weeks, though many are doing their jobs from home and schools remain closed. With the government facing criticism over its handling of the crisis, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the government must "increase use of police force" during the crisis. He made the comments in a February 3 speech published by state media on Saturday. A number of local officials have been sacked for their role in mishandling the outbreak. A family wears protective face masks outside an almost-empty Beijing shopping mall A woman shops at a market in Beijing, whose government requires people arriving from outside the city to self-quarantine for 14 days Factfile on the virus-stricken Diamond Princess, including daily cases of reported infections A betting station is closed on Gold Cup day at Hong Kong's Sha Tin racecourse -- the city has seen 56 cases of new coronavirus, including one death
Uttar Pradesh may find it unviable to follow the Delhi model of free electricity as energy minister Shrikant Sharma indicated in the Vidhan Sabha here on Friday.

Nevertheless, the recovery of power dues from government departments alone could easily enable the state to at least put off tariff increase for the next four-five years, if not provide free power, energy department sources said.

According to the sources, the government departments alone owed Rs 15,000 crore electricity dues in Uttar Pradesh, higher than in any other state. This is the situation even as the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) may soon propose a tariff increase for the coming financial year, quoting its mounting deficit that has reached Rs 90,000 crore.

As per the recently released minutes of the conference of state energy ministers in Gujarat in October last year, Union power minister RK Singh also explained that tariff increases could be moderated if the issues of power theft, non-billing and non-collection were addressed since the losses were passed on to consumers in tariffs.

The issue of non-payment of dues by government departments in many states came in for a detailed discussion at the conference.

Mounting government department dues continue to be a cause for concern. They have increased from Rs 36,900 crore in the financial year 18 to Rs 41,743 crore, which indicates that the states are not even paying the current dues, leading to accumulation of payment dues, the minister said.

He also urged the states to pay the government departments dues of Rs 42,000 crore to the discoms, which would de-stress the sector and requested representatives to liquidate the same within a period of six months to wipe out the problem.

Discoms, he added, should in turn arrange to pay dues to the power generating entities in another six months timeline.

Telangana had outstanding government department dues of Rs 7,298 crore and the state informed that around 9,000 prepaid meters had been installed in the government offices that should solve the problem of arrears in future.

Andhra Pradesh said the dues were mainly owed by two departments namely Rs 3,000 crore against streetlights and Rs 1,700 crore against irrigation pumps.

Maharashtra had reduced their government department dues considerably by deducting at least 50% of the expenditure towards electricity bills from the allocation to panchayats and local bodies as a part of the devolution of the 14th Finance commission.

Tamil Nadu requested some financial assistance to liquidate high generating companies dues while UP pleaded that the benefits accrued to its discoms due to UDAY programme were being nullified because of the regulator adjusting the same against regulatory assets.

While there is no mention in the minutes about the government department dues in UP, a senior UPPCL official disclosed that total electricity dues pending against the government departments were as much as around Rs 15,000 core. This accounts for more than 35% of Rs 42,000 crore dues that government departments owe in major states.

In UP, departments like irrigation, jal sansthan, urban development etc are said to be the major defaulters.

The government does make budgetary provision for electricity bills but most of the departments spend the money on other heads instead of paying current bills, leave alone clearing arrears, said the official. Installation of 100% prepaid meters is seen as the lasting solution to the problem not only with regard to government departments, but also private consumers who owe around Rs 20,000 crore.

The private tube wells alone (owned by farmers in villages) have around Rs 8,000 crore power dues pending against them in UP while overall turn-up of bill paying consumers in rural areas is as low as 29% while in urban areas too 12% of consumers do not pay their monthly bills, the official said, adding, All this hampers UP from replicating the Delhi model.

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A 24-year-old Nigerian woman, Remarkable Mary, in August last year made a record achievement in her humanitarian work  she built a borehole water project for a neglected oil-producing community in Akwa Ibom, South-south Nigeria.

It was the first time in several decades the people of Edonwick, an island in Eastern Obolo Local Government Area, would fetch water from a tap, before now they were used to scooping water from ponds or the Atlantic Ocean.

The water project, with two overhead tanks, is built on a piece of land donated by the community. There are four taps for the people to fetch water from.

A whiteboard clamped onto the borehole steel pillars has the inscription: Donated by Mary Remarkable Foundation in support of the United Nations Development Goals 6  Clean water & Sanitation. Individually we are a drop of water, together we are an ocean. Let love lead.

Our community should be more than hundred years, this is the first time we are having this kind of experience, the community chief, Edwin Nte, said of the water project when he spoke with PREMIUM TIMES Thursday.

Mr Nte said the day the project was inaugurated would be remembered forever in the community. It was like a day a woman has given birth to a child for the first time after several years of marriage, he said.

I was very happy myself, we all danced that day, the chief added.

On the day of the inauguration, Ms Mary, a student of political science and public administration, University of Uyo, invited her friends to witness the event.

Ms Remarkable Mary

She and her nonprofit organisation  Mary Remarkable Foundation  wanted to make it a big event to cap all their efforts in carrying materials for several days from Uyo to Eastern Obolo, about 59 kilometres, the risk they took to cross the river to get to Edonwick, and the nights they spent sleeping on the island in thatched houses without bathroom and toilet facilities.

Island

Edonwick is not connected to the national grid, so the community does not enjoy public power supply. And no person in the community seems to be rich enough to buy the cheapest of the power-generating sets. In fact, most communities in Eastern Obolo have never seen light from an electric bulb before.

Adults and kids on the island do not have the luxury of watching television, listening to radio or playing any electronic device. Darkness covers the community whenever it is nightfall.

A boy in Edonwick, Eastern Obolo, holds a placcard to endorse UN declaration on water and sanitation

Some (of us) slept on the ground with wrapper, while I and another lady slept on the wood, Ms Mary shared her experience with PREMIUM TIMES.

(It was) extremely dark, our phones and torches were the only the source of light at night, she said.

Eastern Obolo.

Eastern Obolo lies on the coastline of the Qua Iboe River and covers a landmass of 117.000 square kilometres according to state government record.

The local government is rich in oil and gas deposits, with multinationals like Mobil Producing Nigeria, Total E&P Nigeria Limited and Amni International Petroleum Company Limited operating in the waters close by for decades.

Between 2010 and 2016, federal records show that Eastern Obolo received N8.2 billion in allocation that sifts through the state monthly. But there is hardly anything on the ground to show that the people benefited from that money.

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), an interventionist agency set up by the federal government to quicken development in the Niger Delta region, has made little or no impact in Eastern Obolo.

Poverty lives and walks around everywhere, among the people. With no sewers, most locals in Eastern Obolo defecate in the open, a common feature of Nigerias slums and rural areas.

At Edonwick community, men defecate along the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, while women go over to the shores of the tributaries of the Qua Iboe River where the mangrove there provides some cover.

Oil spillages have polluted the ecosystem in Eastern Obolo and disrupted fishing which is the major preoccupation of the people.

Water tank being ferried across the river to Edonwick community

The local government, more so, lacks voices to advocate for its development as people from the area are hardly considered for state and federal appointments.

Previous visits

Ms Marys first visit to Eastern Obolo was in May 2018. She was prompted by a PREMIUM TIMES story depicting the sordid state of the communities in the local government area.

She was particularly intrigued by a photo of a makeshift government primary school in Isotoyo community, Eastern Obolo.

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The school, because of its wooden skeletal structure loosely covered with dried palm fronts, could easily pass for a shrine.

READ ALSO: Alumni group cleans Lagos market

Ms Mary, after confirming the schools location with a PREMIUM TIMES reporter, visited the community to see what help she could get for the school.

She later sent to PREMIUM TIMES photos she took with kids inside the makeshift school.

It would take about N5 million to build a school for Isotoyo community, she told PREMIUM TIMES, last year. We have N1 million, and we are still shopping for funders for the project.

One year after, Ms Mary and her foundation are still looking for kindhearted people and organisations that could help with funds for the Isotoyo primary school. We still have that particular school on our budget, she said on Monday. We are trying to strike partnership deals so that when we start we can see to its end, and not leave it halfway.

In February last year, Ms Mary and her team travelled again from Uyo to Eastern Obolo, to organise a party on Valentines Day for Edonwick community, just so that the people could feel loved.

At Okorette, Eastern Obolos headquarters, the team hired a small boat for N15,000 to cross a river to Edonwick, without wearing a lifejacket.

None of the boat operators we wanted to hire had it (lifejacket), Ms Mary said. So we had to take the risk.

The boat also ferried utensils, chairs and tables, musical equipment, and other items they needed to organise a feast in the community.

It was about 25-minutes journey to Edonwick, Ms Mary said.

Except for Ms Mary, who had been to Eastern Obolo before, the young men and women who accompanied her in the 2019 Valentines Day trip were shocked by the absence of civilisation in the community  no electricity or pipe-borne water, no school or health post for the population of over 6,000 people.

Ms Remarkable Mary

All they saw were thatched houses and a vast shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean, dirtied through open defecation.

The people in the community settle for unclean water sources or travel a distance, across the waters, to buy their drinking water in sachets from other neighbouring communities.

The kids there dont go to school, Ms Mary said. Those whose parents can afford it, have to cross the river to other communities to go to primary school.

People dont have mattresses; they sleep on bamboo and the bare, sandy floor.

When we saw the peoples living condition, we felt very privileged. We reflected on life generally and appreciated what we have as individuals, Ms Mary said of herself and her team members.

From Edonwick, Ms Mary and her team members had a good view of the ocean.

They could see platforms belonging to oil companies  they imagined the amount of oil that was being drilled there, the petrodollars made for the Nigerian government and the companies involved.

They also imagined the sharp contrast in the living conditions between the company and the Nigerian government officials on one side, and the poor and forgotten people of Edonwick, on the other side.

The team set up a buffet having meals like  afang soup with garri, white soup with pounded yam, fried rice with salad, yam porridge, plantain porridge, and cake  for the community people, the elders, women, the youth, and the children.

The people were served chilled wine and malt drink. They also drank bottled water, some of them for the first time.

Called to serve humanity

During the inauguration of the water project, Ms Mary spoke of her passion to lend a helping hand to people abandoned by society. She wondered why Eastern Obolo, with its status as an oil-producing community, could be so neglected and forgotten.

Humanity survives on the premises of love and compassion, she said to a crowd of community people who thronged the event venue to behold the little girl who has done what the government and the international oil companies could not do for their community.

Ms Remarkable Mary

It is on this note that we count it a great privilege to have been called to serve humanity and contribute towards solving societal challenges as we hope to do more.

While we give God the glory for this great testimony and possibility, the story of Edonwick village is one that questions the heart of man and the place of a constituted authority. Despite being an oil-producing community, they have never had access to electricity, a school building, a medical centre, not even a blockhouse.

How pathetic it is to note that our water project according to the chief was the first time cement is entering the community, she said.

Oh no, theres a snag!

When PREMIUM TIMES called Mr Nte, the chief of Edonwick, on Thursday, to inquire about the water project, he said, The tap is still flowing, the only problem we have is with the colour of the water and the taste.

When we fetch the water and keep it overnight the colour would change, it would become yellowish. The water also looks oily on the surface, the chief said.

But nevertheless, he insisted the borehole is one of the best things to have happened in his community. The borehole water has helped us so much, we didnt have any source of water before now, he said.

The complaint about the borehole water changing its colour and taste needs to be looked into, Ms Mary said when this newspaper raised the issue with her.

We had access to the clean water even when we revisited (the community), she said.
Photo editor

Rick Wiley is the photo editor of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson. From 1995-2004, he was director of photography at the East Valley Tribune in Mesa. From 1988-94 he was a photographer at the Tucson Citizen. He is a graduate of ASU (yes, that ASU).
As the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) gears up for the swearing-in of the new state government at the Ramlila Maidan on Sunday, the Delhi traffic police warned of traffic snarls across central and Old Delhi.

Senior officers of the traffic police said they expect over 1.5 lakh people to attend Delhi chief minister-designate Arvind Kejriwals swearing-in ceremony on Sunday.

The swearing-in will take place at 12pm.

This means that even though ample arrangements have been made for parking, and traffic diversions put in place for the ceremony, long traffic jams can be expected in areas around Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, Delhi Gate, ITO, Connaught Place Outer Circle, and Mandi House.

A traffic advisory issued by the Delhi traffic police said no commercial vehicles or buses will be allowed from Rajghat Chowk and Delhi Gate Chowk towards Guru Nanak Dev Chowk via Jawaharlal Nehru Marg; Chatta Rail towards Delhi Gate Chowk via Netaji Subhash Marg; Paharganj Chowk towards Ajmeri Gate via Desh Bandhu Gupta Road; Ram Charan Aggarwal Chowk towards Delhi Gate Chowk via Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg; DDU-Minto Road towards Kamla Market Chowk via Vivekanand Marg and Barakhamba Tolstoy towards Ranjit Singh Flyover.

Arrangements for car parking have been made at the Civic Centre and behind it. Buses have to be parked on Mata Sundari Road, Power House Road, Velodrome Road, Rajghat parking, Shanti Van parking and service roads in Rajghat and Samta Sthal as per requirements, the advisory said.

All our preparations are in place. Restrictions and diversion of vehicles according to the above mentioned plan will be implemented as and when required, depending on the ground situation, a senior traffic official said.

Delhi police officials also said that keeping the previous two ceremonies in mind, police personnel will also be stationed at gates of nearby Metro station to control any mishap or possibilities of violence among people on their to the ceremony.

This will be the third time Kejriwal and his team of ministers take charge at the Ramlila Maidan. The police estimates show that in 2013 and 2015, over 1.25 lakh people attended the ceremony.
Trot Insider has learned that Amanda Harris of East Windsor, N.J., passed away on February 15, 2020 at the age of 34.

An owner of Standardbreds, Amanda is the wife of trainer Andrew Harris. Amanda was diagnosed with a stage III case of breast cancer in March 2015. Her treatments began in April and after 12 rounds of chemotherapy doctors reported her tumour had shrunk significantly. In late July, doctors performed a bilateral mastectomy and were able to remove the remainder of the cancerous growth from Amanda's chest, breast, and armpit.

After battling the disease for more than 18 months, Harris was notified in 2018 that the cancer had returned, with metastatic breast cancer found in her neck, scapula and femur.

Amanda is survived by her husband Andrew, daughters Grace and Kinsley.

Service arrangements for Amanda Harris will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 18 at Peppler Funeral Home in Allentown, NJ. Visiting hours will be held from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Funeral Services will begin at 6 p.m.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Amanda Harris.
A Deputy Health Minister, Alex Abban has defended government's decision not to evacuate stranded Ghanaians students from China in the wake of the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus in that country.

According to him, there could be an outbreak of the Coronavirus in Ghana if students in China are brought to Ghana.

The Deputy Minister said this on Citi TV/FMs current affairs programme, The Big Issue on Saturday, 15th February 2020.

Now with the advice that we have received, what we know is that the standard protocol is that you deal with the epidemic where it has occurred so that you prevent it from spreading, he said.

The Deputy Minister used the influenza outbreak at the Kumasi Acadamy to buttress his point on the decision not to evacuate Ghanaian students in China.

If we recall, there was some outbreak at the Kumasi Academy here in Ghana. That we may say was on a micro level but I think that in protocols, it's no different. When that happened, there were calls for people to go back to their various homes and that call was rightfully ignored and one person, who had actually gone home, was brought back so that we did not increase any risk of a spread.

So it was contained in there and dealt withEverybodys mind was at ease that once it has been dealt with at where it has occurred and people had actually not moved out, the thinking that it will even spread was quite remote.

The Deputy Minister also said the countries that have contracted the disease did so due to travels and evacuation.

Now let us look at where it got to Hong Kong and let's look at how it got to Japan and how it got to the UK. In all these instances, the common factor was travelling or evacuation. People carried it out so they went to create their own spread of epicentres. Coronavirus: We won't give up until Ghanaians in China are evacuated  Minority

The Minority Caucus in Parliament says it will not relent in its efforts to convince the government to evacuate Ghanaian students from China.

The caucus on Tuesday,11th February 2020 issued a three-day ultimatum to the government to evacuate all Ghanaian nationals living in China, following the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus that has so far claimed the lives of over 1,400 people.

Many countries concerned about the safety of their nationals, have evacuated them from that country.

Speaking to Citi News, Minority Spokespersons on Foreign Affairs and Health, Kobina Mintah Akandoh said the Committee will not rest until all Ghanaians in China are brought home safely.

Today, we are expecting the officials from the Ministry of Health to come and brief our Committee. The only assurance I can give is that we are not going to relent until the Ghanaians in China, especially Wuhan are evacuated to Ghana.

Today I will contact leadership and draw leadership's attention to the fact that tomorrow ends the three-day ultimatum and the next line of action will be determined from there. Some of the students tell me they are in a very difficult condition and even some of them, how to get food to eat is a problem so it is not any good news at all. Parents call for evacuation

Parents of Ghanaian students in China's Wuhan Province had also mounted pressure on the government to evacuate their children currently stranded in China as the Coronavirus outbreak intensifies.

They contend that the government will face their wrath should any of the Ghanaian students contract the virus.

Students desperate for evacuation

The Ghanaian students have also been calling on the government to evacuate them over the coronavirus fears.

But the government insists it will take its time on the matter and weigh its options.

citinewsroom
More Than 1,100 Former Justice Department Officials Call for AG Barrs Resignation

Over 1,100 former Justice Department officials have added their names to an online letter calling on Attorney General William Barr to resign following his intervention in the case of former Trump campaign associate Roger Stone.

The action was organized by Protect Democracy, a nonprofit advocacy group staffed by former government officials, political operatives, and activists that has been opposing Trumps agenda via legal means.

Although there are times when political leadership appropriately weighs in on individual prosecutions, it is unheard of for the Departments top leaders to overrule line prosecutors, who are following established policies, in order to give preferential treatment to a close associate of the President, as Attorney General Barr did in the Stone case, the letter said.

The group said signatories of the letter have been vetted to the best of our ability.

The Stone Case

Prosecutors originally recommended seven to nine years in prison for Stone, who was convicted of lying to and obstructing Congress and witness tampering. The Justice Department, however, intervened in the case, calling the recommendation excessive.

The government respectfully submits that a sentence of incarceration far less than 87 to 108 months imprisonment would be reasonable under the circumstances, the department wrote in a revised sentencing memorandum.

Four line prosecutors then withdrew from the case.

Stones lawyers said the prosecutors used a wrong standard in the governments sentencing guidelines. They said Stones maximum recommended sentence should have been 21 months (pdf).

Barr said he wasnt asked by Trump to intervene in the case. Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec told media outlets that the department didnt consult with the White House about Stones sentencing and the decision was made before Trump criticized the original sentencing recommendation on Twitter.

Protect Democracy

Protect Democracy was created in 2017 to prevent American Democracy from declining into a more authoritarian form of government, its website states.

Its team includes former White House and Justice Department officials, as well as various political operatives including Aaron Baird, a former adviser to Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.); Corey Dukes, a former adviser to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.); Justin Vail, a former aide to former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.); and Soren Dayton, a former aide to the presidential campaign of late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

The staff also includes several alumni of the American Civil Liberties Union and two former Naval Intelligence operatives.

They credit themselves with helping to shut down Trumps voter integrity commission, suing to block Trumps border emergency declaration, and a running campaign to have Trump prosecuted for obstruction of justice, among other initiatives.

The group pulled in over $2.6 million in 2017 and nearly $7 million in 2018. It also runs an affiliated dark money group called United to Protect Democracy.

Janita Kan contributed to this report.
Rockets have dropped near the US embassy in Iraq and a military base hosting American troops, according to officials.

There have been no causalities reported following the strikes, which fell amid heightened tensions in the Middle East.

Two rockets dropped inside the sprawling embassy compound in Baghdad, three Iraqi security officials have claimed.

They said another hit near the coalition base, which is situated next to the embassy in the Green Zone, where government offices are based.

Colonel Myles Caggins, a spokesman for the US military operation in Iraq, said the military base had been hit by rockets just before 3.30am local time on Sunday.

Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire Show all 17 1 /17 Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire Iraqi protesters take cover behind a barricade on Al-Jumhuriya Bridge during an anti-government demonstration in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on 25 October, 2019. AFP/Getty Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire Protesters push down concrete walls during a protest over corruption, lack of jobs, and poor services, in Baghdad. Reuters Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire Anti-government protesters try to break into the provincial council building during a demonstration in Basra. AP Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire Iraqi women protesters march with national flags during an anti-government demonstration in the central holy shrine city of Najaf. AFP/Getty Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire An Iraqi protester uses a mobile phone to take a selfie photo with an army soldier standing atop a humvee during a demonstration outside the local government headquarters in the southern city of Basra. AFP/Getty Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire Iraqi protesters gather during an anti-government demonstration at the burning local government headquarters in Nasiriyah, the capital of Iraq's southern province of Dhi Qar. AFP/Getty Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire Iraqi protesters wave a national flag as they stand atop the gatehouse to the local government headquarters in the southern city of Basra. AFP/Getty Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire An Iraqi protester throws back a tear gas canister fired by security forces amid clashes during an anti-government demonstration in Baghdad. AFP/Getty Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire Iraqi protesters carry away an injured protester following clashes during an anti-government demonstration in Baghdad. AFP/Getty Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire Iraqi security forces stand guard on Al-Jumhuriya Bridge during an anti-government demonstration in Baghdad. AFP/Getty Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire Anti-government protesters gather in Tahrir Square during a demonstration in central Baghdad. AP Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire The burning local government headquarters in Nasiriyah, the capital of Iraq's southern province of Dhi Qar. AFP/Getty Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire Protesters take cover behind a concrete barricade during a demonstration in Baghdad. AFP/Getty Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire Iraqi paramedics help injured protesters in Baghdad. AFP/Getty Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire Iraqi protesters gather in Baghdad. AFP/Getty Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire An Iraqi protester takes cover between concrete barricades in Baghdad. AFP/Getty Iraq protests: Death toll soars as live rounds and tear gasfire Protesters take cover from teargas canisters fired by security forces in Baghdad. AFP/Getty

He did not mention an attack on the embassy itself.

Rockets  which the US often blames on Iran-backed militias  have regularly hit the area surrounding the US embassy in Baghdad, occasionally falling inside the compound.

The attack was the latest in a recent series of strikes on Iraqi bases housing US troops.

On Thursday, a mortar shell exploded in an Iraqi military airbase in the northern Kirkuk province.

After top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was killed by an American drone strike in early January, missile strikes targeted military bases housing US soldiers in Iraq.

Fifty US personnel were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries in an attack by Tehran on Ain al-Asad military airbase housing US troops in Anbar, authorities said.

The US embassy in Baghdad has also been a flashpoint amid wider US-Iran tensions in the region, which have played out inside Iraq in recent weeks.

Iraqi supporters of an Iran-backed militia stormed the embassy compound 31 December, smashing the main door and setting fire to the reception area.

Tensions have been escalating between the US and Iran since Mr Trump pulled out of a nuclear deal which aimed to curb Tehran's capabilities and reimposed crippling sanctions.

Relations were strained even further following Soleimani's death in January, with Iranian officials threatening revenge.

Additional reporting by agencies
The Canadian government has said on February 15 that it has chartered a plane to evacuate Canadians on board the cruise ship Diamond Princess quarantined off the Japanese coast. The Japanese authorities had quarantined the cruise ship in Yokohama on February 4 after a previous passenger was tested positive for deadly coronavirus. The Canadian government has stated that the Diamond Princess which has nearly 3,700 passengers, includes 255 Canadians. The deadly virus now has killed at least 1,665 in China and more than 68,500 have been infected in China.

The official statement further said that the decision was taken because of extraordinary circumstances faced by passengers on board the ship and also to lighten the burden on the Japanese health-care system. The Canadian government is currently communicating with the Carnival Cruise Lines and the Japanese government to assist in the repatriation.

The statement read, "This decision was taken because of the extraordinary circumstances faced by passengers on the Diamond Princess and to lighten the burden on the Japanese health-care system. We are working closely with Carnival Cruise Lines and the Government of Japan to assist in this evacuation."

Read - Coronavirus Hit Cruise Ship Diamond Princess In Japan Reports 67 New Cases

According to the website of the Canadian government, the aircraft will bring passengers to Canadian Forces Base Trenton from Japan where they will be assessed and then sent to NAV Canada Training Institute in Cornwall, Ontario to remain quarantined for two weeks. Furthermore, even before boarding the Canadian charter plane in Japan, the passengers will be screened for symptoms and those who bear any symptoms of coronavirus will not be permitted to board the flight.

The Government of Canada will help Canadians return home following the outbreak of COVID-19 on the Diamond Princess. Our public health experts on the ground will continue to assist Canadians who are currently under quarantine in Japan or in hospital undergoing treatment, said, Patty Hajdu, CanadianMinister of Health.

Read - One More Indian Crew Member Aboard 'Diamond Princess' Tested Positive For Coronavirus

US govt to evacuate its citizens

Meanwhile, US government is also set to evacuate all American citizens from Diamond Princess, the cruise ship which quarantined on the Japanese port since early February, the US embassy in Japan said on Saturday. About 380 Americans are aboard the ship which has been quarantined on Yokohama, a port city near Tokyo. A letter addressed to the passengers, which was posted on the US Embassy's official website read,

"The aircraft will arrive in Japan on the evening of February 16. Buses will move you and your belongings from the ship to the aircraft. Passengers will be screened for symptoms and we are working with our Japanese partners to ensure that any symptomatic passengers receive the required care in Japan if they cannot board the flight. The aircraft will land in the United States at Travis Air Force Base in California. Some passengers will then continue onward to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. We will provide information about your final destination prior to boarding the plane. "

Read - Centre Wont Force Return Of 2 Coronavirus-positive Indians On 'Diamond Princess' Off Japan

Read - Jaishankar Responds As 2 Indians Test Positive For Coronavirus On 'Diamond Princess' Ship
Four adults and four children were displaced Saturday evening after a swift-moving blaze destroyed their Allentown apartment building.

Allentown Fire Department Capt. John Christopher said the blaze began around 5 p.m. at 940 Walnut St. The fire appeared to have started in the walls of the second and third floors of the building, which has five adjacent units, Christopher said.

All homeowners managed to escape safely, he said. Christopher wasnt sure how long it took firefighters to get the flames under control, but described it as a lengthy process, noting the walls and flooring needed to be totally gutted.

The Red Cross of the Greater Lehigh Valley is assisting three adults and two children with shelter while the other adult and two children had a place to stay, Christopher said. A total of three apartments were destroyed and two in the back of the building were not affected by the flames, he said.

Saturdays fire and its cause remain under investigation.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks in an interview with Reuters in Berlin, Germany, Feb. 14, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Qing)

BERLIN, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- China played an important role in facilitating the final signing of the Paris Agreement, and will "100 percent" fulfill its promises on climate action, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Friday in an interview with Reuters.

China is the largest developing country, and the process of industrialization has not yet been completed, Wang said, noting that it is necessary to speed up the development process so that the Chinese people can lead a better life.

Meanwhile, China, as a major country, is willing to shoulder its due international responsibilities and obligations, Wang said.

For a country with a population of 1.4 billion, fulfilling its promises on reducing emissions is the biggest contribution to the world and the human development, Wang said.

China has completed its annual emission reduction target per unit of GDP ahead of schedule over the past years, and it is now home to half of the world's new energy vehicles. Its installed capacity for renewable energy accounts for one third of the world's total amount, Wang said.

China joined the international community in combating climate change with solid actions, not with slogans, Wang noted.

He also said China insists on the new development concepts of innovation, coordination, green development, openness and sharing, and strives to realize sustainable and high-quality development.

China and Europe have complementary advantages on green development, and China is willing to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation in this regard, he said.
Two people died yesterday and tens of thousands faced travel chaos as Storm Dennis swept across the country, causing hundreds of flights to be cancelled and heaping further misery on already flood-hit areas.

Families jetting off on February half-term breaks were left stranded as the 1,200-mile wide bomb cyclone battered Britain.

In dozens of towns still reeling from the devastation wrought by last weeks Storm Ciara, the Army was drafted in to bolster flood defences.

Storm Dennis has caused widespread travel disruption up and down the country as high winds and heavy rainfall sweep the nation. Waves are pictured crashing onto the seafront at Dawlish, in Devon, on Saturday

Families jetting off on February half-term breaks were left stranded as the 1,200-mile wide bomb cyclone battered Britain

But experts warned this weekends onslaught would cause further flooding.

On a day that millions faced further misery:

Two people died  an 18-year-old man who got into difficulty in the sea off Kent and another who fell overboard from a fuel tanker near Margate Harbour;

Almost 50,000 passengers had their travel plans ruined as easyJet cancelled 234 flights, while another 60 will be grounded today;

Eight severe weather warnings, including a danger to life alert, were issued as gusts of 87mph and up to six inches of rainfall were recorded.

Virgin cancelled four long-distance flights from Heathrow to Hong Kong and Boston scheduled for yesterday and today.

Passengers were booked on to other services. Meanwhile, British Airways confirmed 40 short-haul flights to and from Heathrow last night and this evening had been cancelled, with routes to Amsterdam and Glasgow the worst affected.

Under European air passengers rights rules, airlines that cancel flights have a duty of care to provide replacement transport, as well as hotels and meals if necessary.

BBC journalist Christian Fraser and his wife Topaz were among the holidaymakers whose travel plans were ruined.

They were due to fly to Gran Canaria yesterday on a 3,500 easyJet package break, but were told the flights were cancelled and given no other information.

No ones helped us and no one seems to know whats going on, Mr Fraser told The Mail on Sunday.

We now dont know whether to try to get to Gran Canaria through our own means. We tried to contact easyJet for help on Friday night but the call centres shut at 8pm.

Both the A14 Orwell Bridge in Suffolk and the M48 Severn Crossing eastbound between Monmouthshire and South Gloucestershire were shut due to strong winds while drivers were warned that other bridges and roads may be closed.

Network Rail has imposed a 50mph speed limit on trains that will lead to some cancellations.

Emergency crews and a rescue helicopter were yesterday scrambled to Herne Bay in Kent but were unable to save an 18-year-old man who got into difficulties.

Earlier, a coastguard helicopter, a Royal Navy warship and RNLI lifeboats launched a rescue operation after a man fell from the 325ft Maltese fuel tanker, B Gas Margrethe, off Margate at 5.40am.

A body was found after a seven-hour search in what the coastguard described as very rough seas.

In Yorkshires Calder Valley, which was still recovering from the damage caused last week by Storm Ciara, 75 members of the 4th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, and another 70 reservists were deployed to help erect barriers and repair flood defences.

P&O Ferries confirmed they were 'expecting delays to continue throughout the day due to technical issues and forecasted weather'. A ferry is seen sailing through stormy seas as it comes into Dover yesterday

John Curtin, the Environment Agencys executive director of flood and coastal risk management, said he was most concerned about Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire.

This storm could be a step up from what we have seen before, he added.

We had a big storm last weekend, [now we have] saturated catchments, snowmelt and rainfall, so it is the perfect storm.

Waves are seen crashing against the harbour wall in in Porthcawl, Wales yesterday

The Environment Agency, which issued 34 flood warnings and 246 alerts, said preparations were under way to operate defences, flood storage reservoirs and temporary barriers to protect communities.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said: We are fully focused on ensuring that communities are protected and have access to the support and advice they need to stay safe this weekend.

The Met Office last night confirmed that Storm Dennis was a bomb cyclone, which means its air pressure has dropped by 24 millibars or more in 24 hours.

Met Office chief meteorologist Steve Willington said: Storm Dennis will bring another very unsettled spell of weather this weekend with a risk of flooding, particularly in parts of England and Wales and also southern Scotland, where snowmelt will add to the flood risk.

Following Storm Ciara last weekend and further spells of rain this week, the ground is already saturated in places. Our advice is to keep an eye on the latest forecasts and weather warnings and to follow the safety advice.

Who came up with 'Bomb Cyclone'? A bomb cyclone is formed when the air pressure of a storm plummets by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours, causing huge storms and wind speeds of up to 100mph. A millibar is simply a unit of measurement used by meteorologists to describe air pressure  the force exerted by the airs weight. The standard surface pressure on Earth is 1013.2 millibars, and the lower the pressure drops within a cyclone, the more severe a storm it creates. On Thursday, Storm Dennis was classified as a bomb cyclone after the pressure dropped by 46 millibars in 24 hours. The name developed in the 1940s and 1950s when experts at Bergen University in Norway began calling storms created over the sea bombs because they formed far more quickly than those over land. By the 1970s, the terms explosive cyclogenesis and meteorological bombs were being used by Professor Fred Sanders from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in scientific journals. The term bomb has proved controversial. When European researchers argued the term was too warlike, Prof Sanders asked: So why are you using the term front? Advertisement

Soldiers drafted in as village faces being swamped for the SECOND time in a week

By Jacinta Taylor for the Mail on Sunday

They were warned to brace themselves for another storm but it was still a sight that threatened to break hearts and undermine Yorkshire grit.

Residents in the close-knit village of Mytholmroyd woke yesterday to find soldiers on their streets, the clearest sign that the Calder Valley was due for another devastating flood.

Since 2012, the village has flooded three times  the last only a week ago when torrential rain from Storm Ciara caused the River Calder to swell to a record 16ft.

Some 500 homes and 400 businesses were flooded.

Many people whose homes back on to the river have either temporarily moved out or carried everything they own upstairs and out of harms way. Those who have chosen to stay have stocked up on food and bottled water. Soldiers are pictured placing sandbags along a river in Doncaster this week

Soldiers on the streets meant that once more, those homes and treasured possessions, potentially even lives, were under threat. Around 100 troops were helping to build temporary metal flood defences ready for Storm Dennis.

Last weeks muddy brown floodwater had overwhelmed the town, prompting anger that a 30 million flood defence scheme was taking too long to complete.

Resident Cynthia Stringer, 68, said: They built the new wall about a foot lower than the old one  thats never going to work, is it? The water just poured over the top.

Many people whose homes back on to the river have either temporarily moved out or carried everything they own upstairs and out of harms way.

Those who have chosen to stay have stocked up on food and bottled water.

They certainly know the drill. First, there is a warning text message from the Environment Agency, followed by the flood sirens sounding in Mytholmroyd and other communities along the Calder Valley.

Resident Nick Ames, 51, said from his stone cottage: Theres no point in crying about any of this  all you do is just add to the flood level. I think most people here have a keep calm and carry on approach.
Residents forced to evacuate their homes on Friday due to a 3.5-metre hole in a dam wall south-west of Brisbane are still waiting for the all-clear to return home as the local council assesses the situation on Sunday morning.

The 430-megalitre Bolzan Quarry Dam near Talgai, north of Warwick, sparked an emergency declaration on Friday after a passing resident noticed water leaking from the hole.

The Bolzan Quarry Dam is on private property near Warwick. Residents were evacuated on Friday night over concerns the dam could burst its walls completely.

Police declared an emergency situation and doorknocked nearby homes on Friday night urging residents to evacuate.

On Sunday morning, Mayor Tracy Dobie said Southern Downs Regional Council was preparing to assess the situation with emergency services, engineers and the landowner to determine the next steps.
Sinn Fein's general election breakthrough in Ireland could lead to an expansion of a controversial transgender health project that has been accused of providing unsuitable hormone drugs for mentally-ill Irish children.

The republican party  which won more votes than any of its rivals last weekend  embraced the trans-rights movement to appeal to young voters.

It pledged to make it easier for trans people to get hormone treatments to support their gender transition.

That could lead to more focus on an arrangement involving NHS staff from the Tavistock Clinic in London which treats hundreds of young British people a year who are said to be transgender, some as young as four.

Sinn Fein leader Mary-Lou McDonald is pictured above. The partys LGBT manifesto said it wished to ensure Dublin-based transgender healthcare services provide regular operation beyond the Dublin region

Some are prescribed hormone-blocking drugs that delay the onset of puberty.

The Tavistock has been sending clinicians to Dublin to run out-patient clinics at a childrens hospital there, the CHC.

Their work has been criticised by some senior Irish doctors who have claimed the British medics were overdiagnosing gender dysphoria, allegedly leading to treatment that can involve hormone-suppressing drugs.

Some cases, critics claim, involve children who were unsuitable due to mental health issues.

Ireland has only a few medics trained in transgender issues and has engaged the Tavistock via the EU-funded Treatment Abroad Scheme.

The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust said its work in Dublin saves patients and families travelling to London.

Now its work there may expand.

Sinn Feins LGBT manifesto said it wished to ensure Dublin-based transgender healthcare services provide regular operation beyond the Dublin region.
The 83-year-old American woman, whose identity has not been disclosed, was among the relieved passengers who were let off the Westerdam on Friday and welcomed and embraced by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has downplayed the epidemics threat and described the decision to bring them onshore as an act of humanitarian goodwill. The ship had been stranded at sea for nearly two weeks and was running low on provisions after it was denied entry to Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and the U.S. territory of Guam.
South Dakota reports highest active case count since pandemic started

Tuesday's report included testing conducted over the weekend. Another 4,110 people tested positive for the disease.
When an energy company with over 5 million customers in eight states pledges to go carbon free, that action will have significant impact on society, on the economy and on the environment.

"We have a goal to reduce carbon emissions 80% by 2030 and a vision to provide customers with 100% carbon free energy by 2050," said Pamela Prochaska, director of nuclear policy and strategy for Xcel Energy. "Nuclear power plays a key role in helping us reach this goal and vision by providing reliable, affordable, carbon free energy for our customers."

For a company with 3.5 million electric customers and 2 million natural gas customers, reaching those goals will be a challenge, but Xcel said it is moving in that direction already.

"Our nuclear plants provide about 30% of the electricity for our customers in the Upper Midwest," Prochaska said, "and about half of the carbon-free electricity."

There are many factors that will help determine whether Xcel Energy can reach these goals, Prochaska said, including new technologies that might make the transformation easier.

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"We dont know exactly how we are going to get to 100% carbon free," she said, "because there may be other technologies or technology advancements that we dont know about yet, but we will continue to monitor that and see where technology can take us. "

One key to those goals will be continued use of nuclear power through the Prairie Island nuclear plant above U.S. Lock & Dam No. 3 near Red Wing. The 520-acre site has two nuclear reactors, with one beginning operation in 1973 and the second in 1974. They were authorized initially under 40-year licenses which were renewed in 2011.

"We worked with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission which is our federal regulator and the state of Minnesota," Prochaska said. "We received license renewals for 20 additional years, so our units were extended to 2033 and 2034."

"Safely operating our nuclear power plants and protecting the health and safety of the public is number one," Prochaska said. "Having grown up in Red Wing and then raising my family here, I take that mission personally."

How nuclear power works

The use of nuclear power to generate electricity reduces the companys carbon footprint because the nuclear fuel is carbon free.

"The fuel is a ceramic material," Prochaska said. "The fuel pellets contain uranium 235 atoms and have a lot of energy. Each pellet is equivalent to a ton of coal or 150 gallons of oil."

The fuel pellets are placed vertically inside a device called a fuel assembly. Each assembly is about 14 feet tall and 14 inches square, and 121 of those assemblies are located in the reactor where the Uranium 235 atoms create the fission that produces the necessary heat.

"A neutron is absorbed by that uranium atom," Prochaska said, "and that causes it to become unstable. It wants to get rid of its energy, so it splits and creates fragments and additional neutrons, and in that whole process is creating heat." The plant is able to control that chain reaction with control rods.

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There are three separate water loops within the system. In the first, water circulates around the fuel assemblies and picks up the heat before it flows into a steam generator, essentially a large heat exchanger, with 3300 tubes.The primary water is on the inside of the steam generator tubes physically separated from the secondary system.

"In the secondary system, water is pumped around the outside of the steam generator tubes," Prochaska said. "It comes into contact with the heated tubes, turns to steam and exits at the top of the steam generator. It goes to a series of turbines and as the steam expands across the turbine blades, they spin at 1,800 rotations per minute. A concept similar to blowing on a pinwheel gets the turbine moving."

The spinning turbines turn the generator shaft which is where "we are turning that mechanical energy into electricity, and we have it exit on our 345 KV system here and leave our Prairie Island substation," Prochaska explained.

After the steam in the second water loop passes through the turbines, it goes into condenser tubes where it cools and interfaces with the third water loop which is water from the Mississippi River and also physically separate from the secondary system. The river water is pulled into the system through large condenser tubes where it helps cool the steam and return it to condensate which is much easier to pump back into the steam generator for the next round.

The river water is screened to remove all fish and fish larvae, according to Prochaska. The river water is never mixed with the water from the other two loops, but only helps cool the steam inside the condenser tubes.

Once the river water has run through the condenser tubes, it can be moved outside, cooled, and recycled through the system again, or it can simply be released through a canal back into the Mississippi River.

"All of that comes with permits and regulations through the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to make sure that we dont adversely impact the river," Prochaska said.

The two units at Prairie Island are capable of producing 1,100 megawatts of electricity which can power a million and a half homes, according to Prochaska. Running the nuclear plants is equivalent to removing 2 million cars from the roads in Minnesota. To do that requires a labor force of 800 including the operators, contractors, and security personnel. That number increases every two years when Xcel Energy hires an additional 1,000 workers while they shut down and conduct a refueling process.

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Refueling

The refueling typically takes about 30 days, and about half of the used fuel assemblies are removed and replaced with new assemblies. The spent assemblies are stored temporarily in a large pool of water, then placed inside dry cask containers which are sealed and bolted and placed on a large concrete storage pad.

The federal government initially planned to build a permanent storage facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but no action has been taken on that, leaving facilities like Prairie Island holding used fuel casks indefinitely.

"Our storage here was intended to be temporary," Prochaska said. "We can and we do safely monitor and manage it. We know how to store it. We dont have any technical issues with storing the fuel."

The federal government has a legal obligation to store the spent fuel from all the operating and shut down nuclear plants and per contract was supposed to pick up the spent fuel beginning in 1998. Xcel Energy customers have already paid for it with a fee that was collected.

The Prairie Island plant is capable of running around the clock, but as more renewable sources such and wind and solar enter the system, Xcel Energy can be flexible about working with them.

"We have the ability to integrate with renewables," Prochaska said. "If we see that there is going to be a high wind penetration tomorrow, we can and do back down the nuclear units. Its called flexible power operations."

The recent efforts toward becoming carbon free are a source of pride for Prochaska.

"We were the first major utility to announce a carbon-free energy vision by 2050," she said. "When I am at industry and community events, there is a lot of curiosity and recognition for what the company is trying to do. Its the right thing to do. Its the right thing for the environment, and its the right thing for our customers."
A judge Thursday imposed the 23-year prison sentence a jury recommended for one of five people arrested after one of them tried to sell drugs to an undercover Stafford detective in 2018.

Berry Petion, 35, of Bristol, Tenn., was convicted by a Stafford Circuit Court jury in October of conspiracy to distribute heroin, conspiracy to distribute cocaine and gang participation. The 23 years far exceeds the sentences ranging from five months to six years received by three codefendants, who all pleaded guilty to various drug-related charges.

Defense attorney Joshua Parrett asked Judge Michael Levy to suspend some of Petions time, pointing out that the recommended state sentencing guidelines called for a maximum active sentence of about six years.

But prosecutor Ed Lustig said the jury sent a clear message that heroin dealers and gang members are not welcome in Stafford and argued that the recommendation should be upheld. Lustig said the evidence showed that Petion came here to expand his heroin market and to recruit new gang members.

Levy pointed out that Petion already had a lengthy criminal record and declined to suspend any time.
The Kansas Labor Secretary Sides With Shawnee Mission Teachers, Overturns District's Contract The Kansas Department of Labor has sided with the teachers union in an ongoing contract dispute with the Shawnee Mission School District. The Department of Labor found that the district committed a "prohibited labor practice" when it imposed a three-year unilateral contract on teachers late last month.

Looking at some of the commentary and reactions, we can only offer one simple observation . . .Notable JoCo resistance to teachers making more cash by way of collective bargaining signals very real divisions in the Golden Ghetto. Still, the victory and underlying support offers insight into how/why the Democratic Party have flipped this district.Read more:
Opdivo (nivolumab) Plus Yervoy (ipilimumab) Demonstrates Continued Survival Benefit at 42-Month Follow-up in Patients with Previously Untreated Advanced or Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma

Details Category: Antibodies Published on Sunday, 16 February 2020 11:06 Hits: 2640

Updated results from CheckMate -214 study show that more than 50% of patients treated with Opdivo plus Yervoy were alive at 42 months compared to 39% of patients treated with sunitinib

Complete response rates, per independent review, for patients treated with Opdivo plus Yervoy were maintained and ongoing in over 80% of patients

Results represent the longest follow-up with any immuno-oncologybased therapy in this setting

PRINCETON, NJ, USA I February 15, 2020 IBristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) today announced updated results from the Phase 3 CheckMate -214 study evaluating the combination of Opdivo (nivolumab) plus Yervoy (ipilimumab) versus sunitinib in patients with previously untreated advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC). With a minimum follow-up of 42 months, the combination of Opdivo plus Yervoy continues to show superior overall survival (OS), objective response rates (ORR), duration of response (DOR) and complete response (CR) rates. The safety profile for Opdivo plus Yervoy was consistent with prior findings and no new safety signals or drug-related deaths occurred with extended follow-up. The data will be featured in an oral presentation (Abstract #609) on Saturday, February 15, 2020 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2020 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in San Francisco.

A significant OS benefit was observed in both patients from the intermediate- and poor-risk (IP) and the intent-to-treat (ITT, i.e. all randomized) populations treated with Opdivo plus Yervoy compared to those treated with sunitinib alone. Of the patients treated with Opdivo plus Yervoy who experienced a complete response, per independent review, that response was ongoing in 84% and 86% of patients in the IP and ITT populations, respectively.

In the IP populations, patients treated with Opdivo plus Yervoy demonstrated significantly improved:

OS: At 42 months, the OS rate was 52% for patients treated with Opdivo plus Yervoy and 39% for patients treated with sunitinib alone [Hazard Ratio (HR) 0.66 (95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 0.55-0.80)].

ORR: Per independent review, ORR was 42% with Opdivo plus Yervoy and 26% for sunitinib (p=0.0001).

DOR: Median DOR was not reached for patients treated with Opdivo plus Yervoy and was 19.7 months (95% CI: 16.4-26.4) for patients treated with sunitinib.

CR: Per independent review, 10% of patients treated with Opdivo plus Yervoy experienced a CR compared to 1% with sunitinib alone.

Results were similar for the ITT population, where patients treated with Opdivo plus Yervoy experienced significantly improved:

OS: At 42 months, the OS rate for the ITT population was 56% for patients treated with Opdivo plus Yervoy and 47% for patients treated with sunitinib alone [HR 0.72 (95% CI: 0.61-0.86)].

ORR: Per independent review, ORR was 39% with Opdivo plus Yervoy and 33% for sunitinib (p=0.02).

DOR: Median DOR was not reached for patients treated with Opdivo plus Yervoy and was 24.8 months (95% CI: 19.4-27.3) for patients treated with sunitinib.

CR: Per independent review, 11% of patients treated with Opdivo plus Yervoy experienced a CR compared to 2% with sunitinib alone.

Results from this 42-month follow-up from the CheckMate -214 study reinforce the previously observed findings and add to the growing body of evidence suggesting that nivolumab plus ipilimumab has the potential to significantly improve long-term survival for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma, a population with high unmet needs, said CheckMate -214 investigator Nizar M. Tannir, MD, FACP, Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Particularly noteworthy is that a consistently higher proportion of patients treated with the combination of nivolumab plus ipilimumab achieved a complete response and the majority of these complete responses were durable.

These positive findings from CheckMate -214 continue to demonstrate the complementary nature of dual immuno-therapy and reinforce the depth and durability of response the combination of Opdivo plus Yervoy can deliver for patients, said Brian Lamon, Ph.D., development lead, genitourinary cancers, Bristol-Myers Squibb. We look forward to continuing to explore the potential that this combination holds for patients with difficult-to-treat cancers.

About CheckMate -214

CheckMate -214 is a Phase 3, randomized, open-label study evaluating the combination of Opdivo plus Yervoy versus sunitinib in patients with previously untreated advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Patients in the combination group received Opdivo 3 mg/kg plus Yervoy 1 mg/kg every three weeks for four doses followed by Opdivo 3 mg/kg every two weeks. Patients in the comparator group received sunitinib 50 mg once daily for four weeks, followed by two weeks off before continuation of treatment. Patients were treated until progression or unacceptable toxic effects. The primary endpoints of the trial are overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and objective response rate (ORR) in an intermediate to poor-risk patient population (approximately 75% of patients).

About Renal Cell Carcinoma

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common type of kidney cancer in adults, accounting for more than 140,000 deaths worldwide each year. RCC is approximately twice as common in men as in women, with the highest rates of the disease in North America and Europe. Globally, the five-year survival rate for those diagnosed with metastatic, or advanced, kidney cancer is 12.1%.

Bristol-Myers Squibb: Advancing Oncology Research

At Bristol-Myers Squibb, patients are at the center of everything we do. The focus of our research is to increase quality, long-term survival for patients and make cure a possibility. Through a unique multidisciplinary approach powered by translational science, we harness our deep scientific experience in oncology and Immuno-Oncology (I-O) research to identify novel treatments tailored to individual patient needs. Our researchers are developing a diverse, purposefully built pipeline designed to target different immune system pathways and address the complex and specific interactions between the tumor, its microenvironment and the immune system. We source innovation internally, and in collaboration with academia, government, advocacy groups and biotechnology companies, to help make the promise of transformational medicines, like I-O, a reality for patients.

About Opdivo

Opdivo is a programmed death-1 (PD-1) immune checkpoint inhibitor that is designed to uniquely harness the bodys own immune system to help restore anti-tumor immune response. By harnessing the bodys own immune system to fight cancer, Opdivo has become an important treatment option across multiple cancers.

Opdivos leading global development program is based on Bristol-Myers Squibbs scientific expertise in the field of Immuno-Oncology, and includes a broad range of clinical trials across all phases, including Phase 3, in a variety of tumor types. To date, the Opdivo clinical development program has treated more than 35,000 patients. The Opdivo trials have contributed to gaining a deeper understanding of the potential role of biomarkers in patient care, particularly regarding how patients may benefit from Opdivo across the continuum of PD-L1 expression.

In July 2014, Opdivo was the first PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor to receive regulatory approval anywhere in the world. Opdivo is currently approved in more than 65 countries, including the United States, the European Union, Japan and China. In October 2015, the Companys Opdivo and Yervoy combination regimen was the first Immuno-Oncology combination to receive regulatory approval for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and is currently approved in more than 50 countries, including the United States and the European Union.

U.S. FDA-APPROVED INDICATIONS FOR OPDIVO

OPDIVO (nivolumab) as a single agent is indicated for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma.

OPDIVO (nivolumab), in combination with YERVOY (ipilimumab), is indicated for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma.

OPDIVO (nivolumab) is indicated for the treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy. Patients with EGFR or ALK genomic tumor aberrations should have disease progression on FDA-approved therapy for these aberrations prior to receiving OPDIVO.

OPDIVO (nivolumab) is indicated for the treatment of patients with metastatic small cell lung cancer (SCLC) with progression after platinum-based chemotherapy and at least one other line of therapy. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on overall response rate and duration of response. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials.

OPDIVO (nivolumab) is indicated for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) who have received prior anti-angiogenic therapy.

OPDIVO (nivolumab), in combination with YERVOY (ipilimumab), is indicated for the treatment of patients with intermediate or poor risk, previously untreated advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

OPDIVO (nivolumab) is indicated for the treatment of adult patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) that has relapsed or progressed after autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and brentuximab vedotin or after 3 or more lines of systemic therapy that includes autologous HSCT. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on overall response rate. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials.

OPDIVO (nivolumab) is indicated for the treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) with disease progression on or after platinum-based therapy.

OPDIVO (nivolumab) is indicated for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma who have disease progression during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy or have disease progression within 12 months of neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatment with platinum-containing chemotherapy. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on tumor response rate and duration of response. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials.

OPDIVO (nivolumab), as a single agent, is indicated for the treatment of adult and pediatric (12 years and older) patients with microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) that has progressed following treatment with a fluoropyrimidine, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on overall response rate and duration of response. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials.

OPDIVO (nivolumab), in combination with YERVOY (ipilimumab), is indicated for the treatment of adults and pediatric patients 12 years and older with microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) that has progressed following treatment with a fluoropyrimidine, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on overall response rate and duration of response. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials.

OPDIVO (nivolumab) is indicated for the treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who have been previously treated with sorafenib. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on tumor response rate and durability of response. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in the confirmatory trials.

OPDIVO (nivolumab) is indicated for the adjuvant treatment of patients with melanoma with involvement of lymph nodes or metastatic disease who have undergone complete resection.

About Yervoy

Yervoy is a recombinant, human monoclonal antibody that binds to the cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4). CTLA-4 is a negative regulator of T-cell activity. Yervoy binds to CTLA-4 and blocks the interaction of CTLA-4 with its ligands, CD80/CD86. Blockade of CTLA-4 has been shown to augment T-cell activation and proliferation, including the activation and proliferation of tumor infiltrating T-effector cells. Inhibition of CTLA-4 signaling can also reduce T-regulatory cell function, which may contribute to a general increase in T-cell responsiveness, including the anti-tumor immune response. On March 25, 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Yervoy 3 mg/kg monotherapy for patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma. Yervoy is approved for unresectable or metastatic melanoma in more than 50 countries. There is a broad, ongoing development program in place for Yervoy spanning multiple tumor types.

Indications and Important Safety Information for YERVOY(ipilimumab)

Indications

YERVOY (ipilimumab) is indicated for the treatment of unresectable or metastatic melanoma in adults and pediatric patients (12 years and older).

YERVOY (ipilimumab) is indicated for the adjuvant treatment of patients with cutaneous melanoma with pathologic involvement of regional lymph nodes of more than 1 mm who have undergone complete resection, including total lymphadenectomy.

Checkmate Trials and Patient Populations

Checkmate 037previously treated metastatic melanoma; Checkmate 066previously untreated metastatic melanoma; Checkmate 067previously untreated metastatic melanoma, as a single agent or in combination with YERVOY; Checkmate 017second-line treatment of metastatic squamous non-small cell lung cancer; Checkmate 057second-line treatment of metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer; Checkmate 032small cell lung cancer; Checkmate 025previously treated renal cell carcinoma; Checkmate 214previously untreated renal cell carcinoma, in combination with YERVOY; Checkmate 205/039classical Hodgkin lymphoma; Checkmate 141recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck; Checkmate 275urothelial carcinoma; Checkmate 142MSI-H or dMMR metastatic colorectal cancer, as a single agent or in combination with YERVOY; Checkmate 040hepatocellular carcinoma; Checkmate 238adjuvant treatment of melanoma.

About the Bristol-Myers Squibb and Ono Pharmaceutical Collaboration

In 2011, through a collaboration agreement with Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb expanded its territorial rights to develop and commercialize Opdivo globally, except in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, where Ono had retained all rights to the compound at the time. On July 23, 2014, Ono and Bristol-Myers Squibb further expanded the companies strategic collaboration agreement to jointly develop and commercialize multiple immunotherapies  as single agents and combination regimens  for patients with cancer in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

About Bristol-Myers Squibb

Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases. For more information about Bristol-Myers Squibb, visit us at BMS.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

Celgene and Juno Therapeutics are wholly owned subsidiaries of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. In certain countries outside the U.S., due to local laws, Celgene and Juno Therapeutics are referred to as, Celgene, a Bristol-Myers Squibb company and Juno Therapeutics, a Bristol-Myers Squibb company.

SOURCE: Bristol-Myers Squibb
Strasbourg, 15 February 2020 (SPS)- The European Parliament decided Wednesday to take up the issue of two expansionist laws adopted by the Moroccan House of Councillors, on 4 February 2020, which claim to include the waters of Western Sahara into the kingdoms maritime space.



In the face of such a violation of the international legality, the European Parliament called on the European Commission to react quickly.



The European deputies, met in a plenary session of the European Parliament from 10 to 13 February 2020 in Strasbourg, decided to examine Moroccos expansionist steps after the adoption by the House of Councillors of Morocco, on 4 February 2020, of two legislative texts, proposed by the Moroccan Government in July 2017 on fixing the boundaries of the territorial waters (law 37-17) and the institution of an exclusive economic zone (law 38-17), including illegally Western Sahara.



Six European deputies from the group Renew Europe decided to call on the European Commission to intervene, via a written question published on Wednesday, to know the measures that the High Representative of the European Union and the European External Action Service (EEAS) plan to take in the face of the Moroccan unilateral decision to extend its exclusive economic zone.



They underlined that the fact that Morocco demands its sovereignty over waters of Western Sahara, that it occupies illegally, is a more flagrant violation of the international law. (SPS)



062/SPS/APS
There are many unsung heroes in the sport of harness racing. Trainers and catch drivers definitely get their due. Breeders and owners get their names in the limelight when their horses perform well. The integral role that grooms play has been the attention of increased focus as of late, and rightfully so.

So how about the farriers, or blacksmiths if you will?

Ask any blacksmith and they will espouse you with the importance of shoeing in the success of a racehorse. The men and women that focus on our horses kicks surely know that they are making a difference with equine careers, but is the average handicapper or race fan aware?

Jake McKerlie, resident blacksmith at The Raceway at Western Fair District and Dresden Raceway, recently took some time to explain the ins and outs of his trade with COSA TV. And to those that thought that shoeing and the role of a farrier is somewhat insignificant when it comes to racing, think again.

It can be crucial, McKerlie said, when explaining the importance of shoeing on the outcome of races. When the tracks turned to ice here (at Western Fair)  it could take place over the course of a couple of hours  the horses that are out and are sharp-shod within that week with nice sharp corks, I mean that could win you the race at 30-1 just off of that if all the others are slipping and having trouble getting a hold (of the track).

When he heads into work, McKerlie obviously knows that hes going to be shoeing horses. That being said, his workload swings on a day-to-day basis, and the intensity in which he has to perform can be dictated to him at a moments notice.

Normal nights (Ill do) one to two shoes, but then once a week there will be seven to ten shoes just to make sure Im on my toes, and maybe one near the post parade just to keep me hopping, McKerlie said.

If I could do the same amount of horses shod every single day, my back keeps pretty well. There will be a day of three, followed by a day of ten, and thats what will really kink you. Doing the yearlings each fall certainly has a little more danger to it.

Ive had more than my share of cuts and bumps and broken bones: A shattered kneecap, a couple of broken ribs, broken wrist, a couple of broken bones in the hand, so it certainly takes its toll on you.

Like almost every individual in the harness racing industry, McKerlie relishes the significant moments in his trade, but it is also the subtle accomplishments of his career  some might describe as the less monumental achievements  that mean the most.

The best part of the job is doing a job well done, said McKerlie. I was really fortunate. I was there shoeing Daylon Magician when he went out and won a million-dollar race in Toronto and when he set a world record over a half. Thats nice, but probably the most gratifying is the horses that nobody remembers. It could be a horse that only made $10,000, but people will tell you the horse will never make it, but you know that you can help him out, to get him off cross firing or whatever their issue may be, so horses like that, the little ones, are probably the big rush.
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A 41-year-old woman killed in the parking lot of a Hoover apartment complex Friday night was shot four times from behind in what appears to have been a targeted attack, police said Saturday.

The victim was identified as Hoover resident Shemethia Tynise Coteat.

Hoover police and fire medics responded shortly before 7 p.m. Friday to The Park at Wellington and Wakefield apartments off Tyler Road. Once on the scene, they found Coteat outside near her car. She was pronounced dead on the scene at 7:05 p.m.

While were not ruling out any possible scenario at this point, initial observations would suggest that robbery was not a motive, Hoover police Capt. Gregg Rector told AL.com.

Police said it appears Coteat was retrieving items from the backseat of her vehicle when she was attacked. Detectives are still working to determine a motive, but early indications are Coteat was specifically targeted.

Shemethia Tynise Coteat

The crime scene and autopsy results appear to indicate that our victim was ambushed after returning home from running errands Rector said.

"This is a really tragic situation. Our victim had a good job, was very family-oriented and worked hard to provide for them.

Were asking for anyone that has information about this case, specifically if they know someone who may have been angry with Shemethia, to please come forward.

Lt. Keith Czeskleba said witnesses reported seeing a dark-colored four-door sedan speed away from the scene.

Hoover police said no suspects are in custody. Authorities said detectives are trying to determine a motive in the slaying.

This is the citys first homicide of 2020. In all of Jefferson County, there have been 22 homicides this year. Those slayings have taken place in Birmingham, Leeds, Warrior, Bessemer, Brighton, Vestavia Hills and unincorporated Jefferson County.

Anyone with information is asked to call Hoover police Det. Brad Fountain at 205-444-7562 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. Tipsters to Crime Stoppers remain anonymous and are eligible for a cash reward.
More than 200 Australians are expected to be moved off Christmas Island on Monday, after completing their 14-day quarantine, according to a source on the island. A second group will stay to complete their 14-day quarantine period until February 24 or thereabouts. If there is not enough room on Christmas Island for new evacuees from the Diamond Princess, they could be sent to Darwin, according to the source close to the government. A spokesperson from the Department of Home Affairs confirmed arrangements were being made to transfer people off Christmas Island once they had been medically cleared. No quarantined Australians at Christmas Island and Darwin have tested positive for the virus.

The Diamond Princess cruise ship, owned by Carnival Corp, has been quarantined since arriving in Yokohama on February 3, after a man who disembarked in Hong Kong before it travelled to Japan was diagnosed with the virus. In for the long haul: Australian woman Aun Na Tan and her family in their cabin on board the Diamond Princess, which has been docked in quarantine in Yokohama. Credit:Aun Na Tan Those testing positive are being transferred to Japanese hospitals. No one from the ship has died of the virus. "We must anticipate a spread of infections from now and must build medical systems and so on to focus efforts to prevent people from becoming gravely ill or dying," the Japanese Health Minister said on state broadcaster NHK.

Victorian woman Vera Koslova-Fu has been confined to her cabin with husband Sean, while her two sons, aged 18 and 21, are in another cabin down the hall. She said people were trying to get fresh air and exercise, and that tensions on board were rising with a lack of clarity over what would happen next. "I'm angry our government has not done anything useful," she said via text message on Sunday. "Mood onboard are [sic] people are frightened of the unknown." She said the possibility of being sent to Christmas Island was "not ideal".

"I want everyone to be [swab] tested," she said. "If I test negative then I'm happy to self-quarantine at home." First coronavirus death in Europe Europe has recorded its first fatality of the coronavirus outbreak. An 80-year-old Chinese man who was a tourist in France died in hospital in Paris because of the flu-like virus, now officially known as COVID-19, authorities said on Saturday. Outside mainland China, there have been about 500 cases in two dozen countries and territories, with five deaths  in Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Taiwan and France.

Health checks at Australian ports

Passengers arriving into Sydney and Melbourne on cruise ships are being assessed by health experts for coronavirus to prevent the spread of the disease, according to state authorities. Spokespeople from NSW Health and the Victorian Ports Corporation on Sunday confirmed there were no suspected cases on board ships that had arrived in either city, but that screening protocols were in place.

Cruise season runs from spring to autumn and, according to online cruise ship schedules, Melbourne and Sydney will receive 10 and 12 cruiseships respectively in the coming week. China reveals authorities knew early about deadly virus

China released updated coronavirus figures on Sunday, as it became apparent that the country's leadership was aware of the potential gravity of the situation well before the alarm was sounded. There are 2009 new cases in mainland China, bringing its total number of confirmed cases to 68,500 and death toll to 1665, according to the country's National Health Commission. Data compiled and independently verified by Johns Hopkins Universitys Centre for Systems Science and Engineering put the figure at more than 69,000 with 1669 deaths on Sunday.



After Chinese President Xi Jinping played a muted public role in the early days of the epidemic, state media published on Saturday evening a speech he delivered on February 3, in which he said he gave instructions on fighting the virus as early as January 7. The disclosure indicates top leaders were aware of the outbreak's potential severity well before such dangers were made known to the public. It was not until late January that officials said the virus could spread between humans and public alarm began to rise. Loading In his speech, Xi also revealed that he ordered a lockdown of the virus epicentre: "On January 22, in light of the epidemic's rapid spread and the challenges of prevention and control, I made a clear request that Hubei province implement comprehensive and stringent controls over the outflow of people."

The coronavirus outbreak  officially named COVID-19  began in December in Wuhan, capital of the central Chinese province of Hubei.
These thoughts reflect the writer's concern about the worsening political and social conditions in Germany, a nation whose importance  for America, Europe, and the world  should require no laboring to a readership of politically sophisticated Americans.

What's happening today in Germany is deeply disturbing.

And it's not for the reason casual American observers, including many conservatives, might think based on information derived from the mainstream English-language media. Contrary to these purveyors of globalist, multi-cultural propaganda, the reason for growing unease about Germany is not the presence in the German parliament (Bundestag), and persistent electoral strength, of "Die Alternative fur Deutschland" ("The alternative for Germany," or AFD)  invariably, counterfactually, and ludicrously styled by the Western corporate media as the far-right AFD  as they style all western European political parties committed to preserving national cultures.

Deep concern about Germany arises because of two different but related phenomena.

First, Angela Merkel's destruction of the center-right Christian Democrats/Christian Social Union (the Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands, or CDU, and the Christlich Soziale Union in Bayern, or CSU, respectively), and her radical transformation of those allied parties, which together formed most of the post war governments that led Germany out of the physical and moral ruins of World War II. Through Merkel's policies, the CDU/CSU have been shorn of their conservative principles and become nearly indistinguishable from Germany's extremist Die Grunen ("the Greens") and its dying Sozial Demokratische Partei Deutschlands (the old socialists, or "SPD").

And second, and much more worrying, Merkel's baseless demonization and, increasingly, outright persecution, of all those Germans, principally former CDU/CSU voters, who've been compelled by the Merkelization of the CDU/CSU to transfer their allegiance to the only German political party that today can accurately be characterized as conservative, the AFD.

* * *

A few words about my qualifications, such as they are:

Germany has interested me since I was 14 years old, when I first encountered the German language. After three years of high school German, all the while devouring books on German history, I followed up with a further full year of German at U.C. Berkeley and, after that, off and on as law practice permitted, further study of German language and history.

By my mid-30s, when frequent travels in Europe and Germany became possible, I had acquired what German friends described as a fluent command of the language, though I still dispute their opinion. I can't discuss serious subjects in German nearly as well as in English, and the frequent complexities of written German still occasionally force me to reread a sentence or entire paragraph, sometimes more than once. But for a long time, ordinary, daily conversation in German has been a piece of cake.

Language fluency allow a level of understanding of a foreign culture that's otherwise simply not possible. Over the course of my travels and stays in the German-speaking world beginning in 1981, I've probably spoken at length with hundreds of Germans at all levels of society, from members of the Bundestag and business executives to waiters, cab drivers, students, and store clerks.

More recently, I've also been able to access two other sources of information unavailable to non-German-speakers  first, the few existing alternative, generally conservative, German language news and political commentary websites. These include jungefreiheit.de, journalistenwatch.com, and epochtimes.de. Second, I've listened on YouTube to scores  probably hundreds  of speeches in the Bundestag, including those by most AFD leaders and representatives, as they cite facts and present rational arguments ignored by government and media, to be greeted with catcalls and epithets instead of answers.

These alternative sources of information and commentary are especially critical for understanding today's Germany, because the one-sidedness of the German mainstream media, both television and newspapers  the latter still more important in Germany than in post-newsprint America  makes mainstream American news outlets seem a model of evenhandedness. In ubiquitous unity of viewpoint unfailingly parroting the Merkel government line, especially on mass Muslim immigration, and in avoiding coverage of events or facts uncongenial to the government's propaganda, today's major German media more closely resemble the Soviet Union's or the DDR (Communist East Germany, Die Deutsche Demokratische Republik)'s than that of a modern Western democracy.

After all this, I think I've acquired at least a bit more information and insight into current conditions in Germany, including who and what the AFD is, than the average American political commentators who regularly pontificate about all things European.

So much for my qualifications, and back to the point.

* * *

The AFD today  overwhelmingly drawing its office-holders, activists, and voters from previous German conservatives who have been made politically homeless by Merkel's leftist transformation of the CDU/CSU  is the only German political party that would be recognizable today to such postwar German CDU/CSU icons as Konrad Adenauer, Ludwig Erhard, and Helmut Kohl. The AFD is conservative; patriotic; profree markets; pro-Israel and highly supportive of the Jewish presence in Germany; opposed to mass third-world, especially Muslim, immigration to Germany and Europe; and completely committed to parliamentary democracy, freedom of expression, and the rule of law  but these absolutely indisputable stances have not made a dent in the increasingly desperate governmental and mainstream media slanders directed at the party.

When you read "far-right AFD" or "extremist AFD," don't believe it.

It's the great lie of today's German politics.

The real cause for deep concern about present-day Germany has nothing to do with the mainstream media's slander of the AFD and everything to do with the following two facts.

Angela Merkel has turned the CDU/CSU, for fifty years a center-right party, into a party of the left through two major decisions: first, her full embrace of the truly extremist German Greens' Greta Thunberglike climate hysteria, with its consequent war on the German economy, especially atomic energy, coal, diesel fuel, and the German auto industry, leading, among other baleful effects, to the highest energy costs in Europe for average Germans; and, second  and without a doubt the most catastrophic of all postwar decisions by a German chancellor  her 2015 decision to admit into Germany, and, hence, given the E.U.'s open borders, into all of Europe, at least 1 million totally unvetted Muslim "refugees," a number that today has swelled to in excess of 2 million through continuing immigration and "family reunification" and that continues to grow. Angela Merkel, supported by the state-sponsored German media and fearful, short-sighted, self-interested elites, has responded tyrannically  no other word fits the facts  to all who dare criticize the foregoing policies, especially the "refugee" invasion. The principal target of Merkel's galloping repression has been the AFD.

As will become apparent from the last political vignette below, this campaign of repression has reached a level of such anti-democratic intensity that it is now questionable whether Germany still deserves to be regarded as a free country governed by the rule of law.

* * *

Overwhelmingly because of the 2015 Merkel-sponsored "refugee" invasion, the AFD surged into the Bundestag in the 2017 national election with nearly 13% of the vote, giving it 94 representatives and making it the third largest party in Germany after the CDU/CSU (32.9%, 246 representatives, down sharply from 41.5% in the prior election) and the SPD (20.5%, 153 representatives, also down sharply from 25.7% in the prior election).

Also present in the Bundestag after the 2017 elections were three other smaller parties crucial to forming a parliamentary governing coalition: the FDP ("Freie Demokratische Partei," an old and respected profree markets party [think the Koch brothers], 10.7%, 80 representatives, up sharply from 5.9% in the prior election); the odious Left, or "Die Linke," in effect the undead East German Communists (9.2%, 69 representatives, minimally up from 8.6% in the prior election); and the reality-averse German Greens (8.9%, 67 representatives, also marginally up from their 8.5% showing in the prior election).

Since the 2017 elections, the Merkel government (a "grand coalition" of CDU/CSU and SPD) has done all it can to crush the AFD and make the party and its office-holders and supporters untouchable  short only of actually outlawing the party and jailing its leaders. That may yet come.

The government and its media and institutional allies have employed four principal weapons to crush the AFD.

First, the great lie, regularly calling all AFD voters and elected officials "fascists and Nazis."These are enormously effective, indeed terrorizing, epithets in a nation whose people have been bombarded and traumatized from earliest childhood with the evils of the 193345 period  and they no more fit the AFD than similar labels fit the American Republican Party.

Second, ostracizing and ignoring  as but one example, AFD Bundestag representatives and leaders are rarely if ever given a voice on either of the nation's state-sponsored television stations  to which every German is compelled by law to provide tax support.

Third, threats of, and actual, violence by Antifa, formally allied with the German extreme Left, but  proving how far left Angela Merkel has moved in substance and methods  almost never even criticized, let alone effectively combatted, by her "center-right" government. In fact, in her battle to destroy the AFD, Antifa has become Merkel's storm troopers.

And fourth, a blanket refusal by the Merkel CDU/CSU to work with, let alone form a coalition government with, the AFD  this last tactic compelled the CDU/CSU after the 2017 election to attempt such a strange coalition as one composed of the radical Greens and the pro-capitalism FDP, an ill starred bit of foolishness that was squelched by the FDP leadership's inability to remain in the same room for very long with the unhinged Greens. In recent times, the CDU/CSU's Merkel-dictated refusal to work with the AFD has even led to the unthinkable  but still thought  idea of forming a government with the "The Left" ("Die Linke"), the successor party  it cannot be too often stated  to the vile East German communists.

Much of what one needs to know about Angela Merkel can be inferred from her preference to govern with "Die Linke" or the Greens (as her party already does in the German state of Baden Wrttemberg), both of which explicitly loathe their country, than with the AFD, a party overwhelmingly led and supported by her own party's prior members and voters.

This is Germany today  a deeply divided, confused, and frightened country, governed by a small group of career politicians who are prepared, for a variety of motives, to employ any methods necessary, including anti-democratic, extra-constitutional, and illegal means, to utterly suppress the only organized political resistance to its immigration policies, which a large percentage of Germans believe will to destroy German civilization.

I leave the readers with a critical, and current, example of how far Merkel's budding tyranny has gone in employing means contrary to the German constitution, the rule of law, and parliamentary democracy in its efforts to destroy dissent and the AFD.

Recent Events in Thuringia

The state of Thuringia, one of 16 German states (Bundeslander) and the westernmost state of the old East Germany, held an election in October of 2019. Before that election, Thuringia's Ministerpresident (equivalent to a U.S. governor) was Bodo Ramelow, a member of "Die Linke," the Left. Ramelow had been elected by the prior Thuringia parliament (Landtag) with the votes of his own party, Die Linke, plus those of the SPD and the Greens, as destructive a political coalition as could be cobbled together in today's Germany. In fact, Ramelow's Ministerpresidency was the first German state government since reunification to include the old East German communists.

In October of 2019, a new state election was held in Thuringia, and Ramelow's foul-smelling political troika, and the chancellor's now leftist CDU, both took heavy losses that mainly benefited the AFD. After that election the makeup of the Thuringia Landtag was as follows:

Linke: 29 representatives

AFD: 22 representatives

CDU: 21 representatives

SPD: 8 representatives

FDP: 5 representatives

Greens: 5 representatives

The AFD's second-place finish in Thuringia, ahead of the chancellor's leftist CDU, sent shockwaves through German politics.

After that 2019 election, in accordance with standard parliamentary practice, the Thuringia Landtag elected a new Ministerpresident. The result was another political earthquake. On February 5, 2020, with the votes of most CDU representatives, plus those of the FDP and AFD, Thomas Kemmerich of the pro-business FDP was elected Ministerpresident. What facilitated this result was the refusal by most Thuringia CDU representatives to follow Merkel's diktat never to support or vote with the AFD. In fact, what that election showed is that most local CDU Thuringia representatives preferred to govern with a patriotic party than to submit to further rule by Germany's destructive Left.

But then Angela Merkel jumped in with different preferences. While traveling in South Africa last week, Merkel announced that the Thuringia parliamentary election result was "unacceptable" and had to be "canceled." Just like that.

British Remainers and American Trump-hating Deep-Staters can only gaze on Merkel with envy.

Merkel's words from Africa will live in infamy in European political history, because they signal the beginning of the end of parliamentary democracy in Germany. I will not inflict all of Merkel's German on AT readers, but her most important words were that the Thuringia parliamentary election was "unforgiveable" ("unverzeihlich") and that it "must be reversed" (muss ruckgangich gemacht werden).

And so, by the diktat of a chancellor ludicrously claiming to protect democracy, a democratic election was declared unacceptable. Reversed. Canceled. And very fast.

Thomas Kemmerich, not made of Trump's stuff, resigned his office 25 hours after being elected, making him the shortest serving Ministerpresident in the history of the Bundesrepublik.

The situation in Thuringia is now confused, but it's likely that the chancellor's diktat will lead to the re-emergence of a state government of the Left.

In Germany, to its shame, dictatorship prevailed.

What Germany's new would-be dictator, Angela Merkel, said last week is that the German people can vote for the AFD, but under no circumstances, regardless how many votes that party receives, will it be permitted to govern, to participate in a government, or even to participate in electing a government.

Freedom, the rule of law, and democracy are in real peril in Germany. As Americans, this should concern us all.

In the struggle to preserve Western civilization against internal enemies who would demonize its history, discard or outlaw its cultural patrimony, and overwhelm it with millions of hostile and unassimilable aliens  a struggle President Trump now leads  America needs allies. Germany, the most important country on the continent where the West arose, needs to be among them. Merkel's lawless actions over the last week, part of her slander of her bravest critics and her growing suppression of German freedom and democracy, deserve the condemnation of every American conservative.
Last week the Department of Health sent letters to 341 general practitioners, accusing them of inappropriately claiming Medicare funding for managing both a physical and a psychological issue in one consultation.

Essentially, Medicare will pay for one or the other problem, but not both, and the department was warning these GPs to cut their consultations short, bill the patient privately for one of the matters, or tell the patient to come back another time.

It is a 'bureaucrat's fantasy' to put physical and mental health in separate boxes. Credit:iStock

Hopefully we all know a GP like this. This is the GP whose books are closed, who is popular because they are thorough, up to date and engaged. This is the GP to whom other doctors take their kids, who sees that the eating disorder affects the bones, that family violence has an impact on a childs weight gain, that the social isolation of an elderly widower worsens his iron deficiency.

This GP sees that fatigue could be depression or cancer or many other things, and takes the time to find out. This the GP who, when a patient's lip trembles at the end of the blood pressure consultation, goes further to explore a gambling addiction.
Officers located the vehicle and tried to stop it near Bronk Road and Theodore Street. The driver of the vehicle refused to pull over and instead increased speed. Officers followed the car but eventually lost sight of it after it got on Interstate 55. A description of the vehicle was given to local law enforcement agencies, and a Will County sheriffs deputy located the vehicle in Lockport.
MUNICH (AP)  The U.S. killing of a top Iranian general was a miscalculation that has had the effect of bolstering support in Iraq for the removal of American troops, a longtime goal of Tehran, Iran's foreign minister said Friday.

The U.S. killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a Jan 3 drone strike as the commander of Iran's expeditionary Quds Force was leaving Baghdad's airport, saying he was planning attacks on Americans.

Speaking to a group of reporters on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said "the U.S. miscalculated," noting that since the killing, thousands of Iraqis have taken to the streets to protest against the presence of foreign troops in the country.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, in which Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was also killed, a group of Iraqi lawmakers also passed a non-binding resolution to oust U.S. troops and since then, the issue of American troops has monopolized Iraqi politics.

"The martyr Soleimani is much more effective than Gen. Soleimani," Zarif said. "We are seeing that in terms of demonstrations that are taking place in Iraq against the U.S. presence."

Zarif is expected to meet on the sidelines of the conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to talk about ongoing European efforts to preserve the nuclear deal with Iran.

The deal provides Iran economic incentives in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program in an effort to prevent it from obtaining a nuclear bomb  something Iran insists it is not planning. Since U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington unilaterally out of the deal in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions, Iran's economy has been struggling.

In an effort to pressure the other signatories to the deal  Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China  to provide economic incentives to offset the American sanctions, Iran has slowly been violating the deal's restrictions on its nuclear program.

The U.S. has been pressuring other members of the deal to pull out as well, but Maas told the forum that Germany rejected the U.S. tactic of "maximum pressure" on Iran.

"We are sticking firmly to our course in the Middle East, and that is de-escalation instead of maximum pressure," he said.

Zarif reiterated Iran's stance that all of its moves to ramp-up its nuclear program in the past few months are reversible, providing that Europe takes steps that are meaningful.
Screengrab

The violence that unfolded on December 15 at Delhis Jamia Millia Islamia was the first in the string of attacks by Delhi Police on students. A new footage has emerged online, which shows Delhi Police personnel thrashing Jamia students, who have books in hands, inside the library of the university. Read more

Here's more top news of the day:

1) Tamil Nadu: 24-Year-Old Dalit Youth Lynched By Upper Caste Men After Stopping By Road To Defecate

Screengrab of video

In yet another shocking incident on casteism, a 24-year-old Dalit youth was lynched by villagers near Villupuram in Tamil Nadu, when he squatted by the road to defecate. According to a report by Indian Express, the incident occurred on February 12 and police made arrests on Friday, February 14. Read more

2) Shocking! UP Poet Served A Rs 1 Crore Notice For Cost Of Police Deployment During CAA Protest

The Moradabad city administration in Uttar Pradesh has issued a show-cause notice to poet-turned-politician Imran Pratapgarhi to recover a whopping Rs 1.04 crore as cost for police deployment and the expenses incurred by the state during the protests. Read more

3) Brave Cop Saves Life Of A Woman Who Slipped On Tracks While Boarding Train In Bhubaneshwar

Representational Image

A Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel saved the life of a female passenger who slipped while trying to board a train at the Bhubaneswar railway station on Saturday, reported news agency PTI. Read more

4) For Accidentally Killing Calf, Village Panchayat Orders Man To Marry Minor Daughter, Authorities Intervene.

Representational Image

In Madhya Pradesh, a man had been asked to marry his minor daughter after he accidentally killed a calf. The village panchayat had issued the directive to the man to marry her daughter as a means for atonement for killing. Read more




Pilibhit : , Feb 16 (IANS) After Bareilly got its famous 'jhumka', it's now the turn of Pilibhit to get its own 'bansuri' chowk to showcase the Uttar Pradesh district's connection with the manufacture of flutes.

A survey will be conducted soon to finalise a prominent place in the city to be developed as 'Bansuri Chowk', Divisional Commissioner Ranvir Prasad said.

Pilibhit is famous for handmade best-quality bamboo flutes, such as ordinary straight-blow flutes and side-blown or transverse flutes that are mainly crafted by Muslim artisans.

Prasad said that the project to showcase the 150-year-old industry manufacturing the Indian musical instrument came under the Uttar Pradesh government's ambitious one-district-one-product (ODOP) programme, which aims to encourage indigenous products and crafts in the state.

"But before we showcase it to the world, we need to make the craft and its connection with the city popular among its own residents," he said.

The Commissioner has initiated 'Paint My City' campaign in which people are encouraged to paint murals on the walls of their homes and government buildings.

The administration plans to install a big custom-made flute in the city's middle to attract the attention of visitors.

The idea came after Bareilly hogged tremendous publicity following unveiling of a huge 'jhumka' (dangler) at a specially developed crossing on a national highway.

"As the embroidery on Bareilly's 'jhumka' promotes its handicraft industry, apart from being a tourist attraction, authorities hope 'bansuri' too will play the dual role of becoming a landmark of Pilibhit city as well as promote its traditional flute industry," said the officer.

He said that he had also invited suggestions from people on how to make the campaign more widespread and effective.

According to a conservative estimate, Pilibhit accounts for 90 per cent of the flutes manufactured in India. The instrument is in high demand abroad, including the US and European countries.

"We make various types of flutes from bamboo brought all the way from Silchar in Assam," said flute-maker Shafat Khan.

On February 8, over 200-kg and 14-feet high 'jhumka' replica was installed at the zero point on National Highway 24 in Bareilly, which was inaugurated by Union Minister and local MP Santosh Gangwar.

The dangler in the city's Parsakhera is studded with colourful stones and the famous 'zari' embroidery.
Even as the Irish economy purrs for many, painful memories of the financial crisis still burn bright in the minds of Ireland's ultra-wealthy, who remain prudent when it comes to managing their wealth.

The last crisis showed the risk of concentrating the majority of your wealth into one asset class in one country.

During the Celtic Tiger-era of the late 1990s to 2007, wealth soared due to debt-laden investment in the Irish property market, driven by excessive valuations. When the property bubble burst, many of Ireland's wealthiest, including several who remain on the Rich List, were hit badly after putting too many of their eggs into one leaky basket.

Adam Cleland, the chief financial officer of new Irish wealth advisor Argeau, said the ultra-wealthy are taking steps to de-risk their investment portfolios, with concerns that another recession is overdue. As a result, Ireland's very rich are increasingly seeking to diversify their wealth, looking to new sectors and different countries.

"Given the more recent generation of much of Ireland's wealth, with its concentration among first-generation entrepreneurs rather than the inter-generational wealth seen in some other European countries, [wealth in Ireland] is more actively managed," he said.

"While Irish investors are typically low key and tend to avoid publicity, they are interested in being connected to the next generation of young entrepreneurs and ventures they might back."

The make-up of investments in Ireland varies but remains tied to property and equity, as it does across much of the world.

John Crowe, founder and chief executive of Kestrel Capital, said the wealthy here have at least a third of their investible wealth in "illiquid type investments" where they put money into areas such as real estate or private equity.

He said Irish wealth, with its close links to technology and the life sciences, is also increasingly becoming more linked to the US investment houses. "There is a US flavour to what they do, so equity is a big portion of their wealth," he said.

Crowe said the wealthy would have done well last year, with global equity markets up 25pc.

Despite the bull market conditions, many among Ireland's wealthiest remain mindful that a recession could be around the corner.

Alan Merriman, the executive chairman of Elkstone Partners, said his Irish clients are discerning about how they invest their wealth. "When we look at our Irish client base, there is still a significant amount of money held in cash. The lingering effects of the last great financial crash are still with us. Irish investors are prudent, but risk appetite is slowly increasing.

"Most Irish people are more comfortable investing in their own businesses, where they feel they have more control, while property continues to be a cornerstone of where Irish wealth resides."

Merriman said there is a growing appetite in Ireland for "alternative investments", meaning more money going into private credit, venture capital and hedge funds.

The wealth manager also described some of the generational differences playing a role in Ireland's wealth story, driving variations in the kind of plays being made. "Older generations are more related to property, while younger wealth can tend to be more adventurous," he said.

He feels the younger generations have grown up with the ability to access information online, which has led to their investment style being "more considered" than older generations.

This investment style has translated into how likely the Irish are to flaunt their wealth. Merriman said the difference in the behaviours of the ultra-wealthy is particularly evident when traveling.

"It is part of the Irish DNA," he said. "We are low-key, understated and don't like drawing attention to ourselves. Whether it's London, Milan or Miami, money is a lot more flash elsewhere. In Ireland, people are more reserved and keep to themselves."

However, Argeau's Cleland feels an increasing number of the wealthy here are investing in areas of interest, driven by growing values linked to high demand in Asia. "The other non-traditional asset classes, such as art, classic cars and wine, have performed very well," he said. "They've attracted attention not just around the world, but also increasingly amongst the Irish."

Looking forward, Cleland, Crowe and Merriman agree new trends are infiltrating investment behaviours of the ultra-wealthy, not just globally, but also in Ireland.

One noticeable trend picked up by Merriman is the rise of "impact investing", where investors are looking to back worthy causes with a return. "It might be for social good, vegan trends or climate change," he said. "That is much more in the discussion now than it would have been even three or four years ago.

"The younger generations are driving that in particular. People are much more interested in not just what the money is going to make, or the prospect, but actually, if it is going into a good, clean business.

"People don't want their money to go into sectors that don't have those attributes. That has become very noticeable."

Select 1. The MIstry Family 2. The Weston Family 3. The Collison Brothers 4. John Grayken 5. Denis OBrien 6. The Comer Brothers 7. Larry Goodman 8. John Magnier 9. John Dorrance III 10. JP McManus 11 - 25 26 - 50 51 - 75 76 - 100 101 - 125 126 - 150 151 - 175 176-200 201-225 226-250 The Rich List 2020




Westerly, RI (02891)

Today

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 9F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 9F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
Pharmacies battle for market share, illustration photo

Pharmacity Pharmacy JSC, the largest retail chain in the sector in Vietnam, recently wrapped up investment of VND735 billion ($31.8 million) in a Series C funding round. The company however did not disclose the names of the investors.

The fresh funding will be used to ramp up Pharmacitys expansion plans. The company wants to reach a target of opening 1,000 stores across the nation by the end of next year.

Since its establishment in 2012, Pharmacity has operated over 250 modern and convenient stores in its retail pharma chain across seven cities and provinces. The company is aiming for more than VND3 trillion ($130 million) in revenue, up 230 per cent against last year.

At the end of 2019, private equity firm Mekong Capital issued funding to the group. Chad Ovel, a partner at Mekong Capital, said that Pharmacity was the first retailer in the sector to demonstrate that all of Vietnams regulations and compliance thresholds can be met and still generate healthy store level profitability.

The investment reflects the attractiveness of Vietnams retail pharmacy market, which has gained more momentum over the past few years.

In December, Japanese drugstore operator Matsumoto Kiyoshi Holdings Group announced its official foray into the Vietnamese market by inking a deal with domestic Lotus Food Group. The two will launch the first Matsumoto Kiyoshi flagship store in Vietnam at the end of March, followed by 10 to 15 other stores in the next three to five years. From there, a network of hundreds of stores is planned, meeting the growing demand for healthcare and beauty services of millions of Vietnamese people.

Further back, Vingroup launched a chain of 11 VinFa pharmaceutical stores in Hanoi at the end of 2018. VinFa signed a MoU with Switzerlands DKSH, a global market expansion service provider, for their comprehensive collaboration in the area of domestic and international distribution of pharmaceutical products.

Mobile World Group and FPT Retail have also ventured beyond their traditional businesses and into pharmacy retail in recent years. In 2017, Mobile World acquired 40 per cent stake in Phuc An Khang, while FPT Retail took over Long Chaus chain with expectations that its pharmaceutical business would make up 40 per cent of its total revenue within four years. FPT is set to expand the Long Chau chain with 400 outlets by 2022.

Richard Burrage, managing partner of market researcher Cimigo, said that the expansion of modern pharmacy chain outlets in Vietnam in recent years is accelerating and exciting to observe. Modern pharmacy retail requires scale, as margins are very low, hence it needs rapid acceleration to reach that scale, he explained. Vietnam is expected to see increasing expansion beyond pharmaceuticals to own-brand Asian remedies, nutraceuticals, and personal care.

However, Burrage noted that modern pharmacies oversee a disorganised category, forcing increased transparency and trust in the medicines sold and the ability to trace those medicines to their origin and ensure they are true and not expired.

When comparing modern pharmacy outlets with traditional ones, Ralf Matthaes, managing director of market researcher Infocus Mekong, noted that the key advantages are threefold. First and foremost is consistency of product and service delivery. Consumers will be able to access more products, service, and advice from these new pharmacies as they battle for market share and profits, Matthaes said. Secondly, pricing should become more consistent and in some respects cheaper, as distribution costs and volume of sales should create savings for consumers. Finally, the chains deliver more convenience to consumers.

Matthaes added that, via technology brought in by these new players, the ability to purchase products via online prescription order filling will make it simpler and faster for consumers to access what they need.

A study by DKSH Business Unit Healthcare points out that modern pharmacy chains still represent roughly 1.5 per cent of the total number of licensed pharmacies, but already 5.5 per cent of the total pharmacy channel retail sales value. And this share, which has been growing by more than a percentage point per year over the last two years, is expected to grow faster.

At a per capita level, Vietnamese healthcare spending is expected to more than double from $170 in 2017 to $400 in 2027. Meanwhile, the countrys pharmaceutical market had an estimated a revenue of $5.9 billion in 2018, an 11.7 per cent increase from the previous year, which makes Vietnam the second-largest medicine market in Southeast Asia.
Major storms will be forecast up to eight days in advance thanks to the Met Office upgrading to an 850million supercomputer.

The new weather forecasting system will be the fastest in the world  increasing Met Office computing capacity six-fold.

Data collected will be used to help more accurately predict storms, select the most suitable locations for flood defences and anticipate changes to the global climate when the device is turned on in August 2022.

Major storms will be forecast up to eight days in advance thanks to the Met Office upgrading to an 850million supercomputer. Pictured: Teme Street in Tenbury Wells is seen under floodwater after Storm Dennis

Professor Albert Klein Tank, head of the Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Science and Services, said: 'There will be more and more lead time for forecasts like the storm last week and this weekend's Storm Dennis.

'And that's really a huge benefit for preparing. Now it's five days lead time, almost, and when you go back in time, it was only one or two days.

'So increasing that time horizon is really one of the efforts in weather forecasting.'

The 'lead time' to predict a significant weather event was only two days a decade ago, which gave little time to prepare flood defences, or warn elderly people and hospitals.

But the new supercomputer can analyse smaller 'boxes' in terms of area of the atmosphere.

Professor Tank said events would be predicted in eight days in the coming decades, and that extreme weather forecasts could come ten days ahead within 50 years.

This would help to prepare transport hubs like airports and railways too.

The new weather forecasting system will be the fastest in the world  increasing Met Office computing capacity six-fold. Pictured: Flood water surrounded two abandoned cars that had been left in a flooded street in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire

The Met office currently uses three Cray XC40 supercomputers, which collectively form one of the most powerful weather and climate processors in the world.

Operational since December 2016, they can carry out 14,000 trillion calculations per second.

This system  which is due to reach the end of its life in late 2022  is in the top 50 of the world's most powerful computers, and contains enough storage to hold over 100 years' worth of HD films.

The Government is putting 1.2billion into the new measures.

The supercomputer itself is expected to cost 854million, with remaining funds going towards investment in the observations network and programme offices over a ten-year period.

Business and Energy Secretary Alok Sharma said: 'Come rain or shine, our significant investment for a new supercomputer will further speed up weather predictions, helping people be more prepared for weather disruption from planning travel journeys to deploying flood defences.'
A Twitter user who is a Muslim, has recounted the unpleasant experience she had with a Christian lady who she accommodated recently in her home in Abuja.

@B_Rihanat said she wasnt friends with the said christian lady and only accommodated her because their mutual friend begged her to. Rihanat said the lady made snide comments about religion, complained about her mode of dressing (hijab) and spoke about how much she hated northerners.

Read her story and share your thoughts

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We have yet to see the ultimate fallout from the Harding Street raid, but early indications show the Harris County District Attorneys Office is going to need steady leadership as it evaluates thousands of convictions that are now suspect because of the testimony of former Houston narcotics officer Gerald Goines.

Current District Attorney Kim Ogg  who charged Goines with murder in the botched drug raid and who has aggressively sought to find justice in this case  can provide that leadership.

She is our choice in the Democratic primary.

We are in the midst of righting a lot of wrongs, Ogg told the Editorial Board during a meeting with all four candidates in the race. What needs to be done is the prosecution of the officers involved, the reform of the way we prosecute and, eventually, the reform of the way drug cases are investigated.

Thats a lot of talk of change for an incumbent who has left herself open to attack over her apparent tepidness on bail reform, most notably her last-minute objection last year to the settlement in the lawsuit over misdemeanor cash bail. Two of her opponents  senior prosecutors who left the district attorneys office last year  have centered their campaigns on arguments that shes failed to live up to her own reform pledges.

Its true  Ogg has expressed concerns about the way the bail reform agreement has been implemented. But voters shouldnt mistake her calls to tap the breaks  even if her foot is sometimes a little heavy  as a disavowal of her record, which is overwhelmingly for change.

During her first term, she has supported bail reform, expanded jail diversion for low-level misdemeanor offenders with mental health issues, and implemented a diversion program for people caught with small amounts of marijuana, cutting pot arrests by more than half and saving the county millions. She was years ahead of other reform-minded district attorneys in Americas big cities, from Dallas to Philadelphia.

Oggs challengers include the two prosecutors who used to work for her and a third former prosecutor, Todd Overstreet, who has for many years been a criminal defense attorney. The former candidates  Audia Jones and Carvana Cloud  both fault Ogg for lack of leadership and question her integrity. They say shes sold out reformers and is responsible for low morale and high turnover in the office. To his credit, Overstreet says talk of a lack of integrity is unfounded. But he also says hed bring better leadership to the office.

Overstreet says Ogg has gone too far in pushing reforms  losing sight, he said, of the prosecutors primary focus to keep the city safe. But Jones and Cloud strongly rebuke Ogg for implementing the reforms she has embraced too slowly, and believe she should be doing more to correct a system that for too long has been disproportionately punitive towards minorities.

Ogg is right, though, that change cannot happen overnight.

When she was elected in 2016, she found an office that under her predecessor seemed intent on pursuing convictions at any cost and operated under a cloud of mistrust over allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. Changing that culture to give reform a chance to grow roots  and staying power  is an ongoing process. She has instituted training and made infrastructure changes, including establishing a human resources department.

It is inevitable that this would lead to growing pains, including turnover and strong disagreements within the district attorneys office on how things should run, issues that her opponents have cast as disarray and dysfunction. She has also been criticized for asking the county for more money for prosecutors, but while the challengers differ on the specifics, they all agree more resources are needed.

While we were impressed by the passion for justice shown by both Jones and Cloud, Ogg has charted the right course for the District Attorneys office. We have not agreed with every step Ogg has taken, but on balance she has been a strong, if also deliberate, reformer and an honest leader. There is a lot riding on Democrats vote in this race, and they should allow her to continue her work on criminal justice reform for Harris County.
The Pimpri-Chinchwad police booked a man for stalking a woman and arriving at her residence with a gift on Valentines Day on Friday.

The man has been identified as Paresh Pakhle, a resident of Akurdigaon area. The complaint was lodged by the 19-year-old girl who is a student at a local college. The incident happened on Valentines Day on Friday when the victim was at home with her mother. At 8pm, Pakhle showed up at the complainants house located on the fourth floor of a building.

When the complainant asked him what he was doing there, he threw the gift-wrapped box at her and fled as her mother came to the door. The girls mother followed him down to the second floor of the building where he tried to attack her, according to the complaint filed.

Pakhle was surrounded by neighbours who had gathered by then and sent out of the building, according to the complaint. The 19-year-old girl then told the police that he had been troubling her friend, forcing her to share the complainants phone number. The accused was also harassing her over the phone, she told the police. Assistant police inspector Solapure of Chikhali police station is investigating the case.

A case under Sections 354(d) (stalking), 504 (insult with an intention to provoke breach of peace) and 352 (punishment for assault or criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation) of the Indian Penal Code was registered at Chikhali police station against Pakhle.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/2/2020 (695 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Incident 979

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When: Sept. 19, 2019

Where: 300 block of Salter Street

Incident 979

The male pictured here was at a gas bar located on Salter Street and asked the clerk for cigarettes. The clerk presented them when the suspect, who was holding a bank card and appeared ready to pay, but instead ripped the cigarettes out of the clerks hands and fled.

Incident 980

When: Sept. 8, 2019

Where: 100 block of Marion Street

Two males entered a convenience store on Marion Street, and while the employee was elsewhere in the store reached over the counter and grabbed multiple bus passes. When the employee attempted to intervene, one of the suspects said they have knives and not to approach.
Hay Wines, Ledbury, Herefordshire

Jane Salt and husband Chris have just celebrated 10 years running their wine business, based in Ledbury, Herefordshire. The company started in 2009 as a wholesale business but it soon expanded to include a shop and events, as Jane explains:

How did you get started?

We were approached by a friend who had a wholesale-only wine company as he wanted to see if we would invest in the business. It was struggling to stay afloat so we declined the offer. We were not in the wine trade at the time (I was in pharmaceuticals), but we had been looking for our own business to run.

Some time later his wholesale operation went bust so we started a wine company off the back of that. We started with the wholesale business but we were looking to find a retail outlet as soon as we could.

Thresher went bust around that time and we were able to secure one of its old outlets in Ledbury, slightly away from Hay-on-Wye, where the company started. Ledbury is a busier market town and nearer to our home, and it is less reliant on seasonal footfall. It is busy year- round and we felt it was generally a better location for a store.

What is the location like?

Its a small market town and it is a tourist destination, so we get a lot of people passing through the area. There are a lot of independent shops here and not many chain stores, apart from a Boots and a Spar. We have a Co-op, Tesco and Aldi fairly near to us.

We have an organic food shop near us and that brings a lot of people in.

There are other independent wine shops in the area, such as Tanners, and there are Majestic stores and Waitrose.

We are starting to see a lot of new customers coming in because housing is being built in the area. A lot of people are moving here from London and the south east, because it is fairly easy to commute to London, Birmingham and Bristol and property is cheaper.

How has the business evolved over the years?

We were lucky to take on an ex- Thresher store so it didnt need a lot doing to it and we havent had to make any major changes over the years.

We have four arms to the business now: wholesale, online, events and the retail outlet. My husband and daughter run the events side and that is growing a lot. We were really busy with it last year as they attended lots of food festivals around the country. Basically they have a stand and it mostly sells liqueurs because we have a really interesting range of these and they are mostly exclusive to us. We have some of the more unusual ones and we get a lot of repeat business for these.

We dont have many events in the first three months of the year but then from Easter onwards it is really busy and I think in 2019 they attended 89 shows.

We have tried taking wine to these but it is more competitive and a lot of effort, even though the margins are better. You have to take glasses for tasting and people dont want to buy a case of wine to carry around, but they are happy to buy an interesting liqueur, especially for gifts.

What sells well in your store?

France has always been our biggest seller in wine. Italy is a very close second. We have a full-time sommelier who is Italian so we have quite a few unusual Italian wines which are direct imports.

We specialise in Prosecco, and we have a big range of premium tier ones and exclusives that we import directly. There is a growing trend for vegan, organic and natural wines and our sommelier is a big advocate of these, so we have an interesting natural range, including a sparkling orange wine.

We have more than 800 wines, 100 gins and 140 whiskies. We have local beers and ciders and a significant number of liqueurs.

Gin is still very good for us and we have a good range, including exclusive gin liqueurs. I think it will start to slow down soon though. We have 100 or so gins but I wont be expanding the range. If anything I might drop the ones that dont move fast. Local ones are popular.

In the last year we took on someone to drive the wholesale side and now that is much more proactive. Retail is good and it is a big part of the business but sales are probably flat compared with last year, following year-on-year growth for a long time. It is difficult on the high street and Brexit hasnt helped. The business overall is about 10% up but this has mostly been driven by events, the website and wholesale.

What else do you do to keep customers coming back?

Our sommelier does a lot of the social media for the store, so we communicate with our customers via Linkedin, Instagram and Twitter.

We do monthly tastings and usually get around 30 customers at these. We also do whisky tastings and ones for gin, or cheese with wine.

These events are very popular and our aim is to get customers to move out of their comfort zones and try new things.

Have you got any plans for the future?

We like to try new things. Younger people are not buying wine so much so we trialled some 50cl crown cap wines from one of our suppliers. They seem to divide the audience  some didnt like the format while others thought they were ideal for parties and outdoor occasions.

We have seen good sales of the alcohol-free spirit Seedlip, so we might add a few more drinks like this.

We have long thought about opening another store but its about finding the right town. We will be actively looking for a second store this year. We have the right model now so its just about the location, and making sure it doesnt have too much competition.

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A man ordered 100 roses to arrive at his girlfriend's house on Valentine's Day, only for her to receive 50 dead flowers two days before February 14.

The woman, from Shellharbour on the New South Wales south coast, blasted the online flower delivery company for getting her boyfriend's entire order wrong.

But when the couple confronted the company about their bungled delivery, they were bizarrely reimbursed with a handful of crackers and some melted chocolate.

The young mother posted a photo to social media of a bunch of dried-up dead red roses wrapped in tissue paper.

A man ordered 100 roses to arrive on Valentine's Day at his girlfriend's house, only for her to receive 50 dead flowers two days before February 14

'DO NOT buy ... Ordered 100 red roses, only received 50, Paid extra for delivery on Valentine's Day,' she wrote on a Facebook community page.

'They delivered on the wrong day (the 12th) and every single flower was dead.'

The woman emailed photos of the wilted bouquet to the company, who told her they would re-send fresh roses to her house.

'I received water cracker biscuits? And off date/melted chocolates worth maximum $20 and no flowers. Worst company ever!,' she wrote.

'All we wanted was a replacement and what we paid for and instead I got sent off date chocolates and water crackers.. like that is just unbelievable.

'I'm heavily pregnant and emotional so this didn't help! But ended up laughing, it's the thought that counts, we just want our money back as they were not cheap.'

Social media users were just as outraged by the florist's poor service.

'That's a disgrace being a florist they look like they are months old I would be taking that further they should be ashamed of themselves,' one Facebook user wrote.

'That is wrong wrong wrong.. disgraceful,' another person commented.

'Go to Fair Trading and complain. This is disgraceful. How could they have got that order so wrong?? Even the remedy and apology was disgraceful!,' said another.

'That's so bad it's almost laughable!! What was with the crackers?'

'Looks like u farted on them,' another commenter humorously wrote.
Sarah Ristevski still refuses to think about her father's involvement in her mother's death, almost a year after he was convicted of killing her in their family home and dumping her body in bushes.

The 24-year-old said her father, Borce, who shocked Australia with an 11th hour guilty plea to the manslaughter of her mother, Karen, still loves his wife and 'misses her every day'.

Ristevski, 55, killed Karen at their home Avondale Heights, Melbourne, in June 2016, before dumping her body in bushland.

He feigned innocence, lied to the police, the public and his daughter, and even carried his wife's coffin at her funeral, until admitting to manslaughter on the eve of his murder trial in 2019.

Pictured: Sarah with her father, Borce, as a young girl. She said she has always loved her father and always will

Borce Ristevski and his daughter Sarah in 2016 before he was convicted of killing his wife

In an interview with 60 Minutes which reportedly earned her a six figure pay packet, Miss Ristevski insisted she can 'see the sadness [he feels] at the loss of my mum'.

'We both have the same amount of sadness. He loved my mum... He misses her every day,' she said while holding back tears.

The graphic designer still speaks with and visits her father in prison, and said they had discussed her interview - the first she's offered since her mother's death.

But she denied she was 'under his spell' and said the interview was an opportunity to speak her truth.

'He tells me I'm my own person and that's how he raised me. For the interview, he told me to just be truthful and be myself. That's all he asked,' she said.

Pictured: Sarah with her parents Borce and Karen during happier times. Borce has since confessed to the killing of Karen

Karen Ristevski's 24-year-old daughter Sarah has spoken publicly for the first time about her mother's brutal death

Miss Ristevski famously stood by her father even when he pleaded guilty to killing her mother after three gruelling years of denying any involvement.

He has never offered any further details about her death.

She opted against providing the court a victim impact statement for the loss of her mother and instead offered a glowing character reference for her father to 'highlight the man she knows'.

Despite his confession, Miss Ristevski isn't entirely convinced of his guilt.

'I don't like to talk about what happened. We don't talk about it. We don't think about it,' she said.

'Even though he's pleaded guilty I find it hard to comprehend that he is guilty. I think if he were in my position he would support me.

'He's my father. I have one parent left... I loved him before, I love him now and I'll love him in 11 years when he's home.'

Miss Ristevski said she simply 'can't go there.'

'When you're in my position, I think when your mind's all over the place  different things (like) how my mum died. It's not on my  I just can't go there.

'My heart is saying, I can't comprehend. I can't think about why my mum died.'

Dress shop owner Karen disappeared from the family home in Avondale Heights, north-west Melbourne, on June 29, 2016. Pictured with Borce and Sarah

Ristevski was jailed last April for at least six years after admitting to the manslaughter of his wife of 27 years.

Police revealed they had tapped phone conversations during the investigation which formed part of a 22,000-page evidence brief.

When Sarah asked her father where her mum was on the day of her disappearance, he told her she had gone for a walk after an argument. She said she could tell he was worried.

'I felt like we were just zombies, just not sleeping, not eating, we just paused in that day. It just felt like we were trapped in a nightmare,' Sarah told the program on Sunday night.

In December, Karen's family's appeal over the sentence was successful and Ristevski's jail term was extended to 13 years, ten without the chance for parole.

Miss Ristevski said despite her father serving a sentence, she feels like her life, too, has been put on hold.

'My dad is serving the time but I am as well... The realisation that I'm kind of alone.'

Borce Ristevski, 55, killed his wife Karen (left) at their home Avondale Heights, Melbourne, in June 2016, before dumping her body in a regional park. Pictured with their daughter Sarah, who was 21 at the time

She eventually confessed that she did once ask her father if he had hurt her mother, but said he denied any involvement in her death.

'He's my dad, so nothing's changed,' she said. 'I don't know what to believe.'

Miss Ristevski tries her best to avoid thinking about her mother's death at all.

'I hate thinking about what's happened. I'd rather think of the better times. I just think its tiring,' she said. 'I can't move forward if I'm stuck in the past.'

Moments later, she rephrased her statement. 'I'm not emotionally ready to be there,' she confessed.

Borce Ristevski (pictured) was a pallbearer at the funeral of his wife Karen in March 2017
The need to preserve the quality and avoid unwanted spoilage of wine is driving the global wine cooler market. Since wine becomes detrimental when exposed to air, it should be properly stored at a specific temperature.

New York, Feb. 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Wine Coolers Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05862344/?utm_source=GNW

Therefore, the impressive growth in modern refrigeration technology, which includes thermoelectric and compressor cooling techniques, is influencing several vendors to adopt advanced, robust wine cooling systems across the globe. The availability of convenient temperature controls and separate shelves for red and white wine is influencing the wine storage market. Hence, the rapid growth in refrigeration technology has led to the adoption of wine coolers in the market.



As health-conscious consumers worldwide are oriented toward consuming low alcoholic drinks, which reduces cholesterol and strengthens the heart, the consumption is growing. Studies have revealed that wine helps to live longer, stay healthier, and even protect people against certain types of cancers. Hence, the proven benefits are helping to increase sales, which is favoring the growth of the wine cooler.



The following factors are likely to contribute to the growth of the wine coolers market during the forecast period:

 Increase in the Global Consumption of Wine

 Rise in Awareness of Health Benefits of Wine

 Need to Curtail Bacterial Growth

 Growth in Advanced Refrigeration Technologies

 High Preference for Wine among Millennials



The study considers the present scenario of the wine cooler market and its market dynamics for the period 2019?2025. It covers a detailed overview of several market growth enablers, restraints, and trends. The study offers both the demand and supply aspects of the market. It profiles and examines leading companies and other prominent companies operating in the market.



Wine cooler Market: Segmentation

This research report includes detailed market segmentation by installation, technology, structure, application, distribution, and geography. Factors such as price and affordability are expected to bolster the application of free-standing coolers. They are inexpensive and can store up to 150 bottles. These chillers are designed for quick installation and easy maintenance; hence they are witnessing a large-scale adoption in commercial and residential sectors. The built-in wine cooler segment generated over $400 million in 2019.

Compressor-based technology is likely to bolster the market during the forecast period. Compressor-based coolers have a high storage capacity; hence a large number of bottles can be stored at the specified temperature for a more extended period without relying on external temperatures. Vendors are likely to focus on regions such as India, the UAE, and China to increase the penetration of compressor-based products due to humid temperature conditions. Compressor-based technology is expected to be widely applied for dual zoned coolers in countertop and free-standing types owing to their impressive cooling systems.



Dual-zone cooler extensively caters to commercial spaces where the storage demand is high. They consist of two different sections with varying temperature options, thereby helping to store red and white wine at the same time. Single-zone cooling equipment is designed to hold a small number of bottles at a constant temperature. These coolers utilize thermoelectric cooling techniques and are witnessing adoption in the residential sector due to their energy efficiency. They are inexpensive and can hold up to 25 bottles. Single-zone cooling equipment is likely to witness increased sales in growing markets such as APAC, Latin America, and MEA.



The increased consumption of wine in restaurants, especially in Italy, Mexico, and the US is likely to emerge as a major driver of the growth of the commercial segment. Further, the increasing popularity of social drinking is expected to be a key influencer for the growth of commercial equipment. The growing disposable income, a high preference among millennials, and the need to prevent bacterial growth in drinks have led to the adoption of wine cooler in the residential sector. Wine has become an essential beverage in birthday parties and family reunions. Therefore, the increasing acceptance of the beverage in socializing events is a major contributor to the residential segment growth.



B2B channels are major distributors for wine cooler. The requirement of chillers is high in the business sector and is likely to be one of the major factors responsible for the growth of the market by 2025. Specialty stores cater to consumers in the residential sector. The consumers from APAC is likely to buy from these stores as they enable them to have a broad scope and knowledge regarding the working of a wine chiller. Moreover, new collection members are expected to acquire technological assistance from agents and supervisors in the store.



Market Segmentation by Installation

 Free-standing

 Countertop

 Built-in

Market Segmentation by Technology

 Compressor

 Thermoelectric

Market Segmentation by Structure

 Dual Zone

 Single Zone

Market Segmentation by Application

 Commercial

 Residential

Market Segmentation by Distribution

 B2B

 Specialty Stores

 Online

 Others



Insights by Geography



Europe is expected to increase its revenue contribution on account of a large number of wineries and vineyards in the region. The growing number of export and import facilities from Italy, France, Germany, and Spain is expected to fuel the consumption of wine, thereby influencing wine cooler sales. The millennials in the UK and Italy are likely to be prominent in wine consumption and are expected to surpass baby boomers during the forecast period. North America is estimated to be the fastest-growing region across the world due to the rapid drinking among US and Canadian households. The increasing consumption among females, especially in New York, Texas, Florida, and California, is also likely to influence market growth. The US market accounted for more than 75% of the total wine cooler market in North America. The US has a presence of more than 100 wineries in 13 states. Freestanding cooler emerged as the largest segment by installation with a revenue contribution of over $350 million in 2019. The demand for the freestanding chiller is likely to increase due to a low number of persons per household in the US and Canada. The APAC region is expected to increase its revenue share due to the presence of Australian vineyards, which are one of the largest wine exporters in the world. The high alcohol consumption in the aging population of China and Japan is likely to boost the market.



Market Segmentation by Geography

 Europe

o UK

o Italy

o France

o Spain

o Germany

 North America

o US

o Canada

 Latin America

o Brazil

o Mexico

 MEA

o South Africa

o UAE

 APAC

o China

o Australia

o Japan

o South Korea

o India



Insights by Vendors



The global wine cooler market is highly fragmented, with a large presence of vendors. The product is highly tech-oriented, and the difference lies in the application of advanced innovative technology at an affordable price. The cost factor significantly influences expensive chillers in developing countries such as India, where the middle-class population constitutes a major share of the total population. The penetration of the internet has increased product awareness and consciousness toward the cost-benefit ratio. Vendors enforce to think from the customer point of view, thereby trying to promote the value-oriented approach. Vendors gain an edge over their competitors by improving customer support, quality, and aftersales services. Europe and North America are the crucial markets for alcohol consumption. The competitors in these regions are expected to rely on wine cooler, which are energy-efficient, eco-friendly, and value-oriented. The acquisition of small and effective vendors can help large vendors to increase production and reachability. This strategy helps them to reduce competition and extend business opportunities with wide distribution channels.



Key Vendors

 Haier

 Electrolux

 Viking Range

 Vinotemp



Other Vendors

 Avanti

 LG

 Robert Bosch GmbH

 SIEMENS

 Allavino

 SAIXIN

 EuroCave

 Ferguson Group (Edgestar, Avallon, Koldfront)

 Marvel

 Danby

 Summit

 Ivation

 Homelabs

 Costway

 Della

 Carysil

 NewAir

 Westing House

 Whynter

 AKDY

 Wine Enthusiast

 Kalamera

 Midea

 Aobosi

 Frigidaire

 Insignia

 KitchenAid

 Phiestina

 Magic Chef

 Igloo

 U-Line

 Croma

 Miele



Key Market Insights

The analysis of the wine cooler market provides market sizing and growth opportunities for the forecast period 20202025.

 Provides comprehensive insights on the latest industry trends, market forecast, and growth drivers in the market.

 Includes a detailed analysis of market growth drivers, challenges, and investment opportunities.

 Delivers a complete overview of market segments and the regional outlook of the market.

 Offers an exhaustive summary of the vendor landscape, competitive analysis, and key market strategies to gain a competitive advantage in the market.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05862344/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Sen. Bernie Sanders became the victim of a pair of Russian pranksters posing as teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg and her father, culminating with the Democratic presidential candidate being asked to become a sleeper agent of the KGB.

Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, who are known for trolling high-profile figures, spoke with Sanders  or at least a man saying he was Sanders  on the phone for what the Democratic-Socialist believed was a discussion about the potential for Thunberg to publicly endorse him for President in 2020.

However, the conversation soon turned into a joke about communism at Sanders expense.

Sanders campaign and reps for Thunberg did not immediately respond to TheWraps request for comment.

Also Read: Why Harley Quinn Became a Bernie Sanders Supporter in 'Birds of Prey'

Kuznetsov and Stolyarov posted a recording of the phone call to YouTube along with a crudely-drawn animated video.

In the recording, an unidentified womans voice claimed to be Greta, while Stolyarov played the voice of her father, Svante. The pair offered support for Sanders.

If you wanted to make a statement in support of my candidacy and the program we have outlined for climate change, I would be very, very appreciative, a voice identifying himself as Sanders said, suggesting they do an event together during her next visit to the U.S.

Then came the first bit that should have tipped Sanders off to the prankster-nature of the call.

Greta said she had plans to record a rap song expressing her support for Sanders along with her friends, Billie Eilish and rapper Kanye West. She informed Sanders that in order to make the video successful, it will need to be filled with expensive cars and girls, and he would need to wear gold jewelry and chains.

Also Read: Steve Bannon: Bernie Sanders Fans Made Trump President 'and They'll Make Him President Again' (Video)

Sanders, laughing nervously and sounding a bit uncomfortable, thanked Greta for her work in activism and tried to say goodbye. But the pranksters keep him on the phone by asking for advice about an upcoming visit to Russia.

Story continues

Sanders answers earnestly.

Heres what I think: Russia and Putin have been very bad, as far as I know, on climate change, he said. I think what you dont want to do is simply walk in there and get used before you go there, you can do the research but say you are going to Russia because Russia is one of the important economies in the world, and it is absolutely imperative that Russian leadership acknowledge the reality of climate change and pledge to do everything that it can to transform its own energy system and work with other countries.

Also Read: Al Roker Startled by Larry David and Bernie Sanders Dual Appearance: 'No, Wait...' (Video)

And the conversation made a turn for the absurd.

Greta tells Sanders that he was secretly recruited by the KGB during a 1988 visit to Russia.

Excuse me? Is this what you believe? Sanders asked.

Yes. You become a sleeper agent of the KGB now, its time to wake up and fulfill your mission, she said. Become president of the United States, build communism in the United States, and work for Russia. Ill tell you the code phrase and youll remember.

Sanders then appeared to hang up.

In a statement to the Associated Press, Kuznetsov said the prank was part of the comedians Stars Save the Earth project in which they call high-profile politicians and celebrities posing as Thunberg.

Many laugh at Bernie Sanders (and say) that he is a KGB agent and wants to build communism in the U.S. Since he calls himself a democratic socialist, we decided to play up this topic  the topic of Sanders being a recruited Russian agent, Kuznetsov said.

Everyone, from presidents to street cleaners, are ready to talk to Greta Thunberg, Stolyarov added.

Stolyarov also clarified to the AP that their goal was not to influence the U.S. presidential election, and that they dont expect negative consequences to come of the prank. insisted the pranksters didnt want to influence the presidential race in the U.S. in any way. In previous years, the two have been accused of having ties to the Kremlin  a notion they have repeatedly denied.

Its not illegal, and were well known in the U.S., he said.

Watch the prank video above.

Read original story Bernie Sanders Pranked by Russian Comedy Duo Posing as Greta Thunberg (Video) At TheWrap
Standard Bank has launched DigiMe, its solution to provide increased security on its mobile banking app.

With the accelerating pace of technological change, there is a need for strong authentication by using a combination of two or more factors to authenticate the identity of a natural person, said Standard Bank.

DigiMe makes use of the latest biometric and facial recognition software, combined with multi-factor authentication to create a safe and secure banking experience on a mobile device.

Alongside improved security, DigiMe offers a better user experience, said Standard Bank, as it will reduce the number of one-time PINs and other verification methods used in favour of a simpler, faster, and streamlined approach.

Identity binding

When a user sets up DigiMe, their device will be checked to determine which authentication features it supports  including facial and fingerprint recognition.

Users will then be given a choice of these supported authentication options to implement as their primary verification method for their digital profile.

Andrew van der Hoven, Head of Digital Banking and eCommerce at Standard Bank, said Standard Bank has an agreement with SABRIC which allows it to connect this digital profile to the real person via the Home Affairs database.

This is called identity binding and makes it is much harder for fraudsters to create fake digital profiles.

Better facial recognition

Another way that DigiMe offers improved security, said van der Hoven, is by offering world-class facial recognition to validate the user.

This was reiterated by Standard Banks partner in the project, iiDENTIFii, which said DigiMe uses a superior facial recognition technology to those used by most other banks.

A lot of the institutions at the moment use gesture-based liveness. This was a big topic at the World Economic Forum recently as it is very vulnerable to deep fakes, said iiDENTIFii.

Standard Bank is instead using a different, patented liveness technology that uses different lights which flash and reflect off your face.

To date no one has been able to spoof that, said iiDENTIFii, adding that many hackers from around the world had been contracted to try to do so  and had been unsuccessful.

It is critical for Standard Bank to be one step ahead in the race to provide safe and secure digital banking. This means implementing systems and controls that keep up with the evolution of customer preferences and cyber risks, said van der Hoven.

How to activate DigiMe

To use this new solution, users need their South African ID document or passport, and must be willing to take a photo of themselves.

The process of verifying your digital profile is as follows:

Step 1: Sign into your Standard Bank App and click on the Profile icon.

Sign into your Standard Bank App and click on the Profile icon. Step 2: Click Link and secure your profile.

Click Link and secure your profile. Step 3: Click on the Home or Work button.

Click on the Home or Work button. Step 4: Capture your ID number.

Capture your ID number. Step 5: Scan your ID document (ID Book, ID card, or Passport).

Scan your ID document (ID Book, ID card, or Passport). Step 6: Take a selfie.

DigiME is available now on the Standard Bank App.

Now read: The powerful US legal weapon against Huawei
Scientists from Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU, Russia), University of Geneva (Switzerland), Minjiang University, and Fuzhou University (China) pointed out WDR74 protein playing an important role in lung cancer and melanoma primary tumors/metastases progression. During the research, the artificially gained WDR74 function brought about a high activity in cancer cells. However, when the function had been dropped cells failed to metastasize becoming more vulnerable to chemotherapy. Related articles are published in Cancer Letters and Oncogene.

Except for brain cancer and some forms of blood cancer, not the main tumor but its metastases kill the patient taking over vital organs.

Metastases form at a certain stage of the primary tumor progression when its cells start separating and entering the bloodstream. Such cells are called circulating tumor cells, and they give rise to metastases which are secondary tumors appearing in different parts of the human body.

Fortunately, just subtle minority, tenths or even hundredths of a percent, of circulating tumor cells is capable of metastasizing. A few years ago, Chinese scientists from the laboratory of Dr. Lee Jia (Fuzhou University) wondered what discriminates "successful" circulating tumor cells from "unsuccessful" ones. Searching for a possible answer, they analyzed tumor cells (proteomic analysis) and spotted proteins highly expressed in active metastatic cells and lost in passive ones. One of these proteins was WDR74; its expression level in "successful" circulating tumor cells was two times higher than in the initial tumor. Scientists set up hypotheses stated this protein is a trigger helping a circulating tumor cell turn into a secondary tumor.

Within this discovery, two of our scientific publications were being built, one devoted to lung cancer, and the other to melanoma. To test the oncogenic activity of WDR74 in circulating tumor cells of lung cancer and melanoma, we "turned off" this protein by the method of gene correction CRISPR / Cas9 and interfering RNAs to remove/reduce the amount of protein. After that, we monitored what happens to the cells in the context of their proliferation, colony formation, cell cycle, ability to migrate and grasp in body tissues. We have also conducted the opposite experiment increasing the amount of WDR74 protein in cancer cells. Both types of experiment confirmed that WDR74 plays a crucial role in the progression of the tumor and its metastases. Protein absence decreases, and the presence increases the oncogenic properties of circulating tumor cells. In vivo this confirmed during the experiments conducted on mice." Prof. Vladimir Katanaev, one of the research authors, Head of the Laboratory of Pharmacology of Natural Compounds, Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy of the FEFU School of Biomedicine

The scientist explained that WDR74 has at least two mechanisms of action. In different tumors, they have different priorities. In lung cancer cells, the protein primarily regulates WNT signaling pathways, which are active in tumor cells and passive in healthy cells of our body. In melanoma, WDR74 indirectly affects the expression of a number of other proteins, including the famous p53. The sequence is as follows: WDR74 regulates the amount of ribosomal protein RLP5, which has additional, extraribosomal properties; RLP5 regulates MDM2 protein ligase, and MDM2, in turn, leads to the degradation of p53 protein. The question of which mechanism is responsible for the expression of WDR74 itself remains unsolved.

Lung cancer is notorious for the lack of effective therapy methods. The same is melanoma: the mechanisms of its progression understood poorly. The published studies open up new paths to the development of effective curing methods for metastases of these two cancer types with targeted drugs. Such remedies should hit specific protein targets in the circulating tumor cells. The drugs development is the task of the next stage of the work of scientists from Russia, China, and Switzerland or other research groups.

In 2020, the laboratory of prof. Vladimir Katanaev and the team of Dr. Lee Jia started joint research to develop new drugs for obliterating circulating tumor cells of triple-negative breast cancer. Scientists are after DNA aptamers (analogs of antibodies, but synthesized using DNA chains) that will neutralize protein targets FZD7 and EpCAM. The work became possible thanks to a co-granting program from the Russian Federal Property Fund (19-515-55013) and National Natural Science Foundation of China.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France  Sun, February 16, 2020 10:30 695 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2064d2c7c 2 Business #France,#politics,Russian,sex-video,Emmanuel-Macron Free

Controversial Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky, who claims to have leaked a sex video of a prominent Paris politician, was arrested by French police on Saturday over an unrelated act of violence, the Paris prosecutor's office said.

The political refugee was taken in for questioning over an alleged instance of "armed violence" that took place on December 31.

The prosecutor stressed that the case had no link to the sex video case involving French President Emmanuel Macron's chosen candidate to become Paris mayor, Benjamin Griveaux.

Too hot to handle in his home country Russia, the gaunt looking Pavlensky, 35, fled to France where he has caused uproar by putting the sex video online which forced Griveaux to withdraw from the mayoral race.

Griveaux, a 42-year-old MP, has brought a legal case against Pavlensky over the release of the video and an enquiry has been opened, the prosecutor said later Saturday.

Pavlensky, an activist and performance artist, told AFP on Friday that he had put the video online in order to expose Griveaux's "hypocrisy", and warned that he planned to post more material on a newly-created "political porn platform".

Griveaux "is someone who constantly brings up family values, who says he wants to be the mayor of families and always cites his wife and children as an example. But he is doing the opposite," Pavlensky told the Liberation daily.

The artist has a track record of causing outrage.

He made global headlines in 2013 after nailing his scrotum to Red Square in Moscow and two years later doused the doors of the FSB secret police headquarters with petrol and set them on fire.

In October 2017, he set fire to offices of the Bank of France on Place Bastille, site of the attack on the infamous fortress at the start of the French revolution in 1789.

The bank's presence on such hallowed revolutionary ground was "historically shameful", Pavlensky said.

For that he was sentenced to three years' jail, two suspended, for the destruction of other people's property.

His hardline stance and eye watering protests have elicited a mixed response among Russian opposition groups.

Some defend his actions as a form of engaged art but others such as late rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva were blunter, branding his actions "idiotic".

The December 31 incident, for which Pavlensky was arrested on Saturday, involved a fight at a Paris apartment in which a knife from the kitchen was used.

Two guests at the New Year's Eve party suffered knife wounds, according to the Mediapart investigative website.
Billionaire Mike Bloomberg once told a female employee to 'kill it' after she announced she was pregnant and a former employee claims the businessman spoke 'crudely about women all the time'.

The 78-year-old businessman-turned-politician's controversial past of offensive and sexist comments towards woman has come under a microscope as he competes for the Democratic presidential candidate nomination.

On April 11, 1995, top salesperson Sekiko Sakai Garrison told Bloomberg she was pregnant and he responded by insinuating she should get an abortion, according to a 1997 lawsuit, which was privately settled.

When he heard Garrison mention her pregnancy, he allegedly responded by saying "kill it", the court documents said.

'Plaintiff asked Bloomberg to repeat himself, and again he said, "Kill it!" and muttered, "Great! Number 16!" suggesting to plaintiff his unhappiness that 16 women in the company had maternity-related status. Then he walked away.'

Bloomberg is seen at his company's television studios in 1994. A resurfaced lawsuit claims that he made cruel remarks to women who worked for him in the 1990s

On another occasion when she expressed she was struggling to find childcare, Bloomberg told her to hire 'some black'.

'It's a f***ing baby! All it does is eat and s**t! It doesn't know the difference between you and anyone else! All you need is some black who doesn't have to speak English to rescue it from a burning building,' Bloomberg said in July 1993.

She responded by crying at her boss's harsh words, according to the lawsuit, which is the subject of a new report by the Washington Post published Saturday.

Sekiko Sakai Garrison (above) filed the lawsuit in 1998. It was settled out of court

Former Bloomberg employee David Zielenziger corroborated those accusations saying on Bloomberg: 'He talked kind of crudely about women all of the time.'

He said he heard Bloomberg tell Garrison to 'kill it', slamming his comment as 'outrageous.'

'I remember she had been telling some of her girlfriends that she was pregnant,' he recalled to the Post. 'And Mike came out and I remember he said, "Are you going to kill it?" And that stopped everything. And I couldn't believe it.'

'I understood why she took offense,' he added.

Zielenziger said he never spoke to Garrison about the incident and he was not a party in her lawsuit against the lawsuit against their former boss.

Ken Cooper, a software engineer who now leads Bloomberg's human resources department, told the Washington Post that he did not hear the comments himself, but Garrison had recounted the kill it comment.

Former Bloomberg employee David Zielenziger (left and right) said on Bloomberg: 'He talked kind of crudely about women all of the time.' He said he heard Bloomberg tell Garrison to 'kill it', adding he 'couldn't believe it'

When Bloomberg heard that Garrison was upset by his comments he called her and left along voicemail saying she misinterpreted his comments.

'When you have time, give me a buzz or stop by...I don't understand,' he said in his voicemail message.

'I didn't even know you were pregnant until the other day...(another employee) said you were all upset...whatever you heard wasn't what I said and whatever I said had nothing to do with pregnancies...I couldn't be happier you are having a childI apologize if there was something you heard but I didn't say it, didn't mean it, didn't say it,' he added.

However, Bloomberg died that 'black' comment under oath during the lawsuit. He reached an undisclosed settlement with Garrison.

A spokesperson for Bloomberg's campaign did not immediately respond to an inquiry from DailyMail.com regarding the alleged 'some black' remark.

Bloomberg's company has been hit with several lawsuits over the years alleging that women were discriminated against in the workplace and accusing the founder himself of creating a culture of sexual harassment and degradation.

Bloomberg pictured speaking during a 'Mike for Black American Launch Celebration' at the Buffalo Soldier National Museum in Houston, Texas on February 13, 2020

There have been two reports of alleged sexual assault by Bloomberg executives.

The old lawsuit, and others regarding discrimination complaints at Bloomberg LP, are the subject of fresh scrutiny as Bloomberg's presidential campaign faces hard questions about the former New York City mayor's ability to win over black voters.

As mayor, Bloomberg presided over sharp drops in crime that continued from the term of his predecessor, Rudy Giuliani, and was a strong advocate of 'stop-and-frisk' policies.

Bloomberg credited stop-and-frisk with getting illegal guns off the streets and dramatically reducing shootings, but his critics decry it as a racist policy that targeted black and Hispanic youth.

Earlier this week, Bloomberg tried to tackle race concerns head on by launching a 'Mike For Black America' outreach initiative.

Bloomberg rallied black supporters in Texas on Thursday, with his sights set on so-called 'Super Tuesday' on March 3, when voters in 16 states and territories will cast their ballots in the Democratic primary.

'This month, we look back and celebrate black history together, because black history is American history,' Bloomberg said at the Buffalo Soldiers museum, named after a Civil War regiment of African-American soldiers, where he kicked off his 'Mike for Black America' campaign.

On Thursday he again apologized for backing arbitrary 'stop-and-frisk' searches by the New York police when he was mayor.

'I defended it, looking back, for too long, because I didn't understand then the unintended pain it was causing to young black and brown families and their kids'.

Bloomberg had already apologized over the scandal, but it surfaced again after a recording was spread widely on social media -- and retweeted by Trump -- in which he said police should be deployed to minority neighborhoods because 'that's where all the crime is.'

He received the support Thursday of the influential, black Democratic mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner.

'It's important for me to hear the recognition that the policy that was put in place was not the right policy, that it was flawed, that it was insensitive,' Turner said.
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A vegan activist who has been charged with 22 times in two years insists she will continue to stage protests, break into factory farms and rescue animals.

Brisbane animal rights activist Leah Doellinger, who has over 36,000 followers on Instagram, has been hauled before the courts over a dozen times since 2017.

Ms Doellinger films herself trespassing onto factory farms around Australia in a bid to raise awareness about what she claims are inhumane conditions inside.

She is also the founder of 'Meat The Victims', a group that plans mass trespasses on animal farms to film what's happening inside.

'I take people into these farms to show them exactly what is happening so we can gain the footage and share it with the public,' she told Yahoo News.

'I've been charged 22 times since the end of 2017.'

Vegan activist Leah Doellinger (pictured) has been charged 22 times for her vegan activism and remains resolute in continuing her advocacy

Leah Doellinger and Brianna Thauer (pictured) have both been charged multiple times for trespassing onto factory farms and posting the locations of the farms on social media

Ms Doellinger said most of the time the farmers had no idea she was there with other activists trying to uncover instances of animal abuse.

'It's only when we do a daylight action, and we purposefully want the attention, that they will know we're there.'

Ms Doellinger took to Instagram on February 6 to encourage other activists not to be scared of a jail sentence, listing a group of friends who had been raided by police in recent weeks.

'This is unjust and mental, but it is powerful. It means we are having an impact on these industries and their blood money,' she wrote.

'This is the end for them and they can feel it. They can no longer keep their secrets hidden away where no one can see or hear the innocent begging for mercy but we can feel them and that is why we wont stop.'

Ms Doellinger (pictured) in 2018 with a calf she 'rescued': 'Heartbreaking footage to come, taken from their Mother's left starving to be murdered so humans can have their milk'

Ms Doellinger was charged with trespassing and stealing six piglets from a Queensland piggery in November after posting the location of the farm on social media.

Her friend and fellow activist Brianna Lee Thauer pleaded guilty to charges and received a good behaviour bond.

Ms Doellinger is reportedly planning to fight the charges.

It comes after Attorney-General Christian Porter proposed harsh new criminal sanctions for 'vigilante' activists using social media to incite criminal trespassing and financial damage to agricultural land.

Mr Porter pledged for up to 12-month jail terms under a new offence 'specifically designed to protect Australian farmers' from 'vigilante action'.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Anti-CAA protesters at Shaheen Bagh, who have called for a march till Union Home Minister Amit Shah's residence on Sunday, have not yet received permission from the Delhi Police.

In a letter to the protesters, the New Delhi district police said the march will pass through two more districts and request for it has been sent to the police headquarters for further appropriate actions.

Police said they had asked the protesters at Shaheen Bagh to give the details of the delegation for its meeting with the Union home minister.

In a written response to police, they said 4,000 to 5,000 demonstrators would be marching towards Shah's residence.

The protesters, mainly women, have been staging a sit-in against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) for the past two months.
The Daily Beast/Montgomery County Department of Police

The daughter of one the countrys highest-ranking former diplomats has been charged with fatally stabbing an acquaintance in the neck during a late-night argument.

Sophia Negroponte allegedly killed Yousuf Rasmussen, 24, inside an apartment in Rockville, Maryland just before midnight Thursday, the Montgomery County Department of Police said.

The 27-year-old is the daughter of former director of national intelligence John Negroponte, the Washington Post reported.

Police said Negroponte and Rasmussen had gotten into a disagreement when she attacked him. She allegedly retrieved the knife from a kitchen drawer, unsheathed it, and lunged at Rasmussen. She then allegedly removed the knife and pleaded with him not to die after the fact.

The stabbing occurred late Thursday after the two had been drinking and watching television together, according to the Post. A third friend who had been with them called 911 and said the two had been arguing throughout the evening, at one point even wrestling on the floor.

Negroponte acknowledged in an interview with police that their friend had not stabbed Rasmussen and that she and the victim had an altercation, according to the Post, though she told authorities she did not remember stabbing him.

President George W. Bush appointed John Negroponte director of national intelligence in 2005. He was the first to hold the post. He and his wife Diana adopted five children from Honduras while stationed there in the 1980s.

After Sophias arrest Thursday, Diana Negroponte told the Post, We love her deeply.

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The government has incurred an expenditure of Rs 1.4 crores for providing security to those who are sitting on dharna against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), said Additional City Magistrate (ACM), Moradabad, UP.

Speaking to the media ACM, Moradabad Rajesh Kumar said, "The government has spent Rs 1.4 Crore till now for providing security to those who are on Dharna against the CAA. Imran Pratapgarhi has been warned, that if peace is disturbed due to dharna or any damage to the public or private property takes place, then the loss would be compensated from the organizers, and those participating in the protested."

READ | Anti-CAA Stir: Cong Leader Pratapgarhi Told To Furnish Surety Bond Of Rs 10 Lakh

Earlier on Saturday, the Moradabad city administration in Uttar Pradesh has issued a show-cause notice to poet-turned-politician Imran Pratapgarhi for the expenses incurred by the state police during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The additional city magistrate has asked Congress leader Imran Pratapgarhi to furnish a surety bond of Rs 10 lakh after he allegedly violated prohibitory orders and participated in an anti-CAA protest at the local Eidgah recently.

Additional City Magistrate Rajesh Kumar said a notice directed to furnish a surety bond of Rs 10 lakh was served on Pratapgarhi as "he spread hatred through his speech" at the Eidgah during an anti-CAA and NRC protest after violating prohibitory orders Section 144 of the CrPC. The protests started on January 29, and have seen a large number of women participate. Moradabad DM Rakesh Kumar Singh said daily expenses on the deployment of police and security personnel at the protest site were about Rs 13 lakh.

READ | CAA Row: MoS Reddy Defends Bill, Says 'Not A Single Word In Act Against Indian Citizens'

Anti-CAA protest

Meanwhile, a Lucknow court on Thursday found 13 people guilty of damaging public property during the anti-CAA protests in the Khadra area in Trans Gomti on December 19 last year and ordered recovery of over 21 Lakhs (estimated cost of damage done to the public property) from them within 30 days. Protests erupted in different parts of the country including Uttar Pradesh over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. The CAA grants citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Parsi, Buddhist and Christian refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

READ | BJP Leader Says Anyone Who Has Issues Pertaining To CAA Can Meet Home Minister Amit Shah

READ | Home Minister Amit Shah To Address Pro-CAA Public Meeting In Odisha On February 28

(with agencies input)
SANTA FE  New Mexico would overhaul its probation and parole system  imposing graduated penalties for missed appointments rather an automatic return to custody  under a bill heading to the Senate.

The legislation, House Bill 263, passed the House on a 47-17 vote late Saturday.

Rep. Antonio Moe Maestas, an Albuquerque Democrat who helped craft the bill, said the proposal builds on ideas that have succeeded in Texas and other states. It would help reduce recidivism, save money and improve the states criminal-justice data collection, he said.

Under the current system, probation officers are often left with two choices  a verbal warning or a return to prison  when someone misses a counseling appointment or fails a drug test, Maestas said. The bill would allow for graduated penalties if someone breaks the rules but hasnt violated the law.

You can help people succeed and still hold them accountable, Maestas said.

A similar bill passed the Legislature last year but was vetoed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who cited opposition by prosecutors.

The new version of the legislation, Maestas said, was based on negotiations with prosecutors, public defenders and others.

Republican Rep. Bill Rehm of Albuquerque called it a fragile agreement and urged his colleagues to avoid the temptation to try to amend the proposal.

It was approved Saturday without amendment.
TUNIS, Tunisia, Feb. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Teleperformance, Novonordisk, Safran, EMKA electronics and Mezzo Tunisia were recognized as Best Places To Work in Tunisia for 2020 according to the annual workplace survey driven by the global workplace research firm Best Companies Group USA. The celebration event was held earlier in Laico Hotel Tunis with the participation of over 200 guests from leading national and international companies operating in Tunisia.

Best Places to Work program is an international program providing employers in different regions the opportunity to learn more about the engagement and satisfaction of their employees and honor those who deliver an outstanding work experience. Determining the best places To Work in Tunisia is a two-step process. The first step consisted of evaluating company workplace policies, practices, and demographics. The second part consisted of an employee survey aimed at assessing the experiences and attitudes of individual employees with respect to their workplace. This year research shows again that engaged employees stay with their employers longer, serve customers more effectively and help contribute toward a more profitable company.

"We are particularly proud to have been recognized as the best employer in our industry in Africa. This new award on the international scale confirms our positioning as an employer of choice and our desire to create an excellent working environment for our employees," said Ali HAMOUDA, HR Director for Teleperformance Tunisia.

"Working at Novo Nordisk means being part of a committed community: we work to fight diabetes and other chronic conditions, with conviction, constancy and ambition. we want our work continues to change the lives of millions of patients," said Mohamed Seghir RAIAGUE, HR Director for Novonordisk Tunisia.

"A fulfilling and inspiring adventure carried by a corporate culture where working conditions are good, where values are strong, where talents develop, where friendly times are shared and where individuals express themselves," said Sonia GHARBI, HR Director for Safran Tunisia.

"We would like to thank our employees. 2019 was our best year in turnover and customer loyalty so we all want to thank you for your commitment and engagement you have given to us and we ensure that we will stand by you to help you achieve your goals," said Sami BEN MANSOUR, General Manager for EMKA Electronics Tunisia.

"Mezzo operates in a highly competitive market whose imperative is to provide excellent service. Beyond the technological investments essential to the quality of our services, for more than two years now, we work on a daily basis so that our employees evolve in an environment where our desire to succeed together unite us around the same goal," said Christophe BOUYSSONADE, general manager for Mezzo Tunisia.

"These companies regularly assesses their culture, talent management, and people-related initiatives to think about how they can stay ahead of benchmarks. They don't simply want to meet the standard, they aspire to lead," said Hamza Idrissi, Program Manager for Tunisia.

ABOUT BEST PLACES TO WORK PROGRAM

The Best Places To Work Program certifies and recognizes leading workplaces in several countries including leading programs in Africa, Europe, Middle East and Asia. The program focuses on 8 Workplace factors including workplace culture, opportunities for growth and overall employee satisfaction with the company's people practices. An HR audit is also conducted to examine HR Practices within the organization. Further, the certification is only awarded to companies with the highest standards of excellence in regards to employee working conditions. https://bestplacestoworkfor.org/tunisia

Contact:

Best Places to Work in Tunisia Program

Hamza Idrissi

Tel: +216-51-746-789

Email: hamza@meilleuremployeurentunisie.com
16.02.2020 LISTEN

An Aspiring Parliamentary Candidate (APC) of the NPP in the Bunkpurugu/Nakpanduri Constituency, Francis Kombong Tingoti today successfully filed his nomination papers at the Constituency Office of the NPP in Bunkpurugu to contest the NPP primaries on April 25th.

On his arrival in the constituency, Tingoti was met by an elephantine crowd in Nakpanduri who ushered him into Nakpanduri town. This action led to traffic slowing down close to 2 hours. Tingoti and his entourage before entering the constituency capital made stopovers for the blessing of chiefs and opinion leaders of the constituency.

In Bunkpurugu, the ACP and his sympathisers were met by another gargantuan group that accompanied him to the party office.

The Constituency Elections Committee of the party chaired by Hon D.D. Konlan inspected the documents presented by Tingoti. The CEC was satisfied with all records and advised Tingoti to go about his campaign in a manner that will promote peace before, during and after the Primaries of 25th April, 2020.

Hon D.D Konlan told party members present that the aspirants should be regarded as collective property of the Npp and nothing will be done to favour or discriminate against any aspirant. He added that delegates must desist from taking pictures of the ballot when they go to cast their votes for financial rewards.

On his part, Mr Tingoti who is the Finance Officer of Bagabaga College of Education in Tamale, assured the Committee of a decent campaign. He said, "as you know me, I'm a man of the people, my humility is not in doubt. I have told all members of my campaign team as well as my teeming supporters to be decorous and avoid acts that have the tendency of breaching the very party guidelines I fully commit myself to".

He promised to build a befitting party office for the constituency should he emerge victorious after the primaries in April.

In an address to a mamorth gathering shortly after filing, Tingoti, who was dressed in a white smock told the constituents to continue to have faith in him. He said he has done so much in the area as a development worker and an Assembly Member and would do more in his capacity as Member of Parliament (MP). He told the crowd that he has an elaborate plan to shoot the development of the Bunkpurugu Nakpanduri Constituency to a higher pedestal where the people will live in dignity and comfort enjoying good roads, the best of educational and health facilities and peace.

The APC also hinted that skills training will be core in his development agenda since human development is as paramount as physical development.

The constituency is currently an NPP seat with Hon Solomon Namliit Boar as the MP. Two other people namely Mr Jabong Minnyilia and Duut Daniel Janamah have picked forms to join the race in the same constituency making the number of contestants four.
Queensland is positioning itself to lead Australia in space technologies and capitalise on the industry's job opportunities in a bid to generate billions for the economy.

On Sunday, State Development Minister Cameron Dick will release the state government's $8 million strategy to establish a 50-year plan for space investment.

The Queensland government wants to build on the state's reputation as Australias space coast. Credit:James Thew / Alamy Stock Photo

"Queensland has already gained the reputation as Australias space coast, and through this strategy our government is looking to unlock maximum benefit for local businesses and workers," Mr Dick said.

"Our state has a respected high-tech aerospace industry and is renowned globally for civil and military aviation, advanced manufacturing, and associated industries like mining equipment, technology and services.
Sunitha Natti By

Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Bank funding to private projects fell sharply by 57 per cent in the past ten years, according to the Reserve Bank of India. If banks and financial institutions provided companies with `4 lakh crore in FY10, that investment crashed to `1.76 lakh crore by FY19. In fact, investment from these traditional sources has been on a steady decline since FY11 and even touched a low point of `87,253 crore in FY15. While it recovered the following year, the pace of recovery, it appears, remained weak. Understandably, the number of projects sanctioned by banks and financial institutions too fell 43 per cent during the past decade.

From 729 projects funded in FY10, it fell to 414 in FY19. The size-wise distribution of projects throws up an interesting nugget that the private investment slump was marked by the absence of both small and mega projects. While, large and mid-size category either saw a moderate slowdown or maintained their momentum. For instance, the number of projects each with investments of less than `100 crore fell from 439 in FY10 to 215 in FY19. Similarly, mega projects of above `5,000 crore plunged from 22 to 5. However, large projects between `500-`1,000 crore and `1,000- `5,000 crore remained static at around 40, while the mid-level between `100- `500 crore fell moderately from 189 to 115.

Moreover, the number of new projects undertaken reduced from 454 in FY11 to 320 in FY19, while those undergoing expansion and modernisation stood at 78 down from 224. Among states, Maharashtra took the biggest hit with the number of projects sanctioned by banks and financial institutions plunging from 117 in FY10 to 37 in FY19. Similarly, Andhra Pradesh also saw a significant dip from 73 to 29 followed by Tamil Nadu from 66 to 33.

Within industries, metal and metal products took the sharpest hit when banks and FIs funding fell from 134 projects in FY10 to 15 in FY19. But the good news is, their share in the total cost of funding relatively smaller at 18.1 per cent in FY10 and was down to 2.7 per cent in FY19. Infrastructure accounted for the biggest slice in total funds sanctioned at 49 per cent in FY10, saw an improvement in FY19 when its share rose to 58.5 per cent.

Within infrastructure, the biggest chunk belonged to power sector comprising nearly 31 per cent share in the sanctioned total project cost in FY10, but fell to 25 per cent by FY19. The number of projects, however, increased from 75 to 81 during the same period implying that the quantum of funds invested may perhaps have undergone a reduction.

The meat cleaver was the telecom sector, which accounted for about 16 per cent share in project cost in FY10, which started the downward journey from FY11 and never recovered. From about 6 projects, the number fell to 2 in FY11 and to zero in FY18 and FY19. Ports and airports, however, saw an uptick with their share in the total project cost rising from next to nothing in FY10 to about 15 per c e n t i n FY19.
On July 4th, 1776, the Continental Congress of the former 13 colonies approved and adopted a document that is popularly known as the Declaration of Independence. Generally, it stated that the former 13 colonies, which at the time were British colonies in North America, had separated from the British Empire. The document explained why on July 12th, the Continental Congress voted and resolved unanimously with 12 votes of the colonies to be independent. New York had abstained. The day they voted to separate officially was July 2nd, although July 4th, refers to the date when the document was adopted. It is the day celebrated every year as Independence Day.

History

The Declaration of Independence is widely regarded as the first formal statement of the American people asserting their freedom to choose their government. April 1775 marked the beginning of the conflict between the British soldiers and the different groups of American colonists. At the time, the Americans were fighting for their rights as British crown subjects. By summer, the Revolutionary War was already raging, and the movement for independence was simmering. The delegates of the Continental Congress chose to vote on the issue. A five-person committee was established in mid-1776. The committee included John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. They were to come up with the official statement of the intentions of the colonies.

Writing

It was Thomas Jefferson who wrote the document now popularly known as the Declaration of Independence. Following his publication in 1774 of a tract titled A Summary View of the Rights of the British Americans. The publication highlighted complaints against King George III and was debated in the Continental Congress. Out of this, Jefferson was seen as an eloquent crusader for a patriotic cause. After he drafted the Declaration of Independence, it was presented to Congress for revision and debate on June 28th. It was adopted on July 4th in Philadelphia.

Signing

The declaration of Independence was signed on August 2nd, 1776, in Philadelphia. It was the Second Continental Congress, and the present were 56 delegates representing the former 13 colonies. The Declaration of Independence pronounced that the former 13 colonies, which were at war with Great Britain, the time were independent and sovereign, and therefore were no longer part of Great Britain. All the delegates signed the declaration, and their names are grouped by the states. The states have been arranged geographically, starting from South to North. The first name is Button Gwinnett who was a representative into the Continental Congress from Georgia. The last name is Matthew Thornton, a representative from New Hampshire.

Significance

The declaration of independence is the hallmark of American democracy, and it contains the goals and ideals of the American citizens. The day is celebrated every year, mostly with parades, fireworks, fairs, concerts, picnics, carnivals, barbecues, and political speeches, among other events. Independence Day is a national holiday in the country. Presently, the original copy of the document is kept at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
According to a breaking story in USA Today, a Betsy DeVos-sanctioned accreditation agency gave approval to operate for Reagan National University in South Dakota, a university with no students, faculty, administration, or facilitiesthings which one might think an accreditation agency might notice.

DeVos Department of Education saved this accreditor from being removed from the DoEs list of approved accreditation agencies, even though the agency, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges & Schools (ACICS), had engaged in shady practices in the past, including accrediting predatory for-profit colleges such as ITT Tech, Corinthian Colleges and Brightwood Collegeall of which closed last decade, leaving thousands of students without degrees and undermin(ing) the value of the education of those who did graduate. Those closures led President Barack Obamas Education Department to strip ACICS powers in 2016.

Not to fear: Betsy DeVos was all too happy to ignore these problems with ACICS judgement, and restored the agencys authorization to accredit the mostly for-profit colleges that formed the core of its customer base.

Even more ironic than a university without students and faculty is that Reagan National University is widely suspected to be a visa mill, a college accused of peddling a chance to live in the U.S. rather than offering a meaningful education.

Reagan National has connections to a different kind of troubled institution, via its ties to the University of Northern Virginia. In 2011, federal immigration officials raided UNVA, threatening to suspend the colleges ability to accept foreign students. The suspicion: that Northern Virginia was a so-called visa mill, a college accused of peddling a chance to live in the U.S. rather than offering a meaningful education. The Virginia government closed Northern Virginia in 2013 because it wasnt accredited. It resurfaced the same year with a South Dakota address  the same one Reagan National used on business filings, plus the same agent, Xianhua Fan, spelled slightly differently from the name listed for Reagan Nationals president. In some ways, South Dakota was the ideal place for Reagan. The state has among the laxest rules for colleges in the country. State officials merely ask colleges whether an accrediting group has approved them  they dont independently hold universities accountable. We accept peoples answers on good faith, said Emily Kerr, who runs the division of business services in the Secretary of States Office. Did Reagan Nationals creators have a similar immigration-related motive as the one suspected at Northern Virginia?

So, we have Donald Trump, the most virulently anti-immigrant president in our history, and his Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, the most anti-public education Secretary of Education in our history, providing cover for a fake college selling visas to foreign students to enter the country under false pretenses. Im starting to lose track of the fake colleges with which this administration has been involved.

You cant make this stuff up.

And the cherry on the sundae? The visa mills operators changed the name of the fake university from Si Tanka to Reagan National University in 2017, likely in order to capitalize on the conservative bona fides of the former Republican presidents name.

The perfect bumper sticker for the Trump/DeVos approach to governance as grift.
For some students, college is the first time they will receive formal sex education, said Samantha Cyrulnik-Dercher, federal policy director at SIECUS, a nonprofit that advocates comprehensive sex education. Health advocates say students should be encouraged to speak openly about sex and relationships, especially at a time when 1 in 4 college-aged women have experienced nonconsensual sexual contact and people between the ages of 15 and 24 account for half of all newly reported cases of sexually transmitted diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Rhode Island Catholic priest says abortion worse than pedophilia; bishop responds

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A Catholic bishop has responded to controversy surrounding a Rhode Island priest in his diocese who implied in a news interview that abortion is worse than pedophilia.

The Rev. Richard Bucci of Sacred Heart Church in West Warwick spoke with NBC affiliate WJAR after declaring in a letter published in a newspaper that lawmakers who support abortion would be denied communion, and he called them out by name.

The declaration also came in the form of a flier handed out to parishioners which stated that the lawmakers could not receive communion in "accord with the teaching of the Catholic Church for 2000 years."

"In addition, they will not be allowed to act as witnesses to marriage, godparents, or lectors at weddings, funerals or any other church function," added the flier, according to the Providence Journal.

In an interview with NBC affiliate WJAR about his actions, Bucci seemed to be responding to those who compare abortion and pedophilia when he said: We are not talking about any other moral issue, where some may make it a comparison between pedophilia and abortion. Pedophilia doesn't kill anyone and this does.

Bucci also argued that the acceptance of abortion encourages other violence, adding that "once you say an innocent life isn't worthy of living ... then other life becomes meaningless."

Bishop Thomas Tobin, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, issued a statement on Thursday in response to the Buccis comments in the news interview.

Tobin began by stressing that it is never acceptable to underestimate the harm caused by sexual abuse of minors.

Sexual abuse, wherever and whenever it occurs, causes long-lasting, sometimes permanent and devastating harm to the victims/survivors, their families and the entire community, the bishop said.

Tobin went on to say that abortion is also a sinful, immoral act that destroys innocent unborn life and exploits vulnerable women.

There are no circumstances, personal or political, that justify the termination of unborn children. The Catholic Church has been very clear and consistent in condemning the evil of abortion, he continued.

The bishop concluded by calling on all parties to refrain from unhelpful, inflammatory rhetoric, and to reflect personally and prayerfully on the consequences of these grave matters.

Bucci is one of a handful of Catholic clergy who have called for Catholic politicians to be denied communion whenever they advocate for pro-abortion policies.

Last October, Father Robert E. Morey of Saint Anthony Catholic Church in Florence, South Carolina, denied former Vice President Joe Biden communion during a worship service.

Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other and the Church, Morey told news outlet SC Now last year.

Our actions should reflect that. Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching.

Others, including the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, have been more critical of denying communion to politicians who advocate for abortion rights.

Bishop [W. Francis] Malooly has consistently refrained from politicizing the Eucharist, and will continue to do so, said the Wilmington Diocese in a statement released last year.

His preference, as with most bishops, is to interact with politicians individually who disagree with significant church teachings.
Love Island US host Arielle Vandenberg called Caroline Flack's death 'the most tragic thing' as she reacted to the news over the weekend.

The reality TV figure appeared somber as she was asked about the news that Flack, the presenter for the original UK Love Island, took her own life on Saturday.

'It's the most tragic thing I've ever heard. Seriously,' Vandenberg told photographers while out in Los Angeles shortly after the news broke.

Tragic: While out in LA on Saturday Love Island US host, Arielle Vandenberg, reacted to news that UK host, Caroline Flack has died

Tragic: Flack was discovered dead on Saturday after taking her own life. The 33-year-old host called Flack's suicide 'the most tragic thing ever'

Flack, 40, was discovered dead on Saturday, shortly after being told that authorities were going ahead and putting her on trial for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend.

The star was accused of hitting partner Lewis Burton with a lamp in December. Lewis did not want to move ahead with charges, however the Crown Prosecution Service decided to take the case to trial regardless.

Flack stepped down from hosting the current Winter season of Love Island after deciding that her personal troubles playing out in the media were too much of a distraction.

She had hosted the UK show since its inception in 2015 and was hugely popular with viewers.

Arielle politely declined saying anything more when asked about the situation.

Low: The 33-year-old beauty appeared downcast in a dark sweater and jeans for the solo outing

She later took to social media to send her condolences, writing: 'Today is such a sad day and my heart is broken.'

'My heart goes out to Caroline Flack and her family and friends. Caroline, I'll never forget the first message you sent me, welcoming me with such open arms into the Love Island world. I was star struck! I'll never forget how you made me feel.'

She continued: 'When I was nervous to do my first episode, you encouraged me with such kind words. You made me feel comfortable.'

She later took to social media to send her condolences, writing: 'Today is such a sad day and my heart is broken.'

Solo outing: Arielle politely declined to say anything more when asked

Devastated: 'It's the most tragic thing I've ever heard. Seriously,' she told photographers while out in Los Angeles on Saturday

Arielle also revealed that she and the UK host had planned to catch up in the near future.

'I can't stop looking over out texts back-and-forth about needing to get together for dinner. "A slo-Mo dinner".'

She ended with: 'Thank you for being such a positive, encouraging, kind human. You are so loved! Rest In Peace sweet girl.'

Arielle later shared a happy smiling photo of Caroline and added two a love heart emoji.

Happier mood: Arielle was seen smiling when out running errands on Saturday

The Love Island UK host took her own life on Saturday, after she was told the CPS would be going ahead with her assault case.

Police were seen outside her two-bedroom home in December, where she lived with her partner Lewis at the time, after reports emerged that a man had been attacked.

And while Lewis did not support the prosecution, the CPS still went ahead.

Gone too soon: Arielle noted that she and the UK host had planned to catch up in the near future

Caroline is the third person who has appeared on the controversial ITV2 dating show to take their own life.

Sophie Gradon, 32, killed herself in June 2018 while Mike Thalassitis, 26, was found dead in March 2019.

The future of the show now hangs in the balance as producers have been accused of not providing enough support to its stars.

If you have been affected by this story or you or anyone you know needs any help, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 1-800-273-8255 for 24/7 service.
Actor Alaya F has an eventful 2020. Kickstarting her Bollywood career with Jawaani Jaaneman, Alaya is on cloud 9 to have worked with Saif Ali Khan. And despite so many newbies joining the Bollywood bandwagon, Alaya still feels this is the best time for a newcomer to join Bollywood as the film industry is blooming with opportunities.

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The 22-year-actor said she is not worried about the competition and would only focus giving 100 per cent to her work.



"I believe it is important to focus on your work and everything else will fall into place. All of us are so different that any one of us is not trampling on any one else's face. We all have room to be great and shine," Alaya said.





Her performance in her debut film has got her rave reviews and she is happy for the same, "Ever since I decided to act and went to acting school, I feel things have been falling in place. Everything that's been happening has been very surreal and overwhelming, but still it all felt so right and natural. Everything is taking it's course and in the best way."

Alaya does understand how overnight fame can get onto you and she has thankfully ensured to keep herself grounded.

"I've grown up in the industry and during my time here I've realised that the fame is temporary and that keeps me grounded. And apart from that, just surrounding myself with right kind of people and going to work everyday is what is necessary," she added.




Bernie Sanders hasn't picked up the voters who are deserting Joe Biden, but he's the clear beneficiary of the former vice president's rapid collapse.

The big picture: Of the top six candidates in the race, Sanders' polling numbers have changed the least over the last few weeks  but Biden's fall has made Sanders the biggest winner, since the moderate vote is now splintered four ways.

By the numbers: Biden's national polling cratered, from 28.7% on Jan. 27 to 19.2% as of Feb. 12, with most of the damage done after his fourth-place finish in the Feb. 3 Iowa caucus, according to the RealClearPolitics average.

Mike Bloomberg and Pete Buttigieg climbed 6.5 and 3.5 points, respectively, in that time. (Elizabeth Warren dipped 2.6 points and Amy Klobuchar edged up less than a point.)

But the large, moderate voting bloc that propelled Biden is now splitting between multiple candidates.

Between the lines: Biden has lost his electability aura on top of his standing in the polls. He dropped from 29% to 17% in a Morning Consult poll this week that asked Democratic voters who they considered as having the best chance of beating Trump.

That shift put him in third place behind Sanders (29%) and Bloomberg (25%).

One key stat: Sanders has lower polling numbers than any of at least the past five primary front-runners  Democrat or Republican  at this point in the cycle, according to RCP data.

What to watch: Buttigieg is riding the momentum of winning Iowa and finishing a close second to Sanders in New Hampshire. But he needs money to keep going. He is not expected to perform as well with South Carolina's black voters, either.
UEFA's chief investigator Yves Leterme refused to communicate with Manchester City, saying the club's exchanges were 'unacceptable in tone' after they accused the body of being behind leaks which City say should have halted the investigation into their fair pay breaches.

The exchanges were revealed after the publication of the Court of Arbitration's ruling that the case against City should proceed despite the club's objection.

City had claimed that leaks predicting the referral of the case from the Club Financial Control Body Investigatory Chamber to the Adjudicatory Chamber meant the case should be halted.

Manchester City's claims of a leak have been called out by UEFA as 'unacceptable in tone'

City wrote to the CFCB to protest but Leterme wrote back: 'I must vehemently reject your allegations of unlawful activities, either by myself or by any of the members of the Uefa CFCB... Your allegations are groundless and unacceptable in tone.'

City also cited an interview Leterme gave to magazine Sport & Strategy in 2018, shortly after the hacked emails had been published by German magazine Der Spiegel.

'If it is true what has been written, there might be a serious problem,' said Leterme. 'This can lead to the heaviest punishment: exclusion from the Uefa competitions.'

It seems unlikely that those comments alone would be enough to convince an arbitrator that the entire case had been prejudged.
UN chief Antonio Guterres will speak at the international conference on '40 Years of Hosting Afghan Refugees in Pakistan'

Islamabad: UN chief Antonio Guterres arrived in Islamabad on Sunday on a four-day visit to Pakistan during which he will attend the international conference on Afghan refugees, hold parleys with the top Pakistani leadership and visit the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur.

The UN Secretary-General was received by Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Munir Akram and senior officials of the Foreign Office and the United Nations in Pakistan on his arrival at the Nur Khan Airbase, Radio Pakistan reported.

According to the Foreign Office, Guterres will hold talks with president Arif Alvi, prime minister Imran Khan and foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. During these meetings, Pakistan will share its perspective on the Kashmir issue, it said.

His other engagements include interactions with parliamentarians and the youth. He will deliver special talks on themes of sustainable development, climate change and peacekeeping. He will also visit Lahore.

He will also visit the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, the final resting place of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, in Kartarpur.

Guru Nanak Dev spent the last 18 years of his life at Kartarpur Sahib, which has now become the world's largest Sikh Gurdwara. He will speak at the international conference on '40 Years of Hosting Afghan Refugees in Pakistan', which is being organised by Pakistan and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). The two-day conference starting from Monday will be inaugurated by Khan.
Hong Kongs consumer watchdog has urged residents not to hoard toilet paper rolls and assured the public that suppliers have increased stocks to meet demand, as the coronavirus outbreak continues to trigger rampant panic buying of essentials.

Consumer Council chief executive Gilly Wong Fung-han also warned that stockpiling toilet rolls would make them susceptible to mould growth.

The call came amid a buyer frenzy in recent weeks, with shoppers snapping up toilet rolls, among other necessities, at supermarkets and pharmacies, fuelled by online rumours that production in mainland China had stopped because of the Covid-19 crisis.

The coronavirus crisis has sparked panic buying among Hongkongers. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Wong said on a radio programme on Sunday that four to five major toilet paper suppliers in Hong Kong had told them recently that mainland factories had resumed full operations after the Lunar New Year holiday, and there would be sufficient stock in the city.

[The suppliers] said they have ordered more to meet the higher demand and would be able to replenish stocks to provide people with diversified choices soon, she said.

The council also noted that prices of such items in the city had fluctuated and previous sales promotions by retailers had also ceased.

Wong warned against stockpiling toilet rolls, as the moisture on tissue surfaces could cause mould to grow easily if stored for a prolonged period. This can happen especially under the humid climate. Mould is hardly visible to the naked eye but can harm our health.

Empty shelves in Causeway Bay. Photo: Sun Yeung

Separately, Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, the citys No 2 official put up a blog post on Sunday reassuring residents that Hong Kong had about 25 million kilograms of rice reserves, sufficient to last the population for a month.

The government will continue to closely monitor food supplies in the market. It is not necessary for citizens to stockpile rice and other daily necessities out of panic, he said.

Story continues

Meanwhile, also in a blog post, Hospital Authority chairman Henry Fan Hung-ling said he and his team were scrambling to source for protective gear such as surgical masks and N95 respirators for frontline medical workers.

He added that he achieved initial results in such purchases but did not elaborate.

The authority earlier said that their 18 million surgical masks, 2.2 million protective suits and 1.1 million N95 respirators left were enough for one months usage across all departments.

Fan also called on the public not to tolerate the vandalism of public hospitals and clinics, but to unite and battle the health threat. In the past weeks some designated quarantine facilities and screening clinics were damaged by radical protesters, after residents expressed concern over their proximity to homes.

This article Coronavirus: do not hoard toilet paper rolls as they can get mouldy, Hong Kong consumer watchdog urges residents amid panic buying first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2020.
Colombo: Sri Lanka on Sunday asked the US to review its decision to impose a travel ban on its army chief Lt Gen Shavendra Silva, who has been accused of grave human rights abuses during the final phase of the country's civil war against the LTTE, and warned that America's move "unnecessarily complicates" bilateral ties.

The US last week imposed travel restrictions on Lt Gen Silva and his immediate family members over alleged gross violations of human rights during the final phase of the military conflict that ended in 2009 with the killing of LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.

US ambassador Alaina Teplitz was summoned by Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena on Sunday.

Gunawardena conveyed to Teplitz Sri Lanka's strong objections on the imposition of travel restrictions by the US on Lt Gen Silva and his family.

He said that the move unnecessarily complicates the US-Sri Lanka relationship.

Noting that Lt Gen Silva was one of the senior military officials who contributed significantly to liberate Sri Lanka from terrorism over a decade ago, the minister said it is disappointing that a foreign government should question the prerogative of a democratically elected President to call upon persons of proven expertise to hold key positions on national security related matters.

Noting that the designation was not based on independently verified information, the minister requested the United States to verify the authenticity of the sources of information.

Gunawardena asked that the United States Government review its decision.

Ambassador Teplitz said that she would convey Sri Lanka's concerns to the US.

Earlier, Sri Lanka's ruling and opposition parties strongly opposed the US move to impose a travel ban on Lt Gen Silva.

"Silva was only conducting a war against a designated terrorist group which was the LTTE. The US themselves named many organisations terrorist after 9/11 attacks," Gunawardena told reporters.

Sajith Premadasa, the main opposition leader, echoed a similar view.

"Imposition of a travel ban on army commander Shavendra Silva and his immediate family is regrettable and unfortunate. He is one of the heroic field commanders who spearheaded the national effort to eradicate terrorism," Premadasa tweeted.

"All of us stand by him and his family at this hour of need. As a country we shall always stand with the war heroes that brought about an end to 30 years of terrorism," he said.

Other opposition figures also said that Silva was doing his job as a battle commander and should therefore not be punished for fighting the LTTE.

Lt Gen Silva, 55, was appointed as the Sri Lankan Army Commander last year and previously headed the Army's 58th Division in the final battle against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels of the civil war in 2009.

His brigade was accused of attacking civilians, hospitals and stopping humanitarian supplies to trapped Tamil civilians.

The Sri Lanka Army has denied the alleged rights abuses.

After the brutal civil war ended, Silva served in New York as Sri Lanka's Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN Mission.

According to a United Nations report, some 45,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the last months of the war alone.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday attended the 73rd Raising Day Parade of Delhi Police organised at New Police Lines, Kingsway Camp area of the capital.

While addressing the gathering, Shah remembered Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and said, "It is a matter of pride that the Delhi Police was started by the Iron Man of India, Sardar Patel, himself. I am certain it still provides inspiration to the entire organisation."

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent positive comments must have inspired every police officer of Delhi Police. We must also remember that over 35,000 policemen have laid their lives for the security of the nation. He acknowledged the sacrifices of these 35,000 and more policemen and built a Police Memorial in Delhi. It lays the testimony of these sacrifices."

Shah also lauded Delhi Police for introducing new schemes to reduce crime in the region.

"Delhi Police has initiated the smart policing scheme, Dial 112 scheme under the Nirbhaya Fund of Government of India and have also started the Cyber Forensic Lab to help citizens from cybercrimes."

"Motor vehicles theft application, property theft application, Police clearance certificate application, online character verification report and the Himmat Plus Application are helping the police's communication with the people," he said.

Apart from Shah, Puducherry governor Kiran Bedi also attended the 73rd Raising Day Parade.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A statement from the Cook County Sheriffs Office said investigators had obtained information that suggested that in some cases, Dr. Koinis did not provide vaccinations to children at their parents request.

Was he just doing this pursuant to patients requests and then lying about the records, where these kids get into schools where youre required to have immunizations? Sheriff Dart asked. Or was it something where he went beyond that, where people who thought they were immunized were not getting it?

In their investigation, the authorities had spoken with two people who had worked for Dr. Koinis, but were unable to gain clarity on the matter. After speaking with some patients, the investigators learned that Dr. Koinis, who had been licensed to practice medicine in the state since 1991, was a proponent of homeopathic medicine, Sheriff Dart said.

He was pretty well known for that, the sheriff said. It wasnt a secret.

The physician was also popular in the Evergreen Park community where he practiced, Sheriff Dart said. Numerous reviews on Zocdoc, an online medical care appointment booking service, praised his professionalism and bedside manner.

Dr. Koinis had about 2,500 patients at the time of his death, but it was unclear how many patients he had treated over the past decade or why the doctor had a number of patients who did not live in the general area, Sheriff Dart said.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Saturday said the US has not yet fully set a date for when it will begin a period of reduction in violence negotiated with the Taliban.

"That is a moving date because we are still doing consultations if you will ... yesterday Secretary (of State Mike) Pompeo and I met with (Afghan) President (Ashraf) Ghani ... so I can't give you a hard date right now," Esper told reporters in Munich, Germany, before leaving to return to the US.

Esper said the US will need to make some decisions after the agreement on the violence, which is expected to last about seven days, ends.

"There is a reduction in violence period, and then we have to consider whether or not to move forward with the agreement, with the peace agreement. There will be a reduction (of US service members stationed in Afghanistan) to a certain number over time 8,600 and from there -- actually from the beginning it's all conditions based," he said.

Esper first announced the negotiated proposal to decrease violence earlier this month, stating, "We've said all along that the best if not only solution in Afghanistan is a political agreement. Progress has been made on this front, and will have more to report on that soon, I hope."

The negotiated proposal comes amid continued attacks in the country.

Last month, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction assessed that there had been a record-high number of attacks carried out by the Taliban and other anti-government forces during the last three months of 2019.

"We have agreed to a number of things we would not do as well and (the Taliban) have agreed to a number of things ... We are going to suspend a significant part of our operations, but I don't want to go anymore into it," Esper added.

"Where we are right now is on the doorstep of a reduction of violence period. If we decide to move forward, if all sides hold up -- meet their obligations under that reduction in violence then we'll start talking about the next part, whether to move forward," he said.

Trump has long sought a comprehensive agreement with the Taliban, which could bring about a diminished US presence in the region.

The US and the Taliban reached an agreement "in principle" in early September 2019, but shortly thereafter, Trump called off peace talks and said he canceled a secret Camp David summit with the militant group after they took credit for a deadly attack that killed a US service member.

Regarding an expected reduction of the US forces to just under 9,000, Esper told the reporters: "8,600 number is a number the commander feels very comfortable with that we can go down to and still perform all of our missions, (counterterrorism) and train, advise and assist."
Regulatory News:

Carrefour (Paris:CA)

Grupo Carrefour Brasil has signed an agreement with Makro Atacadista SA to acquire 30 Cash Carry stores in Brazil, accelerating the expansion of its growing Atacadao format.

The acquisition involves 30 stores (including the real estate of 22 of those, which are fully-owned, and another 8 rented stores) and 14 gas stations, located in 17 states across Brazil1. The transaction is valued at 1.95 billion Reais2, to be paid in cash.

The 30 stores, totaling 165,000 square meters of sales area, posted gross sales of around 2.8 billion Reais in 2019 and offer strong geographic complementarity with the existing Atacadao network. The acquisition will allow Atacadao to expand its presence, notably in the densely populated state of Rio de Janeiro (7 stores) and in the Northeast region (8 stores). The new stores will add to Atacadao's existing network of 187 stores, while the company also continues its strong organic growth.

Carrefour plans to convert these stores to its Atacadao banner during the 12 months following the closing of the transaction. Thus, clients will be able to benefit from Atacadao's prices and offer and from Grupo Carrefour Brasil's successful financial services.

Based on the Atacadao model, Carrefour expects sales to increase by more than 60% and the cost structure will be optimized, making it possible to gradually achieve profitability levels close to those of the existing Atacadao network.

Alexandre Bompard, Chairman and CEO of Carrefour Group, declared: "This transaction is Carrefour Group's most significant move in Brazil since the acquisition of Atacadao in 2007. It underscores our strong commitment to expanding our growth formats, in line with the Carrefour 2022 Transformation Plan. With this transaction, we further expand our presence in the Brazilian market, the group's second-biggest after France."

Noel Prioux, CEO of Grupo Carrefour Brasil, added: "This transaction represents a growth accelerator for Carrefour in Brazil. With this acquisition, Atacadao will strengthen its footprint and further consolidate its presence in Brazil. Combined with our organic growth pace, with 20 new Atacadao stores opened in 2019, this acquisition corresponds to one year and a half of expansion and is a significant step for Grupo Carrefour Brasil.

Closing of the transaction remains subject to certain customary conditions, notably including agreement by the owners of the rented properties and approval by CADE, Brazil's anti-trust authority.

The Company shall maintain its shareholders and the market in general informed about the conclusion of the Transaction.

About Carrefour Group

With a multi-format network of more than 12,000 stores in more than 30 countries, the Carrefour Group is one of the world's leading food retailers. Carrefour recorded gross sales of 80.6 billion in 2019. It has more than 360,000 employees who help to make Carrefour the world leader in the food transition for all, providing everybody with access to high quality, affordable food every day, no matter where they are.

For more information, visit www.carrefour.com, or find us on Twitter (@GroupeCarrefour) and LinkedIn (Carrefour).

About Grupo Carrefour Brasil

Grupo Carrefour Brasil is the largest retailer in Brazil and operates more than 690 points of sale. With gross sales of R$ 62 billion in 2019 and more than 87,000 employees, Carrefour is one of the largest private employers in the country.

About Atacadao

Atacadao is the Cash Carry Business Unit of Grupo Carrefour Brazil. The leader in this segment, it operates 187 stores across Brazil and 28 wholesale centers at end-2019. Its gross sales for 2019 were c. 42bn Reais.

About Makro

Makro is a multinational C&C Wholesale company, owned by the Dutch private holding SHV, which controls 7 global companies with a presence in 60 countries and more than 60.000 employees.

Makro has 15.000 employees on its 167 stores in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela, with sales of 3.0 billion in 2019. It is committed to making a difference in the lives of its employees, customers, suppliers and communities.

Disclaimer

This press release contains both historical and forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on Carrefour management's current views and assumptions. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance of the Group. Actual results or performances may differ materially from those in such forward looking statements as a result of a number of risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to the risks described in the documents filed with the Autorite des Marches Financiers as part of the regulated information disclosure requirements and available on Carrefour's website (www.carrefour.com), and in particular the Annual Report (Document de Reference). These documents are also available in English on the company's website. Investors may obtain a copy of these documents from Carrefour free of charge. Carrefour does not assume any obligation to update or revise any of these forward-looking statements in the future.

1 The stores are located in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Parana, Goias, Bahia, Pernambuco, Ceara, Mato Grosso, Alagoas, Santa Catarina, Para, Amazonas, Piaui, Sergipe, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraiba, Tocantins and Distrito Federal

2 About 420 million euros

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200216005025/en/

Contacts:

Group Communication

Tel: +33 (0) 1 58 47 88 80

Investor relations: Selma Bekhechi, Antoine Parison and Anthony Guglielmo

Tel: +33 (0) 1 64 50 79 81
Syrian rebel fighters fire at government forces from positions in Idlib province

Syrian regime forces made new gains Sunday in their offensive against the last major rebel bastion in the northwest, seizing villages and towns around second city Aleppo, state media and a monitor said.

Backed by Russian air strikes, government forces have kept up the assault on the Idlib region and areas of neighbouring Aleppo and Latakia provinces since December.

On Sunday, after clashes and air strikes, regime forces "were in control of all the villages and small towns around Aleppo for the first time since 2012," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The move enabled forces of President Bashar al-Assad to push back jihadists and allied rebels from the vicinity of Aleppo and "secure the city", it added.

The Britain-based war monitor said around 30 villages and small towns were captured by Syrian government forces who "advanced rapidly in the north and west of Aleppo province after insurgents pulled back".

Syrian state television confirmed the report and said army units "have liberated all the villages and small towns west of Aleppo city".

It broadcast footage purporting to show Aleppo residents celebrating the army's advance.

An AFP correspondent near the village of Maaret al-Naasan in Idlib province saw rebels manning a tank in an olive grove and shelling positions of Syrian troops the western part of Aleppo province.

- Chipping away -

A Russian-backed Syrian offensive against the last major rebel bastion in northwestern Syria has displaced 800,000 people since it was launched in December

Regime forces have for weeks been making gains in northwestern Syria and chipping away at territory held by jihadists and allied rebels, focusing their latest operations on the west of Aleppo province.

The Observatory said the drive aims to establish a "security belt" around Aleppo, which government forces fully retook from insurgents in 2016 but which is still targeted by rocket fire.

Last week regime forces seized control of the strategic M5 highway, which connects the capital Damascus to the former economic hub of Aleppo and is economically vital for the government.

On Friday they captured a key base lost to the rebels in 2012 just west of Aleppo.

The Russian-backed offensive has triggered the largest wave of displacement in Syria's civil war, with 800,000 people fleeing since December, the United Nations says.

During the same period more than 380 civilians have been killed, according to the Observatory.

Backed by Russia, Iran and the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, Assad's forces now control more than 70 percent of Syria and the president has repeatedly vowed to retake the entire country.

On Sunday, Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani was in Damascus where he held talks with Assad who, according to the presidency, insisted on the people's "determination" to "liberate all of Syria".

More than 380,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict broke out nearly nine years ago with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.
Britain and the EU will rip each other apart during Brexit trade negotiations, the French foreign minister has warned.

Jean-Yves Le Drian said it would be tough to conclude the talks by the end of the year because of the differences between the two sides.

The minister was speaking at the Munich Security Conference alongside the UKs cabinet secretary and national security adviser Sir Mark Sedwill.

I think that on trade issues and the mechanism for future relations, which we are going to start on, we are going to rip each other apart, he said.

Mr Le Drian went on to qualify his remarks by adding: But that is the nature of trade  everyone will protect their own interests.

Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Show all 66 1 /66 Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A message projected onto the White Cliffs of Dover Sky News/AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Big Ben, shows the hands at eleven o'clock at night AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Nigel Farage speaks to pro-Brexit supporters PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-Brexit demonstrators celebrate on Parliament Square REUTERS Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU The Union flag is taken down outside the European Parliament in Brussels PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU campaigners outside the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A pro-Brexit supporter jumps on an EU flag in Parliament Square PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU EU Council staff removed the Union Jack-British flag from the European Council in Brussels, Belgium EPA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A pro-Brexit supporter pours beer onto an EU flag PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pedestrians pass in front of the Ministry of Defence Building on Whitehall, illuminated by red, white and blue lights in central London AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A Brexit supporter shouts during a rally in London AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU campaigners outside the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU campaigners take part in a 'Missing EU Already' rally outside the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A large pro-EU banner is projected onto Ramsgate cliff in Kent PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU supporters light candles in Smith Square in Westminster PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man waves Union flags from a small car as he drives past Brexit supporters gathering in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU The five-year old Elisa Saemann, left, and her seven-year old sister Katie hold a placard during a rally by anti-Brexit protesters outside the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Europe supporters gather on Brexit day near the British embassy in Berlin, Germany EPA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Anti-Brexit protester hugs a man while holding a placard REUTERS Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A decorated, old fashioned fire pump in Parliament Square PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit Elvis impersonator performs at Parliament Square Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU An anti-Brexiteers stands with his dog in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Paddy from Bournemouth wears Union colours as he sits next to an EU flag decorated bag in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A pro-EU activist plays a guitar decorated with the EU flag during a protest organised by civil rights group New Europeans outside Europe House, central London AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU People celebrate Britain leaving the EU REUTERS Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A Pro Brexit supporter has a Union Jack painted onto his face at Parliament Square Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Men hold placards celebrating Britain leaving the EU REUTERS Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit supporters dance in the street draped with Union Jack flags at Parliament Square Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU An anti-Brexit demonstrator spreads his wings during a gathering near Downing Street AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro EU supporters display a banner ' Here to Stay, Here to Fight, Migrants In, Tories Out' from Westminster bridge EPA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-Brexit supporters burn European Union flags at Parliament Square Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man poses for a picture on Parliament Square in a 'Brexit Day' t-shirt Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU People celebrate Britain leaving the EU Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man wears a pro-Brexit t-shirt Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Anti-Brexit demonstrators visit Europe House to give flowers to the staff on Brexit day Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit supporter wears a novelty Union Jack top hat outside the Houses of Parliament Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Customers Scott Jones and Laura Jones at the Sawmill Bar in South Elmsall, Yorkshire, where a Brexit party is being held throughout the day PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU activists protest Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A pro-Brexit demonstrator burns a European Union flag AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit supporters Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit supporters Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A Brexit supports holds a sign in Parliament Square AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man carries an EU themed wreath Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Ann Widdecombe reacts with other members of the Brexit party as they leave en masse from the European Parliament PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Anti-Brexit demonstrators in Parliament Square PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro EU supporters let off flares from Westminster Bridge Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU British MEPs Jonathan Bullock, holding the Union Jack flag and Jake Pugh leave the European Parliament, in Brussels on the Brexit day AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Newspapers and other souvenirs at a store, near Parliament Square Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Brexit supporters hold signs in Parliament Square AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU protesters hold placards in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU French newspapers PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald with a Border Communities Against Brexit poster before its unveiling in Carrickcarnon on the Irish border PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU National growers organisation British Apples & Pears has renamed a British apple to EOS, the Greek goddess of dawn, to commemorate Brexit day AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU protesters hold placards in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Britain's departure from the European Union was set in law on January 29, amid emotional scenes, as the bloc's parliament voted to ratify the divorce papers. After half a century of membership and three years of tense withdrawal talks, the UK will leave the EU at midnight Brussels time (23.00 GMT) on January 31 Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man poses with paintings on Parliament Square Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU People sporting Union Flags gather in Parliament Square Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man walks with a St. George's flag at Westminster bridge on Brexit day Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A British bulldog toy and other souvenirs at a souvenir store Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU British pro-brexit Members of the European Parliament leave the EU Parliament for the last time Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Jonathan Bullock waves the Union Jack as he leaves the European Parliament EPA

He also said that there were some difficult points to sort out  including fishing rights  but expressed his hope that the negotiations would be completed as quickly as possible.

With the United Kingdom, we must take note of our common interests and our achievements, and develop them in our bilateral relationship, within the Atlantic Alliance and in pragmatic frameworks for action, he tweeted after the panel discussion which was titled Eurovision Contest: A Europe that Projects.

Boris Johnson has suggested that Britain could negotiate a free trade deal like Canada or a looser Australia-style arrangement based on WTO terms.

However one former cabinet minister has claimed that many in parliament expect the prime minister to back down as the reality of no deal approaches.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, dismissed the mention of Australia as akin to no deal but indicated that the EU was fine with that.
Bamako, Feb 16 : The death toll from Friday's attack on the Fulani village of Ogossagou in central Mali increased to 31, Malian Prime Minister Boubou Cisse has confirmed.

"As efforts to deploy our FAMa (Malian Armed Forces) throughout the country continue and acts of adherence to peace have multiplied in different localities, Ogossagou has suffered a new deadly attack killing 31 people," he said on his social media account on Saturday, sending condolences to the victims' families.

However, according to some independent sources, the death toll should be at least 48, as other bodies have been found and there are at least five pregnant women among the victims, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the sources, many villagers feared this attack would happen and left the village the night before the attack to hide in the bushes, which explained why the toll was much lower than the 157 dead during previous attack in March 2019.

Many observers believe that the attack, carried out by around 30 gunmen, was due to the withdrawal of the Malian army from the area.
What a slap in the face for all Americans to have one of the biggest bigots in the country receive an award . . . Rush Limbaugh has contributed to his idol Donald Trump and spread his words of hatred and bigotry!

We all knew how the trial would turn out, Mitch made that clear from the beginning. It was a farce not a hoax and served to also award the worst president with an okay to continue all his corrupt efforts.

Kathy Dugan, Susquehanna Township
Serbia has decorated Austrian Nobel literature laureate Peter Handke for his "exceptional contributions in representing Serbia in the sphere of culture," a move that may anger many elsewhere in the Western Balkans.

"For Serbia, he is a true friend, proven and principled even during the most difficult moments," the head of the awards commission, Sima Avramovic, said on February 15.

"He wholeheartedly defended the Serbian truth even when that caused him much discomfort and dispute, even after he won the Nobel prize," Avramovic said.

The 77-year-old Handke was a controversial choice for the 2019 Nobel Prize for literature.

The Swedish Academy awarded Handke the prize for what it called "an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience."

The Nobel was handed to him at a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, 2019 that was boycotted by representatives of a number of countries, including Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.

Many in the Balkans see Handke as an apologist for Serbian war crimes and a staunch supporter of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic during the conflicts that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Handke did not travel to Belgrade for the ceremony to award him with the Karadjordje Star "for services to the country in peace and war." He maintains a residence in France.

Based on reporting by dpa, AP, Reuters, AFP, and RFE/RLs Balkan Service
Noida, Feb 16 : Authorities have imposed Section 144 in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Budh Nagar district to maintain peace during the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) board exams for Class 10 and 12.

"Board exams have started from Saturday. Section 144 has been imposed so that candidates don't face any problem during the exams. We expect the general public to co-operate as well," Deputy Police Commissioner of Noida, Nitin Tiwari told IANS.

The police officer said Section 144 imposed on Saturday would remain in force for two months.

"Departmental officials are free to take any decision on whatever changes will happen in future," he said.

He further said that the order has been issued by the Additional Police Commissioner (Law and Order).

When IANS tried to reach out to Additional Police Commissioner Shriparna Ganguly to talk on this matter, she could not be contacted.
Shaheen Bagh protesters on Sunday tried to march to Home Minister Amit Shah's residence here for a dialogue over the amended citizenship law, but were stopped by police after a little distance from the sit-in site as they did not have permission from authorities to take out the rally.

The protesters, who had announced that they will take out the march on Sunday, said they were awaiting a nod from the police which, they claimed, had sought some time.

A large posse of security personnel was deployed at Shaheen Bagh in south-east Delhi where hundreds of women protesters gathered to march towards Shah's residence on the Krishna Menon Marg for a dialogue over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

Barricades were put up in the area and the protesters were stopped a little distance from the site.

The protesters chose an eight-member delegation, including elderly women called 'dadis' of Shaheen Bagh, to approach the police "to allow them" to meet Shah and asserted that they will carry out the march peacefully.

"Police said they have forwarded our request to meet the home minister and have sought some time to arrange it," Javed Khan, one of the protesters, said.

He said the protesters will replan their march after getting confirmation from the police.

Another protestor Arbaaz said, "We will not march ahead as the police have assured us that our request has been forwarded to the authorities concerned. Amit Shah has not communicated to us anything directly but it was through a channel."



"So, how does he want us to meet him. We are carrying out a peaceful protest so why would we need an official appointment from him?" he asked.

Another protestor Aamir said "We don't have any doubt about the CAA. We don't need any explanation or clarification on it. We are only going to meet Amit Shah to teach him the Constitution."



Unable to get the requisite permission, the anti-CAA protesters, mostly women, returned to the site where they have been holding the sit-in against the citizenship law, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) for the past two months.

Police officials, including DCP (Southeast) R P Meena and Additional DCP (Southeast) Kumar Gyanesh, held talks with a group of protesters and assured them that their application has been forwarded to the authorities concerned for further action.

"The protesters wanted to know about the status of their application. This was regarding permission for marching from Shaheen Bagh to the residence of the home minister. They had given the application to us.

"We told them that the application was given to DCP New Delhi and it will be further submitted to the police headquarters which will take a final call on it," Meena said.

After continuous dialogue and efforts by senior police officials, including additional DCPs, of the South East District with a group of protesters, including the 'dadis' of Shaheen Bagh', the march was postponed, he said.

The march was unlawful as it did not have necessary permissions from law enforcement agencies concerned, Meena said in an official statement.

"The protesters accepted the police officials' requests and did not proceed. Police have requested them to make a delegation and the same will be facilitated for further appointment and meeting," he added.

Three days ago, Shah had said anyone who wants to discuss issues related to CAA with him can seek time from his office. "(We) will give time within three days," the home minister had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
HANOI, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Sitting by a boarding gate at Noi Bai International Airport in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi on Saturday afternoon, Chi Yanni was waiting for a plane that could finally bring her and her son back home.

The plane, departing from central Vietnam's Da Nang, stopping over at Hanoi and arriving at the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, was one of the three special planes arranged to bring stranded Chinese residents back home with joint efforts of the two countries.

"We are really grateful that we have the tickets to go back home!" said Chi, whose husband works in Hanoi. She and her son came to Hanoi in January for a family reunion but were stranded by a suspension of flights that started on Feb. 1 in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak in China.

The other two of the three planes flew from Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh City and the central city of Nha Trang to Guangzhou and southwest China's Chengdu, taking about 400 stranded Chinese travelers like Chi back to their homeland.

"The difficulties facing Chinese citizens overseas are of great concern to the party and the Chinese government, and also a priority to the Chinese Embassy," said Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Xiong Bo, who went to the airport to see off the Chinese passengers.

China has made various efforts and coordinated with Vietnam to bring its citizens back home. With assistance from the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam, 131 residents from Hubei Province, the center of the virus outbreak, took a plane back home on Feb. 3, and a number of other Chinese travelers went back to China through land ports.

All the three flights were run by Vietnam Airlines, whose another plane on Feb. 9 carried donations of medical supplies worth nearly 520,000 U.S. dollars and 11 Chinese citizens from Hanoi to Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei.

"We empathize with the difficulties that the Chinese people, especially Wuhan people, are going through, and believe that China will win the fight against the epidemic," said Nguyen Manh Hung, a representative of Vietnam Airlines.

On Feb. 8, Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade also donated medical supplies worth 600 million Vietnam dong (about 25,845 dollars) to help China fight the epidemic.

As the rotating chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) 2020, Vietnam has released a chairman's statement on ASEAN's collective response to the epidemic, expressing ASEAN's "heartfelt support" for China, as well as for all countries around the world in their "tremendous endeavors" to address the epidemic.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) on Saturday asked auto manufacturers to shift wholesale despatches to BS-VI compliant vehicles completely, with the Supreme Court dismissing its petition to extend deadline sale of BS-IV vehicles beyond April 1 in order to clear unsold inventories.

Considering the crisis that the industry is faced with, FADA said it is a tough task to sell 100 per cent of the BS-IV vehicles currently in stock with its members in less than two months. FADA, hence, appeals to all OEMs (original equipment manufactures) to shift completely to BS-VI vehicles for all wholesale despatches to dealers and stop further billing of BS-IV vehicles with immediate effect to dealers, thereby helping liquidation of the current BS-IV inventory for a smoother transition to BS-VI, FADA president Ashish Kale said in a statement.

The counsel appearing for FADA cited the slowdown in the automobile industry and urged the court to extend the deadline by a month. Kindly allow us to sell BS-IV vehicles to clear the stock, argued the lawyer. However, a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta said that the court would not extend the deadline even for a day. The bench said the order was passed by the apex court one and a half years ago.

You should not have produced BS-IV vehicles after that. Even after filing this application, you have produced these vehicles, the bench said. In its October 2018 order, the apex court observed that any extension in this case would further worsen the health of the citizens, as the pollution levels have become critical.

Meanwhile, in an internal message circulated to dealers, the FADA president also advised dealers to plan liquidation of BS-IV inventory as per March 31 deadline for the sale and registration of BS-IV vehicles.

The stricter Bharat Stage (BS) VI emission norms come into effect from April this year.

SC rejects FADAs deadline request

The development comes after the Supreme Court rejected FADAs request to extend deadline for sale and registration of BS-IV vehicles beyond April 1
The film Lost Lives is the "polar opposite" of the award-winning book it is based on, it has been claimed.

Lost Lives - being shown on BBC on Sunday night - shocked one of the book's authors, the veteran journalist David McKittrick, when he first saw it.

The film, voiced by a host of Northern Ireland acting talent including Liam Neeson, Kenneth Branagh, Stephen Rea, James Nesbitt, Roma Downey, Ciaran Hinds, Adrian Dunbar and Bronagh Waugh, is packed full of emotion in direct contrast to the now out-of-print tome which charted every killing during the Troubles and which was deliberately dispassionate.

But while writers are often angry when the movies of their books are dramatically changed, McKittrick and his fellow authors could not be more delighted.

"In researching the book we decided not even to use the word 'murder', although it features in terms of charges brought and in some quotes," said McKittrick, who is now retired.

"We wanted to keep it as unemotional and flat as possible. But the film is full of emotion and raw grief. It is very powerful and it came as a shock to me.

"But it's a decision we wholly approve of. There is no objection whatsoever from us. They have decided to go for the horror and I believe in some of the first screenings of the film, there were actual gasps in the audience."

Expand Close David McKittrick, London Independent , winner of the ESB Opinion Media Award at the presentatrion yesterday pic Ronan Lang / Facebook

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Whatsapp David McKittrick, London Independent , winner of the ESB Opinion Media Award at the presentatrion yesterday pic Ronan Lang

The former Irish Times Northern Editor and his co-authors, the late Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, Chris Thornton and David McVea, are listed as consultants but insist they had very little to do with the film.

Graphic footage from the Troubles - some unearthed from the vaults - is juxtaposed with beautiful imagery of rivers, waterfalls, a swan.

And there are grisly details, including flesh and bone fragments in the film, underpinned with stirring theme music.

Like the book, the 90-minute film does not detail the political talks or backdrop of negotiations and attempts to broker peace.

The film-makers selected just 18 deaths across the entire period of the Troubles - including two suicides - but broadly reflect the attrition rate of republican and loyalist paramilitaries as well as State forces.

Co-director Dermot Lavery said: "For us the book was a riposte, a challenge to all of us, for allowing this terrible loss of life, all this grief and heartache in the place where we lived.

"You just need to hold the book in your hand and feel the weight of that loss."

Top Irish actors and stars who were involved in the film spoke to Sunday Life last year about their fears over the political vacuum and Brexit.

Line of Duty star Adrian Dunbar, from Enniskillen, warned social unrest is almost inevitable while the potential return of a border seemed an "utter betrayal".

Ciaran Hinds, whose many movie credits include Road to Perdition, Munich, Frozen and Excalibur, said the current climate is potentially volatile.

Londonderry actor Roma Downey said the human cost over more than 30 years was "so high. Too high".

And Donegal-born Sean McGinley who starred in Braveheart and Michael Collins said: "3,700 people and counting lost their lives in the Troubles. Lost Lives might make us ask the question - why?"

Co-director Michael Hewitt said they had no problem in signing up a virtual who's who of Irish actors, also including Liam Neeson, Stephen Rea, Brendan Gleeson and Sir Kenneth Branagh, to the project.

"Once we explained what it was we were doing, they were all very quick to come on board which was very important to us, firstly because of their incredible ability to deliver the selected extracts from the book," Mr Hewitt said.

"But we also felt there was something important in that they were willing to join us, they were not just lending their voices but giving their voice in support of what the film represents for us.

"A reminder of the terrible loss, in the hope that we do not repeat the mistakes of our past."

Lost Lives, BBC 1, Sunday at 9pm
Jillian Foley in Undark:

ITS AN APPROXIMATELY 600-year-old mystery that continues to stump scholars, cryptographers, physicists, and computer scientists: a roughly 240-page medieval codex written in an indecipherable language, brimming with bizarre drawings of esoteric plants, naked women, and astrological symbols. Known as the Voynich manuscript, it defies classification, much less comprehension.

And yet, over the years a steady stream of researchers have stepped up with new claims to have cracked its secrets. Just last summer, an anthropologist at Foothill College in California declared that the text was a vulgar Latin dialect written in an obscure Roman shorthand. And earlier in the year, Gerard Cheshire, an academic at the University of Bristol, published a peer-reviewed paper in the journal Romance Studies arguing the script is a mix of languages he called proto-Romance.

Thus far, however, every claim of a Voynich solution  including both of last years  has been either ignored or debunked by other experts, media outlets, and Voynich obsessives. In Cheshires case, the University of Bristol retracted a press release highlighting his paper after other experts roundly challenged his research.

More here.
A gunman who shot the teenage relative of a slain ISIS terrorist at a park in Sydney is still on the run two days after the suspected targeted killing.

Omar Elomar, 18, was gunned down by the roadside on Cabramatta Avenue at Miller, in the city's south-western suburbs, about 11pm on Saturday.

He was shot in the chest in a playground before dying in a pool of blood next to his silver Lexus despite the best efforts of a local who tried to perform CPR.

Omar's relative Mohamed Elomar was infamously pictured holding a severed head in each hand while fighting for ISIS in Syria, before later dying in a drone strike in 2015.

On Monday, police confirmed inquiries into Mr Elomar's death were still ongoing as the shooter remains on the loose.

The slain teenager's older relative Shayma Elomar, who considers Mr Elomar like a brother, took to Facebook on Sunday with an ominous warning to her friends.

Omar Elomar (pictured) was gunned down in a western Sydney park on Saturday night

The 18-year-old was left to die by his silver Lexus which was towed away by detectives

Omar's relative Mohamed Elomar (pictured) was infamously pictured holding severed heads in his hand while fighting for ISIS in Syria, before later dying in a drone strike in 2015

'Anybody who had a post up of Omar on the floor with a white shroud with blood stains... please have some decency and stop sharing it and take it down. Please respect our family,' she wrote in the post on Sunday night.

She also warned of fake fundraising pages that had been set up in her name asking for donations.

'Anyone that's receive a Gofund Me page in my name for Omar don't put any money in, its a scam!! Someones trying to use it to make money sickos out here anyways that is all. Sad world,' she wrote.

Ms Elomar was distraught when news broke of her 'brother's' death.

She penned a heartfelt tribute on Facebook where she claimed he had a smile that 'could light up any room'.

'Last night somebody thought it was OK to take away one of the two and only brothers that I have,' Ms Elomar wrote.

The slain teenager's older relative Shayma Elomar, who considers Mr Elomar like a brother, has shared a post urging others users not to share an ominous photo of Mr Elomar on Facebook

She also warned of a fake Gofundme page that has been set up in her name asking for donations

Friends flooded social media with tributes for the young man on Sunday (Omar pictured right, with a friend from high school)

'Omar I have no f**king words! I have no more ambition for life. Omar wanted to be a lawyer... (he) was going places in life.

'Anyone who knew this beautiful soul knew how happy and amazing he was, his smile could light up any dark room.'

Daily Mail Australia understands Omar is a direct relative of Ibrahim Elomar, an uncle to Mohamed and Ahmed Elomar.

Mohamed flew from Sydney to Syria in 2013 to join Islamic State and quickly rose up the ranks of the terrorist organisation, alongside fellow Australian Khaled Sharrouf.

Mohamed's brother Ahmed previously spent three years in jail for bashing a police officer during the Hyde Park riots in 2012.

Ibrahim Elomar and his brother Mamdouh, the father of Mohamed and Ahmed, were sentenced to 20 months in prison for trying to bribe officials to receive construction contracts. They were released from jail in mid-2019.

Omar embraces his direct relative Ibrahim Elomar (far left and far right), who was jailed along with his brother Madmouh Elomar (right) in 2017. Mamdouh is the father of Mohamed Elomar

His relative Shayma Elomar paid tribute on Facebook, describing how the teenager wanted to become a 'lawyer'

Liverpool Police Area Commander Superintendent Adam Whyte said it was too early to determine if the shooting had been a drive-by attack.

'It is very early stages, but what I can assure the community out here in Liverpool is that the incident is not random, it is targeted,' commander supt Whyte said.

'My message to all those involved is that you are best to hand yourself in to Liverpool Police Station.'

Police and paramedics arrived at the scene near Miller Park about 11pm on Saturday to find a member of the public desperately trying to revive the teenager.

The shooting happened directly outside the home of Raed Kalal, who told The Daily Telegraph he tried in vain to perform CPR on the teenager.

'I've heard a gunshot, ran out, called the ambulance, started doing CPR and the bloke died straight away and that was it,' Mr Kalal said.

'I tried CPR, mouth to mouth I had my phone on the ground and the ambulance they were (talking to me).

'I tried my best I'll try save any life, doesn't matter who it is.'

Forensic officers (pictured) continued to search the park - which is popular with children and located next to Miller Park Technology School - for evidence on Sunday morning

Forensics taped off the family park on Sunday morning and swarmed the area looking for evidence

Forensic officers continued to search the park - popular with children and located next to Miller Park Technology School - for evidence on Sunday morning.

Locals in the area said they heard what sounded like a 'party' coming from the park in the hours before the shooting.

Elomar's Lexus - which had red P-plates on it - and three other cars, including a black Toyota Corolla, a white VW hatchback and a purple Nissan Tiida, were seized by NSW Police detectives.

Liverpool Police Area Command are currently investigating the incident.
Rapidly evolving consumer expectations within both the food and beverage industry are driving innovation at new speeds. DTC coffee roaster Yes Plz is one such company delivering creative innovation, offering releases of custom blends with a side of monthly print media.

Driven by a desire to make quality roasts accessible for all consumers, Yes Pls offers a flexible subscription model, allowing users to stock up on their source of caffeine on a weekly to monthly basisa convenient experience that customers can adapt to suit their day-to-day schedule. Additionally, adding a personal touch to the at-home coffee experience, the coffee brands printed zine accompanies consumers' delivery of roast, and offers an example of how direct-to-consumer CPGers are innovating around the concept of commerce and content.

The 16 page mini magazine is called Yes Plz Weekly and printed on large-format newsprint so that it can wrap around the bag of coffee. The coffee company says on its site:

Every month our team of weirdos assembles fun and fantastic writing on culture, music, culinary arts, interviews, comics, and a lot of surprises. Youre gonna love it.

CPG space and beyond are reaching and connecting with customers in new ways along the purchase path, For more insights from food & bev sector check out PSFK's new presentation, Beverage Experience Trends.
Since mid-2017 Russia has been putting into orbit maneuverable satellites that have been practicing, and obviously improving, their ability to get close to the most recently launched American KH-11 photo satellite (also called USA 245). The latest such maneuverable inspection satellite, Kosmos 2542, was launched on November 2019 and was soon maneuvering very close to the most recent USA 245. By late January 2019, Kosmos 2542 was within 298 kilometers (186 miles) of USA 245 and still closing in.

Back in 2017, Russia said its inspection satellites were for checking up on Russian satellites to closely examine damage or equipment failure with the intention of using such data to improve satellite design or eventually enable repair or refueling satellites to restore crippled satellites to working order or just refuel satellites that use a lot of fuel to change orbits. This was one of the functions the American Space Shuttle program provided, using trained astronauts to make repairs. The Space Shuttle program was far more expensive than originally planned and it was not worth the cost. The shuttle mission was in 2011. It was cheaper just to send new satellites up although the U.S. Air Force has had its X-37B unmanned mini-space shuttle launched and returned by itself several times since 2011. The X-37B stays in orbit up to two years before returning. The air force wont say exactly what it is doing up there.

At the moment the Russian inspection satellites are useful for getting close enough to take high-resolution photos of American spy satellites as well as monitor their electronic signals for useful information on how to eavesdrop or jam those signals. Another use is to destroy the few (usually four) KH-11 satellites in orbit. That is no longer as effective a tactic as it once was. There are now dozens of photo satellites in orbit, most of them commercial models that sell the photos to anyone. A large number of amateur ground observers now have the telescopes and skills to detect and track new satellites, especially the unpublicized military ones, very quickly. These skilled amateurs are also in touch with each other via the Internet and share information and often cooperate in gathering more data on interesting orbital activity.

The current Russian inspection satellite efforts were first noticed in mid-2017 after the June 23 launch of Kosmos-2519. Like most new satellites it was tracked from the earth and engaged in some unexpected behavior. This attracted more monitoring by amateur and professional satellite observers. Initially, Kosmos-2519 demonstrated that it was maneuverable as it changed orbit twice. Most modern satellites have some maneuvering ability so this was not strange. Then on August 23, 2017, Kosmos-2519 deployed another satellite (Kosmos-2521) which Russia announced was a satellite inspector. These are not unusual, but they are usually sent up by themselves, not as part of a larger satellite. Kosmos-2521 spent the next two months maneuvering around Kosmos-2519 as if testing its ability to get close to other satellites. Then at the end of October 2017 Kosmos-2521 also deployed a smaller satellite (Kosmos-2523) which did not maneuver. After that and into early 2018 the original Kosmos-2519 did all the maneuvering, using the smaller Kosmos-2521 as the test subject. In February 2018 Kosmos-2521 began maneuvering again, using Kosmos-2519 to maneuver around. In June and July Kosmos-2519 again began maneuvering, changing orbit several times but not moving since July 19. The next day Kosmos-2521 also changed its orbit and has not moved since then.

At this point, the Russians were not talking about what this agile trio was up to but foreign observers, especially those who specialize in satellite security noted that this trio had exhibited the mission profile of a sophisticated killsat (satellite killer). Worse the Russian satellites exhibited the profile of an advanced killsat that did not just destroy other satellites but that could sabotage them or attach devices that would monitor, or even modify, what the satellite did. Until now such an advanced killsat had been theoretical but this appeared to be the first time someone built and tested a prototype. One advantage of such an advanced killsat is that it does not blast (by explosives or collision) other satellites into hundreds (or thousands) of pieces that then become an unstable debris swarm that is a danger to everyones satellites. This new kind of killsat can sabotage or take control of other satellites. Much better. In response to repeated queries, all Russia would say was that the nimble trio were tests of new technology.

The new technology (Kosmos 2542) is now in orbit and closely examining American, not Russian satellites. There is an international treaty that bans weaponizing space but that Cold War era agreement was mainly about keeping nuclear weapons for being placed in orbit. Killsats can be interpreted as a violation of no weapons in orbit agreement but like so many Cold War disarmament treaties the one that applied to orbital space has been largely ignored since the Cold War ended. China has openly tested Killsat technology and apparently so is Russia, just in a less blatant way.

The goal now is not so much putting nukes in orbit as it is blinding enemy information gathering that depends on satellites. This became an issue because of the growing presence of very capable spy satellites. Current American photo satellites have a resolution of about 2 cm (less than an inch). Currently, the U.S. has four improved KH-11 (sometimes called KH-12s) satellites in orbit, the last of these launched in 2013. The first of new KH-11s (sometimes called KH-13s) was launched in January 2019 as NROL-71 and another, referred to as NROL-82, is supposed to go up sometime in 2020. Like the current KH-12s, the new ones will cost over $4 billion each and apparently use more non-photographic tech like new radar systems.

The availability of high-resolution satellite photos with military usefulness began in the 1960s with the first appearance of the KH (Key Hole) series of photo satellites. The first film camera satellite, KH 1, went up in 1959 but the first successful one was in 1960. These film-using satellites supplied coverage of hostile nations through the 1980s. The KH 1 through 9 series satellites sent the film back in canisters so these high-resolution pictures could be developed. The Keyhole 9, the first of which went up in 1971, was not only the last of the film satellites but the largest and most capable. Its basic design was used by the subsequent digital camera birds. The KH 9 could cover large areas at high (for the time) resolution of .6 meters (24 inches). This was more than adequate to spot and count tanks, aircraft, and small warships. The 19th, and last, KH 9 went up in 1984. The KH-9 was a 13 ton satellite with multiple cameras and 4 or 5 reentry vehicles for returning the film for developing and analysis. The KH-9s were nicknamed Big Bird.

The age of film began to fade when the first digital satellite, the KH 11, was launched in 1976. These birds were large, nearly 15 tons, and the digital cameras could obtain a better resolution and broadcast the photos back to earth. The resolution was such that objects 70mm (a few inches) in size could be identified from 200 kilometers. Digital cameras were more flexible than film and eventually surpassed film in all categories. The KH-11 telescopic cameras operated like a high-resolution TV camera. Images were captured continuously and transmitted to earth stations. Computers were used to finish the process and produce photos identical to those taken by a conventional film camera. You could even have motion pictures, as well as indications of heat and the nature of the various items. KH-11 could often tell what kind of metal an object on the ground was made of.

All this did not come cheap. These birds cost over $400 million each and lasted three or four years, depending on fuel consumption to change orbit. Moreover, you needed two of them up at the same time in order to guarantee coverage and save the birds from having to change orbit too frequently. The most recent KH-11, the 15th, was launched in 2013. There have been at least four models of the KH-11 since the first of five "Block 1s" was launched in 1976. Since the 1960s over a hundred KH series satellites have been launched. The Big Bird film using KH-9s didnt last long because once their film supply was gone they were useless.

The next generation of digital satellites, the KH-12 (officially improved KH-11), was supposed to have been launched in 1987. But because of problems with the space shuttle (one had exploded during launch), only a belated KH-11 was launched in October 1987. The KH-12 was delayed, even though it had several advantages over the KH-11. Along with improvements in ground data processing equipment, the KH-12 could send back data in real-time. You could watch events on a large, high-resolution screen as they were happening. This would also allow military headquarters and other users to get their satellite information directly, without going through a CIA or NRO (National Reconnaissance Office) processing center. Data from the more esoteric sensors would still have to be studied by the specialists elsewhere. The KH-12 was expected to make users even more enthusiastic about satellite reconnaissance. It did, in the form of a much upgraded KH-11. Actually, these birds were called KH-12s but are still officially known as KH-11 and still are. That is something of a tribute to the capability and flexibility of the original KH-11 design, the first of which went into orbit during 1976.

The flood of photographic and electronic data was growing far larger than the force of analysts available to make something of it. In addition to the KH series birds, there were radar and SIGINT (Signal Intelligence) satellites constantly broadcasting data. Then there are the Defense Support Program satellites, which use heat sensors to locate the hot plumes of missile launches. So although no new KH-11s were launched between 2013 and 2018, there have been plenty of new spy satellites put into orbit, especially radar satellites for monitoring the earth's surface in any kind of weather.

It has long been suggested that the government just rely on commercial photo satellites for their low resolution (able to detect vehicles and buildings) photo satellite needs. But the military and intelligence agencies often need more photo satellite time than the commercial companies can provide. The government also wants to ensure secrets are kept by having complete control over at least a pair of commercial-grade satellites.

The two new government-owned commercial birds took over the task of tracking troop movements, bases, and military operations in general. The two new high resolution, military-grade, spy satellites were improved versions of existing ones. These are used to get detailed (able to detect something smaller than an inch) photos of something the commercial-grade images (able to detect something 30-45 cm/12-18 inches in size) found interesting.

The troops and military planners are also big users of Google Earth, which annoys the people running the military satellite program. But for many military satellite needs, Google Earth does the job. The two military, commercial-grade, photo satellites eliminated the potential for information leaks (about what the military is buying images of) and provide much more capacity to do low-resolution jobs.
This is part 2 of Yahoo Finances Illegal Tender podcast about the big business behind opioids in the United States. Listen to the series here.

Fentanyl in the form of a highly lethal, synthetic opioid thats been making its way through the U.S. over the last decade. The largest source of this illicit drug is China.

Ben Westhoff, an investigative journalist and author of Fentanyl Inc.: How Rogue Chemists are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic, decided to see firsthand how these drugs are being made.

A bag of 4-fluoro isobutyryl fentanyl which was seized in a drug raid is displayed at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Testing and Research Laboratory in Sterling, Va. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

I went really deep and tried to learn everything I could about this problem, and that brought me to China, he said. I actually went undercover into a pair of Chinese drug operations, including, I went into a fentanyl lab outside Shanghai. And I was pretending to be a drug dealer.

He continued: What I learned was that these companies making fentanyl and other dangerous drugs are subsidized by the government. And so when they work in these suburban office parks, for example, the building, the costs for research and development, they have these development zones, they get export tax breaks.

Illegal Tender by Yahoo Finance is a podcast that goes inside mysteries in the business world. Listen to all of season three: The United States of Opioids: Behind a uniquely American crisis

Chart produced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office for a Senate Drug Caucus hearing on Oct. 2, 2018, with data from the Defense Intelligence Agency. (Source: Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office)

Shoddy regulations on Chinas side has led to these drugs entering the U.S. The U.S.-China Business Council stated this is in large part because local governments were prioritizing economic growth and development objectives above all else, in addition to the fragmented nature of Chinas administrative system that oversees the production and export of chemical and pharmaceutical products.

Lax postal service regulations have also contributed to the drugs rise in the U.S. Initially, those who were shipping fentanyl from China to the U.S. would mislabel the packages and ship them through another country as an extra precaution.

Story continues

The U.S. government enacted the Synthetic Trafficking and Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act, which was signed into law in October 2018. The legislation mandates that the USPS require being supplied with advanced electronic information for all shipments arriving internationally.

Fentanyl from China flows into the U.S. in several ways. (Photo: Government Accountability Office)

I think the first thing that really needs to be done is China has to curtail these policies, Westhoff said. We can only really control what's happening at home. And we needed to start figuring out: Why are people taking fentanyl? How is it getting into the drug supply? How can people better be prepared to deal with fentanyl when it's discovered? And that's something I put a lot of time and thought into.

Back in February 2019, the medical journal JAMA published research detailing how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), pharmaceutical companies, and doctors overprescribed fentanyl as a painkiller from 2012 to 2017. And so the drug  which is sometimes administered when patients with chronic pain are physically tolerant to other opioids  reached more people than it should have and spilled over into the street trade.

This photo provided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Phoenix Division shows some of the 30,000 fentanyl pills the agency seized in one of its bigger busts, in Tempe, Ariz. (Drug Enforcement Administration via AP)

Illegal Tender by Yahoo Finance is a podcast that goes inside mysteries in the business world. Listen to all of season three: The United States of Opioids: Behind a uniquely American crisis

The street trade is where Chinas responsibility lies, Westhoff said. Its part of the reason why between 2016 and 2017, synthetic opioid overdose deaths, including fentanyl, increased by 45%. Data from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows that synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, are now the most common drugs involved in drug overdose deaths in the United States.

At heart, I think this story is really about global capitalism, Westhoff said. And as much as we might want to say, it's the evil Chinese leaders who are inflicting this horrible poison on Americans, really it's the same things that drive global capitalism. The internet age, these drugs are sold on the internet, the speed of shipping has been increased.

He continued: The giant China and the U.S. normalized trade relations in the year 2000, and that cutting down barriers to trade. All of these things are fueling the drug crisis, and people who don't even realize they're involved with it, like the UPS workers, for example, the people driving these barges going across the ocean that are filled with fentanyl, and they don't even realize it. And so it's such a complicated problem that, at the end of the day, it can all be traced back, like everything else, to profit motive.

Fentanyl deaths have spiked over recent years. (Graphic: David Foster/Yahoo Finance)

Illegal Tender by Yahoo Finance is a podcast that goes inside mysteries in the business world. Listen to all of season three: The United States of Opioids: Behind a uniquely American crisis

Full transcript:

Adriana Belmonte: This is Illegal Tender, season three. I'm Adriana Belmonte. Data has shown that the opioid crisis will have cost the US economy more than $819 billion, from 2015 through 2019. To put that into perspective, that's over five times the cost of weather and climate disasters between 2016 to 2018. Between 2016 and 2017, synthetic opioid overdose deaths, including fentanyl, spiked upward by 45%. Fentanyl can be 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. And according to the National Institute of Health, synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, are now the most common drugs involved in drug overdose deaths in the United States. So who is it that's responsible for this fentanyl surge? Is it our pharmaceutical companies? The drug cartels in Mexico? Or chemistry labs out of China?

Ben Westhoff: Yeah, we do think of the Mexican cartels as supplying almost all the drugs that Americans have. And that's true of heroin, meth, cocaine, and even marijuana to a large extent. But these new drugs, particularly fentanyl, they're made in the lab and they're all made in China. And so, what China does is these are, these are chemists, these are in some cases legitimate chemists and companies who make these drugs, and sometimes they're even made legally by Chinese law. There's these different types of fentanyl, different types of new drugs. And then they are shipped to the Mexican cartels, who distribute them in the US. Sometimes fentanyl and other drugs made in China are actually shipped through the US mail directly to consumers. And so you have the US Postal Service, FedEx, UPS, all unwittingly serving as drug couriers to Americans.

Adriana: A 2019 study from the Cleveland Fed, found that prescription opioids accounted for 44% of the decline in labor force participation among men between 2001 and 2015. So look at it this way. The reason why almost half of America's men are out of the workforce is because of opioids. So where are these drugs actually coming from? For fentanyl, it's mostly coming from China. Ben Westhoff detailed it in his book, Fentanyl, Inc.

BW: I went really deep and tried to learn everything I could about this problem, and that brought me to China. I actually went undercover into a pair of Chinese drug operations, including, I went into a fentanyl lab outside Shanghai, and I was pretending to be a drug dealer.

A reporter holds up an example of the amount of fentanyl that can be deadly. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

BW: It was all very harrowing and my wife and family were concerned for my wellbeing. But in the process I learned that these are normal companies. I was expecting, like I said, an underground sort of drug lair, with guys holding AK47s guarding the doors. But it wasn't like that. The lab I visited looked like a suburban office park. And what I learned was that these companies making fentanyl and other dangerous drugs are subsidized by the government. And so when they work in these suburban office parks, for example, the building, the costs for research and development, they have these development zones, they get export tax breaks. And so, I think the first thing that really needs to be done is China has to curtail these policies. We can only really control what's happening at home. And we needed to start figuring out, why are people taking fentanyl? How is it getting into the drug supply? How can people better be prepared to deal with fentanyl when it's discovered? And that's something I put a lot of time and thought into.

Adriana: Now, when you were in China, did you know, is fentanyl a big issue there as well in terms of addiction, or is it just being taken out of China to other places?

BW: I got to learn a lot of interesting things about drug culture in China. And one thing that really shocked me first of all was that almost nobody uses marijuana. Almost nobody uses cocaine. The drugs of abuse in China tend to be things like meth and heroin. And even ketamine is very popular, but fentanyl is not a problem in China. China does not have a fentanyl crisis nearly the scope that the US does, or Canada, also has a really big problem. And so to a lot of people, this is why China hasn't really cracked down on its fentanyl industry, because its own people aren't dying from it. And so the way the Chinese government works is, fentanyl is illegal there, but it's not so much just the laws on the books, it's what resources the government dedicates to cracking down on different problems. And so when it comes to meth, which is a huge problem among Chinese citizens, the government has really focused on trying to stamp it out, take drug dealers down, disrupt operations. But when it comes to fentanyl being made there, that's just not the case.

Adriana: So, I know you talk a lot about this in your book, but for people who aren't familiar with it, what was it that took you to China to begin with, and what made you want to go to this particular place in China?

BW: I heard so much that fentanyl came from China, and I wanted to know, how are people ordering this? And so I just Googled "buy fentanyl in China" and I was shocked when just dozens and dozens of different companies, web addresses came up, and you could just directly email the sales people. And so I was in contact with a bunch of them. I made a fake email address and I said, "Tell me more about your company." And sometimes I would get up at four in the morning to do Skype conversations with salespeople in places like Guangdong and Shanghai and Wuhan. And we talked about drugs. But I also talked about, what's life like as someone who was selling these awful chemicals? And I got to really know the human side of the people working for these companies as well.

A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chemist checks confiscated powder containing fentanyl at the DEA Northeast Regional Laboratory on October 8, 2019 in New York. (Photo by DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images)

Adriana: Now, did you ever feel like your life was in danger while you were in infiltrating these labs?

BW: It was definitely a scary experience. One thing that I took a little bit of comfort in, is that these people running these labs really are business people and so they don't, gun control is very strong in China. Even the criminals don't tend to have guns. And so I was, however, really worried about the Chinese government because I wasn't there on a tourist visa. Excuse me, I was there on a tourist visa. I wasn't there on a journalist visa, because I knew if I got a journalist visa they wouldn't let me do the things I wanted to do. And so, but I've since talked with the US department, the State department, and they are warning me, don't go back to China, what you did is grounds enough to be put in jail. And so I am taking their advice.

Adriana: So, how did they find out? It was once the book came out that they found out about all the undercover work you did?

BW: Well, I don't even know if they do know. That's the thing. They might have never have heard of me, I might be top of their most wanted list. I just, there's no way to know, and so I can't take my chances.

Adriana: And I know that there were some people that you had formed, I guess, a cordial relationship with while you were there. Have you heard from any of them since then?

BW: I haven't heard from the sales people, but I have learned a lot of information about this company that I wrote about in great detail. The company is called [Yuan Chung 00:00:07:29]. They're based in Wuhan, huge portion of the book, my book, Fentanyl, Inc., is dedicated to, how did this company come to be? They came to sell more fentanyl ingredients than any company in the world. I did this deep dive about the CEO, how he amassed his fortune, how they came to start selling these chemicals. And I ended up in China going to their sales floor, with hundreds of sales people, young people just out of college, behind laptops, using social media to sell this stuff. And I ran the numbers on this company and they're making a ton of money. But since then, since the book came out, there has actually been a big fire at their factory and it came out the exact, that the fire happened the exact same time when my first excerpt for this book came out, it was in the Atlantic magazine and it was all about this company.

An officer from the Customs and Border Protection, Trade and Cargo Division works with a dog to check parcels at John F. Kennedy Airport's US Postal Service facility. (Photo by JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images)

BW: And so right when that happened, there was a huge fire at the factory, and the police said in the article, that arson had not been ruled out. So I am curious to know what's going on behind the scenes there.

Adriana: And what was some of the things that you saw while you were infiltrating this Chinese lab? I know you said that the place looks very normal for a place that's making illegal drugs, but what were some of the other things that you witnessed?

BW: Yeah, well I go into detail in my book, but this place that was selling the fentanyl precursors was, in a way, it wasn't all that different than the Yahoo offices here. They had their own chef, they had this big canteen, they tried to promote team-building. It was very corporate in its on the way. They work long hours. They had to work Saturdays, and it was actually in an old hotel, and so all the employees lived in the hotel as well. And that was actually a sales point to try to get people to work there, because room and board were provided. So, I'm not saying you should give up your jobs here and move there, but there were similarities.

Adriana: And what do you think was the most surprising thing about your experience there in China, that you weren't expecting?

BW: Well, I loved going to China. I loved being there and it makes me sad to think I can't go back. But, at heart, I think this story is really about global capitalism. And as much as we might want to say, it's the evil Chinese leaders who are inflicting this horrible poison on Americans, really it's the same things that drive global capitalism. The internet age, these drugs are sold on the internet, the speed of shipping has been increased. All, the giant China and the US normalized trade relations in the year 2000, and that cutting down barriers to trade. All of these things are fueling the drug crisis, and people who don't even realize they're involved with it, like the UPS workers, for example, the people driving these barges going across the ocean that are filled with fentanyl, and they don't even realize it. And so it's such a complicated problem that, at the end of the day, it can all be traced back, like everything else, to profit motive.

Adriana: Also in your book you talk about how these Chinese labs are manufacturing it. So, can you go into a little bit more detail of how it's making its way into the US and what's happening before it gets to the US as well?

BW: Yeah, we do think of the Mexican cartels as supplying almost all the drugs that Americans have. And that's true of heroin, meth, cocaine, and even marijuana to a large extent. But these new drugs, particularly fentanyl, they're made in the lab and they're all made in China. And so, what China does is these are, these are chemists, these are in some cases legitimate chemists and companies who make these drugs, and sometimes they're even made legally by Chinese law. There's these different types of fentanyl, different types of new drugs. And then they are shipped to the Mexican cartels, who distribute them in the US. Sometimes fentanyl and other drugs made in China are actually shipped through the US mail directly to consumers. And so you have the US Postal Service, FedEx, UPS, all unwittingly serving as drug couriers to Americans.

Drug overdose deaths declined in 2018, but fentanyl overdose deaths increased. (Graphic: David Foster/Yahoo Finance)

Adriana: So you're talking about the postal service, how it's being used as couriers here? Should they be held responsible for this? Does the blame go to China, these labs, where does the primary responsibility lie for getting to the root of this issue?

BW: Right. Well, there is a lot of blame to be spread around. I talk about, in Fentanyl, Inc., the case of an 18-year-old boy from North Dakota named Bailey Hanke, and he overdosed and died from fentanyl that he got from just the local neighborhood high school drug dealer. And that guy got it off the dark web. And so, the dark web, you probably know, is the disguised internet protocol that has all these drug marketplaces. And the man who was selling via the dark web was based in Portland, Oregon. And then he had a connection, and another connection, and finally it could be sourced back to China. And so the DEA and other departments of US law enforcement prosecuted people on every step of this drug ladder, except who they couldn't prosecute were the Chinese chemists who actually made the drug.

BW: And that's because China doesn't extradite criminals accused of US crimes. And so, when we're talking about who's to blame for the fentanyl crisis, we've got to start at home. Why is the demand so high? But in terms of China, and that's what I really focused on in my book in large part, China is not only doing a poor job stopping fentanyl from getting exported to the US, they are even encouraging it in a lot of ways, through the tax code and all these complicated ways that add up to a really troubling situation.

Adriana: So now we know how it's getting in, but how is it spreading? Why is fentanyl and other opioid use so rampant in the United States? One thing that Ben pointed out, that's worth noting, is that fentanyl is not a drug that people are seeking out. Meaning it's often being accidentally consumed by being cut into other drugs, particularly heroin and prescription tablets. So essentially someone who is using drugs purchased from unreliable sources is often at risk of trying fentanyl, and by proxy, at high risk for overdose, because just a small amount of fentanyl can have deadly consequences.

Ryan: So, my name is Ryan Marino. I'm an emergency physician, so I work in the emergency room, and I'm also a medical toxicologist.

Adriana: When it comes to patients overdosing and receiving treatment. We wanted to speak to a professional.

RM: And certainly prescription opioids were over prescribed, were a big factor leading into the problem we're in now, but this is not prescription fentanyl. Fentanyl was never really one of the ones that was being prescribed heavily, even though it is an opioid we use medically. But fentanyl is just a nice synthetic opioid that people can make at home. You can make it in a lab very easily. People can order the precursor parts on the internet. You can ship it in bulk from places like China, and then make it somewhere like Mexico, or even in the United States now. And so that's where fentanyl is coming from. And the reason for that is because, not because of prescriptions either, but because heroin has been so effectively targeted by criminal justice efforts, and supply side interventions, that there isn't really enough heroin production anymore to match the rate of people who were using heroin before.

Steph Gaspar, a volunteer outreach worker with The Hand Up Project, an addiction and homeless advocacy group, cleans up needles used for drug injection that were found at a homeless encampment in Everett, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

RM: So, fentanyl is made into a powder that looks very similar to heroin and then it's usually sold as heroin, in the same way, used the exact same way. But fentanyl itself is about 50 times more potent. So, whereas street heroin used to be about 50% pure heroin, if you think of that, fentanyl is about 1% pure to get the same dose. And so a change in percentage of just 1% purity can give someone twice the dose that they would be expecting. And that's where all these overdoses are coming from.

RM: And then another big misconception here, since I did say that this is not medical fentanyl, is that even though it isn't medical fentanyl, it's being sold in street drugs, and people refer to this as illicit fentanyl. It's the same molecule. It is the same exact drug as the fentanyl we use in the hospital, that people have been using day in and day out for the past almost 50 years.

Adriana: There are countless misconceptions about fentanyl, and the use of opioids in general, but there are even more about the people who turn to these drugs to begin with. Oftentimes addiction begins with simply experimenting. It doesn't just happen overnight. Here's what Andrew [Burki], the chief public policy officer at the Hanley Foundation had to say.

Andrew: I wouldn't classify what I was doing as a substance use disorder. I would classify it as experimentation and substance misuse. But once those opioids hit your system, when I started really getting into substances, that's when I sort of took off, and of course I ended up on heroin. So there are no, there's certainly, you have 200 million Americans plus that are moderate with alcohol consumption. You have a lot of people even that moderate with marijuana consumption. There are no social heroin addicts, it's heroin users rather. You are either using heroin or you're not using heroin. There's no gray, and especially with fentanyl, as you cover extensively. No-one would, from a recreational standpoint, roll the dice on potentially dying every single time they use, which is why we have 70,000 Americans dying each year now. We just, this decade that's about to wrap up in whatever, 10 days or so, less than two weeks, is, we lost half a million Americans to overdose. It's just an unacceptable. That is fundamentally unacceptable.

Editors Note: After the time that this podcast was recorded, Andrew Burki was arrested on three counts of sexual assault, aggravated assault on a domestic violence victim, and possession of a firearm magazine capable of holding more bullets than allowed under New Jersey state law.

Adriana: In our third and final episode of this season, we learn about the stigma associated with drug use and the consequences that come with it. Why do you think that there is this stigma still towards losing somebody to substance use disorder?

Cheryl Juaire: Because I think people look down on you. "Your child died from an overdose. He must have been a bad kid. You must have raised him wrong. You must have done something wrong." And that's the mentality of thinking, unless it's touched them, really touched them. Unless they know somebody, they're just going to be ignorant to it, unless they come up and say, "Tell me about that loss. What happened?" And that's when we can educate them. That's when it will change things. But the ones who have been in the throes of addiction, the ones who have lost their children to addiction, we all know, and we all get it.

Adriana: Illegal Tender is made by Yahoo Finance, at our studios in New York City. This episode was written and hosted by me, Adriana Belmonte. Illegal Tender was created, edited, and produced by Alex Sugg. Thank you to Ben Westhoff, Ryan Marino, Andrew Burki and Cheryl Juaire for contributing to this story. Westhoff's book, Fentanyl, Inc,. How Rogue Chemists are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic, is available now from Grove Atlantic. If you enjoy this podcast, head over to Apple podcasts and leave us a five-star rating, and review it for the show. Until next time, thank you for listening to Illegal Tender.

Adriana is an editor and reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @adrianambells.
The Hong Kong government is arranging chartered flights to bring home more than 300 Hongkongers stranded aboard the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess, which has been docked in Japan for 11 days because of coronavirus infections.

In a late night statement on Saturday, the Security Bureau said the chartered flights would carry for free Hong Kong residents allowed to disembark and they would be notified about the return date and related arrangements once the Japanese authorities had confirmed the plan.

The [Hong Kong] government will continue to urge the Japanese side to confirm the detailed arrangements for the disembarkation of the passengers on board as soon as possible, the bureau said.

It said the Immigration Department and the citys economic and trade office in Tokyo had maintained close contact with the foreign ministrys office in Hong Kong, the Chinese embassy in the Japanese capital and the Japanese foreign ministry over the progress of the quarantine.

Of the 330 Hongkongers on the ship, 260 hold SAR passports while the other 70 have foreign ones.

They will have to spend 14 days in a quarantine centre upon arrival in Hong Kong.

By Friday, 11 Hongkongers were among more than 285 cases of infection detected on the Diamond Princess and were receiving hospital treatment in Japan.

The ship, which has 3,700 passengers on board, left Hong Kong on January 25, and visited Vietnam, Taiwan and Okinawa.

But as the voyage was about to end in Yokohama on February 4, the Japanese authorities banned people from leaving the ship for two weeks because a former passenger had been found infected with the coronavirus.

The infected 80-year-old man from Hong Kong had disembarked in Yokohama on January 25.

Some passengers on board have complained about their situation, including delayed provision of meals and being confined to their rooms for most of the day.

Hong Kong politicians and those stranded aboard had called on the government to bring the passengers back.

This article Coronavirus: Hong Kong to arrange chartered flights to bring home residents stranded on quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2020.
The number of people who have tested positive for the new coronavirus on a quarantined ship off Japan's coast has risen to 355, the country's health minister said Sunday.

"So far, we have conducted tests for 1,219 individuals. Of those, 355 people tested positive. Of those, 73 individuals are not showing symptoms," Katsunobu Kato told a roundtable discussion on public broadcaster NHK -- a rise of 70 from the last government toll.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hong Kong: Chartered flight set for HK people

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is arranging a chartered flight to bring Hong Kong residents quarantined on a cruise ship in Japan back home free of charge.

The Security Bureau today said the flight will proceed as soon as residents are permitted to disembark the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Yokohama.

Once Japanese authorities have confirmed the detailed arrangements, the Hong Kong SAR Government will inform the affected passengers of their return date and related details.

Given the potential risk to public health, those returning will be placed under quarantine for 14 days upon arriving in Hong Kong.

Immigration officers are concurrently notifying passengers concerned of their arrangements via text messages.

The Immigration Department and the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office, Tokyo have been maintaining close contact with the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Peoples Republic of China in the HKSAR, the Chinese Embassy in Japan, and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to keep abreast of updated conditions of Hong Kong residents quarantined on the cruise ship.

The SAR Government will continue to urge the Japanese side to confirm the passengers disembarkation details as soon as possible.

According to the cruise operator, there are around 330 Hong Kong residents on board, including 260 SAR passport holders and around 70 holding foreign passports.

This story has been published on: 2020-02-16. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Bella Hadid just wrapped her runway stint for New York Fashion Week alongside sister Gigi Hadid on Wednesday.

But there is no time to rest up. The 23-year-old model was spotted leaving her NYC apartment on Saturday evening - suitcase in hand - en route to her next stop, London Fashion Week.

The single stunner spent her Valentine's Day alongside pal and fellow model Kendall Jenner, as they enjoyed lunch in Soho and partook in a leisurely Whole Foods run.

Here we go: Bella Hadid was spotted leaving her NYC apartment on Saturday evening

Casual cutie: Hadid opted for comfort over cool as she headed out of her apartment with a visibly makeup free face and her brunette hair strewn about

Hadid's in flight fashion veered on the side of comfort, as she donned a visibly makeup free face and various oversize garments.

She bundled up her svelte frame in a furry beige coat layered over a thick green hoodie.

The basic hoodie was mostly covered by Hadid's grunge-inspired flannel.

She rounded out her jet setting ensemble by slipping her slender stems into a pair of black straight leg jeans and her feet into a pair of Off-White collab Nike sneakers.

The model concealed her piercing blue peepers behind some darkly tinted shades, as she made her way to a nearby vehicle resting outside her apartment.

Model mayhem: The 23-year-old was en route to London for London Fashion Week, just two days after wrapping her stint at New York Fashion Week

Hadid's hands were visibly full as she held on tightly to her iPhone 11, while simultaneously lugging along her hot pink Louis Vuitton luggage.

The day before, Bella enjoyed a Galentine's Day out with Kendall Jenner, as well as their mutual pale Justine Skye.

The trio made their first stop of the day at Bubby's restaurant in Soho, where they chowed down on plates of comfort food.

For the girls: On Friday, Bella headed out with her pal Kendall Jenner for a boy-free Valentine's Day out in NYC

Street style: Bella and Kendall showed off their unique street style during their impromptu V-Day outing on Friday

After their meal, Bella and Kendall showed off their notable street style, while updating their technology collections at a local Best Buy shop.

The models' bodyguard could be seen exiting the electronics chain with bags in his hands, as Bella and Kendall headed to a nearby vehicle.

They then headed over to browsed the various aisles with Skye taking the reigns on the shopping cart.

Girls gotta eat! The trio of pals hit up a local Whole Foods so they could stock up on some snacks

So long, NYC! Hadid wrapped her NYFW stint on Wednesday when she walked the Marc Jacobs show

London Fashion Week kicked off on Friday and continues until February 18.

New York Fashion Week began on February 3 and rounded out the last of its Fall/Winter 2020 designer reveals on February 13.

Bella wrapped her final runway walk in New York on February 12, where she strutted her stuff in the latest styles from designer Marc Jacobs.

Most notably, the supermodel walked for the likes of Michael Kors, Brandon Maxwell, Oscar De La Renta, and ethereal fashion label Rodarte.
EVEN with the lifting of the temporary travel ban to and from Taiwan on Friday, Feb. 14, 2020, it may still take some time for operations at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) to normalize.

Its not that easy to resume canceled flights since affected passengers have already altered their travel plans and airlines, generally, need time to book reservations for their flights, said Steve Dicdican, MCIA Authority general manager and chief executive officer, in a text message to SunStar Cebu on Saturday, Feb. 15.

However, he expects all Taiwan routes prior to the travel ban to resume. He said they originally had 49 weekly flights to and from Taiwan.

Fortunately, our Taiwan market is growing and we will be adding to the number of flights within the year, he said.

In a related development, Terence Anthony Bermejo, Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) - Cebu chief, said Filipinos from Taiwan who were placed in a quarantine before the ban was lifted have gone home.

Weve released all of them. There was no need for them to be placed in a quarantine facility or home quarantine because the ban has been lifted. That would be moot, he said in Cebuano.

Bermejo said the same safety measures and quarantine protocols apply at the MCIA and seaports in the province for Filipinos arriving from China and its special administrative regions like Hong Kong and Macau.

Filipino passengers from these place will have to be placed either in home or facility quarantine.

Thermal screening and health declaration checklists are also still being done and distributed in airports, he added.

In Mandaue City, Rose Marie Tirado, city health office chief, said they will still have to come up with a list by Monday, Feb. 17, of Persons Under Monitoring (PUMs) who will be released after the travel ban to Taiwan was lifted.

She told SunStar Cebu they need to strengthen their information dissemination as some landlords and condominium managers reportedly have not allowed PUMs to enter their premises for fear the PUMs would cause panic among other unit owners.

Story continues

She clarified that PUMs are those who recently traveled to mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong or had contact with persons positive of the 2019 novel coronavirus (Covid-19) but do not manifest the symptoms of the virus.

Malacanang confirmed the lifting of the travel ban to and from Taiwan on Feb. 14 after the Department of Health announced last Monday, Feb. 10, that the temporary travel restriction to and from China included Taiwan.

Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo, in a statement, said members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease agreed to lift the ban because measures to prevent Covid-19 are already being implemented.

Taiwan is the fifth largest tourist market in the region.

In 2018, Central Visayas welcomed 84,750 Taiwanese tourists, up 18.14 percent from the 71,739 Taiwanese recorded in 2017, based on figures obtained from the Department of Tourism.

As of 10 a.m. on Feb. 15, the DOH was monitoring 487 patients under investigation nationwide. Of the number, 330 had been discharged but are still being monitored, while 154 are still confined and undergoing treatment.

The only three confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country  the 38-year-old woman from Wuhan City, Hubei Province in China; her 44-year-old male partner who died; and the 60-year-old Chinese woman who already returned to China  were included in the tally.

Cebu Pacific and the Philippine Airlines (PAL) on Feb. 14 announced the resumption of their flights between Manila and Taipei.

Airlines flying from Cebu to Taiwan have yet to give flight updates.

In an advisory, AirAsia, which operates direct flights from Cebu to the Taiwanese cities of Taipei and Kaohsiung, said it will soon update their passengers on any changes to flights given the recent developments.

AirAsia said it is closely monitoring the situation and may announce further policies.

Tigerair Taiwan, which also flies direct to Taiwan from Cebu, said those who were affected by the short-lived ban could ask for a refund for their canceled flights.

Meanwhile, Eva Air said its passengers may apply for rebooking and refund on or before Feb. 25.

The carrier is urging its guests to subscribe to its SMS service to get updated on flight developments. / WBS / CSL WITH A REPORT FROM KFD
Malayalam is not her mother tongue, but with hard work and determination, Romiya Kathur emerged a topper in the literacy exams held in Kerala. According to reports, Romiya Kathur was part of a project that is aimed at teaching Malyalam to migrant labourers living in the state, within four months.

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It had begun in Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district - the hub of migrant labourers in the state on August 15, 2017, a Literacy Mission official said.

Romiya Kathur, hailing from a nondescript village in Bihar, scored the first rank with full 100 marks in the examination held by the Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority recently.

Kathur said "Hamari Malayalam, the textbook prepared for students of the Changathi scheme, was very helpful in daily life." Mission Director P S Sreekala visited Ms Kathur and her family in Umayanalloor, and shared her achievement on Facebook.





Ms Sreekala congratulated Romiya Kathur for her achievement, who now wishes to clear the higher secondary equivalency exam conducted by the Mission.

She had reached Kerala in search of a job along with her husband Saifullah, and settled down in Umayanalloor in southern Kollam district in 2014. The mother of three, who runs a juice parlour here, had written the exam at a local higher secondary school carrying her four-month-old baby daughter, Thamanna, last month.

A total of 1,998 migrant labourers had appeared for the literacy exam in the second phase of the scheme 'Changathi', across the state on January 19.

All inputs: PTI
Seven persons were killed on Agra Lucknow Expressway on Sunday when the car they were travelling in collided with a truck after one of its tyres burst at Bangarmau near here, police said.

The accident took place when one of the tyres of the speeding car got burst, severed to the left and caught fire after hitting a truck in another lane, Unao Superintendent of Police Virkant Veer Singh said.

Seven persons in the car were burnt alive in the incident, he said, adding the victim were yet to be identified.

Taking note of the incident, Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has directed the district administration to provide all possible help to the victims' family.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
SEOUL, South Korea - For nine years, South Korean poet Shin Hyun-rim and her daughter resided in a netherworld seven steps below the street.

In the heart of Seoul, a stone's throw from the presidential residence and skyscrapers housing the likes of Samsung, Shin and her daughter lived in a banjiha - a semi-basement apartment with scant sunlight and dirt-cheap rent, that for many South Koreans is a last resort, a rite of passage or a low slung pit stop on the way to something better.

"You can't tell whether it's night or daytime," said Shin, 58, who moved to a fourth-floor walk-up about two years ago. "It's a good place to dream. Your imagination is what gets you through it."

The halfway underground banjiha home figures prominently in South Korean director Bong Joon Ho's dark comedy "Parasite," a stark depiction of the rock-bottom existence the movie's Kim family tries to claw out of then and then descends back into. Bong has said the tantalizing in-betweenness of the semi-basement was a major inspiration in his thriller exploring class disparities, which has connected with audiences around the world and made history at Sunday's Oscars by becoming the first non-English-language film to win best picture.

"Banjiha is a space with a peculiar connotation. ... It's undeniably underground, and yet you want to believe it's above ground," Bong said last May after the film's premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. "There's also the fear that if you sink any lower, you may go completely underground."

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Bong said the film's translators struggled to find the right word in English and in French because there wasn't a direct equivalent. They ultimately settled on "semi-basement."

For many in Bong's native South Korea, the film brought back memories of months or years spent in banjiha dwellings - the bleakness, the critters, the moldy smell that comes from a perennial dampness. Like Hong Kong's cage homes and Brazil's favelas, the banjiha in many ways has come to symbolize a segment of South Koreans squeezed by increasing density and diminishing affordability, crammed into unseen corners of a city where the rich keep getting richer and occupy more and more of the space.

"I must have wanted to lock away the semi-basement in the basement of my subconscious," one South Korean blogger wrote, saying she'd forgotten she lived in one as a graduate student until she saw "Parasite." "My self-esteem dropped exactly as much as the ground was high against the window."

More than 36,000 South Koreans live in semi-basement homes, according to the most recent survey conducted in 2015, the vast majority of them in the greater Seoul metropolitan area. Many were built in the 1970s as bunkers for a potential North Korean attack and later haphazardly modified as stand-alone rental units to meet a surging demand for housing.

As in the climax of the movie, when the Kims wade through rising waters in their home during a downpour, many banjiha homes are vulnerable to flooding and have been submerged during monsoons. During a particularly severe flood in 2010, authorities in Seoul said that most of the more than 9,000 homes damaged by the rains were semi-basement units. They pledged to gradually eliminate banjiha homes and provide other forms of affordable housing instead.

Shin, the poet, moved into one with her then 5-year-old daughter around 2007. It was the only unit the single mother could afford in the area after she was forced to leave her previous home.

"It's the last place you descend to when you're out of money," she said. "It felt like a grave."

The three-bedroom space got such minimal sunlight that she had to keep the lights on during the day. It felt as though she was developing a keener sense of hearing, she said - footsteps, chatter, wind, rain. Not long after they moved in, their home was broken into, the burglar easily slipping in through the street-level window. She had prison-like bars installed.

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Over the years of living there, though, she began drawing inspiration from the sense of otherworldliness the home seemed to engender. In 2017, she published a book of poetry titled "Banjiha Alice" - based how she felt as if she'd been dropped into a strange world upon moving in, like Lewis Carroll's protagonist.

My remaining days keep dwindling

But we're all just briefly pitching a tent

I may be fretting like a dayflower trembling in the wind

But if I savor in the sadness

Maybe something amusing will happen

Maybe a white rabbit will run past

-From "The happiness of Banjiha Alice" by Shin Hyun-rim

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"It could only have come out of that space," she said of the book.

Choi Hyun-jung, 34, has been living in a semi-basement home with her sister since 2012 in the city of Incheon, about an hour west of Seoul. With their modest budget, every unit they looked at as an option was a semi-basement unit.

On rainy days, she'd go out to the street to make sure the sewers weren't clogged up, nervous about flooding. At work, she'd fret about whether she'd return home to find her life submerged. Night after night, the sisters were treated to the sounds of the drunks stumbling out of the pub next door.

A few years ago, she began drawing a web comic about her and her sister's life, titling it "Banjiha room-for-rent." She laid bare their challenges - the insects, the mold, a recurrent ceiling leak - but also shared how they were making the home their own and using it as a springboard to their young adult lives. The story seemed to speak to other young people going through similarly tough times. It was popular enough to get Choi signed on as a full-time cartoonist for the web portal Daum.

"It's a necessity for people who are that desperate," she said. "It's not really a place fit for human living."

Kim Nam-hyeon, a 21-year-old college senior, said watching "Parasite," he found himself wondering how much the rent would be for a place like the fictional Kim home.

Originally from a seaside town on the southern tip of South Korea, Kim has been living in a semi-basement apartment near his college in Seoul for about two years. About 1 in 10 of his classmates seems to live in banjiha units for the cheap rent, he said.

He's feeling anxious about saving up enough money and getting a good enough job after graduation that would allow him to move out of the basement and into an above-ground living space. The halfway-basement existence is motivating him to work hard to move up in life.

"I'm telling myself it's an experience," he said, "but I don't want to live in one ever again."

---

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Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  It was a day of protest in Santa Fe on Saturday, and murals were the driving force.

At 11 a.m., about 100 activists gathered along Guadalupe Street in front of the Halpin Building, where artwork created by Gilberto Guzman in 1980 is about to be removed.

Guzmans mural, titled Multicultural, is slated for elimination as the building is being transformed into the Vladem Contemporary art museum, a unit of the New Mexico Museum of Art.

Several speakers decried the loss of the mural, which was refurbished in 1990 and again needs renovation.

Theresa Sanchez, a friend of the artist, said many activists have approached both

the city of Santa Fe and the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs to try to preserve the work, but that their efforts have failed.

She said the $4 million donation that gave the Vladem family of Chicago naming rights on the new contemporary art museum had eclipsed local, homegrown art.

Guzmans mural is to be reproduced digitally by the state and projected on the side of the building, but some demonstrators expressed doubt that will happen.

The artist thanked those who gathered in front of the mural for their support. The event was organized by the 3 Sisters Collective and Hernan Gomez.

Some of those activists headed to a second rally, at 1 p.m., in favor of pro-Palestinian art pasted on a homeowners wall at the corner of Camino Lejo and Old Santa Fe Trail. The city has scheduled a hearing at 6 p.m. Feb. 25 to decide whether the art, which it alleges violates historic district standards, should be removed from an adobe wall outside the home of retired Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist Guthrie Miller.

At the first protest, a microphone was passed around to give those who gathered an opportunity to share their thoughts. One speaker, Bianco Sopoci-Belknap, noted the irony of the two marches held Saturday.

The citys historic board takes a position against a blank adobe wall being modified with a temporary wheat-pasted mural by indigenous artist Remy, but the city is allowing the destruction of a beloved public art piece that tells an important story about our communitys history, values and culture, she told the crowd. What happened to the citys supposed value for historic preservation?

On Camino Lejo, Santa Fe police arrived at about 2 p.m.  but not because of crowd unrest. The reason for their presence? Many of the 50 or so people rallying in favor of the pro-Palestinian art had parked in the First Baptist Church of Santa Fes lot on Old Pecos Trail. Police said this was not allowed.

One young man who identified himself as of indigenous heritage sported a Palestinian scarf. Michaei Butler said he saw parallels between the reservations that Native Americans were forced to live on by the U.S. government and the Palestinian camps in Israel.

This is a big issue, and Im glad that artists are calling attention to it, he said.
Multiple rockets hit an Iraqi base hosting American troops near the US embassy early Sunday, the latest in a flurry of attacks against US assets in the country.

"The Coalition confirms small rockets impacted the Iraqi base hosting (coalition) troops in the International Zone... No casualties," said coalition spokesman Myles Caggins.

That base, known as Union III, is the headquarters for the US-led coalition, deployed in Iraq since 2014 to help local troops fight the Islamic State jihadist group.

Iraq's military said three Katyusha rockets hit inside the Green Zone, the high-security enclave where the US mission and Union III are located, as well as Iraqi government buildings, United Nations offices and other embassies.

A fourth rocket hit a logistics base in a different neighbourhood operated by the Hashed al-Shaabi, a military network officially incorporated into the Iraqi state, the Iraqi military said.

There was no immediate statement from the Hashed.

Strikes on assets of both the US and Hashed at the same time are unusual, as Washington has blamed hardline elements within the military network for repeated rocket attacks on American installations across Iraq.

Sunday's was the 19th attack since October to target either the embassy or the roughly 5,200 US troops stationed alongside local forces across Iraq.

No group has claimed responsibility for any of the incidents. In late December, a rocket attack on the northern Iraqi base of K1 left one US contractor dead and unleashed a dramatic series of events.

Washington responded with retaliatory strikes against Kataeb Hezbollah, a hardline Hashed faction in western Iraq.

Days later, an American drone strike in Baghdad killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and his right-hand man, Hashed deputy chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

Hashed factions have vowed revenge for the pair's death but said they would prioritise a political objective first: the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

But the network includes a broad range of groups and some have appeared more willing to harass US troops militarily.

Sunday's attack came just hours after one of the Hashed's Iran-backed factions, Harakat al-Nujaba, announced a "countdown" to ousting American forces from the country.

A top leader within Nujaba, Nasr al-Shammary, tweeted a photograph of what he claimed was an American military vehicle, adding: "We are closer than you think."



Sunday's assault sent warning sirens blaring across the diplomatic compound, a US military source and a Western diplomat based nearby told AFP. AFP's correspondents heard multiple strong explosions followed by aircraft circling near the Green Zone.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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RED WING  Building something from scratch seems like an out-of-date type of thing to do. Why build it when you can buy it?

If you said something like that to Rich Dosdall, he'd show you all of things he's built from scratch, things you could barely begin to comprehend.

The passion and perfectionist mentality is why Dosdall is being honored as Craftsman of the Year by the Craftsmanship Museum in Carlsbad, California, this month for his work on a half scale 1655 Oliver tractor.

Dosdall, a lifelong Red Wing resident, began tinkering with Oliver brand tractors at any early age when his father would bring them home. Dosdall's father, Earl Dosdall, began selling and fixing them.

It was only natural for Dosdall to begin helping his father with his projects and later on at Earl's Repair Shop.

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It was either age 5 or 6 when Dosdall first remembers helping work on tractors. In his teen years, Dosdall would go to steam threshing shows and wish he could have an Oliver brand tractor.

Sadly, the cost was too much. So instead of buying one, he decided to build it.

Dosdall began building a 2-inch scale Case steam engines and would complete it after a couple years of work. Over the years, Dosdall would make build a 4-inch scale Burrell steam engine and a 4-inch scale 65 HP Case steam engine.

The tractor being honored by the Craftsmanship museum took Dosdall four-and-a-half years to construct. He handcrafted all but six piece..

The longest part on the tractor? Likely the four-and-a-half foot long piece of the main frame. Everything else was meticulously placed.

Every detail needs to be exact. If it was a part of the tractor he's building, he's got to have it.

For example the decals: Dosdall had been in contact with someone who creates replica decals. Dosdall was specific in his request, wanting it to be absolutely perfect. After multiple attempts, Dosdall decided to draw it himself, a process that took him days to accomplish.

Even the paint is exact, something Dosdall is glad is readily available. Dosdall said the steering wheel took him almost a 40-hour work week worth of time to complete.

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"This is excellent, very nice. But this takes the cake," Dosdall said looking at his Oliver tractor. "Its the ultimate project right here."

When Dosdall took the tractor to Detroit for a convention, he said it gave him great pride watching people flock to his area whenever he'd start the tractor up. Every two minutes, more and more people would come. For someone as humble as Dosdall, he said it was an incredible feeling.

Since the Craftsmanship Museum is more dedicated to miniatures, Dosdall won't be bringing any of his projects to put on display. Dosdall said if he were to leave the tractor at the museum, they'd likely have to build an entirely new room to hold it.

Dosdall said, trying not to talk himself up, the Craftsmanship Museum usually honors people that excel in certain areas like painting, decal work, machining or sheet metal. Dosdall said the museum told him that he excels in all areas.

So why go through all of this work? Spending countless hours on a half-scale tractor that requires practically everything but the tires and cast iron work to be done by hand sounds like something to quit before you get started.

"Im a perfectionist, so people call me."

When Dosdall dies, he one or two projects might go to the Craftsmanship Museum, but the rest is left to his daughter.

With all of the projects Dosdall has in his shop and home, maybe he could have a museum of his own some day.
Dhaka, Feb 16 : All 312 Bangladeshi evacuees from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, have been released from a 14-day quarantine in the capital of Dhaka.

Meerjady Sabrina Flora, head of the country's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, made the announcement on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.

"All the evacuees have tested negative for the virus," Flora said.

Flora said all of the returnees were sent home by Sunday morning after they underwent the last health check-up in Dhaka on Saturday.

"They were released with no signs of the coronavirus," she said.

The Bangladeshis were brought back from Wuhan onboard a special flight on February 1.
Police have arrested six persons



and rescued four women from a bar in suburban Andheri, where obscene dance was being performed, an official said on Sunday.

The raid was conducted late Saturday night at Ram Bhavan Bar, police said.

"The bar was raided after police received a tip-off that women were made to perform obscene dance there. We arrested the owner of the bar, its manager, two waiters and two customers, and rescued four women," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone X) Ankit Goel said.

The accused have been booked under IPC sections 294 (obscene acts or words in public) and 34 (common intention), he said.

They have also been charged under provisions of the Maharashtra Prohibition of Obscene Dance in Hotels, Restaurants and Bar Rooms and Protection of Dignity of Women (working therein) Act, Goel added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Charles H. Coolidge National Medal of Honor Center has its grand opening next Saturday. The 19,000-square-foot facility is downtown adjacent to the Tennessee Aquarium.

A host of dignitaries will be on hand for the ceremony that will be held in a large tent next to the center. Among those attending will be Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, Retired Four Star Army General B.B. Bell, Retired Army Major General Bill Raines, Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger, and Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke. Mr. Raines heads up the Heritage Center board of directors.

Hamilton County Trustee Bill Hullander is chairman of the grand opening event, which begins at 10 a.m. Mr. Hullander will serve as master of ceremonies. He said the public is invited to join over 15 Medal of Honor recipients and their families for this very special occasion. Many dignitaries have been invited from across the United States. The center will officially open to the public at 1 p.m. Tickets can be ordered at www.mohhc.org/tickets. The public can visit the center seven days a week. Special tours and group pricing are available. Life memberships are also available.

Executive Director Keith Hardison said The Heritage Center serves to memorialize the history of our nations highest military award for valor and features life-size exhibits and state of the art technology. Mr. Hardison said the Heritage Center's goal is to educate, inspire, and invite people to re-live what recipients experienced on the battlefield. Mr. Hardison said the center has an education program designed to change the lives of young people for years to come. There are 14 permanent displays. The Heritage Center has two large classrooms and event space for visiting schools and organizations.

The first Medal of Honor was presented to Private Jacob Parrott in 1863 for his part in The Great Locomotive Chase that ended just outside Chattanooga. Subsequently, 19 of the Andrews Raiders were awarded the Medal of Honor.

Tennessee has 32 Medal of Honor recipients. They include Army Corporal Paul Huff from Cleveland, Tn. Mr. Huff was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in World War II. A parkway in Cleveland is named after him. He died in 1994.

Sergeant First Class Ray Eugene Duke from Whitwell was in the Army during the Korean War. Mr. Duke was wounded at least three times but remained in the battle defending his men. Mr. Duke was captured by the enemy in 1951 and died as a prisoner of war. He was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously.

Army medic Desmond Doss lived In North Georgia. Mr. Doss was a combat medic and the only conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor. Mr. Doss saved 75 lives at the Battle of Okinawa. In 2016 Mel Gibson produced the movie Hacksaw Ridge based on Doss story. The center displays a miniature Hacksaw Ridge. Mr. Doss died in 2006.

The Heritage Center is named for Army Tech Sergeant Charles Coolidge, who lives on Signal Mountain. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism in World War II. Lt. Gen. Wade H. Haislip presented Mr. Coolidge the Medal of Honor at Dormstadt, Germany. Coolidge received several other military honors. Mr. Coolidge and his wife Francis were very involved in the Medal of Honor museum which was once located at 4th and Georgia Avenues. The Coolidges also served on the Armed Forces Week committee for more than 50 years. A park in North Chattanooga is named after Mr. Coolidge. There are enlarged copies on display of newspaper stories about Coolidges arriving home from the war. It should be noted that Francis Coolidge worked tirelessly to bring recognition promised her husband and other soldiers following the end of World War II.

The Heritage Center has special displays featuring Mr. Doss and Mr. Coolidge.

Board Chairman Major General Raines said there is now a national home that will preserve the heritage of the Medal of Honor and serve as a tribute to the best and bravest who served and sacrificed in defense of our nation.

After several delays, plans were announced three years ago to build the Charles H. Coolidge National Medal of Honor Heritage Center downtown on Aquarium Way.

Here is the citation written for Mr. Coolidge:

Leading a section of heavy machine guns supported by 1 platoon of Company K, he took a position near Hill 623, east of Belmont sur Buttant, France, on 24 October 1944, with the mission of covering the right flank of the 3d Battalion and supporting its action. T/Sgt. Coolidge went forward with a sergeant of Company K to reconnoiter positions for coordinating the fires of the light and heavy machineguns. They ran into an enemy force in the woods estimated to be an infantry company. T/Sgt. Coolidge, attempting to bluff the Germans by a show of assurance and boldness called upon them to surrender, whereupon the enemy opened fire. With his carbine, T/Sgt. Coolidge wounded 2 of them. There being no officer present with the force, T/Sgt. Coolidge at once assumed command. Many of the men were replacements recently arrived; this was their first experience under fire. T/Sgt. Coolidge, unmindful of the enemy fire delivered at close range, walked along the position, calming and encouraging his men and directing their fire. The attack was thrown back. Through 25 and 26 October the enemy launched repeated attacks against the position of this combat group but each was repulsed due to T/Sgt. Coolidge's able leadership. On 27 October, German infantry, supported by 2 tanks, made a determined attack on the position. The area was swept by enemy small arms, machine gun, and tank fire. T/Sgt. Coolidge armed himself with a bazooka and advanced to within 25 yards of the tanks. His bazooka failed to function and he threw it aside. Securing all the hand grenades he could carry, he crawled forward and inflicted heavy casualties on the advancing enemy. Finally it became apparent that the enemy, in greatly superior force, supported by tanks, would overrun the position. T/Sgt. Coolidge, displaying great coolness and courage, directed and conducted an orderly withdrawal, being himself the last to leave the position. As a result of T/Sgt. Coolidge's heroic and superior leadership, the mission of this combat group was accomplished throughout 4 days of continuous fighting against numerically superior enemy troops in rain and cold and amid dense woods.
T hree separate stabbings have left three men fighting for their lives in London on Sunday night.

Scotland Yard said police were called at 4.24pm to Sandringham Road, Barking, to reports of a stabbing.

The victim, a man in his mid-twenties, is in a critical condition in an east London hospital.

London Ambulance Service and London's Air Ambulance attended the incident, and a crime scene is in place.

Police said two males have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

Meanwhile, a man has been taken to hospital in a life-threatening condition after being stabbed in Hackney, north-east London.

Scotland Yard said officers were called to Brooke Road at about 5pm on Sunday and that no arrests had been made.

At a third stabbing police came across a fight between two men on the New North Road in Ilford at 5.44pm.

One man in his 30s was suffering a stab and slash wounds. He was taken to hospital where he is also in a life threatening condition.

Another man was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm. He remains in police custody.

If any young people have information about violence or knife crime, they can visit fearless.org/ where they can pass on information anonymously. Fearless is part of the Crimestoppers charity, and is also independent of the police.
At least 30 people were killed by a dozen assailants on motorcycles in an attack on two villages in northwestern Nigeria, security sources said.

The bandits killed 21 people in Tsauwa and another nine in nearby Dankar, said Gambo Isah, spokesman for the Katsina police. Most of those killed are elderly and children who were unable to flee.

Houses were burnt down as well as cattle and food before fleeing.

An armed gang last week burnt to death 21 people, including 16 members of a single family, in a reprisal raid in neighboring Kaduna state to avenge a vigilante attack on their hideout.

Police and soldiers deployed in the area after the attack and arrested one suspect, Isah said.
Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad), a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Ports, is participating in the 25th edition of Gulfood, the largest food and beverage processing and packaging exhibition in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.



Gulfood 2020 which opened today (February 16) will run until February 20, at the Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai.



The regions largest industrial zone is emerging as the hub for the food and beverage sector, and is home to some of the worlds largest food processing and manufacturing companies, as well as allied services, said a statement.



Mohamed Ghareeb, vice president - Service Delivery- IZ, Kizad, said: Gulfood helps us reinforce the critical role Kizad plays in enabling the future growth and success of the regions food processing and handling market.



Our cluster-based approach ensures that our customers are close to their customers and suppliers, linked together with state-of-the-art infrastructure, and low setup and operational costs, all of which help them bring their products to market faster, he added.



Kizad is the regional home to many global companies in the food processing and packaging industry, including Brazilian food processing giant BRF, the largest in the Middle East, and Pinar dairy products plant, as well as leading national brands such as National Food Products Company (NFPC), Al Dahra Agricultural Company and Binghatti Holding Group.



Last month Madar Farms announced a new multi-million-dirham commercial scale indoor tomato farm at Kizad, and earlier this month, RNZ AgroTech signed an agreement to set up an R&D centre for bio/organic/inorganic fertilisers and bio-pesticides.



The UAE has demonstrated a sustained commitment to support its domestic food production industry, through a focus on strengthening food security, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg on Sunday pushed back against attacks on his sexuality, days after allies of President Donald Trump questioned whether Americans are ready for a gay candidate who kisses his husband onstage.

"Well, I am in a faithful, loving, committed marriage. I'm proud of my marriage. And I'm proud of my husband," Buttigieg, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, said on "Fox News Sunday."

"And I'm not going to be lectured on family values from the likes of Rush Limbaugh or anybody who supports Donald J. Trump as the moral as well as political leader of the United States," he added. "America has moved on, and we should have a politics of belonging that welcomes everybody."

Buttigieg was referring to attacks by radio host Rush Limbaugh, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump this month. In a recent episode of his radio program, Limbaugh framed his comments as an ostensible analysis of how Democrats feel.

"They're sitting there, and they're looking at Mayor Pete - a 37-year-old gay guy, mayor of South Bend, loves to kiss his husband on the debate stage. And they're saying, OK, how's this going to look, a 37-year-old gay guy kissing his husband onstage next to Mr. Man Donald Trump? What's going to happen there?" Limbaugh said. (Buttigieg is 38.)

Separately, Sebastian Gorka, a former deputy assistant to the president and a Trump campaign surrogate, last week questioned on his own radio program why Buttigieg, "a homosexual man," was "lecturing us about the sanctity of life in the womb."

Buttigieg on Sunday dismissed the notion that his sexuality could be used against him by Trump in a general-election matchup, noting that he was overwhelmingly re-elected as South Bend mayor after coming out as gay. He added that he believes Americans are in favor of a politics of inclusivity rather than division.

"That's what the American people are for, and I am saddened for what the Republican Party has become if they embrace that kind of homophobic rhetoric," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

The Washington Posts Amy B Wang contributed to this report.
By PTI

MUNICH: In a firm repartee, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told a senior US Senator that India will "settle" the Kashmir issue on its own when the American lawmaker brought up the issue during an interaction at the Munich Security Conference.

Referring to the Kashmir issue during a panel discussion, Senator Lindsey Graham said the best way to sell democracy will be to settle the Kashmir issue in a democratic way.

"In India, you are moving forward, you got your problems like we do at home, but you've chosen the democratic path. When it comes to Kashmir, I don't know how it ends, but let's make sure that two democracies will end it differently. If you can prove that concept here, then I think that's probably the best way to sell democracy," the Republican leader said.

To this, Jaishankar promptly responded, "Do not worry, Senator. One democracy will settle it and you know which one."

During the discussion Jaishankar also said that the United Nations is far less credible than it has been in history and "something" should be done about it.

ALSO READ | Google Maps marks Kashmir's outlines as 'disputed' when seen from outside India

"The United Nations is far less credible than it has been in history, which is not entirely surprising because when you think about it, there are not too many things which are 75 years old and still as good as they were. Clearly there is something that needs to be done there."

He also spoke about "westlessness" and multilateralism at the panel discussion.

"Clearly multilateralism has become weaker, and clearly westlessness is in evidence and I would suggest that there is a correlation between the two, It is not to say that multilateralism is solely dependent on the West, or that the West has been faithfully multilateral," he said.

He highlighted that the global political rebalancing is underway and made a case for greater western flexibility.

"Multilateralism can today be strengthened by more creative diplomacy and plurilateral understanding," he said.

The Munich Security Conference, being held here from February 14-16, is the world's leading forum for debate on international security policy.
Asked about the commonwealths efforts to revive the 1972 ERA, Ginsburg said, I would like to see a new beginning. Theres too much controversy about latecomers. Plus, a number of states have withdrawn their ratification. So if you count a latecomer on the plus side, how can you disregard states that said, Weve changed our minds?

Its a good question for which ERA backers have yet to provide an equally good answer.

Nevertheless, the House of Representatives voted to retroactively repeal the 38-year-old deadline and three state attorneys general, including Virginias Mark Herring, have filed a lawsuit to force the archivist to certify the ERA.

Thats unlikely to happen. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is disinclined to consider extending the deadline again, and any court challenge will eventually wind up in the Supreme Court. Without Ginsburg on board, the chances of the 1972 ERA becoming part of the Constitution appear to be slim to none.
Police here on Sunday claimed that the two criminals held in connection with a drug trail exposed after the arrest of dreaded gangster Sukhpreet Singh, alias Budha, had links with the big fish in Pakistan.

Jagdeep Singh, alias Jagga, and Gurvinder Singh (Pehalwan) were arrested three days ago with Pakistani sim cards in a joint operation of the organised crime control unit and the SAS Nagar police, a Punjab Police spokesperson said.

Both belong to Kot Dharam Chand Kalan village in Tarn Taran district.

Wanted gangster Sukhpreet Singh, alias Budha, was deported from Armenia and arrested when he landed at the Delhi airport in November 2019.

Investigations so far have revealed that Jagga and Pehalwan, who had been absconding since 2014-15, had received a large quantity of heroin and fake Indian currency from Pakistan through various routes.

They were wanted by the Directorate Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Rajasthan Police and the Punjab Police for receiving huge consignments of heroin from Pakistan, the spokesperson said in a statement.

Both Jagga and Pehalwan had evaded arrested for the past five years by operating as transporters on the route from New Delhi to Madhya Pradesh.

They had set up their own empire with the drug money and had purchased a house at Makhu district in Ferozepur, along with five new trucks from New Delhi.

They had also purchased about four acres of agricultural land at Kot Dharam Chand Kalan village, he said.

Investigations have revealed huge money transactions in their bank accounts, said the spokesperson.

He said the accused received drug money from Pakistan dealers through hawala.

Jagdeep Singh, alias Jagga, was involved in the cross-border smuggling of heroin since 2008, when he first started using Pakistan sim cards.

Jagga received the drug consignments from Jecka Pehalwan and Abad Ali, both Pakistanis, in Rajetal and Mahawa villages near the Attari border by using Pakistan sim cards, which were functional in the region.

He also used to procure drug consignment from Bodi Lamma, a resident of Pakistan, near the Fazilka-Ferozepur border, the spokesperson said.

According to the spokesperson, Jagga came in contact with Malik, a resident of Narwad villaqge of Pakistan, in 2015 and had been receiving huge consignments of drugs from the latter since then.

He received most of his drug consignments from Pakistan through the Ravi river and from the fencing in the plastic tubes.

The drug money was transferred by Pakistan dealers through the hawala route, he said.

After his arrested twice in drug cases, Jagga started using WhatsApp on an international number.

He was initially arrested in a drug case involving the seizure of 13-kg heroin in 2009. He was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2011 but jumped parole in 2014.

He was again arrested by the DRI in a case involving the recovery of 42 kg of heroin in January 2015.

He fled from police custody during in October 2015 and was absconding since then.

Pehalwan had been absconding since 2014 in a case involving the seizure of 10-kg heroin seizure.

To evade arrest, he had changed his appearance and had started tying a turban, the police spokesperson said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 16

Trend:

Statements by President Ilham Aliyev during panel discussions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at the Munich Security Conference will be written in golden letters in Azerbaijan's diplomatic history, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Center for Social Research, political analyst Elshad Mirbashiroglu told Trend.

The analyst noted that the debates, broadcast live around the world, were memorable because the Azerbaijani president held a master class for his opponent.

"Mr. President adequately introduced the Azerbaijani people to the world by showing the highest level of education, intelligence, discussion skills, as well English language skills, and logical and factual approach to certain issues. Nikol Pashinyan once again demonstrated his lack of professionalism and amateurism, proving that he has no difference from his predecessors. Pashinyan learned his lesson in Munich that should lead the Armenian leadership to finally stop living in a world of illusions," Mirbashiroglu said.

Mirbashiroglu noted that Pashinyan, who lied several times and made historical distortions in each sentence, could not hide his helplessness before the weighty arguments of the Azerbaijan president.

"Pashinyan was helpless facing the historical truth and facts voiced by President Ilham Aliyev. The head of state was talking about real historical events that took place in the region at the beginning of the 20th century. It was a triumph of justice," the analyst added.

The political analyst noted that President Ilham Aliyev, objectively substantiating the fact that Nagorno Karabakh is an ancient Azerbaijani land, recalling the history of Khankendi, exposed the 100-year-old Armenian lie in Munich in a 10-15 minute speech.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "fulfilling the dreams of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya".

Yogi Adityanath thanked PM Modi for his visit and unveiling 63-ft tall statue of the Jan Sangh ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya here in Varanasi.

Yogi Adityanath said: "Five decades back, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya dreamt to provide benefits of government schemes to the last man standing in the queue. We are fulfilling his dreams of inclusive India through our schemes. The Modi government has provided toilets, LPG gas cylinder, houses and electricity connections to every household for all citizens."

He was speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Memorial Centre here.

The 'panchaloha' statue is the tallest statue of the leader in the country. Over 200 artisans have worked for almost a year in order to complete the structure. PM Modi unveiled the statue during the inauguration of the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Memorial Centre here.

"PM Modi has changed the face of Varanasi and made it a world-class city. In the past, the Modi government had cleared the development schemes of more than Rs.1,254 crore for Varanasi. Now, he is giving us a new gift- Mahakal Express which will run between Varanasi and Indore," the Chief Minister added.

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, UP Governor Anandiben Patel and others were also present at the event.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Florida based Ghanaian doctor, has allegedly defrauded health insurers to the tune of US$ 26 million without performing surgeries on them as scheduled.

The accused, Moses deGraft-Johnson is alleged to have falsely billed the insurers to bag the said amount to fund his ambitions of becoming the president of Ghana.

Federal prosecutors at the U.S. District Court have charged Dr. deGraft-Johnson with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and more than 50 counts of health care fraud.

According to court papers, he had submitted a number of fraudulent claims between September 2015 and now to health insurers, including Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida.

Reports from the NY Times claim Dr. deGraft-Johnson, who owned and operated the Heart and Vascular Institute of North Florida in Tallahassee, a doctor's office and outpatient catheterization lab, used his privileges at a hospital to poach patients for purposes of subsequently billing health care benefit programs for interventional vascular procedures that were never done.

Investigations within the Federal Department show that the surgeon within a period of five years performed at least 3,631 atherectomies leading to the payment of at least US$26.6 million from the health insurers.

It also emerged that, there were times that the accused was not even in America when some of the procedures were supposed to have been performed.

Dr. deGraft-Johnson, born in Ghana but a naturalized American citizen is also reported to have transferred at least $1.8 million to people or entities in Ghana to achieve his political ambitions.

Although state officials did not identify the relative involved, court papers proved that:

While the government is not in a position to evaluate the feasibility of such an endeavour, it appears that Dr. deGraft-Johnson's family member was the vice president of Ghana in the early 1980s.

Records from the Florida Department of Health show that Dr. deGraft-Johnson has been a licensed Florida doctor since 2010.

He did not have any disciplinary actions or public complaints about him listed on its website Im not guilty

When he appeared in court on Thursday, Dr. deGraft-Johnson pleaded not guilty to the charges.

During the detention hearing the following day, lawyer for the accused, William Bubsey, said his client was a wonderful doctor, and that the money he sent to Ghana was rather to assist some of the poor people in Ghana and not for personal gains.

citinewsroom
Vietnamese tourism authorities want the government to grant visa exemptions and cut taxes to safeguard their industry amid the Covid-19 outbreak

In a communication to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourisms Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board said more than just preferential taxes and fees are required to save the industry.

It wants visa exemption, extending Vietnam visa period to 30 days, allowing tourists from Europe, Australia and Canana to return any time they wish to, because those three markets are now the best chance of the tourism sector for now, given that they have recorded the lowest decrease in number of tourists and flights.

From now until Vietnam is able to totally control the epidemic, the government should step up tourism promotion in those three markets and sustain them until the world too is rid of the epidemic, it said.

Subsequently, the tourism industry needs to actively promote itself in China and Southeast Asia, it said.

There should be a website to provide clear information in English about health checks and quarantine of visitors at borders to benefit people making plans to visit Vietnam, it said.

Value added tax on tourism should be halved to 5 percent and tourism companies should be given six to 12 months to pay the tax period, it said.

In 2020 and 2021 land-use fees for hotels and resorts should also be halved, it said.

The government should speed up progress of traffic infrastructure works such as the construction of Long Thanh Airport, the largest of its kind in Vietnam, upgrade of Tan Son Nhat airport in HCMC and Phu Bai and Dong Hoi airports in central Vietnam and expansion of Noi Bai airport in Hanoi.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment has estimated that if the epidemic is contained by late March the tourism industry could suffer losses of $2.3 billion, but if it lasts another quarter, that figure could jump to $5 billion.

In 2003, when the world was hit by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), also a type of respiratory disease caused by a coronavirus, tourism had contributed just 4 percent to Vietnams economy.

Then, 400,000 foreigners had canceled tours to the country.

Now the industry contributes 9.2 percent to GDP, and 18 percent if allied sectors such as hospitality and services are included.

A preliminary survey by the board found hotel occupancy rates have dropped by 20-50 percent year-on-year since Tet at the end of January. In Nha Trang, a popular destination for Chinese visitors, the rate has fallen by 98 percent.

Tourist firms have on average lost 50 percent of their business while airlines have seen demand for international travel decrease by 50 percent and for domestic travel by 40 percent. The loss for the aviation sector is estimated at VND10 trillion ($430 million).

The General Statistics Office said this week that Vietnam might receive 644,000 foreign visitors in the first quarter this year compared to 800,000 if there had been no Covid-19 outbreak.

Vietnam has so far recorded 16 cases of infection, of whom seven have been discharged from hospitals.

As of Sunday morning the global death toll has climbed to 1,669, including four outside China.
Chief Executive Officer of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has urged for more regulation of harmful online content and said that there is a need for governments and regulators to have a more active role. Zuckerberg said that a new regulation is needed in four areas ie harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability, as per the reports.

While speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, he said that social media giants like Facebook are under increasing pressure to curb the spread of disinformation.

READ: Author Stephen King Quits Facebook Over Its 'political Advertising'; Netizens Hail Move

Facebook criticised for its policy

According to the reports, Facebook has been criticised for its policy on political advertising. It launched new policies for political advertising in US in 2018. These rules require political ads to display who had paid for them and a copy of the ad is being stored in a publicly searchable database for seven years. Earlier this week, the social media website said it would not include any sponsored political posts by social media stars in its database.

READ: Twitter, Facebook Fined For Not Moving User Data To Russia

Zuckerberg urges government to come up with new regulatory system

Zuckerberg urged the governments to come up with a new regulatory system for social media. He said that to tackle the problem, Facebook has a team of 35,000 people reviewing the content and security on the platform. He further said that more than a million fake accounts are deleted every day with the help of AI assistance.

READ: Elon Musk Takes A Dig At Zuckerberg, Says 'delete Facebook, It's Lame'

I'm quitting Facebook. Not comfortable with the flood of false information that's allowed in its political advertising, nor am I confident in its ability to protect its users' privacy. Follow me (and Molly, aka The Thing of Evil) on Twitter, if you like.  Stephen King (@StephenKing) February 1, 2020

Meanwhile, Stephen King, an American author has quit the social media website, Facebook and announced the news on Twitter on February 1. According to the 72-year-old author, he was 'not comfortable' with the 'false information' which is being allowed in Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook. King also expressed his doubt with the company's ability to 'protect users' privacy' and urged his followers to find him on Jack Dorsey's microblogging site, Twitter.

READ: Twitter Accounts Of Facebook And Messenger Hacked, Multiple Posts Shared
Boris Johnson bridge

Reuters / Business Insider

Boris Johnson's planned bridge across the Irish Sea risks collisions with ships and could dislodge unexploded munitions lying on the seabed, says one of the world's top engineers.

The planned bridge would cross over the largest munitions dump in the world.

Ian Firth, an-award winning engineer who has designed and managed bridge projects around the world for almost 40 years, told Business Insider that Johnson's plan carried "massive, massive risks."

Downing Street sources told Business Insider that Johnson is determined to push ahead with the project.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Boris Johnson's plan to build a bridge across the Irish Sea from Scotland to Northern Ireland would risk collisions with ships and threaten to dislodge the largest munitions dump on the planet, one of the world's leading bridge engineers has told Business Insider.

Johnson is keen to push ahead with the bridge despite significant doubts being expressed about its feasibility both inside and outside the UK government.

The prime minister's spokesperson said this week said "work is underway" on the project, adding that the public should "watch this space" for the vision to be brought to life.

However, Ian Firth, who helped design and lead a series of major bridge projects around the world for almost four decades, told Business Insider that Johnson's bridge would create "massive, massive risks" both during and after its construction.

The bridge, which reports say would connect Larne in Northern Ireland to Portpatrick in Scotland, would have to cross around 20 miles of busy shipping lanes.

The risk of collisions with passing ships means the bridge's very large supports would have to be able to "resist possible impact from big ships and tankers travelling at a decent speed in that sort of location," Firth said.

He said that any collision with shipping at that location "could do an awful sort of damage."

Story continues

"There are massive, massive risks involved with all of that."

Firth is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers who has led projects worldwide, including the West Gate Bridge in Australia and Erksine Bridge in Scotland.

The bridge would cross a million tonnes of unexploded munitions

Boris Johnson

Reuters

The other big challenge facing the bridge is the approximate one million tonnes of unexploded munitions lying on the Irish Sea bed near the proposed location of the crossing.

Installing bridge supports down to the seabed at this location would be "super difficult," because of this, Firth said.

"The seabed is full of armaments and lots of unexploded munitions down there from World War Two when it was all dumped there," he explained.

One proposal, which is reportedly being considered by Johnson, would be to model the crossing on the Oresund Bridge connecting Sweden and Denmark, which is partly a bridge and partly a tunnel.

Firth said the suggestion was "interesting" but warned that a tunnel is a tricky design which could require major work on the land either side of the crossing.

"You've got to go down deep enough into that 160-metre depth  but you also need to come out again at the ends," he said.

"The gradient of the road or railway can only be so much. A railway has to be very shallow. You cannot have trains going up steep hills  that's just a fundamental thing.

"You'd need long approach roads on land to accommodate that. This adds to the cost and has huge environmental implications."

'Make up a [cost], then double it, triple it'

oresund

Fredde/Shutterstock

Reports have suggested that the bridge would cost up to 20 billion. Firth, who was involved in an aborted attempt to build a bridge between Sicily and mainland Italy, said that this figure appeared to have been "plucked out of the air."

"We have no idea how much it would cost, and anybody who thinks they do is trying to get some column inches," he told Business Insider.

Firth questioned whether such spending could be justified to the public on this particular crossing.

"It does feel slightly odd to me if we are to spend I don't know  make up a number, double it, triple it  on building something like this," he told Business Insider.

"'[But] ultimately it's down to money. How much money does the Treasury want to spend on a crossing between Scotland which wants to be independent and a Northern Ireland which may as well be because of Brexit?"

If Johnson is determined to build the bridge, it may still happen, Firth said.

"I'm not saying it's impossible," he added.

"If you've got enough money, you can do just about anything."

However, Firth stressed that a major project of this sort would require years of consultation before work could begin.

"They would involve environmental studies, traffic studies, socioeconomic studies, and a whole range of different things before you get anywhere near the technical studies on how we actually build the thing," he said.

"You'd need a minimum of two years to do a meaningful study  it's probably more like five."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Many states have debated the use of tax breaks for businesses, a booming and sometimes dubious way to compete for jobs.

But one state stands out: New Jersey, whose programs were so dodgy that law enforcement got involved. A political boss was accused of using these awards for self-dealing. An activist protesting this was dragged from a committee hearing by troopers.

Even Trenton lawmakers who defend incentives admit that things have gone too far. Yet they still do not agree with the governor on a crucial reform  restoring the overall cap on the annual tax breaks we hand out.

A Senate committee just made a number of sensible recommendations, many of which are not new. We should limit how much we give each company in tax breaks. We need better oversight. All true.

But while it called for a strict cap on individual awards, its not recommending an annual limit on the total program. Why not?

We saw what happened after legislators blew the overall cap off our tax breaks in 2013  a ton of self-dealing, with political insiders making fishy claims that they might someday leave the state. In the ensuing gold rush, the Economic Development Authority didnt properly vet the claims made to receive these gigantic awards.

An unlimited piggy bank invites that sort of thing, according to Gov. Phil Murphys task force, which spent a year investigating this. The temptation to treat tax credits as an inexhaustible fund of money places not only incredible authority withbut also severe institutional pressures onthe EDA, it concluded.

And the core problem is that we never know for sure when companies are bluffing us, demanding big tax discounts to do what they intended to anyway. Tax incentives make or break a businesss decision to relocate only about 25 percent of the time, experts say. If a subsidy only rewards companies for a move they would otherwise make, all we get out of the deal is lost revenue.

Even with the best diligence, theres no way to know for sure whether CEOs are truly serious about leaving. We cant peer into their souls. A hard cap would force state officials to be more discerning, to gamble more wisely.

Its like before you go into a casino, deciding how much youre willing to lose, says Tim Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer of the EDA. A cap limits the risk that the state taxpayers take.

Yet Senate President Steve Sweeney says theres no chance he will support an overall cap. If projects are pitted against each other, he argues, South Jersey could get short shrift and have less ability to compete with Pennsylvanias generous incentives.

It will be political favoritism, he says. So, if Newark has two huge projects, the hell with South Jersey, well just do Newark.

But killing the cap didnt end political favoritism. And isnt a capped program better than an unlimited one, with unlimited opportunities for political insiders? Weve seen what happens under the latter scenario.

Other states, like New York and Pennsylvania, still have overall caps. New Jersey is the exception. If we want more flexibility, consider a two-year rolling cap  if Amazon came along and we decided to exceed the cap in the first year, that would just reduce the incentives available the next year. Lawmakers could debate the size of the cap, too.

But if weve learned anything from the EDAs past excesses, its that we need to be more choosey.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.
Saudi Arabias state-run news agency quoted Col. Turki al-Maliki, a spokesman for the coalition, as saying the Tornado warplane belonging to Saudi Arabias air force was shot down over the province of Jawf late Friday. The report did not say whether there were causalities or provide further details.

Russia

Macron: Europe must get along with Russia

Europe needs to strive for better relations with Russia in the long term, French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday, adding that although he isnt proposing lifting sanctions, they have changed nothing about Russias behavior.

Macron told the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, that a credible approach to dealing with Russia would be to take the line that we are demanding, we are giving no ground in our principles on frozen conflicts, but will reengage in a strategic dialogue  which will take time.
President Donald Trump has quoted the famous Ralph Waldo Emerson line about striking at a king, provoking liberal outrage.

Trump was quoting a February 1 news analysis piece by Peter Baker for the New York Times, which cited the Emerson line in speculating that the president would emerge stronger than ever from impeachment acquittal.

''Ralph Waldo Emerson seemed to foresee the lesson of the Senate Impeachment Trial of President Trump. 'When you strike at the King, Emerson famously said, 'you must kill him.'' Trump's tweet read.

'Mr. Trump's foes struck at him but did not take him down. A triumphant Mr. Trump emerges from the biggest test of his presidency emboldened, ready to claim exoneration, and take his case of grievance, persecution and resentment to the campaign trail,' the tweet quoting Baker continued.

President Donald Trump has quoted the famous Ralph Waldo Emerson line about striking at a king, provoking liberal outrage

Trump did change one detail in quoting the article. Where Baker correctly citing Emerson as saying 'strike at a king,' Trump amended the line to 'strike at the King.'

The origin of the quote is a letter that Emerson penned to Oliver Wendell Holmes, a future Supreme Court Justice who was then a Harvard undergraduate, in response to Holmes' essay criticizing Plato.

Trump's tweet immediately sparked an outpouring of fury from his critics, with many people responding 'you are not a king.'

The origin of the quote is a letter that Emerson penned to Oliver Wendell Holmes

'Too many Americans laid down their lives to preserve a government of, by, and for the people. Mr. Trump, you are not a king,' tweeted Tom Steyer, the billionaire who recently withdrew from the Democratic presidential primary.

Trump is the third president in U.S. history to be impeached, but will be the first to seek re-election following acquittal in the Senate.

Trump is spending the weekend at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

On Saturday night he is scheduled to attend a private fundraiser, and on Sunday he will grand marshal the Daytona 500 NASCAR race at Daytona Beach.
The US administration requested $9.8 billion for cyber in next years budget for the Department of Defense, the amount is the same as last year.

The US administration requested $9.8 billion for cyber operations in next years budget for the Department of Defense, a data that confirms the strategic importance of the fifth domain of the warfare for the US Government

The amount requested for the Department of Defense in the DOD Releases Fiscal Year 2021 Budget Proposal is nearly the same one as last year for cyber operations that the US military will conduct in 2020.

The budget was released on February 10, it requests $9.8 billion for fiscal year 2021 on cyber activities, while the previous budget was about $9.6 billion in the fiscal year 2020.

The investments of the US administration in the Cyberspace Domain ($9.8 billion) include:

Cybersecurity  $5.4 billion

Cyberspace  Operations  $3.8 billion

Cyberspace Science and Technology  $556 million

In addition to the $9.8 billion, the budget funds:

 Artificial Intelligence  $841 million

 Cloud  $789 million

Below the details for every single item:

 $5.4 billion for cybersecurity  The $5.4 billion Cybersecurity budget aims at increasing capabilities in Cross Domain Solutions, Next-Generation Encryption Solutions, and Network Modernizations. It aims at reducing the risk of cyber attacks on networks, systems, and information. The budget includes:

$678 million for cryptology modernization and next-generation platforms;

$296.2 million for securing points of information and sharing;

$198.5 million for Operationalizing Identity and Credential Access Management (ICAM) modernization.

$67.2 million for Comply to Connect (C2C) and Automated Continuous Endpoint Monitoring (ACEM);

$69.8 million for critical infrastructure.

 $3.8 billion for operations. This investment would cover offensive and defensive operations and support the implementation of the Cyber Strategy by funding programs and activities. The budget includes:

$431.6 M for Cooperation with allies and partners in the conduct of hunt forward defensive cyberspace operations to counter malign cyber actors.

$238.6 for the development of capabilities to integrate joint, coalition and inter-agency command and control to enhance multi-domain operations.

$460.4 for mission assurance activities that allow the Department to better understand the risks to its key missions and to increase resilience and implement mitigations to reduce the vulnerability of key assets.

The document includes another $2.2 billion to support the Cyber Mission Forces.

DoD Budget Request is available here.

Pierluigi Paganini

( SecurityAffairs  Department of Defense , hacking)

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Three men have been arrested and a murder investigation is under way after a 19-year-old man was stabbed to death in Oldham.

Greater Manchester Police were initially called shortly before 4.30am to reports of a stabbing on Cheviot Avenue after a fight involving a small group of men.

The victim was taken to hospital but was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.

Two 21-year-old men and a 20-year-old man have been arrested on suspicion of murder and investigators are appealing to anyone with information regarding the incident to come forward.

Greater Manchester Police were initially called shortly before 4.30am to reports of a stabbing on Cheviot Avenue, pictured, after a fight involving a small group of men

Greater Manchester Police are appealing for information after the 19-year-old was stabed

The victim was taken to hospital but was pronounced dead shortly afterwards

A cordon remains in place at the scene and investigators are appealing to anyone with information about what happened to come forward.

Detective Superintendent Debbie Dooley, of GMP's Oldham division, said: 'My thoughts are with the young man who has had his life brutally taken away from him and our specialist officers are working closely with the family to assist them the best we can at this devastating time.

'This is a fast-moving investigation and we have made three early arrests.

'However, we are keen to establish the circumstances around this and are appealing to the public for further information to assist us with this case.

Forensics teams at the scene in Cheviot Avenue, Royton, Oldham where 19 year old has been murdered

A cordon remains in place at the scene and investigators are appealing to anyone with information about what happened to come forward

'A crime of this severity requires as much detail as possible, therefore it is vital that those who know about the circumstances behind this get in touch with police and aid our inquiries so the perpetrators can be brought to justice.'

Anyone with information about this incident should contact police on 0161 856 9080 quoting incident number 630 of 16/02/2020.

Details can also be passed anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
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
Malaysia insisted Sunday it had correctly diagnosed coronavirus in an elderly American woman from the Westerdam cruise ship despite all passengers having been given a clean bill of health when they disembarked in Cambodia.

The vessel was at sea for two weeks and barred from Japan, Guam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand over fears it might be carrying the virus which originated in China and has killed more than 1,600 people.

Cambodia -- a staunch ally of Beijing -- allowed the ship to dock Thursday in Sihanoukville, administering health tests before passengers disembarked in waves for homeward-bound flights.

But jubilation dimmed late Saturday, as one of the passengers was stopped by authorities in Malaysia when she was detected with a fever and was later diagnosed with the virus.

Now fears are mounting that more of the 2,200 passengers and crew who disembarked may have been infected.

Cambodia urged Kuala Lumpur on Sunday to "double-check" the diagnosis, but Malaysian deputy prime minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said the 83-year-old American woman had already been tested twice.

"Our protocol is actually world-class... it's a positive," she told a press conference.

She added the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur had chartered four Malaysian Airlines planes to fly some of Westerdam's passengers to Kuala Lumpur.

But after the discovery of the infected woman on the first plane carrying 143 passengers, the other flights were cancelled.

Onboard the Westerdam -- where more than 200 passengers remain along with 747 crew members -- the mood has turned "sombre", said Lorraine Oliveira, who lives in Britain.

"Guests are very anxious on board since finding out someone tested positive," she told AFP.

"We were (so) close to getting home and now we're back in limbo." Cambodia's decision to allow the Westerdam to berth was lauded US President Donald Trump, who called the country "beautiful" on Twitter, while US ambassador Patrick Murphy boarded the ship to greet its American passengers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By PTI

BEIJING: India will soon send a consignment of medical supplies to China to assist Beijing in combating the deadly coronavirus outbreak, Indian Ambassador Vikram Misri said on Sunday as he expressed solidarity with the people of China in their fight against the epidemic.

The death toll from COVID-19 outbreak in China has climbed to 1,665 after 142 more people died, mostly in the worst-hit Hubei province, officials said on Sunday.

"As a concrete step to tackle the outbreak, India will soon send a consignment of medical supplies to China," Misri said, adding that this is a concrete measure which will fully demonstrate the goodwill, solidarity and friendship of the people and Government of India with the Chinese people.

He said India will do everything within its means to assist the people of China in this time of difficulty.

Indian officials said the details of the aid required by China are being worked out and the consignment would be sent as soon as they are finalised.

Also, India has lifted the ban and cleared some of the medical equipment ordered by the Chinese importers to meet the requirements.

China has said that it needed medical masks, gloves and suits especially for the medical staff attending the virus affected patients.

Masks also have become scarce in China in view of the nationwide demand in the last three weeks.

"During the past few weeks, the entire world has borne witness to the severity of the novel coronavirus outbreak and the tremendous challenges posed by it," Misri said in a video message released to Chinese media outlets on Sunday.

"I wish to convey my solidarity and support to the Chinese people and Government in tackling this epidemic," he said.

"We feel deeply for the people and the families that are affected by this epidemic.

I would particularly wish to express support for the people of Wuhan City and Hubei province who have been most affected by this epidemic, and who hold a very special place in the hearts of the people of India," he said.

Hubei and its capital Wuhan have become the epicentre of the virus and most of the fatalities in China have been reported from the province.

"The determination of the Chinese people and Government in dealing with this epidemic is evident to all of us.

We hope that it will be effectively controlled in the near future," he said.

Misri said that India is also facing the threat of infections from the novel coronavirus epidemic and the country is working hard to safeguard the health and wellbeing of its citizens.

"I once again express my support for all people in China affected by this outbreak, and I hope through courage, persistence and effective measures, we will be able to overcome this epidemic," he said.

On February 9, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote to Chinese President Xi Jinping, offering India's assistance to China to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang appreciated Modi's offer and said, "India's acts of goodwill fully demonstrate its friendship with China".
Arunachal Pradesh Chief



Minister Pema Khandu on Sunday directed officials to fast track probe into alleged irregularities in the examination conducted by the Arunachal Pradesh Staff Selection Board (APSSB).

In a statement, the chief minister said, "I have directed the chief secretary for fast-track probe into the alleged irregularities in the exam conducted by the APSSB ..."



Khandu said those involved in the irregularities would not be spared no matter how influential they may be.

"None can play with the future of our youths. Those trying to trample with the rights of our people has no other place but behind bars. An impartial investigation will be carried out leaving no stone unturned," Khandu said in a Facebook post.

He said the creation of APSSB was the biggest reform brought by his government for bringing transparency in the recruitment process and for the goal of a 'progressive Arunachal'.

The APSSB came under public criticism after a suspicious optical mark recognition (OMR) sheet was seen doing the rounds on social media, soon after the results of the exam for lower divisional clerk (LDC), junior secretariat assistant (JSA) and other posts were published on its website on February 14.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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A few decades ago, 90 percent of graduates from Christian seminaries planned to pursue full-time jobs in ministry. But, in recent years, studies have shown that just 41 percent of seminary graduates anticipated finding a career in the church.

In other words, the majority of seminary students in 2020 do not plan to become pastors.

Why has there been such a radical shift?

An article published in Christianity Today entitled "Non-Traditional Seminary Students are Changing the Church," by Abby Perry, took a closer look at this phenomenon.

Perry maintains that there is a crisis of discipleship in the modern Western Church, where churches are not providing robust theology and Biblical knowledge to satisfy and nourish their members. Sermons are often light, seeker-friendly fare that fails to challenge the mature Christian.

As the days of cultural Christianity and the moral majority become increasingly obsolete, faithful churches are producing disciples hungry for the Word, writes Perry. Individuals who have not found discipleship in the church are going to do what they have to do to find it. For many, this looks like enrolling in seminary.

Wayne Johnson, associate dean and associate professor of Biblical and pastoral theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, says, Weve lost the educational mandate that is part of Christian discipleship, he said. In recent decades, churches have emphasized emotion over intellect when it comes to religious experience.

This modern church environment is partially a result of the Second Great Awakening in the mid-1700s, where thunderous preachers like Jonathan Edwards made passionate altar calls to bring people to their knees. Ethan Renoe, writing for Relevant Magazine, argues that the Church, in the last 200 years, has begun discarding intelligence in favor of emotion, conversion, experiences and passion.

Whatever the reason, the fact remains that many devout Christians are turning to seminary classrooms to learn and talk about the things theyre not hearing in church.

In Matthew 22:37, Jesus declares, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Loving God with our minds is just as important as loving Him with our hearts.

There must be something for the Church to learn from the rising numbers of people, from stay at home parents to doctors, pursuing seminary degrees.

Perry concludes with a call for churches and seminaries to join forces in order to provide Christians the spiritual nourishment we all need for our faith to grow. We need to reclaim the local church as a place for theological formation and cultivate a collective imagination for how seminaries support that mission.

The current bifurcation between church and education, worship and knowledge, need not remain. This might look like a seminary starting a mentorship program for its students with a local church, or offering a joint-degree program where students complete hands-on training at a local congregation.

If seminaries and local churches dont view themselves through the lens of complementarity, then theyre missing a tremendous opportunity in which the strength of one supplements and comes alongside the strength of the other, said Mark Young, president of Denver Seminary.

Wherever Christians are exercising their heart, soul and mind in an effort to love God, there He will be glorified. Working together, churches and seminaries have an opportunity to create the kind of spiritual environment where Jesuss command to make disciples can be fulfilled for everyone.
Such incidents are rare in India. I dont remember in my time  in British or free India  the police ever having entered the way they are entering now on campuses, said Irfan Habib, 88, a distinguished historian who has spent most of his life teaching at AMU. The message is that civil liberty is not yours, Habib said, and that police will decide who can protest and who cant.


Gov't steps up measures for Chinese students



By Bahk Eun-ji



The government stepped up its efforts to prevent the further spread of the novel coronavirus here, Sunday, announcing a set of measures that includes testing all hospital in-patients who have pneumonia.



With the re-opening of schools in March, the education ministry also said that it will allow universities to ask Chinese students who have yet to come to Korea to consider taking a leave of absence for the first semester this year.



"Chinese students still in China will be recommended to take online courses or to take a leave of absence for the first semester if they have visa problems or don't have a domestic residence in Korea," Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae said during a press briefing at the Government Complex Seoul.



The series of measures come as the government confirmed an additional case of the 2019-nCoV (COVID-19) infection Sunday, bringing the total to 29, following a five-day pause.







According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), the latest patient is an 82-year-old man, who had not traveled overseas nor been in contact with any confirmed patients. He first visited a local hospital in his neighborhood Saturday, and went to the emergency center at Korea University Anam Hospital for a heart problem the next day where he tested positive for 2019-nCoV. The emergency center is now closed.





The KCDC said the man did not go to a separate screening clinic to be checked for the virus because he had no symptoms  fever or respiratory problems  when he arrived at the Anam regional emergency center. However, doctors there ran the coronavirus test after diagnosing him as suffering from pneumonia.



The patient is now under quarantine at Seoul National University Hospital.





Evacuees from Wuhan, China, epicenter of the novel coronavirus, arrive at Cheonan-Asan Station in South Chungcheong Province, Sunday, to take the KTX to return home after the end of their two-week quarantine at the Police Human Resources Development Institute in Asan. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-geun
Gunmen have shot dead nine homeless drug users in the Afghan capital, officials said on February 16.



The incident took place late on February 15 in a cave on the outskirts of Kabul near the Koh-e Qurugh mountain, police spokesman Faramarz Tamanna told dpa.



One addict was found wounded and was taken to hospital, police added.



The motive for the attack in Kabul was not clear and police said they were investigating.

Drug addiction has been reportedly on the rise in the war-torn country that produces the majority of opium and heroin consumed in the world.



Afghanistans National Drug Use Survey has found that there are between 2.9 to 3.6 million drug users in the country of roughly 37 million.

"It's a social crisis," Dr Shokoor Haidari, deputy of the ministry's counter-drugs department, was quoted as saying by Reuters.



The ministry can only treat 40,000 people a year but far more seek help, said Haidari.



Lack of social services, unemployment, and easy access to drugs have fueled drug abuse in Afghanistan, Haidari said.

Based on reporting by dpa and Reuters
Na-yeon died four years ago, aged seven, from a rare blood disorder that killed her within a month of diagnosis. "It's very important to appreciate not just the technological capability but also the social, economical and ethical side of these advances," says Carl Ohman, an academic at the Oxford Internet Institute. He notes that there remains "a lot of disagreement" among researchers about the cathartic nature of such experiments. "The community that forms around social media pages of the deceased can be a great comfort," he notes. "But when it comes to people using bots for this, it seems very nefarious. It's really not something we know much about. The opportunity for exploitation is definitely there." Someone who has thought a great deal about such matters is Pete Trainor, a technologist who met and became great friends with a seriously ill young man from Liverpool in the UK called James Dunn. Dunn, who I met last year, had epidermolysis bullosa, a condition that deprives the skin of collagen, leaving it fragile and as easy to tear as the wing of a butterfly - which is why it is known as the butterfly syndrome. It is fatal, and in the months before he died, aged 24, he and Trainor used microphones to collect and compile his thoughts into a "corpus" - a data set which would allow artificial intelligence (AI) to "recreate" him in text form, after he had died. It was a project driven by Dunn. But even so, says Trainor, "my experience of being at the epicentre of one of these projects has really tested my morality.

"We didn't think about any potential weirdness when we started," he explains. "It was purely a project to document James' memories. It was never motivated by the desire to be reanimated. But I did start to realise quite quickly that there was going to be some real oddity. Because it speaks back. These memories are not a one-way thing. Having them respond - that's deeply strange." Dunn's parents, Lesley and Kenny, he notes, have never used the virtual James "bot" to communicate with him. Lesley prefers to sit by her son's graveside. Jang Ji-sung, a mother of four, dons a virtual reality headset. From a technological point of view, the weirdness is becoming more and more accessible. So-called "deep fake" software, which allows sophisticated video recreations of anyone, is available to download online, while we all commit more and more personal information to the internet - images, stories, thoughts, feelings - from which AI "corpuses" to recreate our own personalities can be derived. "We leave behind so much data now, everything that was once ephemeral is now captured," says Elaine Kasket, author of All the Ghosts in the Machine, a book about the digital afterlife. "Search history, health and biometric data, conversations - somebody who wanted to put that all together and assemble a picture of you would know you better than you know yourself," she says. This collision of deep fake technology and the deceased's data can only mean, says Trainor, that "there will be companies popping up saying, 'For 100 quid we're going to allow you to have conversations with dead relatives'."

And there will be increasing numbers of us choosing digital immortality. Indeed, it's already out there: online service, Eterni.me, offers the chance to "live on forever as a digital avatar" and claims that more than 46,000 people have already signed up to its service. "Deep fakes are already controversial, but with deep fakes of the dead there is an extra layer of controversy," adds Kasket. "For the first time we can revivify people in a realistic way. We've never been there before." The heart-wrenching "reunion" between a mother, Jang Ji-sung, and an avatar of her deceased daughter, Na-yeon. One of the problems is that, for all their realism, avatars are only inferring from the body of data what the real person might have said or done, using AI code written by others. So there will always be a question of whether its response is "real" or an effect of the software, or the software's creator. "These are essentially dreams designed by human programmers," says Kasket. "Grief is so personal, [it's] different to everyone." She points to services such as Safebeyond, which the dying can use to send text messages to their relatives after they have gone. These can be triggered by a date - say birthdays - or a location. "Some companies think 'Won't it be comforting and wonderful for widows to get messages from a husband on their anniversary'," says Kasket. "Or that a geolocation triggers a message at the Eiffel Tower saying 'Darling, I wish I was in Paris with you.' Well, some might think that's lovely but some might be horrified, like being stalked by the dead."

These are the questions that those behind the digital afterlife industry must wrestle. But it's not all about death. The research project Augmented Eternity wants to compile a library of avatars for use in life, which we might be able to borrow and swap as needed. Faced with a tricky situation at work? Why not assume the identity of your most Machiavellian friend for an hour to scheme your way through it digitally? Loading And therein lies the problem. Because any commercialisation of avatars, even children, will mean that the customer is always right. "Regardless of what the company says they're in it for, in a totally free market you will always head to the most profitable version of the deceased," says Ohman. "So rather than create an avatar just like the dead person, you create the avatar you can sell - a version of them at their best, maybe more pleasant, charming, less complaining." Or, in a child's case, sweeter, better behaved, angelic...
A senior US health official said Sunday that more than 40 Americans on a quarantined cruise ship in Japan have been infected with the deadly coronavirus and would not be a part of an evacuation effort.

"Forty of them have gotten infected," Anthony Fauci, a senior official at the National Institutes for Health said on CBS' Face the Nation show.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Saturday that 400 Americans on the Diamond Princess cruise ship would be evacuated and flown back to the United States where they would face a 14-day quarantine period.

But Fauci said that those confirmed with infections would not be allowed to fly.

"They are not going to go anywhere," he said. "They're going to be in hospitals in Japan." Asked about the severity of the infected Americans' illness, Fauci said it varied.

"You could be infected and have minimal symptoms, but you still have the possibility of transmitting it to someone else," he said.

"Or you could be infected and have some significant lung disease that would require hospitalization and perhaps even some serious intervention." He added that anyone showing potential symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, would also not be able to get on evacuation planes.

"If people on the plane start to develop symptoms, they'll be segregated within the plane. So there's a very firm plan with this 747 that is going to take these passengers now who have been there." Some American passengers from the cruise ship have indicated they would decline to be evacuated because they were asymptomatic.

But Fauci said everyone who had been on the ship would still be subject to quarantine on their return to the US.

"And the reason for that is that the degree of transmissibility on that cruise ship is essentially akin to being in a hot spot. A lot of transmissibility on that cruise ship," he explained.

More than 1,600 people have died from the novel coronavirus in China since it was first detected in the central city of Wuhan, and five others have died outside China.

The US has enacted a temporary travel ban on foreign nationals who have visited China and quarantine measures for its own citizens returning from the province at the epicenter of the outbreak.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Perhaps youve watched friends, co-workers or neighbors fall victim to this years raging flu season -- so you might be wondering if youve missed the opportunity to protect yourself with a flu vaccine.

But dont fear -- its not too late. In fact, doctors recommend getting one as soon as possible.

Id rather recommend an ounce of prevention than a pound of sickness, said Dr. Harry Kopolovich, chairman of the emergency department at Richmond University Medical Center, West Brighton, who stressed that Staten Island is right now in the peak period of flu activity, and risk continues throughout March.

Just because flu activity decreases in March, does not mean it goes down to zero, Kopolovich said. Its still worthwhile to get the flu vaccine. You still have plenty of time.

According to the New York State Department of Health (DOH) Flu Tracker, the week ending Feb. 1, 2020 was the 10th consecutive week in which widespread flu activity has been reported. Sixty-two counties reported flu cases that week, the most recent for which data is available.

On Staten Island, 194 cases were reported that week, the DOH said, just slightly down from 201 the week prior.

The borough had the most reported flu cases in the borough this season between Feb. 2 and Feb. 8, according to state Health Department data.

And though many get the flu viruses A and B despite receiving the shot, they are still better off having been vaccinated, said Dr. Theodore Strange, a geriatrician with Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze, who noted that the state Department of Health is still requiring staff members of New York hospitals to wear masks at work if they havent been vaccinated.

The flu each year goes through antigenic shifts, he said, enabling it to alter its resistance to vaccines.

Its been a significant flu season, he said. But, even if you dont get full immunity, the little bit you get might take it from a more severe case to a milder case.

It also might decrease your chances of spreading it to your family, friends and co-workers, Strange said.

Kopolovich said he agrees.

Even if the flu vaccine is only 35% effective, it is still much better than to suffer, he said, noting that Tamiflu often prescribed after infection has been largely ineffective at reducing symptoms.

And this years flu season is nowhere near over, both doctors stressed.

It takes two to three weeks for the flu vaccine to reach its full effectiveness, but we think the epidemic will last until the end of March or early April, Strange said.

And Staten Islands youngest, most vulnerable population has through at least mid-March to get a flu vaccine when they visit the emergency room for primary care at RUMC.

In an effort to prevent the spread of the flu among youth, RUMC will continue to offer kids the vaccine when they visit the hospital with other medical concerns, Kopolovich said.

The project was put in place to curb the spread of the flu among susceptible North Shore patients who routinely visit the emergency room for treatment in place of a primary care physician, he explained.

Strange stressed that other vulnerable individuals, such as the elderly or those with diseases of the lung or the heart, are particularly encouraged to get vaccinated.

In addition to getting vaccinated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasizes that people should be washing their hands regularly -- taking enough time to make sure they get rid of those nasty germs.

And you absolutely cannot get the flu from the vaccine, Kopolovich stressed. There is no chance, whatsoever, that you will get the flu from it, he said.
By Trend





Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of Lithuania Gitanas Nauseda.

It is on the occasion of the National Holiday of the Republic of Lithuania that on my behalf and behalf of the people of Azerbaijan I offer my cordial congratulations to you and the friendly people of Lithuania, Ilham Aliyev said in his letter.

The present level of Azerbaijan-Lithuania relations is gratifying. I believe that mutually beneficial expansion of these relations across all areas will serve further the interests of our peoples, reads the letter. I seize this opportunity to wish strong health and success in every endeavor to you, and peace and prosperity to your people.
In a repeat of last edition's final, defending champions Mumbai Indians and runners-up Chennai Super Kings will open the 13th IPL at the Wankhede Stadium on March 29.

The franchise-based event will start 11 days after India's home ODI series against South Africa ends on March 18 in Kolkata.

The Indian Premier League will release the schedule for the knockouts later, but the final is scheduled for May 24.

The organisers have done away with the Saturday double-headers, resulting in an extra week in the league phase.

The BCCI sent out the final fixture to the franchises on Saturday, stating that six double-headers will take place only on Sundays.

The last league game is scheduled for May 17, between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai in Bengaluru.

Except Rajasthan Royals, all the other seven franchises have retained their original home bases.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Friday, 14 February

Human rights activists took over the flagpole at Environment Canterbury today, raising the flag of Western Sahara in solidarity with the Saharawi people. This coincided with a visit from a Moroccan delegation at Environment Canterbury, including the President of OCP (which is the Moroccan owned mining company in Western Sahara). Their visit was prompted following the actions of New Zealanders demanding Ravensdown to stop importing blood phosphate from Western Sahara, which is being illegally and brutally occupied by Morocco.

The delegation are both paid employees of the Moroccan government, and despite their glittery titles, their visit is solely to deceive the New Zealand public so they can continue their illegal exportation of stolen phosphate. They want New Zealand to accept a brutal occupation and oppression of people, to fulfil their business needs.

The money from the mining operations goes towards funding the 10 million land mines, which lie along the border of Western Sahara, forbidding the local Saharawi from ever returning to their home land. The area is guarded by 150,000 military and police, which is a ratio of 15 military to every 1 Saharawi. New Zealand is directly funding war crimes by continuing to purchase phosphate from the illegally occupied territory of Western Sahara.

173,000 Saharawi have had to flee their homes, and are living in refugee camps in neighbouring Algeria.

The Saharawi people have never consented for their phosphate to be taken by Morocco, and have been demanding a referendum for self determination for over 30 years. The UN and the African Union support their calls for referendum, which are being refused by the occupying power of Morocco. The Saharawi want their natural resources protected, because they need them to rebuild their lives after decades of exile, conflict and suffering.

Ravensdown has been accused by international authorities of misrepresenting the UN position by saying they are operating within their guidelines, when they have never sought the consent of the Saharawi people. The Western Sahara government in exile has never consented. OCP does not claim to have mined the phosphate with the consent of the people of the territory.

The Saharawi in the occupied territory are denied their right to self determination, they are denied civil and political rights, they are tortured, they are imprisoned without trial. The Moroccan government have implemented a media black out, and refuse to allow human rights observers to entire Western Sahara, to try and ensure these stories are never told.

In March 2017, 60 Saharawi took over a bus owned by OCP and threatened to self immolate in protest of the occupation and their lack of rights

Saharawi Diplomat, and human rights activist, Malainin Lakhal states

"It is shocking to me to see New Zealands authorities allowing a force of occupation, Morocco, to simply bring some of its agents, fully funded by the Moroccan government, and give them the floor to mislead the New Zealand public opinion in order to enable two companies to continue their illegal collaboration with the Moroccan regime in the criminal act of plundering Western Saharas phosphate.

The UN says that Western Sahara is a colony. UN resolutions indicate that Morocco is a force of occupation. The African Union recognises the Saharawi Republic as the sovereign representative of the Saharawis and the UN recognises Polisario Front as the legitimate political representative of our people. How can New Zealand government justify its position in allowing two national companies to import stolen goods from this colony in complete violation of the international law and in total disregard to Saharawi peoples will? And how can these two companies and their PR services use Moroccan colonial propaganda to justify this shameful theft?

The only thing New Zealand government can do is to put pressure on these two companies to put an end to this shameful act of theft. New Zealand has no interests in supporting the Moroccan occupation in Western Sahara. It would be an act that goes against the international legality and of course against the values and principles New Zealand has always defended."

John Kerr, South Island Organiser of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union states "The Rail and Maritime Transport Union opposes the importation of Blood Phosphate from Western Sahara, in accordance with the NZ Council of Trade Unions resolution on this matter, and notes the Moroccan governments attempts to lobby New Zealand politicians. This is clear evidence that public pressure against Moroccos illegal occupation is having an effect.

SOURCE: http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/5/358264
WATERLOO  Individuals and businesses will be honored on March 31 at the Grow Cedar Valley Annual Celebration for their ongoing commitment to making the Cedar Valley a better place to work, do business, and live.

More than 500 businesses and community members have registered for the night of celebration and recognition held at Bien VenU Event Center in Cedar Falls from 5:30 to 9 p.m.

The evening begins with social hour at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner and an award ceremony at 6:30 p.m. To purchase a table or tickets to attend, contact Director of Events Bette Wubbena at bette@growcedarvalley.com or call 232-1156.

Sponsors for the event include premier sponsor Community Bank and Trust, platinum sponsors Amperage Marketing & Fundraising, Holiday Inn & Suites/Bien VenU Event Center, and gold sponsors Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa, ISG, Lincoln Savings Bank, Locknet Management IT Services, MercyOne and Rydell Chevrolet.

The 2020 award winners are:

Legacy Award Tim Hurley

This award honors an individual for their continued leadership and noteworthy contributions to the Cedar Valley through philanthropy and volunteerism; working to create a positive environment for business expansion; and community growth and enhancing the quality of life for talent recruitment and retention.

Cedar Valley

Business LeaderMilt Dakovich, Aspro Inc.

This award recognizes an outstanding contribution by an individual in the private sector for leadership in creating and strengthening regional collaboration and cooperation for economic and community development.

Cedar Valley

Business of the YearISG

Crystal Distribution Services

The Business of the Year awards recognize the efforts of Grow Cedar Valley investors in promoting the quality of life and offering leadership within the Cedar Valley, achieving a major business accomplishment, or making an outstanding contribution to the Cedar Valley community, economy, and residents.

John Deere

Treating Capital WellHoliday Inn Suites/Bien VenU Event Center/Open Door Hospitality

This award recognizes the efforts of a private sector firm for a significant investment in the Cedar Valley that most emphasize the attributes of the Cedar Valley.

Cedar Valley InnovationProfessional Office Services

This award recognizes the efforts of a private sector employer for their innovation in technology, advanced manufacturing or talent development.

Cedar Valley PartnerAllen College/UnityPoint Health

This award recognizes the efforts of an education institution, non-profit organization, service club or human service agency in promoting economic growth and employment, quality of life, offering leadership or making an outstanding contribution to the Cedar Valley and its citizens on a continuing basis or with a specific project.

Economic Inclusion PartnerFriendship Village

This award recognizes the work of an employer for their work to encourage diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Nominations for the 2021 awards will be accepted in early 2021.

Womens Mobile Museum exhibition PHOTOS

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A calf was born on February 14 with a perfect heart-shaped mark on her forehead at a farm in County Antrim and has taken the internet by storm. Since it was Valentines Day, some internet users also said that the stars were aligned for this animal. According to international reports, the calf has been named 'Be My Valentine' at Parkshaw Farm in Bushmills, Ireland. Farmer James McAuley was reportedly struck by the distinctive mark on the animal's body especially being born on the morning of 'most romantic day of the year'.

This calf was born yesterday with a love heart on its head 



This is too precious #Valentines2020 pic.twitter.com/xSvopPWE88  lanna (@Allannaxox) February 15, 2020

Read - Assam: Braving Angry Mother Elephant, Locals Rescue Calf Stuck Between Rocks

'It's just the date'

While talking to an international media outlet, McAuley confessed that he had seen similar animals like Be My Valentine but it's just the date. He further elaborated how his mother noticed the animal's head and said, look at it.

According to international media reports, the calf is registered with the name, Be My Valentine even in its official paperwork. The farmer's children were also seen in the pictures that have gone viral, happily playing with the new addition in their family.

Talk about a love story! This calf was born on the McAuley's farm in Bushmills this morning and how fitting it arrived on Valentine's Day! Look at that wee head! The Jersey Calf will be called  Be my Valentine on official paperwork. Pic by @McAuleySteven pic.twitter.com/z4FNl71ubK  Hannah Spratt (@Radio_Han) February 14, 2020

Read - Calf Brought Up By German Shepherds Thinks He Is Part Of The Pack

Theres a high number of calves that are born onFeb 14 with heart markings on their polls. Over the last decade Ive seen at least 6 shared on social platforms.   https://t.co/6VdUCPq5BI  Jennifer M. Latzke (@Latzke) February 14, 2020

McAuley also said that the calf's calm attitude has made her perfect to be a playmate for his kids, Jack, Emily, and Harry. The Irish farmer also expressed his surprise as the calf has now become an internet sensation. Meanwhile, another calf had previously taken the internet by the storm who behaved like a dog.

After her mom's tragic death, an orphaned calf was rescued and raised by a family of German Shepherd breeders. After befriending and spending his whole life near German Shepards, the calf too behaved like them. According to reports the calf even wags his tail in excitement.

Read - Rohit Sharma Ruled Out Of Remaining New Zealand Tour Due To Calf Injury; Read Details

Read - Albino Elephant Calf Rescued After Being Trapped In Snare For Four Days
The Berkshire Sheriffs Office is warning residents of a scam that has people trying to collect information about local children.

Residents are reporting people who are going door-to-door and asking for information about their children including photographs, birthdates, and hair samples, officials said.

Please be advised, we are not currently doing this as part of a program and have not done this in the past, department officials said.

Residents are asked to call 911 immediately if someone comes to their door asking for the information so police can locate the individuals, officials said.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Sunday said he was looking forward to a successful and fruitful conference on convention of migratory species.

"It is a significant conference which aims at protecting the migratory species be it birds, mammals or aquatic animals. We are succeeding in preserving them due to collective efforts of the government, scientists and other people. We expect it to be fruitful," Javadekar said.

The 13th Conference of Parties (COP 13) of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), which has over 130 countries as participants, is a global platform for the conservation and sustainable use of migratory animals and their habitats and brings together the states through which migratory species pass.

With this COP, India takes over the presidency of the convention for three years.

Speaking about the high-level meeting to be held in second half of the day, Javadekar said it will be attended by 10 ministers from various countries and 15 ministers from Indian states.

"The high-level meeting will finalise the agenda for the next seven days to be discussed. It will be attended by 15 ministers from various states and 10 ministers from countries," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the CMS COP-13 via video conference on Monday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The sale of a home at Thuis in Upper Ferefad was the largest one-off property transaction recorded in Longford last year.

Data from the Property Price Register, analysed by property website MyHome.ie, shows that the 5-bed detached house sold for 406,250 in March via Property Partners Quinn.

There have been only three larger transactions in Longford so far this year but each were for developments, the biggest of which was land at Kiniska in Ballymahon which sold for 600,000 in November.

Other large one-off sales included a property at 6 Lyanmore in Ardagh which sold for 340,000 in February, Westgrove Lodge, which sold for 331,600 in March and Melview in Corragarrow, which sold for 330,000 in September.

As of the Property Price Register update of February 5th, just over 55.4 million had been spent on property last year in Longford. There were 449 sales recorded as of that date, which is 4.1% down on the 468 transactions recorded in 2018.

Angela Keegan, Managing Director of MyHome.ie, said that the analysis confirmed a trend of significant activity in commuter counties.

She stated: The affordability of properties in the counties around Dublin is proving to be extremely popular especially with first-time buyers who are constrained due to the Central Banks mortgage lending rules.

Also read: Longford residential property sales fall by 7.5% in 2019
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Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has said his country backs Indias bid for permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

India has the full support of Portugal to become a permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations, he said in Panaji on Saturday at an event on the first day of his two-day visit to Goa, a former Portuguese colony.

Sousa who had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday also said India and Portugal were looking at cooperation across different sectors.

My long meeting with Prime Minister Modi was very fruitful bilaterally and multilaterally and we discussed concrete projects for investment -- Portuguese investment in India and Indian investment in Portugal. Economic cooperation, scientific cooperation, scientific cooperation and university cooperation all of it in the period for the next five years, Sousa said.

The Portuguese president also oversaw the signing of a series of agreements between Indian and Portuguese agencies on a whole range of economic, scientific, and industrial fields even as he urged India -- and specifically Goa -- not to look at the visit from a nostalgic point of view but rather look towards the future.

Sousa made specific reference to Goas unique position in India, but warned that clinging on to the nostalgia of the past would not be beneficial.

This is also our challenge -- to make the bridge between the past and the future. We cannot have nostalgia-vision of any kind in any place. My advice for Goa is not the nostalgic one because the past is the past, but the past can become the future if we take advantage of that past, Sousa said.

I came here a little bit of the cultural heritage we left in Goa As much I am proud of the cultural heritage India has left on my culture, the Portuguese culture on my history, the Portuguese history on the survival of my nation because we are what we are because we had differences at that point, Sousa said referring to the acrimonious relations between India and Portugal in the aftermath of Indias annexation of Goa in 1961.

Among the agreements signed in his presence was a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Goa Shipyard Limited, a Defence PSU, and Portugals Estaleiros Navais De Peniche for design, construction and supply of ships in Africa and Latin American countries.

The Goa Government and the Aguas de Portugal (Portuguese water treatment and supply agency) also signed an agreement which will see the Portuguese help Goa assess its existing water supply projects as well as a study on removal of manganese in Goas water supply system.
A video of the incident was later released on social media which created a flutter in political circles here.

Patna: Some CPI and RJD workers Saturday poured Ganga water on the statue of B.R. Ambedkar which was earlier garlanded by BJP leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh.

While giving reasons behind the incident, left leaders accused Mr Singh of being a follower of Nathuram Godse and spreading hatred through his speeches.

Sources said that before addressing a public meeting in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) Friday, Mr Singh visited a park in Begusarais Ballia block and garlanded the statue of B.R. Ambedkar.

The day after on Saturday, CPI leaders accompanied by a few RJD workers who had been demonstrating against the CAA, NPR and NRC poured Ganga water on the statue and chanted Jai Bhim slogans.

A video of the incident was later released on social media which created a flutter in political circles here.

We decided to purify the statue of B.R. Ambedkar because Mr Singhs presence polluted the atmosphere. He has been spreading hatred through his speeches and statements, left leaders said.

Mr Singh had contested against former JNUSU president and CPI leader Kanhaiya Kumar and won in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Reports suggest that a section in political circles has been miffed over his recent remark where he said that Deoband is the Gangotri of terrorism. With the state Assembly elections slated to be held later this year, political temperatures are running high since the CAA came into force. The state has been witnessing massive anti-CAA protests in several districts including Patna, Begusarai and Gaya.

The state has witnessed more than one shutdown, besides a flurry of local, round-the-clock vigils with sizeable participation of women reminding people of the Shaheen Bagh protests in Delhi.

Kanhaiya Kumar has also been leading a state-wide Jan Gan Man Yatra and addressing a series of public meetings against the contentious CAA, NPR and NRC.

While Mr Singh was not available for comment as he had reportedly left for New Delhi, the BJP state unit reacted strongly against the statue cleansing incident Saturday.

BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand told this newspaper, Union minister Mr Singh has all the rights to pay tribute by garlanding the statue of Baba Saheb Ambedkar but the act of purification of the statue by the communist and RJD is very shameful and condemnable. They must know that B.R. Ambedkar belongs to every Indian and it is not the Congress but our Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has developed the Pancha Tirath places in memory of the father of the Indian constitution.
As the Long Beach Unified School District commits to keeping classes in-person, the city a new testing site opens for LBUSD employees and students only. The city is also ramping up its own testing efforts with a new 3,000-person per day testing site.
Arvind Kejriwal said he will work for everyone regardless of their political leanings, religion or caste, and that he was willing to put the bitter election campaign behind him to work closely with the Union government, as he took oath as Delhis chief minister for the third time at the Ramlila Maidan on Sunday.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief, who pulled off an impressive assembly election win against the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) challenge in the Capital, was sworn into office by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal as thousands gathered at the central Delhi venue. Kejriwal, 51, took oath along with cabinet ministers Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Gopal Rai, Kailash Gahlot, Imran Hussain and Rajendra Pal Gautam.

It does not matter which party you have voted for. I am a CM for those who voted for the AAP, I am a CM for those who voted for the BJP and those who voted for the Congress I have never discriminated anyone on the basis of the partys they vote for. I have worked for everyone. I have done development work in colonies that are BJP strongholds... All 2 crore residents of Delhi are one family for me and I am everyones chief minister Elections are over but I will be there for you, like a family. Feel free to come to me for any help... I will work for everyone, be it from any party, any religion, caste or strata of society, Kejriwal said in his speech that lasted about 20 minutes after the swearing-in ceremony.

For the second time in a row, Delhi voted overwhelmingly for the AAP in the February 8 election, giving it 62 seats in the 70-member assembly. In 2015, the AAP won 67 seats. The partys victory came on the back of a campaign that leveraged the leadership of Kejriwal, who first emerged as a key member of the India Against Corruption movement and later joined politics in 2012.

In its campaign, the AAP focussed on education and health, with the provision of electricity and water at low rates, and free quotas for the two utilities. Political rivals had criticised the AAP government over the subsidies, saying it was providing the facilities merely for political gains.

On Sunday, the national convener of AAP responded to the criticism: Some accuse me of distributing freebies. They forget that the most precious things on earth are inherently free in nature. Things such as a mothers love for the child and Shravan Kumars [a mythical character in the Ramayana] devotion and service towards his parents are priceless. Such is my love for Delhi. Kejriwal loves people of Delhi and the people love him back equally. This love is priceless. He added that such services are priceless and should not be seen as freebies.

This is not my win; this is the victory of every Delhiite, of every family. In the last five years, our only effort has been to bring happiness and relief to every Delhiite, the CM said, describing himself as Delhis son.

Referring to the bitter political campaign ahead of the assembly elections, Kejriwal said at Ramlila Maidan that he forgives the Opposition. I want to work taking everybody along. The election campaign witnessed a lot of political frictions and heated exchange of words. We forgive the political parties in opposition. We urge them to forget the acrimony. I want to work together with all parties to make Delhi a world class city.

AAPs Delhi government and the BJP-led national coalition have been fighting pitched battles over sharing of power soon after Kejriwal returned as chief minister for the second time in 2015.

AAP had won 67 of 70 seats in Delhi assembly, reducing the BJP to only three. Kejriwal alleges that the BJP-led Centre has since been exacting revenge, withdrawing its powers and blocking key decisions taken by the AAP government.

The BJP, which mounted an aggressive campaign primarily centred around the issue of the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in the latest election, faced its second consecutive assembly loss  and a huge setback only nine months after it swept all of Delhis seven parliamentary constituencies.

The AAP chief began his address at the Ramlila Maidan with Bharat Mata ki Jai and Inquilab Zindabad, and ended it by singing Hum Honge Kamyaab, a translation of the song We Shall Overcome by Hindi poet Girija Kumar Mathur, in which the crowd joined him. He said this is not his victory, but of every single Delhiite.

In his previous swearing-in ceremony  which, too, was organised at the Ramila Maidan  in 2015, Kejriwal had sung Insaan ka Insaan Se ho Bhaichaara, a song from a Hindi movie.

Six MLAs, including Sisodia, Jain and Gahlot, also took oath as ministers in the newly sworn Delhi cabinet. Rai, who was the labour minister in the previous government, took oath in the name of martyrs of freedom struggle. Gautam, who held the social welfare portfolio in his last tenure, took oath in the name of Buddha. While the leaders were on the stage, their families sat in front of them at the Ramlila Maidan.

While praising the people of Delhi for changing the nature of the countrys politics, Kejriwal said Indias name will resonate in the world due to this new wave. He said his re-election was a victory of a new form of politics that is based on development and welfare.

Delhis nirmatas (makers) are sitting here... Lakhs of nirmatas run Delhi...Politicians come and go but Delhis nirmata run Delhi, he said.

As he took oath, Kejriwal shared the stage with 50 people under the banner Delhi ke nirmata (architects of Delhi). Geeta Devi (36) and Arun Kumar (22), both home guards working with the Delhi government, were among them. While Devi helped arrest a pickpocket, Kumar rescued a four-year-old girl from an abduction attempt.

The invitees were from different walks of life  doctors, teachers, sanitation workers, bus conductors, drivers, marshals deployed for womens security, farmers, anganwadi workers, athletes, students, engineers, mobile ambulance operators and relatives of fire and police officials who lost their lives on the line of duty.

Of the eight MLAs from the Opposition, only Vijender Gupta, who won the Rohini seat, was present at the swearing-in ceremony. Gupta, who was the leader of the opposition in the previous Delhi assembly, said: The oath-taking ceremony, which cost the exchequer ~2 crore, was nothing less than a political event of the AAP. I was the only person from the opposition in the entire country who came to attend the ceremony out of moral responsibility. But, neither did I get seat to sit, nor a parking space for my car. I had to take a lift from Delhi Police to reach my car.

The event was also attended by all AAP candidates, including those who lost the elections, star campaigners such as Punjab MP Bhagwant Mann, music composer Vishal Dadlani and Kejriwals family members.
Anti-government protesters in Hong Kong took to streets against the governments plan to turn some buildings in the residential area into quarantine centres. Hundreds of protesters marched in multiple towns including Tai Po and Tin Shui Wai and demanded full closure of mainland China border on Saturday.

Multiple districts in #HongKong had rallies yesterday against govt assign designated outpatient clinics in residential areas for #Coronavirus.

Hundreds march in #TinShuiWai, police pepper sprayed and dispersed peaceful protesters, at least 20 ppl were taken away.@icablenews pic.twitter.com/N5xYbO21ng  Nikki (@nikki_miumiu) February 16, 2020

Though the anti-Beijing protests had subsided due to the threat of Coronavirus, demonstrators again came out on streets chanting "Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of our times" and "Oppose pneumonia clinic". The residents fear that the epidemic clinics will amplify the outbreak in the semi-autonomous region and have been demanding to not only drop the plan but also close the border.

However, Hong Kongs chief executive Carrie Lam has said that full closure of border from mainland China will be inappropriate, impractical and discriminatory. Lams refusal to completely shut down the border has again forced the residents to come out on the streets.

Read: Amazon, EBay Sell T-shirts With Coronavirus Quotes, Latter Removes It After Outrage

China reports drop in cases

Meanwhile, China has reported a drop in new cases of the novel Coronavirus, COVID-19, for the third consecutive day after witnessing a spike due to change in methodology. According to Chinas National Health Commission, 2,009 new cases with 142 more deaths worldwide have been reported because of the deadly coronavirus, which is still a global health emergency.

Read: Nepal Government Evacuates 175 Nationals From Coronavirus-hit China

The death toll due to the deadly virus has spiked to nearly 1,665 and around 68,000 confirmed cases have been detected till now. While most of the cases are from Hubei province of China and the city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, other countries, including Japan and the Philippines, have also now reported deaths related to COVID-19.

The latest cause of concern has been the deaths of people with no travel history to China. On February 13, Japan confirmed the death of an 80-year-old woman who was not even the part of the quarantined cruised off the Japanese coast.

Read: India To Send Medical Supplies To China To Combat Coronavirus

Read: Coronavirus Outbreak: China Reports Drop In New Cases For Third Consecutive Day

(With inputs from agencies)
Voices against femicide resounded on Saturday at the Mexico City building where Ingrid Escamilla was mutilated and murdered, in a case that has come to personify outrage over the rising incidence of gender-related killings.

Women's groups participated in the capital and other Mexican cities to denounce once again the lack of action by authorities.

The apartment block in the humble and unsafe neighbourhood where Escamilla lived, where a small altar was installed with flowers, photos and candles, became an improvised stage where women of all ages shared pain and testimony.

The cries of "justice" or "no more" were repeated in the street leading to Escamilla's house along which dozens of neighbours showed their support by hanging purple cloth or cardboard next to photos of the murdered young woman.

Twenty-five-year-old Escamilla was killed and dismembered by a man she allegedly lived with in Mexico City last week.
It has been said that it is better to journey hopefully than to arrive. Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to the institutions that make American democracy function. Process matters. In fact, it matters more than any particular result. A good result may address the needs of the moment. But a good process will serve the country long after the result you were so desperate to get has been forgotten.

Unfortunately, in the heat of the political moment, both former special counsel Robert Mueller and the House of Representatives forgot this and put practical considerations ahead of establishing principle.

Mueller for the most part did an immensely thorough job of investigating Russian interference in the 2016 elections, except in one critical respect. For much of his investigation, Mueller sought to negotiate an interview with President Donald Trump. Had it been literally anyone else, rather than negotiate, Mueller would simply have asked him for an interview and brought him before the grand jury if he refused. Instead, Mueller spent months seeking Trumps consent.

Ultimately, Trump agreed to provide written answers to Muellers questions. Though Mueller admitted the answers Trump provided were generally inadequate and even untruthful, he nonetheless declined to issue a subpoena demanding that Trump testify before the grand jury because he knew the resulting court battle would take many months to resolve and he thought it unwise to let the investigation drag on that long. As a result, Mueller wrapped up his investigation without ever interviewing the president.

Rewarding Trump for bad behavior

That was an error on two counts.

First, rewarding bad behavior gets you more bad behavior, not less. Trump learned that simply refusing to cooperate could be a successful strategy and that investigators might lack the patience to challenge his claims, no matter how outrageous or unfounded. Muellers failure to issue and enforce a subpoena to get Trump to provide evidence was the direct ancestor of his blanket stonewalling in the impeachment investigation.

Story continues

Second, Mueller missed an opportunity to strengthen the guardrails of our democracy. Going all the way back to the 1803 Marbury v. Madison decision, Americas institutions have been shaped through principled confrontation rather than expedient compromise. Had Mueller issued a grand jury subpoena to Trump and enforced it through the courts, the case would have established the scope of presidential privilege for all time.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, President Donald Trump and former special council Robert Mueller.

The irony here is that Mueller was in a hurry to complete his investigation and pass his findings to Congress so it could take appropriate action. Yet Muellers failure to take the time to follow through ended up hobbling Congress when it did act. The impeachment investigation would have played out completely differently had there been case law on the books making it absolutely clear that even the president was duty bound to honor a subpoena and provide evidence in an investigation  especially when that investigation concerned his own potential misconduct.

Impeachment: Senate delivers brutal dose of reality and ensures future corruption

The House made the same fundamental mistake as Mueller and let short-term, practical considerations override the value of establishing lasting principles. When Trump refused to cooperate with its impeachment investigation, the House did not challenge him. Rather, determined to complete the investigation on a schedule, the House simply cited Trumps refusal as one of the articles of impeachment.

Legacy is that obstruction pays

And we know how that turned out. If the House had focused on the process, it would have challenged the presidents various claims of privilege in court. This might have dragged on for months (though in the Nixon impeachment inquiry, the courts acted with commendable speed). But even if a ruling had not come until after the 2020 election, the legacy of the Trump impeachment proceedings would have been firmly established limits on claims of executive privilege, which no future president would ever dare challenge again.

Instead, the legacy is the lesson that obstruction pays, and that vague and dubious claims of executive privilege are as effective at thwarting congressional oversight as legitimate ones. This is, presumably, not what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had in mind when she decided that an impeachment investigation was necessary for the good of the republic.

DOJ as tool of Trump: Ex-Starr Whitewater counsel says Barr threatens US justice by doing Trump bidding on Stone

The American experiment has endured because, from the founding, we have believed that process and principle are always more important than any particular outcome. We respect the outcomes of elections, even those we dislike, because we know that the principles of democracy are infinitely more important than who wins. We defend prosecutorial independence and trial by jury because we know that the principle of an independent justice system is far more important whether any particular defendant, even someone we are convinced is guilty, escapes punishment.

So must it be with the powers of Congress. Knock-down, drag-out fights between the legislative and the executive branches are far less familiar than the work-a-day business of the courts or our regular election cycle. But the democratic guardrails those conflicts can establish are no less important to Americas continued political health than are fair and free elections or impartial justice. Congress spectacularly failed to teach President Trump a lesson during the impeachment proceedings. But theres still hope that Congress may have learned one instead.

Chris Truax, an appellate lawyer in San Diego, is an adviser to Republicans for the Rule of Law and a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump learned all the wrong lessons from impeachment and Mueller
Syrian state media said on Sunday government forces had seized most of rebel-held Aleppo province in another major gain by a Russian-backed offensive.

Russian warplanes mounted heavy air strikes in the area on Sunday, bombing towns including Anadan, which was later seized by Syrian government forces backed by Iranian-backed militias, activists reported.

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Irans foreign minister said Saturday that US President Donald Trump is receiving bad advice if he believes an American maximum pressure campaign against his country will cause the government in Tehran to collapse.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told a group of top defence officials and diplomats at the Munich Security Conference that the information provided to the president has dissuaded Trump from accepting offers from other leaders to mediate between Washington and Tehran.

President Trump has been convinced that we are about to collapse so he doesnt want to talk to a collapsing regime, Zarif said.

To support his argument, the Iranian minister cited Trumps decision to pull out unilaterally in 2018 from Irans nuclear deal with the US and other world powers. Trump said the landmark 2015 accord didnt address Irans ballistic missile program or regional activities and needed to be renegotiated.

Since then, the Trump administrations re-imposition of US sanctions in a campaign of so-called maximum pressure have taken a severe toll on the Iranian economy and sent Irans currency plunging.

I believe President Trump, unfortunately, does not have good advisers, Zarif said. Hes been wanting for Iran to collapse since he withdrew from the nuclear deal. Zarif also said the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Iraq on January 3 was a miscalculation by Washington that has galvanized support for Iran instead of increasing pressure on the regime.

The Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, promised Iran economic incentives in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program. It was intended to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb, which Iran insists it does not want to do.

Since the US withdrawal, the deals other signatories - Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China - have unsuccessfully struggled to come up with ways to offset the effects of the new American sanctions.

Washington has pressured the other countries - so far without success - to abandon the deal entirely US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the Munich Security Conference earlier Saturday that while there may be disagreements on what to do with the JCPOA, when I talk to my counterparts here in Europe, everybody gets it. Everyone understands that these are folks who continue to build out their nuclear program, Pompeo said. So theres a common understanding about the threat; we have tactical differences on how to proceed. In recent months, Iran has steadily violated the limitations the deal placed on the amount of enriched uranium and heavy water it can stockpile, the number and type of centrifuges it can operate, and the purity of the uranium it enriches.

Iranian officials insist the moves are intended only to put pressure on the countries that remain part of the deal to provide economic help to Iran and that all the measures taken are fully reversible.

However, the so-called breakout time it would take for Iran to build a bomb decreases with every step.

Zarif rejected Trumps suggestion of negotiating a new deal, saying the one negotiated during the Obama administration was the only vehicle for talks on Irans nuclear program.

There is no point in talking over something you already talked about. You dont buy a horse twice, he said.

Its not about opening talks with the United States. Its about bringing the United States to the negotiating table thats already there, Zarif said. (AP) MRJ
Matthew Perry's girlfriend has confirmed their relationship.

The actor's girlfriend Molly Hurwitz, 28, publicly referenced their relationship on Valentine's Day when she took to her Instagram page to pen a sweet tribute to Perry, 50.

'Second year being my valentine, but his first as an Instagram influencer. HVD to my favorite,' captioned Hurwitz, as reported by People magazine.

His leading lady: Matthew Perry's girlfriend Molly Hurwitz posted a Valentine's Day tribute to the actor on Instagram via her private page; Perry photographed in New York in 2017

Going strong: 'Second year being my valentine,' wrote the 28-year-old talent manager (pictured) who has been dating the actor for at least a year

Along with the talent manager's loving words was a photograph of Matthew appearing to be sound asleep, while cradling a bright yellow smiley face balloon.

The same image is currently being used as Perry's Instagram profile icon.

The thoughtful posting was featured on Hurwitz's private page.

Matthew joined his lover on Instagram on February 7 when he launched his official account.

Caught: The pair were spotted after enjoying dinner together back in November

His relationship became public knowledge in November when he and Molly were unknowingly photographed together outside a restaurant in West Hollywood.

The couple spent the 2019 Holiday season together in Los Angeles at Perry's $35million Century City apartment in Los Angeles.

At the time, Hurwitz shared a photograph of herself and the Friends alum to Instagram, labeling him as her 'boyfriend' in the post's caption.

'According to my parents' custody agreement, my mother was not allowed to have a Christmas tree... Fortunately, there's no such agreement for a daughter's boyfriend, so Hurwitz gets a treeeeeeee!!!,' joked the 28-year-old.

The pic: In Hurwitz' post she attached the image Perry currently uses as his profile image

Comic Perry has had a highly publicized battle with drugs and alcohol since he skyrocketed to fame in the 1990s.

He has been single since he ended his six year relationship with Masters of Sex actress Lizzy Caplan in 2012.

Meanwhile, according to Hurwitz's career bio on stage32.com, 'Molly began her career in ICM Partners agency mailroom, which, yes, included actually delivering mail. Her favorite show is "Frasier", and her favorite movie is BEST IN SHOW.'
The war has deepened what the United Nations describes as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis, in which nearly 80 percent of Yemens 24 million people are in need of assistance and protection. At least 10 million Yemenis are on the edge of famine, with an additional 7 million suffering from malnourishment, according to U.N. statistics. More than 3.6 million people have been forced to flee their homes.
So you like Margaret Atwood? Marjorie Brennan offers tips for ten other books with interesting female characters at their core

Last Ones Left Alive

By Sarah Davis-Goff

Davis-Goff has been a tireless promoter of innovative Irish writing as one half of indie publisher Tramp Press, along with Lisa Coen. In her debut novel, she inventively mines the ever-rich seam of the zombie thriller, giving it a feminist twist. Set in a post-apocalyptic Ireland, Last Ones Left Alive introduces readers to compelling teenage heroine Orpen, a young woman brought up on a remote island off the West coast by her mothers Muireann and Maeve. Her warrior training is challenged to its utmost when she comes up against the terrifying and zombie-like skrakes and is forced to leave the island.

The Power

By Naomi Alderman

Hailed as a classic of speculative fiction after its release in 2016, Aldermans electrifying (literally) novel was inspired by a mentorship award in which the author was paired with Atwood. In The Power, adolescent girls mysteriously develop the ability to electrocute people at will. Around the world, women seize control, and wreak revenge on their male oppressors. The books themes have only grown in resonance since its release and a ten-part television is in the works from Amazon, with the director of The Handmaids Tale TV adaptation on board.

Olive, Again

By Elizabeth Strout

God only knows what Strouts (anti) heroine, the contrary and cantankerous Olive Kitteridge would do given the power bestowed to those in Aldermans book. The eponymous central character of Strouts Pulitzer-prize winning novel returns in Olive, Again. Strouts genius lies in her acute portrayal of the ordinary lives of extraordinary characters and in this novel, she exceeds the masterful achievement of Olive Kitteridge, once again giving voice and an unforgettable shape to an older woman, a character largely ignored not just in books, but by society.

Girl, Woman, Other

By Bernadine Evaristo

Evaristo shared the Booker Prize podium with Atwood last year, and while many believe the decision to have joint winners took away from Evaristos achievement as the first black woman to receive the accolade, the controversy will at least have introduced a whole new audience to her work. The Booker bounce resulted in the book more than doubling its previous sales in the week following its win. Girl, Woman, Other is the eighth novel by the British writer and is a vivid and technically accomplished exploration of the intersecting lives of a disparate group of black women. Evaristo explores contemporary issues of feminism, sexuality and identity while also examining the impact of Britains colonial past.

Expectation

By Anna Hope

What happened to the women we were supposed to become? asks the tagline on this book, which looks at the sacrifices women must make in order to have it all. This is a wincingly convincing exploration of friendship, feminism and unfulfilled potential, as viewed through the lives of three life-long friends. Will linger long after youve finished it.

Fleishman is in Trouble

By Taffy Brodesser-Akner

US journalist turned author Brodesser-Akner is renowned for her whipsmart celebrity profiles for the New York Times and here she extends her talents to the portrait of a disintegrating marriage, a cross between the exemplary Whered You Go Bernadette and Portnoys Complaint. Manhattanite doctor Toby Fleishman, initially appearing more sinned against than sinning, is left flailing after wife Rachel goes AWOL. However, all is not as it seems and as Toby takes a bleakly hilarious deep dive into the world of online dating, Brodesser-Akner deftly turns our expectations on their head.

Convenience Store Woman

By Sayaka Murata

A quirky heroine in the same vein as Eleanor Oliphant, Keiko Furukura has always been considered an unusual child, and her family worries that she will ever live a normal life. When she gets a job in a convenience store, she finds somewhere she can belong but comes under pressure to follow a more traditional path. Japanese author Murata has written ten books and this is the first to be translated into English. Inspired by Muratas own former part-time job in a convenience store, it is a wryly observed exploration of the expectations placed on single women and the pressure to conform in Japanese society.

My Sister the Serial Killer

By Oyinkan Braithwaite

The eye-catching title of this audacious debut grabs the attention but it is Braithwaites skills as as storyteller that holds it. Nigerian nurse Koredes practical skills and lack of squeamishness come in handy when she is left to clean up the murderous mess left behind by her bewitching, beautiful and sociopathic sister Ayoola. However, when Korede falls in love with a kind and handsome doctor, things become (even more) problematic. Braithwaites effortless prose and perfect balancing of tone makes this an intelligent and absorbing but effortless read.

Things in Jars

By Jess Kidd

At the centre of this gloriously gothic detective novel is Bridie Devine, an inspiring and unusual heroine, vividly drawn by London-Irish writer Jess Kidd. Orphaned Dubliner Devine has risen from poverty and neglect to become the finest female detective of Victorian times. However, her latest case, searching for a missing child in Londons strange and sinister underworld tests her bravery to its limits. Expertly paced and skilfully plotted, this is a gloriously rewarding read.

Queenie

By Candice Carty Williams

Comparisons to Bridget Jones Diary do this debut an injustice, as Carty Williams fresh but raw take on modern womanhood deserves to stand on its own merits. It follows the adventures of Queenie Jenkins, a second generation British-Jamaican twentysomething, and her attempts to navigate her career, love life and family without spinning out of control.
Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung (L) visits Samsung Electronics Vietnam in Thai Nguyen province on February 13 (Photo: vtc.vn)

The ministry has just released a report on the impact of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus first reported in Wuhan, China.

Accordingly, a survey of 30 provinces and cities showed that 322 out of 181,597 enterprises have suspended operations, while 553 enterprises reduced or narrowed their production and business scale.

Twenty-two provinces and cities reported that 8,773 workers have been affected and 1,027 made unemployed.

In the report of 63 localities, of the 33,775 Chinese workers employed in the localities under work permits, 26,388 went back to China to celebrate the Lunar New Year, and most of them have not returned to Vietnam due to the epidemic.

As of 4pm on February 10, 15,018 Chinese workers were working in Vietnam, including 7,388 workers who stayed in Vietnam during the Lunar New Year holiday and 7,630 Chinese workers returned after the holiday.

Data on the number of Vietnamese workers working abroad under contracts showed that Vietnam currently has 524,153 employees working in mainland China and other countries and territories where COVID-19 cases have been confirmed, including Taiwan, Macau, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, UAE and the Philippines.

No Vietnamese workers working abroad have caught COVID-19 so far.

The survey by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs also stated that there have been no major changes in labour and employment nationwide to date.

Most businesses, especially large enterprises, are still stable with normal operation. There is not yet a risk of a labour shortage, said the ministry.
COLUMBIA, S.C.  For I.S. Leevy Johnson, the Democrats search for a challenger to take on President Donald Trump is personal.

There is what I call an ABT mood in the black community: Anybody but Trump, said the 77-year-old who was the first black graduate of the University of South Carolinas law school. It has people of color very motivated and excited about voting this time because they know how his administration has adversely affected them.

Now, as the election calendar turns to Nevada and South Carolina, states with substantial minority populations, that anybody moves closer to being identified. But the next stage in the nominating fight will test candidates such as Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Their success thus far has come in front of overwhelmingly white electorates in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Its also a potential last comeback opportunity for former Vice President Joe Biden. He finished poorly in those first two contests but argues he has durable support among the minority voters who will soon make their choices.

Nevadas caucuses are this coming Saturday and will feature a growing population of Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Yet no single place in the early going is as important as South Carolina. Up to two-thirds of voters in the Feb. 29 primary could be African American. Biden, more than any other candidate, must show he can win their allegiance.

One candidate who will not be tested in Nevada or South Carolina is Mike Bloomberg, the former New York mayor and billionaire owner of a financial services and media empire. Bloomberg has spent heavily from his personal fortune in states with sizable minority populations that will vote in the March 3 primaries. The Super Tuesday contests are the first where his name will appear on the ballot.

It adds up to a muddled field that lacks clarity even after Iowa and New Hampshire had their turns., Moderates have splintered their votes and created space for Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, to take on the mantle of a front-runner without having reached 30% in either of the first two voting states.

That intensifies the spotlight as minority voters in Nevada and South Carolina in trying to clarify the partys search for anybody to match against Trump.

The system is garbage, said Jason Johnson, a professor at Morgan State University and a high-profile African American political commentator. He argued that the primary calendar should immediately subject candidates not just to racial and ethnic diversity but also regional and ideological differences, and the full city-to-farm spectrum. Im not sure this process actually can identify the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump, he said.

Jason Johnson said he doesnt blame the candidates because they are merely reacting to a process that harms everybody. But I.S. Leevy Johnson, the South Carolina businessman and lawyer, said it too easily makes key constituencies in the party an afterthought. People of color are tired of these promises that candidates are going to do things, and when they make those promises, when they get elected, they dont perform, he said.

Even belatedly, the remaining candidates certainly are trying.

Sanders fell short in 2016 to Hillary Clinton for the nomination in no small part because of his struggles to attract older nonwhite voters. For 2020, he has hired as a senior adviser one of the top Latino strategists in the party, Chuck Rocha. Sanders lead surrogates include Nina Turner, a former Ohio state lawmaker and leading black progressive, and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the young progressive icon. Sanders campaign, buoyed by strong grassroots fundraising, has invested heavily in social media and radio advertising targeting black and Latino audiences, including stations on Spotify and Pandora.

I think were going to do very well in the African American community, Sanders said in a brief interview. I think were going to do well among working people of all races.

In Nevada, Biden campaigned on Saturday in a high school gymnasium covered in signs that read: Biden Trabajando por Nevada (Biden Works for Nevada). The reason why we are here: 99% of the African American vote hasnt spoken yet and 99% of the Latino vote hasnt spoken yet. He hammered away at Trumps immigration policies and rhetoric.

But Biden has embraced South Carolina especially, even skipping out on his New Hampshire primary night party last Tuesday for a hastily arranged event in Columbia, the South Carolina capital.

Biden is banking on voters such as Jean Hopkins, an 88-year-old retired nurse, who came to hear him. Youll lose some but you may gain more, she said of his losses in Iowa and New Hampshire. And hes not going to stop.  He needs our help.

Biden and Sanders lead in endorsements from members of South Carolinas Legislative Black Caucus. Biden also promotes a network of black religious leaders who back his candidacy. But hes facing a push from California billionaire Tom Steyer, who has spent considerable sums on advertising in South Carolina.

We are really serious about South Carolina. We are really serious about Nevada, Steyer said on CBS Face the Nation on Sunday. He said those states reflect the kind of diversity that is America and that is the Democratic Party. And I think whoever is going to be the candidate has got to be able to show that he or she can pull together that diverse big tent that is the Democratic Party.

In Nevada, Biden has the backing of the states lone black congressman, Steven Horsford, and Dina Titus, who represents the diverse Las Vegas-based district.

But theres a wild card in South Carolina.

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the highest-ranking black member of Congress, is close to Biden but hasnt said whether he will endorse at all. Clyburn is the rare political figure whose public blessing could matter to voters.

I think that were going to have a real spirited contest, Clyburn told CBS Face the Nation on Sunday. He said Steyer was doing an incredible job.  Money makes a difference. Steyer has it. Hes been spending it. And hes reaping the rewards. Clyburn added that Buttigieg is doing very good and Biden is leading among African-American voters in South Carolina by a wide margin.

Buttigieg is dispatching minority surrogates such as Mayor Quentin Hart of Waterloo, Iowa, and former Iowa state Rep. Deborah Berry. Bloomberg, in the same week he spent confronting criticism of his record on race, launched a Mike for Black America effort alongside black endorsers including Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C.

The chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, Gilberto Hinojosa, whose state is among the biggest delegate prizes on Super Tuesday, praised all the remaining candidates. But he lamented that several minority candidates, including some political heavyweights, were forced from the field either before voting began or after the first two contests. Among them: Julian Castro, a former Obama Cabinet secretary; Kamala Harris, a California senator; Cory Booker, a New Jersey senator; and Deval Patrick, a former Massachusetts governor.

In South Carolina, I.S. Leevy Johnson offered similar laments, noting that he had supported Harris and now must hope a white nominee selects her or another person of color as the vice presidential nominee. Regardless, Johnson projected optimism.

I just dont think people should misinterpret the impact of those two outcomes in Iowa and New Hampshire, he said. Now, he said, the sleeping giant of nonwhite voters can emerge. If the giant rises up and goes to battle in November, someone opposing Trump will be victorious.



Barrow reported from Las Vegas and Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press reporters Alan Fram in Washington and Meg Kinnard in Columbia contributed to this report.

___

Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly Ground Game politics podcast

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This story has been corrected to reflect that Sanders surrogate Nina Turner is a former Ohio state lawmaker, not a former Virginia state lawmaker
Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is an extremely rare inherited condition affecting the skin and eyes . It is also referred to as DeSanctis-Cacchione syndrome .

According to a quote, "People with xeroderma pigmentosum experience an almost 100% risk of developing multiple skin cancers if their environment is not very carefully controlled."

Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) was first described by Hebra and Kaposi in 1874. The term xeroderma pigmentosum for the condition was coined by Kaposi in 1882, referring to its characteristic dry and pigmented skin.

XP is characterized by marked sensitivity to sunlight (ultraviolet radiation) and an inherited inability of the body to repair the damage caused by ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Unless precautions are taken to protect from sunlight, there is severe damage to the skin and eyes and resultantly increased occurrence of skin and eye cancers.

It is therefore a precancerous condition. Nearly 25 percent of affected persons also have central nervous system (CNS) involvement for reasons not clear.

Xeroderma pigmentosum occurs when the genes involved in the repair of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid, the genetic material) in the cell are faulty.

Normally when a person is exposed to ultraviolet radiation or toxic chemicals, for example, cigarette smoke, the DNA damage caused is corrected by innate repair mechanisms in cell repair before it can cause any serious problems. However in XP, the body is unable to repair this DNA damage and as more and more DNA abnormalities accumulate, the cell may either become cancerous or die.

Xeroderma pigmentosum is an inherited autosomal recessive condition. This means that the person carries two copies of a faulty gene (one from each parent), with consequent disruption of normal cellular repair mechanisms of the body when exposed to ultraviolet radiation (from sun exposure).

Although both parents also carry one copy each of the faulty gene, they are not affected because two copies of the faulty gene are necessary for the condition to get manifested clinically by the definition of an autosomal recessive condition.

Xeroderma pigmentosum affects both sexes and all ethnic groups. Estimated rates of incidence vary from 1 in 250, 000 in the USA, approximately 2.3 per million live births in Western Europe and Japan (1 in 20,000). It is more prevalent particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, probably due to the high degree of consanguinity in these regions.

Inherited changes (mutations) in at least eight genes have been found to cause Xeroderma pigmentosum. The normal variants of these genes are involved in various DNA repair mechanisms within the cell that are referred to as nucleotide excision repair (NER).

The genes involved in DNA repair (NER) perform the following important functions:

Recognize that DNA damage has occurred

Unwind portions of DNA where the damage has occurred

Cut out (excise) the abnormal areas, and

Replace the damaged portions with the normal DNA.

Thus, inherited defects in the NER-related genes (7 genes) prevent cells from carrying out one or more of these steps. Additionally, the POLH gene is another gene that is involved in protecting cells from UV-induced DNA damage, although it is not involved in the steps of NER. Mutations in the latter gene (POLH) lead to a type of XP referred to as the variant form (XP-V), while the remaining seven types are known as groups A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.

The major clinical features of xeroderma pigmentosum occur due to a buildup of abnormal unrepaired DNA. When abnormal DNA builds up, cells can either die or multiply in an unregulated manner. Such uncontrolled cell growth can lead to the development of cancerous tumors. Although the brain is not exposed to UV rays, neurological abnormalities are also thought to result from an accumulation of DNA damage; it is suspected that other factors contribute to DNA damage in nerve cells. However, it is unclear why some people with xeroderma pigmentosum develop neurological abnormalities while many do not.

The various clinical features of Xeroderma pigmentosum affecting the skin, eyes and nervous system include:

Tendency to sun burn easily despite adequate sun protection, unrelated to the color of your skin. Persons with XP-V do not have neurological problems and their sunburn pattern conforms to their skin type

despite adequate sun protection, unrelated to the color of your skin. Persons with XP-V do not have neurological problems and their sunburn pattern conforms to their skin type Unusually long time (few weeks) for the sunburn to resolve

Freckles from an early age (under two years) at sites exposed to daylight

from an early age (under two years) at sites exposed to daylight Marked eye sensitivity to bright light (photophobia), becoming clouded or bloodshot

(photophobia), becoming clouded or bloodshot Increased incidence of skin cancers - Without adequate protection, nearly half the children with this condition develop skin cancer by 10 years. Sites involved are face, lips, eyelids and scalp

Noncancerous and cancerous tumors of the eye

Premature skin aging (skin of affected persons resembles the skin of elderly persons who have spent much of the time under the sun)

(skin of affected persons resembles the skin of elderly persons who have spent much of the time under the sun) Nerve/brain (neurological) problems, such as hearing loss , poor memory or learning problems and poor balance

and poor balance Short stature

Lack of development of normal sexual characteristics in some cases

In persons with XP, the changes caused by sun exposure and damage usually begin in infancy, and almost always before 20 years of age.

Xeroderma pigmentosum is an inherited condition. Therefore, the risk factors of this condition include:

Having a parent or both parents who are carriers of the defective gene or have the disease

Certain regions such as Middle East and North Africa where marriage between blood relatives and first cousins is common

Clinical history and physical examination

In most cases, the initial clinical diagnosis can be made on the basis of extreme sensitivity to sun exposure, or by the appearance of freckles on the face at an unusually early age. A history of consanguinity between the parents may be an additional clue.

Confirmatory Tests for Xeroderma Pigmentosum

Tests to detect defective DNA repair

When there is a high index of suspicion, a piece of skin is removed (skin biopsy) using a local anesthetic and sent for a confirmatory test. These tests detect defective DNA repair and are offered in several countries.

A type of cells found in the skin termed fibroblasts that are hypersensitive when exposed to UV radiation can be studied with the help of a microscope to see how effective the DNA repair mechanism is. A blood sample can also be used to perform this test.

Histology

A skin biopsy may show findings of hyperkeratosis and increased pigmentation along with other findings which may confirm the diagnosis.

Genetic Testing

Molecular testing and gene sequencing can be done to identify the specific defect.

Prenatal diagnosis

Prenatal diagnosis may be done if there is already an affected sibling or one of the parents is affected by the condition. The DNA repair tests can be performed on amniotic cells or chorionic villi derived cells. Molecular analysis can also be done in the presence of a known mutation.

Xeroderma pigmentosum is a chronic lifelong condition with no cure. It can be controlled effectively by the following measures:

Complete protection from ultraviolet light to reduce skin damage to a minimum possible level. Exposed skin should be covered with sunscreen and lip balm should be applied. Long sleeved dresses and full length dresses are preferable

to reduce skin damage to a minimum possible level. Exposed skin should be covered with sunscreen and lip balm should be applied. Long sleeved dresses and full length dresses are preferable UV resistant face mask can be worn but if this is not preferred, a broad-brimmed hat along with wraparound sun glasses must be worn

Areas of bright light should be avoided or Take simple preventive measures to adequately protect yourself

Periodic skin checks (usually three monthly) to identify and treat any signs of skin cancers early

(usually three monthly) to identify and treat any signs of skin cancers early Eye check (at least once a year) to detect any lesions as early as possible and to ensure you are offered treatments, advice about glasses and biopsies of any suspicious parts in the eye

(at least once a year) to detect any lesions as early as possible and to ensure you are offered treatments, advice about glasses and biopsies of any suspicious parts in the eye Neurological assessment to identify any associated brain or nerve problems. This involves a thorough physical examination and sometimes hearing tests, nerve conduction studies and an MRI scan

Neurological problems may be appropriately managed with hearing aids, speech therapy, physical therapy and occupational therapy
T he Crown Prosecution Service has expressed its 'deepest sympathies' to Caroline Flack's family and friends.

Ms Flack was found dead at the age of 40 at her home in east London on Saturday, after taking her own life.

On Sunday the CPS outlined how it reaches decisions over whether or not to charge someone with a criminal offence.

The explanation came just hours after Caroline Flack's management company criticised the CPS for pursuing a "show trial" regarding her assault charge despite her boyfriend saying he did not support it.

Caroline Flack arriving at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court / PA

Flack, 40, stepped down from presenting the current Love Island show after she was alleged to have assaulted Lewis Burton 27, at her then flat in Islington, north London, in December.

She entered a not guilty plea to the charge at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court and was released on bail, with conditions that stopped her having any contact with Burton ahead of a trial in March.

Francis Ridley, of Money Talent Management, said on Saturday night: "The Crown Prosecution Service pursued this when they knew not only how very vulnerable Caroline was but also that the alleged victim did not support the prosecution and had disputed the CPS version of events.

"The CPS should look at themselves today and how they pursued a show trial that was not only without merit but not in the public interest. And ultimately resulted in significant distress to Caroline."

In response, the CPS said its "deepest sympathies go to the family and friends" of Flack, but did not comment further.

However, on Sunday, the CPS said it had been asked questions about "the role of the CPS in deciding whether to charge an individual with a criminal offence", adding: "The following information explains our role and approach. It is not a comment on any individual case."The CPS said: "We do not decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offence - that is for the jury, judge or magistrate - but we must make the key decision of whether a case should be put before a court."

It said every charging decision is based on the same two-stage test in the Code for Crown Prosecutors:

- Does the evidence provide a realistic prospect of conviction? That means, having heard the evidence, is a court more likely than not to find the defendant guilty? And;

- Is it in the public interest to prosecute? That means asking questions including how serious the offence is, the harm caused to the victim, the impact on communities and whether prosecution is a proportionate response.

Ms Flack plead 'not guilty' to assault / PA

The information they posted a link to included: "Guidance for prosecutors when considering domestic abuse allegations gives specific advice on how to proceed when a complainant does not want to support a prosecution, which can often be a feature of these difficult cases.

"It provides guidance on the information required to understand why a complainant may withdraw support and the different options that should be considered, including proceeding without the complainant's support if other evidence is available.

"It sets out a number of factors which may be helpful when considering the public interest in whether to charge in these circumstances."

In a section of the CPS website with the heading "Retractions and withdrawals by complainants", it says: "It is possible that a complainant may ask the police not to proceed any further with a prosecution case and say they no longer wish to give evidence.

"There may be a number of reasons why a complainant will withdraw their support from a prosecution, or retract their allegation, but this does not mean that the case will be automatically stopped."

Alleged victim Lewis Burton defended Ms Flack / Jeremy Selwyn

The website lists possible reasons why a complainant may no longer support a case.

These include fear of other offences being committed or risk of further harm, fear of coming face to face with the abuser in court, pressure from the perpetrator, fear of repercussions that may follow from peers of the perpetrator, fear of being publicly shamed and a wish to be reconciled with the perpetrator.

The CPS say reasons such as these should be considered as a means to assist prosecutors in understanding how they will need to consider the next steps to be taken.
PARIS  The French health minister, Agnes Buzyn, was named as a new candidate for mayor of Paris on Sunday, after a scramble to replace the original contender, who abruptly withdrew after a leak of sex videos on social media.

The choice of Ms. Buzyn came just two days after a frantic search for a candidate began, underscoring the importance that President Emmanuel Macrons centrist party places on winning the mayors office  and emerging from a scandal.

Benjamin Griveaux withdrew from the mayoral race after explicit videos began circulating on social media, a leak operation claimed by a controversial Russian performance artist, Piotr Pavlensky. Mr. Pavlensky and his girlfriend were being questioned by police investigators over the weekend on counts of invasion of privacy and diffusing images of a sexual character without permission.

In claiming responsibility for the leak of the sexual videos, Mr. Pavlensky denounced the big hypocrisy of Mr. Griveaux, a married father of three who put family at the forefront of his campaign.
ALLENDALE, MI  The Ottawa County Sheriffs Office is investigating a report of a sex assault said to have occurred around 3:30 a.m. Sunday near Grand Valley State University.

A female college student, whose name is being withheld, told deputies she was at a party in an off-campus apartment on Feb. 16 when she was sexually assaulted by an unknown male, who was also attending the party, Sgt. Matthew Wildfong told MLive.

No further suspect information is available at this time.

The suspect is not believed to be armed and no weapon was reportedly used in the assault, Wildfong said.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Ottawa County Sheriffs Office at 616-738-4000 or Silent Observer at 877-88-SILENT.

Also on MLive:

Drunk driver flees on foot after hitting six parked vehicles, police say

Woman struck flight attendant en route to Grand Rapids, federal indictment says
A total of 175 Nepali nationals from six different cities from China's coronavirus hit Hubei province were airlifted from Wuhan, the Himalayan Nation's embassy said in a statement.

"One hundred and seventy-five Nepali nationals from six different cities across Hubei Province of the People's Republic of China were airlifted from Wuhan this morning by a charter flight of Nepal Airlines," the statement read.

The flight with 170 students, 1 employee, 2 visitors, and 2 children departed for Nepal at 00:52 AM (China Standard Time) and is scheduled to land at Tribhuvan International Airport at around 04:00 AM (Nepal Standard Time).

"Necessary procedures including temperature checks were completed before boarding the plane. Upon arrival in Nepal, they will be kept in quarantine for at least 14 days. Out of the 185 applicants, four later decided to stay back in China whereas six could not board the plane due to medical reasons," the embassy said.

The embassy said one hundred thousand pieces of face masks donated by the Government of Nepal to the Chinese Government through the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu were brought to Wuhan on the same flight, and were handed over to Hubei Charity Federation at the airport.

The Embassy expressed its "sincere thanks" to the Chinese Foreign Ministry for its "support and co-operation" in facilitating the process of sending back the Nepali nationals.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Book by former PGC officer highlights unusual wildlife encounters

Dick Bodenhorn has published a book highlighting some of the unusual encounters he had while working with the Pennsylvania Game Commision.
Black hair is unique. It is unique in its expression of culture but, more importantly, unique in how it must be cared for and styled.

Anyone who doesnt have black hair, and doesnt think its unique, should try growing an Afro or wearing braids, cornrows or dreadlocks.

For black people, the politics of black hair can be touchy, sometimes literally. Common is the experience of children and adults having classmates and work colleagues innocently touch their hair  with and without permission.

But the more serious consequences of black people wearing hairstyles unique to them have been lost jobs and school suspensions.

The latest and notable example of the latter is DeAndre Arnold, until recently a senior at the ironically named Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu. By all accounts a model student, Arnold was told he couldnt walk the stage at commencement unless he cut his dreadlocks. He refused and was suspended. He has since transferred to another school district.

Whats insidious about the schools decision is that Arnold began growing his dreadlocks in seventh grade without any complaint or action from school administrators. The new edict was made last December before Christmas break and only a few months before Arnolds class graduates.

His cousin has been suspended for the same reason. Both wear dreadlocks in honor of their Trinidadian heritage.

Arnolds case has made him a national figure. Ellen DeGeneres presented him with a $20,000 check for his continued education. Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union flew him and his mother to the Academy Awards, where he was the guest of filmmaker Matthew Cherry. Cherrys film, Hair Love, about a black father learning how to do his daughters hair, won the Oscar for best animated short.

But those wonderful gifts wont be given to future black students who might be suspended from school because of how they wear their hair. And there will be more black students suspended because of how they wear their hair.

Thats why we support the Texas Legislative Black Caucus proposed bill for the 2021 session. The CROWN Act (Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) would ban discrimination based on hair textures and styles associated with one race.

Denying a student the substance of accomplishment because of a chosen hairstyle is what should be suspended.
Union Cabinet minister Giriraj Singh repeated his demand for a legislation to control Indias population during an event organized in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Uttar Pradeshs Meerut on Sunday and said that if a law to control the population was not enacted, the Hindus will become minorities in India.

Singh, who is known for his pro-Hindutva views, however, didnt spell out the details of this legislation he has proposed on several occasions.

Population control bill is the need of the hour, he said, and added that some localities in the state of Uttar Pradesh had lost their Hindu origin names to Muslim ones due to the communitys population increasing faster than that of the Hindus.

Singh was addressing hundreds of listeners at the even named Dharm Samvad at the Chaudhary Charan Singh University organized in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act by Sanskritik Gaurav Sansthan and Sanskar Bharti.

Giriraj Singh said he was not a Hindu hardliner and said Jo kattar hai, unse meri takkar hai, meaning, I am opposed to the radicals. Elaborating further, he said When I talk about Hindus, people call me a hardliner but when Salman Khurshid (Congress leader) visits Shaheen Bagh (anti-CAA protest site in Delhi led by the Muslims) and talks about Muslims, he is considered a secular.

Singh described the Centres move to abrogate Section 370 as a correction of the mistakes made by the previous governments.

Referring to monuments built by the Mughals in India, he said, The Red Fort was built by robbers.

Commenting on the Centres decision to amend the citizenship act, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a leader who cares about the natives of India unlike Nehru who didnt do much while Indians suffered.

Former dean of the law department of CCS University Chitra Singh, too, addressed the event and claimed the protests at Shaheen Bagh were sponsored by money power.

Women sitting in Shaheen Bagh know nothing about the CAA. They are getting paid to sit there, she said.
Bushfire-devastated communities run the risk of losing residents to the capital cities, with economists warning that rebuilding efforts may not be enough to stop an exodus from fire-affected towns.

AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver said the bushfires had added to struggles already facing regional areas, including the demise of manufacturing and the extended drought, leaving at risk inland areas where entire industries have been devastated.

The drought and bushfire season is putting pressure on the financial comfort of those in the regions. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

"Some communities will rebuild in a way which reduces risk of getting burnt again in a world where the climate is getting worse, but I think for some of these communities they wont have underlying resilience," Dr Oliver said.

"A lot of people are probably thinking about moving [from the regions] to the cities.
The risk of employees catching the virulent coronavirus is prompting global corporations to ban international business travel, a move that will put significant pressure on airlines and associated businesses.

Business travel to and from Australia is likely to plummet over the next few months as corporations restrict employees movements, particularly on airlines, with global business services firm EY and developer Lendlease among firms introducing strict travel bans.

Some corporations have cancelled all business travel to Asia. Credit:AP

Weve taken the decision to cancel all business travel to Asia and all non-essential business travel to other destinations globally, a spokesman for Lendlease said.

The $10 billion multinational construction, property and infrastructure company, which has about 13,000 employees, has projects in Australia, North America, Europe and Asia.
By Express News Service

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh STF arrested Uttarakhand man for aiding Bhopal-based dental surgeon Dr Chandresh Shukla and Indian Air Force (IAF) Wing Commander Kuldip Vaghela to dupe Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon by posing as union home minister Amit Shah over the phone.

The 35-year-old man dropped out of medical college a decade ago for love was arrested by MPSTF recently from Hardiwar town of the hill state.

According to additional DG (ADG-MP STF) Ashok Awasthi, Daksh Agarwal, earned big bucks by making cell-phone users having VIP numbers surrender their numbers in return for money and then got the same surrendered VIP number re-issued to individuals, who paid him up to Rs one lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh.

After leaving medical studies, Daksh started living with a girlfriend and operated business of providing SIM cards and other services.

Its during the course of such business that Daksh got in touch with the Bhopal-based dental surgeon Dr Chandresh Shukla. Subsequently, Dr Shukla got a VIP number from Daksh after paying Rs one lakh. Daksh also helped the dental surgeon inactivation of Calling Line Identification Restriction (CLIR) facility in Andhra Pradesh against the SIM card issued from Guwahati in April 2019, said Awasthi.

A phone number can be withheld which stops the recipient from viewing the identity of the caller. A number can be withheld during digital, analogue or voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephone calls. The process of withholding a number is also called Calling Line Identification Restriction (CLIR). Whenever calls are made from such numbers, the recipient of the call usually sees private number or unknown number on his cell-phone display.

The same postpaid number having the CLIR facility was allegedly used by Indian Air Force (IAF) Wing Commander Kuldip Vaghela (who posed as Home Minister Amit Shah) for attempting to facilitate dental surgeon friend Dr Chandresh Shuklas appointment as states medical university vice-chancellor in January 2020. Their plot, however, had failed and the duo  Shukla and Vaghela  were arrested by MPSTF on January 10.

He (Daksh) is presently in our custody and his grilling has brought to the fore that he had duped a Member of Parliament (MP) from Telangana. The alleged duping of the Telangana MP too pertained to a VIP number SIM card only. Were in touch with Telangana police in connection with that case, said ADG-MPSTF.

Agarwal, arrested from Haridwar, is also accused of duping a Telangana MP through SIM card fraud.
Dr Naga Raju, a private medical practitioner at Khandgoan and relative of the victim, said, We never expected such a young man to suffer a heart stroke as he was not into bad habits. (Representational Image)

Nizamabad: A groom died within hours after his wedding in Bodhan on late Friday night. His death has been attributed to a heart condition, though some friends and relatives said that the victim collapsed due to high decibel sound during the marriage procession. Mangali Ganesh, 24, of Thattikot in Bodhan married his close relative from Salura on Friday. The wedding procession took place on a grand scale on Friday afternoon.

Following the request of friends and relatives, Ganesh and his wife joined in the dance to music provided by a DJ after the ceremony. Ganesh collapsed while dancing and the relatives immediately took him home, where he complained of chest pain. He was taken to a private hospital in Nizamabad, where he was declared brought dead.

Dr Naga Raju, a private medical practitioner at Khandgoan and relative of the victim, said, We never expected such a young man to suffer a heart stroke as he was not into bad habits.

The family members of Ganesh said he had complained of chest pain a week ago, Dr Raju said. Relatives and friends in large numbers attended last rites of Ganesh on Saturday.

When contacted, Bodhan circle inspector P. Rakesh said that Ganesh died of a heart attack and it was a death due to natural causes. We have not yet received any complaint in this regard, he said. He discounted reports that loud music had caused the death.

Ganesh was earlier working in the Gulf before returning to Bodhan. Since then he has been working in a hair cutting salon.
Update: Authorities said the driver in the initial crash was charged with DUI.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.-- A pair of unrelated car crashes within minutes of each other on the Goethals Bridge ended with two drivers facing charges, two police vehicles damaged and an officer examined for injuries at a nearby hospital, according to a spokeswoman for Port Authority Police.

Just before 5 a.m., a man crashed his car on the westbound side of the bridge, and was arrested for charges not yet released by authorities, the spokeswoman said.

While his vehicle was being rigged to a tow truck, a woman driving on the same side of the bridge crashed into two unoccupied Port Authority Police vehicles. An officer standing near the crash suffered minor injuries and was transported to a nearby hospital, authorities said.

The female driver was issued a summons to appear in court, for charges not yet released by authorities.

In total, two civilian vehicles and two police vehicles were damaged in the crash. One of the vehicles was overturned when crews arrived, according to emergency radio transmissions.

A fatal crash on the West Shore Expressway near South Avenue was reported less than an hour later, in which one person is in police custody, according to an NYPD spokesman.

Both incidents are breaking stories. More information will be posted as it becomes available.
The International Halal Accreditation Forum (IHAF), the world's pioneering halal accreditation platform, announces its participation in the largest and longest-running food and beverage show in the world, the Gulf Food 2020 Gulfood, which will be held from February 16 to 20 in Dubai.

IHAF will be participating with Emirates Authority for Standardisation & Metrology (ESMA) to showcase the opportunities in the global halal food industry and economy and highlight the importance of harmonised standards in the halal trade; alongside 5,000 exhibitors from across the world.

This year, the global event is expected to receive over 100,000 visitors from 200 countries, as well as more than 100 speakers and live attractions.

IHAF will be highlighting strategic halal trade facilitation and discuss the benefits of easing the halal global trade through unified halal standards, which were established to allow smooth international halal trade.

Since inception, IHAF was able to attract the interest from international community which end up of 37 member bodies in 34 countries joining IHAF in a very short period of time.

This in order to eliminate the barriers in the global halal trade. The current IHAF member countries include: (alphabetical order) Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Columbia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic Of Korea, Russia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sudan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Dr Rehab Feraj Al Ameri, Secretary General of IHAF said: IHAF knows that to accomplish our common objectives, which go hand-in-hand with the World Trade Organisation, we must achieve greater cooperation among partners and other concerned parties in the halal system. It is for this reason that we would like also to thank ESMA for their support during Gulfood 2020. Our participation at this global innovative event is a step towards developing and unifying the halal food trade.

With a participation from more than 200 countries and 120 country pavilions, this gives IHAF an opportunity to reach to maximum countries and support the growth of Halal food industry, she added.

-- Tradearabia News Service
A woman has dropped out of the race for London mayor over health issues related to vaginal mesh, a controversial procedure which has left some patients with serious side effects.

Sue Black will be step down as the Womens Equality Party candidate over traumatic health complications, the party said.

I am absolutely devastated to be standing down because of the effects of a cowboy medical procedure that should never have been allowed to take place, she said.

Ms Black said the implant has left her health issues worse than the symptoms the mesh was meant to treat.

The surgery has been halted in the UK until certain conditions are met to ensure womens safety.

NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary Show all 18 1 /18 NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, addresses demonstrators following the march AFP/Getty NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary EPA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary Reuters NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary EPA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary PA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary PA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images

Vaginal mesh is a net-like implant used to provide additional support for damaged organs or treat incontinence.

However, large numbers of women have reported serious side effects as a result of the surgery, including painful sexual intercourse, pain in the back, abdomen and pelvic regions, and urinary and bowel problems.

The surgery has been put on pause in the UK under high vigilance restriction period until certain guidelines are met.

However, campaigners have called for stricter measures controlling the use and recommendation of vaginal mesh for women.

Thousands of women won a class action lawsuit against manufacturer Johnson & Johnson last year after a court ruled that they were misled over the gravity of the risks from the implants.

Ms Black, the former London mayoral candidate, said the procedure had turned [her] life upside down.

The experience has strengthened my resolve to see the Womens Equality Party elected, she said. Until women have an equal say in decisions that affect our lives, we will continue to be dismissed and mistreated.

The party said its leader, Mandu Reid, will be running for mayor instead.

Londons current Labour mayor, Sadiq Khan, the Conservatives Shaun Bailey and Rory Stewart  as an independent candidate  also plan to fight the contest.

The election will take place in May 2020.

Additional reporting by agencies
Clearing my throat sounds like thunder, Ms. Courter wrote in an email from the bus.

All passengers were given N95 respirators  a heavy-duty mask fitted to the face that filters out 95 percent of smaller air particles  to wear on board the repurposed cargo planes, Ms. Courter said.

Some sections of her flight were segregated from others, with those who had tested positive but were not yet showing symptoms sitting in a tented area of the plane, she wrote from on board.

Passengers on the charters were told there would be no overhead luggage space, so all carry-ons had to fit under the seats in front of them, and shipped luggage could not exceed 70 pounds. The converted 747 cargo plane could be cold, the officials said, so passengers were advised to shower and dress warmly. They were also told to take their own food.

Rachel Torres, 24, who had been on her honeymoon with her husband, Tyler, also 24, said they were trying to clean their stateroom so as not to leave a mess for their cabin steward.

We didnt sleep much last night, said Ms. Torres. In preparation for flying, she said, the two were drinking as much water as we can to hydrate for the flight since we will be wearing masks on the plane.

Including the cases aboard the Diamond Princess, Japan has recorded the highest number of infections from the new coronavirus outside mainland China. Worldwide, more than 70,500 people have been infected, and at least 1,770 have died, almost all in mainland China.
Policeman kills a snake

Police at Daceyville station last night killed a large black snake which was found in a suitcase sent from South Australia by air to relatives in Kingsford. When the case was opened a large black snake was seen coiled amongst the clothing. The airways office said that they did not air freight snakes, and the relatives knew nothing about it. After being struck at the police station and determined to be dead, it was discovered the snake was made of rubber.

First DC 6 off on maiden trip

About 200 people farewelled Australias first DC6 aircraft, Discovery, when she left Mascot at 9 a.m. yesterday on her maiden voyage to Vancouver. The 40-ton DC6 planes will operate a bi-weekly service. The Minister for Air officially farewelled the plane, and Mrs. Arthur Coles cut a ribbon attached to the plane. Discovery will fly from Sydney to Vancouver via Fiji, Canton Island, and Hawaii, with 40 passengers, including a number of Pressmen.

Rare coins bring 1000
A grief-stricken widower who made a halfhearted attempt at a bank robbery in Florida last fall will not face any jail time.

Sandy Hawkins agreed to a court-ordered pretrial intervention program on Friday that would keep him out of prison and have the robbery charge against him dropped, provided he stays out of trouble for the next year.

The 74-year-old was unarmed and wearing a Make America Great Again shirt when he walked into a Wells Fargo branch in Boca Raton on November 18 and demanded $1,100 from the teller, telling her: 'This is a robbery. I have a weapon.'

When she counted out $2,000, he told her it was too much and had her count out the right amount. He says he doesn't know why he asked for that amount.

Hawkins then left the bank and the moneybag got caught in some bushes, so he left it. It was never recovered.

'It was my way of, basically, a cry for help,' he told the court.

Sandy Hawkins, 74, will not face jail time over a halfhearted bank robbery in Florida last November because his wife died and his crime was a 'cry for help'. He is pictured in West Palm Beach court on Friday, where he agreed to a court-ordered pretrial intervention program

Hawkins was unarmed when he walked into a Wells Fargo branch in Boca Raton (pictured) on November 18 and demanded $1,100 from the teller

When police confronted Hawkins the day after the robbery, he told them he'd 'make it easy'.

He then pulled out a bank deposit slip with a note on the back: 'Give me $1,100 now. No alarms. Hope to get caught.'

When police confronted Hawkins the day after the robbery, he told them he'd 'make it easy'. He is pictured in his mugshot

Hawkins told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that his life turned upside down in 2017 when his wife died suddenly, two days after she was diagnosed with cancer.

Living in their rented home was too much emotionally, so he took to living in his car and gave up his job as an air conditioner repairman.

After his car got repossessed, he robbed the bank.

He told the Sun Sentinel he has cancer and has no plans to treat it.

Hawkins faced 15 years in prison with the bank robbery charge, an effective life sentence.

Instead, he struck a deal with prosecutors under which he will spend a year living at The Lord's Place, a Christian residence for the homeless.

He also must pay restitution to the bank, perform 120 hours of community service and meet certain other conditions, including not violating the law.

'I will happily sign this,' Circuit Judge Jeffrey Gillen said, according to The Palm Beach Post.
(Natural News) Americans have largely been spared most of the worlds deadly diseases and pandemics in recent decades, but the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention isnt so sure that were going to be spared the wrath of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19).

At president, the extremely virulent virus is ravaging China  especially in Wuhan City, the epicenter of the outbreak, so much so that the city is importing funeral home workers from around the country and paying them $143 an hour just to process all the bodies, The Epoch Times reports.

CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, in an interview last week, didnt make any predictions about that kind of morbidity in the United States, but he did say that the outbreak will reach our country and become a community virus this year or even into next year.

We dont know a lot about this virus, he told CNNs Dr. Sanjay Gupta. This virus is probably with us beyond this season, beyond this year, and I think eventually the virus will find a foothold and we will get community-based transmission.

He added ominously: Right now, were in an aggressive containment mode, Zero Hedge reported.

As of last week, some 15 cases of the virus had been confirmed in seven states: Eight in California, two in Illinois and one in Arizona, Washington, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Texas, CNN reported.

Redfield noted that while more research is necessary, his agency is now focused primarily on containment strategies in order to isolate the bug and slow its spread, thus buying more time to develop ways to combat it.

The containment phase is really to give us more time. This virus will become a community virus at some point in time, this year or next year, said Redfield. We dont have any evidence that this coronavirus is really embedded in the community at this time, but with that said, we want to intensify our surveillance so that were basing those conclusions based on data.

I would rather be criticized for over-protecting America

CNN noted further:

The containment strategy refers to efforts to prevent widespread transmission of the coronavirus in the United States, including having people with confirmed cases stay in isolation and placing restrictions on travel between affected areas in the world. Such containment measures were used widely during the SARS global outbreak of 2003, during which 8,098 people worldwide became sick and of those, 774 died, according to the CDC.

The World Health Organization has said that global travel restrictions on foreign nationals could actually backfire, but the Trump administration has nonetheless implemented them against foreign nationals who have visited China within the past 14 days, barring them from entering the U.S. And anyone who has traveled to Wuhan City will be subject to a 14-day quarantine.

According to reports, WHO Director-General Tedros Ahanom Ghebreyesus voiced opposition to travel restrictions last week, saying, in part, that they would unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade, as well as create fear and stigma.

But Redfield dismissed that.

Frankly, some people criticized when we decided that we wanted to temporarily suspend travel into the United States from individuals who were not Americans or permanent residents who had been in the hot zone in the last 14 days. Some people didnt think that that was what they would do, he told CNN.

Well, we felt very strongly that our obligation was to do all we can to protect the American public, he added. I would rather be criticized for over-protecting America than under-protecting America at this stage.

The U.S. military is also preparing, as Natural News reported. Site founder/editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, noted that the Pentagon sent out orders to the Northern Command to begin assessing its capabilities to handle a pandemic.

Plans include ordering commanders to prepare for widespread outbreaks and confining service members with a history of travel to China, the Military Times added.

Sources include:

MilitaryTimes.com

TheEpochTimes.com

NaturalNews.com

ZeroHedge.com
2020 was a year marked by hardships and challenges, but the Fauquier community has proven resilient. The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you for your continued support, wed like to offer all our subscribers -- new or returning --

4 WEEKS FREE DIGITAL AND PRINT ACCESS.

We understand the importance of working to keep our community strong and connected. As we move forward together into 2021, it will take commitment, communication, creativity, and a strong connection with those who are most affected by the stories we cover.

We are dedicated to providing the reliable, local journalism you have come to expect. We are committed to serving you with renewed energy and growing resources. Let the Fauquier Times be your community companion throughout 2021, and for many years to come.
CCTV Cameras At The Residence Captured This Footage During The Raid Around 3:Am Wednesday 12th February, 2020

16.02.2020 LISTEN

It has emerged that some Operation Vanguard operatives are no longer chasing illegal miners but have chosen to rather harass legally registered mining companies with the aim of extorting monies and taking hold of their belongings.

An illegal raid of the residence of the staff of Crisphil Goldfields Limited in Tarkwa, Western region, sanctioned by the Tarkwa Regional Command of Operation Vanguard, Captain Kabila has exposed the grand extortion Operation Vanguard is involved in.

This reporter can authoritatively confirm that in the early hours of Wednesday 12th February 2020 around 3:30am, some members of Operation Vanguard led by Captain Kabila and Nana Yaw Boadu from nowhere raided the residence of workers of Criphil Goldfields Limited, who are mostly Chinese lined them up, took their monies, iPhones and also drove away their Toyota Hilux Pick Up Vehicle.

The amount of money lost is over GHC43,500, including USD $120 RMB 700 and 42g gold, two iPhones, laptops, and their bags.

CCTV Cameras at the Residence captured the footage of the rounding up during the raid around 3:Am Wednesday 12th February 2020.

It didn't end there, they drove all of them numbering over 10 to a mining site and took photos of them to make it look like those arrested Chinese were caught in the act of illegal mining.

From the information gathered so far, it appears this operation was not executed on orders of the authorities and relevant institutions.

It is also not clear whether the Environment Minister, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, is or unaware of the operation.

Chief Security Of Crisphil Goldfields Limited, Narrating How The Whole Raid Occurred
live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Rajesh Palviya

Nifty Outlook:

On the weekly chart, the index has formed a "Doji" candlestick formation indicating indecisiveness among market participants regarding the direction.

The index is moving in a Higher Top and Higher Bottom formation on the weekly chart indicating sustained up trend.

The chart pattern suggests that if Nifty crosses and sustains above 12,250 levels it would witness buying which would lead the index towards 12,350-12,400 levels. However if index breaks below 12,000 level it would witness selling which would take the index towards 11,900-11,850. Nifty is trading above 20, 50 and 100 day SMA's which are important short term moving average, indicating positive bias in the short to medium term.

Nifty continues to remain in an uptrend in the medium term, so buying on dips continues to be our preferred strategy. For the week, we expect Nifty to trade in the range of 12,400-11,900 with a positive bias.

The weekly strength indicator RSI and momentum oscillator Stochastic have both turned negative and are below their respective reference lines indicating negative bias.

Bank Nifty outlook:

On the weekly chart index has formed a bearish candle however it manage to maintain higher High-low compare to previous session indicating positive bias. The index is moving in a Lower Top and Lower Bottom formation on the daily chart indicating short term down trend.

The chart pattern suggests that if Bank Nifty crosses and sustains above 31,300 levels it would witness buying which would lead the index towards 31,700-32,300 levels. However if index breaks below 30,600 level it would witness selling which would take the index towards 30,250-30,000. Bank Nifty is well placed above its 20, 100 and 200 SMA indicating sustained up trend in the short to medium term.

Bank Nifty continues to remain in an uptrend in the medium term, so buying on dips continues to be our preferred strategy. For the week, we expect Bank Nifty to trade in the range of 32,300-30,300 with a positive bias.

The weekly strength indicator RSI is moving downwards and is quoting below its reference line indicating negative bias. However momentum oscillator Stochastic has turned positive from the oversold zone indicating a possible consolidation or an up-move in the near term.

Aarti Industries | CMP: Rs 1,003

The stock has broken out from a six month long Rounding Bottom on closing basis indicating good comeback by the bulls with high volumes.

The stock has closed above the upper Bollinger Band on the weekly chart indicating strong bullish strength.

On the weekly chart, the stock continues to make a series of higher highs and higher lows indicating further continuation of bullish trend.

Weekly strength indicator RSI and momentum oscillator stochastic have given a bullish crossover which supports upside momentum to continue in the near term. Stock price has bounced from the 20-day MA on the daily chart further confirming our bullish thesis.

Buy Aarti Industries at Rs 1,000-980 | Stoploss: Rs 950 | Target: Rs 1,070-1,100

Nilkamal | CMP: Rs 1,480

On the weekly chart stock price has given a breakout from a one year long Inverted Head & Shoulder formation indicating trend reversal. It has also recently bounced from the neckline support (1370) of the Inverted Head & Shoulder further confirming the pattern formation. This Inverted Head & Shoulder breakout is accompanied with high volumes indicating good participation by the bulls. The weekly strength indicator RSI continues to trend higher indicating upside momentum to continue in the near term. Stock price is sustaining well above its 20 and 50 and 100 day SMA which supports bullish sentiments ahead.

Buy Nilkamal at Rs 1,470-1,450 | Stoploss: Rs 1,380 | Target: Rs 1,620-1,650

Shriram Transport Finance Company | CMP: Rs 1,285

On the weekly chart, the stock price has decisively broken out its past one year Descending Triangle formation (1400-1000) indicating a trend reversal. It also continues to make a series of higher Tops and higher Bottoms indicating sustained up trend.

Weekly strength indicator RSI and momentum oscillator stochastic are in positive territory which supports upside momentum to continue in the near term. On weekly chart, high volumes are observed indicating good participation by the bulls. Stock price is well placed above its 20 and 50 day SMA which supports bullish sentiments in short to medium term.

Buy Shriram Transport at Rs 1270-1245 | Stoploss | Rs 1,190 | Target | Rs 1,385 -1,410.

Tech Mahindra | CMP: Rs 833

On the weekly chart, stock price continues to make a series if higher Tops and higher Bottom and has broken above a three months long consolidation range (750-800) around 790 levels indicating sustained uptrend.

The weekly strength indicator RSI and the momentum indicator Stochastic both are in positive territory which supports upside momentum to continue in the near term.

The stock continues to ride the upper Bollinger band indicating good confidence by the bulls. Stock price is well placed above its 20 and 50 day SMA which supports bullish sentiments in short to medium term

Buy Tech Mahindra at Rs 830-820 | Stoploss: Rs 800 | Target: Rs 875-890

(The author is Head  Technical & Derivatives Research, Axis Securities)

: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com are their own and not those of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
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Linkedin Dyaning Pangestika (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, February 16, 2020 09:02 695 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2064c665a 1 Business Indosat-Ooredoo,Indonesia,business,lay-off,employees,packages Free

Indosat Ooredoo, one of Indonesia's major telecommunications providers, has laid off nearly 700 employees as part of a change in its business strategy to bring the companys closer to market needs.

According to a statement The Jakarta Post received on Saturday, Indosat president director Ahmad Al-Neama addressed employees on Friday, citing three key changes: rightsizing the organization, adding resources to increase competitiveness and [improving] customer service and experience.

Al-Neama also stated that the company would empower regional teams" to develop closer customer ties and "transition network operations to a managed services model in line with industry best practice.

Indosat director and chief human resources officer Irsyad Sahroni said in the statement that 677 employees were laid off on Friday, and that more than 80 percent of the affected employees had received a fair [severance] package above the statutory requirements.

Read also: Indosat reports solid revenue growth in first nine months 2019

We have thoroughly reviewed all possible options, and reached the conclusion that we must take this tough, but necessary action for us to sustain and grow, Irsyad said in the statement.

We are taking a fair approach aligned with prevailing laws and regulations, communicating directly and transparently with both impacted and unimpacted employees," he stated.

Irsyad added that the company was working on placing many of the laid-off employees in opportunities with its umbrella partners.
"Happy" is the first word that comes to mind when Mrs Brennan thinks of Tammy before her depression. She was always the funniest person in any room, she said. She was probably the favourite among all of the aunties and uncles ... Her daughter Bree is like that now. Beautiful just like her mother. Bree, 14, remembers her mothers generous and caring heart. When mum was in a good place she was the life of the party with her infectious belly laugh, Bree said. My mums final [pleas] for help on the day she ended her life were not answered by the hospitals and with that she felt like she had no other option. Helplines Support is available for those who may be distressed: Lifeline 13 11 14

MensLine 1300 789 978

Kids Helpline 1800 551 800

beyondblue 1300 224 636

In an emergency call triple zero

On May 23, Mrs Brennan woke up to a text message from Ms Peters saying she needed to get to Sutherland Hospital. She soon texted again saying Sutherland could not admit her. That was despite Ms Peters being admitted to the hospital on May 3 after she had attempted suicide and was transferred to Prince of Wales. Ms Peters' phone bill shows she placed nine calls to Sutherlands acute care team between 9.15am and 10am that appear to have gone to a voicemail, despite its webpage stating it's a 24-hour service. She had been in regular contact with the team since her discharge. Mrs Brennan called Prince of Wales Psychiatric Emergency Care Centre, telling staff her niece was suicidal and needed help, but she was told Ms Peters would have to go to her local hospital  Sutherland. I told them Sutherland Hospital wouldnt take her, Ms Brennan said. I didnt understand why they wouldnt help. Tammy had only been discharged ... three days earlier.

Tammy Peters' family want to tell her story. From left to right (front row) Ray Brennan, Sharon Piper, Bree Peters, Ray Brennan. (Back row) Jennifer Dixon, Kelly Brennan, Steve Brennan, Darrell Piper, Keith Brennan. Credit:Dean Sewell Slater and Gordon lawyer Tim Cummings said there was a fundamental misunderstanding of how acute the risk was. How did so many telephone calls to the acute care team hotline go unanswered and unactioned? he asked. "Why wasnt there adequate communication between the mental health units at Prince of Wales and Sutherland Hospital? Mrs Brennan alerting Prince of Wales that Ms Peters was suicidal ought to have triggered a sequence of events to ensure her safety, Mr Cummings said. It could have been as simple as an alert going on her electronic health record, a notification to Sutherland Hospitals acute care team to check on her welfare or an invitation to present at Prince of Wales. Ms Peters was not the first mental health patient turned away from a hospital on the grounds that it was not their local area, Mr Cummings said. He was not aware of any patient with a physical medical emergency being treated in the same manner, suggesting mental health crises were not escalated with the same urgency as physical illness or injury.

Tammy Peters repeatedly attempted to contact Sutherland Hospital's Acute Care Team in the hours before her death. Ms Peterss case was complicated by severe headaches that she had experienced since undergoing electroconvulsive therapy administered at a private clinic in January. I felt as though I was losing my mind, I felt like my brain was on fire, Ms Peters wrote in an email she sent to her aunt. I am now in such a state. I don't know where to turn  Please help me, I am so desperate. Electroconvulsive therapy is considered effective, backed by strong evidence for severe depressive disorders where other treatments have failed. Patients have credited it with saving their lives, though others have complained about neurological problems and some psychiatrists have expressed concerns that the treatment is being inappropriately administered to unsuitable patients by a minority of clinicians. Ms Peters severe headaches caused some confusion among the disparate treating teams as to whether it should be treated as chronic pain or a manifestation of her psychiatric condition.

Loading According to an internal investigation launched by South East Sydney Local Health District, Ms Peters told Sutherland Hospital she needed to be admitted for her headaches, stating I just cannot handle it. The report stated denied thoughts of self-harm and suicidal ideation. Mrs Brennan said she did not believe her niece would not have disclosed she was suicidal. There is just no way she would not have told them  she wanted help, she said. Prince of Wales Hospital considered Ms Peters a psychiatric patient but did not communicate this to a private hospital that had initially agreed to admit her. But when she described her severe headaches they deemed her ineligible for a mental health admission on the grounds that her symptoms required medical treatment.

That was the final knockback, Mrs Brennan said. Tammy must have thought no one was going to help her. A spokesperson from the South East Sydney Local Health District said "senior clinicians have been in contact with the family to discuss their concerns and to offer support. The internal investigation identified a number of system improvement opportunities that were not assessed as contributing to the tragic death" including a review of the Sutherland acute care teams clinical information handover process. The report also recommended that if a family member contacts the service, a clinician should review the patients medical records and relay clinical information to their treating team. Dr Fiona Shand, a senior research fellow and head of the suicide prevention program at the Black Dog Institute, said the period immediately after a mental health discharge was a very high-risk time for suicide.

Loading There has been a lot of work done to make sure people are being followed up after discharge but if people arent able to access care when they reach that absolute crisis point there is a problem, she said. Identifying which patients are at greatest risk of suicide is notoriously unpredictable, and psychiatrists have long debated whether hospitals are the safest and most therapeutic settings for these patients. In May, University of NSW Scientia Professor Gordon Parker warned of the psychiatric breakdown of the public system and mental health units constantly at capacity, where psychiatrists weighed the risks of discharging patients too early to open a bed for new patients in need of acute care. NSW Health chief psychiatrist Dr Murray Wright said the challenge for the mental health system was to ensure services were communicating and co-ordinated so patients in crisis got the help they needed.

"Its a really significant challenge because a persons mental health needs can change dramatically with very little notice, Dr Wright said. Everyone working in the system is distraught when something like this happens. There is a series of very significant issues being raised by the family of this poor woman. "When things go tragically wrong we need to look at this very carefully, and what we can do locally and at a system level to learn whatever we can ... that is a responsibility we take very seriously. Dr Wrights advice to anyone feeling suicidal or having a mental health crisis to go to an emergency department and seek help from the mental health services that best knows their circumstances. That doesnt absolve the system from being able to cope and respond appropriately ... no matter which door they knock on," he said.
[February 15, 2020] automotiveMastermind Donates $10,000 to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS, Feb. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- automotiveMastermind, part of IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO) and a leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation solutions for dealerships and manufacturers, has donated $10,000 to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Las Vegas (RMHC Las Vegas). automotiveMastermind donated $100 for each dealership that participated in a product demonstration of the company's sales platform, Market EyeQ, during the 2020 National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Show, taking place at the Las Vegas Convention Center from Feb. 15-17. "Mastermind has always been committed to giving back to the community and promoting health and wellness for children and their families," said Marco Schnabl co-founder and CEO of automotiveMastermind. "Last year, we supported the RMHC chapter near our New York City headquarters, and we wanted to strengthen the relationship nationally by partnering with the Las Vegas chapter for this year's NADA Show. The automotive dealership industry has a long history of supporting communities through various charitable donations, and with the entire industry in Las Vegas for the NADA Show, we wanted to find a way to help families local to this area."



Mastermind employees also participated in the RMHC Lunch is on Us! program, decorating 100 lunch bags for volunteers to pack lunches for families staying with their children in Las Vegas area hospitals. There are nearly 800 lunches delivered to families each week. "The impact of donations like automotiveMastermind's is long-lasting," said Alyson McCarthy, chief executive officer at RMHC Las Vegas. "This will help feed and care for families during their stay with us. For example, a gift of $10,000 would provide breakfast every day for four years for families staying at the house. The longevity of the donation will not be forgotten."

"The donation to RHMC is part of our Mastermind Gives Back Program that we implemented in 2019, which has seen tremendous engagement from our Mastermind team," said Schnabl. "It was a unanimous decision to work with organizations dedicated to helping children and families. The Ronald McDonald House Charities' mission is perfectly aligned to that focus, and I am humbled that we have been able to help so many families." About automotiveMastermind

Founded in 2012, automotiveMastermind, part of IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), is a leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation solutions for the automotive industry. Market EyeQ by Mastermind is the single sales platform to identify, communicate with and close every buyer in a local market. Mastermind is headquartered in New York City and San Francisco. For more information, visit automotivemastermind.com. Based in London, IHS Markit is a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/automotivemastermind-donates-10-000-to-ronald-mcdonald-house-charities-of-greater-las-vegas-301005727.html SOURCE automotiveMastermind

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SPRINGFIELD  A city man accused of dealing drugs was arrested after police found 174 bags of heroin in his apartment and car.

Samuel Lozada, 44, of Worcester St., was arrested at about 6 p.m., Thursday, and charged with possession with intent to distribute a Class A drug, said Ryan Walsh, police spokesman.

Narcotics detectives have been investigating a heroin operation out of Mr. Lozadas home on the 0-100 block of Worcester St., Walsh said.

As part of the investigation, detectives under the direction of Lt. Brian Beliveau and Sgt. Christopher Hitas stopped Lozada as he was driving on Talcott Ave. During the tactical stop, officers found 55 bags of heroin in his car and arrested him, he said.

Police, who had a warrant, then searched Lozadas home and recovered 119 bags of heroin and $12,046 in cash, Walsh said.
VAIL, Colo. - Searchers have recovered the bodies of two Colorado men who died after being caught in a weekend avalanche in central Colorado, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center reported Sunday.

Three men were riding snowbikes Saturday afternoon when they were caught in the slide about 10 miles (16 kilometres) north of Vail. One man was able to dig himself out and called for help at about 4:45 p.m, the Eagle County Sheriffs Office said.

The other men were carried into a gully at the bottom of a drainage area, avalanche debris piled up deeply and they were fully buried, the Avalanche Information Center said in a statement.

Hunter Schleper of Vail told KCNC-TV that he and his friends dug for five hours trying to find the victims. Schleper posted on Facebook that they located the riders under 20 feet (6 metres) of snow. But Vail Mountain Rescue told them to stop their efforts Saturday evening because of low visibility and avalanche danger.

The Eagle County Sheriffs Office announced a search and recovery mission Sunday morning. The bodies were recovered on Sunday, the avalanche centre said. The sheriffs office identified the victims as Dillon Block, 28, and Cesar Almanza-Hernandez, 30, both of Gypsum.

Four people have died in avalanches in Colorado this winter, the centre said.
Mahatma Gandhi's great grandson Tushar Gandhi on Sunday claimed the National Population Register and National Register of Citizens were "real danger" and would lead to the poor bearing the brunt.

Participating in an event organised by the People's Platform Against Fascism here, he also said those protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act and NPR and NRC had been painted as Muslims" and people must be worried about the amount of "hatred that has been inculcated in the society."



He alleged CAA was the first official act of the government which was discriminatory and went against the spirit of the Constitution and the NRC and the NPR were the real danger.

"The rich will not be affected. the poor in our cities and the poor in the villages are the ones who are going to face the brunt of the promulgation of those two procedures which government is so keen to implement," he said.

The rural poor and uneducated masses would be made to run from pillar to post just to satisfy the government official who would decide their Constitutional right, he claimed.

Without naming anyone, he said: "Look at how subtly they have divided us. Without making any attempt they have turned the CAA, NRC protests into us versus them.

"They have turned (the protests) into a Hindu versus Muslim. They have managed to convey to the people of India that the agitating people are Muslims", he said.

Alleging that people's mind had been poisoned, he said "that is something we should be worried and that is something we should resist and fight against".

On the continuing protests against CAA, NRC and the NPR, he said the country still lived in its villages and any 'revolution' that has to succeed must transcend the cities and go to the villages.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
16.02.2020 LISTEN

A note of fraternal tension has been registered between the United Kingdom and Australia. It began with Britains decision to permit Chinas technology giant Huawei a role in the construction of the countrys 5G network. While the decision is qualified to non-core functions, as UK officials term it, the irritations to the United States and, it follows, Australia, have been far from negligible.

Members of the US Congress have been clear that letting Huawei into the stables of security risks future trade deals. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on a visit to the UK, has been equally insistent on the dangers. When you allow the information of your citizens of the national security information of your citizens to transit a network that the Chinese Communist party has a legal mandate to obtain, it creates risk. In Munich attending an international security conference, US Defence Secretary Mark Esper warned that, Reliance on Chinese 5G vendors  could render our partners critical systems vulnerable to disruption, manipulation and espionage. As for US President Donald Trump, the words apoplectic and fury figured in responding to the UK decision.

Australian officials have relished their role in telling the old, long-in tooth Mother Country off. Simon Gilding, director of the Australian Signals Directorate till December, suggested in The Strategist that the UK was putting its faith in a flawed and outdated cybersecurity model to convince themselves that they can manage the risk that Chinese intelligence services could use Huaweis access to UK telco networks to insert bad code.

Gilding does not mince his words. 5G decisions reflect one of those quietly pivotal moments that crystallise a change in world affairs. The British decision had been disappointing in doing the wrong thing on the technology. It had not considered, for instance, Australian testing in the field. I was, he smugly recalled, part of the team in the Australian Signals Directorate that tried to design a suite of cybersecurity controls that would give the government confidence that hostile intelligence services could not leverage their national vendors to gain access to our 5G networks. Measures of mitigation were designed with the express purpose of preventing a state actor from gaining access to the networks. All failed.

The UK government has been attempting to reassure allies within the Five Eyes agreement that any security concerns are unjustified. UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab spent a good deal of his time during this months visit to Canberra attempting to assuage members of the Federal Parliament Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees. That effort seemed to fall flat.

In a report that was published in the Sydney Morning Herald, Deputy Intelligence Committee Chair and Labor MP Anthony Byrne was irate, notably at Raabs response that the Huawei decision was a technical if difficult matter, but hardly political. How would you feel, Byrne is reported to have asked of Raab, if the Russians laid down infrastructure in your own networks? Thats how we feel about Huawei.

Officially, Byrne gave the impression that things had gone rather well in a full and frank discussion regarding 5g, trade and strategic challenges. Privately, that same Byrne was cocksure, daring, even rude. According to the source reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, He basically said: Ill raise you my ASD [Australian Signals Directorate] against your GCHQ [Government Communications Headquarters]. China, he argued, had become an existential threat to Australia, being both its largest trading partner and most formidable security threat.

Few others were privy to the discussions that took place between Raab and various Australian parliamentarians. Parliaments Intelligence and Security Committees Liberal MP Andrew Hastie was present, as was Foreign Affairs Committee chair, Liberal senator David Fawcett. The other person to bear witness to discussions was the UK High Commissioner Vicki Treadell.

For Treadell, the matter was obvious. Someone in the meeting had ratted. As the ABC subsequently found out, measured and stern letters were duly sent from the High Commissioners Office to both committee chairs chiding them for the leaks. Despite failing to confirm the existence of such letters, the UK Commission being supposedly unable to comment on private briefings, or on any information pertaining to these private briefings, the shells had been fired.

Feeling put out, Parliaments intelligence and security committee cancelled a planned visit to the UK scheduled to take place in March, preferring the more reliable, anti-Huawei environs of Washington. The official, anodyne explanation for the cancellations was put down to advice given by Australias High Commissioner in the UK as he advised that counterpart committees in the UK have not yet reconstituted following the UKs December election.

The reasons given to the ABC by a member of the intelligence committee proved more forthright. If this is the attitude of the British, we may as well visit the Americans who we can trust more on this stuff. A right royal spat, indeed, and one not without its juvenile connotations.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: [email protected]
Are political comebacks worth the gamble?

Peter MacKay wants to be prime minister of Canada. Joe Biden wants to be president of the United States. They are both grasping for a political brass ring that they believe should rightfully be theirs.

Biden, 77, has previously vied to be the Democratic candidate. After years in the Senate burnishing his reputation and overcoming tremendous personal tragedy (his first wife and daughter died in a car accident), he eventually found a political sweet spot as Barack Obamas popular vice president. He declined to run in 2016 as his eldest son had died of cancer in 2015, but now in 2020, Biden wants another chance.

Peter MacKay, 54, is also auditioning as a comeback kid  a phrase uttered by Bill Clinton, when he roared back from political oblivion in the 1992 New Hampshire primary. As the last leader of the Progressive Conservatives and as a partner in the 2003 merger with the Canadian Alliance, MacKay is seizing the current leadership opportunity.

In an effort to achieve their goals, they are each risking a great deal. For Biden, his legacy is at stake. For MacKay, his political reputation is at stake.

Early signs were encouraging for the two of them. Biden had initially scored an electability rating of 44 per cent, meaning that a high number of Americans thought he could beat Donald Trump. Similarly, a recent Leger poll found that 42 per cent of Conservatives believe MacKay would be the best person to lead their party.

However on the way to their respective conventions  MacKays is in June while Bidens is in July  both have encountered stumbling blocks.

As a result of lacklustre debate performances, Bidens rating has plummeted to 27 per cent. His painful political descent was visible in recent primaries as he humiliatingly finished fourth in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire.

Meanwhile, MacKay is demonstrating rusty political communication skills. After a clumsy Twitter attempt to attack the prime minister, he maintained that he wanted a more civilized tone, yet, he would not delete the Tweet. His gaffes have sent the Conservatives into a mad search to find another saviour.

Given the risks, what drives politicians to try for second and third acts?

Personal ambition and a thirst for power are clearly triggers. Richard Nixon certainly fits that analysis. Like Biden, he had already been a two-term vice president when he won the Republican nomination in 1960, losing the presidential campaign to John Kennedy. He was later defeated in a bid for governor of California. Undaunted, he bided his time winning the Republican nomination and the election in 1968. He became president for another term before being forced to resign in 1974 as a result of the Watergate burglary.

Having clawed his way back, Nixon lost everything as his desire for power grew beyond acceptable norms  a trait which eerily matches Donald Trumps persona.

World events can equally create comebacks. At 40, Winston Churchill declared I am finished when, as first lord of the admiralty, the 1915 Gallipoli campaign failed. He later served as chancellor of the exchequer, and then spent years in the political wilderness before being summoned back as the brilliant wartime prime minister. Surprisingly rejected by the voters in 1945, he persevered and won a final majority in 1951. In Churchills case, resilience, ambition and world events sustained his political career.

Finally, opportunity lends itself to comebacks. After leading three successive governments, Pierre Trudeau lost to Joe Clark in 1979, producing a minority government. Trudeau resigned but when the Clark government was toppled by stellar parliamentary manoeuvring, Trudeau changed his mind at the urging of the party, and went on to win a majority government in 1980.

We are often cynical and dismissive of those who attempt comebacks. If they squander the opportunity, as Nixon did, history will judge them harshly. But we must not create leadership vacuums by discouraging those with leadership ambitions. In recent days, too many candidates have refused to take the plunge.

Biden and MacKay will have to dig deep in the next few months to attain their respective dreams but at least they deserve credit. They are in the arena and willing to take the risk.
FILE PHOTO: CEO Tim Cook presents the new iPhone 11 at an Apple event at their headquarters in Cupertino, U.S.

By Yimou Lee

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Apple's main iPhone maker Foxconn <2317.TW> got the green light on Monday to reopen two major plants in China closed because of the coronavirus and aims to resume production even though only 10% of the workforce has returned so far, a source told Reuters.

Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker, got approval to resume work at factories in the eastern central Chinese city of Zhengzhou and in the southern manufacturing hub Shenzhen, the person with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The two factories together make up the bulk of Foxconn's assembly lines for Apple's <AAPL.O> iPhones and any further delays to production following the enforced closures are likely to hit global shipments.

"As a matter of policy and for reasons of commercial sensitivity, we do not comment on our specific production initiatives," Foxconn said in a statement to Reuters.

In Zhengzhou, about 16,000 people, or less than 10% of the workforce, had returned to Foxconn's plant as of Monday while in Shenzhen about 20,000 workers, or roughly 10% of the workforce, were back after the Lunar New Year holiday, the source said.

"Shenzhen plant has notified employees to return to work tomorrow," said the person who declined to be identified because they are not authorised to speak publicly on the matter.

"Work there will be resumed in a staggered and orderly manner," the person said. "But a big challenge remains after factory resumption due to the severe situation of the outbreak."

Market research firm Trendforce on Monday cut its forecast for iPhone production in the first three months of the year by about 10% to 41 million handsets.

Apple gave a wider range than usual for estimated revenue in the first quarter to factor in uncertainty due to the virus that has killed over 900 people and infected more than 40,000.

An Apple spokeswoman in Shanghai was not immediately available for comment.

Story continues

MAKING MASKS

Foxconn reported on Monday a 12% drop in revenue in January from a year ago to 364.6 billion Taiwan dollars ($12 billion). It did not give further details.

Its shares fell as much as 2.4%, underperforming a 0.3% decline in the broader market <.TWII>. Foxconn has fallen more than 11% since the market reopened after the holiday break.

Apple rival and China's biggest smartphone maker, Huawei, said last week it had resumed production of consumer devices and telecommunications equipment and that its operations were running normally.

Foxconn executives were trying very hard to negotiate with the Chinese authorities to resume production in other parts of the country, including Kunshan in southeastern Jiangsu province, the source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The coronavirus epidemic - declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization - has disrupted Chinese manufacturing and forced firms such as Hyundai Motor <005380.KS> to halt production of cars in some factories.

Some companies, including Samsung Electronics <005930.KS>, limped back to work on Monday but hundreds of factories and stores remain shut across China.

Foxconn, formally Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, said earlier on Monday that employee safety was its top priority and it was working with authorities to meet requirements to resume production across China in a staggered fashion.

Foxconn employees who returned on Monday following the extended Lunar New Year holiday have been told to wear masks, undergo temperature checks and adhere to a specified dining system, according to internal memos seen by Reuters.

Most senior Taiwanese officials have been told to refrain from returning to China and those who needed to do so required approval from Chairman Liu Young-Way, the person said.

Foxconn, which makes devices for global electronics firms, has also built production lines in the southern province of Guangdong to make face masks for its hundreds of thousands of employees and is aiming to churn out 2 million masks a day by late February, the internal memos showed.

(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Taipei newsroom; Additional reporting by Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh, Jacqueline Wong, Susan Fenton and David Clarke)
ANN ARBOR, MI -- From three chickens on his first day of business to nearly 3,000 now, a farmer on Michigans west side is providing two Ann Arbor restaurants with chickens and eggs.

Joe Koopsen, 24, didnt grow up in a family of farmers. At about 10 years old, he noticed his cousins were into rabbit shows with 4-H, a youth development program, and he decided to do the same, with chickens.

I was probably 9 or 10 years old and didnt play any sports. I didnt have any hobbies really, Koopsen said.

At 15 years old, he started selling eggs in a farmers market at Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo. During his first week, he said he sold about 20 dozen eggs to a nearby bakery.

But Koopsen wanted to expand his business, and now Joes Farm serves roughly 20 establishments, including Ann Arbor restaurants Spencer and Aventura, with chicken and eggs.

I sell more than 1,000 dozen a week, Koospen said.

Spencer, 113 E. Liberty St., buys Koopsens chickens and eggs, specifically because theyre pasture-raised, which means the chickens are moved around and allowed to roam and eat fresh grass. The restaurant buys varying amounts, depending on its frequently rotating menu, co-owner Abby Olitzky said.

We always source locally and I think one of the really biggest issues is finding pasture-raised chickens, Olitzky said. Its much harder. I know from talking (with) other farmers that its a very hard game to be successful in.

Pasture-raised chickens also taste better, Olitzky added.

I really like what he does, Olitzky said. Its really cool that he actually is wanting to do that kind of work and put in the time and energy and resources to make it happen this way.

Joes Farm also provides eggs for tapas restaurant Aventura, 216 E. Washington St. which orders roughly 60 dozen eggs a week, Koopsen said, adding the two restaurants began sourcing from his farm in summer 2019.

His daily operations involve making sure his chickens are constantly moving around the pasture, on top of washing and delivering eggs. In the spring, summer and fall, Joes Farm produces meat birds, broilers and turkeys, while hens are available year-round. His partnerships are mainly in Michigan but hes expanded to Chicago and California.

Moving of the chickens is so important and thats what a lot of people dont quite understand yet, Koopsen said. The moving of them regularly and not just out the side of the barn ... is a big thing with knowing where your food comes from.

Family-owned Monahans Seafood celebrates 40 years in Kerrytown

Ann Arbor pedestrian, stormwater tunnel construction to begin soon
In response to around a third of New Orleans firefighters calling in sick on Saturday, Fire Superintendent Tim McConnell described the actions of the firefighters union as "extortion."

McConnell, who called Saturday's events a "sickout" and a "strike," said 47 of the 137 employees scheduled to work called in to say they would not be on the job. With some firefighters agreeing to fill in for the many vacant shifts, only 120 employees worked a shift that should have at least 150 on duty, he said in an afternoon press conference.

"Its extortion and bullying at its best," McConnell said about the union. "We are not where we want to be staffing wise, and it causes me concern."

1/3 of New Orleans firefighters call in sick as labor fight with city heats up; union denies sickout About one-third of the New Orleans firefighters scheduled to work Saturday called in sick or refused to work overtime shifts, as a simmering l

He acknowledged that firefighters have worked a lot of voluntary overtime because the department is shorthanded.

But with Mardi Gras parades rolling through the streets, McConnell said this is the absolute worst time for this many firefighters to be off-duty.

He said it was "their sworn oath to protect citizens" and show up to work.

The NOFD has already reached out to Emergency Medical Services, the Governor's Office and the State Fire Marshal's Office to say it may have to call upon them for assistance.

"Were struggling to keep people safe, and there is a potential people will be less safe," McConnell said.

Union leaders continued to insist the rash of sick calls was not a coordinated "sick out."

Union President Aaron Mischler said a large number of firefighters normally take off at this time of year because it's flu season and Mardi Gras.

Mischler also said some of the 47 people who called in sick Saturday most likely worked 24-hour shifts the day before and called in sick in order to get some rest. "They were forced to call in sick or else they wouldn't be allowed to go home," he said.

He also said roughly 35 to 45 firefighters are off-duty on normal Saturdays.

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He agreed with McConnell that the shortage of firefighters is a public safety crisis, but one that is being escalated by the city's administration.

"The definition of extortion is taking away vacation time and threatening (firefighters) that (only) if they work overtime again, they'll get it back," Mischler said.

New Orleans fire trucks won't roll after Mardi Gras parades amid labor fight with City Hall A longtime Mardi Gras tradition has ended, at least for now, because of the labor fight between New Orleans firefighters and Mayor LaToya Cant

Mischler said, "The (union) has not ordered or sanctioned any sick-outs or other job actions and encourages all fire fighters to report to work on their scheduled day."

As a result of the manpower shortage, at least four Fire Department companies for now can only run two-man fire trucks, which is below the three-firefighter minimum required by the National Fire Prevention Association. The NFPAs recommendations are not law, but city policy prohibits those on a two-firefighter truck from entering the scene of a structure fire without first waiting for backup.

The shortage comes eight days after union leaders met with Mayor Latoya Cantrells administration to discuss changes to an overtime policy which they argue defers or denies them pay they have earned.

Union members have other grievances, including with policies addressing pensions, promotions and rates for off-duty details. But overtime tops the list, with officials saying firefighters had essentially been expected to volunteer to work 90 or more hours a week to make up for chronic understaffing.

In McConnell's Saturday press conference, he said NOFD and Cantrell's administration were willing to work with the union, but the union is trying to move "from 0 to 100 mph" on the issues that concern the workers.

NOFD boss cancels firefighters' vacations, might force OT after crews refuse it A pledge by New Orleans firefighters to refuse to work voluntary overtime to protest the Fire Department's staffing levels and other grievance

New Orleans firefighters to refuse some overtime in spat with City Hall; move may impact events New Orleans firefighters said Monday they will no longer work voluntary overtime and other unscheduled hours beyond their regular shifts, esca

"Well get this worked out," McConnell said. "(The firefighters are) good people, and I know the administration is dedicated and will get this done."

Mischler said leave cancellations McConnell enacted after firefighters began declining voluntary overtime resulted in 19 firefighters whose vacations had previously been approved being scheduled to work Saturday instead.

This post was updated to include additional statements from Mischler.
"Small rockets" hit the Iraqi base hosting American and other troops in Baghdad's Green Zone early Sunday, a U.S. military spokesperson confirmed in a statement.

Details: The attack at the base hosting International Coalition for Operation Inherent Resolve troops occurred just before 3:30 a.m., said Col. Myles B. Caggins III. There were no casualties and an investigation has been opened into the incident, he added.

The big picture: No group has claimed responsibility for the blasts, which come just over a month after Iran's Jan. 8 missile attack on U.S. bases in Iraq.

109 American troops sustained traumatic brain injuries as a result of that attack, the State Department said last Monday.

Editor's note: This article has been updated with more details on the attack and context.
PLZ SIGNING A DEFINITIVE AGREEMENT FOR SELLING THE LAND PLOT IN BRASOV, ROMANIA

Plaza Centers N.V. (Plaza or the Company) announced today, further to its announcement dated November 29, 2019, regarding the Pre Agreement signed on February 5, 2019 for the sale of the land plot in Brasov, Romania (the Property), that its indirect subsidiary has signed on February 14, 2020 the definitive Sale-Purchase Agreement for the sale of the Property for a total gross consideration of Euro 623,952.32 (the "Consideration").

As agreed in the Sale-Purchase Agreement, the purchaser paid to the indirect subsidiary the price balance in the amount of Euro 573,952.32. Ends For further details, please contact: Plaza Ran Yaakobs, CFO 972-546-303-006 Notes to Editors Plaza Centers N.V. (www.plazacenters.com) is listed on the Main Board of the London Stock Exchange, as of 19 October 2007, on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (LSE: PLAZ, WSE: PLZ/PLAZACNTR) and, on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Plaza Centers has been active in real estate development in emerging markets for over 23 years.
Afghan boys sell fresh fruit on carts, signs are written in Dari or Pashto, and restaurants in the bustling bazaar sell Afghan dishes such as Kabuli pulao. But this "mini Kabul" is in Pakistan, which this week marks 40 years of hosting Afghan refugees. It is a grim milestone for entire generations of families who fled war to create a life in Pakistan, but still face an uncertain future and no clear path to citizenship. "We spent an entire life here," says Niaz Mohammed, a 50-year-old labourer from Afghanistan's Nangarhar province who fled to Pakistan in the 1980s. "We had weddings and marriages here, our kids were born here ... We have jobs and work here, while there's no peace in Afghanistan. That's why we are happy here." On Sunday UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will arrive in Islamabad for a conference the United Nations says will "send a global reminder about the fate of millions of Afghans living as refugees". "The main challenge right now is to continue to provide support to Pakistan in hosting them ... and also give access to skills and education for the young Afghan population here," Indrika Ratwatte, Asia director of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, told AFP on Friday. - Temporary status - Pakistan is one of the largest refugee-hosting nations in the world, home to an estimated 2.4 million registered and undocumented people who have fled Afghanistan, some as far back as the Soviet invasion of 1979. Many live in camps, while others have built lives for themselves in Pakistan's cities, paying rent and contributing to the economy. "Mini Kabul", the bustling Refugee Market in the northwestern city of Peshawar is home to some 5,000 shops -- all run by Afghan refugees. But their status has always been temporary, with deadlines set for them to leave Pakistan repeatedly pushed back as the conflict in Afghanistan worsens. Many Pakistanis view them with suspicion, accusing them of spurring militancy and criminality, and calling for them to be sent home. Even those who have spent decades in the country cannot own property or obtain identity cards, and were only recently allowed to open bank accounts. Shortly after he came to power, Prime Minister Imran Khan vowed to grant them citizenship -- but the controversial promise sparked outrage, and has not been spoken of since. - 'I prefer to stay' - Nevertheless, many of the refugees who spoke to AFP in Peshawar recently said they love their adopted home. Javed Khan, 28, was born in Pakistan, has married a Pakistani woman and has three sons of his own. "I will leave only if Pakistan forces me," he told AFP. The situation could yet change: Afghanistan may be about to take the first step on the long road to peace. Late Thursday the US said it has secured a seven-day reduction in violence in the country that it hopes will allow it to strike a deal with the Taliban, as President Donald Trump said a peace accord was "very close". Such a deal would allow Washington to begin withdrawing troops, in return for security guarantees from the Taliban and a promise to begin peace talks with the Afghan government. However refugees were sceptical about what it would mean for them. Mohammed Feroz, who came to Pakistan just over 40 years ago from Kabul, now runs a cloth shop in "mini Kabul". Sitting in a chair at the front of his shop, he said he supported the withdrawal of US troops -- but was leery of US and Taliban motivations. "They are after their interest. No one cares about us, God is the only hope for us," he said. Even if peace comes, most refugees said that they would prefer to stay in Pakistan, where they can support their families. In the Khurasan refugee camp outside Peshawar an estimated 5,000 refugees live in poverty. Yaseen Ullah, 26, collects scrap and sells it to junkyards. His family -- his mother, four brothers, and four sisters -- share a two-room mud house with no plumbing. They also came from Nangarhar province across the border -- and, despite the harshness of life in the camp, are not eager to go back. "I have no job, no work in Afghanistan. So what will I do there?" Ullah asked. Mohammad, the labourer from Nangarhar, agreed. "I have to feed my family, my kids," the father of seven, all born in the camp, told AFP, speaking Pashto with a Pakistani accent. "I am saying it from my heart and I am very clear on it, that I will prefer to stay here. I do not want to return."
The Pale Horse

BBC1, Sunday

Rating:

Home

Channel 4, Wednesday

Rating:

The screenwriter Sarah Phelps has been taking liberties with Agatha Christie murder mysteries for quite some time. Plots are revised. Characters are redrawn or may be ejected. Language is updated  here we had one raddled arse and also one F*** off!  and sensibilities are reshaped. The purists are always livid. Why bother, when whats left isnt really Christie at all? What treachery is this? Get a life, Sarah Phelps. But for the non-purists, as well as those who, perhaps, suspect Christie couldnt be kept going any other way, there is only one question, and it is: is it entertaining? And in this instance? Yes. Ish.

Rufus Sewell (and cheekbones) with Kaya Scodelario in The Pale Horse. The atmosphere is, from the off, one of thick dread

The Pale Horse, a two-parter, is Phelpss fifth adaptation and opens with a trio of witches telling the fortune of a young woman who wants to know if she will make her new husband happy. The witches, as we will discover, live in the small village of Much Deeping amid pickled snakes in jars and what looks like an armadillo foetus.

The atmosphere is, from the off, one of thick dread, and this never accedes to anything pacier even if you may be longing for it to do so. (If you remember, Phelpss Poirot, played by John Malkovich in The ABC Murders, was so heavily depressed it was like we were all swimming uphill through treacle.)

Anyway, the young woman is later found dead in mysterious circumstances and her husband, Mark Easterbrook (Rufus Sewell, whose cheekbones have been awarded their own appreciative Twitter account), is absolutely heartbroken. But then he marries a woman he doesnt appear to like very much, which did seem odd. Next, his side-totty, a showgirl, also dies in mysterious circumstances, and then yet another woman, who has a list of names hidden in her shoe.

Some of the names are already dead and the rest are about to be, presumably. Mark is on the list, as is a hysterical shopkeeper (Bertie Carvel with comedy teeth). Inspector Lejeune (a dour Sean Pertwee) begins to investigate. And the dread continues as dead rats are found in sinks, corn dollies are left here and there, and the Lammas Tide festival in Much Deeping draws us into folk-horror territory. (Theres more wicker in Much Deeping than there is in The Wicker Man, you should know, if youre thinking of a day out there.) But creepiest of all, we can tell who is about to perish because they will lose a lock of hair. A clump will fall out, just like that. It did make you shudder.

There are elements to like. Sewell, and his cheekbones, are excellent. Plus, he can do piercing looks of the sort that pin you to the wall. (Those eyes, which are what? Yellow-green, like a cats?) And also subsidiary characters are given some heft, especially the second Mrs Easterbrook (Kaya Scodelario) who, consigned to the life of a Sixties housewife, is bored piping fillings into vol-au-vents and, despairing of her marriage, frenziedly attacks a feather bolster cushion with a knife. (That is, frenziedly as shown in slow motion. Nothing is ever done fast.) She is fascinating. As for modern sensibilities, I did rather enjoy Phelpss little pokes at male entitlement. I dont believe in fortune-telling, Mark tells the witches, because Im a rational man. A master of the universe?, responds one, sceptically.

So thats all good, but there are negatives too. Thick dread, yes, but tension? None at all. And there are plot holes aplenty. Why would the inspector have even been at the autopsy of the woman with the list in her shoe? Plus, the attention to Sixties period detail is so fetishised its distracting. Those freestanding kitchen larder cupboards, are they worth anything now? Marks car, with the gleaming walnut dashboard and the doors that open the wrong way? How many cyclists would you kill with doors like that? The green of Lejeunes office  would it work in my hall?

Sewell and his cheekbones are excellent. He can do piercing looks that pin you to the wall

I was so busy studying the mise-en-scene that I often lost track of what was going on and would have to rewind.

Still, as we left it, Mark gets into his car with its gleaming walnut dashboard etc, runs his fingers through his hair yes, indeed. I may watch next weeks conclusion as I am intrigued. Ish.

A quick shout out for Home, the comedy written by Rufus Jones about a Syrian refugee who ends up in Dorking and, while the premise sounds unlikely, it is delightful and sweet, and Sami (Youssef Kerkour) should never have been ousted from that marmalade competition. (Youll know what I mean if you watched; it wasnt fair, was it?)

Rebecca Staton in Home. At first, I couldnt see why Katy had partnered up with Peter but now Im rather fond

It also stars Jones as Peter, who inadvertently smuggled Sami to the UK in his car boot, and voted Leave, and this week he lost his job due to Brexit. Still, when the penny dropped, he took it very well and only went mad with a yucca plant while stripped naked.

This is a sitcom that has allowed its characters to grow  at first, I couldnt see why Katy (Rebekah Staton) had partnered up with Peter but now Im rather fond  and its generally kind rather than cruel. Highlight of my week.
(Reuters) - Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei shattered the 5km road world record in Monaco on Sunday, shaving 27 seconds off the mark set by Kenya's Rhonex Kipruto last month.

Cheptegei, the 10,000m world champion, crossed the finish line in 12 minutes and 51 seconds in his first race of the year to eclipse Kipruto's effort from the 10K Valencia Ibercaja in Spain last month.

Kipruto had set the mark en route to the 10km road world record.

"Wow, this is really great. I had sub 13 minutes in my mind today so when my legs felt good during the race, I really decided to go for it," the 23-year-old Cheptegei said.

"To take this many seconds of the record makes me very happy and is a great first test for me in an important season."

Frenchman Jimmy Gressier finished second in Monaco with a time of 13:18 to beat the European record of 13:29 set by Julien Wanders in the same race last year.

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
For most of my life the rule of thumb was that the GOP was the ideological party and the Democratic Party was the coalitional party.

This always was an overgeneralization. Democrats had an ideological perspective, and Republicans had coalitional interests. But from the New Deal to around the end of the Bush years, it was generally true. I used to think it had to do with the superiority of conservative ideas, but I'm coming around to the view that it has more to do with the way political power works.

There was obviously an ideological component to the New Deal and the Great Society. Stated plainly, the people at the helm of those projects believed in the power of the state or "big government" to steer the whole of the country in a positive direction. But if you look at the members of the FDR coalition, you'll find a lot of diversity. There were intellectuals and populists, capitalists and socialists, racists and civil rights leaders, isolationists and interventionists, corrupt party bosses and the reformers who hated them, poor farmers, urban union leaders, Southern conservatives, blacks, whites, Jews and immigrants, all swirling about, often battling to win the president's favor. That's what you get with majority parties -- a diverse coalition of interests all trying to get their place at the trough.

As the saying goes in Washington, if you're not at the table, you're on the menu.

The GOP was a minority party for most of that time, and even when that started to change, it still usually thought like a minority party. By that I mean minority parties emphasize ideological cohesion and partisan unity. Always at a disadvantage, they tend to understand that if they don't stick together, sharing each other's priorities and leveraging what strength they have, they'll get steamrolled by the majority.

It might seem paradoxical, but being in the minority makes arguments over principle more important. When you have little or nothing to trade, you argue about ideas. When you have stuff to trade -- taxpayer money, jobs, seats on commissions and committees -- ideological differences are easily papered over. Moreover, because majority parties in a democracy are by definition governing parties, there's less reason to get bogged down in debating questions about ideological nuances.

The least ideological politicians in American life have always been the heads of political machines, such as Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall or the mayors of cities like Chicago. In such places, high-minded complaints about principles are easily assuaged with a construction contract or a monopoly on hot dog concessions at the ballpark.

The GOP hasn't exactly figured out how to govern like a majority party, but under President Trump it's behaving a lot more like an urban political machine, doling out goodies to members of its coalition with little concern for a coherent philosophic rationale. The role of ideological principles has been decidedly downgraded, as religious and economic conservatives get the stuff they want in terms of policies and jobs.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are behaving more and more like a minority party, putting ideological commitments ahead of coalitional interests. Bernie Sanders is the most obvious and important illustration of this. The de facto front-runner in the Democratic primaries, Sanders is like a left-wing Barry Goldwater -- the ideological icon who spearheaded the conservative takeover of the GOP in 1964, in part by losing to Lyndon B. Johnson in a landslide.

Sanders is a pure ideologue who sees no reason to compromise his brand of socialism for the sake of coalitional interests. He wants no help from the rich if the rich expect anything in return. He insists that pro-lifers have no place in his party, and he doesn't seem to care if things like fracking bans will cost the country jobs and his party votes.

My theory isn't neat and tidy because politics are never neat and tidy. Sanders thinks he has the majority on his side. He doesn't.

More broadly, Democrats don't see themselves as a minority party -- minority parties are often the last to realize they aren't as popular as they think they are. Also, the desire to defeat Trump has a tendency to crowd out ideological arguments. Which is why Bernie, like every other Democrat, leads with the promise that he is the best candidate to defeat Trump.

And that's a shame, because I'd love to see the billionaire-hating socialist and progressive billionaire capitalist Michael Bloomberg have an actual debate on their ideas. That debate may just have to wait until after Sanders fulfills his role as the woke Goldwater, truly making the Democrats a minority party by losing in 2020.

Jonah Goldberg writes for the Los Angeles Times.

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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan presented six Munich Principles following his meeting with Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev on Saturday during a panel discussion of the Munich Security Conference.

Munich principles are as follows:

a) Nagorno-Karabakh gained independence just like Azerbaijan did;

b) Nagorno-Karabakh is a party to the conflict and to the negotiations, it is not possible to solve the conflict without negotiation with Karabakh;

c) there is no territory, there is security; Nagorno-Karabakh cannot compromise its security;

d) it is not possible to solve the conflict by two actions, the talks require macro revolutions, then mini revolutions and a breakthrough;

e) any solution has to be acceptable to the people of Armenia, the people of Karabakh, the people of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Karabakh are ready to make efforts reach a solution. Azerbaijan has to express readiness as well;

f) there is no military solution. If anyone says there is a military solution, the Karabakh people would say that issue has been solved long ago.
Norvin Leonidas Lopez-Cante, 17, was arrested and charged with statutory rape and incest by police in St. Charles, Missouri

A 17-year-old teen has been charged with incest and rape after Missouri police said he confessed to having sex with an 11-year-old relative who then gave birth to their child in a bathtub.

Norvin Leonidas Lopez-Cante was charged with statutory rape, statutory sodomy, and incest after police said he admitted to the crimes.

Authorities began to investigate on Tuesday, when Lopez-Cantes father, Francisco Javier Gonzalez-Lopez, rushed an infant to St. Joseph Hospital in St. Charles, according to KSDK-TV.

Police say Gonzalez-Lopez told investigators that someone dropped off the infant on his front porch.

According to police documents, when the baby arrived at the hospital, the umbilical cord and placenta were still attached.

The babys body temperature also fell to just 90 degrees, according to investigators.

Police interviewed Gonzalez-Lopez at his home two days later.

The baby was said to have had a body temperature of just 90 degrees and still had the umbilical cord and placenta attached when Gonzalez-Lopez brought it to St. Joseph Hospital (seen in the above stock image)

Investigators said Gonzalez-Lopez told them that his son, Lopez-Cante, was the childs father.

The childs mother was an 11-year-old relative of Lopez-Cante, Gonzalez-Lopez is reported to have told police.

Police began an investigation on Tuesday after Lopez-Cante's father, Francisco Javier Gonzalez-Lopez, rushed an infant to St. Joseph Hospital in St. Charles

Gonzalez-Lopez told investigators he was unaware that the 11-year-old girl was pregnant or that his son was having sex with her.

He said he only found out about the alleged rapes after she gave birth to the baby in a bathtub.

Police then took Lopez-Cante into custody.

He told authorities he had sex with the relative about 100 times, though he claims he did not know she was pregnant.

Lopez-Cante is reported to have told police that he had sex with the relative about twice a week, though he does not recall the first sexual encounter.

Lopez-Cante was arrested and charged with first-degree statutory rape, statutory sodomy, and incest.

If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.

Lopez-Cantes bond was set at $25,000 - cash only.

Gonzalez-Lopez was charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

His bond was set at $10,000 cash only.

According to authorities, Gonzalez-Lopez entered the United States illegally after being deported.
Around 1,000 inmates, who were locked up in 10 jails across the state owing to lack of access to legal aid or financial constraints to pay surety, have been released on bail between January and December 2019, thanks to a joint initiative between the prisons department and the Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives (APPI). The project  the result of a three-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the prisons department and APPI on June 28, 2018  was undertaken in order to tackle overcrowding in jails across the state.

In October 2019, HT had reported that although the 60 prisons across the state had a capacity of 24,032 inmates, the current population was 50% higher, at 36,195.

The 1,000 inmates were released from jails in Nagpur, Kalyan, Latur, Amravati, Akola, Arthur Road, Thane, Byculla, Yerwada in Pune and Taloja.

To keep a tab on the initiative, a project implementation and monitoring committee  under the chairmanship of Sunil Ramanand, additional director of general, prisons  was formed in September 2019.

Our aim is to decongest the jails in Maharashtra. The initiative is reaping good results. The NGO members periodically visit the jails and take a review of the inmates and accordingly help them get legal access. It is a continuous process. In a year or two, we hope to see a positive change, said Ramanand.

The prisons department and APPI have roped in implementation partners such as Prayas, a field action project of the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS); Fair Trial Fellowship project by the National Law University (NLU), Delhi; and VARHAD, an NGO based in Amravati.

Prayas, which played a significant role in the signing of the MoU between APPI and the home department, works in six prisons at Arthur Road, Byculla, Thane, Kalyan, Taloja and Latur. NLU Delhi is working in Yerawada Central Jail in Pune and Nagpur Central Jail, while VARHAD is working in Amravati and Akola prisons. John Jacob, co-ordinator of APPI, refused to comment on the project citing company policy.

Professor Vijay Raghavan, of the Centre for Criminology and Justice at TISS, who is the project director of Prayas, said, A legal consultant and social worker have been appointed for each jail. The legal consultants are enrolled under District Legal Services Authority (DLSA). They identify the undertrials in need of legal aid and also those whove been granted bail but continue to languish in prisons owing to lack of surety or cash amount. The legal consultants then write legal aid applications on their behalf and expedite the appointment of legal aid lawyers by coordinating with DLSA, said Raghavan. They also follow up with the appointed lawyers to ensure they attend court dates and also submit bail applications, or modification of bail applications, he said.

Between December 2018 and December 2019, Prayas members reached out to around 3,858 inmates across the six jails, wrote 1,893 applications to DLSA, and helped 701 undertrials get bail and 51 get bail on personal bond. It has helped in 15 acquittals and 383 convictions. Raghavan said they also regularly organise workshops and training sessions for the legal aid lawyers to motivate and update them.

Ravindra Vaidya, founder-president of VARHAD, said hes been working with the Amravati Central Jail for the past six months. We are going to start work in Akola jail soon. We have six people in our team who visit the jail and identify problems of inmates. In most of the cases, we found the inmates are suffering in jail owing to incompetent lawyers or for financial reasons. Once we meet an inmate, we first study the case and then visit his house and get details about him, for instance, if he is financially weak or needs an advocate. Also, if there is an advocate, then we get a follow-up and bridge the communication gap between the family and the advocate, he said. In the past six months, we have reached out to 150 prisoners and helped 50 inmates get bail, he added. Dr Anup Surendranath, assistant professor of law, executive director, Project 39A of NLU, Delhi, said that from January to December 2019, their team had reached out to around 2,406 inmates in Pune and Nagpur jails, and helped 1,322 inmates get legal aid. Around 228 inmates were released on bail; 63 inmates got acquittal; 92 inmates were convicted; six inmates got their sentences reduced; and 123 cases were withdrawn by the complainants.

Yogesh Desai, deputy inspector of general (DIG), Pune, said the initiative is basically aimed at improving communication between the inmates family and the advocate. We have also noticed cases wherein inmates dont even have their Aadhaar cards or the family is not aware about them being in prison. In such cases the legal aid team reaches out to the family and continuously follows up to help the prisoners get bail. This has helped reduce the stress on inmates.
U.S. Secretary of Defence Mark Esper speaks on the second day of the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Feb. 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

World Must Wake Up to the Challenges Posed by Chinese Regime, US Defense Secretary Says

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper has framed the Chinese regime as Pentagons top concern, saying that Beijings aggressive commercial and military postures pose a challenge to the world.

The Communist Party and its associated organs  are increasingly operating in theaters outside its borders, including Europe, and seeking advantage by any means, and at any cost, he told the worlds leading policymakers on Feb. 15 at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

While we often doubt the transparency and forthrightness of Beijing, when it comes to their security aims, we should take the Chinese government at its word, he said, citing the Beijing regimes ambition to complete military modernization by 2035, and to assert preeminent military power in Asia by 2049.

Esper said that it is essential for the international community to wake up to the challenges as the Chinese Communist Party heads even faster and further in the wrong direction, through internal repression, more predatory economic practices, and a more aggressive posture.

He called out Huawei, the Chinese telecom giant, as one such example and a poster child for the regimes rampant technology theft.

Huawei has been at the forefront of the 5G development and has sought to export 5G networks worldwide. U.S. officials and lawmakers have sounded the alarm that companys equipment poses an espionage risk due to the companys close ties with the Chinese military; in addition, Chinese law compels companies to cooperate with intelligence agencies when asked.

The Huawei logo is seen on a communications device in London, Britain, on Jan. 28, 2020. (Toby Melville/Reuters)

Esper warned that reliance on Chinese 5G vendors such as Huawei could compromise a nations critical infrastructure.

On Feb. 13, federal prosecutors slapped additional charges on Huawei and several subsidiaries, alleging that it conspired to steal trade secrets and violate anti-racketeering laws.

The 16-count superseding indictment accuses the company of decades-long efforts to misappropriate sensitive data from six U.S. tech firms for the purpose of growing its own business. Part of the scheme, according to the court document, involves issuing financial incentives to employees to encourage them to steal confidential information, recruiting staff members of competitors, and using proxies such as professors to access data from research institutions.

Huawei and other Chinese state-backed tech companies are Trojan horses for Chinese intelligence, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the same conference.

Esper encouraged tech companies and U.S. partners to develop alternatives to Huawei, cautioning that many economic decisions ultimately impact on national security. He said that allowing Huawei into critical national systems could jeopardize intelligence sharing and cast a shadow on Western alliances.

In the long run, developing our own secure 5G networks will far outweigh any perceived gains from partnering with heavily subsidized Chinese providers that ultimately answer to Party leadership, he said.

Esper also highlighted the One Belt, One Road Initiative (OBOR, or Belt and Road), Chinas ambitious global infrastructure financing project, as a way for Beijing to coerce other countries into sub-optimal security decisions.

OBOR has drawn criticism for being a debt trap policy for its opaque terms, and saddling developing countries with heavy debt burdens that they may not be able to repay.

It exacts pieces of national infrastructure as payment when countries cant meet its onerous loan terms, Pompeo said.

While the United States does not want an adversarial relationship with China, the regime needs to change its policies and behave like a normal country that adheres to international rules and order, Esper said.
The National Conference (NC) is willing to participate in the panchayat by-elections in Jammu and Kashmir next month, but that is practically impossible because its top leaders have been detained, the party has written to chief electoral officer (CEO) Shailendra Kumar.

The NC, which boycotted the local polls in 2018, also urged J&K CEO Kumar to suggest ways to remove roadblocks, stressing that a political system should be developed to ensure that democratic institutions become credible reflectors of peoples aspirations.

In his letter, NC general secretary Rattan Lal Gupta said that his party is a strong supporter of the democratic process and wishes to participate in the eight-phase elections beginning March 5 in over 12,500 seats  the first exercise involving common voters after J&K became a Union Territory.

However, in the given circumstances...it is practically impossible for the party to participate in view of the fact that top leadership of the party, including its president, Dr Farooq Abdullah, vice president Omar Abdullah and general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar, are under detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA), reads part of the letter addressed to Kumar. HT has seen a copy of the letter.

Abdullah and his son Omar both former chief ministers  and Sagar were detained under the stringent PSA earlier this month. They were taken into preventive custody on August 5, the day the Centre nullified Article 370, withdrew the special status accorded to the erstwhile state and bifurcated it into two Union Territories  J&K and Ladakh.

If the aim is to create conditions to exclude all other parties except the BJP [Centres ruling Bharatiya Janata Party], then nothing more needs to be said, but if the aim is to create a genuine culture of grassroots democracy, then the process adopted is a deeply flawed one, Gupta wrote, reiterating the NCs commitment to grass-roots level.

...for a genuine political exercise to happen, it is important that the mainstream political thought, which is a unifying force, is allowed to freely propagate and demonstrate its ideology, he said, adding that his party will appreciate an early response to the letter.

The NC as well as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) boycotted the panchayat elections held in November-December 2018 due to concerns over J&Ks special status. They abstained from the Block Development Council (BDC) elections held in October 2019.

Several mainstream leaders, including those of the NC and the PDP, and political workers are still under detention, with the Opposition criticising the central government for their confinement.

In the panchayat by-elections, people will cast their votes to elect sarpanches and panches. In the BDC elections, elected sarpanches and panches chose chairpersons to block development councils.

In his letter, Gupta questioned as to why the upcoming elections to fill up vacant seats are being held on party lines unlike the 2018 polls, which were fought on non-party lines.

Jammu and Kashmir Congress president Ghulam Ahmad Mir said that the NCs stand was similar to that of his party. We have already said that release our rank and file if the government is really serious to conduct panchayat by-elections. This is a sham exercise, a joke, he said. Mir clarified that even if the Congresss J&K leaders are not released, the party will contest the panchayat by-elections.

Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina requested parties to take part in the polling. We welcome that the NC has decided to participate, and I hope the Congress will also take part. And so will the PDP, he said.

Asked about the detention of Opposition leaders, Raina said: It is a security-related matter and the administration has to decide... When security agencies feel that their release wont hamper peace, they would be released. Otherwise they wont be.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 11:31:46|Editor: huaxia

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BAGHDAD, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Rockets struck near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad early on Sunday, with no immediate word on casualties and the extent of damage, local media reported.

Warning sirens across the diplomatic compound were heard and a huge plume of smoke was seen rising over the area, witnesses were quoted as saying.

It is the latest in a spate of such attacks.

On Thursday, a Katyusha rocket landed on K1 military base that houses U.S. troops in Iraq's northern province of Kirkuk without causing casualties.

In December 2019, the K1 military base was the target of a rocket barrage, which killed a U.S. contractor and wounded others.

Military bases housing U.S. troops across Iraq and the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad have been frequently targeted by insurgents' mortar and rocket attacks.
- A man celebrated his wife on Valentine's Day in a special way

- The man identified as Frank Okposo displayed the photo of his wife on a billboard in different states

- In his message, Okposo told his wife that she was the best thing that ever happened to him

A Nigerian man identified as Frank Okposo joined millions of lovers across the world to celebrate Valentine's Day on Friday, February 14.

When others were sending gifts, love messages, and having candlelight dinner, Okposo decided to celebrate his wife in a special way.

READ ALSO: Nairobi househelp, employer break down during emotional farewell after 3 years working relationship

READ ALSO: Rwanda's health minister resigns citing leadership failure

He wanted the whole world to see how much he cherishes his wife and he was willing to spend his money on something that would have cost him his arm and leg.

To celebrate the special day, the doting husband displayed a photo of his wife on a billboard in different states in Nigeria.

Okposo took it further with a beautiful message for his wife saying she was the best thing that ever happened to him.

READ ALSO: Jackson Kibor advises married men against coming home late to avoid quarrels with wives

"Dear Enifome Okposo, you are the best thing that has happened to me, I love you now and always - Frank Okposo," read the message.

His elated wife, Enifome Okposo, took to her Instagram page to express her gratitude noting she received numerous calls from people who saw the billboards.

According to her, she received calls and messages from people in Abuja, Lagos, Enugu, and Port Harcourt that they had seen her on a billboard.

READ ALSO: Ethiopian MPs pass law criminalising hate speech, fake news

Enifome thanked her husband for the adorable gesture and said she will love him forever and prayed that God will continue to bless their home.

Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Vi: Indian telecom giant Vodafone Idea rebrands itself, all you need to know

Vodafone Idea assessing amount to be paid towards AGR dues

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Feb 15: Debt-ridden telecom operator Vodafone Idea said it is assessing the amount that can be paid towards AGR dues, even as it flagged concerns over the continuation of its business.

The company said it is in the process to pay adjusted gross revenue dues as per the Supreme Court order.

However, the continuation of business in India will depend on favourable order on its modification plea filed before the apex court, it added.

Vodafone Idea will shut shop if there is no government relief: KM Birla

"The Company is currently assessing the amount that it will be able to pay to DoT towards the dues calculated based on AGR (Adjusted Gross Revenue), as interpreted by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in its order dated 24 October 2019. The Company proposes to pay the amount so assessed in the next few days," Vodafone Idea said in a BSE filing.

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 16th, 2020

Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL), whose liability is estimated to be around Rs 53,038 crore, including Rs 24,729 crore of spectrum dues and Rs 28,309 crore in licence fee, has already warned of shutdown if no relief is given.

"As disclosed in the Company's financial statements for quarter ending December 31, 2019, the Company's ability to continue as a going concern is essentially dependent on a positive outcome of the application for modification of the Supplementary Order," the company said in the filing.

The next date of hearing is scheduled for March 17, 2020.

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Story first published: Sunday, February 16, 2020, 10:25 [IST]
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Statements by President Ilham Aliyev during panel discussions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at the Munich Security Conference will be written in golden letters in Azerbaijan's diplomatic history, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Center for Social Research, political analyst Elshad Mirbashiroglu told Trend.

The analyst noted that the debates, broadcast live around the world, were memorable because the Azerbaijani president held a master class for his opponent.

"Mr. President adequately introduced the Azerbaijani people to the world by showing the highest level of education, intelligence, discussion skills, as well English language skills, and logical and factual approach to certain issues. Nikol Pashinyan once again demonstrated his lack of professionalism and amateurism, proving that he has no difference from his predecessors. Pashinyan learned his lesson in Munich that should lead the Armenian leadership to finally stop living in a world of illusions," Mirbashiroglu said.

Mirbashiroglu noted that Pashinyan, who lied several times and made historical distortions in each sentence, could not hide his helplessness before the weighty arguments of the Azerbaijan president.

"Pashinyan was helpless facing the historical truth and facts voiced by President Ilham Aliyev. The head of state was talking about real historical events that took place in the region at the beginning of the 20th century. It was a triumph of justice," the analyst added.

The political analyst noted that President Ilham Aliyev, objectively substantiating the fact that Nagorno Karabakh is an ancient Azerbaijani land, recalling the history of Khankendi, exposed the 100-year-old Armenian lie in Munich in a 10-15 minute speech.
The ties between India and the US are unshakeable, a top American diplomat has said, asserting that the Trump administration looks forward to an even warmer relationship as Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosts President Donald Trump later this month.

President Trump will pay a state visit to India on February 24 and 25 at the invitation of Prime Minister Modi.

The ties between our countries are unshakeable, and we look forward to an even warmer relationship as the prime minister hosts the president later this month, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice Wells tweeted on Saturday.

The US and India enjoy a close partnership that grows stronger day by day. Together, we are breaking records. For example: we welcomed a record number of Indian exchange students to the US last year and hope to receive even more this year, she said.

India, she said, is at the heart of the Indo-Pacific region and plays an increasingly prominent role on the worlds stage. The US looks forward to partnering with India at every step of the way, Wells said.

Ahead of the presidential visit, Alyssa Ayres senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations think-tank, said that Trump appears to be focused first and foremost on the stadium event and the prospect of very large crowds, then on a trade deal.

So, I am watching most closely what happens with the ongoing trade negotiations - which despite efforts last fall, did not manage to reach an agreement, Ayres said. I expect whatever emerges on the trade front to be modest as we are not talking about something resembling even a bilateral investment treaty, let alone a more ambitious agreement, she said. But any progress would be a positive step forward, given how tough some of these trade issues have been over the years, she noted.
German Marshall Fund: It Is not too early to think about political change in Turkey

Armenian Foreign Ministry: We call on Azerbaijani authorities to refrain from provocations

Armenia's Geghamasar community head: The situation is stable now

Queen Elizabeth II's favorite fast food revealed

Human Rights Defender: Azerbaijani troops open fire on Armenian sovereign territory

World Economic Forum: Cybersecurity and space pose new risks to the global economy

Defense Ministry confirms Armenian side has 2 victims

Satanovsky on sending Armenian servicemen to Kazakhstan

Unofficial data: 2 servicemen killed as a result of Azerbaijan provocation

CSTO and Kazakh Defense Ministry developing plan

WHO thinks it's too early to consider COVID-19 pandemic

European Commission to require Poland to pay fine of nearly EUR 70 million

White House announces $308 million humanitarian aid for Afghanistan

Erdogan angry at minister after efforts to strengthen lira failed

Armenian FM has phone call with US Assistant Secretary of State

India imposes one-week quarantine even for vaccinated tourists

Armenian ex-president expresses condolences on poet Razmik Davoyan's death

Traction Programme to showcase 8 startups during the Digital Demo Day

Azerbaijan uses artillery and UAVs, 3 Armenian soldiers wounded

NEWS.am daily digest: 11.01.22

Austrian Chancellor confirms plan for mandatory COVID-19 vaccination in February

Armen Sarkissian and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev discuss situation in Kazakhstan

Gulf, Iran and Turkey FMs to visit China

20 pregnant women with COVID-19 die in Azerbaijan in year

Armenia hands over wanted US citizen to United States

Economy ministry: Organizing of accommodation and public catering increased by 61.1% in Armenia

Armenia parliament speaker expresses condolences on European Parliament President death

Azerbaijan opens fire toward Armenia village sector, one soldier wounded

Shoigu: CSTO peacekeepers deployed in Kazakhstan thanks to Syrian and Karabakh experience

Azerbaijan official pledges to remove Armenian toponyms from Google Maps

UN offers two plans to help Afghans totaling $ 5 billion in 2022

Armenia attorney general travels to Moscow on working visit

Azerbaijan MOD blames Armenian side for soldiers death

Dollar drops in Armenia

Shirak Province captives families hold protest outside Armenia government building

Rolls-Royce sales rise to record high in 2021

Ombudsman: Azerbaijanis directed gun at Armenia residents car in which his wife, 3-year-old child were

ANCA urges President Biden and Congress to hold Azerbaijan and Turkey accountable for war crimes

Serbia's Orthodox Patriarch tests positive for COVID-19

Brothers, sisters of 2020 Artsakh war military casualties to get compensation in lieu of their deceased parents

Turkish authorities sanction arrest of 33 suspected FETO ties

Copper rises in price

Erdogan's spokesman, Biden's adviser discuss Armenian-Turkish relations

Armenia deputy defense minister: No one can rule out border tension at any moment

New commander elected of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh

Armenia official: Those 100 soldiers absence will not assume any change in terms of border tension

Millionaire Robert Durst dies aged 78

Reuters: Over 1.13 million cases of COVID-19 detected in US per day

Great Armenian poet Razmik Davoyan dies

2 new cases of coronavirus reported in Artsakh

Deputy PM Matevosyan: About 1,190 subvention programs implemented in Armenia from 2018 to 2021

243 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Armenia MP: It would be right to put pressure on Azerbaijanis to remove their firing positions

Oil is getting more expensive

Nearly 10,000 people detained in Kazakhstan in connection with riots

Tokayev: CSTO peacekeepers will pull out from Kazakhstan within 10 days

Newspaper: Armenia businessmen pay customs duties to Azerbaijanis to go to Iran

European Parliament speaker David Sassoli dies

Alikhan Smailov appointed Kazakhstan Prime Minister

Newspaper: Health minister makes decision full of contradictions in terms of Covid-related restrictions in Armenia

Newspaper: Armenia authorities once again showed their being unprincipled, worthless, opposition MP says

Germany teacher who had cannibalism fantasies is sentenced to life in prison

Israel's military and other security services undergo largest rearmament in years

Spain PM calls for a debate to consider COVID-19 endemic disease

Flyone Armenia and Pegasus receive permission for Yerevan-Istanbul-Yerevan flights

Pope condemns "baseless" ideological misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines

Arab foreign ministers to visit Beijing

Azerbaijanis stoned an Armenian car on the Stepanakert-Goris road

Armenian FM has a phone call with his Polish counterpart

Macron travels to French Riviera to discuss internal security issues

Artsakh Foreign Ministry: Azerbaijan's aggressive behavior aims to disrupt Russian peacekeepers' activities

US COVID-19 cases reach 60 million

European Parliament President hospitalized due to immune system dysfunction

Washington and Ankara discuss normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey

WHO excludes emergence of deltacron strain

In Karabakh Azerbaijanis shelled tractor

Indian Defense Minister tests positive for COVID-19

US-Russia talks on security guarantees lasting for seven hours already

NEWS.am daily digest: 10.01.22

Pashinyan appoints Hayk Mkrtchyan as Deputy Governor of Kotayk province

Blast in eastern Afghanistan kills nine children

Pashinyan: One of key priorities of Armenia presidency at CSTO is strengthening of crisis response mechanisms

Internet cut off in Kazakhstan

Armenia, Kazakhstan ombudspersons confer on Armenian communitys rights

Armenia, Russia defense ministers discuss Kazakhstan

Turkey defense minister meets with their envoy in process of normalization of Armenia relations

Iranian Foreign Ministry reports progress in Vienna negotiations

Dollar continues going up in Armenia

New attempt by migrants in Belarus to storm Poland border

Skat Airlines resumes Yerevan-Aktau and Aktau-Yerevan flights

New Covid-related restrictions to be introduced in Armenia

Karabakh police: Firefighters also targeted by Azerbaijan shooting (PHOTOS)

Artsakh Defense Army has not fired on Azerbaijan positions

Azerbaijani military are protesting amid military awards deprivation

Azerbaijanis open fire in Nagorno-Karabakh

Karabakh MFA: Events in Kazakhstan are result of actions planned by Turkey

Armenia army General Staff has new deputy chief

Australia to buy US $ 2.5 billion of armored vehicles

Artsakh emergency service: Search for soldiers remains continued during holidays

Kazakh Colonel Nazanov dies after heart attack
Paris: A Russian dissident artist who published screenshots of sexual images that forced President Emmanuel Macron's candidate for Paris City Hall to pull out of the race was arrested in the French capital on Saturday, the prosecutor's office said.

Benjamin Griveaux, one of Macron's closest lieutenants, abandoned his bid to become mayor of Paris on Friday after it was alleged he sent sexual images of his genitals to a woman who is not his wife. Griveaux has not disputed that he sent the messages.

Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky, pictured in a Moscow court in 2016, has been arrested by French authorities. Credit:AP

Pyotr Pavlensky, who has lived in exile in France, said he had posted the sex video to expose Griveaux's "hypocrisy".

The Russian artist is best known for works of performance art including nailing his scrotum to the ground in Moscow's Red Square and setting fire to a door at the headquarters of Russia's state security agency or the Bank of France.
Some students of the Coalition of Aggrieved Students' Loan Beneficiaries have set February 28 to embark on a street protest to press home demands for the release of funds due them.

The students for close to a month have been agitating for the Students' Loan Trust fund to release arrears owed them.

The Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) is the state agency responsible for providing financial support and resources for the management of the trust for the benefit of students.

Convener of the aggrieved students, Adjei Boakye speaking to Citi News said the Ministry of Finance and GetFund were causing the delays.

He, therefore, said students will put pressure on SLTF so they can also channel their concerns to the Ministry and GetFund.

The challenges are rather coming from the Ministry of Finance and GetFund.They haven't released their quota and this is where the challenges are coming from so when you put pressure on them, they can also channel that pressure to the Ministry and GetFund.

He further spoke about the ordeal some students in some institutions are going through.

At Takoradi technical university, hundreds of students have been sent away in the name of registration because they haven't registered since last semester so their names are not with the school and the school has asked them to defer and most of these students are beneficiaries of the student loan trust fund so we are expecting thousands of them to hit the streets and we will picket at the office of the Students Trust Fund. The Ministry of Finance and the Fund will also have their share.

Meanwhile, the Head of Public Affairs at the Trust Fund, George Ferguson Liang, says he understands the plight of the students.

He was however quick to add that a demonstration will not be the best option for now.

They have every right to be angry and I can understand their frustrations because these monies are used for various things. I understand their frustrations but I am not convinced that, at this point, the demonstration is the best option going forward but like I said, it's their call but as a fund, we are doing what we can with the resources that we have. We as a fund we have been engaging with the recognized student bodies on a regular basis.

Background

Last month, Students loan beneficiaries threatened to embark on a demonstration if funds due them are not released.

The beneficiaries, who come under the umbrella name, 'Aggrieved Students Loan Beneficiaries,' in a press statement expressed disappointment in the delayed disbursement which they claimed was having a toll on their academic work.

They also lamented over the grave effects of the late payment meant for the previous and newly-began semesters of the 2019/2020 academic year.

The Students Loan Trust Fund appealed to its beneficiaries to exercise patience over the delayed disbursement of funds due them for the 2019/2020 academic year.

In response to the concerns of the beneficiaries, the Head of Public Relations at the Trust Fund , George Ferguson Laing, told Citi News that his outfit was engaging with relevant stakeholders including the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and the Ministries of Education and Finance to ensure payments are effected soon.

The impression is being created in the public space that we are not paying at all which is not correct. We cannot have administration by an ultimatum. We are doing what we can. It is not helpful for our most important stakeholder; students to be giving us unrealistic timelines. We are doing what we can and we would appreciate if they would bear with us while we resolve the issue.

This is not the first time there have been delays in payment since the inception of funds in 2015. We always regret when there are such delays. We always regret the inconveniences but there has not been a single academic year in our history that students have not been paid. they'll definitely be paid. We are sorry for the delays but everyone will eventually be paid. That is an assurance I can put my head on the chopping block for, he assured.

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Linkedin Kristin Heineman (The Jakarta Post) -  Sun, February 16, 2020 10:45 695 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2064d2f8b 3 Lifestyle days,weekend,Babylon,Calendar Free

Waiting for the weekend can often seem unbearable, a whole six days between Saturdays. Having seven days in a week has been the case for a very long time, and so people dont often stop to ask why.

Most of our time reckoning is due to the movements of the planets, Moon and stars. Our day is equal to one full rotation of the Earth around its axis. Our year is a revolution of the Earth around the Sun, which takes 365 and  days, which is why we add an extra day in February every four years, for a leap year.

But the week and the month are a bit trickier. The phases of the Moon do not exactly coincide with the solar calendar. The Moon cycle is 27 days and seven hours long, and there are 13 phases of the Moon in each solar year.

Some of the earliest civilizations observed the cosmos and recorded the movements of planets, the Sun and Moon. The Babylonians, who lived in modern-day Iraq, were astute observers and interpreters of the heavens, and it is largely thanks to them that our weeks are seven days long.

The reason they adopted the number seven was that they observed seven celestial bodies  the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. So, that number held particular significance to them.

Other civilizations chose other numbers  like the Egyptians, whose week was 10 days long; or the Romans, whose week lasted eight.

The Babylonians divided their lunar months into seven-day weeks, with the final day of the week holding particular religious significance. The 28-day month, or a complete cycle of the Moon, is a bit too large a period of time to manage effectively, and so the Babylonians divided their months into four equal parts of seven.

The number seven is not especially well-suited to coincide with the solar year, or even the months, so it did create a few inconsistencies.

However, the Babylonians were such a dominant culture in the Near East, especially in the sixth and seventh centuries B.C., that this, and many of their other notions of time  such as a 60-minute hour  persisted.

The seven-day week spread throughout the Near East. It was adopted by the Jews, who had been captives of the Babylonians at the height of that civilizations power. Other cultures in the surrounding areas got on board with the seven-day week, including the Persian empire and the Greeks.

Centuries later, when Alexander the Great began to spread Greek culture throughout the Near East as far as India, the concept of the seven-day week spread as well. Scholars think that perhaps India later introduced the seven-day week to China.

Finally, once the Romans began to conquer the territory influenced by Alexander the Great, they too eventually shifted to the seven-day week. It was Emperor Constantine who decreed that the seven-day week was the official Roman week and made Sunday a public holiday in A.D. 321.

The weekend was not adopted until modern times in the 20th century. Although there have been some recent attempts to change the seven-day week, it has been around for so long that it seems like it is here to stay.

This article has been updated to correct the details on Earths revolution around the Sun.

---

Kristin Heineman, Instructor in History, Colorado State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.

Topics : days weekend Babylon Calendar
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 21:17:37|Editor: xuxin

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JERUSALEM, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Hamas militant group had "hacked into hundreds of Israeli soldiers' mobile phones" by posing as young Israeli women on social media before the attempt was thwarted, Israel's military said Sunday.

Military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told reporters that the phones of soldiers and officers were hacked by malware that extracted information from the devices and recorded conversations.

"As of now, it appears that no security damage was caused," the military said in a statement.

Hamas is a Palestinian Islamist movement headquartered in the Gaza Strip, a land Israel seized in a war in 1967 together with the West Bank and has controlled ever since despite international criticism.

Despite Egyptian and UN efforts to broker a truce between the two foes, low-level fighting has continued, including rockets and mortars from Gaza at southern Israel and Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.
A teenage boy and a senior



citizen were killed and two persons injured in a bear attack in Surajpur district of Chhattisgarh on Saturday evening, police said.

Ramprasad (15) and Lalji Gond (65) were attacked by a wild sloth bear in a forest close to Dharseri village, over 340 kilometres from here, when they were grazing cattle, an Odgi police station official said.

"The boy tried to chase away the bear but it pinned him down. Lalji tried to save him, but both ended up losing their lives. The bear then attacked two villagers who were part of a crowd that rushed to the site. It went into the forest later," he said.

The kin of the deceased were given Rs 25,000 as relief while the rest of the compensation will be handed out after formalities are completed, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Photo credit: Getty Images

From Women's Health

If celebs have taught us anything in recent years, it's that the vulva and vagina aren't off-limits when it comes to cosmetic treatments. From the Kardashian sisters' openness about getting laser vaginal rejuvenation to Sharon Osborne talking about her vaginal tightening procedure, it's clear that beautification treatments below the belt are becoming commonplace. And the trend is growing among non-celebrities too. In fact, when it comes to labiaplasty (aka "designer vagina" surgery, which involves altering the labia), there was a 53 percent increase in procedures from 2013 to 2018 in the U.S., according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

This growing trend might be due to an increase in awareness and conversation about vaginal health, suggests Juliana Hansen, MD, professor of surgery and division chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine. For many generations, vaginal health has been considered taboo, and procedures and options for care for female genitalia werent available, Dr. Hansen says.

Regardless of the the exact reason behind the trend, vaginal health, and plastic surgery in and around the vaginal area, are getting more attention than ever before. Here, everything you need to know about labiaplasty and other common vaginal cosmetic procedures.

What is labiaplasty?

Labiaplasty is mostly an aesthetic procedure, but it could also be functional (more on the reasons women have it done below). In most cases, the surgery alters the labia minora, or the inner lips of the vagina, Dr. Hansen explains, but it could be tailored to alter the labia majora, or outer lips, as well. Basically, the plastic surgeon shortens the labia to remove excess tissue, which might be bothering the patient for aesthetic or functional reasons, e.g., it gets in the way during sex or exercise.

Labiaplasty is different from a vaginoplasty, which is a surgical procedure for vaginal tightening, Dr. Hansen explains. Certain patients may have this done because of pelvic-floor issues, such as incontinence, after multiple childbirths, she says. But, its also often done to help increase vaginal tightness for sexual pleasure purposes. However, there is not a ton of evidence that [vaginoplasty] procedures work well, Dr. Hansen says, and there may be potential for causing chronic pain and harm.



Story continues

There are also non-surgical vaginal rejuvenation treatments, which fall into the "designer vagina" trend but are totally different than labiaplasty. These include lasers to stimulate the mucosa, or inner lining, of the vagina, and LED light treatments that supposedly stimulate the vagina to produce more tissue, Dr. Hansen says. However, she warns that most of these treatments are not FDA-approved or scientifically proven to increase vaginal tightness or reduce dryness.

Surgeries for transgender women are generally completely separate from labiaplasty procedures and vaginal rejuvenation procedures as well. Gender confirmation surgeries often involve creating a vulva for a male-to-female transgender patient, but typically the new vulva then needs to be dilated and stretched to function properly, Dr. Hansen sayswhich is nearly the opposite of many of these tightening vaginoplasty or labiaplasty procedures.

Why would someone get a labiaplasty?

There are a few reasons for undergoing a labiaplasty procedure, but most of them involve aesthetics as opposed to medical necessity:

Dissatisfaction with the labias appearance : This is the number-one reason women tend to have labiaplasty done. They might experience embarrassment or lack of confidence in how their labia look, especially during sex. In many women, the labia minora hang lowerwhich is completely normal!but doesn't match the very narrow beauty standards women see in media, Dr. Hansen says.

Discomfort with long labia: Having larger or longer labia could actually cause functional problems for some patients. This could include discomfort riding a bike or wearing underwear or a thong, or excess moisture coming from the vagina.

Pain during sex: Dissatisfaction with the appearance of the labia may affect a patients confidence in the bedroombut having enlarged or longer labia could also get in the way during sex, potentially causing a painful, or at the very least, uncomfortable experience. Just by reducing the size of the labia, sexual function might be improved, if anything, because youre not as worried about the tissue getting pulled or stretched during intercourse, Dr. Hansen says.

Cancers or pre-cancerous conditions: One medical reason for a labia reconstruction might involve having to remove part of the labia that contains cancer cells in the vaginal area. Cancers or pre-cancerous conditions that can grow there might require excisions, Dr. Hansen says.

What are the risks of labiaplasty?

Like any medical procedure, labiaplasty doesn't come 100 percent risk-free. Possible complications include wound separation and scarring. Some researchers have also raised concerns about possible loss of sexual sensation as a result of labiaplasty, as well as an increased risk of trauma to the perineal area during vaginal delivery, though all of these risks need to be researched further.

What are the steps of a labiaplasty procedure?

Getting labiaplasty starts with a consultation with a plastic surgeon. This is a discussion of what the problem with the vulva is, pre-operation. The doctor has to see the same issue that the patient sees with their labia, says Dr. Hansen. If there isnt a good surgical solution, which would involve shortening or reconstructing the labia, then the surgeon wont recommend surgery to the patient, Dr. Hansen notes.

The procedure itself is always surgical, but it can be done in-office, under local anesthesia in a clinic, or can be done under general anesthesia in a hospital, Dr. Hansen says. During the operation, the surgeon will reduce the size and length of the labia minora, and make a stitch line. It takes some time to heal, so she recommends two to three weeks of resting and icing the area, and keeping it clean.

We also recommend that patients avoid activities that will traumatize or stretch out the stitch line for about six weeks to three months, Dr. Hansen says (so it might involve getting creative with your typical sexual activity).

Patients tend to agree that the surgery goes quickly (it typically only takes about an hour), but the healing process is long. Post operation was extremely painful, as I expected. I took a lot of pain medicine and avoiding being on my feet at all costs for at least a week. It hurt badly when I walked for about seven days, and I felt a burning pain which was worse during urination," wrote one patient in a review of her experience with the procedure at Labiaplasty Boston in Boston, Massachusetts. "You should make sure you have at least a week off if you plan on getting this done. However, this procedure was well worth the pain."

(You can check out real before-and-after images from the Labiaplasty Center of NYC herebut, warning, they are *NSFW.*)

How much does labiaplasty cost?

Labiaplasty procedures are no small expense. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reports that the procedure costs about $2,800. These are typically considered elective cosmetic surgeries, Dr. Hansen says, so it would be difficult to get it covered by any insurance company, even if you could argue that the procedure might be medically beneficial (such as in the case of pain during sex or reconstruction after the removal of cancerous cells).

Are labiaplasty procedures off-limits for anyone?

Generally speaking, if the surgeon doesnt see a valid reason for performing labiaplasty on a patient, they wont. Other than that, patients who have other medical conditions, especially those that might affect healing, would not be good candidates, Dr. Hansen says. If you have other medical conditions, its best to consult your primary care physician first before seeing a plastic surgeon.

Also, the procedure is a no-go for pregnant women, because giving birth would affect healing. A natural childbirth would impact that area, and women might tear their stitch line or need an episiotomy after birth, Dr. Hansen says, so most surgeons would never recommend that.

The bottom line: Labiaplasty may help if you feel that your labia are interfere with your ability to function sexually or cause pain or discomfort. But keep in mind that it's normal for vulvas and vaginas to come in all shapes and sizesso only take the medical risk if *you* want to.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 16

Trend:

Armenian leaders, always in the very decisive moment of negotiations, found some excuses in order not to continue, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at the panel discussions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict held as part of the Munich Security Conference, Trend reports.

"You know, during my experience of negotiation with Armenian leaders, I had this opportunity with two predecessors of Mr Pashinyan. Always in the very decisive moment of negotiations they found some excuses in order not to continue. Otherwise, to put it, all of them wanted to keep status quo unchanged but all of them tried to do it differently. Now, when Prime Minister Pashinyan talks about his proposal that the resolution must be accepted to the people of Azerbaijan, I answered to that and I said what is acceptable to the people of Azerbaijan? People of Azerbaijan, those who suffer from Armenian aggression want to go back to their homes. It is their fundamental right. They are deprived from this right for almost 30 years. Because Armenian leadership, it is not Nagorno-Karabakh, and when Prime Minister talks about the so-called self-defense forces of Nagorno-Karabakh again he is telling thing which is not true. Because he knows very well and I know, that more than 80 percent of the so-called Nagorno-Karabakh army are citizens of Armenia, and this is true, maybe even more than 80 percent. Therefore, there is no Nagorno-Karabakh army. There is no Nagorno-Karabakh republic. Only two parties to the conflict, Armenia and Azerbaijan," President Ilham Aliyev said.

"Ask the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. Who are the parties to the conflict? They will say the same. Armenia and Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh is not. Why is not? It is other question, but it is not and we are not going talk to them. We are talking to aggressor. We are ready to talk to Nagorno-Karabakh in case, Armenia stops funding this illegal entity, Armenia pulls back all their military troops from Nagorno-Karabakh and completely withdraws from our territory. And then, we will have arguments to talk to this people. But until then there is no way and they want to keep status quo unchanged. They think that they can keep these territories under occupation forever, and I am sure that will not be the case, and our territorial integrity must be restored. We had, coming to the second part, we had exchange of journalists recently. And I think that was an experience which we need to evaluate. We need to evaluate its positive and negative side. Because part of society in Armenia and in Azerbaijan was not very supportive to that format but that was the decision by two leaders to try. We want to try every opportunity to find a peaceful settlement. To persuade Armenian people that they can not live like that forever. They need to find solution with us, and live in the future, in peace as neighbors," President Ilham Aliyev added.
A LIMERICK man of no fixed abode, who was sentenced to six months imprisonment for a number of burglaries committed during a crime spree in Abbeyfeale last November. was back in Newcastle West court last week to answer fresh charges.

All seven new charges against Damien Sherlock, Limerick, took place in Abbeyfeale between November 10 and November 14 last, the same time period as the previous offences.

The court was told Mr Sherlock had 120 previous convictions

Previous convictions tell their own story of theft, burglary and drugs, Eimear Griffin, solicitor said of her client. The charges before the court, she pointed out, all took place over four days.

At his last appearance in court, Ms Griffin said, her client was on drugs but he he does seem to be doing pretty well this time.

I am sorry to see him being incarcerated to deal with his drug addiction, Judge Mary Larkin said.

Everybody in Abbeyfeale must have been on high alert for two, three or four days while he was breaking into cars, into premises and breaking a window in the church.

She sentenced him to three months imprisonment, consecutive to the six month sentence imposed in December, for breaking into a house at Cedarville last November 11/12 where he was disturbed by the neighbour and ran away.

She sentenced him to a further one month, to be served concurrently, for breaking a window in the Church of the Assumption between November 10 and 11 last, causing 150 worth of damage, and one month, also concurrent, for breaking into the Gourmet Green and stealing 40.

A further one months imprisonment was imposed, for stealing a ladies jacket and bag, valued at 40, from a car at Colbert Terrace between November 13 and 14. A charge of trespassing on the curtilage of a residence at Colbert Terrace was also taken into consideration.

A charge of breaking into a car at Convent St on November 13 was taken into consideration along with a charge of damaging the handle of a car at Mountmahon between November 12 and 14.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party submitted an amendment to the Diet in January to expand the awidowas deductiona covering single parents who have never been married.

This system allows single parents who have lost spouses to death or divorce to deduct a certain amount of money from their taxable income in order to reduce their tax burden. At present, single parents who have never been married do not qualify for the deduction.

The expansion will likely go into effect this spring, despite the objections of certain LDP members who think the revision undermines the so-called traditional family. The party member who has most championed the bill is former Defense Minister Tomomi Inada, a development the media has found surprising since Inada is commonly viewed as one of the LDPas ahawks,a meaning a stubborn politician who frequently sticks to the conservative line, especially when it comes to family matters.

Consequently, Inada has been talking to the press a lot and focusing more awareness on a subject that wouldnat have drawn attention otherwise and, in almost every story, the writer expresses amazement that Inada would be advocating for never-married single parents. In her interview with Inada for the business magazine Diamond Online in December, Yoshiko Miwa finds it aastonishinga that the Lower House lawmaker is the main force pushing the LDP toward expansion. Inada even points out that there are more never-been-married single parents in Japan than there are widowed single parents.
A health official watches travelers on a thermographic monitor at a cruise ship terminal in Port Klang, Malaysia, amid worldwide concerns about the spread of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Feb. 13, 2020.

A second test confirmed that an elderly American woman, who had traveled on a cruise ship allowed to dock in Cambodia, was accurately diagnosed with the coronavirus upon arriving in Kuala Lumpur on a flight from Phnom Penh, Malaysias deputy prime minister said Sunday.

The Cambodian government and the cruise ships operator asked Malaysian authorities to retest the 83-year-old U.S. citizen after Malaysias health ministry announced Saturday that the woman had initially tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19).

This is not the case of a false positive. I repeat, the result is still positive for the wife, negative for the husband, Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said in a statement.

The unidentified American woman is the first confirmed case of a person diagnosed with the virus after being aboard the ship, the M.V. Westerdam. It set sail from Hong Kong on Feb. 1 but was prevented from docking in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines and Guam over concerns that its more than 2,200 passengers and crew could be infected with the mystery virus, which originated in Chinas Hubei province.

On Feb. 13, health authorities in Cambodia  a close ally of China  allowed the ship to dock at the port of Sihanoukville after declaring its more than 2,200 passengers and crew free of the mystery virus, which first broke out in the Chinese province of Hubei.

Cambodian authorities allowed the passengers and crew to begin disembarking from the ship on Friday.

The Ministry of Health said it cleared them for disembarkation after it conducted thorough health examinations on the Westerdams passengers and crewmembers, and had worked with the World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in doing so, according to Agence Kampuchea Presse, the state news agency.

The Holland America Line, the ships operator, said it had screened all 2,257 passengers and crew for illness  but no one displayed a fever  and disembarking passengers were screened a second time as well as asked to fill out a health questionnaire.

The passports of everyone onboard the Westerdam were also reviewed to ensure no one had traveled through mainland China in the 14 days prior to the cruise, the company said in a statement Sunday.

During the voyage there was no indication of COVID-19 on the ship, Holland America said after Malaysia announced that the woman had tested positive a second time for the virus.

The guest who tested positive did not visit the ships medical center to report any symptoms of illness.

So far, no other passengers or crew on the ship or on their way home had shown signs of the illness, the shipping line said, adding it was working with Malaysian and Cambodian authorities, along with WHO and the CDC, to deal with the situation.

We are in close coordination with some of the leading health experts from around the world, said Dr. Grant Tarling, chief medical officer for the Holland America Line. These experts are working with the appropriate national health authorities to investigate and follow-up with individuals who may have come in contact the guest.

Malaysia bars entry to other passengers from ship

The American woman and her husband were both first tested after showing symptoms while being screened at Kuala Lumpurs international airport, where they and 143 other passengers from the ship had arrived on a chartered Malaysia Airlines flight on Friday while heading back to their home countries, Malaysian officials said.

Three other chartered flights that were scheduled to bring more passengers from the ship as they transited home via Kuala Lumpur have since been canceled over public health safety concerns, Malaysia authorities said.

The Malaysian government confirmed that no additional passengers from the Westerdam will be allowed entry into Malaysia, the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur said in a statement posted on its website Sunday.

Upon their arrival, the Malaysian health authorities have conducted health screenings on all passengers, where an American couple was detected through the thermal scanner of having symptoms and they were immediately taken to the Sungai Buloh Hospital for further checks, Wan Azizah said.

The American woman had a cough but no fever or difficulty breathing, and an X-ray scan revealed she had signs of pneumonia, the deputy prime minister said.

The woman and her 85-year-old husband, who tested negative for COVID-19, were both being treated at a local hospital, Wan Azizah said, noting that the man was diagnosed with a bacterial infection.

Of the other 143 passengers on the charter flight that brought the American couple to Malaysia, 137 had departed the country after undergoing health screenings, officials said. The remaining six  four U.S. citizens and two Dutch nationals  were cleared for departure late Sunday after testing negative for the virus, Noor Hisham Abdullah, Malaysias director-general of health, said in a news release.

22 cases

The case of the infected American woman brought to 22 the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Malaysia.

That number includes two other cases that were also confirmed by the health ministry on Saturday but unconnected to the woman who had traveled aboard the Westerdam.

The 21st case is a 32-year-old Chinese citizen married to a Malaysian man and living in Malaysia. Between Jan. 22 and Jan. 30, she traveled to China to visit relatives, and tested positive for the coronavirus after complaining of a sore throat, officials said.

The 20th case was identified as a 27-year-old male Chinese national who was first detected with fever by a thermal scanner as he crossed into Malaysia from Thailand at the overland border crossing in Kedah state, the health ministry said.

On Saturday, Thailand confirmed its 34th case of the coronavirus, a 35-year-old Thai female health care worker who got the virus through contact with a patient, authorities said.

According to the latest information released from WHO on Sunday, the number of COVID-19 cases has topped 51,800 cases in 25 countries, with the vast majority concentrated in China. At least 1,669 people have died from the virus, which the U.N.s health agency has declared a global emergency.

As of Sunday, neither Indonesia, the most populous country in Southeast Asia, or Bangladesh had confirmed any cases of the virus on their territory.

Last week, Terawan Agus Putranto, Indonesias health minister, pushed back against research by a Harvard University professor, Marc Lipsitch, who had suggested in a study that Indonesia was possibly underreporting the coronavirus situation. The minister described the Harvard report as insulting.

On Saturday, hundreds of citizens from both Indonesia and Bangladesh, who had been evacuated from Hubei province, were allowed to return home after being quarantined for two weeks on home soil after being evacuated by plane from Wuhan  the provincial capital and epicenter of the outbreak  reports said.

Meanwhile in the Philippines, which has recorded three cases  including the first death from coronavirus outside of China  President Rodrigo Dutertes government said it was considering evacuating hundreds of Filipinos who were part of the crew on the virus-stricken Diamond Princess, a cruise ship that had been quarantined for two weeks off Japan.

On Sunday, Japanese health authorities announced that 70 new cases of COVID-19 aboard the ship docked in Yokohama had been confirmed, bringing the total number of cases aboard the Diamond Princess to 355  the largest concentration outside of China.
Earlier this year, the John Coltrane House in Strawberry Mansion was placed on Preservation Pennsylvanias 2020 roster of at risk sites  and its not the only piece of Phillys jazz history that is in danger of disappearing.

Ensuring the ongoing citywide memory of these significant locations is an important part of maintaining Philadelphias unique history. The needs differ for each property. Preservation efforts could include a nomination to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, which, if approved, protects it from demolition and insensitive alterations, or a nomination for a state historical marker (those sidewalk-mounted, blue-and-yellow metal signposts you see all over town), which help tell the story of the significance of a particular site.

Here are five places preservation advocates are watching right now.

Barbers Hall

1402 W. Oxford St., North Philadelphia

Significance: Purchased in 1953 by a group of African American barbershop owners, this building became the National Barbers Sunshine Club headquarters. Jazz musicians would stay at the Chesterfield Hotel next door and drop by to play at the club between gigs. This quickly became a popular spot to see legendary performers such as Grover Washington Jr., the Temptations, and Coltrane. After a fire, the building was reconfigured into a restaurant/bar/lounge. Purchased by Jacob Adams in 1978, it has been renamed New Barber Hall, and is a popular spot for locals and college students.

Threats: Redevelopment and gentrification pressures from Temple University.

Recommendation: Apply for local register.

Downbeat Club

23 S. 11th St., Center City

Significance: The Downbeat Club was a popular hangout and jam session venue for leading national jazz musicians in the 1940s, such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. It was also known for welcoming an interracial clientele, which led to the bars becoming the target for multiple police raids. It is on the second level of a four-story former house.

Threats: Loss of memory, property neglect, insensitive alterations.

Recommendation: Apply for state historic marker.

Heath family residence

1927 Federal St., South Philadelphia

Significance: This was the childhood home of the Heath Brothers, an American jazz group that formed in 1975 in Philadelphia. Prior to the groups formation, their parents, both Philly jazz aficionados, hosted jam sessions in their residence in South Philadelphia that would attract artists such as Gillespie and Coltrane. The group would go on to win a Grammy for the album Little Man, Big Band.

Threats: Unprotected from development in the surrounding neighborhood.

Recommendation: Apply for local register.

Music City

1033 Chestnut St., Center City

Significance: Music City was an informal performance space above a popular record store where jazz greats including Stan Getz would play for fans during the mid-1950s. The building has been locally designated, but there is no historic register plaque.

Threats: Loss of memory.

Recommendation: Apply for state historic register marker.

Sun Ra Arkestra house

5626 Morton St., Germantown

Significance: This was the home base of operations for Sun Ra (1914-93), a musician, composer, and bandleader known for his musical experimentation. The location is a living museum that is full of memorabilia with the purpose of keeping Sun Ras legacy going.

Threats: Development pressure from the surrounding neighborhood and loss of memory.

Recommendation: Apply for the local register.

Paul Steinke is executive director of the Preservation Alliance. He compiled this list with input from jazz history experts Faye Anderson and Jack McCarthy.
U.S. Energy Secretary: Russia not to be able to complete Nord Stream 2 construction on its own

17:30, 16.02.20 12834

The official also signaled that the U.S. would press forward with its opposition to the project.
16.02.2020 LISTEN

PREAMBLE

The government of Ghana seems determined to change the entire Port Management systems in operation in Ghanas Port now. The existing systems have been established at significant cost and with a lot of resource outlay. Fortunately, in our view, the existing ports management systems (GCNET & West Blue) are a few of successful projects successive governments have executed.

The establishment of these systems were not without controversy- the paperless system was resisted as were many others, but Government persevered and the results seem to have proven that the Policies were proper. Generally, there has been an improvement in Port Revenues management compared to previous times. More improvement is needed and is welcome, but they clearly must make sense and must be justified.

We should be careful throwing out the hard work of many governments starting in earnest from the establishment of the GCNET and West Blue systems which had issues but which have also seen a lot of improvement over time.

As we write this all the progress made at the ports are under threat because of a determined effort by the Government to replace all the systems with a new untested alternative. The GCNet contract ends in 2023 while the West Blue contract expires in 2020. This means that there are still three and one more years, respectively, for them to operate the single window system.

To be clear, as a free enterprise think tank, IMANI is very supportive of Public Private Partnerships as a principle. We are however not oblivious of the abuse of this concept. Further still it is important to always subject government decisions and Policies to simple common sense and value for money tests as we have done over the years.

We all have to objectively assess what out governments do in our name and where there are objective clear bases for questioning those decisions we must question them.

Imani Africa has already made representations on this matter and forced some attention and even changes. We however worry that regardless of the glaring issues and clear danger, those behind this policy are pushing ahead to root out and replace all existing players in this sector. That would be worrying if only the process was a problem but the outcome was guaranteed to be a success! It is therefore most alarming beyond worry that we have NO EVIDENCE that the success of this new system is even reasonably likely much more expected and further more absolutely guaranteed but there seems to be movement to implement. See IMANI: Why Government must reconsider its decision on the controversial UNI-PASS customs and ports technology (https://imaniafrica.org/2020/01/31/imani-why-government-must-reconsider-its-decision-on-the-controversial-uni-pass-customs-and-ports-technology/ )

We will show in this publication the objective basis for our concern. We however wish to use this publication to just highlight the issues raised upon a legal scrutiny of the contract itself.

The contract covering such a major exercise is quite simplistic and shallow. We commissioned a review of the contract to help us understand more whether it was fit for purpose. The outcome of the review is below.

In general terms the conclusions of the review add to our concern that Ghana seems to be rushing into something serious and complex with not enough contemplation and preparation.

LEGAL REVIEW

Reviews can be done in sterile fashion, where no external circumstances are factored in, or with the prevailing circumstance and context taken into account. This review is done with the circumstances and context in mind. That is required to make sense of the assessment because context is what gives meaning to such interpretations.

The main context for this review is this:

There is no exigent problem requiring urgent treatment, intervention or change. There is an existing system which has been improved over a number of years and is presently working satisfactorily. It gives almost no detail about motivations except to express that government wishes to change the system for a more comprehensive one. It bears mention that no criticism of the present system was stated as a reason. The Ghana government owns part of the existing systems and risks significant direct and related losses if it changes the existing system There are other third party contractors involved in the present system whose contracts are in force and whose termination would lead to serious consequences

Given the above circumstances, any legal review will factor in the exigent need to take any steps which could trigger liability, and weight the liability against the potential benefit of that step. A good move will be one which will yield a benefit above the costs.

BREVITY

Contracts covering contracts of significant size complexity are expected to be sufficiently detailed to contain all relevant information within one document so it can show as clearly as possible all pertinent issues under consideration by the parties and also express the rights and responsibilities in sufficient detail. For a contract of the magnitude of the UNIPASS contract, the brevity is worrying, so is the lack of detail. The pronouncements and warranties seem to have been made without connection to any proof of ability to perform or lien in default.

This contract in its brevity still gives much space to the rights of the Ghana Link Limited (also referred to as The Contractor) and the responsibilities of the Ghana Government and penalties attendant to default on the part of Ghana Government. Not sufficient space is allotted to the responsibilities of the Contractor and the penalties for their failure.

Section 2. APPOINTMENT OF CONTRACTOR

The appointment clause is complete, emphatic and unequivocal. Such emphasis suggests a certainty which could only be the result of complete due diligence. Such due diligence is not evident or obvious nor is it referred to at all. This contract is not for the purpose of outlining the outcomes of the due diligence exercise, so it must be assumed that due diligence was done and favourable. Any scrutiny of this contract in its entirety must go into the outcomes of the due diligence done.

Section 3. CONDITIONS PRECEDENT

This section normally should set out conditions prior to certain actions for each party. It however seems skewed to only things the Government of Ghana has to perform.

it is reasonable to expect that this section would contain undertakings by the Contractor also to perform certain preliminary tasks before the Government of Ghana will commit.

Our review revealed that the conditions precedent listed are one-sided in favour of the contractor at the expense of Government of Ghana.

There are also clauses which show that Government of Ghana plans to hand over some assets and facilities belonging to existing service providers to the Contractor ahead of this contract. It is not clear under which contracts these handovers would be conducted since the existing service providers, have not been engaged by the government. Further, West Blue and GCNET, have been quite vociferous in their rebuttals to the crookedness of the current arrangement and swore never to hand over such assets (years of investment and knowledge to match) in the manner contemplated by government.

A contract is to protect the parties, a reviewer for Government of Ghana would worry about such unsecured commitments and rightly so. What covers the handing over of GCNET and West Blues assets and the commencement by the contractor of operations handed to them?. It is a most worrying omission and worse still if there are no subcontracts covering these hand overs.

The contractor in 3.1.4 only provides assurances and lists Plans to perform certain functions. It is not sufficient under this circumstance that there is no liability assumed by the contractor for all the assets and operations it has been given. At a minimum one would expect a certain minimum investment by the contractor and a Performance Bond or something similar to assure Government of Ghana that it is covered and would not be the loser if things go wrong. It is definitely not sufficient that one party extends real assets and property, whereas the other extends assurances backed by nothing evident.

Section 4. REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES OF BOTH PARTIES

A legal review of the contract show that this section is generally sweeping in its provisions. Again it must be assumed that there are several other more detailed and more technical agreements beneath this main contract. It will be quite worrying if there are no such contracts. If there are, they surely must be attached as Appendices to this for a fuller understanding. In this section the contractor simply warrants that he has capability and legal authority to perform the contract.

Observing this agreement as it is, facially gives the contractor lopsided advantages without sufficient lien on its own assets. It is also not clear what the contractor is risking as their Skin in the business. A reviewer would expect these warrants to be based on something certifiable, such as a contract with the owners of the UNIPASS system (CUPIA) and Ghana Link, or other such firm proof to back the capability statements made. There is no evidence of such.

The simple question one could ask is, what are these warranties based on? Where is the proof that the Contractor can fulfill them, and what are the penalties for failure or fallback for Ghana Government?

Regarding the governments own warranties to contractor in this section, Government purports to recognize that contractor has rights in and to the unfettered legal, technical and commercial management of the services under this agreement. This is both vague and unfounded.

Contractor has no inherent right to government property and those of third parties such as West Blue and government cannot grant that by such a statement. For such unfettered access to resources and systems, some of which are owned by third parties, there must be more elaborate detail on the quid-pro-quo; What is the contractor giving for these and under what terms? Do these rights extend to parties such as West Blue and other 3rd Parties?

Section 5. SCOPE OF SERVICES

This section describes the actual job. It states as follows:

the contractor.shall deliver and install a tailor made comprehensive national single window platform .. a parsing of these words reveal that the contractor will impose an end to end system which they control. it is not clear but suggested that this will be their own system and not necessarily an assemblage or blend of existing systems managed by different entities as presently pertains. This presents many questions, key of which is how such a sweeping system can be imposed in the present situation. It could be that (as suggested earlier) the existing systems will be handed over to contractor and he will work them all into one seamless system, it must be noted that not all the systems belong to Ghana Government.

The lack of clarity on this is extremely worrying. If not properly sorted out, that could be the deal killer, bringing everything down with attendant costs and confusion. Again it is important to study any underlying contracts which make this possible without legal, financial and operational problems.

Section 6. THE UNIPASS SYSTEM

The UNIPASS system is described here. The key questions which arise from a review of this section are well outlined in the questions and recommendations section of the Imani Africa article. (https://imaniafrica.org/2020/01/31/imani-why-government-must-reconsider-its-decision-on-the-controversial-uni-pass-customs-and-ports-technology/ )

The key question which arises is whether there is an exigent need to change this system and what the cost and benefit analysis looks like.

The level of urgency serves to either justify a certain cost or make it pointless.

This legal review so far has not detected any urgency for which the present system must be disrupted. This also raises questions around why the Ghana Government will give so much away for the UNIPASS system.

If the Ghana Government sought independent objective legal advice on this, it is likely they would be advised to allow UNIPASS to make a competitive Bid against the existing system and prove why they must take over the system plus the rewards of such a move. The present arrangement looks like the Government is handing over the contract on a silver platter at no evident cost to the contractor herein, and then also grants them generous terms and wide latitude to operate without proving either their capability or producing proof upfront of what they bring in terms of investment and other resources. This will no doubt attract suspicions of undue influence.

FEES

A legal assessment should not stray too much into that analysis, but it is highly recommended that the present fees being charged be compared to the proposals agreed in this contract and a determination on value for money made.

In this instance however, it is pertinent to note that other examples exists and constitute precedence and a guide for assessing these fees. This issue is also raised in the Imani Africa article.

A cursory glance reveals that this level of fees is significantly higher than the existing but reveals no added benefits to justify the higher cost to Ghana.

According to the contract, the processing fee for the UNI-PASS system will be 0.75% of Free on Board (FOB), compared to the existing combined fees of GCNet (0.40% of FOB) and West Blue (0.28% of CIF) which sums up to 0.68%. However, as government receives 35% out of the GCNets 0.40% fee, in real terms, GCNet receives 0.26% (0.40% less 35%). This means the total cost to government under the existing system is 0.54% (GCNets 0.26% + West Blue 0.28%) while UNI-PASS fee will be 0.75% of FOB.

OBLIGATIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT

Another worrying section is with regards to the stated obligations of government. Read together with the conditions precedent section, it is clear that there are many obligations placed on government which is in this case the sovereign entity, and the safer partner to deal with; and little obligation is placed on the side of the contractor which is the service provider.

In this arrangement, the sovereign is more at risk in a default because whereas the contractor could go out of business and leave huge problems, the country Ghana will remain and the locus in quo (the ports) will always be there. It falls to reason therefore that the obligations on contractor be better spelt out for the protection of government in case of contractors failure, rather it is clear that more obligations are placed on government.

This is usual if the contractor drafted the agreement, but it is expected that government would amend these lopsided provisions to balance things out. Presently it doesnt seem there has been a balancing of the relative responsibility and the effects of a potential default risk.

OBLIGATIONS OF THE CONTRACTOR

One would expect This section to outline obligations and conditions to be met by contractor before commencement or even the landing of equipment for installation. It however skips all that and starts with an obvious stipulation which is trite, that contractor shall commence and complete installation of the UNIPASS system. This is trite because that is what the contractor is contracted to do.

His obligations should be related to timelines for performing certain preliminary functions which then would open way for full implementation. It has already been observed that the contractor is already installing systems and proceeding as if everything has already been concluded. The obligations listed here are essentially the contractors operational requirements for performing on the contract without which there can be no contract.

It should be clearer what the contractor has to produce to show that he is capable of performing his duties under the contract, such as proof of availability of financial, technical and other resources, and setting up escrows and other conditions to ensure the right levels of mobilization by contractor before Ghana commits to them and removes the operators on the ground.

REPORTING

A useful provision, but there must be some detail (hopefully in another document about linkages with institutions on ground such as GRA)

LICENSE

A necessary and Proper provision but raises the question of what rights contractor has regarding the software and other systems. This emphasizes why Government of Ghana must have a view into the contract between contractor and CUPIA.

GOVERNING LAW AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION

This is the best part of the agreement. The contractor is a Ghanaian company domiciled in Ghana under the laws of Ghana and conducts business in Ghana. This arrangement leaves out the complexities of an international agreement with its attendant costs and nuances.

The parties also accept that the Laws of Ghana will apply entirely in dispute resolution and other matters

TERM OF THIS AGREEMENT

It would be useful to streamline regarding the potential difference between commencement date and effective date. This is important because liabilities apply from effective date. There must be agreement on the date when all parties assume rights and responsibilities.

TERMINATION

Termination clauses are regular and proper, but as dispute clauses, they always create stress and must therefore be well set out. The payments due upon termination clauses complicate this.

Termination of the UNI-PASS contract by the government either voluntarily or through material breaches occasioned by it, attracts graduated fees of between US$93 million in the first year to US$12m in the tenth year. Given that the UNIPASS/Ghana Link Network Services single window contract was awarded for US$40 million for ten years, these termination clauses only benefits the contractor. There is need for further scrutiny of other relevant documents on how those figures were arrived at.

Curiously, the Ministry of Trade has not published revenue projections from implementing UNI-PASS because it has not published such reviews to justify the signing of the UNI-PASS agreement. Our advice to government will be to shelve UNI-PASS until its promoters have demonstrated value far and above existing systems.

CONCLUSION

This is intended to be a review of the legal aspects of the contract. The goal is to pronounce on whether in a normal situation under regular conditions this contract can be described as legally sound and fit for purpose. The verdict on that is this, for a purpose so complex, this simple contract is not fit for purpose.

Between the two parties herein this is legally binding, however it is easy to surmise from the above analysis that there are other encumbrances attendant on the capacity of the two parties herein. These encumbrances have a direct effect on whether the parties can perform their responsibilities under this contract. To the extent that the encumbrances can lead to the frustration of this contract they are also material and crucial.

The government of Ghana is encumbered in the sense that there are third parties with valid contracts within this same space with some engaged in Joint Ventures with the Government itself. The resolution of the rights of these third parties and the introduction of this new player (Ghana Link) will not be simple and straightforward. At least, West Blue and GCNET have said in interviews, that, the UNIPASS-Ghana Link contract can never be effective as existing critical systems, they own cannot and will not be handed over to another private vendor in the manner proposed.

Ghana Link as a party to this contract brings the UNIPASS system, which is the main service being offered. It is clear that they dont own the UNIPASS system and the extent of their rights regarding the system it is not stated. It is also not evident if they have run this system anywhere else. If their partners, and the owners of UNIPASS, (i.e. CUPIA) have a change of mind for any reason, this whole project will suffer.

This contract, whether stated or not in reality touches many parties in different ways. Such a multifaceted and multi layered arrangement covering a crucial sector of the Ghanaian economy, (i.e. Ports) and a strategic area (revenue generation) is not one to be sufficiently concluded in such a sparse agreement with little detail, and which seems to have been drafted for the protection of just one of the parties.

It is not possible to describe this contract as sufficient or fit for the present purpose. Instead of clarifying rights and responsibilities as every contract should do, this contract complicates things and is likely to create more problems once the third parties involved decide to assert themselves. If possible this whole arrangement should be given a thorough re-consideration.
China has reported a drop in new cases of the novel Coronavirus, COVID-19, for the third consecutive day after witnessing a spike. According to Chinas National Health Commission, 2,009 new cases with 142 more deaths worldwide have been reported because of the deadly Coronavirus, which was declared as a global health emergency by WHO.

The death toll due to Coronavirus has spiked to nearly 1,665 and around 68,000 confirmed cases have been detected till now. While most of the cases are from Hubei province of China and the city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, other countries, including Japan and the Philippines, have also now reported deaths related to COVID-19.

Cases with no travel history to China

The latest cause of concern has been the deaths of people with no travel history to China. On February 13, Japan confirmed the death of an 80-year-old woman who was not even the part of the quarantined cruised off the Japanese coast. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has claimed that the sharp rise in the number of cases did not represent any kind of trajectory shift in the epidemic but was because of a change in counting methods.

Read: Coronavirus Outbreak: Canada To Evacuate Its Citizens From Quarantined Ship In Japan

Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, Michael Ryan, head of WHO's health emergencies programme, said that the increase in the number of cases is due to a change in how cases are being reported. "We have said consistently that we need to be cautious when drawing conclusions from daily reported numbers," said Ryan.

Read: US Woman From Cruise Ship Docked In Cambodia Tests Positive For Coronavirus

Meanwhile, the WHO has been frequently releasing situation report on COVID-19 and have found increasing evidence that established a link between the novel coronavirus and other similar known coronaviruses. Referring to the Rhinolophus bat sub-species, the WHO said that they are abundant and widely present in Southern China, and across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Recent studies indicate that more than 500 CoVs have been identified in bats in China, the report read.

Read: Trump Defends China's Alleged Cover-up Of Coronavirus, Says Didn't 'want To Create Panic'

Read: Indian Embassy: Condition Of 3 Indians Affected By Coronavirus On Japanese Cruise Improves
President Donald Trump with members of the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol in Calexico, Calif., on April 5, 2019. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

Trump: Reports Saying Border Wall Fell Over Are Misleading

President Donald Trump criticized what he said were erroneous reports saying that a portion of the U.S.-Mexico border wall fell over last month.

Trump said on Sunday that reports claiming that a section of the border wall toppled over are misleading, suggesting that these outlets used misleading headlines to make it sound terrible.

Some news outlets last month showed photos of a California section of the wall had fallen over and landed on trees on Mexicos side.

Trump said the real reason why the wall fell was because its concrete foundation was just poured [and] was soaking wet when big winds kicked in.

Last week the Fake News said that a section of our powerful, under construction, Southern Border Wall fell over, trying to make it sound terrible, except the reason was that the concrete foundation was just poured & soaking wet when big winds kicked in. Quickly fixed forever.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 16, 2020

Border Patrol Agent Carlos Pitones of the El Centro, California, sector confirmed to CNN at the time that the wall section was recently set in concrete when a storm rolled through the area with high winds. The National Weather Service reported at the time that winds in the area gusted as high as 37 mph.

In his statement, Trump said the portion of the wall in the El Centro sector was quickly fixed, adding that it will last forever.

It comes after $3.8 billion in funding from the Air Force and Navy was reappointed to border wall construction, Pentagon officials confirmed last week. That would allow for the construction of about 177 miles of barrier along the southern border.

DHS has identified areas along the southern border of the United States that are being used by individuals, groups, and transnational criminal organizations as drug smuggling corridors, and determined that the construction of additional physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the United States border is necessary in order to impede and deny drug smuggling activities, reads the request, signed by acting Defense Department comptroller Elaine McCusker.

Following criticism from several members of Congress over the latest move to divert funds, Defense Secretary Mark Esper remarked that its a national security matter.

Border security is national security, Esper told reporters over the weekend. And national security is our mission. He added, The action we took is legal under the law, and so it should be no surprise, and Ill just leave it at that for now.

The border wall was one of Trumps 2016 signature campaign promises. However, over the past three years, his administration has hit a number of roadblocks in the courts and in Congress.

In January, a court ruled that Trump could use funds to construct the wall.
The approval of the application comes after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister Richard Bruton announced last September the government would cease new exploration for oil off the shores of Ireland (stock photo)

Woodside Energy, Australia's largest independent oil and gas company, is set to receive a petroleum prospecting licence to conduct testing in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Ireland.

The Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment last week gave notice it intends to grant the petroleum prospecting licence to the Australian-listed company, which is valued at A$30.94bn (19.16bn).

Woodside intends to carry out a "shallow borehole programme" enabling an application for a regional survey, proposed under an existing exploration licence, called FEL 5/13. Woodside applied for the permit as it includes an area outside the current licence's boundary.

The approval of the application comes after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister Richard Bruton announced last September the government would cease new exploration for oil off the shores of Ireland.

Following the announcement, a policy statement was published in December which set out a vision for natural gas as a critical component of Ireland's energy mix due to the transition to a low-carbon economy.

The statement also confirmed applications and authorisations in place before the September announcement would not be affected, including the one obtained by Woodside for FEL 5/13.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment said that, as Woodside already has a pre-existing exploration licence in place, it was following pre-existing procedures.

"This means that once [it] is granted, Woodside will need to submit a formal application for consent to undertake the proposed survey," she said.

The application will be published by the department and followed by a period of public consultation.

In 2017, Woodside managing director Peter Coleman said the company was likely to take an "opportunity to push" out drilling in Ireland until 2019. It has another exploration licence with Irish oil explorer Petrel Resources.
by Anne Schlafly Cori, chairman, Eagle Forum

A new word has popped up in sex education classes: pan-sexual. Facebook offers more than fifty gender choices, which means that bi-sexual is such an old-fashioned term and not descriptive of the current range of sexual choices. Male/Female is binary  two choices  but the biology deniers would prefer a broad smorgasbord of sexual activities. Sex education classes in middle school are now encouraging omni sexual adventures.

For example, the Madison, Wisconsin Metropolitan School District published an eight-minute video in October 2019 featuring middle school students on camera declaring:

My name is Miller. My pronouns are they, them, theirs. Im non-binary, says a young boy.

I identify as pan-sexual. They accept me as who I am and they dont think Im different from anyone else. It just feels normal to be who I really am, says a young girl.

I identify as a bi-sexual, cis-gender. I came out in fifth grade, says a young girl.

I also identify as a pan-sexual male, says a young boy.

Its bad to separate groups into boys and girls because some people might not feel that they fit into boys or girls. They might feel in the middle, says a young girl.

It is wrong for adults to push children into publically declaring their sexuality on camera. It is an invitation for statutory rape and pedophilia and normalizes perversity. These children are on YouTube declaring their sexual availability and preferences. Yet the adult teachers in the video celebrate the children for speaking out about what should be their privacy. In other words, the Madison school is sanctioning sexting among its students.

The bad result of teaching such an extreme sexuality curriculum is this new idea that our identity directly and only comes from our sexuality. Sexuality is a part of who we are, but sexuality does not form our identity.

What is missing is fidelity. Each of us wants a loving and faithful and long-term relationship with another human being. The lifetime value of a sacred union should be taught and encouraged. Neither pan-sexual nor bi-sexual is fidelity. These children are being set up for failed relationships because they are taught not to want or expect fidelity. Casual sex is never healthy sex.

The extreme sexuality education curriculum is manipulating children into accepting junk sex as normal behavior. As such, the new sex ed encourages pornography, sexual exploitation, and androgyny. Many of the sex texts are not age-appropriate.

Here are some of the problems with extreme sexuality education curriculum now used in many public schools, compiled by RespectCulture.org:
West Bengal Education minister



Partha Chatterjee on Sunday visited the three children, who were injured in a pool car accident in Hooghly, at the SSKM Hospital here and and wished their speedy recovery.

He said the state government will soon ask schools to see to it that pool cars have the necessary fitness documents.

Chatterjee after visiting the children, told reporters "I wish they recover soon and be with their mother at home."



He iterated the state will soon ask the school authorities to ensure the pool cars have the certificate of fitness (CF) report before being allowed to ply.

On Friday, 14 schoolchildren and the car's driver were injured after the vehicle fell into a water-filled ditch near Kamdebpur in Hooghly district.

Eleven children were discharged after being administered first aid, while three with serious injuries were sent to the SSKM hospital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Spiritual Travel: the Most Sacred Places in the World

These days, traveling is way more than leisurely sunbathing at the seaside and sipping juice. Modern tourists seek more personalization, new experiences, and quality for their money. The growing international tourism industry is ready to offer new and exciting destinations around the world. While many people travel to have fun, eat local food or shop, some tourists have different reasons and purposes.



Spiritual travel has been on the rise in recent decades. This doesnt necessarily involve religious pilgrimage. People enjoy visiting sacred places and learning more about them. Moreover, some of these sacred places are believed to have healing properties, bringing good luck, and making wishes come true. This can make any travel to sacred places even more excited and unforgettable. If the idea sounds interesting but you dont know much about such destinations, here are the three sacred places that are great to visit.



To get to the first sacred place, you simply need to buy airplane tickets and book a hotel in Jerusalem. This city is one of the holiest in the world not only for Judaism but also for other religions. The Western Wall is a famous landmark that attracts 5 million visitors every year. As this is a place of worship in the Judaism religion, you need to dress in a modest way to visit the wall. Dont forget that there are separate areas for men and women. Western Wall is believed to have healing properties. Moreover, many people believe that this place can make dreams come true. For this purpose, write your wish in a paper note, pray, and place the note between the wall stones.



The next sacred place on our list is harder to get to. This is the Batu Caves in Malaysia, so dont forget to book a hotel in Kuala Lumpur. The caves are located in the north of the city. The Batu Caves are a complex of limestone caves and Hindu temples that are dedicated to Lord Murugan. The area plays the central role in the Thaipusam, a famous Hindu festival in Malaysia. The caves are believed to have magic properties and are among the ten most important shrines in Malaysia and India.



The last but not the least, the church of the Holy in Sepulchre, Jerusalem, is one of the most sacred places in the world for all Christians. Supposedly, the church is built on the site where Jesus Christ was crucified and buried. The church stands on the hill, the name of which is familiar to every Christian  Golgotha. Many people come to visit this place and get the blessing since Jesus lived and died here.

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(Newser)  A 66-year-old woman was arrested Saturday evening at a hotel in Louisiana after a rather extraordinary day on the lam with her 12-year-old granddaughter, reports CNN. Police say that Evelyn Miller was carrying a pistol on Friday afternoon when she walked into a hospital in Jefferson Parish with the intention of walking out with Adreana Miller. Per the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office, via NBC News: "When hospital staff attempted to prevent her from leaving with the child, she pointed a firearm at several of them. In making her escape from the location, she pushed one nurse to the ground and struck a security guard with her vehicle." Police found the pair, both unharmed, at a hotel in Bogalusa, about 70 miles north of New Orleans. Evelyn Miller will be extradited to Jefferson Parish; she is charged with suspicion of kidnapping. (Read more child kidnapping stories.)
WASHINGTON  More than 1,100 former federal prosecutors and Justice Department officials called on Attorney General William Barr on Sunday to resign after he intervened last week to lower the Justice Departments sentencing recommendation for President Trumps longtime friend Roger Stone.

They also urged current government employees to report any signs of unethical behavior at the Justice Department to the agencys inspector general and to Congress.

Each of us strongly condemns President Trumps and Attorney General Barrs interference in the fair administration of justice, the former Justice Department lawyers, who came from across the political spectrum, wrote in an open letter Sunday. Those actions, they said, require Mr. Barr to resign.

The sharp denunciation of Barr underlined the extent of the fallout over the case of Stone, capping a week that strained the attorney generals relationship with his rank and file, and with the president himself.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

After prosecutors on Monday recommended a prison sentence of up to nine years for Stone, who was convicted of obstructing a congressional inquiry, Trump lashed out at federal law enforcement. Senior officials at the department, including Barr, overrode the recommendation the next day with a more lenient one, immediately prompting accusations of political interference, and the four prosecutors in the Stone case abruptly withdrew in protest.

The Justice Department said the case had not been discussed with anyone at the White House, but that Trump congratulated Barr on his decision did little to dispel the perception of political influence. And as the president widened his attacks on law enforcement, Barr publicly reproached the president, saying Trumps statements undermined him as well the department.

Protect Democracy, a nonprofit legal group, gathered the signatures from Justice Department alumni and said it will collect more.

Strikingly, the lawyers called upon current department employees to be on the lookout for future abuses and to bring oversight to the department. Prosecutors who currently work at the department should withdraw from cases that involve abuses or political interference, the lawyers said.

Katie Benner is a New York Times writer.
Minnesota drivers licensing officials said Friday theyre concerned too many people will delay applying for security-enhanced ID cards that will get them through airport security come fall and urged them to get in line by June.

Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington told state lawmakers its taking months to process applications for the IDs. He shared the nightmare scenario in his head about those traditional school holiday getaways to Disney World in October.

"Mom, dad and grandma are at the airport getting ready to go down to the happiest place on the earth and they walk up and they dont have Real ID," Harrington told members of the Driver and Vehicle Systems Oversight Committee.

By October, Real ID will be one of the few forms of ID that transportation security agents will accept at checkpoints. Passports or passport cards are also valid. Harrington said the federal deadline appears to be set in stone.

"And I dont want to see the faces of crying children who cant get on an airplane because mom and dad waited too long to get their Real ID," he said.

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The alarmist tone comes from the number Harrington and his team are watching: Only about 12 percent of Minnesota license holders have the new IDs. He said roughly 19,000 applications are coming in per week.

"We have 33 weeks between now and when Real ID comes into force. And 19,000 times 33 weeks doesnt get me anywhere close to the other 48 percent of Minnesotans who dont currently have a passport or a Real ID," Harrington said. "So we still need to make a push on this."

Those who apply are finding long waits.

"We are getting in more than we can process," said Emma Corrie, the state's Driver and Vehicle Services director. She said more than 100,000 applications are pending in Minnesota for IDs  Real or Enhanced  that meet the new requirements. DVS is still processing some applications filed in December.

Corrie said the turnaround times might only grow as applications surge this summer. People who want to be guaranteed an ID by October should have their paperwork in by June 1, she said.

On top of that, it's been taking more than one try for many applicants to get their qualifying materials correct, she said.

"Right now we are assessing or assuming that 15 percent of our people go back, at least for a second trip," Corrie said.

An unexpired passport, birth certificate, Social Security card and recent proof of Minnesota residence are among the items people are allowed to present.

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Corrie said lawmakers could help by addressing some barriers Minnesota ID applicants face. She said Minnesotas rules around utility bills, canceled checks and pay stubs as identifying documents are more rigid than federal requirements and could be eased some.

Most of all, she urged people to know whats needed or fill out an application online before they come in.

"Pre-apply, pre-apply, pre-apply. Because that will also give them the heads-up of whether they are missing a document," she said.

Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis, said lawmakers should consider stepping in to avoid chaos.

"If there is a role for the Legislature and it sounds like there may be, we would need to move very quickly," he said.

State Sen. John Jasinski, R-Faribault, said hes not sure what the appetite is for last-minute law changes among his colleagues.

"Theres a lot of people that have to meet the deadline who dont really need to meet the deadline because they dont travel that much or something like that," he said. "There are a lot of people who might not travel for three or four years."

But people waiting too long could only extend lag times if licensing agents get swarmed with applications.

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Corrie said her agents are putting in voluntary overtime, but she says there's more workload coming that could lead to a "perfect storm." Summer is the busiest time for road tests, and the agency is working to launch a new vehicle licensing system in November.

"I absolutely cannot take my vehicle people and deploy them like I am right now for Real ID," she said.

Harrington assured lawmakers that his agency won't let up. But he said it's incumbent on Minnesotans to also step up to avoid his nightmare  that family-trip-to-Disney disaster  from becoming a reality.

This story originally appeared at: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/02/14/state-commissioner-prevent-nightmare-scenario-of-kids-missing-disney-by-getting-real-id of story Questions or requests? Contact MPR News editor Meg Martin at newspartners@mpr.org  2019 Minnesota Public Radio. All rights reserved.


RICHMOND, Va. - State Sen. Amanda Chase, a suburban Republican known for embracing President Donald Trump and wearing a .38 Special on her hip, will have a "huge" announcement Monday - feeding speculation that she will run for governor next year.

"I have an announcement to make . . . at the Capitol that you won't want to miss," Chase (Chesterfield) says in a video posted on Facebook Friday afternoon. "You know I am tired of the failed leadership here in the General Assembly and I feel like Virginians expect and deserve better."

Reached by phone, Chase and her strategist, Philip Search, declined to elaborate.

After winning a second Senate term last year, Chase, 50, said she planned to run for governor in 2025. But she has decided not to wait, according to conservative radio host John Fredericks, who said Chase told him she plans to run for governor in November 2021.

"She told me five minutes ago," Fredericks, who was President Trump's 2016 Virginia campaign chairman, said shortly after the Facebook post appeared.

Chase declined to comment on Fredericks' account.

Sen. Joseph Morrissey, D-Richmond, said Chase told him the announcement "involves the race for governor." He said she's been talking with him for some time about the possibility that she would run next year - and make gun rights the "centerpiece" of her bid.

Chase would be the first Republican to formally enter the race to succeed Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, who by law cannot seek back-to-back terms. Pete Snyder, a Northern Virginia technology entrepreneur, has been publicly mulling a bid. Republicans have not won a statewide race since 2009.

The Democratic contest could be far more crowded: Former governor Terry McAuliffe, Attorney General Mark Herring, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, state Sen. Jennifer McClellan of Richmond, Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy of Prince William and Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney have indicated an interest in running.

Chase drew attention last year for wearing a holstered .38 special on the Senate floor. When a joint House-Senate committee voted this year to ban lawmakers and the public from bringing firearms into the Capitol, she hinted that she would just tuck the gun inside her American flag purse. As a lawmaker, Chase is not screened when entering the building.

In pivotal legislative races last year, Chase was the rare suburban Republican who invoked the president, guns and abortion. Most of the GOP's swing-district candidates tried to avoid those topics in a state that Trump lost by six points. She alienated party leadership and was ousted from her local GOP committee after a string of controversies - including cursing at a Capitol Police officer over a parking spot, calling the Senate clerk "Miss Piggy" and declaring rape victims "naive and unprepared."

But the blowback she got from party officials only bolstered her standing with some GOP activists, solidifying her image as a Trumpian iconoclast. She won reelection handily.

She quit the GOP Senate caucus and been ostracized by both parties during this year's General Assembly session. Senators from both parties have lambasted her on the floor for denouncing colleagues who support gun-control on Facebook - and posting their office phone numbers. Democrats gave her just one committee assignment, on the lowly Local Government Committee. All of her bills have been killed.

A private group supporting a Chase bid for governor in 2021 emerged on Facebook about a month ago. It has 342 members.

The bravado could work for her, Fredericks said, particularly if the GOP decides to pick its gubernatorial nominee in a convention - a method that tends to favor more conservative candidates - instead of a statewide primary.

"She'll raise very little money but she'll certainly inspire a following in Virginia and would be a very tough foe for anyone to beat in a nominating convention," he said.
(CNN)  A Taiwanese man in his mid-60s who tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus has died, the Taiwanese Health Ministry announced on Sunday morning.

The deceased man, who had a history of hepatitis B and diabetes and no history of traveling abroad, is the first person in Taiwan to die from the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, the ministry said in a statement.

Another case of the virus was also confirmed in Taiwan on Sunday, the health ministry said.

The man in his 50s who is currently asymptomatic, bringing the total number of confirmed cases on the island to 20.

This story was first published on CNN.com.
Arvind Kejriwal, who spearheaded the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to another resounding victory in the assembly elections of Delhi by winning 62 seats out of 70 against the BJP led juggernaut, will take oath as the chief minister of city-state today.

Kejriwal will be sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Delhi for the third time in a row. Kejriwal is scheduled to take oath along with other ministers at 10 am at a grand ceremony at the Ramlila Maidan.

Big banners with messages like 'Dhanyawad Dilli' along with the image of Kejriwal have been put along the route of Ramlila Maidan.

The 51-year-old bureaucrat-turned-politician will be administered the oath of office and secrecy by Delhi's Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal at Ramlila Maidan here, which has been all decked for the momentous moment.

Referring to himself as "son of Delhi", Kejriwal extended an invitation to Delhiites for his oath ceremony and tweeted, "Am so glad that such large no of people are joining the new - kaam ki raajniti."

On Saturday, Kejriwal, through a tweet, has said that autorickshaw drivers, students, teachers, doctors, labourers etc will be the "chief guests".

The Directorate of Education (DoE) Board in Delhi has requested all the heads of all Delhi government schools to attend the ceremony, along with Vice-Principals, Entrepreneurship Mindset Curriculum Coordinators, Happiness Coordinators, and Teacher Development Coordinators are also requested to attend the ceremony.

The venue also served as the battleground for Kejriwal during the India Against Corruption movement in 2011.

By winning 62 seats by cashing in on the plank of development, his party nearly repeated its 2015 performance, sweeping the Assembly polls in the face of a high-voltage campaign by the BJP, which had fielded a battery of Union Ministers and Chief Ministers in its electioneering, spearheaded by Home Minister Amit Shah.

The BJP marginally improved its tally, managing just eight seats from its 2015's tally of three seats. The Congress failed to open its account in the second successive election.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Therein lies the problem with establishing a model - the lack of accurate inputs. The key is reliable information on rates of infection and mortality but most importantly the rates of transmission. And authorities and researchers need to trust the information from not just Chinese officials but those in nearby countries - and some of this has been called into doubt. CSL, one of the largest biotechnology companies in the world, has joined the global effort to combat the virus, lending its technical expertise and Seqirus vaccine to bolster the University of Queenslands efforts to develop an inoculation for coronavirus (COVID-19). Coincidentally, CSLs existing Chinese facility and its 600 staff are situated in the Hubei Province at the epicentre of the epidemic. The University of Queensland is only one of many scientific teams around the world in the race to develop treatments or vaccines. The mathematical model is based on the number and frequency of transmissions from each infected human.

Only last week there was a major spike in the number of infections but which, according to the World Health Organisation, was the result of better diagnostics rather than a change in the trajectory of the outbreak. "If the transmission rate in your model is less than 1, it (the virus) will die out quickly. If it's greater than one, like 1.1 or 5, this will tell you how rapidly it will transmit. Then there are other important things to understand like  how sick do people get? Do they end up in hospital? Do they die?'," Professor Cuthbertson says. He says those things are tremendously important because they feed into accurately measuring the rates of infection. If people can be infected but dont get very sick, they can be walking around touching things and coughing on people, so infecting others. It's a rapidly emerging situation with the current Wuhan virus so there are just big gaps in our knowledge I cant fill right now and nor can anyone actually. Professor Andrew Cuthbertson, CSL chief scientific officer "For example, what we learnt from SARS is that that made people very sick. You knew you had it, you felt terrible, you sought medical attention and you ended up in hospital and about 10 per cent died."

Thus SARS was able to be better modelled because, he says, "the people that were infected were easily identifiable, rapidly isolated and while it was bad for a period of time, public health measures were able to control it quickly and over a period of months it declined". And those people who are infected but dont get sick  called transmitters  are very important to understand from a modelling and therefore public health point of view. He warns against what he calls armchair commentators that downgrade the risk on the basis of the quoted mortality rate of 2 per cent. "The trouble is if you have 50 million people infected thats a million dead. So a 2 per cent mortality rate depending on how widely spread the disease is can have a huge public health impact."

Equally Professor Cuthbertson acknowledges the disruptive impact of COVID-19 is disproportionate to the current public health effect. "Of course Im not saying that it's not a potentially important public health impact but right now influenza causes a bigger annual public health morbidity and mortality but this (COVID-19) is closing down parts of the world." Loading But in Professor Cuthbertsons opinion, despite this disruption, until more is known about transmission rates the public health authorities in China and in Australia are doing the right thing. "I dont think there is a choice," he says. "When people get sick you need to isolate them ... the point of doing that is to alter the transmission ratio ... at the same time work on things like antivirals and vaccines. But those things take time."

How long and whats involved? Professor Cuthbertson explains that the first step is to find whats called a candidate vaccine (he says the University of Queensland has a novel way of generating a candidate). You then need to build around that candidate assays so you are able to measure it then produce it in sufficiently adequate quantities to undertake pre-clinical toxicology, then undertake ethical human testing for safety and the effect on the immune system. He says you need the right skills and facilities to scale up production to millions. And then theres the matter of deciding who to vaccinate first. Professor Cuthbertson describes it as "a huge amount of work". "I think all going really well, it will be possible to have candidates approaching human testing in four to six months.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 00:39:58|Editor: huaxia

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File photo shows that an Airbus A350-1000 performs during a flight display at the 53rd International Paris Air Show held at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France, June 20, 2019.(Xinhua/Gao Jing)

U.S. government's decision to increase tariffs on EU planes "further escalates trade tensions between the U.S. and the EU, thereby creating more instability for U.S. airlines that are already suffering from a shortage of aircraft", said European aircraft producer Airbus.

PARIS, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- European aircraft producer Airbus said on Saturday that the United States government's decision to increase tariffs on aircraft imported from the European Union (EU) further escalated trade tensions between the U.S. and the EU.

The decision of the Office of U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) "further escalates trade tensions between the U.S. and the EU, thereby creating more instability for U.S. airlines that are already suffering from a shortage of aircraft", said the European plane maker in a statement.

The decision "ignores the many submissions made by U.S. airlines, highlighting the fact that they -- and the U.S. flying public -- will ultimately have to pay these tariffs", it added.

The USTR issued a notice on Friday, saying the U.S. is increasing the additional duty rate imposed on aircraft imported from the EU to 15 percent from 10 percent, effective from March 18.

This "further escalation complicates efforts to find a negotiated outcome to this dispute," said Airbus. "This is regrettable."

Airbus said it would continue to push for a negotiated settlement to this dispute.

The U.S. and the EU have been battling for 15 years over aircraft subsidies. Each side accused the other of failing to comply with the WTO's rulings and refusing to negotiate any settlement.
As the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government completes 84 days in power next week, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will organise a show-of-strength agitation across the state against the governments anti-people policies on February 22.

The agitation may seem a bit premature, but it is to be seen as a signal from the BJP top brass to party leaders and cadre to get into the role of the opposition.

For over two months, the BJP has been hoping that the unrealistic coalition government collapses, given the ideological dissonance between the three partners, Shiv Sena, Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

On Sunday as the newly re-appointed state chief Chandrakant Patil officially accepted reins of the state organisation, the message from the top brass of the party was clear  to move on.

As former chief minister and leader of Opposition, Devendra Fadnavis said, Yes, we have been betrayed, but there is no point crying over it. This is the time to fight.

Patil said, We cannot be complacent and just hope that this government will fall by itself.

One of the reasons for this message is that the BJP has realised that once a government comes to power, it is not easy to bring it down.

To add to this, there is a realisation that both chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who is seen as the main anchor of the MVA, seem to have an understanding, to run the government despite the many differences.

The other reason to move on is that the BJP, as the sole opposition party, has an advantage as well as challenge ahead.

For the first time in two decades, a single party has occupied the entire opposition space in the state and hence can lay claim to the entire anti-government vote share. But it will not reap benefits if the state unit gets mired in internal squabbles and wishfully counts on the breaking up of coalition parties.

For too long, BJP leaders have been making statements about mid-term polls, collapse of MVA and betrayal by Sena. They should stop that. This could be an opportunity for the BJP going ahead. But for that, they have to play the role of a strong and effective opposition and take up core issues of the people, said political analyst Surendra Jondhale.

With the local civic polls round the corner in April  Navi Mumbai and Aurangabad corporation elections  the BJP faces it first challenge soon.

In the past five years, we expanded our party base to emerge as number one in the state vis-a-vis civic corporations, councils, district

councils.

This base will start eroding if we dont galvanise the party organisation now as we will have to face the three parties together, said a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former minister.

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It was thanks to Kumamon that yuru-chara became a national phenomenon, said Shuichiro Nishi, the creative force behind the competition.

When the charmingly plump black bear with rosy red cheeks won the event, the country was still reeling from the catastrophic tsunami and nuclear disaster that had struck northern Japan months earlier. People were clamoring for a sense of national connection, Mr. Nishi said.

Kumamon moved mountains of merchandise and drove up tourism. Hit mascots can also lift tax revenue thanks to a program, introduced in 2008, that allows citizens to direct a portion of their income taxes to the locality of their choice.

Inspired by Kumamons success, local governments rushed to cash in. As the characters became fixtures on national airwaves, Mr. Inuyama said, the media tricked people into thinking yuru-chara were making money, and local governments went along for the ride.

More and more, though, it looks like the end of the road. The number of characters in this Novembers Grand Prix, held in Nagano, was down a third from the peak of about 1,700 in 2015. Many of the entrants did not even bother to show up. And officials, seeing the writing on the wall, announced that the 2020 contest would be the last.

Misabos handlers, however, were not about to give up.

The mayor had given them one year to show that the character was worth the tens of thousands of dollars that taxpayers had spent on him.
In its fight to halt the spread of coronavirus, the Chinese government announced its now quarantining cash to prevent people from handling it and potentially spreading the virus. Its still not totally clear how the coronavirus is spread or how long it can exist on surfaces, so the Chinese government is aiming to take old bills and coins out of circulation to stop one potential method of transmission. The central bank announced Saturday it had put a halt to the transfer of old bank notes across provinces and will use a variety of methods to sanitize the bills, including locking up the cash in government warehouses. The government said it is simultaneously injecting billions of dollars in new cash into the Chinese economy.

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The deputy governor of the Peoples Bank of China said Saturday the government is introducing 600 billion yuan ($85.9 billion) of new cash with four billion yuan ($572 million) in new notes already allocated in the virus epicenter in Hubei Province. Money from key virus-hit areas will be sanitized with ultraviolet rays or heated and locked up for at least 14 days, before it is distributed again, the deputy governor said at a press conference. Commercial lenders have also been ordered to identify cash taken specifically from hospitals and wet food markets, places with high exposure risk. The South China Morning Post reports the central bank in the southern city of Guangzhou is going one step further and will destroy all notes collected from these sensitive sites.

China reported 2,009 new cases of coronavirus and 142 associated deaths in the previous 24 hours on Sunday, days after the government changed the criteria for how it tracks cases, the New York Times reports. In all, more than 68,500 people have been infected and at least 1,669 have died worldwide, officials have said. The vast majority of cases, and all but a few of the deaths, have been in mainland China, with the heaviest concentration in Hubei Province, the center of the outbreak.
Americans will be removed from a cruise ship quarantined off Japan and flown home, the US embassy said on Saturday as dozens of more cases of the new coronavirus were diagnosed on board.

At least 285 people on the Diamond Princess have contracted the illness but hundreds of passengers and crew have not yet been tested as they wait in a quarantine that was scheduled to end February 19.

In a message to Americans, the embassy said the US government recommends, out of an abundance of caution, that US citizens disembark and return to the United States for further monitoring.

The remarks were later echoed by a US state department spokesperson, who confirmed that US citizens should return.



The embassy warned that those who come back will have to undergo another 14 days of quarantine when they arrive in the United States.

A chartered flight will arrive in Japan on Sunday, but it was not immediately clear when it would leave. The message said the flight will land at Travis Air Force Base in California, with some passengers continuing to a second air base in Texas.

Japanese public broadcaster NHK said 400 Americans were on board the cruise ship and the plane would leave Tokyos Haneda airport as soon as early Monday.

Passengers will be screened for symptoms and we are working with our Japanese partners to ensure that any symptomatic passengers receive the required care in Japan if they cannot board the flight, the message said.

Should you choose not to return on this charter flight, you will be unable to return to the United States for a period of time, it warned.

The Japanese government was arranging special embarkation procedures for US citizens taking the chartered flight, an official said, adding that a certain number of other countries have also shown interest in similar evacuation measures.

While some Americans on the ship have urged their government to extract them from the boat, others on board criticised the plan.

Incredibly disappointed that the U.S. Government has decided to throw a monkey wrench into the quarantine we have maintained here on board the Diamond Princess, tweeted Matt Smith, an American lawyer.

The U.S. Government wants to take us off without testing, fly us back to the U.S. with a bunch of other untested people, and then stick us in 2 more weeks of quarantine? How does that make any sense at all?

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Michael Moore found himself on the front lines during Houstons finest hour back in 2005 when the torrent of buses carrying storm-dazed New Orleanians began rolling up to the Astrodome.

As Mayor Bill Whites chief of staff, Moore was among those pulling 18-hour days coordinating and marshaling resources to help house, feed and clothe tens of thousands of evacuees in a makeshift shelter that became an enduring symbol of Houstons hospitality and grindstone get-r-doneness.

The pace was unrelenting.

I put one cot down and I look five minutes later and theres an evacuee sitting on it, he recalled in a 2007 interview.

At one point, when they ran out of cots and the Red Cross had to fly some in, Moore took extreme measures to expedite their transport.

I think this is the first police escort of a truck full of cots in history, he said.

Thats the kind of drive Harris County needs to clear up roadblocks delaying the $2.5 billion bond package voters approved in 2018.

Moores attention to detail and practical focus on flood mitigation, infrastructure, traffic, an underfunded hospital district and other challenges in a growing region are why we recommend him for Precinct 3 Commissioner in the Democratic primary.

Moore, 57, whose private sector work includes communications for BP and regional vice president for Texas Central Partners high-speed rail, is well-versed in the intricacies of issues and policies that face county government. Thanks to his communications background, he can also explain the stuff in plain English.

White, his former boss, vouches for Moores servants heart and personal integrity. And Moore is trying to prove that Whites brand of bipartisan pragmatism isnt passe in this increasingly polarized political climate. His pledge to work with anyone, anywhere to get results may not charm partisans, but its a more productive mentality than sometimes prevails among Democrats on the court these days.

While Moore has insider cred, he pledges to govern with transparency and efficiency. Based on his six-year track record with White, we believe him.

Helping run city government and shepherd through successful programs such as Safe Clear, soon to expand countywide, Moore has proven he understands bureaucracy, how to cut through it and how to collaborate with other entities and agencies  a vital skill for any commissioner who wants to address issues in the unincorporated area, such as the need to consolidate the hodgepodge of municipal districts.

Among the other candidates, Kristi Thibaut, a former one-term state representative, failed to articulate what, other than established relationships in the public sector and badly needed diversity, she would bring. Morris Overstreets distinguished career on a different kind of court  Texas highest criminal court  lacks relevance here. Educator Diana Alexanders grassroots focus is appealing but she also lacks relevant experience.
Open source

In Ukraine, as of the morning of February 16, not a single laboratory-confirmed case of COVID-19 was recorded. The press service of the Ministry of Health reports.

The department noted that as of today in the world 69 thousand 261 laboratory-confirmed cases of new coronavirus infection COVID-19 have been registered, of which 1 thousand 669 are fatal.

They also recalled that on February 12-13, leading health experts from around the world met at the headquarters of the World Health Organization to assess the current level of knowledge about COVID-19, coordinate work together to accelerate the priority research needed to end this outbreak.

As we reported before, the cruise ship Diamond Princess staff confirmed 70 new cases of infection with coronavirus. This was announced by Minister of Health of Japan Kato Katsunobu, as Reuters reported. Thus, the number of patients on the liner increased to 355 people. Those who become infected were transferred to Japanese hospitals.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry said on February 16 that all passengers should pass coronavirus testing by Monday. Therefore, verification results should be published later on February 19. By then, the ship will be on quarantine.
BOISE  Despite days of testimony from local government officials who strongly opposed the bill, a House committee approved a bill that would freeze property tax collections for one year.

The bill would apply to all non-school local taxing districts, including cities and counties. If passed, the bill would prevent districts from raising the property tax portion of their budget by the currently allowed 3%, plus annexations and new construction. They could, however, still raise property taxes with supermajority approval on a bond. Other portions of budgets would not be affected.

Officials from Twin Falls, Lincoln and Camas counties attended the hearings in opposition to the bill. They say a freeze would restrict their ability to provide services to residents.

The Senate Education Committee unanimously approved the states English, science and math standards on Wednesday, Idaho Education News reported. The decision came after the House committee repealed the standards following five weeks of heated debate.

The process the Legislature used to approve administrative rules only requires one body to sign off. Since the Senate committee OKd the standards, they will remain in effect.

Some lawmakers on the House Education Committee trashed a recommendation to support students social-emotional well-being, Idaho Ed News reported. Some suggested the issue should be handled by parents at home while others romanticized the good ol days of beating children behind a shed to promote character development.

The recommendation is backed by Superintendent of Public Instruction Sherri Ybarra and Gov. Brad Littles education task force. Its a response to Idahos suicide rate that ranks fifth in the nation and surveys that show about 23% of the states youth have seriously considered suicide, the highest in a decade.

That committee also introduced a bill that would prevent transgender students from participating in girls high school sports.

The House State Affairs Committee moved forward with a bill that would ban affirmative action measures in public employment, the Idaho Statesman reported.

The bill from Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, would prohibit the state from granting special treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting.

Lawmakers on that committee also approved a constitutional amendment that would freeze the number of legislative districts at 35, the Idaho Press reported.

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LG Chem employees look at battery cells produced at the company's plant in Ochang, North Chungcheong Province in this file photo. / Courtesy of LG Chem



US ITC default judgment favors LG in EV battery case



By Baek Byung-yeul





LG Chem CEO Shin Hak-cheol

LG Chem is moving ahead of SK Innovation in their prolonged legal battle over rechargeable battery-making technology after receiving a favorable decision from the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC), the company said Sunday.



The battery-making arm of LG Group said the USITC made a "default judgment" or initial determination against SK Innovation Feb. 14 (local time), accepting its claim that the latter attempted to conceal evidence of infringement on its battery-making patents. The USITC is a U.S. government agency that deals with trade-related mandates.



"In November 2019, LG Chem asked the USITC for an early ruling against SK Innovation after it found that SK destroyed evidence that it infringed and stole trade secrets...The default judgment means the organization accepted our claim without having additional hearings or investigations," LG Chem said.



The default judgment is an interim ruling  the USITC is scheduled to make a final ruling by October 5, LG Chem said. If the final determination is in favor of LG, SK Innovation will be unable to sell its battery cells, modules and all related components and materials in the U.S. - a hard blow to the latter, which is building a battery plant in Georgia to supply for Volkswagen's electric vehicles sold in the U.S.



The local battery rivals have been in legal battle since April 2019 after LG filed a pair of lawsuits with the USITC and a U.S. court, respectively, against SK for allegedly stealing battery technology through employee poaching.



LG Chem then said it found over 34,000 files and emails that show SK Innovation tried to tamper with evidence that it stole confidential battery-making trade secrets from LG.





SK Innovation CEO Kim Jun
After twelve years in business, Victoria Beckham has transformed the pipe dream of a pop star into a serious fashion brand complete with its own signature silhouettes and headline attractions. Now shes ready to turn that on its head.

Certainly, the former Spice Girl has found the confidence to push back against the style statements that made her brand a global success story.

This season it was about breaking the rules within the context of the brand codes and losing my inhibitions said Beckham, at a preview for her latest autumn/winter collection, unveiled at London Fashion Week this morning.

The crux of this rebellion is a shorter length with swinging tweed skirts and velvet culottes, cut to skim the knee, among the early takeaways presented on the catwalk today. It marked a change in tact for the designer who has become synonymous with the elegant mid-calf length which put her brand on the map.

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Its exciting for me noted Beckham. I've been playing with it for a while but weve never done it before - I wanted to do it in a way that was wearable, cool and fresh.

This change in direction was about capturing the spirit and attitudes of the Sixties with models Penelope Tree and Marisa Barendon among the sources of inspiration for Beckham this season.

Everything from knitwear, worn layered over exaggerated collar shirts, to kilts to lumberjack style overcoats offered Beckhams customer the chance to outfit herself for all occasions. The introduction of an over-the-knee suede boot, which comes in a host of colourways from lilac to yellow, allowed natty tweed and sweet primrose yellow a hint of sex appeal. While Nineties slip dresses were lent a toughness by tweed overcoats.

Beckhams new heroine is deeply rooted in 2020 with wearability and the contemporary idea that a modern woman wants a wardrobe thats adaptable, global and dynamic very much still this brands beating heart.

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I remember reading that Marisa Barendon used to wear the same clothes from day to the evening - she just put more makeup on said Beckham. Undoubtedly, it's this notion of versatility that underpinned this collection - with a series of all-black and navy dresses, some with high collars, others with plunging deep-v backs - serving as Beckhams answer to the day to night dressing conundrum.

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I cant remember the last time I wore a party dress. Now Im excited said Beckham, citing a balloon-sleeve above-the-knee style among her favourites.

Is Beckham a fashion rebel? Probably not. But shes not resting on her laurels either - be that with a robust fashion business or with her phenomenally successful beauty line which launched last September and is growing at pace.

This mood is encapsulated in the song Boss by Little Simz, which served as a soundtrack for today. Certainly, it took Beckham out of her comfort zone. I had a word with Harper about it before the show she joked backstage, I said there are lots of bad words in this song and you know thats not ok.
The state government was spending Rs 3-4 crore annually on madrasas and about Rs 1 crore on Sanskrit tols.

Guwahati: In what has invited angry reactions from various quarters, the Assam government has taken a decision not to spend public money on religious education by shutting down nearly 614 government aided madrasas and 101 Sanskrit tols (Institutes) and converting them in to high and higher secondary schools.

Teaching Arabic and religious texts is not the governments job. In a secular country, religious teachings cannot be funded by the government, education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

The state government was spending `3-4 crore annually on madrasas and about `1 crore on Sanskrit tols. If religious texts are allowed to be taught in state-run madrasas, the Gita, or for that matter the Bible, should also be taught with government funding, Mr Sarma argued.

Even after closure of aided madrasas, the government has decided to pay salaries to the teachers of these institutions till their retirement. Teachers employed in these madrasas can stay home without having to worry about finding employment elsewhere as government will continue to pay their salaries till their retirement from the service, said the minister while clarifying that madrasas are not targeted on any religious ground. Assam has nearly 900 private madrasas which is funded by the Jamiat Ulama, said the minister hoping that Sanskrit tols may also continue to function a usual.

Jamiat Ulamas legal cell convenor Masud Akhtar Zaman however said that the closure of state-aided madrasas would not affect the private madrasa education system in any way. Our madrasas do not depend on the government for a single rupee. Almost all our students are from BPL families, and we take care of their boarding, food and clothing. Mr Zaman also clarified that there was more to madrasas than religious education.

Two years ago, the government had disbanded the madrasa education and Sanskrit boards to bring all madrasas under Secondary Board of Education, Assam, and the Sanskrit tols under the Kumar Bhaskar Varma Sanskrit and Ancient Studies University in Nalbari. This was apparently done to bring modern education and teaching methods to these traditional institutions.

The website of the erstwhile state madrassa education board defines madrassa as an Arabic word for an educational institution or school imparting education to all, irrespective of religion, caste, creed and gender.
HONESDALE, Pa.  Ask Jeff Abella if he likes coffee, and hell say yes.

Truth is, he can take it or leave it.

It was Mr. Abella, however, who lugged pounds of coffee (and cacao) beans from Cameroon in his suitcase and roasted them in his kitchen toaster oven during a yearlong testing process to create premier coffee and signature chocolate bars.

They are the core products of Moka Origins, the boutique roaster and retailer that Mr. Abella founded with Ishan Tigunait in a former dairy barn on the grounds of the Himalayan Institute, a yoga and meditation retreat in northeastern Pennsylvania.
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Spectacular images have emerged of a derelict Cypriot city which used to be a tourist hotspot and saw celebrities Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Brigitte Bardot wandering its golden beaches.

The Mediterranean resort of Varosha, which is a southern suburb of Famagusta, has been fenced off and abandoned since Turkey invaded Cyprus five days after a Greek-inspired coup on July 15, 1974.

A Greek coup sparked a Turkish invasion of the island on July 20, 1974, and the town has remained eerily silent ever since the second wave invasion a month later.

Windows are smashed through at an abandoned Toyota garage in the closed area of Varosha in Cyprus which has lain empty since the Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974

The Mediterranean resort has been abandoned since the 1974 Turkish invasion of the island that forced residents to flee

The city resembles a post-apocalyptic mood as empty and weathered buildings tower above the scorched ground

A postcard (circa 1970s) titled 'Famagusta Beach' captures the sprawling coastline of the Cypriot city in its former glory

The Turkish invasion drove out 39,000 inhabitants of the city on July 20, 1974, before the Turkish forces took control the area, and has remained derelict ever since.

In 1984 a UN security resolution barred resettlement of the town.

Residents have never returned to their homes or even re-entered the fenced-off area where now only Turkish military are allowed.

Turkish soldiers stand at attention in Varosha. Entry is forbidden with the exception of the Turkish army personnel

Windows and balconies are seen crumbling on a set of high-rise flats in Varosha. They lie behind the empty Hotel Grecian, one of the many well known high rise hotels in the area including the King George Hotel and The Asterias Hotel

The streets lie eerily silent compared to the city's hey-day in the early 1970s which saw celebrities Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton wandering its golden beaches

An abandoned petrol station, which has seen its paint chipped and windows smashed through, is surrounded by overgrown plants

The city, which has become almost trapped in time, is one of the world's most famous ghost towns, attracting photographers from around the world

The distinctive lettering of Lombard Banking remains plastered across a former bank's exterior in Varosha, as it is known in Greek

Taylor and Burton (pictured on The Sandpiper set in 1965) were two stars who visited the Cypriot city in the 70s. In its hey-day, the population grew to nearly 40,000

In its hey-day, the population grew to 39,000 and became a millionaire's playground where they soaked up the rays across vast beaches or on the balconies of their deluxe apartments.

The land alone is expected to be valued at around $100billion, local media reported.

After decades of neglect, high-rise hotels and apartments, restaurants and residences are crumbling, and the land has been reclaimed by overgrown vegetation, although the untouched beach and crystal-clear water look as inviting as ever.

The deserted city has become almost trapped in time and one of the world's most famous ghost towns, attracting photographers from around the world.

Pictured: A deserted cafe, which features a Coca Cola sign overhead at the entrance, and car mechanic lie next to a former Jaguar car garage

A Former UN Secretary tried to allow the city's original inhabitants to return to the city but this was rejected by The Republic of Cyprus in a referendum in 2004

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan tried to allow the city's original inhabitants to return to the city but this was rejected by the The Republic of Cyprus in a referendum in 2004.

Turkish officials met in the abandoned town on February 15 to discuss potentially re-opening the area after 46 years.

Speaking in Varosha after touring the area, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said: 'Keeping this coast of paradise under the sovereignty of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus idle is not acceptable legally, politically or economically.'

It has remained enclosed in barbed wire, uninhabited, and under the control of the Turkish military ever since the conflict in 1974

Buildings are surrounded by overgrown vegetation. Speaking in Varosha on February 15, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said it was not acceptable to keep this coast of paradise idle

Tourists pile on to a beach at the tourist destination. A UN general tried to allow the city's original inhabitants to return to the city but this was rejected by the Greek Cypriots in a referendum in 2004

A recent photo shows a hotel looking worn and faded with broken balconies. Their safety barriers are seen plummeting towards the ground

Turkish officials were continuing their inventory efforts there, he said.

He hopes it is 'revived in a way that will revitalise the economic, trade and social life here'.

Oktay's visit to the region with Turkish officials marks one of the most concrete steps by either side towards re-opening Varosha.

The island of Cyprus was divided in 1974. The island's Greek Cypriots live predominantly in the Republic of Cyprus and Turkish Cypriots in the illegally occupied north since the 1974 war. Several peacemaking efforts have failed and the discovery of offshore resources has complicated the negotiations.
New Delhi, Feb 16 : India is set to host the UN biodiversity summit that will bring together more than 1,200 delegates from over 110 countries to deliberate on the alarming decline of migratory species in Gandhinagar in Gujarat from Monday.

The agenda of the talks include new proposals to mitigate effects of infrastructure on migratory mammals and joining the Gobi bear, the only bear living in the desert, the Persian leopard and the urial, a wild sheep, in the Central Asian mammal species for their protection.

Besides, Indian species like the Asian elephant, the great Indian bustard and the Ganges river dolphin are likely to get more priority in biodiversity conservation.

Roads, railway tracks and fences can create barriers to the movement of animals, many of which are hit and killed by vehicles or trains when attempting to cross, while others get entangled in barbed wire fences and die.

Barriers disrupt habitat connectivity and can lead to genetic isolation, driving populations to local extinction.

Roads, railway lines, and settlements cutting through habitats can also increase disturbance to wildlife, pollute their feeding areas, and ease access for poachers.

Delegates at the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS COP13) will consider the need for guidance and implementation tools to mitigate the impacts of linear infrastructure on migratory species.

CMS is the only United Nations treaty that addresses migratory species and their habitats.

"Migratory species connect the planet and together we welcome them home" will be the theme of the UN wildlife conference dedicated to migratory species. It will conclude on February 22.

Globally, at least 25 million km of new roads are projected for development by 2050, marking a 60 per cent increase from 2010.

Similarly, the development of an additional 3,35,000 km of railway tracks is expected over the next 40 years to accommodate demand for passenger and freight travel.

Given the predicted scale of increase across the world, measures to conserve migratory animals are especially urgent.

To date, CMS Guidelines have advised countries on how to avert linear infrastructure threats to large mammals in Central Asia through the Convention's Central Asian Mammals Initiative.

In the future, guidance and implementation tools will be developed for other regions and CMS-listed species not included in the initiative.

Aquatic species face other threats from different types of infrastructure, including coastal developments such as hotels, restaurants, and roads.

Turtle nesting beaches are at risk while beaches, seawalls and oil platforms also degrade turtle habitats.

Currently, CMS Guidelines deal with underwater noise, but other threats related to infrastructure development are yet to be addressed, say wildlife experts.

The Gobi bear, the only bear living in the desert, the Persian leopard and the urial, a wild sheep, are set to join other Central Asian mammal species already benefiting from international cooperation under the CMS.

The urial is being proposed for listing on Appendix II at CMS COP13, while range states are seeking to include it as well as the Gobi bear and Persian Leopard under the Central Asian Mammals Initiative (CAMI).

In many parts of the species' range, urial populations are declining, have become fragmented and are prone to local extinction.

Currently, CAMI covers 15 species including the Saiga antelope, the snow leopard and the cheetah.

The initiative spans 14 countries from the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan in the west to China in the east.

Central Asia boasts the world's largest intact grasslands, but the scale of this habitat is being threatened by the rapid construction of roads and railways.

Many migratory mammals rely on these large steppe ecosystems and on the region's deserts and mountains for their survival. Linear barriers to migration, coupled with illegal hunting are putting their survival at risk.

Targeting threats from the construction of linear infrastructure is part of a comprehensive package of conservation measures that CAMI range states are expected to adopt at COP13 for the period 2021-2026.

Decisions at CMS COP13 will result in targeted action on aquatic wild meat, which is a fast-emerging threat on a scale similar to that facing terrestrial animals.

The CMS Aquatic Wild Meat Working Group, which has focused mainly on mammals and reptiles, is poised to expand its scope to cover all shark and ray species listed on CMS Appendix I.

Criteria will also be developed to consider aquatic species listed on Appendix II, while more attention will be given to the harvesting of seabirds.

Outcomes expected at CMS COP13 include negotiated decisions, political commitments and new initiatives, including proposals to add 10 new species for protection under the CMS.

These include the Asian elephant, the jaguar, the great Indian bustard, and the smooth hammerhead shark.

Parties will also discuss the adoption of dedicated concerted actions for 12 different species, including the giraffe, the Ganges river dolphin, the common guitarfish and the antipodean Albatross.

(Vishal Gulati can be reached at vishal.g@ians.in)
Delhi voters have shown the way by opting for "real nationalism" and the electorate in Bihar should emulate them to vote out Chief Minister who has no qualms in taking off his "secular veil" on issues such as the CAA, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said on Sunday.



The onus of defeating the "divisive agenda" of the NDA government in Bihar also lies on the opposition that should provide a "formidable and unified" alternative, Yadav told PTI in an interview ahead of his 'Berozgari Hatao Yatra' starting on February 23 with a massive rally in Patna.

He said the 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) was ready to take on the Democratic Alliance (NDA) against its "divisive agenda and 15 years of misrule" in the assembly polls.

" has never criticised the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act), NPR ( Population Register) and the NRC ( Register for Citizens). He didn't utter even a single word on the recent reservation issue. He doesn't have any courage to criticise any of the BJP's policies," the Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly said.

While the Janata Dal (United) helped the Bharatiya Janata Party in getting the citizenship bill passed in Parliament, Kumar only said his government will not implement the NRC in the state, Yadav said.

" is a cunning politician. He knows that once the BJP makes NRC an Act, he can do nothing but comply. Then he will cry over his helplessness in light of constitutional norms. His party could have made a difference during voting for the CAB in Parliament, but there he exhibited his true communal character," the 30-year-old leader said.

The whole exercise of the CAA, NPR and the NRC is for dividing and polarising the nation on religious lines for political gains and Kumar has no qualms in shunning his "secular veil to show his true colours", Yadav alleged.

Talking about the Delhi polls won by the Aam Aadmi Party comprehensively, Yadav said the message was loud and clear not only for the Bihar polls but also for the whole nation that if the government works for necessary amenities and social and financial security, then no diversion will work.

"Welfare of the citizens is real nationalism. Dividing people on communal lines is proving catastrophic for the nation. Youth is on the streets fighting, lynching and abusing. Union ministers are pushing the citizens to indulge in violence against those who are asking questions of the government," the RJD leader said.

Union ministers are delivering veiled "incendiary and communal" speeches against citizens who are protesting, he said.

Voters of Delhi have shown the nation the right path and now it is up to the people of Bihar and the whole country to emulate them, the former Bihar deputy chief minister said.

Delhi elections were assembly polls which should be fought on local and state-level issues, but the way the BJP is trying to rake up national issues every time sets a "very dangerous precedent", Yadav said.

For 15 years in power, Nitish Kumar kept on terming his rule as "sushasan (good governance) and misused state exchequer for filling the coffers of a few obliging media houses to project his image", he alleged.

But with the advent of social media and online news platforms in Bihar, the reality of all claims of good governance in the state was exposed and the corruption of the government was out in the open, the RJD leader said.

He claimed that Kumar's days as the chief minister and a politician are numbered as people will not stand "false propaganda" anymore.

"He (Kumar) has destroyed the education system, health services are in ICU, law and order has completely collapsed, his own MLAs, MPs, Union ministers are questioning the deteriorating law and order, farmers are dejected...And with all these failures he has failed the aspirational citizens of Bihar," Yadav alleged.

"In such a gloomy situation, the only option that this government has is to play communal politics. And Nitish Kumar will ride the same communal bus, but this time communal and divisive politics will not bear any fruit," he asserted.

Talking about his 'Berozgari Hatao Yatra, Yadav said unemployment is the biggest issue that is bothering the educated youth as Bihar has the highest rate of unemployment in the country.

Bihar's unemployment rate is so high that one or two members of almost every family have migrated to other states to find jobs, he claimed.

"Nitish Kumar's 15-year rule had been totally directionless and visionless. He failed to attract a single major investor or any industry worth mentioning. All he could offer to the young people was temporary contract jobs with exploitative fixed salaries," Yadav alleged.

A concerted effort was needed in a planned and systematic manner to create necessary industrial infrastructure and ecosystem to attract large scale investments in the state, he said.

"If voted to power, I will take it upon myself to approach industrial houses and create confidence in them about the infrastructure and environment that will be provided by my government for them," he said.

Rashtriya Janata Dal's relations with Kumar turned bitter after he left the RJD-led grand alliance in July 2017 and joined hands with the BJP to form the government in Bihar.

With curtains coming down on the Delhi Assembly polls, all eyes are now on Bihar elections, slated for October and November this year.
Taiwan reported its first death from the new coronavirus Sunday, as the death toll from the outbreak rose to 1,665 inside mainland China.

A 61-year-old man from central Taiwan with underlying health problems but no recent overseas travel history died in hospital on Saturday after testing positive for the virus, officials confirmed.

It is the fifth recorded death outside mainland China -- previous victims were in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan, and France.

"This latest case was an unlicensed taxi driver. His main clients were people who had been to China, Hong Kong and Macao," health and welfare minister Chen Shih-chung told reporters.

Chen said authorities were examining the driver's client list and their travel history, in an attempt to trace the possible source of infection.

A 50-year-old male relative of the victim was later confirmed to have contracted the virus, Chen added, although he was not showing any symptoms.

Taiwan's confirmed cases now stands at 20.

France reported the first coronavirus fatality outside Asia on Saturday, fuelling global concerns about the epidemic.

Nearly 1,000 Taiwanese are still awaiting repatriation in Hubei province -- the epicentre of the outbreak -- after Beijing and Taipei accused each other of "political manipulation", causing delays.

Taiwan did fly 247 people from Hubei's capital Wuhan on mainland-owned China Eastern Airlines flight on 3 February.

But how that evacuation was carried out caused disagreements.

The relationship between the two is complicated by the fact that Beijing views Taiwanese people as its own citizens, not as foreign nationals.

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A dialogue between the Government Inspectorate and residents in five residential quarters in the three wards of Binh An, An Khanh and Binh Khanh in HCMCs District 2 has been delayed for the second time.

The New City Thu Thiem commercial complex has been developed in the resettlement area for the Thu Thiem New Urban Area project without the prime ministers approval

The HCMC government has announced the delay to the District 2 Peoples Committee, explaining that the city is focusing on the prevention and control of the spread of Covid-19. The time for the dialogue will be announced later, news site Vietnamplus reported.

The District 2 government has been required to inform residents of the delay and cooperate with the relevant agencies to prepare a venue, paperwork and the necessary equipment for the dialogue.

The dialogue was initially scheduled to be held before the Lunar New Year holiday. However, it was delayed so that the city could better prepare for the holiday.

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh had assigned the Government Inspectorate to coordinate with the Ministries of Natural Resources and Environment, Construction, Finance and Justice and the HCMC government to review the complaints of residents in the five residential quarters, hold a dialogue with them, propose solutions in line with the law and report the results to the prime minister before January 1.

At a press briefing early this year, Ha Phuoc Thang, chief of the HCMC government office, stated that the municipal government was building support policies for households within a 4.3-hectare area in Binh An Ward, whose plots of land were ascertained as being outside the boundaries of the project. The city will consult with the relevant agencies and households over the policies and will reach their final conclusions this quarter.

Thang added that the city will announce sanctions for officials who committed violations during the projects execution this month. However, further information has yet to be announced.

Moreover, the city has yet to release information on the reclamation of more than VND26.3 trillion that it had advanced from its budget for the project; the payment of bank loans worth nearly VND4.3 trillion spent on the project; the collection of the unpaid land use fees totaling over VND1.8 trillion, plus interest, from Dai Quang Minh Real Estate Investment JSC; and the audit results of build-transfer projects in the new urban area.

Early this year, the Party Central Committee's Inspection Commission announced the results of its investigation into the violations of the standing board of the HCMC Party Committee during the 2010-2015 tenure and the Party unit of the HCMC government during the 2011-2016 tenure when handling the project.

The offenders, including former secretary of the HCMC Party Committee Le Thanh Hai, and Le Hoang Quan, former deputy secretary of the HCMC Party Committee and former chairman of the municipal government, had flouted working regulations and showed a lack of responsibility, slack leadership and poor supervision, leading to serious violations in the construction of the Thu Thiem New Urban Area.

The violations resulted in heavy losses for the State and negatively affected the countrys socioeconomic development and the livelihoods of many HCMC residents.

Tat Thanh Cang, former deputy secretary of the municipal Party Committee, was found to have violated regulations on land and those on management of investment and construction when he approved a project to build four main roads in the Thu Thiem New Urban Area and initialed a construction contract for these roads while serving as the director of the HCMC Department of Transport. SGT

Govt inspectors to announce boundaries of Thu Thiem urban project before Tet The Government Inspectorate will announce the revised zoning boundaries of five adjacent quarters affected by the controversial Thu Thiem New Urban Area project in District 2, HCMC, ahead of the upcoming Lunar New Year.


Military medical staff airlifted by eight large transport planes of the air force of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) arrive at Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Yun)

President Xi Jinping stressed the importance of securing success in the prevention and control work of the pneumonia epidemic caused by the novel coronavirus, pointing out that the outcome of the epidemic prevention and control directly affects people's lives and health, the overall economic and social stability and the country's opening-up, in an article published Sunday on Qiushi Journal, a flagship magazine of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

The article is the transcript of a speech made by Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on February 3, Xinhua reported.

Analysts noted that Xi, the leader of the Party and the country, is leading the fight against the COVID-19 in a very transparent and responsible manner, directly addressing public discontent and meeting people's expectations. It is very rarely seen that a speech by the president at a senior-level meeting included so many details, direct instructions and harsh criticisms on the problems, especially during the fight against the virus.

At the very beginning of the article, Xi noted that he has made requirements on work to prevent and control the COVID-19 on January 7 since outbreak started while presiding a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Chinese experts said that the CPC Central Committee is playing the most significant role in this war on the virus which needs to mobilize a country with a 1.4 billion population.

"It is impossible to mobilize a huge country in this kind of emergency scenario without top-down efficient decision-making and implementation mechanisms. For instance, the two modernized hospitals in Wuhan won't be built in only a few weeks; a large number of military personnel, including military medical workers won't arrive in Hubei Province so quickly and it is also impossible to mobilize other provinces and municipalities with enough resources and capabilities to precisely assist every single city in Hubei Province," said Song Luzheng, a research fellow at the China Institute of Fudan University in Shanghai.

Without these timely and determined actions that require centralized leadership to coordinate and instruct different provinces, governmental departments, military forces and big state-owned enterprises, it is unimaginable how worse the situation could be and the outbreak would likely to turn into a global megacrisis, Song noted.





Centralized leadership

Xi stressed that centralized leadership over epidemic prevention and control should be strengthened.

The article noted that "Party committees and governments at all levels must firmly obey the centralized leadership of the CPC Central Committee," epidemic prevention and control is not an issue only related to medical care, but works of all aspects. It is a comprehensive war, and all effort must lend support to winning this battle in preventing and controlling the epidemic.

The implementation of the CPC Central Committee's instructions at all levels is generally good, the article noted, but also stressed the need to strengthen areas of weakness and close loopholes exposed by the current epidemic.

Shen Yi, head of Fudan University's Cyberspace Governance Research Institute, said that the article shows an honest and transparent attitude, as a very serious problem that was exposed since the beginning of the outbreak is that "a few officials at local level governments didn't effectively implement the instructions from the CPC Central Committee and also didn't reflect the real situation at the time."

"The CPC Central Committee is aware of a situation on January 7, but due to this kind of problem(inefficient implementation), it caused some loopholes and mistakes, and fortunately the Party has a strong capability of self-correction, and now the damage over the credibility of the government has been generally fixed and recovered," Song said.

The article also emphasized the importance of taking control of the narrative and winning over public opinion at home and abroad.

There must be closer monitoring and assessment of public opinion, proactively speaking out and giving positive guidance, and law-enforcement must crack down on people who spread rumors and stir trouble, the article noted.

Seize the initiative and effectively shape international opinion, win the understanding and support amongst the international community, read the article.

Xi stressed the current fight against the epidemic is "a major test of China's system and capacity for governance."

In the fourth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee that was held last year, the Party has already pointed out the importance of advancing the modernization of China's system and capacity for governance, and the COVID-19 is exactly a chance, a pressure test, for exposure of the system's problems and weaknesses, and the Party must seize it and use it to improve its governance strategies, said Shen.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 11:18:45|Editor: xuxin

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Workers make carnival float at a workshop of Unidos de Vila Maria samba school in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Feb. 14, 2020. Each year in Brazil's most famous Carnival celebrations, competing samba schools will pick a topic to base their performance on, and this year the 2,500-member Unidos de Vila Maria chose China. (Photo by Rahel Patrasso/Xinhua)

SAO PAULO, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- "United we are strong" is the message that Unidos de Vila Maria samba school wants to share at this year's Carnival parade held in Rio de Janeiro, said Cristiano Bara, the school's artistic director.

"It's an example set for us by China, which has succeeded in uniting 56 ethnic groups to become the strong country it is today," Bara told Xinhua.

Each year in Brazil's most famous Carnival celebrations, competing samba schools will pick a topic to base their performance on, and this year the 2,500-member Unidos de Vila Maria chose China.

China's evolution from a millenary civilization to a modern economic powerhouse will be told through dance, music and eye-popping costumes at the Carnival.

Spectators can expect to see a parade of elaborate floats featuring Chinese cultural icons, including dragons, pandas, pagodas and the teachings of philosopher Confucius, as well as aspects of China's rich multiethnic society and contemporary life.

In order to better illustrate the Chinese story, Bara, creator of the performance, and Adilson Jose Souza, president of Unidos de Vila Maria, traveled to five Chinese cities to experience the country, sponsored by the Brazil-China Sociocultural Institute.

"We needed to be in China to feel the emotions, get to know the people, and see the plazas and smart cities," said Bara.

They also attended a special presentation of Peking opera, and borrowed some elements of the performance for their own show, which Bara described as "an open-air opera."

The school is set to hold its parade on Feb. 22, with the participation of some 350 Chinese people living in Brazil.

Bara shared some of the highlights of the performance, such as inventions from China, from gunpowder and porcelain to 5G technology.

"To talk about China, we will talk about its 5,000 years of history, its dragons and its contribution to the planet. It's not an isolated China. It's a China for the world," Bara said.
Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Sunday inaugurated the India Pavilion at 25th Edition of the GulFood 2020 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), an official release said here.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal took a tour of the fair and interacted with the Indian exhibitors and urged them to make use of the platform of GulFood 2020 for facilitating tie-ups between foreign investors and accelerate the pace of export of food products from India to the western market, according to the release.

Badal motivated the exhibitors to increasingly focus on 'Make in India' and also provide organic solutions to further increase the country's exports.

Badal said: "India and UAE have been amongst largest trading partners for the last several years. Currently, UAE is the third-largest trading partner of India with bilateral trade reaching US Dollar 59.909 in 2018-19".

She held meetings with the companies, involved in food business in the UAE. Based on the discussions it was proposed to explore the possibility of setting up a fund for providing marketing support to launch Indian products in the UAE supermarkets.

She said: "A number of steps have been taken to improve the environment of ease of doing business under the 'Make in India' initiative of Prime Minister which focuses on making India a global manufacturing hub. The regulatory mechanism for food-related industries in India has been aligned with the international standards making the Indian exports more acceptable to the global markets. "

Badal also informed the delegates that India is a huge and promising market with 1.3 billion population, increasing purchasing power, adequate availability of raw materials, availability of young and skilled manpower and a number of fiscal incentives that are being offered by the Indian Government for encouraging investments in this sector.

She said: "While India is rich in production of food grains, fruits, vegetables, and milk but lacks in processing infrastructure whereas UAE has surplus funds and technology available to create such facilities but lacks in the availability of raw material. Thus a partnership between India and UAE can ensure Food Security for the Gulf nation in the times to come.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Trump insisted no troops were seriously injured in Iraq, but a Philly vets final words show the true cost of war.

By Helen Ubinas

February 15, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - Its been six weeks since Rosalind Williams 30-year-old son, Army veteran Corey Michael Hadley, took his own life.

When grieving the death of a child, thats a moment. A blink of an eye, a flip of a calendar. Barely enough time for Williams to pick herself up and return to her Northeast High School classroom where she teaches science.

And yet in that small window, 900 other military parents have been dealt the same blow  left behind to try to find the rhythm of a life that theyve lost after losing their children to suicide. According to the most recent data from the Department of Veterans Affairs, about 20 veterans, active-duty service members and members of the National Guard and Reserve, die by their own hand every day.

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In the quiet that followed the initial flurry of collective shock and grief after his death on Jan. 2, Williams sat with her anguish. She went through old photographs, collected new ones from his funeral and military interment. She read, and reread, the numerous news stories written about her son after the family spoke unsparingly about his death.

His wounds were slow-acting and invisible, but nonetheless crippling and fatal, the family said in a statement that spoke of his struggles with depression and PTSD after six years and three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Just as she did when she and the family struggled to find the right way and words to describe the loss of her son, Williams has continued to consider the cause of his death. His PTSD and the mental-health issues that medicines and other interventions failed to help  those were merely symptoms, torturous as they were, of what really ailed him. Instead, his mother believed: What finally cost him his life was the traumatic brain injury he suffered after the Army sharpshooters multiple deployments. Even in his final letter to his family, which she read aloud to me at her dining-room table, he spoke about it.

Im so sorry for doing this to you, Hadley wrote. I am so grateful to have been born into a loving, strong family.

"Sadly Im not as strong as you may think I am. I have endured for as long as I could. My brain feels as though its swelling within my head. My ankles do not support my weight causing me to lose balance often and my heart ... my heart feels as though there is a black hole in the center of it sucking in all positive emotions allowing them to never leave and me never truly feeling happiness.

Hadleys family knew his mental health had deteriorated after the infantryman and sharpshooter returned home in 2013. But the wounds he and so many others experience remain invisible to many, including the president of the United States.

In January, Trump announced that no Americans were harmed when Iran fired over a dozen ballistic missiles at U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. Even after the Pentagon said 34 U.S. troops were diagnosed with concussions or traumatic brain injury following the attack, he downplayed the injuries and said compared with people with no legs and no arms, they were not very serious injuries. He only doubled down after it was recently announced that 109 U.S. troops were diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury from the attack.
Former Maharashtra chief minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday challenged the Shiv Sena to contest polls again and claimed that his party will defeat the ruling alliance of Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena.

"I challenge you (Shiv Sena) to fight elections again if you are so confident. BJP will defeat Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena in the polls on its own," he said at an event here.

In October last year, Shiv Sena contested elections in coalition with the BJP and the alliance got a majority, but the long-term partners parted ways over the issue of rotational chief ministership, with Shiv Sena demanding chief ministership for half of the five year term.

Later, Sena joined hands with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress to form the government.

Taking a jibe at Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray over his Ayodhya visit, Fadnavis said: "Now many people are going to Ayodhya. After going there, I hope your blood will boil and Shri Ram will show you the real path of Hindutva and ideology of Balasaheb Thackeray."

The BJP leader also accused some parties of creating a divide in the society over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

"Under (Prime Minister) Modiji's leadership, we have seen abrogation of Article 370. People were saying there will be blood on the street after this, but now go and see there is a hope of development in Kashmir," he said.

Fadnavis also extended gratitude to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for transferring Bhima Koregaon case to Investigation Agency (NIA).

"I thank Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for transferring Bhima Koregaon case to NIA. Sharad Pawar was opposing it as he feared that the truth will come out of the NIA investigation," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New York: A 14-year-old boy has been arrested and charged in the stabbing death of a New York university student, authorities said Saturday, in a case that is being closely watched due to its racial dynamics.

Tessa Majors, 18, a freshman at Barnard College, was attacked by three teens as she walked through Morningside Park on December 11.

The park separates the prestigious Barnard College and Columbia University from Harlem, the predominantly black neighborhood in Manhattan's northwest.

Majors, who was white, was found just outside the park bleeding heavily, the criminal complaint said. She had been stabbed multiple times in the chest and died at a hospital.

Rashaun Weaver, 14, who is black, was accused of stabbing Majors. He had been wanted for several weeks and was arrested without incident Friday night.

Weaver will be tried as an adult on second-degree murder and robbery charges, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said.

"We are confident that we have the person in custody who stabbed her, and that person will face justice in a court of law," New York police chief Dermot Shea told a news conference.

Vance said investigators have video and DNA evidence and suggested the suspect had incriminated himself on an audio recording.

A 13-year-old alleged accomplice was also charged but will be tried in juvenile court.

The events evoke memories of the 1989 "Central Park Five" case, when five black and Hispanic teens were wrongly convicted and sentenced to prison for the rape and assault of a white female jogger in the famous park.

Vance suggested the sensitivities of the latest case contributed, in part, to the delay in charging Weaver.

"We're dealing with a 14 year old and we will be very careful to safeguard all the rights that he has as we go forward with this case," he said.

"I want New Yorkers to know that we are recommitting today to fairness in this case, because only a fair process will result in true justice for Tessa Majors."
Chinese coronavirus Reuters

The further development of the epidemic caused by coronavirus cannot be predicted. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, stated this at the Munich Security Conference, UNN reported.

It is impossible to predict in which direction the coronavirus epidemic will go, he said. The head of WHO, in particular, expressed concern about the impact of the epidemic on countries with weak health systems.

In this regard, he called on the world community to show solidarity in the fight against coronavirus.

Ghebreyesus also drew attention to other issues of concern of WHO. We are worried about the growing number of cases in China and the reports that came yesterday from China about the number of infected or deceased health workers, he said.

WHO is also worried about the insufficient response of the world community to the call for funds to fight against coronavirus and the acute shortage of protective antiviral drugs for health workers.

The CEO stressed the vital need for all countries to invest in preparatory activities regarding dangerous ailments.

We are sending money to fight the epidemic, and when it ends, we forget about it and do nothing to prevent the next epidemic, the head of WHO said.

He recalled that the world spends billions of dollars to prevent terrorist attacks, and the costs of preventing virus attacks are relatively small, although viruses can be much more deadly.

Ghebreyesus called on all countries to prepare for the possible further spread of coronavirus.
Now that the heat and dust of Azerbaijans parliamentary election on February 9thhas settled, a new generation of administrators are focusing on accelerating the pace of reforms under President Ilham Aliyev, who has ambitious plans to further modernise its economy and diversify its energy sources. As Modern Diplomacy writes, oil and gas account for about 95 percent of Azerbaijans exports and 75 percent of government revenue, with the hydrocarbon sector alone generating about 40 percent of the countrys economic activity. Apart from providing oil to Europe, Azerbaijan successfully completed the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) with Turkey in November 2019 to transfer Azerbaijani gas to Europe.

Yet, with an eye on the future, the country has also begun to take huge strides in renewable energy. Solar and wind power projects have been installed, with their share in total electricity generation already reaching 17 percent. By 2030, this figure is expected to hit 30 percent.

Solar power plants currently operate in Gobustan and Samukh, as well as in the Pirallahi, Surahani and Sahil settlements in Baku.

The potential of renewable energy sources in Azerbaijan is over 25,300 megawatts, which allows generating 62.8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. Most of this potential comes from solar energy, which is estimated at 5,000 megawatts. Wind energy accounts for 4,500 megawatts, biomass is estimated at 1,500 megawatts, and geothermal energy at 800 megawatts.

President Aliyev has supported the drive for renewable energy. He signed a decree in 2019 to establish a commission for implementing and coordinating test projects for the construction of solar and wind power plants.

Azerbaijans focus on renewable energy has drawn interest from its European partners, with leading French companies seeking to invest in the countrys solar and wind electricity generation.

Azerbaijan is Frances main economic and trade partner in the South Caucasus. According to French ambassador Zacharie Gross, the French Development Agency is ready to invest in Azerbaijans green projects, such as solid waste management. This would allow using new cleaner technologies to reduce solid waste. This is beneficial for the environment and the local population.

I believe that one of the areas that have greatest development potential is urban services sector. An improved water distribution system can reduce the amount of water consumed, improve its quality, and also solve the problem of flood waters in winter, the French ambassador added.

Azerbaijan is currently a low emitter of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. According to the European Commission, the country released 34.7 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in 2018, i.e. just 3.5 tons per capita. This is lower than the norm adopted by the world: 4.9 tons.

In contrast, in 2018 Kazakhstan generated 309.2 million tons of CO2, Ukraine generated 196.8 million tons,Uzbekistan101.8 million tons, and Belarus 64.2 million tons.

And the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by Azerbaijan has been consistently falling. In 1990, Azerbaijan emitted 73.3 million tons, but in 2018 this had dropped to 34.7 million tons. By 2030 the country plans to reduce its annual greenhouse gases emissions by a further 35 percent.

Measures taken by the government include the early introduction of Euro-4 fuel standards in Azerbaijan, with A-5 standards to be introduced from 2021. An increasing number of electric buses and taxis are now transporting passengers in the main cities.

Another key step is the clean-up of the environmental degradation caused by over 150 years of oil production. Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR is helping to recover oil-contaminated lands in Absheron Peninsula, particularly in the once critically contaminated area around Boyukshor Lake. This involves the removal of millions of cubic metres of soil contaminated with oil.

Azerbaijan is also reducing the amount of gas it wastes in flaring. In a study funded by the European Commission, Azerbaijan ranks first among 10 countries exporting oil to the EU in the effective utilisation of associated petroleum gas.The emission of associated gases decreased by 282.5 million cubic meters from 2009 through till 2015. This is expected to fall further to 95 million cubic meters by 2022.

The government is also encouraging large-scale greening of the land. In December 2019, a mass tree-planting campaign was initiated by First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva to celebrate the 650thanniversary of famous Azerbaijani poet Imadeddin Nasimi. 650,000 trees were planted nationwide, including 12,000 seedlings that were delivered by ship to Chilov Island.

A 2018 survey, carried out in cooperation with Turkish specialists, found that forest area is 1.2 million square meters in Azerbaijan, i.e. 11.4 percent of the total area ofthe country.A new requirement was introduced last year to halt deforestation and to reduce the negative impact of business projects on the environment.

For a country with the 20th largest oil reserves in the world, Azerbaijan could well have chosen to stick to a hydrocarbon future. But it has instead dared to think beyond oil and gas in its energy, transportation, economy and environment. The country is setting a template that should inspire other large oil producers to emulate.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Friday sought Jawaharlal Nehru Universitys response on a plea challenging the varsitys decision to change selection criteria for vacant teaching positions in its Centre for Historical Studies (CHS) after the posts were advertised. While issuing notice to JNU seeking its stand on the petition, Justice A K Chawla directed the varsity not to fill the advertised vacancies till the next date of hearing on May 6.

The plea was moved by professors, Sucheta Mahajan and Mahalakshmi Ramakrishnan, who contended that the varsity illegally and unilaterally altered the selection criteria for posts of assistant professor in CHS during the selection process. The petitioners said that the varsity, represented by Central government standing counsel Monika Arora and advocate Harsh Ahuja, also shortlisted candidates for the posts based on the new criteria.

The petition sought quashing of the list of candidates shortlisted on the basis of the new diluted criteria and the interviews conducted thereafter. It contended that JNU, after advertising the posts along with requisite qualifications, decided to dilute the criteria during selection process by asking the screening committee to remove need of specialisations. The petition has claimed that by removing the requirement of specialisation, the varsity has rendered the posts as open posts for which someone with a Masters degree can also apply. It said that interviews of the illegally shortlisted candidates were carried out on February 11-12, but no appointments have been made.
The management denied social media rumours that "a Chinese girl" who works at one of the companies at Citystars was infected with coronavirus

The management of Cairo's Citystars mega mall denied on Saturday rumours circulated on social media about the appearance of a coronavirus case at the mall.

"We deny [the rumour] and we confirm that the mall is operating normally," the management said in a statement posted on its Facebook page.

A day earlier, screenshots of text messages on WhatsApp, attributed to a doctor, went viral on social media platforms as the messages claimed that "a Chinese girl" who works at one of the companies at Citystars was confirmed to be infected with coronavirus.

In addition to denying what was stated in these messages, the Citystars management stressed that it "will be the first to announce the truth for the safety of our visitors and employees," and asked social media users "not to share rumours and wrong information."

Also on Friday, Egypt's health ministry and the World Health Organisation issued a joint statement reporting the first confirmed case of coronavirus was detected in Egypt, adding that the infected person was a foreigner, without providing further details.

"The person tested positive for the quick-spreading virus but had no symptoms so far," said the health ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed.

The detection of the case was due to "the measures taken by the ministry that includes an electronic programme to register and follow up on those who arrive in Egypt from countries inflicted with the virus and through teams that monitor them daily."

The viral virus first surfaced in December in Wuhan, China, and has since spread to many other countries around the world.

According to the Chinese National Health Commission, the death toll rose to 1,523 on Friday, with most of the new deaths in central Hubei province, in particular the provincial capital of Wuhan.

The total confirmed infections across China now stand at 66,492 after 2,641 new cases were confirmed, the National Health Commission said.

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Fatima Babagana

When Fatima Babagana, a student of the University of Maiduguri, joined her uncle for a ride from Maiduguri, she probably did not know that she would not make it to Postiskum, her destination in Yobe.

Babagana was among the 30 people killed when Boko Haram attacked stranded travellers in Auno last week.

In an interview with CNN, Babaganas uncle, who reportedly did not want his name to be mentioned, said the insurgents launched the attack when most of them were asleep.

He said his niece, who wanted to be a journalist, was shot in the head because the attackers could see the light from her phone which she was fiddling when they struck.

He said they ended up spending the night at Auno because on their way to Potiskum, soldiers at a roadblock in Benisheikh, a town 45 miles west from Maiduguri, ordered them to go back for their safety.

Babaganas uncle said the officers had warned them that they could be ambushed by Boko Haram. He said they heeded the militarys advice and quickly turned back without knowing that a more perilous journey was ahead.

They traveled for another hour before encountering another military blockade in Auno village, one of the gateways into Maiduguri, and they decided to sleep in the car till the next morning.



Fatima was sitting in the backseat and typing on her phone. They saw the light from the phone because it was very dark. Next thing I knew, they had shot her in the head, he reportedly said.

Babaganas uncle said while the insurgents kept shooting at people in the attack that lasted for about four hours, he and his friend, who was also in the car, managed to escape into the bush.

He said they would later see smoke billowing from where they had fled from.



I wept all night. I kept thinking about what these terrorists would have done to her and others that were there, CNN quoted him as saying.

Babaganas uncle said when they returned to the scene of the attack on Monday morning, the cars were still burning.



We tried to put out the fire, but we were helpless. It was just too hot, he said.

Speaking when he visited the scene of the attack, Babagana Zulum, Borno governor, accused soldiers meant to secure the community of deserting the people around 5pm on a daily basis.



I am not undermining the capacity of the military but we have made repeated appeal for the military to establish their unit in Auno, he had said.



They are here but as soon as it is 5 pm, they close the gate and lock the people and go back to Maiduguri. This is not right.

President Muhammadu Buhari visited Borno to condole with the people over the killings but he did not get to Auno.

Angry residents had booed Buhari in Maiduguri.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 11:51:48|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government is arranging chartered flight to take the Hong Kong residents under quarantine on board a cruise ship in Japan back to Hong Kong free of charge soonest possible after they are permitted to disembark and land, the HKSAR government's Security Bureau said on late Saturday.

Once the Japanese authorities have confirmed the detailed arrangements, the HKSAR government will inform the affected Hong Kong residents details of the return date and related arrangements as soon as possible, said a spokesman for the Security Bureau.

Taking into consideration the potential risk on public health, the persons concerned will be arranged to stay at quarantine center for 14 days upon their arrival in Hong Kong.

The HKSAR government's Immigration Department (ImmD) officers are concurrently notifying all of the concerned Hong Kong residents the above arrangements by text messages.

The ImmD and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Tokyo have been maintaining close contact with the Office of the Commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the HKSAR, the Chinese Embassy in Japan, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, to keep abreast of the updated conditions of those Hong Kong residents under quarantine on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship docking in Yokohama, Japan. The HKSAR government will continue to urge the Japanese side to confirm the detailed arrangements for the disembarkation of the passengers on board as soon as possible, said the spokesman.

The cruise ship has been kept in quarantine after the sudden outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

According to the information provided by the cruise operator, there are around 330 Hong Kong residents on board.
COLUMBIA  Teachers across South Carolina view the freshman Democratic senator who has spent the past five weeks fighting a bill aimed at modernizing the state's struggling education system as their hero.

The teachers' advocacy group SC for Ed holds up Sen. Mike Fanning as the only legislator standing up for proposals that help teachers, such as lowering class sizes and drastically reducing required testing.

After all, Fanning is the Legislature's only doctorate-degree educator. And the Fairfield Country Democrat continues to tell the group that organized last year's 10,000-strong protest  where he urged teachers to march around the Statehouse like Israelites conquering Jericho  that his colleagues are working against them.

But to other legislators who insist they're trying to help teachers with a 60-plus-page bill that starts to address South Carolina's education woes, the fiery orator is an impediment to anything getting done. Since debate began last month, Fanning has introduced dozens of amendments and spent hours speaking about them on the floor. Dozens more are expected.

But his main impediment, critics said, is spreading misleading information.

"I just think it's disingenuous when that misinformation is being put out to alarm the teachers," Sen. Ronnie Cromer, R-Newberry, told Fanning in a back-and-forth exchange over allegations spread over social media that the bill could result in teachers being paid less next year.

"That misinformation caused an awful lot of heartburn for a lot of us," Cromer said, noting the emails he received from teachers mentioned Fanning by name. "We're not doing anything to try to harm them. There's no reason to put that information out."

The confusion involved a section of the bill that struck three-decade-old references in state law to teachers' pay. Fanning unsuccessfully proposed restoring the "historic language" to soothe concerns. GOP senators called it unnecessary, noting the budget annually sets teachers' minimum pay, and a separate state law prevents their salaries from decreasing.

"You keep insinuating were going to lower teachers' salaries," Cromer said. "Thats just not going to happen."

That was just one of the unusually hostile exchanges last week in a Senate chamber where rules demand politeness.

When Sen. Wes Climer, R-Rock Hill, told Fanning his criticisms were "not made in good faith," he was reminded he's not allowed to question another senator's motives.

Fanning had proposed inserting a $3,000-per-teacher pay raise into the bill, to which his colleagues again asserted that's a budget issue. When they rejected it, saying they have every intention of raising teachers' pay in the budget, Fanning admonished them for not proving it by their vote.

"We had a chance to do something bold here today," he said, looking up to teachers with SC for Ed watching from the gallery. "If youve talked to your teachers back home, you know they need a shot in the arm."

He noted thousands of teachers are fleeing the profession yearly, creating a teacher shortage crisis.

Gov. Henry McMaster proposed the $3,000 salary hike in December, representing the second consecutive substantial hike in what House Speaker Jay Lucas has pledged will be five-year effort to bring teacher pay above the national average. The House's budget-writing committee is expected to include the required $213 million in their budget plan.

"What youre saying is we voted against a pay raise. We didnt," Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, told Fanning, noting the blasts going out over social media. "This bill couldnt have done that."

"There are people listening to you. There are people who believe what you say," Massey continued. "You know this because I think you're using this to your advantage.  What you said is not accurate."

SC for Ed continues to call for the bill's demise, as they applaud Fanning for working to kill it  even as Fanning insists he's only trying to turn the bill into something teachers can support.

One of the group's top priorities is lowering class sizes, something GOP legislators have been reluctant to do, saying the state needs more teachers first.

That, along with pay raises, less testing and unencumbered planning time, are among eight items SC for Ed has given legislators until mid-March to address. Without substantial movement on the list, there will be another major protest, the group insists.

Meanwhile, another teacher advocacy group tentatively supports the bill  as long as things aren't tacked on later it considers anti-public education.

Provisions applauded by the South Carolina Education Association include those that double teacher supply stipends, boost scholarships for future teachers, bar administrators from assigning teachers non-classroom duties, restore additional pay for teachers with a national credential and require a 30-minute daily break for elementary school teachers.

"My fear is some of these things weve worked very hard to get in the bill  if they dont pass, theyll be gone for our teachers forever," said SCEA president Sherry East, who has worked to counter misinformation with her own videos posted on social media.

Much of teachers' criticism has been that they were not consulted in writing the bill, which passed the House overwhelmingly last year. SC for Ed wants legislators to scrap it and start over with teachers at the table.

East said it's not fair at this point to assert legislators aren't listening.

The Senate education panel that spent the bulk of last year reviewing the bill section-by-section held four evening hearings across the state so teachers could attend. And House leaders met with teachers around the state in the off-session.

And legislators have consulted directly with East as well as representatives of the Palmetto State Teachers Association.

"They werent included in the beginning, but we have been included since then," she said. "Is it perfect? No.  But you're getting a lot of things we wanted to see. The big thing we haven't seen is class sizes. Is that worth a walkout?"
Two months into Will Crains term as a Louisiana Supreme Court justice, the bad blood from the campaign trail has yet to wash away.

Crain won a seat on the high court late last year with a campaign that portrayed him as a strict constitutionalist and a conservative who had won the respect of the public during 10 years on district and appeals courts.

He had endorsements and financial support from big business, as the powerful Louisiana Association for Business and Industry and oil and gas associations backed him.

But Crains campaign made what now appears to have been a costly mistake with a mailer in the lead-up to the Nov. 16 runoff that took aim at John Carmouche  a lawyer known both for his aggressive lawsuits against the oil and gas industry for decades of damage and erosion, and for his extravagant financing of Supreme Court candidates believed to be sympathetic to those lawsuits.

Carmouche had laid a heavy bet on Crains opponent, 5th Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Hans Liljeberg. He and his law partners poured $445,000 into a political action committee that backed Liljeberg; a second PAC largely funded by Carmouche spent another $300,000 on him.

+3 Secret complaints are not so secret in bare-knuckled Louisiana Supreme Court race In a state Supreme Court race in which transparency over judicial misconduct has become a major issue, multiple secret complaints alleging eth

The offending mailer from Crains committee asked why trial lawyer John Carmouche would spend so much money to try to elect Liljeberg. But now that Crain is on the high court, Carmouches firm is using the flyer to argue that the new justice should be recused from all of the firms pending cases.

The majority of Supreme Court justices agreed, according to court documents released this week, and forced Crain to sit out from two cases involving the Talbot, Carmouche and Marcello law firm.

The outcome is laced with irony  raising the prospect that Crain will be sidelined from the very cases that drive outsized spending and interest in Supreme Court elections.

+11 Forget the ads: Big oil vs. trial lawyers is real fight in Louisiana Supreme Court race Advertisements in the runoff for an open seat on the Louisiana Supreme Court show candidates Will Crain and Hans Liljeberg grilling on patios,

Though legacy and coastal lawsuits comprise a small percentage of the Supreme Courts docket, they are among the states most expensive and consequential cases, and the high court has been narrowly divided on how to regard them. Billions of dollars could be on the line for oil and gas companies.

Crain received the industrys backing in hopes that he would tilt more toward oil and gas than would Carmouches preferred candidate, Liljeberg. But the flyer flap raises the possibility that industry won the battle and lost the war, with Crain potentially out of the picture for deciding the cases that oil and gas companies care about most.

Reached for this story, Crain declined to comment and pointed to an affidavit he filed into the record when the court forcibly recused him late last month.

I do not harbor any hostility towards either parties or their attorneys in the captioned cases, which might impair my ability to be fair and impartial, Crain wrote in the affidavit.

Crain filed the affidavit after Chief Justice Bernette Johnson signed off on the recusal motion from Carmouches law partner, Victor Marcello.

Marcello told The Advocate that the recusal motions detailed the entirety of our position on the matter. He did not respond to questions about whether the firm would file more recusal motions against Crain in the future.

Crains recusal is just the latest chapter in a multiyear fight over how much influence Carmouches firm exerts over the high court.

In another twist, the Supreme Court justice who might most empathize with Crain over the forced recusals was himself accused of trying to undermine Crains campaign for the Supreme Court as part of the proxy war between trial lawyers and big business: Jefferson Hughes.

Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Jefferson Hughes III denies payoff allegation from ex-Hammond councilman Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Jefferson Hughes III acknowledges that he visited a former Hammond city councilman at his home last week to qu

Supreme Court justices forcibly recused Hughes in 2016 from two legacy lawsuits involving Carmouches law firm, citing Carmouches heavy spending to back Hughes through a political action committee in the 2012 Supreme Court race.

Hughes responded with a federal lawsuit against his fellow Supreme Court justices, which a federal judge later dismissed, saying the justices had immunity under the 11th Amendment.

Its unclear what behind-the-scenes machinations took place after that, but the 2016 recusals did not turn into a pattern. Hughes has since taken part in other legacy lawsuit cases, including those involving Carmouches firm.

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But Hughes also came under fire amid Crains Supreme Court campaign last year. A former Hammond city councilman, Johnny Blount, alleged in an affidavit that Hughes showed up at his home, told him that backing Liljeberg over Crain could be more financially rewarding for him and offered him $5,000.

Hughes acknowledged that he visited Blount and questioned him about his support in the Supreme Court race, but said he never personally offered Blount money to switch his allegiance.

Ex-Hammond councilman claims state Supreme Court justice offered him $5K to flip allegiance in race A former Hammond city councilman is claiming in a sworn affidavit that Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Jefferson Hughes III paid him a house c

Crain had plenty of deep-pocketed support in the Supreme Court race: PACs for LABI, the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, the Louisiana Midcontinent Oil and Gas Association and other business groups were all behind him.

Had one of those outside PACs run the negative mailer linking Carmouche to Liljeberg and Hughes, Crain could have sidestepped questions about whether he was personally biased against Carmouches firm.

Thats what third parties do, said Scott Wilfong, a GOP operative who ran the Republican Judiciary PAC that supported Liljeberg in the 2019 race.

I ran a complete third-party effort; I was not affiliated with the Liljeberg campaign and I got tough on Will Crain, said Wilfong, who previously worked to elect both Hughes and Jimmy Genovese to the Supreme Court. But that was all my decision, not Liljeberg. With all the outside money helping Will Crain, its silly that he felt like he had to do this  that is, have his own campaign put out an anti-Carmouche flyer.

The mailer, featuring scattered photos of Carmouche, Hughes and Liljeberg, warned voters of a Hans hoax, and asked: Why would one law firm want to control the Supreme Court?

Carmouches firm cited the mailer in two writ applications pending before the Supreme Court. In one, Carmouches firm asked the Supreme Court to grant a writ; in the other, it asked the court to deny a writ from his oil and gas company opponents.

Both cases involved plaintiff Global Marketing Solutions LLC, which is suing over 144 acres of Iberville Parish land that it alleged was contaminated by the oil and gas industry. Defendants included Chevron USA Inc., Blue Mill Farms Inc. and other oil and gas companies.

The advertisement at issue in this motion is unprecedented ... it is a malicious and baseless attack ad run by a sitting judge and candidate for higher judicial office against a specific lawyer for supporting his opponent, Marcello wrote in the recusal motion against Crain.

In battle over forced recusals, Louisiana Supreme Court justice takes his case to federal court In an unusual legal skirmish, Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Jeff Hughes filed a federal lawsuit over the holidays against four of his fellow

The recusal motion also took issue with the ads depiction of an unidentified man dressed up as an underworld mafioso figure.

The intended message of this attack ad leaves little to the imagination: Carmouche is accused of being an underworld figure seeking to buy and control the Supreme Court to ensure success in his legacy cases, the recusal motion reads.

Crains recusal case is similar to one that the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal decided last year involving state district Judge Marilyn Castle of Lafayette. Castle, another LABI-backed candidate, ran a flyer during her 2016 bid for the Supreme Court that cast doubt on the motives of personal-injury law firms who were donating money to a PAC that backed her opponent, Genovese.

One of the firms Castles campaign called out, Broussard and David, later asked to recuse Castle from a pending case, saying that the mailer proved her bias against them. The 3rd Circuit agreed in May of last year, writing that it was unlikely a client could believe in a judges impartiality when the sitting trial judge hearing her case has published such an ad directly naming and attacking her attorneys.

How the term trial lawyer became a vicious attack this campaign season in Louisiana The commercials start with victims and villains: an innocent woman driving safely, a reckless tractor-trailer driver who strikes her car, an i

Carmouches firm cited the 3rd Circuit case in their motion to recuse Crain.

In signing off on Crains recusal, the Louisiana Supreme Court did not list reasons for doing so. Johnson simply signed an order granting the motion based on the facts and circumstances of this matter.

Two justices dissented: Scott Crichton and James Boddie, a retired judge who is sitting ad hoc for Justice Marcus Clark, who recently announced that he was stepping down from the Supreme Court.

A campaign mailer such as the one at issue here cannot  and should not  be the basis of recusal, Crichton wrote in his dissent. The majoritys decision to grant recusation under these circumstances, notwithstanding our colleagues sworn statement, is misguided, if not patently wrong, as neither federal case law or state law requires it.

Crains votes on the writ applications from Carmouches firm would not have made a difference, had he not been recused. The court unanimously denied the writ that Carmouche requested. The majority granted the writ that attorneys for Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Key Production Co. asked for, with a dissent from Hughes.
Supreme Court judge Justice D Y Chandrachud on Saturday termed dissent a safety valve of democracy and warned that blanket labelling of dissent as anti-national strikes at the heart of our commitment to the protection of constitutional values.

He also said the employment of state machinery to curb dissent instills fear and creates a chilling atmosphere on free speech.

Justice Chandrachuds comments come in the backdrop of street protests and campus unrest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Register of Citizens across the country, and the government crackdown on protesters in some states.

Delivering the 15th P D Desai Memorial Lecture at the Gujarat High Court auditorium in Ahmedabad, Justice Chandrachud cautioned that a democratically elected government can never claim a monopoly over the values and identities that define our plural society.

Emphasising the protection of deliberative dialogue as essential to democracy, Justice Chandrachud said, Beyond the rights-based procedures and goal-based outcomes of our Constitution is the commitment to deliberation that incorporates the diverse views of all stakeholders concerned, including those who do not support the law.

The fine balance between majoritarianism and liberal democratic governance, Justice Chandrachud argued, is marked by constitutional principles wedded to the rule of law that guarantee individual freedom and ensure freedom from discrimination.

A democracy related to the idea of reason and deliberation ensures that minority opinions are not strangulated and ensures that every outcome is not a result, merely of numbers, but of a shared consensus, Justice Chandrachud said.

Warning against curbing dissenting voices, Justice Chandrachud said the destruction of spaces for questioning, and dissent destroys the basis of all growth - political, economic, cultural, and social. In this sense, dissent is the safety valve of democracy.

The true test of a democracy is its ability to ensure the creation and protection of spaces where every individual can voice their opinion, without the fear of retribution. The Constitution is a commitment to a plurality of opinions. A legitimate government committed to deliberate dialogue does not seek to restrict political contestations but welcomes it.

Justice Chandrachud also underlined the importance of mutual respect and protection of space for divergent opinions.

"Taking democracy seriously requires us to respond respectfully to the intelligence of others and to participate vigorously, but as an equal in determining how we should live together," the supreme court judge said.

Democracy is judged not just by the institutions that formally exist but by the extent to which different voices from diverse sections of the people can actually be heard, respected and accounted for, he said.

According to Justice Chandrachud, the "great threat to pluralism" is the suppression of differences and silencing of popular and unpopular voices offering alternative or opposing views.

"Suppressionof intellect is the suppression of the conscience or the nation," he said.

The supreme court judge further said the country was conceptualised"as incorporating its vast diversity and not eliminating it".

"National unity denotes a shared cultural values and a commitment to the fundamental ideal of Constitution in which all individuals are guaranteed not just fundamental rights but also the conditionsfor their free and safe exercise," he said.

He said the country'spluralism underlines a commitment to protect "the very idea of India as a refuge to people of various states, races, languages and beliefs".

"In providing spaces to a multitude of culture and free space to diversity and dissent, we reaffirm to our commitment to the idea that the making of our nation is a continuous process of deliberation and belongs to every individual," he said.

No single individual or institution can claim a monopoly over the idea of India, he said.

Justice Chandrachud also referred to a "positive obligation" for protecting a plural identity.

"The framers of the Constitution rejected the notion of a Hindu India and a Muslim India. They recognised only the Republic of India," he said.

Justice Chandrachud also said the framers put trust on the futuregenerations to create a common bond of what it means to be an Indian, which "shunned homogeneity and celebrated diversity in what is meant to be an Indian".

Hecompared the "layered Indian identity" to Matryoshka dolls, and said this is what makes us Indian "and must be central to our understanding of pluralism and efforts to foster it.

"Homogeneity is not the defining feature of Indianness. Our differences are not our weakness. Our ability to transcend these difference in our recognition of our shared humanity is a source of our strength.

"India is a subcontinent of diversity in itself. Pluralism has already achieved its greatest triumph -- the existence of India. The nation's continued survival shows us that our desire for a shared pursuit of happiness outweighs the difference in the colour of our skin, the languages we speak, or the name we give the almighty," he added.

With PTI inputs
A 22-year-old man allegedly



killed four members of his family, including two children, and surrendered before the police in Odishas Sundargarh district, police said.

The incident took place at Patrapali village under Bonai police station limits when the accused Kalu Munda killed his elder brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew on Saturday, Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Bonai, Abakash Routray said.

The incident was suspected to have taken place over a land dispute, he said.

The deceased were identified as Kande Munda (27), his wife Sumi Munda (25), daughter Malani Munda (7) and son Mara Munda (5), police said.

The two brothers had a heated argument when Sumi Munda tried to intervene and stop her husband.

Kalu Munda who left the spot returned after some time with an axe, and called out his brother. As soon as Kande Munda came out of the house, his younger brother attacked him with the axe killing him on the spot, the police officer said.

Kalu Munda then hacked to death his sister-in-law, and killed both the children with the same axe, he said.

Police took the accused to the spot on Sunday and then sent the bodies for post-mortem examination.

Further investigation was in progress, they said.

"Kalu Munda came and surrendered before the police and confessed to his crime," the SDPO said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
What happened when an Aussie lecturer met the Dalai Lama. Source: Getty

Danielle Di-Masi has a lot of credentials to her name: banker, financial adviser, keynote speaker and business lecturer. Also, she met the Dalai Lama.

He was in Australia for an event, and I got an email late at night that said: Hi Dani. Yes the Dalai Lama will meet you tomorrow at 10.30am at the Brisbane Convention Centre. Thank you, Di-Masi told Yahoo Finance.

This is where Di-Masis story takes an interesting turn.

The University of New South Wales business lecturer obviously lives in Sydney, and was in Coffs Harbour for the week. She had no business clothes, no heels, no stockings - just a pair of swimmers and pyjamas.

I had to go to Target - it was the only thing open - and Im trying to find an appropriate dress and heels and stockings and underwear.

But it wasnt just clothing shed have to sort it - how was she going to get there?

Im looking at flights, but because I have to fly to Sydney from Coffs Harbour to fly to Brisbane - Im not going to make it, she said. Instead, she would have to drive.

And then, she hopped on Google to figure out what to expect.

I keep seeing the same thing - when he meets someone for the first time, he asks them one question.

And the Dalai Lama did ask her one question: Who are you?

I practiced this question for five hours in the car. And he held my hand and said, I know youre Danielle, and I know that we have a meeting. Now who are you?

At this point, Di-Masi recalled she froze.

Its such a great question, that I think is really hard for everyone to answer.

So, I think out of everything in our conversation, the biggest thing I learned was to keep asking yourself that question and to figure out whether you still align to that. Its a reminder to take action everyday to align to who you are, and who you are becoming.

If you ask Di-Masi what she said, shell tell you she has no idea.

Story continues

I honestly cant remember. I stumbled through something - but I was so mortified. Now, it depends on where I am. Its slightly different when Im home, or when Im working or onstage - and thats okay.

It doesnt have to be some big esoteric answer that covers all possible things - youve got integrity, you can change from day to day and thats fine.

Why knowing who you are is key

Former First Lady Michelle Obama revealed the key piece of advice to her children was to walk their own path.

They have to walk their own walk, Obama told Oprah in an interview.

They cannot define themselves by looking at each other or looking at me or their dad.

They have to take the time to get to know themselves  give themselves a moment to figure out who they want to be in the world, not who they think I want them to be, not what the rest of the world says about them, but to really think about how they want to shape their lives and how they want to move in this world.

And being yourself is incredibly key in the workplace too.

People experience greater anxiety when they cater to someone elses preferences  ultimately hindering their performance  as opposed to when they behave authentically, a study by the Harvard Business School (HBS) revealed.

Although people believe using catering in interpersonal first meetings will lead to successful outcomes, the opposite is true: catering creates undesirable feelings of instrumentality for the caterer, increases anxiety, and ultimately hinders performance, the study found.

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The following factors are likely to contribute to the growth of the invisible orthodontics market during the forecast period:  Increasing Incidence of Malocclusion.  Higher Acceptance of Invisible Orthodontics in Teenagers.

New York, Feb. 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Invisible Orthodontics Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05862349/?utm_source=GNW

 Increasing Preference for Cosmetic Dentistry

 Higher Penetration of Clear Aligners in Developed Regions



The global orthodontics industry is expected to witness significant growth due to the rapid shift from traditional & visible metal braces to invisible ones such as lingual and clear aligners. Several orthodontic solutions are being introduced due to the growing demand for treatment from the teenager and young adult population segment. The market is likely to grow mainly due to the increase in misaligned teeth or malocclusion disorders and the high adoption of the latest generation of invisible orthodontic appliances. Advanced braces are easy to use, consume less time to fix, reduce tooth decay, and help in proper chewing of food. Hence, these factors are likely to contribute to market growth.



The market has witnessed significant growth in terms of sales volume, primarily due to the growing prevalence of malocclusion and increasing demand for sensitive, accurate dental procedures. The wider availability of invisible braces is likely to boost the global invisible orthodontics market during the coming years. Besides, the availability of cost-effective and high-quality dental care in developing countries, patients from developed regions come here with the help of dental tourism.



The study considers the present scenario of the invisible orthodontics market and its market dynamics for the period 2019?2025. It covers a detailed overview of several market growth enablers, restraints, and trends. The study offers both the demand and supply aspects of the market. It profiles and examines leading companies and other prominent companies operating in the market.



Invisible Orthodontics Market: Segmentation



This research report includes a detailed segmentation by product, patient group, end-users, and geography. The clear aligners segment is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR during the forecast period due to the increasing number of tooth misalignment disorders. In the US, over 70 million adults and teenagers visit the dentist to fix issues to traditional brackets. They prefer clear aligners as they are nearly invisible, removable, easy to clean, and offer a reduced chance of tooth decay. The increasing need for looking attractive with safe orthodontic products is expected to drive the growth of the segment. The ceramic braces segment is likely to grow at a moderate rate due to the rise in malocclusion. Ceramic braces are likely to be preferred by teenagers and adults to ensure rigid and absolute cooperation between now healthy and mature teeth. The growing demand for aesthetically attractive braces for orthodontic treatment is expected to drive the demand for lingual braces. These braces are fixed at the back of the teeth, which make them nearly invisible from the front. The braces offer customized options depending on the patients requirements and provide high comfort.



Advances in orthodontic technology have made treatment more comfortable and less noticeable. These cosmetic dentistry products are now designed with CAD/CAM and 3-D technology, hence offered precise and accurate solutions for misaligned teeth in adults. Advanced treatment options are focused on minimizing the appearance of the appliance to fit any lifestyle of adults better. The children & adolescent segment is likely to grow due to the increasing incidence of malocclusion in teenagers and adolescents. Spacing, crowding, bite, and alignment can easily be treated with advanced treatment options such as invisible orthodontics. The application of clear aligners, ceramic, and lingual braces offers durability and improves chewing and digestion. Teens are conscious about their looks during the high schools, and such invisible orthodontics are expected to gain popularity in this patient group. The dental services industry is likely to witness a trend of consolidation and the corresponding rise in DSOs, especially in developed countries such as the US, Germany, and the UK.



Dental and orthodontic clinics are expected to grow at the fastest CAGR on account of the increasing number of private clinics as well as solo dental practices, especially in developing and emerging countries. Large dental clinics are entering into partnerships with invisible orthodontics vendors, thereby boosting growth. Patients with malocclusion disorders prefer to receive a highly personalized tooth straightening treatment from dental clinics, thus bolstering their share in the market.



Market Segmentation by Product

 Clear Aligners

 Ceramic Braces

 Lingual Braces

Market Segmentation by Patient Group

 Adults

 Children & Adolescents

Market Segmentation by End-users

 Dental Clinics & Orthodontic Clinics

 Hospitals

 Dental Service Organizations



Insights by Geography



North America is expected to grow at a significant rate due to a large pool of population with dental disorders such as malocclusion and high demand for aesthetic products for dental treatment. The demand is likely to be driven by advanced healthcare infrastructure, high-quality product availability, and extensive reach of innovative products. Moreover, the region has a presence of major key vendors offering a diverse range of aesthetic dentistry products. The US orthodontics market size is expected to grow during the forecast period. The European region is likely to grow due to the presence of sophisticated healthcare infrastructure, high awareness levels of advanced orthodontics, and increased focus on technological advancements. The favorable reimbursement guidelines and infrastructure for the guidance of using clear aligners are the other major factors expected to have a positive impact on market growth. Germany, the UK, France, Spain, and Italy are the major revenue contributors in Europe. The increasing number of M&As and the growing accessibility of dental care are expected to drive the growth of the APAC market. China, Japan, South Korea, India, and Australia are the major revenue contributors in the region. The invisible orthodontics market in China is likely to grow significantly on account of the increasing number of dentists and the expanding presence of key players, coupled with a large pool of patient populations with a high incidence of tooth misalignment challenges.



Market Segmentation by Geography

 North America

o US

o Canada

 Europe

o Germany

o UK

o France

o Spain

o Italy

 APAC

o China

o Japan

o South Korea

o India

o Australia

 Latin America

o Brazil

o Mexico

o Argentina

 MEA

o Turkey

o South Africa

o Saudi Arabia



Insights by Vendors



The global market is highly competitive and characterized by the presence of several global regional and local players. The dominant players have a wide geographic footprint, diversified product portfolio, and a strong focus on innovation and research activities. These players are expected to dominate the market with the introduction of safe and efficient invisible orthodontics products in the market. Global players are likely to focus on pursuing inorganic growth strategies such as acquisitions and strategic partnerships to expand their presence, enhance product portfolio, and improve expertise in the market. Prominent players are expected to offer the latest generation products, such as clear aligners. Although the market offers significant growth opportunities due to sufficiently available substitute products and the dominance of major vendors dominance in the market.



Key Vendors

 Align Technology

 Danaher

 3M

 Institut Straumann

 Dentsply Sirona



Other Vendors

 American Orthodontics

 Clearbite Aligners

 ClearPath Healthcare Services

 DynaFlex

 FORESTADENT Bernhard Forster

 Geniova Technologies

 Henry Schein Orthodontics

 Orthos

 SCHEU-DENTAL

 BioMers Products

 Great Lakes Dental Technologies

 G&H Orthodontics

 Rocky Mountain Orthodontics

 Shanghai EA Medical Instruments

 SmileDirectClub

 TP Orthodontics

 Voodoo Manufacturing



Key Market Insights

The analysis of the invisible orthodontics market provides sizing and growth opportunities for the period 20192025.

 Provides comprehensive insights on the latest industry trends, forecast, and growth drivers in the market.

 Includes a detailed analysis of growth drivers, challenges, and investment opportunities.

 Delivers a complete overview of segments and the regional outlook of the market.

 Offers an exhaustive summary of the vendor landscape, competitive analysis, and key strategies to gain competitive advantage.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05862349/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Its impossible to get the actual number of people dying and not getting compensation but the number is obviously much more than stingy official estimates. In any case, nowhere in the world are people sent inside gas chambers without oxygen cylinders and masks. Unofficial estimates suggest that on an average, one sanitation worker dies every five days all over the country, writes Shyamal Majumdar.

IMAGE: Unofficial estimates suggest that on an average, one sanitation worker dies every five days all over the country. Photograph: Parivartan Sharma/Reuters

Trust political parties to promise the moon to voters during election time. Just two days after a 24-year-old sanitation worker died while cleaning a deep sewer in North East Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Partys election manifesto promised financial assistance of Rs 1 crore to the families of sanitation workers who die while performing their duties.

The AAP leadership perhaps doesnt know that just about half of the number of the workers who have died cleaning sewers in the country have received the Supreme Court-mandated compensation of Rs 10 lakh. Before promising Rs 1 crore, why not make sure that all pending compensation of Rs 10 lakh is paid immediately to the families of workers who died in Delhi?

The central government hasnt done any better. Budget 2020-21 has set aside the same amount allocated last year for rehabilitating manual scavengers, although 2019 recorded the highest number of fatalities among sewerage workers in recent years, prompting experts to question if the government was serious about addressing the scourge.

Its impossible to get the actual number of people dying and not getting compensation but the number is obviously much more than stingy official estimates. In any case, nowhere in the world are people sent inside gas chambers without oxygen cylinders and masks. Unofficial estimates suggest that on an average, one sanitation worker dies every five days all over the country.

For example, one of Mumbais civic authorities directly employs around 30,000 people to keep the city clean, but the more difficult and dangerous job of unblocking sewer lines is usually done by casual workers who scoop out sludge with bare hands and are hired on a day-to-day basis through contractors. So they are not eligible for medical and life insurance benefits and hardly anybody keeps track of compensation in case of deaths.

It is inconceivable how even the countrys top two metropolitan cities have little to show in terms of scientific sewerage and sewage disposal systems and their regular maintenance. Sewage disposal is in effect left to abjectly poor individuals exploited by contractors, with no official monitoring or regulation.

Peoples Union for Democratic Rights did a study last year on deaths of sewer/septic tank workers in the national capital. The report, which details the findings of investigations into six incidents of deaths of sanitation workers, draws attention to the lack of provision in urban planning for maintenance of sewerage systems; the lack of provision of safety gear and safety equipment or training for sewer/septic tank cleaners; and the lack of criminal prosecution of those guilty of sending them to do this hazardous work manually.

The biggest drawback of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, passed in 2013, is this: while it defines cleaning of the sewers as hazardous only when done without safety gear and without safety precautions, it does not define what necessary measures would count as "safety precautions" and what "safety gear" is. Besides, it allows for manual cleaning of sewers if these requirements are met oblivious of the fact that in most cases the reason for death happens to be asphyxiation due to exposure to poisonous gases which cannot be helped with precautions.

The PUDR report also quotes a study conducted by the Sanitation Workers Project which says there are almost five million workers in the country employed to perform these tasks. The main reason for deaths in the process of sewage cleaning is the depletion of oxygen and presence of toxic gases, mostly hydrogen sulphide.

It is also widely known that most sewage cleaners suffer from tuberculosis.

This explains why many sewer workers die as young as 40, falling prey to multiple health issues. Repeated handling of human excreta without any safety equipment leads to several respiratory and skin diseases, anaemia, jaundice, trachoma and carbon monoxide poisoning. This affects women more as up to 90 per cent of sanitation workers are women. Households with dry latrines prefer women to clean excreta instead of men as they are located inside the house. There is also a huge gap in the wages of men and women workers.

A year ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi washed the feet of safai karamcharis at Prayagraj and hailed them as karma yogis. It will be better if he can at least ensure that the families of the karma yogis who die on duty get the compensation due to them.
A 5-year-old boy  taken Sunday morning when the car he was sleeping in was stolen  was found safe after a six-hour search in southwest Houston, according to authorities.

A good Samaritan spied the young boy in a bright yellow shirt around 12:30 p.m. near his mothers stolen vehicle, about a half-mile from the check-cashing business in the 11400 block of Southwest Freeway where police said a suspected car thief took him.

The child, Richard Banahene, was wandering around the vehicle, said Carlos Marquez, who was aware of the Amber Alert when he spotted the boy. The suspects were nowhere in sight.

He looked worried, Marquez said. I told him, Get inside the car. Im going to get you some help.

The childs mother, Ritah Namusubo, 33, spent the morning pacing a parking lot with her 1-year-old son, waiting for investigators to sift through surveillance footage and find her eldest child. She had Richard with her after a 12-hour shift and she stopped by the business around 7:30 a.m. on her way home.

Richard was sleeping and she kept the car running because it was chilly, she said.

I didnt want to turn the heat off, Namusubo said.

Police had difficulties finding surveillance footage of the kidnapping. Some cameras were pointed in the wrong direction, while others were fake surveillance systems. Video of another vehicle, a GMC Yukon, was eventually found. Police said it pulled up alongside Namusubos car and a passenger got out and into hers, police said.

Im not worried about the car  I just want him, she said at the time. Have some mercy and drop him off.

MORE CRIME: Man surrenders after firing AR-15, barricading himself in Alief apartment

When he was found, the mother ran to her son as he sat in the back of a police vehicle. She then ushered him to an ambulance so he could be taken to a hospital as a precaution.

It was not known how long the child had been there.

Authorities will continue to look for the two suspects, one who stole the car and the other who was driving the SUV.

nicole.hensley@chron.com






New Delhi, Feb 16 : Indian companies can list their global depository receipts at the International Financial Services Centre in Gujarat, with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs amending the norms to tap overseas funds as well as to promote IFSC.

The MCA has notified the companies (issue of Global Depository Receipts) Rules, 2014, permitting listing of Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT).

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has notified the Companies (Issue of Global Depository Receipts) Rules, 2020 wherein new proviso in rule 7 has been inserted which states that the proceeds of issue of depository receipts may be remitted in an IFSC banking unit and utilized in accordance with the instructions issued by the EBI on time to time.

"The depository receipts can be issued by way of public offering or private placement or in any other manner prevalent in the concerned jurisdiction and may be listed or traded on the listing or trading platform in the concerned jurisdiction," the ministry said in the amended rules.

The depository receipts can be issued by way of public offering or private placement or in any other manner prevalent abroad and may be listed or traded in an overseas listing or trading platform.

As per the changed rules, proceeds from a GDR issue can be remitted in an International Financial Services Centre Banking Unit (IBU).

An IFSC enables an entity to bring back to India the financial services and transactions that are currently carried out in offshore financial centers by Indian corporate entities and overseas branches or subsidiaries of financial institutions.
Nokia had a few things planned for MWC 2020, but in light of coronavirus developments it will need to reschedule. Not that we were looking forward to that one in particular, but a certain Nokia TA-1212 device that's been in the making for a while was likely going to be part of the roster and now we'll probably never get to see it. Chinese telecom regulator TENAA has a new listing for it, which is the next best thing.

Nokia 210

The database entry is missing photographs at this point but has plenty of numbers in it. A handset measuring 123.8x52.4x13.1 and weighing 88g grams looks a lot like the form factor of the existing Nokia 220 4G. The 2.4-inch display with 240x320px resolution and 1,200mAh battery point in the same direction as well.

Oddly enough, the handset comes with some downgrades - RAM's listed at 8MB which is half the 220 4G's, and the 16MB of storage are less than the 24MB the current model comes with. The camera remains at 0.3MP.

We expect the announcements of the Nokia smartphones that were planned for MWC to come in the following weeks anyway, the TA-1212 included.

Source (in Chinese) | Via
The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Akoto has urged the international community to take advantage of the opportunities Ghana offers in the area of agriculture.



He made this known at the 43rd Session of the Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN).



The event which was held in Rome, Italy on Monday, February 10 to Thursday, February 13, 2020 saw the minister hold a one on one meeting with the DIRECTOR GENERAL of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Dr. Qu Dongyu .



After series of high level meetings with the Heads of all the UN Agencies to discuss investment opportunities for Ghana's agricultural sector.



During a meeting with Director General of the FAO, Dr. Qu Dongyu, discussions centred especially on what the Minister was doing in Ghana to bring about transformation of the economy and what FAO as a UN body, can do to support the country's agenda.



The Honourable Minister particularly made a request for support towards the implementation of one of Ghana's flagship policies, Planting for Export and Rural Development, which seeks to expand the country's tree crops export capacity.



"Basically, Ghana is a mono crop economy; cocoa has been the dominant crop for the last 130 years and we are trying to change that by diversifying, selecting six other tree crops for rapid development" Hon. Dr. Akoto emphasized.



The PERD programme is aimed at diversifying the country's economy from cocoa as the only major agricultural export commodity, by investing in six other tree crops namely Coffee, Shea, Rubber, Cashew, Oil Palm and Coconut.



The Minister expressed the optimism that with his vast experience in rural development, having served as the Vice Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Qu Dongyu, is in the best position to help us develop our agricultural potentials.



"China has the biggest rural agricultural economy in the world and with Dr. Qu Dongyu having served in that capacity for such a long time, his portfolio was to increase the economic situation of rural folks so I have no doubt at all about his ability to support us in that direction" Hon. Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto noted.



The Minister further pointed out that effective implementation of the PERD programme require will require a budget of over $40m Dollars which will go into resourcing six selected research institutions in the country to be able to produce adequate materials to meet our target.



The Director General of FAO on his part gave the Minister the assurance that the organization's Investment Centre will liaise with the Ministry to conduct feasibility studies on how to secure donor funding for the programme.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach has thanked champion shooters Abhinav Bindra and Niccolo Campriani for their project 'Taking Refugee', under which they are helping refugee athletes to qualify for the Tokyo Games.

Bindra had hosted two refugee shooters -- Khaoula and Mahdi -- at his foundation in Bengaluru in December last year.

"Thank you for your letter which I read with great interest informing me of the progress of the project 'Taking Refugee'. Rest assured I am extremely pleased with the impressively rapid progress of the athletes and also by the measures taken at the governance level for an increased accountability and and transparency of the initiative," Bach wrote.

"Not only this project is commendable, it is also entirely aligned with the objectives of the IOC which supports youth refugee athletes," he said in the letter addressed to Bindra and Campriani.

"As true Olympians and through your selfless action, you have demonstrated your greatness beyond the field of play. You can be proud of yourselves."



Bindra, India's only individual Olympic gold medallist, is actively involved in the project along with his Italian friend Campriani.

Through the initiative, the duo aims to train the refugee shooters in air rifle and help them participate with the Refugee Olympic team, which made its debut at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Campriani's two hopefuls -- Khaoula and Mahdi -- made the trip to Bengaluru to train at Bindra's foundation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Viral photo said to be of the kids killed in Ngarbuh Facebook

There has been widespread condemnation of the killing of no fewer than 30 people in Ngarbuh on Valentines Day, Friday, February 14, 2020 by men said to have been armed with sophisticated weaponries.

Though the identity of the killers is shrouded in doubts, reports suggest that the armed men set houses on fire, killing babies, pregnant women and the elderly in Ngarbuh, a locality in Ntumbaw, Ndu Subdivision, Donga Mantung Division of Cameroons North West Region.

Hours after the incident, government is yet to make an official statement. Cameroon-info.net understands that Cameroons defense and security forces have since 2017 been battling armed men who seek to make of the countrys North West and South West regions an independent state christened Ambazonia.

Even as either of the armed parties  the State Forces and the Non-State Armed Groups  is yet to shed light on Fridays killings, many are those who have laid blame at the doorstep of Government.

In fact, Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Anyior alias Agbor Balla, President/Executive Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, CHRDA, says at least 27 civilians were murdered by state defense forces last Friday.

Taking to Facebook Sunday morning, the human rights lawyer writes: The gruesome murder of 27 civilians including women and children by the State Defense Forces on 14 February 2020 in Ngarbuh, Donga Mantung Division of the North West Region in Cameroon must be investigated and the perpetrators of such egregious crimes brought to justice.

Akere Muna, Candidate to the 2018 presidential election and former President of the Cameroon Bar Association regrets that killings have become the new normal in the North West and South West regions.

Ngar village, Donga Mantung - Suffering, death and killing are now the new normal. How did we get here were human life no longer has any value? We must all, now, genuinely seek for peace before this country loses its soul. I pray for all those innocent victims, Akere tweeted Saturday.

Enter Dr. Nick Ngwanyam

Apparently overtaken by tears, Dr. Nick Ngwanyam, MD, CEO of St. Louis University Institute Douala and Bamenda posits that God is not with us in this nation any more.

The entrepreneur, political figure and elite of Donga-Mantung told Cameroon-info-net that: As you would have noticed I have been away from the TV for about a month now because I did not want to make any public statement of some sort during these sensitive elections.

If you remember the 'Probem Tree', you will notice that I like to deal with root causes and the stem. I kept on singing that the true solution to our Anglophone problems was the Confederation.

I condemned Special Status as best as I could when we all knew the empty contents. It is obvious that when we run AWAY from the truth and Love; and choose to be dealing with the leaky part of solving problems nothing will work. It is a principle and a natural law. I did not make it. Wisdom taught me so.

Besides I have said the 'country' and the government should seek to win the peace and not the war. The logic of war on the part of the government and the logic of Odeshi on the part of the fighters are all leading unto death.

God is not with us in this nation any more.

The sooner we do what is Right Just and Good in the sight of the Lord we shall see Peace. We are under the yoke of Satan and what we see are his results. Until we all turn to God in this nation, we shall have more trauma in all shades and colours because where there is no wisdom death resides.

It is the question of taking turns and in this 'dogs of war' era' sometimes the hunter becomes the hunted. Human wisdom and jungle justice is deceitful and those that live by the sword die by the sword.
Barbara Lindsey of Jacksonville has joined Farm Credit Illinois as a member service specialist in the Jacksonville regional office.

The Jacksonville office serves farm families and rural landowners in Cass, Morgan and Scott counties.

Lindsey was raised in Jacksonville and graduated from Routt Catholic High School before receiving a bachelors degree in computer science and information systems from Illinois College.

Prior to joining the Farm Credit team, Lindsey worked for 19 years as an information systems coordinator at Jacksonville Savings Bank and for 14 years as an electronic data processing manager at Chapin State Bank.

She lives in Jacksonville with her husband, Greg.



The International Foodservice Distributors Association has established the John Tracy Endowed Scholarship for supply chain management majors at Western Illinois University in honor of the executive chair of Dot Foods in Mount Sterling.

Tracy has served as Dots executive chair since 2017 and chaired the International Foodservice Distributors Association in 2018-19.

To be considered for the Tracy Scholarship, students must be a supply chain management major with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or better and be eligible to work in the United States on a full-time permanent basis, with preference given to students who are active in extracurricular activities or are working while attending WIU and who are from Brown, Pike, Adams, Schuyler, Cass or McDonough counties.

The $50,000 endowment will provide scholarships for two students annually.

Dot Foods has been a tremendous partner with WIU over the years, providing internship opportunities for our students, along with field trips and study experiences for our supply chain program, as well as employing many of our SCM graduates, said Brad Bainter, executive director of the WIU Foundation.



Country Financial representative Chris Lyons of Waverly has earned his position on the insurance groups distinguished All American team.

Lyons is among a select group of top Country Financial agency managers and financial representatives who qualified for the award. Country Financial has more than 2,000 agency managers and financial representatives in 17 states.

All American is awarded each year to agency managers and financial representatives who have excelled in identifying insurance products and financial solutions that fit the needs of their customers.

 Compiled by David C.L. Bauer
Speaking at ETHDenver on Saturday  an annual blockchain hackathon conference hosted in Colorado  Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared his views on decentralized finance, the development of Ethereum 2.0, and the Ethereum community as a whole.

On decentralized finance, Buterin stated that as it continues to grow, the simplest products will get the most users.

"I think the DeFi applications that see the most use are the simplest ones...stablecoins, synthetic assets, decentralized exchanges," he remarked.

On the topic of Ethereum 2.0, Buterin expressed his optimism for the launch date, adding that he "definitely think ETH2.0 has been preceding quite quickly and regularly in the last few months."

However, Buterin also notes that while Ethereum 2.0 is being tested and developed, new scaling solutions, such as rollups, are popping up that can provide some extra space for Ethereum to continue to grow.

"I hope that ETH2 gets released quickly...but even if it takes five years, rollups will give us some leeway until sharding [goes live]," Buterin says.

When asked whether Ethereum can survive without him, Buterin shared two views. From a technological perspective, Buterin said that Ethereum "definitely can" survive due to the influx of new researchers contributing to Ethereum. From a social perspective, Buterin was a bit more uncertain.

"I've tried to let the community debate," Buterin stated, adding that he has been off-hands for most debates in the community such as whether to unlock funds stuck in Parity's multi-sig wallet.

"There is definitely evidence that the community is able to resolve [its issues]," he concluded.
Storm damage caused to shops on the Gilnahirk Road in Dundonald on February 16th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Storm damage caused to shops on the Gilnahirk Road in Dundonald on February 16th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Storm damage caused to shops on the Gilnahirk Road in Dundonald on February 16th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Storm damage caused to shops on the Gilnahirk Road in Dundonald on February 16th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Storm damage caused to shops on the Gilnahirk Road in Dundonald on February 16th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Business owners said it was a miracle that no one got hurt when a row of Gilnahirk shops were badly damaged this afternoon as a result of Storm Dennis.

The scene of devastation on the Gilnahirk Road near Dundonald happened at around lunchtim, with the brickwork and signs of five shops being ripped apart and strewn over the car park due to the strong winds.

While most of the businesses were closed, Five Percent Cafe was open and serving around 35 customers at the time.

Expand Close Storm damage caused to shops on the Gilnahirk Road in Dundonald on February 16th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook

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Whatsapp Storm damage caused to shops on the Gilnahirk Road in Dundonald on February 16th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

No one was hurt in the incident and no damage was reported to any of the cars parked outside.

Andrea Millen (48) owns one of the affected businesses, Valley Barbers. She arrived at the aftermath following a call from the local garage.

It was just mayhem, the front of all the buildings just down, she explained.

It is just by the grace of God that it wasn't yesterday. It is so busy along here, children and young families, that if this had of happened yesterday, it is not even worth thinking about.

Expand Close Storm damage caused to shops on the Gilnahirk Road in Dundonald on February 16th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook

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Someone would have got killed, definitely.

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It is absolutely devastating. I have great staff it has taken me two years to build up to where I am. It is a great wee business and it is sad at this stage for me and the staff and the people that live around here.

A yellow weather warning is in place for strong winds across Northern Ireland until 11am on Monday.

Expand Close Storm damage caused to shops on the Gilnahirk Road in Dundonald on February 16th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook

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Whatsapp Storm damage caused to shops on the Gilnahirk Road in Dundonald on February 16th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

It comes following heavy rain and flooding in several areas on Saturday, with disruption to road, rail, air and ferry transport.

Storm Dennis is the second major storm to hit in the last week, with Storm Ciara reeking havoc last weekend.

A Met Office spokesperson said: "Some very strong winds are likely in association with Storm Dennis. Gusts of 50-60 mph are likely quite widely within the warning area for much of the period.

Expand Close A yellow weather warning is in effect from 10am on Sunday until 11am on Monday. Credit: Met Office / Facebook

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Whatsapp A yellow weather warning is in effect from 10am on Sunday until 11am on Monday. Credit: Met Office

"Gusts of 70mph are likely at times, more especially across western Scotland on Sunday afternoon and evening, as well as in association with heavy showers elsewhere. A separate swathe of 70-75 mph gusts probably crossing the far north of Scotland and Orkney for a time early on Monday."

Two roads have been closed due to fallen trees: the Steedstown Road in Lisburn and the Ardlough Road between Drumahoe Road and Rossdowney Road in Londonderry.

A 30mph speed limit is in place on the Foyle Bridge due to high winds.
Seven persons were killed and at



least 12 others injured after a large SUV in which they were travelling fell from a bridge in Yavatmal district on Sunday, police said.

The mishap occurred on Kalamb-Jodmoha Road in the morning, they said.

"The victims were on their way to Jodmoha village from Koteshwar in Wardha district after attending the post-death rituals of their acquaintance," police said.

"The SUV fell from the bridge into a pit after its driver apparently lost control. The vehicle was overspeeding and it overturned a few times after falling," they added.

Six of the deceased have been identified as driver Amar Atram (29), Mahadev Chandankar (54), Krishna Prasannkar (55), Anjana Wankhede (69) and Babarao Wankhede (all residents of Jodmoha), while Sambhaji Meshram (65), a resident of Akola, they added.

The injured were shifted to Yavatmal civil hospital, police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy on Saturday stated that there is not a "single paragraph or a word against the 130 crore people of India" in the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

'What are they protesting against?'

Speaking to ANI in Hyderabad, Reddy said, "I want to ask those on dharna and protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act, why they are protesting for and against what? There is not a single para or a word against even one of the 130 crore people of India in the Act."

Talking about the people protesting against the amended citizenship law in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, the Union Minister said, "I want to ask whether they are on dharna for people residing in Pakistan and Bangladesh? In CAA, there is not a single word against any person, whether he is Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Sikh... If there is any, then the Government of India is ready to remove it."

Shaheen Bagh protesters to visit Amit Shahs residence

Meanwhile, in Delhi, a group of people at Shaheen Bagh, who have been protesting against the CAA and the proposed NRC over around two months now, on Saturday claimed that they would be going to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence on Sunday over the CAA and NRC.

READ | Yogi govt slaps NSA against Dr Kafeel Khan for alleged inflammatory anti-CAA speech

A large number of people have been staging a protest at Delhis Shaheen Bagh since mid-December last year over the CAA, seeking its withdrawal. Its being dubbed as the peoples protest because it has no leader or coordinator.

READ | Tamil Nadu: Protest against CAA and NRC resumes in Chennai, day after clash with cops

However, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that no meeting of the Union Home Minister with any person(s) over the CAA was scheduled for Sunday. "No such meeting is scheduled with the Union Home Minister Amit Shah for tomorrow," said MHA in a statement.

READ | DMK questions Rajinikanth's silence after police heavy-handedness against anti-CAA stir

The development came two days after Home Minister Amit Shah said at an event that anyone having doubts over CAA could seek an appointment from his office and he would be willing to meet the person(s) within three days. The CAA grants citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Parsi, Buddhist and Christian refugees who came from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh on or before December 31, 2014.

READ | DMK's Stalin and Kanimozhi call for probe in police violence against anti-CAA protesters

(with ANI inputs)
Residents wear protective masks as they walk under Chinese New Year decorations in a park in Beijing, China on Jan. 25, 2020. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

US Health Official: Coronavirus on Verge of Becoming Global Pandemic

A top official at the U.S. National Institutes of Health said the outbreak of the new coronavirus, called COVID-19, is on the verge of turning into a global pandemic unless efforts to curb its spread become more fruitful.

Technically speaking, the [World Health Organization] wouldnt be calling this a global pandemic. But it certainly is on the verge of that happening reasonably soon unless containment is more successful than it is right now, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CBS News on Sunday.

As of Sunday, about two-dozen countries have more than 500 cases, he said. Several of them, are starting to get to the second and third transmission, Fauci said, adding that a pandemic means that there are several countries with sustained transmission from person to person to person.

The World Health Organization has already declared the virus a health emergency of international concern.

Over the weekend, health officials in France and Taiwan confirmed two deaths in their respective countries.

The United States has confirmed a total of 15 cases of the virus from California, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Texas, Illinois, Arizona, and Washington State. The latest patient was confirmed to have the virus at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland near San Antonio, Texas. The person was among a group of Americans who were flown out of virus epicenter Wuhan, China, late last month.

The Diamond Princess cruise ship is anchored at the Daikaku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama on Feb. 12, 2020. (Behrouz Mehri/AFP via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, more than 350 cases of people infected with the COVID-19 virus were confirmed on the Diamond Princess cruise ship located off the coast of Yokohama, Japan. U.S. officials announced that they were evacuating hundreds of Americans who were being held on the ship on Sunday evening.

They are not going to go anywhere. Theyre going to be in hospitals in Japan, Fauci told CBS News of those passengers. People who have symptoms will not be able to get on the evacuation plane. Others are going to be evacuated starting imminently to air force bases in the United States.

The U.S. Department of Defense has said it is preparing to receive two flights with passengers, and one will land at Travis Air Force Base, California and the other at Kelly Field-Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. The evacuees would be subject to a 14-day quarantine.

Another cruise ship, Holland Americas MS Westerdam, docked in Cambodia on Thursday after being rejected by ports elsewhere. An 83-year-old American passenger tested positive for the COVID-19 virus upon arriving in Malaysia, authorities there said. A second test requested by the cruise operator confirmed the finding.

Reuters contributed to this report.


Los Angeles-based Celebrity Chef Bruce will present signature dishes including his porchetta with salsa verde and crispy potatoes; squid ink rigatoni with fresh lobster, braised fennel, Meyer lemon preserves, truffle butter; and others to be announced, alongside new dishes from Adas Chef de Cuisine Dylan Jobsz. A la carte pricing (Pictured: Chef de Cuisine Dylan Jobsz and Executive Chef Bruce Kalman at Adas (Photo courtesy Timeless Cuisine).

James Trees and I have been friends and collaborators for a long time says Kalman of Adas Chef/Owner. So I jumped at the chance to come cook at his new spot. I love the Las Vegas food scene right now, so its fun to come participate in it!

Los Angeles-based Chef Bruce Kalmans Northern Italian cooking style utilizes the abundant and diverse produce of the West Coast to create exquisitely balanced soul-warming flavors. Best known as original Co-owner and opening Executive Chef of the acclaimed UNION in Pasadena, CA, he is currently the Chef/Co-owner of Knead & Co. Pasta Bar + Market in L.A.s Grand Central Market as well as chef partner for Californias Sunkist Growers, helping spotlight the brands local and family-owned citrus growers. He also is the founder of BK Brinery, an artisanal pickle company, currently supplying several prominent restaurants, with retail planned in the near future. Most recently, he was tapped to curate all culinary for Willie Nelsons Luck Reunion festival. In addition to supporting local growers, Chef Bruce is known for his passion for whole animal butchery and sustainability wherever possible.

A native of Northern New Jersey, Chef Bruce rose through the ranks in a variety of eateries near his hometown of Paramus before relocating to Chicago for several Executive Chef positions at restaurants including Okno, Green Dolphin, and Coco Pazzo. In 2011, Kalman landed in Los Angeles to help launch Santa Monicas Misfit, later joining West Hollywoods The Churchill before founding Union.

Kalman has made several notable food tv appearances, including Chopped, Beat Bobby Flay and Knife Fight, savoring victory on all three shows. He is also often recognized as a cheftestant on Top Chef season 15, where he finished in the top 5. Among other accolades, Chef Kalman was nominated for the coveted Rising Star Chef award from the James Beard Foundation.

When not cooking, Bruce enjoys spending time with his wife and son, assisting rocker Dave Grohl with his Backyard BBQ project, and performing as frontman for the chef cover band Foie Grock with fellow chef Duff Goldman.

Twitter: @ChefBKalman | Instagram: @ChefBKalman

When: February 21-23, 2020
Although we are relatively early in the process, it is probable that, barring some unforeseen turn of events (for example, a health issue), Bernie Sanders will be the Democrat presidential nominee. The left-leaning but respected prognostication site FiveThirtyEight says Sanders will most likely take the nomination, and the mainstream press have generally anointed him the frontrunner. Conventional wisdom says this is good for President Trump as the betting flips against Sanders in the general election, with some odds as low as 15% for a Sanders victory. But there are no guarantees in politics, and much the same things were said about Trump in 2016. So it is worth considering how Sanders might win a general election.

There's no question that the Democrat establishment is terrified of a Sanders nomination. Meet the Press host Chuck Todd, who represents Democrat pedestrian punditry as well as anyone, quickly discounted Sanders's New Hampshire victory, claiming not to "understand how Bernie can be a frontrunner." This is because fellow Democrat travelers in the mainstream media like longtime columnist David Frum are certain that "Bernie Can't Win" and that in a general election against Trump, Sanders and his campaign will be "shredded and torched."

It certainly appears that Trump would relish a run against Sanders, whom he can relentlessly and not unreasonably argue is a dangerous socialist kook. Sanders can make the volatile and unpredictable Trump seem stable and safe by comparison, undermining that key Democrat talking point of returning Washington to its supposedly decent and normal routines.

This latter point is important for gaining the suburban female vote, which in 2018 gave the Democrats the House and turned formerly red states like Virginia blue. The Democrats locking up that vote, especially among independents, and generating a large pro-Democrat turnout of loyal black Americans, could hand Sanders a victory in November, despite the Vermont senator's negatives.

As it stands, general polling of a potential Trump vs. Sanders matchup gives Sanders the edge by a wide margin. In the latest Quinnipiac poll, all the Democrat frontrunners win against Trump, with Sanders beating the incumbent 5143%. Betting markets frequently contradict polling but have often been wrong regarding Democrats so far in the nomination race. And Quinnipiac was heavily criticized by Democrats in 2016 for giving Trump the edge in key states but turned out to be right. FiveThirtyEight rates Quinnipiac's polling accuracy as average, which should be disturbing to Republicans, given the large leads all Democrats get against Trump.

How can Sanders get such numbers? Because it's hard to overestimate the loathing Trump engenders in certain key constituencies.

Despite a good economy and excellent unemployment numbers, particularly as they pertain to black Americans, at least publicly, it's hard to find anything but open contempt for the president among blacks, usually accompanied by the term "racist." This may be a false narrative put out by a biased mainstream press, celebrities, and social media mavens, but that's not changing going into the general election.

Sanders's promises of government largess won't really benefit black Americans, either, because Sanders promises handouts across the board. That's why white, "privileged" Bernie Bros support him. In the zero-sum game that's the real-world budgeting, and not Bernietopia, blacks will get relatively less. That plus Trump's outreach to the black American community could siphon off some black voters, or drive down turnout. But it's still a big "if," given Trump's public disapproval within the black community.

Likewise the key suburban female vote. Reasonably well-to-do women with mortgages, kids, good employer-based health insurance, and 401(k)s used to be a Republican constituency. That's changed in recent years, not only because of Trump, but because of ideologically leftist schooling and the pro-Democrat media barrage. If Sanders wins, those 401(k)s will almost certainly crash, and the kids will probably lose their doctors. Trump might win some votes back on that account if it overrides personal distaste for his conduct, but again, a big "if."

Blacks, suburban women, and anyone decently off in this country  which is most people  will have to vote against their own economic interests for Sanders to win. History says they might. Blacks do it every election cycle, and so do Jews. In Sanders's case, Jews will vote for him, not because of his ethnicity, and despite his anti-Zionism, but simply because he is a Democrat and not named Trump.

Plus the media will do their best to normalize Sanders and downplay his radicalism, which has already begun. That will help calm the fears of independents and those ladies in the 'burbs.

In the end, Democrats are going to overwhelmingly vote for Sanders, and Republicans for Trump. Independent voters will decide the election. Among independents, according to a recent Washington Post/ABC poll, 60% approve of Trump's handling of the economy, but only 42% give him a positive overall approval rating. In that divide, the election will be won or lost.

There might be a relatively easy way for Trump to lessen this divide and ease his re-election. Ride the wave of his economic successes, stay off Twitter for a few months, and use the power of incumbency. Let wacky old socialist Sanders, a loudmouthed professional gadfly with almost no actual accomplishments, scare off independents, including those nice suburban ladies.

Trump's not going to do that. So a general election against Sanders will more likely be a nail-biter than a Trump landslide, with the fate of the country in the balance.

Image: Phil Roeder via Flickr.
Hear young people express hopes and fears about the climate crisis as well as speakers on climate ethics and breakout sessions as each attendee creates a list of actions they feel able to carry out.

The Climate Crisis is upon us, is there hope? What can New Mexicans do? Attend the Faith and Politics Forum entitled Climate Crisis - What Can I Do? Sunday, Feb.16, 2020, 3 to 5pm at St Andrew Presbyterian Church, 5301 Ponderosa NE, Albuquerque, 87110. The event is free and open to the public.

To start the forum we will hear from three young people expressing their hopes and fears about the climate crisis - Norah Warren - 6th grader, Clara Sims - New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light, Tristan Wall - New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. They will be followed by two speakers: Tom Solomon, Coordinator for 350 New Mexico will discuss the Climate Crisis: Today and In Our Future and Larry Rasmussen, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics emeritus will discuss Climate Ethics.

The second hour will feature breakout sessions for discussion of actions that individuals could do to help meet the climate crisis. The goal will be for each individual will have a list of actions that they feel comfortable carrying out.
16.02.2020 LISTEN

Speaker of Parliament, Professor Michael Oquaye has announced plans by Parliament to make all Committee hearings public.

Professor Oquaye said just like the Public Accounts Committee whose hearings are public other Committee hearings will follow suit.

The Speaker was speaking at an awards ceremony for members of the Parliamentary Press Corps.

You have to know even at the committee stage, we have added in our amendment of standing orders, just like it happens in the public accounts committee, every committee sitting will be open to the media and for the public to know what is happening.

It means there will be no closed shop anywhere or with regard to any matter and the media will come over. The committees are the workshops of Parliament and you realise that a lot of work takes place there. If you do not visit, how do you appreciate and how do you analyse so get ready for the next step.

Parliament according to constitution appoints standing committees and other committees as may be necessary for the effective discharge of its functions.

According to the constitution, standing committees shall be appointed at the first meeting of Parliament after the election of the Speaker and the Deputy Speakers.

The Constitution also spells out the functions of committees in Parliament as including the investigation and inquiry into the activities and administration of ministries and departments as Parliament may determine,

Every member of Parliament is expected to be a member of at least one of the standing committees.

Usually the composition of these committees is expected to reflect the different shades of opinion in Parliament.

citinewsroom
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.15

By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:

British-Dutch oil and gas company  Shell - will continue to work on safe and reliable operation of its Kazakhstans assets in 2020, a representative of Shell told Trend.

Shell, which deals with exploration, production, refining and marketing of oil and natural gas, and the manufacturing and marketing of chemicals is currently operating at Kazakhstans Kashagan and Karachaganak fields.

In general, the representative said, 2019 was a successful year for Shell Kazakhstan.

"Both assets in Kashagan and Karachaganak had safe and successful turnarounds that allowed us to reach our production targets," the official said.

Turnaround at Kazakhstans Kashagan was implemented from April 14, 2019 till May 19, 2019, meaning that the turnaround took 32 days instead of planned 45 days. In turn, the turnaround at Karachaganak field was implemented starting mid-September 2019 through October 14.

"The turnarounds at both of our assets resulted in improvement of our production performance and equipment reliability," the official said.

Thus, the oil extraction volume at Kashagan field amounted to 390,000-400,000 barrels a day (according to Kazakhstans Ministry of energy), whereas the oil extraction volume at Karachaganak field was 345,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day during 3Q2019 (according to Eni).

Talking on the future plans, the Shell official noted that the company will continue to work on safe and reliable operation of our assets in 2020.

"Our goal is still to reach "goal zero" in terms of personal and process safety incidents and to remain trusted and long-term investor in Kazakhstan," the official concluded.

Developed with an estimated investment of $55 billion, Kashagan phase one represents the biggest international investment in Kazakhstan till date. Developed in harsh offshore environment, it is also considered to be one of the worlds most technically challenging oil and gas project completed so far.

Karachaganak is one of the largest oil and gas condensate fields in Kazakhstan. Karachaganak Petroleum Operating produces oil and gas from the Karachaganak field. The shares in the consortium are as follows: Eni - 29.25 percent, Royal Dutch Shell - 29.25 percent, Chevron - 18 percent, Lukoil - 13.5 percent and KazMunayGas - 10 percent.

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Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Seven women caught smuggling gold to Hyderabad from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, in less than a week. The statistics indicate a new smuggling modus operandi. While all these women travelled to Jeddah on their way to pilgrimages, smuggling gangs exploited their innocence to lure them.

Officials admit that this is not the first time that women have been involved in smuggling. But an increasing number of them getting caught is because of increased surveillance and coordinated inputs on smuggling gangs abroad, Customs and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence officials said.

Also, in the absence of female security personnel, women travellers get quick clearances. Unlike male passengers, women are not thoroughly scrutinised without specific information on particular passengers.

Officials say they are training security personnel with a special focus on detecting women smugglers and carriers. They are trained with emphasis on passenger profiling and screening, baggage screening and other related procedures, customs officials said. On February 9, four women were caught with 2.5 kg of gold. On Friday, three women were caught smuggling gold bars weighing 300 gram in their socks. All these women had arrived at RGIA from Jeddah and had gone on pilgrimages. They claimed to have been lured into the smuggling net through commissions.






Speakers:

Wang Hesheng, vice minister of the National Health Commission (NHC), member of the Leading Party Members' Group of the NHC, and member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee

Liang Wannian, head of the NHC expert team for the epidemic response

Chang Jile, director of the Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control, NHC

Jiao Yahui, deputy director of the Bureau of Medical Administration, NHC

Chairperson:

Xi Yanchun, spokesperson of the State Council Information Office of China

Date:

Feb. 15, 2020

Xi Yanchun:



Friends from the media, good morning. Welcome to the press conference. Hubei, especially the provincial capital Wuhan, is the top priority for the prevention and control of the COVID-19 (also known as novel coronavirus pneumonia) epidemic, and the decisive region for seeking to defeat the virus. Today, the State Council Information Office is holding a press conference at the frontline of the battle in Wuhan to introduce the latest information on epidemic control and medical rescue in Hubei province. We have invited Mr. Wang Hesheng, vice minister of the National Health Commission (NHC), member of the Leading Party Members' Group of the NHC, and member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Hubei Provincial Committee. Also present at the press conference are Mr. Liang Wannian, head of the NHC expert team for the epidemic response; Mr. Chang Jile, director of the Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control, NHC; and Ms. Jiao Yahui, deputy director of the Bureau of Medical Administration, NHC. First, I will give the floor to Mr. Wang.

Wang Hesheng:

Friends from the media, good morning. The COVID-19 epidemic has become a shared concern to all Party members and all the people of our country. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council have given earnest consideration to the situation. General Secretary Xi Jinping has called multiple meetings, making overall arrangements for the prevention and control work. During his inspection in Beijing on Feb. 10, General Secretary Xi talked to frontline medical workers at hospitals receiving severe cases in Wuhan, including Jinyintan Hospital, Union Hospital and Huoshenshan Hospital, using a telemedicine system. He extended regards to medical staff across the country, and called on us to give top priority to people's safety and health, save patients at all costs, increase the admission and recovery rates, as well as reducing the infection and fatality rates. General Secretary Xi's words pointed out the direction for the epidemic prevention and control work, especially in regard to medical rescue.

Since the outbreak of the pneumonia, China's health system has focused strongly on epidemic control and medical rescue. The NHC moved swiftly, submitting a proposal to the State Council to classify the outbreak as a category-B infectious disease, and take preventive and control measures on the level of a category-A infectious disease. The NHC released information on the COVID-19 outbreak as well as the prevention and control measures in a timely manner. We put forward and implemented the prevention and control strategies of "four early" (screening, reporting, quarantine and treatment at early stage) and "four concentration" (concentration of patients, experts, resources and treatment). Plans such as case diagnosis and treatment, emergency monitoring, epidemiological investigation are formulated and optimized. We immediately speeded up scientific research, quickly identified the pathogen of COVID-2019, and optimized the testing kits. All provinces have quickly set up joint prevention and control mechanisms. In accordance with the principle of territorial management, emergency response has been launched and the grid management of epidemic prevention and control has been strengthened in urban and rural areas. Local communities work to ensure preventive and control measures are effectively implemented. In accordance with the requirements of "non-proliferation within the city and non-export beyond the city," traffic restrictions were imposed on Wuhan and its links to surrounding areas. Tough measures, such as close contacts being quarantined, have been carried out and medical staff have spared no efforts to achieve patient recovery. Answering the call of the central government, health departments in various places sent preeminent medical workers to form rescue teams to support Hubei province. They also carried medical equipment and protective supplies such as ventilator, ECG monitor and ECMO.

Wang Hesheng:

As of 24:00 on Feb. 14, a total of 217 medical teams and 25,633 medical staff had been sent from various places, not including those provided by the military. Adding to that, three mobile BSL3 labs were also mobilized. There are now 181 medical teams and 20,374 medical workers in Wuhan. In other cities of Hubei province, there are 36 medical teams and 5,259 medical workers. The number of medical rescue teams and the speed of mobilizing medical resources all surpass those involved in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. The central government also arranged 19 provinces to support different cities of Hubei province, known as "one province helps one city." The relevant provinces gave full support to the aided cities and prefectures. Adhering to the lofty spirit of "respecting lives, rescuing patients, complete dedication, selfless love," the medical staff bravely fights at the forefront of the battle against the epidemic. They made every effort to protect the people's lives and health. With unremitting efforts and strong measures of prevention and control, the peak of the coronavirus was dragged lower, and by doing so, we won time for curbing the spreading of the epidemic.

The prevention and control of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is currently at its most crucial stage. Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, remains the main battlefield. Medical treatment is being carried out in accordance with the general requirements of having full confidence and relying on concerted efforts, scientific containment and targeted measures. We will continue to give top priority to improving the rate of patients received and nursed to full recovery, and reducing rate of infection and mortality, and strive to win the battle against the virus in Wuhan and Hubei with all our strength.

As for reducing the infection rate, the entire province of Hubei, especially Wuhan, should enact and implement prevention and control measures in line with actual conditions. We have strictly implemented the measures of "early detection, early reporting, early quarantine and early treatment", and effectively carried out the classification and centralized management of confirmed patients, suspected patinets, fever patients with pneumonia symptoms and those who have had close contact with them. We have promoted the prevention and control at the community level, encouraging communities to shoulder their due responsibilities and carry out targeted management, and giving full play to the grassroots forces to make the communities serve as strong fortress against the epidemic in order to prevent the specter of another Wuhan. As for improving patient admission rate, we have carried out different measures according to different situations: all confirmed severely ill patients, including those clinically diagnosed, must be concentrated in designated hospitals for treatment, patients with mild symptoms must be isolated and treated in the temporary "cabin hospitals," and those suspected patients with mild symptoms must be observed and treated in isolated locations. We have converted a number of gymnasiums, exhibition centers and training centers into "cabin hospitals" and isolation centers for treatment. We will continue to improve equipment and facilities and strengthen service management so as to ensure security and good order in those places. At present, nine such cabin hospitals are operating, with more than 6,960 beds, and 5,606 patients receiving treatment there.

Wang Hesheng:

In the next stage, if needed, we will continue to transform some hospital wards and venues into designated hospitals and temporary hospitals, to make sure the confirmed and suspected patients can receive centralized treatment and no patients are left unattended.

Regarding improving the survival rate and reducing the mortality rate, we have coordinated the medical teams dispatched by the central authority and by provincial regions, as well as medical resources in Hubei, and adopted unified treatment standards, work processes and technical specifications in order to improve the level of medical treatment. We have adopted such a model as overall takeover, with assisting medics from the same provincial region or the same hospital taking charge of one specific department. In this way, critically ill patients can receive centralized treatment, and the advantages of medical experts can be given full play. We have implemented a multidisciplinary consultation system for difficult cases and a discussion system for death cases in order to improve and promote treatment plans. We will tap the potential of the mixed therapy methods of traditional Chinese medicine and its Western counterpart, using TCM for treatment as soon as possible. At the same time, we will strengthen the efforts to prevent infections happening inside the hospital and enhance the protection of medical staff themselves.

Media friends, protecting the people's health is the mission of medical workers. We will resolutely implement the decisions and deployment of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, take all possible measures to improve the rate of patients received and recovered and reduce the rate of infection and mortality, making our due contribution to the "people's war" against pneumonia epidemic caused by COVID-19. Thank you.

Xi Yanchun:

Thank you Mr. Wang Hesheng. The floor is now open for questions. Please ask questions via the video link and identify your news outlet before asking questions.
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Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno has visited Niger Republic to discuss modalities for safe and dignified repatriation of 120,000 refugees.

Isa Gusau, the Special Adviser to the governor on Public Relations and Strategy, made the disclosure in a statement on Sunday in Maiduguri.

Mr Gusau said that the governor had on Saturday visited Diffa District of Niger Republic and met with the refugees who fled their homes due to Boko Haram insurgents attack since 2014.

He said that the visit to Niger was to contribute in arranging modalities to fast-track safe and dignified return of the refugees for resettlement in Borno.

Mr Gusau said that the governor held similar meetings in the past weeks in Abuja with officials of the Federal Ministries of Foreign Affairs; Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

The governors aide added that the meeting centred on discussion for dignified repatriation of Borno citizens taking refuge in Cameroon, Chad and Niger Republics.

With that meeting in mind; Gov. Zulum traveled to Bosso, Garin Wanzam and Tumur, all in Diffa province, to meet with the refugees.

Host governor of Diffa, Isa Lameen, led Zulum during the visits alongside Abdulkarim Lawan, Speaker, Borno State House of Assembly.

Zulum traveled to Diffa from Malam-Fatori, headquarters of Abadam Local Government Council of Borno, which had been a stronghold of Boko Haram insurgents, until it was recently regained by the military.

The visit to Malam-Fatori, is the first time in more than five years by a civilian, it happened same day the governor entered Diffa province in Niger Republic, Mr Gusau said in the statement.

According to him, Mr Zulum expressed gratitude to the Nigerien authorities and host communities for their hospitality to citizens of Borno, taking refuge in their country. (NAN)
Soon after the success of the Oscar-winning "Slumdog Millionaire", actor Irrfan Khan once happened to be sitting in the same restaurant as Mark Ruffalo in New York, hoping to interact with the Hollywood star but to no avail.

As the "Avengers: Endgame" star was about to leave, a disappointed Irrfan was met with surprise when Ruffalo himself recognised the Indian actor, reached out to him and complimented him on his work.

The incident that took place perhaps around 2010 is one of the many anecdotes mentioned in Aseem Chhabra's "Irrfan Khan: The Man, The Dreamer, The Star", a biographical work on the 53-year-old actor.

According to the book, Irrfan and Indian director-screenwriter Aditya Bhattacharya were once having a brunch at a well-known restaurant in New York City with producer Leslie Holleran ("The Cider House Rules", 1999 and "Chocolat", 2000). This was the year after the huge success of Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire".

"Suddenly Irrfan elbowed Aditya. He had noticed that actor Mark Ruffalo was sitting on the next table. But he was there with a large group of people, perhaps his family. Irrfan told Aditya that he was a big fan of Mark and somehow wanted an introduction.

"'I asked Leslie if she knew him, and she said she did, but she didn't feel like walking up to Mark,' Aditya says. 'She said it didn't look right. But I could also see Irrfan thinking, 'Hello toh bolte hain' (Let's at least say hello)," the book states.

"When we were leaving, Irrfan looked disappointed, but then something incredible happened,' Aditya adds. 'Mark saw him, put his hand forward and said, 'Hey man, I love your work'. And Irrfan probably saw sparkling lights all over'," Aditya is quoted as saying in the book.

Brought out by Rupa Publications, the book is a third biography of an Indian cinestar by Chhabra, who has previously come out with works on the late Shashi Kapoor in 2016 and Priyanka Chopra in 2018.

The book draws largely from personal interviews of people and artistes associated with the actor throughout his journey from a small household in Rajasthan's Tonk to drama school in Delhi to Mumbai and then becoming a globally recognised artiste with his billboards now in Hollywood.

Launched in January, it also attempts at deconstructing several of Irrfan's performances on screen, both in Hindi and English.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Apart from Arvind Kejriwal, six of his party leaders took oath as part of his cabinet on Sunday at Delhis Ramlila Maidan.

Kejriwal retained all the six ministers who served his government in the previous term  Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Imran Hussain, Gopal Rai, Rajendra Gautam and Kailash Gehlot.

Here are the six Aam Aadmi Party leaders who took oath alongside Arvind Kejriwal:

Manish Sisodia, who also held the position of Delhis deputy Chief Minister, is considered Kejriwals right-hand man and the force behind reforms in the public education sector. Apart from Education, Sisodia also held the crucial portfolios for Finance, Planning, Tourism, Land & Building, Vigilance, Services, Women & Child Development along with Art, Culture and Languages. It is speculated that the Patparganj MLA will retain his portfolios.

Also Watch | Arvind Kejriwal takes oath as Delhi CM for third consecutive time

Satyendar Jain, an architect by profession, credited for piloting AAPs internationally recognized Mohalla Clinics programme in its first term, is likely to retain the portfolios of Health, Industries, Power, Public Works Department, Home and Urban Development.

Gopal Rai, another Kejriwal confidante, had held the Rural Development department apart from holding the charge for General Administration Department, Irrigation & Flood Control and Labour. Rai is also the convener of the Delhi state unit of the Aam Aadmi Party.

Imran Hussain, who is credited for enforcing the environmental norms in the capital during his first term in Kejriwals cabinet, held the triple charge for the departments of Environment & Forest, Food & Supply and Election.

Rajendra Gautam, an accomplished lawyer, who joined the Aam Aadmi Party in 2014, is also a member of AAPs national executive. He was in charge of the Social Welfare department along with SC & ST, Gurudwara Elections, Water and Registrar of Cooperative Societies.

The sixth name in Kejriwals cabinet, Kailash Gahlot, is described as a philanthropist, educationist and an entrepreneur for social change by AAP.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 20:02:30|Editor: zh

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By Ndalimpinga Iita

WINDHOEK, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- At the Katutura State Hospital Acupuncture Department in Namibia's capital Windhoek, Fang Lianqiang, a Chinese doctor, examined a patient during a consultation.

"It's only my third follow-up, and the ankle pain has been relieved after undergoing acupuncture," Selma Isack, a patient, said Wednesday.

Even though new to Namibia, Fang is already making headway in the provision of public health care.

"My passion and mission are to offer excellent care and service to restore the good health of locals through traditional Chinese medicine. I love the people of Namibia," Fang said, who is also the chief doctor at the acupuncture department.

Fang is part of the 13th batch of Chinese medical team that arrived in Namibia in January this year. The team, composed of two doctors and two nurses, replaced the 12th batch to continue providing health care services at the state hospital.

Because he has always aspired to work in Namibia, it is Fang's conviction that Chinese medicine is unique, and can serve the people of the world, including Namibians.

According to Fang, the 13th batch is prepared to serve the people of Namibia with professionalism to improve broader public health in Namibia.

"We vow to deliver exemplary service to accelerate the provision of health care in Namibia, and help more Namibians get better health," Fang added.

To achieve this, the team would focus on understanding the country's social dynamics, including enhanced engagement with locals, on learning the culture.

"So far, through our patients, we learned that people in Namibia are friendly. We are progressively getting accustomed to the local elements of socialization as well as mastering the general medical care profession standards," he added.

Moreover, they plan to embark upon robust education to raise awareness about acupuncture.

"This is to address the misconceptions, as well as enhance understanding of the local medical fraternity about traditional Chinese medicine," he said.

The drive, said Fang, is to further build good relations between China and Namibia through people-to-people interaction in health care and beyond.

Since 1996, a team of traditional Chinese medical practitioners have been stationed at the Katutura Hospital as part of the cooperative medical projects between China and Namibia.

The 12th medical team, which was headed by Chu Hailin since 2018, treated more than 20,000 Namibian patients over a period of a year and half.

Ben Nangombe, executive director in the Ministry of Health and Social Services, hailed the contribution made by the Chinese medical team to the country's health sector and wellness of locals.

Chinese ambassador to Namibia, Zhang Yiming, said that the Chinese doctors have over the years delivered and sustained quality services beneficial to many Namibians, with the acupuncture department becoming a showcase for China-Namibia ties.

"Namibians are healed or relieved from pain, chronic discomfort and other diseases. We are proud that the team has become well-known for their professionalism, devotion and kind-heartedness among Namibian public," Zhang said.

Meanwhile, the Chinese embassy plans to further strengthen bilateral relations with Namibia and expand cooperation on the health sector to accelerate the provision of health care and more effective medical services.
In Yavorivskyi district, Lviv region, rescuers removed a car with four dead from the lake. The press center of the State Emergency Situations Service (SES) reports this information.

"On Sunday, February 16, at 8:53 a message was received that on the highway Rava-Russka - Sudova Vyshnya at the entrance to the village of Koty in the Yavorivsky district, the Audi-80 car lost control and flew into the lake," stated in the message.

The circumstances of the accident are being clarified. Fire and Rescue Department carried out work on the inspection of the bottom of the lake.

As we reported before, n the night of February 13, eight Ukrainians were killed in a road accident that took place in the Pskov region of the Russian Federation, another one was hospitalized.

on January 14, a passenger car crashed into a truck near the Polish town of Kobiel, killing four people, two of them were Ukrainian citizens.

"A truck collided with a car. Medical workers, who arrived at the scene, did not find any signs of life among the people who were in the car," fire rescuer Maciej Zhodigowski stated.

The chairman of Yaroslavichi United Territorial Community, in the commentary for Rivne Vecherne, confirmed that killed Ukrainians were brothers and came from the village Velyka Horodnytsia of Mlynivskyi district, Rivne region.
Inuit students wearing sealskin jackets take part in a rally on Parliament Hill on March 18, 2014, to protest the World Trade Organization's decision to uphold a European Union ban on imported seal products. A program run by an Iqualiut-based sealskin fashion designer helps keep poverty at bay for some in the Inuit community. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)

Sealskin Fashion Designer Brings Economic Relief to Inuit Craftswomen

Inuit sealers still struggling to recover from EUs seal product bans

OTTAWAWith the approach of sealing season once again in March, anti-sealing activists will be stepping up their opposition to the East Coast seal hunt. The conflict between animal rights groups and seal hunters has been going on for years, as the groups continue pursuing their goal of ending Canadas annual commercial hunt, believing it to be inhumane.

Although Inuit can hunt seals commercially year-round all over the Canadian Arctic, sealers in the region are still struggling to recover from the European Unions seal product bans of 1983 and 2009, which had devastating economic consequences.

Architect-turned fashion designer Rannva Erlingsdottir Simonsen has been doing her bit to keep poverty at bay for some in the community through her Sewing for Survival program. Her products, created and sold out of her home-based studio Rannva Design in Iqaluit, range from coats and jackets to mitts, gloves, footwear, and accessories, all made with sealskin.

Sealskin has been my livelihood since 2000, she said in a recent interview in Ottawa, where she was showing off her products at a trade show called Northern Lights.

A native of Faroe Islandsa chain of islands in the North Atlantic that are part of the Kingdom of DenmarkSimonsen said the program helps the Inuit community, particularly women, to acquire some measure of economic independence and regain their long-suppressed pride in their traditional crafts.

Inuit craftswomen work at Rannva Design in Iqualiut, Nunavut. (Courtesy Rannva Erlingsdottir Simonsen)

Through the program, she outsources work to the Inuit, who use their traditional sewing skills and food byproducts, such as seal bones, pelts, and antlers, to supply her with decorations that complement her designs and to add extra products including key chains and amulets to her collection.

The Sewing for Survival program provides sustainable and respectful employment for marginalized Inuit women and men, Simonsen said. Its amazing to see the beauty that these women create from within themselves, even when they are in such dire circumstances.

She explains that many of her female suppliers are victims of domestic violence and live in a shelter across the street from her studio.

Rannva Erlingsdottir Simonsen with one of her sealskin creations. (Courtesy Rannva Erlingsdottir Simonsen)

It Was Our Great Depression

It was back in the 1960s that animal rights groups first set their sights on the sealskin trade. In 1983, Greenpeace and other groups such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare finally succeeded in getting the European Union to ban the import of sealskin from whitecoat harp seal pups.

Even though the legislation targeted only this one kind of sealskin, all types of sealskin were negatively impacted and the international market crashed almost immediately. The Inuit were exempt from the ban, but because they were part of the commercial market, the ban had a drastic impact across Nunavut.

Within a year, annual seal hunting revenue plunged, poverty grew, suicide rates increased, and nomadic hunters were forced to move into town. Another blow came in 2010, when the EU banned all seal products, further shrinking the market. Where pelts once sold for more than $100 each, they now fetch around $10.

It was our Great Depression, said Alethea Arnaquq-Baril in her 2016 documentary Angry Inuk. The 83 ban was a life-altering event for the Inuit.

Angry Inuk is a counterpoint to animal rights activism and defends Canadas seal hunt. It argues that, far from being a sport of inhuman cruelty, the seal hunt is the economic lifeblood of the entire Inuit community. The film features Aaju Peter, a Greenland-born Inuit lawyer, seamstress, and sealskin designer who has vehemently denounced the ban.

Peter and Arnaquq-Baril contend that the EUs exemption for Inuit-harvested sealskin products is vaguely defined and has done little or nothing to offset the economic devastation suffered by their community as a result of the ban.

Seals and sealing have been a fundamental part of Inuit survival in the Arctic since time immemorial. It is still a fundamental part of Inuit culture, tradition, and economy today, Peter said in an email.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney and his then-wife Heather Mills pose with a baby seal on ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on March 2, 2006, as part of a high-profile protest against Canadas annual seal hunt. (CP PHOTO/Tom Hanson)

In 2011, Canada and Norway attempted to overturn the EU ban by filing a challenge at the World Trade Organization, but the ban was upheld. A federal government statement at the time said: Canadas position has been that the eastern and northern seal harvests are humane, sustainable, and well-regulated activities that provide an important source of food and income for coastal and Inuit communities. It added that the ban was a political decision that has no basis in fact or science.

Also in an effort to overturn the ban, Inuit groups in Canada and Greenland sued the EU, but a court ruling rejected the challenge.

Although its been illegal to harvest whitecoat seals since 1987and the Inuit have never harvested whitecoatsduring hunting season animal rights groups generate a blizzard of protest, often using photos of fluffy baby seals in their literature. Social media accounts become awash in a flurry of messages accompanied by images of cuddly seal pups staring pitifully into the camera.

Thirty-five countries have now banned seal product imports, the most recent being India in April 2018. Canadas biggest market for seal pelts is Norway.

Simonsen and other sealskin designers in Nunavut and Newfoundland have managed to keep their businesses afloat. She sells her products in Canada and several other countries. Her creations have even been seen in the corridors of power, including on Parliament Hill and at diplomatic receptions.

In the process, shes giving a glimmer of hope to some of Nunavuts Indigenous craftspeople. Sewing is close to the heart of Inuit women, she said.
The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

With temperatures hovering around the 30-degree mark with a wind chill of 26 degrees Saturday, some would say this was just about perfect weather for a polar plunge.

But the faces of the plungers going in and coming out of the 41-degree ocean told another story.

This Presidents' Day weekend, Sea Isle City held its 26th polar plunge, as thousands of people made the trip to either plunge, party or partake in both.

The always popular costume contest started out the day at La Costa Lounge and Deck Bar as people took the stage to show off their creativity. This year Elvis, the Fanta girls and an Army tank made an appearance.

The energetic duo FunZaLuv kept the party going before and after the noon plunge.

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

As the plungers gathered on the beach, many huddled together trying to stay warm while others ran up and down the beach trying to psych themselves up for the chilly Atlantic Ocean.

"Wimpy," said seasoned plunger Chris Rodden, of Sewell, when describing the weather. Rodden has been to every plunge and remembers one year when there were chunks of ice in the ocean.

This year there were no chunks of ice but the screams coming from most of the people as they exited the water suggested the water was cold enough for them.

The weekend-long event ends Sunday with Mike's Seafood 5K Run and 1.5-Mile Fun Walk for Autism.

Scroll below to see more pictures of the plunge.

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George Bogan, of Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, waits to plunge while dressed as the Pope during the 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The costume contest during the pre-plunge party at La Costa Lounge and Deck Bar before the 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020.

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The costume contest during the pre-plunge party at La Costa Lounge and Deck Bar before the 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020.

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The costume contest during the pre-plunge party at La Costa Lounge and Deck Bar before the 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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FunZaLuv performs at the after-plunge party in La Costa Lounge and Deck Bar during the 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The costume contest during the pre-plunge party at La Costa Lounge and Deck Bar before the 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020.

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The pre-plunge party at La Costa Lounge and Deck Bar during the 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The costume contest during the pre-plunge party at La Costa Lounge and Deck Bar before the 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020.

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The costume contest during the pre-plunge party at La Costa Lounge and Deck Bar before the 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020.

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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FunZaLuv performs at the after-plunge party in La Costa Lounge and Deck Bar during the 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The pre-plunge party at La Costa Lounge and Deck Bar during the 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The costume contest during the pre-plunge party at La Costa Lounge and Deck Bar before the 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The pre-plunge party at La Costa Lounge and Deck Bar during the 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The costume contest during the pre-plunge party at La Costa Lounge and Deck Bar before the 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020.

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The 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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People dance during the after-plunge party at La Costa Lounge and Deck Bar before the 26th annual Sea Isle City Polar Bear Plunge, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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Prime Minister Ludovic Orban stressed, in Munich, the full legitimacy of Romania's aspirations for joining the Schengen area, given that our country has long met the technical criteria in this regard.

The Romanian prime minister participated as a guest of honor on Sunday in the panel discussion "Eurovision Contest: A Europe That Protects", within the Munich Security Conference.According to a Government press release, Ludovic Orban pointed out that restoring the full functionality of the extended Schengen area is essential for ensuring the internal security of the European Union."Prime Minister Orban also highlighted the extremely important role of Romania in defending a significant segment of the European Union border. The Romanian high official went on to evoke the ongoing efforts of the Bucharest authorities to fulfill the conditions for joining the euro area," the press release shows.The head of the Executive also referred to the special importance of continuing the European Union's enlargement policy with the Western Balkan states, and respectively, of paying greater attention to the Eastern partners, for the external security of the Union."As for the ongoing negotiations on the future multi-annual financial framework of the Union, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban has insisted on the need to ensure a sufficiently ambitious Union budget to meet the new challenges, but also sufficiently balanced to come to support the EU's classic policies - the cohesion and the common agricultural policy," the Government release mentioned.The panel discussion saw the participation of the President of Slovakia - Zuzana Caputova, Prime Minister of Croatia - Andrej Plenkovic, Vice-President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency - Vera Jourova, Vice-President of the European Commission for Promoting the European Way of Life - Margaritis Schinas, as well as Armin Laschet, Prime Minister of the North Rhine-Westphalia, respectively the leader of the German Green Party, Annalena Baerbock. The debate was moderated by Henrik Enderlein, President of the Hertie School of Governance.
A conservative activist group - which bills itself as the right-wing version of GetUp - will target primary school children with a series of new resources designed to counter the "climate alarmist narrative" it says is being pushed in classrooms and the media.

Advance Australia's national director Liz Storer said the resource packs being developed will be sent to schools, parents and grandparents, and could be used in the classroom or at home. The resources will say human-induced climate change "isn't true" and "there's a lot more to the story".

But the NSW and Victorian governments have already indicated the materials in question would very likely be banned in public schools as they "would not be deemed objective".

Students have taken to the streets to protest what they believe is a lack of government action on climate change. Credit:Steven Siewert

Advance Australia, which was founded in 2018 by a group of prominent conservatives, emailed supporters last week hoping to raise $180,000 by March 31 to "help get powerful resources out, especially in schools, to counter the nonsensical climate alarmism".
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and other nations are ready to fly home hundreds of passengers stuck on a quarantined ship in Japan, but infected travelers are staying behind. The Diamond Princess had 355 confirmed coronavirus cases, including at least 40 Americans.

Malaysia stopped admitting passengers from the Westerdam luxury liner docked in Cambodia after an American traveler fell ill in Kuala Lumpur. Taiwan had its first death, a taxi driver in his 60s.

China will act to cut corporate taxes and unnecessary government expenses as the virus hurts production. China has 68,500 total cases and 1,665 deaths. The global infection total is nearing 70,000.

Key Developments

Taiwan reports first death from the virus, a taxi driver

China pledges more economic stimulus

Malaysia Bars Westerdam Cruise Passengers From Entry

Cases soar aboard Diamond Princess in Japan

Singapore, U.A.E. report new cases

Hubei had 1,843 new cases, down from 2,420 a day earlier.

Click VRUS on the terminal for news and data on the novel coronavirus and here for maps and charts. For analysis of the impact from Bloomberg Economics, click here.

China, Asia Bulk Up Against Virus (3 p.m. NY)

China, Hong Kong and Singapore are pledging extra fiscal stimulus to counter the economic hit from the coronavirus.

China will enact more-efficient stimulus measures, including lower corporate taxes. Hong Kong faces tsunami-like shocks that may lead to a record budget deficit. Singapore, which is losing as many as 20,000 tourists a day to travel curbs, will get a strong package of budget measures this week.

Read full story here.

U.S., Canadian Planes Set for Evacuation Flights (1:30 p.m. NY)

A pair of aircraft chartered by the State Department is ready to fly back home Americans evacuated from a ship in Japan, but more than 40 U.S. citizens infected by the virus will stay behind in hospitals.

The planes are headed to Travis Air Force Base in California and Kelly Field at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. The passengers -- quarantined on the ship -- will be kept in quarantine for 14 days, separate from other travelers who, because they visited China, are isolated at the U.S. bases.

Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on CBS said 40 Americans were infected on the ship. Later, he told the Washington Post 44 became ill. Anybody who shows symptoms will not be on the evacuation flight, he said.

In addition to the U.S., Canada is using a chartered plane to repatriate Canadians from the ship. The Canadians are heading Cornwall, Ontario, to undergo a further 14-day period of quarantine, Global Affairs Canada said.

Hong Kong is also planning to send a plane to bring back its nationals from the cruise ship. An estimated 330 Hong Kong residents are on board, the Japan Times reported.

U.A.E. Reports Ninth Case (12:10 p.m. NY)

A 37-year-old Chinese man in the United Arab Emirates has been confirmed with the coronavirus, the Ministry of Health & Prevention said Sunday, becoming the nations ninth case. His condition is stable, the ministry said in a Facebook post.

40 Americans Infected on Japan Liner (10:45 a.m. NY)

Forty U.S. passengers from the Diamond Princess liner are infected and will go to a Japanese hospital rather than take a State Department evacuation flight, a top U.S. health official said.

Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said anybody from the ship, docked in Yokohama, showing symptoms virus will be kept off the flight, which is due to leave Japan early Monday morning.

Fauci said the outbreak that began in China last month and has spread to more than two dozen nations is on the verge of becoming a global pandemic if containment steps fail to show more success.

He dismissed President Donald Trumps suggestion the virus will diminish in warmer weather, saying on Face the Nation on CBS, we do not know what this particular virus is going to do. Trump has linked weather and the virus in a tweet.

Malaysia Says Westerdam Passengers Negative for Virus (9:42 a.m. NY)

Six passengers who were quarantined after arriving in Malaysia from the Westerdam cruise ship in Cambodia have tested negative for the virus, Malaysias health ministry said. The two Americans and four Dutch nationals arrived on a flight with an 83-year-old woman who tested positive for the coronavirus twice after arrival.

Taiwan Victim Worked as Taxi Driver (9:23 a.m. NY)

The deceased was a taxi driver, Taiwans Centers for Disease Control said in a statement late Sunday. He carried three passengers returning to Taiwan from China, Hong Kong and Macau, who later visited doctors for respiratory symptoms. CDC is tracking the three people and all close contacts of the man who died.

Singapore Reports Three New Cases (9 a.m. NY)

Singapores Ministry of Health said in a statement it has verified three additional cases of COVID-19 infection. Two are linked to the cluster at Grace Assembly of God and the other to a previous case.

Hospital Head Says Coronavirus Turning Point Reached (8:45 a.m. NY)

The turning point for the novel coronavirus epidemic has been reached and the number of new outbreaks is declining, the state-run China Central Television reports, citing Wang Xinghuan, head of Wuhan Leishenshan Hospital.

The number of people with a fever has been sliding steadily and has never rebounded, Wang was cited as saying.

Some Positive Economic Signs From Epidemic, Xinhua Says (8:05 a.m. NY)

The novel coronavirus epidemic had some temporary impact on Chinas economy but wont overwhelm it, the official Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary on its website. The Chinese economy is a sea, not a small pond, it said.

U.S. Charter Flights Are Last Chance to Leave for Weeks (7 a.m. NY)

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo told Americans on the Diamond Princess that the charter flights leaving today are the only opportunity to fly to the U.S. until March 4 at the earliest. No symptomatic or infected passengers will be allowed to board. Passengers who remain on the ship until Feb. 19 will be subject to a 14-day quarantine before they can board commercial flights to the U.S.

Taiwan Confirms First Death From Coronavirus (6:13 a.m. NY)

Taiwan reported the first death from coronavirus on Sunday, and added two more confirmed cases, bringing the total to 20, according to a statement from the countrys Centers for Disease Control via text message. The man in his 60s had a history of hepatitis B and diabetes, the CDC said in a statement on its website. He went to the hospital on Feb. 3 with shortness of breath and died from pneumonia and sepsis on Feb. 15.

Israel Sends Doctor to Japan to Oversee Treatment (6:10 a.m. NY)

Israel will bring back most of its 15 citizens on the Diamond Princess, Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu said. Those who havent been infected will be brought to Israel and placed in quarantine. Israelis who were infected will remain in Japan, and Israel has sent a doctor there to oversee their treatment, the prime minister said. Israels Health Ministry announced earlier that there were two confirmed Israeli cases on the ship. There are no known cases of the virus in Israel, Netanyahu said.

Italy to Evacuate Diamond Princess Passengers (5:16 p.m. HK)

Italy joined South Korea, Canada, the U.S. and Hong Kong in saying it would evacuate its citizens or residents from the stricken ship. The country plans to evacuate 35 Italians onboard the luxury liner, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said in a Facebook post on Sunday. A plane will be sent to evacuate the Italians after discussing the matter yesterday with government officials. Greece is also looking to bring back two of its nationals who are on the ship.

Malaysia Cancels Repatriation Flights (Correct)

Malaysia wont let any more passengers from the cruise ship Westerdam enter the country and canceled three flights chartered by Holland America Line to bring passengers from Cambodia, where the ship docked on Feb. 13, the Southeast Asian nations health ministry said in a statement. An 83-year-old American woman who tested positive for the virus in Malaysia was among 145 cruise passengers who arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 14.

U.K. Makes Preparations for Epidemic (3:30 p.m. HK)

U.K. officials plan to use 24 hospitals to treat patients in the event of a surge in infections, the Sunday Times reported, without saying where it got the information. The contingency plans call for hospitals to prepare airtight isolation rooms. The U.K. government is working on the assumption that up to half of the population, or 33 million, could be hit by the virus, the Times said. Anyone suffering flu-like symptoms could be ordered to self-isolate at home for 14 days, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

More Fiscal Support in China (3:15 p.m. HK)

China pledged to roll out more effective stimulus despite a widening fiscal gap as the coronavirus hits an already slowing economy. Authorities will further perfect and implement measures this year to reduce corporate taxes and cut unnecessary government expenses as the virus takes a toll on production, Finance Minister Liu Kun wrote in the Communist Partys flagship magazine on Sunday.

Hong Kong Protests Against Some Quarantine Centers (3 p.m. HK)

In Hong Kong, rallies are taking place in Sai Kung and Cheung Sha Wan against a government order to set up quarantine center and designated clinic respectively in the areas.

A district chancellor of Sai Kung said the government shouldnt set up quarantine centers near residential areas and should have closed its borders earlier. Another rally will take place later in Fo Tan to oppose to setting up a quarantine center in that region.

Hong Kong Facing Tsunami-Like Shocks (1 p.m. HK)

Hong Kong is facing tsunami-like shocks, and may incur a record budget deficit in the next fiscal year as the city counts the costs of the outbreak after months of social unrest, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said a blog post Sunday. The impact of the epidemic on the Hong Kong economy is being felt beyond retail, food and beverage and tourism-related industries, he said.

New Cruise Patients to Be Sent to Hospitals (11:30 a.m. HK)

Japans health ministry said the 70 people most recently detected with the virus aboard the Diamond Princess would be sent to hospitals and facilities that have medical wards able to handle the disease, as the number of cases aboard the Diamond Princess climbed to 355. The vessel is the largest infection cluster outside China.

Canada Steps In (9:35 a.m. HK)

Canada will evacuate nationals from the Diamond Princess. Healthy passengers will be brought to Canadian Forces Base Trenton, after which they will be assessed and transported to the NAV Canada Training Institute in Cornwall, Ontario, for a 14-day quarantine, the government said in a statement. Passengers showing any symptons of the virus will instead be transferred to the Japanese health system to receive appropriate care.

China Reports Additional Saturday Cases (9:10 a.m. HK)

China reported an additional 2,009 cases for Saturday, as it updated the number of coronavirus cases nationwide.

Singapore Budget Stimulus to Counter Virus (8 a.m.)

Singapore is set to deliver an expansionary budget this week to offset the damage to the economy from the coronavirus. The city-state, which has more than 70 confirmed infections, is losing as many as 20,000 tourists a day amid the outbreak, and the economic impact is already more severe than during the 2003 SARS pandemic, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was cited as saying Friday.

There are currently no plans for Singapore to raise its alert response level to the highest, which is red and signifies a disease is spreading widely, its health minister said Friday, dispelling rumors. The level is currently at the second-highest.

Rate of New Cases Slows in Hubei (7 a.m. HK)

Hubei province had fewer new infections for a second consecutive day, government data showed early Sunday. New cases reached 1,843, a 24% drop from the 2,420 of the previous day and well below the 4,823 reported for Feb. 13.

The province had 139 new deaths for two days in a row, the second-highest daily total for the province. Wuhan, the provinces main city, accounted for three quarters of all the deaths, and 70% of the infections.

Hawaii Officials Downplay Risks (6:30 a.m. HK)

The risk of contracting the coronavirus remains low in Hawaii, state officials said after married Japanese couple in their 60s tested positive for the coronavirus after returning home from a Hawaiian vacation on Feb. 7, health officials said Saturday, according to the New York Times.

To read the full story, click here.

Hong Kong to Evacuate Residents on Cruise (1 a.m. HK)

Hong Kongs government said it would organize a chartered flight to bring residents quarantined aboard the Diamond Princess back home free of charge. They will then be placed in a 14-day quarantine, it said.

--With assistance from Shiho Takezawa, Yudith Ho, Jing Jin, Dong Lyu, Ryan Beene and Abeer Abu Omar.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Fourteen years after Colombia's landmark decision to legalize abortions in some cases, the country is once more bracing itself for a historic vote.

The Colombian Constitutional Court has until Feb. 19th to decide whether it will legalize abortion for pregnancies up to 12 weeks. The current law allows for abortion in only three instances: if the mother's life is at risk, if a fetus is malformed or if the pregnancy is a result of rape.

This is the "first real opportunity to actually advance reproductive rights," according to Paula Avila-Guillen, the director of Latin America Initiatives for the Women's Equality Center.

"I think they have the opportunity to actually make history," Avila-Guillen told ABC News.

PHOTO: A child draws a fetus on a blackboard during a reproductive health class in Colombia, April 8, 2007. (Joana Toro/dpa via Newscom, FILE)

The decision is hanging on two female justices who have not yet made clear how they will vote, according to Avila-Guillen. She said that out of the nine justices, four men are in favor, and two men, as well as one woman, are against.

The country's current abortion law is among the more lenient in Latin America.

MORE: Clinics where majority of US patients get abortions are rapidly closing: Report

The Center for Reproductive Rights classifies Colombia's abortion law as legal if it is "to preserve health." Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru also fall under that category.

Six Latin American countries have total abortion bans: the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Suriname.

By law, all institutions providing health services in Colombia -- whether public, private, secular or religious -- are required to perform an abortion if a woman proves that she meets one of the three exceptions.

PHOTO: A supporter of the of the anti-abortion rights movement holds a cross during the 'United for Life' rally in Bogota, May 4, 2019. (Sopa Images/LightRocket via Getty Images, FILE)

Even so, advocates say the reality is that it's not regulated and hospitals often deny women the service.

Out of the estimated 400,400 abortions performed in the country each year, only 322 are legal procedures performed in health facilities, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization on sexual and reproductive rights.

Story continues

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, found that of the 428 women and girls who requested an abortion through MSF in 2017 and 2018, 88% reported that they faced at least one obstacle while trying to access the service.

MORE: Mexico's Oaxaca state decriminalizes abortion

MSF noted that while the data does not represent the country as a whole, "it does provide a snapshot of the situation."

There are two main abortion providing groups in Colombia: Orientame and ProFamilia, both of which have multiple facilities across the country.

Dr. Juan Vargas, a gynecologist of 25 years at ProFamilia, told ABC News that in 2019 the clinic performed some 22,000 abortions. He said that most of the women who seek abortion from a ProFamilia clinic do so for health reasons. Rape accounts for 1%, while fetal malformation makes up about 3%, according to Vargas.

PHOTO: Feminists with green scarves covering their faces hold a banner as an act of rebellion against the anti-abortion rights movement during a 'United for Life' rally in Bogota, Colombia, May 4, 2019. (Sipa USA via AP, FILE)

He noted that rape survivors need to prove in some way they have been raped. It is most often done through a police report or complaint, he said; however, many victims of rape often do not report their assault.

Vargas said between 90 to 95% of women who seek an abortion are granted one at ProFamilia. Abortions that are not performed at one of the facilities are done in hospitals, where proper access is a major issue, according to Avila-Guillen.

"Safe abortions continue to be a problem," she said. "Access has never really materialized."

MORE: Over 350 lawyers, legal professionals who had abortions file brief in landmark Supreme Court case

Unsafe abortions are one of the five leading causes of maternal mortality worldwide, according to MSF. The other four are postpartum hemorrhage, sepsis, birth complications and hypertensive disorders.

"Of all these, unsafe abortion is the only one that is completely avoidable," MSF reports.

Avila-Guillen said such a consequence makes the upcoming vote all the more important.

"This will be significant and a huge legacy for this court and these two women judges, which it's in their hands to recognize women's rights and women's autonomy and women's equality," she said.

MORE: 2-year battle over Indiana abortion clinic highlights politically motivated licensing laws: Advocates

Though Avila-Guillen did not have statistics on how the public in Colombia feels about abortion, she said like many places around the world, the country is in the midst of a "battle."

"We just elected our first female mayor who is married to a congresswoman, and I think that just shows you how Colombia is moving toward a more progressive society," Avila-Guillen said.

Yet on the other hand, she noted, Colombia has not been spared a push of a right-wing agenda and there are some in the country who still vehemently oppose abortion rights.

She noted that the Colombian Constitutional Court is only considering the change in law after author Natalia Bernal Cano, who wrote a book titled "The right to information about the risks of induced abortion," brought forth a case to ban abortion entirely. In her book, Cano argues that she is providing "the right to information about the risks to women's mental and physical health from the voluntary interruption of pregnancy."

The court has since used her case to consider ultra petita, or beyond what is sought.

"They have requested a lot of technical information from providers, from lawyers, from public health experts, from criminal attorneys, so that is a good sign," Avila-Guillen said. "Whatever decision they make, it's going to be informed and based on facts."

Colombia to decide on historic abortion ruling originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
American passengers began evacuating a cruise ship quarantined off Japan early on Monday morning, boarding around a dozen buses at a port in Yokohama.

An AFP reporter saw buses in a convoy starting to move away from the Diamond Princess, though they did not immediately depart the port.

An American passenger, Sarah Arana, confirmed to AFP she had boarded a bus and was expecting to take one of two charter flights leaving to the United States.

Arana said passengers leaving the vessel went through a makeshift passport control process but underwent no health checks before boarding the buses, which will leave the dock in a caravan.

"We have to sit here until all the buses are loaded with all the passengers and then we will leave."

Two planes have been chartered to carry passengers back to the United States, with some staying at a military base in California and others going on to Texas.

Arana said she had not been told whether she would be staying in California or going on to Texas.

All Americans who leave the ship will have to observe another 14-day quarantine in the United States.

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Many textile and garment businesses are scrambling to make face masks given the coronavirus outbreak-triggered lack of surgical masks.

Workers make fabric face masks. Local apparel producers are turning out a large volume of face masks given the undersupply of surgical masks - PHOTO: VNA

Truc Quang JSC is cooperating with Nha Be Retail Trading JSC to supply millions of masks to outlets of the Saigon Union of Trading Cooperatives (Saigon Co.op) and VinMart.

Truc Quang chairman Nguyen Hong Quang said the company had increased its capacity to ensure it produces one million masks per month, but has yet to meet the demand.

Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex) is also manufacturing masks using material from Dong Xuan Knitting Co., Ltd and Dong Nai Garment Corporation.

Dong Xuan Knitting Co., Ltd has increased its production to supply four to five million masks by the end of this month, and 80-100 tons of antibacterial knitted fabric to garment companies of Vinatex. Meanwhile, Dong Nai Garment Corporation, with a capacity of nine tons of fabric per day, can provide 350,000 masks a day for local consumption.

Than Duc Viet, general director of Garment 10 Corporation, said the firm would also produce masks to supply 50,000 units.

Meanwhile, retailers have cooperated with garment companies to put face masks on their shelves.

Saigon Co.op has ordered 1.5 million antibacterial masks from X28 Corporation, a unit of the Ministry of National Defense, with first deliveries beginning on February 12.

The Big C supermarket chain has also worked with producers to sell more than one million masks at stable prices, and with members of Vinatex to distribute 500,000 masks, while only charging the costs of manufacturing and without profits.

According to the HCMC Department of Industry and Trade, 20 face masks producers in the city can supply the local market with 2.53 million units a day. As many firms are having difficulty securing enough materials for production, the department has sought help from the Ministry of Industry and Trade to import materials from India and Malaysia. SGT

Viet Dung

VN Environment Ministry demands proper disposal of face masks to prevent COVID-19 spread The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has asked all cities and provinces to focus on correctly disposing discarded face masks, especially in quarantine sites, in an attempt to stop the spread of COVID-2019.
Korea's major fintech platform Kakao Pay has successfully entered into the securities industry, with Financial Services Commission's final approval on Feb. 5. / Courtesy of Kakao Pay



By Anna J. Park



As Kakao Pay has made its foray into the securities industry, market watchers expect the mobile-based app will bring about a further expansion of the market by fully employing its strength in big data and providing customized financial services. Kakao Pay is one of Korea's largest fintech platforms with about 30 million users registered as of 2019.



The Financial Services Commission (FSC) granted a final approval earlier this month for the financial arm of the Kakao Talk messenger platform to become the majority shareholder of Baro Investment & Securities by owning a 60 percent stake in the brokerage house. It changed the name of the company to Kakao Pay Securities.



Since the FSC granted approval to the acquisition on Feb. 5, the fintech company specializing in money transfer and pre-paid payment tools has been receiving the first batch of applications from Kakao Pay customers who'd like to upgrade their accounts into brokerage accounts.



The firm said the account upgrade will be possible from Feb. 20 to 26, and users would be able to purchase investment products like stocks, bonds and funds.



Digital stock platform expert Kim Dae-hong, who had previously led the successful online business department of Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities, has been newly appointed as Kakao Pay Securities' CEO.



Kim had more than 18 years of experience at major securities firms before he joined Kakao Pay in February 2019 to lead the mobile app's acquisition of Baro Investment & Securities. Kim will take charge in overall management of the firm, as well as its retail department, while co-CEO Yoon Gi-jeong will continue to lead corporate finance.



CEO Kim vowed to focus on successfully stabilizing the newly-created retail department as well as strengthening corporate financing, while the firm maintains close cooperation with Kakao Pay.



"Kakao Pay Securities will offer close-knit investment platforms for everyone in their daily lives, by breaking pre-existing grammar in the financial sector," Kim said in a press release.



"Kakao Pay and Kakao Pay Securities aim to achieve synergy by creating an entirely new investment culture through a fintech platform," an official from Kakao Pay told The Korea Times.



"Kakao Pay platform's ease of use, strong connectivity and technology will expand the area of financial services for those who do not have enough financial experiences or those who have a small asset size, as it allows them to easily enter into the financial market and to expect profits from various products with a smaller amount of money," he added.



Analysts expect the firm to grow rapidly, based on its strong B2C model.



"Kakao Pay Securities will be growing fast. As the brokerage firm did not offer an entirely new business model, the firm is expected to grow by creating a new stock market model, rather than taking customers from other securities companies," Jeong Tae-joon, analyst at Yuanta Securities told The Korea Times.



Hwang Seung-tae, analyst at Hana Financial Investment, agrees that the new securities house will take full advantage of Kakao Talk's far-reaching market power.



"Considering the marketing power of Kakao Talk  the largest mobile messenger app in Korea, the securities company will have a significant impact on retail business, based on its strength in mobile-based B2C services," Hwang told The Korea Times.



"However we still need to wait and see to figure out the firms' impact on areas such as alternative investments, and real estate project or corporate financing," he added.


I have friends on the left, and critics on the right. I also have friends on the right, and critics on the left.

Perhaps everyone should sit down for this column.

I hope I'm at the right meeting. My name is Ruben, and I'm a "dittohead." In fact, I have been addicted to a certain radio talk show for nearly 30 years.

Blame it on my roots. I was born and raised in the conservative farm country of Central California. After going to college in New England, I couldn't wait to get back to the land of pickup trucks, work boots and gun racks.

And, in those parts, there is only one thing on radio worth listening to: "The Rush Limbaugh Show."

So, I'm sad that Limbaugh -- the nation's most listened-to radio personality and a longtime cigar aficionado -- has late-stage lung cancer. And I'm pleased that President Trump recently awarded the host the Presidential Medal of Freedom in honor of an inspiring life, remarkable career and job well done.
Islamabad: Pakistan has told Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that Maulana Masood Azhar and his family are missing from terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed. However, sources have said that Masood and his family are in Rawalpindi. Masood Azhar's organization 'Jaish-e-Mohammed' has carried out its terrorist incidents not only in India but also in America, England, Australia and Canada.

Masood Azhar was declared a global terrorist by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on 1 May last year. According to media reports, Pakistan has claimed that they have 16 global terrorists declared by the United Nations. 7 of these have been killed. At the same time, the remaining 9 terrorists demanded the removal of the economic and travel ban from the United Nations. Pakistan has claimed that about five and a half thousand accounts of terrorist organizations declared by the United Nations have also been closed.

Let us tell you that this whole trick of Pakistan is to avoid getting blacklisted from FATF. Pakistan, which is struggling with economic crisis on the black list, will not get loan from World Bank. Today the FATF meeting starts in Paris. This time the meeting is chaired by China. FATF put Pakistan in the gray list in June 2018. Along with this, there was a warning that they should immediately stop terrorist funding. Let us tell you that Iran and North Korea are currently named in the FATF black list.

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DALLAS - Clayton Williams, a colorful Texas oilman and philanthropist whose 1990 run for governor was derailed after joking about rape and acknowledging he went a year without paying income taxes, has died. He was 88.

Williams died Friday at his home in Midland after struggling with pneumonia, his nephew, Clay Pollard, said Saturday. Pollard said Williams spent some time in the hospital after coming down with pneumonia and though he was able to go home, he never really recovered. Pollard said Williams was surrounded by his wife, children and grandchildren when he died.

He had just a huge personality, Pollard said.

Williams, who graduated from Texas A&M University in 1954, provided millions to the school, including providing the lead gift in 1985 toward the construction of the schools alumni centre, which is named for him, the universitys alumni association said on its website.

The race between Williams, a Republican, and Ann Richards, a liberal Democrat, was dubbed Claytie and the Lady and was initially considered Williams to lose.

Williams was known for his cowboy image and colorful phrases  he promised to introduce young drug offenders to the joys of bustin rocks. The witty, silver-haired Richards, was also known for her turns of phrase, reminding delegates of the 1988 Democratic National Convention that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels.

The rape comment, which Williams later dismissed as barnyard language, came after he invited political reporters to his ranch near Alpine to watch him round up cattle. On the cold, rainy day, reporters overheard Williams compare the weather to rape: If its inevitable, he said, just relax and enjoy it.

He apologized, but the damage was done. When the Houston Chronicle asked him in 2011 if he was concerned the comment would define his legacy, he replied: Theres nothing I can do about it. My grandfather had a saying: If you can do something about it, do it. If you cant dont worry about it.

Pollard said that his uncles comment wasnt reflective of how he felt about women, and noted that it was used against him for the rest of the campaign.

It was just repeated in the paper again and again and again against him. It was a critical component of his defeat but it wasnt reflective of how he feels about women, Pollard said.

During a joint appearance in Dallas, Williams rejected Richards outstretched hand and called her a liar. He also revealed during the campaign that due to an oil bust he went an entire year in the mid-1980s without paying any income taxes.

Williams told the Chronicle for that story that he made it OK for Bubba to vote Republican, noting that before him, many Texans had associated Republicans with the country club crowd.

Richards, who died in 2006, served as Texas governor for one term before losing an re-election bid to Republican George W. Bush, the future president.

Williams was also remembered as a generous benefactor.

State Sen. Kel Seliger, a Republican from Amarillo, told the Austin American Statesman, that Williams was a giant in our community and leaves a legacy that wont be soon forgotten.

Williams, who grew up in Fort Stockton, started his career by selling oil and gas leases there. In 2017, Noble Energy agreed to buy Williams Midland-based Clayton Williams Energy for $2.7 billion in stock and cash.

He did things big. He was big in oil and gas. He was a wildcatter. He was a risk taker, Pollard said.
Newsfrom Japan

Hong Kong/New York, Feb. 16 (Jiji Press)--Hong Kong and some other economies have expressed hopes that they will send charter planes to Japan to evacuate their citizens on board the coronavirus-hit cruise ship Diamond Princess.

The governments of Hong Kong and Canada announced their charter flight plans Saturday.

On Sunday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Australia also wants to repatriate its citizens on the ship, quarantined off Yokohama, near Tokyo.

Taiwan has started negotiations with Japan to evacuate about 20 Taiwanese aboard, according to a Taiwanese source.

Among the passengers on the ship are some 330 Hong Kong residents including 11 people who had been confirmed infected as of Saturday, according to the Hong Kong government.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
Dear Editor,

The Israeli lobby is the hidden enemy of progressive reform, both in England and in United States. Jeremy Corbin and the Labour Party championed the rights of English working people against the Conservative Party and its all powerful corporate interests. Charges of antisemitism against Corbin dominated much of the last campaign, leading to the election of a Donald Trump clone, Boris Johnson.

In the U.S., Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party have all been smeared by the same label. We have yet to see if Israeli lobby money can destroy Americas hopes for economic reform.

Johnson, Trump, and Benjamin Netanyahu represent the new wave of fascist thought, all predicated on the call for ethnic and racial purity in troubled economic times. Their ascension to power, in fact, comes from the neoliberal drift of the last several decades that has brought victory to the billionaire class over the vast majority of workers.

Racism is the weapon of choice for demagogues seeking power. All three leaders offer a constant refrain of racist comments to keep their base inflamed. Johnson speaks hatefully of all immigrants, characterizing them as parasites. Trump thinks it is fair game to attack Mexicans, Arabs, women, gays, or any other vulnerable group he can demonize. Netanyahu simply urges his Jewish citizens to ever tighten their noose around the necks of the Palestinians.

Political power built on racism brings an end to democracy, a terrible price to pay for leaders who would replace the common good with hate.

Fred Nagel,

Rhinebeck, N.Y.
It was last summer, apparently, that Peter Phillips and his wife, Autumn, told his grandmother Queen Elizabeth that they planned to separate. The monarch, it has been reported, counselled them not to rush into anything. Slow down, take your time, give it some consideration.

That was last summer. Before Andrew did Newsnight and had to be stripped of royal duties as a result and before Harry and Meghan decided they wanted out. Despite the fact that she didn't know that either of these royal-PR disasters were down the track, however, the monarch counselled caution.

Don't rock the boat. Don't draw undue attention.

Keep calm and carry on.

It must feel to the nonagenarian head of state that no one is paying any attention any more. Maybe it takes years of experience and maturity to see that even the most might of edifices can be tumbled if they are chipped away at enough, and there must be moments that Elizabeth feels alone in seeking to keep everything together.

Maybe, or maybe she only has to look to William and Kate for a bit of royal reassurance. The rest might seem to be going rogue at a rate of knots, but the more they rattle their jewellery, the more solid the second in line to the throne and his commoner wife seem to get.

What solace the British monarch must take in them, though it's quite the duty for one couple to carry.

Elsewhere, however, she must feel she is being let down, particularly as the unhitching of Harry and Meghan continues to unfold. Of course, part of their deal - and that which seemed reasonable and not grabby - was that they would, once they were no longer senior royals, earn their own money.

Yes, yes, Charles continues to support them out of his private income and their eye-wateringly expensive security bill is not their headache, but, otherwise, Harry and Meghan are now supporting themselves. Which sounds admirable, although their first major commercial outing last week didn't exactly earn them popularity points.

Their recent paid appearance at an event for JP Morgan bank, held in Miami and to which, it was reported, they flew on a private jet, is said to have earned them up to 1m.

Video of the Day

Harry spoke to the hundreds of assembled rich folk about mental health, and, specifically, the fact that he has been in therapy for almost a decade, attempting to heal the scars left by his mother's death and the manner in which it was handled for him as a 12-year-old boy.

Naturally, there were immediate mutterings about the hypocrisy of taking a private jet despite their environmental concerns, and, obviously, Piers Morgan slated them as shameless self-promoters, but criticism didn't just come from the usual quarters.

Surprisingly, there was American backlash too - in the same week that Harry and Meghan let go their 15 staff in the UK, a sure sign that they have no plans to spend significant time there soon. The US, however, was supposed to be their safe space, where their 'stepping down' as senior royals would be applauded rather than considered a shirking of duty.

And Harry was applauded by the crowd gathered by JP Morgan, but in the New York Post, he and Meghan were called freeloaders and what is becoming his propensity for bringing up his mother was called into question. In particular, attention was drawn to Harry's comments last year that he is brought back to Diana's death every time he hears the click of a camera.

"But for the right price, he'll dredge up all that deeply personal emotional chaos, held sacred for decades to a room full of global power brokers," the US journalist wrote, "despite zero chance any of it will elucidate or ameliorate a single real-world problem".

The US journalist also pointed out that Harry and Meghan had barely drawn breath after pleading desire for a simple and private life before they got into the spotlight for the big bucks. In a nutshell, the gloves were suddenly off - on both sides of the Atlantic.

Indeed, in Australia, Germaine Greer was on TV questioning whether Meghan's love for her husband is sincere at all. Admittedly, only Greer, now ensconced in her role as sayer of the unsayable and potentially offensive would dare suggest such a thing, but it's a further signal that it's fair game on one once you've left The Firm fold.

The announcement from Peter Phillips - only son of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips - came last week that he and his wife will divorce, after already having a period of separation, though we don't know if there was any heed taken of Queen Elizabeth's advice.

News of the split was rapidly followed by a catalogue of ways in which Phillips - who has never had a royal title or any of the financial props that come with one - has earned his crust. There were wedding photos in Hello!, speculation that they got a deal on their honeymoon in exchange for publicity, and, latterly, ads for Jersey milk on Chinese TV.

It's not very dignified, and was exactly the kind of attention that the monarch counsels her family to avoid. The wrong kind of attention, after all, could build into a very real questioning of just why this very wealthy family needs such generous propping up.

The right kind of attention, however, continues to be attracted by good old William and Kate - the latter increasingly referred to as the new Diana, by dint of her personable and warm way, as opposed to her glamour and tendency to drama. (The drama, it could be said, has been left as Meghan and Harry's department, though it's not necessarily doing them much good.)

The good being done by William and Kate is, ultimately, for the good of the family. It is duty, though they must get something out of their new role as the best little royals in the family.

When they come to Ireland next month, with Galway already announced as part of their tour, they will continue the work. It might not have the glitz of Harry and Meghan's visit in 2018, but it will be warm and they will be welcomed. Slow but steady wins the race, as Queen Elizabeth might also counsel.
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Linkedin Rizal Harahap (The Jakarta Post) Pekanbaru  Sun, February 16, 2020 18:38 695 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2064de735 1 National crime-syndicate,Sumatran-tiger,endangered-animal,endangered-species,IllegalAnimalTrade,wildlife-trade,Riau,Riau-Police,Jambi Free

Police have apprehended three members of a crime ring allegedly involved in the illegal trade of Sumatran tiger organs in Pasir Penyu district, Indragiri Hulu regency, Riau.

Riau Police chief Insp. Gen. Agung Setya Imam Effendi said the police had named three suspects  a 45-year-old Jambi local, 57-year-old North Sumatra native and and 43-year-old Ingragiri Hulu resident.

The three of them acted as couriers who transported tiger organs from Jambi to Indragiri Hulu, Agung said in a statement on Sunday.

The investigators had tracked down and monitored the suspects activities since Friday to follow up on a report regarding tiger organ trafficking from Muara Tebo in Jambi to Riau, he said.

Our investigation found that [the suspects] had been transporting the tiger organs in a minibus. We arrested the three suspects and seized several pieces of evidence including one dried tiger hide, four fangs and one sack of bones on Jl. Arjuna, Candi Rejo subdistrict, on Saturday at around 11 a.m., Agung said, adding that the suspects were detained at the Riau Police headquarters along with the evidence.

Riau Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Sunarto said that, during the questioning, the suspects said that they had been paid by an individual identified only as AT to transport the animal body parts to another individual identified as HN in Air Molek subdistrict.

[The suspects] were paid Rp 2 million [US$164.14] each. HN and AT have been added to Riau Polices most-wanted list, Sunarto said.

He said the recent boom in the illegal tiger skin and organ trade could be attributed to the growing demand for such items in the black market.

According to the polices investigation, a single tiger hide could sell for between Rp 30 million and Rp 80 million, while tiger bones could sell for Rp 2 million per kilogram and fangs for Rp 500,000 to Rp 1 million each, Sunarto said.

The surge in black market prices was likely the main reason why these smugglers dared to commit such crimes. As a member of a larger international community, Indonesia has committed to putting an end to illegal tiger organ trade, given that the animals are facing extinction, he said, adding that the Riau Police would keep tracing the movements of the larger crime syndicate involved in the illicit business.

The government has recently stepped up its efforts to crack down on groups involved in the illegal trade of tiger organs across Riau.

A joint team comprising personnel from the Environment and Forestry Ministry and the National Police tracked down and subsequently arrested suspected poachers and traders targeting Sumatran tigers and confiscated four fetuses of the endangered species as well as tiger hides in the province last December.

According to an official estimate from the Environment and Forestry Ministry, as of last December, the Sumatran tiger population stands at no more than 600 because of a loss of habitat and poaching.

Meanwhile, a report in Nature Communications estimated there were 618 adults in 2012, a 20 percent drop from 742 in 2000. (rfa)
A Maplewood man had good reason to flee after he was pulled over for speeding in Bayonne.

As police approached 25-year-old Hakeem O. Gayles car early Thursday morning, he sped off and then crashed at 49th Street and Broadway, Capt. Eric Amato said. Gayle then fled on foot before he was taken into custody by police on 47th Street.

A search by police led to the recovery of a fraudulent New York drivers license and six fraudulent Visa credit/debit cards bearing various identities, Amato said.

Gayle was also issued summonses for careless driving, failure to stop at a stop sign and reckless driving.

The crash by Gayle damaged a fire hydrant at the corner of 48th Street and Broadway and also damaged the Stat Medical Center building at 989 Broadway, Amato said.

Gayle was charged with resisting arrest, fraudulent government documents, credit card theft, eluding and hindering apprehension. Gayle was also found to be wanted on four warrants, two from Union, and one each from Elizabeth and Maplewood.
Beijing: Everyone is troubled by the increasing corona cancer day by day, while the Corono virus which has already killed thousands of people in China, now the market is beginning to be affected. The price of Rajma has risen by 30-35 per cent due to the stoppage of the supply of Chinese beans in the local market for one month. Only the goods already in stock are being sold in the market. According to traders, 80 per cent supply of Rajma in the market depends on China. Apart from this, there is a supply of Rajma from Turkey, but this year, imports have been reduced due to poor crop there. In China, the case of coronavirus was not revealed, in the retail market, Chinese beans were being sold at Rs 100 per kg. Now its prices have increased to Rs 130-140. Similarly, the price of Rs 90 per kg has increased from Rs 115 to Rs 120 in the wholesale market.

According to the information received, the Rajma of Bhadarwah and Doda is getting 150-160 rupees per kg in the retail market. In the market, customers are getting Rajma of China only from old stock. Due to Coronavirus, there has not been a new supply of Rajma from China in the last one month. It has been learned that the wholesale traders say that if the fear of coronavirus remains the same for the next few months, then the prices of Rajma in the local market will start touching the sky.

It is also said that on the demand of customers, the beans of China are being made available in stock. In the market where local beans are available only up to 20 percent, while a large part is imported from China.

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Tension increased between Turkey and Russia, here's the reason
Elaine McCusker, the Pentagons acting undersecretary of defense, said "that newspaper is probably not the best way we communicate any longer. She is right. But the Stars and Stripes is an independent newspaper, not the Pentagons soapbox. My leadership tells me everything I need to know  the Stars and Stripes tells me everything else. In a $705 billion budget, cutting the papers allotment of $7 million will rob Americas fighting men and women far more than it will save the Pentagon.
By Chang Se-moon





Are you thinking about divorce? Is anyone you know thinking about divorce? If your answer is yes, you are in the right place.



In late December, I received an email from U.S. Census Bureau, introducing me to a study made by Ms. Misty L. Heggeness on the upside of speedy divorce laws. Ms. Heggeness is a principal economist and senior adviser in the research and methodology unit of the U.S. Census Bureau.



To state the conclusion first, when laws make the process of divorce easier and faster, outcomes improve for all concerned, especially homemaker women.



Before I go into to detail about her research, let us first look at divorce rates in selected countries. The World Population Review states that "divorce is something that occurs in nations all around the world." The World Population Review bases the 2019 world-wide divorce rates on the number of divorces per 1,000 residents.



The 10 countries that have the lowest divorce rates are Guatemala (0.4), Qatar (0.4), Peru (0.5), Ireland (0.6), French Guiana (0.8), Malta (0.8), Greece (1.0), Martinique (1.0), Tajikistan (1.0), and Uzbekistan (1.0).



The 10 countries with the highest divorce rates are, in order, Russia (4.7), Guam (4.2), Moldova (3.7), Belarus (3.4), Ukraine (3.1), Latvia (3.1), Lithuania (3.0), Kazakhstan (3.0), Cuba (2.9), and Georgia (2.7).



Divorce rates stand in South Korea at 2.1 and in the U.S. at 2.5.



On a personal level, divorce can be, and usually is, an agonizing and painful process for parties involved. I even know a wonderful lady, who has been mentally abused, throughout the long divorce process, by her husband who has behaved perfectly to everyone other than to his wife.



Here comes the importance of the study by Ms. Heggeness.



According to her study, "laws that make it easier to divorce can improve the welfare of household members, even for couples that stay together." The key is to make divorce laws easier and speedier.



The underlying assumption of the study is that the primary wage earner in a household is the husband. Put differently, "husband" refers to the primary wage earner, not necessarily the male partner.



When divorce laws require payments directly to women upon divorce, and all assets gained during marriage to be distributed fairly, if not more generously to wives, wives have been shown to "invest more in quality schooling for their children and in schooling in general."



Such divorce laws also enable wives to decrease "the time they spend on household chores such as cleaning and cooking," while engaging in more earning activities.



When divorce laws are designed to make divorce easier and quicker, there are "positive ripple effects." These effects include an increase in the number of marriages by at least 9 percent; a decrease in female suicide rates by 8 to 16 percent; a decrease in domestic violence by around 30 percent; and women "working more outside of the home" by "up to 7 percentage points."



Easier access to divorce through divorce reform in China has shown that the probability of trying to have a son after a first-born daughter has decreased by around 12 percent.



Interestingly, "laws that guarantee generous financial compensation upon divorce have been shown to increase first births among highly educated women." This is because their awareness that they will be compensated for lost wages reduces the "risk of leaving the labor market to have children."



Chile legalized divorce in 2004, and the divorce law "required the breadwinner to pay the homemaker lost wages for the time she spent taking care of the home and kids." The Chilean law also required couples to get a divorce in the township where they lived when married, while the length of time to process a divorce varied depending on the township.



The Chilean experience provided a good cross-sectional comparison of the effects of different divorce laws in the study. Based on this unique experiment, Ms. Heggeness has found that "pro-homemaker divorce laws increased investments in children's schooling in married-parent families anywhere from 4 percent to 6 percent."



Furthermore, "for an average family in a township with a one-year wait to divorce, high school enrollment increased 6 percent for children in married parent households." Without a wait time, "high school enrollment increased as much as 10 percent."



Ms. Heggeness has also found that "Threats of divorce are more credible when the process promises to be quick rather than take a year or more to finalize."



Contrary to the belief by many that "making divorce easier means more people will divorce," Ms. Heggeness states that there is evidence that "easing the divorce process has little effect on increasing divorce rates in the long run."



In conclusion, divorce laws that allow generous compensation to homemakers and that require speedy resolution are beneficial to society and the economy overall as well as individuals who go through divorce.





Chang Se-moon (changsemoon@yahoo.com) is the director of the Gulf Coast Center for Impact Studies.


It's tough for young chefs to open their own places in Dublin these days, with key money, unsustainable rents and staff shortages just some of the obstacles standing in their way. But for his first Dublin restaurant, Niall Davidson has neatly side-stepped some of these heartaches by partnering with Singaporean investors Peng Lik Loh and Dr Stanley Quek and installing his new Allta - a 'wine bar with food' - in a brand new extension to their recently refurbished Trinity Townhouse boutique hotel on South Frederick Street. (Loh and Quek were both educated in Dublin and also own Sheen Falls Lodge in Co Kerry.)

The entrance to Allta is on Setanta Place, beside the car park; inside, it's a cool, modern, high-ceilinged room with a few tables for four to the front, the twos at the back and one high communal table in the centre. The chefs in the kitchen are visible through an internal window. Davidson comes from a family of architects in Derry and to say that he took a hands-on approach to the design of the 'experiential' venue - from the (perfect-height and super-comfortable, yay!) stools at the central table to the vintage sound system and hand-crafted ceramics - would be an understatement. It's as sophisticated a space as you'd find in any city anywhere in the world.

But even though Allta calls itself a wine bar, it's really a restaurant - and a good one. For one thing, the menu - other than the house-made charcuterie - is not typical wine-bar fare. Sure, there is a decent (though pricey) selection of wines by the (small 125ml) glass and some space is kept for walk-ins, but it feels as if it would be risky to pitch up without a reservation.

We kick off with creamy oysters from Cromane Bay in Co Kerry (the mural on the wall is of the oyster farmer) topped with a granita-like rhubarb vinegar, and delectable tranches of crisp skate wing in a tempura-style batter, with a seaweed cream for dipping. The bread, made with heritage lands wheat grown in Ireland, has a brilliant chewy crust and comes with an extraordinary shiitake miso butter that I could eat by the bowlful.

The smoked Gubbeen cappelletti in a grilled maitake (crazy-looking fronded mushrooms) brodo - a dish that nods to John Wyer's signature agnolotti at Forest Avenue, where chef Hugh Higgins used to work - is sensational. Every restaurant has to have an Instagram dish and at Allta it's spider-crab bigoli, perfect strands of fresh pasta in a rich bisque made even richer by the perfect confit egg at its centre. Grilled broccoli comes with a creamy goat's curd cut with the tang of pickled green tomato - great flavours but a stingy portion for 11.50. The dish of the night - and of my year so far - is scallop with gooseberry beurre blanc and hazelnut, but there's miso in there too, and celeriac and kohlrabi, and perhaps seaweed too (Davidson, who is on the floor, speaks fast) and what's left at the end is the most divine umami-rich broth I think I have ever tasted.

The chicken scarpinocc (pasta shaped like an old-fashioned wooden shoe) is the only dud dish. In comparison to everything that has preceded it, it feels crude, unsubtle, the texture of the chicken liver unpleasant, the malt vinegar gel failing to redeem. The crisp chicken skin on top is nice, but when is it ever not?

We finish with a fun 'Nitro' milk ice-cream with white chocolate, smoked honey and the sharpness of sea buckthorn - the only dessert - that doesn't take itself too seriously. We love it.

Our bill for three, with a 500ml carafe of the underwhelming Francesco de Filippis' skin contact vin naturo (38) and a bottle of the 100pc cabernet franc Domaine des Coutures Saumur-Champigny 2014 (at 50 one of the lowest-priced bottles on the list) comes to 200.50 before service. I suspect that some of the portions delivered to our table may have been larger than those going to other customers - an occupational hazard - it felt like a lot of food.

I like Allta; it feels different for Dublin, in a good way. It's very much its own place.

THE RATING

9/10 food

9/10 ambience

8/10 value

26/30

ON A BUDGET

Two 125ml glasses of wine and a shared charcuterie plate will cost 27.50 before service.

ON A BLOW OUT

The 'table menu' is priced at 49.50. With the 45 wine pairing, dinner for two with water will cost 192 before service.

THE HIGH POINT

The scallops. Wow.

A brilliant dish that will get the Michelin inspectors excited.

THE LOW POINT

Wine prices are steep.
Foreign nationals travelling to Saudi Arabia for business must now obtain a visa pre-approval from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before they submit a business visit visa application, an advisory from Fragomen, an international immigration firm, has said.

Invitation letters for commercial and work visit visas that were used before, are no longer available. The new rule also impacts certain visa eligibility conditions and extends the overall lead time for business visitors to enter Saudi Arabia, it said.

Pre-approval for a business visit visa can be obtained electronically through the MOFA website. Previously, pre-approval was required only for select categories of applicants, including businesswomen and individuals sponsored by a government agency in Saudi Arabia.

According to Saudi immigration regulations, a business visit visa is available to investors, company owners, members of boards of directors, managers and other company representatives. It is not clear whether or not applicants with technical skills will be able to obtain the business visit visa, Fragomen said.

In October 2019, immigration authorities in Saudi Arabia made fundamental changes to the business visa scheme by replacing commercial and work visit visas with a uniform business visit visa that is issued with the notification not permitted to work. By eliminating work visit visas, the authorities have effectively removed the option available to foreign nationals travelling to Saudi Arabia for short-term work.

However, a new short-term work visa is expected to be introduced by the Ministry of Labour and Social Development in the coming months, Fragomen said. - TradeArabia News Service
A mum who suffered for years and eventually had her leg amputated after rolling her ankle during a hike on a glacier is planning to go back to the site of her horrendous injury.

Anita Carden, from Byron Bay, was hiking Tasman Glacier in New Zealand in 2015 with her husband when she took a tumble, twisting her left ankle.

The 52-year-old told Yahoo News Australia the injury didnt worry her at the time because it didnt hurt, but when she awoke the next morning her foot was swollen and black and yellow in colouring.

After months of doctors tests and scans, Ms Carden was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a malfunction of the nervous system. Source: Anita Carden

After months of doctors tests and scans, Ms Carden was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a malfunction of the nervous system that can occur in peoples arms, hands, legs and feet after an injury like a fracture.

Three and a half years of excruciating pain led her to beg the doctors to remove the lower part of her left leg.

I woke up and saw it was gone and I was absolutely overjoyed. The relief was overwhelming, she said.

Now, almost five years to the day since the accident, Ms Carden and her husband are planning to return to the Tasman Glacier. It will be her first hike since the incident.

I want to be able to say you didnt beat me. I want to say I won, CRPS is not going to take my life away, she said.

The 52-year-old mum's foot is seen red and swollen, with some spots of blood. Source: Anita Carden

Id try and tear it off with my hands

Ms Carden underwent numerous examinations, blood tests and scans before she was diagnosed with CRPS 18 months after she injured her ankle.

By this point, the 52-year-old said the bruising and swelling had spread to above her knee.

It was purple and yellow, splotchy, changed in colour, temperature and texture - it was like a chameleon, she told Yahoo News Australia.

In 2017, Ms Carden visited a pain clinic on and off for six months, eventually having an anaesthetic injected into the sympathetic nerve next to her spine and undergoing a nerve block.

Ms Carden said it took her three months of physiotherapy before she started walking normally with her prosthetic leg. Source: Anita Carden

Nothing worked, and by June 2018 the pain had become unbearable, prompting her to ask to have the leg removed.

Story continues

By this point my leg was dead. It was bleeding Constantine and was a dead weight attached to me.

My whole life had come to a standstill. I was wheelchair bound.

Something happens in the brain and you end up hating the limb. I would wake up in the middle of the night trying to tear it off with my hands.

If someone had said you could die today peacefully, I wouldve taken it, she said.

I have my life back

The self-proclaimed active mum said having her leg amputated has completely changed her life for the better.

Im now mobile again and my pain is gone. Im very active and I wont let this beat me. I walk my dog on the beach every day, she said.

Ms Carden said the amputation has given her her life back. She now enjoys walks with her dog on the beach every day (pictured). Source: Anita Carden

Ms Carden has also started an Instagram where she shares her struggles with CRPS and her progress with the prosthetic leg.

She said she is hoping to bring awareness to the relatively unknown condition, which is also called the suicide disease for the toll it can take on the mental health of those suffering.

I had to fight to get my leg amputated, but I didnt give up and its been the best thing Ive ever done. I am now an advocate for amputation.

I will continue to be a voice for this disease and raise awareness, especially among the medical community, that taking a CRPS limb can give a person their life back.

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.
MANISTEE  Falling winter temperatures can spell hardship for low-income families and seniors who struggle with the cost of utilities.

To prevent local families from having to live in fear of having their heat shut off during the winter, FiveCAP, Inc. held its annual Walk for Warmth fundraiser Saturday.

Participants of the walk  which is FiveCAPs largest fundraiser  collected pledges to ensure that funding is available to keep the heat on for struggling residents.

All funds raised remain in Manistee County for those in need. These funds allow FiveCAP to help those in emergency situations who are unable to be assisted by other state and federal programs.

Event organizer Kendra Pollard was grateful for the community outreach FiveCAP has received.

Wed really like to thank everybody whos involved; everybody whos helped us raise money, she said. Its important for us to just come together and help raise money for people in need.

This years walk went approximately two miles, from the FiveCAP offices located on the east end of First Street through River Street to Oak Street and back.

Participants were treated to hot food and coffee on the return from their winter hike around town.

Manistee was one of several communities to host Walk for Warmth events this year, with similar walks taking place in Lake, Mason and Newaygo counties.

Fewer participants turned out for the Manistee walk than in previous years, which some attributed to the freezing February weather.

The fundraising total was unavailable as of press time.

TJs Pub and Bear Lake Market helped FiveCAP sponsor the program.

FiveCAP, Inc., a private 501(c)3 nonprofit, is one of 29 community action agencies in Michigan. FiveCAP administers over 40 programs designed to promote individual and family self-sufficiency utilizing federal, state and local resources.

Those interested in learning more about FiveCAP or who wish to contribute can call (231) 723-8327, email fivecap@fivecap.org, or visit their website at fivecap.org.
The United States on Friday voiced alarm over Guinea's plans to hold a constitutional referendum, which the opposition calls a ploy by President Alpha Conde to stay in power. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who had urged Conde to respect democratic transitions of power when they met in Washington last year, said the United States was "concerned" by plans for the March 1 referendum and legislative elections. "We question whether the process will be free, fair and transparent and accurately reflect the will of all eligible voters," Pompeo said in a statement. "We urge all parties to engage in nonviolent civil dialogue," he said. Pompeo called on authorities to allow peaceful demonstrations, while asking the opposition to refrain from violence, after at least 28 civilians and one security officer were killed in protests in the capital Conakry. Conde, 81, was a longtime opposition figure who became the West African nation's first-ever elected president in 2010 on promises to fight corruption. He was re-elected in 2015. But Conde has since been accused of sliding toward authoritarianism and has questioned the relevance of restricting the presidency to two terms. While a draft constitution maintains the two-term limit, critics fear Conde could use the new text to reset the clock and allow himself two more mandates.
At a time when we are facing the consequences of environmental catastrophes like drought, flood, cyclone etc, the precious biodiversity of the Western Ghats is still threatened by a large number of projects in the pipeline. Even a project like the Hubballi-Ankola railway line, which was rejected at least twice in the past, is being revived.

Is this the way forward for the country at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking to lead global efforts to address climate change? Have we lost confidence in science-based advisory by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that conservation of tropical forests is the easiest and best option to minimise the impact?

The Western Ghats is one of the eight biodiversity hot spots in the world; these forests provide ecological services, water security for peninsular India and highly effective carbon sink.

We have already lost 14,000 hectares of forest in Sharavathi-Linganmakki submersion, 6,800 for Varahi project, 1,000 for Talakalale reservoir, 1,880 for Chakra dam, 2,000 for Karnataka Power Corporation township, 800 for Sharavathi tail-race project, 800 for KPTCL projects and several thousand hectares for the rehabilitation of evacuees from these projects.

Doubling of Londa-Madgaon railway line via Castle Rock is in the final stage of approval. Widening of Belagavi-Panjim road is in progress. Proposal to widen Sirsi-Kumta road for connecting the Belekeri port is in the pipeline. Also, upgradation of Khanapur-Alnavar-Yellapur-Sirsi-Talguppa road to National Highway is a dream project of some politicians.

A proposal to divert 177-hectare forests for transmission line from Kaiga to Goa can be seen on the website of Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. A proposal to divert 200-hectare luxuriant evergreen forests for Sharavathi pump storage project was recently approved by the Karnataka State Board for Wildlife.

These projects are ill-conceived and more than the benefits to society, they would cause harm. The valuation of intangible benefits from ecological services is often ignored and the benefit-cost ratio is shown to be highly inflated to favour the project in every case.

In the proposed power line project from Kaiga to Goa involving cutting down evergreen forests over 177 hectares, benefit is shown to be 715 times the cost. Total cost for losing 177-hectare forests is shown as Rs 6,392.26 lakh, whereas monetary benefit to society from the power evacuated through the transmission line is Rs 45,73,955.95 lakh. It is then derived that the benefit cost ratio is 715:1.

The reconstruction cost on account of flood damages in Kerala and Kodagu in 2018 was Rs 20,000 crore and Rs 3,000 crore, respectively. Flood in these areas occurred in 2019 also. In this background, it is distressing to note that the detailed project report of Kaiga-Goa transmission line has attached very little monetary value to 177-hectare high-quality evergreen forests. The Union ministry has not made any comment on such a misleading report on its website. When do we learn and correct valuation of forests and how long we mislead the public?

There is yet another false and misleading report in the public domain. In 2011, the Infrastructure Development Department of Karnataka engaged the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) for the impact assessment of environment and biodiversity proposed to be destroyed for Hubballi-Ankola rail project.

The IISc constituted a multi-disciplinary committee for the study. It recommended the project for implementation with mitigation measures such as growing compensatory afforestation over 796 hectares of non-forest land, protecting Uttara Kannada forests using chain link to boost the growing stock, implementing soil and water conservation measures, growing fodder reserves for wild animals etc.

The mitigation measures suggested by IISc are not new to the Forest Department. Similar measures have been tried but have failed in all cases. We destroy forests with hundreds of floral and faunal species and argue that it will be compensated with artificial plantations of hardly four-five species. Compensatory plantations of many projects have failed. There cannot be any mitigation for the loss of biodiversity in rich natural forests.

The IISc has brought out publications interpreting satellite imageries which conclude that the Western Ghats is losing forests with increasing pace and substantial change in land use pattern is bringing drought, flood, wildfire and storm inflicting misery to human beings.

They have always cautioned against deforestation. Except for the Hubbali-Ankola rail project, IISc has never favoured destruction of such wonderful forests. It is an irony to find that the report has been accepted by Chief Wildlife Warden and Government of Karnataka, which was also conveyed to Union Ministry in October 2017.

Such reports are used by politicians repeatedly to re-open the case. It is again being brought in for consideration in State Board for Wildlife. When the doubling of Londa-Madgaon rail line is on way, what is the need for another rail project?

Biodiversity forests

Destroying 800 hectares of very dense and good quality biodiversity forests will certainly take its toll on the environment, and the climatic catastrophes will hit the region with increasing frequency and will be more destructive.

While expansions of several road projects are in the pipeline, construction of a new road is proposed from Shishila-Baripura near Kottigehara, and Mudigere to Nelliyadi in Shiradi Ghats. It will open new forest areas of Mudigere and Sakleshpur taluks for plundering.

Any attempt to open forests in eco-fragile Shiradi and Charmadi Ghats will be an environmental disaster. Landslides and landslips are very common in this belt and rightly, the High Court of Karnataka has stayed the construction of this road.

A proposal for 2,000 MW Sharavathi pumped storage project sacrificing 200-hectare evergreen forests of Shivamogga and Uttara Kannada districts in lion tailed macaque sanctuary is highly ill-conceived.

Ironically, it is under active consideration of the Union Government. When the worlds largest solar park at Pavagada is now fully operational, why do we need to destroy forests for power generation?

It is high time that the destruction of forests is suspended in the Western Ghats or else life will slowly perish from the earth.

(The writer is retired Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Karnataka)
RTHK: Bloomberg under fire from fellow Democrats

Democratic presidential candidates sharpened their attacks on billionaire rival Michael Bloomberg on Sunday as moderates battled to elbow their way to the top of a crowded pack.

Bloomberg -- who skipped the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary but has been trying to make up for it with huge spending on television ads -- has faced increasingly sharp criticism, much of it over past positions and comments being criticised as crude, racist or misogynistic.

"Voters are looking for a president who can lead us out of the days when it was just commonplace or accepted to have these kinds of sexist or discriminatory attitudes," Pete Buttigieg, the moderate former mayor from Indiana, said on Sunday on Fox. "This is our chance to do something different."

And Senator Amy Klobuchar, another Democratic moderate who had an unexpectedly strong showing in New Hampshire, accused Bloomberg of using his onslaught of TV ads to "hide behind the airwaves."

The race for the Democratic nomination remains exceptionally unsettled after Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has edged to the front in the two first states, slightly ahead of Buttigieg but without a commanding lead.

Those early states, Iowa and New Hampshire, are small and predominantly white.

The next two -- Nevada on February 22 and South Carolina a week later -- are far more diverse, as are the 14 states voting on "Super Tuesday," March 3, raising the possibility of a shakeup in the Democratic order.

Both Klobuchar and Buttigieg have struggled to draw strong support from African Americans, a key voting demographic.

Asked about that, Klobuchar told ABC that "my name identification in states outside of the early few states was not that high, simply because I didn't have the money like Bloomberg to run more ads."

South Carolina congressman James Clyburn, who is African American, said that while former vice president Joe Biden had been leading strongly in the state, with its large black population, both Buttigieg and billionaire businessman Tom Steyer were drawing ever-larger crowds, adding to the uncertainty.

"Steyer is doing an incredible job," he said on CNN's State of the Union.

In Nevada, a poll on Friday by the Las Vegas Review-Journal placed Sanders solidly in first, at 25 points, seven points ahead of Biden, but with four others knotted in a statistical tie for third: Senator Elizabeth Warren, Steyer, Buttigieg and Klobuchar.

Bloomberg, who entered the race belatedly, made a strategic decision to skip the early states and bank on a strong result in the Super Tuesday states, where he has spent most heavily on advertising.

Biden assailed that approach on Sunday, saying of Bloomberg and the former New York mayor's fortune, "Sixty billion can buy you a lot of advertising, but it can't erase your record."

He pointed to Bloomberg's policing policies in New York seen as aggressive and unfairly targeting young blacks and Latinos, his failure to endorse Barack Obama in 2008 and his reported support for discriminatory housing policies.

"I'm anxious to debate Michael," Biden said on NBC's Meet the Press.

There are signs that Bloomberg's saturation ad approach might pay off, however, at least in some states.

Polls on Friday gave him a slender lead in populous Florida, put him in a tie with Sanders for second in Georgia (behind Biden), and gave him a strong 10 percent of the vote in Texas.

But with his rise has come far sharper scrutiny. Reporting in the New York Times and Washington Post has brought up past alleged comments that were crude, sexually charged and demeaning to women -- troubling for a candidate in the #MeToo era and in a party where women are the majority voters.

Bloomberg has since dismissed the remarks as jokes, said he did not recall making them or, in a few cases, apologised for them.

The Times reported that Bloomberg was sued in 1997 for allegedly telling an employee in his big financial information and media company, after learning she was pregnant, to "kill it," while grumbling about the large number of pregnant women in the company.

The suit was settled without admission of guilt; Bloomberg has denied making the remark.

Still, the more intense scrutiny could slow his rise.

"I think he is going to have to answer for that," Buttigieg said on Fox.

And Klobuchar told CNN Bloomberg needs to address the allegations directly.

"You can't hide behind the airwaves and just have huge airwave buys," she said. "I know I can't beat him on the airwaves, but I can beat him on the debate stage."

The party's next debate is slated for Wednesday in Las Vegas. Bloomberg's showing in polls has fallen just short of qualifying him to take part, but if he does make the cut for the first time, dramatic exchanges seem certain. (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2020-02-16. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
After emerging as the Democratic frontrunner in wake of Iowa and New Hampshire primaries, Bernie Sanders heads to Nevada leading in polls but facing new opposition: the Israel lobby and its vast cash reserves.

Despite being pipped at the post in Iowa by Pete Buttigieg (with the help of a malfunctioning voting app, his supporters claim), Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders came out victorious in last weeks New Hampshire primary. With the Nevada primary just a week away, a Morning Consult poll published this week put the progressive senator ten points ahead of Joe Biden, the former vice president and until now, the supposed frontrunner for the 2020 nomination.

While the news has energized Sanders supporters, its also motivated mainstream Democrats and establishment talking heads, whove taken to slamming Sanders as a communist, and a left-wing version of Trump.

Also on rt.com 'Communist,' 'left-wing version of Trump': Liberals freak out as Bernie makes major gains in Nevada, Texas polls

These are familiar talking points to Sanders, who has spent his entire political life an avowed socialist. Yet Sanders now faces fresh attacks from the powerful Israel lobby.

Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) is a super PAC headed by Democratic pollster Mark Mellman. With a week to go until the Nevada showdown, the group has been airing ads criticizing Sanders electability  a nebulous concept that nobody but political strategists seem to understand. The ads begin airing on Saturday.

For Mellmans organization, the strategy is not a new one. DMFI spent $800,000 on anti-Sanders ads in Iowa, prompting Sanders himself to slate the big-money interests for attempting to derail his campaign with negative ads. The exact amount spent in Nevada is still unknown.

The Iowa ads did not directly attack Sanders on his Israel policy  which is considerably softer than any recent administrations, and would restrict aid to the Jewish state unless its settlement policy is reversed. Instead they trashed him for his socialist views and highlighted his recent heart attack as proof of his lack of electability.

The big money interests have incredible wealth. They have incredible power. But at the end of the day, they are just the 1%.We are the 99%. We have the people. pic.twitter.com/HCzPQ1riJR  Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 10, 2019

Israeli lobbying in Washington is usually the domain of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), an organization that spent more than $3.2 million on federal lobbying in 2016. Notably, AIPAC was forced to apologize to House Democrats this week for an ad campaign that called Muslim congresswomen Rashida Tlaib (Michigan) and Ilhan Omar (Minnesota)  outspoken opponents of Israeli policy  a "radical" threat maybe more sinister than Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).

AIPAC denied that its upper management had anything to do with the ad campaign.

AIPAC has always lobbied politicians from both sides of the aisle. However, President Trump has already granted Israel a veritable policy wishlist  supporting Israels claim to the Golan Heights, recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital, and presenting a peace plan heavily weighted in Israels favor. With Trump on one side and Sanders, Tlaib, and Omar on the other, the organization cannot therefore pretend to favor no party in Washington.

As with the Tlaib/Omar ad campaign, AIPAC denied the Intercepts claim.That partisan work is left to organizations like DMFI, whose ads AIPAC claims to have no involvement with. However, the Intercept reported that AIPAC is allowing donations to DMFI to count as donations to AIPAC, with big money contributions buying donors access to AIPACs list of friendly congressmen, all without implicating AIPAC in the Sanders smear campaign. The investigative site also reported that DMFI is staffed by a host of AIPAC alumni, who switched over to focus their lobbying efforts exclusively on the Democratic Party, following the GOPs rightward drift on Israel in recent years.

For Sanders, who is Jewish, DMFIs ad spend and AIPACs alleged support for the campaign will present an obstacle to winning in Nevada. However, if the DMFIs experience in Iowa is anything to go by, not even mountains of cash can halt the Vermont senators momentum. Sanders campaign raised $1.3 million after the progressive candidate warned supporters of an outside spending group attempting to quash his efforts in the Hawkeye State.

Sanders team too seems unfazed by the coming ads. Hard to think of a better measure of electability than winning the first two states, communications director Mike Casca told Mediaite on Wednesday.
At least nine homeless drug users were shot dead in the Afghan capital, Kabul, according to the reports on February 16. The recent incident shed a light on chronic drug abuse in the world's biggest producer of opium.

The motive behind the Saturday night attack by the unidentified gunmen in Kabul was not known and police said that they have initiated an investigation into the matter. The incident took place when the men were asleep in an open area. A forensic examination was conducted which revealed that they were all drug users, as per the reports.

Ferdaus Faramarz, the spokesperson for Kabul Police said that the shooting took place at the side of the Qrough mountain.

READ: EAM Jaishankar Meets US Peace Envoy For Afghanistan, Saudi Counterpart In Munich

2.5 million drug users in Afghanistan: Ministry

During overnight operation, GCPSU arrested a drug & weapon trafficker with one Kalakov rifle, one AK-47 rifle, two pistols, 10 magazines, 2kg of crystal & some amount of illicit drugs in Qudos village, Kohsan district of Herat. pic.twitter.com/Ur7gzBblRk  Ministry of Interior (@moiafghanistan) February 16, 2020

Ministry of public health of Afghanistan confirmed that there are at least 2.5 million drug users in Afghanistan with most of them addicted to heroine, as per the reports. The reports confirmed that some 20,000 drug users are homeless, with many having straining relations with residents of some communities.

READ: Afghans Mark Soviet Withdrawal As US Negotiates Its Own Exit

During several separate operations, CNPA arrested seven drug traffickers with 11kg of opium, 5kg of hashish, 40grams of Amphetamine & one vehicle in Herat province. pic.twitter.com/YwhKNktqpM  Ministry of Interior (@moiafghanistan) February 13, 2020

Shokoor Haidari, deputy of the ministry's counter drugs department, said that it is a social crisis. Haidari added that the ministry can only treat 40,000 people a year. Afghanistan has been the biggest producer of of opium for years and US spent almost USD 8.9 billion since 2002 to stop the production and trafficking in narcotics.

READ: Pompeo, Esper Meet Afghan President On Cusp Of Taliban Deal

READ: Afghanistan Restaurant Introduces Country's First-ever Robot Waitress

(Photo:@moiafghanistan/Twitter)
Chinas leader, under fire, says he led coronavirus fight early on

Under fire for its response to the coronavirus epidemic, Chinas authoritarian government appears to be pushing a new account of events that presents President Xi Jinping as taking early action to fight the outbreak that has convulsed the country. But in doing so, authorities have acknowledged for the first time that Xi was aware of the epidemic and involved in the response nearly two weeks before he first spoke publicly about it  and while officials at its epicentre in the city of Wuhan were still playing down its dangers. That new account risks drawing the president, Chinas most powerful leader in decades, directly into questions about whether top officials did too little, too late. In an internal speech published Saturday, Xi said he had issued demands about the efforts to prevent and control the coronavirus Jan 7, during a meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee, the highest council of the Communist Party, whose sessions are typically cloaked in secrecy. In the speech, he also said he had authorised the unprecedented lockdown of Wuhan and other cities beginning Jan 23. I have at every moment monitored the spread of the epidemic and progress in efforts to curtail it, constantly issuing oral orders and also instructions, Xi said of his more recent involvement. Xis advisers may have hoped that publishing the speech, delivered Feb 3, would dispel speculation about his recent retreat from public view and reassure his people that he can be trusted to lead them out of the epidemic. The virus so far has officially infected more than 68,000 people and killed more than 1,650 worldwide, the vast majority in mainland China. The overall tone of the speech appears to be defensive, said Minxin Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California. He wants to change the narrative, which until this point has been very unfavourable to the top leadership. Delivered at a meeting with top party officials, when the epidemic had already spiralled into a national crisis, the speech could expose Xi to criticism that he didnt treat the initial threat urgently enough and make it difficult for him to shift blame onto local officials for what many see as the governments early mishandling of the epidemic. The remarks also raise questions about what top leaders knew at the time and what instructions they issued based on that knowledge. That Xi convened a meeting of Chinas highest political body in early January indicates that the coronavirus was already being seen as a matter of high-level concern  making his subsequent silence even more conspicuous, experts said. An official account of the Jan 7 Standing Committee meeting issued at the time by Xinhua, the state news agency, made no mention of a discussion of the coronavirus. It seems like hes trying to indicate that We werent asleep at the wheel, said Jude Blanchette, the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But it comes off like, We knew this was a problem, but we werent sounding the alarm. In the speech this month, Xi signalled his displeasure with lower-level bureaucrats for their shortcomings in implementing the partys top-level directives. In early January, officials in Wuhan were giving open assurances that human-to-human transmission of the virus was unlikely. Some government experts agreed. For now, it seems there is no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission, Xu Jianguo, a senior expert on communicable diseases at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview in early January with Ta Kung Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper. This shows that the threat level from this virus is limited. The new information places Xis involvement in fighting the epidemic much earlier than was previously known. His earliest public comment on the epidemic came Jan 20, when he gave brief instructions that were published in state media. In the days after Xis Jan 7 orders were issued, politicians in Wuhan met for the annual meeting of the citys Peoples Congress, its party-controlled legislature. Over that time, the Wuhan health commissions daily bulletins on the outbreak said repeatedly that there were no new cases of infection, no firm evidence of human-to-human transmission and no infection of medical workers. But signs were growing that politicians and government experts underestimated the potency of the new coronavirus. On Jan 9, a 61-year-old man surnamed Zeng died  the earliest confirmed fatality from the virus. Already, some doctors in Wuhan hospitals were worried enough to warn friends and propose special wards for patients showing symptoms of infection. Even after Xi made his first public remarks about the epidemic Jan 20, he mostly kept it at the bottom of his public agenda. On the day before the Lunar New Year holiday began in late January, he took the stage at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and declared his success in guiding China through a difficult year  making no mention of the virus that was already spreading fear throughout the country. In the days after, he all but disappeared from public view, emerging only a handful of times to preside over Communist Party meetings and to meet foreign visitors, including the director-general of the World Health Organization and Cambodias autocratic leader, Hun Sen. In the meantime, he directed Chinas No. 2 leader, Li Keqiang, to lead the group handling the emergency, effectively turning him into the public face of the response. For days, Xis absence from public view fuelled speculation that he was trying to shield his own reputation by taking a back seat in the fast-unfolding crisis. In the past week, he has returned to centre stage in an apparent effort to swat away such talk. This past week, Xi went to a neighbourhood centre in Beijing, a hospital and a center for disease control in what state media billed as a visit to the front line of Chinas efforts to combat the epidemic. He has yet to visit Hubei, the province at the centre of the epidemic. A few days later, Xi fired two top Communist Party officials in Hubei, a move intended to calm simmering public anger and contain the political fallout. By publishing the Feb 3 speech now, experts said, Xi appears to be staking his reputation on the outcome of the epidemic fight. Whats really interesting in the speech is, theres a lot of the word I in it, said Blanchette, of Center for Strategic and International Studies. This is clearly putting himself at the centre of Beijings response to this while also falling back on the old excuse of blaming cadres for long-standing pathologies of Chinas political system. The Feb 3 speech was published by Qiushi, or Seeking Truth, the Communist Partys top doctrinal journal. It is rare for such an internal speech to be published in full so quickl.





Source: The New York Times


Medicines are essential products to many, but like some other imported commodities they became much more expensive after the 2016 floatation of the Egyptian pound. The prices of some medicines have doubled if not tripled over recent years, making them either unavailable or available only to those with the means to pay. Over the past four years some patients, especially those with chronic conditions, have resorted to panic buying, and this has resulted in the lack of some types of medicines in the market.



Karim Abdel-Latif, a pharmacy owner in Cairo, gave practical examples of the average cost per month for medicine for patients with many types of chronic conditions. The least cost of a packet of insulin, a medicine for a diabetes patient that could last a month, is LE110. Each pack contains two ampoules that cost LE55 each. If a patient takes tablets to treat his diabetes, it could cost him from LE100 to LE120 per month.



A person with hypertension could pay the same sum for his medication. Heart disease patients could pay LE300 for their medication every month. A patient who has had a kidney transplant could pay LE3,000 per month for his medication. If a kidney patient is having dialysis, he could pay LE1,000 apart from the cost of a dialysis session for which he also pays an average of LE200 for the medicine he uses, he said.



In a bid to make essential medicines more available, Medicine for All, an NGO, is collecting medicine that is no longer needed by some and offering it to those who cannot afford it.



Walid Shawki, a pharmacist and pharmacy owner who started the organisation, said it was established in 2013 based on an idea from 2006. When I was working in my pharmacy one day, a patient gave me some medicine he wanted to donate to those in need. When I asked my colleagues where to send it, they told me to send it to a church or a mosque and they would give it to a person in need.



Another patient then came into my pharmacy and asked me to calculate the cost of the medicine prescribed for him. When I had calculated the prescription, he said thank you, but I cannot afford to buy it. This started me thinking as I was able to give him some of the medicine he needed from the earlier donation. The patient ended up paying less money, and that was the beginning of the idea of Medicine for All, he said.



Many people have excess medicine at home they do not know what to do with. On the other hand, there are about 40 per cent of patients who do not have medical insurance, so they cannot afford many types of medicines. We wanted to bridge the gap between the surplus medicine in households and the people who lack medical insurance, Shawki added, hoping that this would be a way of making medicine more affordable for all.



The organisation consists of 15 employees working in various departments like the patient-support centre, the medicine department, and the social-media department or on marketing campaigns. People donating medicine give it using two different methods. They either call us to give us the medicine directly or they put the medicine in our collecting boxes in churches, mosques, pharmacies, and clubs in different places, Shawki said, adding that there are about 40 different collecting points.



The volunteers or staff members are of three types, those who collect the medicine, the doctors who check the patients, and the pharmacists who give them the medicines. The first go through the boxes and take the medicines or go to homes to collect it from donors. The medicine is then checked to ensure it is safe to be used.



First of all, we check whether the medicine is valid or not. For example, we get some medicine that has been opened, like eye or ear drops. This cannot be used. Other types of medication have to be stored in special conditions like low temperatures, so it must be refrigerated to remain useable. This type will be discarded if it comes improperly stored, for example, Shawki said.

Then we check for the expiry date, and then we look the medicine up on a computer database to check it is standard. The medicine is then stored so that it is easier to find when needed after registering in the organisations software.Working on a parallel basis is a committee of doctors and pharmacists in the patient-support centre who check patients from government or charity hospitals all over Egypt, Shawki said, adding that these are given medical prescriptions and reports after seeing their IDs and welfare documents. Medical files are prepared for them, and relatives of each patient contacted to verify information before accepting a patient and giving him or her medication on a monthly basis.We do not have branches in other governorates, but our medicine centre and patient-support centre are located in Nasr City in Cairo. A patient comes only once to meet the committee on Mondays or Wednesdays and is then asked to call us every month on Mondays and Thursdays to make sure that his medicine is available, Shawki said.

Magdi Awad is a pharmacist who volunteers in the organisations medicine centre and described the way he works to Al-Ahram Weekly.



The organisation works in many phases. First, there is a medical committee that meets patients twice a week. There are two doctors and two pharmacists in each committee, and we review cases and decide which medicine is suitable for each. In some case, they also refer a patient to another doctor if he needs surgery.



The first phase is collecting medicine that either comes from the general public directly or from collecting boxes. Then it comes to the storerooms where it is sorted to see if it useable, Awad said. The medicine is then registered on the organisations software system and stored on the shelves of the charity pharmacy. Each patient is given a date to get his medicine from the pharmacy written on each prescription. We prepare the medicine and send it to the patient-support centre for patients to collect.



Some cases that come to the organisation are of children suffering from cerebral damage or adults with kidney failure, heart disease, and diabetes, Awad noted, adding that the medicine that is least available includes pills or injections for kidney patients, medicine for strokes, for high blood-cholesterol, and insulin for diabetes patients.



Salma Ramadan is a student at the Faculty of Arts Psychology Department in Cairo, and she explained how she came to work for the organisation. It was a coincidence. I met someone working here, and I then trained for about two months and started working. The thing I like best is that my work is for charity, she said.



We receive medicine from the stores or medicine centre after we send the prescriptions of patients checked by doctors. I give the patients their medicine and write down their contact details. I also check the medicine with the patients to make sure it is the right type and amount they need, she added, saying that she had been working with the organisation for around five months.



Awad has some reservations about how things work. Medicines like insulin, hormones, and for strokes should be refrigerated and sent to the centre in special cooling bags. We prefer donors to give us money to buy this kind of medicine since we get discounts and the donor doesnt have to buy it for a higher price.



The main problems we face at the moment are the lack of some types of medicines and the lack of marketing and advertising for our organisation, Awad said. Not many people are familiar with Medicine for All, and we try as much as we can to buy medicine that is not available with the money we get, he added.



They also hear many touching stories of patients who have benefited from the initiative and have now recovered. There was one female patient who used to take medicine on a regular basis and had a severe heart problem. We referred her to a cardiologist for a second opinion. He gave her another type of medicine, and she is now in a better condition. She came to the headquarters of the organisation to thank us, Awad said.



The organisation is ready to collect medicine from donors wherever they are and can make exceptions for some patients. In the case of a patient who is unable to walk, we have a representative who goes to their house and checks that he is a patient who really needs the medicine and cannot afford it, Shawki commented.



He also gave statistics indicating what the organisation has achieved thus far. We have more than 1,000 patients who are receiving medicine on a monthly basis. Some 250 of them are dialysis patients, 250 are brain atrophy or disability patients, especially children, and 500 suffer from diseases like hypertension or diabetes, he said.



FUTURE INITIATIVES

The medicine collected is also doubling every year. In 2013, we collected medicine worth LE300,000. In 2014, the number became LE600,000. In 2015, it became LE1.6 million, and in 2016 it became LE3.2 million. In 2017, it was LE4 million, in 2018 LE7 million, and in 2019 LE9 million, Shawki said.



Such numbers would not have been possible without co-operation with other entities. Every year we work with other NGOs and have 200 convoys that go to rural areas for those who cannot afford medicine, he said, with each convoy helping more than 5,000 patients.



Shawki and his colleagues are seeking more methods to introduce the organisations work to the public. We occasionally organise events in clubs to promote the work of the organisation, as well as in schools to raise the awareness of children and their parents about the problem of the misuse of medicines, he said, adding that they planned to hold more events in the near future. One instance has been a fun day in a nearby school at which they asked parents for extra medicine they could donate.



The organisation also partly depends on crowd-funding, as Shawki puts it, or funding directly made available by members of the public. There are some pharmacies that donate medicine as well as small but regular monthly donations of LE100, he said. The organisation tried to approach the Ministry of Health but was not successful. However, it is supported by the Ministry of Social Solidarity and many patients come from departments there.



The organisation is open to volunteers who want to join it as well. If anyone wants to volunteer with us, they have to know how they can help us because there are rarely permanent volunteers in Egypt. We have an application form for those who want to volunteer that is available online. Any would-be volunteers should fill out the application and send it to us, he explained.



Today, the organisation would like to expand but faces various problems. We have financial problems in terms of fundraising. We dont have a budget for fundraising, so we cannot always organise promotional campaigns on TV. As a result, we are just doing social-media campaigns, Shawki said. We try our best to be known through social-media campaigns and reach influencers or actors to start campaigns for us and now we have a YouTube channel as well.



We need support from the government, banks, and companies. We want to have more branches all over Egypt. We have also been collecting some medicine from the Gulf states and getting donations from them.



We need more medicine because sometimes we have a lack of some types. We want more people to get to know the organisation and to donate more, Ramadan said. It is the role of the media to let people know about the organisation so that they can also donate. People could even come to see for themselves the role of the organisation if they want to be convinced, Awad added.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 13 February, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the title: Cure for the needy

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You have to give it to the Democrats; they certainly know how to make a presidential primary interesting. Granted, sometimes its in not-so-flattering ways, like the organized chaos of the Iowa caucuses. But if you can get past that minor misstep  OK, huge blunder  the rest of the presidential race has more subplots than your average high school competition for student council president. (Which Pete Buttigieg looks perfectly suited for, but thats another issue.)

The big story has to be the collapse of Joe Biden, once thought to be the inevitable front-runner/nominee, and to hear some tell it, a darn-near shoo-in to beat President Trump in November. In retrospect, reports of his coronation have been greatly exaggerated.

Biden was embarrassed in the first two crucial contests, the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, finishing fourth and fifth respectively. Its theoretically possible that he could rebound in South Carolina and Nevada, two states that are supposed to be more friendly to him. But thats highly unlikely. Biden polled well only in the early stages of this contest when few debates had been held and voting was far off. As soon as people started casting actual ballots and candidates started making deep impressions, he simply faded. Unlike all the other 70-year-olds in this race (and theres a surprisingly large number of them) he hasnt aged well, and voters can see it. All Democrats still like him, but few of them will vote for him.

Almost as surprising is the emergence of Bernie Sanders (!) as the Democratic front-runner. Granted, he gave Hillary Clinton a real run for her money in 2016, but he was the only alternative to someone who was more respected than admired. This time, Democrats have plenty of alternatives, yet for some reason the biggest group of them is getting behind a cranky socialist who wants to abolish private health insurance and write off everyones student loan debt. (And those are just a couple of his outlandish positions.)

This is suicidal, of course, for any Democrat who wants to replace Trump in November. Because this is so obvious, it seems hard to imagine that the party would link arms and collectively march off the cliff. But we live in strange times, and after Trumps victory in 2016, almost nothing can be ruled out.

Like another bombastic billionaire from New York winning it all. That of course would be Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of Gotham. (And former Republican too, but hey, Trump once donated to the campaigns of Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton, so lets not get picky.)

Right now, before he has entered a single primary or participated in a single debate, Bloomberg looks like an intriguing dark-horse pick. And he might be. He has already spent the amazing total of $360 million to prime the pump for the next group of primaries, and his poll numbers have risen impressively. With a net worth of $60 billion, Bloomberg can afford to write a few more checks over the next few months.

But he doesnt have a history in the Democratic Party, and many party regulars mistrust him. After all, Democrats are supposed to be the party of the common man, not the party of billionaires who buy their way into the spotlight. And his past support for controversial issues like stop-and-frisk in New York and some dicey comments about women will be tough to explain today.

But again, if not Bloomberg, then who? Bernie is not the answer, and Pete Buttigieg doesnt seem to have a broad enough base of support to move forward. That does leave Minnesotas Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is moving up nicely. If she cant sustain it, though, she goes back to consideration as someone elses vice-presidential choice.

Many of these questions will be answered in the crush of Super Tuesday primaries on March 3, 16 states in all. Thats a huge test of who really has national appeal and who is just a flavor-of-the-week. The most bizarre outcome would be a running battle until the convention between Bernie and the billionaire, two polar opposites, with Trump firing off insulting tweets about both of them all the way.  Surely that wouldnt happen, would it? Lord help us.

Thomas Taschinger, TTaschinger@BeaumontEnterprise.com, is the editorial page editor of The Beaumont Enterprise. Follow him on Twitter at @PoliticalTom
SHELTON  A prominent Shelton developer has purchased four parcels along Canal Street from the city with plans for a mixed-used structure on the former brownfield site, the old Chromium Process Company.

The Board of Aldermen, at its meeting Feb. 13, approved the sale of the city-owned land for $700,000 to John Guedes and Biaggio Barone. Guedes, a Shelton resident, is the owner of Primrose Companies Inc. and known for constructing The Birmingham Apartments as well as numerous developments in Bridgeport and surrounding communities.

As part of the deal, the developers and the city have a plan to finish the Riverwalk, a vision of Mayor Mark Lauretti since his early days in office nearly three decades ago when the downtown redevelopment now taking place was in its infancy.

This whole deal is good for the city, Lauretti said. This area has been void of economic development for years. This was the vision 28 years ago, and it is all coming together.

In all, Guedes and Barone purchased four lots totaling 1.63 acres along with a 40-foot strip of property, some 10,480 square feet. The Planning and Zoning Commission at its meeting Feb. 11 unanimously approved an 8-24 application from the city for the sale. The commission is required make a recommendation for any project or major improvement proposed on city land.

Lauretti said the developers initial plans call for a five-story building, with commercial and retail space on the first floor of the proposed structure, with 75 apartments on the top four floors. Lauretti said he hopes the plans will soon be before the Planning & Zoning Commission for review and approval.

Regarding Riverwalk, Lauretti said the developer, during the excavation process for the new structure, would put in the base for the extended walk along the Housatonic River. Lauretti said the city would then finish off the project by completing the walkway.

The Shelton Riverwalk is a brick sidewalk that loops around the Slab, a park that borders the Housatonic River. Both the Slab and the Riverwalk are used for recreational purposes. The park is host to various events throughout the year, including the farmers market, Veterans Day celebrations and Fourth of July fireworks.

The focus of my first election campaign was redeveloping the downtown, the mayor said. This is what I always envisioned. Once the area was cleaned up, it would evolve, and that is what is happening, with private investment.

City Administrative Assistant Jack Bashar said that by selling the land, the property will then be added back to the citys tax rolls and will be a major part of the downtown redevelopment plan.

Ten years from now, people will be in awe of what they see, Lauretti added.

The city acquired the Chromium Process property through foreclosure, and state and federal brownfields funding helped with the environmental cleanup.

The Chromium Process operation, part of an industrial area developed in the late 1880s, was once a thriving factory site in the heart of downtown Shelton. The plant building and adjacent garage were razed in the fall of 2016, replaced by a parking lot.

brian.gioiele@hearstmediact.com
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) says a supposed Breaking News Flash with the headline Nigerian Air Force Kills Over 250 Boko Haram Fighters In Maiduguri is totally fake.

An air commodore, Ibikunle Daramola, the NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, made this known in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

Mr Daramola said the fake news said to have been released on February 13 by one Comr Aminu Shuaibu Musawa did not originate from the NAF.

The NAF wishes to categorically state that the false sensational news item, with its gory doctored visuals, is totally fake and did not originate from the NAF.

Media houses and indeed the general public are please reminded that authentic information on the activities of the NAF will always be released officially by the Director of Public Relations and Information (DOPRI), he said.

He also said that authentic information on the activities of the Service would always be released officially by the DOPRI and carried on the NAF website, www.airforce.mil.ng, as well as NAF official social media handles.

The NAF spokesman gave the NAF official social media handles as: Twitter  @NigAirForce; Facebook  Nigerian Air Force HQ (@hqnigerianairforce); Instagram  Nigerian Air Force, and YouTube  Nigerian Air Force.

Any reports emanating from other sources without verification from the NAF should be completely discountenanced, he said.

Mr Daramola said the NAF had commenced action that would lead to the prosecution of the originator(s) of the aforementioned false report for disseminating fake news. (NAN)
Protect Dreamers

I was thankful to attend the State of the Union this year as U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castros guest. He, along with members on both sides of the aisle and the majority of Americans, understands the importance of providing Dreamers  Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, recipients  with permanent legislative protections. Castro reiterated his public support by inviting me, a Dreamer, and it couldnt have come at a more urgent time.

The U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing the legality of the Trump administrations 2017 DACA program rescission and is expected to issue a ruling later this year that could result in the termination of Dreamer protection, putting 800,000 individuals at a risk of deportation.

Without a legislative fix in place, negative consequences would be felt by Dreamers nationwide and across Texas communities.

DACA allowed me to earn my bachelors degree in elementary bilingual education from UTSA, and I now teach second grade in San Antonio. Thanks to DACA, I was also able to pursue a masters degree and complete an educational leadership program.

There are nearly 214,000 Dreamers in Texas  the state is home to the second-largest population of DACA recipients  who want to continue contributing to Texas communities and economy.

I hope Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz will work across the aisle to pass legislation such as the American Dream and Promise Act, which Castro supported.

Im thankful to live in this country and for Castros support. Lets get a DACA solution across the finish line so Dreamers can continue contributing to communities across the country and pursuing our dreams.

Maria Rocha

On ExpressNews.com: Rep. Castro is bringing a San Antonio teacher to State of the Union speech

Believe in IDEA

Re: Charter school backlash shows why oversight is needed in Texas, Another View, Tuesday:

David DeMatthews and David Knight implied that lax oversight has fueled the growth of IDEA Public Schools. Actually, our impact results from IDEA students excelling, and our teachers, principals and team consistently proving whats possible in schools serving low-income kids of color. Because thats what any overseer of public schools should be asking: Is this organization making a difference for kids?

At IDEA, the answer for 20 years has been Yes.

Yes from the parents of the 53,000 students in Texas and Louisiana who have chosen IDEA Public Schools, from 30,000 more applying to schools opening this summer, and from the 3,000 teachers who bring their passion and expertise to our classrooms (earning more than in neighboring districts).

Yes from the Texas Education Agency, which gives IDEA an A for operations and fiscal responsibility, and from bond analysts whove rated IDEA higher than any charter network, saving taxpayers money when we build schools.

Yes from colleges and universities, which have admitted 100 percent of IDEA graduates for 14 straight years, and from foundations and individuals whose donations generously supplement IDEAs public funding.

Yes from journalists whove ranked IDEA high schools among the nations most challenging and whove praised IDEA for leading the charge to democratize higher education.

Does IDEA do some things differently than traditional school bureaucracies? You bet we do, and were always learning and improving. Thats another reason parents, students, educators, policymakers and philanthropists believe in IDEA.

JoAnn Gama, president

and superintendent,

IDEA Public Schools

On ExpressNews.com: Commentary: Private jets and Spurs tickets? Texas needs more charter school oversight

Corrupt enough?

Republican senators said they didnt need any documents or witnesses in the presidents impeachment trial because the House documented Donald Trumps corruption. But it wasnt corrupt enough.

Trump has already retaliated against three people for telling the truth. One was a military officer. Some may shrug at that, but anyone who has served in the U.S. military shuddered.

Military officers are bound by a strict code and oath to tell the truth. Even a grunt who obeys an illegal order, such as telling a lie, is guilty of obeying that order even if it comes from a general or the commander in chief.

If we cant trust military intelligence officers or battlefield commanders to tell the truth, then we are lost without a moral compass. Is that corrupt enough?

Robert Lopez Flynn

Texas, expand Medicaid

The most serious problem concerning health care is access to services. Texas has some 5 million uninsured people, about 17.7 percent of all its residents.

As a family physician for 40-plus years, I dealt with this situation daily. Each day, I was consulted by at least eight to 10 patients with either no insurance or a very high deductible.

In Texas, the Republican-controlled Legislature has adamantly refused to accept federally funded Medicaid expansion offered as a part of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Texas, as a result, has the highest rate of uninsured persons of any state.

In my practice, there was evidence of gaping holes in the health care safety net as patients refused to seek care, or avoided costly procedures and medications. A visit to me was relatively inexpensive, but imaging studies, lab tests and many medications were prohibitively costly.

I retired from practice in San Antonio at the beginning of 2014, and I began part-time work seeing patients for the University of New Mexico in clinics in Northern New Mexico. The New Mexico Legislature opted to expand Medicaid under the ACA. Virtually all my patients had health insurance as a result. Routine lab and X-rays were no longer a problem, and imaging studies, as well as consults with specialty physicians, were possible in a reasonable and timely manner. The patients in New Mexico were often poorer than those in San Antonio, but because of the availability of Medicaid, their access to health care was superior to those in Texas.

Most states have now expanded Medicaid coverage, and they are pleased with the results. Texas should do the same. I implore my fellow Texans to elect a Legislature that will be responsive to this all-important consideration.

Neal S. Meritz
An Australian mum has revealed how she made $319 on her pre-owned IKEA furniture after discovering a little-known policy.

The Perth mother-of-two said she attempted to sell her nine-year-old dining table and six chairs on Gumtree for $250 - but had failed to attract any buyer.

But the woman stumbled across IKEA's 'buy back scheme', which allows shoppers to return their old items in exchange for store credit.

She ended up getting $319 back after she turned to the Swedish furniture store.

Posting to the IKEA Mums Australia Facebook group, the Perth mother-of-two managed to return a dining table with six chairs (pictured above) and reaped a $319 benefit

'We've twice taken items back for IKEA to "buy back" and it's awesome,' she said in the IKEA Mums Australia Facebook group.

'Such a great idea. We took back these table and chairs yesterday and ended up getting a $319 store credit! We couldn't sell these on marketplace/Gumtree for $250.'

Despite the woman having a dining table that's nearly a decade old and the four-year-old sets of chairs, the store still accepted the second hand pieces.

The news surprised other IKEA customers who didn't know the concept existed.

'How have I not heard about this before?' one said.

'I loved it as well! We were trying to sell one of the rocking chairs for $70. Took it to Ikea and they gave us a $90 store credit!' another added.

Even though the woman had the dining table for nine years and the chairs for four, the popular Swedish furniture store accepted the home pieces

ITEMS NOT INCLUDED IN IKEA'S BUY-BACK Baby products

Non-IKEA products

Electrical appliances

Home furnishing accessories

Wardrobes and accessories

Outdoor furniture

Mattresses and blankets

Kitchens Advertisement

IKEA introduced this 'buy-back and re-sell in store' system in October last year with the incentive to provide further affordable options to customers while also helping the planet.

Though the scheme policy states in order to sell back pieces of furniture it must an IKEA product and excludes certain items such as electronic appliances, outdoor furniture and kitchens.

The initiative launched after a year trial at Sydney's Tempe store where 1,600 furniture items were brought back.

IKEA Sales Manager, David Hawthorn, said, 'The reception for the buy-back scheme in Tempe has been so positive. To see this service now being offered to IKEA customers nationally, and maybe one day all around the world, is incredible and beyond what I could have imagined.'

The buy-back service is part of IKEA's goal to have 100 per cent climate positive operations by 2030

Through this new concept, IKEA expects that 15,000 pieces of furniture will be saved from landfills.

IKEA's Renea Robson said: 'This initiative is actually about IKEA trying to work with our customers to tackle the problem we have with unsustainable consumption.'

Refund cards are only usable for three years and items are inspected in store before being accepted by IKEA.

IKEA's terms and conditions for the scheme states: 'The final offer price given by the IKEA co-worker is final and not open to negotiation.'

The service is part of IKEA's goal to have 100 per cent climate positive operations by 2030.
Arvind Kejriwal, an unassuming, bespectacled bureaucrat who slipped into the political frame during the Anna Hazare-led Lokpal movement in 2011, has been sworn in as Delhi's chief minister for a third term.

Born in 2012 after Kejriwal fell out with Hazare, his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stormed back to power in Delhi by winning 62 seats in the 70-member Delhi Assembly.

The party's choice of name was in line with the alternative brand of it espoused.

Dressed in oversized shirts and trousers, open toe sandals and with a muffler wrapped around his head and neck, Kerjiwal, a former Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, soon carved out an image as a leader of the common man.

His trademark muffler has even earned him the moniker 'mufflerman'.

However, Kejriwal's efforts to spread the AAP's footprint beyond the national capital have not been successful.

His attempt to be seen as a direct challenger to Narendra Modi came a cropper in 2014 when he contested the Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi. He also tried to make an electoral dent in Punjab and Goa in 2017 but in vain.

Kejriwal first became Delhi's chief minister in 2013.

Images of him sleeping in his utilitarian Wagon R while staging a sit-in for a Jan Lokpal (ombudsman) wrapped in a cotton quilt in cold winter nights dominated the front pages of newspapers and prime-time bulletins.

He resigned 49 days after coming to power since the Jan Lokpal Bill could not be tabled in the Delhi Assembly, earning him the 'bhagoda' (deserter) tag.

He silenced his critics when he returned to power in 2015 with the AAP winning 67 of Delhi's 70 seats.

Kejriwal runs his party with the proverbial iron fist and has learnt to temper his aggression, say people close to him.

He has mellowed since his days as the angry leader on a sit-in, carefully calibrating his political message and refusing to be baited by the BJP which made the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in Shaheen Bagh the centrepiece of its campaign for the Delhi polls.

During the election campaign, Kejriwal attacked the BJP on several occasions. He was careful, however, to not speak out too clearly on the Shaheen Bagh protests.

Notwithstanding the electoral triumph for the BJP in the May Lok Sabha polls, the IIT Kharagpur graduate managed to anchor a campaign that wooed all sections in the city.

At the start of the campaign, he had announced that his party will run a positive campaign on the basis of the development work done by his government in the last five years.

Schemes such as free travel for women in DTC buses, free electricity, installation of CCTV cameras and free water were his party's poll planks.

Dubbed a "terrorist" by BJP leaders, Kejriwal said he would leave it to the voters to decide whether they consider him a son of Delhi or a terrorist.

Addressing thousands at the sprawling Ramlila Maidan after taking oath for the third term as chief minister, the 51-year-old said he wants to forget the bitterness of the poll campaign and take everyone forward with him.

He also stressed that he wants to work in coordination with the Centre and sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's blessings for smooth governance of the national capital.

Born on August 16, 1968 in Hisar in Haryana to Gobind Ram Kejriwal and Gita Devi, Kejriwal is a man of simple tastes.

He lives with his parents, wife and two children, and is often seen going out for a quiet meal or an occasional film. Both his children -- Harshita and Pulkit -- are also IIT products.

A strict vegetarian who prefers home-made food, Kejriwal married a fellow IRS officer, Sunita. He is known to be an ardent practitioner of Vipassana, and seldom misses his yoga and meditation sessions.

After completing his graduation in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, he joined Tata Steel in 1989. He resigned in 1992 to take up the Union Public Service Commission examination which he cleared to become an IRS officer.

He also worked with Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata.

Kejriwal worked with people in slums through an NGO, 'Parivartan', he set up with his confidant Manish Sisodia.

His efforts towards the enactment of the RTI Act to empower the poorest citizens of India won him the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership in 2006.

In February 2006, he became a full-time activist and started another NGO, Public Cause Research Foundation, with his award money as a corpus fund.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kailash Gahlot, who held key portfolios such as transport, revenue, environment in the previous AAP government, was sworn-in as the Delhi Cabinet minister for the second consecutive term on Sunday.

Gahlot, 45, comes from a rural area and represents the Najafgarh constituency.

In his last term, he had played a vital role in implementing free travel scheme for women in public transport buses and free pilgrimage to senior citizens.

He won his first election to the Delhi legislative Assembly in February 2015. Gahlot was also incharge of law, justice and legislative affairs, information and technology, administrative reforms portfolios in the previous cabinet of the Arvind Kejriwal government.

Under his leadership, Gahlot, born on July 22, 1974, several buses were procured under the Cluster scheme to strengthen the public transport, but it was not sufficient.

If he gets transport back in the new government, he will have a challenge to procure more buses of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).

In the last five years, government could not add a bus to the DTC fleet.

Gahlot has pursued BA (Hons) in political science from the Venkateswara College of Delhi University. He was elected the President of Students Union in 1994.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
When Timothy Schabo was 18 years old, he was out on bail awaiting court for two felony charges he was confident he could beat.

Police had found a half-pound of marijuana and less than an ounce of psilocybin mushrooms in his car after they searched it without his consent  a search Schabo said his attorney maintained was illegal.

There was no way those charges were going to stick, Schabo said.

But the presence of his girlfriend, then 17, in his apartment gave the prosecutor insane leverage to get him to plead guilty, Schabo said.

She had come to his apartment after running away from home  she hadnt told him that  with $5 worth of marijuana in her purse  she hadnt told him that either. When police came looking for her and found the marijuana, they told Schabo he was considered in possession of drugs since it was in his home  a violation of the terms of his bail.

He was charged with felony bail jumping.

Although it conjures images of offenders skipping town after posting bail, bail jumping can be charged anytime defendants violate a condition a judge places on them when they are released before trial.
Mumbai: NCP Chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday alleged that the Centre has handed over the probe in the Elgar Parishad case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) as the previous Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra wants to "hide something".

Pawar, who earlier demanded the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case in which human rights activists have been arrested for alleged links with Maoists, said the Centre should have taken the Maharashtra government into confidence before handing over the case to NIA.

The former Union minister also asked whether speaking against the government is an "anti-national" activity.

"There seems to be something that the then Fadnavis government wants to hide, hence the investigation has been handed over to NIA. When the Koregaon-Bhima violence took place, the Fadnavis government was in power," Pawar said in Jalgaon.

It is the Centre's prerogative to investigate the Elgar Parishad case, but it should have taken the state into confidence, said Pawar, whose party is an alliance partner in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government.

"Koregaon-Bhima, and Elgar Parishad, held in Pune a day before the violence, are two different issues. Is writing rebellious literature and speaking against the government an anti-national activity?" he asked.

Every year people gather at Koregaon Bhima (a village in Pune), but some people went to nearby villages and "turned them against those who regularly visit the place". Police have taken action against these people, including (right-wing leaders) Sambhaji Bhide, Milind Ekbote, Pawar said.

In a change of stand, the Maharashtra government recently said it has no objection to NIA taking over the probe into the Elgar Parishad case.

The Centre last month transferred the probe in the case from the Pune Police to NIA, a move then criticised by the state Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government.

The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave, held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed, triggered violence near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in the district the next day.

The Pune Police have claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists.

During the probe, the police arrested Left-leaning activists Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Varavara Rao for alleged Maoist links.

These nine activists, currently in jail, are among 11 people booked by the NIA in the Elgar Parishad case.

While the Pune Police had applied IPC section 124A (sedition) in the case, the NIA FIR does not have this charge.

Similarly, IPC Sections like 121 (waging or attempting to war or abetting waging war against the Government of India), 121-A (conspiracy to commit offences punishable under section 121) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) were missing from the NIA's FIR.

The accused have been charged under IPC sections 153-A (promoting enmity between groups ), 505 (1)(b) (intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public), 117 (abetting commission of offence by the public or by more than ten persons), among others, and certain sections of the anti-terror act UAPA.
Will continue to set new standards says Shah after spectacular victory in UP

Omar Abdullahs National Conference to contest J&K Panchayat polls

India

oi-PTI

Srinagar, Feb 16: The National Conference (NC) has decided to participate in the Panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir next month but wants "roadblocks" placed in its way to be removed so that it can campaign freely.

In a letter to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shailendra Kumar, NC central secretary Rattan Lal Gupta said the party is a strong votary of democratic process and wishes to participate in the eight-phase elections starting March 5 in over 11,000 seats. A copy of the letter has been marked to the Chief Election Commissioner.

Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat polls to be held in 8 phases from March 5-19

The letter states that it is practically impossible for the party to participate in the election when its top leaders, including its president Farooq Abdullah, vice president Omar Abdullah, general secretary Ali Mohammed Sagar, are in detention under the stringent Public Safety Act.

Gupta asked the CEO to advice the party on how these roadblocks, that have been placed in the way of participation, can be overcome.

"If the aim is to create conditions to exclude all other parties except the BJP, then nothing more needs to be said but if the aim is to create a genuine culture of grassroots democracy, then the process adopted is a deeply flawed one," he wrote.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Sunday, February 16, 2020, 16:20 [IST]
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday that the United States' commitment to NATO and to multilateralism was "ironclad".

Speaking with the US delegation at the Munich Security Conference, Pelosi said, "We want to remove all doubt that the United States values the transatlantic relationship and its value to the security, not only of our country but to global security as well."

She also appealed for countries to steer clear of Chinese tech giant Huawei as they build their next-generation cellular networks.

"This is very dangerous," Pelosi said. "This is about choosing autocracy over democracy on the information highway. It's about putting the state police in the pocket of every consumer in these countries because of the Chinese way."

Pelosi's remarks underlined bipartisan suspicion of Huawei in the United States.

The Trump administration has raised national security concerns about Huawei, the world's largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer, and is aggressively lobbying Western allies to bar the company from wireless, high-speed networks.

Trump administration officials, including Cabinet secretaries, say Huawei can give the Chinese government backdoor access to data, allegations the company rejects.

The US has been trying to have European nations ban the gear from next-generation cellular networks, but countries are shying away from banning it altogether.

Britain, notably, announced last month that it would allow Huawei to participate in certain non-sensitive areas of its networks, and European Union 5G guidelines fall far short of addressing US concerns.

(Image credit-AP)
Canada has chartered a plane to evacuate its citizens onboard the Diamond Princess cruise liner docked in Yokohama, Japan, the Canadian government said in a statement late on Saturday. Canadian passengers who exhibit symptoms of the coronavirus infection will not be permitted to board the flight and will instead be transferred to the Japanese health care system to receive appropriate care, the government said. After arriving in Canada, the passengers will undergo a 14-day period of quarantine, the statement added. The United States and Hong Kong have said they will send ...
The Thoracic Surgery Foundation (TSF)-;the charitable arm of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS)- has awarded 29 new grants totaling $1,047,500 in support of research and education programs in cardiothoracic surgery. These grants will help advance treatment options for patients with heart and lung diseases and offer much-needed assistance to underserved patients in developing countries, including Armenia, Honduras, India, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, and Sub Saharan Africa. In June, the Foundation plans to distribute educational and travel scholarship awards for cardiothoracic surgeons, making its 2020 award total $1,127,500.

Choosing the grant recipients was a tough decision; many worthy funding applications were received, and the selected 29 rose to the top. The results from these projects will help us understand more about the biology and treatment of heart and lung diseases. The contributions of these award recipients to cardiothoracic surgery and our patients will be significant." Joseph E. Bavaria, MD, TSF President

The TSF Board of Directors voted unanimously to support the following projects for 2020:

Research

Feredun S. Azari, MD, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, "Tumor-Associated Neutrophils (TANs)  A Key Player in the Tumor Microenvironment?", TSF Resident Research Fellowship Award, $60,000

Renee M. Cholyway, MD, Virginia Commonwealth University, "Mitochondrial Transfusion to Recover Function in Donor After Circulatory Death Hearts", Southern Thoracic Surgical Association (STSA) Resident Research Award, $48,000

Keith A. Dufendach, MD, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, "Weakly Supervised Machine Learning for Automated Transthoracic Echocardiogram Interpretation", TSF Resident Research Fellowship Award, $60,000

David Kalfa, MD, PhDThe Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York"Development of an Innovative Biomimetic Patch to Improve the Durability of Valve Repairs"TSF Research Award, $80,000

Ian A. Makey, MD, Mayo Clinic, "Atrial Trans-Septal ECMO Cannulation", TSF Research Award, $40,000

Cynthia L. Miller, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, "Induction of Heart Allograft Tolerance in Cynomolgus Macaques via En Bloc Thymus Transplantation", Nina Starr Braunwald Research Fellowship Award, $60,000

Navyatha Mohan, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, "Leveraging Machine Learning Algorithms to Develop Risk Models in Cardiac Surgery", Nina Starr Braunwald Research Fellowship Award, $30,000

Albert C. Pai, MD, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, "Effects of Severe Lung Injury from Airway Stem Cell Implantation", TSF Resident Research Fellowship Award, $30,000

Parth M. Patel, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital/Emory University, "Achieving Tolerance in NHP Heart Transplant Recipients with Donor Exosomes", TSF Resident Research Fellowship Award, $30,000

Adam C. Soloff, PhD, University of Pittsburgh, "Enhancing the Functionality of T cells for Next Generation Adoptive Cell Transfer Therapy for Advanced Lung Cancer", American Lung Association/TSF Lung Cancer Research Award, $80,000

Matthew L. Stone, MD, PhD, University of Colorado School of Medicine, "Improving Heart Transplantation Outcomes with Sphingosine-Targeted Therapies", STS Research Award, $80,000

Matthew D. Taylor, MD, The Pennsylvania State University, College of Medicine, "Targeting Metastasis Suppressor 1 Regulation as a Novel Therapy for the Prevention of Metastasis in Lung Adenocarcinoma", TSF Research Award, $80,000

Education

Robert C. Groom, MS, CCP, FPP, Tenwek Hospital, Sarns Terumo Perfusion Fellowship Award, $10,000

Puja G. Khaitan, MD, MedStar Washington Hospital Center, "Robotic Esophageal Surgery", Carolyn E. Reed Traveling Fellowship Award, $7,000

Raghav A. Murthy, MD, Mount Sinai Hospital, "Management of MAPCA's, Complex Tracheal Surgery and Complex Single Ventricle VAD's", Robert L. Replogle Traveling Fellowship Award, $10,000

Jennifer S. Nelson, MD, Nemours Children's Hospital, "Cone Repair for Ebstein's Anomaly", Robert L. Replogle Traveling Fellowship Award, $10,000

Uma M. Sachdeva, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital, "Resection and Lab-Based Techniques for Treatment and Study of Early-Stage Esophageal Cancer", Carolyn E. Reed Traveling Fellowship Award, $10,000

Kanika Kalra, MD, Emory University, "Outcomes of Valve Sparing Root Replacement vs. Traditional Bentall Procedure in Patientswith Aortic Root Aneurysms with Non-Stenotic Bicuspid Aortic Valve", STS/EACTS Award, $2,500

Leadership

Immanuel I. Turner, MD, Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital Heart Institute, "Innovation in Mechanical Circulatory Support", The Levi Watkins Innovation and Leadership Development Scholarship, $5,000

Surgical outreach missions

Adanna C. Akujuo, MD, Albany Medical Center, Underserved Region: Nigeria, TSF Every Heartbeat Matters Award, $35,000

Ganesh Kumar K. Ammannaya, MD, Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College & General Hospital, Underserved Region: India, Dhule, TSF Every Heartbeat Matters Award, $29,000

Zachary O. Enumah, MD, Cardiac Surgery Intersociety Alliance, Underserved Region: Sub-Saharan Africa, TSF Every Heartbeat Matters Award, $35,000

Jessica Forcillo, MD, Montreal University Hospital Centre, Underserved Region: South Africa, TSF Every Heartbeat Matters Award, $29,000

Lyle D. Joyce, MD, PhD, Medical College of Wisconsin, Underserved Region: Kenya/Tenwek Hospital, TSF Every Heartbeat Matters Award, $35,000

Reza A. Khodaverdian, MD, Eisenhower Medical Group, Underserved Region: Enugu/Nigeria, TSF Every Heartbeat Matters Award, $29,000

Carmelo A. Milano, MD, Duke University, Underserved Region: Honduras, TSF Every Heartbeat Matters Award, $30,000

Mubashir A. Mumtaz, MD, UPMC Pinnacle, Underserved Region: Pakistan, TSF Every Heartbeat Matters Award, $29,000

Jay D. Pal, MD, PhD, University of Colorado, Underserved Region: Nepal, TSF Every Heartbeat Matters Award, $35,000

Harma K. Turbendian, MD, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center  Wolfson Children's Hospital, Underserved Region: Armenia, TSF Every Heartbeat Matters Award, $29,000
The 600 or so soldiers of the 104th trekked across the country to bolster Canadian defences against an impending United States invasion. This became known as the War of 1812, even though the conflict was spread out over the next two years.

The Black men in the 104th included Harry Grant, Richard Houldin and Henry McEvoy. They are a minor footnote in the War of 1812 and are usually ignored in accounts of the conflict.

The 104th is an under-recognized military march on par with great marches in history. Here the route is mapped out. Drew Kennickell/The St. John River Society

Indigenous technology

The erasure of these Black soldiers of the 104th follows the usual pattern of deleting Black people from the mainstream history of Canada, as their presence or absence raises questions about race and empire, and genocide and slavery.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday



alleged that the Centre has handed over probe in the Elgar Parishad case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) as the previous Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra wants to "hide something".

Pawar, who earlier demanded constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case in which human rights activists have been arrested for alleged links with Maoists, said the Centre should have taken the Maharashtra government into confidence before handing over the case to NIA.

The former Union minister also asked whether speaking against the government is an "anti-national" activity.

"There seems to be something that the then Fadnavis government wants to hide, hence the investigation has been handed over to NIA. When the Koregaon-Bhima violence took place, Fadnavis government was in power," Pawar told reporters in Jalgaon.

It is the Centre's prerogative to investigate the Elgar Parishad case, but it should have taken the state into confidence, said Pawar, whose party is an alliance partner in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government.

"Koregaon-Bhima, and Elgar Parishad, held in Pune a day before the violence, are two different issues. Is writing rebellious literature and speaking against the government an an anti-national activity?" he asked.

Every year people gather at Koregaon Bhima (village in Pune), but some people went to nearby villages and "turned them against those who regularly visit the place". Police have taken action against these people, including (right wing leaders) Sambhaji Bhide, Milind Ekbote, Pawar said.

In a change of stand, the Maharashtra government recently said it has no objection to NIA taking over probe into the Elgar Parishad case.

The Centre last month transferred the probe in the case from the Pune Police to NIA, a move then criticised by the state Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government.

The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave, held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed, triggered violence near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in the district the next day.

The Pune Police have claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists.

During the probe, the police arrested Left-leaning activists Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Varavara Rao for alleged Maoist links.

These nine activists, currently in jail, are among 11 people booked by the NIA in the Elgar Parishad case.

While the Pune Police had applied IPC section 124A (sedition) in the case, the NIA FIR does not have this charge.

Similarly, IPC Sections like 121 (waging or attempting to war or abetting waging war against the Government of India), 121-A (conspiracy to commit offences punishable under section 121) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) were missing from the NIA's FIR.

The accused have been charged under IPC sections 153-A (promoting enmity between groups ), 505 (1)(b) (intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public), 117 (abetting commission of offence by the public or by more than ten persons), among others, and certain sections of the anti-terror act UAPA.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
UN chief arrived here on Sunday on a four-day visit to Pakistan during which he will attend the conference on Afghan refugees, hold parleys with the top Pakistani leadership and visit the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur.

The UN Secretary-General was received by Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Munir Akram and senior officials of the Foreign Office and the United Nations in Pakistan on his arrival at the Nur Khan Airbase, Radio Pakistan reported.

According to the Foreign Office, Guterres will hold talks with President Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

During these meetings, Pakistan will share its perspective on the Kashmir issue, it said.

His other engagements include interactions with parliamentarians and the youth.

He will deliver special talks on themes of sustainable development, climate change and peacekeeping. He will also visit Lahore.

He will also visit the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, the final resting place of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, in Kartarpur.

Guru Nanak Dev spent the last 18 years of his life at Kartarpur Sahib, which has now become the world's largest Sikh Gurdwara.

He will speak at the conference on '40 Years of Hosting in Pakistan', which is being organised by Pakistan and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

The two-day conference starting from Monday will be inaugurated by Prime Khan.


Chinese experts have called upon cured patients who were infected with novel coronavirus (COVID-19) to donate plasma at hospitals as neutralizing antibodies have been identified in the plasma of some patients.

Initial results have indicated the effectiveness of convalescent plasma-derived therapeutic products in curing infected patients in severe and critical conditions, said Zhang Dingyu at a Thursday press conference, as head of Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, a major designated hospital to admit confirmed cases in Wuhan, the epidemic center of COVID-19.

Zhang said that based on the clinical-pathological process, most of the cured patients will produce specific antibodies against the virus in their bodies, which can help kill the virus.

Four critically ill patients in Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital have received convalescent plasma treatment and all of the patients have shown improved clinical symptoms about 12 to 24 hours after they received the treatment, Zhang added.

After Zhang's nationwide appeal of plasma donation, Shanghai on Saturday urged recovered coronavirus patients to donate plasma, and designated hospitals began to adopt convalescent plasma therapy to treat critically ill patients.

"Designated hospitals in Shanghai welcome recovered patients who have been discharged from hospitals to donate plasma for the treatment of other infected patients in the coming weeks," said Lu Hongzhou, a member of the city's medical experts group on the treatment of COVID-19.

Official data showed 124 patients in Shanghai have recovered from COVID-19 and discharged from hospitals by Saturday afternoon, of whom 14 have shown willingness to donate their plasma to assist coronavirus research and treatment.

Some recovered patients regard the donation as a way to pay back to the society after they received timely and effective treatment.

"Before discharged from the hospital, I learned from the nurses that I can donate plasma, which I think is very helpful," said a recovered patient surnamed Liu who is willing to become a donor.

"We were helped by others and we want to help other patients as well," Liu said.

Meanwhile, Zhang also reminded the public not to have too high expectation on the convalescent plasma-derived therapeutic products as the treatment only helps relieve the symptoms to give doctors a shot and the recovery mostly relies on patients' natural immunities.
Most governments have been operating on evidence pointing to a maximum incubation period of 14 days - which is why two-week long quarantines have been enforced. But a provisional paper published last weekend by Chinese scientists found that it might take as long as 24 days for some patients to display symptoms. Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said that such a long incubation period "would be problematic" for efforts to contain the outbreak. "With incubation periods, there's always some degree of uncertainty, as it can be hard to establish when a patient came into contact with [another infected person]," he said. "But even with the Westerdam case, I think the 14-day quarantine period remains appropriate." The American woman, whose identity has not been disclosed, was among hundreds of relieved passengers who were let off the Westerdam on Friday and welcomed and embraced by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has downplayed the epidemic's threat and described the decision to bring them onshore as an act of humanitarian goodwill after several other countries refused to allow the ship to dock.

The US ambassador, W. Patrick Murphy, also brought his family onboard the cruise ship and posed for pictures on Saturday with American passengers. Murphy and other passengers did not appear to be wearing a mask in photos shared on the embassy's Twitter account. Disembarkation, which was set to continue over the weekend, was halted on Sunday, according to Cambodian journalists at the scene. On Saturday, Cambodia's health minister issued a public statement urging the public to "not be overly afraid" but to take protective measures. On Saturday night, charter flights that were originally scheduled to take Westerdam passengers to Kuala Lumpur were cancelled by Malaysian authorities. As of Monday afternoon authorities worldwide have tallied roughly 71,000 cases of COVID-19 and at least 1775 deaths. The overwhelming majority of infections remain in mainland China. Passengers of the Westerdam disembark at the port of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, on Saturday. There are now concerns many of the passengers may have been infected with the coronavirus. Credit:AP

In Taiwan, authorities reported the first death on Sunday, a man in his 60s with diabetes and hepatitis but no recent history of overseas travel, according to the state-run Central News Agency. Officials said they were still investigating how the man contracted the virus while living in the central part of Taiwan, which has so far recorded 20 confirmed cases across the island. Chinese officials said on Sunday they believed that measures taken across the country to control the epidemic were paying off. Several cities in the central region have declared strict "wartime measures" that allow residents to leave their homes only several times a week and upon approval from neighbourhood authorities. Loading Guards in Hubei are now required to check identification 24-hours a day at the entrance to residential compounds and driving is also banned for all nonessential purposes under new regulations released on Sunday. The number of new cases across China, including in Hubei, were falling, said Chinese National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng, who noted that doctors in the worst-hit province had broadened their diagnosis criteria for patients suspected of suffering from the disease and were able to treat them more quickly.

"The effects of our counter-coronavirus measures in every part of the country are already becoming apparent," Mi said. The Westerdam was believed to have no infections on board among the 2200 crew and passengers who were stranded at sea for weeks as countries rejected their entry following a stop in Hong Kong where they took on hundreds of new passengers. Health experts have warned that the coronavirus is difficult to contain precisely because symptoms are often mild and the coronavirus could replicate inside the human body and infect others for more than two weeks before showing symptoms at all. Loading The US embassy in Phnom Penh said Cambodian officials individually screened all disembarking passengers for fever with the help of embassy staff this week, and any passenger who reported feeling ill had received lab tests, all of which returned negative. The tests were processed by a lab trusted by the US Centres for Disease Control, the US embassy said.

The Westerdam and another cruise ship, the Diamond Princess in Japan, are posing logistical and public health challenges for governments as they try to contain the spread of the disease known as COVID-19 and repatriate citizens. The United States evacuated American citizens from the Diamond Princess on Monday as the number of coronavirus diagnoses continued to rise sharply among the 3700 passengers and crew originally on board. Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said on Sunday that the quarantined ship floating near Tokyo now had 355 confirmed cases, or about 30 percent of the 1219 people who have been tested so far. That represents one of the highest infection rates in the world. Three Israelis on board have been found positive for the virus, according to the Israeli Health Ministry, but their condition is mild and they are now in a hospital in Japan. The ministry added that an expert physician has been sent to liaise with Japanese health officials.

The US government-chartered flights comes days after public health experts warned that time spent on the Diamond Princess, which has been quarantined since February 5, increases the risk of coronavirus exposure and Japanese authorities began letting some passengers disembark to complete their quarantine on land. Two charter flights are scheduled to depart from Japan Sunday evening and bring roughly 380 evacuated Americans from the Diamond Princess to military bases in Texas and California, where they will be quarantined and monitored for an additional 14 days. Canada, South Korea, Italy and Hong Kong announced Sunday they would also arrange charter flights. Mainland China on Monday reported a slight upturn in new virus cases and an increase by 105 in deaths caused by the illness for a total of 1770 since the outbreak began. The new number of 2048 cases being reported Monday for the previous 24 hours came after three days of declines but was up by just 29 cases from the previous day's figure.
A civil war gripping the militant construction union is set to intensify after Victorian union boss John Setka vowed to hunt down the individual who leaked disparaging comments he made about family violence campaigner Rosie Batty.

Mr Setka, who leads the Construction, Forestry, Mining, Maritime and Energy Union Victorian branch, said an investigation into leaks against him is almost finished, and he is now considering raising a large reward to reveal who he alleges tried to oust him from his job.

CFMMEU Victorian secretary John Setka is taking a hardline investigating leaks in the militant union. Credit:AAP

The controversial union boss quit the Labor Party under pressure from leader Anthony Albanese and senior MPs in September, after he was fined over harassment of his wife via text messages. In a separate incident, he was caught saying the work of Ms Batty had led to men having few rights.

He is still under pressure from Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus and several national unions to quit as the state CFMMEU leader but is also squaring off against his national secretary, Michael OConnor, in court over allegations of poaching staff.
Red-light cameras are working in Toronto.

Not just to snap a photo and mail a ticket to red-light running scofflaws but to help reduce this dangerous driving behaviour, the city says.

So much so that Toronto actually brought in less revenue than it expected last year from its red-light cameras, at least in part because of the improved compliance of drivers.

Thats great.

In a city thats constantly facing needless pedestrian deaths, news that at least some intersections are getting safer is worth a moment of celebration.

It also raises an important question: why are police not applying this lesson to other traffic offences?

If ticketing more drivers who run red lights has resulted in significant reductions in collisions, injuries and deaths, then surely ticketing more drivers for speeding, distracted driving or blowing through stop signs would also help make roads safer.

Yet Toronto police handed out fewer traffic offences tickets last year than any time in the past decade.

According to city records, police laid 200,788 provincial offence charges (the bulk of which are traffic-related) in 2019. Thats down from nearly 700,000 in 2010.

That steep decline is certainly not because drivers have suddenly become that much more law-abiding. Anyone who regularly walks, bikes or drives in Toronto knows how rare it is to make it through even a single day without seeing examples of dangerous and distracted driving and a close call or two.

Pedestrian deaths have more than doubled from 2010 to 2019. There were 42 last year.

The decline in tickets is largely a result of Toronto police disbanding their dedicated traffic enforcement unit in 2013 and the rest of the force being told that traffic enforcement is just a supplemental role to their main duties of policing.

Treating traffic enforcement so casually makes no sense given its deadly consequences. Pedestrian deaths in Toronto are now about on par with shooting deaths.

Dangerous driving demands far more attention than police have given it in recent years, and more than the newly created traffic enforcement squad of a paltry six officers and two supervisors will be able to deliver.

The new Toronto police shift schedule, which is supposed to give frontline officers more time for proactive policing, holds a little more promise for seeing increased traffic enforcement.

But its troubling that, despite all the evidence of the need for more traffic enforcement, Chief Mark Saunders continues to look away. He says the decline in traffic enforcement and tickets cant possibly be connected to the rise in collisions and pedestrians deaths.

When asked about the correlation last week by councillor Michael Thompson, Saunders called it not an accurate assumption.

And yet a report Saunders sent to council late last year clearly demonstrates what a difference enforcement makes.

It has been well documented through numerous studies that enforcement is a key component to achieving a reduction in deaths and injuries caused through preventable collisions and poor driving behaviour, the report states. Between 2003 and 2012, when Toronto police had a dedicated traffic unit and traffic officers were visible and proactive, they were effective in changing behaviour.

It seems clear that the Toronto Police Service is hoping that automation will take over the mundane work of ticketing drivers who flout the law.

To some degree it will. Already Torontos red-light cameras are being doubled and photo-radar cameras are being rolled out in some school and community safety zones. But on its own thats not enough.

Someday, maybe well have robots capable of assessing all traffic violations and we can trust them to enforce our traffic laws.

Until then, police need to start treating traffic safety in Toronto as the deadly serious business that it is.
Kim Zolciak has revealed she was 'traumatized' by being bullied as a young child.

The Real Housewives of Atlanta star shared her unhappy memories as she visited her childhood home in a small town in Connecticut.

The 41-year-old explained: 'I was bullied in school by 2 specific girls (I so bad want to say their names) and I use to say to myself I'm going to be "famous" and come back and show their a**es.'

Nostalgic: RHOA star Kim Zolciak shared a photograph to Instagram on Saturday of herself posing outside her childhood home in Connecticut

And, she shared, both women had since reached out to her through social media.

'Guess what they both have reached out on Facebook to me since those horrible traumatizing high school days just like I knew they would. I'm thankful for those b**ches because they really gave me intense motivation to get to where I am today.

Not all of Kim's memories were bad ones. She shared a snapshot of herself posing before her childhood home in Windsor Locks.

'This is the house I grew up in! I stopped by yesterday to see it,' captioned an excited Zolciak, who was in Connecticut enjoying a scheduled Valentine's Day event with husband Kroy Biermann.

Humble beginnings: 'I'll never forget my small town of Windsor Locks,' wrote Zolciak in the post's caption; Zolciak was recently pictured at the Gucci Mane Black Tie Gala on February 13 in Atlanta

'I'll never forget my small town of Windsor Locks CT. My parents always kept the house in tip top shape when we lived there.

'I always knew when I was in that far room to the right (I daydreamed all the time of exactly where I am today), that I would end up on television. I wrote in my journal at 12yrs old that "I will have my own show by the time I was 30".

'Well I started on RHOA at 29 and got my own show when I was 33! I feel so blessed and so grateful!'

'I'll never forget my small town of Windsor Locks, CT. My parents always kept the house in tip top shape when we lived there.'

Making an appearance: Kim was in Connecticut as a special guest at Mohegan Sun Casino & Resort for a nighttime event; The reality star posed for a picture with one of the Casino's managers

Kim and husband Kroy were in the area on Saturday afternoon following their scheduled appearance at the Mohegan Sun Casino & Resort on Valentine's Day.

In the Instagram snapshot, Kim can be seen posing with her hands in the air just a few feet away from the home's porch steps.

Zolciak's childhood home donned a farm house style exterior dichotomous to that of her lavish 17,000sqft Atlanta, GA home.

The house's undeniable nostalgia prompted Zolciak to engage in a bit of personal reflection.

Every moment: The reality starlet documented the fun that went down inside the Casino on her Instagram page on Friday night.

All good things: On Saturday evening, Kim documented her and husband Kroy's return home to Atlanta on her IG story

Kim and Kroy returned home to Atlanta on Saturday evening, with the reality star even taking to Instagram to let fans know she was back in her new home state.

'We're back,' uttered an exhausted Zolciak who made her way through the GA airport with Kroy by her side.

Zolciak, along with Lisa Wu-Hartwell, DeShawn Snow, Sheree Whitfield and the infamous NeNe Leakes were the first official cast members of the Bravo reality series The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

At the time, Zolciak was a single mother to daughters Brielle, 22, and Ariana, 18.

Kim married her husband Kroy in 2011 and they'd go on to have four children - son Kroy Jr, eight, son Kash, seven, and their twins Kaia and Kane, aged six.
Many feel that Vicky Kaushal is an actor who will make it big in the Hindi film industry, in the coming years. Vicky has already proven his merit in films like Masaan, Raazi, and Uri: The Surgical Strike for which he even won a National Award.

However, Vicky is careful not to box himself in any particular genre. In a recent interaction, he admitted that he doesn't like to plan his career and make himself comfortable because it will make him rigid as an actor.

Hindustan Times quoted Vicky as saying, "I don't plan my career. I won't be able to justify my work if I'm planning and then sticking to it. It'll make me rigid as an actor. It's important for me to be part of good films made by good filmmakers because people are interested in watching good stories."

He added, "I hadn't explored action before Uri, so there was a hunger in me. In Bhoot, I did horror for the first time, so I wanted to learn a lot. I don't want to get complacent that 'This is my home ground now'."

On how he feels after the success of Uri, he said, "You feel good when you get so much love, confidence of producers and get to work with filmmakers you always wanted to work with. You feel more confident that you're on the right track. Uri was made with a debutant director, I hadn't really done a lot of solo lead films before. There was a huge responsibility but the film clicked with the audience. Today, people aren't dependent on the packaging of the film. If there's merit in a film, it'll have an audience."

Next, Vicky will be seen in Bhoot - Part One: The Haunted Ship. It releases on February 21. After that, he will star in Sardar Udham Singh which has been directed by Shoojit Sircar. It is a biopic on Udham Singh, a revolutionary freedom fighter who shot General Dwyer, the man who was responsible for the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh in 1919. The film is scheduled for release on October 2, 2020.

ALSO READ: Has Vicky Kaushal Hiked His Fee Post Uri's Success? The Actor Reveals The Truth

ALSO READ: Vicky Kaushal Announces Wrap Of Sardar Udham Singh Biopic, Shares Picture From Streets Of London


So many of this weeks top news stories involve legal matters in Washington, D.C. that Im making it the focus of this weeks column.

Theres the Roger Stone case, the decision to close the investigation into Andrew McCabe over the Horowitz referral that indicated that he had lied to the FBI about the Clinton email leak, and Congressman Jerry Nadlers calling Attorney General William Barr as a witness in an upcoming hearing.

(a) The Problem with DC juries

Washington, D.C. has a relatively small population from which jurors must be found for the federal and local grand juries, petit juries, and civil juries. People who serve on these juries must be citizens with no felony convictions, people with no connection to the attorneys or parties, and must have no bias respecting the matter tried. Since almost 80% of the city are Democratic voters, often employed by the government or are connected to law enforcement or have family members who are, the ability to expeditiously find panels in criminal cases is limited. Worse yet, the chance of an unbiased panel in a case involving Republican figures is minimal. If you think this puts Republican figures at far greater risk than Democrats, you are certainly not wrong. Recall if you will the prosecutor who publicly stated the Starr special counsels office believed Hillary Clinton had lied to the grand jury, but because ethical prosecutors are not to bring cases they have no reasonable likelihood of winning and no D.C. jury would convict her, they were declining to prosecute her.

Potential jurors are given questionnaires to fill out under oath, on penalty of perjury, in an effort to determine any biases. After which they may be called still under oath in a process called voir dire to answer further questions from the judge and lawyers to determine if they should be excused or empaneled to sit on the jury. Prosecutors get to strike peremptorily six people from the jury and the defense gets to strike 10. In addition, on its own initiative, the court can strike any for cause.

The questionnaires in the Roger Stone case are still under seal, but the transcript of the voir dire is public. Juror names are not publicly disclosed to protect them and insulate them from outside influence. After trial they are free to self-disclose and speak about the trial publicly.

(b) The Roger Stone Sentence

As part of the Mueller Russian collusion investigation -- which found none -- Stone, a minor figure with no real connection to the Trump campaign, puffed up his connections to Wikileaks, connections he did not have, and then lied about them in congressional testimony. He also was accused of threatening a witness, a threat the witness said he never took seriously. When after conviction the prosecutor made a sentencing recommendation of six to nine years, the attorney general found that was excessive and had that recommendation withdrawn.

Here is the indictment of Roger Stone. The back story is here:

Democrats claimed Mr. Trump politically interfered with justice, bullying the department into going easy on a political crony. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer proclaims a crisis in the rule of law. Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Impeachment) declared another abuse of power. The press is casting it as Example A of how a post acquittal Trump feels emboldened to ignore the law. This has it entirely backward. Heres what actually happened: Justice sources tell me that interim U.S. Attorney Tim Shea had told the departments leadership that he and other career officials in the office felt the proposed sentence was excessive. As the deadline for the filing neared, the prosecutors on the case nonetheless threatened to withdraw from the case unless they got their demands for these stiffest of penalties. Mr. Shea -- new to the job -- suffered a moment of cowardice and submitted to this ultimatum. The filing took Justice Department leaders by surprise, and the decision to reverse was made well before Mr. Trump tweeted, and with no communication with the White House. The revised filing, meanwhile, had the signature of the acting supervisor of the offices criminal division, who is a career civil servant, not a political appointee. This is Mr. Barr getting rid of politics in justice -- as he promised.

Is it unusual for the Department of Justice to oversee such conduct? No. Attorney General Barr explains:

BARR: No, this actually gets to a very important point about the Department, which is, you know, what other industry allows you know, life or death decisions to be made by the most junior level of the, of the business, so to speak. We at the department, we want people with a lot of energy and commitment. And so we express -- we hope for a lot of, of that energy and commitment. At the same time, when people are working on one case, and devoting a lot to it, they can sometimes lose perspective. And thats exactly why we have a, a system of checks and balances within the department with multiple level of reviews that fan out with people with broader and broader responsibility. And most cases dont come up to the attorney general, because people are doing a great job in the department. And, a lot of the work doesnt involve much controversy. But every once in a while, there are disputes or arguments over cases and those are the ones that come up. And the AG has to make the decision. So, some people say, you know, the AG intervening in a case. Thats preposterous, we have an escalation system that tries to get the difficult issues that are, you know, people are arguing about, to get them up for resolution and its the attorney generals responsibility to resolve it.

(c) Jury Foreperson Tomeka Hart

Following the resignation of the prosecutors who were overruled, Tomeka Hart tweeted support for them and independent journalist Mike Cernovich searched her Twitter feeds, which revealed contrary to her statements at voir dire that she didnt pay that close attention to the probe and that Stones connection to President Trump would absolutely not color her views of him, she had regularly commented on the collusion probe, demonstrated extreme bias against Trump and his supporters, all of whom she called racists, and immediately upon Stones conviction tweeted hearts and fist bumps. Heres the transcript (Shes juror 1261).

The full range of all her tweets are found here and here.

There are demands that the judge who heard the case, Amy Berman Jackson (an Obama appointee whom many have contended displayed bias in the Manafort and other matters), now release all the questionnaires of the entire jury panel. Stone has filed a motion for a new trial (which Berman, who has a penchant for requiring secrecy in this proceeding) demanded be filed under seal.( Berman not only forbade Stone from publicly speaking out during the trial, she even filed a sealed contempt motion against a Gateway Pundit reporter for his work on the Stone jury selection process. He noted that the judge and prosecutors laughed off defense objections of potential jurors with Democratic party connections while she agreed with prosecutors to remove a potential juror who three decades earlier had a small role in the Reagan for President campaign.)

Jonathan Turley explains why Harts tweets are so troublesome for the judicial process:

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson refused to bar witnesses due to their past political associations or viewpoints. This included a former Obama-era press secretary for the Office of Management and Budget who admitted to having negative views of Trump and whose husband worked at the Justice Department division. [snip] However, the social media postings of Hart raise troubling questions as to whether these views were known or disclosed. What is clear is that no defendant associated with Trump would want such a juror sitting in judgment. This included a posting about the Stone case where she retweeted mocking dismissals of objections to Stones treatment in a dawn raid. I was one of those raising such concerns. There is of course nothing wrong with holding the opposing view of that issue and Hart did nothing wrong in sitting on the jury absent some allegations of hiding or misrepresenting information. Hart is a [D]emocratic activist who ran for Congress and referred to the President with a hashtag as klanpresident. More worrisome is her references directly to Stone, including a retweeted post, in January 2019, Bakari Sellers again raising racist associations and stating Roger Stone has yall talking about reviewing use of force guidelines. She also called Trump supporters like Stone racists and Putin cronies. When profanities were projected on the Trump hotel, she exclaimed on Jan. 13, 2018, Gotta love it. She also, on March 24, 2019, shared a Facebook post calling attention to the numerous indictments, guilty pleas, and convictions of people in 45s inner-circle. [snip] What would be the response if an Obama associate was convicted on a jury with a foreperson who was a Republican activist with a long social media record criticizing not just Obama but supporting the prosecution of that associate? This goes beyond political opposition and raises serious questions of bias, particularly the references to this defendant and his prosecution... What concerns me is that a high-profile case of this kind comes with the added burden for the court to assure both sides of a divided nation that the trial was conducted without even the hint of bias or animus from either the court or the jury. The selection of this juror clearly does not meet that burden.

In other cases, jurors who lied to hide bias have been successfully prosecuted for perjury. The bias of a juror can, among other things, taint by influencing the rest of the jury, especially where, as here, it is the bias of a foreman and the foreman is a lawyer to whom they might well defer on any questions. Hart also might face disbarment for her conduct, and one wonders if the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation might not find that her conduct requires her dismissal. In any event, its hard to see how the court can avoid requiring a new trial and the cost to the defendant and the court. Harts disingenuous responses in voir dire reveal why such conduct requires punishment.

(d) Trump Tweets

The press made a to-do of Attorney General Barrs statement that he wished the President would stop tweeting about ongoing cases. The media might have been born yesterday, but all were not. In contrast to Trumps tweet, which was made only after conviction and concerned the length of the proposed sentence, here are some reminders of President Barack Obama commenting on criminal cases which were then ongoing:

President Obama told CBS news that Hillary Clintons use of a private email service might have been a mistake and not a national security problem.

He defended then-CIA Director David Petraeus while Petraeus was under investigation.

He accused a Boston police officer of racial profiling.

He stirred the pot in the Trayvon Martin case as it was ongoing and his attorney general Eric Holder actually sent DoJ personnel to Florida to add to further demands for a trial of George Zimmerman.

And lets not forget that tarmac meeting between then Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton while her department was investigating Hillary.

Barr is cognizant of the problems of having Democrat prosecutors handling sensitive political cases and has now installed a team of outside prosecutors from St. Louis to review the work of the D.C. office line attorneys handling political sensitive cases, including Michael Flynns, tweets Adam Goldman of the NYT.

(e) McCabe Case Closed

The Justice Department announced this week that it was closing the case against Andrew McCabe, former FBI deputy director, for lying. As you can imagine, this created a storm on the right, after the outrageously tough sentence being asked for the hapless Roger Stone, not to speak of the handling of Hillarys numerous lies under oath. There have been various explanations given for this, including -- you guessed it -- the unlikelihood of a D.C. jury convicting him of a process crime. Is he off the hook entirely? Maybe not -- that case involves only his lying about the Clinton email leak noted in the Horowitz report. Theres still U.S. Attorney John Durhams criminal investigation of the entire Barack Obama team.

(f) Barr to Testify

Jerry Nadler, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has asked Barr to testify about a number of things, including the decision to propose a reduction in Stones sentence, now probably moot as a mistrial is almost a certainty. Barr has agreed and will testify on March 31.

In my opinion, Barr and Justice Neil Gorsuch are probably two of the smartest, most able lawyers in the entire vast sea of D.C. lawyers. I predict Nadler will end up as a 300-pound lump of melting suet.
New Delhi: After winning the 65th Filmfare Award for his character of a police officer in Anubhav Sinha`s `Article 15, actor Ayushmann Khurrana penned a heartfelt post on social media.

Khurrana won the Best Actor award in critics category on Saturday evening after which he shared a picture of himself with the black lady.

"When I wrapped up `Article 15` I had posted a caption on my social media platforms stating that I just wrapped up the most important film of 2019. And Jitesh Pillai had asked me don`t you think you`re being too pompous," read Khurrana`s caption.

"Tonight at this moment I stand corrected and validated. Thanks for your unconditional love Jitesh," he further wrote.

The actor extended his gratitude towards the director, Anubhav Sinha, and wrote, "Article 15 also won the best film in critics tonight. Thank you Anubhav sir, your new 2.0 version is that of legend. Kisi ne nahi socha tha ki main uniform mein achcha lagoonga (Nobody thought I could look good in uniform). Aapki vision ko salaam (Salute to your vision)."

"Film ke co-writer Gaurav Solanki ke lekhan ko salaam (Salute to co-writer Gaurav Solanki`s writing). Bharat ke sanvidhaan ko salaam. Hindustan ki badalti awaam ko salaam (Salute to the Constitution of India and to the transforming Indian citizens," the actor wrote. The film, directed by Anubhav Sinha, is loosely inspired by the heinous Badaun rape incident where two teenage girls were gang-raped and gruesomely murdered by hanging them while they were still alive.

The movie highlights the caste discrimination in the country through a mix of various incidents. The film`s title derives from Article 15 of the Indian Constitution which prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, and place of birth.
All 406 people, who are housed at an ITBP quarantine facility here after being brought back from Wuhan, have tested negative for novel Coronavirus in the latest sample examination and will be discharged in a phased manner beginning Monday, officials said.

The final samples of all the people quarantined at the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) facility here were collected by a team of doctors on Friday.

The final coronavirus test reports of all 406 people have been found negative, an ITBP spokesperson said on Sunday.

All 406 persons are going to be discharged in a phased manner from Monday onwards based on the advisory issued by the Ministry of Health with due medical procedures and protocols, he said.

The group includes seven Maldives citizens. There are seven children including an infant in the group.

A total of 650 people were brought back from Wuhan in China on February 1 and 2 in two 747 Boeing Air India aircraft after the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus in China. While406 of these are being looked after at the ITBP facility, rest are at an Army centre at Manesar in Haryana.

The death toll from COVID-19 outbreak in China has climbed to 1,665 after 142 more people died, mostly in the worst-hit Hubei province, Chinese officials said on Sunday. There have been 68,500 cases so far in the neighbouring country.

India has so far reported three confirmed cases of the virus, all in Kerala.

One of the three medical students, who had tested positive for novel coronavirus infection and were treated at a hospital in Kerala, has been discharged after recovery.

Passengers arriving in flights from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Japan and South Korea were being screened for possible exposure to the respiratory virus at 21 identified airports in India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Saturday while addressing a gathering in Ahmedabad, expressed concern about "violence and dissatisfaction" in society. He said everyone is unhappy in the society and constantly agitating notwithstanding a "many-fold rise" in materialistic comforts and pleasures.

'It is said that the third World War is underway in a different form'

"World came closer but in the process two World Wars took place and the threat of a third is looming. It is said that the third one is underway in a different form. There is violence and dissatisfaction. Everyone is agitating - owners, workers, government, public, students, teachers," he said.

"No one is happy. Everyone is agitating. Mill owners and workers are agitating. Employers and employees are agitating. Government and public is agitating. Students and teachers are agitating. Everyone is unhappy and dissatisfied," he added.

The RSS chief said, "We say we are living in a developed world. The comforts that were not available to humans earlier is available now. The prosperity which we could not imagine 100 years ago...a life with several comforts and pleasure is being lived by humans today. What happened in the battle of Panipat? Whether Marathas won or lost, who died...the news about these reached Poona after more than a month. Today, there is no such thing. You send a mail and get a reply within five minutes."

'India has to give wisdom to the world'

He was speaking on the topic "India's Role in the Present World Context". Bhagwat further said that bigotry, violence and terrorism are on the rise in the present world.

"India has to give 'dharma' (wisdom) to the world so that knowledge spreads but humans do not become robotic. We have always talked about the concept of a global family but not the global market," he said. The lecture was organised by "Madhav Smruti Nyas", an organisation backed by the RSS.

READ | India not just piece of land, it is 'swabhav': Bhagwat

READ | Mohan Bhagwat inaugurates new Gujarat RSS headquarter building

"To think that we are living in a better world is a half-truth. Facilities are not evenly distributed. Rule of Jungle is prevailing. A capable person is crushing the weak to climb up. Knowledge is used more for the destruction of the world," the Sangh chief said. Bhagwat said people are also misusing social media by spreading "false information" to create controversies. He also stated that trying to put "everyone into one uniform" is also a form of bigotry.

"US and Russia are superpowers. China would become a superpower too. Now, what superpower nations did to others? They just took control of other countries for their own selfish agenda. These superpowers gave it back only when they were asked to do so. Otherwise, they never gave anything to others," Bhagwat said.

READ | Dispel misinformation about CAA: Bhagwat to RSS functionaries

READ | Bhagwat interacts with RSS pracharaks from MP, Chhattisgarh

(With agency inputs)
The Cape Coast South Youth wing of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) donated assorted drinks and boxes of water including boxes of Chocolate to Aboom Special School and Cape Coast Metro Hospital on Friday, 14th February 2020 as part of their valentine package and Health walk.

Speaking at both functions, the Cape Coast South Constituency Youth Organiser of the NDC, Alhassan Mohammed (Paapa) hinted that valentine is a Special day to express love especially to less privileged, people with disabilities, the sick and the weak in the society.

The Youth Organiser assured the two institutions of the MP's continuous support in the areas of educational materials and Health care deliverables.

He first presented to the headteacher of Aboom Special School on behalf of the MP, Hon. Kweku Ricketts-Hagan and the Constituency. The team later continued to Metro Hospital where the same items including boxes of chocolate were delivered to the management of the Hospital.

The Youth Wing is preparing heavily to shake Cape Coast South with their maiden Health walk dubbed "Rescue Ghana- Arise Ghana Youth" on Sunday 16th February 2020.

The Youth Organiser was accompanied by Hon. Joseph Hagan, Deputy Youth Organiser, Hon. George Justice Arthur, Constituency Secretary, Comrade Victor Nanka-Bruce, Constituency Organiser, Comrade Akosuwa Ofosuwa, Constituency Communication Officer, Hon. Kweku Boateng Dotsi, Aboom Methodist "B" Branch Chairman, Comrade Stephen Anobil, Ola GNTC Branch Chairman and some members of the youth wing.
The aim of Egypts policy of ramping up its military might is not to engage in regional wars, but to prevent the ignition of such wars by others and to guarantee peace across the region

Si vis pacem, para bellum said Roman author Publius Renatus, meaning that if you want peace, prepare for war.

This has been the simple, yet deep, motto adopted by the Egyptian army for decades. After the signing of the peace treaty with Israel in 1979, some believed that the Egyptian army would scale back its readiness after the state of war with Israel was over. But the opposite took place during the 1980s and afterwards when modernisation and the shift from Soviet-camp weapons to Western-made ones took place, especially after the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 and the frictions with Libya during the rule of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. These frictions reached their height in 1977 in a four-day war that ended with a decisive Egyptian victory.

The reliance on mostly Western equipment continued through the 1980s to recent years due to the cordial relations with the United States up until 2013 when then US president Barack Obama temporarily banned weapons exports to Egypt following the dispersal of the Muslim Brotherhood encampment in Rabaa Square in Cairo.

Following this short feud, the Egyptian leadership decided on a weapons diversification policy that favoured Russia and France. The diversification policy worked, and an assortment of defensive and offensive state-of-the-art weaponry was purchased from both countries that included fighter jets, frigates, aircraft carriers and air-defence systems such as the Russian S-300 system.

As a result of this policy, more friendly countries including China, Germany, Italy, South Korea and others offered Egypt cutting edge weaponry that resulted in a massive overhaul of the Egyptian armed forces capabilities. These were manifested by the recent ranking of the Egyptian army as the ninth most powerful army in the world, according to the website the Global Firepower Index, which meant that it has overtaken the Turkish army that until recently held that spot.

The Egyptian armys surpassing some of its own suppliers, including Germany and Italy, may come as a surprise to some, especially those who had not foreseen its ability to win the war on terrorism in Egypt. During wars, armies may gain experience, but they also tend to lose the quality of their equipment as losses keep piling up. But the Egyptian army rose up the ranks with new purchases and new locally manufactured equipment along with massive military bases established around the country such as the Mohamed Naguib Base on the north coast and the Berenice Base in the south-east overlooking the Red Sea.

Since his service as minister of defence, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi has brought about a massive reform and modernisation programme for the Egyptian army. A policy of diversification of arms purchases coupled with the renovation and upgrading of the local industry in Egypt has helped the country to move ahead of its regional counterparts by leaps and bounds and in record time.

The introduction of Egypts Rapid Deployment Force (RDF) was a major step in the right direction of modernising the army to face mounting challenges, especially in countering terrorism in Egypt and around the region. Formed in 2014, the force rivals the best in the world and parallels those of the NATO countries and Russia in terms of its mobility and capabilities. It is comprised of mainly airborne troops, highly efficient commando units, highly trained mechanised infantry, armoured corps, air-defence and anti-tank units and special reconnaissance units benefitting from an air-shield provided by fighter jets.

The RDF was instrumental in crushing terrorism in Sinai backed by hostile regimes like those in Turkey and Qatar. It has also seen combat action on the border with Libya in order to secure Egypts western borders and quell any attempts at infiltration by terrorists from the West.

MILITARY PURCHASES: Massive military purchases have enhanced the Egyptian armys capabilities and ranking worldwide.

The purchase of two French Mistral helicopter carriers and FREMM frigates and corvettes along with a number of German frigates and submarines have joined South Korean and Russian-made naval units and made the Egyptian navy a force to be reckoned with regionally and globally. The division of the navy into two separate fleets, one in the north in the Mediterranean Sea and the second in the south in the Red Sea, has also enhanced the navys capabilities and expanded its reach.

Moreover, the inauguration of the 160,000-hectare Berenice Military Base on the Red Sea in January 2020, following that of the Mohamed Naguib Base on the Mediterranean in 2017, has added depth and unprecedented deployment capabilities to the Egyptian army, which earlier relied on smaller bases.

Egypts growing naval power to counter mounting threats in the Mediterranean, especially from the Turkey of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, could not have been completed without a major overhaul of the air force. Egypts already powerful air force has acquired a number of new purchases, including French Rafale fighter jets, Russian Mig-29 fighters and a large number of attack helicopters including the Kamov 50/52 and the Mi-24 to add to its already large fleet of fighter jets. A major deal with Italy may soon enhance both the air force and the navy further in the coming period.

These acquisitions were introduced into the Egyptian army in record time, and they have been used during many military manoeuvres and exercises, including the Kader 2020 exercises last month. Egypt has also conducted numerous joint military exercises with allied and friendly countries, including the US, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, Greece, India, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, all the while seeing all its branches displaying their growing capabilities as a result of the recent military reforms.

Some may consider these military expenses to be a waste of money that should have been spent on development projects instead, but the truth is that without these military expenses the excellent security status that Egypt is now enjoying in a region filled with turmoil and perils would have been impossible. The aim of Egypts ramping up its military might is not to engage in regional wars, but on the contrary is to subvert the possible ignition of such wars by others, especially by regimes such as those in Turkey and Iran. Moreover, these purchases and reforms have been coupled by equally large economic reforms and massive development projects in the country, all of which are becoming more apparent to observers as changing the face of Egypt.

While the Global Firepower Index is an indicator of the improvement in the military status of Egypt and thus of the countrys overall development given the other parametres the Index uses to provide a proper assessment, there are still discrepancies in the economic numbers that are better than indicated in the Index. Nevertheless, it is still eloquent testimony of growing Egyptian military power and Egypts position as a key player in turbulent times in the region.

More importantly, Egypt has maintained its position as a force for peace in the region, solidifying its peace treaty with Israel with a number of economic deals as well as countering hostile regimes seeking to spread mayhem across the region and the continent. Egypt is also lending a hand to African countries to help them to quell terrorist attacks by training African special forces to meet the growing rise of terrorism, especially in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel region, and West Africa. On 9 February, President Al-Sisi called for the formation of a unified African force to counter terrorism in the region and stated his countrys willingness to hold a summit for African leaders in Cairo to produce a charter of the use of a unified force for that purpose.

Despite the massive renovation of the Egyptian military over recent years, the reforms are far from over, however, and the military will see more acquisitions and developments in the coming years. History has shown that regardless of the signing of pacts, international coalitions and deals, only a standing army can thwart the greedy ambitions of others, including by the type of foreign interventions that have exacerbated the situations of Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Syria over recent years.

Foreign interventions and civil wars have ripped these great nations apart owing to their lack of a unified and mighty army to defend their sovereignty and interests from foreign attacks.

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 13 February, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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The ambitious agenda of the new administration and some council members has been trumped by the structurally unbalanced budget. Amid an otherwise booming economy, money seems tight for progressive Kansas City initiatives at 12th & Oak. Put simply, without more tax increases there's no cash for free bus rides and desperately needed comprehensive citywide pothole repair.

IF KANSAS CITY SUFFERS A MONEY CRUNCH AMID THE PREZ TRUMP ECONOMIC BOOM, TOUGH TIMES ON THE HORIZON THREATEN CITY HALL'S FINANCIAL STABILITY!!!

Freebie Bus Breaks Budget

KCMO leaders discuss proposed $1.7B budget; some concerned over Zero Fare Transit KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City, Missouri, leaders on Thursday began going through a proposed $1.734 billion budget for fiscal year 2020-21. As the City Council discussed the nearly 600-page budget at a business session, much of the attention centered on a new item this year: Zero Fare Transit, which will make public buses in the city free of charge.

Elusive Pothole Fix

KC budgets for free rides, fixing potholes KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -- The city has unveiled how it is going to use your tax dollars in the next year. Kansas City, Missouri took in nearly $1.8 billion in revenue thanks to a boost from the city's earnings tax.

Tourism Hype Slashed

Mayor Lucas proposes millions in cuts from tourism department to pay for KC convention center hotel KANSAS CITY - Mayor Quinton Lucas announced plans to cut millions of dollars from the city's tourism budget to help close a $4.4 million gap due to the Loews Kansas City Hotel built near the convention center. Thursday, on the same day Mayor Lucas presented his proposed budget to the full city council, he said [...]

No Money For Art

Youth art program facing budget cuts Hide Transcript Show Transcript BIANCA: IN THE BEGINNING OF THE SUMMER THE GOAL WAS TO PICK SOMETHING THAT CONNECTS YOU TO THE CITY. AND HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT IT. BIANCA: MANY OF THE YOUTH COME TO ARTSTECH FROM FAMILY COURT, AFTER TROUBLE WITH THE LAW OR DROPPING OUT OF SCHOOL.

Entrepreneurs No Longer Supported By City Hall

Proposed KCMO budget includes $4.8M for zero-fare transit - cuts LaunchKC, KCSourceLink funding A newly proposed city budget for Kansas City, Missouri, holds steady at $1.73 billion - making room for Mayor Quinton Lucas' zero-fare transit program, while appearing to scale back funding for entrepreneur support across the city. KCMO would remove $50,000 for the LaunchKC program and $75,000 for KCSourceLink, if the submitted budget is approved, according to the document released Thursday afternoon.

The current budget debate in Kansas City contradicts talk of economic prosperty amid 2020 campaign season.Here's a big picture news link to provide perspective:Meanwhile in Kansas City . . .And all of this begs the question:Here's a quick glimpse at headlines and further reading that indicate this town is running out of cash:This isn't all bad news. Cuts from the "creative class" and tourism rebuke Mayor Sly's questionable vision for Kansas City and bring back a focus to residents and neighborhoods.Sadly . . .Repeated warnings aboutas the budget burn rate intensifies.Luckily, locals willand hope City Hall pays attention.Developing . . .
Every social network has its fake news. And in animal communication networks, even birds discern the trustworthiness of their neighbors, a study from the University of Montana suggests.

The study, recently published in the top science journal Nature, is the culmination of decades' worth of research from UM alumni Nora Carlson and Chris Templeton and UM Professor Erick Greene in the College of Humanities and Sciences. It sheds a new light on bird social networks.

This is the first time people have shown that nuthatches are paying attention to the source of information, and that influences the signal they produce and send along." Erick Greene, UM Professor

Carlson, Templeton and Greene shared an interest in trying to crack the Rosetta Stone of how birds communicate and collected bird calls over the years.

Each bird species has a song, usually sung by the males, for "letting the babes know 'here I am,'" Greene said, as well as staking out real estate. Their loud and complex calls usually ring out during breeding season.

But for warning calls, each sound stands for a specific threat, such as "snake on the ground," "flying hawk" and "perched hawk." The calls convey the present danger level and specific information. They also are heard by all species in the woods in a vast communication network that sets them on high alert.

"Everybody is listening to everybody else in the woods," Greene said.

In the study, Greene and his researchers wanted to determine how black-capped chickadees and red-breasted nuthatches encode information in their calls.

In bird communication, a high-pitched "seet" from a chickadee indicates a flying hawk and causes a strong reaction - other birds go silent, look up and then dive in the bushes. Alarm calls can travel quickly through the woods. Greene said in previous experiments they clocked the speed of the calls at 100 miles per hour, which he likens to the bow wave on a ship.

"Sometimes birds in the woods know five minutes before a hawk gets there," Greene said.

A harsh, intensified "mobbing call" drives birds from all species to flock together to harass the predator. When the predator hears the mobbing call, it usually has to fly a lot farther to hunt, so the call is very effective.

"The owl is sitting in the tree, going, 'Oh crap!" Greene said.

Greene calls it "social media networks - the original tweeting."

For the study with chickadees and nuthatches, the researchers focused on direct information - something a bird sees or hears firsthand - versus indirect information, which is gained through the bird social network and could be a false alarm.

"In a way, it kind of has to do with fake news, because if you get information through social media, but you haven't verified it, and you retweet it or pass it along, that's how fake news starts," Greene said.

Nuthatches and chickadees share the same predators: the great-horned owl and the pygmy owl. To the small birds, the pygmy owl is more dangerous than a great-horned owl due to its smaller turning radius, which allows it to chase prey better.

"If you are eating something that's almost as big as you are, it's worth it to go after it," Greene said.

Using speakers in the woods, the researchers played the chickadee's warning call for the low-threat great-horned owl and the higher-threat pygmy owl to nuthatches. The calls varied by threat level - great-horned owl versus pygmy owl - and whether they were direct (from the predators themselves) or indirect (from the chickadees).

What they discovered about the nuthatches was surprising.

Direct information caused the nuthatches to vary their calls according to the high threat and the low threat. But the chickadee's alarm call about both predators elicited only a generic, intermediate call from the nuthatch, regardless of the threat level.

Greene said the research points to the nuthatch's ability to make sophisticated decisions about stimuli in their environment and avoid spreading "fake news" before they confirm a predator for themselves.

"You gotta take your hat off to them," Greene said. "There's a lot of intelligence there."

The research, conducted by Carlson, Templeton and Greene around Montana and Washington throughout the years, wasn't without challenges.

Most of the set up happened during winter, and nuthatches had to be isolated from chickadees to ensure the warning calls were not a response to witnessing chickadees going crazy. Often a chickadee would appear after everything was set up, and the researchers had to take everything down and try a new location.

"It's quite hard to find nuthatches without chickadees somewhere in the area," Greene said. "That was the most difficult part - to find these conditions out in the wild."

But the results were worth the work.

Greene said the nuthatch study ultimately helps researchers better understand how animal communication networks work and how different species decode information, encode info and pass it along.

"We kind of wish people behaved like nuthatches," Greene said.
Two men have been left in a life-threatening condition and a further two injured after a spate of stabbings across north and east London.

A man in his 30s suffered stab and slash wounds after police were called to a fight between two men on New North Road, Ilford, at 5.44pm.

London Ambulance Service attended the incident and the man was taken to hospital where he is in a life-threatening condition.

Police officer at the scene in Barking. A man in his mid-20s was taken to an east London hospital and is in a life-changing condition after police were called to Sandringham Road

Officers at the scene in Hackney after police were called to Brooke Road after a man, believed to be in his teens, remains in a life-threatening condition

Officers arrested a man on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and he remains in custody.

Meanwhile another man, believed to be in his teens, was stabbed in Hackney.

Police were called to Brooke Road at 5.15pm and the man has been taken to hospital where he remains in a life-threatening condition.

No arrests have been made and police have cordoned off the area with a stop and search order in place until 10am on Monday.

A man in his 30s suffered stab and slash wounds after police were called to a fight between two men on New North Road, Illford, at 5.44pm

It comes after police were called to Sandringham Road, Barking, after reports of a stabbing at 4.24pm.

London Ambulance Service and Londons Air Ambulance attended and a man in his mid-20s was taken to an east London hospital and is in a life-changing condition.

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and a crime scene is in place as inquiries continue.

A stop and search order is in place until midnight on Monday 17 February in the vicinity of the incident.

Forensics analyse the scene on Sandringham Road, Barking, east London, after a man was left in a life-changing condition

It is being linked to a stabbing on Porters Avenue, Dagenham, after a man, believed to be 19, was stabbed in the hand.

His injuries are not life-changing and a crime scene remains in place as inquiries continue.

A Met Police spokeswoman said: 'If any young people have information about violence or knife crime, they can visit fearless.org/ where they can pass on information anonymously.

'Fearless is part of the Crimestoppers charity, and is also independent of the police. If you need help or information to support someone you suspect is involved in knife crime, or you want assistance yourself, then you can visit www.knifefree.co.uk or LondonNeedsYouAlive.'

Police cordon off Sandringham Road, Barking, after police were called to the incident at 4.24pm

Barking and Dagenham Police tweeted: 'Two people have been arrested following a stabbing in Barking'

LONDON MURDERS 2020 Where the six murders across the capital this year have happened William Algar, 53, Jan-03, Barnes

Takieddine Boudhane, 30, Jan-03, Finsbury Park

Krasimir Kartikov, 60, Jan-13, Croydon

Unnamed man, 20s or 30s, Jan-19, Seven Kings

Unnamed man, 20s or 30s, Jan-19, Seven Kings

Unnamed man, 20s or 30s, Jan-19, Seven Kings






Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Windy and partly cloudy this evening. Mostly cloudy with diminishing winds after midnight. Low 29F. Winds SW at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Windy and partly cloudy this evening. Mostly cloudy with diminishing winds after midnight. Low 29F. Winds SW at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
Theres a new opportunity in the Middle East. The oil-rich nations of the region are pumping money into clean energy and related technologies like never before and about US$100 billion worth of projects are in the pipeline  setting the stage for hundreds of energy startups.

From helping enterprises and state-owned utilities transition to smart grids and meters to building industrial-scale solar farms that could power a small city, startups are transforming the regions energy systems as they make use of internet of things (IoT) systems to monitor customer demand and boost efficiency.

In the solar industry, first generation technologies are still the main driver of growth and hold the majority of the market value despite the big gains that have been made in the field of perovskite solar cells  an emerging technology for photovoltaic systems, which use semiconducting material that converts light into electricity.

At the same time, emerging technologies like artificial antelligence (AI) and blockchain are being utilised to make renewable energy systems more efficient, cost-effective and accessible. Blockchain firms are experimenting with applications such as a peer-to-peer (P2P) power trading systems to help small-scale power generators sell excess power to consumers.

The potential for automation in the field has been demonstrated by Googles Deepmind, which is using machine learning algorithms to help improve the accuracy of wind farm output predictions.

Richard Perez, a senior research associate from the University at Albany, is however not completely sure about the added value that the application of certain emerging technologies, such as blockchain, will bring to the domain of solar energy production.

Blockchain works very well for financial transactions  (but) in the case of peer-to-peer solar energy production, the transaction also requires a power grid that is stable and that can handle production intermittencies, Perez told CIO Middle East.

Due to the weather-driven nature of the solar resource, it is best managed with a birds eye view of the system rather than by many point-to-point operations, he added.

CIO Middle East has compiled a list of some of the regions emerging solar energy startups, which are pushing the boundaries by using 3D printing and cloud technology, and producing innovative products that address poorly electrified areas in sub-Saharan African as well as meet the energy requirements of global conglomerates like Nestle and Unilever.

Iyris

Year founded: 2018

Funding: $1.5 million

Headquarters: Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

CEO: Derya Baran

What they do: This solar windows startup, incubated by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), has made high-tech glass that blocks heat, saves energy and produces electricity.

Why they are a hot startup to watch out for: They are backed by the KAUST Innovation Fund, which invests in high-tech startups and becomes a long-term strategic partner of such ventures. Iyris raised $1.4 million in seed funding in 2019. Much like its peers in Saudi Arabia, the company will indirectly benefit from the countrys ambitious renewable energy programs.

Clients: None

Energiya Global

Year founded: 2010

Funding: Currently self-funded, but in talks with investors (according to the company website)

Headquarters: Jerusalem

CEO: Yosef Abramowitz

What they do: Energiya Global develops affordable solar projects worldwide, with the goal of providing clean electricity for 50 million people by 2020.

Why they are a hot startup to watch out for: While it has projects in Israel, its main focus has been Africa. In 2017, the company said it would invest $1 billion over the next four years to advance green power projects in the continent, which is endowed with substantial renewable energy resources. The company recently announced a solar project in Burundi to supply 15 percent of the countrys generation capacity.

Clients: Georgia Power Company, Republic of Rwanda

KarmSolar

Year founded: 2011

Funding: $25 million (estimated)

Headquarters: Cairo, Egypt

CEO: Ahmed Zahran

What they do: KarmSolar provides off-grid solar energy solutions that are commercially viable and easy-to-use in the agricultural, industrial, and business sectors. The companys fuel system integrates solar photovoltaic into diesel-operated internal distribution grid systems.

Why they are a hot startup to watch out for: KarmSolar, which is backed by French utility giant EDF Group, was recognised as one of Africas most dynamic growth businesses by the London Stock Exchange Group in a 2019 report. Last year, EDF invested an undisclosed amount in the company.

Clients: Dakahlia Group, El Badr

Yellow Door Energy

Year founded: 2015

Funding: $65 million

Headquarters: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

CEO: Jeremy Crane

What they do: The company offers a lease under which it finances, builds and operates solar plants for customers. At the end of the lease, the client ends up owning the plant. Yellow Door Energy also helps buildings become more energy efficient by retrofitting and optimizing the air conditioning and chiller systems as well as installing light bulbs with smart control

Why they are a hot startup to watch out for: YDE, which currently has over 100 megawatts of solar assets in development in the UAE, Jordan, Pakistan and Egypt, counts the International Finance Corp, Mitsui and Norwegian energy giant Equinor as some of its investors.

Clients: Unilever, Nestle, Carrefour

Pawame

Year founded: 2016

Funding: $2.5 million

Headquarters: UAE

CEO: Maurice Parets

What they do: This off-grid solar startup provides cost-effective pay-as-you-go solar home systems to remote areas of Africa on a micro-finance basis, making it affordable for everyone.

Why they are a hot startup to watch out for: The company is looking to electrify 150 million households in sub-Saharan Africa, which has the lowest electrification rate in the world. The region is also home to more than a billion people, making it a potentially big market for renewable energy startups like Pawame.

Clients: Households in Kenya and other parts of Africa

Enact Systems

Year founded: 2014

Funding: $3.4 million

Headquarters: San Francisco, United States

CEO: Deep Chakraborty

What they do: The startup provides a cloud-based platform for solar project management. The company also partners with solar project installers and financiers to bring them deal-flow and operational performance.

Why they are a hot startup to watch out for: The company has a presence in major solar energy markets like the US, UAE and India. Last year, Tata Group, one of Indias largest conglomerates, partnered with Enact to offer the startups software platform to its rooftop solar dealers across the country. Its corporate headquarters is in the US but they are backed by UAE financier Neelesh Bhatnagar, who heads Dubai-based VC fund NB Ventures, and have offices in Dubai.

Clients: LaSalle Hotels, Sharaf Group, Trina Solar

NOMADD

Year founded: 2012

Funding: $7.8 million

Headquarters: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

CEO: Jos van der Hyden

What they do: Founded at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, the company supplies waterless robotic cleaning systems for solar arrays  a collection of solar panels.

Why they are a hot startup to watch out for: With many solar deployments in the pipeline in the Middle East region, the question of solar panel cleaning has become a part of the conversation. The startup has begun to grab investor eyeballs; last year it secured an investment from Saudi Arabian construction firm CEPCO.

Clients: Commercial rooftop system in Dubai; name not disclosed

Utilight

Year founded: 2008

Funding: $2.9 million

Headquarters: Yavne, Israel

CEO: Giora Dishon

What they do: The company has developed a 3D printing technology, which reduces the cost of manufacturing solar cells.

Why they are a hot startup to watch out for: Investors have bought Utilights promise of lower manufacturing costs and higher efficiency. The startup counts German automotive supplier Robert Bosch and Moscow-based Waarde Capital among its stakeholders.

Clients: Unknown; Utilight was planning to build manufacturing plants in Gaza
Tension began to rise in Delhis Shaheen Bagh Sunday afternoon as hundreds of women who have been sitting on protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act for the last two months, started to gather for marching to Union Home Minister Amit Shahs residence for talks.

The police have not given permission for the march and have deployed heavy security in riot gear around the protest site.

They (Shaheen Bagh protesters) told us that they wanted to take out a march (to meet HM) but we told them they cannot as they do not have appointment call from Union Home Minister. We are talking to them and we hope that they will understand, RP Meena, DCP (South East), said according to ANI.

The protest is being spearheaded by senior women who have come to be referred as the Dadis of Shaheen Bagh. As people started to gather, the Dadis began speaking to the police.

The women told the police that they wanted to meet Shah

Earlier in the day, protesters insisted that all of them wanted to meet Shah instead of deputing a delegation. Police had then denied permission for the march.

A group of protestors at Shaheen Bagh had earlier indicated that they would go to meet Shah on Sunday afternoon to discuss the controversial legislation following his statement on Thursday that he was ready to discuss it and whoever wanted to discuss issues related to the CAA with him could seek an appointment from his office.

(We) will give time within three days, Shah had said.

The protesters have been insisting that the CAA be rolled back and that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) should not be implemented.

Shah had strongly defended the CAA which fast tracks Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslims illegal migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan but said there was no provision in the new law that would divest the citizenship of Indian Muslims.

Shah also said that the government had so far not taken any decision on a nationwide NRC, and made it clear that those unwilling to show their documents during the National Population Register (NPR) exercise, which gets underway on April 1, were free to do so. The NRC is aimed at identifying illegal immigrants and the NPR is a biometric repository of people resident in India.

The CAA has sparked protests across different parts of the country with many protesters replicating the Shaheen Bagh model.

Opponents of the law say it is unconstitutional, discriminatory and divisive because it makes citizenship a test of religion.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan said on Saturday it was coordinating with the U.S. government for American citizens to leave the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess and return home on U.S.-chartered flights. The Japanese government believes the steps taken by the United States will ease Japan's burden regarding the medical response to the situation on the Diamond Princess and it appreciates these measures, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan said on Saturday it was coordinating with the U.S. government for American citizens to leave the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess and return home on U.S.-chartered flights.

The Japanese government believes the steps taken by the United States will ease Japan's burden regarding the medical response to the situation on the Diamond Princess and it appreciates these measures, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The United States said earlier on Saturday it would send an aircraft to Japan to bring back U.S. passengers on the Diamond Princess, where the most coronavirus infections outside China have occurred.

(Reporting by Chris Gallagher; Editing by Edmund Blair)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Now, she was the last one alive in her immediate family, besides her own children, she said. On the day he died, Anglemyer turned off her cellphone and went to cut her grass. When she turned it back on, her daughter said she saw on Facebook he had been killed. Her phone was ringing off the hook, she said.
New Delhi, Feb 16 : With US President Donald Trump scheduled to come to India for two day official visit on February 24, industry body CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee on Sunday said that there are high expectations of a bilateral "mini" trade deal being concluded during the upcoming presidential visit.

In a statement, the CII Director General also said that the industry chamber expects a Trump interaction with leading Indian companies which operate in the US.

"Expectations remain high on achieving a bilateral 'mini' trade deal, which hopefully lays the foundation for a more comprehensive economic partnership," Banerjee said.

"As Indian industry enhances its investment and job creation in the US, we expect an interaction of President Trump with leading Indian companies operating in the US," he added.

According to CII research, at least 100 Indian companies have invested nearly $18 billion in the US, creating over 1,13,000 jobs.

Noting that there have been several recent announcements by Indian companies that have shown the growing impact Indian investment can have on the US economy and society, which is likely to rise, Banerjee said: "Likewise we expect investment even higher investment commitments from US companies into India." He further said that the two leaders must demonstrate an ability to work together through challenges and differences and enable more convergence of our shared ambitions and goals.

"Finally, as we look to enhance international collaboration for the future, we believe both countries must work together to be at the leading edge of the frontiers of knowledge and technology. Artificial intelligence and machine-learning are transforming business and lives as we know it. We hope governments, industry and academia will come together in an effort to explore this further and co-create technologies for the future," he added.
Shoukry affirmed Egypt's steadfast position on the Libyan conflict, including ending the crisis through a political resolution

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has underlined the necessity of restoring the legitimacy of Libyan institutions, including the reconstitution of the Presidential Council.

In a speech during a Munich Security Conference (MSC) ministerial meeting for the international follow-up committee established by the Berlin Summit on Libya, Shoukry said the Libyan Presidential Council should be reconstituted to represent all sides of the Libyan people.

Shoukry warned of attempts by some movements to grasp control of a political committee meeting on 26 February, calling for a "firm stand" against such attempts.

"Such parties benefit from maintaining the existing conflict and are attempting to undermine any efforts aimed at reaching a peaceful solution to the crisis, to end the Libyan people's suffering," he said.

He praised Libyan parties partaking in the 5+5 military commission meetings in Geneva, affirming the importance of building on resolutions that followed Cairo-hosted meetings for Libyan military forces from various areas.

Shoukry affirmed Egypt's steadfast position on the Libyan crisis, including full keenness on ending the Libyan crisis through reaching a political resolution that paves the way to restoring peace and security.

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Todd Miller in the Los Angeles Review of Books:

One way to lose a popularity contest in the United States is to mention in polite company  who may be chatting about, say, the impeachment or the Mueller investigation  the numerous ways the United States has meddled in the affairs of other countries throughout many years.

Rigging elections might be the most benign offense on a list that includes engineering military coups, forcing economic policies beneficial to corporations, or blasting another country to bits. And if you mention any of these truths, and the wrong person is in the crowd, there is a chance that the rebuttal will be the following old insult: if you dont like the country, why dont you just leave?

Belen Fernandez did just that. And it was no whim. As she explains in her book Exile: Rejecting America and Finding the World, she left because the United States is, as she writes, a large-scale lab experiment on how to best crush the human soul.

More here.
Mask-clad commuters get off a train at a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stop in Taipei, Taiwan, on Jan. 30, 2020. (Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images)

Taiwan Reports First Death Due to Coronavirus

TAIPEI, TaiwanThe Centers for Disease Control announced on Feb. 16 two new cases of COVID-19, including one who has already died.

The death marks the fifth outside of mainland China. Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, and France have each reported one death.

In Taiwan, a local man in his 60s died on Feb. 15 due to pneumonia and septicemia. The man began to have a cough on Jan. 27 and was hospitalized on Feb. 3.

The man, who also had hepatitis-B and diabetes, did not travel outside of Taiwan recently, nor had he knowingly come into contact with anyone who had been infected with the virus.

The second case involves a man in his 50s, who is a relative of the man who died.

The pair constituted Taiwans first local transmission cases, Taiwans health and welfare minister Chen Shih-chung said on Sunday.

He said the man who died was a taxi driver. Most of his passengers were Taiwanese businesspeople who returned to the island after visiting China, Macau, and Hong Kong.

Chen added that 73 people who had close contact with the dead man have been located. Among them, 60 had tested negative for the virus and 12 are awaiting results. The mans relative mentioned above was the only one who tested positive.

With the two new cases, Taiwan has 20 known cases of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, international experts are concerned about the continuing increase in the number of cases in China, head of the World Health Organization Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday. So far, the Chinese regime has reported over 69,000 infections and more than 1,600 deaths, but experts and eyewitness accounts suggest the true numbers are likely higher.

It is impossible to predict which direction this epidemic will take, Ghebreyesus said.
New Delhi, Feb 16 : As Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal took oath as Delhi Chief Minister on Sunday along with his Cabinet, the Delhi-based party is now looking to expand across the nation.

The AAP national executive is holding a meeting to plan its national expansion.

The meeting, to take place at Kejriwal's residence around 5 p.m., will have members of the national executive and all the state chiefs of the party.

The party will discuss its expansion in the meeting, AAP Delhi unit chief and Cabinet minister Gopal Rai told IANS.

"We will fight local body elections in other states also. We will be focusing on a few other states as well. The decision on the same will be taken in the meeting. In future, the Lok Sabha elections will also be the target." After the meeting, the campaign to increase the volunteer base will be launched in all the states. The aim will be to form cadres of AAP across the country, Rai said.

While Bihar is going to polls later this year, West Bengal will have elections next year. Punjab, where AAP is the main opposition, will see elections in 2022.

AAP received a massive mandate in Delhi as it bagged 62 of the 70 seats.

The MCD polls in Delhi in 2022 will be the AAP's target, Rai added.
An 83-year-old US woman, who had been a passenger on a cruise ship that docked in Cambodia has tested positive for the new deadly coronavirus in Malaysia, according to the reports on February 15. The woman jetted off to Malaysia on Friday from Cambodia along with 144 other passengers from the ship, as per the Malaysian Health Ministry. It said that the woman's husband has tested negative. The MS Westerdam, operated by Carnival Corp unit Holland America Inc, was docked in the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville on Thursday after being cautioned by five countries fearing that passengers could be carrying the virus.

READ: Trump Defends China's Alleged Cover-up Of Coronavirus, Says Didn't 'want To Create Panic'

Cruise ship carried 1,455 passengers

The cruise ship was carrying 1,455 passengers and 802 crew members, as per the reports. The passengers were examined regularly aboard the ship and Cambodia also tested 20 once it docked. None showed any symptoms of the new coronavirus.

China has confirmed more new cases of deadly coronavirus outbreak on February 15, according to the reports. The passengers on a cruise ship blocked from five countries due to virus fears finally deboarded the ship in Cambodia. Chinas National Health Commission said it had recorded 121 new deaths and 5,090 new coronavirus cases on the mainland on February 13, taking the total infected tally to 69,266 people.

READ: WHO Experts Set To Join Battle Against Coronavirus In China As Death Toll Crosses 1500

1,669 died in China

Nearly 55,748 people are presently undergoing treatment at various hospitals across the country and 1,669 people have died from the novel coronavirus outbreak that has emerged in Hubei provinces capital, Wuhan, in December. The hard-hit Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, has reported 116 new fatalities and reported 4,823 new confirmed cases on Thursday, the provincial health commission said. The latest report brought the total confirmed cases in Hubei province to 51,986, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The World Health Organisation on Thursday said a sharp rise of 254 cases of COVID-19 (official name for coronavirus) cases in China, due to a change in counting methods, did not represent a big shift in the epidemic.

READ: China Quarantines Old Currency Notes Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

READ: 17 People From Delhi Who Returned From Abroad Before Coronavirus Screening Showed Symptoms
Sir Philip Green will snub Steve Coogan's parody film based on his life because he is 'not interested' in watching 'a load of s***'.

Friends who have seen the trailer for Greed have slated it to the disgraced retail magnate, whose jet-set lifestyle will be replicated on the big screen from Friday.

Coogan stars as high-street mogul Sir Richard McCreadie - nicknamed McGreedy - in the movie which centres on an extravagant 60th birthday bash on the Greek island of Mykonos.

It would seem to replicate the luxury-laced toga party billionaire Sir Philip threw in 2002.

But Sir Philip, 67, will not be joining the scores of film fans trooping to cinemas to watch the movie, as he's heard it's a 'load of s***'.

Sir Philip Green will snub Steve Coogan's parody film based on his life because he is 'not interested' in watching 'a load of s***'

'He says he's not interested in it. And I don't think it'll be on at his local cinema in Monaco, so he won't have to try too hard to avoid it,' a friend told the Sunday People.

The film also features a string of celebrity cameos including Coldplay's Chris Martin, X Factor's Louis Walsh.

Made In Chelsea's Ollie Locke, who dated Sir Philip's daughter Chloe in 2011, also plays the boyfriend of Coogan's daughter in the film.

Speaking about taking on the role of the movie's tycoon protagonist, Coogan, 54, said: 'I got to have a deep, deep tan and I had the whitest teeth.

'I tried to whiten them by going to the most whitening person in London and they couldn't get them as white as these false ones.

'So I just stuck the false ones on top of mine. I made Cliff Richard look like he needed to clean his teeth!'

Coogan stars as high-street mogul Sir Richard McCreadie - nicknamed McGreedy - in the movie

Sir Philip made his millions in the retail industry as chairman of the Arcadia group whose flagship brands include Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Burton.

But his reputation was muddied when the now defunct BHS retailer racked up mountains of debt before he sold it for 1 to serial bankrupt Dominic Chappell  who drove the business into the ground with the loss of 11,000 jobs.

Last month a judge in the US dismissed an assault case against Sir Philip after a pilates instructor he allegedly groped decided not to appear in court to give evidence against him.

Katie Surridge, 38, had accused the business mogul of 'repeatedly fondling' her bottom and making inappropriate comments to her at the exclusive Canyon Ranch health club in Tucson, Arizona, in 2016 and 2018.

Sir Philip completely denies the claims.
Over a hundred German nationals were Sunday released from quarantine at a military base near Frankfurt airport, two weeks after flying in from the Chinese city of Wuhan, epicentre of the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

"All the people concerned have been allowed to leave the quarantine zone and rejoin their families," secretary of state for health Thomas Gebhart told a press conference.

None of them was contaminated by the virus which has killed more than 1,600 people, the vast majority in China.

They arrived in Frankfurt airport by plane along with more than 20 foreigners, mainly Chinese, on February 1, after being delayed when Russia refused to let the plane land and refuel.

Some were subsequently hospitalised but now all have been released, the health ministry said.

Their two-week quarantine period was spent at the military base at Germersheim, 120 kilometres (75 miles) from Frankfurt.

"These measures have not been easy for the people involved, but were absolutely necessary," said Gebhart.

Germany is the European country with the most people infected with the COVID-19 strain, with 16 cases confirmed, but no fatalities.

The only coronavirus death in Europe to date was that of an 80-year-old Chinese tourist in France.

More than 68,000 people have now been infected worldwide since the virus strain was first detected in December -- but the number of new cases has begun to decline.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, we are living in the United States of Propaganda.

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Running the sewing machine that stocked the first Primark store on Dublins Mary Street must feel like a lifetime away for Hilary Weston (78), the matriarch of the multi-billion euro Weston retail empire.

Dun Laoghaire-born Hilary will place much pride in the central role the country has continued to play in her familys fortune. Her work in developing the Primark business has seen the fast-fashion business become the golden goose of the Weston-controlled Associated British Foods.

The sprawling global retail empire belonging to the Weston family, which includes Brown Thomas, Selfridges and Loblaw, Canadas biggest grocery chain, has its roots in Ireland. It started when Eliza Whalley, Galen Westons Northern Irish grandmother, offered him a hundred grand to travel from Canada to Ireland and set up a business here.

In the 1960s, Galen Weston (79), the head of the family, took a punt and started Powers, his own chain of supermarkets. In Dublin he met Hilary Frayne, then the one-woman muse of the nascent Irish fashion industry.

They married in 1966 and, while Galen ploughed on with developing the supermarket wing of the family empire, Hilary set about developing Primark, using her knowledge of cosmetics and fashion and turning it into the retail behemoth it has become.

Further success was on the horizon. Galen is said to have then bought his wife the Brown Thomas retail store as a wedding present. The former model was in her element.

The Irish-founded businesses continue to perform strongly for the Weston family. Associated British Foods hailed a year of strong progress for Primark, which increased revenues by 4pc to 7.79bn after adding a further 14 stores to its portfolio in the UK and Europe. Profits improved 8pc to 913m.

Brown Thomas is expanding in Dundrum Town Centre, while Arnotts has been performing strongly.

Selfridges, another stablemate of the Westons Wittington Investments, posted its sixth consecutive year of sales growth. Daughter Alannah Weston replaced her father Galen as chairman of Selfridges last May. Her twin brother Galen Jr is CEO of George Weston Limited, as well as executive chairman of Loblaw. Wittington Investments, the familys primary operating vehicle in Britain, posted a slight rise in pre-tax profits to 1.3bn in the year to September 14. The so-called first family of taste paid a 101m dividend, beating the previous pay-out of 92m.

Select 1. The MIstry Family 2. The Weston Family 3. The Collison Brothers 4. John Grayken 5. Denis OBrien 6. The Comer Brothers 7. Larry Goodman 8. John Magnier 9. John Dorrance III 10. JP McManus 11 - 25 26 - 50 51 - 75 76 - 100 101 - 125 126 - 150 151 - 175 176-200 201-225 226-250 The Rich List 2020




KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone about the release of Ukrainian citizens detained in Russia, eastern Ukraine and Crimea, Zelenskiy's office said in a statement on Friday.

They also discussed preparations for the next meeting of the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France in the so-called 'Normandy' format.

Relations between Ukraine and Russia collapsed after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and support for separatist fighters in the Donbass region in a war that has killed more than 13,000 people.

(Reporting by Matthias Williams)
So, who on this year's 2020 Sunday Independent Rich List is a philanthropist? Some are, but for most, we simply don't know. Among Ireland's billionaires, JP McManus, Denis O'Brien and Martin Naughton, have foundations. Some others on the list also have foundations, but prefer to stay under the radar. With wealth increasing dramatically in Ireland, philanthropy is increasingly back on the table for rich families.

The most recent Million Pound Donors Report in the UK told us there were 316 donations of 1m+ in 2016, including a significant number of donations of over 25m. Higher education and foundations received the lion's share, accounting for 67pc by value and 41pc of the total number of donations.

There are green shoots for philanthropy in Ireland too. Our two largest universities, UCD and Trinity, have secured seven-figure and a small number of eight-figure gifts in recent times.

The Naughton family in 2018, through its foundation, donated 25m - the single largest private philanthropic donation in the history of the State - to the new E3 institute at Trinity. NUIG, UL, Queen's and others are also seeking gifts of that scale. While some of the larger gifts raised by Irish universities and also The Ireland Funds are from the USA and overseas, things are improving here too.

The Community Foundation for Ireland in late 2019 announced it had reached the milestone of 50m in grant-making since its inception in 2000. It is a charity in its own right and provides Donor Advised Funds to those who want to give strategically.

The organisation also seeks to "shine a light on philanthropy" by awarding people and organisations with its Philanthropist of the Year Awards. The 2020 individual winner was Green Reit founder Stephen Vernon. He donated a 1m MRI scanner to the National Maternity Hospital in 2018.

He was also an early significant philanthropic donor to the Royal Irish Academy of Music in 2018 and is a member of the President's Circle, Wexford Festival Opera, which supports a main stage opera.

Irish American Chuck Feeney famously pioneered the 'give while you live' concept and declared "I want the last cheque I write to bounce". He preferred to make and see an impact in his lifetime.

Declan Ryan, son of GPA founder Tony, enthusiastically adopted this approach. He set up The One Foundation (named after the U2 song) and set a 10-year timeframe of 2004 to 2013. The total donated was a reported 85m - 90pc of it to Irish causes such as Headstrong, Foroige and the Irish Refugee Council.

Inherited and intergenerational wealth and philanthropy are long linked in the UK, and will increasingly be a feature in Ireland. Elizabeth O'Kelly from Laois died aged 93 in 2016. She bequeathed her entire 30m estate to five charities - each of which received 6m. They were the Irish Cancer Society; Irish Heart Foundation; Irish Kidney Association; the Irish Society for Autistic Children; and the Royal National Lifeboat Institute Ireland. This is truly transformational giving.

Recent research points to huge potential, not just from the super-wealthy Irish, to engage in philanthropy. 'Legacies for Good', a report by economist Jim O'Leary, has estimated that the total wealth transfer in Ireland from 2017 to 2036 could range conservatively from 122bn to 185bn.

During January 2020 alone, we have seen significant estate values in wills reported in the Sunday Independent, totalling over 100m, the highest being almost 18m, and about 30 others of 1m or more. If people left even 1pc to charity in each estate, monies left to charity in January alone from these few wills would equate to 1m.

The UK's Ambassador for Philanthropy, Dame Stephanie Shirley, once the 11th wealthiest woman in Britain, has given away 69m and managed, as a result, to get herself off the UK's wealth list.

She has spoken regularly of the joy that philanthropy has given her, something often repeated by those who give their money away well and wisely.

With Ireland booming and people being more thoughtful about their wealth, we could be on the cusp of a dramatic increase in philanthropy here over the next decade.

 Niall O'Sullivan is a philanthropy adviser, fundraising consultant, mentor and coach. He helps individuals and families better explore their philanthropy possibilities at the early stages of their philanthropy journey. More information is available at www.philanthropyadviser.eu or he can be contacted at campaignsolutionsireland@gmail.com

Select 1. The MIstry Family 2. The Weston Family 3. The Collison Brothers 4. John Grayken 5. Denis OBrien 6. The Comer Brothers 7. Larry Goodman 8. John Magnier 9. John Dorrance III 10. JP McManus 11 - 25 26 - 50 51 - 75 76 - 100 101 - 125 126 - 150 151 - 175 176-200 201-225 226-250 The Rich List 2020




Israel says it has cancelled an easing of restrictions on the besieged Gaza Strip after rockets fired from territory.

Israels move to tighten the blockade on the Gaza Strip, including reimposing restrictions on Palestinian fishing, will increase tensions, a spokesman for Hamas, the group that governs the enclave, has said.

The Israeli measures of reducing the fishing zone and cancelling permits of businessmen aims at tightening the siege and will increase tensions, Hazem Qassem told Al Jazeera on Sunday.

His remarks came hours after Israel announced it would cancel a slight easing of the siege on Gaza, saying the move was in response to the launch of two rockets from the strip. No injuries were reported and no Palestinian factions in Gaza claimed responsibility.

Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli military said it launched a series of air raids targeting Hamas sites in Gaza.

Palestinian sources said Israeli aircraft targeted a Hamas site in central Gaza overnight. There were no reports of casualties.

The decision to cancel the slight easing of the enclaves airtight land, sea and air blockade, which has been in place for more than a decade, also included the scrapping of the restoration of 500 commercial permits and the delivery of cement, according to COGAT, an Israeli military unit that is responsible for civilian matters in the occupied territories.

Harsh response

Earlier this week, Israeli security officials warned of a harsh military response if attacks from the Gaza Strip did not stop.

At a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said: We wont accept any aggression from Gaza. Just a few weeks ago, we took out the top commander of Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and I suggest that Islamic Jihad and Hamas refresh their memories.

Commenting on Netanyahus comments, Qassem said: These threats are endless. Hamas is not interested in any escalation, but if it would happen, [Hamas] will defend its people in the face of any Israeli aggression.

The near-daily exchange of attacks between both Israel and Palestinian factions in Gaza has continued since US President Donald Trump announced his so-called Middle East plan last month.





The Palestinians have roundly rejected Trumps proposal, which offers them limited self-rule in scattered chunks of territory with a capital on the outskirts of Jerusalem while allowing Israel to annex large parts of the West Bank.

Since 2008, Israel has waged three wars on the Gaza Strip, killing thousands of people, mostly Palestinian civilians.

Israel has long held Hamas responsible for violence from Gaza, while Hamas says Israel is responsible for the state of anger and pressure inflicted on Gazas residents because of the continued siege.

In recent years, Hamas has gradually shaped informal understandings with Israel, in an attempt to ease the blockade imposed on Gaza by Egypt and Israel for more than 12 years.

Fragile ceasefire agreements are usually brokered by neighbouring Egypt and the United Nations.

Human rights groups and critics consider the blockade as collective punishment of two million people, warning of its impact on humanitarian conditions in Gaza.

Additional reporting by Maram Humaid
It seems shocking to many royal fans that Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex have traded their royal titles for a quieter life in North America. However, they certainly arent the first members of the British royal family to struggle with their roles.

Back in the 1930s, Queen Elizabeths uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated the throne when he was not allowed to marry American divorcee Wallis Sampson. Likewise, Princess Beatrice spent a great deal of time in the United States working in New York City.

Moreover, many royal family followers might be surprised to learn that Prince William reportedly once considered living in the U.S. after college.

Prince William didnt always want to be king

Although hes focused on the well-being of the British royal family now, Prince William didnt always want to be king. He was told about his destiny at a very young age, which made him extremely apprehensive about the entire thing.

We talked about our children, and [Princess Diana] said William often told her that he didnt really want to be king, and then Harry would say, If you dont want the job Ill have it,' journalist Jeremy Paxman recalled.

In fact, Prince Harry once said being the monarch was a job no one really wants. We are involved in modernizing the British monarchy. We are not doing this for ourselves but for the greater good of the people, the Duke of Sussex told Newsweek. Is there anyone of the royal family who wants to be king or queen? I dont think so, but we will carry out our duties at the right time.

Prince William was once enamored with an American heiress

During his time at St. Andrews University, Prince William struck up a friendship with heiress Anna Sloan. The pair bonded over the death of their parents. The prince was still reeling from Princess Dianas death in 1997, and Sloan was dealing with her own personal tragedy. Her father, businessman George Sloan, had died in 2001 in a shooting accident at the family estate in Nashville.

In her book William and Harry, royal biographer Katie Nicholl wrote, When Anna invited William and a group of friends to Texas for a holiday before he went to Greece, it hurt Kate deeply. She suspected William might have feelings for the 22-year-old heiress.

However, nothing ever turned romantic between the two, and the prince got more serious with Kate Middleton.

Prince William wanted to move to the US after college

Prince Harry isnt the only royal brother who wanted more privacy in his life. In 2003, The Scotsman reported that Prince William was considering moving across the Atlantic once he finished university.

Having enjoyed a degree of privacy as a student at St Andrews, perhaps its not such a surprise that William has announced his intention to spend a few years living in the US after he finishes his degree, reporter Louisa Pearson explained at the time. Work in a gallery or auction house, and the possibility of a postgraduate degree, have apparently been discussed.

However, the move never panned out for William, and he instead began to take on more royal responsibilities.
16.02.2020 LISTEN

Ardent Educationist, Author, Motivational Speaker and CEO of EGS has called on the MoE, NaCCA, and GES to as a matter of urgency approve and distribute the textbooks to complete the implementation of the new standards-based curriculum and avert doom education.

"Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development" - Kofi Annan

It may marvel you if I tell you that no serious and efficient teaching and learning is taking place in our various basic schools. The truth of the matter is that, the new curriculum which was introduced comes without even a single textbook and other teaching materials. The curriculum itself has also not been adequately provided.

Most teachers saw it only during the training. And also, NaCCA forbids teachers from purchasing and using unapproved textbooks from the market.

What a shame on a nation! Where are the responsible wise men we used to have in this country? If something is not done quickly to rectify this, I am afraid it will get out of hands.

You have introduced a new curriculum which is one of the nicest as compared to others and that is not bad. But a question worthy of asking is, why can't you provide the necessary textbooks to make teaching and learning effective for both teachers and students?

With worries written all over our faces, Educate Ghana Summit is pleading with those who are responsible to act quickly because our student's future is at stake. Teachers are frustrated struggling to teach without the textbooks. Parents are giving up on the trust they have in Ghana education system. Publishers are starving.

Sadly, most of your children are not part. And you're happier because you care less.

The Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service and NaCCA must do their possible best to provide the necessary materials to facilitate effective teaching and learning under the new curriculum.

I was abundantly shocked when these issues were coming up after the introduction of the beautiful new curriculum. Should this even be a topic for discussion? Is this not a shame to the nation? Something has to be done and very fast.

"Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army" - Edward Everett

---ThepressRadio.com
WATERTOWN  The brothers Keepman felt confident in the future of their business, a long-established ice cream shop in this citys downtown.

But for the past three years it was in the hands of the courts to determine who actually owned the rights to the Mullens Dairy Bar name.

On Feb. 4, Matt, Josh and Adam Keepman got their answer and they can keep using the Mullens name.

And now the trio is following through on their business plan that calls for doubling the production and cold storage space in the back of the shop, continuing to grow its wholesale business and, later this year, making a push to go national with the beloved Mullens brand that was established here 88 years ago.

Its crazy it took this long, but were obviously happy with the decision, said Matt Keepman, who lives in Dallas, Texas. We felt confident the facts were on our side. We just wished it would have played out a little quicker.

The Keepmans, who reopened the business in May 2017, plan to raise between $500,000 and $1 million this year from investors to help fund their wholesale expansion and push their ice cream and sorbet products into retailers around the country.

Other plans include finding a distributor. The Keepmans currently deliver their ice cream to more than 40 locations between Madison and Milwaukee using a 2008 Mercedes sprinter van purchased from Kraemer Wisconsin Cheese, another longtime Watertown business that was founded in the 1920s.

The Keepmans want to add cafe seating on the sidewalk in front of their shop and an outdoor deck in the parking lot. The moves come as a $10 million expansion of the Watertown Public Library is planned across the street and just to the east, buildings on the south side of West Main Street in the 100 block are being removed to make way for a public plaza that will include a splash pad, seating, a kayak launch and improved access to the Rock River.

Its going to be good for us, Adam Keepman, 41, said of the downtown improvements. Were excited for all of the changes coming about. Im looking forward to our busy season.

Court battle

This months ruling by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ends a tumultuous and public fight that involved one of the most popular ice cream shops in the state.

However, the court case didnt directly involve the Keepmans. Instead, the fight for the name was between Ron and Gloria Luepke, who purchased the business in 1997, and Troy and Shannon Milbrath who, in 2005, purchased some of the assets of the business and signed a licensing agreement with the Luepkes that allowed them to use the Mullens Dairy Bar name in the operation of the business.

The Milbraths, however, filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and closed the shop in September 2016 after Ron Luepke, who owns the building at 212 W. Main St., exercised his right not to extend the lease. The Luepkes contended in the lawsuit they filed in November 2016, opposing the Milbraths 2015 application for a trademark on the name, that they kept the right to the name as it was not part of the sale to the Milbraths.

But that was not the only drama. Shortly after learning the lease would not be renewed, Milbrath began dismantling the interior (including cutting up the ice cream counter with a power saw) and announced plans to reopen in another location.

A few weeks later, Milbrath was charged in Jefferson County Circuit Court with 16 felonies and three misdemeanors for allegedly opening and using credit cards and loans in the name of his business partner and his business partners wife with balances that exceed $65,000. In 2017, Milbrath entered a plea of no contest in Jefferson County Circuit Court to one felony charge that resulted in a prohibition against him of operating a business, being self-employed or entering into any business relationship until 2020.

One of the main contentions by the Luepkes in their court fight with Milbrath was that they had financed part of the sale of the business to the Milbraths and that an addendum, written by the Milbraths attorney, stipulated that the Milbraths could use but not own the Mullens Dairy Bar name. Attempts to reach Milbrath were unsuccessful.

We are not swayed by the unconvincing testimony of Mr. Milbrath that he did not review Addendum A in detail, did not understand it, and believed the Milbraths would own the (trade)mark, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board wrote. Mr. Milbraths deposition testimony from his bankruptcy proceeding suggests that he rather conveniently fails to take responsibility for his signature on legal documents when he considers it expedient to do so. His criminal conviction also casts doubt on his credibility.

Today, the Keepmans own the business and use the name under a licensing agreement with the Luepkes. Once the Keepmans pay off a loan, the Luepkes are expected to transfer the name to them.

Long history

Mullens was founded in 1932 by Frank Mullen Sr. and his sons in a small building just west of the current location. In 1939, the milk-bottling operation moved into its present site, a building constructed in 1907. Bill Mullen, Frank Mullens grandson, purchased the business in 1976 before selling to Luepke in 1997.

Adam Keepman lives near the former Mullen family farm while Josh Keepman lives in a home constructed in 1910 that had been owned by Bill Mullen and is just a few blocks from the shop.

I can attest that Bill Mullen took good care of not only his business but of his home, Josh Keepman, 45, said last week, as he sat at a table inside the shop that has been re-created to reflect its strong history and ties to the city. We opened (in 2017) as Mullens Dairy Bar and we arent looking back. Im glad we did. Theres a lot of investment that goes into growing a brand. Were just staying the course.

That path entailed a complete remodel of the shop, including the addition of a bathroom on the main floor. The Keepmans bought the building from the Luepkes in 2018. The brothers wont say how much money theyre spending on expanding the production facility and adding a second 40-foot-wide by 60-foot-long freezer.

Big plans

The wholesale operation began in spring 2019 and now includes about a dozen flavors that are sold primarily in pints for $4.99 to $5.99 in stores. They include Metcalfes Market and Festival Foods in Madison, Kens Meat Market in Monona, Lake Mills Market, several Piggly Wiggly stores and more than 30 other locations in southern and southeastern Wisconsin. If other retailers like Woodmans Market, Pick n Save and stores beyond Wisconsin pick up the brand, the Keepmans may have to decide on whether to find a co-packer to make their product or to build their own production facility.

Each year has had its challenges but also its successes, Matt Keepman said. We certainly have new challenges coming up.

But the Keepmans have also received a big assist.

In September, Mullens was among 10 businesses selected from 40 applicants to be a part of Food & Beverage Wisconsins fourth accelerator class. The nine-month program is designed specifically for entrepreneurs of Wisconsin-based food, beverage, ingredient, packaging, or equipment manufacturers or technology companies with demonstrated sales and ambitions to grow their business. Others selected include Forage Kombucha in Fitchburg; Nutkrak, a candied pecan company in Madison; and Rally Energy in Sun Prairie, which makes caffeinated mints.

The Mullens name, however, is one of the Keepmans greatest assets and one they would like to make as popular as Culvers, founded in Sauk City in 1984. The custard chain now has more than 700 locations throughout the country.

The Keepmans have no plans for other restaurants, but theyre aiming to get their ice cream in hundreds or perhaps thousands of stores nationwide.

Youve got to stick to your guns, keep quality, keep consistency and just hold on tight and hope that everything works out in your favor, Adam Keepman said. Thats all you can ask for. Keep a good vibe and keep it pushing forward.

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One of Japan's top academics says China is trying to create its own new world order  and leading Western democracies, Canada included, have started to look at their relationship with the rising superpower through that lens.

For the last several years, Junya Nishino's research has been focused on his country's relationship with South and North Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's outbursts gave him plenty to work on.

But it has been hard for the demure, precise professor of political science to ignore an increasingly assertive Beijing, its provocative actions and the amount of time and political energy being expended by Japan's leaders on the China relationship.

While acknowledging China is an "indispensable" economic power for his country and Western nations, Nishino said the policy of engagement based solely on trade and business interests has failed.

A 'very different' regime

"We have to keep in mind that China is a very different regime," he told CBC News in a recent interview. "China is not a democratic country. China is an authoritarian system. So we always need to pay close attention."

Since the 1990s, Western countries  with Canada in the vanguard  have pursued a policy of helping Beijing build up an affluent middle class through liberalized trade and investment, in the long-term hope that it would lead to a more democratic country.

Over the last several years, however, it has become apparent, in a variety of ways, that the Chinese leadership has no interest in moving in that direction.

CBC News

China's President Xi Jinping, with the full support of his party, rewrote the country's constitution in March 2018 and scrapped term limits, essentially allowing him to stay in office for life.

The surprise move came as Beijing pressed claims over the South China Sea, built up its military and launched a global infrastructure plan known as the Belt and Road Initiative.

Story continues

The country also drastically enhanced domestic security and enforced ideological purity standards in schools and the media.

Warning signs

At the same conference that extended his grip on power, Xi told Chinese lawmakers and political advisers that his country's brand of authoritarian capitalism is a "new type of political party system" that would benefit the rest of the world.

"From the Japanese perspective, clearly, China is trying to create its own new order, not only in East Asia, but the world," said Nishino.

A year ago, writing in the Qiushi Journal, the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) main theoretical magazine, Xi insisted that his country "must never copy the models or practices of other countries."

Western-style separation of powers  the bedrock of democratic institutions  held no appeal for China, Xi wrote, arguing that the party must remain supreme.

"We must never follow the path of Western 'constitutionalism,' 'separation of powers' or 'judicial independence,''' Xi wrote.

Those sentiments made Nishino and other China-watchers sit up and take notice.

The West grows wary

"We and China have very different values and we need to keep this in mind," said Nishino, who has been speaking to Canadian officials and audiences over the past week.

After an initial flurry of interest among Europeans in the Belt and Road Initiative, he said, there now seems to be a wariness among Western countries  and they'd do well to avoid the plan.

During President Barack Obama's second term, the U.S. recognized that China had changed and began to take a harder line. Such an approach is more difficult for Japan to take because of geography.

Relations between Tokyo and Beijing run hot and cold, thanks in large part to tension over eight uninhabited islands  little more than hunks of rock  in the East China Sea.

Both countries lay claim to the islands, which are known as the Diaoyu islands in China and as the Senkaku islands in Japan.

But China remains Japan's most important trading and economic partner and the business communities in both countries have tried to keep a positive and constructive relationship going.

The challenge of keeping that constructive relationship alive is more intense in Japan than it is in Canada, but the problems facing both countries are not dissimilar. China is deeply embedded in the supply chains of Western democracies.

And there lies the problem shared by Canada and Japan, Nishino said. Japan has been trying to strike a balance between a tough security policy and a healthy trading relationship. The Trump administration can afford to be bellicose and fight a trade war with China. Canada and Japan cannot.

Japan has been working hard to find a way to "co-exist" with China without being pushed around, Nishino said.

What's left unanswered  especially in light of Beijing's hostage diplomacy over Canada's detention and possible extradition of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou  is how difficult co-existence will be going forward.
Barbra Streisand has signaled her support for Michael Bloomberg with a tweet touting the billionaire's philanthropic endeavors.

The songstress shared a link to a New York Times investigation into how Bloomberg built his national influence through philanthropy on Saturday.

'A very generous man who puts his money where his mouth is... especially about climate change, gun safety and so many other good causes,' she wrote.

She also took a shot at his would-be 2020 presidential opponent, adding: 'Donald Trump's foundation was shut down for fraud.'

Barbra Streisand signaled her support for Michael Bloomberg in a tweet on Saturday touting the billionaire's philanthropic empire

Streisand tweeted a link to a New York Times investigation into how Bloomberg built his national influence through philanthropy

The Times story Streisand linked to took a critical look at Bloomberg's foundation, which donated an estimated $2.3billion in 2018.

The article drew attention to the fact that Bloomberg began increasing donations to causes outside the East Coast in recent years, suggesting that he may have done so to grow political support ahead of his presidential bid.

Streisand and Bloomberg have known each other for years, having been pictured together at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in 2013.

The Broadway legend is one of Hollywood's most outspoken Democrats and was an ardent supporter of Hillary Clinton during the last election.

Her tweet backing Bloomberg came just as reports emerged that the candidate is considering Clinton as his running mate should he earn the Democratic nomination.

A spokesperson for Bloomberg's campaign responded to the Clinton speculation by saying he is 'focused on the primary and the debate [on Wednesday in Las Vegas], not VP speculation'.

However, the spokesperson did not rule out a possible Bloomberg-Clinton ticket.

Streisand and Bloomberg have known each other for years, having been pictured together at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in 2013 (above)
There has never been a better time for ambitious, indigenous businesses to develop in Dublin. A vibrant, urban region with significant potential, it is earning a reputation worldwide as an attractive destination to start and scale a business.

The most recent Global Cities Report - produced by management consulting company Kearney - ranked our capital highly in its Outlook Index, jumping 24 places to ninth, behind cities such as London, Singapore, San Francisco, Paris and Tokyo. This particular index highlights those primed to become the next generation of global hubs, thus positioning Dublin as a key base for companies looking to compete on a global scale.

Collaboration is essential in establishing Dublin as both a national catalyst for growth and as an international tier-one city.

At Enterprise Ireland we work with key stakeholders, including third-level colleges, Local Enterprise Offices and the four local authorities to ensure startup and scaling companies have access to appropriate supports at each stage of their enterprise journey.

As a region, Dublin has seen a transformation in the past eight years. With unemployment now below 5pc nationally and the fact many global corporates have established headquarters here, the demand for highly specialised skills and office space presents challenges. Enterprise Ireland's regional strategy, Powering the Regions, is focused on balanced regional development. Funding co-working and second site initiatives and promoting collaboration between regional hubs is central to this.

In recognition of this emerging trend, Enterprise Ireland has funded a strong network of enterprise centres and hubs across the Dublin region which are flourishing, innovating and providing flexible workspace for startup and expanding companies. Guinness Enterprise Centre, Spade kitchen incubator, Ghala DAC, Social and Local in Tallaght and the Social Innovation Hub are examples of recently funded projects.

Last month, Enterprise Ireland awarded more than 2m in regional enterprise development funding to develop The Collaboratory, an industry solutions hub in Blanchardstown, north-west Dublin. This workspace will support agile startups, scale-ups, SMEs and multinational companies within cyber security, internet of things and artificial intelligence, rapidly growing sectors here.

The flexible, co-working office market is thriving in Dublin and is as attractive for on-demand working space as other major European cities such as London, Paris and Stockholm.

The city and county's coastal geography means, too, that the high-growth ecosystem of SMEs and startups, especially in industries like fintech and ICT, can look at expanding within Ireland's regions as well as using its location to act as a gateway to markets overseas. Combined with the expert insights offered by the in-market teams operating across our network of 39 international offices, these businesses can properly explore their global ambition supported by Enterprise Ireland.

Dublin is a dynamic source of startup funding and SME support programmes. At the core of our regional strategy, 'Powering the Regions', is the commitment to boost innovation. Participating in events such as Techstars StartUp Week, powered by Dublin City Council, provides a valuable opportunity to promote awareness of our range of innovation supports.

In Dublin, Ireland's first technological university has received Enterprise Ireland funding to develop a national sectoral cluster. This will develop skills, enhance technology and productivity, and boost knowledge transfer for SMEs across the region. No matter what stage you are at, if you want your business to prosper you need to be in the best location with access to the very best resources.
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has suspended sponsorship of conference attendance for Nigerian lecturers over allegations of fraudulent practices by many the beneficiaries, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.

The decision, which seemed to be a confirmation of a recent allegation of grant diversion levelled against the lecturers by the agencys director of research and development, Salihu Bakari, was taken by the governing board of the agency at its meeting held last week.

This newspaper in its report on Tuesday titled; Nigerian Scholars spend research grants on cars, houses had exclusively reported the directors allegation against some of the beneficiaries of its support funds and opportunities.

Mr Bakari made the allegation in his response to a question by one of the participants at a research conference organised by the agency in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on why conditions attached to accessing grants by TETfund are too stringent.

But the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the umbrella body for the lecturers, has reacted angrily to the allegation, describing it as hasty generalisation, blanket condemnation, and ridiculing of the countrys academia by a funding agency.

Suspension order

According to a reliable source within the agency, TETFund took the decision as part of efforts towards sanitising the countrys academic system.

The source, who is a member of the governing board, does not want to be named, saying he was not authorised to speak on the matter.

READ ALSO:

The governing board, currently headed in acting capacity by the executive secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), the source noted, met last week to review the 2019 activities of TETFund.

The agencys activities were reviewed at the meeting, and more importantly was the sponsorship of the lecturers conference attendance. Quite unfortunately, more than 50 per cent of lecturers sponsored by TETFund for both local and foreign conferences did not attend the conferences but pocketed the money, the source said.

The source added that the agency was considering various options towards dealing with the challenge of abuse of funds by the beneficiaries.

The source added; Just like foreign grants there are lots of measures put in place to guide the disbursement of TETFund grants, but sometimes some either abscond after receiving first tranche or they change institutions without informing appropriate authorities. But it is new dawn at TETFund now.

TETFunds 2019 restriction order failed

In 2018, TETFUND said beginning from January 2019, it would restrict the sponsorship of academic staff members of public tertiary institutions in Nigeria to local academic conferences.

The decision, PREMIUM TIMES learnt, was based on various excuses offered by the lecturers whenever they failed to account for conference grants they received.

The Funds former executive secretary, Abdullahi Baffa, in a letter addressed to universities vice-chancellors, said that sponsorship condition was such they are expected to make paper presentations at such conferences.

The letter, dated August 30, 2018, and signed on behalf of the executive secretary by the then acting director, academic staff training and development unit, Mr Bakari, said the new position was in line with the funds policy that is aimed at supporting teaching staff of Nigerias public tertiary institutions.

Meanwhile, efforts to get the reaction of the acting director of TETFunds public affairs unit, Uche Wogu, to confirm the suspension order, were unsuccessful as his line was not available as at the time our reporter called.
BEIRUT  It is arguably one of the most coveted prizes in Syrias civil war, and after eight years of fighting, Syrian President Bashar Assad has got it back.

The Damascus-Aleppo highway, or the M5, is known to Syrians simply as the International Road. Cutting through Syrias major cities, the highway is key to who controls the country.

Assad gradually lost control over the M5 from 2012, when various rebel groups fighting to topple him began seizing parts of the country. Protests against his familys rule had erupted the year before amid a wave of uprisings in the Arab world. The protests spiraled into a civil war, following a brutal government crackdown on dissent.

Historically a bustling trade route, one Syrian analyst, Taleb Ibrahim, called the M5 the most basic and strategic highway in the Middle East.

For the Turkey-backed rebels fighting Assad, the highway was a cornerstone in holding together their territory and keeping government forces at bay. Its loss marks a mortal blow for opposition fighters whose hold on their last patches of ground in northwestern Syria is looking more and more precarious.

The M5 starts in southern Syria, near the border with Jordan, and runs all the way north to the city of Aleppo near the Turkish border. The 280-mile highway links the countrys four largest cities and population centers: Damascus, Homs, Hama, and Aleppo, cutting through Idlib province.

Before the war, the M5 served as an economic artery for Syria  mainly feeding the countrys industrial hub of Aleppo.

Regaining control over the highway was a top priority of the Assad government since the early days of the war. Its slow and tortuous recovery, in many ways, traces the arc of the Syrian war, which has killed nearly half a million people and uprooted half the countrys pre-war population.

The Syrian government began winning back segments of the highway, starting in 2014 when Russia joined the war on the side of Assad, and essentially tipped it in his favor.

Towns and cities located along parts of the highway, including in the Ghouta region in the suburbs of Damascus, now lie in ruins after long sieges and incessant bombardment forced them into submission. The Russian-backed recapture of Aleppo in December 2016 was another major game-changer.

Under a September 2018 agreement between Russia and Turkey, the M5 and M4 highways were supposed to be open for traffic. That never happened, as insurgents refused to move away and allow joint Russian-Turkish patrols to protect traffic.

Last week, Syrian troops recaptured the last rebel-controlled section of the highway around Khan al-Assal.

Zeina Karam is an Associated Press writer.
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / February 16, 2020 / The Law Offices of Vincent Wong announce that class actions have commenced on behalf of certain shareholders in the following companies. If you suffered a loss you have until the lead plaintiff deadline to request that the court appoint you as lead plaintiff. There will be no obligation or cost to you.

Sasol Limited (SSL)

If you suffered a loss, contact us at: http://www.wongesq.com/pslra-1/sasol-limited-loss-submission-form?prid=5475&wire=1

Lead Plaintiff Deadline: April 6, 2020

Class Period: March 10, 2015 to January 13, 2020

Allegations against SSL include that: (i) Sasol had conducted insufficient due diligence into, and failed to account for multiple issues with, the Lake Charles Chemicals Project ("LCCP"), as well as the true cost of the project; (ii) construction and operation of the LCCP was consequently plagued by control weaknesses, delays, rising costs, and technical issues; (iii) these issues were exacerbated by Sasol's top-level management, who engaged in improper and unethical behavior with respect to financial reporting for the LCCP and the project's oversight; (iv) all the foregoing was reasonably likely to render the LCCP significantly more expensive than disclosed and negatively impact the Company's financial results; and (v) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (PTLA)

If you suffered a loss, contact us at: http://www.wongesq.com/pslra-1/portola-pharmaceuticals-inc-loss-submission-form?prid=5475&wire=1

Lead Plaintiff Deadline: March 16, 2020

Class Period: May 8, 2019 to January 9, 2020

Allegations against PTLA include that: (1) Portola's internal control over financial reporting regarding reserve for product returns was not effective; (2) Portola was shipping longer-dated product with 36-month shelf life; (3) Portola had not established adequate reserve for returns of prior shipments of short-dated product; (4) as a result, Portola was reasonably likely to need to "catch up" on accounting for return reserves; and (5) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.

Story continues

Westpac Banking Corporation (WBK)

If you suffered a loss, contact us at: http://www.wongesq.com/pslra-1/westpac-banking-corporation-loss-submission-form?prid=5475&wire=1

Lead Plaintiff Deadline: March 30, 2020

Class Period: November 11, 2015 to November 19, 2019

Allegations against WBK include that: (1) contrary to Australian law, the Company failed to report over 19.5 million international funds transfer instructions to the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre ("AUSTRAC"); (2) the Company did not appropriately monitor and assess the ongoing money laundering and terrorism financing risks associated with movement of money into and out of Australia; (3) the Westpac did not pass on requisite information about the source of funds to other banks in the transfer chain; (4) despite being aware of the heightened risks, the Company did not carry out appropriate due diligence on transactions in South East Asia and the Philippines that had known financial indicators relating to child exploitation risks; (5) the Company's Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Policy Program was inadequate to identify, mitigate and manage money laundering and terrorism financing risks; and (6) as a result, Defendants' statements about its business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.

To learn more contact Vincent Wong, Esq. either via email vw@wongesq.com or by telephone at 212.425.1140.

Vincent Wong, Esq. is an experienced attorney who has represented investors in securities litigations involving financial fraud and violations of shareholder rights. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

CONTACT:

Vincent Wong, Esq.

39 East Broadway

Suite 304

New York, NY 10002

Tel. 212.425.1140

Fax. 866.699.3880

E-Mail: vw@wongesq.com

SOURCE: The Law Offices of Vincent Wong





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https://www.accesswire.com/576610/SHAREHOLDER-ALERT-SSL-PTLA-WBK-The-Law-Offices-of-Vincent-Wong-Reminds-Investors-of-Important-Class-Action-Deadlines




IMF Chief Says Coronavirus Could Hurt Global Growth in 2020

'There may be a cut that we are still hoping would be in the 0.1-0.2 percentage space,' said Kristalina Georgieva

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) told the Global Womens Forum in Dubai on Sunday that the coronavirus outbreak could hurt the global economy in 2020.

Speaking about the potential economic toll the virus could exact, Kristalina Georgieva said there is still a great deal of uncertainty, reported AFP.

There may be a cut that we are still hoping would be in the 0.1-0.2 percentage space, the IMF Managing Director said, adding that it was too early for more committed estimates.

I advise everybody not to jump to premature conclusions. There is still a great deal of uncertainty. We operate with scenarios, not yet with projections, ask me in 10 days, Georgieva said.

Still, she suggested some level of economic impact was unavoidable.

Even a month of reduction in activities inevitably would have an impact on China and some of it would be translated to the rest of the world, Georgieva said in remarks to Bloomberg Television in Dubai. We are still hoping that the most likely scenario would be relatively rapid containment of the virus.

Prior to the outbreak grabbing headlines, in its January update to the World Economic Outlook, the IMF lowered its global economic growth projections in 2020 by a 0.1 percentage point to 3.3 percent.

Gita Gopinath, head of research at the IMF, said that some of the downside risks that loomed large in IMFs October outlook had tapered.

Some risks have partially receded with the announcement of a US-China Phase I trade deal and lower likelihood of a no-deal Brexit, she said in a statement. Monetary policy has continued to support growth and buoyant financial conditions. With these developments, there are now tentative signs that global growth may be stabilizing, though at subdued levels.

Since then, with attention galvanized by the epidemic, fears have mounted that as Chinese cities go into lockdown and countries impose restrictions, the economic impact of the new coronavirus could be far-reaching.

We need to recognize there is a great deal of uncertainty around the nature of the virus, how exactly it is impacting China, would it spread beyond China, Georgieva added.

Prepare for the Worst

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, Georgieva called on governments and central banks to take action in the face of the epidemic.

She said the next few weeks would be crucial to build up a bottom-up picture of the impact of the virus in China and across the globe.

So then we can agree on synchronized, or even better, coordinated measures to protect the world economy from a more serious shock, Georgieva told delegates. Can we do it? Yes. Are we going to do it? I actually think that we will.

We are looking at data very carefully  we have to do what people in rapid response do: pray for the best and prepare for the worst, Georgieva added.

Reuters contributed to this report.
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish and northern Cypriot officials met on Saturday in an abandoned town wrecked by war to discuss potentially re-opening the area after 46 years, a move that Ankara said was a 'historic' opportunity to bring tourism and economic benefits. Varosha, a southern suburb of Famagusta, has been fenced off and abandoned since Turkey invaded northern Cyprus after a Greek-inspired coup in 1974.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish and northern Cypriot officials met on Saturday in an abandoned town wrecked by war to discuss potentially re-opening the area after 46 years, a move that Ankara said was a "historic" opportunity to bring tourism and economic benefits.

Varosha, a southern suburb of Famagusta, has been fenced off and abandoned since Turkey invaded northern Cyprus after a Greek-inspired coup in 1974.

Ringed by a fence which extends into the sea, the former holiday resort has been off limits to anyone but the Turkish military since its 39,000 Greek Cypriot residents fled advancing Turkish troops.

Speaking in Varosha after touring the area, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said opening Varosha would have benefits for tourism, the economy and trade.

"Keeping this coast of paradise under the sovereignty of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus idle is not acceptable legally, politically or economically," Oktay said.

Turkish and northern Cypriot officials were continuing their inventory efforts there, he said.

"There is unfortunately an abandoned area here as well as rotting buildings. Our hope is that Varosha is revived in a way that will revitalise the economic, trade and social life here," Oktay said.

Oktay's visit to the region with Turkish and northern Cypriot officials marks one of the most concrete steps by either side towards re-opening Varosha.

The island of Cyprus was divided in 1974. The island's Greek Cypriots live predominantly in the south, and Turkish Cypriots in the north since the 1974 war. Several peacemaking efforts have failed and the discovery of offshore resources has complicated the negotiations.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Former Love Island UK host Caroline Flack killed herself on Saturday night in London.

And Australia's Married At First Sight expert Mel Schilling has weighed in on the tragic passing of the popular television personality.

'RIP. So tragic to lose yet another beautiful soul from the TV spotlight,' the relationship expert began on Instagram on Sunday morning.

'So tragic to loose yet another beautiful soul from the TV spotlight': MAFS expert Mel Schilling (left) campaigned for suicide prevention among reality TV personalities after death of ex-Love Island UK host Caroline Flack. Pictured with MAFS experts John Aiken and Dr Trisha Stratford

Mel encouraged the public to look out for each other, notice changes in other's behaviours and personalities and openly speak about their feelings.

She used the hashtags 'mental health awareness', 'suicide prevention, and 'you are not alone' in her tribute message.

Mel also offered three organisations for people looking for help: R U OK?, Kind Is Cool, and Beyond Blue.

'You are not alone': Mel encouraged people to look out for each other, notice changes in other's behaviours and personalities and openly speak about their feelings

Tragic: Former Love Island UK host Caroline Flack (pictured) was found dead at her London flat aged 40 on Saturday night

Caroline's death was confirmed by a lawyer for the family on Saturday night.

The Flack family said in a statement: 'We can confirm that our Caroline passed away today on the 15th February. We would ask that the press respect the privacy of the family at this difficult time.'

Caroline's suicide marks the third death of stars connected with the ITV2 dating show Love Island UK, with contestants Mike Thalassitis and Sophie Gradon hanging themselves following their appearances on the dating program.

Contestants Mike Thalassitis (left) and Sophie Gradon (right) took their own lives following their appearances on the dating program, throwing the show's future into question

'In Australia, 200 people attempt to take their lives every day': Last year Mel said she lost her cousin Nick from suicide, and revealed the worrying national statistics

Last year, Mel spoke out about bullying and suicide after viewers tried to get her ousted from the Nine program's expert panel with a change.org petition.

'Personal abuse like bullying has the power to tear down every fibre of strength and resilience - and it must stop,' she said at the time.

Mel said she lost her cousin Nick from suicide, and revealed the statistics of those Australians who have taken their lives.

'Did you know that every day in Australia, 200 people attempt to take their lives? Of those 200, eight end up dead and of the eight, six are male,' she wrote.

If you or anyone you know is struggling, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, or 24/7 counselling and support Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.
Its the ultimate home luxury: your very own dressing room. We asked interior designer Kelly Hoppen and gallerist India Rose James for a peek inside their dreamy dressing spaces. Jealous, us?

Kellys dressing space used to be the hallway of her West London home. Kelly wears shirt, Khaite. Trousers, Alaia. Ring, Jessica McCormack

Im an organised hoarder - Kelly Hoppen

Wardrobe simply doesnt do Kelly Hoppens storage system justice. Even dressing room feels inadequate when describing the vast, delicious space. So lets stick with the interior designers own word: atelier.

Its my happy place, she says of the windowless former hallway in her West London home, which she has transformed into a cornucopia of sleek white shelves, sympathetic lighting and freshly cut flowers topped off with a three-way mirror. Youve got to see your butt, havent you? she laughs.

Kelly organised her wardrobe around her clothes, with open shelving for accessibility and storage boxes for seasonal items such as gloves and tights. The ottoman is by Christian Liaigre. Kelly wears top, RTA. Skirt and trainers, Dior. Jewellery, Jessica McCormack

Surprisingly for a woman affectionately dubbed the Queen of Taupe, Kellys wardrobe is a fairly colourful affair, albeit one anchored by simple, practical pieces. Most of the time Im in trainers and comfortable shoes. Im pretty organised. I get up at 6am, do my meditation, [Kellys partner] John and I have coffee, we watch the news and then I work out for an hour. Getting dressed takes no more than 20 minutes. Whether youre wearing trainers and jeans or glamming up for a date night, its an essential part of your day because how you feel is really important.

A considered shopper, Kelly, 60, who was made an MBE for her services to interior design in 2009, admits to owning a couple of hundred pairs of shoes, but is careful to emphasise that at least 70 pairs are vintage. Net-A-Porter and Matches have been my absolute saviours, because I can shop from my bed. I love working, but Im in the studio every day. Much as I love to go into shops and try things on, I dont have that luxury.

Kellys clothes are categorised by item, colour and pattern. This selection of statement shirts includes Gucci, Zara and Alexa Chung

She is a generous lender, her favourite benefactors being her daughter Natasha Corrett, her goddaughter Jessye and her stepdaughters Sienna and Savannah Miller. If a friend needs something, Id 100 per cent say, Come and borrow it. I am a hoarder  I dont like throwing things away. Each one has a story. I collect things, but I give a lot to charity as well. Nor am I afraid of wearing something to a black-tie event and then have the newspapers saying I wore it in 19-whatever. I dont care.

Those with less space who want to achieve a similarly Zen-like effect should, Kelly suggests, focus on clever storage and fastidious organisation (its no surprise that shes a fan of Marie Kondo). Rolling knickers and socks, slim hangers, beds with storage underneath, are a few of her suggestions. For gloves, hats and tights I use boxes from Muji. I lay scarves flat and colour-coordinate.

Go-to handbags on display include vintage Prada, Aspinal of London and Victoria Beckham

Kelly says she knows how lucky she is. This was a void space that was never going to be used and I saw an opportunity. Ive never had a closet like this: Ive only dreamed of it and built them for clients. I dont feel guilty about it. Ive worked really hard.

kellyhoppen.com

Make-up: Justine Jenkins. Hair: Paul Connolly

I need to be surrounded by clothes INDIA ROSE JAMES

India roses wardrobe is more of a movable fashion feast, stretching from her bedroom to the space next to her en suite bathroom. India Rose wears: suit, Gabriela Hearst, mytheresa.com

Gallerist India Rose James, 28, is not what youd call a minimalist. Currently renting in Londons Ladbroke Grove while her permanent new home in Mayfair is being renovated (Im right next to a park with a playground, and can walk my dog while my three-year-old daughter Saffi plays on the swings), Indias wardrobe is that of a typical fashion magpie, a treasure trove of diaphanous gowns, platform sandals and sumptuous fabrics too opulent to be contained within a modest, boxy wardrobe.

Just as some people like to be surrounded by nature, India likes to be surrounded by clothes  and when they are as beautiful as hers, who could blame her? Theyre very much spread around my bedroom, as well as the adjoining middle room next to my bathroom, she explains. At the end of my bed, I have most of my dresses and nicest clothes, hung up all over the place but colour-coordinated. In my dressing room, I have more everyday wear: jumpers, T-shirts, jeans and summer dresses.

India Roses clothes collection dates back to her teenage years. My closet is like Narnia: I never know what Im going to find in it, she says. India Rose wears dress, Galvan

Drowning in Prada, Gucci and Saint Laurent as she might be, India favours a very practical uniform for day. I usually just wear the same thing: my Acne jeans, Dr Martens boots, some form of band T-shirt and at the moment a Ganni jacket I bought in the sale. I dont go really crazy. I save that for the evenings.

She admits shes quite an emotional hoarder.

I still have T-shirts I wore when I was 14. But I need to generate more space, so currently I have about eight bags in my kitchen that have to go to charity, and I also sell a lot on Depop. Most heiresses wouldnt bother punting out their old clothes on a website more commonly used by hard-up students than multimillionaires (Indias late grandfather was the King of Soho Paul Raymond, and at 16 she inherited the bulk of his estate, along with her half-sister  at one point they were richer than the Queen). But India strives to live a normal life. A canny shopper who loves a bargain (I dont think Ive ever overpaid for anything), she does, however, admit to owning 270 pairs of shoes.

As India Rose frequently needs to travel for work, theres always a suitcase being prepped. For a similar leather case, try londonvintageluggage.com. Right: Shoes are lined up in rows in front of a mirror. I own 270 pairs, so theres no storage space for them all, India Rose says. The rug is from floorstory.co.uk

I am that person all my girlfriends will call if they need to borrow something, she smiles. Theyll come over and raid my wardrobe. Although after a friend spilled red wine over a pair of her favourite shoes, footwear is now off-limits  with an exception for her daughter Saffi. If she had her way I would be wearing pink fluffy things every single day, India says fondly. Saffi is my excuse for keeping everything: it will all be for her once shes older. Eat your heart out, Harper Beckham.




The embattled and loquacious national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, after mobilizing the federal might at the behest of the ruling party, ended in deep frustration in his plot to stop the inauguration of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the November governorship election as Governor of Bayelsa State last Friday after the Supreme Court in its judgment on Thursday nullified the victory of the APC candidate. Oshiomhole, having been warned by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State to desist from making statements that would throw the Niger Delta into chaos or cause disorder in the country, had resorted to conduct an extra-legal court proceeding at the APC national Secretariat, Abuja, re-interpreting and misinterpreting the judgement of the Supreme Court.

In Oshiomholes extra-judicial court process, no candidate met the constitutional requirement of securing one-quarter votes in at least two-thirds of the local governments in Bayelsa State. In Oshiomholes erroneous arithmetic, 2/3 of 8 local governments translates to 6 LGAs; he noted that the PDP candidate managed to get  in 5 LGAs.

The APC national chairman, in a letter to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), dated February 14, 2020, requested that INEC should not issue Certificate of Return to the PDP candidate or any other candidate since none met the mandatory requirement. He reiterated that the PDP cannot be sworn in as governor. Oshiomhole, therefore, solicited INECs cooperation to conduct fresh governorship election in Bayelsa State.

Oshiomholes letter to the Executive Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abuja, attention to the Secretary of the Commission, reads:

Dear Sir,

Judgment in Appeal No. SC1/2020 Between Peoples Democratic Party & 2 ORS V. Lyon David and 3 ORS;

Request for Conduct of Fresh Governorship Election in Bayelsa State

Kindly recall that the governorship election in Bayelsa State was conducted on the 16th of November 2019, and our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), duly participated at the said election. You will also recall that the All Progressives Congress emerged victorious at the election leading to our candidate  Lyon David Pereworinimi, being declared and returned as winner of the election.

Our attention has been drawn to the judgment of the Supreme Court delivered on 13th February 2020, in the pre-election appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship as well as deputy governorship candidates. In the said judgment of the Supreme Court, the candidature of our governorship and deputy governorship candidates were nullified and the Commission was ordered to issue fresh Certificate of Return to the candidate with the highest number of votes and with the required geographical spread. It is, however, to be noted that the Supreme Court did not void the votes that our party polled at the election and the implication of this is that the votes of the All Progressives Congress must be reckoned with in determining whether any other candidate polled majority of lawful votes cast in one-quarter of at least two thirds majority of the state.

We have received the judgment of the Supreme Court and we are of the firm opinion that the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party cannot be issued Certificates of Return and/or sworn in as the Governor and Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State respectively. We are aware that Section 179(1)(b) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria mandatory requires a candidate for an election to the office of governor of a state to have not less than one-quarter of the votes at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the Local Government Areas in the State before the candidate can be deemed to have been duly elected as the Governor of the State. This mandatory requirement was affirmed by the Supreme Court in the judgment under reference.

ALSO READ: PDP prepares to grind Oshiomhole in Bayelsa

Bayelsa State has eight Local government areas, hence, the two-thirds of at least the eight Local Government Areas will be approximated to six Local Government Areas. From the results announced and duly published by the Commission, it is clear that NO CANDIDATE meet this mandatory constitutional requirement, including the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party who only managed to poll one-quarter of the votes cast in only FIVE Local Government Areas.

Our position is fortified by the fact that there is a condition precedent to the winner being issued a Certificate of Return as evidenced by Paragraph 7 of the judgment and this condition is that the candidate to be issued with the Certificate of Return must have one-quarter of the votes in at least two-thirds of the Local Government Areas.

In view of the above, we hereby request that Certificate of Return should not be issued to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party or any other candidate whatsoever, since none satisfies the requirement of one-quarter of the votes cast in at least 2/3 of all the Local Government Areas in the State as required by the Supreme Court Judgement. We further request that a fresh election be conducted by the Commission for the office of the Executive Governor of Bayelsa State.

Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.

INEC, however, complied with the judgment of the Supreme Court, reviewed the result of the election, declared the PDP candidate winner, and he was subsequently, sworn into office on Friday.
Former Maharashtra chief minister



and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said his party-led government at the Centre was facing a "perception war" from NCP chief Sharad Pawar on CAA and this will have to be countered by taking the political fight to the streets.

The Narendra Modi government is facing protests nationwide over its Citizenship Amendment Act which aims to give persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh citizenship but excludes Muslims.

Speaking on the second day of the 2-day state level convention held in Nerul in neighbouring Navi Mumbai, Fadnavis said, "NCP chief Sharad Pawar is playing a perception war against the BJP-led Union government, deliberately creating confusion over CAA. A disinformation that citizenship (of certain communities) will be taken away by CAA is being spread."



Pawar has called the CAA "divisive" and "diversionary" and has been vocal in his support to a plethora of national leaders who have said that they would continue to oppose the legislation till it is scrapped by the Centre.

Fadnavis said the strategy of parties opposed to the CAA was "if you cannot convince them, then confuse them".

"The opposition should either prove that CAA is going to affect the poor and nomadic tribes in Maharashtra or they should apologise to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their false claims," Fadnavis said.

He said the BJP would contest polls on its own from hereon and claimed the party's first success with this decision will be upcoming Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation polls.

Lashing out at former ally Shiv Sena, which parted ways after the October Assembly polls and joined hands with the Congress and Pawar's NCP, Fadnavis said "Congress leaders will continue insulting V D Savarkar" and asked "how long is the Sena leadership going to tolerate it"



"If there is some courage left in the Shiv Sena, it should ban Shidori magazine published by the Congress," he dared the Uddhav Thackeray government.

Shidori had recently published two articles terming Hindutva icon Savarkar as an "apologist" and "rapist".

"How can the Sena tolerate such comments against its ideologue," Fadnavis asked.

Hitting out at Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for throwing a challenge to the BJP to topple his government, Fadnavis said, "Instead of challenging us, the Sena should dissolve the government and face fresh elections. The people of Maharashtra will show the Sena its place."



Speaking at an agricultural awards function in Jalgaon on Saturday, Thackeray had said, "I am the son of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray who accepted and threw challenges. I challenge the BJP to topple my government today itself instead of waiting till April when operation lotus is likely to be activated (by the BJP).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Baton Rouge, LA  In 2018, Louisiana State Police Trooper of 18 years, Jason Boyet received one of the departments highest honorsTrooper of the Year. Fast forward two years, and this hero cop is sitting in a jail cell after being arrested on charges of production and distribution of child pornography.

After Trooper Boyet was arrested Wednesday, he was booked into the Tangipahoa Parish Jail then transferred into protective custody at another facilitylikely due to his police officer status. He was then put on administrative leave, not fired.

According to WWL:

The FBI and LSP Special Victims Unit began an investigation after a suspect, later identified as Boyet, allegedly produced and shared pornographic images on an unnamed online application. Troopers say agents identified Boyet as the online user and arrested him after an interview.

The investigation remains ongoing with the potential for additional charges, the LSP spokesperson said.

This Trooper of the Year is alleged to have been running his own child porn network. Not only was he allegedly distributing the horrifying images and videos, he was producing them!

Even more disturbing is the fact that Boyet is reportedly married and has three children. It is unclear at the moment if the children in the porn he was producing were his own.

In a Facebook post from 2018, LSP Troop L issued the following praise about their star trooper of they year.

Senior Trooper Jason Boyet was recognized as the Louisiana State Police Troop L Trooper of the Year at the annual Slidell Elks Law and Order Night. When considering candidates, S/T Boyets supervisors highlighted his job performance, initiative, professionalism, and most of all leadership.

We wonder if they still feel this way about this alleged child predator.

On Saturday, February 17, 2018, Senior Trooper Jason Boyet was recognized as the Louisiana State Police Troop L Trooper Posted by Louisiana State Police on Sunday, February 18, 2018

Peppering the Louisiana State Police Facebook page are dozens of images of mugshots from people accused of petty theft, drug possession and other small crimes. Absent from their page, however, is Boyets mug shot and any mention that their Trooper of the Year was accused and arrested for allegedly producing and distributing child pornography. Seems legit.

Over the years, TFTP has reported on a lot of bad copsthousands of them. And, over the years, apologists claim that these bad cops are the exception and somehow slipped through the filter into their jobs. While that statement may pacify some, it is simply not reality. In fact, TFTP has reported on dozens of officers who are the cream of the crop getting caught in the most disturbing crimes.

Officers of the Year are repeatedly caught raping, murdering, and preying on children thereby destroying this notion of slipping through the cracks.

A we previously reported, in an unprecedented sentence for a police officer, a former cop with the Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie police departments, was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of child exploitation. Micheal Edwin Harding was named Officer of the Year in 2011, when he was an officer at the Fort Pierce Police Department.

Despite being accused of sexual assault back in 2007, Champaign Police Officer Jerad Gale was given his departments highest honor in March. On March 30, Gale was named Champaigns Officer of the Year.

Just three months later he would be arrested for strangling and raping two more women.

A former Houston Police Department Officer of the Year award winner, Noe Juarez, was arrested and was indicted on federal charges of conspiracy to possess firearms connected with a drug trafficking offense and conspiracy to distribute five or more kilos of cocaine.

Jonathan Bleiweiss, 34, pleaded guilty to an array of charges, admitting to 14 counts of armed false imprisonment, 15 counts of battery and four counts of stalking. However, he avoided all of the charges with sex in them.

Most likely due to his police officer status, this former Broward Sheriffs deputy was given an insultingly lenient plea deal. As part of that deal, Bleiweiss did not face charges of sexual battery, and as such will not be required by the state of Florida to register as a sex offender.

A group of approximately 20 undocumented immigrants alleged that Bleiweiss, harassed them, molested them during pat-downs, and threatened them with deportation if they refused to perform sex acts. Bleiweiss was named officer of the year just prior to being exposed as a sexual predator.
S undays episode of Love Island will not be broadcast following the death of its former presenter Caroline Flack but the current series will continue on Monday

Flack was found dead at the age of 40 at her home in east London on Saturday, after taking her own life.

Saturday night's highlights edition of the ITV2 dating show was pulled, and there has been speculation about whether the rest of the series would air.

It has now been confirmed that although it will not be on tonight, Love Island will be back on Monday, with a tribute to Ms Flack.

Caroline Flack and Pasha Kovalev perform on Strictly / PA

There will be a tribute to Ms Flack on Monday (PA)

An ITV spokesperson said: "Many people at ITV knew Caroline well and held her in great affection.

"All of us are absolutely devastated at this tragic news.

"After careful consultation between Caroline's representatives and the Love Island production team and given how close we still are to the news of Caroline's tragic death we have decided not to broadcast tonight's Love Island out of respect for Caroline's family.

"Love Island will return tomorrow night which will include a tribute to Caroline who will be forever in our hearts."

Flack's family confirmed that she died on Saturday, adding in a statement: "We would ask that the press respect the privacy of the family at this difficult time and we would ask they make no attempt to contact us and/or photograph us."

The shock news prompted a flood of tributes from celebrities but also questions about the decision to press ahead with prosecuting Flack for her alleged assault on boyfriend Lewis Burton, as well as the pressures faced by TV celebrities from the press and social media.

Winter Love Island presenter Laura Whitmore paid tribute to Ms Flack / BBC

Flack, who was described as "vulnerable" by her management, stepped down from presenting the current winter series of Love Island after she was alleged to have assaulted Burton at her then-flat in Islington, north London, in December.

She entered a not guilty plea to the assault charge at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court and was released on bail, with conditions that stopped her having contact with her boyfriend ahead of a trial in March.

In a statement released on Saturday night, her management company criticised the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for pressing ahead with what it called her "show trial" even after her boyfriend said he did not support it.

Francis Ridley, of Money Talent Management, said: "In recent months Caroline had been under huge pressure because of an ongoing case and potential trial which has been well reported.

"The Crown Prosecution Service pursued this when they knew not only how very vulnerable Caroline was but also that the alleged victim did not support the prosecution and had disputed the CPS version of events.

"The CPS should look at themselves today and how they pursued a show trial that was not only without merit but not in the public interest.

"And ultimately resulted in significant distress to Caroline."

Talent agent Jonathan Shalit told BBC Radio 5's Stephen Nolan that Flack received "more negative press than a terrorist or a paedophile" over the trial.

"These people might be famous, but they're still vulnerable individuals," Mr Shalit added.

Lewis Burton said his 'heart is broken' (Joe Giddens/PA Wire ) / Joe Giddens/PA Wire

By Sunday evening, an online petition calling for a Government inquiry into "the practices and policies of mainstream media organisations and social media platforms in their efforts to protect members of the public from harm" had more than 191,000 signatures.

The tragedy has put the spotlight back on the pressures which come with TV celebrity.

Flack is the fourth person linked to the ITV2 dating programme to have killed themselves.

Sophie Gradon, who was a contestant in 2016, was found dead at her home in 2018 at the age of 32.

Her boyfriend Aaron Armstrong, who had found her body, killed himself three weeks later. He was 25.

Mike Thalassitis, who appeared in the 2017 series, was 26 when he was found dead in a park in March last year.

Tributes to Flack poured in after her death, with Burton saying that his "heart is broken".

He said in an emotional message on Instagram that he would now be Flack's "voice" and would "get all the answers".

Beside a picture of them together, he wrote: "My heart is broken we had something so special.

"I am so lost for words I am in so much pain I miss you so much I know you felt safe with me you always said I don't think about anything else when I am with you and I was not allowed to be there this time I kept asking and asking."

Caroline Flack leaving court after pleading not guilty to assaulting boyfriend Lewis Burton / Jonathan Brady/PA

Burton, 27, added: "I will be your voice baby I promise I will ask all the questions you wanted and I will get all the answers nothing will bring you back but I will try make you proud everyday.

"I love you with all my heart."

Flack's former X Factor colleague Dermot O'Leary said he had "candles lit" in her memory, and her Love Island colleague Iain Stirling, the programme's narrator, shared a video of Flack from a performance on Strictly Come Dancing in 2014 and wrote: "Today my friend slow motion walked into heaven. I will miss her always. Thank you for everything x."

Laura Whitmore, who replaced Flack as Love Island host for the latest series, tweeted "I'm trying to find the words but I can't", followed by a broken heart emoji.

An ITV spokeswoman said: "Everybody at Love Island and ITV is shocked and saddened by this desperately sad news.

"Caroline was a much loved member of the Love Island team and our sincere thoughts and condolences are with her family and friends."
With the aim of encouraging students to be more involved in society, the higher education department has prepared a comprehensive plan of social responsibilities to be adopted by NCC cadets and volunteers in higher educational institutes in the state.

In a letter shared with principals of various colleges on Saturday, the department said, in addition to routine activities, a new set of responsibilities will be carried out by students in a systematic manner. The plan was taken up for discussion in a two-day state-level meeting of colleges that was held in Panchkula last week.

As per directions issued by the department, NCC cadets and NSS volunteers will be tasked with various responsibilities such as the adoption of senior citizens, monitoring of girls special buses, running help desks in government hospitals and drug de-addiction centres in colleges, in addition to other tasks.

Satyamanyu Yadav, principal of Government College in Sector 9, said that the main idea behind the new plan of action was to involve the masses in social service. A message will go to the students into the early years of their life that they must be prepared for social service, said Yadav.

Yadav added that the college had plans of setting up a help desk at Civil Hospital, Sector10, and doctors would train the students on Monday.

Students will help patients with enquiries related to various departments of the hospitals and directions. Two to three students will be helming the help desk on a weekly basis. Doctors will be visiting the college on Monday and training students on the types of patients that need to be directed to different departments, said Yadav.

The principal of the Dronacharya Government College, Pooja Khullar, said, For other responsibilities, we will be holding a meeting on Monday and imparting further directions, said Khullar.

College principals also said that the responsibilities assigned were too exacting to be carried out by students regularly. Khullar said,We had raised the concern with the department. We will tweak the plan as per our needs and get students to volunteer in shifts.

Satyamanyu Yadav said, We have only one NSS unit of 50 students and these students cannot be working for outreach programmes all year round.
16.02.2020 LISTEN

Thank you so much for sharing your viewpoint, Ohemaa Yaa. I can understand your criticism of my article - but we face an existential threat, no less, in case that escapes you. This is no time to be polite and decorous in one's writing.

We must stop those toying with the future of our beautiful country, and the overall well-being of present and future generations of our people - by confronting them: and speaking frankly to them, Ohemaa. Full stop. There is no other way. Can't be decorous in writing about those in power whose dereliction of duty allows murderers driven mad by the love of gold to destroy our forests; and poison our streams, rivers, groundwater, and soils, right across our homeland Ghana. No. No. No. Do you know how many are dying daily from their lawlessness across Ghana?

It might interest you to know that whiles our natural heritage is being destroyed by greedy and selfish people, who don't care one jot about the impact of the unfathomable greed that drives them, on their fellow humans, and on the natural environment, Morocco, which God Almighty did not favour with the kind of natural heritage we are blessed with, is creating a green future for its people. It is called wise and farsighted leadership. That commands respect from writers who care about their societies'.

Furthermore, in all this, believe me, President Akufo-Addo has become powerless - as those of his appointees, who ought to be helping to ensure that his cherished policy of protecting what is left of our natural heritage, is implemented successfully, betray him left, right and centre.

That is no fault of his is it - so why should I criticise him for the errors of judgment and criminal negligence of others? Plus, unlike most Ghanaians, I do know for a fact that he genuinely cares about the preservation of Ghana's natural heritage. And, his family and mine, have ties dating back to the colonial era - so I do know him well, so to speak: although we have never met since 1997 or thereabouts. However, I support him 100 percent because he is a genuine environmentalist. Period.

In my humble view, Bawumia and Yaw Osafo Marfo had no business going to China, to sell the birthright of Akyems - and come back to trumpet to the world that they had invented a new-fangled economic-model for leveraging funds. What utter rubbish. How dare they?

In case you forget, mortgaging the future of unborn generations of our people, was never supposed to happen under a New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration - according to the garullous Bawumia: when they campaigning for power in 2016. The sod.

Those two environmental equivalent of blockheads, clearly haven't a clue about the potential dangers inherent in the negative impacts of climate change - because if they did, they would never dare risk the watershed of the three major river systems sourced to treat and distribute potable water to villages, towns, and cities across southern Ghana, populated by as many as 5 million Ghanaians. What madness is that?

Let that kind of plain-speaking lower the tone of my writing, by all means. It matters not a whit to me, Ohemaa - for I do not write to please polite-society scared stiff of speaking out against those destroying our nation from the top of the greasy-pole-of-politricks. No. No. No.

Finally, as it happens, my family owns a small part of the Atewa Range upland evergreen rainforest. As we speak, there are two abandoned excavators on what is our privately-owned 14-square mile freehold upland evergreen rainforest property at Akyem Juaso - left there by illegal gold miners who have destroyed nearly 5-square miles of what is our private property: not some sodden traditional ruler's property.

Ohemaa, you wouldn't be decorous in your writing if you had to contend with that kind of lawlessness. Never. The regular production of bush cut lumber from hundreds of felled trees on your private property, and the creation of mining pits on your land, by emboldened and fearless illegal gold miners, all operating glove-in-hand with total impunity, in a nation in which the rule of law is supposed to prevail, would elicit the same response in you too, Ohemaa, when writing about it. Sod decorous language in the face of such egregious-provocation. Still, thanks for sharing your view - and may God bless you always!

Yours in the service of Mother Ghana,

Kofi.
Sanctions should be maintained until "Russia returns to the path of compliance with international law," the official says.

Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz has said Russia is posing a very serious threat to the European Union.

Read alsoUkrainian, Polish foreign ministers reaffirm commitment to deepening cooperation

"We believe that Russia poses a very serious threat, that it is a serious player acting to the detriment of the interests of the West, to the detriment of democracy. Therefore, Europe and the European Union should unite with other countries, primarily with the United States," he said at the 56th Munich Security Conference, as reported by RFM 24 on February 14.

The Polish minister also commented on French President Emmanuel Macron's statement that Europe should seek dialogue with Russia, whereas sanctions against it brought no positive effects. According to Czaputowicz, such statements are "premature" and Poland does not share this position.

"We share the position expressed by the President of Estonia that we should support Ukraine and give a clear signal to Russia that its policy towards Ukraine is unacceptable, earlier towards Georgia, now towards Syria, Libya, Venezuela and Central Africa," the minister said.

Sanctions should be maintained until "Russia returns to the path of compliance with international law," he added.
U.S. passengers wave as they leave the terminal next to the Diamond Princess cruise ship, where people are quarantined on board due to fears of the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Yokohama, Japan, Feb. 17, 2020.

Protesters in Hong Kong returned to the streets at the weekend amid growing public anger over the city authorities' handling of the coronavirus epidemic, with one group setting fire to a railway station and another damaging a local clinic.

The protesters occupied Tin Sau Road in Tin Shui Wai district and built barricades with rubbish bins, wooden boards, foam boxes and debris to block multi-lane highways, the government said on Sunday.

The demonstrations came after a group of people set fire to a ticket machine inside Tin Sau Light Rail (LRT) station on Saturday.

"They even poured suspected flammable liquid onto the blaze," the government said in a statement, adding that some protesters threw trash cans onto a track while a train was passing through in the other direction.

Riot police were dispatched to the scene, where they surrounded around 20 black-clad protesters and ordered them to remove their masks and show their ID, firing pepper spray at them. At least 14 people were arrested. The government said the incident happened after an earlier, peaceful demonstration had ended.

Riot police also gathered in Fo Tan, in the New Territories, along with an armored vehicle and a water cannon, ahead of a planned demonstration on Saturday afternoon.

Another group marched in Tai Po against plans to use the local Tai Po Jockey Club primary care clinic as a center for "mild" COVID-19 cases, chanting slogans calling on the government to close down the city's border with mainland China.

They told reporters that there had been no consultation with local residents about the clinic before the plan was announced.

Growing anger with Lam

While people arriving from mainland China are required to undergo a 14-day period of quarantine, Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam has stopped short of shutting down the border entirely, saying it is "discriminatory."

Hundreds of people marched in separate protests in Kwai Chung, Tin Shui Wai and Cheung Sha Wan over plans by the government to designate clinics across the city for the treatment of "mild cases" of COVID-19, to ease the expected pressure on hospitals.

Hong Kong's Hospital Authority also issued a statement saying that the Jockey Club General Outpatient Clinic on Ting Kok Road in Tai Po has been "maliciously damaged" several times.

It said the incident had disrupted patient care, and police were investigating.

The unrest came amid growing public anger with Lam's administration over her refusal to close the border with mainland China, which reported a total of 69,507 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, and a death toll of 1,596.

The Hong Kong authorities confirmed on Sunday that they will be chartering a free evacuation flight to bring home Hong Kong residents currently aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess, which is currently quarantined in Japan.

"[The Hong Kong] government is arranging a chartered flight to take Hong Kong residents under quarantine on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship back to Hong Kong free of charge as soon as possible after they are permitted to disembark and land," a security bureau spokesman said.

There are around 330 Hong Kong residents on board the vessel, 260 of whom hold a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passport and around 70 of whom are foreign nationals permanently resident in the city.

Critic Xu incommunicado

Japan announced another 70 infections had been confirmed on the Diamond Princess on Sunday. Canada, the United States and Italy said they were planning similar flights.

Plans by Lam to make amendments to Hong Kong's laws that would allow the extradition of alleged criminal suspects to face trial in mainland China sparked mass street protests that began in June, soon followed by widespread public anger at police use of force against peaceful demonstrators.



Lam formally withdrew the hated amendments, but faces protesters' demands for an amnesty for those arrested in the 2019 protests, an independent public inquiry into police violence and abuse of power, an end to the description of protesters as "rioters," and fully democratic elections.

Chinese state media revealed on Saturday evening that President Xi Jinping had had much more of a hand in directing the ruling Chinese Communist Party's response to the epidemic, sending out instructions to local officials, four of whom have since been fired, as earlier as Jan. 7, weeks before the public was warned that the virus is transmissible between people.

The news emerged as Chinese professor Xu Zhangrun was reported incommunicado after publishing a lengthy critique of Xi's handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Xus account has been suspended on the social media platform WeChat, and friends have been unable to get in touch with him for days, The Guardian reported.

"Most believe he has not been detained, and is at home in Beijing, but his name has been scrubbed from Weibo, and only a few articles from several years ago show up on the countrys biggest search engine, Baidu," the paper said.

Xu's essay, title "Viral Alarm: When Fury Overcomes Fear," was published last week.

His "disappearance" comes amid a public outcry over the death on Feb. 7 of Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang, who was accused of rumor-mongering by police after he tried to warn people about the severity of the new outbreak in his city. Li eventually caught the virus himself and died of it.

Reported by RFA's Cantonese and Mandarin Services. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Scores of New Patriotic Party members in Effutu thronged the principal streets of Winneba on Valentine's Day, the 14th day of February, 2020.



It was a procession not only to celebrate the day but to also honour the Member of Parliament for the Constituency, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin.



In an interview with the media, the MP explained the rationale behind the walk.



"We are in an election year and it is time to put ourselves together, unite and ensure victory in 2020, so we are taking advantage of this day to show how united we are and how we love one another" the MP stated.



When asked if it would be a done deal for him and the NPP in the 2020 elections looking at the large number of people in the procession, the Effutu MP had this to say;



Politics requires hard work; you dont cross the bridge until you get there. We have always worked hard, and we continue to work hard. I dont underrate any opponent. I work hard for victory and I know that with God on our side no doubt at all that we are going to win" Afenyo-Markin emphasized.



He also said the Akufo-Addo administration has done so much for the people of Ghana and Ghanaians will never forget these good things that are happening, and accordingly reward the administration in the coming elections.



He used the occasion to remind Ghanaians that the NDC was in government for 8 years and it cannot be that the NPP being in office for 4 years, Ghanaians will compare and say, the party has not done better than the opposition NDC.



Given the opportunity, Ghanaians will see the true development that they have always desired and they should be reassured that with determination on the part of this government, Ghana will get there, the MP added.



Also participating in the procession were Captain Kwesi Eyi Acquah, Presiding Member of Effutu Municipal Assembly, Deputy Central Regional Youth Organiser, Chairman Kojo Halm, Supi Kofi Kwayera and other Constituency officers.



#LookingFowardToDoMore

#FourMoreToDoMore

Source: P.K.Sarpong, Whispers from the Corridors of the Thinking Place.









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NEW DELHI: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday became the latest to speak against the governments decision to repeal Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir in August last year.

Experts say that the governments decision may have strained some diplomatic ties but relations are far from sour.

It was natural that some countries have reacted the way they have. I am sure the government also expected some backlash from some countries and were prepared to handle the situation, a research scholar from the Indian Council for World Affairs said.

ALSO READ: 'Don't interfere in India's internal affairs' - MEA rejects Turkish President's Kashmir remark

Apart from Pakistan and China, countries like Malaysia and Turkey have been fiercely critical of the BJP governments decision to repeal Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and divide the state into two union territories. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has more than once voiced his opinion against the governments decision, including at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

The reaction to Malaysias criticism was seen in the commerce ministry notification of placing palm oil on the restricted items list. In my opinion, it also evinced the intended reaction from Malaysia. Mahathirs silence on Kashmir issue in the joint press conference with Pakistan PM Imran Khan was evidence of him mellowing down, a post-doctoral research fellow on international relations from the JNU said. Mahathir later said that Malaysia was too small a country to retaliate.

ALSO READ: 'Kashmir issue close to both Turkey, Pakistan'

India, Turkey have enjoyed good bilateral relations over decades but have also seen tensions due to the Turkey governments constant support to Pakistan on various issues.

Last year, India strongly condemned the unilateral Turkish military action in Syria and urged Ankara to exercise restraint.

Strain on relations is not always seen through or solved by diplomacy. As we have seen in the case with Malaysia, there are other ways to deal with it. I think India has dealt with the situation well. Though relations might be temporarily strained by the developments, the far-fetching consequences on bilateral ties with countries like Turkey and Malaysia will be close to none, the JNU researcher said.

A former diplomat, who did not wish to be named, said that apart from Malaysia and Turkey, there has been resistance to events of August 5 but without far-reaching consequences.

For instance, there have been city councils in the US which have passed resolutions against the Kashmir situation but that will not have any bearing on Indo-US ties, he said.
A British father-of-four who was detained in Egypt accused of "patting" a male airport security guard on the back says he is "very tired" but happy to be home.

Tony Camoccio, 51, arrived back on British soil on Sunday afternoon and was met by a crowd of family and friends ready to celebrate his return.

Supporters of the London businessman had feared he would be falsely accused of sexual assault after the alleged incident at Hurghada International Airport on February 8.

Mr Camoccio flew back on Sunday with his Easyjet flight EZY9862 touching down at a rainy and windy London Gatwick about 1pm.

Father-of-four Tony Camoccio embracing friends and family as he arrives back to Gatwick / PA

He strolled through arrivals at the North Terminal looking relieved and was greeted with hugs from his family.

Speaking as he was hugged and congratulated by half a dozen well-wishers, Mr Camoccio said: "I am tired, very tired.

"We just want to get home. I just want to thank everybody but I've got to get back.

"I've got a really sore throat.

"But I just want to say thank you to everybody. All of my family are here."

Mr Camoccio, who has visited Egypt several times, was at the end of a holiday with his wife and a large group of friends when the incident is alleged to have happened at an airport checkpoint.

Screengrab from petition.org of a petition for Tony Comoccio / PA

More than 5,000 people had signed an online petition by Saturday calling for him to be released.

Campaign group Detained in Dubai said on Saturday that Mr Camoccio had been released from Egyptian custody after paying about 1,000 in bail and other related costs.

Speaking for the family after his return, Mr Camoccio's sister Liz Doody said: "We are very relieved that we got him home.

"We appreciate the help from the public and yourselves (the media) and the online support was terrific.

"It really gathered momentum. And thanks very much for everything."

Detained in Dubai's chief executive Radha Stirling said: "The case has been dismissed for lack of evidence, and Tony will be flying home to the UK on the next available flight from Cairo.
Three Kashmiri engineering students, arrested on sedition charges were released after execution of a bond under Section 169 of the CrPC, police said on Sunday.

The three students studying in a private engineering college in Bengaluru were arrested on Saturday for raising pro-Pakistan slogans and posting it on social media on the first anniversary of the ghastly terrorist attack that left scores of CRPF soldiers dead at Pulwama in Kashmir.

The students were released after they executed a bond under 169 CrPC, wherein they come back whenever they are summoned, Hubballi-Dharwad police commissioner R Dilip told PTI.

READ | Sharjeel Imam Sent To 6-day Judicial Custody In 'Cut Off Assam' Sedition Case

Section 169 of the CrPc is involved when the investigating officer is of the view that there was no sufficient evidence to produce an accused before a court for remand.

On the media reports about bail given to the Kashmiri boys, the police commissioner said they got confused. He said the police were handling the matter sensitively because the case itself was sensitive with national ramification, which may lead to trial by media.

READ | Karnataka: Child Rights Panel Tells Cops To Stop Questioning Kids In School Sedition Case

READ | Gujarat: Arrest Warrant Against Hardik Patel In 2015 Sedition Case
BERLIN - More than 100 Germans evacuated from the hard-hit Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of a new coronavirus outbreak, were set to end their prescribed 14-day quarantine period on Sunday.

They have been kept isolated at a military base in the southern town of Germersheim. None of them have tested positive for the disease, German news agency dpa reported.

The viral outbreak that emerged in China in December has infected more than 69,000 people globally, killing 1,665 people in mainland China and five others elsewhere. The World Health Organization has named the illness COVID-19.

Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, meanwhile, announced Sunday that Italy will send a plane to Japan to bring back the 35 Italians aboard the Diamond Princess, the cruise ship that has had 355 passengers and crew test positive for the new virus.

Twenty-five of those Italians are crew members on the ship, including the cruise ships captain. Italys ministries of defence, foreign affairs and health as well as civil protection officials were working out the logistics. No date for the flight has been announced yet.

British officials announced Sunday that more than 3,100 people in the U.K. had been tested for the virus but there have been no new positive results beyond the nine who were successfully treated and discharged.

European nations have reported 47 cases of the virus in nine countries. France on Saturday announced the first death of a virus patient in Europe and outside of Asia, an 80-year-old Chinese tourist in Paris.

Chinese authorities have placed some 60 million people under a strict lockdown, built emergency hospitals and instituted tight controls across the country to fight the spread of the virus.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has praised Chinas intensive measures and urged other governments to step up their own anti-virus efforts, saying its impossible to predict which direction this epidemic will take.

We must use the window of opportunity we have to intensify our preparedness, he told foreign policy and security leaders at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. China has bought the world time. We dont know how much time.

___

Frank Jordans in Berlin and Frances DEmilio in Rome contributed.

___

Read all the AP stories about the coronavirus outbreak that emerged from China at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 16)  Several people were hurt in a multiple-vehicle crash on Sunday on a portion of the North Luzon Expressway in Mexico, Pampanga.

NLEX traffic senior manager Robin Ignacio told CNN Philippines that those hurt only sustained minor injuries. He did not specify how many were hurt.

NLEX Corporation said on Twitter that the accident happened at around 4:30 p.m. At least seven vehicles crashed into each other on the expressway, grinding traffic to a standstill for around two hours.

Ignacio said a vehicle in front slowed down, and vehicles behind it were not able to step on the breaks in time, causing a pile-up.

Videos and photos of the accident on social media show a bus with a cracked windshield, while a tan van was seen standing at a nearly 90-degree angle at the tail-end of the pile-up.
No one has hiked every trail at every park in the East Bay counties.

Come this spring, Mark Brauer is on pace to complete a five-year quest to complete this mission, hiking thousands of miles at roughly 100 parks in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

This past week, Mark was out at Tilden Regional Park in the hills above Berkeley, and revealed his 10 favorite trails and what inspires him onward.

When youre out there, you discover things youve never heard of, he said. I love the Bay Area. If you love hiking, its a great place to live.

As a docent at Mount Diablo, I decided to hike all trails there. It was so much fun doing that, I said to myself, What will I do next? Well, it was cool discovering new places, so I thought, Maybe Ill do the whole East Bay Park District. This was working for me, so then I figured, Maybe Ill do the whole East Bay, all of Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

As a salesman, Brauer, 65, said it is a challenge to carve out time to do the hikes, but hes managed to do that by hitting a park or two every week. His wife, Sherry, daughter Katie and sons Kevin and Joey, occasionally join him on the trail.

We started taking our kids backpacking when they were 5 years old, he said. Weve been to 25 national parks. Its a big passion of ours. We love it for the fitness, the botany and the views.

Here are his 10 favorites, and why:

1. Grand Loop, Mount Diablo: Its amazing on a clear spring day, Brauer said. I generally start at the trailhead at Juniper Campgrounds. Its 6.8 miles, 1,800 feet of climbing, and you get the views, the challenge, circling the mountain.

2. Ohlone Wilderness Trail, Sunol: I love the feeling of being deep in the wilderness, far from civilization. Ohlone meets that requirement better than anywhere in the East Bay. I like to start at Sunol, go through Little Yosemite and along Alameda Creek (with all the people), then break off on Backpack Road to the Ohlone Wilderness Trail, where you get it all to yourself. Its gorgeous and awesome.

3. Maguire Peaks, Sunol: I only discovered Maguire Peaks a few years ago thanks to your column. Its just gorgeous, a beautiful hike, amazing wildflowers in the spring, nice loop around the peak. You get a glimpse to the north of little-season San Antonio Reservoir, he noted, and habitat to sight raptors.

4. Chaparral Loop, Black Diamond Mines: Brauer loves the ghost-town history of the park and the newly extended sand-mine tour, but his favorite is the Chaparral Loop Trail. It takes you above the valley past these cool weathered sandstone formations, he said. Its a couple miles with a little bit of climbing; anybody who loves to walk could do it. I love all the history, the cemetery and the stories.

5. Oursan Trail, Briones Reservoir: The Oursan Trail starts at the Overlook Staging Area, crosses the dam and then ventures into remote watershed lands north of Briones Reservoir. Its beautiful out there, Brauer said. I like to hike most in the spring, when its green, and I love the contrast of the greens, the hills and the water, and the views are expansive. It seems like theres never anybody out there.

6. Rocky Ridge, Las Trampas Regional Wilderness: Its a steep, 1,000-foot climb to 2,024-foot Rocky Ridge, where views across the South Bay emerge all at once. You can then turn and see across the Livermore Valley and across Mount Diablo. Spectacular views, Brauer said. I like climbing the Devils Hole Trail for a great workout.

7. Highland Ridge spurs, Morgan Territory: Brauers favorite trek at Morgan Territory is to take the Highland Ridge Trail, then bust out on spurs for ridge-top views. I love the size of the park, the views in every direction from the many ridge tops. Among his favorite spots are Bob Walker Ridge and the view of Los Vaqueros, and then nearby to the north, the long-distance view across the contiguous ridgeline to Mount Diablo.

8. Black Hills Trail, Los Vaqueros: For hikes at the Los Vaqueros Watershed, Brauer loves heading out from either side, from the John Muir Visitor Center out of Brentwood for Eagle Ridge, or out of the marina out of Livermore. From the latter, his favorite is the Black Hills Trail. I like the challenge, he said. Up on the ridge, the views are amazing, across the Central Valley out to the Sierra. The wildlife surprises in the watershed are a bonus, he said. I saw my first golden eagle here, Brauer said. I came around a bend and there it was, huge. Next time out, I saw 10 or 12 wild pigs at a cattle pond; surprised them.

9. East Flank Mission Peak: I know Mission Peak can be a madhouse on nice weekends, but its still a fun hike and a challenge with about 2,000 feet of climbing in 3 miles. And you get the killer views, of course. His preferred option is to hike in from Sunol and venture up the remote eastern flank. Ive done it twice, he said, and never saw a single person.

10. The next hike: Brauers excitement is ignited by what is coming. Next up: The permit-only/guided hike at Brushy Peak operated by the city of Livermore, Coyote Hills along the South Bay, a few permit-only hikes on EBMUD watershed lands, and the permit-only trek to Vasco Caves.

To crown his mission, he and daughter Katie will backpack the 28-mile Ohlone Wilderness Trail from Del Valle Regional Park to Mission Peak. It seems the perfect way to finish a dream, he said.

Tom Stienstra is The San Francisco Chronicles outdoors writer. Email: tstienstra@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @StienstraTom
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 16)  In a bid to assure her loved ones that all is well despite the coronavirus outbreak on board a luxury cruise ship, a Filipina crew member joined her colleagues on the vessel in dancing to a Justin Bieber song.

As they waited out the 14-day quarantine period on board the ship docked in Japan, Mae Fantillo of the Diamond Princess cruise ship uploaded on social media a video of her and her fellow crew members dancing to Bieber's "Yummy."

"We all know that we were facing a crisis here in Diamond Princess due to NCoV but hey we still managed to smile, laugh, and dance," Fantillo tweeted.

"For our family and friends to know that we were ok here, we will stand together as one until we finish the quarantine," she added.

The video, uploaded last February 14, has 1,600 retweets and over 4,500 likes as of this posting.

The video also garnered positive comments from netizens, including Bieber's manager Scooter Braun, after having a brief glimpse of their life on board.

"Thinking of you all and keeping you in our prayers. Keep dancing and smiling. Thank you! I'm passing this video on," Braun said on Twitter.

More than 3,700 passengers and crew are still stuck on the cruise ship with a total of 219 people testing positive for the novel coronavirus.

The novel coronavirus has now infected more than 69,000 people globally with its death toll at 1,669, including four people outside mainland China as of date.
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Strictly Come Dancing champion Kelvin Fletcher has been seen for the first time since being hit by claims he sent X-rated messages to another woman.

The Emmerdale star, 36, was spotted leaving his home with his wife Liz on Saturday, after sources claimed he sent lewd snaps to a blonde woman throughout his time on Strictly Come Dancing.

Kelvin was spotted heading out in the car with Liz and their children in tow, after the claims came nearly a week after he was spotted partying with his Strictly dance partner Oti Mabuse until 3am.

Out and about: Strictly Come Dancing champion Kelvin Fletcher has been seen for the first time since being hit by claims he sent X-rated messages to another woman

Heading out: The Emmerdale star was spotted leaving his home with his wife Liz (pictured) on Saturday, after sources claimed he sent messages to another woman

Kelvin cut a casual figure as he exited his home with his wife Liz close behind, following claims he sent X-rated messages to another woman behind her back.

On Saturday sources claimed to The Sun that Kelvin first began exchanging messages with the woman last year.

Alongside the texts, the actor allegedly send X-rated photographs and shirtless snaps to the woman in question, even while he was wowing viewers on Strictly.

Stepping out: Kelvin was spotted heading out in the car with Liz and their children in tow, after he was hit by the bold claims

Shocking: The claims came after the Emmerdale star put on a united display with his wife in a loved-up Instagram snap as they marked Valentine's Day on Friday

The source claimed: 'Kelvin has publicly and repeatedly insisted that he's not cheating on his wife with Oti.'

The source added: 'But for a year he has been sending graphic messages and images to a completely different woman.

'It's like he can't help himself. He said his high sex drive made it hard for him when he was away from home.'

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Kelvin Fletcher for comment.

Drama: It came after Liz unfollowed her husband Kelvin on Instagram after he was spotted enjoying a 3am nightcap with his Strictly dance partner Oti Mabuse (pictured) they have since put on a united front

It came after Kelvin put on a united display with his wife in a loved-up Instagram snap as they marked Valentine's Day on Friday, following the saga surrounding his 3am 'nightcap' with professional partner Oti.

The actor and Eliza beamed for the camera as they headed out on the school run, with Kelvin writing: 'Happy Valentines @eliza_marsland.'

This comes amid claims Strictly bosses are fearful Oti may quit after being left 'devastated' by the 3am nightcap saga, which saw her and Kelvin spotted on a late night out together.

A source told The Sun: 'Oti is a massive asset for the show. But at the moment she is very unhappy and upset at all the reports and has been left saying "do I really need all this BS?".

Drama: The fallout following the so-called nightcap saga has also reportedly sparked fears that Oti may quit Strictly (pictured on The Graham Norton Show on Friday)

'She is married and has a lot of respect for Kelvins wife and wouldnt carry on in this way. They are dance partners and friends and thats it. Some people close to Oti are worried she will just eventually throw her hands up and pack it in.

'She has a great TV career in her own right on the Greatest Dancer and there would be a queue of producers lining up to work with her.'

When contacted by MailOnline, representatives for Strictly Come Dancing declined to comment at the time.

The drama started when Liz decided to unfollow Kelvin on Instagram after it got 'too much' seeing the pictures of her husband out late at night.

Liz was reportedly 'upset and angry' her husband was pictured enjoying a night cap until 3am on Saturday morning with his dancer partner Oti.

A source told MailOnline: 'Naturally Liz wasn't happy after finding out Kelvin had been out late drinking with the Strictly lot.

'It wasn't easy for her to see him still out at 3:35am, while she's at home looking after their two young children. Any woman would be upset if they were in the same situation.

'In the heat of the moment she unfollowed him on Instagram, it was just a shock for her to see him out so late.'

Kelvin rushed home to reassure his wife and insisted the drama will 'all blow over'.

Speaking to The Sun, the Strictly Come Dancing 2019 winner said: 'Everything is amazing. I am just a little bit bewildered by all the attention. But I am sure it will all blow over.'

Kelvin and his wife put on a united display on Wednesday, with Liz wearing her wedding ring once again as they emerged from their family home together.
A woman who believed she was getting into a ride-hailing service car told police she was kidnapped by the driver in Boston Sunday morning.

The woman told police she was able to escape when the driver stopped for snacks at a gas station near the New Hampshire border.

Boston police received a report of an attempted kidnapping around 3 a.m. Sunday, according to a spokesman. The woman, who lives in Allston, told police she had been taken from the Faneuil Hall area.

The woman ordered Lyft ride home from the Faneuil Hall area around 1 a.m. She had been out with friends.

The womans phone died, but a group of men pointed out a silver or tan sedan to her and told her it was her ride home, police said. The woman got into rear of the vehicle. A man with a dark completion wearing a gray jacket was driving.

The man drove the woman north for 30 minutes, according to police.

The driver then stopped at a gas station near the New Hampshire border and went inside to get snacks. Another man then approached the victim.

Stay in the car, youre going to be fine, the second man allegedly said while trying to grab the womans cell phone.

The woman kicked open the door to the car and ran. She was able to flag a passing car. The man and woman in the car took her home, police said.

The woman told police she had not been assaulted and declined medical treatment.

Boston police continue to investigate the incident.

BPD Rideshare Safety Tips: How to Stay Safe When Using Rideshare Apps. https://t.co/MNjFbJuVoH pic.twitter.com/nEuQATzMoc  Boston Police Dept. (@bostonpolice) February 16, 2020

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Sanaa: Airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen killed more than 30 civilians in a mountainous northern province on Saturday, the UN humanitarian chief said, calling the attack "shocking".

The attack came hours after Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis, said they shot down a warplane of the Saudi-led coalition over the province of Jawf.

Yemeni Shiite Houthis protest against US President Donald Trump in Sanaa, Yemen, last month. Credit:AP

Saudi Arabia's state-run news agency quoted Colonel Turki al-Maliki, a spokesman for the coalition, as saying it was investigating "possible collateral damage" from a rescue operation in the area after the downing of the Tornado warplane late on Friday.

Al-Maliki was quoted as saying the plane was providing air support for Yemeni government forces fighting the Houthis.
Residents of a Queensland town two hours south-west of Brisbane have been allowed to return home on after earlier fears a dam could fail and cause "dangerous downstream flooding".

The Southern Downs Regional Council issued an emergency warning late on Friday after a resident spotted a 3.5-metre hole in the wall of the Bolzan Quarry Dam, north-west of Warwick.

A leak in the Bolzan Quarry Dam sparked emergency warnings.

After emergency repairs failed, social media posts and 5000 text messages were sent ordering the residents of 250 homes in low-lying parts of Talgai to evacuate immediately to "protect life".

Engineers spent the weekend inspecting the damage and police revoked the emergency warning at 5pm, Sunday.
OTTAWA - The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions is warning that the federal public health agency's guidelines to protect front-line health-care workers from outbreaks of diseases like the novel coronavirus don't go far enough, and might be putting them and patients at risk.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/2/2020 (695 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nurses' unions are warning the Canadian public health agency's guidelines to protect health care workers from the novel coronavirus don't go far enough, and may be putting them and patients at risk. In this illustration provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in January 2020 shows the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV). THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-CDC via AP, File

OTTAWA - The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions is warning that the federal public health agency's guidelines to protect front-line health-care workers from outbreaks of diseases like the novel coronavirus don't go far enough, and might be putting them and patients at risk.

The standards, which the Public Health Agency of Canada updated last week, lay out the precautions health-care workers should take when assessing and treating a patient with a possible case of the coronavirus, including what protective equipment should be used.

The public health agency has committed to updating the guidelines as they learn more about the disease the World Health Organization has named COVID-19, which has sickened more than 64,000 people worldwide.

Linda Silas, president of the labour organization, says the safety protocols are inadequate compared to those in Ontario and some other countries.

Silas said the standards assume the coronavirus can't spread through the air  rather than through droplets  but she contends the science isn't settled on that front and the government should be taking greater care until they can be 100 per cent sure.

"When we do not know, we have to go for the best precautions for workers," said Silas.

Nurses, doctors and other medical staff who come into contact with patients must be protected, not only for their own health but to stop the potential spread of the virus, she said.

"We need to make it clear that if health care workers are not safe, then patients are not safe," said Silas, who has written to federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu about her concerns.

The Ontario government released its own guidelines calling for constant use of disposable respirators when interacting with a potential coronavirus patient, while the federal guidelines require only a surgical mask unless certain medical procedures are being done.

The federal protocols are in line with the World Health Organization, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and its European counterpart have also recommended higher standards and a greater degree of precaution.

"In Canada the protection is much lower, and we will not accept that," Silas said.

She recommends all health care workers, regardless of where they are, follow the CDC or Ontario standards rather than the federal ones.

Other provinces are still developing their own protocols to respond to a potential coronavirus outbreak in Canada while others, like Manitoba, have opted to rely on the federal recommendations, leaving some health-care providers more protected than others, Silas said.

Theresa Tam, chief public health officer at the Public Health Agency of Canada, said on Saturday there are eight people in Canada who have tested positive for the virus, following news on Friday that a new case was discovered in British Columbia.

There have been three cases in Ontario and five in B.C., pending confirmation of the latest case by a laboratory.

The Public Health Agency of Canada was created in the wake of the SARS outbreak in 2003.

Mario Possamai, the former senior adviser on occupational health and safety matters for the SARS Commission, a judicial inquiry into how Ontario handled the deadly outbreak, said the federal public health agency is failing to learn from the experience of the province.

Nearly half of the 247 cases in Ontario affected nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, cleaners or other front-line workers.

"The SARS outbreak was 17 years ago, and I can't believe they haven't learned," he said.

The final report of the SARS inquiry described a tale of two cities  Vancouver and Toronto  with afflicted patients arriving at hospital within hours of one another.

The Vancouver patient was put into isolation within two-and-a-half hours of being admitted and treated by health-care professionals with respiratory protection.

In contrast, a similar patient in Toronto wasn't isolated for 21 hours, and doctors wouldn't start wearing respirators for weeks.

The report concluded that the procedures in place helped to save British Columbia from a major outbreak, while Ontario was thrown into a full public health crisis.

Millions of dollars have been dispatched by governments around the world so global researchers can answer some of the lingering questions about the coronavirus, but until the science is settled lives could be saved by preparing for the worst-case scenario, Possamai said.

"That's why I'm so passionate about this, and so concerned," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 16, 2020.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version had an outdated number of COVID-19 cases in Canada.
(Newser)  If you're an Alabama male of a certain (middle) age and haven't gotten around to planning that family you've always wanted, you might want to step to it. That's according to a most-unlikely-to-pass bill put forth by Rep. Rolanda Hollis that would require all men to undergo a vasectomy at age 50 or "after the birth of his third biological child, whichever comes first"and foot the bill, to boot. Hollis' point here isn't so much late fatherhood or population control, but highlighting the state's abortion ban, which eliminates abortion in all cases but endangering the life of the mother, notes ABC News. "Many have seen HB-238 as an outrageous overstep; yet, year after year the majority party continues to introduce new legislation that tries to dictate a woman's body and her reproductive rights. We should view this as the same outrageous overstep in authority," Hollis says. (Read more vasectomy stories.)
LAS VEGAS (AP) - When the Bernie Sanders for President campaign set up shop in Las Vegas last July, its first move was to open an office in the citys east side, the heart of the Latino community. Staffers decorated the stark space with brightly colored paper banners known as "papel picado" and threw an office opening party with a mariachi band and appearance from Sanders himself.

Three times a day canvassers spill out of its doors to walk the streets, knocking on doors, calling out at neighbors in Spanish and talking up Sanders - or as he is known to some Latino supporters, "Tio Bernie."

A self-declared socialist from Vermont, Sanders is sometimes pigeon-holed as the hero to white college students and lefty boomers. But his campaign believes his outreach to diverse voters, especially Latinos in places like east Las Vegas, will be the secret to his success.

That focus was clear Saturday, as early voting kicked off in Nevada. Sanders' campaign hired a truck with an electronic billboard on the back to drive around east Las Vegas, encouraging Sanders supporters to go cast early caucus ballots.

Four years ago, Sanders' failure to muster enough support from minority voters was partly to blame for his losing the Democratic nomination. This time around, he has transformed his outreach to Hispanic voters, hiring high-level Latino advisers, beefing up Spanish-speaking canvassing and digging deep into Latino neighborhoods to find voters open to his populist message.

There are signs that Sanders work has begun to pay off. In Iowa, Sanders won two-thirds of the roughly 1,000 votes at caucus locations in majority Latino areas, according to a study by professors at the University of California-Los Angeles. While reliable polling on Latinos is scarce, a Fox News survey of Nevada Democrats in early January found Sanders had stronger support among Latinos than among whites in the state, tying Biden for the lead among the group.

Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., greets supporters during a rally at the Mesquite Arena, Friday, Feb. 14, 2020, in Mesquite, Texas. (Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News via AP)

But the first real test of the strategy is Nevada's caucus on Feb. 22, the third contest on the presidential nominating calendar and the first with a sizable population of Latino voters. Following quickly are California and Texas, states that are 40% Hispanic and represent nearly half the delegates up for grabs on so-called Super Tuesday on March 3. Arizona and Florida vote two weeks later. Strength among Latino voters could serve as a solid foundation of support that helps Sanders rack up delegates deep into the nomination process.

Leslye Olivas and her fiance, Miguel Jaramillo, stood holding signs reading "Families Belong Together" at a Sanders rally Saturday in a high school gym as a quartet of guitarists played mariachi music to warm up the crowd. Olivas, 25, who works as an office administrator at a casino, said her support of Sanders comes from "his consistency and he's persisted. He has a lot of track record of wanting to help minorities and help everyone."

The affection has been somewhat surprising for some Latinos activists who were frustrated with Sanders after he helped kill a 2007 immigration bill, warning it would drive down wages. But for many Latinos, like other voters, their knowledge of Sanders starts with the 2016 run, when he championed immigrant rights and promised an economic revolution.

"I just feel hes very fair, what hes running for and how hes running," said Eloisa Sandoval, a college student in Las Vegas who recently welcomed Sanders canvassers to her yard and signed a card pledging to caucus for him. She said Sanders' proposal for free college "would be fantastic."

Sanders' emphasis on good jobs, single-payer health care and free college comes up constantly with voters, said Susana Cervantes, his Nevada field director.

"Almost every parents dream, especially immigrants, is for their children to access higher education. It represents social mobility, social economic mobility and its a part of the American dream," she said.

It wasn't enough for Sanders to win Nevada in 2016. In its post-defeat autopsy, Sanders' campaign found it had won the votes of Latinos in almost every state it competed, albeit sometimes narrowly, said Chuck Rocha, a senior Sanders strategist. It decided to build on that foundation.

In his 2020 announcement speech, he stressed his impoverished parents' immigrant roots to draw a connection with Latino voters only a generation or two away from the immigrant experience. The campaign recruited high-profile surrogates like New York Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez - who held a Spanish-language town hall in Nevada late last year - and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz. It marshaled Latino supporters from around the country to send text messages in Spanish to Latinos in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, the four early states.

The campaign hired Latinos in high positions across every department, Rocha said. It spent millions of dollars on bilingual communications. Those ads landed on the Latin pop Pandora channels that young Latinos might listen to, but also the weekly Spanish-language newspapers and Univision current affairs shows their parents or grandparents read and watch. It all cultivated the image of Sanders as part of the family - a "tio" or uncle - as the popular campaign shirt read.

Other campaigns have taken notice. Rep. Tony Cardenas of California has endorsed Joe Biden and predicts Latinos will rally around a proven leader like the former vice president. But he said Sanders' outreach has been noticeable.

"Hes going to do better with the Latino community than he did four years ago," Cardenas said.

Latinos do not vote as a solid bloc. Families in the Southwest who have lived in the country for centuries often vote differently from recent arrivals in the Midwest or Cuban immigrants in Florida and New Jersey whose experience with socialist leaders abroad can make them especially suspicious of a candidate who describes himself, as Sanders does, as a socialist.

In 2018, Latinos comprised about 11% of the Democratic electorate. About two-thirds of Latino voters backed Democratic candidates in the midterms, according to AP VoteCast, a national survey of voters in that election.

And though Sanders' team believes its candidate has forged a bond with Latinos, polls show they tend to be more centrist than non-Hispanic Democrats.

"Theyre still more moderate and make the Democratic electorate more moderate than in some other states," said Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, who noted that many Latinos in his state would not identify as progressives, much less socialists.

But Sanders competition for these voters is intensifying quickly. Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg recently began his own effort, "Ganamos con Mike," or "We Win with Mike." Bloomberg has used his personal fortune to air Spanish-language spots from Puerto Rico to California. Meanwhile, Biden has racked up endorsements from several Latino members of congress. Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, coming off a virtual first-place tie with Sanders in Iowa and a strong second-place finish in New Hampshire, has ramped up his outreach to all voters uncomfortable with Sanders' liberal positions, including his "Medicare for All" proposal, and is running Spanish-language ads in Nevada, as is billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer.

But for some voters, including Jose Silva, a 20-year-old student who works with an environmental nonprofit in Las Vegas, Sanders has already closed the deal.

Silva immigrated from Mexico and became a citizen last year. After turning out for Sanders rally with Ocasio-Cortez in December, he celebrated what he said felt like a truly diverse campaign.

"These ideals that he has arent just for old white people. Theyre for all colors," Silva said.

__

Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Olivia Knight, 13, holds a sign in Tagalog, a language from the Philippine Islands, meaning "Let's Unite for Bernie" during a Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., rally at the Mesquite Arena, Friday, Feb. 14, 2020, in Mesquite, Texas. (Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News via AP)
As efforts to deepen the penetration of Information Technology (IT) across the country intensifies, the Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Abdullahi, has said maintaining databases could be an avenue foreign direct investment.

He stated this in Abuja while participating in the Topping-up Ceremony of Technology Building at the National Headquarters of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

The Director-General of NITDA applauded the effort of the NIS boss towards the actualization of the Technology Building Database which will serve as a ware-house for data.

He said maintaining the database here will provide better access to information rather than hosting it at the off shore of the country.

Mr Abdullahi said the present administration, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, has been pursuing digitalization of the Immigration services in its operations.

And, for such to be actualized, the first step is to have the infrastructure in place which will aid efforts towards the growth and development of the nation,he added.

Mr Inuwa stated that NITDA is always ready and elated to collaborate with the NIS towards this gigantic achivement that will make the country a safe haven for investment, bringing about Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

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In his welcome address, the Comptroller General, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Muhammed Babandede, said the technology building, when completed, will serve as the warehouse for various database as well as a command and control center which will be services hub for vital information sharing with other relevant agencies within the country.

In this building, we can see our borders; we can see what is happening in all the borders online, we can see documentations of passengers at point of arrival and departure, the comptroller-general said.

The future is here. All our technology will be connected and will be shared real time with all our security partners and sister security agencies, he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 06:00:19|Editor: yan

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SANAA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- An airstrike in the Yemeni northeastern province of al-Jawf on Saturday killed at least 31 civilians and injured 12 others, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen said in a statement.

"We share our deep condolences with the families of those killed and we pray for the speedy recovery of everyone who has been injured in these terrible strikes," Lise Grande said in the statement obtained by Xinhua.

"Under international humanitarian law parties which resort to force are obligated to protect civilians. Five years into this conflict and belligerents are still failing to uphold this responsibility," she added.

The victims were killed in the airstrike that targeted a gathering of people at the site where a Tornado warplane of the Saudi-led coalition crashed in al-Masloub district in the southwest of al-Jawf, according to a local tribal source.

The victims were members of three relative families, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The strike came hours after the Houthi rebels claimed to have shot down the Tornado warplane.

Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition confirmed that a Tornado warplane crashed in al-Jawf during an operation to support Yemen's government forces.

The coalition held Houthis responsible for the lives and safety of the plane's crew, according to a statement carried by the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television.

The Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the Iran-allied Houthi rebels since its intervention in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 to support the internationally-recognized government of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Sarah Ristevski isn't 'emotionally ready' to accept her father brutally killed her mother - and insists she will love and support him when he walks free from prison.

She spoke publicly about Karen Ristevski's death for the first time on Channel Nine's 60 Minutes on Sunday night, nearly four years after her father Borce Ristevski killed her at their Melbourne home and dumped her body in bushland.

'I don't like to talk about what happened. We don't talk about it. We don't think about it,' she said during the interview, at times fighting back tears and always maintaining she would stand by her father.

'Even though he's pleaded guilty I find it hard to comprehend that he is guilty. I think if he were in my position he would support me.'

Miss Ristevski said Borce would have her continued support when he was freed from prison.

'He's my father. I have one parent left... I loved him before, I love him now and I'll love him in 11 years when he's home,' she said.

'When you're in my position, I think when your mind is all over the place  different things (like) how my mum died. It's not on my I just can't go there.

'My heart is saying, I can't comprehend. I can't think about why my mum died.'

Pictured: Sarah with her father, Borce, as a young girl. She said she has always loved her father and always will

While she stood by the wife-killer, who last year shocked Australia with an 11th hour guilty plea to manslaughter, a renowned psychologist believes Miss Ristevski is under her father's spell.

Criminal behavioural analyst Laura Richards told the program Miss Ristevski's unwavering support suggests she has been manipulated.

'I believe that Sarah has been in a bubble, in a vacuum, in a highly unusual situation, he's the one in her ear constantly,' she said.

Karen was killed by her husband at their home Avondale Heights, Melbourne, in June 2016.

He feigned innocence, lied to the police, the public and his daughter, and even carried his wife's coffin at her funeral, until admitting to manslaughter on the eve of his murder trial in 2019.

In the 60 Minutes interview, which reportedly earned her a six figure pay packet, Miss Ristevski said she 'wouldn't go there' when further pressed on her father's guilt.

Borce Ristevski and his daughter Sarah in 2016 before he was convicted of killing his wife

British psychologist and criminal behavioural analyst Laura Richards believes Miss Ristevski has been manipulated

But Ms Richards believes Miss Ristevski will one day come to terms with what her father did to her mother - and all that he deprived her of in the process.

'As contact lessens between [Borce] and [Sarah], as her relationships strengthen with other people, [she] will think of things in a very different way. ''How could he have done this? How could he deprive me of my mother?'' And suddenly these emotions come to the fore. And I believe that that will happen,' she said.

The graphic designer still speaks with and visits her father in prison. She said they discussed her 60 Minutes interview - the first she's offered since her mother's death.

She denied she was 'under his spell' and said the interview was an opportunity to speak her truth.

'He tells me I'm my own person and that's how he raised me. For the interview, he told me to just be truthful and be myself. That's all he asked,' she said.

Pictured: Sarah with her parents Borce and Karen during happier times. Borce has since confessed to the killing of Karen

Karen Ristevski's 24-year-old daughter Sarah has spoken publicly for the first time about her mother's brutal death

Miss Ristevski famously stood by her father even when he pleaded guilty to killing her mother after three gruelling years of denying any involvement.

He has never offered any further details about her death.

She opted against providing the court a victim impact statement for the loss of her mother and instead offered a glowing character reference for her father to 'highlight the man she knows'.

The 24-year-old said she had no desire to help the officers who had been horrible to her by providing a victim impact statement, and said when she and her father initially tried to report her mother missing, they were dismissed by officers.

At the time, both she and her father were worried, but they were told Karen was likely 'playing the pokies' and to get in contact again if they hadn't heard from her by midnight.

Miss Ristevski also used the interview as an opportunity to rubbish rumours her step-brother had a romantic relationship with her mother.

'It could never be true... It is unforgivable,' she said of the claims before confirming she no longer has a relationship with her brother.

She has since insisted she can 'see the sadness [Borce feels] at the loss of my mum'.

'We both have the same amount of sadness. He loved my mum... He misses her every day,' she said while holding back tears.

Dress shop owner Karen disappeared from the family home in Avondale Heights, north-west Melbourne, on June 29, 2016. Pictured with Borce and Sarah

Ristevski was jailed last April for at least six years after admitting to the manslaughter of his wife of 27 years.

Police revealed they had tapped phone conversations during the investigation which formed part of a 22,000-page evidence brief.

When Sarah asked her father where her mum was on the day of her disappearance, he told her she had gone for a walk after an argument. She said she could tell he was worried.

'I felt like we were just zombies, just not sleeping, not eating, we just paused in that day. It just felt like we were trapped in a nightmare,' Sarah told the program on Sunday night.

In December, Karen's family's appeal over the sentence was successful and Ristevski's jail term was extended to 13 years, ten without the chance for parole.

Miss Ristevski said despite her father serving a sentence, she feels like her life, too, has been put on hold.

Borce Ristevski, 55, killed his wife Karen (left) at their home Avondale Heights, Melbourne, in June 2016, before dumping her body in a regional park. Pictured with their daughter Sarah, who was 21 at the time

'My dad is serving the time but I am as well... The realisation that I'm kind of alone.'

She eventually confessed that she did once ask her father if he had hurt her mother, but said he denied any involvement in her death.

'He's my dad, so nothing's changed,' she said. 'I don't know what to believe.'

Miss Ristevski tries her best to avoid thinking about her mother's death at all.

'I hate thinking about what's happened. I'd rather think of the better times. I just think its tiring,' she said. 'I can't move forward if I'm stuck in the past.'

Her life goal, she said, is to make both of her parents proud.

Borce Ristevski (pictured) was a pallbearer at the funeral of his wife Karen in March 2017
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Linkedin Lenka Ponikelska (Bloomberg)  Sun, February 16, 2020 07:06 695 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2064c4c70 2 News Prague,Airbnb,travel Free

Prague is widening its campaign to put the brakes on Airbnb and other holiday rental websites, which they say are locking locals out of the housing market and changing the face of neighborhoods.

The Czech capital this week approved a plan that calls for legislative changes allowing local authorities to restrict short leases, improve tax collection and force the platforms to share more details about its users, including the number of guests during a stay. The city is cooperating with the national government and will try to push the changes through parliament this year.

We just have to be able to counter the adverse effects of the boom of short-time rentals through digital platforms for citizens whether it is the touristification of neighborhoods, rising rents or lack of housing, said Hana Kordova Marvanova, who prepared the proposal. Unfortunately, the current legislation does not give us means to address the issue.

Prague has debated for years whether to apply stricter rules to rein in Airbnb. The issue has intensified lately due to ballooning Airbnb rentals in Prague and growing complaints from citizens about noise, damage to historical buildings and rising rents. The city is also battling a housing crisis as apartments are taken off the market by owners jumping into short-term rental craze, mirroring a growing trend across Europe.

Airbnb response

Airbnb disputed the claim that the system overloads the housing market and pushes out locals. Company spokeswoman Kirstin Macleod said a 2018 study by the Czech Center for Economic and Market Analysis concluded that Airbnb accomodation was equivalent to just 1.8 percent of the citys total housing stock.

Nevertheless, the company takes local concerns seriously, she said in an emailed response to questions from Bloomberg, and is willing to work with all parties in Prague and across the globe to make home sharing viable and safe.

Recently, we have approached the City of Prague on several occasions, Macleod said, and offered to work together on a similar partnership and we are hopeful that we can find a common solution in future.

Another study in the same year by the Planning and Development Institute of Prague, however, concluded that as many as a fifth of all apartments in the capitals Old Town district, and 10 percent in the surrounding areas are listed on the site. Some 80 percent of listings are entire apartments, according to the study.

Read also: Laid-back hostel in Prague among best for solo travelers

Joining forces

So far, Prague has been unsuccessful in regulating the holiday rental site and similar efforts have previously failed to gain the support of lawmakers. Kordova Marvanova also said that previous talks with Airbnb didnt bring any feasible results for the city.

It has now joined forces with the Ministry of Local Development to finalize the proposals before going to parliament. City officials are also holding talks with the Czech Chamber of Commerce and counterparts in Cesky Krumlov, a southern Bohemian town also heavily hit by over-tourism.

There is an overwhelming agreement that we need the platforms to share information with us, Kordova Marvanova said.

If the amendments are passed, Airbnb-type platforms will have to provide municipalities with detailed information regarding units being used in the business, sharing basic host data and the number of guests. According to Kordova Marvanova, the capital led unsuccessful negotiations with Airbnb about providing the data.

Other proposals still have to be further discussed with the ministry. The city also proposes giving local authorities rights to ban renting whole flats as opposed to single rooms, limit the number of rented days or subject the apartments for rent to stricter fire safety rules.

Pragues council approved a move to join 10 European cities - Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Bordeaux, Brussels, Krakow, Munich, Paris, Valencia and Vienna -- that signed a letter calling on the European Commission to update its laws as part of a battle to control the sites.

Topics : Prague Airbnb travel
ISLAMABAD (AP) - The U.N. Secretary General called Pakistan "a reliable and generous partner" for hosting millions of Afghan refugees on Sunday, pointing out that the South Asian county has had to do so with little support from the international community.

Antonio Guterres arrived earlier in the day on a four day visit to Islamabad, where he will address an international conference on what are decades of refugees fleeing conflict in neighboring Afghanistan.

"Pakistan is today the world's second largest host of refugees," the U.N. chief said.

"Despite its own challenges Pakistan has sheltered and protected Afghan refugees with limited support from international community," he added.

Guterres called on other countries to support Pakistan and show similar leadership in handling refugee flows in South Asia and around the world.

Speaking in Islamabad, the secretary general also expressed his "deep concern" over the situation in Kashmir. Control of the Himalayan province is split between India and Pakistan. Both countries claim it in its entirety, and they have fought two of their three wars over the territory.

Guterres stressed the urgency to "de-escalate both militarily and verbally" tensions across the highly militarized frontier between Indian- and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said he highlighted his government's concerns over New Delhi's actions in Indian-controlled Kashmir and its decision to strip the region of its semi-autonomous status.

"The policy of diplomacy and dialogue remains the only tools and guarantee for peace and stability," said Guterres.
The Calcutta High Court has directed the Reserve Bank of India to consider appropriate steps against Bank of Baroda (BoB), including revoking its licence or authority to carry on with banking business, if necessary, for failing to honour a bank guarantee given by a third party to Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL).

In a matter relating to an appeal by BoB against IOCL, a division bench comprising justices Sanjib Banerjee and Kaushik Chanda took up a cross-objection by respondent IOCL on February 10, immediately after dismissing the appeal by BoB for default, since the appellants could not proceed with the matter.

The oil company told the court that it had entered into an agreement with Simplex Projects Limited in 2017 for undertaking certain work at the Bongaigaon facility of IOCL in Assam.

In terms of such agreement, IOCL was obliged to make a mobilisation advance against a bank guarantee, while Simplex was also required to furnish a bank guarantee on account of security deposit, the court noted.

IOCL submitted that the agreement between it and Simplex envisaged the furnishing of a bank guarantee equivalent to 110 per cent of the security deposit if a combined bank guarantee on account of security deposit and mobilisation advance were to be furnished.

An unconditional bank guarantee was furnished by the appellants herein on behalf of Simplex for about Rs 6.97 crore, the court noted.

According to IOCL, despite Simplex being given 50 per cent of the mobilisation advance, no work was forthcoming.

After IOCL issued several notices to Simplex which went unheeded, the oil PSU invoked the bank guarantee, the oil PSU told the court.

It was submitted on behalf of IOCL that notwithstanding the bank having no right to stall immediate payment upon the invocation of an unconditional bank guarantee, the bank in this case sought some time.

Simplex had then instituted proceedings under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 before the Delhi High Court by virtue of an arbitration agreement contained in the matrix contract between IOCL and Simplex.

IOCL further submitted that despite Simplex failing to obtain any order in such proceedings and the Delhi High Court observing that the bank guarantee was unconditional and payment thereunder could not be avoided once the guarantee was invoked, an appeal was preferred which was withdrawn by or about June 1, 2018.

The bank, however, refused to release the payment in terms of the unconditional guarantee on the ground that the money may not have been made available by Simplex to the bank, IOCL told the division bench of justices Banerjee and Chanda.

IOCL said that it was in such circumstances that IOCL was constrained to invoke the writ jurisdiction of this court for a direction on the BoB to release the payment under the unconditional bank guarantee.

IOCL maintained that in such circumstances and considering the conduct of BoB, an appropriate order ought to have been passed to revoke its licence since it had acted in a manner unbecoming of a bank, a nationalised bank at that.

The division bench, in its order, said that "considering the conduct of the appellants, the Reserve Bank of India should consider what appropriate steps may be taken against the Bank of Baroda, including revoking its licence or the authority to carry on banking business, if necessary.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Heathrow airport was thrown into chaos this evening after its essential electronic departure boards failed across all terminals for more than three hours, causing delays and cancellations.

The UK's busiest airport said the failure was caused by 'technical issues' and wheeled out whiteboards with flight information written on them in black board marker.

Furious passengers described standing in queues for hours, sitting in planes idling on the tarmac and an absence of staff on social media as airport staff scrambled to get the boards working.

The airport's IT system came back online late this evening, less than ten minutes before the last flight of the day was scheduled to take off.

Heathrow airport's departure screens failed at all terminals this evening, the airport said. They were restored tonight ten minutes before the final scheduled flight was due to depart

Staff were forced to wheel out whiteboards with flight destinations and times written on them as a replacement

A note was also placed on a board that appeared to be working telling travellers not to rely on any information displayed by the board

Heathrow airport told MailOnline when its screens failed: 'We are experiencing technical issues at the airport which we are working hard to resolve.

'To help direct customers to their gates, we have deployed additional Heathrow colleagues across our terminals. We apologise for the disruption and will continue to provide regular updates.'

Some electronic boards and check in systems were impacted, with passengers advised to check their airline apps for the latest information.

British Airways cancelled at least twenty flights due to the disruption, and offered customers refunds or a place on the next available flight to their destination. Other flights also experienced cancellations and delays.

Flights were also disrupted this weekend due to Storm Dennis.

The IT glitch has affected all four Heathrow terminals. Terminal one was taken out of operation in 2015.

Frustrated passengers complained about a lack of staff at the airport to support them

Whiteboards displaying flight numbers and destinations have been pictured on social media, while a note saying 'do not rely on any information on this board' was placed on a board that appeared to be working.

A video showed BA staff updating flight information by rubbing out pen markings and writing on new ones.

Holidaymakers trying to escape the UK for the half term period and travellers took to social media to vent their anger and frustration.

One wrote: 'IT in London Heathrow down. All screens black and no one has an idea on which gates the flights are.'

A second tweeted: 'No Heathrow colleagues to be seen and customer service desks closed!

And a third said: 'Computer systems down at Heathrow. No electronic tickets allowed, delays and no flight information on screens... Oh Blighty...'

One woman was shepherded out of a news report by Heathrow staff as she explained she had watched her flight depart after being unable to find its gate due to the IT glitch.

Passengers shown sitting on seats at a Heathrow departure lounge as the screen remains black

Heathrow's terminal five is pictured above in March 2013 (stock image)

A customer said staff were yelling instructions at people due to the board failure, in a video posted on Twitter.

An announcement played over the airport speakers said: 'We would like to apologise for the inconvenience we have caused you today and would like to thank you for your continued patience.'

Other passengers appear to be stuck on the tarmac. One wrote: 'Flight BA461 arrived on the tarmac of Heathrow over 30 minutes ago.

'Can we please either dock with a terminal or you send a bus to collect your passengers and staff? This delay is growing into unnecessary territory.'

Another said she had been stuck inside an airplane for 'three hours' after landing.

British Airways said in a statement: 'Heathrow Airport is currently experiencing technical issues that are impacting its IT systems across all terminals and affecting a number of airlines. Heathrow are working to resolve the issues that has caused disruption to our customers.

'We've introduced a flexible booking policy and have brought in extra colleagues to help our customers, providing them with overnight accommodation if needed.'

A stranded passenger who missed her flight due to the glitch talks to BBC News

Customer advice service Which? said passengers affected by the disruption at Heathrow should have access to 'food, refreshments and overnight accommodation for long delays'.

'If a flight is cancelled or delayed by more than five hours and you decide not to travel, you should also be offered an alternative flight or a refund,' they said.

'Those who do miss flights because gate information wasn't available should be offered help by their airline to get to their destination on the next flight.'

Heathrow Airport said at 10.30pm that its IT had been restored, and that a normal service is expected tomorrow morning.

However, owing to the glitch and disruption caused by the storm, some crew and aircraft may remain out of place causing further delays. Heathrow Express is expected to run a late service until 23:45 this evening.

'Todays technical issue has now been resolved and Heathrows systems are returning to normal. We apologise for the inconvenience this has caused our passengers,' they said.

'Our teams will continue to monitor our systems and will be on hand across our terminals to provide assistance to passengers as we work to resume our regular operations.'
Amid the crucial Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meet on terror financing in Paris, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has accused Pakistan of its failure to take concrete steps against terrorism.

While meeting Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker and a number of other members of the US House of Representatives on the sideline of the 56th Munich Security Conference, President Ghani said: "We haven't seen any notable developments and concrete anti-terrorism step taken by Pakistan."

He said the Taliban's sanctuaries remain a dilemma that must be addressed.

Ghani stressed that the Taliban are still engaged in drug trafficking while discussing the issue with the US Congressional delegation.

They discussed a range of issues pertaining to security, peace process and President Ghani's prospect on it, Afghanistan's fight against narcotics and terrorist groups, where terrorism was termed as a common threat to the region as well as Afghanistan's allies.

President Ghani elucidated the Afghan government's vision and commitment for sustainable and inclusive peace, with an emphasis on protecting the hard-earned gains of the past two decades.

The President provided information on the Afghan government's economic plans and answered questions raised by the US Senators on the reduction of American troops in Afghanistan and its impacts as well as aftermaths in the region and Afghanistan.

He said the Afghan defence and security forces are leading 94 per cent of the operations and the forces are capable enough to defend their people and homeland.

Having talked over the peace process, the president said the potential threats and opportunities must be precisely evaluated, adding that the government of Afghanistan has the determination, wisdom and capability to analyse the opportunities appropriately in order to bring sustainable peace to the country.

The participants also discussed ensuring the interests of Afghanistan and the United States. "We are still confronting a medium to long-term common threats that require joint commitment to tackle them," Ghani said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Multiple rockets hit near US embassy in Baghdad

International

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Baghdad, Feb 16: Several rockets hit the US embassy in Iraq's capital early Sunday. Reports while citing US military officials said that this is the 19th attack against US assets in the country since last October.

Following the attack, warning sirens were heard blaring across the high security diplomatic compound. However it was unclear as to what was hit and how many rockets had made the impact.

Rocket attack hits north Iraq base hosting US troops

Multiple strong explosions were heard, which was followed by aircraft circling near the Green Zone, which is the high security enclave where the US embassy is located.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Sunday, February 16, 2020, 8:13 [IST]
Moroccos exports of agro-food products reached around 3.1 million tons during the 2018-2019 campaign in terms of volume, the first time in history, according to the Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture.

Exports of agro-food products recorded a growth of 97% with share of about 21% compared the total exports of Morocco during the 2010-2018, the Ministry of Agriculture said.

The revenues from export of agro-food products increased from MAD 29.3 billion in 2010 to 57.7 billion ($5.97 billion) in 2018.

The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) says that Agriculture is highly important to the economy and people of Morocco.

FAO also notes that the sector contributes about 20 percent to GDP and 30 percent to export earnings. Agriculture according to the global body absorbs approximately 40 percent of the total active population in Morocco and 80 percent of the rural workforce.

The National Union of Associations of the wholesale markets of vegetables and fruits of Morocco says that the industry generates more than MAD 350 million annually.

According to the Unions Vice President Abdelhafid El Ouardani, Morocco has 38 structured wholesale fruit and vegetable markets, which employ more than 4,700 personnel.

Wholesale markets constitute a marketing space for the products of thousands of farmers, he noted.

Morocco, identifying agriculture as the leading engine of economic growth, launched in 2008, the Green Morocco Plan (Plan Maroc Vert, PMV).

In a follow-up to the Green Morocco Plan that fulfilled most of its goals, Morocco adopted a new strategy to promote farming, dubbed the Green Generation 2020-2030.

The new strategy, launched on Thursday by King Mohammed VI from the Souss Massa region, is meant to give a new momentum to the development of Moroccan farming, create jobs, promote income generating activities in the rural world and contribute to the emergence of an agricultural middle class.

The new farming strategy builds on achievements accomplished by Green Morocco Plan, which boosted agricultural exports, investments, created more job openings, improved resilience of agriculture against droughts and contributed to the expansion of small and medium agribusiness.

The Green Morocco plan helped double the sectors contribution to GDP, add 1.5m jobs, increase the sectors export value to Dh44bn ($4.55 billion) and make headway in the battle against poverty.

In addition, the value of agriculture and food exports has grown significantly, reaching Dh57.7bn ($5.97bn) in 2018.
Fairbanks, AK (99707)

Today

Cloudy with snow showers becoming a steady light snow later. High 4F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 70%. Snow accumulations less than one inch..

Tonight

Cloudy with snow showers mainly during the evening. Low 2F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 60%. About one inch of snow expected.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, center, at a Joint Armed Forces of the Philippines-Philippine National Police Command Conference in Manila, January 7, 2020.

Associated Press

The Philippine president has announced his intention to withdraw from the Visiting Forces Agreement that facilitates the US military presence in his country.

The actual end of that pact is still a long way off, but similar decisions in the past left Manila in a weaker position to counter China's ambitions in the region.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte followed through on numerous threats to end his country's Visiting Forces Agreement with the US on Tuesday, notifying Washington of his intent to withdraw, triggering a 180-day countdown.

On Friday, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said he thought the two sides could reach a political resolution, but recent history suggests the pact's demise could be an opportunity for China in a strategically valuable region.

Since taking office in 2016, Duterte has repeatedly criticized the US and US officials. The US, which ruled the Philippines as a colony in the first half of the 20th century, remains close with the Philippines and is very popular there  as is Duterte, who had 87% approval in December.

But the Philippine president nevertheless decided to end the VFA, with his spokesman saying it was "time we rely on ourselves" and that the country "will strengthen our own defenses and not rely on any other country."

While President Donald Trump said he didn't "really mind," the US Embassy in the Philippines said it would "carefully consider how best to move forward," and Defense Secretary Mark Esper said it was "a move in the wrong direction."

Asked on Friday about the decision, McCarthy touted US-Philippine ties.

A Philippine marine looks through the sights on a US Marine Corps M777 towed 155 mm howitzer at Colonel Ernesto Ravina Air Base in the Philippines, during exercise KAMANDAG 3, October 12, 2019.

US Marine Corps/Staff Sgt. Donald Holbert

Washington and Manila have "a long history" of working "very hard together" and of "very strong" military-to-military relations, McCarthy told an audience at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. "We have about 175 days to work through this diplomatically. I think we can drive forward to an end state that will work out for all of us politically."

Story continues

The US and the Philippines are also bound by the Mutual Defense Treaty and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, but ending the VFA would undercut those and the legal standing US forces have when in the Philippines.

The latter effect would endanger hundreds of military exercises and other military cooperation. US Special Forces troops have been stationed in the Philippines to help fight ISIS-linked militants, and the US military has trained there with other countries in the region. The Philippines has also hosted US troops deployed as part of Pacific Pathways, which is meant to allow US and forces in the region to build stronger partnerships and readiness.

Asked about the effect of the VFA withdrawal on US basing and training, McCarthy said Friday that "conversations are underway" particularly among the White House and State Department.

"The VFA, by changing that would change basically the freedoms that you have to do the training," McCarthy said, "but this is a very close ally, and we would work through that, but it's basically [changing] the protocols of how you would work together if it actually goes through."

Day 181

US Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jovanny Rios guides a Philippine marine in a combat life-saver drill during KAMANDAG 2, in the Naval Education Training Center, Zambales, Philippines, October 2, 2018.

US Marine Corps/Pfc. Christian Ayers

There a number of reasons the VFA may ultimately survive. Philippine military and security forces value the relationship, under which they receive military assistance, training, education, and weapons.

Philippine officials have suggested a need to review the VFA "to address matters of sovereignty" but have stopped short of advocating withdrawal. Duterte's foreign secretary also indicated on Tuesday that the announcement should be seen as a jumping-off point for such negotiations, saying "other reactions have been idiotic."

But it's not the first time the Philippines has pulled out of this kind of deal. In 1991, it did not renew a mutual basing agreement, leading to the closure of Naval Base Subic Bay, the largest US base in the Pacific, and the withdrawal of US forces.

Manila "quickly discovered that after it did that it was rendered largely defenseless with its limited military capabilities, and China actually started taking very bold actions in the South China Sea, including the occupation of the Mischief Reef," Prashanth Parameswaran, a senior editor at The Diplomat, said on The Diplomat podcast.

"We're now left in a situation where we're not just hypothetically talking about what might happen," Parameswaran added. "We actually have a historical record about what happens when the alliance goes through periods like this."

Duterte has won concessions on other issues by pushing on Washington, Parameswaran said, calling a similar outcome this time the "optimistic scenario," but in light of the impulsiveness of both Duterte and Trump, there remains "an element of risk."

Agreements like the VFA take time to negotiate and ratify  after ending the basing agreement in 1991, the two countries weren't able to establish the VFA until 1998  and other countries in the region, like Australia and Japan, can't replace US military assistance to the Philippines, leaving Manila weaker in the face of Chinese ambitions.

"That is the big, worrying scenario about Day 181," Parameswaran said, "because the Philippine military, it's building up in terms of its capabilities, but it's still one of the weakest militaries in the Asia-Pacific, and that's going to be laid bare on Day 181 if this doesn't get sorted out."

Read the original article on Business Insider
A Saudi fighter jet crashed in conflict-torn Yemen, the Riyadh-led military coalition supporting the government announced Saturday, as the Iran-backed Huthi rebels said they downed the plane. The Tornado aircraft came down on Friday in northern Al-Jawf province during an operation to assist Yemeni government forces, the coalition said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. It did not specify the fate of the crew or the cause of the crash. The Huthis' Al-Masirah television said the jet was downed by the rebels using an "advanced surface-to-air missile". The insurgents reported multiple coalition air strikes on Saturday in the Huthi-controlled area where the plane went down as local residents gathered near the wreckage, according to Al-Masirah. The bombing raids left "dozens" of people dead or wounded, Al-Masirah added, a claim that could not be immediately verified by local aid workers. The coalition intervened against the Huthis in 2015, first with air and naval forces and later with ground forces as well. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people, most of them civilians, and sparked what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The coalition has been widely criticised for the high civilian death toll from its bombing campaign, which has prompted some Western governments to cut arms deliveries to the countries taking part. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have purchased billions of dollars' worth of weapons from the United States, France and Britain. On Wednesday, the coalition said it would put on trial military personnel suspected of being behind deadly air strikes on Yemeni civilians. The cases being investigated include a 2018 air strike on a school bus in the northern region of Dahyan that killed at least 40 children, Saudi-based Arab News said.
Reuters

Facebook is taking down more than a million fake accounts a day to counter a massive upsurge in malicious material in the web, Mark Zuckerberg told an international security forum, and disclosed that more than 50 information operations aimed at elections have been uncovered since the 2016 US presidential race.

There are continuing investigations into claims that Donald Trump was the Muscovian candidate at the election and a Kremlin campaign, including a disinformation drive, helped put him in the White House.

The founder and chief executive of Facebook acknowledged at the Munich Security Conference that social media companies including his own had been slow to understand Russian operations.

But now, he wanted to stress, there were no fewer than 35,000 content and security reviewers and pointed out our budget in 2020 on security for those and other kinds of threats is bigger today than the whole revenue of our company when we went public in 2012 when we had a billion users.

Mr Zuckerberg said that the vast majority of the million fake accounts detected each day are not connected to state actors trying to interfere in elections, but certainly part of that is a state effort ... In the last couple of weeks Facebook took down two disinformation campaigns targeting the US.

The Facebook founder stated that despite the rise in disinformation, we have been able to improve defence at a faster rate than the adversaries have improved the offence.

Facebook and social media giants including Twitter and Alphabets Google have come under increasing pressure to do much more to combat states and political groups using their platforms to spread false and misleading information.

Mr Zuckerberg agreed there should be regulation on harmful content ... even if I dont agree with every regulation in the near term it will benefit everyone in the long term.

He added: I do think that there should be regulation on harmful content ... theres a question about which framework you use for this.

Story continues

Right now there are two frameworks that I think people have for existing industries  theres like newspapers and existing media, and then theres the telco-type model, which is the data just flows through you, but youre not going to hold a telco responsible if someone says something harmful on a phone line.

Read more

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg happy to pay more tax in Europe
Workers have vowed to halt Pancake Tuesday in Northern Ireland during strike action at one of the UKs largest bakeries.

Bakers at Allied Bakeries in east Belfast walked out early on Sunday morning for the first time in decades in a row over a 3% pay claim.

The factory makes products such as Kingsmill bread.

This is one of the busiest weeks of the year at the site, which is part of Associated British Foods.

The multinational company owns a series of brands, including clothes retailer Primark, and posted profits of around 1.4 billion last year.

A Kingsmill lorry stopped at the gates where dozens of workers carrying red Unite the Union flags demonstrated in the morning chill.

Local police mediated.

Unite regional co-ordinating officer Susan Fitzgerald said: There will be no Pancake Tuesday celebrated in Northern Ireland and we hope to affect it elsewhere as well.

During this picket, we will be sending people to stand outside supermarkets leafleting, saying that other working people, in solidarity with Allied Bakery workers, should boycott Sunblest, Kingsmill and the other products that come out of here.

That includes a favourite unfortunately, pancakes, which are going to be in demand next week.

Unite the Union official Susan Fitzgerald at Allied Bakeries in east Belfast (Michael McHugh/PA)

She said the companys turnover was worth 12 billion but workers were being denied a 3% pay increase.

This is the key week of production ahead of Pancake Tuesday, Ms Fitzgerald said.

She added: We intend to disrupt that as much as we possibly can because we have no option.

When working people are forced to go to this length for a fair pay increase, when this company pays out millions in bonuses to directors, we feel we are (getting) the support of ordinary people right across Northern Ireland and further afield.

An Allied Bakeries statement said it was proud of its reputation as a long-term and responsible local employer and deeply disappointed that union officials have rejected its latest pay offer in favour of industrial action.

Story continues

All employees involved are paid at rates above that recommended by the Living Wage Foundation and benefit from company-subsidised pensions, free life insurance cover as well as a range of other benefits, it said.

We have increased our rates of pay every year for the past 10 years and will do so again this year.

In the meantime, contingency plans are in place and we do not expect supply of our core Sunblest, Kingsmill and own-label pancakes to be significantly impacted as we engage with our employees to resolve this dispute.

Ms Fitzgerald said Allied Bakeries was offering a 2.5% pay increase, which she added was significantly less than the Hovis bakery, which has a plant a short distance away in Belfast.

There are workers here, women and men, who have put 30 years of their lives into this company and on a day like today when there has been hail, sleet and snow, these workers are forced to stand on a picket line and unfortunately a couple of drivers trying to unsuccessfully get a truck through.

There is no work in there today, there is no-one going in and there certainly is no work coming out.

She said demonstrators were resolved not to leave the picket line until their fair pay requests were met.

Ms Fitzgerald said: These are workers who work around the clock, who work weekends for a consolidated shift rate.

When you strip that bare, it is little more than the minimum wage.

These are people who are feeding the country.

No society can do without bread, these are key workers.
Ive been reading a lot of comments lately about how the Democrats are doing everything to get Trump removed from office. Nothing could be farther from the truth the truth that the GOP avoids at all costs. In fact, it is Trump who has done it all, Democrats are just trying to uphold the law and make America respectable again. The fact that witnesses were not called is a complete slap in the face to all Americans. Now, Trump wants to give more tax cuts to the rich, while cutting Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. How is that being a leader? He just continues to feed his narcissistic self, and the GOP runs off the edge of the cliff like lemmings, totally oblivious to the damage being done. Have a little self-pride and respect for yourself, and come to terms with the fact you, as well as all Americans, are being used.
(Natural News) The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) has issued an executive order (EO) calling on the United States Northern Command to start preparing for a full-blown pandemic of the Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19) here on American soil.

According to a service-wide message issued this past week to the Navy and Marine Corp, Defense Secretary Mark Esper has officially approved the EO, which orders commanders to get ready for widespread outbreaks of the Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19). Theyre also reportedly being told to prepare for having to forcibly confine service members with a history of travel to China.

Similar to what communist China is doing by implementing medical martial law, the U.S. military under President Donald Trump is implementing whats known as the Department of Defense Global Campaign plan for Pandemic Influenza and Infectious Diseases 3551-13, which the Military Times describes as the Pentagons blueprint for planning and preparing for widespread dispersion of influenza and previously unknown diseases.

U.S. Northern Command has indicated that it is now directing the Joint Staff to commence prudent planning based on its assigned role to synchronize the departments various plans for handling a pandemic flu or similar disease. At the same time, it also added that this planning does not necessarily indicate a greater likelihood of an event developing.

As military professionals, planning for a range of contingencies is something we owe the American people, stated Navy Lieutenant Commander Mike Hatfield in a statement. We coordinate with other combatant commands to assess potential impacts in the event of a pandemic and we ensure the U.S. military is poised to respond as required.

The military profession fosters a culture of planning, and the fact that we are coordinating planning efforts across the geographical combatant commands is consistent with how we prepare to respond, if directed, he further added.

Listen below as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, discusses how the Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19) is shaping up to be an infamous black swan event that has the very real potential to take down the global economy:

Is the U.S. military expecting its own Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19) outbreaks at its various installations?

According to Marine Corps message MARADMIN 082/20, commanders throughout the U.S. military are being told to review their disease containment plans and take all necessary preparatory and precautionary actions to protect all of its service members, installations and ships stations around the globe.

Part of this includes ensuring that all plans for containment procedures are assessed from response to isolation to quarantine to restriction of movement and community-based intervention, according to the memo.

The Marine Corps, it further adds, has to be able to mitigate, respond (to), and recover from the effects (of the Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19) in order to maintain force readiness.

All service members and military commanders who have been to China since February 2 are being asked to stay confined to their residences, or if they live in an open barracks or share a bathroom with others to relocate to a temporary lodging facility for 14 days  even though we now know that the Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19) can incubate for nearly a month as opposed to just two weeks.

The restricted service members will be assessed daily for fever by medical personnel by phone or in person and wear protective gear if they personally conduct the medical checks, according to the messages, the Military Times reports. Should they display symptoms, they must seek medical attention, but call their military treatment facility first to inform them of their travel.

The full archive of The Health Ranger Report episodes about the Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19) is available at Brighteon.com.

More breaking news about the Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19) is also available at Outbreak.news.

Sources for this article include:

MilitaryTimes.com

NaturalNews.com

Brighteon.com
The landmark 25th edition of Gulfood, the regions longest-running annual food and beverage (F&B) trade show, was opened by HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE Minister of Finance, today (February 16) in Dubai, UAE.



The five-day exhibition will run until February 20, at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC).



As an industry pioneer and weathervane for global F&B sector trend-tracking, Gulfood 2020 is an open invitation for F&B producers to demonstrate how they are Rethinking Food to serve a global population that is set to race past eight billion by 2030, said a statement from the organisers.



The event has attracted high-calibre interest from government ministers, trade delegations and national organisations who are showcasing the latest F&B innovations and exploring exhaustive business opportunities as the global F&B sector seeks to keep pace with changing consumer habits and spiralling spending, which now stands at more than $7.2 trillion annually, according to the Gulfood 2020 Industry Outlook Report.



Touring the exhibition, HH Sheikh Hamdan was given a snapshot of the latest innovations and technologies that are redefining the regional food sector landscape at DWTC this week amid growing demand.



Gulfood 2020 will showcase large-scale innovation in the F&B sector, with a wide array of industry disruptors exhibiting innovative products and solutions, new-to-region flavours and products, and the global networking opportunities with F&B businesses from every corner of the world.



Trixie LohMirmand, executive vice president, Exhibitions and Events, DWTC, said: The rising demand for sustainability in the F&B sector, coupled with consumer trends that have shifted dramatically and the growing shift away from animal-based foods, headline the Gulfood 2020 agenda.



The challenge for the F&B industry is to fast-track innovation and provide safe and sustainable food sources for an increasingly eco-conscious global population. Gulfoods 25th anniversary is the perfect place to experience, analyse and collaborate on developing solutions that will propel the F&B sector into this thrilling new decade of opportunity, he said.



Running alongside the main exhibition, the second edition of the three-day Gulfood Innovation Summit will bring together major players from across the international industry to examine the latest challenges and opportunities in the global F&B market.



To mark its silver anniversary, Gulfood 2020 has rolled out a host of new features and initiatives to further enhance the visitor experience.



With the food rethink narrative serving as the shows guiding theme, a brand-new feature titled STREAT will make its debut with street food pioneers Chef Chan Hon Meng, the first Michelin-starred hawker (street food) chef from Singapores celebrated Liao Fan Hawker Chan, and Tsuta by Chef Yuki Onishi, founder and executive chef of the Tsuta Japanese Soba Noodles, the worlds first Michelin-starred Ramen eatery.



Tastes of the World, one of Gulfoods most popular features, returns in 2020 with an extraordinary line-up of renowned food change-makers and Michelin-starred chefs showcasing cuisine innovation. Michelin-starred chef Massimo Bottura is joined by three Michelin-starred chef Elena Arzak, and chef Paco Pre. Joining the international chef trio are the regions top culinary talents, including Nick Alvis and Scott Price of acclaimed Dubai restaurant Folly; Gregoire Berger of Ossiano, and Akmal Anuar of 3 Fils.



I am impressed with the new culinary ideas in the UAE. The country is a vibrant place to dine right now and is also very inspiring for chefs and gourmands who are constantly searching for new cultural interactions, said Bottura. At Gulfood, I am showcasing a collection of our most iconic dishes from France as we travel through the evolution of our culinary world.



Elsewhere, Gulfoods Startup programme will see entrepreneurs demonstrate culinary breakthroughs that set the course for a more sustainable F&B sector future, while providing several young innovators the chance to exhibit disruptive products and prototypes to a discerning buying audience. The Gulfood Innovation Awards provide a celebration of excellence across brands in the F&B sector, while the Chef Tours take visitors on bespoke journeys into the latest global culinary trends.



Starting on February 17 and running until February 19, the Gulfood Innovation Summit has attracted a power-packed line-up of speakers including high-ranking ministers, thought-leaders and industry stalwarts.



Speakers taking to the summit stage include Mariam bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Al Mehairi, Minister of State for Food Security of the UAE; HH Prince Waleed Al Saud, President  Saudi Arabia Restaurant and Cafes Association, and Darine Al Khatib, Goodwill Ambassador, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.



Pertinent topics on the summit agenda include the reality behind calls for alternative meat consumption, the challenges faced by F&B regulatory bodies to stay in step with industry developments, and the need to develop solutions which provide alternative proteins in regions battling population surges and climate change, amongst others, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Doctors and drug law reform advocates are calling on the NSW government to urgently release the findings of a special commission of inquiry into the drug ice.

The four-volume report was delivered to the Berejiklian government by commissioner Professor Dan Howard on January 28, but the government has not publicly shared its findings or committed to a release date.

Commissioner Dan Howard speaks at the NSW inquiry into ice. His report is yet to be released by the state government. Credit:AAP

The report is the culmination of months of harrowing evidence from health and judicial experts, as well as families and communities affected by crystal methamphetamine and other amphetamine-type stimulants across NSW.

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians and St Vincents Hospital drug and alcohol specialists urged the government to share the findings, saying there was "no excuse" for the delay.
Early in January, someone raped and murdered Maria Fuertes, a 92-year-old woman living in Queens. Police eventually arrested Reeaz Khan, an illegal alien from Guyana (although, interestingly, he has a Muslim name). Despite denials from de Blasio, DHS showed documentary evidence that ICE had sought to detain Khan following an earlier arrest, but that New York City had put him on the streets.

On Friday, Daria Ortiz, Fuertess granddaughter, delivered a heartbreaking speech to the National Border Patrol Council. In it, she described her grandmother as a shining example of legal immigration to America. Speaking through tears, Ortiz also blasted Leftist sanctuary policies that shelter criminal illegal aliens, saying The man that is responsible for this should have never had the opportunity to do this, had his multiple offenses not been ignored. The system not only failed our family but it failed our city.

Democrats like to say that illegal aliens are actually less criminally inclined than legal citizens. Thats a strawman argument. The relevant point is that every crime an illegal alien commits is unacceptable because those crimes would not have happened but for the fact that the perpetrators were in the country illegally.

Were the laws properly enforced, their victims would not have been raped, assaulted, murdered, robbed, or subject to any other violent criminal acts. Looked at correctly, even one violent crime by an illegal alien is too many.

And while illegal aliens may commit fewer crimes than legal citizens, thats not something to boast about given the misery they do cause. Here are just four examples from hundreds that the Federation for American Immigration Reform collected identifying crimes that would not have happened but for Democrats willful refusal to abide by federal immigration law:

On December 6, 2019, Florencio Felix Barron shot and killed his ex-common-law wife, Veneranda Martinez-Gutierrez, in front of their three children in East Austin, Texas. Barron then proceeded to shoot himself. The illegal alien had been deported to Mexico after a 2016 conviction for inappropriately touching a 10-year old girl at Allison Elementary School that year, but subsequently reentered the U.S. unlawfully. (KXAN, October 20, 2016; People, December 9, 2019) Authorities in Green Lake County, Wisconsin said they arrested six men  all illegal aliens from Guatemala  on December 11, 2019 for allegedly sex trafficking an underaged girl. The victim escaped a house in Winchester in which she was allegedly being sex-trafficked and called 911 on the evening of November 28 (Thanksgiving). The names of the illegal alien suspects are: Esler Hugo Rivera, Rolando Corado Gonzalez, Avelino Sarceno-Sarceno, Ember Rivera, Noe Bautista-Martinez, and Evis Amabilio Garcia-Rivera. (FOX6, December 11, 2019; The Tennessee Star, December 13, 2019) Sam Nang Lam, a father of four, was sleeping on his living room couch during the early hours of November 3, 2019, in Seattles South Park neighborhood when he was struck and killed by bullets fired by illegal alien Julio Cruz-Velazquez. According to ICE, Cruz-Velazquez has a long criminal history dating back to 2000, including charges of rape, domestic violence, burglary, DUI, and assault. On two previous occasions, ICE had lodged detainers on him, but local sanctuary policies resulted in his release. (Q13 FOX, November 15, 2019: K5 News, November 15, 2019) On April 2, Miguel Martinez was arrested in Louisiana on 100 counts of possession of pornography of children under the age of 13, one count of production of child pornography, and one count of sexual battery of a child under the age of 13. Martinez, an illegal alien, was deported in 2005 and remains a registered sex offender in California, a sanctuary state.

ICEs Fiscal Year 2018 ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Report states that

By far, the largest percentage of aliens arrested by ICE are convicted criminals (66 percent), followed by immigration violators with pending criminal charges at the time of their arrest (21 percent). In FY2018, ERO ["Enforcement & Removal Operations"] arrested 138,117 aliens with criminal histories (convicted criminal and pending criminal charges). . . . (Footnotes omitted.)

And heres something Democrats dont want to talk about: Illegal immigrants, who often come from rural areas far from Western norms, are at the forefront of child rape and incest. North Carolinians For Immigration Reform and Enforcement has been tracking illegal immigrant child rape and the numbers are staggering  with each rape happening only because Democrats want open borders.

If we had a functioning immigration program, a closed border, and compliance with ICE detainers, 92-year-old Maria Fuertes would not have died a horrific death and thousands of other legal citizens and immigrants would not be victimized annually by crimes that ought never to have happened.
The vaccinations were by appointment and there were 1,000 available for each day of the clinic. Just more than 1,500 appointments had been filled by Friday and some appointment times were still available.
Bradley Cooper was on daddy duty on Sunday and took daughter Lea to brunch.

The 45-year-old actor, who shares his little girl with ex-partner Irina Shayk, bundled the tot up in warm layers before heading out in West Village, New York.

The American Sniper star carefully carried Lea, two, across a busy street during their daddy-daughter date.

Bundled up: Bradley Cooper is pictured taking his daughter Lea to brunch in the West Village on Sunday

Bradley opted for dark layers while Lea looked trendy in a white puffer jacket and pants along with a bobble hat with rainbow pompom.

Meanwhile, Bradley has been asked to play the role of Barry Gibb in the upcoming Bee Gees biopic.

The A Star Is Born actor has been contacted by producers over the possibility of playing the eldest of the Gibb brothers, who enjoyed global chart-topping with younger brothers Robin and Maurice.

The film is set to follow the group from the time they arrived in London from Australia and had their first number one hit with 'Massachusetts' in 1967.

Protective dad: The 45-year-old actor carried his little girl across the street

Winter chic: Lea looked trendy in a white puffer jacket and pants along with a bobble hat with rainbow pompom

The band unravelled in subsequent years with substances, pills and booze involved, before Barry led a revival in the 1970s as the Bee Gees embraced a disco sound.

Barry is the last surviving member of the group, as Maurice died in 2003 and Robin passed away in 2012.

The untitled movie is yet to get a director but is to be produced by Graham King, who worked on the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

Paramount Pictures are also involved in the film and have purchased the rights from the Gibb estate to use the Bee Gees classic music.

New role: Meanwhile, Bradley has been asked to play the role of Barry Gibb in the upcoming Bee Gees biopic

Paramount were recently involved in Rocketman, which starred Taron Egerton as Elton John.

The motion picture is being written by Anthony McCarten, who has become much sought-after, scripting flicks such as The Theory of Everything, Darkest Hour and Bohemian Rhapsody.

Each film has earned Best Actor Oscars for leading men Eddie Redmayne, Gary Oldman and Rami Malek respectively.

Bradley already has experience of singing on camera, having played Jackson Maine in the critically acclaimed A Star Is Born. But the actor will reportedly still receive assistance to hit the high notes reached by the Bee Gees.
Ukraine's President noted that after the situation with the impeachment of Trump, he wants to start their relationship from scratch

Open source

President of Ukraine invited US President Donald Trump to Kyiv. At the same time, Volodymyr Zelensky has informed on what he expects from his upcoming visit to the White House. He stated this at a security conference in Munich, UNN reported.

Im sure that this will happen (Zelenskys visit to the White House - ed.), it's just you are very far from us. The last time I had a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, we talked about this and I said that I would really like my visit to America to be something personal for the two countries, with the very important result for both states, something beneficial for them, Zelensky said.

He also noted that after the situation with the impeachment of Trump, he wants to start their relationship from scratch.

Let's prepare a package of documents and meet. Therefore, now the ball is on the side of the US president, but we are always glad to see everyone in Ukraine. In principle, I am ready to invite and I invite President Trump to Kyiv. I am ready to meet him faster than he is ready to do, Zelensky emphasized.

Earlier, Volodymyr Zelensky met with the US Congress delegation led by Senator James Inhofe. The President thanked the strong support of Ukraine from both houses of the US Congress. Zelensky emphasized the great importance of the military assistance that Ukraine receives from the United States, and expressed hope for an increase in its volumes and expansion of directions.

"I feel a very positive attitude of the United States of America towards Ukraine. US support is very important for us," the head of state emphasized.

Zelensky noted that Ukraine is committed to carrying out democratic reforms and effective anti-corruption policy.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 07:19:26|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (front L) meets with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian (2nd R), on the sidelines of the 56th Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Feb. 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday met French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, on the sidelines of the 56th Munich Security Conference (MSC).

The top Chinese diplomat told Le Drian that when he saw French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday morning before his speech at the MSC, Macron took the opportunity to express France's firm support to China in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, for which China would like to express its gratitude.

Wang said, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, Chinese people are fighting the epidemic in solidarity, and positive results have been achieved thanks to various control measures adopted by the Chinese government.

Emerging from the epidemic, the Chinese economy will achieve more solid and sustainable growth, and the Chinese people will rally closer together and march confidently toward their goals, Wang said.

Meanwhile, "the epidemic allows us to learn who are China's friends indeed," Wang added, expressing confidence that the Sino-French friendship will stand up to the test and deepen further.

The Chinese side is ready to carry out close high-level exchanges with the French side, and to make concerted efforts to advance various important political agendas of this year, and at the meantime to promote Sino-European cooperation, Wang stated.

For his part, Le Drian said that France appreciates China's arduous efforts to stem the epidemic, and will stay in solidarity with China, staunchly support China in its fight against the epidemic.

Apart from the supplies France has already donated to China, more aid supplies will be provided by France to the Chinese side, Le Drian said.

He added, the French consulate in Wuhan is still operating, with which France would like to testify to the true friendship between the two countries, and France would like to stay in solidarity with China in this rough times.

Le Drian also promised that his country will not adopt or tolerate any discriminatory measures, and will remain calm and rational in handling with the matter, noting that the French side is also ready to strengthen bilateral cooperation with China in all fields as well as coordination with China on issues such as climate change.
Subsequently, Senthil Kumar was frisked by CISF intelligence constable K.V. Rama Rao, who found four packets of gold paste concealed on his body, the AIU official said.

Hyderabad: The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has arrested a person for smuggling 1,100 grams of gold at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Shamshabad on Saturday.

CISF officers said their surveillance and intelligence staff spotted a man behaving suspiciously. After tracking the movement of the person, CISF intelligence constable L. Ramesh intercepted and questioned him.

The person identified himself as Senthil Kumar, resident of Pudukkottai in Tamil Nadu. He had landed in the city from Singapore on Saturday around 1.10 am by Scoot Airlines Flight TR574.

Subsequently, Senthil Kumar was frisked by CISF intelligence constable K.V. Rama Rao, who found four packets of gold paste concealed on his body, the AIU official said.

Two packets of 200 gm each were retrieved from his socks and another two packets of 350 gm each were found in his underwear, officials said.
Ukraine has confirmed the death of the youngest person to die of old age, an extremely rare genetic disease of childhood characterized by dramatic, premature ageing. Anna Sakidon, an 8-year-old girl from Ukraine, was suffering from progeria and had a biological age of almost 80.

Sakidon, who celebrated her eighth birthday last month, was battling with several health problems and died of multiple organ failure. She had been under treatment at Volyn Regional Children Medical Complex since her birth. The Foundation of Ukrainian Volunteers supported Sakidons medical treatment and its head, Timofey Nagorny, reportedly said that her only dream was to discover one day that the diagnosis was wrong.

The rare disease, which has affected nearly 160 people around the world, caused early ageing of the childs inner organs and body systems. Dr Nadezhda Kataman, who confirmed Sakidons death, said that her bones grew slowly while her organs aged rapidly. The girl suffered several strokes, and paralysis of her limbs.

Read: Oscars 2020: Zack Gottsagen Is The First Academy Presenter With Down Syndrome

Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome

Sakidon was diagnosed with Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, named after the efforts of Dr Jonathan Hutchinson, who first described the disease in 1886, followed by Dr Hastings Gilford who did the same in 1904. She could walk well at the age of ten months and followed her mother everywhere by the age of 11 months.

The newborns suffering from progeria appear to be normal at birth but their growth rate slows within a year with much less weight compared to the children of their age. Such children have a distinctive appearance characterised by baldness, aged-looking skin, a pinched nose, and a small face.

Read: EU Diplomat Apologises For Claiming Youth Activists Are Suffering From 'Greta Syndrome'

According to the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), Maryland, they suffer from symptoms typically seen in much older people like the stiffness of joints, hip dislocations and severe, progressive cardiovascular disease. In 2003, NHGRI researchers, together with colleagues at the Progeria Research Foundation, the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities, and the University of Michigan, discovered that Hutchinson-Gilford progeria is caused by a tiny, point mutation in a single gene, known as lamin A (LMNA).

Read: Margot Robbie Opens Up About Her Struggle With Impostor Syndrome

Read: Video Of Little Boy Singing For His Brother With Down Syndrome Breaks Internet
Ruder and Abraham declined to name the woman in question, but both said her death went exactly as she planned it. The problem arose afterward, when her spouse complained that she chose to end her life over his objections.

The thing that we are most concerned about is that the family understands the decision and supports it, Ruder said.

Abraham said he wants that too, but the final choice always rests with the individual. Get all the input you can. Thats great, but ultimately the decision is yours, he said. My belief lies in individual autonomy.

Ruder said Final Exit cant afford to take chances like that.

What we find is there are people out there who would like to take our organization down, he said. We try very hard to be as pure as possible, because we dont want anyone to be able to say that were doing this for any other reason than we think its a right for people who qualify to be able to end their lives on their terms.
'Should I quit': Manmohan Singh asked me after Rahul ordinance episode, says Montek Ahluwalia

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Feb 16: After the Rahul Gandhi ordinance-trashing episode of 2013, the then prime minister Manmohan Singh asked Montek Singh Ahluwalia whether he thought he should resign, the former deputy chairman of the now-defunct Planning Commission says.

Ahluwalia says he told Singh, who was then on a visit to the US, that he did not think a resignation on this issue was appropriate.

In a major embarrassment to his own government, Rahul had denounced the controversial ordinance brought by the UPA dispensation to negate a Supreme Court verdict on convicted lawmakers. He had termed it as "complete nonsense" that should be "torn up and thrown away".

Singh, while returning home from the US, had ruled out his resignation though he appeared piqued over the entire episode.

"I was part of the PM's delegation in New York and my brother Sanjeev, who had retired from the IAS, telephoned to say he had written a piece that was very critical of the PM. He had emailed it to me and said he hoped I didn't find it embarrassing," recalls Ahluwalia.

The article was widely reported in the media with reference to the author being Ahluwalia's brother.

"The first thing I did was to take the text across to the PM's suite because I wanted him to hear about it first from me. He read it in silence and, at first, made no comment. Then, he suddenly asked me whether I thought he should resign," Ahluwalia writes in his new book "Backstage: The Story behind India's High Growth Years".

"I thought about it for a while and said I did not think a resignation on this issue was appropriate. I wondered then whether I was simply saying what I thought he would like to hear but on reflection I am convinced I gave him honest advice," he reasons.

The incident was still a hot subject of discussion when Singh returned to New Delhi.

"Most of my friends agreed with Sanjeev. They felt the PM had for too long accepted the constraints under which he had to operate and this had tarnished his reputation. The rubbishing of the ordinance was seen as demeaning the office of the PM and justified resigning on principle. I did not agree," Ahluwalia writes.

He argues that the incident highlighted an important fault line in the UPA.

"The Congress saw Rahul as the natural leader of the party and wanted him to take a larger role. In this situation, as soon as Rahul expressed his opposition to the ordinance, senior Congress politicians, who had earlier supported the proposed ordinance in the Cabinet and even defended it publicly, promptly changed their position," he says.

Ahluwalia, who served as one of India's senior economic policymakers for three decades, calls his book, published by Rupa, a travelogue of India's journey of economic reforms "in which I had the privilege of being an insider for 30 long years".

Ahluwalia, who played a key role in the transformation of India from a state-run to a market-based economy, presents the story behind the country's economic growth in the first half of the UPA's tenure as well as its achievements in poverty alleviation.

He also discusses the successes and failures of the UPA regime during which period he served as deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, a Cabinet-level position. He mentions about the policy paralysis and allegations of corruption that came to mark the last few years of UPA 2.

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Story first published: Sunday, February 16, 2020, 16:31 [IST]
After six weeks and countless exhausting hours spent on The Bachelor Season 24, one thing is clear: Fans should have heeded Peter Webers warning ahead of the premiere.

I made mistakes for sure. Theres no doubt about that, Weber told Us Weekly in early January. Im human. So I dont want to look at it as regret. I learned from it.

Host Chris Harrison echoed the remarks in regards to the 28-year-olds behavior, hinting Weber may not always live up to the persona who appeared on Hannah Browns season of The Bachelorette.

Peter Weber | Noel Vasquez/Getty Images

Nobodys perfect and Peter is just like everybody else, Harrison said, per Good Morning America. He has his issues and he has things that will come up. I think there will be times  where youre thinking, I dont love this side of him.'

Now, an overwhelming number of fans are crowning Weber as one of the worst bachelor leads of all time, calling him out every week on social media. However, Weber isnt here for all the hate, once again reminding the fandom he is still human.

Fans criticize Peter Weber for his behavior in The Bachelor Season 24

For now, the main criticism surrounds Webers indecisiveness on The Bachelor. The Delta pilot was completely thrown off when he reunited with Brown in the premiere. He even briefly considered ditching the 30 women who came on the show for his ex.

Later, Weber eliminated Alayah Benavidez after other contestants influenced him. In the next episode, Alayah returned to clear her name, and Weber invited her back to the house. He also proceeded to throw Alayah into the lions den when giving her the group date rose without considering how it would affect the other women. Then, once cast members exploded on Weber  and Alayah  he let her go again.

Meanwhile, Kelley Flanagan confronted Weber on his actions. She told the bachelor he rewards the drama in the house, becoming the voice of some Bachelor Nation fans at home.

Peter is hands down the one of the worst male leads ever, a fan wrote on Twitter. Kelley was right. He really does only reward bad behavior and drama.

Peter Weber responds to the criticism and hate about his season of The Bachelor

When speaking with E! News on Feb. 7, Weber addressed his critics who are disappointed in his behavior on The Bachelor this season.

Im definitely getting some tough skin now, Weber said. I understand that theres a lot of drama right now and things are kind of crazy, but I do think its a little  its too bad a lot of the criticism and a lot of hate thats kind of been kind of coming out. I just think theres no place for that and theres too much of that right now. 

Weber then noted The Bachelor team is just doing our best. And in the end, the 28-year-old hopes everyone will focus on spreading love and positivity versus spewing hate.

Were all human, Weber said. And I know theres a lot of opinions about a lot of the women on the show, a lot of opinions about me.

The bachelor also reminded viewers that they dont know what its like to be in his shoes.

You think you know whats coming and how youre going to handle it, and theres just no way, Weber said. You cant ever imagine dating that many people in that kind of environment.

He continued: Its a beautiful, amazing environment, but its also very tough, theres a lot of pressure and you have to make decisions in a really short amount of time and you have to let go of relationships that you maybe dont know if you want to let go of yet, and its tough.

Regardless, Weber remained unapologetic for his season of The Bachelor. He did what he could and is happy with the result.

You just you try your best, and thats all I did, Weber said. And, you know, Im happy about that.

Read more: The Bachelor: Peter Weber Debunked 3 Theories About How the Finale Ends and Honestly, Were Disappointed
The number of people who have tested positive for the new coronavirus on a quarantined ship off Japan's coast has risen to 355, the country's health minister said Sunday. The new figures came as the United States was preparing to evacuate some of its citizens from the Diamond Princess, which has been in quarantine since February 5 in the port of Yokohama, near Tokyo. Hong Kong also said it would offer its 330 citizens on board the chance to take a charter flight back. Canada, too, announced a similar decision to repatriate its nationals on the ship. "So far, we have conducted tests for 1,219 individuals. Of those, 355 people tested positive," health minister Katsunobu Kato told a roundtable discussion on public broadcaster NHK -- a rise of 70 from the last government toll. Japan's efforts to control the viral infections on the vessel have prompted international concern. The cruise ship arrived off the Japanese coast in early February with more than 3,700 passengers and crew members from more than 50 countries and regions. It was placed under quarantine after authorities found that a passenger who got off the boat in Hong Kong during its voyage tested positive for the virus. Officials kept finding new infections among the passengers and crew members and transporting them to Japanese hospitals, while others have been told to stay inside their individual cabins during the 14-day quarantine period, which should end on Wednesday. Japan has not been able to test all those on board due to limited supplies of testing kits, facilities and manpower that are also needed by authorities tracking the spread of the virus among the general population. "Based on the high number of COVID-19 cases identified onboard the Diamond Princess, the Department of Health and Human Services made an assessment that passengers and crew members onboard are at high risk of exposure," the US embassy said in a letter to its passengers. The US, Canada and Hong Kong said those repatriated will go through another two-week quarantine period at home. The captain of the Diamond Princess has told passengers that the Japanese government might start testing them for the virus from Tuesday, and those with negative results would be allowed to get off the ship from Friday. The Diamond Princess cruise ship has been in quarantine since February 5 in the port of Yokohama, near Tokyo
A bitter chill cuts into my bones as I stand shivering on the edge of the pavement, clutching a handful of Big Issue magazines.

It is 11am in the centre of Cambridge and I have already endured several hours of what I can, at best, politely describe as a mixed reaction from passers-by.

There are those who happily stop for a chat and perhaps buy a copy of the magazine, which is sold by the homeless. And there are others who stride past and abusively heckle me, saying, for example: Get a proper job!

The Big Issue launched 29 years ago in response to the growing number of rough sleepers on the streets of London and offered the opportunity to earn an income through selling a magazine to the public.

Like any product, it has had to adapt to changing technology and to peoples evolving spending habits. Most recently, the magazine has piloted a trial scheme in seven cities in which sellers have been given contactless card readers to accept payment for the 2.50 magazine. Deemed a success, similar gadgets are being handed out nationwide  with, it is hoped, perhaps half of all 2,000 Big Issue vendors taking part.

Toby Walne selling the Big Issue on the streets of Cambridge yesterday. Licensed vendors of the magazine are now using debit card readers to allow their customers to pay for the Big Issue. Like any product, it has had to adapt to changing technology and to peoples evolving spending habits

Inevitably, this has led to countless comments and jokes about beggars refusing to take coins and insisting on being given donations electronically.

So this is why I found myself on the chilly streets of Cambridge, to discover whether this experiment is working: are Big Issue sellers getting more money as a result of having contactless card readers, or do the public consider this a surreal development too far?

Home to numerous Silicon Fen high-tech and pharmaceutical companies, parts of Cambridge are very wealthy and, with its liberal-minded student population, it is considered a good patch for Big Issue sellers.

According to property website Zoopla, the average house here costs 440,000. But Cambridge is also said to be the most unequal city in the country, with one in ten households earning less than 16,518 a year.

Wrapped up against the wind outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, I begin to try to attract passers-by. Most stare straight through me, as if I dont exist.

The first person to engage is a middle-aged woman walking two cockapoos. She says: I see you are struggling. No one should feel like an outcast and that is why I have stopped to talk. We all need support at some time  myself included. However, when I hand her my contactless payment machine to buy the magazine, she says: I will only pay you cash  real money. I am not interested in these new-fangled card readers.

Not a perfect start! Regardless, we have a good-natured chat and she tells me she is a self-employed writer and comedian called Judith Liddell-King. Within minutes, though, there are two other buyers. Having no loose change on them, they are happy to pay by credit card.

Toby Walne selling the Big Issue on the streets of Cambridge yesterday. Indeed, this is the thinking behind the new initiative  an electronic answer to those who say: Sorry, I havent got any cash

Indeed, this is the thinking behind the new initiative  an electronic answer to those who say: Sorry, I havent got any cash.

Anecdotally, there have been reports of sales rising and younger customers buying for the first time.

Russell Blackman, managing director of The Big Issue, has said: Vendors are micro-entrepreneurs, effectively running their own small businesses. We have provided them with the opportunity to cater for customers needs and increase their ability to earn a legitimate income. We look forward to rolling out the initiative nationally, in an effort to improve financial inclusion for vendors.

And Edward Hallett, managing director of card payments service iZettle UK, said: It is fantastic to give even more sellers access to the tools they need to stay on top of consumer trends and manage in an increasingly cashless society.

With the temperature hovering around 6C, shop assistant Haylee Bazen steps my way, saying: You poor thing. I work in the shop opposite and I see youre not having much luck. I will buy with a credit card, I never carry cash. I feel like giving her a hug.

The system works like this. Vendors buy the card reader for 11 (compared with the usual cost of about 35) and they must download an app on their mobile phone which links their bank account and card reader. (Yes, in 2020, the homeless have mobile phones and bank accounts.)

Big Issue has struck a deal with iZettle, which takes 4p for every 2.50 magazine purchase (a 1.75 per cent fee). Vendors have to buy the magazines at 1.25 so each contactless purchase means they pocket 1.21.

Im next approached by a man in his late 50s who is keen to buy a copy. He tells me: Had you not had the card reader, sadly you would not have had my custom. Usually I have money  but not today. It is good you offer choice.

He tells me his name is Hugh Barton, a retired financial manager.

My guide for the day is full-time Big Issue seller Lee Welham, who says the job requires having the hide of a rhino  preferably thermal-lined.

He adopts a turn-the-other-cheek attitude to those few he says cruelly dehumanise him. Black humour is often the only way he can get through the day.

A favourite quip to encourage sales is: I need a volunteer to start a queue! However, he concedes this joke is mostly met with deathly silence.

Like the majority of the homeless, he has suffered personal tragedy  and selling the Big Issue is part of rebuilding his life. He says people often have a misconception that sellers only want the money for drink or drugs. Another factor is that about a third of sellers are now East Europeans  often from the Roma gipsy community  and they exploit a legal loophole which enables them to register as self-employed. As a result they are entitled to a National Insurance number, which allows them access to a panoply of welfare payments such as housing and child benefits.

This was not exactly what the pioneer John Bird had in mind when he launched the Big Issue as an initiative to encourage the homeless to break out of a cycle of welfare dependency.

Lee ended up on the streets after losing access to his son last year and then suffered a mental breakdown. Hes out in all weathers, 12 hours a day, selling 40 copies a day if hes lucky. So he takes home no more than 50 after costs. Without a permanent address, he has been unable to get full employment and lives in a hostel.

At the end of my day, with my fingers going blue and numb in the cold, I have sold just five copies. A miserable profit of just over 6.

My final sale was to a pharmaceuticals consultant called Jonathan Marshall, 52. He said: I am impressed with this technology. Whether you like it or not, we must all move with the times.

If his view of this new world of the homeless harnessing banking apps, mobile phones, credit cards and card readers is shared by others, this could well be the future.

A third of all high-street purchases are now made using a contactless card reader rather than cash.

Last year, a report by a Government-backed think-tank highlighted how this can cause problems to those who prefer to use notes and coins. Currently, cost-cutting banks are removing cash machines at a rate of 500 a month.

To compound matters, according to the consumer body Which?, a quarter of the remaining 60,000-strong network of machines charge fees of up to 2 to access our own money  raking in 104 million a year in revenue.

In addition, more than 6,000 bank branches have been closed in the past decade, with the total network cut by a third.

Toby Walne selling the Big Issue on the streets of Cambridge yesterday. For Big Issue sellers, apart from the risk of losing sales because people think they cant be that poor if they can afford a mobile phone and contactless credit card reader, there are several benefits of a contactless payment system

For Big Issue sellers, apart from the risk of losing sales because people think they cant be that poor if they can afford a mobile phone and contactless credit card reader, there are several benefits of a contactless payment system.

Adam Taylor, of cash machine network provider Link, says: It might mean the homeless are less vulnerable to theft  and having money in a bank account can help them budget.

Across the country, Big Issue vendors have applauded the new system. One, in Norwich, has said: Before all this started, I had no ID, no bank account and a rubbish phone and now I have a decent smartphone, a passport, a bank account and a card reader. I now feel ready for a cashless future.

Adam Taylor, of cash machine network provider Link, says: It might mean the homeless are less vulnerable to theft  and having money in a bank account can help them budget

Another, based at Bristol Temple Meads railway station, said: Since I started using my iZettle card reader, I have seen my sales increase by a third, which is incredible. It has been really important in attracting more customers.

It is estimated that about 11 per cent of sellers have gone contactless  with one saying going cashless gives me the edge over beggars and buskers.

Contactless card or cash, after my experience on Bridge Street, Cambridge, on a near-freezing February day, I will never blindly walk past a Big Issue vendor again.

Indeed, I will gladly put my hand in my pocket  or happily proffer them my credit card.
She is a seriously in-demand actress working on two highly anticipated projects.

And Jodie Comer enjoyed a relaxing break from filming historical drama The Last Duel in the South of France on Saturday.

The actress, 26, dressed casually in a dark Hunter raincoat, jeans and some comfy New Balance trainers for the outing to a local market.

Time off: Jodie Comer enjoyed a relaxing break from filming historical drama The Last Duel in the South of France on Saturday

The Killing Eve star tied back her blonde locks in a low bun as she went make-up free to show off her natural beauty.

She was seen having an animated conversation with two women beside the market stalls before sharing a hug.

Jodie joined the production last year alongside Matt Damon, who also wrote the adapted screenplay with friend and Good Will Hunting co-star Ben Affleck.

Worry-free: The Killing Eve star tied back her blonde locks in a low bun as she went make-up free to show off her natural beauty

The pair will star opposite recent Oscar nominee Adam Driver, and is being directed by Hollywood legend Ridley Scott.

The new movie will star Matt as Jean de Carrouges, a 14th century knight who is ordered to fight to the death with former friend Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) after he accuses him of raping his wife Nicole (Jodie).



Speaking on Conan in November, Matt said: 'We're going to shoot it next year.

'It's about the last sanctioned duel in Medieval France between these two knights, one of whom claimed the other raped his wife. They could not resolve what had happened, and so they fought to the death to let God decide who was telling the truth.

Stylish: The Killing Eve star wrapped up in a woolly scarf and held back her blonde locks with an animal-print hairband

'We thought that it was this interesting story of perspectives, so Ben and I wrote the male perspectives and Nicole wrote the female perspectives, and Ridley Scott's going to direct it.'

Ben could also take a smaller acting role in the project.

It was reported that originally, Matt and Ben were to play the two leading roles in the film, but ran into scheduling conflicts due to Ben's role in Adrian Lyne's Deep Water.

Happy Valentine's Day! Killing Eve fans got a special V-Day treat on Friday when BBC America series posted a short teaser trailer for its third season starring Jodie Comer

Adam Driver was then cast to take over the leading role from Affleck, following an incredible year for the star in Marriage Story, Star Wars, and The Dead Don't Die.

Jodie will also returning as for-hire assassin Villanelle in Killing Eve, after season three's first trailer was released on Valentine's Day ahead of an expected April premiere.

And Sandra Oh's character Eve Polastri's fate appears to have been confirmed after being left for dead by her arch nemesis Villanelle during a cliffhanger ending.

Glamorous: Other pictures show the two in more natural outfits. Jodie stuns as Villanelle in a lovely royal blue dress adorned with colorful floral patterns

Obsession: In the new series, Villanelle appears to be up to her old tricks again as she disguises herself as a clown

New stills for the upcoming season of the programme show Eve looking alive and well during a walk, as well as cutting up meat while working as a chef.

Killing Eve's second series stunned viewers when it ended with Eve bleeding on the ground after being shot by Jodie's character.

The pair had plotted to run away together after Villanelle admitted her feelings for the MI5 agent, but when she refused, she pulled out a gun and shot her in the chest.

In the new series, Villanelle appears to be up to her old tricks again as she disguises herself as a clown, after previously transforming into a motorcycle cop, a professor, a New Yorker at therapy and a red light district sex worker.
The big beauty takeaway from Victoria Beckham's autumn/winter show was individuality and "undetectable" make-up.

Speaking backstage before the show, renowned make-up artist Pat McGrath explained how Victoria "wanted the make-up to be very natural and individual to each girl."

A sparse amount of foundation was used, a touch of concealer to cover any blemishes and a light finishing powder on the sides of the nose and the forehead. The aim was, McGrath said, "to make sure the make-up look undetectable."

Among the arsenal of products used were McGrath's cult Skin Fetish foundation and Victoria Beckham Beauty's Smoky Eye Bricks, which were all used in accordance to the models' own colourings.

It was all about beautiful skin backstage / Naomi May

To prep for the skin for make-up, legendary facialist Melanie Grant - who counts Jennifer Aniston, Hailey Bieber and Kim Kardashian as clients - gave each of the models a mini-facial using Victoria Beckham Beauty's two skincare products.

Using the Victoria Beckham Beauty Power Serum and Cell Rejuvenating Moisturiser, Grant applied a small amount of the serum first and then several drops of the moisturiser. Her tip for the glowiest and best natural-looking skin was to ensure that you always massage products in to your face using upwards strokes.

Professor Augustinus Bader, the stem-cell scientist who VB Beauty's skincare products are in collaboration with, added: "From a technology point of view, there's nothing better for your skin than this serum and moisturiser combination."

For the models' nails, technicians used one coat of Peacci polish in the shade Bonjour, which is a delicate, nude shade.

Speaking backstage, nail technician Marian Newman said: "For the nails, it was all about making them the best versions of themselves that they can be. It was about making them healthy, but not too shiny or statement."
COLUMBUS, Ohio  The red (scarlet?) M in Columbus is crossed out on the sign in front of the new Graduate Hotel on High Street, just down the street from the Ohio State University.

A chair in the lobby proclaims Sloopy Hang On, and a Buckeye version of Mount Rushmore behind the check-in counter features well-known OSU athletes Jesse Owens, Archie Griffin, Jack Nicklaus and Katie Smith.

It may not be the most welcoming place for University of Michigan fans. But no worries  Ann Arbor has its own maize-and-blue version of this small hotel chain, rapidly expanding in college towns throughout the United States.

The Graduate Columbus is one of several hospitality-related developments popping up throughout the state capital, which is in the midst of a hotel boom. Many properties are centered near the Greater Columbus Convention Center and the Short North neighborhood, sandwiched between downtown and Ohio States campus.

In addition to the Graduate, heres whats happening in Columbus hotel news:

Moxy Columbus Short North , a new brand by Marriott that is designed to appeal to millennial travelers, opened late last year a block from the Graduate in the citys trendy Short North neighborhood.

A new Canopy by Hilton opened last summer on Nationwide Boulevard, a block from the convention center and two blocks from Nationwide Arena.

AC by Marriott, another new Marriott brand, opens early next year across from the North Market, also near the convention center.

And the biggest development is still to come: A major addition to the Hilton Columbus Downtown on High Street, which opened in 2012.

The addition, under construction across High Street from the existing property, will be attached to the existing Hilton via underground tunnel and pedestrian bridge. The addition will feature 467 rooms  for a total of 1,000, making the Hilton the largest hotel in Columbus and all of Ohio. It promises to boost the citys already strong appeal as a major player in the national convention business.

Laurel Keller, a senior vice president at Newmark Knight Frank in Cleveland, said Columbus strong economy is fueling all this construction.

Columbus is a hot market, she said. Hotel developers have obviously taken notice, as evidenced by the robust supply pipeline.

She notes that both hotel occupancy rates and average daily rates increased more in Columbus last year than in both Cleveland and the state as a whole.

Read more: Cleveland-area hotels have so-so year in 2019, as occupancy dips, rates increase

And the market isnt done responding. According to Kellers firm, another 20 hotels are on pace to open in Columbus in the next two years, although most are not in the central business district.

Heres a closer look at the new properties closest to downtown:

Guestroom at the new Graduate Columbus, in the city's Short North neighborhood.Photo by Ron Blunt

Brass instruments hang from the ceiling in the community room off the lobby at the Graduate Columbus, near the campus of Ohio State.

The Graduate

750 N. High St.

The new Graduate is one of 22 in the small chain, which will grow to 30 by the end of the year, all near major universities (including Madison, Wisconsin; Iowa City, Iowa; Lincoln, Nebraska; and coming this spring to the neighborhood around the University of Cincinnati). The first Graduate Hotel opened in 2014 in Athens, Georgia, near the University of Georgia.

The Columbus version features scarlet-and-gray plaid wallpaper, student IDs that double as room keys and band instruments hanging from the ceiling in the lobby.

The 171-room hotel is adjacent to a Shake Shack, where overnight guests receive complimentary French fries. An adjoining Poindexter Coffee serves coffee, one cup free to guests, plus pizza and cocktails.

The hotel is housed in a 1984 building previously owned by the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority, occupied by low-income seniors. Its conversion to a hip, new hotel is one more chapter in the Short Norths years-long evolution into the citys trendiest neighborhood.

Room rates start at about $125, and guests are given the option of adding on another $5 to tackle student loan debt.

The Graduate Columbus on High Street in the city's Short North neighborhood.Photo by Ron Blunt

Moxy Columbus on High Street in the city's Short North neighborhood.

Moxy Columbus

800 N. High St.

Marriott describes this new brand as a stylish, budget option, with small guestrooms and plenty of communal gathering spaces. Guests check in at the bar, where they receive a complimentary cocktail.

In the lobby here: a pool table, Star Wars-themed pinball game, Jenga blocks, Connect Four and more. There are only 20 Moxys in North America, with another 50 in Europe and Asia.

Five floors of the new 10-story building are filled with 116 guestrooms. Also here: A WeWork co-working space.

And TownHall, the popular Cleveland eatery, is set to open its second outpost here, with a rooftop bar. A March opening is planned.

Overnight rates start at about $135.

The bar doubles as the check-in desk at Moxy Columbus Short North.Lauren Rubinstein

Jenga blocks and Connect Four in the lobby of Moxy Columbus.Lauren Rubinstein

Ohio's first Canopy by Hilton opened in Columbus last summer.

Canopy by Hilton

77 E. Nationwide Blvd.

Canopy  another relatively new boutique brand  offers 167 rooms across 12 stories, plus the Central Market House restaurant and Goodale Station, a rooftop bar/restaurant.

This is the first Canopy in Ohio, and one of only 27 worldwide.

Room rates here are somewhat higher than the Short North properties, starting at about $160 per night.

Goodale Station, restaurant on the roof of the Canopy by Hilton Columbus Downtown.

AC by Marriott

511 Park St.

AC by Marriott  yet another new lifestyle brand for Marriott  promises a European vibe across its eight floors. The property will feature 160 rooms, a rooftop bar, and a gift shop with locally made products. Expected opening date is early 2021.

The 28-story addition to the Hilton Columbus Downtown is designed by the same firm, Cooper Carry, that designed the Hilton Cleveland Downtown. That's the existing Hilton Columbus on the left.

Hilton expansion

401 N. High St.

This new 28-story hotel is slated for a sliver of land on the east side of High Street, wedged between the convention center and the Hyatt Regency Columbus. Atlanta architecture firm Cooper Carry, designer of the Hilton Cleveland Downtown, designed the Columbus addition.

The $220-million project, set to open in early 2022, will be financed primarily through bonds repaid by hotel profits and bed-tax revenues. The hotel is owned by the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority, which also owns the convention center and nearby Nationwide Arena.

In addition to 463 rooms, it will feature 75,000 square feet of meeting space, an extensive collection of contemporary local art and the highest rooftop bar in the city.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 22:46:49|Editor: Xiaoxia

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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah delivers a televised speech during a ceremony organized by Hezbollah in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, on Feb. 16, 2020. The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah warned on Sunday that the U.S. Middle East peace plan, known as the Deal of the Century, will have a huge negative impact on Lebanon, TV Channel Al Manar reported. (Photo by Bilal Jawich/Xinhua)

BEIRUT, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah warned on Sunday that the U.S. Middle East peace plan, known as the Deal of the Century, will have a huge negative impact on Lebanon, TV Channel Al Manar reported.

"This deal will give Shebaa Farms, Kfarchouba Hills and Ghajar village to Israel ... and deprive Lebanon of its total rights in the oil and gas wealth," Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech remembering the martyrs of the resistance.

Nasrallah also criticized the idea of supporting the U.S. peace plan in exchange for its financial support, saying the plan is a strategy adopted by Israel to end the Palestinian cause.

"Israel and the United States stand behind all wars taking place in the region," he noted.
Ruling out any rethink on decisions on Citizenship Amendment Act and Article 370, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asserted that his government remains and will remain firm on the steps despite pressure from all sides.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the closing ceremony of the Centenary Celebrations of Shri Jagadguru Vishwaradhya Gurukul at Jangamwadi Math in Varanasi. Photograph: PTI Photo

"Be it the scrapping of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir or the CAA, the country waited for decisions on these for years," he told a public meeting here during a day-long visit to his Lok Sabha constituency.

"These decisions were necessary in the interest of the nation. Duniya bhar ke saarey dabao ke bawjood, inn faislon par hum qayam hain aur qayam rahengey (Despite pressure from all sides, we remain firm on these decisions and will continue to remain firm," Modi said.

Provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution, which accorded special powers to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, were abrogated by the government in August last year.

The prime minister's tough talk assumed significance in view of protests against the CAA in various parts of the country.

Citing certain key decisions of his government, Modi referred to the trust set up for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and asserted that it would work "rapidly".

"A trust has been formed for the construction of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya. This trust will work rapidly," he said.

He said that after setting up of the trust, the work on the construction of 'Ram dham' will start with fast speed and added that his government has also decided to transfer 67 acres of land to the trust.

The government had recently set up the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra on the Supreme Court's directive to the Union government to form a trust that can look into the construction and management of the temple.

The prime minister earlier launched or laid foundation of 50 projects worth Rs 1,254 crore in his Lok Sabha constituency.

He also flagged off IRCTC's 'Maha Kaal Express' through video link during his day-long visit to the city.

It will be the first overnight privately-run train in the country to connect three Jyotirling pilgrimage centres of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, and Ujjain and Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh.

The prime minister dedicated to the nation the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Memorial Centre and unveiled a 63-foot statue of the RSS ideologue -- the tallest statue of the leader in the country.

"The soul of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya give us encouragement. We are working for uplift of Dalits, deprived and others sections. And this is what Upadhyaya's 'Antyoday' says - to give all facilities to last beneficiary in the queue," Modi said.

He also inaugurated a 430-bed super-speciality government hospital here.

He said that in past few years, Rs 25,000 crore worth developmental projects have either completed or were going on in fast speed in Varanasi.

Roadway, highway, waterway and railway have been given top priority by the government and the Purvanchal Expressway work was going on at fast speed in Uttar Pradesh.

The prime minister also laid emphasis on better connectivity of heritage and religious sites, saying that tourism will be the main source of making the country 5 trillion dollar economy.

He said, "Our behaviour as a citizen will decide direction of the country in future. Country is not made by governments only, but values of people residing here."

Soon after his arrival in Varanasi, Modi participated in the closing ceremony of the centenary celebrations of the Shri Jagadguru Vishwaradhya Gurukul and released the translated version of the Shri Siddhant Shikhamani Granth in 19 languages and its mobile application.

Uttar Pradesh governor Anandiben Patel, chief minster Yogi Adityanath and Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa were present on the occasion.

Launching the 'Shri Siddhant Shikhamani Granth' Mobile App, the prime minister said it is a coincidence that the centenary celebrations are taking place at the beginning of a new decade and that this decade will once again establish India's role in 21st century in the world.

He said the digitisation of Shri Siddhant Shikhamani Granth via Mobile App will further strengthen the engagement with the younger generation and will also inspire their lives.

Modi suggested conducting an annual quiz competition on topics related to Granth, via this Mobile app.

IMAGE: Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Memorial site and statue which was inaugurated by PM Modi in Varanasi. Photograph: PTI Photo

He said translation of Granth in 19 languages will help in making it accessible to a wider public.

The prime minister said, "Our conduct as a citizen will determine the future of India, will decide the direction of a new India."

He said following the path shown by the saints, we have to fulfil the aspirations of our lives and continue to cooperate fully in nation building.

Modi appreciated people's contributions in creating awareness about cleanliness and taking the Swachhta Mission to each and every corner of the country.

He urged them to use 'Made-in-India' products.

He also asked everyone to participate in Jal Jeevan mission to make it a success.

The prime minister said a significant and visible improvement was made in cleaning the Ganga River. This, he said, could be achieved only because of the public participation.

He said under Namami Gange Programme, projects worth Rs 7,000 crores have been completed while work on projects worth Rs 21,000 crores is under progress.

Modi inaugurated 'Kashi Ek, Roop Anek', an arts and handicrafts exhibition, at the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Hastkala Sankul here.

He evinced keen interest in the products on display as he went around several stalls and personally interacted with buyers and artisans coming from different countries, including the US, England and Australia.

'Kashi Ek Roop Anek' showcased products from over 10,000 artisans from all over Uttar Pradesh. There are 23 lakh artisans and weavers residing in Uttar Pradesh. Of them, about 35,800 artisans and 1.5 lakh weavers stay in Varanasi alone.

The Uttar Pradesh government had launched the ambitious scheme 'One District, One Product' in which one craft per district was identified.
Over the past quarter of a century, Swiss-based Pictet Asset Management has built a reputation for 'thematic' investing  identifying key long-term investment trends and then setting up funds that hold shares in companies likely to benefit from them.

It's resulted in a steady conveyor belt of new Pictet funds investing in a variety of 'themes'  including robotics, biotech, health and nutrition  and an investment house with more than 32billion of assets under management.

One of its most popular and successful thematic funds is Global Environmental Opportunities, a 2billion fund that invests in companies looking to tackle some of the world's biggest environmental challenges.

These include climate change, widespread chemical pollution and increasing acidification of the world's oceans.

So far, it has performed more than satisfactorily as far as investors are concerned.

A fund investment of 1,000 made five years ago would now be worth more than 1,920  far more than equivalent investments in the average global fund (1,680) or the FTSE All Share Index (1,360).

The fund is managed by three individuals, but also draws on ideas from the rest of Pictet's thematic team. There is an independent adviser who provides an insight into the latest environmental developments.

Luciano Diana, senior investment manager, says there are some 400 companies that meet its environmental hurdles for potential inclusion in the fund.

Of these, 50 make it into the portfolio, mostly technology focused and United States based  although Diana scours the globe in search of investment opportunities.

'Everyone is currently talking about ESG  environmental, social and governance  in investment circles,' says Diana. 'Our investment approach has a strong emphasis on the E while integrating the S and G into our investment process.'

The stock selection criteria that Diana and his team applies is rigorous. No company will be considered unless it is having a 'positive impact' on one of nine specific 'planetary boundaries' laid down by the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University  a leader in research on global sustainability.

This positive impact could be a result of a company being at the forefront of waste collection and treatment, water technology or energy storage.

The boundaries are those applying to key environmental issues such as ozone depletion that if exceeded begin to threaten the globe's existence.

As a matter of course, it eliminates from its selection process all companies involved in oil and gas exploration, fossil fuels or chemicals.

'We're looking for solution providers,' says Diana, 'companies that through their products will have a positive environmental impact.'

Among the fund's top ten holdings are pollution control specialist Thermo Fisher Scientific, renewable energy company Vestas Wind Systems and French water supplier Veolia.

Diana says companies are typically held for two and a half years before profits are taken.

Although the Geneva-based fund is skewed towards the US, Diana believes this will change as more companies in China and across emerging markets come up with products designed to safeguard the environment.

The fund's annual charges are just short of 1.2 per cent and it is not suitable for income hunters.
Dr Moses deGraft-Johnson allegedly stole $26million from insurers by billing them for thousands of fake surgeries over a five-year period

A Florida vascular surgeon bilked the government and health insurers of more than $26million to possibly finance his political ambitions in his native country of Ghana, federal authorities say.

Earlier this month, a federal grand jury unsealed a 58-count indictment alleging that Dr Moses deGraft-Johnson falsely billed insurers, including Medicare and Medicaid, for work he did not actually perform.

Investigators within the federal Department of Health and Human Services said that deGraft-Johnson claimed to have performed over a five-year period more than 3,600 atherectomies, a minimally invasive procedure that clears potentially dangerous buildup in arteries.

Authorities said the doctor's practice in Tallahassee, Florida, also filed claims for angioplasties that were never performed.

In court documents filed by the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida, prosecutors argued to keep the doctor in custody, asserting that he was a flight risk because his 'ultimate long-term professional goal' was to one day become the president of Ghana.

US Magistrate Judge Charles A Stampelos agreed and ordered deGraft-Johnson held until trial, set for March 23.

DeGraft-Johnson allegedly used the money to fund his goal of becoming president of Ghana

Investigators said they looked into the doctor's bank accounts and discovered at least $1.8million in international wire transfers to entities and associates in Ghana

The government said it was 'not in a position to evaluate the feasibility of such an endeavor' but saw evidence that he had 'been hard at work using the proceeds of fraud in the United States to establish an empire in a foreign country.'

Investigators said they looked into the doctor's bank accounts and discovered at least $1.8million in international wire transfers to entities and associates in Ghana, a country of 29 million people situated along the western coast of Africa.

Authorities said one of the doctor's relatives served as the country's vice president in the 1980s.

'He's a wonderful doctor, and I will defend him vigorously,' said William Bubsey, the attorney who represented deGraft-Johnson during Friday's detention hearings.

Bubsey said it was still uncertain who will represent deGraft-Johnson because the doctor does not have access to his assets.

Bubsey disputed the government's allegations, saying that any money deGraft-Johnson might have sent overseas was meant to help the impoverished people of Ghana and not to enrich himself.

Indicted along deGraft-Johnson was Kimberly Austin, who prosecutors said served as the office manager of the Heart and Vascular Institute of Northern Florida owned and operated by deGraft-Johnson.

Together, they poached patients from a local hospital in which deGraft-Johnson had access to medical records, according to the government.

'He used his access to the hospital's daily census to poach patients for his scheme to defraud, instructing his staff to cold call patients from the hospital so that he could use their presence to fraudulently bill health care programs,' prosecutors said in court documents.

In some cases, prosecutors said, deGraft-Johnson was not even in the country when some of the procedures were supposed to have been performed.
If the first job of a diplomat is to make friends and influence people, Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office has had a rotten spate of luck. Last July, the leaking of the regular private diplomatic cables sent from Britain's ambassador to the United States, Kim Darroch, to London marred the US/UK relationship. In secret, albeit routine, "DipTels", the British ambassador had described the notoriously thin-skinned President Trump as inept, incompetent and potentially indebted to dodgy Russians.

Britain's High Commissioner to Australia, Vicki Treadell. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

After their release, Trump tweeted that Darroch was neither liked or well thought of in Washington and that the US government would no longer deal with him. His assessment was  in fairness  one long shared privately by Republicans in Congress.

The damage caused by this episode to the long-term diplomatic relationship is hard to calculate but it has certainly not ingratiated Britain in the eyes of the present administration. Insulting ones counterparts is, it goes without saying, bad diplomacy.

Against this backdrop, the row caused by the British High Commissioner to Australia, Vicki Treadells letter to Australian parliamentarians is being seen as "Darroch Mark II" in London.
Kolkata, Feb 17 : Three persons including an engineer were killed and three others injured when an under-construction bridge on Farakka barrage collapsed in Baishnabnagar of West Bengal's Malda district on Sunday night, officials said.

However, Congress MLA Moinul Haq claimed four people had died.

Several labourers trapped beneath the rubble have been rescued after the bridge being constructed under the supervision of the National Highway Authority of India gave way.

Police said the dead included a 36-year-old junior engineer Srinivas, and a worker Sachin Pratap beside another person. Three others were injured. The condition of two of them was grave.

Seven labourers were rescued after the girder being installed between pillar number one and two came down.

Haq claimed the girder slipped and fell when it was being set.

"As per my information, the girder slipped and fell when it was being installed. Six were rescued. Four of them died. They included one engineer. Two labourers have been admitted to MMCH. Search is on. One or two more labourers may still be trapped," he said.

Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury demanded a probe into the incident and suitable compensation for the families of the dead.

"The bridge was being built to reduce the load on Farakka barrage. It was our long-standing demand. An inquiry should be held to find out the lapses committed by the construction company. I will meet union minister Nitin Gadkari," he said.

Dipak Sarkar, Additional Police superintendent, said 9-10 labourers were at work.

"There was an accident. People were trapped. We rescued them. The project manager told me 9-10 labourers were at work," said Sarkar.
Elyes Fakhfakh announces a new government but it immediately hits hurdles after Ennahdha pulls out of lineup.

Designated Tunisian Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh proposed the lineup of a new government on Saturday and then said negotiations would continue after the Ennahdha party, the biggest in Parliament, rejected it.

The proposed government must be approved by the deeply fragmented parliament in two weeks or there will be a new election.

Fakhfakh submitted a list of cabinet nominees to President Kais Saied, with Nizar Yaich as finance minister, Nourredine Erray as foreign minister and Imed Hazgui as defence minister.

But with the largest parties either opposed to his coalition or unenthusiastic about its composition, Fakhfakh may struggle to gain the strong parliamentary majority needed for any significant political programme.

The Islamist Ennahdha party, with 53 seats, said it would only join a unity government that brings together parties from across Tunisias political spectrum.

Ennahdhas decision will put the country in a difficult situation, said Fakhfakh.

Qalb Tounes or Heart of Tunisia, the second-biggest party with 38 seats, also said it would not back the government after the prime minister-designate excluded it from the coalition.

Fakhfakh, a former finance minister, was tasked by Tunisias president with forming a government after a previous list proposed by Ennahdhas nominee for prime minister, Habib Jemli, was rejected by Parliament in a confidence vote last month.

If Fakhfakhs proposal is also rejected by Parliament next week, a new parliamentary election must follow within three months.

Ennahdha has decided not to take part in the government or in a vote of confidence, senior Ennahdha member Abdelkarim Harouni told the AFP news agency.

Fakhfakh had already promised to name a government that would draw only from parties he considered aligned with the goals of Tunisias 2011 revolution and committed to rooting out corruption.

Elections in September and October returned Saied, a political independent, as president, and a parliament in which Ennahdha held fewer than a quarter of the seats.

Tunisia faces a series of long-term economic challenges which threaten to undermine public trust in the young democracy, and which demand political decisions that could be unpopular.

Since the revolution, unemployment has been high and growth low, while the government has sunk further into debt with a series of big budget deficits that foreign lenders demand it bring under control.
The exact date of the next summit is still unknown

The decision to hold a new Normandy format summit will be made on the basis of progress in implementing the current agreements. This was stated by Deputy Head of the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Grushko on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, RBC reports.

The agreement was absolutely clear that the new meeting should summarize what was discussed at the previous meeting. This concerns the disengagement of forces, a ceasefire, clearance, exchange of prisoners, the introduction of the Steinmeier formula in Ukrainian law and some other things, he said.

Grushko specified that the condition for holding the new Normandy meeting is progress on a set of agreements: both on the security track and on the political track.

As you know, negotiations on the settlement of Donbas conflict are conducted with the participation of representatives of Ukraine, France, Germany and Russia. The date of the next Summit of the Normandy Four is still unknown, but the parties announced a new meeting four months later.

Earlier the scandalous plan of reconciliation between Ukraine and Russia by the authorship of three Western analytical centers and the Russian Council of International Affairs has again appeared on the website of the Munich Security Conference.

We recall that on February 14, at the Munich Security Conference, a plan to end the war in Ukraine, jointly developed by three international organizations and the Russian Council on Foreign Affairs was unveiled. The plan caused fierce criticism because of its anti-Ukrainian orientation.

After a few hours, the text of the plan disappeared from the site but is now available again.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that the plan to end the war in Ukraine, known as the 12 Steps to Peace in Donbas, announced at the Munich Conference, is a private initiative, not an official document of the event.
JERUSALEM  Hamas and Israel still exchange fire with sporadic rocket attacks and airstrikes in their long-running military standoff along the Gaza border, but the two sides are also engaged in something of an arms race on social media.

The Israeli military said Sunday that it had foiled a catfishing attempt to gain access to soldiers phones, at least the third instance since 2017 in which it said Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, had tried to dupe its troops by posing as Israeli women seeking romance.

Hamas, for its part, on Friday accused Israel of hacking one of its groups on the messaging app Telegram and posting doctored photos of Hamas intelligence officers in embarrassing poses.

The Israelis said Hamas tricked soldiers using womens photos that had been altered to defeat easy reverse-image searches with fake names like Yael Azoulay and Noa Danon. The women had fleshed-out social media profiles, salted their texts with Hebrew slang and maintained accounts on several platforms at once.
DAKAR, Senegal  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Trump administration is working to determine what level of American military forces is needed in West Africa to counter the rise of extremist violence in the region.

Speaking at the end of his visit to Senegal, Pompeo said he discussed the issue of the U.S. military presence in West Africa with President Macky Sall amid reports that the Trump administration intends to reduce troops in Africa.

We did have a lot of conversation about security issues here, about Americas role in those. Weve made it clear that the Department of Defense is looking at West Africa to make sure we have our force levels right, Pompeo said to reporters Sunday. I was here as CIA director, so I know these security issues very, very well. Well get it right, well get it right collectively; Im convinced of that.

Pompeo said the U.S. will work with Senegal, other West African countries and France to counter the growing threat of extremist violence.

We have an obligation to get security right here, in the region  its what will permit economic growth and were determined to do that, Pompeo said. And Im convinced that when our review is done, well have a conversation with not just Senegal, but all the countries in the region ... Well deliver an outcome that works for all of us.

Senegals Foreign Minister Amadou Ba confirmed that West Africa is concerned about the extremist violence that is spreading in West Africa.

Terrorism has no border, and it is very costly, said Ba at the news conference with Pompeo. He said that Senegal and the region wants continued military support from the U.S.

Yes, we are under threat, Ba said. We want them (the U.S.) to remain present. We hope they will continue to support in security areas. We hope they will continue to support us in training and intelligence. This was discussed with the president of the republic.

Pompeo came to Senegal to start his tour of Africa, the first U.S. Cabinet official to visit in more than 18 months. He left Senegal Sunday to go to Angola and after that will travel to Ethiopia as the Trump administration tries to counter the growing interest of China, Russia and other global powers in Africa and its booming young population of more than 1.2 billion.

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In Angola, an oil-rich country whose people remain impoverished, Pompeo will meet with President Joao Lourenco, who is making strides against corruption, including actions against close relatives of the former leader.

Then Pompeo heads to Ethiopia, Africas second-most populous nation with more than 100 million people and the headquarters of the African Union.

Ethiopia, a key U.S. security ally in the Horn of Africa, has undergone dramatic political reforms since Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018. The loosening of repressive measures has been exploited by some with long-held grievances, leading to sometimes violent ethnic tensions that threaten a national election later this year.


T J S George By

Aam Aadmis victory in Delhi was of course no surprise. Then again, it was a big surprise. How could a common mans party win over a party headed by very uncommon men?

Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia are Lilliputians over whom Narendra Modi and Amit Shah tower as Brobdingnagians.

Perhaps that itself explained the surprise. Against the contrived and politicised Hindutva of the BJP, Kejriwal presented the ordinary mans ordinary faith when he visited the Hanuman Temple, invoked Lord Hanumans blessings upon all and said his partys victory was a good sign for the nation. For him Hanuman was a god to pray to, not a means to canvass votes.

The BJPs tactic of exploiting religiosity for political gain will one day collapse because, for the general public, religion is a means for communication with ones god and nothing else. Kejriwal did not canvass votes in Hanumans name.

He simply showed that he faithfully followed his religion, like most Indians do. Even the populist politics of Tamil Nadu did not use god as a bait.

DMK offered only TV sets, mixies, laptops, grinders, fans, rice etcetera, while the AIADMK offered all these plus half a sovereign of gold for brides. God was kept outside politics and all was well.

To get the perspective right, we must take a look at Gujarat.

What the late Praful Bidwai called Gujarats ultraconservative, upper class, savarna-dominated ruling social coalition created a mindset long before BJP arrived on the political map, even before democracy arrived in India.

Hindutva concepts grew naturally in the ultraconservative soil of Gujarat. The states social indicators, from health indices to gender empowerment measurements, have always been low. But its communal antennae were on the alert from the historical past. It is no surprise that both Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are products of Gujarat politics.

With power in their hands and a tradition that made the pursuit of hardline Hindutva a matter of duty, Modi and Shah were true to their belief system and openly assertive.

The more blatant they grew, the more disconcerted were those who considered the governments policies wrong. Some opposed it openly, some resented it privately. Some felt too scared to react. In fact, the emergence of fear as a factor on the political scene is something new in the history of our democracy. Even Indira Gandhis Emergency did not frighten people. The present tendency to see the government as a bugaboo is a defining feature of Modis India.

There is a pattern in the way the governments investigative agencies are used. There is no effort even to hide the reality of intimidating critics and rewarding supporters. A recent case involved the two reigning superstars of Tamil filmdom.

Vijay got a dressing down while Rajinikanth got a bouquet. Vijay is generally seen as a star with political ambitions. In a film or two, he also delivered whip-lash dialogues critical of the powers that be. It electrified his fans, but it also made him suspect in the eyes of Hindutva ideologues. No wonder he was taken off the set a week ago and questioned for 30 hours by enforcement agencies.

No one missed the point that around the same time three cases against Rajinikanth were withdrawn by the authorities.

The public was happy because Rajinikanths contributions to popular culture remain unrivalled. Nevertheless, the contrast between the states handling of Vijay on the one hand and Rajinikanth on the other could not be missed. Rajini appreciated it by eloquently supporting controversial policies such as the recent Citizenship Amendment Act. People are saying that this will threaten Muslims. How is it a threat to Muslims?, he asked innocently. The BJP leadership appreciates innocence.

Actually, the BJP leadership has been very open about what it appreciates. It appreciated the Uttar Pradesh culture ministers decision to keep the Taj Mahal in Agra out of the governments list of tourist attractions in the state. This was after appreciating MLA Sangeet Soms description of the Taj Mahal as a blot on Indian culture. The same Shri Som won appreciation for declaring that the government was taking steps to erase Babar, Akbar and Aurangzeb from history.

BJP leaders are so pre-occupied with their oddball view of history and culture that they fail to understand how infiltrators like Arvind Kejriwal sneak in from the sidelines. Heres a tip. Imagine the BJP without the popularity of Narendra Modis oratory. Imagine the party and government being led by Amit Shah. That is when we will see multiple Kejriwals rising across BJP territory.
Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday's ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below.

D.H. writes: I am writing about my situation with Global Wine Exchange Limited. I have two cases of wine which cost me 6,000 early last year, sold to me on the promise that the wine would be sold at a profit last July.

That wine has not been sold. GWE then told me that if I bought two more cases, they would sell all four.

I declined, and the company broke off communication, saying it would not handle the sale of the original two cases.

Promise: The Chateau D'Yquem vineyard in France and a bottle of the 1999 wine

You have told me you were cold-called by Global Wine Exchange (GWE), and last March you paid 2,700 for a case of Chateau D'Yquem 1999 after being told that GWE would sell this for you at the end of July for a very precise 3,218.

And in May, you paid 3,500 for a case of the same wine, 1996 vintage, which would also be sold in July.

But as July approached, GWE told you the sale had fallen through. However, if you bought two more cases, all four would be included in a sale to take place in September.

Sensibly, you declined. And worryingly, the bonded warehouse that was supposed to store your wine then told you it held nothing in your name.

I asked GWE about this. I also asked the company's owner, Adrian Loftman, to explain how his business could be just one year old according to Companies House, yet claim on its website to have more than ten years of experience in the fine wine market.

If this was his personal track record, where did he work to gain this experience, I wondered.

Finally, I found that GWE had been advertising for junior brokers  salesmen in fact  expected to make up to 300 phone calls a day. So wasn't Loftman simply running a telesales operation, cold-calling people like you who have registered to say they want no such calls?

He replied: 'I will put my hands up to the fact it seems a vigorous technique to drum up sales, and since liaising with the Information Commissioner's Office and taking advice from them, we have massively changed how we operate with regard to the volume of calls made.'

The case of wine that cost a reader 3,500 was on public sale for 2,250 (stock image)

Loftman agreed that you had bought wine on the promise that it would quickly be sold. He blamed a private buyer who had changed his mind. But he denies that GWE will no longer act for you.

And your wine has now been delivered to the warehouse, with Loftman telling me: 'I admit our delivery of stock to our clients has been somewhat pressured and a little slower.' The wine 'does take time to arrive from France', he explained.

There was no comment or explanation though about where Loftman or anyone else at his company gained their knowledge of fine wines or their investment value.

I found that the wine you bought for 2,700 could be had for 2,300 without any difficulty. And the case that cost you 3,500 was on public sale for 2,250. The chances of making a profit would seem to be remote in the extreme.

I put this to GWE and the company gave you a refund of 1,650. And then things turned very interesting.

Under pressure from GWE, you told me you expected the whole situation to be resolved in your favour, and you added: 'I have to instruct you not to use any statements that I have made during our exchanges or that I approached you for help.'

You added that you felt bad about this. I explained that you could honestly tell Adrian Loftman that you had demanded my silence, and that I had ignored you.

After all, if I let companies censor what I write, then all they would have to do to stifle one complaint would be to pay the reader, leaving other potential complainants out in the cold.

Have there been other complaints? Oh yes. Loftman says the vast majority of his customers are happy, and that to publish your letter would be 'extremely unfair and inaccurate and we would challenge it strongly'.

He added: 'If you do publish an article or warning about Global Wine Exchange, we will be challenging it legally and we are prepared to take action against yourself and your newspaper.'

Well, thank you for the heads-up Adrian, see you in court.

Mastercard in my name is a fraud

S.B. writes: I received a welcome letter addressed to me and containing a Mastercard and account details, all from Cashplus.

I had not applied for these, so I called Cashplus but they said they could do nothing unless I reported this to Action Fraud and obtained a crime number.

I did this, though Action Fraud told me that as nobody had lost anything, there had not been any fraud.

And a few days after I gave the crime number to Cashplus, I received a letter from them, asking for a clutch of identity documents.

Sinister: Whoever applied to open the current account with Cashplus and obtain a Mastercard used basic information about S.B.'s personal circumstances

Whoever applied to open the current account with Cashplus and obtain a Mastercard used basic information about your personal circumstances.

Cashplus told me it had used normal banking procedures to confirm your details, but those checks would, of course, have been into things like your appearance on the electoral register, or your personal credit record.

They would not have proved that the application actually came from you.

Cashplus told me: 'Mr B being alerted to the impersonation attempt is a result of these procedures working as they should.'

As I see it though, the Mastercard was issued with no proof of identity, after which the only safety net was that the card went to your address.

If you lived at a multi-occupation address, it would not have been hard for the fraudster to grab the card. I put this to Cashplus and was told this would not be easy, as the culprit 'would need to illegally steal or access their neighbour's personal information'.

It's unthinkable, of course, that a card fraudster might steal personal information.

This 'asset recovery' firm is scam No 2

S.M. writes: I was taken in by a scam involving Redthorne Realisations Limited. Now I have been called by Richard Thorpe, of Asset Recovery Consultants Limited, but I feel strongly that this is a follow-on scam.

Scam: According to an email from Richard Thorpe, his company has been appointed as the liquidator of Redthorne Realisations, which was wound up by the High Court in 2018

According to an email from Richard Thorpe, his company has been appointed as the liquidator of Redthorne Realisations, which was wound up by the High Court in 2018.

The company's assets have been seized, he says, and you can be compensated if you supply copies of your passport, card statements, and so on, as proof of identity.

You are also expected to pay 15 per cent 'for the liquidator to begin realisation of assets'. And that, of course, is the scam.

The real liquidator of Redthorne Realisations is the Official Receiver, whose office confirmed to me that Asset Recovery Consultants has absolutely no involvement in this. However, there really is a company called Asset Recovery Consultants.

It is based in Swindon, and cheekily, the fraudster calling himself Thorpe has used its company details and a Swindon telephone number in his email.

The boss of the genuine company, Stephen Hales, told me: 'I can confirm we do not employ Richard Thorpe, and I have never heard of him.'

My own enquiries suggest that calls to the fake firm's Swindon number  01793 230406  have been diverted offshore.

If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on Saturday said his country fully supported Indias bid for permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

He is on a two-day visit to Goa.

Speaking to PTI on the sidelines of an urban design conference here, Sousa said, India has full support of Portugal to become a permanent member of UN Security Council. Sousa said India will participate in the 2020 UN Ocean Conference to be held between June 2-6 in Lisbon in Portugal.

He said the two countries can cooperate on a variety of projects, adding that his meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind were fruitful, bilaterally and multi-laterally.

We discussed concrete projects for Portuguese investment in India and Indian investment in Portugal, he said.

He added that the two countries have planned cooperation in the field of economy, technology, culture and science over the next five years.

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KUALA LUMPUR/SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (Reuters) - An 83-year-old American passenger from a cruise ship that docked in Cambodia after being shunned by other countries has tested positive for the new coronavirus after being tested in Malaysia, health authorities said on Saturday.

The woman was the first passenger from the MS Westerdam, operated by Carnival Corp unit Holland America Inc, to test positive for the virus.

The ship docked in the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville on Thursday carrying 1,455 passengers and 802 crew. It had spent two weeks at sea after being turned away by Japan, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines and Thailand.

The passengers were tested regularly on board and Cambodia also tested 20 once it docked. None was found to have the new coronavirus that has killed more than 1,500 people, the vast majority in China.

The American woman flew to Malaysia on Friday from Cambodia along with 144 others from the ship, the Malaysian health ministry said in a statement, adding that she was in stable condition.

The woman's husband had shown symptoms but tested negative, it said. The couple were the only ones of the 145 to show symptoms, the ministry said.

A spokesman for Holland America declined to comment.

Fewer than 300 people were still on board the Westerdam, according to a company official, who declined to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Company officials have said passengers had been routed through Phnom Penh and Kuala Lumpur to fly back to their home countries, but they have not said that all passengers had taken that route.

Or Vandine, Secretary of State at Cambodia's Health Ministry, declined to comment.

U.S. President Donald Trump has thanked Cambodia for taking in the ship in a rare message to a country that is one of China's closest allies and has often been at odds with Washington.

Cruise ships around Asia face widespread fears they may be spreading the virus. The biggest cluster outside China has been on the Diamond Princess, quarantined off Japan's Yokohama. Out of about 3,700 passengers and crew on board, 285 people have tested positive and have been sent to hospital.

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Vietnam turned back two ships on Friday.

The American woman's case brings the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Malaysia to 22.

An 80-year-old Chinese tourist infected with the coronavirus has died in France, the first fatality in Europe and the fourth outside mainland China.

Most of the deaths so far have been in the central Chinese province of Hubei, where the virus is believed to have originated at a wildlife market.

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi and Joseph Sipalan in Kuala Lumpur; Prak Chan Thul in Phnom Penh, Clare Baldwin in Sihanoukville and Orathai Sriring in Bangkok; Editing by Nick Macfie)
A Utah mother-of-five says she was forced to call 911 in the middle of the night because she had no way of feeding her newborn baby.

In the 911 audio, Shannon Bird could be heard tearfully telling the dispatcher at 2am that her breast milk had dried up and she didn't have any baby formula to feed her six-week-old daughter.

Bird, who is a blogger and lives in Alpine, told the dispatcher during the January 28 call that her husband was away for work and her four other children - one of whom had a broken leg - were asleep.

Bird, who is a blogger, told the dispatcher during the 2am call that her husband was away for work and her four other children - one of whom had a broken leg - were asleep

'I've been calling neighbors and no one will answer,' she said in the audio obtained by KSL.

'I've never been in this predicament ever. My milk just literally dried out. This is my fifth kid and this has never happened.'

She said she normally breastfeeds her children and didn't have formula in the house.

Officers with the Lone Peak Police Department were sent out to Bird's home and picked up a gallon of regular milk on the way from the convenience store.

Footage from the officer's body camera showed Bird cradling her baby in a pink blanket as she answered the door.

After realizing her baby was a newborn and couldn't have the regular milk, the officers said they would go to the store for infant formula instead.

In the 911 audio, Shannon Bird could be heard tearfully telling the dispatcher at 2am that her breast milk had dried up and she didn't have any baby formula to feed her six-week-old daughter

Bird told the dispatcher during the January 28 call that her husband was away for work and she had been calling neighbors but they were all asleep

'We'll leave this with you,' Officer Brett Wagstaff could be heard saying as he handed over the regular milk.

'We'll be right back with some formula for your baby - she's adorable.'

The officers returned soon after with newborn formula and wouldn't accept money from Bird.

'That's the same stuff we gave my daughter when she was first born, so hopefully it doesn't upset her stomach,' Wagstaff could be heard telling the mother.

While the officers acknowledged they hadn't ever responded to a 911 call like the one involving Bird, they said it wasn't any different to helping someone change a flat tire.

'So very proud of our officers and their dedication to duty,' the department wrote on their Facebook page alongside a link to a local news report about the ordeal.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 13:56:56|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- China has captured 4,112 fugitives suspected of gang and organized crimes amid a nationwide crackdown, according to the national office against organized crime.

The 100-day campaign launched last November has targeted 4,713 fugitives involved in organized crime, said the office. Among them, 50 were on the country's class-A wanted list issued by the Ministry of Public Security.

A total of 1,873 fugitives had turned themselves in and 41 most wanted suspects had been apprehended, the office said.

The office has pledged to push forward the campaign and hunt down all the fugitives involved in major cases and the most wanted suspects in the first half of this year.
By Express News Service

KADAPA: Deputy Chief Minister Amzath Basha Shaik Bepari has made it clear that the YSRC government will not implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) in the State. A millennium march was organised here on Saturday opposing the CAA, NRC and NPR. The march began at Ghouse Nagar and culminated at the Old Collectorate.

Addressing the gathering, the Deputy Chief Minister said that the minorities and the Dalits had backed the YSRC in the State to enable it to come to power. He announced that he was ready to quit his post to ensure that the CAA, NRC and NPR were not implemented in the State. The YSRC would exert pressure on the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre to reconsider its decision on implementation of the CAA, NRC and NPR as they would not benefit the people in anyway. The BJP government would have to pay a heavy price if it failed to reconsider its decision on implementation of CAA, NRC and NPR yielding to the popular demand, he said.

The CAA, NRC and NPR will not be implemented in Andhra Pradesh. There are apprehensions among Muslims over CAA, NRC and NPR. The Centre should allay the fears of the Muslims in this regard. The Jagan Mohan Reddy government will not take any decision which will affect the interests of Muslims, he said.YSRC State spokesperson C Ramachandraiah, former mayor K Suresh Babu and leaders of Muslim associations participated in the march.Speaking to the media, Amzath Basha made it clear that YSRC would not join the NDA government. YSRC is a secular party and it is committed to protect the interests of Muslim minorities, the Deputy Chief Minister said.

Alliance between BJP and YSRC could be possible, says TGV

Kurnool: BJP Rajya Sabha member TG Venkatesh has said that the alliance between the saffron party and the YSR Congress can be possible if the top leadership of both the parties arrive at a consensus to work together. Speaking to the media after participating in the inaugural ceremony of Swadeshi Handicrafts Exhibition here on Saturday, Venkatesh said that there are no permanent friends or foes in politics. Politics is all about the art of possibility. If both YSRC and BJP top brass mull it, it could be a reality, the MP said. Reacting to the comments of Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister Botcha Satyanarayana, the MP said that if Botcha received any signals from Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in this regard, he could have spoken about it. In the 2019 general elections, YSRC benefited most by the BJP in the State. The party polled more votes due to BJPs presence in the election fray, he added. Earlier, TANA Chairman Niranjan Srungavarapu met the MP and offered to help by taking up social service activities in Kurnool.
Video shows what appear to be policemen in riot gear beating students in the JMI university library last December.

New video footage has emerged that appears to show police in India attacking students of Jamia Millia Islamia university (JMI) in New Delhi on December 15.

The CCTV footage was shared on social media on Sunday by the Jamia Coordination Committee, a group of students and alumni.

The video appears to show several policemen in riot gear entering the universitys library and beating students with batons.

The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified. Al Jazeera has contacted the Delhi Police for comment but received no response at the time of publication.

They (police) did not care about anything. They ransacked everything that came in their way and ruthlessly beat students, a JMI student, who was in the library when police stormed in, told Al Jazeera.

Some students took refuge inside washrooms but they were also not spared. I was myself beaten and had to be hospitalised.

Inside (the library) they broke everything, beat students without any care and regard for standard operating procedure. They beat students on their heads and mostly upper part of the body, the student said.

The incident at the university came after days of clashes between the police and protesters, who were demonstrating against a controversial new citizenship law near JMI in December. Scores of demonstrators were injured in those clashes, as police used tear gas and batons to disperse protesters.

200128065459553

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), passed by the Indian Parliament on December 11, 2019, grants citizenship to minorities  except Muslims  from neighbouring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who arrived in India before 2015.

Critics and activists have said it violates Indias secular constitution and have challenged it in the Supreme Court.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis government says the new law will save religious minorities such as Hindus and Christians from persecution by offering them a path to Indian citizenship.

Widely shared video

The footage posted online on Sunday has been shared extensively on social media. On Twitter in India, a hashtag Shame on Delhi Police was among the top trends of the day, as social media users denounced police brutality and called for a response from the government.

This footage basically confirms what we already knew that Delhi Police entered the JMI university and attacked the students who were studying [inside the library] peacefully, Delhi-based activist, Kavita Krishnan told Al Jazeera.

This is a criminal act, resulting in serious injuries to the students including blinding one of the students.

Local media reported that the police said the video was being investigated.

Last month, a gunman opened fire at a protest rally near the JMI, injuring one student. The demonstrators accused police of not trying to stop the 17-year-old gunman before he fired shots.

The deputy commissioner of police in Southeast Delhi said the teenage suspect had been arrested and an investigation was being conducted into the incident.

Separately, at least 26 students and teachers were injured when masked assailants broke into New Delhis Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) hostels and attacked students and teachers with iron rods, sticks and sledgehammers, and vandalised property.

Police made no immediate arrests, but blamed the violence on rival student groups. They later filed a case against unidentified people on charges of rioting and damaging property.

The violence prompted the opposition Congress party to criticise Modis Bharatiya Janata Party on Twitter for [failing] at its duty to maintain peace in the nation.

CCTV footage exposed Delhi police once again. Police entered into Reading Hall(Commonly known as ' Zakir Hussain Hall) on 15th December & they brutally lathi charged on the students who are studying there. #JAMIA#ShameonDelhiPolice pic.twitter.com/sViVgOZxp1  Neeraj Kundan (@Neerajkundan) February 16, 2020

Modi, however, has blamed the Congress party for inciting violence against the citizenship law.

The United Nations and rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have expressed concern over the enactment of the CAA.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has termed the law fundamentally discriminatory in nature.

The government of India, however, has responded several times that the CAA is an internal matter.
Suzy Clode lives in london with her husband Alex. They have three children: Emmy, 28, Freddy, 26, and Guy, 22. She is a retired investment banker.

PODCASTS & PAMPERING

Ive become a podcast fiend. I listen to them while walking in the park, on my weekly trip for a blow-dry and during my fortnightly Shellac manicure. Its a quick way to learn about new topics. I love How To Fail with Elizabeth Day and The High Low by Dolly Alderton and Pandora Sykes.

GET INSTANT GLOW

Im obsessed with Trinny Londons BFF Cream SPF 30 (35, trinnylondon.com). A friend took me to a pop-up event, after seeing her Instagram tutorials. I bought it all. However, I think this is the best one. Its a tinted moisturiser, which isnt too orange, thick or sticky. The effect is a sheer glow, so you dont look like youre wearing make-up.

Suzy Clode, 57, (pictured) who lives in London with her husband Alex, revealed how regular pampering helps to maintain her ageless appearance

BEGINNERS EXERCISE

Ive got into reformer Pilates, where you do exercises on a special machine that increases the resistance. I do three sessions weekly (from 35, theloftpilatesstudio.co.uk). It has transformed my posture, core strength and given me muscle definition Ive never had before.

CELEBRITY FASHION

I buy most of my clothes from high street shops, such as Topshop and H&M. Once a season, I invest in a special piece. My favourite designer is Victoria Beckham. The cut of her clothes is perfect for my petite size, as Im 5ft 3in  especially the trouser suits: usually theyre way too long, but hers fit perfectly. I have a gorgeous navy one, which was expensive but well worth it.

MIDLIFE PORTFOLIO CAREER

I retired in my 40s, after two decades in investment banking. Since then, Ive built a portfolio career. In 2017 I set up a business called Clover with my friend, a dentist, to educate primary school students on dental hygiene and nutrition. Plus, I volunteer with a charitable foundation, funding projects and reading programmes for disadvantaged pupils. It has given me a deeper sense of purpose than I ever had in finance.

Do you look good for your age? Reveal your secrets to: inspire@dailymail.co.uk
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 18:31:23|Editor: xuxin

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ABUJA, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen on motorbikes killed at least 30 people across two villages during a raid in northwest Nigeria, local police said.

In a statement reaching Xinhua in Abuja on Sunday, the police in the northwestern state of Katsina said the gunmen raided Tsauwa and Dankar villages in Batsari local government area of the state on Friday night.

The gunmen raided the two villages with their motorbikes and shot at residents, said Gambo Isah, spokesman for the police in that state, adding that the majority of the victims were the aged and children who could not run for their lives.

Some 21 people were killed in Tsauwa village where houses were burned down and foodstuffs were also taken away. The gunmen went on to kill nine more in Dankar village, Isah said further.

The police, working in collaboration with the military, have arrested one suspect and recovered nine motorbikes belonging to the gunmen and used during the raid, according to the police's mouthpiece.

Additional policemen and military personnel have been deployed to protect the area and neighboring communities, said Sanusi Buba, Katsina's police chief, after visiting the affected villages on Saturday.

Buba added that the security operatives were on the trail of the assailants and combing nearby bushes for them.
The woman who claimed to have received a string of X-rated messages from married Strictly star Kelvin Fletcher has alleged the pair also met up in luxury hotels.

Speaking to The Sun, the anonymous woman claimed that she and Kelvin, 36, would meet up after Emmerdale star Kelvin had finished his rehearsals with Oti Mabuse.

She alleged: 'Me and Kelvin met up three times at different hotels. It was always in London when he was down here for filming.

Out and about: The woman who claimed to have received a string of X-rated messages from married Strictly star Kelvin Fletcher has revealed the pair also met up in luxury hotels (the star is pictured leaving his home on Saturday)

'He acted as if he was a single man and didn't go to any lengths to keep our meetings secret. I knew he was married but that never stopped him.'

She also alleged the father-of-two, who she met on a night out, invited her to his hotel in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, close to where the hit BBC competition is filmed.

Representatives for Kelvin Fletcher declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline.

Heading out: The Emmerdale star was spotted leaving his home with his wife Liz (pictured) on Saturday, after sources claimed he sent messages to another woman

The blonde woman described Kelvin's sex-drive as 'through the roof' and claimed that he wasn't tired out from '12 hours of practice as day with Oti'.

On Saturday sources claimed to The Sun that Kelvin first began exchanging messages with the woman last year.

Alongside the texts, the actor allegedly send X-rated photographs and shirtless snaps to the woman in question, even while he was wowing viewers on Strictly.

The source claimed: 'Kelvin has publicly and repeatedly insisted that he's not cheating on his wife with Oti.'

'But for a year he has been sending graphic messages and images to a completely different woman.

Shocking: The claims came after the Emmerdale star put on a united display with his wife in a loved-up Instagram snap as they marked Valentine's Day on Friday

'It's like he can't help himself. He said his high sex drive made it hard for him when he was away from home.'

On Saturday, the Strictly Come Dancing champion was seen for the first time since being hit by the claims.

Kelvin was spotted heading out in the car with wife Liz and their children in tow, after the claims came nearly a week after he was spotted partying with his Strictly dance partner Oti Mabuse until 3am.

Kelvin cut a casual figure as he exited his home with his wife Liz close behind.

Drama: Liz unfollowed her husband Kelvin on Instagram after he was spotted enjoying a 3am nightcap with his Strictly dance partner Oti Mabuse (pictured) they have since put on a united front

It came after Kelvin put on a united display with his wife in a loved-up Instagram snap as they marked Valentine's Day on Friday, following the saga surrounding his 3am 'nightcap' with professional partner Oti.

The actor and Eliza beamed for the camera as they headed out on the school run, with Kelvin writing: 'Happy Valentines @eliza_marsland.'

Strictly bosses are reportedly fearful Oti may quit the show after being left 'devastated' by the 3am nightcap saga, which saw her and Kelvin spotted on a late night out together.

A source told The Sun: 'Oti is a massive asset for the show. But at the moment she is very unhappy and upset at all the reports and has been left saying 'do I really need all this BS?'.

Drama: The fallout following the so-called nightcap saga has also reportedly sparked fears that Oti may quit Strictly (pictured on The Graham Norton Show on Friday)

'She is married and has a lot of respect for Kelvin's wife and wouldn't carry on in this way. They are dance partners and friends and that's it. Some people close to Oti are worried she will just eventually throw her hands up and pack it in.

'She has a great TV career in her own right on the Greatest Dancer and there would be a queue of producers lining up to work with her.'

When contacted by MailOnline, representatives for Strictly Come Dancing declined to comment at the time.

The drama started when Liz decided to unfollow Kelvin on Instagram after it got 'too much' seeing the pictures of her husband out late at night.

Liz was reportedly 'upset and angry' her husband was pictured enjoying a night cap until 3am last weekend with his dancer partner Oti.

A source told MailOnline: 'Naturally Liz wasn't happy after finding out Kelvin had been out late drinking with the Strictly lot.

'It wasn't easy for her to see him still out at 3:35am, while she's at home looking after their two young children. Any woman would be upset if they were in the same situation.

'In the heat of the moment she unfollowed him on Instagram, it was just a shock for her to see him out so late.'

Kelvin rushed home to reassure his wife and insisted the drama will 'all blow over'.

Speaking to The Sun, the Strictly Come Dancing 2019 winner said: 'Everything is amazing. I am just a little bit bewildered by all the attention. But I am sure it will all blow over.'

Kelvin and his wife put on a united display on Wednesday, with Liz wearing her wedding ring once again as they emerged from their family home together.
Kolkata, Feb 16 : A 24-year-old motor cycle rider died when he lost control and fell while doing Facebook live in Andal of West Bengal's West Burdwan district, his family said on Sunday.

Chanchal Dhibor, who sustained a head injury, was rushed to a private hospital where he died on Saturday night.

According to the victim's family, the accident happened when he was heading for his home at Dhiborpara in Ukhra after offering prayers at a local Kali temple on Saturday evening.

"He was live on Facebook while riding the bike. And during a momentary lapse in concentration, he fell and got the head injury which proved fatal," a family member said.
A man in his mid-20s has been left fighting for his life after multiple people were stabbed in Barking on Sunday.

The man was stabbed in an assault on Sandringham Road, Barking on Sunday afternoon.

Police and the London Ambulance Service arrived at the scene following reports of a stabbing.

The man was taken to an East London hospital where he is being treated for his "critical" injuries".

A spokeswoman for the Met said: "Police were called at 16:24hrs on Sunday, 16 February to Sandringham Road, Barking, to reports of a stabbing.

"London Ambulance Service and Londons Air Ambulance also attended.

"The victim, a man in his mid-20s, has been taken to an east London hospital. His condition is critical.

"Two males (no further details) have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. A crime scene is in place and enquiries continue."

An earlier tweet from Barking and Dagenham police said that multiple people had been stabbed.

The tweet said: "Police are on scene with @Ldn_Ambulance @LDNairamb at Sandringham Road, Barking at the scene of a serious assault whereby multiple persons have been stabbed. One of the males is currently critical with life threatening injuries. A large scene is in place. Please avoid the area."

A further statement from the police confirmed that one other person had been stabbed in the hand.

"The incident is being linked to a stabbing in Porters Avenue, Dagenham, with a male, believed aged 19, stabbed in the hand. A crime scene is in place and enquiries continue", the spokeswoman said.

If any young people have information about violence or knife crime, they can visit fearless.org/ where they can pass on information anonymously. Fearless is part of the Crimestoppers charity, and is also independent of the police.
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Linkedin Gemma Holliani Cahya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, February 16, 2020 14:40 695 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2064d826f 1 City Nuclear,South-Tangerang,Banten,BATAN,radiation,radioactive,Bapeten Free

The National Nuclear Energy Agency (Batan) has asked residents of the Batan Indah housing complex in South Tangerang, Banten, to remain calm after finding high levels of radiation within the complex.

Agency spokesperson Heru Umbara said locals should not panic because the case was being handled by the relevant authorities.

"Residents can carry out activities as usual, as long as they do not enter the area that has been marked as contaminated. If managed properly, exposure to this radiation will not endanger the residents," Heru said in a statement on Saturday.

The Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency (Bapeten) first detected the radiation during a routine check meant to ensure that the agencys mobile radiation detection unit was working properly.

From Jan. 30 to 31, Bapeten conducted a function test with target areas of Pamulang, the Puspiptek [Center for Science and Technology Research] housing complex, the Muncul area, the ITI [Indonesia Institute of Technology] campus, the Batan Indah housing complex and the Serpong train station, Bapeten spokesperson Indra Gunawan said in a statement on Friday.

He said that all of the areas showed normal radiation levels except for a vacant lot next to the volleyball court at Block J of the Batan Indah complex.

A joint Bapeten and Batan team conducted a search to find the source of the high radiation on Feb. 7 to 8 and found several radioactive fragments, he said, adding that after the fragments were removed, tests showed that the radiation levels in the area had decreased but were still above normal levels. Based on those results, we concluded that the contamination had spread in the area and decontamination efforts had to be conducted by removing or dredging contaminated soil and removing contaminated trees and other vegetation.

Bapeten spokesperson Abdul Qohhar Teguh said that the agency was not yet able to confirm the source of the radioactive fragments found in the area.



For the time being, we have not focused on investigating the location of the source, where it came from, why it was there, who brought it. At the moment the joint team is still focusing on clearing the scene, Qohhar told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

He added, however, that the teams initial findings indicated that the radiation did not come from a nuclear reactor leak. The Puspiptek building, which is located about five kilometers away from the Batan Indah complex, houses several small reactors used for experimental purposes.

The source of radiation that we found [in the complex] is Caesium-137, which is frequently used for industrial purposes, he said. Caesium-137 is also one of the substances that will contaminate the environment when there is a reactor accident, such as at Chernobyl or Fukushima. But in addition to Caesium-137 there would also be other substances [in a reactor accident]. In this case, the only radiation source is Caesium-137, so the hypothesis that this incident is due to a reactor leak is baseless.

Qohhar added that when radiation exposure rate went above a certain threshold, the effects would be felt by humans, with symptoms such as changes in skin color, dizziness, nausea or even death.

The exposure rate in Batan Indah is far below this threshold, he said.

A resident of Batan Indah complex, who asked to remain anonymous, said that she received a letter from the neighborhood unit (RT) earlier this week informing her about the radiation. She felt everything was under control.

I think there is no need to panic. I believe that the authorities are doing their best to solve the problem. And if they thought it was dangerous, they would have warned us. But so far there is still no warning, so were safe, she said.

She said that she passed the volleyball field every day during her morning walk and that besides the yellow barrier tape around the vacant lot, everything looked normal.

Heru said that Batan was currently in the process of cleaning up the exposed area and had collected 52 drums of soil and vegetation from the locations.

The results of the cleanup showed that the material causing the radiation had mixed with the soil. The findings are currently being analyzed in the Batan laboratory, he said.

He added that after the cleanup, the radiation levels fell by 30 percent, from 149 microSieverts per hour to 98.9 microSieverts per hour. The normal exposure rate from background radiation is around 0.03 microSieverts per hour.

The clean-up process, Heru said, started on Feb. 12 and would continue until early March.

He added that the team would soon conduct a radiation test known as whole-body counting on residents who lived in the exposed area to measure their bodies radioactivity levels.

"We will keep doing the cleanup until the area is thoroughly clean and there is no longer any danger to the people and the environment, Heru said.
Out of the total 418 samples of suspect coronavirus cases sent for testing to Institute of Virology from Kerala, 405 have come out as negative, while the results for the rest, barring three, are awaited.

"Out of three persons in whom the disease was confirmed, two persons have been discharged. One person is stable and the repeat sample results are awaited," according to a release by the Health and Family Welfare Department of the Kerala government.

The release added that till Sunday a total of 2,276 persons have been placed under surveillance, "out of which 2262 are under home isolation and 14 are admitted in designated isolation facilities."

The health condition of all symptomatic persons under isolation is stable, according to the release.

The release added that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Centre) has informed the Kerala government that 115 persons belonging to Kerala are currently in quarantine in two camps in Delhi.

These 115 persons have been tested and found negative for coronavirus and they will be allowed to travel back to Kerala on Monday evening.

The persons have been requested to remain in home isolation upon their return.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 05:55:19|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha on the sidelines of the 56th Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Feb. 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday met South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha on the sidelines of the 56th Munich Security Conference.

Wang briefed Kang on the latest situation of China's fight against the outbreak of the novel coronavirus epidemic, calling for mutual understanding and support in the international community, especially between neighboring countries.

China is on the frontline of the war against the epidemic. We are fully confident in winning the war as early as possible, said Wang, who also appreciated South Korea's support and aid to China, and believed that the friendship between the two peoples will be strengthened in the process.

China hoped that the exchanges with South Korea will soon resume after the epidemic. China is willing to strengthen communications with South Korea, in a bid to prepare the already-scheduled high-level exchanges between the two countries this year. China is willing to cooperate with South Korea in health care, science and technology, and other new fields, Wang said.

China is also willing to continue close coordination with the South Korean side and jointly play constructive roles for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and a political solution to the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, Wang added.

Kang said South Korea highly appreciated the great efforts by the Chinese government and its people in the fight against the novel coronavirus epidemic. South Korea will continue the cooperation with China and hopes that the epidemic will be fully contained as soon as possible.

South Korea is also willing to work with China to prepare for a series of high-level exchanges this year, and deepen cooperation in the fields of economy and trade, industry, environment, health, and culture, in a bid to achieve new progress for the South Korea-China strategic cooperative partnership.

South Korea is willing to maintain communications with China over the situation on the peninsula, added Kang.
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BURLINGTON  Route 4 is closed at Mountain Spring Road for a major crash Saturday night, officials said.

The state Department of Transportation indicated the crash happened around 7 p.m.

Connecticut State Police confirmed that troopers were investigating the serious injury motor vehicle accident on Route 4 around 7:40 p.m.

Use alternate routes if traveling in or around the area, state police urged drivers.

Initial dispatch reports indicated several people were injured and two LifeStar helicopters were called to airlift some of those injured.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
The detainees are residents of the village of Rainivka, Zaporizhia region's Prymorsky district.

Ukrainian MP with the Servant of the People faction Pavlo Melnyk says four Ukrainian fishermen detained by Russian authorities on board of a small vessel in the Sea of Azov are presumably Ukrainian nationals Serhiy Hoha, Oleksiy Ivanov, Vasyl Tiurkedzhy, and Maksym Terekhov.

Read alsoRussians detain Ukrainian boat in Azov Sea off Crimea coast

"The fishermen are residents of the village of Rainivka, Zaporizhia region's Prymorsky district," he wrote on Facebook on February 16.

Melnyk also posted certain photos of the detainees.

"It is Maksym Terekhov in the photo and video of the interrogation disseminated in the media. This can be argued for sure. [Melnyk posted a photo of Maksym and his family]. Vasyl Tiurkedzhy is on a black and white photo. Now information regarding the fishermen is being clarified," he added.

As was earlier reported, Russian authorities had detained in the Sea of Azov a small vessel with four Ukrainian nationals on board, according to a statement by the Russian Federal Security Service.

"The captain of the boat did not fulfill legitimate requirements of the coast guard to halt, and tried to escape," reads the Russian statement.

The report says a fishing net and almost 300 Black Sea turbot fish were found on board.

The crew had no fishing permits at hand that the Russian occupation authorities required.

According to the so-called "Commissioner for Human Rights in Crimea" Larysa Opanasiuk, the crewmembers of the Ukrainian vessel were detained for 48 hours.

The Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine's Autonomous Republic of Crimea (ARC) has opened criminal proceedings into the detention of Ukrainian citizens.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made a respectable, reserved appearance at the Feb. 11 session of the United Nations Security Council, regarding US President Donald Trumps "deal of the century. As anticipated, Abbas was excoriated. Danny Danon, Israels envoy to the UN and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus right-hand man, announced that so long as Abbas leads his nation, there is no chance for peace. After the speech, Ehud Olmert, former Israeli prime minister who spent time in prison afterward, met with Abbas in New York; this earned a hysterical announcement on Netanyahus part as he called their meeting a historical low. He did not explain what was Olmerts crime in meeting with a Palestinian leader who signed an agreement with Israel, fights terror and calls the security cooperation with Israel sacred.

But as the days go by, the severity and the dangers of the deal become clearer. The Palestinians view it as a slap in the face because what is being offered to them is only partial autonomy, constituting an enclave within the State of Israel; a capital city on the very outskirts of East Jerusalem; and an Israeli veto on the number of Palestinian refugees they will be permitted to absorb in their country. Since the publication of the plan, the Palestinians succeeded in averting a positive response to it from the Arab League and from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. As for the West Bank Palestinians, Abbas now enjoys sort of a comeback. On the one hand, he succeeded in orchestrating well-attended demonstrations against the program. On the other hand, Abbas managed so far to avert the deterioration of these protests into violent confrontations against Israeli security figures and Israeli citizens.

Now that the defense system has studied the program carefully, severe reservations can be heard also on the Israeli side. The first reservation concerns the lengthening of the Green Line border (the 1949 armistice line) from 311 kilometers (193 miles) to 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) in Trumps plan. It would be almost impossible to guard such a long border, given current military factors. Also, imposing Israeli sovereignty on 15 settlement blocs in the heart of the Palestinian state assigns overwhelming responsibility to the defense system, a task they have no idea how to enforce. The army might have to decide between settling for "formal authority" but with no practical ability to reach the Israeli enclaves when needed, or posting numerous forces in these enclaves that are disproportionate to the number of settlers who would remain.

And then we get to the economic part of the program. Trump, with his tremendous experience in accumulating capital and declaring bankruptcy, sees the world through his money box. He believes that ultimately, anyone and everyone can be bought. Those who are ostensibly set up to be sold become furious. (All our rights are not for sale, said Abbas.) But once we take a serious look at the economic program under discussion, it becomes clear that Abbas is not giving up on a very big temptation.

True, the deal talks about $50 billion toward implementation. But this is not a check that can be signed over to the Palestinian Authority (PA) once it agrees to that same future state that Abbas called swiss cheese. The sum of money is also supposed to compensate other countries (mainly Jordan and Israel) for absorbing refugees since 1948  Jordan absorbed a very large share of the Palestinian refugees and even awarded them citizenship (as opposed to the other Arab countries). Israel absorbed Jewish refugees who were forced to leave the Arab countries after the establishment of the state. After these sums will be deducted, $28 billion will be left for the Palestinians. And since this is a 10-year plan, the Palestinians will receive only $2.8 billion a year. If we add the yearly contributions sent by the donor countries to the Palestinians to the funding that is sent every year to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, then the difference (with the promised $2.8 billion in Trumps plan) is not much. As far as the Palestinians are concerned, the offered deal of the century is no great bargain.

But even beyond that, we must remember that the sums cited above are not promised by the US administration to the Palestinians. It is widely known that Trump believes that the United States has showered huge sums of money on the world without receiving much in exchange, and that the time has come for others to come up with the money. This was expressed in the Bahrain economic workshop last year, a convention led by Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law and senior White House adviser. This convention only dealt with the economic aspects of Trumps program. What emerged from Bahrain was that the US administration aims for the Gulf states to lead the big investments in infrastructure and other spheres in the PA. Moreover, the Trump world view insists on much involvement of the private sphere in the process. Thus, the hope is that the big investors would not be governments but private business sectors.

However, private investors do not generally invest in places that their governments want  unless, perhaps, they receive incentives that ensure their investment and associated profits. When a government is ready to offer such a convenient safety net, this means that we are talking about governmental investments via private agents and not projects led by the private market.

Investors want to make sure that the country in which they invest is stable; that the countrys regulations will allow them to receive their profits without unnecessary complications; and that the country has a legal and judiciary system that will act appropriately if any kind of disagreement erupts between them and local agents. This, however, is not the case in the PA, which only receives very modest investments and even these are usually due to ideological motives, not business ones. This is also the reason that the donor countries continue to invest money over many years via infrastructure entrepreneurs and others. That's why it is hard to believe that business brokers will be willing to risk their money and invest in the projects that were displayed in the program. For the PA to be able to draw investors, it needs to focus first on building an institutional system. Former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad had begun working on this, until he was forced to resign. Obviously, this first step is a vital one that must be implemented before there can be talk of grandiose investment programs.

Three weeks after publication of the deal of the century on Jan. 28, the world understands that it is all about empty concepts  Palestinian state, territorial exchange and Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem. Many Israelis understand that Israel would have been better off if this deal had never seen the light of day. Even the economic aspects of the deal are revealed as a hopeless, if glittering, vision.
A thermal scanner deployed at the entrance to Singapore's Chingay Parade amid the coronavirus outbreak. Chingay is an annual street parade that the country holds as part of its Lunar New Year celebrations.

With the ongoing coronavirus outbreak threatening to stall economic growth, Singapore's government could roll out one of its biggest budgets yet to soften the hit to its economy.

The country's finance minister, Heng Swee Keat, is scheduled to deliver his annual budget speech on Tuesday. That's coming as the country grapples with one of the highest numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases outside China.

The additional challenge that the virus poses followed an economically difficult year for Singapore. The trade-dependent economy had to contend with the U.S.-China trade war and a slump in global demand for semiconductors  one of its main exports  in the past year.

"The recent virus outbreak has added salt to the wound," said Irvin Seah, senior economist at Singapore bank DBS.

He explained in a note earlier this month that the current outbreak could have a "deeper" impact on Singapore compared to the SARS epidemic in 2003. That's because the country has since increased its economic links with China, which is now Singapore's largest export market and biggest source of international tourists.
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department in the Trump era has repeatedly tasked U.S. attorneys from far-flung offices to parachute into politically explosive cases in Washington, raising concerns among current and former officials that agency leaders are trying to please the president by reviewing and reinvestigating cases in which he is personally or politically invested.

After a tumultuous week for federal law enforcement in which Attorney General William Barr declared he could not do his job if the president kept tweeting about criminal cases, and officials revealed they had dropped one politically charged case while adding new prosecutors to others, several current and former officials expressed alarm at what they characterized as a troubling pattern.

"The power to investigate is the power to destroy," said Gregory Brower, a former U.S. attorney and former senior FBI official. The current approach to sensitive cases, he said, "gives the appearance of politics coming into play whenever the president has a perceived political enemy. . . . The ability to simply point to a pending investigation against a person can have devastating effects on that person and can have a potential political benefit to the person orchestrating the investigation."

On Friday, prosecutors said they would no longer pursue a criminal case against Andrew McCabe, the former acting FBI director who has long been a target of President Donald Trump's vitriol.

The decision infuriated the president, according to a senior White House official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail internal discussions. Trump ranted privately to associates about the announcement, telling one he's always known McCabe was a "bad guy."

While the president is angry over the decision not to charge McCabe with lying to investigators during a leak investigation, he is unlikely to fire Barr over the matter, people familiar with the matter said.

Aides have urged the president not to say much publicly about the McCabe decision, and so far he has mostly heeded that advice. On Saturday morning, Trump fired off a tweet summarizing the Justice Department inspector general's findings that McCabe misled investigators on four separate occasions about authorizing a media disclosure and stating, incorrectly, that the "IG RECOMMENDED MCCABE'S FIRING."

Inspector General Michael Horowitz made a criminal referral of McCabe's conduct to prosecutors, but did not specifically advise that he be fired. McCabe was fired in 2018 just as he was about to retire, costing him significant pension benefits.

Trump advisers viewed the president's tweet as the best they could have hoped for on the subject, the senior White House official said.

Shortly after the McCabe announcement on Friday, officials said that Barr had assigned Jeff Jensen, the U.S. attorney in St. Louis, to review and "assist" prosecutors currently handling the case of Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who is still awaiting sentencing after having pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The Jensen appointment marks the latest iteration of an unusual trend inside the Justice Department of tasking outside U.S. attorneys with reviewing, managing, or reinvestigating work that would otherwise not be in their portfolio. Much of the effort seems aimed at re-examining the work of special counsel Robert Mueller III, whose probe of possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign infuriated the president, or to target the president foes.

In 2017, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed Utah's U.S. Attorney, John Huber, to investigate old corruption allegations against Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and Trump's opponent in the 2016 campaign, on issues that had been covered previously by other federal prosecutors. That assignment came amid pressure from Republican lawmakers for appointment of a second special counsel.

The next year, the Justice Department tasked the U.S. attorney in Chicago, John Lausch, to oversee the turnover to Congress of internal FBI documents about Clinton.

Last year, Barr tapped Connecticut's U.S. attorney, John Durham, to investigate how U.S. intelligence agencies investigated Russian interference in the last presidential election.

More recently, Barr assigned Scott Brady, the U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh to take information from Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who wants to provide the Justice Department with material alleging wrongdoing related to former vice president Joe Biden and his family.

And now, the top federal prosecutor from St. Louis is working on the Flynn case that has long been handled by federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia.

Taken together, the moves have fueled suspicion inside and outside the department.

Such decisions are not unprecedented. In 2009, President Barack Obama's first attorney general, Eric Holder, expanded an investigation Durham was conducting into the treatment of detained terror suspects, and at the time, many in the intelligence community bristled at the idea that conduct that had been investigated once already would be investigated again.

But it is highly unusual to do this as often as the Trump administration has.

"If this Justice Department had done it once, you might understand, but they have done it over and over, and it's only ever to re-examine an outcome that the president didn't like," said Matthew Miller, a former spokesman for Holder, who said the practice does "enormous harm" to the department's reputation. "When you are constantly launching politically motivated probes, the public can't tell which investigations are legitimate and which are political, and ultimately they question everything. And that is clearly part of the goal."

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

Inside the Justice Department and at U.S. attorney's offices around the country, career employees took a wide range of views on Barr's recent actions - particularly his extraordinary Thursday interview with ABC News, when he said Trump's commentary makes it "impossible for me to do my job."

Some inside the department were heartened by his remarks. "Finally," one career Justice Department employee told The Washington Post.

But others were more skeptical - wondering if Barr and Trump had orchestrated the interview as a means to provide the attorney general with political cover to continue executing influence over the cases Trump has fixated on most. That cynicism only grew deeper when it was revealed new prosecutors had been added to the Flynn case.

People close to the attorney general say his frustration with Trump is genuine, and that Barr had privately expressed his concerns to the president more than once in recent weeks. When those efforts did not seem to have the desired effect, Barr decided to speak out publicly, these people said.

Current and former officials said the move to add new prosecutors to the Flynn case seemed to be part of a new pattern of Justice Department political leadership spinning up inquiries that might help Trump and his friends and hurt their perceived foes.

David Laufman, a former chief of the Justice Department's Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, said such reviews are "enormously demoralizing, certainly for the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C., and I would imagine throughout the Department of Justice and U.S. attorneys offices nationwide."

Laufman said he was baffled at why the various U.S. attorneys accept such missions. "Why would they be associating themselves with investigations that are evocative of the manner in which repressive regimes throughout history have behaved?"

Representatives for Durham, Jensen and Huber did not respond to questions for this report. A spokeswoman for Brady declined to comment.
They are no strangers to sharing a snapshot of their idyllic relationship with fans on Instagram.

And Oliver Proudlock and his gorgeous fiancee Emma Louise Connolly looked stylish at the Aspinal of London AW20 London Fashion Week Presentation on Sunday.

The former Made in Chelsea star, 31, looked dapper in a beige over-coat paired with a simple black t-shirt and jeans.

Gorgeous: Oliver Proudlock and his gorgeous fiancee Emma Louise Connolly looked stylish at the Aspinal of London AW20 London Fashion Week Presentation on Sunday

The jewellery designer accessorised with a collection of rings over his fingers and a few chains hung around his neck.

The gorgeous Emma Lou was her usual stylish self in a maroon wool coat paired with a simple black shirt.

The 28-year-old made a statement in a scarlet lip and wore her sandy blonde locks in tousled waves.

Looking good: The former Made in Chelsea star, 31, looked dapper in a beige over-coat paired with a simple black t-shirt and jeans

What a babe: The gorgeous Emma Lou was her usual stylish self in a maroon wool coat paired with a simple black shirt

The Scottish model carried a mini Aspinal snakeskin print green bag.

Also there was Sophie Herman who opted for a chic black blazer and biker shorts.

The former Made in Chelsea star wore sheer black tights under the shorts and paired them with a black body suit.

She wore her blonde tresses sleek and loose with a middle parting.

Very chic: Also there was Sophie Herman who opted for a chic black blazer and biker shorts with a belt

Stylish: The former Made in Chelsea star wore sheer black tights under the shorts and paired them with a black body suit

The reality star opted for a pared back make-up look with natural tones.

Lady Victoria Hervey dressed up for the occasion in a plunging black sequined jumpsuit.

The 43-year-old accessorised with a brown hat and carried a small black Aspinal bag.

Daring: Lady Victoria Hervey dressed up for the occasion in a plunging black sequined jumpsuit

Plunging: The 43-year-old accessorised with a brown hat and carried a small black Aspinal bag

Actress Amy Jackson looked gorgeous in a maroon coloured patent dress that featured a sharp collar and buttons down the front.

She paired it with black boots and a glamorous makeup palette with cat eye flicks.

Proudlock and Emma have been together for five years; he pursued her for three years prior following a chance meeting at an art gallery during her graduate fashion show.

So glam: Actress Amy Jackson looked gorgeous in a maroon coloured patent dress that featured a sharp collar and buttons down the front

The couple announced their engagement in August 2018 after the reality star got down on one knee during a romantic trip to Gothenburg, Sweden, to mark their four-year anniversary.

After spending 2019 buying and renovating their home in Barons Court, west London, the pair are now believed to be gearing up for a wedding in 2020.

Emma previously said she plans to have five wedding dresses, but she doesn't want her husband-to-be to design any of them.

Speaking in an interview with the Scottish Daily Record, she explained: 'I'm not going to have one wedding dress, I'm going to have five.

Very chic: She paired it with black boots and a glamorous makeup palette with cat eye flicks

Engaged: Proudlock and Emma have been together for five years; he pursued her for three years prior following a chance meeting at an art gallery during her graduate fashion show




Ireland is the latest recipient of a political pandemic which has swept across the Western world. The origins of this virus can be traced to the proprietor of Trump Tower on New York's Fifth Avenue. He carried it to the White House in Washington after he had infected a majority of the American electorate, surprising even himself by winning the last US presidential election.

Since then the same virus, which feeds on populist politics and uproots long-standing traditional voting behaviour, has proved uncontrollable. It has spread across several European states. Most notably, the UK has felt its full impact, first in the Brexit referendum in 2016 and, just recently, in a general election which witnessed tens of thousands of Labour Party supporters forsaking life-long voting habits to put Boris Johnson in Downing Street.

Now the virus has reached Ireland's shores, shattering a century-old tradition of support for two established parties in Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, instead offering Sinn Fein an unprecedented opportunity to take the reins of power.

The beneficiaries of this pandemic hold very different views, from Donald Trump to Boris Johnson and now Mary Lou McDonald, but they have one striking similarity: all have won on the frustration of ordinary voters fed up with established political norms, prepared to reject old allegiances and willing to risk an alternative approach.

The lesson is the same everywhere - from the depressed northern cities of England, to the rust-belt of Trump's heartlands, to the youthful Irish electorate who voted for Sinn Fein. The days of predictable politics have gone. Politicians can afford no longer to take their party faithful for granted.

That lesson was even learnt in Northern Ireland in December when the same Sinn Fein as is now being feted paid a heavy electoral price - as did Democratic Unionists - for failing to deliver joined-up government at Stormont. If voters want change, more of them than ever before appear willing to reject the status quo, even in this little corner of the world.

Soon after his efforts in Belfast to persuade Sinn Fein and the DUP to restore power-sharing at Stormont, Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney appeared on RTE's Prime Time. He found himself facing the opening salvoes of Sinn Fein's criticism that he and the outgoing governing coalition had failed the Republic's electorate over the past decade.

Eventually, Coveney could keep his cool no longer.

Bringing Sinn Fein in from the cold will not be easy. Coming to terms with some of the party's wilder, Leftist views, never mind its obsession with remembering a violent past, may even prove impossible, as has been the experience of Stormont on many occasions.

He pointed angrily towards the Sinn Fein spokesman, Pearse Doherty, and said: "Your party has no credibility. Nobody wants to be in government with you."

Coveney's rejection of Sinn Fein underlined the duplicity of politics on this island.

In other words, what he considered as good enough for Northern Ireland was anathema to himself, as it has been to successive governments in the Republic and to its mainstream media.

The results of the Irish election put that duplicity to the test as never before. Unionists can only watch from a distance as the TDs in the Dail struggle with their consciences and try to accept a political reality which Northern Ireland has had to live with for two decades.

Bringing Sinn Fein in from the cold will not be easy. Coming to terms with some of the party's wilder, Leftist views, never mind its obsession with remembering a violent past, may even prove impossible, as has been the experience of Stormont on many occasions.

However, like it or not, the politics of Ireland is now shaken to its core. W B Yeats's words, penned after the Easter Rising, have renewed meaning: all is changed utterly in the Republic's politics.

The future direction is anybody's guess. For good or ill? For richer or poorer? For ups or downs? So many questions. Certainly, a new order of some kind, even if no one knows what that may turn out to be.

Should the unionists of Northern Ireland be unduly concerned? Of course they should - and are. They have more first-hand experience than anyone else of dealing with Sinn Fein, not only at Stormont but in council chambers.

The Good Friday Agreement may have brought peace but it has not brought true political stability for Northern Ireland, nor does this seem likely in the Republic, given the difficulty in finding any consensus between Sinn Fein and other parties.

In 2020 the harsh truth is that Northern Ireland is dominated by unionists and republicans who have virtually nothing in common and, from time to time, have to be dragged out of their respective trenches, as has happened recently, to meet even the basic requirements of governance.

Now, the southern electorate has added its own wake-up call, voting in its tens of thousands for a party that has its roots in terror on this island and its present in a style of hard-Left politics that makes even Jeremy Corbyn look like a Tory.

None of this north-south scenario is a recipe for constitutional or economic stability, but whether we accept it or not, this is the future.

Could Sinn Fein surprise everyone by showing it is not rooted in violent republicanism, nor as unrealistically Left-wing as its manifesto suggests? The experience of Northern Ireland over the past 20 years suggests otherwise.

Whichever shade of green Sinn Fein is about to display in its new position of prominence will have a huge bearing on unionism in the months and years ahead

Sinn Fein has clung unashamedly to its old IRA allegiances, engaged in jobs for the boys for former volunteers, airbrushed from memory the worst republican excesses and marked the past conflict at every opportunity.

On the evidence to date the omens are not good, though the sight of Sinn Fein leaders Michelle O'Neill and Gerry Kelly promoting a police recruitment campaign is a major step in the right direction.

The hope must be that the young voters in the Republic were only attracted to Sinn Fein as a radical alternative to the conservative politics of the two governing parties and not because of its revolutionary and violent origins.

If Fianna Fail, or any party, were to form a new coalition with Sinn Fein, it must surely extract major assurances from Mary Lou McDonald that she is leaving all such paramilitary vestiges irreversibly behind her and truly charting a new way forward. A coalition government in Dublin in which one party engages in Brit-bashing at every opportunity, as Sinn Fein has done incessantly at Stormont, is a recipe for Anglo-Irish instability and a denial of the third strand of the Good Friday Agreement, which was supposed to promote better and closer co-operation between Great Britain and Ireland, north and south.

Whichever shade of green Sinn Fein is about to display in its new position of prominence will have a huge bearing on unionism in the months and years ahead.

It is certainly no time for unionist complacency, as the issues of a border poll, of Brexit and of Northern Ireland's economic dependency on the British Treasury remain centre stage and are likely to be so for the foreseeable future.

Yet, despite so many challenges, unionism remains deeply divided. The DUP sticks to its traditional roots and the other main unionist party has languished for years in its shadow.

There is little or no meeting of minds on how the various unionist voices see Northern Ireland beyond its upcoming centenary and little certainty that the place will be celebrating a second centenary in 2121 as part of the UK.

Sinn Fein has become a powerful all-Ireland voice, seeking to govern in Dublin as well as Belfast. Convincing people that the Union remains a better option than Irish unity is now a more formidable challenge than ever, but where is the evidence that the current leadership of the unionist parties has other than a confusing, divided message to offer?

The signs are that Sinn Fein will raise the stakes on Irish unity. In government, the party might even begin to convince more British politicians to build on the Brexit border down the Irish Sea, or to think twice about the fact that Northern Ireland's annual subsidy from London is comparable to the estimated 11bn which the UK contributed to Brussels.

Sinn Fein's success has raised the spectre of a very green flag fluttering over politics on this island and spells a long and testing time ahead for unionism. However, Sinn Fein is also facing a level of scrutiny from the southern public, politicians and the media, from which it will be hard for its leadership to escape. The calls are growing louder and louder to distance the party from the worst excesses of old-fashioned republicanism.

If it were to do so, relations at Stormont and across this island would be greatly enhanced. Perhaps, if there is any silver lining in the Irish election results, or comfort for unionists up north, another wind of change is possible.

A cast-iron assurance is needed from any new government in Dublin involving Sinn Fein that the past is past and that Gerry Adams and the trappings of his era have really gone away, once and for all.
Passengers arriving into Sydney on cruise ships will be screened for coronavirus before being allowed to disembark at the Harbour City.

Health authorities will conduct risk assessments before each ship arrives to prevent the spread of the disease from cruising passengers.

Testing will get underway on Sunday with the arrival of passengers into Sydney from a cruise ship travelling from New Zealand.

New South Wales Health insists it is a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Health authorities say the testing of passengers will be a 'safeguard' and doesn't reflect any concern around potential outbreaks aboard the docking vessel.

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Passengers arriving into Sydney on cruise ships will be screened for coronavirus before exploring the city, after more than 200 people contracted disease on liner quarantined off Japan (pictured)

Health authorities will conduct risk assessments before each ship arrives to prevent the spread of the disease from cruising passengers (Pictured: virus-stricken liner near Japan)

'No outbreak of COVID-19 has been identified by doctors on board the vessel that set sail from Auckland and travelled around New Zealand to Australia however, as a safeguard, any unwell passengers will be assessed by health teams here,' New South Wales Health said.

The testing process will be similar to the assessments being done for passengers arriving at Sydney airport.

New South Wales Health said thousands of passengers, including the elderly, are often on cruise ships and they often require medical management for unrelated infectious diseases while on the cruise or when they disembark.

The announcement comes after a passenger aboard the Norwegian Jewel was tested and cleared of coronavirus on Friday.

The ship's owner slammed 'false and inflammatory' media reports which suggested someone on board could have contracted the disease.

The announcement comes after a passenger aboard the Norwegian Jewel (pictured) was tested and cleared of coronavirus on Friday

The ship, which arrived in Sydney on Friday and was scheduled to depart on Saturday for a 14-day cruise of Australia and New Zealand, was never locked down.

New South Wales health confirmed the female in her 50s was being tested as precaution.

At the time reports emerged the passenger had been suffering after from respiratory illness but the cruise company said a few passengers had been suffering from stomach related illnesses.

A spokeswoman for the cruise company said they had 'stringent sanitation procedures' to mitigate any impact of this rare occurrence.'

'As such a thorough inspection and rigorous cleaning and disinfection of the ship and terminal were conducted.'

Australia currently has 15 confirmed cases of coronavirus while 11 Australians are among 65 newly-confirmed cases aboard the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship docked at Yokohama in Japan.

A woman wearing a face mask seen near the Overseas Passenger Terminal where the Norwegian Jewel cruise ship is moored at Circular Quay in Sydney on Friday

A member of crew cleaning a hand rail on board the Norwegian Jewel cruise ship which is moored at Circular Quay in Sydney on Friday

An Australian tourist on board Diamond Princess, Bianca D'Silva, called the ship a 'floating prison'.

She was separated from her family and placed into quarantine after contracting the virus.

Ms D'Silva said she started feeling ill while all passengers were cooped up in their cabins for a week during the outbreak.

'I got a lot of headaches initially, when I was told we were quarantined, I started feeling hot with a fever,' she said.

'But other than that I feel fine  it just feels like I have a cold.'

The disease is believed to have emerged in a market in Wuhan that sold wild animals, spreading rapidly as people travelled for the Lunar New Year holiday in late January.

The virus has so far spread to more than 20 countries, prompting the World Health Organization to declare a global health emergency.

Paramedics were called to the international passenger terminal at Circular Quay shortly before 7.30am on Friday as the ship, the Norwegian Jewel docked

Saturday will mark two weeks since Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a temporary 14 day ban on foreign travellers who have left or passed through mainland China from arriving on our shores.

Health Minister Greg Hunt has warned the travel ban will likely be extended as the worldwide death toll surges towards 1000.

Mr Hunt added the government acted on the best medical advice to implement the ban.

'Ultimately, our job  our responsibility, is to provide protection and national health security for the Australian people,' he said.

'They've been difficult decisions but made on the basis of the medical advice and we'll implement the medical advice.'

The Government admits the ban has taken a toll on the tourism industry, which is losing an estimated $1billion a week.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted NSW Health and Norwegian Cruise Line for comment.
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Over 2,400 homes will be affected in what is predicted to be the 'third worst flood' in the history of Mississippi.

The state's Governor Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency Saturday amid predictions that a river running in the area around the state capital of Jackson could burst its banks and spark widespread flooding.

Forecasters believe the Pearl River will crest at 38 feet (11.6 meters) Sunday evening to levels not seen in decades, following days of torrential rains across the Southeast.

Only twice before has the Pearl River surpassed 38 feet - during the historic floods of 1979 and 1983.

Donna Harvey reacts at having to evacuate from the Harbor Pines Mobile Home Community, on February 14, 2020, in Mississippi, as flood waters began to encroach onto their property following days of torrential rain in the Southwest

Residents of Canton Club Circle subdivision in Northeast Jackson, Mississippi, use a boat to get to flooded homes Saturday, February 15, 2020 as a state of emergency is declared and people are warned to evacuate before the flood waters rise further

Energy workers use a boat to turn off power in flooded houses in the Canton Club Circle subdivision in northeast Jackson

The First Penetecostal Church North is surrounded by floodwater from the Pearl River as 2,400 are predicted to be hit

The threat of flash flooding in the Jackson area will remain high through next week as rain starts again on Sunday night

Reeves said the state should prepare for 'the third worst flood' in its history.

'This is a historic, unprecedented flood,' Reeves said via Twitter. 'This is a precarious situation, and we have brought in everyone to assist.

'I encourage everyone out there to prepare ... Have a plan to protect yourself and your loved ones. Please stay safe, Mississippi.'

Parts of Jackson and suburban Ridgeland were under evacuation orders, and some people had already filled trucks with furniture and other belongings to get out.

Reeves said more than 2,400 homes and other structures in and near Jackson could either be inundated or isolated by the rising waters.

That includes 1,925 structures in Hinds County, 461 in Rankin County and 31 in Madison County.

As of 7pm on Saturday, the river has swollen to 36 ft and rising.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signs a state of emergency for the area and warns locals to have an escape plan in place

Mario Vargas, right, his sister Alondra Rodriguez, left, and their aunt Nadia Castillo, back, carry a washing machine from Vargas' mother's mobile home in the Harbor Pines Mobile Home Community as they are warned to evacuate from flooding

Flood waters rise above the stage of the Terry Brown Amphitheater in Columbus late Wednesday afternoon after heavy rain

Flood waters begin to encroach the Harbor Pines Mobile Home Community forcing all residents to evacuate on Friday

'I cannot stress to you how important the next 24 to 48 hours is for the people who are going to be affected,' Reeves said.

He signed an emergency declaration to speed up spending for flood response and recovery.

More than 96,000 sandbags had already been distributed by Saturday.

The National Guard, the Highway Patrol and other high-water rescue teams were on standby, Reeves said.

Although the sun was shining Saturday in central Mississippi, Reeves and Mississippi Emergency Management Agency director Greg Michel said people in low-lying areas should not be complacent about leaving because the river was expected to crest at night and remain high for days, with rain in the forecast for Sunday and Monday.

'Do not wait until water gets into your house to evacuate,' Michel urged.

Rain was predicted to start again on Saturday night and although it will remain light through Sunday and Monday, a further thunderstorm is predicted for Tuesday which will continue through Wednesday and Thursday.

'With the very wet soil conditions, expected one to two inch rainfall amounts Tuesday into Wednesday will lead to areas of flash flooding and worsen ongoing river flooding,' said the National Weather Service.

It add that on Saturday, 'some rainfall totals could reach up to a quarter of an inch' while the thunderstorms could bring a further 'half to three quarters of an inch'.

The Pearl River is expected to reach its highest peak of 38 feet on Sunday evening - it is currently at 36 feet Saturday night

Forecasters believe the Pearl River will crest at 38 feet (11.6 meters) Sunday evening to levels not seen in decades

The Pearl River at its normal height - it is expected to cause the 'third worst flood' in history in Mississippi on Sunday

Officials were bracing for what could be the worst flooding in Jackson since 1983.

Nicholas Fenner, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, said the Pearl River crested at 43.2 feet on April 17, 1979 - its highest level.

The second-highest level occurred May 5, 1983, when the river got up to 39.58 feet.

He also said there was between $500 million and $700 million worth of damage in 1979, which saw 15,000 people evacuated.

The area is currently under blue skies, but Fenner warned residents against complacency.

'Even though the weather has improved, the water will be rising soon. Dont get lulled into a false sense of security,' he said.

Abby McInnis, 19, cannot suppress her tears at the thought of how anticipated floodwaters will affect the home of her grandmother Donna Harvey, right, at the Harbor Pines Mobile Home Community in Ridgeland, Mississippi, on Friday

Water floods the street of Canton Club Circle subdivision in northeast Jackson, Mississippi, on Saturday, February 15

The only structure still visible as floodwaters cover a popular fishing and boat landing in central Mississippi . On Sunday, the river is expected to crest at 38 feet. Only twice before has it surpassed 38 feet - during the historic floods of 1979 and 1983

Meanwhile, the Ross Barnett Reservoir is approaching capacity, which led officials to announce that they would begin slowly releasing water at 6pm Saturday.

WLBT-TV reported the move is an attempt to keep flooding to a minimum downstream, and to allow extra time for residents to get to higher ground.

John Sigman, manager of the Pearl River Water Supply District, had a phone conference with the National Weather Service and the Army Corp of Engineers on Friday.

They said that areas north of the main lake have crested and were beginning to fall and described that as good news.

The crest at the reservoir is now expected Sunday morning. Officials told the television station they are holding their outflow right now at 65,000 cubic feet per second and will hold there for 48 hours, giving people downstream time to get out.
Making a Filipino version of a Korean drama that's very famous and well-loved in different countries is a big step and also a risk for the new cast and production. But the Philippine network GMA has accepted the challenge of adapting and creating the Filipino version of the 2016 broadcast hit Descendants of the Sun (DOTS).

Filipino director Dominic Zapata expressed his reactions and thoughts on the show's premiere. He stated that it's always very thrilling for him. He got to see the original series and study it really, really closely to understand what made it successful and how he as the Filipino director be able to translate that to a Filipino adaptation. "Technically they are shooting it the same way, with the same equipment that they do," said the director.

This Filipino version of DOTS stays loyal to the original version. It stays attached securely on the sweet romance between a Special Forces officer and a surgeon amidst the drama, chaos, and excitement happening in the lives of doctors and soldiers in a war.

The GMA network station (also known as Kapuso network) has gathered up its top talents to headline the series. The cast of the Philippine version of "Descendants of the Sun" are Dingdong Dantes playing as alpha team leader, Captain Lucas Manalo and Jennylyn Mercado as the cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Maxine Dela Cruz.

Winnie Hollis-Reyes, executive producer of the show said that the real basis of Descendants of the Sun is a love story between two people from different worlds. "One is protecting the country which means if he has to kill somebody, he will do it to protect the country, and one is saving lives. Both are of different worlds but how will they find common ground?"

Having the approval of the Korean producers the lead cast's love story expands in the local version to include familial plots. Actor Dingdong explained that the most notable difference between the Filipino version and the original Korean version is we've filled in the gaps in the backstories so that people will understand better why the characters are connected that way. They have included the family stories and these will prove to be the big driver in the storytelling. Filipinos always appreciate family stories.

Filipino adaptation doesn't have a foreign location. Most of the scenes are of the Philippine context, but the action-packed scenes as in the original are still there.

Dingdong Dantes also added that the story is really about soldiers and about doctors, backdropped by a war. It is like we rarely see it in the Philippine drama. And also the fact that these professions are very technical, that means it's very delicate to interpret you to have to make it right and accurate

Winnie Hollis-Reyes, the executive producer also shared that so far this is the most expensive show of GMA network because this is reality or close to real life. The weapons used are expensive and the cast of the show is mostly superstars of GMA network.
The American voting system is made up of 2 rounds of voting. During the first round, a caucus or primary is held, and the voters select their nominees who will compete in the general elections. Primaries are preliminary elections in which voters nominate candidates who will represent their party in the general elections. Caucuses are meetings of party members or leaders to nominate candidates, establish the partys position on specific issues, and chose convention delegates. The exact origin of the name caucus is highly debated; however, it is agreed that it was first used in North America. Caucuses are older than primaries. They were popular in the United States until the 1970s when most U.S. states started adopting primaries. However, thirteen US states and three territories still hold caucuses.

What states hold caucuses?

Iowa

Iowa holds caucuses for the members of both Republican and Democratic Parties every 2 years. Unlike the primaries, in most American states where voters cast their votes in polling stations, in Iowa, the Iowans gather in several caucus meetings to nominate their candidates. During the midterm and presidential election seasons, registered voters meet and vote in the per-precinct caucuses of their party. The Iowans also hold caucuses to select party committees and delegates to county-convention among other party activities. The 2020 Democratic caucuses took place on February 3, 2020, and it ended with Bernie Sanders winning the popular vote.

Nevada

During the Nevada caucuses, which began in 2008, the locals met in their precinct caucus to choose the delegates that will represent them in the county conventions. Nevada has 17 counties; therefore, there are 17 conventions. The county conventions pick the delegates to represent them in the Nevada-State Convention, which selects the delegates to represent them in the presidential-nomination conventions. The 2012 Nevada caucuses were the third main electoral activity in the country for the nomination process of the presidential candidates. The Republicans held their caucus on February 23, 2016, while the democrats had their event on February 20, 2016. The democrats plan to hold their caucuses on February 22, 2020 while the Republican Party plan to use primaries in Nevada in 2020.

North Dakota

In North Dakota, parties hold caucuses after every 4 years to choose delegates to represent them in the presidential nomination conventions. In 2016, the Republican Party didnt hold the caucuses in North Dakota; instead, they selected their presidential delegate at the partys convention in April. The Democratic Party held its caucuses on June 7, 2016. The Democratic Party plans to have a firehouse-style caucus in North Dakota in 2020, where the entire voting process will be done in an open place instead of closed polling booths.

Wyoming

The Democratic Party plans to hold its Wyoming caucus on April 4, 2020, and this time they plan to allow their members to rank their choices instead of just picking one. The ranking system was piloted in Kansas, Hawaii, Alaska, and Maine in 2018. The 2020 Democrats event is a closed caucus, which means only registered members can vote either through the mail (from January 30, 2020, to March 20, 2020), at the voters station on March 28, 2020, or at the caucus event on April 4, 2020.
People wearing protective face masks commute on a tram in Hong Kong on Feb. 9, 2020. (Dale De La Rey/AFP via Getty Images)

Hongkongers Protest Quarantine Clinics, Angry Over Open China Border

Hundreds of Hongkongers and several pro-democracy lawmakers marched in Kwai Chung District on Feb. 16 to protest a government plan to name an outpatient clinic as one of 18 designated coronavirus (COVID-19) treatment clinics in the city.

Locals taking part in the march, protesting plans to name the South Kwai Chung Jockey Club General Outpatient Clinic as one of those facilities, could be heard shouting slogans such as the governments incompetence kills Hong Kong people and there are no rioters, only a tyrannical regime, according to Hong Kong media.

To express their anger over the governments plans and open China border policy, protesters also stomped on the portraits of several Hong Kong government officials, including Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, health secretary Sophia Chan, and security secretary John Lee.

Pro-democracy lawmaker Andrew Wan Siu-kin said that the designated clinic in Kwai Chung was inappropriate because it is less than 20 meters away from a local residential area, reported Hong Kong media RTHK.

Wan added that the government had dismissed his suggestion to build a temporary clinic at an unused park in Kwai Chung.

There is still strong public dissent in Hong Kong over Lams refusal to fully close the citys border with China. Hong Kong has 57 known cases of COVID-19the third-highest outside of mainland Chinaafter Singapore with 72 cases and Japan with 59.

Last week, Hong Kongs Hospital Authority designated 18 clinics as centers for treating suspected cases of COVID-19, particularly patients with mild symptoms of pneumonia. The announcement immediately met with strong public opposition.

On Wednesday, local media HKFP reported that 5,000 locals had signed a petition to Hong Kongs Department of Health opposing the designation of the Kennedy Town Jockey Club General Outpatient Clinic as a COVID-19 treatment center.

District councilor Cherry Wong argued that suspected patients would need to travel through a crowded residential area before reaching the clinic, making it an unsuitable option to contain the virus, HKFP reported.

Another district councilor, Fergus Leung, criticized Lams government for failing to consult with local residents or the district council before implementing the plan, according to HKFP.

On Saturday, street protests occurred in Kennedy Town, Tai Po, Aberdeen, and Tin Shui Wai against proposed clinics in their areas.

In Tin Shui Wai, hundreds of people took part in a march against the government plan, while shouting slogans like people of Tin Shui Wai resist.

After the march, a group of people reportedly dumped trash cans on the local light rail tracks. Local media reported that riot police were called in, firing pepper-spray on a number of people at the scene, including journalists.

According to RTHK, police arrested a total of 33 people following the incident.

Meanwhile, in Tai Po, the Hong Kongs Hospital Authority said in a statement on Saturday that there had been an act of vandalism against the Tai Po Jockey Club General Outpatient Clinic in the morning.

The government didnt listen to public demands of a complete border closure, and now they want to set up epidemic clinics in 18 districts, Chan Mei-lin, a disenchanted resident in Tin Shui Wai, told Reuters on Saturday. Doing that is like creating more wounds rather than trying to stop the bleeding.
File photo



Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Works in Nasarawa State, Alhaji Jibrin Giza, was in the early hours of Sunday, abducted by yet-to-be-identified gunmen.

Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Bola Longe, confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria in Lafia.

Longe told NAN that the permanent secretary was abducted by gunmen from his residence at Shabu, a suburb of Lafia about 12:40 a.m., to an unknown destination.

According to the CP, the DPO in the area had already mobilised some officers and men who are on the trail of the fleeing abductors and their victims.

Longe added that he had ordered the DCP Operations, Officer in Charge of Special Anti-Robbery Squad, OC Counter-Terrorism, and Commander Police Mobile Force 58, to comb the area to ensure the safe rescue of the victim and arrest of his abductors.

He also vowed that the command would not rest on its oars until the victim regains his freedom.

Longe further said that the abductors were yet to establish any contact with the victims family.
London: A decade ago this June, G8 leaders shuffled out of the Deerhurst Resort in Canada and made their way to a nearby lake for the traditional family photo. Of the eight politicians who waved for the cameras that Sunday, only one remains in office: Angela Merkel.

Some counterparts struggled to match the German Chancellor's longevity and soon slid out of power. Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and French president Nicolas Sarkozy would later become mired in corruption scandals. Japan's leader Naoto Kan resigned amid the fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Even Barack Obama and David Cameron lost some of their shine and stepped off the stage with mixed records.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been at the peak of European politics for 15 years. Credit:AP

As her 15 years at the top draws to a close, Merkel is a political titan in search of a more enduring legacy but her options are rapidly vanishing.

Germany's economy, the largest in Europe, is teetering on the brink of a recession. Weighed down by a paralysed manufacturing sector, it grew by just 0.4 per cent in the December quarter and 0.6 per cent for the year, dashing hopes a rebound might appear during Merkel's final year in charge.
n 2018, the French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen published his memoirs under the title Memoires: fils de la nation (Memoirs: Son of the Nation). Le Pen, who was born in 1928, was celebrating his 90th birthday when the books first edition ran out of stock on its first day of sale.

Le Pen attacked the French leader Charles De Gaulle because he shook his hand when he was young without paying attention, then made France lose Algeria when he was an adult.

Le Pen is the number one political noise maker in France. He has lost about ten legal cases. The last case he lost concerned denying the existence of gas chambers in which Hitler burned the Jews. When he was asked by the press whether he still held the same opinion, he replied: Yes, they are a detail of the war, unless they want to say that World War II was a detail of the gas chambers!

The matter wasnt related to the Jews only. In the same year, he lost another case regarding his attack on the Roma Gypsies. He said they are smelly and they are rash-inducing among the French. Then he said: It is enough to visit a Roma Gypsies camp in order to realise this from the sense of smell.

Le Pen ran for the French presidential elections against Jacques Chirac and lost in the run-off. He went through a battle with his daughter, Marine Le Pen, and half a battle against his granddaughter, Marion Le Pen. Marine overthrew her father from the partys leadership and Marion substituted him in her grandfather's constituency.

The grandmother of the xenophobic Marine Le Pen lived in Alexandria, Egypt, for 20 years. As for her maternal grandmother, she was Egyptian, who was born and lived in Assiut Governorate. In spite of her fathers fame, her mother wasnt well-known. However, the Russian site Sputnik mentioned that indecent images of her mother appeared in an American magazine in 1987 after her divorce from her father as a counter-attack on her ex-husband, who said: The only thing that women succeed in is house chores and cooking.

Years ago, I visited the right-wing leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in Paris. The visit was in an ancient palace located in an aristocratic district on the outskirts of the French capital. Marine was present with her father. We had several cups of French coffee, ate some thin baked goods and spoke for hours on a number of issues.

The translator, Nadra El-Dib, exerted huge effort in this respect; from extended discussions, branched dialogues and moving from the salon to the palaces balcony to another salon during the visit.

During President Emmanuel Macrons term, France is facing huge challenges. Some see that many roads are leading to Marine Le Pen and that although she was the runner-up in the last elections maybe she will be the next French president.

Ms Le Pen didnt talk much in that meeting, but she said that she agreed with her father in almost all his views. She seemed friendlier than she is in reality and more moderate than in her public appearances. However, her subsequent rise to the partys leadership revealed her outrageous vision and sensational viewpoints.

Today, Marine Le Pen enjoys the approval of Presidents Trump and Putin, who exchanged with her their praise. This is deemed by some as an American and Russian consensus on throwing France into the unknown.

Marine carries more than 90 percent of her fathers thoughts, but she is luckier than him, for she benefits from domestic problems and the spectre of external forces.

Years before, I found Jean-Marie Le Pen optimistic, and that he was on his way to the Elysee Palace after the end of Sarkozys presidency. I said to Jean-Marie Le Pen: 'You are against the immigrants and against Sarkozy, who is also against the immigrants. You are against the Jews and against the Muslims. You speak of Frances freedom but you have fought against our country during the Tripartite Aggression and fought against Algeria and opposed its independence ... What is the intellectual project you embrace amid all these contradictions?' Le Pen spoke for a long time and I had to listen in the hope that I might understand facets of whats going in France and the world.

First: the state not the nation. Le Pen said: I am against the EU as it is being formed right now and as it is seeks to be an entity built from the ruins of states. I am for the state and against globalisation. I dont want the world to be a small village in which all the people are similar. Every nation has the right to exist with its own specificity, which constitutes this worlds wealth. When I come to Cairo, I dont go there to find Naples and when I go to Naples I dont want to find the Orient there. I like the worlds diversity. This is the safeguard for security and beauty altogether.

Globalisation also is a materialistic theory and it is reductionist. This is a defect. For a human being isnt just a product or a consumer. Humans are far greater than this. This was my standpoint early on, for I voted against the European Economic Community in 1957. The Community advocates said that it was just a stage for the sake of establishing the 'United

States of Europe.' This is a detestable project. Thus, I opposed this reductionism of the rich characteristics of the European history in one entity. Life isnt just economy and trade ... Life is far greater than this. That is what the EU or the globalisation supporters cant comprehend."

Second: I love my daughters more than my nieces. I said to Mr Le Pen: 'The matter isnt globalisation or anything else. You are accused of xenophobia.' He replied: "We have a slogan in the National Front (FN): I love my daughters more than my nieces and my nieces more than my uncles daughters and my uncles daughters more than my neighbours. However, this doesnt mean that I dont love my neighbours. The same is applied to international politics."

"The number of human beings is increasing enormously, for in one century they grew from one billion to seven billion people. We are going to have an unavoidable conflict. A global catastrophe: famine, epidemic or a great war. Immigrating to the rich countries is its destruction. These peoples have to live a dignified life on their own lands. If we will allow things to go this way, everybody will be engaged into a fierce conflict  over bread crumbs or a drink of water!"

Third: A multipolar world is the solution. I said to Mr Le Pen: 'I have seen a picture on the wall recording your meeting with US President Ronald Reagan. Your relations with Washington seem to be good.' Le Pen said: "I am not biased towards American policy. I am with the emergence of other super powers and resuming the worlds balance."

"America today is in a state of tension. It didnt witness an attack on its lands before 9/11. We are talking about 3,000 people killed in a single day. This has never happened. It happened here in Europe, it was the average of those killed in the European cities in a single day during World War II. In Marseilles alone, 5,000 people were killed in one day. I understand the American scare, but this shouldnt be exploited in launching attacks against others."

Fourth: France became restricted in one continent. Le Pen said: "France has abruptly forsaken the Muslim peoples who were loyal to it ... This wasnt a beautiful page in our countrys history. My opinion was that Algeria is French. France is located in two continents, Europe and Africa, and the Algerians are full French citizens. The French government didnt handle the Algeria issue in an appropriate way."

I realised that Le Pens grasp of the Algeria issue was limited and superficial. Algerias independence wasnt a grant from France, nor Charles De Gaulle relinquished it, but was due to a great independence war that Algeria went through and a total of more than seven million of its sons became martyrs. The One Million Martyrs Revolution describes the last revolution only. But during the entire conflict is the revolution of seven million martyrs.

Fifth: Washington deliberately misled Saddam Hussein. Le Pen said: "Saddam Husseins regime was a dictatorship, but it isnt the only dictatorship in the world. We deal with similar kinds of governments."

Unlike what former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov told me when I met him in Malta, Mr Le Pen told me: The West pushed Iraq to wage a war against Iran and it also pushed it to invade Kuwait. The US Ambassador in Baghdad was the one who said to Saddam that the Americans wont interfere in the Middle East. This was deliberate and intentional misinformation."

Iraq was destroyed through two weapons: the siege weapon and the war weapon. Ive formed with my wife a society to support the Iraqi people against the siege.

I said to Le Pen: 'You have met Saddam Hussein, did you hear in Baghdad about Weapons of Mass Destruction?' He replied: Yes, I have visited Iraq and mediated for the release of French and foreign hostages. I have been handed 60 Europeans on Iraqi Airways destined to their countries. At that point, personal contact was established between us."

Le Pen sipped some of the French coffee, and then said: "Saddam Hussein didnt possess any Weapons of Mass Destruction. I would like to say a word which nobody in all politics directed towards the Middle East utters: it is oil."

Sixth: A Palestinian state should be established. Le Pen sees that Palestinians should have a state for they are the first people to inhabit those lands and justice stipulates this. Israel must be confined to the 1967 borders, settlement activity stopped, and the Palestinian people should have their rights, and the first of these is an independent state.

Seventh: Vietnam was speaking French, and now it speaks English. I asked the French politician about his role in the Indochina War.

Indochina used to comprise Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and the First Indochina War in which France was engaged and was defeated in 1954 and the Second Indochina War in which America was engaged and withdrew in 1975. Both countries suffered from the scourges of these wars tremendously.

Le Pen said: "Our war in Indochina was an ideological war. We tried to prevent it from falling into the hands of Communism after we gave its five countries independence. I was an officer in the army and we fought there in order to save Vietnam and Cambodia from Communism."

"Americans were more brutal than us in their war there. Whats striking is that they didnt blame the Americans and after their culture was French they have acquired American culture and are speaking English!"

Eighth: Japan is fragile and France is under American protection. Le Pen surprised me by saying: "Japan is a fragile state and will be more fragile if a big crisis takes place or oil prices went up. Japan isnt among the superpowers in the world of tomorrow. As for France, Sarkozy is an actor, not a president. He behaves for the sake of the media and not for the sake of the state. He has absolutely become biased towards America and made France live under American protection."

When the discussion reached Egypt, I told him: 'We Egyptians dont like you and we havent forgotten that you have fought against our country during the Tripartite Aggression.' Le Pen said: "I was the commander of a paratrooper brigade. We went to Port Fouad. I didnt fight but I found myself in the midst of a place full of Egyptian corpses  both military and civilian. We buried them in mass graves, but according to Islamic Sharia. Ive pulled their shoes and buried them towards the Qiblah. My mission continued as such. It was a difficult mission because the numbers of the dead were big."

Le Pens reply was very shameful. I replied and he didnt want to enter a spar with me. He sidestepped my reply, then he said: "I would like to visit Egypt. I know the greatness of its civilisation and what it presented to human civilisation. But nobody has ever invited me to visit it. Tell them in Cairo I want to visit Egypt. I am waiting for an invitation. Any invitation and Ill come.

Jean-Marie Le Pen has fallen outside the future, for it is impossible for the old politician to achieve now what he couldnt achieve earlier. There is no leadership, no party, no screen and no parliament. The daughter took everything.

But the thoughts of Le Pen, the father, which were viewed in disdain before, have become now a main current in European thought. The far-right parties arent the exception but rather the most important phenomena in current European politics.

The far-right in Europe moved from the margins to the mainstream; moved from small forums and limited spaces to wide geography and several capitals.

Le Pen was an outcast extremist, but his school kept running, nonstop, and some of its symbols occupied posts of authority and decision making. Is it the old echo of Jean Marie Le Pen, or the voice of a new Europe?

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Jon Caldara is the president of the Independence Institute, Colorados free market think tank.
Maharashtra BJP President Chandrakant Patil on Sunday said his party would stage a statewide protest on February 22 against the state government over the security of women and farmers' issues.

Maharashtra BJP in its state executive meet in Navi Mumbai passed a resolution against the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government over various issues, including farmers and women security.

Patil said that Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition government has betrayed the mandate and breached the trust of people. "Maharashtra will not forgive this," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas at a Munich security conference told DW that Germany would discuss with Paris the role of the French nuclear shield to defend Europe.

We will accept the invitation to this strategic dialogue, Maas noted.

Earlier, during a conference in Munich, French President Emmanuel Macron again suggested discussing the creation of a French atomic shield for Europe. As reported earlier, on February 7, Macron introduced the new French nuclear doctrine. The French leader recalled that Paris has fewer than 300 nuclear warheads. At the same time, according to experts, there are over six thousand of them in the US arsenal. This forces Europe in the defense industry to count on Washington's support, Macron said. In this regard, he considers it appropriate to start a "strategic dialogue" on the role of the French nuclear shield to protect Europe.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas considers it wrong to distance himself from the United States.

"In the future, we will have to do more for our security, but I think it is wrong to oppose Europe and the United States. We are in the defense alliance - we are talking about NATO - and it works," he stressed.

Regarding the role of Europe as a possible mediator between the United States and China, Maas stressed that it is especially important for the EU to adhere to a common position on trade and security. In his opinion, to fulfill this role should be, despite the common values, as well as taking into account the interests of Beijing and Washington

As we reported, February 15, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko met with German counterpart Heiko Maas on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
Two women were arrested after they were allegedly found in possession of drugs in Himachal Pradesh's Kullu district, police said on Sunday.

Vidya Devi and Puja, who were travelling to Chandigarh in a bus, were arrested after recovery of over 1 kg charas from their possession on Saturday night, Kullu Superintendent of Police Gaurav Singh said.

A team of Bhuntar Police Station caught them during checking in the area.

The SP said an FIR was registered against them under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) Act.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Clwyd South AM visits nursery to hear how childcare scheme is helping local families

This article is old - Published: Sunday, Feb 16th, 2020

The Assembly Member for Clwyd South has visited a nursery to hear how a Welsh Government programme is helping parents in his constituency.

Ken Skates called into Overton Playcentre at the end of January to chat to manager Rachel Harris and staff about its ongoing renovation and how the childcare scheme is helping to give local children the best start possible.

Childcare providers across Wrexham county borough have benefited from the programme since 2018. It provides 30 hours of early education and childcare to working parents of children aged three and four for 48 weeks of the year  the most generous childcare package anywhere in the UK.

Rachel Harris, manager of Overton Playcentre, previously described the programme as life-changing for local families.

Mr Skates said: When the Welsh Government implements policies like this we always believe they will help those who most need it, but its amazing when I visit places like this to see and hear first-hand just what a difference they are making to peoples lives.

This programme is reducing the strain on family income and helping ensure childcare is not a barrier to them taking up employment or increasing their hours.

Rachel and her team do a wonderful job and every time Ive been to Overton I see just how happy the children are. It was fantastic to hear what a positive impact this scheme has had in such a short space of time.

Overton Playcentre is a parent-led charity which has been running for more than 50 years. It relies on volunteers to raise nearly 7,000 a year to cover running costs but was awarded 8,200 in National Lottery Awards for All funding in 2018 to develop an outdoor learning area.

Last year a Childcare Offer Small Capital Grant from the Welsh Government was used to redecorate and create access to the toilets from the outdoor learning area.

Mr Skates said: I could already see how much progress has been made since my last visit and I know Rachel has big plans for the future. I look forward to helping however I can.
Hyderabad, Feb 16 : Anti-CAA protests broke out at various places in Hyderabad on Sunday, even as the police continued to deny permission for the protests.

Men and women came out on the streets at different places raising slogans against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR).

They were carrying national flags and placards with slogans demanding withdrawal of CAA. The protestors also demanded Telangana government not to go ahead with NPR in its new format.

Flash protests were seen in areas like Chatta Bazar, Mallepally, Chandrayangutta, Rajendernagar, Toli Chowki, Chaderghat and Malakpet.

Police detained a few protestors, who took the police by surprise. They suddenly appeared on the streets and marched with national flag and protests.

Women marched through the street in Chatta Bazar in the old city. One of the protestors criticized the police for not giving permission for the protests. She said that peaceful protest is democratic right of the people and the police can't use force to prevent the protests.

Earlier, the police took Joint Action Committee (JAC) against CAA-NRC-NPR leader Mushtaq Malik into preventive custody.

Police had denied permission to JAC to hold a sit-in by women at Indira Park in the heart of the city. However, JAC had vowed to go ahead with the protest.

JAC leaders alleged that the police are trying to suppress peaceful and democratic protests.
The giant investment fund that pledged $7 billion towards a Melbourne Airport rail line is unlikely to see its plan proceed, with the Andrews government moving to instead run trains to Tullamarine via its new Metro Tunnel project.

It comes as the Victorian opposition demands that the state government guarantee it will not divert federal funds promised for airport rail to bail out the troubled Metro Tunnel project, running up to $3 billion over budget.

Hole in the ground: Part of the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel under West Melbourne. Credit:Justin McManus

The Sunday Age revealed last week that the plan to run airport trains via the Metro Tunnel had been rejected four years ago by Victorian bureaucrats  because it would starve booming suburbs in Melbourne's west of desperately-needed train services.

IFM Investors, a global fund manager chaired by former Labor MP and ACTU secretary Greg Combet, has spent two years and more than $30 million developing its AirRail plan.
The last lecture of Prof Tran Van Tho drew the attention of 300 participants, including Vietnamese and Japanese politicians, representatives of ministries, international organizations, financial institutions and research institutes.

Leaving Vietnam for Japan to study with the scholarship granted by the Japanese government in 1967 and living in Japan since then, Tho still holds Vietnamese nationality.

The last lecture of Prof Tran Van Tho drew the attention of 300 participants





On February 1, Tho gave his last lecture before finishing his work at Waseda University.



His lecture was about the 40-year industrialization wave in Asia, with the emphasis on the flying-geese pattern model.



After the lecture, Tho took part in a ceremony to bid farewell to his teaching career at Waseda University. It was attended by Tanizaki Yasuaki, former Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam, who is also a close friend of the professor.

Leaving Vietnam for Japan to study with the scholarship granted by the Japanese government in 1967 and living in Japan since then, Tho still holds Vietnamese nationality.

The Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Vu Hong Nam also attended the party and delivered a speech. Nam read a letter from Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to Tho and the audience.



Tho is one of the pillars of the economic advisory council, making a great contribution to the building of economic policies for Vietnamese Prime Minister, including Phuc.



In his letter, Phuc spoke about the moving meeting between him and Tho.



Muramatsu Megumi, an old student of Tho, after attending the farewell party, said he was touched by the letter and admires the professor, a respected economic scholar and personality.



With guidance by Tho, a person with an ethical character and a patriot, he learned many things from the professor as a human being and as an economic researcher.



After receiving his PhD in Economics from Hitotsubashi University, Tho worked at the Japan Center for Economic Research, then became Associate Professor and Professor of Obirin University.



Since 2000, Tho has been working as a Professor of Economics at Waseda University. During that time, he carried out research works about Japans industrialization experience, especially in the post-war period.



As an economist, Tho made outstanding contributions to Japan and helped promote economic relations between Japan and Vietnam over the past 50 years.



Tho was the initiator of the establishment of the "Asia-Pacific Economic Center" to promote research exchanges between Vietnam and Japan and other countries in the region.



Tho established a research institute about Vietnam under Waseda University. As the director, he created research projects related to East Asian economic integration, Mekong region development, and human resource development between Japan and Vietnam.



Tho was a member of the Economic Advisory Group and the Policy Research Department during the terms of late Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet and Phan Van Khai. In July 2017, he joined the Economic Advisory Group of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Thuy Nga

Hue lecturer makes free hand sanitiser to fight coronavirus outbreak A lecturer in Hue City produces and provides hand wash for free for local people to prevent the spreading of Coronavirus.
Costa Rican police officers are seen on Saturday February 15, 2020, in front of packages containing cocaine seized during an operation in the Caribbean: Reuters

Police in Costa Rica have found almost 6 tonnes of cocaine in a shipping container, leading to the countrys biggest ever drug seizure.

The drugs, which weighed 5,800kg, were discovered on Friday evening in Limon in a container of flowers due to be sent to Rotterdam, Holland, according to the Costan Rican national newspaper La Nacion.

In a press conference on Saturday afternoon, interior minister Michael Soto Rojas confirmed it was the largest ever drug seizure in Costa Rica.

The interior minister estimated that the haul has a European market value of 126m (104.6m).

More than 5,000 packets of cocaine were found inside 202 suitcases.

A 46-year-old Costa Rican man with no previous criminal convictions has been arrested in connection to the drug haul.

According to the minister, there was a drugs seizure of almost three tonnes in Costa Rica a decade ago.
Japan's health minister on Sunday urged the public to avoid crowds and "non-essential gatherings", including notoriously packed commuter trains, to prevent the new coronavirus from spreading in the country.

Katsunobu Kato warned the nation was "entering a new phase" in the outbreak of the virus, which has infected nearly 60 people in Japan so far.

"We want to ask the public to avoid non-urgent, non-essential gatherings. We want elderly and those with pre-existing conditions to avoid crowded places," Kato said after a meeting of a panel of experts.

"I think it's important that we exercise Japan's collective strength. We wish to ask the Japanese people for their cooperation and it will take everyone being united to tackle this infectious disease," he told a press conference.

Kato said cases with no clear transmission chains and involving people who have not travelled to China, where the outbreak began, meant Japan was entering a new stage.

The government will draft fresh guidelines for doctors about when to suspect possible coronavirus infections and for ordinary citizens to know when to seek medical care.

Japan has been pushing Tokyo residents to try telecommuting or avoid rush hour commutes to ease traffic congestion during the summer Tokyo Olympic Games.

Kato said the government will reiterate its calls on people to try those measures to ease spread of the virus.

The comments come after a spate of new infections were confirmed over the weekend, raising the total number of cases inside Japan to 59.

Those numbers exclude hundreds of cases aboard a cruise ship, as well as a quarantine officer who tested people on the boat.

Most infected individuals seem to experience mild conditions similar to the common cold and may not realise that they have the disease, risking possibly spreading it to others, said Takaji Wakita, chief of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases who headed the expert panel.

"It is expected that domestic infections will continue," Wakita said, adding that Japan was at an early stage of the spread.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
GREAT FALLS  It reads like a forensic crime drama  and in a very real sense it is.

A Montana game warden learns of an unusual elk shot along the Rocky Mountain Front. The animal has physical peculiarities unlike anything the department has seen before. Genetic testing reveals that the young bull is of an exotic sub-species, and that it came from a herd more than 600 miles from where it was shot.

How did it get here? Who released it into the wild? What would have happened had the bull lived, intermingling for years with Montana's native elk population?

When a new disease appears in humans, pathologists make every effort to identify 'Patient Zero'  the first person to become infected with the new pathogen. Finding patient zero is important because knowing that person's history can help to determine how and when the outbreak started.

This unusual two-year-old elk harvested 16 months ago in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains is FWP's Elk Zero.

"It wasnt just an elk," remarked Dave Holland, game warden captain for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, to the Great Falls Tribune. It had the ability to be an ecological disaster.

The elk with florescent antlers

On Oct. 20, 2018, a 'spike' bull elk was legally harvested north of Choteau. The hunter didn't immediately notice anything unusual about the animal, and took it to a wild game processor to have it butchered. It was there that things began to get interesting.

According to Holland, when the hunter returned to check on his order the processor asked him what the deal was with the elk's antlers. The bull's spikes had been painted orange, but the hunter hadn't noticed because he is color blind.

The elk's florescent antlers weren't its only unusual feature. When Warden Ron Duty inspected the animal's carcass he discovered it had been castrated. Duty began asking people around Choteau if they'd ever seen the elk, or knew who was responsible for it.

People had videos of this elk," Holland recalled. "It would walk right up to people. Obviously, humans had been interacting with this elk, probably since it was a calf."

Some of the locals had even given it a name  "Buford"  but no one claimed responsibility, nor claimed to know its origin.

The possibility that the elk had somehow escaped or been released from a regional game farm was also explored, but there was no record of a missing animal, something that would have almost surely existed had it been raised in commercial captivity.

Game farms are highly regulated," Holland noted. "They have to be fenced. All the animals have to be documented, and when they're harvested they have to be inspected.

FWP's interest in the case was motivated by more than simply idle curiosity about an unusual domesticated elk. Not knowing where Elk Zero came from, or whether it was just one member of a larger group of introduced elk, could have serious animal health implications.

The importation of any animal brings with it a full community of parasites and pathogens," explained Emily Almberg, disease ecologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Some things might be pretty benign, but there are things that we worry about that might be difficult to detect just by looking at an animal.

Chronic wasting disease, bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis are all diseases carried by elk, and which can be transmitted by them to other animals  in some cases to livestock. Not knowing where Elk Zero had come from or what it had been exposed to was a serious consideration.

Yet, no one in the Choteau area seemed to know  or would claim to know very much about it. There were, however, two individuals more directly connected to Elk Zero than the rest of the community.

FWP investigators were able to prove that two people from Choteau had been feeding the elk, which is a violation of state law.

In Montana it's a misdemeanor offense to attract wildlife of any type with food or other attractants like salt licks; the lone exception being the recreational feeding of birds. Violators face potential penalties of up to a $1,000 fine, six months in jail and a loss of their hunting, fishing, or trapping privileges.

Why feeding wildlife is a crime

Many Montanans feel a strong urge, born in compassion, to feed wild animals that appear to be struggling. Not only is feeding wildlife illegal, its also a bad idea.

People have the impression that wildlife need help; that we have to feed them to get them through the winter," said Game Warden Captain Dave Holland. "But when you put out an attractant like salt or food, you start unnaturally congregating the animals, which will help spread disease."

A recent example of this is the rapid spread of chronic wasting disease in deer congregating in and around Libby. The fatal neurological disease was unknown west of the continental divide until the spring of 2019, when a single white-tailed deer in Libby tested positive for the disease.

Since then more than 60 deer in the area have tested positive for CWD, many of them congregated in areas where people were actively feeding deer.

Feeding wildlife also habituates them to human food sources making it more likely they will be unable to survive on their own.

Youre actually doing them a disservice because if they dont learn how to forage for themselves theyre not going to survive after youve stopped feeding them," Holland notes. "It cant go on forever."

Most wildlife has evolved without humans helping them," he added. "Theyve got it figured out. They know how to survive. We don't find salt blocks in nature."

Holland said the residents were cited for feeding the elk, but repeatedly and adamantly denied having anything to do with his presence in Choteau, or to knowing who did.

"We are not saying they introduced the animal," Holland emphasized. We were able to prove they fed the animal, which is a violation of (Montana law.)

Impact

FWP officials were at a dead end, but there remained one possible avenue of investigation.

There was this rumor around the community that possibly this elk could have been brought to Montana from Washington," Holland said.

Holland contacted his counterpart with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to see if was possible to connect Elk Zero with a herd in that state.

The possibility that Elk Zero was transported to the Choteau area from out of state added another layer of concern. Montana's elk herd belongs to a unique genetic subspecies identified as Rocky Mountain elk, which are prized by hunters for their large antlers. Those roaming the temperate forests of western Washington are Roosevelt elk, which have larger bodies, are slightly darker in color and have smaller antlers.

Despite the fact that Elk Zero had been castrated, the presence of a freeroaming bull elk, from a different subspecies and just reaching its sexual maturity, caused alarm among some wildlife managers.

If you start intertwining those populations (Roosevelt and Rocky Mountain) they lose the characteristics that made them distinct," Holland explained. "You run the risk of losing a distinct sub-species."

Almberg said its an open question whether the introduction of a single animal would make a meaningful genetic contribution, to the point where it would have any irreversible effects on the native herd. However, she does agree that cross-breeding between subspecies can result in a negative outcome for the species as a whole.

"If you mix distinct sub-species you have the potential of losing the genetics that control local adaptation," Almberg said. There is something called 'out breeding depression' where you see the decreased fitness of offspring when you cross those different subspecies, so lower reproductive output.

Origin

Unlike Montana, Washington state has compiled a comprehensive genetic database of its elk herds. Wildlife geneticists there have identified 10 herds, which may intermingle at times, but maintain distinct genetic profiles.

However, submitting a single tissue sample from Elk Zero would not be enough to veritably identify it as a member of one of Washington's herds. Wildlife managers would need to obtain multiple samples collected from a variety of elk within the Choteau area to compare with the DNA profiles cataloged by Washington's Department of Fish and Wildlife.

During the remaining months of the 2018 hunting season and throughout the 2019 hunting season, FWP biologists and wardens collected 10 distinct tissue samples from elk harvested in the Choteau and Augusta areas. Along with a sample previously collected from Elk Zero, they were sent to Washington's molecular genetics laboratory in Olympia for DNA analysis.

"Using Washington state elk reference baselines, the unknown elk 1 (Elk Zero) genetically assigned to the Washington State Yakima elk herd with a positive probability of 99.98%," the lab results reported.

In other words, within a minute fraction of statistical probability, DNA testing had proven that the elk had been taken from a herd in southwest Washington; probably as a calf, and was transported to Montana where it was then released. FWP finally knew where Elk Zero had come from, but knowing that raised another concern.

Beginning in 2008, wildlife managers in Washington began receiving reports of elk with deformed, broken or missing hooves. The condition has now been identified as elk hoof disease, a bacterial infection that eventually cripples the animal, and which has now spread to parts of Oregon and Idaho.

"The disease appears to be highly infectious among elk, but there is no evidence that it affects humans," a report from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife states. "Currently there is no vaccine to prevent the disease, nor are there any proven options for treating it in the field."

Elk Zero tested negative for hoof disease, but keeping it out of Montana is a primary concern for herd managers.

"That lameness, the severe inflammation of hooves can cause ... a deterioration of body condition," Almberg said of the impacts of elk hoof disease. "They have a harder time moving around, they have a harder time feeding and keeping up with the herd. Those things can all contribute to lower survival."

"This hoof disease is a major issue impacting their elk herd," Holland added. We dont have it in Montana yet and we dont want it.

Consequences

At this point it appears that the illegal theft and release of Elk Zero had no impact on Montana's elk population, but that was solely due to dumb luck.

Holland acknowledges that whoever brought the animal to Montana probably didn't understand the ramifications of what they were doing, but the consequences could have been just as detrimental no matter the person's intentions.

With nearly 17 years of service as a game warden, Holland said he's never experienced anything quite like Elk Zero.

This is the first time Ive ever seen a large mammal moved from one state to another and released," he said. Ive been involved in removing fawns from houses where they were kept in the kids bedrooms, or theyre being raised as pets, but thats usually local  people out walking locally and theyll bring an animal home. This is a whole different level. They literally went out and found an elk in Washington, put it in a trailer, drove it to Montana and let it go."

As an agency we move wildlife, but its highly regulated," Holland added. "Well spend years planning for and getting ready to move wildlife. If somebody just willy-nilly picks a calf elk up, throws it in a horse trailer and drives it to Montana  theyre not thinking about hoof disease or CWD or the genetic aspects. Thats where this can become very dangerous to wildlife populations."

FWP District Supervisor, Gary Bertellotti, put the case of Elk Zero into the broader context of invasive species across the U.S.  a problem becoming increasingly critical in Montana.

"Quagga mussels, CWD, feral pigs, lake trout  we can see what the impacts are by looking at other things going on," Bertellotti said. "In all of those cases it was because somebody transported something. They all started with one person."

We dont know what that would be. Weve never had to deal with that," Bertellotti said of the implications, had Elk Zero been left fertile and undiscovered. Roosevelt elk may not be as compatible with the habitat and the weather systems we have here. If those genetics start to become more prevalent ... all of a sudden you could see that population not surviving as well as it should. It could have been anything from more susceptibility to diseases to the viability of the species. Who knows what the consequences would have been."

Closing

While a portion of the mystery surrounding Elk Zero has been solved, the investigation into who is responsible for taking the elk from Washington and releasing him in Montana is ongoing. Wardens in both states continue to ask questions.

What we really want to know is who brought it here," Holland said. We have a strong theory that it came from Enumclaw (a city roughly 30 miles east of Tacoma). We've developed the theory that it came from that area based upon information other than the genetics. We want contact with anybody with knowledge of how the animal arrived in Montana alive and who released it.

Just as with any crime drama, investigators hope someone will come forth with information regarding Elk Zero that will ultimately lead to an arrest.

Montana FWP maintains a confidential, toll-free hotline where people can report violations of fish, wildlife or park regulations. Since its establishment in 1985, TIP-MONT has received reports resulting in 1,521 convictions. To report a fish, wildlife or park violation call 1-800-TIP-MONT (1-800-847-6668). Callers can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000. Nearly $155,000 in TIP-MONT rewards have been paid to citizens since the program was established.

I believe that there are people in Washington who have information about where this elk came from," Holland said. I believe theres people here in Montana who also know that. If they come forward with information that helps us find answers to this, then yes, absolutely theres going to be a TIP-MONT reward."

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Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on Saturday said his country fully supported India's bid for permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

He is on a two-day visit to Goa.

Speaking to PTI on the sidelines of an urban design conference here, Sousa said, "India has full support of Portugal to become a permanent member of UN Security Council."

Sousa said India will participate in the 2020 UN Ocean Conference to be held between June 2-6 in Lisbon in Portugal.

He said the two countries can cooperate on a variety of projects, adding that his meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind were "fruitful, bilaterally and multi-laterally".

"We discussed concrete projects for Portuguese investment in India and Indian investment in Portugal," he said, adding that the two countries have planned cooperation in the field of economy, technology, culture and science over the next five years.
Boris Johnson is under growing pressure to sack a new adviser after it emerged he called for the young to undergo compulsory contraception to prevent a permanent underclass.

Andrew Sabisky  already under fire for attacking womens sport and backing a risky mind-enhancing drug  also suggested more black people are close to mental retardation.

Downing Street refused to comment on the controversy provoked by the recruitment of Mr Sabisky, which followed Dominic Cummingss call to sign up misfits and weirdos.

But there were signs of a revolt by special advisers, some of whom said they would refuse to attend meetings with him, or respond to any requests he made.

And Jon Trickett, Labours Cabinet Office spokesman, said: There are really no words to describe Boris Johnsons appointment, as one of his senior advisers, of a man who is on record as supporting the forced sterilisation of people he considers not worthy.

He must of course be removed from this position immediately.

On Saturday, it was revealed that Mr Sabisky tweeted: I am always straight up in saying that womens sport is more comparable to the Paralympics than it is to mens.

Calling himself a super-forecaster, he also said richer people are more intelligent, telling an interviewer: Eugenics are about selecting for good things.

And he argued for giving all children modafinil, a drug that cuts the need for sleep by two-thirds, even at the cost of a dead kid once a year.

Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Show all 17 1 /17 Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Sajid Javid Resigned as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr Javids departure comes just one month before a crucial budget, intended to chart the course for the new government  and makes him the shortest-serving chancellor for more than 50 years Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Rishi Sunak Promoted from Chief Secretary to the Treasury to Chancellor of the Exchequer after the dramatic resignation of Sajid Javid Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Esther McVey Sacked as housing minister AFP via Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Andrea Leadsom Sacked as business secretary EPA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Changed role: Alok Sharma Appointed business secretary (previously international development secretary). He has also been put in charge of the UKs COP26 climate change summit PA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Attorney General Geoffrey Cox Resigned as the government's most senior law officer AFP via Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Suella Braverman Appointed Attorney General and she will attend cabinet EPA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Theresa Villiers Sacked as environment secretary PA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: George Eustice Appointed environment, food and rural affairs secretary. He was a farming and fisheries minister Reuters Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Changed role: Anne-Marie Trevelyan Appointed international development secretary (previously parliamentary under-secretary for defence) Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Julian Smith Sacked as Northern Ireland secretary Reuters Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Brandon Lewis Appointed Secretary of Northern Ireland Reuters Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Stephen Barclay Appointed chief secretary to the Treasury PA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Oliver Dowden Appointed culture secretary, succeeding Nicky Morgan Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Chris Skidmore Sacked as eucation minister Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Nus Ghani Sacked as transport minister Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament/CC BY 3.0 Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: George Freeman Sacked as transport minister Getty

It has now emerged that Mr Sabisky wrote on Mr Cummingss website in 2014: One way to get around the problems of unplanned pregnancies creating a permanent underclass would be to legally enforce universal uptake of long-term contraception at the onset of puberty.

Vaccination laws give it a precedent, I would argue.

In another blogpost, discussing female genital mutilation, he claimed: It is still unclear to what extent FGM represents a serious risk to young girls, raised in the UK, of certain minority group origins. Much of the hue and cry looks more like a moral panic.

And, also, in 2014, he said a higher rate of black Americans suffered from intellectual disability saying: It [is] simply a consequence of the normal distribution of cognitive ability.

No 10 has declined to say which policy area Mr Sabisky is working in, but confirmed he was a contractor working on specific projects.

Aged 27, he joined the administration following Mr Cummingss rambling 3,000-word new year blogpost urging misfits and weirdos to help him transform government.

One source told The Times he had already made his mark, saying: He dresses just like Dom in a scruffy jumper and jeans.

Hes incredibly cocky and isnt afraid of telling everyone what he thinks, however senior they are.
COULAHAN, Colonel John, Sr., pilot, USAF (ret)

At age 97 had his last bomber take off on January 30, 2020. Col. Coulahan was born at home in Woonsocket, R.I. April 14, 1922. Son of the late Winifred (Hunt) Coulahan of County Roscommon, Ireland and the late John E Coulahan. The Colonel's great-grandfather was killed during the Civil War. John was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) in 1945 and spent over 30 years serving the nation in the Air Force. He flew the last B-17's in Europe and his last years as a B-52 Wave Commander over Vietnam. He commanded two Air Force installations, the last one as Base Commander, Phu Cat Air Base, Vietnam.

After retirement he spent 10 years in R.I. real estate. Moving to Tucson years ago he became a docent at the Tucson Historical Society. He was also an active member of the Order of Dedalians; a national fraternity of military pilots; and volunteered providing tax assistance to veterans.

He was predeceased by his first wife, Joyce (Barre) Coulahan, second wife Jean (Ryder) Coulahan; and is survived by his four biological children, Pamela of Westerly, RI; Christopher of Pensacola, FL; Lisa of Boca Raton, FL; and John Jr of Colorado Springs, CO. He was blessed with 13 grandchildren.
A former stunt woman who appeared in 'Back to the Future II' and doubled for stars such as Jessica Alba and Brooke Shields has died in a shootout in Ohio on Wednesday after she and her husband ambushed her ex-husband and his new wife.

Cheryl Sanders, 59, and her husband Reed (Robert) Sanders, 56, were shot dead by Cheryl's ex-husband Lindsay Duncan on Wednesday, February 12, in a deadly shootout outside Duncan's home.

The former married couple is believed to have been engaged in a long-running feud regarding a college trust fund set up for their two daughters.

Duncan, a celebrity nutritionist who has appeared on 'The Dr. Oz Show' and 'The View', is not facing any charges in their deaths as police say he acted in self-defense.

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Reed and Cheryl Sanders had traveled from North Carolina to Ohio to attack her ex-husband and his new wife over a long-running dispute about their daughters' college trust fund

Molly and Lindsey Duncan issued a statement on Friday about being ambushed and killing Lindsay's ex-wife and her new husband outside of their home in Yellow Springs, Ohio

Cheryl and Reed Sanders ambushed Molly and Lindsay Duncan outside of their million-dollar home in Yellow Springs, Ohio, on Wednesday, having traveled from their own home in Leicester, North Carolina.

According to a press conference held by the Duncan couple and their attorney on Friday, they were returning home when a man in a camouflage mask and hoodie ran up and held a gun to Molly's head while they were checking the mail.

Cheryl Sanders was shot dead by her ex-husband on Wednesday after she ambushed him

'I thought it was a bad nightmare,' Lindsey Duncan told the Daily News.

'Whatever happened after that was instinct.'

As Lindsay pulled out a gun when attacked by the man, now identified as Reed Sanders, Cheryl Sanders also appeared and a shootout began.

Lindsay Duncan fatally shot the couple in the exchange.

He has not been charged with a crime as police believe the surveillance footage recovered from the incident proves he was acting in self-defense and that Sanders had threatened him and his wife.

'The word ambush is exactly what it was,' Molly Duncan said.

'We were caught off-guard. They said nothing and they started shooting at us.'

Molly Duncan claims Reed Sanders pointed a gun to her head in the attack

Lindsay Duncan describes shooting dead his ex-wife Cheryl Sanders and her husband Reed

The couple were not identified by police for safety issues but chose to release a statement

Lindsay was the person to make the call 911 after the attack in which he is heard saying: 'I shot them, they came up to our window and had a gun pointed at my wife's head.'

Greene County officials initially declined to name Duncan as he was not a suspect in the case but the couple held their own press conference with their attorney on Friday to reveal their version of events.

'All I remember was a 6-foot-something 6-foot-5 man, that was probably 230 pounds with a camo mask, a full camo mask and hoodie on, ran to my wife's driver's side with a gun, and held it about 10 inches from her head,' Lindsey said.

'I will tell you she (Molly) was in the middle of two separate gun battles, of bullets flying by her head, four inches, five inches, six inches by her, not one time but two separate times. And her being alive today, I'll never be able to explain that. And it wasn't one shot or two shots, it seemed like a hundred shots and there were shells everywhere. And that's all I can really say, and I've probably said too much but that's enough.'

Surveillance footage of the attack seems to confirm Duncan's telling of the incident.

Reed Sanders was also found with several false forms of identity with him in addition to counterfeit car tags.

Officials said Reed Sanders had a previous criminal record but declined to release details.

The Duncans had just pulled into their drive when an armed Reed Sanders approached them

Cheryl and Reed Sanders died from gunshot wounds in the shootout that followed

Police have said that Lindsay Duncan is not a suspect in their deaths as he acted in self defense

'[Cheryl] was threatening to kill the guy's wife and he fired upon that person,' explained Sheriff Gene Fischer.

'About five years ago, the resident notified us that he had received information that the ex-wife was trying to hire somebody to murder him,' he continued, telling of a previous incident in which Duncan feared his ex-wife.

Police are still investigating what caused the couple to turn up armed to Duncan's home but it is believed to have been due to on ongoing feud about money.

According to Citizen Times, the dispute involved the trust fund established for Cheryl Sanders and Lindsay Duncan's two adult children, which was supposed to pay for the girls' college expenses.

'He has given them nothing but hell ever since she married him,' a friend of Reed Sanders said of Lindsey Duncan, adding that the ex-husband was 'domineering' toward Cheryl Sanders.

'He didn't like the fact that she had remarried and was happy,' he added.

'Part of the problem is he had to sign off on wherever they went to school, and they didn't go to the schools he wanted them to, so he refused on signing off on letting them have the money.'

Reed and Cheryl Sanders ran a nutrition and fitness company in North Carolina

The friend also confirmed that Sanders had a gun.

'They carried them all the time,' he said.

'She carried one in her purse, and he carried one in a little saddle in the back of his pants. They both carried guns because they were afraid of Lindsey...'

In court documents sourced by Dayton Daily News, Cheryl Sanders and Lindsay Duncan signed a 'prenuptial agreement in 1999, were married, then divorced in 2009'.

'Since the divorce, the records indicate their relationship remained sour,' the paper reported.

'It's a very complex set of facts,' said Suzanne Schmidt, Greene County First Assistant Prosecutor, of the shooting.

'What we plan to do in a case like this isonce the investigation is done have the matter presented to a Greene County grand jury for a review to see if any charges are warranted. That's typically what we do but it's going to be a long process.'

Cheryl Sanders, 59, began to work as a body double for Jessica Alba, left, and Brooke Shields, right, when she stopped doing work as a stunt woman because of a bad fall on set in 1989

Sanders previously worked as a Hollywood stunt double in the 1980s and appeared in the movie 'Back to the Future' and stood in for Rene Russo in The Thomas Crown Affair and the Lethal Weapon series.

Her stunts involved a 20-foot fall on the set of 'Back to the Future, which brought her career to a halt in 1989. She shattered bones in her face, right arm and hand when a cable was released in the fall and she hit the concrete.

She also did double work for Jessica Alba in 2016 and some work for Brooke Shields.

The couple were living in North Carolina for the past four years where they ran a nutrition and fitness company.
A young driver shared footage showing him speeding down the wrong side of the road before a 'gruesome' Valentine's Day crash which killed him and a mother-of-two.

Julyan Mohan, 20, and his friend were travelling through Palmerston, Darwin, at about 11pm on Friday when they collided with a car driven by aged care nurse Evelin Kwok, killing her instantly.

Footage uploaded to Mr Mohan's Snapchat account, which some viewers labelled 'disgusting', showed a car speeding through the streets as a passenger encouraged the driver to cross over to the wrong side of the road to overtake another car.

Julyan Mohan (pictured) died in a car crash which also killed a mother-of-two on Friday

The footage briefly flicked to the speedometer, which showed the car was travelling at speeds well over 100km/h.

The tragedy, which occurred on the same night the vision was shared, unfolded on Roystonea Avenue in an area with an 80km/h speed limit.

The car travelled past Dorottya Cranney and Joshua Shipsey, who recalled seeing the grey Toyota Corolla attempting to overtake another car further down the road.

Footage uploaded to Mr Mohan's Snapchat account showed a car speeding through dark streets

Evelin Kwok (pictured), 34, was killed late Friday night when her car collided with another vehicle in Palmerston, Darwin

They claimed the car crossed onto the wrong side of the road and collided with mother-of-two Evelin Kwok's Hyundai sedan just moments later.

The 34-year-old was killed on impact.

Ms Cranney described the scene as 'gruesome'.

'I ran over to the mum's car but she must have died on impact... I saw a baby seat and my heart just dropped but I searched and found nobody else inside,' she told NT News.

Meanwhile Mr Shipsey went to check on the passengers in the Toyota. There, he found Mr Mohan clinging to life.

Mr Mohan was alive when witnesses first arrived but died a short while later while still trapped in the wreckage

'He showed some signs of life and I tried my best to free him but he was well and truly trapped,' he said.

'The force of the collision had pushed the engine of the car right into his lap... By the time the emergency services arrived and cut him out of the car, he was already gone.'

The pair helped to Mr Mohan's passenger to safety. He was the sole survivor of the crash and remains in Royal Darwin Hospital in a stable condition.

Ms Kwok had been on the way to work at an aged care facility after spending Valentine's Day with her partner, Wei-kai Lee.

Her partner, Wei-kai Lee (pictured together), how has to tell Ms Kwok's six-year-old daughter the news that her mother will not be coming home

Mr Lee told the ABC his partner worked as a nurse in an aged care home and described her as being 'very compassionate about her work and clients'.

'Even though she worked the overnight shift, she still spent time with the girls before they went to bed as well as on her day off,' he said.

Ms Kwok called Australia home for ten years.

'I don't know how to tell the older girl about what happened to mum,' Mr Lee said.

A GoFundMe was launched on Saturday to raise money for Ms Kwok's daughters.

Major Crash Investigation officers are examining the circumstances of the accident.

Five lives have now been lost on Northern Territory roads so far in 2020.

Ms Kwok, a mother-of-two, had called Australia home for ten years
Residents near a leaking dam in Queensland have spent a second night away from their homes as water continues to gush through a hole in a broken earth wall.

About a dozen rural properties were evacuated after a landowner spotted the 3.5m hole in the irrigation dam at Talgai, about 170km southwest of Brisbane, on Friday.

An emergency declaration remains in place as water continues to flow from the 433 megalitre Bolzan dam breach that is now about 4.5 to five metres in size.

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A breach in an irrigation dam wall at Talgai, southwest of Brisbane, (pictured) is continuing to grow in size with concerns for properties nearby

On Friday night the council issued about 5000 warning messages via SMS after heavy rainfall in the region overfilled the dam

Evacuees have been advised to stay away from their homes until the threat eases.

'Engineers are still not able to declare the wall safe,' councillor Cameron Gow told AAP on Sunday.

'The hole has collapsed a little bit more.'

Mr Gow said engineers were not prepared to walk out on the wall due to its instability.

'We could still have a minor or moderate outflow about a half a metre deep,' he said.

The dam is estimated to have fallen to about 75 per cent of its capacity.

A smaller cofferdam with a 50 megalitre capacity below the main agricultural dam and a large paddock would contain some overflow should the dam burst.

On Friday night the council issued about 5000 warning messages via SMS after heavy rainfall in the region overfilled the dam.

It's understood the prolonged drought may have caused the dam's clay liner to dry out and crack leading to a breach in the wall.

Southern Downs Mayor Tracy Dobie told ABC News their major concerns were over the remaining 300 megalitres inside the dam.

About a dozen rural properties were evacuated after a landowner spotted the 3.5m hole on Friday, with fears if the hole grows the entire wall could be breached

'The assessment done by the dam inspector this morning is that if the flow continues as it is now, that would be just standard low-level flooding through the valley and through Dalrymple Creek,' she said.

'If the dam wall was to give way, then there would be considerable flooding through that valley and down into Dalrymple Creek.

'The residents ... know the way the water travels through their land and so our plan is to try to open those residences back up to those homeowners this afternoon.'

Elsewhere, residents in the state's far north sweated through a sticky night as heatwave conditions persist.

'It's been very hot, Cairns got up to about 40C yesterday afternoon and Townsville had a minimum overnight of 29.1C - possibly its warmest since 1969,' meteorologist Kimba Wong said.

Meanwhile, flood conditions are continuing to ease as days of torrential rain subside and swollen rivers fall.

However, the Bureau of Meteorology says communities around the southern interior should remain cautious of flooding over the coming days.

Major flood warnings are in place for the Georgina River, lower Condamine River and upper Balonne River.
Suspected members of the Boko Haram on Sunday evening attacked Babangida community, the headquarters of Tarmuwa Local Government Area of Yobe State.

An army spokesperson told PREMIUM TIMES that the insurgents plan was to attack Damaturu, the state capital. But the plan was foiled by security operatives who repelled the attack.

The details of the casualty from the attack could not be obtained at the time of this report.

A top security official in Damaturu, the state capital, told PREMIUM TIMES that many residents of Babangida ran out of the town into the bush for safety while others hid in their houses when the attack occurred.

The security source, who was briefed on the attack, said the insurgents entered the town with five gun trucks while two others were parked on the outskirts of the town.

A resident of the area said the insurgents burnt mobile phone masts in the town.

Someone told me that he saw the boys burning down the masts of MTN and Airtel in the town, the source, who was not in the town when the attack occurred, said.

PREMIUM TIMES made repeated efforts to speak to residents who were in the town when the attack occurred. Their phone lines did not connect suggesting the claim of the destruction of masts was true.

The Acting Assistant Director, Army Public Relations, Sector 2 Operation Lafiya Dole, Damaturu, Chinonso Oteh, confirmed the attack.

He said the intention of the insurgents was to infiltrate Damaturu, the state capital.

According to Mr Oteh, an army lieutenant, the attempt by the insurgents to infiltrate Damaturu actually failed because of our superior fire and Airforce support that was provided by the Nigerian Air Force.

Actually, Babangida is the area that those bad boys always gather before they start coming to Damaturu, he said.

Everything is under control. There is no cause for alarm, he added.

Babangida is about 50km from Damaturu, Yobe State capital. The town has been attacked three times in the past several months.

In one of the attacks, the palace of the Emir of Jajare was attacked with the emir narrowly escaping the attack.

Yobe, alongside Borno and Adamawa, has suffered most from the Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria.

Over 30,000 people have been killed since the insurgency began in 2009. Millions of others have been displaced.
A former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, on Sunday, said Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, was behind the success of his administrations privatisation programme.

Mr El-Rufai was the first Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (PBE) established by Mr Obasanjo in his first term as president between 1999 and 2003.

In a congratulatory message to mark the 60th birthday of the governor, Mr Obasanjo said Mr El-Rufai also turned around the infrastructural and socio-economic development of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) when he was the Minister of the FCT also under his administration.

In the message, copies of which were made available to journalists by his Media Aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, the former president described the governor as a Nigerian who has demonstrated rare qualities of commitment and courage in the public service in various capacities.

Over the years, I have followed, with keen interest, your modest inspiring career as a professional architect, community leader, administrator and politician. And I note, with special delight your demonstration of rare qualities of commitment and courage in the public service in various capacities.

Under my watch as a democratically-elected President of Nigeria, you made a great success of our privatization programme as the Director-general of Bureau of Public Enterprises, which resulted in the liberalisation of our nations economy and our being able to meet some of the challenges of globalisation and tackling the problem of poverty in our land.

I must also applaud the giant strides in terms of infrastructural and socio-economic development which the Federal Capital Territory FCT, recorded under your focused administration as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. I salute the uncommon sense of duty and patriotism demonstrated by you at enhancing sanity in the physical development at the FCT.

Without any doubt, as the incumbent governor of Kaduna State, you have contributed to the well-being of your people, especially in the implementation of populist programmes and infrastructural development in the state.

I can only implore you not to rest on your oars and to re-double your efforts as the Chief Executive of one of the most politically restive states in the North West of the country to ensure peace, stability and security in the state until we collectively, propel our dear country to the promised land.

I trust you will continue the good work you are doing to the glory of God and to the benefit of our people, Mr Obasanjo wrote.

Northern Governors too

The Northern Governors Forum also felicitated with Mr El-Rufai qs he clocks 60 years.

Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau in a statement issued to journalists in Jos on Sunday, by his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Makut Macham, described Mr El-Rufai as resilient in achieving his goals.

Mr Lalong who doubles as Chairman of the Forum, said Mr El-Rufai had made impact in shaping policies in the private and public sectors of the country.

The celebrator has made impact in his different responsibilities to the nation. He has contributed in shaping policies in the private and public sectors.

Your passion to serve with excellence is evident in how you have used the opportunities and challenges available to you as a Quantity Surveyor, Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Minister, Governor, as well as member of various bodies in public and private sectors to shape policies, Mr Lalong said.

He commended Mr El-Rufai for providing an enabling environment for the forum to operate seamlessly at its headquarters located in Kaduna.

He also assured him that the Forum would continue to tap into his wealth of experience, in finding solutions to many challenges of the region and the nation at large.

Mr Lalong prayed that God would continue to uphold the celebrator with diligence, honesty, compassion and determination to continue serving the people of Kaduna State and Nigeria at large.

(NAN)
Urging people to use freedom of speech judiciously, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said that dissent is welcome in a democracy but not disintegration of the country.

Naidu, addressing an event here, said democracy means discussions and debates and not disruption, obstruction or destruction.

"(Some) people say dissent is required in a democracy. It is welcome but in the name of dissent, you cannot speak against the nation's unity and integrity...this has to be understood by all," he said.

The vice president said unrest and disturbances hamper progress.

"We have got to vote in (a party) or vote out (a party) every five years...violence has no place in a democracy. It is against the nation and everyone should understand that.

"Some people advocate that revolution comes through the barrel of a gun. But the ballot is more powerful than a bullet. It is fashion for some people to advocate revolution, but what is required is not revolution but evolution," Naidu said.

The vice president asserted that the slowdown in the Indian economy is temporary.

"Despite the temporary lull, India is expected to bounce back as the fastest growing economy," he said.

Observing that global powers are appreciating Indian practices in structural reforms, he said, "This (economic slowdown) is (a) temporary (phase). In the long term, nobody can stop the development story of India."



Naidu said with its huge demographic dividend, India has the potential to become human resource capital of the world.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The spreading new coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is taking toll on the economy as it has forced border trade on hold, particularly exports of fruits and farm produce from Vietnam to China.

The ministry called on all exporters to closely monitor the situation at these border gates and suggested them to export their goods through official channels.

The exporters can negotiate with their Chinese partners to shift to the official channels and apply all necessary steps to prepare for that in terms of packaging, labelling, traceability and food safety certification, the ministry recommended.

The ministry will continue its efforts to seek new foreign markets for the Vietnamese goods, especially fruits and farm produce.
The two hard-Left candidates running to lead Labour say they want Jeremy Corbyn to stay in frontline politics  after he led the party to its worst election result since 1935.

Rebecca Long-Bailey, who is standing to be leader, said she would give Mr Corbyn a top job because she loves him. And Richard Burgon, who wants to be her deputy, said he had a valuable role to play  perhaps even as Shadow Foreign Secretary.

Miss Long-Bailey, who is trailing Sir Keir Starmer in Labours leadership race, has been labelled the Continuity Corbyn candidate after she gave him ten out of ten for his leadership.

It emerged at the weekend that she had told supporters in London that she would hand the failed leader a high-level brief if she was to succeed him.

'Continuity Corbyn' candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey said she would give failed Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn a 'top role'. She is pictured at hustings in London on Sunday

Asked if she would give him a job if she got into N 10, the Labour business spokesman said: Id like to but I dont know whether he wants to do it... Its up to him. I love him so.

Separately, Mr Burgon, who is standing as deputy leader, said he believed Mr Corbyn could play a valuable role on the front bench. If he was Shadow Foreign Secretary, that would be ideal, he said.

He called the Labour leader a friend and a comrade, adding: Ive never met a more principled, less egotistical person than Jeremy Corbyn. Plenty of his critics are not fit to lace his boots.

Miss Long-Bailey has been publicly backed by hard-Left Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and Jon Lansman, the founder of the pro-Corbyn Momentum group.

But speaking on the BBCs Andrew Marr show yesterday, she said she found it insulting being called the Continuity Corbyn candidate.

She revealed her plans to supporters at a meeting in south-east London. She is pictured above talking to Jeremy Corbyn before addressing an audience at the University of Lancaster in November 2019

Everybody knows what I believe in and Ill never deviate from that, but Im very much my own person and to suggest Im a continuation of any individual is quite disrespectful, not least because Im a woman, she said.

But she backed Mr Corbyns policies, and added: Weve come so far and weve developed some of the most transformational policies that weve seen in a generation.

Miss Long-Bailey also claimed there was nothing radical in Labours election promise to spend 82.9billion extra a year by 2024  and called for that level of spending to be retained as party policy.

We werent being radical in terms of our public spending plans, she claimed. In fact we were way behind other leading industrial nations.

She added that if she wins, Labour would not campaign to rejoin the European Union at the next election. I think it will be absolutely disastrous to go into the next general election advocating a position of re-joining the EU, she said.

Miss Long-Bailey was also involved in a trans rights row after she called for a change in the law to stop womens refuges excluding trans women. Last week she signed a 12-point charter put forward by a group called Labour Campaign for Trans Rights.

It demands the expulsion of anyone with bigoted transphobic views from the party and accused groups such as charity Womens Place UK of being transphobic.

Some feminist groups, including Womens Place UK, warn that women will feel unsafe in refuges if those who were born male are allowed to move in.

Yesterday Miss Long-Bailey said: There is no conflict between rights of women and the protection of women, and safety in particular places, and trans rights.
Louis Shenker, a 21-year-old junior at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, just wanted his MAGA hat back from the graduate student who ripped it off his head on campus. He wore the hat to a December 6, 2018 protest organized by the universitys graduate student union against Trump and local police. Video shows that when Louis, who is 56 and 140 pounds, arrived wearing the MAGA hat and holding a large sign, he was immediately surrounded by a hostile mob of older grad students cursing at him and calling him a white supremacist. A woman lunged from the mob and snatched Louiss MAGA hat. Careful not to get caught on camera hitting Louis with their hands, they instead mobbed him like a colony of enraged penguins, using their bodies to push him from all sides, occasionally pecking at his head with their cardboard signs, and chanting in unison: THE PEOPLE, UNITED, WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED.

Get the f**k out of here, you shouldnt be in an anti-racist march! screamed the hat thief. A soft-spoken professor in the crowd warned Louis: Its actually dangerous for you to come by yourself like that. As the protesters began to march and Louis tried to keep up while pleading for his hat, many of them, including several graduate student union members dressed in United Auto Workers gear, elbowed Louis into walls, lampposts, and other obstacles. You act like a Nazi, youre going to get treated like a Nazi, a female protester yelled at the Jewish grandson of Holocaust victims. Louis left without his hat.

A month later, Louis was horrified to recognize the woman who stole his MAGA hat as Beth Peller, a 36-year-old grad student who would be teaching his mandatory freshman writing class. Louis could not change his schedule, so he shaved his head and mustache, prayed that she would not recognize him, and wrote the essays she assigned with the correct leftist opinions she all but demanded. Beth regaled her students with war stories about her time organizing violent anarchist movements, but never recognized the seemingly complaisant student as her victim from the protest. Louis got an A.

On November 12, 2019, Louis found himself sitting behind Beth Peller at an anti-Israel event, called Criminalizing Dissent, organized by the head of his universitys communications department, Professor Sut Jhally. Featuring Linda Sarsour and terrorism supporter Omar Barghouti, who was skyped in from Ramallah, the event promoted the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. The universitys chancellor criticized the conference, warning that it could very well alienate many of our Jewish students, but did nothing to stop it.

A proud Zionist Jew, Louis let university police know that he planned to challenge the speakers at an appropriate moment. Just before he stood up in protest, he put on his new Keep America Great hat, and Beth, who had been smiling at him until then, looked at him with the shock of realization. He told her he knew who she was -- that she was the person who had stolen his MAGA hat, and that he still wants it back. He made his brief protest, thanked the police for letting him do it, and left.

Louis soon learned that he had poked an entire hive of leftists at Amherst and the surrounding Hampshire County. With help from two lawyers, one of whom is active with the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace, Beth filed a sworn affidavit in district court in Northampton, MA. The affidavit falsely alleged that Louis is a self-avowed white nationalist who intended to inflame violence against her; that Louis was whispering threats in [her] ear at the BDS event; and that Louis had talked about guns and decapitating small animals with his hands while in her class. Based on these fantasies, a judge issued an Abuse and Harassment Prevention Order against Louis, which directed him not to contact her. It was served on Louis that night, while he was having Shabbat dinner at his synagogue.

Louis took to Twitter to complain about what happened to him, and Peller immediately went to the Northampton Police Department (NPD) to file another false affidavit alleging that Louis had threatened her life on Twitter. NPD self-identifies as a progressive police agency and Pellers attorneys, who practice criminal law in Northampton, have a lot of influence there. Although the tweets that Peller showed the Northampton cops were not directed at her and did not contain any violent threats, the police filed a criminal complaint against Louis for violating the order anyway. He was arrested in the parking lot of his synagogue, spent two nights in jail, and was released under a gag order forbidding him to post about Beth, the order, or UMass on social media.

The court imposed no gag on Beth and her supporters. And so when Louis returned to school, he found the campus plastered with 200-300 posters of his face framed by big block letters: ALERT! WHITE SUPREMACIST LOUIS SHENKER. UMass Amherst social media were buzzing with photos of the posters taken at various places around the campus. [W]atch out for this pussy ass b*tch, read one caption on Snapchat, if you see him smack the dogsh*t out him. Perhaps not coincidentally, one of the tires on Louiss car got slashed the night before his first court date, making him late.

The incitement against Louis continued. An attorney for Beth Peller drafted an online petition that called on the UMass Amherst administration to take protective action to protect the campus from Shenker -- including expulsion and a no-trespass order. The petition remains open. To date, 480 professors from across the country, including Cornel West and Judith Butler and at least ten professors from Louiss own university, together with prominent BDS activists like Linda Sarsour and Pink Floyds Roger Waters, have signed on to the Soviet-style denunciation. So have at least 645 students, workers, and staff at UMass and other schools.

Meanwhile, according to Beth Peller, Northampton police were trying to have Louis rearrested on stalking charges, so that he could be jailed as a dangerous person pending trial. By this time, we had the order against Louis vacated for lack of evidence, but the local district attorneys office insisted on prosecuting Louis for the alleged violation anyway. Before we also got this charge dismissed for lack of probable cause, the government tried three times to have Louiss bail revoked. Within minutes of the orders being vacated, however, Pellers attorney applied for another one on the same basis. That application was denied, as was a third attempt, supported by a fifth fabricated affidavit. Pellers lawyers also filed an application for a criminal stalking complaint against Louis, which was similarly denied for lack of probable cause.

Beth Peller has just filed an appeal against Louis. She has also contacted the FBI, which is seeking to interview him about the matter. Meanwhile, Louis has been forced off campus by violent threats, could not take his exams, and will not be able to attend classes this term. He has been constructively expelled and deprived of his education.

In its policy against discrimination and harassment, UMass Amherst talks a big game about protecting its students rights to free speech. Any student or teacher who acts to deny, deprive or limit the educational, employment, residential and/or social access, benefits, and/or opportunities of any member of the campus community due to political belief or affiliation will be disciplined. When brought to the attention of the University, the University will take actions appropriately to respond to, stop, remedy, and prevent the reoccurrence of any such discrimination.

UMass Amherst has broken this promise to Louis. We have repeatedly filed grievances on his behalf against Peller and her co-actors and have been met with stony silence. Instead, Louis has been notified that the university is investigating another complaint -- by Peller against him.

Louis ordeal is a glimpse of the far lefts cancel culture as it pushes the Overton Window on free speech from Twitter bans to outright criminalization of dissent. We believe that more malicious prosecutions like Louiss are likely; brought, at first, in progressive enclaves like Northampton where the far left holds real political power. Much as occurred in the Jim Crow South, authorities in such places are increasingly choosing to enforce their political ideology instead of the rule of law entrusted to them. The American left these days is unable to accept defeat under fair rules of play, whether in elections or in judicial proceedings. To avoid defeat, leftists will continue searching for ways to criminalize dissent. Indeed, Beth Pellers attorney argued to the court in Northampton that defamation and offensive speech can and should be criminalized. This is a dangerous trend, and is becoming one of the major civil rights issues of our time.

Attorneys Karen D. Hurvitz and Ilya I. Feoktistov represent Louis Shenker. Attorney Hurvitz devotes her practice to fighting anti-Semitism in K-12 and higher education. Attorney Feoktistov is the Executive Director of Americans for Peace and Tolerance.
Fourteen US citizens, who were passengers of the Diamond Princess cruise ship, have tested positive for coronavirus as they were evacuated home from Japan.

More than 300 US citizens are being repatriated after spending almost a fortnight isolated on the ship off the coast of Yokohama in Japan since February 3.

The ship has become one of the focal points of the outbreaks as 3,500 people were quarantined on the ship while hundreds fell ill with the Covid-19 virus.

Passengers were finally given the green light to disembark the ship over the last few days.

During the evacuation process of US passengers, it emerged that 14 individuals had tested positive for coronavirus, the US State Department and the Department of Health and Human services said in a joint statement.
Canada's response to the deadly novel coronavirus outbreak is winning unusual praise in China  a development that federal government sources here say is part of a broader re-engagement strategy aimed at repairing strained relations between the two countries.

News reports in Chinese state-run media, official government statements and messages posted by Chinese citizens online all suggest a warming trend in the Canada-China relationship  a relationship that's been very tense since the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver in 2018.

On Friday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi applauded Canada for responding to China's request for medical equipment, such as face masks and protective gear.

"On behalf of the people of China, we extend our appreciations. Thank you," Wang told his Canadian counterpart Francois-Philippe Champagne at the Munich Security Conference. "This is a special relationship."

His remarks mark a notable shift in tone since January by the ruling Communist Party, and it's all the more remarkable given the overt animosity in the bilateral relationship over the past 14 months.

Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were detained by Chinese officials just days after Meng's arrest; their detention is widely viewed as an act of retaliation for the arrest of the telecommunications executive on an extradition request from the United States. Another Canadian, Robert Schellenberg, was given a death sentence in January 2019 after having been previously sentenced to prison for drug smuggling. China also has blocked imports of Canadian agricultural products.

Government sources in this country tell CBC News that the so-called public health diplomacy by Canada has resulted in a new climate of diplomatic detente  and that relations with China are better now than they have been since at least 2018.

Global Affairs Canada

The coronavirus outbreak seems to be driving the sudden thaw. Canada needed Chinese approval to send a plane to the Chinese city of Wuhan to collect Canadians there who asked for help to leave. China, meanwhile, needed the international community's help to grapple with the outbreak.

Story continues

Global Affairs Canada said it had shipped about 16 tonnes of personal protective equipment to China this month, including clothing, face shields, masks, goggles and gloves. Ottawa also agreed to provide $2 million to the World Health Organization (WHO) to help vulnerable countries prepare for a potential coronavirus outbreak beyond China.

Renowned Canadian epidemiologist Bruce Aylward recently made his way to China to lead a team of WHO experts to study the origin of the virus and the severity of the disease.

"This is Canada. And when in (times of) need, we want to be there and be able to provide assistance to the extent we can," Champagne said this week.

That assistance, sources said, presented new opportunities for Ottawa to start repairing its relationship with China.

"We are engaging with each other. I think every time you have a chance to have a dialogue it's something positive," said Champagne, who added he raises the plight of the Canadian detainees in every discussion with Chinese officials.

Friday's meeting marked the second time in two weeks the Canadian and Chinese foreign affairs ministers spoke with each other. Canada and China didn't have a single ministerial-level meeting for eight months following Meng's arrest.

The embassy's charm offensive

Despite Canada's decision to scale down its consular operations in China as a result of the novel coronavirus outbreak, the Canadian embassy in Beijing has been ramping up its outreach efforts on social media.

More than 2.3 million people follow the embassy's page on Weibo, China's most popular social media platform.

One widely-shared post from the embassy this month showed a photo of Canadian aid headed for Wuhan. Another cited Canada's decision not to impose a travel ban on people coming from China.

The U.S., Australia and some European nations have enacted strict border controls, banning the entry of foreigners who travelled to China in the past 14 days. Canada says its approach is in line with the World Health Organization's guidelines related to "inappropriate restrictions to travel and trade."

The Embassy of Canada to China/Weibo

Canada's newly-appointed Ambassador to China Dominic Barton delivered one recent embassy video message in Mandarin, urging the citizens of Wuhan to "stay strong."

On Weibo, Chinese citizens praised Canada's actions. "China-Canada friendship lasts forever!" wrote one.

"Thank you! We will never forget the people who helped us when our country was in trouble," says another online comment.

Those responses are a far cry from the comments the embassy's Weibo page was getting just a month ago, when many Chinese were using it as a platform to vent their feelings about Canada's troubled relations with China.

CCTV

Canada's recent efforts have also attracted glowing headlines in state-owned media, and even in official Beijing.

"Our heartfelt thanks go to Canada for its support and assistance in China's fight against the epidemic," foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in a briefing this week.

Wenran Jiang, an adjunct professor at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia, said that Canada's recent efforts have been "extremely well received" in China.

"I think Chinese people  even Chinese officials  will probably have a second look on whether in the past year-plus they have been treating Canada too harsh, whether [they] should probably reconsider the [Kovrig and Spavor] cases," Jiang predicted.

No one is suggesting the more complex outstanding issues between Canada and China will be easily repaired, or that Spavor and Kovrig will be freed tomorrow. But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took an optimistic line this week.

"Yes, we are having challenges with China," Trudeau said Friday in Munich, Germany, where he was attending an international security conference.

"In this recent coronavirus challenge and issue, Canada has been there to send medical supplies to China, to be supportive, to work with them and the WHO, to try and help where we can in resolving this.

"So just because you have a serious disagreement on an issue that may be extremely important to you and to Canadians, it can't prevent you from continuing to talk and try to solve other things at the same time. There are far too many aspects to global relationships to not try and engage in a constructive way."
The letter calls on every Justice Department employee to follow the heroic example of the four prosecutors who quit the Stone case and be prepared to report future abuses to the Inspector General, the Office of Professional Responsibility, and Congress; to refuse to carry out directives that are inconsistent with their oaths of office; to withdraw from cases that involve such directives or other misconduct; and, if necessary, to resign and report publicly  in a manner consistent with professional ethics  to the American people the reasons for their resignation.
Leonard, a sculptor, painter and costume designer, is planning to deliver her last batch of 65 costumes in all to The Field Museum to be worn and played in by young visitors and their parents at the Crown Family PlayLab. In addition to skunks, bats, owls, coyotes, cardinals and turtles for the Illinois Woodlands exhibit, the Beverly resident has already delivered textile T. rexes, stegosauruses, triceratops and pterodactyls for the Playlabs dinosaur area.
Sotheby's has announced that it will reschedule its Asia Week sales for the week of June 22.

The auction house confirmed that the "Modern & Contemporary South Asian Art" auction will remain as scheduled on March 16, while its Hong Kong spring sales will still be held from April 3 to 8.

Christie's, Bonhams, Doyle, Heritage and iGavel are also postponing their related sales in response to the spread of the coronavirus, although Christie's announced that its "South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art" sale will take place as planned on March 18 in New York.

"We believe these are the right decisions to take now to ensure the best sale environment on behalf of our consignors and our clients," a spokesperson for Christie's said in a statement.

However, the six auction-house partners will still present the highlights of their Asia Week auctions as scheduled from March 12 to 19 in their New York salerooms.

"Due to the tragic coronavirus outbreak and the effect it's had on so many people, we understand the difficult decision that the auction houses had to make to respectfully accommodate their buyers," Katherine Martin, chairwoman of the trade membership organization Asia Week New York, said in a statement.

Last year, the 10th anniversary edition of Asia Week New York grossed a total of over $150 million across all combined sales.

Although significant changes have been made in the organization of the annual weeklong Asian art fair, exhibitions and discussions hosted by participating galleries will move forward as originally planned.

Among them is the solo-artist exhibition "Blue Night, Red Earth: The Work of Nguyen Cam," which will be on view at Rosenberg & Co. in the Upper East Side.

This show is solely dedicated to the Vietnamese contemporary visual artist, who includes materials like used rice sacks, corrugated cardboard, and gingko leaves in his practice.

Also on view during this year's Asia Week New York will be the first U.S. retrospective dedicated to Japanese bamboo artist Abe Motoshi, whose work will be shown in conjunction with other historic pieces at TAI Modern's New York gallery.

The announcement of Asia Week New York's new schedule arrived on the heels of the cancellation of the 2020 edition of Art Basel Hong Kong, which was to run March 17 through March 21.
A young mother was left horrified after almost breaking a tooth on a piece of metal she claims was hidden in her McDonald's burger.

Sydney woman Ada Teaupa had just picked up the Chicken n Cheese burger from the McDonald's in Cartwright, west of Sydney, on Friday.

'Look what I found in the chicken & cheese! Nearly broke my tooth!,' a horrified Ms Teaupa wrote alongside a collection of photographs of the burger and metal rod.

'My three-year-old niece ordered a chicken and cheese as well and thank god I didn't give it to her yet!'

Sydney mother Ada Teaupa took to social media to claim she found a metal bar (pictured) hidden in a chicken burger she had bought from a McDonald's

Mrs Teaupa said she bit into the burger and immediately felt a sharp pain in her teeth before allegedly finding the metal bar (pictured)

The young mother said she had originally offered the burger to her niece, but ended up eating it because the girl said wasn't hungry.

She said she instantly felt a sharp pain in her tooth after biting into the burger.

'I felt my tooth bite into something hard and thought 'oh no this is glass,' she told Seven News.

After taking the burger back into the store she said the manager looked visibly confused by the find, before apologising profusely and offering her a replacement.

A number of other people on social media were equally horrified by the find.

'Omg it's a good thing you found it first,' one person replied.

'Omg I would've drove back and swore at em,' another added.

A McDonald's spokesman told Daily Mail Australia they were investigating the alleged incident.

'We are disappointed that this has happened. We take food safety very seriously and have strict processes and systems in place,' the spokesman said.

'An investigation is currently underway with the restaurant, and we encourage the customer to contact us to help us to investigate fully.'
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sent a message of congratulation to his Lithuanian counterpart Saulius Skvernelis on Lithuania National Day.

Pashinyan said Armenia highly appreciates the preservation and strengthening of the existing dialogue at a high political level in the interests of our countries.

We highly appreciate Lithuanias continued support for the Armenia-EU partnership and are confident that direct air links between Vilnius and Yerevan will provide great opportunities for the development of bilateral economic relations, tourism and people-to-people contacts, Pashinyan added.

Armenian PM said he was happy to hear that Lithuanias head of government had accepted his invitation to visit Yerevan, which will provide a new momentum to friendly relations between the countries.
Another 70 people aboard a quarantined cruise ship in Japan have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total to 355 cases, Japanese health minister Katsunobu Kato said on Sunday. The Diamond Princess, owned by Carnival Corp, has been quarantined since arriving in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, on Feb. 3, after a man who disembarked in Hong Kong before it travelled to Japan was diagnosed with the virus.

Some 3,700 passengers and crew were aboard the ship, where the most coronavirus infections outside China have occurred. Those testing positive are transferred to Japanese hospitals.

Also read: Coronavirus outbreak: Death toll reaches 1,665 in China

Also read: Coronavirus update: SpiceJet to suspend Delhi-Hong Kong flights from February 16
By Trend

Azerbaijans former president Ayaz Mutallibov has dismissed Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyans statement, calling it absurd.

"Pashinyans statement, in which he claims that as if I said Azerbaijanis were involved in committing the Khojaly genocide is absurd. His remarks lack any real grounds, he told Trend. In an interview with a Russian newspaper [to which Armenian PM refers], I stated that definitely, there was Armenian trace in Khojaly events. I noted that Armenia was trying to further destabilize the situation in Azerbaijan then. Furthermore, the local opposition was also interested in complicating the situation within the country. I have repeatedly stated that I did not say Azerbaijanis committed the Khojaly genocide. This is ridiculous.

Mutallibov emphasized that the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper itself, to which Pashinyan referred in Munich, is unfriendly to Azerbaijan.

From the very beginning the issue was formulated in a way to associate me with this topic. Then I didnt have time to polemize on this interview. The situation in the country was so difficult that there was no time for this. I have repeatedly stated and I am saying it directly: I have never said that Azerbaijanis did it. By referring to this interview, Armenians try somehow to rehabilitate themselves, Mutallibov concluded.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
DPK's response was more controversial than article itself



The Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) has withdrawn a complaint it filed with the prosecution against a female professor and a newspaper that published her column that was critical of the ruling party and President Moon Jae-in.



The withdrawal came after former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, the leading potential presidential hopeful who is highly anticipated to co-lead the DPK campaign in the April 15 general election, criticized the move as damaging to the freedom of speech. As the controversy continued, Lee, who is also the party's candidate for a parliamentary seat in Seoul's Jongno District in the upcoming polls, said Sunday the party should always be "humble" before the people.



In the Jan. 29 op-ed article, titled "Except for DPK," Lim Mi-ri, a political studies professor from Korea University, urged people not to vote for DPK candidates in the general election as a form of popular judgment against what she called an "arrogant and selfish" government. The party filed a complaint with the prosecution against Lim and the publisher, the Kyunghyang Shinmun, claiming that the column was extremely biased to the point of violating the Election Law. The party also alleged that she used to work for Ahn Cheol-soo, who is preparing to create a new political party ahead of the election. However, the party's move triggered an uproar not only from the other parties, but from some DPK members, including the former prime minister.



The right to free speech is a constitutional value that we should never give up. Lim's column was indeed controversial, but what was more controversial was the DPK's response. Whether or not it violated the Election Law is a matter that should be left to election officials to decide.


MILTON  Dona Dutchers office at Blackhawk Community Credit Union is a small glimpse into bold plans to remember the history of auto-making in Rock County.

She has piles of photographs, hubcaps and a mannequin wearing a pair of coveralls with employee number 40-19-10414.

There are bricks from the General Motors Assembly smokestack, a place setting from the executive dining room, a nameplate from a 307 Chevrolet and United Auto Workers Local 95 campaign buttons touting Jim Boz Bosben, Terry Meyer, Mike Sheridan and Archie Bailey.

In the basement of the credit union, two separate rooms, one of them a vault, hold frayed and fragile blueprints of GM buildings, reports from a transportation company GM used to haul vehicles from the plant to dealers, postcards, tools and Janesville Gazette newspapers documenting the strike of 1937.

Ive got a lot of stuff, as you can see, Dutcher said last week.

And its only a fraction of her collection.

Dutcher has other storage facilities in Milton, Janesville and Beloit that hold larger items such as industrial fans, three-wheeled bikes used to get around the plant, handrails, carts, welding equipment and cabinets full of tools. She even has lights from the parking lot, multiple fire hydrants and three flagpoles.

And sometime in 2021 the artifacts will come under one roof in downtown Janesville.

Thats where the credit union will open a Legacy Center in the former First National Bank building that was constructed in 1913 at the corner of Main and River streets.

Dutcher, director of the Blackhawk Community Credit Union Legacy Center  and whose husband, Brad Dutcher, started working at GM in 1986 and is a former president of UAW Local 95  has worked for the credit union since 2002 and doesnt consider the Legacy Center a museum. Instead, it will be more interactive. Beyond the exhibits, it will include educational programs and research facilities and be a place for reflection and remembrance of an industry that touched nearly every aspect of Janesville and provided good-paying jobs to generations of families.

GM was just so connected to the veins of this community, Dona Dutcher said.

The need for a place to take in the history of Rock County auto-making became apparent after years of hearing from former employees, and after 1,200 workers there lost their jobs when production of Chevrolet Suburban and Tahoe and GMC Yukon sport utility vehicles ended just before Christmas 2008. The Isuzu truck line closed the following April, ending the jobs of the remaining 110 employees. Another 800 or so employees of a long list of GM suppliers and contracted transport companies also were put out of work over the succeeding months.

In 1990, GM employed 5,100 people in Janesville. At its peak in 1978, the sprawling plant on the citys south side had more than 7,100 employees.

So when it came time to remodel the Milwaukee Street branch of the credit union, where Dutcher was working a few years ago, she started looking at ways in which historical items could be displayed in the branch. Her board of directors, however, began thinking about something more that just a few historical photos and signs.

They initially considered combining the Legacy Center with a new corporate headquarters but when plans for the site along the river fell through, the credit union purchased the former Moose Lodge in the city for its headquarters and the First National Bank building last summer for the Legacy Center, located in the midst of a downtown that is undergoing massive redevelopment.

It is important to us that our expansion plans continue to contribute to Janesvilles overall redevelopment strategy, Sherri Stumpf, the credit unions CEO, said when she announced the plans. We are excited that this will not only return a building to its historical significance, but it will make a great backdrop for a museum that honors the men and women and families and friends of General Motors and the UAW.

The history of GM in Janesville dates back to 1918, when the company branched out into farm vehicles by buying the Samson Tractor Co. Within 12 months after the purchase, nearly 150 tractors per day were rolling off the production line. Car production at the Janesville plant began in 1923, but the Great Depression shuttered the plant from 1932 to 1934. The plant made 16 million 105mm artillery shells during World War II and then returned to automotive production after the war.

Its only fitting that Blackhawk Community Credit Union is creating the Legacy Center to pay homage to GM and the other companies created in the city because of GMs presence. The credit union was formed in 1965 with employees of the Fisher Body Division of GM and office employees of UAW Local 95. Today, the credit union has 12 branches, over 60,000 members and over $600 million in assets.

But its safe to say that Dutchers office at the Milton branch that opened last fall is the only one that resembles a museum.

She has archival software on her computer and is always pursuing garage sales, thrift stores and auctions for anything related to auto-making in Rock County. She also gets a steady stream of phone calls and emails from former workers or the families of former employees offering up memorabilia.

Dutcher has collected identification badges for some of the 153 GM employees who worked at a temporary production facility at the year-long Century of Progress International Exposition, also known as the Chicago Worlds Fair, in 1933. She has David Kinservicks UAW membership pins from 1936 to 1942 that were handed out each month, photo albums, shirts and jackets made for specific departments at GM and even a couple of the artillery shells produced in the 1940s.

Im all over the area grabbing things, Dutcher said. I dont know if I know what I need right now because were archiving everything so were getting to a place where were getting a better idea of what we have.

Some of her most physical work came in the spring of 2018, just as the buildings at the GM site were going to be removed. Armed with a headlamp and a power drill tipped with a screwdriver attachment, Dutcher began scouring the buildings for items. She pulled out dozens of signs, found a box of DVDs and VHS tapes that are likely training videos, and removed a fire hose reel. She also scrounged for pieces of wood and metal that could be used in art projects or in the creation of keepsakes like pens and pendants.

I just grabbed, Dutcher said. I didnt know what was going to be important.

Bricks from the buildings and smokestack were given away at two events in May and August and drew thousands of people from around the country. Some of her most prized items from the plant are salvage carts, which were used to move a wide range of bulky items. Some were on the third floor, and with no electricity to power the elevator she had to carry the carts down the steps by herself.

I flipped the carts over and stood them up on their ends and put them on my back and just slowly made my way down the staircase, Dutcher said. It was one step at a time. It took a while but Im so glad I did it because theyre just cool-looking and theyre part of the history.

[Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Blackhawk Community Credit Union CEO Sherri Stumpf's last name and Dona Dutcher's title.]

Photos: Janesville automotive Legacy Center

Barry Adams covers regional news for the Wisconsin State Journal. Send him ideas for On Wisconsin at 608-252-6148 or by email at badams@madison.com.
Rob Wainwright said criminals used his voice from a TV interview to extort money. Picture: ROBIN VAN LONKHUIJSEN/AFP via Getty Images)

The former head of Europol was targeted by criminals who used one of his television interviews to extort cash from a victim.

Rob Wainwright, who will address an international fraud conference in Dublin next month, said the criminals edited his voice from the interview to make it sound as though he was demanding a payment of 10,000 from a victim.

Wainwright, who was director of Europol at the time, said: "They had doctored a TV interview I had done into something that made it look as if it was me actually speaking in order to extort some money out of a criminal. They said, 'I'm a director of Europol, I'm investigating something, I need 10k from you to investigate it further'."

The crime came to light when the victim phoned Wainwright asking for the money back. "This is the terrible way in which sometimes criminals operate," he said.

The criminal behind the scam was never caught. Wainwright relates the anecdote as a warning to businesses of the risks posed by increasingly inventive and sophisticated scam artists across the globe who extort and defraud cash from victims often thousands of miles away.

Wainwright is now a senior partner at Deloitte working on cyber-security and financial crime. He believes the internet has "transformed the way in which crime groups work with each other... and use modern technologies to defraud people anywhere in the world".

It used to be the case that criminals collected ransoms in cash under a bridge in darkness. Now criminality happens online using crypto-currencies.

"You don't know who you are dealing with because you have no physical lead, no physical transfer of cash, no cash that is traceable through the banking system, just crypto-currencies," said Wainwright.

"What we noticed over the past five or 10 years is the growth of what I would call the global criminal economy. A very large scale - industrial scale - criminal economy that's grown up in the underworld on the Darknet areas of the internet," he said.

One of the biggest policing challenges, he said, was identifying the perpetrators in a cyber world that facilitates anonymity.

Those who are identified will typically live overseas in countries beyond the reach of western law enforcement agencies - unlike "traditional" crime where the suspects often live within miles of a victim.

As with the traditional criminal underworld, the perpetrators range from the unsophisticated opportunist to highly organised crime groups.

At the lower end of the scale are the chancers who indiscriminately fire out phishing emails - designed to dupe recipients into delivering up bank transfers, details or personal data - hoping that one will catch.

"They are using and reusing time and time again the same old cyber tools just to steal personal data," he said.

"They target and steal as much personal data as they can, from wherever, dump it on the Darknet trading sites, for other fraudsters to buy them and then use the stolen data for a whole range of frauds, mortgage fraud, social welfare fraud, tax fraud, whatever."

At the other end are organised crime groups, which are increasingly moving away from the "fierce, violent competition" with rivals to collaborate on things like money laundering.

Wainwright has witnessed this with the Kinahan crime cartel, led by Christy Kinahan, who has been exiled in Dubai since the murderous feud erupted with the Hutch gang. Christy Kinahan was one of Europol's biggest targets during Wainwright's last years as director of the organisation.

"I remember seeing at the time, they [the Kinahan gang] were in the business of collaborating more and more with other groups," he said.

While the Kinahans were murdering rivals on their turf, on the international stage they were "moving towards collaboration".

Organised crime gangs are not just collaborating with each other, but in some cases with "state actors". "There are notable incidents around the world where that seems to have happened, where the lines of cooperation are a bit blurred, you don't know where they might be state actors or where they might be criminal ones. But what it's leading to generally is an increase in the sophistication in the cyber-tools that they are using. So we are seeing smarter and smarter malware as a means by which to attack companies."

In recent years, Irish experts noted an escalation in Russian cyber-attacks here. Wainwright doubts that Ireland has been pinpointed and believes, if anything, it is at lower risk. Businesses targeted in cyber-attacks have often been slow to share the experience. Wainwright says that is changing. He reveals that in his time as director, hackers made multiple attempts to break into its Europol's systems - all were unsuccessful.

"Generally, I would say the more open you are with your customers, with your stakeholders, the better," he said. "I would encourage business leaders to face up to this threat and be a bit more open to the challenges in dealing with this."

The International Fraud Prevention Conference 2020 takes places at Croke Park, Dublin on March 11. More information: www.internationalfraudpreven tion.com
A Georgia teen has been charged with murder after he allegedly pushed his stepmother down the stairs and she died the following day.

Austin Perot, 18, was arrested following the domestic altercation with Malgorzata Bozek on February 8.

Bozek was suffered multiple skull fractures in the fall which police say was caused when Perot shoved her down a flight of stairs at a home in Marietta.

Austin Perot, 18, is facing murder charges after he allegedly pushed his stepmother down the stairs at a home in Marietta, Georgia, on February 8 and she died the following day

Perot was initially charged with aggravated battery but the charge was upgraded to murder after Bozek died as a result of her injuries on February 9.

He was booked into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center, where he is being held without bond.

Police have not disclosed any details about what led to the altercation.
Dundalk girl Allie Farrell strutted her stuff walking down the catwalk at New York Fashion week last week.

Despite the fact that Allie is only six, this is not her first time walking down a runway.

Allie made her catwalk debut at Paris Fashion Week when she was just three years old!

She has also taken part in New York Fashion Week 2017, London Fashion Week 2018 and 2019 and Paris Fashion Week.

Last week, Allie walked the runway at New York Fashion week and was thrilled to have her image shown on a billboard in Times Square.

Speaking to the Sun Allie's Mum Stacey said: "It was a very surreal moment. Allie was so excited and just couldnt believe it was her up there for the world to see.

We stood and stared up at the big screen on Times Square for over an hour watching her photo appear time and time again.

It was freezing cold but we didnt care. It was such a special moment for us both and something well never forget.

Allie's Instagram account gives her 10,000 followers a glimpse into her glamourous, jet-setting life as she travel around the world with her mum in tow as a world-famous child model.
The fate of 12 restaurants shuttered by the collapse of George Calombaris' restaurant empire hangs in the balance as administrators desperately try to find buyers.

About 400 workers were left waiting to find out whether they would have jobs to come back to after the celebrity chef's MAdE Establishment entered voluntary administration last Monday.

The rush to find buyers comes as rent starts accruing on Calombaris' businesses this week, with the 41-year-old's financial woes continue to mount in the wake of the $7.8million wage underpayment saga which emerged last year.

Scroll down for video

George Calombaris' (pictured with his wife Natalie) restaurant empire is hanging in the balance as administrators desperately try to find buyers for the businesses affected

The shuttered Hellenic Republic restaurant in Brunswick in Melbourne's inner-north is pictured. Talks with buyers for the restaurants' interior furnishings as well as their leases are already underway

Talks with buyers for the restaurants are reportedly already underway and sale announcements could be made as early as Monday.

50 expressions interest have also been made into the restaurant chain's 12 businesses, The Australian reported.

It comes as the chef behind Crofter Dining Room in Brunswick in Melbourne's inner-north Matt Wilkinson shared his anger at the closure of the restaurant on Sunday morning.

'Thank you to my staff, to the farmers, producers and suppliers, thank you to the many reviewers and especially thank you to the customers who in such a short time made it an amazing place,' Mr Wilkinson said

He said in an Instagram post he hoped to re-open the venue in the near future, while personally thanking Calombaris alongside the hashtag 'not his fault'.

The closed Jimmy Grants chain in Melbourne's CBD is pictured in the wake of the demise of Calombaris' restaurant empire

'I am angry and sad about this whole scenario. Angry that after 40 days of work of not seeing my wolf pack I cant make it work.'

It follows the Victorian government lodging a claim over George Calombaris' private assets in a stunning revelation in the wake of his restaurant empire's demise.

Calombaris' financial woes spilled over into his personal assets amid revelations Victoria's Commissioner of State Revenue made a claim against him in January for unpaid land tax on a holiday house at Safety Beach on the Mornington Peninsula.

The claim comes just three weeks after the property, which is owned by Trical Beach Pty Ltd, directed by the chef's wife Natalie Tricarico, was sold for around $1million.

Calombaris has also advertised his five-bedroom Toorak home for sale, with both properties being mortgaged to ANZ.

The only part of Made Establishment excluded from administration is a chain of four Yo-Chi outlets.

The former MasterChef host said on February 10 he was 'devastated' by the decision.

The former MasterChef host said on February 10 he was 'devastated' by the decision in an Instagram post last week

Calombaris was a judge and host on the hit Network Ten show MasterChef from 2009 until 2019. Pictured with co-hosts Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston

'It is with deep sadness and regret that today MAdE Establishment has been placed into voluntary administration,' he wrote on social media.

'To all my team, I truly regret it has come to this. On a personal note, the last few months have been the most challenging I have ever faced.

'At this time, while personally devastated, I remain thankful to my family, friends, the MAdE team, our loyal and regular customers.

'I am so sorry all our collective efforts have not provided to be enough. I'm gutted that it's come to this.'
The Asia Internet Coalition has urged the Pakistan government to revoke its newly-approved social media rules, warning that such regulations to control cyber space will make it extremely difficult for companies to operate and cripple the country's economy.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf government last week announced a new set of rules to regulate social media activity and has given all digital companies and social media platforms three months to adhere to the new rules.

Under the new rules, social media companies will be obliged to disclose any information or data to a designated investigation agency, when sought. Failure to abide by any of the provisions will entail a fine of up to Rs 500 million.

The Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) is an industry association that comprises leading internet and technology companies, namely Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, AirBnb, Apple, Booking.com, Expedia Group, Grab, LinkedIn, LINE, Rakuten, and Yahoo.

Managing Director AIC Jeff Paine said the government's new rules to regulate social media activity will make it "extremely difficult" for digital companies to operate in Pakistan.

In a letter sent to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and other senior officials dealing with technology and digital/social media, he said the new rules were against the basic right of expression and information.

Paine warned that while members recognise Pakistan's strong potential for investment and business, the sudden announcement of these rules belies the government of Pakistan's claims that it is open for business and investment.

"In fact, the rules as currently written would make it extremely difficult for AIC members to make their services available to Pakistani users and businesses," he said.

The letter also said that AIC was deeply concerned to see the Pakistan government release a set of broad reaching online rules without any consultation with stakeholders, including the industry.

Though the government has insisted that the new rules have been created for the protection of citizens, rights groups, media bodies and opposition members in Parliament have expressed concern that they are meant to curb freedom of expression and sharing of information.

"We urge the government of Pakistan to consider the potential consequences of the rules in order to prevent unexpected negative impacts on Pakistan's economy," the letter said.

It said the AIC members had been working in consultation with governments on this challenge for years, using both computer science tools and human reviewers to identify and stop a range of online abuse.

The letter also observed that the rules were vague and arbitrary in nature, which was a result of the absence of public consultation.

The lack of such discussion was problematic given that the rules demanded that social media companies deviate from established human rights practices concerning user privacy and freedom of expression.

The letter said the way these rules were passed was causing international companies to re-evaluate their view of the regulatory environment in Pakistan, and their willingness to work and invest in the country.

Under regulations that were approved by the Cabinet late last month but were not immediately made public, social media companies will be obliged to help law enforcement agencies access data and to remove online content deemed unlawful.

The new set of rules were approved at a cabinet meeting without being brought up in Parliament for discussion.

AIC seeks to promote the understanding of Internet policy issues in the Asia-Pacific region.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Harare, Zimbabwe (PANA) - The Zimbabwe government has denied that 118 people tested positive for the deadly COVID-19 (coronavirus), amid growing concern by locals over infections
Spread the glory of rivers, PM Modi says at Mayors Conference

Cow is mother, sacred to us: PM Modi in Varanasi

Varanasi rickshaw puller is all smiles after receiving congratulatory letter from PM Modi

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Varanasi, Feb 16: A rickshaw puller in an Uttar Pradesh village who invitted Narendra Modi to attend his daughter's wedding was overjoyed after recieving a congratulatory message by the Prime Minister.

Mangal Kewat, a resident of Domri village, had sent the wedding invitation to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in Delhi.

Kewat in his letter urged Modi to visit them for his daughter's wedding which was scheduled on February 12.

PM Modi in Varanasi, to unveil 63-ft tall statue of Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya

Although the PM didn't attend the wedding, he, in turn, sent a letter to Kewat, congratulating him on his daughter's wedding, ANI reported. Modi also conveyed his blessings to her and the family.

Kewat received the letter on the day of his daughter wedding.

"I never expected a response but now that we have got his letter, we are overjoyed. I have shown the letter to all the guests at my daughter's wedding," Kewat told ANI on Saturday.

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 16th, 2020

Kevat, a staunch devotee of the Ganga, spends a part of his earnings to offer prayers to the river. He is also is an active participant in the Swachh Bharat campaign.

He was enrolled as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party by the Prime Minister during the BJP's membership campaign.

Kewat's wife further said that the family wanted to meet the Prime Minister, who is scheduled to arrive in Uttar Pradesh soon.
Relations between the United States and Iran have been at boiling point for almost two years since U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned a 2015 pact between Iran and world powers, under which Tehran had accepted to curb its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions.

Speaking in the capital on Sunday (February 16) Ionian President Hassan Rouhani.

(SOUNDBITE) (Farsi) PRESIDENT OF IRAN, HASSAN ROUHANI, SAYING:

"What they thought - is that they could use maximum pressure to make us sit at the negotiating table from a position of weakness - is not possible and we have talked to the world with power and dignity, but we will never negotiate from a position of weakness. We said if the United States goes back to the JCPOA nuclear deal, if they avoid sanctioning of Iran, then they can be present in the form of UN Security Council Members and negotiate. Until this is done, negotiations with United States will not be possible."

Tensions spiked further following the killing of Iran's most prominent military commander Qassem Soleimani in Janaury.

In retaliation, Iran attacked U.S. targets in Iraq.

Trump has adopted a policy of "maximum pressure" to force Tehran to negotiate a broader deal that further curbs Iran's nuclear work,

ending its missile program and its involvement in regional proxy wars.
LOS ANGELES  Marta Ayala and Chong Taing, both residents of Rosemead, Calif., couldnt see the threat of the coronavirus more differently. You can see it on their faces.

While walking out of Superior Grocers supermarket in El Monte, Ayalas face scrunched in annoyance as she spotted an Asian customer wearing a white medical mask coming from the opposite direction. Despite hearing about the fast-spreading illness, to the 64-year-old Ayala, the mask is an overreaction that just stokes alarm.

"I don't believe in using masks and I don't understand the need," she said. "I know there's a serious disease out there, but who has time to think about that?"

For the 39-year-old Taing, who wears a mask, the item makes as much sense as wearing long-sleeve shirts or sunglasses to protect from the sun. The masks aren't just designed to protect the person wearing them from illness, but to protect others as well. It's a common courtesy in a place he calls "the 626"  the area code-based nickname for the San Gabriel Valley.

"People wearing masks are being considerate," Taing said. "Yes, we're going to wash our hands, but we're going to take extra precautions when we pick up our kids, do our shopping and go outside. We want to avoid getting sick as much as anyone, and at least we're taking steps to do that."

The virus, officially named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization, has seen cases worldwide rise to more than 60,000 while the death toll stood at nearly 1,500 on Friday. In the U.S., there have been 15 confirmed cases.

Few places illustrate the parallel reactions to the illness the way the diverse San Gabriel Valley does. According to 2010 U.S. Census Bureau statistics, Latinos and Asians make up 46% and 28%, respectively, of the area's 1.85 million residents. The two largest groups frequently shop, eat and send their children to the same schools. But how they have responded to the virus couldn't be more different.

It is among the Asian population that concern over the disease manifests itself most visibly, with changing eating and shopping habits, the cancellation of large public events like Lunar New Year celebrations, avoidance of large family gatherings and the masks.

While the majority of people in the San Gabriel Valley do not wear the masks, those who do wear them  whether as protection against illnesses or pollution  are almost always of Asian descent. That can provoke misunderstanding and prejudice.

"Asking why people wear face masks  it's a little bit like asking why do people wear hats in the U.S.," said Emma Teng, a professor of Asian Civilizations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Across the Pacific, masks have been worn for everything from disease control to anonymity during pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, Teng said.

She said masks to protect against illness in Asia may have first emerged in Japan during the influenza pandemic in 1918 that lasted two years and claimed 50 million lives worldwide.

In more recent years, masks in Japan have served as a compromise for employees who didn't want to miss work  or infect colleagues.

"I find it interesting that a lot of American people find it so strange," Teng said. "Like for us, you're sick and you wouldn't blow your nose into a tissue and leave it on top of someone's desk. This is just a courtesy."

Still, Teng said she is selective about where she wears surgical masks. During a recent trip to Taiwan, she wore one, particularly while taking public transportation. But in the U.S., including at her job at MIT, she often refrains from wearing a mask.

"I believe it would make the students very nervous if they saw their teacher wearing a face mask," Teng said. "So, I think there are some deep cultural differences."

In the San Gabriel Valley, Latinos and Asians often work in the same places. Many of the Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants that line streets such as Valley Boulevard and Garvey Avenue have kitchens manned by Latino immigrants. And yet it's exceedingly rare to see a Latino, or non-Asian, wearing a surgical mask.

News about the coronavirus also doesn't dominate Spanish-language media the way it does Chinese-language media.

"I think there is a panic too, especially within the Chinese community," said Karina Hernandez, 25, as she shopped at Superior market with her 3-year-old daughter Caroline. She added: "There needs to be more information out there because I'm not hearing anything."

Many Latino residents interviewed by the Los Angeles Times described the virus as "distant" and "nothing to be worried about," while some expressed skepticism.

"I heard the word 'contagious' with the virus and if I hear it gets bad here, then I'll do it," said Elizabeth Robles, 26, of El Monte, of wearing a mask. "But, I haven't seen anything here yet."

As he shopped at Superior market, 23-year-old Van Yin said he didn't understand why some non-Asians were taken aback by the wearing of masks. Yin did not wear one, but he said he understood why many people did.

"If you live in the San Gabriel Valley, you're just going to see a lot of masks," he said. "It's not a big deal." What worried Yin was that social media might be stoking fears of coronavirus to unnecessary levels.

"A lot of the news has been blown out of proportion and it's scared a lot of people," he said.

At Saturday's San Gabriel Valley Lunar festival, a smaller-than-normal crowd showed up. Most people, regardless of their background, did not wear masks.

Gabrielino High School junior Kevin He said he felt totally comfortable chatting with hundreds of people as an information booth volunteer without wearing a mask. Not that the 16-year-old begrudged anyone wearing the facial covering.

"I'm not going to criticize those who wear masks because they're just trying to stay safe and healthy and not spread anything," he said. "I don't think enough people understand that."

Outside the San Gabriel Mission after evening Mass, 73-year-old Dora Oros of Alhambra said she was both confused and intrigued by the masks.

"I see people wearing them, but I don't know what that means," she said. "I don't know if that means they're sick or they're trying to prevent others from getting sick."

Oros said she considered purchasing a mask, but was told by her daughter that the nearest Rite Aid had been sold out for weeks.

"I guess I'll just wait," she said with resignation. "I haven't seen anyone I know getting sick yet, so I won't worry."

-- Los Angeles Times
A 28-year-old Madison County man was arrested Friday and accused of helping the accused killer in a California murder and in a Central New York meth scheme, according to federal prosecutors.

Ramon Nieves Cotto, of DeRuyter, has been accused of aiding and abbetting Kyle Leeper, 36, of Pennsylvania in a California murder, according to the United States Attorneys Office for the Northern District of New York.

Federal officials had already arrested Leeper and Arlene Rodriguez, 36, of California, in 2019.

Leeper was previously a suspect in the murder of Robert Chavez on Jan. 17 in California and has been charged with murder during a drug conspiracy, federal prosecutors said.

On Jan. 19, 2019, Leeper and Rodriguez were arrested in the parking lot of a Cortlandville Big Lots during a traffic stop because the car they were driving was not registered, according to the Cortland County Sheriffs Office. During the stop, investigators found more than four pounds of methamphetamines, cash from drug sales, 15 grams of marijuana and a loaded COBRA Enterprises Model FS380 pistol, deputies said at the time.

Leeper and Rodriguez were initially charged in state court in February of 2019. They were later charged by federal prosecutors in August.

The federal charges included in the indictment involving Cotto, Rodriguez and Leeper include:

murder during a drug conspiracy

conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 50 or more grams of methamphetamine

possession of 50 or more grams of methamphetamine with intent to distribute

possession of a firearm by a convicted felon

The charge of murder during a drug conspiracy carries a maximum sentence of life in prison or the death penalty, if Leeper and Cotto are convicted, according to federal prosecutors.

Arlene Rodriguez and Kyle Leeper are facing federal and state drug charges, as well as a potential murder prosecution in California. (Photos provided by the Cortland County Sheriff's Office)

During Cottos arraignment, he was ordered to be held pending a bail hearing, prosecutors said.

Leeper and Rodriguez have been held in federal custody since August 2019, when they were charged in an earlier federal indictment that only included drug and firearms charges, according to prosecutors.

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Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

Cipriano Vigil was billed as a solo act for a Feb. 12 concert at the Museum of International Folk Art, but he brought La Llorona with him.

For generations, mothers in northern New Mexico have scared their children into obeying with the tale of The Weeping Woman who drowned her two sons and then herself after finding her husband with another woman.

Who knows what she will do to a boy who sneaks out after dark?

La Lloronas wails came to life as Vigil moved a bow back and forth on a saw positioned between his left hand and his knees while he wiggled his leg. The Weeping Womans screams reverberated through the museums auditorium, creating a haunting effect.

In one fell swoop, the 78-year-old musician demonstrated the artistry, imagination and cultural knowledge that has made him the guardian of New Mexico music.

Vigil knows what its like to confront an apparition when youre supposed to be at home in bed. When he was 7 years old, he was determined to go to a dance in Penasco to watch the musicians, but his mother wouldnt let him because she thought he was too young. After she fell asleep, he opened a window and escaped.

But the 3-mile trek from his home in Chamisal to the music hall ended when he was confronted by a mysterious white creature that would not let him cross the road. Vigil ran through a field in terror, ripping his clothes in the process, and arrived back at home to find his mother waiting for him with a belt, he recalled.

The mysterious white ball that blocked Vigils path saved his life, the master musician and scholar told the audience. A lot of innocent people got hurt that night and ended up in the hospital, he said.

A Ph.D. in ethnomusicology, Vigil has literally written the book on New Mexico music. Published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2014, its called New Mexican Folk Music: Treasures of a People.

Vigil is also the co-curator of Musica Buena: Hispano Folk Music of New Mexico, an exhibition at the folk art museum that explains how Spanish traditions merged with indigenous customs to form a unique cultural heritage. The other curator is Nicolosa Chavez, curator of Latino/Hispano and Spanish Colonial Collections at the museum.

The exhibit is on display through October 2021.

One of the musical genres Vigil demonstrated at the folk art museum is called the indita (little Indian girl). The story behind the music is not pretty.

The Spanish tried to live in harmony with the Pueblo people, but nomadic tribes, such as the Comanches and the Apaches, captured Pueblo girls, Vigil said. When they were released, the women were shunned by their families and ended up in genizaro communities, such as Abiquiu, he said.

The story is certainly more nuanced. It wasnt only nomadic tribes that captured Pueblo girls. Spanish and Native blood intermingled in northern New Mexico, resulting in a complicated, but creative, heritage.

The states messy history is grist for Vigils musical mill. The interplay of conquest and compromise flows harmoniously from the myriad instruments he has mastered.

Vigil was a professor for 24 years at Northern New Mexico College and has won countless honors, including the Governors Award, the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities Award and the National Heritage Award.

But despite the accolades, the El Rito resident is still a man of the people, a raconteur who tells bawdy tales of unfaithful wives, violent husbands, thieving neighbors and other colorful characters who transcend time.

The son of a musician and the oldest of eight sons, Vigil credits his sister with getting his musical career started by buying him a guitar in Santa Fe. But even before that acquisition, he was studying music.

When I was 7 or 8 years old, I would take a little pencil. I would take notes. I would draw the neck of the guitar. I was learning the chords, he recalled in a recent telephone interview.

Like many young men from small New Mexico villages, Vigil longed to see the big city. He hitchhiked to Los Angeles and got a job building weapons for McDonnell-Douglas. After a while, I started thinking about what these things were going to be used for, he said.

Vigil made his way back to New Mexico. Immediately upon his arrival, his mother asked him to go chop some wood. It was almost as if he had never left home.

After grabbing a chainsaw and heading outdoors, Vigil was overwhelmed by the beauty of his native land. As if by magic, a song came to him. He didnt have a pen, but Vigil ran home and wrote down the words that were in his head. (His mamacita sent him back out for the wood.)

Vigil said the seeds of his academic career were planted when he was playing guitar in Taos one day and a woman complimented him. She encouraged him to get his GED and helped him to get into New Mexico Highlands University, where he earned an undergraduate degree in music education. This led to a scholarship to pursue a masters degree in bilingual education at Highlands.

Another scholarship came his way, this time from the Mexican government. It gave Vigil the opportunity to study at the National Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico. There, he earned a second masters degree, this time in ethnomusicology. But that was just part of the education he received in Mexico, where he spent time in dance halls and bars learning about different kinds of music and showmanship.

After Vigil and his family returned to New Mexico, he accepted a job at NNMC, where he spent 24 years teaching English. During this time, he completed his doctorate in ethnomusicology. For his dissertation, Vigil brought together many New Mexico songs that had been passed down over the years orally into a written volume, which then became his landmark book.

As he struggled to remember a verse at the folk art museum, Vigil told the audience, I have 5,000 songs in my head. Sometimes I forget the words. But I never forget the music.

Although hes retired from NNMC, Vigil cant stay out of the classroom. Each Friday, he visits a school, where he teaches kids how to make guitars out of cigar boxes. During the 15 years hes been doing this, the master musician estimates he has distributed 4,000 cigar boxes.

I want to flood the state with guitars and give these kids a hands-on-experience that will teach them to love music for the rest of their lives, Vigil said.
A similar session is planned April 23 at the Fick Conference Center on the campus of Mary Washington Hospital.

The community forum also will address the warning signs of Alzheimers and how they differ from normal changes in the brain due to aging. Also, members of the community who have friends or neighbors with some form of dementia can get tips on how to reach out to them, Myers said.

With all these things, if we can just be a little more aware, it will help, she said.

Gabler assumed her husband, a former Army intelligence officer and pretty bright guy, was faring OK in the early stages of the disease. Because she saw him daily, she didnt necessarily notice the changes the way others did who saw him less frequently.

When she was explaining his condition at one group meeting, fellow members asked what her husband would do if there was a fire while he was home alone and she was at the grocery store or a group meeting.

I went home and asked him that, and he said, I would call you, and I knew he was in trouble, she said.
Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are on the look out for a nine-year-old boy who fell in Lake Erie on Saturday evening.

Three children were by the shoreline of the lake close to Peacock Point in Nanticoke when two fell through the ice.

Const. Rodney Leclair with the Haldimand County OPP detachment told the Star one of the children, an eight-year-old boy, has since been rescued.

Search efforts including helicopters, their underwater search team, and the Haldimand County fire department were ongoing since about 4:30 p.m., when the call about the boys came in. Searches are pausing overnight and will resume Sunday morning.
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Congress leader Manish Tewari has tweeted excerpts from a book in the middle of swirling conspiracy theories that the coronavirus involved in the outbreak in Chinas Wuhan appears to be man-made and could have escaped from a lab in the city.

Manish Tewari asked people to read The Eyes of Darkness, a 1981 thriller by best-selling American suspense author Dean Koontz. The book tells a story of a Chinese military lab that creates a virus as part of its biological weapons programme.

Is Coranavirus a biological Weapon developed by the Chinese called Wuhan -400? This book was published in 1981. Do read the excerpt, Manish Tewari tweeted on Sunday.

ALSO WATCH | Coronavirus scare: Separating facts from fiction

Tewari also tweeted a photograph with the name of the scientist circled and few lines marked from the book.

They call the stuff Wuhan-400 because it was developed at their RDNA labs outside of the city of Wuhan, and it was the four-hundredth viable strain of man-made microorganisms created at that research center, the lines from The Eyes of Darkness read.

Is Coranavirus a biological Weapon developed by the Chinese called Wuhan -400? This book was published in 1981. Do read the excerpt. pic.twitter.com/Qdep1rczBe  Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) February 16, 2020

The virus in Koontzs thriller is considered the perfect weapon because it only affects humans and, since it cannot survive outside the human body for longer than a minute, it does not demand expensive decontamination once a population is wiped out.

And like syphilis, Wuhan-400 cant survive outside a living human body for longer than a minute, which means it cant permanently contaminate objects or entire places the way anthrax and other virulent microorganisms can. And when the host expires, the Wuhan-400 within him perishes a short while later, as soon as the temperature of the corpse drops below eighty-six degrees Fahrenheit. Do you see the advantage of all this? the lines which follow say.

Wuhan, the capital of the central Chinese province of Hubei, is the epicentre of the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak that has so far killed more than 1600 people and infected thousands.

It has spread to at least 25 countries and several deaths outside of China have also been reported.

The similarities between the made-up virus and the Wuhan virus has already been discussed by Twitter users.

And, Koontz has described his book as a a modest little thriller about a woman, Tina Evans, who lost her child, Danny, when he was in an accident on a trip with his scouting troop.

Evans, later in the book, finds out her son was accidentally infected with the virus.

This is not the first time that uncanny similarities between fiction and fact have emerged about virus outbreaks.

Robert Ludlum and Gayle Lynds in their book Hades Factor mentioned a disease called the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

It was written in 2000 which was three years before the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic broke out in China first and then spread across the world.

The symptoms of ARDS and SARS  and for Covid-19  were similar: Cold, cough, fever and respiratory problems.
Sur Baher, East Jerusalem: It's a stormy evening, but a handful of women from this Arab neighbourhood have still made the effort to arrive for their weekly Hebrew class. Their teacher, an Orthodox Jew with the strings of his prayer shawl dangling at his hips, focuses on key words and phrases they will need to compile a resume.

The Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's old city. Credit:AP

"Name, date of birth, address," he says, writing the Hebrew words on a board and correcting the women's pronunciation as they ask questions.

Personal interactions of this kind between Arabs and Jews are still rare in Jerusalem, more than five decades after the Israeli military captured the eastern part of the city from Jordan. But the situation is changing, though more because of practical realities on both sides than a shared vision of co-existence.

A recent effort by Israel to improve living conditions in East Jerusalem and better integrate the Arab population reflects the strategic interest of cementing Israeli sovereignty. For Palestinians, it could be a chance to better their economic circumstances. For both, it's an uneasy acceptance that the other side is here to stay.
Union minister for food processing industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Sunday inaugurated India Pavilion at GulFood 2020, Dubai, and held discussions with food companies over the potential of business opportunities in India.

She held separate meetings with the companies, involved in the food business in the UAE. Based on the discussions, it was proposed to explore the possibility of setting up a fund for providing marketing support to launch Indian products in the UAE markets.

During discussions with the India UAE food security corridor project representative, the minister proposed that existing MOFPI supported infra may be utilised to give a head start to the project.

She informed the delegates that India is a huge and promising market with 1.3 billion population, increasing purchasing power, adequate availability of raw materials, availability of young and skilled manpower and a number of fiscal incentives that are being offered by the Indian government for encouraging investments in this sector.
Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has summoned a meeting of his cabinet on Sunday at 4 p.m.

He instructed Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to make necessary arrangements for the meeting, which would be held at the Pragathi Bhawan.

The cabinet is likely to finalise dates for the budget session of the Telangana state legislative assembly, which is expected to commence during the first week of March. The meeting will also dwell on the new revenue act, which will be introduced during the forthcoming session.

The Chief Minister is expected to discuss with his cabinet colleagues the move to replace the existing system of joint collectors with additional collectors. The proposal of CM to form new circles in the irrigation department is also expected to come up

during the Cabinet meeting.
Donald Joseph Faulkner, MD, born October 20, 1924, passed away peacefully at the Catherine Kasper Life Center on January 17, 2020 at the conclusion of a long fulfilling life. Son of Jonas Craton and Sidney Mae Faulkner, he was born and grew up in Moscow, ID. He attended the University of Idaho for two years before serving in the Army Air Corps as radio operator in a B-29 crew. He subsequently attended the University Of Chicago Medical School, where he met his future wife, Janet. They were married on December 20, 1953 in Crown Point, IN.

Don practiced family medicine in Hobart where he also served as a city councilman. In 1965 the family moved to Culver, where he served as physician for Culver Academies for several years. In the early 1970s Don became a partner in the Hammond Clinic; he and Janet moved back to Lake County where he continued in practice until 1997. After retiring Don and Jan divided their time between Culver and their home in Scottsdale, AZ.

Throughout his life Don was vigorous, active, and had many interests. He was an avid skier, world traveler, and student who enjoyed reading, discussion, and debate. Don loved music and sang in the Pinnacle Peak Presbyterian Church choir. He was passionate about the nature and the outdoors and was a supporter of numerous environmental organizations.
American passengers on Sunday frantically prepared to evacuate a cruise ship that has been quarantined for more than 10 days in the Japanese port city of Yokohama as hundreds of people on board fell ill with the coronavirus.

As the Americans scrambled to pack their bags and prepare their own meals for a chartered flight to the United States, Japanese health officials said the number of confirmed coronavirus cases found on the ship, the Diamond Princess, had grown by 70, to 355.

Cant get off here fast enough, Sarah Arana, 52, a medical social worker from Paso Robles, California, told reporters on Sunday.

The U.S. Embassy in Japan had recommended that American citizens stay aboard the ship during a 14-day quarantine period. But it suddenly changed course on Saturday, citing a rapidly evolving situation as conditions appeared to worsen.

American passengers said they were told to prepare to leave the ship at 9 p.m. local time. Their flight was scheduled to depart Haneda Airport in Tokyo at 3 a.m. on Monday. Officials said they would be taken to one of two military air bases in the United States.

MORE: Some evacuees from Diamond Princess coming to Travis Air Force Base in Bay Area

But the process, taken deck by deck, went slowly. By close to 11 p.m., many were still waiting in their rooms.

Passengers on the charter were told there would be no overhead luggage space on the flight, so all carry-ons had to fit under the seats in front of them, and shipped luggage could not exceed 70 pounds. They would be flying on a converted 747 cargo plane, the officials said, which could be cold, so they were advised to shower and dress warmly for the flight. They were also advised to bring their own food.

Late in the afternoon, as buses lined up on the pier, American officials dressed in protective suits knocked on the cabin doors of American citizens to inform them that they needed to put their luggage out at 6 p.m. to prepare for the 9 p.m. transfer.

Rachel Torres, 24, who had been on her honeymoon with her husband, Tyler, also 24, said they were trying to clean their stateroom so as not to leave a mess for their cabin steward.

We didnt sleep much last night, said Rachel Torres. In preparation for the flight, she said, the couple were drinking as much water as we can to hydrate for the flight since we will be wearing masks on the plane.

Including the cases aboard the Diamond Princess, Japan has recorded the highest number of infections from the new coronavirus outside mainland China. Worldwide, more than 68,500 people have been infected, and at least 1,669 have died, almost all in mainland China.

When the ship was placed under quarantine, more than 3,700 passengers and crew aboard were on board, including about 400 Americans. Those found to have the virus and some particularly vulnerable passengers were taken off the ship.

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said those with coronavirus infections or symptoms would not be allowed to take the chartered flight.

Once in the United States, the passengers will be required to undergo a two-week quarantine at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, or Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio.

Those who do not take the charter will not be allowed to travel to the United States until March 4, two weeks after they would have otherwise been allowed to leave the ship on Wednesday, the embassy said.

Some remained hesitant about whether to take the charter flight. Linda Tsukamoto, 63, a retired retail manager from Marina del Rey, California, said she had signed up for the evacuation flight, but changed her mind at the last minute.

Tsukamoto stuck a Post-it note on her door reading, Im staying. Three military doctors came to her door and advised her to go. Their emphatic tone, she said, was scary, but she is standing her ground.

Id rather go home first class on United Airlines than a cold, noisy military charter when the Japanese Ministry of Health releases us, she said. I refuse to be fearful but respect the U.S. government to help others who feel more comfortable rushing home.

According to a letter from the Diamond Princess staff to passengers on Sunday, passengers who test negative for the virus and show no symptoms will be allowed to leave the ship on Feb. 19. The letter noted that passengers may be subject to additional quarantine requirements by their country of destination when leaving Japan.

After 11 days of being isolated in their windowless cabin, John and Carol Montgomery were finally preparing to board a bus to take them to the airport, where they would then fly next to hundreds of people for about nine hours.

It feels surreal, said Carol Montgomery, 67, a retired administrative assistant from San Clemente, California.

With at least 40 Americans from the ship having tested positive for the coronavirus during the quarantine period, some will be left behind in Japan when the charter flights depart.

For some, that means family separations. John Haering, 63, who was taken to a hospital in Chiba Prefecture last week with a fever and tested positive for the virus, will have to stay while his wife, Melanie, boards the charter flight.

Shell be in California quarantine, John Haering said by telephone from his hospital bed. And Im staying here, obviously.

John Haering said he was angry that the U.S. government had not acted earlier.

If they were going to fly people out, they should have flown them out in the very beginning, he said. That way, we wouldnt have sat there for 12 days, all of us getting sicker. I wouldnt have been in the hospital; I would have been in the U.S. getting the treatment that I needed, and I could have been in quarantine there.

Tung Pi Lee, 79, was whisked away from the ship Wednesday night with a fever, leaving his wife on the ship. JoAnn LaRoche Lee, one of Lees daughters, said she and her siblings did not want her mother to try to stay in Japan with their father for fear she would not be allowed to come back if she did not take the charter flight.

As for their father, she said, Were just kind of trusting that the State Department will be able to facilitate my dads return.

The United States previously evacuated about 850 people on five charter flights from Wuhan, the city in central China where the coronavirus emerged late last year.

Canada and Hong Kong also said they would charter flights for passengers on the cruise ship, though it was not immediately clear when those flights would leave. The Philippines labor minister said on Sunday that the country was working to bring home more than 500 crew members.

The Australian government said it was sending an expert to Yokohama and would consider the best options for more than 200 of its citizens aboard the ship. The Israeli government said three of its citizens on the ship had been infected. They are the first confirmed Israeli cases.

About 330 Hong Kong residents are on the ship, including 260 Chinese citizens and 70 foreigners. Eleven of the Hong Kong passengers have been infected, the Hong Kong government said.

An 80-year-old man who took the Diamond Princess from Yokohama to Hong Kong in January tested positive for the coronavirus on Feb. 1, the first documented case on the ship.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, February 16, 2020

Having joined the Jakarta firefighter squad in 2004 right after graduating high school, Jumadi, 34, said fires no longer intimidated him. To him, stepping into a life-threatening situation to save peoples lives is a noble job he wants to keep doing as long as he can.

Thank God, I have never been badly hurt in fire operations. But I lost my colleague and best friend to a fire, he said.

The father of three recalled spending downtime at home playing volleyball when a fire broke out in a densely populated neighborhood of Jembatan Besi in Tambora, West Jakarta on one afternoon in December 2009.

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Spread the glory of rivers, PM Modi says at Mayors Conference

Cow is mother, sacred to us: PM Modi in Varanasi

We stand by decision on Article 370, CAA: PM Modi in Varanasi

India

oi-PTI

Varanasi, Feb 16: Amidst continuing protests against the amended citizenship law, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said his government stood by the decision despite all pressure.

'Be it the decision on Article 370 or the Citizenship Amendment Act, it was necessary in the interest of the country. Despite pressure, we stand by our decision and will remain so,' he said.

Modi was addressing a public meeting in his Lok Sabha constituency.

Earlier this month, Modi while replying to the Motion of Thanks to the President's address in the Lok Sabha had called the CAA protests "a road to anarchy" and that "protest marches, violence, and arson" against a law duly passed and notified by Parliament will "create a problem for the country".

Modi offers prayers at Jangamwadi Math in Varanasi

PM Modi unveiled a 63-feet tall statue of RSS ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya in Varanasi later today. Over 200 artisans have worked for almost a year in order to complete the structure. PM Modi will unveil the statue during the inauguration of the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Memorial Centre.

He also flagged off the Maha Kaal Express, which will connect the three pilgrim centres Varanasi, Ujjain and Omkareshwar.

During the visit to his Lok Sabha constituency, PM Modi will also inaugurate a 430-bed super speciality government hospital and a psychiatry hospital at Banaras Hindu University.
Arvind Kejriwal has once again extended his invitation to the people of Delhi to attend the swearing-in ceremony of their son at the Ramlila Maidan on Sunday.

The Aam Aadmi Party leader tweeted the invite just hours before he will take oath as the chief minister of Delhi for the third time.

I will take oath as Delhis CM for the third time. You must come to Ramlila Maidan to bless your son, he tweeted in Hindi.

Several AAP leaders have been stressing that the oath-taking ceremony will not have any VIP connect but is open for the common people of the national capital.

As Kejriwal and six of ministers will take the oath, the AAP has also invited Delhi ke Nirmata or architects of Delhi who have contributed to the development of the city during the last five years.

These 50 people who will share the dais with Kejriwal will include government school teachers, bus marshals, architects, doctors, engineers and families of firefighters and police officials who lost their lives in the line of duty.

These special invitees also include Anganwadi workers, farmers, sanitation workers, an auto-rickshaw driver and the architect of the famous Signature Bridge among others.

The AAP swept the Delhi assembly elections by winning 62 of the 70 seats on its development plank and a promise of a better Delhi.
Prohibition in the United States was a constitutional ban on the importation, transportation, sale, and production of alcoholic beverages. It lasted from 1920 to 1933. The first attempts of a ban on alcoholic beverages were held in the 19th century. The Protestants believed the society to be ill because of alcohol-related problems, some of which included family violence and alcoholism.

The movement started to gain traction in some parts of the Democratic and Republican parties. After several state legislatures and the end of World War I, the brewing industry was cut back and finally ended in 1920. The Volstead Act was approved then, and it enforced the federal ban on alcoholic beverages. However, alcohol could be used in certain cases, such as religious ceremonies. Private ownership of alcohol was also not banned.

The Volstead Act

The most important event during the prohibition was arguably the very beginning. On January 17th, 1920, the Volstead Act went into effect. The Volstead Act was brought about in order to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment, which prohibited alcoholic beverages. People believed that the ban on alcohol would solve the problem of poverty in society, along with other issues.

Wayne Bidwell Wheeler, the successful leader of the Prohibition movement. With him are a group of men standing on the steps of the Washington Headquarters of the National Woman's Christian Temperanc. Credit: Everett Historical / Shutterstock.com

The Volstead Act provided the necessary federal enforcement of Prohibition. According to the Act, liquor, wine and beer were all considered to be intoxicating liquors and were prohibited by it. The supporters of the Prohibition were absolutely certain that the Eighteenth Amendment would never be repealed.

Alcohol Used For Medical Purposes

Medical professionals were extremely critical of the Prohibition since they could not prescribe alcohol for medical purposes anymore. There were multiple hearings held in Congress all throughout 1921 dealing with the medicinal values of alcoholic beverages. All over the United States, physicians were protesting in order to be able to use medicinal liquors during their medical practices. They were eventually granted the right to do so and it is estimated that around 15,000 doctors and 57,000 pharmacists got the license to use or sell alcohol for medicinal purposes. During the remaining years of the prohibition, doctors earned large sums of money from selling whiskey.

The Bootlegging Of Alcohol

During the middle of the decade, people started suspecting that the Prohibition was not as successful as it seemed to be at the start. The Prohibition was working as intended when it considered the lower classes, but richer families were known to keep stashes hidden at home. The richer people would never get in trouble because of it, while the people in the lower classes of society would get prosecuted because of trying to acquire alcohol in secrecy. Rich people stockpiled on alcohol before the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect.

Winsor MaCay 1920's cartoon depicts a cityscape of Bootleg Whisky Crime Dope and Get Rich Quick money lust.

Once the Volstead Act started being enforced, people were violating it all over the country. Almost 8,000 cases of violation were recorded in the first six months of 1920. In the entirety of the first year, the number rose to almost 30,000 cases. People were bootlegging alcohol in secrecy, meaning illegally transporting it across the country. A large number of people used fermented grape juice as alcohol during that time as well.

The Repeal Of The Eighteenth Amendment

Many prominent politicians were starting to strongly oppose the Prohibition during the late 1920s, and the number of conservatives that were in favor of it started to reduce. The negative effects of the Prohibition on several aspects of life in the United States, including many businesses, were the reason why a lot of people changed their minds. They started fighting for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment.

The start of The Great Depression also played a role, since taxing alcoholic beverages was a great source of income for the entire country. The Eighteenth Amendment was eventually repealed by the Twenty-first Amendment on December 5th, 1933. It was the first amendment in the history of the United States to ever get repealed completely. Presidential nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt was the one that called for the Eighteenth Amendment to be repealed.
'Surreal', 'dream come true', 'proud moment' -- these were the sentiments of people, called Delhi ke Nirmata by AAP for their contribution to the city's development, after they shared the stage with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during his swearing-in ceremony on Sunday.

Around 50 people from different walks of life were special guests at the event held at the Ramlila Maidan here.

Shabina Naaz, who has been working with night shelters around Chandni Chowk and Kashmiri Gate for the past five years, said she can't believe it really happened.

"When the first time I got a call I could not believe that it is really happening. I can tell you that only the AAP government can invite a person as unimportant as me," Naaz said.

Lazwanti, who has been working as a sanitation worker for the last nine years in Delhi, said recognising people like her shows the "affectionate nature" and the ground connect of the AAP government.

"No one recognises our contribution but this government is different. It not only recognised our contribution but also honoured us," and an emotional Lazwanti said.

Arun Kumar, a bus marshall who saved a six-year-old from being kidnapped, said the experience has changed his life.

"It is an honour for me to represent bus marshals. We work hard every day to provide security to women. The AAP government is very serious about women safety and we are making the dream of Arvind Kejriwal true," said Kumar.

Kejriwal, in his address after taking oath as chief minister, also lauded the contribution of the 'Delhi ke nirmata', saying "it is not me, or AAP but all people like these who are responsible for developing the national capital".

Geeta Devi, a bus marshall, said she always wanted to be a police officer but could not become one.

When she got to know about the work of bus marshal, she applied for it and since then she says she never looked back.

"I think that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is working very hard for the security of women of Delhi. I am a very proud bus marshal and I work to ensure the safety of passengers on the buses. The experience to attend the oath taking ceremony was surreal," said Devi.

Gajraj Singh thought he was being pranked when he received invitation to attend the oath taking ceremony.

Singh, who has been employed as a bus conductor for the last 20 years, believes that every work is important in society.

"I am very happy for the invitation and I have come with my family for the ceremony. They all are so proud of me today," a teary-eyed Singh said.

Construction worker Vijay Kumar Sagar Sagar is presently working on a project on Sultanpuri Road in Delhi.

"I have lived through some really tough times for a consistent profession that could support me and my family," he said.

"I am honoured by the tag of Delhi ke nirmata. I hope that he continues being the Chief Minister of Delhi for the next 15-20 years and works to develop Delhi," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BJP national president J P Nadda



on Sunday dubbed the Maharashtra government led by Uddhav Thackeray as "unnatural and unrealistic".

Addressing the state BJP convention in the neighbouring Navi Mumbai township, Nadda said the party needs to be ready to go solo in future elections.

"The Maharashtra government is unnatural and unrealistic...we should be prepared to go alone in the forthcoming elections," he said.

The BJP emerged as the single largest party in the state after the Assembly polls in October last year.

However, it failed to form government after the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena snapped ties with it over the issue of sharing the chief ministerial post.

The Shiv Sena later forged an alliance with the ideologically different NCP and Congress to form the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bill Hutchinson

Beaumont police are searching for a suspect after after a shooting at a motel left one man injured.

Officers responded to the call in reference to a victim of a shooting at 9 a.m. Saturday at the McDonalds located at 190 Interstate 10, according to a Beaumont Police Department press release.
LONDONOn a finger numbingly cold morning, Lara Maiklem swung open a metal gate tucked behind a pub in southeast London and scrambled down a set of slick stone steps onto the banks of the River Thames.

The river runs through the city west to east, bisecting London as it winds past the new skyscrapers and old docks that line its banks.

But twice a day, the low tide pulls the flowing edges of the Thames back  dropping the river level by 20 feet in some areas  revealing centuries of forgotten London life in the fragments that poke out from the newly exposed land, known as the foreshore.

This is when the mudlarks, like Maiklem, come out.

What you are looking for are straight lines and perfect circles, she said, her eyes scanning the surface of the mud for man-made artifacts. They sort of stand out from the natural shapes.

Within minutes she had spotted fragments of a 17th-century jug, the half-face of a bearded man visible in the clay.

The name  mudlark  was first given to the Victorian-era poor who scrounged for items in the river to sell, pulling copper scraps, rope and other valuables from the shore. But more recently the label has stuck to Londons hobbyists, history buffs and treasure hunters who scour the river edge searching for objects from the citys past.

Mudlarkings popularity has grown steadily in recent years, driven in part by social media communities in which enthusiasts share their finds and tour groups that offer a trudge through the shards of historys castoffs.

Dr. Fiona Haughey, a London archaeologist who has worked on the Thames since the 1990s, said that although some mudlarks are looking for valuables, others are looking for a connection with the everyday objects of a bygone Britain.

But its the connection with the layers of lives of Londoners before them, revealed by the tides of the river at the heart of the metropolis, that unites the enthusiasts.

For Haughey, a specialist in prehistory, its about what an object can tell her about its owner rather than what value it has.

I love the conundrum of it, she said.

The Port of London Authority, which owns the Thames waterway along with the Crown Estate (i.e. Queen Elizabeth II), began to regulate exploration along the shore in 2016, requiring anyone searching the banks to have a foreshore permit.

These permits  about 1,500 were issued this year  allow people to explore the terrain, and scrape or dig into the mud up to a depth of 7.5 centimetres (around 3 inches). Mudlarks are advised to report objects that could be of archaeological interest to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, run by the British Museum.

Stuart Wyatt, the regional finds liaison officer based at the Museum of London who assesses the artifacts, said there was a huge increase in numbers of mudlarks in recent years.

I now have months where I see only new finders, he said by email.

Britain legally obligates anyone who unearths treasure  defined as single finds of gold and silver over 300 years old, and hoards of coins and prehistoric metalwork  to inform the government.

Britain takes this law seriously, as one amateur treasure hunter learned in November. He was given a decadelong jail sentence after failing, along with another man, to report the discovery of a Viking hoard they dug up in western England.

A specialized permit allows deeper digging to a depth of 1.2 metres (three feet and 11 inches). But those permits are available only to members of the exclusive Society of Thames Mudlarks  an invitation-only group of around 50 members  who have already held a standard permit and reported their findings to the Museum of London for two years.

Some mudlarks bring metal detectors. But most simply recover what the river has naturally revealed, usually a fascinating trinket rather than treasure.

I like just to collect what the river decides its going to leave on that day, Maiklem said. Its that element of luck.

But sometimes there are more significant finds, like the first spintria found in Britain. Spintriae are Roman bronze tokens, with depictions of sexual acts on one face and a Roman numeral on the other, whose purpose remains uncertain.

And every tide reveals some of the citys varied story: Roman coins, medieval badges worn by religious pilgrims, an elaborate 17th-century watch.

The Thames, the very reason people began settling in the city over 2,000 years ago, is one of the best preservers of Londons history. The river has been used many ways over the millenniums  as a highway, a source of food and, most important to mudlarks, as a dump.

The Thames is unpredictable, so its just all mixed up, like a big washing machine, said Jason Sandy, an architect who mudlarks in his spare time.

In the centre of London, where the heart of the Roman city stood, many of the finds are Roman or medieval. Farther west, evidence of prehistoric settlements have been found.

Where Maiklem was exploring, in Rotherhithe, once an old shipping centre in eastern London, finds from the 16th and 17th centuries are the norm.

This particular morning, the sun was just rising and the tide was still on its way out as she clambered over rocks.

Her eyes flicked quickly over the mud, scattered with bits of modern trash, and settled on the barely visible edge of a coin nestled against a wooden post. She plucked it out and wiped away the grime, revealing a George III farthing, the silhouetted face of the monarch and the date, 1777, nearly rubbed smooth.

The coin had been bent into an S shape and had a small hole poked through its edge where a chain could be attached, hallmarks that it was likely a love token. At her feet, pieces of clay tobacco pipes from the 16th and 17th century clinked as they washed against rocks, so common as to escape a mudlarks interest.

But a perfectly round musket ball was worth plucking from the muck. The leather sole of a hand-stitched shoe, preserved by the anaerobic mud, flapped in the breeze, and she tugged at its toes to wrest it from the bank.

Huge wooden beams from the ships broken up here in the 17th and 18th centuries jut out of the mud. The Mayflower is believed to have been broken down here for scrap.

There are so many ghosts locked in the foreshore, Maiklem said. Also, its so fleeting because if its not collected from the surface, its going to be washed away or broken down.

Maiklem, who has spent more than 15 years exploring the rivers banks, takes only the most unusual items home with her. She sees her discoveries as part of a shared history and uses social media to reveal her finds. She has more than 100,000 people following her.

While Maiklem recently moved out of the city, she still makes the journey to the Thames weekly, driven by the thrill of discovery.

From here, the hustle of London seems a world away, with gulls cruising between the barges and the old warehouses turned luxury apartments that stand on the north side of the river, a sign of the ever-changing city.

The Shard  Londons tallest and one of its most recognizable skyscrapers  juts in the distance, reflecting the morning light from its thousands of glass windows.

Its a way of just escaping from all of this controlled chaos, Maiklem said, gesturing to the skyline. This is what London is about for me.
Witnessing a sunrise or a sunset is one of the best experiences a person can have and the residents of China were greeted with a spectacular view on Sunday morning.

The epic view had left people awestruck as people in China got a chance to witness not one but five suns in the sky. No, we arent kidding!

 Unsplash

Residents of Mongolia in China witnessed a phenomenal view recently that enabled them to witness five shining suns apparently hanging above the horizon of a province in Inner Mongolia.



The video, which is now making the rounds on the internet, was posted by a Chinese media portal on Twitter with a caption that read, What a spectacular wonder! Five suns are seen shining in the sky in N. Chinas Inner Mongolia.

Check out the full post here:

What a spectacular wonder! Five suns are seen shining in the sky in N China's Inner Mongolia pic.twitter.com/uvYydtCtYJ  People's Daily, China (@PDChina) February 14, 2020

However, there is a scientific explanation to this which states it as an elaborate optical illusion that requires temperatures of -20 degrees. Isnt that amazing?



This phenomenon is also known as Sundog or Parhelion, and it usually appears when ice crystals create high clouds and produce reflected sunlight that leads to the appearance of mock suns in the sky.

According to NASA, Sun dogs are like a new type of ice halos and formed by plate-shaped ice crystals drift down from the sky  like leaves fluttering from trees.

Heres what people on the internet have to say about the beautiful view-

Thats true.



Will be very cold, soon.  Ts.Bat-Erdene.mn (@tsbat_IT) February 15, 2020

Indeed.



SubhanAllah  Takkari Saddam H Langau (@LangauTakkari) February 15, 2020

On point.



We call the "Sun-Dogs" here in Canada..

There are even "Moon-Dogs", as well..  Bill Stewart (@bill_bookersbay) February 15, 2020

Thats a lot of confusion..



I didn't know the sun can be counted.  Ical Genji (@GenjiIcal) February 15, 2020

No, yaar.



Is this because of all the pollution?  english (@global79619367) February 14, 2020

Kuch bhi



Hope its not a bad omen ....  Madame Gee (@syrren1) February 14, 2020

Oh ho!



How to divert from the current bad situation in China  John Smith - Pierre-Jean Jacques (@JohnKawasaki3) February 14, 2020

Sun dogs can be seen during any time of the year but they are usually most visible when the sun is on a lower horizon which is during these months- January, April, August, and October.



 Unsplash

It usually can be seen in the presence of ice crystals in the atmosphere and at places where there are cirrus clouds.


Small investors in Sirius Minerals are compiling a dossier to hand to the City watchdog over fears they were misled when they bought shares in the troubled miner.

Around 85,000 people are facing heavy losses after backing the company, which is building a huge fertiliser mine in Yorkshire.

Sirius is weeks away from a crucial vote on whether to approve a takeover by mining giant Anglo American which would see investors given just 5.5p per share.

That would end in huge losses for small 'retail' investors who bought shares at up to 44p  decimating their pension pots and life savings.

Anger: Around 85,000 people are facing heavy losses after backing Sirius Minerals

The Anglo deal, which values Sirius at 405million, now looks like the only option to stop the firm going into administration or liquidation.

But the FTSE 100 company's offer has been branded 'derisory' by angry Sirius shareholders.

The pressure group ShareSoc has taken up the case on behalf of 1,000 Sirius investors and last week launched an investigation into how they were persuaded to invest.

The Mail on Sunday understands that some claim to have invested after watching YouTube interviews with Sirius chief executive Chris Fraser.

In one clip from 2012, he reportedly said the value of the potash deposit in his firm's mine near Whitby was 'significant'.

Others are said to have received a bulletin on Sirius from Hargreaves Lansdown, which represents a large number of the 78,000 retail shareholders who hold Sirius shares through third-party stockbrokers.

Chris Spencer-Phillips of ShareSoc said: 'If the investigation shows hard evidence the stock was oversold, we'll ask the Financial Conduct Authority to investigate. We're seeking to establish whether the board of Sirius was in breach of any FCA rules on investment promotions.'

Sirius strongly denies any wrongdoing.

Around 85,000 people are facing heavy losses after backing the company, which is building a huge fertiliser mine in Yorkshire

Sirius's 85,000 individual investors own about half of the company. One shareholder, Ian Martignetti, a barrister, said it is 'very unusual' for a FTSE company to have such a high proportion of retail investors.

They include around 11,000 from Yorkshire. Locals saw the mine as a 'godsend', said Martignetti, with many investing in the hope of lucrative returns.

Pub landlord Mark Leppington, who will lose 108,000 on his investment in Sirius if the takeover goes through, said the Anglo deal 'stinks'.

'It will create a lot of bad feeling in the area,' he added.

Sirius has spent more than $1billion on developing its plan to mine polyhalite, a form of potash fertiliser, from its Woodsmith Mine and transport it via a 23-mile tunnel to Teesside for processing.

It needs another $3.1billion (2.4billion) to reach production, but ran into trouble last September when it failed to secure funding and the Government refused to provide loan guarantees.

The Sirius board has said the Anglo deal is the 'only feasible option' to save the mine and has urged shareholders to vote in favour at a High Court meeting on March 3. It needs 75 per cent support.

But some investors have said they would rather risk the firm going bust than back the deal, which would net Fraser around 7million and a job at Anglo for at least a year after the deal completes.

Martignetti said: 'Sentiment is so high that Anglo has to be alive to the possibility of a No vote.'

He added: 'Investors feel Anglo are taking advantage to buy Sirius on the cheap. They know the potential profits are extraordinary.'

Last week ShareSoc directors met Anglo American to ask it to raise its offer or change the terms so that retail shareholders would retain an economic interest in the project.

Sirius said it is confident it has complied with stock exchange rules.

A spokesman added: 'We recognise that shareholders are disappointed with the current situation, but the Company has clearly disclosed the risks associated with the business, which is a single asset development project requiring billions of pounds of investment to reach production.'
More than 30 people have been displaced after a Saturday-night apartment fire in Red Lion.

The fire broke out at the Hilltop Apartments on Hentrietta Street. Several firefighters were taken to the hospital as crews continued to fight the fire until early Sunday morning, WGAL is reporting.

CBS 21 reports five firefighters were injured after an explosion inside the buildings.

Reports indicate everyone inside was able to get out.

Red Lion fire officials were not immediately available to say how many firefighters were hurt or what the extent of their injuries were.

Crews responded to an apartment fire in Red Lion late Saturday night. (South County Fire Photos).

Lisa Landis, spokeswoman for the American Red Cross of Greater Pennsylvania, said teams are still on the scene, assessing the needs of those who were displaced.

She expects the number of people the Red Cross is assisting to grow, but as of 2 p.m. Sunday, they were assisting 25 adults and 10 children.

A cause for the fire and the extent of damage has not yet been released.

Video by South County Fire Photos:

This post was updated with additional information.

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Alphonso Walton, of the Roseland neighborhood on the Far South Side, was arrested at 12:26 a.m. Thursday in the 3900 block of West Madison Street on the West Side, where the shooting had taken place about an hour earlier at 11:28 p.m. Wednesday, police said.
An ex-servicemen meet was organised by the Indian Army at Sapekhati Army Camp here on Sunday with an aim to disseminate various welfare schemes to the veterans and to address their grievances.

It received large attendance of veterans including their family members and Veer Naris hailing from Charaideo district.

The interaction contributed towards solving the problems faced by the veterans and Veer Naris. The ex-servicemen expressed their concerns and suggestions directly which will be taken up with higher authorities.

The ex-servicemen and Veer Naris of Charaideo district appreciated this initiative by Sapekhati and Dangrikumar Army Camp and thanked the Army for addressing their concerns.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The number of people who have tested positive for the new coronavirus on a quarantined ship off Japan's coast has risen to 355, the country's health minister said Sunday. The new figures came as the United States was preparing to evacuate some of its citizens from the Diamond Princess, which has been in quarantine since February 5 in the port of Yokohama, near Tokyo. Hong Kong also said it would offer its 330 citizens on board the chance to take a charter flight back. Canada, too, announced a similar decision to repatriate its nationals on the ship. "So far, we have conducted tests for 1,219 individuals. Of those, 355 people tested positive," health minister Katsunobu Kato told a roundtable discussion on public broadcaster NHK -- a rise of 70 from the last government toll. Japan's efforts to control the viral infections on the vessel have prompted international concern. The cruise ship arrived off the Japanese coast in early February with more than 3,700 passengers and crew members from more than 50 countries and regions. It was placed under quarantine after authorities found that a passenger who got off the boat in Hong Kong during its voyage tested positive for the virus. Officials kept finding new infections among the passengers and crew members and transporting them to Japanese hospitals, while others have been told to stay inside their individual cabins during the 14-day quarantine period, which should end on Wednesday. Japan has not been able to test all those on board due to limited supplies of testing kits, facilities and manpower that are also needed by authorities tracking the spread of the virus among the general population. "Based on the high number of COVID-19 cases identified onboard the Diamond Princess, the Department of Health and Human Services made an assessment that passengers and crew members onboard are at high risk of exposure," the US embassy said in a letter to its passengers. The US, Canada and Hong Kong said those repatriated will go through another two-week quarantine period at home. The captain of the Diamond Princess has told passengers that the Japanese government might start testing them for the virus from Tuesday, and those with negative results would be allowed to get off the ship from Friday.
Catie Li kicks off 2022 with her fashion line for Amazons The Drop collection. New collaborations drop with little notice and are only available to shop for 30 hours, said the Los Angeles-based model. Clothes are made on demand once orders are placed so fabric and material are never wasted! My collection consists of great statement staple pieces that can be for all seasons. (Theyre) made to be forever in your closet and wardrobe rotation. Since I travel often, I like to travel light, so staples that can be styled multiple ways are a win for me. Li stays in touch with fans on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/catieli/).
The last item on the ballot for the March 3 primary election (with early voting now in progress) is titled Forsyth County Local Sales and Use Tax and it offers a for or against choice to enact a Local sales and use tax at the rate of one quarter percent (0.25%) in addition to all other state and local sales and use taxes. The ballot language doesnt read to increase the teacher supplement paid by the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system because state law doesnt allow the purpose to be included on the ballot, but thats what its for. It represents a quarter-cent increase in the local sales-tax rate on most items that are sold in Forsyth County. A quarter-cent on every dollar would raise the current Forsyth County sales-tax rate from 6.75% to 7%  competitive with surrounding North Carolina counties and low enough that its effect on pocketbooks will be negligible.
All 406 people, housed at quarantine facility in Delhi after being brought back from Wuhan in China, tested negative for coronavirus in the final test, PTI reported on Sunday.

They will be discharged in phased manner from Monday, the news agency reported officials as saying.

The final samples of all the people quarantined at the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) facility were collected on Friday.

Their samples were tested at least twice earlier and were found to be negative

Union health minister Harsh Vardhan had said three days ago on February 13 that the clinical samples of the 654 evacuees at Manesar and ITBP camps had been tested and all of them were found to be negative.

Harsh Vardhan had said that there were only three positive cases of Coronavirus in the country and all them were Kerala students who had gone to Wuhan, China for studies. One of them has already been discharged from the hospital after she turned negative following treatment, two others are said to be stable.

ALSO WATCH | Air India captain describes evacuation of Indians from Coronavirus-hit Wuhan

Government had set up Manesar and ITBP camps in January this year to quarantine Indian citizens arriving from China and those who were evacuated by special flights arranged by the government.

All the quarantined people were first monitored by a qualified team of doctors to watch for any signs of the infection and their samples were later tested to completely rule it out.

An expert team of ITBP and Safdurjang Hospital doctors were deployed at the camp.

Health ministry had earlier on February 6 announced that all the 510 samples tested by ICMR network laboratories were found to be negative.

Evacuees from China were brought on two Air India B-747 aircrafts on February 1 and February 2 and kept at the government created facilities.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 16

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, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry on Feb. 16.

The Armenian armed forces were using sniper rifles.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, 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 Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
What you need to know now about the coronavirus: International investigation begins this weekend

The latest:

Death toll in mainland China reaches 1,523 with 143 new deaths reported.

66,492 total cases in mainland China, with 2,641 new cases reported.

8th presumptive case identified in Canada.

WHO's head of health emergencies stresses need to avoid "politicizing" the outbreak.

Canadian health workers are assisting in Japan after 15 Canadians contracted the illness on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Egypt's health authority has informed the WHO of its first case.

Led by the World Health Organization, an international investigation into the spread of novel coronavirus and its severity will begin in China this weekend.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, told reporters in Geneva Friday that the whole team will have touched down in China over the weekend.

"The goal of the joint mission is to rapidly inform the next steps in the COVID-19 response and preparedness activities in China and globally," he said, referring to the medical name for the acute respiratory disease caused by the virus.

Overall, China's National Health Commission said it had recorded 143 new deaths on Friday, for a total of 1,523 across the mainland. It also reported 2,641 new cases across mainland China, taking the total number of people infected to 66,492.

For context, influenza claims between 290,000 to 650,000 lives annually, and three to five million people experience severe cases of the illness.

Watch: How the coronavirus happened

On Thursday, Chinese health authorities shared new case and fatality numbers that reflected a change in how the illness is being diagnosed. Cases rose 15,152 in one day after China widened its net to include cases that are clinically confirmed through chest scans, as opposed to diagnosed only through a lab test.

But public health experts wrestled with what exactly could be deduced from the numbers, given the shift in approach.

"If you change the way you count cases, that obviously confounds our capacity to draw firm conclusions about the effectiveness of the quarantine," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University in the United States. "We have to interpret the numbers with great caution."

Story continues

China Daily/Reuters

Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO's health emergencies program, stressed the importance of keeping politics out of discussions about the outbreak.

Ryan was asked to respond to a comment by Larry Kudlow, the director of U.S. President Donald Trump's Economic Council, who told reporters Thursday, "We're a little disappointed in the lack of transparency coming from the Chinese."

Ryan said, "Please, let our scientists get on. Let our public health officials get on. We should try, all of us, to avoid politicizing this situation right now.

"From our perspective, we have a government that's co-operating with us, that's inviting in international experts, that's shared sequences with the world, that continues to engage with the outside community," he said of China.

New presumptive case in B.C.

A fifth presumptive case of the novel coronavirus has been identified in British Columbia, bringing the total number of cases in Canada to eight.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Friday a woman in her 30s returned from Shanghai in the past week through Vancouver's airport before travelling by car to her home in the Interior.

Henry said the woman wore a mask on the plane and contacted health officials when she had symptoms of an illness. She tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday.

"We are very grateful and thankful that the people who are coming back from Hubei province and all over China are taking the advice seriously to self-monitor and to connect with us and make sure that they can be tested, assessed and cared for safely," she said.

The woman is in isolation at home, as are her close contacts, Henry said.

Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press

In all such cases, she said, a further test will be conducted at a national lab in Winnipeg to confirm the results obtained provincially.

Officials will be contacting passengers who sat three rows ahead and behind the woman on the flight that arrived from China, but the risk to them is "very, very low," she said.

The first person to be tested for the virus in the province is recovering well and has tested negative in the first of two tests needed to determine the patient no longer has the virus and isolation is no longer required, she said.

Canadian health workers assisting in Japan

Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says Canadian health workers are assisting in Japan after 15 Canadians contracted the novel coronavirus while on a cruise ship.

Champagne says three members of the Public Health Agency of Canada and two medical personnel from the Canadian Armed Forces have been sent to Yokohama, the Japanese port city where the Diamond Princess has been docked since last week.

Some 3,500 passengers on the ship are under quarantine and 218 people have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Kyodo/Reuters

Champagne says the Japanese government will allow some elderly people to complete the rest of their quarantine period at another facility off the ship.

Meanwhile, Champagne says consular officials are assisting in Cambodia where another ship with 279 Canadians on-board was recently allowed to dock after being rejected from multiple other countries over fears of the new coronavirus.

There have been no reported case of the illness on board the Westerdam, and Champagne says officials will help Canadians with the process of returning home.

6 health care workers have died in China

China's National Health Commission reported Friday that 1,716 health workers had been infected and six had died as of Tuesday, with the number of infected staff rising.

"The duties of medical workers at the front are indeed extremely heavy; their working and resting circumstances are limited, the psychological pressures are great and the risk of infection is high," Zeng Yixin, vice-minister of the commission, told a news conference.

However, the WHO's Ryan said the numbers of infected health workers is sad but not alarming.

"Our understanding is that the cases among health workers peaked in the third or fourth week of January and there's been a rapid fall-off in the number of cases that have occurred in health workers in the last two weeks," Ryan said.

He noted many of these health workers may have contracted the illness before the risks were known.

"Although it's a very tragic situation for those health workers and particularly for those who have lost their lives  it is a lower percentage than has occurred in other coronavirus outbreaks," said Ryan.

CBC

How the disease is being treated

Chinese scientists are testing two antiviral drugs and preliminary results are due in weeks, while the head of a Wuhan hospital said plasma infusions from recovered patients had shown some encouraging preliminary results.

Finding the right treatment for a new disease is no small task.

Doctors and other health-care workers fighting the coronavirus outbreak in China don't have any specific treatments to use against this new virus. When they try to treat severe cases, they're walking a tightrope aiming to find just the right level of immune response to kill the virus without setting off other problems.

The virus causes respiratory symptoms, such as cough and fever.

Dr. Jerome Leis and his team treated Canada's first case at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto last month. The man in his 50s initially had some X-ray findings that clinicians were concerned might worsen.

"After they were admitted, they did gradually improve and eventually their symptoms resolved completely," said Leis, referring to the man. "I think this story highlights, although we have seen poor outcomes related to this infection, including fatalities, those are the exception, not the rule."

Philimon Bulawayo/REUTERS

Egypt reports 1st case

Egypt's Health Ministry has confirmed the first case of the new virus in the North African country.

In a statement Friday, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Mugahed said the person was a "foreigner" who is carrying the virus but not showing any serious symptoms.

Officials were able to confirm the case through a follow-up program the government implemented for travellers arriving from countries where the virus has spread. The ministry statement said the person was hospitalized and in isolation.

The statement did not specify the person's nationality or what port of entry he or she arrived at in Egypt.

Experts and African leaders have expressed concern that should the virus spread there, it might wreak havoc among less developed countries with fewer health resources.

Previously the number of countries affected outside China was steady at 24.
Can't allow every person who thinks of some solution to COVID-19 to file petition: SC

Domestic arbitration, foreign awards need separate acts: SC judge

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Feb 16: There should have been two arbitration acts -- one for domestic and another for foreign awards -- because the regimes are entirely different, Supreme Court judge Indu Malhotra said at a conference here on Saturday. Justice Malhotra was speaking on "Arbitration Highlights Need to Shift From Ad Hoc to Institutional Arbitration" at the 12th annual international arbitration conclave, organised by Nani Palkhivala Arbitration Centre (NPAC), according to a statement.

"There should have been two acts, one for domestic arbitration and one for imposing foreign awards, because the regimes are entirely different, and sometimes in the interpretation of one part, one tends to look at the other part which may create confusion," she said, according to the statement.

Who is Indu Malhotra, the first woman lawyer recommended directly to SC judgeship

Leigh-Ann Mulcahy QC, Fountain Court Chambers, London, while speaking at the conclave, talked about the need to safeguard party access to a limited pool of arbitrators who have expertise in specialist arbitration, the statement said.

"The need for impartiality among arbitrators is important in a system that is voluntary and autonomous. Parties have to be completely comfortable with the arbitrator who will resolve their dispute," Mulcahy added.

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 16th, 2020

Senior advocate and NPAC Director Arvind P Datar talked about the need to focus solely on institutional arbitration and said public sector units (PSUs) should make institutional arbitration mandatory.

"For the last 25 years, I have been hearing about how we should not have ad hoc arbitration, and I think it's time to bite the bullet and make it mandatory for at least PSUs to make Institutional Arbitration mandatory. Before we become an international hub of arbitration, we also must focus on making domestic arbitration very robust," Datar said.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Sunday, February 16, 2020, 9:18 [IST]
With a little research into his family history, Jim Rutherford discovered a close connection to the man celebrated this weekend as the Father of Manitoba.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/2/2020 (695 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With a little research into his family history, Jim Rutherford discovered a close connection to the man celebrated this weekend as the Father of Manitoba.

Rutherfords great-grandfather Thomas Ireland is listed in the same Settlers and Rebels North-West Mounted Police report to Parliament as Louis Riel.

"It was just stunning to me when I happened to see Louis Riels name above my grandfathers name," explains the 86-year-old Rutherford, about the report, dated 1882-1885.

Rutherford pores over obituaries in the Winnipeg Free Press. Obituaries can provide valuable information for a genealogist.

Riel was sentenced to death for high treason on May 15, 1885,, and hanged in Regina on Nov. 16 of the same year.

A brewer in Medicine Hat, Alta., Ireland was written up in the document several times for selling liquor, being drunk in public, firing a rifle in the street and assaulting his wife.

"I have stories about him and pictures of him and the brewery and pictures of my grandmother," explains Rutherford, volunteer head of research for the Manitoba Genealogical Society.

He says delving into historical documents and records to discover a family history can uncover dramatic stories of the black sheep in the family, reveal unknown relatives or link to a solid trail of ordinary citizens dating back several generations.

Jim Rutherford holds a photo of his great-grandfather Thomas Ireland standing between two unnamed Indigenous men.

"I have interesting relatives and some that arent interesting," explains the Winnipeg Beach resident, who was aided in his research by a cousin who works at a university library.

Volunteers from the society assist people looking to find more about their past and make some connections in the future, explains Daryl Dumanski, publicity volunteer for the society.

"You have to beware," she warns about a deep dive into historical records.

"Once you do it you might find stories you didnt want to know."

About 10 volunteers make up the societys research team, helping people walking into their offices located in a strip mall on St. James Street, just north of Ellice Avenue. The office is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. three days a week.

Volunteers also fill requests from out-of-towners, offering up to six hours of research time for a modest $75.

Jim Rutherford unrolls an extensive family tree.

Those search requests help people in other countries fill in the gaps in their family history, created when a family member emigrated to Canada and then subsequently lost touch with the relatives back home, says Rutherford.

"Weve had some great letters back from people who are appreciative we found a big part of their family they didnt know about," he says of the searches, which sometimes involve half a dozen researchers.

Tracing your past Click to Expand The Manitoba Genealogical Society has branches in Brandon, Dauphin, Neepawa and Winnipeg. The Winnipeg office at Unit E, 1045 St. James St. is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. For more information, check out http://mbgenealogy.com/ Membership costs $50 annually and includes access to the library/resource centre, online databases, including Manitoba Name Index or MANI for short, and sharing of knowledge, expertise and interests with other researchers.

After a recent request from Austria stumped him, Rutherford put out a call to all the regular Thursday volunteers to help solve the problem.

"Everybody pitched in and we all came up with the same answers and put it all together," he says.

Although some requests require patience and a little ingenuity to fill, they also represent a welcome challenge for these history buffs, says Sheila Woods, a Thursday volunteer skilled at searching newspapers.

"When were doing a research project, we get interested in it and cant put it down," she says.

"Over the years you learn what sources are available."

'You have to beware,' about a deep dive into historical records, 'once you do it you might find stories you didn't want to know'  Daryl Dumanski, publicity volunteer for the Manitoba Genealogical Society

Researchers scour criminal and court records, birth and death notices, cemetery lists, census information, telephone books, church records and newspapers, as well as databases such as ancestry.com and the societys Manitoba Name Index.

The societys 2,400-sq.-ft. office is equipped with a bank of computers for searching newspapers and databases, a microfiche reader, and a huge library filled with family and community history books, maps and Henderson Directories dating back to the late 19th century.

Henderson Directories list people by street name and occupation.

History and reference books fill the shelves.

Dumanski says volunteers have different areas of expertise from years of researching their own family histories, but everyone shares the same passion for discovery.

"If you want to learn something, you volunteer for something," explains the longtime member, who first got interested in her family history when her aunt left her boxes of photographs and genealogies.

That volunteer effort also builds the research team, as they solve historical mysteries together every Thursday, explains past president Gordon McBean.

"The days are very much a social experience because people look forward to getting together."

"Its nice to meet with other people who dont think youre crazy because youre interested in genealogy," adds Woods.

Volunteer Sheila Woods is part of the research team that helps people fill in the gaps in their family history.

The documents may tell the facts, but its up to researchers to piece together the stories behind them, says Gordon,

For instance, hes discovered that his great-grandmother was on the federal payroll as a laundress at Kingston Penitentiary.

"Thats the kind of detail you can drill down and find in the (federal government) reports," he says.

"Everyone can create the skeleton of where someone was born but the real interesting thing is putting the meat on the bones of the stories and making them real."

These stories also create links between living Manitobans and residents of the past, said Bonnie Batchelor, a 20-year volunteer with the society.

Gord McBean is past president of the Manitoba Genealogical Society.

Recently her 11-year-old grandson caught the family history bug, asking Batchelor to research his family tree on his mothers side. So she quietly began digging, resulting in a family history stretching back to mid 19th century England she presented to him last Christmas.

He was elated at the results, and Bachelor is equally pleased her grandson is interested in her passion.

"As a person interested in genealogy that thrilled my heart that we can pull someone else into our crazy world," says Bachelor, 71.

"Thats always a concern of all of us: who will we give this too?"

Not only does a family history reveal the past, it can also answer current questions about medical history, physical traits or personality characteristics, says Dumanski.

That can lead to more existential questions as well, or unearth more family connections, she says.

"Why am I here right now and where do I come from?" she says of the reason for researching a family history.

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Colour-coded folders hold information about gravesites and cemeteries across the province.

"Some people want the connection. Do I have second cousins or third cousins and fourth cousins?

For Rutherford, the stories of his grandfather Thomas Ireland link him to a significant figure in Manitobas history, as well as providing some great stories. Charged with multiple offences, Ireland avoided jail time and paid multiple fines for his offences. Rutherford suspects that leniency might stem from long-standing connections within the legal system.

"Thomas Tweed was the magistrate who fined him," says Rutherford, referring to the MLA for Medicine Hat and member of the 1870 Red River Expedition with Garnet Wolseley.

"He was also one of his (Irelands) pallbearers."

brenda@suderman.com
Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe has 'sent a Valentine's card to his ex-wife Sonia and asked if she would visit him in prison' as he is 'in bits' that he may never see her again.

Sutcliffe, 73, asked prison bosses to set up a video call to remarried Sonia at HMP Frankland in County Durham.

His ex-wife, who wed Michael Woorwood in 1997, stayed by his side when was convicted of murders but has has not been seen since her visit to Broadmoor in December, 2015.

Peter Sutcliffe (pictured), 73, 'sent a Valentine's card to his ex-wife Sonia and asked if she would visit him in prison'. He is 'in bits' that his remarried ex (pictured with Sutcliffe) has still not visited him at HMP Frankland prison, Durham

Sutcliffe is serving 20 life sentences in HMP Frankland prison, Durham, after murdering 13 women and being convicted of attempting to murder seven more.

And now the killer, who was jailed for life at the Old Bailey in 1981, has reportedly sent Valentine's cards to several women.

He is allegedly 'in bits' about his former wife, who still has not visited, and told his friends about the 'Sonia problem', a source told the Sun on Sunday.

His ex-wife (pictured), who remarried in 1997, stayed by his side when was convicted of murders but has has not been seen since her visit to Broadmoor at the end 2015. Pictured: Sonia and Sutcliffe on their wedding day

Krystal Smith, 28, exchanged flirtatious letters with Sutcliffe (pictured right) and claimed she wanted to marry him in 2018. Writing to her in Frankland, he said she was 'in too deep' and should 'move on' with someone her own age, a year later

Sutcliffe is 'desperately trying to find a way through' missing Sonia and hopes she will keep his card hidden.

He 'tends to mope around and complain' about the potential of never seeing his ex-wife before he dies.

'But it is a wonder than she is in touch with him at all, or in fact that anyone is', the source added.

The serial killer is now 'desperately trying to find a way through' missing Sonia, a source alleged, before revealing Sutcliffe 'tends to mope around and complain' about the potential of never seeing his ex-wife again

The Ripper has reportedly asked a Frankland governor to persuade Sonia to visit as prisoners are banned from making video calls to potential visitors.

It comes just months after Sutcliffe dumped his American cheerleader 'penpal' Krystal Smith.

Writing to her in Frankland, he said she was 'in too deep' and should 'move on' with someone her own age.

He previously called her 'darling girl' and the pair told each other they loved one another and wanted an IVF baby despite having never met.

Ms Smith began writing to Sutcliffe from her home in North Carolina, 2018.

He reportedly contacted Sonia for permission to marry again.

To visit Sutcliffe, who is a Category A inmate, Sonia's lengthy process would involve background checks, known as vetting, and a police interview.
A 24-year old activist and student of Psychology at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Aniefiok Ekerete Johnson, is missing.

Aniefiok went missing along with three of his friends, Akaniyene Akpan, Stanley Isaac Ikono and Iduehe Johnson.

They are yet to be found despite a petition to the police.

According to their families, the four were last seen on December 1, 2019 at 5:30pm.

Johnsons family said the Akwa Ibom State Police Command had refused to make any intervention nor attempted to search for the missing students.

They lamented that despite sending a petition to the Commissioner of Police in Akwa Ibom State, Mr Kenneth Ebrimson, informing him of the situation, he had not made any move even after acknowledging the receipt of the petition.

They also claimed that the police had not reacted more than one month after submitting it and demanding the safe return of the missing persons.

In the petition sent to the Akwa Ibom State Police Command dated December 30, 2019 and sighted by our correspondent, Johnsons family pleaded to the police to help search for the missing son.

The petition reads, Aniefiok Ekerete Johnson was last seen 07:30hrs on December 1, 2019 with three other friends (all students too) who are also missing.

Efforts to trace his whereabouts through schoolmate, neighbours and some security agencies have proved abortive.

Details of the missing Ekerete Johnson and the three other friends are Anjefiok Ekerete Johnson: (08127496823, 09029264877); Akaniyene Akpan (08171114886); Stanley Isaac Ikono (08126443284); and Nduehe Johnson (08024617630).

It is our hope that you will your good offices into seeing that these missing individuals are found, and returned back safely.

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Amal Radha was ecstatic when, after four painstaking years of searching, she tracked down family members who had gone missing amidst the chaos of the Syrian civil war.

But the Toronto womans euphoria about the impending reunification turned quickly to despair when she discovered her two widowed sisters and three nephews were no longer eligible for private sponsorship to Canada.

As native Iraqis who had fled conflict in their homeland to live as refugees in Syria, they were evacuated from a United Nations camp in Damascus in 2014 during the height of the Syrian civil war and sent back to Iraq. And with that, they were refugees no more, but rather displaced people within their own borders.

They dont have anything in Iraq now, said Radha, 56, who arrived in Canada in 2009. The government has taken our house. Their husbands were killed in the conflicts. Iraq is still not safe. Nobody can go out. There is still a lot of kidnappings and killings. My nephews have not been in school for years.

According to a UN report, more than 1.5 million people are currently displaced within Iraq and have been in that situation for more than three years. The number has risen since 2014 in the wake of terror attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

To date, Canadas immigration department has twice rejected  and Radha has twice appealed  a private sponsorship undertaken by the Anglican United Refugee Alliance and Runnymede United Church. A third application, under a special provision to resettle vulnerable women and children who are internally displaced within their own country, has been languishing since 2018.

In the meantime, Radhas sister Feryal, 42; Nawal, 46, and her three sons, Basheer, 16, Baraa, 14, and Sudad, 11, are all together in Baghdad.

This urgent situation has been going on for this family for too long, said Lynne Salt, co-ordinator of the refugee sponsorship group at Torontos Runnymede United Church. We are ready and willing to help them to have a new life in Canada, but we havent been able to bring them together. We feel so helpless and frustrated.

Immigration officials were unable to comment on the familys sponsorship application citing privacy concerns.

Radha, her sisters and nephews originally fled to Syria from Iraq following the American-led invasion to overthrow ruler Saddam Hussein. When Radha, a former clerk at the Iraqi health ministry, was resettled to Canada, she promised her family she would help them to join her. She spent years looking for private refugee sponsorship groups willing to resettle her sisters and nephews before connecting with the Runnymede United Church group in 2014.

But in early 2015, her family was moved by the UN from Syria to a refugee camp near Mosul, Iraq. They subsequently lost touch with Radha. The following year, Radha made a trip to Iraq after learning local mosques had set up camps for refugees repatriated from war-torn Syria. After more than a month of door-knocking with photos of her sisters and nephews in hand, she finally located them all except sister Nawal.

Nawal had been separated from the rest of the family in Mosul when the city was under siege by ISIS.

Despite her tireless efforts to find Nawal through a network of former colleagues from the Iraqi health ministry, Radha was unable to locate her sister and presumed she was dead.

Then last June, someone through Radhas network of contacts found Nawals name on a patients list of a Mosul hospital and emailed Radha the womans photo. It was Nawal. Last July, Radha flew to Iraq to see her.

I tried to hug Nawal, but she was too scared and paranoid, and didnt recognize me, said a teary Radha. I told her Im Amal, your sister. The first thing she said to me was, Are my three boys still alive?

It was then Radha learned that her sister had been captured by ISIS and held with other women, most of them Yazidi, until mid-2017 when the terrorists withdrew from Mosul and the allied forces liberated the city.

Its a miracle that the family was reunited, said Tom Axworthy, principal secretary and chief speech writer to former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, who is part of the Runnymede church sponsorship group thats been urging the immigration department to take mercy on the family.

We hope they can take into account what this family has gone through and how they have persevered.

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New Delhi, Feb 16 : Congress leader Digvijaya Singh attacked Union Home Minister Amit Shah and asked him to withdraw the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act and say No to the NPR and the NRC.

The Congress leader tweeted in hindi: "Today people of Shaheen Bagh will be meeting Amit Shah. Take three decisions, then there will be peace in the country, take back CAA, No NPR and No NRC. Otherwise follow the statement given by Mohan Bhagwat in Ahmedabad and resign." The people of Shaheen Bagh, who are sitting on protest since December 15 demanding rollback of the CAA, is likely to meet the Home Minister on Sunday.

The protesters have been demanding that the government should also withdraw NPR and give assurance on the NRC.

The Supreme Court is hearing the matter that the protesters should be removed as the traffic from Noida to Delhi is blocked for the last two months due to the ongoing protest. The apex court is also hearing the petition on the CAA and the NPR.

A section of the protesters is planning to meet Home Minister Amit Shah, while others are opposing it.

The protesters are divided into two groups as differences have emerged over the continuation of the protest.

"During the Shaheen Bagh protest at around 11 a.m. on Saturday, a protester named Asif Toofani announced, "We are ready to meet Amit Shah and we along with the elderly women, will visit him." However, some women opposed Toofani's statement. A protesting woman told IANS, "Who is he to take this decision? This demonstration belongs to the people and I shall not visit him. However, if the elderly people decide that we should go, we are ready."
The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reportedly said the coronavirus outbreak is still an emergency for China and it is impossible to tell where the epidemic will spread. Speaking at a Munich Security Conference in Germany, the WHO director told the international media that he was encouraged by Chinas response and preventive measures that the government had taken to curb the global contagion of the COVID-19. The mainland China confirmed on February 15 that there were 2,000 new cases of the novel coronavirus detected in the country, and the death toll on that particular day has risen to at least 142, suggest reports.

Total confirmed cases now stand at 68,584 in China

A total of 1,666 patients have reportedly died in China due to contraction of the novel coronavirus, and the total figures of the infection cases now stand at 68,584. Over 550 cases of coronavirus have been reported in over two dozen countries worldwide, and three deaths have been confirmed abroad, one each in Japan, France, and the Philippines, said reports.

Read Coronavirus Outbreak: China Reports Drop In New Cases For Third Consecutive Day

Read Countries Issue Health And Travel Advisory To Citizens Amid Coronavirus Scare

First fatality reported from Europe

The first fatality from the deadly coronavirus was reported by Europe when a tourist from China who tested positive for coronavirus succumbed to declining health, confirmed reports. French officials told the media on February 15 that the death of the infected Chinese tourist in France has made Europe the first country to report fatality from the malignant Wuhan Virus and fourth outside mainland China where the epidemic originated.

Meanwhile, the United States is reportedly set to dispatch a chartered flight to Japan to repatriate the American nationals on the quarantined cruise liner Diamond Princess docked off at Yokohama coast in Japan, where thousands have been restrained aboard on a lockdown when a Hong Konger tested positive for coronavirus.

Read Coronavirus Outbreak: Canada To Evacuate Its Citizens From Quarantined Ship In Japan

Read US Woman From Cruise Ship Docked In Cambodia Tests Positive For Coronavirus
He was, by any definition, the politicians politician of the first half of the last century. I am speaking of Mayor James Michael Curley, who dominated Boston politics during that era. Curley built the base of his electoral support within the Irish of Beantown. His reign was immortalized in Edwin OConnors work The Last Hurrah, and the chief character Mayor Frank Skeffington.

Government was different in those days. Large federal agencies did not exist to meet the needs of the poor and the near poor. There were no unemployment agencies, no subsidized housing, and no federal program to ensure the poor found health care. In Skeffingtons time, the political machine of the mayor handed out those services and others, like seeing that a judge wasnt too hard on a young lad who had gone astray. If you had a problem, you saw the local ward or precinct leader. Campaigning was personal.

OConner wrote of the fictional Skeffington, that starting six months before an election if an Irishman died, he did not miss the wake. If no one died, he wouldnt have had anything to do. But not to worry, they did die, he went, they were buried and on election day the dearly departed still voted four times!

Skeffington, however, lost his last election badly. Not only did government programs replace the need for him, but a new method of communication, which he failed to master, made his campaign obsolete.

All of which brings us to former Vice President Joe Biden and his undertaking to restore us to what we were. It was based on the premise that we used to treat each other better. America should function on finding common ground, not the high ground from which to attack our political opposite, Biden argued. He wanted America to restore its relationship with our allies, like NATO; and he wanted us to regain our place of leadership in the world.

The party faithful didnt buy it. He counted on endorsements of leading national Democratic figures, and the public didnt care. He appealed to our better nature, and the voters werent interested. It was a very well-run campaign in 1980, and that was the problem. The voters were concerned, primarily about health care, uneven economic growth and climate change. In simple terms, tomorrow not yesterday.

These developments, despite the former vice presidents very poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, do not mean he cannot recover if the message is refocused. But if Biden doesnt recover or if a Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, or Pete Buttigieg does not capture the nomination, we are looking at a Bernie Sanders vs. Trump general election.

Here is why that should bother you. We are naive if we believe we still have a representative democracy. The Congress, thanks to a Republican Senate, has been neutered; The Supreme Court increasingly is willing to defer to the Executive Branch on any action taken under the premise that if Congress doesnt override it, it must be constitutional. We live now in the age of Trumpism, and Trumpism is a cult. Even the most outlandish comments, actions, or conduct by the president are brushed aside without apology by his followers.

Sanders isnt that much different. He brooks no criticism. Any setback is attributed to some national conspiracy to rig the system against him and him alone. His followers are rabid in support of this candidacy and will quickly and viciously attack anyone who dares to oppose him. Fifty-three percent of his supporters say they will not vote for any other candidate for president. This election could well turn out to pit Sanders cult vs. the cult of Trump.

We study history for two reasons: to understand our past and to learn from it. We have traditions both to honor our achievements and to guide us in our present-day conduct. While there are differences between conservatives and liberals, most labor to preserve the best of what we have and attempt to shape the future for betterment of all of us.

If either cult wins the presidency, we will speak of these times as they did of Skeffingtons demise: The end of an era. The last hurrah of a democratic government.

Photos: Caucus night

Dave Nagle is a Waterloo attorney and former U.S. congressman.

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As the new coronavirus spreads, Chinese immigrants in Bismarck are keeping close tabs on family and friends living in China, the epicenter of the outbreak.

I feel I am still safe in Bismarck, said Iris Chen, who has lived in the city since 2005. I just worry about my parents, though.

Her mom and dad live in Fujian, a province in southeastern China along the coast. They reside on an island where no cases of the virus have been reported, she said, but they nevertheless are taking preventative measures such as washing their hands and wearing a mask whenever they have to venture out in public.

Their local market is crowded as people stop by to pick up groceries.

They need to check their temperature before they walk in to prove they don't have a fever, Chen said.

Such measures have become common in China, where the virus has infected tens of thousands of people and killed more than 1,300, spreading fear around the globe and prompting much discussion among members of Bismarck's Chinese community.

Chen had planned to visit China this summer with her husband and children after her daughter graduates from high school. But with limited flights available to the country, the trip is probably off.

Its been six years since Chens daughter, Ke Lin, last visited her familys home province.

There are a lot of little cafes and spots around town that are more easily accessible than in Bismarck, and the shoppings good, too, Lin said.

The Bismarck family keeps up with relatives in China through FaceTime and WeChat, a messaging app. They follow news reports about the virus, and Lin is learning about it through discussions on current events in her social studies class at Century High School.

Ruby Toman, who runs the Asian Gourmet Market just south of downtown Bismarck, also has family members in Fujian. She recently mailed them a package of masks because the items have become scarce in China due to high demand.

She said her friends and family have largely been stuck inside, quarantined, while China works to contain the virus. Her sister owns a granite factory thats been shut for two weeks while people stay indoors.

She thought her loved ones in Fujian were handling the situation well, emotionally, given that the virus is not widespread where they are living. Fujian is about 450 miles from Wuhan, where the first cases were reported in December.

You dont see it in your neighbor yet, Toman said. I dont think theyre worried yet.

So far, the virus has not affected her business.

Toman was trying to clear space in one of her aisles last week to make room for new goods scheduled to arrive by truck the next day. She said she works with importers to stock items, and her goods tend to come from countries other than China.

Chen, who manages the China Star buffet near Interstate 94, said her restaurant sources ingredients through an American company.

Even Chinese food, they make it locally in the United States, she said.

While Chinese restaurants in some parts of the nation are reporting a drop in customers amid panic surrounding the virus, Chen said that doesnt seem to be the case here. Some of her regular customers ask how her parents are doing, and she tells them that they are OK.

They say they will come in more often to support, just in case, but I think we are good, she said.

Health workers prep for virus

Local health professionals also are tracking the virus and making preparations should anyone in the Bismarck area develop symptoms.

As of Friday, the North Dakota Department of Health was monitoring five people in the state who had recently visited China.

Those people take their temperatures and send the information to the health department each day, said Levi Schlosser, a respiratory disease epidemiologist for the state. So far, no one has shown symptoms. If any did, their status would be elevated to a person under investigation, in which case a health care provider would need to evaluate them.

Dr. Noe Mateo, infectious disease consultant with Sanford Medical Center, said the virus in general simply causes a bad cold. People with compromised immune systems are the most likely to have complications, he said.

In Bismarck, both Sanford and CHI St. Alexius Health are screening all who enter their facilities to find out if anyone has visited China recently or come into contact with someone who has the virus.

Such a process is something the hospitals used in 2014 amid the Ebola epidemic.

Ebola was a great springboard, bringing us into a closer awareness of checking travel, said Doris Weiss, safety and emergency manager for CHI St. Alexius.

The hospitals have plans in place to accommodate patients who might have the virus, and they would work in conjunction with the state health department and other officials. Mateo said options range from sending a patient with mild symptoms home to self-isolate, to admitting the person and placing him or her in an isolated room, similar to how Sanford handles other respiratory viruses.

Susan Ziemann, infection prevention coordinator for CHI St. Alexius, said the health department has told those its monitoring to contact a hospital ahead of time if they plan to come in for treatment.

Ideally, that patient could be met outdoors with a health worker wearing the appropriate personal protective equipment, she said, adding that the patient would be brought inside in such a way to minimize exposure to others.

Hospital workers have various types of gowns, gloves and masks to treat coronavirus patients, and the specifics of what they wear would depend on what sort of care and procedures the patient needs.

Earlier this month, CHI St. Alexius held a training exercise with 33 people from the hospital, Metro Area Ambulance Service, and local and state officials to go over plans for the virus. Ziemann said the hospital also has held a mock run-through of its response should an infected person show up to the emergency department.

As of Friday, 15 people across the country had been confirmed to have the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No one had died from the virus in the United States.

Worldwide, the number of people who have contracted it is more than 50,000, with the bulk of the cases in China, according to the World Health Organization. The agency last week named this particular coronavirus COVID-19.

So far, the CDC has handled testing for the coronavirus in the United States, Schlosser said. The agency is developing a test that it plans to roll out to states in the near future, he said.

Mateo said it could be weeks or months before virus cases peak globally, and it is bound to spread further.

Were confident we have systems in place to be able to handle whoever comes along, he said.

Reach Amy R. Sisk at 701-250-8252 or amy.sisk@bismarcktribune.com.

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The Trump administration has zeroed out of the State Department budget a request from a nonprofit set up in honor of Christopher Stevens, the ambassador killed in Benghazi, Libya, in a 2012 terrorist attack.

The agency's fiscal 2021 budget proposal cuts $420 million from its educational and cultural programs, including $5 million for the Stevens Initiative, an organization created to memorialize the late ambassador's dedication to cultivating international exchanges.

This appears to be at least the third time that dedicated funding for the program has been removed by President Donald Trump's budget officials. For the last two years, Congress has restored it.

A State Department official, who provided information on the condition of anonymity to discuss official matters, defended the suggested cut, saying that even if it isn't included in a final budget, it doesn't necessarily mean the Stevens program will lose funding.

"The flexibility of the [Educational and Cultural Exchange] ECE budget allows for programs to continue under other line items, such as 'Professional and Cultural Exchanges,' even when they do not have a separate budget line item," the official said in an email.

The attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi became the focus of a protracted Republican-led effort to blame then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton for inadequately protecting Stevens and the three other Americans who were killed.

In 2016, then-candidate Trump used the attack to criticize Clinton, saying, "by the way, with Benghazi and with our ambassador - remember? That's all Hillary Clinton, folks."

One of the more outspoken GOP lawmakers during that time was Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, then a conservative congressman from Kansas only in his second term. As a member of the GOP-led House Select Committee on Benghazi, he publicly grilled Clinton and other State Department officials over who to fault for the security lapse.

Pompeo accused Clinton of ignoring requests from embassies seeking extra protection. And even after a two-year investigation by the Select Committee turned up nothing to implicate Clinton in the attacks, Pompeo wrote a dissenting view accusing her of putting "political expediency and politics ahead of the men and women on the ground."

But now, the suggested funding cut to the organization created in Stevens' memory, comes as the Trump administration, and Pompeo specifically, have been scrutinized for its treatment of U.S. diplomats.

The Ukraine impeachment probe into President Trump's conduct revealed the White House operating a shadow diplomacy outside normal State Department channels that included an effort to smear the reputation of then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. Yovanovitch, a career Foreign Service officer, was later unceremoniously removed from her post.

Pompeo has come under fire for not doing more to protect Yovanovitch professionally or personally.
Extinction Rebellion activist shared the tactics they use to get away from police in a documentary airing this Sunday.

In the Channel 5 documentary Extinction Rebellion: The Inside Story, those belonging to the UK branch of the protest movement, known as XR for short, show how they took over Trafalgar Square last October, hiding in plain sight from the police until the very last minute.

The global movement, which was born out of the public's anger concerning the state of Climate Change, organised street blockages and stunts over the last year as a way to compel governments to take more action against global warming and to raise awareness.

In the Sunday 9pm documentary, an intense clip show activists coming out of the woodwork to take the streets of Trafalgar Square, a stone throw away from Buckingham Palace.

XR members can be seen running to the streets and going as far as breaking fingers in order to have their message heard, but blocking streets is illegal in the UK, and issues a strong police response.

Paolo, a Police Liaison Officer for Extinction Rebellion during the Trafalgar Square protest of 2019

On the day of the operation, cameras first show how a noisy protest was created as a diversion by other 'rebels' on one site of the historic monument while others quietly wait being lampposts, walls and even in cafes as they wait for the rallying call.

Some are pretending to be on their phones while other quietly stay away from the Square, pretending to wait for friends.

All rebels will then receive a text message instructing them to take action.

'There's people sort of waiting around behind lampposts, behind corners and stuff, one of the participants said.

A group of medics join Extinction Rebellion's protest in London in 2019. The documentary sheds light on how the organisation operated

'It's amazing how it can look like there's nothing there and then suddenly, everyone's there,' she goes on.

Finally, the much awaited text message comes in: 'REBELS, Hour Zero is here!!!'

In an instant, people can be seen rushing to the street, some pushing some scaffolding until they reach a pedestrian crossing and stopping there, blocking cars from going any further.

A XR protester is carried away by police officers during a demonstration. The Met Police reported that the protests cost 24m to police and led to 1,828 arrests, with 165 people charged with offences

An areal look at the Extinction Rebellion protest at Trafalgar Square wich lasted several days in October 2019

Onlookers that did not seem to be linked to Extinction Rebellion in any way reveal themselves as

Police on the scene are quick to respond and immediately try to keep 'rebels' from climbing onto the scaffolding. Some rebels stop, others persist while a member starts their rallying call: 'Extinction,' others then responds enthusiastically: 'Rebellion.'

Trafalgar Square is instantly blocked, with hundreds of people descending in the street, sporting XR banners and flags.

The most extreme of activists go as far as chaining themselves to cars to keep police forces from removing them.

'I'm doing this because I accept the reality of a climate breakdown and what that means,' a man locked to a car and laying on the floor says.

He's holding onto a picture of two children and stars sobbing as around him, police forces struggle to get a hold of all participants.

Extinction Rebellion October 2019 protest The Extinction Rebellion protests of October 2019 lasted ten days and saw several groups of activists taking actions in different parts of London, including Westminster and Trafalgar Square. Targeted sites also includi The Met Police reported that the protests cost 24m to police and led to 1,828 arrests, with 165 people charged with offences. Police forces issued a London-wide ban on 14 October under Section 14 of the Public Order Act. The ban was ignored by protester and subsequently lifted. It was found unlawful by the High Court in early November. Advertisement

'We got Trafalgar Square, we f****** done it,' one activist celebrates.

'This is brilliant, TF is one of the most disruptive sites [...] I'm b***** impressed,' he goes on. 'These people were amazing.'

The messaging and media team of the organisation have set up shops in a nearby cafe. We then learned that the operation was neatly time so that national media could report on the protest during the 1pm news.

On the day of the protest, Met police confirmed on Twitter that they had made 212 arrests following the Trafalgar Square stint.

In another clip, we see what happens when a group of police forces raid an Extinction Rebellion local in a disuses courtroom in Lambeth, conducting arrests and seizing the barricades the group uses to block streets.

XR participants are alerted to the stint by an organisation-wide message reading: 'Emergency, we are being turfed out, all hands on deck.'

'The police are being very intimidating to anyone who's tried to take anything in or out of the building an onlooker says.

During the incident, ten rebels have already been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance.

Protesters wave flags and banners during the Trafalgar Protest in 2019. The organisation planned street blockages and stunts over the last year as a way to compel governments to take more action against global warming and to raise awareness

A group of several activists that are in the building escape through large windows at the back why police breaks down the main door as passers-by and members of XR look on.

Inside, the activists are trying to take out expensive pieces of tech such as solar panels so that the police cannot confiscate it, while also creating an obstacle course to slow officers down.

In a matter of seconds, the rebels inside have managed to take out a few solar panels without being detected by the police who are still making their way into the building.

Extinction Rebellion: The Inside Story airs on Sunday on Channel 5 at 9pm.
Rival parties in the Yemen conflict have reached an agreement on the first large-scale prisoner exchange since the start of the five-year conflict, the UN said Sunday.

The announcement came after a seven-day meeting in the Jordanian capital Amman.

A joint statement from the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross called the deal "a step towards the fulfillment of the parties' commitment to the phased release of all conflict-related detainees according to the Stockholm Agreement".

The number of prisoners to be released was not specified and neither was the timing.

The conflict in Yemen pits Iran-backed Houthi rebels against government forces supported by a Saudi-led coalition.

The warring parties agreed to exchange some 15,000 detainees as part of a UN-mediated deal brokered in Sweden in 2018.

"This is a purely humanitarian measure that must be implemented without delay, according to what was agreed in Jordan," the Yemeni foreign ministry said on Twitter.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdel Salam tweeted that "1,400 prisoners, including Saudis and Sudanese, will be freed".

The UN special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, urged the warring parties "to move forward with the exchange they agreed on today (Sunday) with the utmost sense of urgency.

"Progress has been too slow on this front," he said.

The committee overseeing the Sweden prisoner swap plans to meet again in late March "to discuss further exchanges", the statement added.

Both sides have released hundreds of prisoners over the past months as part of sporadic swaps.

"Despite ongoing clashes, we saw that the parties have found common humanitarian ground that will allow many detainees to return to their loved ones," said Franz Rauchenstein, the ICRC's head of mission in Sanaa.

The Yemen conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, most of them civilians, and sparked what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

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FILE - In this Oct. 28, 2019, file photo, President Donald Trump shakes hands with Attorney General William Barr before Trump signed an executive order creating a commission to study law enforcement and justice at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Convention in Chicago. Attorney General William Barr took a public swipe Thursday at President Donald Trump, saying that the presidents tweets about Justice Department prosecutors and cases make it impossible for me to do my job. Barr made the comment during an interview with ABC News just days after the Justice Department overruled its own prosecutors. they had initially recommended in a court filing that President Donald Trumps longtime ally and confidant Roger Stone be sentenced to 7 to 9 years in prison. But the next day, the Justice Department took the extraordinary step of lowering the amount of prison time it would seek for Stone. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

Associated Press

More than 2,000 former Justice Department officials signed on to a letter Sunday that called for the resignation of Attorney General William Barr.

Barr has faced criticism over the handling of sentencing recommendations for Roger Stone, the longtime Republican adviser and Trump ally, who was convicted last year on seven counts related to his involvement in the Mueller investigation.

Prosecutors had initially recommended a seven-to-nine year sentence, though the DOJ would later call the recommendations "excessive" not long after angry tweets from President Trump.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Over 2,000 former officials at the US Department of Justice have called on US Attorney General William Barr to resign over the DOJ's handling of Roger Stone's sentencing, arguing he acted politically while intervening to reduce Roger Stone's sentencing recommendation.

The letter, published on Sunday, is signed by former DOJ personnel who worked under Republican and Democrat presidents, was published through Medium on Sunday. The statement was organized through Project Democracy, a watchdog organization founded in 2017 by former White House and DOJ officials that aims to monitor abuses of power in government, and is part of its goal to protect law enforcement agencies from political interference.

"Although there are times when political leadership appropriately weighs in on individual prosecutions, it is unheard of for the Department's top leaders to overrule line prosecutors, who are following established policies, in order to give preferential treatment to a close associate of the President, as Attorney General Barr did in the Stone case," letter read. "It is even more outrageous for the Attorney General to intervene as he did here  after the President publicly condemned the sentencing recommendation that line prosecutors had already filed in court."

Story continues

While the number of former DOJ officials who had signed on to the Project Democracy letter was more than 1,000 on Sunday, about another 1,000 had signed on by Tuesday, bringing the total to 2,003 signatures.

In 2019, Republican adviser and longtime Trump ally Roger Stone was convicted on seven counts of lying to Congress, making false statements to investigators, and witness tampering during former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russ ain interference in the 2016 election.

Federal prosecutors in the case recommended for Stone a seven-to-nine year sentence, saying it was "consistent with the Guidelines is appropriate based on the nature and extent of Stone's conduct, the length of time it transpired," Business Insider previously reported.

President Donald Trump defended Stone in a series of tweets early last week.

"This is a horrible and very unfair situation," Trump said last Monday. "The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!"

By Tuesday, the DOJ updated the sentencing recommendation  just one day after the initial one  calling the seven-to-nine year sentence possibly "excessive and unwarranted," deferring to the court to determine a sentence for Stone.

Following the DOJ's new guidance, the entire team of four prosecutors pursuing the case against Stone to withdrew from the case.

"We call on every DOJ employee to follow their heroic example and be prepared to report future abuses to the Inspector General, the Office of Professional Responsibility, and Congress," the authors of the letter said.

Some federal prosecutors told The New York Times they were uneasy about pursuing cases related to President Trump and his allies, citing fears that Trump-appointed Barr would not protect their political independence in cases where the president took a particular interest.

In an ABC News interview on Thursday, Barr called out the president's tweets and urged him to stop tweeting about Justice Department criminal cases.

"I'm not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody. And I said, whether it's Congress, a newspaper editorial board, or the president," Barr said. "I'm going to do what I think is right. And you knowI cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me."

While the former officials who signed the letter Sunday acknowledged Barr's statements, they said that "Mr. Barr's actions in doing the President's personal bidding unfortunately speak louder than his words."

The former DOJ officials also called upon the other branches of government to protect those who report behaviors they view as inappropriate or against their oath of office.

Neither the White House nor the Department of Justice returned Business Insider's requests for comment on the letter.

Read more:

Hillary Clinton 'wants back in' as Bloomberg campaign tries to quiet speculation she could be his VP pick

Young adults support Bernie Sanders because they want to benefit from 'boomer socialism' that older Americans already enjoy

Biden says he'd 'disown' anyone who made online attacks like Bernie Sanders' supporters

Michael Bloomberg's employees created a book purportedly full of his offensive quotes. Here it is.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Married At First Sight's Tracey Jewel has called for a 'higher duty of care' from all TV networks following the tragic death of British presenter Caroline Flack, aged 40.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Sunday, the 37-year-old said: 'The pressure of living life so publicly and the online hate can be all too much as I very well know.

'The networks need to ensure a higher level of duty of care to look after their stars.'

'They need to look after their stars': MAFS' Tracey Jewel (pictured) has called for a 'higher duty of care' from TV networks following the tragic death of UK presenter Caroline Flack, aged 40

'Saddened by the news that yet another Love Island star, this time a host @carolineflack has ended her life,' wrote Tracey to Instagram.

'What's it going to take for these shows to step up and show a duty of care?

'How many lives need to be lost? How can we make those that bully and troll accountable? I hope you have found peace Caroline.'

From the heart: Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Sunday, the 37-year-old said, 'The pressure of living life so publicly and the online hate can be all too much as I very well know'

Tragic: Former Love Island UK host Caroline ended her life on Saturday in London. Pictured: Caroline Flack on November 25, 2019 in London

Former Love Island UK host Caroline ended her life on Saturday at home in London.

Caroline's death was confirmed by a lawyer for the family on Saturday night.

The Flack family said in a statement: 'We can confirm that our Caroline passed away today on the 15th February. We would ask that the press respect the privacy of the family at this difficult time.'

Caroline's suicide marks the third death of stars connected with the ITV2 dating show Love Island UK, with contestants Mike Thalassitis and Sophie Gradon also ending their lives following their appearances on the dating program.

'My name is ruined': Since finding fame on Married At First Sight's fifth season in 2018, Tracey revealed that backlash from viewers and social media trolls left her 'feeling suicidal daily'

Since finding fame on Married At First Sight's fifth season in 2018, Tracey revealed the backlash from viewers and social media trolls left her 'feeling suicidal daily'.

In July 2019, 15-months after finding fame, she said: 'No one will hire me, due to all this ongoing negative attention. My name and reputation is ruined.

'These people have ruined my life. I am suicidal most days.'

She has sine campaigned for mental health awareness, and become an accredited Mental Health First Aid Instructor while hoping to help other people.

If you or anyone you know is struggling, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, or 24/7 counselling and support Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.
And the Writers Guild is ready to crack down on their wayward members. The WGA president wrote, For any writers breaking the rules there must and will be accountability. He added: We know that some agents are harassing former clients to work with them in secret under the false premise that everyone else has come back.'  Los Angeles Times
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) Dr. Afua Asabea Asare says, government remains committed to supporting local industries to achieve the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda.

According to her, there is a significant revolution in the value addition process of raw materials by local industries to meet the demands of the international market and given the needed support, Ghana will boost its exports for sustainable development.

Speaking to Citi News during a working visit to the Upper East Region, Dr. Asare was impressed with the adaptation of emerging processing technologies by some local industries to produce their final products for exports.

She assured that government will commit to tackling critical challenges facing local industries and device strategies to increase their production and creating sustainable jobs through the value chainrocess for actors within the industry.

Now things are not going in their raw form, they are being processed, everybody is trying to add value to their products and that is what industrialization is all about. Adding value before sending it out and creating jobs for the people is what the government's talked about and so I am happy to say that, the government 's vision of industrialization is taking roots, the President made a good point when he decided that Ghana is going to be industrialized.

Dr. Asare observed that, lack of ready market for products; inadequate processing machinery and financial resources were challenges confronting local industries and pledged government's commitmento address them.

We have listened to their needs and so, it depends on the organization and their needs. So we talk to them about their needs and to see how we can meet them, even if we cannot resolve all their problems, we can meet them half-way. We will look for markets for them, some of the products are quite new, and we have to make sure that they get the right certification among others to go onto the international markets; it is not wasy penetrating the international market when you are not properly certified.

Dr. Asare also pledged to connect the BongoSoe Shea butter processing centre to the national grid, provide the women group with personal protective equipment and construct a warehouse for the storage of their final product.

As part of her visit, Dr. Asare visited the Minyila Sylvester Ventures who are into the production of variety of seed oils, the Organization for Indigenous Initiative and Sustainability (ORGIIS-Ghana) who are also into the production of baobab drinks, sesame seeds and shea butter.

She also visited the straw markets in Bolgatanga and the Savanna Baskets Wearers Association.

citinewsroom
After 4 months of drama, controversies, ugly spats and love, Bigg Boss 13 has finally drawn curtains. A heartbreaking moment for the fans who don't know what to watch from today.

Twitter

After running a 3 hour long finale last night, Salman Khan announced Sidharth Shukla as the winner for Bigg Bos 13. Asim and Shehnaz Gill were the first and second runner up respectively.





Sidharth's behaviour in the show was constantly in the limelight as we got see witness his violence and aggressive streak. Previous contestants were appalled how he wasn't evicted despite attacking Asim on various occasions.

Twitter

And now they are upset when he won the most popular season of Bigg Boss. Displaying their disappointments, Bigg Boss fans called this 'fixed' and 'biased'. Chck out some of the reactions.





Twitter

Not only fans, even TV actors were surprised at this decision. Supporting Asim, Gauahar wrote,





Truly the qualities that a winner shouldve possessed , were in ASIM ! His journey video said it all ! #MyWinnerASIM ......  Gauahar Khan (@GAUAHAR_KHAN) February 15, 2020

Kishwer Merchant too called it a predictable season.

What a predictable season .. paras leaving with the money, Asim and Sid top 2.. and a totally undeserving candidate wins !! #bestseasonever  #BB13GrandFinale  Kishwer M Rai (@KishwerM) February 15, 2020

Bigg Boss winner Sidharth Shukla said, "I feel sorry for people who have such thoughts."
The Kerala government too would get time to argue its case as it is main respondent in Sabarimala matter.

New Delhi: A nine-judge Constitution Bench will commence hearing on the issues relating to gender justice and essential religious practices from Monday that is slated to last for three weeks.

The primary issue before the court is the right of women under Article 14 (equality before law) and the essential religious practices under Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution.

The issues to be adjudicated by the Constitution Bench are rooted in challenge to the prohibition on the entry of women in the age of 10 to 50 years in Lord Ayyappas temple, bar on the entry of Muslim women in mosque, and that of the Parsi woman in the temple of fire after they marry outside the community. Another discriminatory practice under challenge is the practice of female genital mutilation in the Dawoodi Bohra community.

The court has framed seven questions to be adjudicated in the course of the hearing that includes examining what is the scope and ambit of right to freedom of religion under Article 25 of the Constitution and what is the inter-play between the rights of persons under Article 25 and rights of religious denomination under Article 26 of the Constitution.

The nine-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice S.A.Bobde has set the target of concluding the hearing by March 6  last day before the court goes on weeklong Holi break from March 9. March 7 and 8 are Saturday and Sunday.

Besides CJI Bobde, other judges on the nine-judge Constitution Bench are Justices R. Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan, L. Nageswara Rao, Mohan N. Shantanagoudar, S. Abdul Nazeer. R. Subhash Reddy, B.R.Gavai and Surya Kant.

The court has given both the sides seven days each to conclude their arguments. The lawyers on both the sides have been asked to divide the issues to be argued amongst themselves with total bar on repetition.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta has been given a separate one day to present the views of the Central government on the issues to be adjudicated by the court. The Solicitor General had sought one and a half day time for advancing his arguments.

The Kerala government too would get time to argue its case as it is main respondent in Sabarimala matter. The Bench will also address the question whether the rights of a religious denomination under Article 26 are subject to other fundamental rights. The court will also adjudicate what is the scope of word morality and whether it is meant to include constitutional morality. Besides, the court will also look into the extent of judicial review with regard to a religious practice as referred to in Article 25 of the Constitution.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has warned coronavirus is likely to have a more significant impact on the economy than the fall-out from SARS in 2003 and has called on Labor not to "talk down" Australia's resilience.

In a letter from Mr Frydenberg on February 6 to shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers, the Treasurer said it was "too early to quantify" the effects, but warned the short-term impact would likely be exacerbated by quicker actions to contain the virus and China's more significant role in the global economy.

Australians were evacuated from Wuhan, the centre of the outbreak, in February.

Mr Chalmers had warned in a letter the day before there had been a "perceived lack of information or guidance from the government" adding to the concerns of the business community.

Mr Frydenberg said his department was undertaking scenario analysis drawing from the information available and experiences like the SARS outbreak, which has been surpassed by coronavirus in terms of total infections but was more lethal.
Donesha Floraine Chew was born November 30, 1998 in Leonardtown, Maryland to the late Katina Monique Yates and Donald Chew. At the tender age of 6, Donesha's mother, Katina fell ill and wholeheartedly entrusted the care of her and her brother, Roy Person, to her sister and brother-in-law, Kneeca M. Somerville-Blackwell and James M.T. Blackwell, Sr. "Blackwell" as she affectionately called him. At the tender age of 21, Donesha walked into the loving arms of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ on February 9, 2020. In addition to her mother, Donesha was preceded in death by her maternal grandfather, Thomas Somerville, Sr. and paternal grandmother, Dorothy Blackwell



Donesha was educated in the St. Mary's County Public School System. While enrolled in Leonardtown High School, she attended The Dr. James A. Forrest Career and Technology Center where she completed a two-year program in Graphic Communications (GC). Along with her GC Certificate, Donesha received her diploma from Leonardtown High School in 2016.



Immediately following graduation, Donesha was off and running to Frostburg State University where she was enrolled in Secure Computing and Information Assurance (Cyber Security) with a Minor in Graphic Design. While at Frostburg, Donesha was involved in a little bit of everything. She was a devoted member and also held office in numerous organizations, including, but not limited to the National Technical Honors Society, The National Council of Negro Women, Caribbean Student Association (Vice President of Communications), Student Government Association (Senator), Paparazzi Perfect Modeling Team, Unified Voices Under God's Dominion and National Society of Leadership and Success. Donesha worked tirelessly to earn her degree with graduation being just around the bend. In an effort to honor her merit Frostburg State will be conferring Donesha's degree in May. Along with her classmates; she will be a part of Frostburg State University's Class of 2020.



Donesha was destined for success, while in high school and college she maintained her grades while also holding down a job. Donesha worked at St. Mary's County Health Department and later as a Childcare Assistant (Federal Employee - Dept of Navy) at the Youth Development Center, NAS Patuxent River, MD.



Donesha had a passion for fashion. She was known to have her hair (often times WIGS), eyebrows, lashes, nails and make-up on fleek! She was the design queen having recently started her own Design Company. Donesha told all who would listen, that graphics and fashion is my passion, my dream, my everything, and from that was born Donnie's Divine Designs, dubbed "D3", where she was on a mission; the vision was "turning your thoughts into reality" to devise creative design ideas. D3 was geared up to specialize in ordering unique and quality bundles, wigs and braid hair. Our girl was the life of EVERY Party! She was a phenomenal friend and a sister-friend to her cousins whom we refer to as "The 2 live Crew". This crew was inseparable getting into things that we can only imagine BUT will never know.



In addition to her parents (Kneeca and "Blackwell"), her father and step-mother, Donald and Keysha Chew, Donesha leaves to cherish her memory her maternal grandmother, Agnes Floraine Somerville, paternal grandparents, Samuel and Excella Mackall, paternal grandfather, Henderson Blackwell; four brothers, the ever so protective older brother Roy Person, James Blackwell, Jr., Dacari Chew and Keyshon Pindell; three sisters, Jaliyah Blackwell, Lakshmi Toland and Jayde Butler, "The 2 Live Crew" and a host of aunts, uncles, relatives and friends.



Donesha will be missed immensely by everyone that knew her. She truly touched the lives of all whose path she crossed. She was the kind of young lady that anyone would be proud to call daughter, granddaughter, niece, cousin or friend.



Family will receive friends for Donesha's Life Celebration on Friday, February 21, 2020 from 10:30am-12:00pm with a Mass of Christian Burial at 12:00pm at St. John Francis Regis Catholic Church, 43937 St. John's Road, Hollywood, MD 20636. Interment will follow at the church cemetery.
The influential Institute of Public Affairs, a libertarian think tank with strong Liberal Party links, is rapidly expanding its presence at Australian universities with a youth wing that now has more than 1500 members.

Generation Liberty, which started in 2015, now has a full-time national manager and more than a dozen campus co-ordinators working to provide a refuge for students "who aren't mad socialists".

Renee Gorman, national manager of Generation Liberty for the IPA. Credit:Saul Muscatel

But the group's expanding influence has left some other students worried about the IPA extending its controversial influence on public debate and making universities a bigger target in the broader culture wars.

An article published in Sydney University's student newspaper Honi Soit said Generation Liberty "marches in lockstep with their parent organisation" on climate change denial, as well as other issues such as public funding for the ABC.
Legal experts have warned donors to check how charities spend donations, and urged those celebrities who promote fundraisers to know exactly what they are endorsing to avoid blowback about where money will be spent.

The experts say there is no easy solution to resolving concerns over how the NSW Rural Fire Service can spend more than $50 million in donations raised in the wake of the summers deadly fires.

Celeste Barber on stage as MC at Fire Fight Australia Bushfire relief concert. Credit:Dean Sewell

Comedian Celeste Barber, who fronted a Facebook fundraising effort at the height of the disaster, has reportedly taken legal advice after learning money donated to the RFS has not gone to victims on the ground.

While social media has been flooded with donors complaining the $52 million raised was not being spent how they wanted, legal experts said donors needed to be aware of laws governing charities.
A woman seen on a tube wearing a face mask. A total of nine people in the UK are now being treated for the coronavirus. (PA)

Senior NHS figures have warned that millions of people in the UK could be ordered to self-isolate by staying at home for a fortnight if the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise.

Nine people in the UK are currently being treated for the disease, which has infected more than 68,000 worldwide.

According to The Sunday Telegraph, NHS managers have been told that once around 100 cases have been confirmed the health service would stop testing for coronavirus.

If numbers rise sharply, those displaying symptoms may be told to stay at home in order to stop the disease spreading.

The Department of Health and Social Care did not comment when asked about the self-isolation direction.

How do you self-isolate?

Only those told to self-isolate by Public Health England (PHE) or the Department for Health and Social Care will have to stay at home, BBC News claims.

PHE says those people should stay indoors and call NHS 111, even if their symptoms are mild.

In parts of the country where 111 isnt available, those affected are urged to call NHS Direct on 0845 46 47 and those in Northern Ireland should call a GP.

PHE says common sense should be employed when self-isolating and those with symptoms should avoid contact with others where possible.

That means staying at home for 14 days, and not going into work or busy public places.

Within the home you should stay in a well-ventilated room which is separate from other members of the family and not invite visitors in.

A coach carrying the first British Coronavirus evacuees leaves quarantine. (Getty)

How many people have been tested in the UK?

As of Saturday, 2,992 people in the UK have been tested with 2,983 confirmed as negative and nine positive, the department said.

Earlier, an NHS spokesman said all 94 people in quarantine at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral had been released.

They had been kept in isolation at the hospital after returning to the UK from China  the centre of the outbreak.

More than 100 people remain at the Kents Hill Park Hotel in Milton Keynes, the NHS added.

Story continues

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: I am also pleased that eight of the nine individuals who tested positive for coronavirus have now been successfully treated and discharged from hospital.

I want to stress that any individuals who are discharged from hospital are now well and do not pose any public health risk to the public.

Again, this is evidence of how well prepared our NHS is to deal with the Wuhan coronavirus.
In yet another shocking incident on casteism, a 24-year-old Dalit youth was lynched by villagers near Villupuram in Tamil Nadu, when he squatted by the road to defecate. According to a report by Indian Express, the incident occurred on February 12 and police made arrests on Friday, February 14.

The police arrested seven people after the video of the incident started circulating.

Screengrab of video

Preliminary reports suggest that R Sakthivel, who belongs to a Scheduled Caste, was attacked by Vanniyars, a socially powerful OBC community in northern Tamil Nadu. They have an open animosity toward Dalits in the area.

While Sakthivel belongs to the SC Adi Dravida community, Vanniyars belong to the Most Backward Caste (MBC), which falls under the OBC category in Tamil Nadu, said the IE report.

A 26 year old Dalit man Shakthivel was lynched to death in Villupuram,Tamil Nadu.



His fault was he got down to pee around the fields of a UC Hindu while passing by.



We cease to be humans anymore, we should hang our heads in Shame.#Casteism #Communalism pic.twitter.com/K7Ap1oOBkt  The_Bhim_Voice (@Bhim_Voice) February 15, 2020

A 26 year old Dalit man Shakthivel was lynched to death in Villupuram,Tamil Nadu.



His fault was he got down to pee around the fields of a UC Hindu while passing by.



We cease to be humans anymore, we should hang our heads in Shame.#Casteism #Communalism pic.twitter.com/aPpJrszwGI  Sunil Ahire (@SunilAh64145529) February 15, 2020





A dalit youth in villapuram in Tamil Nadu #shakthivelu was brutally killed by the contractor's of the religion just because he had urinates in the hindhu farm. if your eye's are still not open.remember Baba's word's again. kill the religion wich suits you' @jigneshmevani80  rajeshsourya (@rajeshsourya) February 15, 2020

R Theivanai, the 26-year-old elder sister of the victim, told Indian Express that her brother was attacked only because he was a dalit.

On Tuesday, he was on night duty at the petrol pump and reached home on Wednesday morning. Later, he received a call from his colleagues, asking him to come with his Aadhaar card and a photo for some official verification. When he left home around 1.30 pm, he mentioned how there was only a little petrol in his two-wheeler, Theivanai recalled.



Police are probing the cause of the incident. A case has been registered under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act with IPC Section 302 (punishment for murder).
Mike Bloomberg during a campaign stop in Detroit last week. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

Welcome to 2020 Vision, the Yahoo News column covering the presidential race. There are eight days until the Nevada caucuses and 263 days until the 2020 presidential election.

Democratic candidates and President Trump took fresh aim this week at Mike Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor who has staked a small part of his personal fortune by outspending everyone else in trying to win the White House. By flooding the airwaves with ads and nailing down endorsements from Democrats, many of whom have benefited from his largesse, he has risen into the double digits in several polls of Democrats despite not appearing in any debates so far.

Sens. Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar accused the billionaire entrepreneur of buying the election.

I got a real problem with multibillionaires literally buying elections, Sanders said in an interview with NBC News. I dont begrudge his wealth, but I do begrudge a billionaire thinking he can buy the election.

He has every right in the world to run for office, the Vermont senator continued, but he doesnt have the right to buy an election.

I dont think people look at the guy in the White House and say, Oh, I want someone richer, Klobuchar said on ABCs The View.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren attacked Bloomberg over a 2008 assertion that ending redlining, a discriminatory housing practice, helped trigger the economic meltdown.

A video just came out yesterday in which Michael Bloomberg is saying, in effect, that the 2008 financial crash was caused because the banks werent permitted to discriminate against black and brown people, Warren said at a rally in Virginia on Thursday. That crisis would not have been averted if the banks had been able to be bigger racists. And anyone who thinks that should not be the leader of our party.

Warren also took a swipe at Bloombergs late entry into the Democratic race.

Weve been going at this for about a year, she said. Some people got in a little later than others. Michael Bloomberg came in on the billionaire plan  just buy yourself the nomination.

Story continues

Bloomberg, whose campaign is self-funded and not accepting donations, is close to qualifying for next weeks debate after the Democratic National Committee promulgated new rules that did away with the minimum requirements for donor support that were in place for all the previous contests. The new threshold is 10 percent or more support in at least four DNC-approved polls by Feb. 18. (Bloomberg has three.)

Bloomberg during his campaign launch of "Mike for Black America" in Houston on Thursday. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Asked on CBS This Morning whether Bloomberg should be allowed on the debate stage, Sanders said, Of course not.

Some very good friends of mine who were competing in the Democratic nomination  people like Cory Booker, Julian Castro  worked really, really hard, Sanders said. Nobody changed the rules to get them into the debate. But I guess if youre worth $60 billion you can change the rules.

Klobuchar, though, said she would relish the opportunity to debate Bloomberg.

Once we get to the debate stage, Im going to get a chance to meet him on an even playing field, she said. Im never gonna beat him on the airwaves. But I can beat him on the debate stage.

Even former Vice President Joe Biden, who is not exactly the strongest debater, is champing at the bit.

Im going to get a chance to debate him on everything from redlining to stop-and-frisk to a whole range of other things, Biden said in his own appearance on The View.

When asked what he thought about an audio clip from 2015 of Bloomberg defending stop-and-frisk policing, Biden laughed.

Im laughing because its amazing how every single thing Ive said for the last 40 years has come up, and Ive answered them all, he said. Were just now getting into the place where were looking at other peoples records.

While some polls have shown Bloomberg ascending in the race, a Yahoo News/YouGov survey released Friday found that he would actually fare poorly in two-person matchups with all five top Democrats:

 Bloomberg 34%, Biden 47%

 Bloomberg 37%, Buttigieg 44%

 Bloomberg 38%, Sanders 53%

 Bloomberg 38%, Warren 52%

 Bloomberg 38%, Klobuchar 43%

Source: Yahoo News/YouGov poll

Sen. Bernie Sanders addressing supporters in Manchester, N.H., on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Sanders gains in other polls

While national polls are still sparse, a few released in recent days show continued gains for Sanders  in both early and Super Tuesday states. A new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll has Sanders up 12 points, passing both Warren and Biden, who are feeling the effects of disappointing results in Iowa and New Hampshire. A rich trove of 261 delegates is up for grabs in Texas, and a handsome showing by Sanders in the state could make it difficult for other Democratic candidates to catch up. Bloomberg, who's been blanketing the airwaves in Super Tuesday states in lieu of being a contender in the early-state process, followed Biden and Warren in fourth place.

Bloomberg also surpassed Biden in a state poll in Florida, another state known for making or breaking a campaign  a possible sign of a tightening contest between the New York billionaire and the democratic socialist.

A caveat is that hardly any Democratic voters of color have cast their first ballots, and changes in voter behavior could radically alter the state of play. According to Morning Consult, black voters still support Biden more than any other candidate, though not by the 30-point margin he maintained last year. Only 4 points behind Biden among blacks is Sanders and, after him, Bloomberg  defying expectations that Bloombergs stop-and-frisk policing policy as mayor would disqualify him among minorities. The poll also shows Sanders maintaining a national lead with Hispanic voters, a voting bloc that will be consequential in Nevada, a state that is roughly one-third Hispanic.

Democratic presidential candidates before a primary debate in Des Moines, Iowa, last month. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Nevada debate preview

With the pace of the primary contests picking up, so is the progression of Democratic debates. The next one will be on Wednesday, when the candidates will gather in Las Vegas in advance of Nevadas Feb. 22 caucuses.

Five candidates have already qualified: Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, former Vice President Joe Biden and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg. If former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg can notch one more qualifying poll, hell be eligible. Despite spending millions on advertising in Nevada, Bloombergs fellow billionaire Tom Steyer might not make the stage.

As noted above, the Democratic National Committee took heat from most of the candidates when it announced a different set of rules for this debate. While Democrats used to have to hit a threshold of both polling and fundraising, the donor requirement was dropped for next weeks gathering, opening the door for Bloomberg to participate even though hes not taking outside contributions.

Another wrinkle to keep an eye on: NBC News and MSNBC are hosting the debate, and Meet the Press host Chuck Todd will be one of the moderators. Earlier this week, the Anti-Defamation League admonished Todd for likening Sanders supporters to Nazis during a segment. MSNBC has also faced criticism for its coverage of Sanders, so how they question the leading vote getter of the primary so far will be scrutinized.

 Christopher Wilson

President Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office this week. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Verbatim

Frankly, Id rather run against Bloomberg than Bernie Sanders, because Sanders has real followers  whether you like him or not, whether you agree with him or not. I happen to think its terrible what he says. But he has followers. Bloomberg is just buying his way in.

 President Trump to reporters at the White House on Tuesday

Whats the right price to save democracy from Donald Trump? You come up with that figure and you let me know.

 Tim OBrien, a Bloomberg campaign senior adviser, on CNN Friday, addressing critics who say the billionaire candidate is trying to buy an election

I believe were a big-tent party, and there are pro-life Democrats and they are part of our party.

 Sen. Amy Klobuchar on ABCs The View Wednesday

Read more 2020 coverage from Yahoo News:
The Daily Mail reports:

A couple have miraculously walked away from a horrific car accident captured on dash-cam just weeks after their five-year-old son was diagnosed with cancer. Regan and Rachel Cunliffe were heading home to Kaukapakapa from a medical appointment in Helensville, north-west of Auckland, when an oncoming truck lost control of its trailer on the State Highway 16. Video footage shows the couple approach the bend in the road as smoke billowed from the back wheels of the heavy cargo. Mr Cunliffe, who was behind the wheel, told Daily Mail Australia he drives the road all the time and usually travels along the corner twice a day.

The dashcam footage is terrifying. Thank God Regan kept his cool and helped prevent it from being far worse.

The car accident comes just weeks after the Cunliffe family learnt their son Theo has cancer. The five-year-old was diagnosed with leukemia on January 9. A Give A Little page has been created on behalf of the family to relieve the financial burden following the diagnosis and car accident. For his family its a big adjustment and there are lots of unexpected costs, the page says. They will need to get a car to manage Theos hospital visits and continue to look after their three older kids.

Regan and Rachel are having a very tough time. If you can help them out, Im sure theyd appreciate it. Rachel incidentally is the web designer for Kiwiblog and Regan manages advertising for it.

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It's in area under Chinese occupation for 60 years: MEA on China constructing bridge across Pangong lake

New guidelines for Int'l travellers: From South Africa to Mauritius, here is a list of at-risk countries

India rejects scope for third party mediation to resolve Kashmir issue

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Feb 16: India on Sunday rejected any scope for third party mediation to resolve the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan.

In a statement, Indian foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said:"Jammu and Kashmir has been, is and will continue to be an integral part of India. The issue that needs to be addressed is that of vacation of the territories illegally and forcibly occupied by Pakistan. Further issues, if any, would be discussed bilaterally. There is no role or scope for third party mediation."

The statement comes against the backdrop of some remarks made by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres who is on a visit to Pakistan.

Guterres said on Sunday it was important for India and Pakistan to de-escalate "militarily and verbally" and exercise "maximum restraint" as he began his four-day visit to the country, amidst tense relationship between the two nuclear armed neighbours.

Addressing a press conference after his meeting with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the UN Secretary-General said he was "deeply concerned" over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and tensions along the Line of Control.

"Diplomacy and dialogue remain the only tools that guarantee peace and stability with solutions in accordance with the Charter of United Nations and resolutions of the Security Council," Guterres told reporters.

He emphasised the importance to "de-escalate, both militarily and verbally" while talking about relations between Pakistan and India. Guterres said he had "repeatedly stressed the importance of exercising maximum restraint". "I offered my good offices from the beginning. I am ready to help if both countries agree for mediation," he said.

Tensions between India and Pakistan spiked after New Delhi abrogated ended the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5 last year.

India's decision evoked strong reactions from Pakistan, which downgraded its diplomatic ties and expelled the Indian envoy. India has defended its move, saying the special status provisions only gave rise to terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Sunday, February 16, 2020, 22:52 [IST]
ISLAMABAD - The U.N. Secretary General called Pakistan a reliable and generous partner for hosting millions of Afghan refugees on Sunday, pointing out that the South Asian county has had to do so with little support from the international community.

Antonio Guterres arrived earlier in the day on a four day visit to Islamabad, where he will address an international conference on what are decades of refugees fleeing conflict in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Pakistan is today the worlds second largest host of refugees, the U.N. chief said.

Despite its own challenges Pakistan has sheltered and protected Afghan refugees with limited support from international community, he added.

Guterres called on other countries to support Pakistan and show similar leadership in handling refugee flows in South Asia and around the world.

Speaking in Islamabad, the secretary general also expressed his deep concern over the situation in Kashmir. Control of the Himalayan province is split between India and Pakistan. Both countries claim it in its entirety, and they have fought two of their three wars over the territory.

Guterres stressed the urgency to de-escalate both militarily and verbally tensions across the highly militarized frontier between Indian- and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said he highlighted his governments concerns over New Delhis actions in Indian-controlled Kashmir and its decision to strip the region of its semi-autonomous status.

The policy of diplomacy and dialogue remains the only tools and guarantee for peace and stability, said Guterres.
Reacting to UN chief Antonio Guterres's comments on Jammu and Kashmir, India on Sunday said the region is and will continue to be an integral part of the country and that the issue needed to be addressed is of vacation of territories "illegally and forcibly" occupied by Pakistan.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said there was no role or scope for any third-party mediation on the Kashmir issue.

His response came after UN Secretary General Guterres's comment expressing concern over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Guterres, who is on a visit to Pakistan, said he was ready to help if both countries agreed for mediation.

"India's position has not changed. Jammu and Kashmir has been, is, and will continue to be an integral part of India. The issue that needs to be addressed is that of vacation of the territories illegally and forcibly occupied by Pakistan," the external affairs ministry spokesperson said.

"Further issues, if any, would be discussed bilaterally. There is no role or scope for third-party mediation," Kumar said.

He said India hoped that the UN secretary general would stress on the imperative for Pakistan to take credible, sustained and irreversible action to put an end to cross-border terrorism against India, which threatens the most fundamental human right-- the right to life of the people of India, including in J&K.

Guterres said it was important for India and Pakistan to de-escalate "militarily and verbally" and exercise "maximum restraint" as he began his four-day visit to the country on Sunday, amidst tense relationship between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

Addressing a press conference after his meeting with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the UN secretary general said he was "deeply concerned" over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and tensions along the Line of Control.

The UN chief during his visit to Pakistan will attend an international conference on Afghan refugees and visit the Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib.

"Diplomacy and dialogue remain the only tools that guarantee peace and stability with solutions in accordance with the Charter of United Nations and resolutions of the Security Council," Guterres told reporters.

He emphasised the importance to "de-escalate, both militarily and verbally" while talking about relations between Pakistan and India.

Guterres said he had "repeatedly stressed on the importance of exercising maximum restraint".

"I offered my good offices from the beginning. I am ready to help if both countries agree for mediation," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 14:02:57|Editor: yhy

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KABUL, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Nine drug addicts were shot to death in an overnight shooting in a non-residential area in western side of Kabul, Afghanistan, the capital police said Sunday.

"The shooting occurred at side of Qurugh Mountain in Police District 6 roughly at 8:00 p.m. Saturday. Personnel of Kabul Criminal Investigation Police Department shifted the bodies to Forensic Science Service Department near Kabul University shortly after the shooting was reported," Ferdaus Faramarz from Kabul police told Xinhua.

One arrest was made after the shooting and the motive behind the incident remained unclear.

The police official noted that "police are investigating the case," and details will be released as appropriate.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari will attend a two-day conference on road safety in Stockholm, according an official statement.

The minister will represent India at the "3rd High Level Global Conference on Road Safety".

The objective of the two-day conference is to bring road safety on the global agenda and renew the world community's commitment to safer roads, the statement said.

During the visit, Gadkari will also hold bilateral dialogue with Swedish Minister for Infrastructure, Tomas Eneroth, Minister for Foreign Trade, Anna Hallberg, Minister for Business, Industry & Innovation, Ibrahim Baylan and also with the British Minister for Road Safety, Baroness Vere, as per the statement.

Gadkari will also hold talks with the World Bank Vice President ( South Asia), Hart Schafer.

The minister will attend a Sweden-India Transportation Safety and Innovation Partnership meeting, which is likely to witness participation of many CEOs.

Swedish and Indian businesses are likely to exchange several MOUs on this occasions the statement said.

Leaders from the participating countries will draw up a road-map for reaching the United Nation's goal set under the UN Decade of Action of reducing road crashes by 2030.

Most developing countries, particularly the South Asian and the South East Asian Region, including India, are expected to focus on certain specific issues and challenges facing them on account of a significant number of their motorised vehicles consisting of two-wheelers.

The emphasis will be on adopting best practices that are emerging in different parts of the world.

A significant highlight of the conference will be sharing of the expertise by the nations which have gained experience in road safety management with those who are behind in the learning curve, the statement said.

The United Nations which has included Road Safety as part of the Sustainable Development Goals has appealed to the global community to reaffirm their commitment to reducing mortality arising out of road crashes and join hands for making the world a safer place.

Gadkari had also signed the Brasilia Declaration on behalf of India at the 2nd High Level Global Conference on Traffic Safety in 2015, which committed the world community to reducing the number of deaths in road accidents.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After the ordinance-trashing episode of 2013, the then prime minister asked whether he thought he should resign, the former deputy chairman of the now-defunct Planning Commission says.

Ahluwalia says he told Singh, who was then on a visit to the US, that he did not think a resignation on this issue was appropriate.

In a major embarrassment to his own government, Rahul had denounced the controversial ordinance brought by the UPA dispensation to negate a Supreme Court verdict on convicted lawmakers. He had termed it as "complete nonsense" that should be "torn up and thrown away".

Singh, while returning home from the US, had ruled out his resignation though he appeared piqued over the entire episode.

"I was part of the PM's delegation in New York and my brother Sanjeev, who had retired from the IAS, telephoned to say he had written a piece that was very critical of the PM. He had emailed it to me and said he hoped I didn't find it embarrassing," recalls Ahluwalia.

The article was widely reported in the media with reference to the author being Ahluwalia's brother.

"The first thing I did was to take the text across to the PM's suite because I wanted him to hear about it first from me. He read it in silence and, at first, made no comment. Then, he suddenly asked me whether I thought he should resign," Ahluwalia writes in his new book "Backstage: The Story behind India's High Growth Years".

"I thought about it for a while and said I did not think a resignation on this issue was appropriate. I wondered then whether I was simply saying what I thought he would like to hear but on reflection I am convinced I gave him honest advice," he reasons.

The incident was still a hot subject of discussion when Singh returned to New Delhi.

"Most of my friends agreed with Sanjeev. They felt the PM had for too long accepted the constraints under which he had to operate and this had tarnished his reputation. The rubbishing of the ordinance was seen as demeaning the office of the PM and justified resigning on principle. I did not agree," Ahluwalia writes.

He argues that the incident highlighted an important fault line in the UPA.

"The Congress saw Rahul as the natural leader of the party and wanted him to take a larger role. In this situation, as soon as Rahul expressed his opposition to the ordinance, senior Congress politicians, who had earlier supported the proposed ordinance in the Cabinet and even defended it publicly, promptly changed their position," he says.

Ahluwalia, who served as one of India's senior economic policymakers for three decades, calls his book, published by Rupa, a travelogue of India's journey of economic reforms "in which I had the privilege of being an insider for 30 long years".

Ahluwalia, who played a key role in the transformation of India from a state-run to a market-based economy, presents the story behind the country's economic growth in the first half of the UPA's tenure as well as its achievements in poverty alleviation.

He also discusses the successes and failures of the UPA regime during which period he served as deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, a Cabinet-level position. He mentions about the policy paralysis and allegations of corruption that came to mark the last few years of UPA 2.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal peppered his speech with a poem, song and slogans after taking the reigns of the Delhi government for the third time on Sunday.

The 51-year-old chief minister and six of his ministers were sworn-in by Delhis Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal in front of a massive cheering crowd at the Ramlila Maidan in the national capital.

Arvind Kejriwal began his address with slogans of Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Vande Mataram and spoke about his partys victorythe AAP won 62 seats in the 70-member Delhi assembly and he plans to do in the office in the next five years.

Also Watch | Hum Honge Kaamyaab...: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal sings at rally after being sworn in

As the crowd at Ramlila Maidan with tricolours and AAP flags clapped, the AAP chief also recited a Hindi poem that spoke about what his government has claimed to have brought. It also spoke about his governments priorities and tasks.

Kejriwal finished his speech with the Hindi song Hum Honge Kaamyaab or We shall Overcome.

Thousands of people turned up at the Ramlila Maidan as more than 5000 security personnel, including the personnel of Delhi Police and paramilitary forces, kept a watch during the oath-taking ceremony.

The sprawling venue decked with tricolours, party flags, posters and placards saw AAP workers and the audience with the tricolour painted on their faces.

The national anthem and patriotic songs could also be heard at the Ramlila Maidan, which hosted people wearing the AAPs caps cheering and shouting slogans.

The AAP stormed back to power in the bitterly fought Delhi assembly elections that took place on February 8. It won 62 of the 70 seats while BJP bagged the remaining eight seats.
President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the latest round of attacks on farmers by bandits in Damkal and Tsanwa villages in Batsari Local Government Area of Katsina State.

At least 30 people were killed in the attacks on the two communities, the police said on Saturday.

The president was quoted in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, in Abuja on Sunday.

Mr Shehu said the president was reacting to the incident in which many homesteads were razed by fire with many people killed in the affected areas at the weekend by the bandits.

Mr Buhari, who warned that no one in the country has a right to take laws into his hands by the way of self-help or revenge, added that killing people in the name of revenge is not acceptable.

Local communities that catch bandits should hand over the suspects to law enforcement authorities instead of meting out capital punishment, leading to a cycle of revenge and counter revenge, he said.

He urged community leaders and the local authorities to continue their efforts in partnership with law enforcement agencies that bring the surrender of bandits, leading to peace between farmers and herders.

The authorities must be allowed to investigate and deal with any breach that occurs. There is no place for violence in a decent society, he said.

Mr Buhari prayed God to comfort families that had lost loved ones in the attacks and repose the souls of the victims.

The Attack

Bandits kill 30 in 2 Katsina villages Police.

The Police in Katsina State confirmed that 30 persons were killed by bandits in Batsari Local Government Area of the state.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Gambo Isah, who confirmed the incident on Saturday, said that the victims were killed in Tsauwa and Dankar villages in the area.

He said the bandits invaded the two villages riding on motorcycles on Friday night and begun to shoot residents of the two villages.

According to him, the bandits killed 21 persons in Tsauwa village and the remaining nine persons were killed in Dankar village.

He, however, said that the police and the military were able to arrest one bandit and recovered nine motorcycles belonging to the hoodlums.

Mr Isah said that additional policemen and the military were deployed to the areas with a view to protect the communities around.

He said the State Commissioner of Police, Sanusi Buba, had paid a visit to the affected areas for an assessment of the situation, with a view to preventing further occurrence and trail the bandits to their hideouts in the bush.

The News Agency of Nigeria gathered that the majority of those killed were the aged and children who could not run for their life.

The bandits burnt down many houses including animals and foodstuffs in Tsauwa village.

Katsina is one of the North-west states that have suffered attacks by bandits in recent years.

Hundreds of people have been killed and many others kidnapped in such attacks in Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna and Jigawa states.
Organisers of the Gulf Education and Training Exhibition (Getex), the Middle Easts longest-running student recruitment event, has announced preparations are well under way for the coming Spring edition of the event.

The event, which will take place from April 16 to April 18, 2020 at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre (DICEC), is set to take place against the backdrop of an accelerating education sector in the UAE, fuelled in part by the evolving career trends and the strategic sectors that will influence career growth in the region.

This year's Spring edition proves to be both timely and strategic as it looks towards building on the rapid growth currently being seen by the education segment.

In fact, a recent report from leading market research and advisory company with global coverage Technavio forecasts that the local education market will witness a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of almost five per cent during the 2018-2022 period.

Anselm Godinho, from the organisers, said: Getex continues to live up to its reputation of providing universities and training providers with the best opportunities of reaching out to a larger pool of undergraduate and postgraduate students eager to make an informed decision on the higher education options available to them.

Godinho revealed the exciting new additions being offered at this year's edition of the event, including free-to-attend Culinary workshops, learning sessions on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics and introductory seminars hosted by participating colleges and universities. The exciting three-day event is set to attract the participation of over 150 Education providers. As a special lead up to the event, 100+ career counsellors, life-choice advisors and student counsellors are also being expected to take part in the 5th edition of the Getex Counsellors Forum which will be held on April 12, 2020.

For the first time and unique to the region, Getex will also host an event titled BRIDGE, an Education Leaders Networking Evening for Heads of Schools, Tertiary and Occupational Education Providers. The platform will provide a much-needed interface for all those involved with education & training in an informal setting. We are looking forward to Getex and its role in promoting UAE as a destination of choice for Education on par with Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and several countries in Europe, concluded Godinho.

Getex will spill over into the weekend to also ensure that working adults do not miss the opportunity to explore their further education and CPD options. -- Tradearabia News Service
The head of the World Health Organization has called on the international community to address the misinformation, "stigma and hate" generated by the ongoing novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak, and called on governments to increase funding and preparedness for the epidemic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks at the 56th Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany, on Feb. 15, 2020. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Saturday called for solidarity in fighting the epidemics here at the 56th Munich Security Conference. (Xinhua/Lu Yang)

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, or WHO, said that there remains an emergency situation in China due to the disease, which is called COVID-19.

"We are encouraged that the steps China has taken to contain the COVID-19 outbreak at its source appear to have bought the world time, even though those steps have come at great cost to China itself," Ghebreyesus said from the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday.

He added: "Let me be clear: it is impossible to predict which direction this COVID-19 outbreak will take. What I can tell you is what encourages us, and what concerns us."

Ghebreyesus said the WHO is concerned by the continued increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in China, as well as recent reports from China about the number of health workers who have been infected or who have died. He also said that the international community has failed to raise sufficient funds to combat the outbreak.

"We're concerned by the lack of urgency in funding the COVID-19 response," he said. "We're concerned about the severe disruption in the market for personal protective equipment, which is putting front-line health workers and carers at risk."

Ghebreyesus condemned the cycle of "panic and neglect" that the international community finds itself in during and between outbreaks.

"We throw money at an outbreak, and when it's over, we forget about it and do nothing to prevent the next one," he said ."The world spends billions of dollars preparing for a terrorist attack, but relatively little preparing for the attack of a disease, which could be far more deadly and far more damaging economically, politically and socially. This is frankly difficult to understand, and dangerously short-sighted."

Ghebreyesus criticized those that use epidemics to forward political agendas, and also warned against prejudice.

"The greatest enemy we face is not the coronavirus itself - it is the stigma that turns us against each other. We must stop stigma and hate," he said. "Too much has been written and said about my praise for China. I have given credit where it's due and I will continue to do that, as I would for any country that fights an outbreak aggressively at its source to protect its own people and the world, even at great cost to itself."

He added: "It's easy to blame. It's easy to politicize. It's harder to tackle a problem together, and find solutions together. We will all learn lessons from this COVID-19 outbreak. But now is not the time for recriminations or politicization."

Ghebreyesus said the WHO is worried about the level of misinformation online regarding the virus, and confirmed that the organization has been working with major tech companies including Facebook, Youtube, Google, Tencent and Tiktok to ensure that credible health information and advice is promoted on the web.

He also called on governments to improve coordination in epidemic preparedness and response.

"It is not a job for the health minister alone," he said. "It takes a whole-of-government approach.

But that approach must be coherent and coordinated, guided by evidence and public health priorities. In many countries, measures have been taken by one part of government without appropriate consultation with the health ministry, or consideration of the impact of those measures."
The jubilant AAP supporters thronged the swearing-in ceremony venue of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Cabinet colleagues on Sunday with posters likening the "Delhi's son" to heroes of yesteryear's Bollywood blockbusters 'Nayak' and 'Singham' involving stories of intense struggle for justice.

Kejriwal had extended an open invite to all Delhiites to attend his swearing-in ceremony, positioning himself as "Delhi's son" and thanking them to help him win the assembly poll with a massive mandate for the third time in a row.

"Nayak 2 is Back again," read a poster, depicting pictures of actor Anil Kapoor and Arvind Kejriwal in his trademark AAP's "Anna cap".

Asked about the poster, AAP supporter Jagendra said Kejriwal changed the of the country the way Anil Kapoor did it in Nayak, adding his comparison between the real life and reel life heroes are obvious.

Nayak was a popular Bollywood film in which actor Anil Kapoor, while posing difficult questions during an interview to his state chief minister, played by Amrish Puri, ends up accepting the challenge of becoming chief minister for a day and turning immensely popular by his works in a single day.

Another poster compared Kejriwal to 'Singham' played by Ajay Devgan from Bollywood film of the same name.

'Delhi Ke CM Arvind Kejriwal -- Singham Returns 3,' read the poster which showed the Delhi chief minister holding his party's poll symbol 'broom'.

"No Hindu-Muslim issue now, only work will drive the country," the poster asserted.

The action flick Singham, depicted Devgan clashing with local corrupt politician against all odds in the public interest.

The 'Singham' poster creator 'Sunil Kumar, a Dwarka resident, said the depiction signifies Kejriwal's over the years.

"His (Kejriwal) struggle is not of today but of years when he fought corruption and injustice," he said.

Kejriwal took oath as Delhi chief minister for the third successive time on Sunday in presence of thousands of people in Ramlila Maidan.

Kejriwal had first led his Aam Aadmi Party to a massive victory in Delhi Assembly elections in 2013, dethroning the then indomitable Sheila Dixit's government, ruling Delhi for three consecutive terms since 1998.

But Kejriwal's first stint lasted barely 49 days when he had to step down as chief minister in February 2014.

An IIT-Kharagpur product and a former IRS officer, Kejriwal won his second stint as chief minister in February 2015, again fighting against all odds, including his self-proclaimed image of an "anarchist". But he won the poll hands down, yielding only three seat to his party's arch rival BJP in the general assembly elections.

And now in his third stint, Kejriwal did it again winning 62 seats in the assembly, leaving just 8 seats for the BJP.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Economists are bumping up their house price forecasts with the average home now expected to rise by 3 per cent in value over the next year.

The landslide victory for the Tories in the General Election has delivered a shot in the arm for the housing market.

Experts say the momentum is likely to continue building up over the next 12 months.

Some regions are expected to see price growth of up to 4 per cent this year with the Midlands and the North tipped to lead the way, but the London market is likely to remain subdued.

The landslide victory for the Tories in the General Election has delivered a shot in the arm for the housing market

Official figures due for release on Wednesday for house prices in December are predicted to show the first stirrings of the market revival.

In the year to November, prior to the Election, prices were starting to show improvement with a rise of 2.2 per cent compared to 1.3 per cent in the year to October.

The EY Item Club, which uses the Treasury's own economic computer model, has now raised its forecast for house price growth from 2 per cent to 3 per cent.

Howard Archer, Item's chief economist, said: 'There is pretty compelling evidence that there has been a pick-up.'

Lawrence Bowles, research analyst at property group Savills, said: 'Sentiment has taken a real swing into positive territory.'
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 18:19:22|Editor: huaxia

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NEW YORK, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Global cooperation is essential to combat the novel coronavirus outbreak, experts have said here.

Global public health experts should strengthen information exchange under the close coordination of the World Health Organization (WHO), Huang Yanzhong, a senior fellow for global health at the U.S. nonprofit think tank Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), told Xinhua in a recent interview.

As an understanding of the new virus is still rather limited, health experts have to identify various key factors, including the origin, susceptible population and incubation period of the virus, early on in order to quicken the pace of drug and vaccine development, said Huang, who is also professor and director of Center for Global Health Studies at Seton Hall University's School of Diplomacy and International Relations.

"It's imperative for the WHO now to assume a leadership role," said Huang, adding that there's "a lot of things that the WHO can do" including providing guidelines and advisory support on how to tackle the outbreak.

Experts said the lockdowns of Wuhan city, the epicenter of the outbreak, as well as of other cities with a large number of infections, have been effective regarding the total number of newly added confirmed cases nationwide in recent days.

"The response of the Chinese government in terms of social mobilization and cordoning has been extraordinary. Very few, if any other countries could have done this kind of response," said Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"I don't think there's any doubt that it slowed the spread of the (novel) coronavirus," said Frieden at a panel held in CFR's Manhattan headquarters earlier this week.

Jennifer Nuzzo, associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said at the same panel that the United States should re-examine its approaches in containing the virus including travel restrictions and suspension of flights, which are inconsistent with the advice of the WHO.

Nuzzo said these measures are unlikely to be effective in stopping the virus from entering the country but will take a toll on the economy and trade.

"If we stop flights, either because of policy or because nobody's taking these flights anymore due to restrictions, that has consequences for the movement of goods, particularly essential goods, when many companies rely on commercial flights," said the senior scholar.

Both Frieden and Huang stressed the importance of building trust between health agencies like CDC and the public, mainly through risk communication.

The agencies can launch safety awareness campaigns through the timely sharing of any information to the public, said Huang.
Wuhan Neighborhood Infected With Coronavirus After Families Attend Banquet

Community-wide infections were reported after tens of thousands of people attended an annual banquet in a populous district in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. Residents revealed that the district authorities are covering up the true scale of infections.

The banquet was held in the Baibuting community of Wuhan on Jan. 18, to celebrate the Chinese New Year. More than 40,000 families attended the banquet. However, three days before the event, the neighborhood committee staff asked the local authorities to cancel the gathering over fears of the coronavirus, but the authorities refused their request, according to a Feb. 12 report by The Epoch Times sister media NTD.

Baibuting is one of the largest communities in Wuhan, according to China Community Network (cncn.org.cn), the countrys largest community portal site. More than 130,000 people live in the community, which consists of a cluster of 16 residential compounds with high-rise buildings.

According to locals who spoke with the Chinese-language Epoch Times, scores of people have been infected with the COVID-19 virus after attending the banquet.

 4  pic.twitter.com/2MC5TV6x0X  william woo (@williamwoo7) January 21, 2020

A Desperate Plea

A resident recently sent out a desperate plea over Chinese social media, which caught the publics attention. He said the infection in the Baibuting community was so severe that many people had died, and his family had been quarantined in a hotel.

The resident posted a message on his Weibo account on Feb. 10, saying he was writing in desperation and the community was in a a state of neglect. He said many people contracted the coronavirus after attending the banquet, and the number of infections is higher than the official estimates, and the Jiangan district government is afraid to report the actual figures.

He also wrote, There are a lot of people infected in Baibuting, but the authorities regulated that each grid [unit of community] can only have one diagnostic test a day. A large number of suspected patients are still at home, instead of being quarantined in a hospital. There are even critically ill patients running around the streets for help.

We Baibuting residents are in despair. Please help us! he wrote.

The resident said he had called the mayors hotline and sent messages through the State Councils webpage for epidemic prevention and control, detailing the plight in his community. But he said his efforts are useless as he has not received a response.

His post has been widely shared on social media at home and abroad, with more than 29 million views. But the authorities deleted the post less than a day after it was shared online.

On Feb. 11, the Chinese-language Epoch Times spoke with a resident of the Baibuting community, surnamed Wu. He told the publication that the outbreak is very serious and a lot of people have died.

Wu said that three of his family members are being quarantined in a hotel. He also had symptoms of the virus, but his health recovered. Im okay now. I managed to beat it, he said.

Wu did not know how he got infected with the coronavirus. You can be infected everywhere. You can get it on the street, on the bus, in the supermarket, and you can get it by not wearing a mask.

According to Wu, many people are infected in the community every single day, and the official data is inaccurate.

Some infections were not reported. The local hospital is full. There arent that many beds. Those who are waiting for a bed are told that they will get notified when they can be admitted into the hospital. Some patients can only be quarantined and treated at home. Those who can be cured may survive, and those who cannot get treatment will die. Official figures say Wuhan has two to thirty thousand people infected. Its actually a lot more than that.

A netizen who lives in the same community also made similar comments online. All my relatives in Baibuting have been infected even though they havent been outside recently. One of them self-quarantined in a room that used to be the familys study room, he wrote in his blog.

Another netizen wrote in a post, My friends father, who also lives in Baibuting, didnt go to the Ten Thousand Family Banquet. He just went to the Baibuting Food Market around Jan. 20 and bought a dish and he also got infected.

According to the local notices posted in the community, since Feb. 4, a number of compounds in the community have been reporting patients with fevers. For instance, 33 of the 55 buildings in Anju Compound have reported fever patients; 17 of the 36 buildings in Lily Compound have reported fever patients. Yikang Compound, with a total of 3,779 residents, has found at least 10 diagnosed patients and more than 40 suspected cases up until noon on Feb. 4. Kanghe Compound, with 1,800 households and more than 12,000 people, has identified more than 30 fever patients on Feb. 4.

The Chinese Regime Prioritizes Stability Over Safety

Another Baibuting resident, surnamed Li, has been monitoring the COVID-19 virus outbreak closely and spoke with the Chinese-language Epoch Times. He said the Baibuting community has been hit hard by the coronavirus and the outbreak is associated with the banquet, The result of the banquet was that the many people got infected by the virus in just one week, and now it has spread. Those who got infected at the banquet are now spreading the virus within this populous community. Its very serious. Now the community has been closed. Thousands of people were infected at the same time. There are not enough hospitals to treat them! 

Li estimated from the aforementioned local notices that thousands of residents in the community have been infected so far, adding that in two high-rise buildings, almost all households have contracted the virus.

Li said that so many people have died from the virus, yet the authorities prioritize safeguarding stability. Its getting so serious now, but they are still hiding the true scope. We can no longer get access to the real information inside Fangcang, the makeshift hospitals. Many suspect that all patients mobile phones have been confiscated. Otherwise, their friends and relatives would be getting their messages and videos every now and then. Now there is no news from them whatsoever.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) always focuses on maintaining social stability, which takes the form of suppressing and hiding any information that may damage the Partys image.

Since Feb. 5, the Wuhan government began sending coronavirus patients with mild or moderate symptoms to makeshift hospitals called fangcang. The authorities had these facilities built in just a few days and have been set up in over a dozen stadiums, school gyms, and exhibition centers across the city.

Some netizens claim that from Jan. 30 to Feb. 3, the mortality rate had been 2.1 percent, based on the tally of confirmed cases and deaths at that time.

Since the beginning of January, CCP officials and the experts in charge have been saying that the outbreak can be prevented and controlled. But since the outbreak has spread throughout the country and to dozens of other nations, can it still be prevented and controlled? U.S.-based Commentator Yuan Bin said the Chinese authorities cannot control the coronavirus outbreak, but they can manipulate the numbers of new cases and deaths.
WASHINGTON  The Trump administrations push to prevent China from dominating the market for advanced technologies has put it on a collision course with the same American companies it wants to protect.

Firms that specialize in microchips, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and other industries have grown increasingly alarmed by the administrations efforts to restrict the flow of technology to China, saying it could siphon expertise, research and revenue away from the United States, ultimately eroding Americas advantage.

The concerns, which have been simmering for months, have taken on new urgency as the Commerce Department considers adopting a sweeping proposal that would allow the United States to block transactions between American firms and Chinese counterparts. Those rules, on top of new restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States and proposed measures that would prevent American companies from exporting certain products and sharing technology with foreign nationals, have the tech industry scrambling to respond.

The Trump administrations crackdown has already prompted foreign firms to shun American components and technology over concerns that access to parts they need could be abruptly cut off. American companies are watching warily as the United States considers restricting export licenses for companies that sell products or share intellectual property with China, including General Electric, which sells aircraft parts to China as part of a joint venture with Safran, a French firm.
To be or not to be? That is the billion-dollar question before the Vodafone Group with regard to its Indian joint venture, Vodafone Idea.

After being rapped by the Supreme Court for non-payment of its adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues of Rs 54,000 crore, the company said on Saturday it was calculating how much it could pay, and that it would pay some amount before the next hearing of the case. When Arun Sarin, former chief executive officer (CEO) of Vodafone Group, acquired a majority stake in Hutchison Essar in 2007, he had said that he expected the business to make a major ...
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 02/15/2020



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[ Spoilers Warning: This article contains major spoilers about the current status of couple Michael and Juliana's marriage.]

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Are Michael and Juliana still together? Has the couple's wedding bliss lasted?

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The couple has remained close with Michael's ex Sarah

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Michael has lashed out at and TLC

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Michael and Juliana are adopting her niece and nephew from Brazil

Michael and Juliana even attended Sarah's wedding

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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

couple Michael Jessen and Juliana Custodio de Sousa tied the knot on Season 7 of the TLC reality series, but did they stay together or break up? What's the latest on the couple's relationship?Michael, a 41-year-old independent and self-employed wine entrepreneur from Greenwich, CT, and Juliana, a 23-year-old from Goiania, Brazil, were one of the couples who starred on 's seventh season, which just wrapped on February 9 TLC. (The Tell-All special has yet to air).Michael, who imports and distributes wine and works at wine auctions, met Juliana, an international model, during a big yacht party in Croatia."I remember when I first saw her," Michael said on the debut episode. "She's beautiful, amazing body -- I don't necessarily believe in love at first sight, but it's like we were kindred spirits."Once Michael and Juliana got to know each other, Michael said he realized she was funny, thoughtful and smart. He was amazed she was only 20 years old."There are certainly a lot of people that may pass judgment [and] may think I'm just an old sleazy, rich guy going after a young hot woman," Michael said. "It doesn't bother me at all. I don't really care."Michael pledged to support Juliana, a former seamstress who grew up very poor, financially in any way he could.Michael therefore gave Juliana access to his credit cards. Michael admitted he had spent no small amount of money on her, but he simply wanted to give Juliana the world. (When a producer later asked if the amount was around $150,000, Michael refused to comment. Juliana even purchased a car on Michael's credit card.)Michael was hoping Juliana could visit him in the United States shortly after they met, but that plan apparently fell through because her intentions were questioned and they were both denied Tourist Visas.Michael realized obtaining a K-1 visa would be the only way she could come to America -- so he proposed marriage and planned to marry her within 90 days of her visit.It took a long time for the K-1 visa to be approved, and both individuals almost lost hope because Michael could never move and leave his two children, Max and Cece, behind whom he had welcomed with his ex-wife Sarah Jessen.When Juliana had her interview in Rio de Janeiro for the K-1 visa, both Michael and Juliana were nervous because Juliana was apparently in a "high-risk" category and had a lot of stamps in her passport.There was a concern Juliana wanted to come to America so she could be involved in "illicit activities."Cameras were not permitted inside the consulate, but after the interview, Juliana said it was "bad" and they had insulted her."They just asked stupid questions. They asked me if I had been working as a prostitute the last 10 years," Juliana revealed in a confessional.Michael called it "ridiculous" and planned to consult with his lawyer over that "upsetting" interview."What does that make me? A pimp?... I don't need to [pay for sex]," Michael vented to Juliana, before she called the process "a nightmare."But after providing a police-clearance document to show Juliana had no criminal history, Juliana's K-1 visa was approved.Michael wanted Juliana's arrival in the United States to be as special as possible, so he bought a bouquet of flowers, champagne, and a $4,000 necklace, and headed to the airport in a big white Hummer limousine.Juliana said she felt like the luckiest girl in the world, and her first meeting with Michael's children went beautifully. She also got along with Sarah, who turned out to be very gracious and kind to Juliana.Sarah said while most ex-wives would probably be intimidated by such a tall, sexy, gorgeous, exotic, smart and well-traveled girl, she wasn't -- because she didn't have the need, energy or time to be jealous.Sarah apparently asked Juliana "not to parent" at first, but the women slowly became close and Juliana seemed to take on a stepmother role in Max and Cece's lives as they grew to love and respect her.Michael and Juliana planned a small, intimate wedding with good food, good wine, some dancing and about a 40-person guest count. But Michael was still quoted $50,000-$100,000 for a wedding at their new home by the wedding planner.But things between family members became tense when Sarah asked Michael if he and Juliana had a prenuptial agreement in place to ensure their children would be well taken care of financially in case something were to go wrong in their marriage.The conversation upset Juliana because she never wanted to get a divorce, and she feared Michael would have all the power and control in their marriage.Juliana had stopped working a few months prior, so she didn't have much money to bring into the marriage. Michael allegedly also broke up with Juliana once before -- and the split lasted for three months -- and Juliana couldn't afford her rent.Juliana worried that might happen again and then she'd be left with nothing. She cried about the situation and said she felt like "a loser" with no independence.After seeing Juliana so distraught over the prenup, he decided not to go through with it. After all, Michael said he was in love and had every hope his marriage to Juliana would last forever."We're not doing it. No prenup. It doesn't make sense. It's stupid. No matter what happens, you're going to be okay and the kids are going to be fine. That's not why we're getting married -- to have a business transaction," Michael finally shared with his fiancee.Later on, Juliana and Sarah bonded when the girls went to a wedding shop so Juliana could pick up her altered gown.Sarah told Juliana to not let Michael control all of their money, and she told the future bride not to be nervous because she was about to become a member of a wonderful family.It then became time for Juliana and Michael's wedding.Juliana was sad she never heard from her family members that day and cried, but she ultimately decided not to let anyone ruin her wedding since she was going to marry the man she loved.She therefore wiped her tears and walked down the aisle in her beautiful long-sleeve, lace ballgown with a tiara and veil on her head.Michael felt he and Juliana had conquered so much together, and he was emotional because they had remained in love through it all."You look amazing. Oh my gosh, you're a princess," Michael told his bride at the altar.The ceremony was officiated by Sarah, who gushed about how her children were happier than ever with Juliana in their lives.Michael was so proud of his children and felt like they were an extended family "all in this together."The wedding reception included cake and dancing, and Michael noted in a confessional, "It's more perfect than I could ever picture perfect being."Juliana was also on Cloud 9, telling the cameras Michael was "even better" than the man of her dreams and he was stuck with her forever. Juliana said even if Michael wanted a divorce down the road, she wouldn't allow it.Juliana and Michael got married on October 12, 2019, and photos from the wedding leaked online late last year.It is evident, based on this family's social media accounts, that Michael and Juliana are still a couple and remain happily married.On February 13, Juliana posted a video of Michael sitting at a table with their cute black dog -- wearing a red sweatshirt -- in his arms.In early February, Juliana posted a photo with Michael and fellow couple and Connecticut residents Tania Maduro and Syngin Colchester . She captioned it, "Love these people."Around the same time, Michael shared photos from the wedding and wrote, "No longer the worst kept secret on #90dayfiance Season 7. The most beautiful and happiest day of our lives.... Watching last night's episode was like reliving the moment.... We woke up this morning feeling like newlyweds.""Thank you [to] everyone [who] made it so special. #married #wedding #love #family #friends #greenwich #michaelandjuliana #notasecretanymore #worstkeptsecret #october12 #2019 #2020."In mid-January 2020, Michael posted several photos of Juliana in a bathing suit hugging and kissing her little black dog in their house."This is love," Michael captioned the image, adding "#love #puppies #puppiesofinstagram #puppy #puppylove #heartmelting #90dayfiance #2020 #michaelandjuliana #love."And Juliana confirmed around the same time she's currently living in Connecticut."First winter of me in Connecticut and hard get use to the cold," Juliana captioned a photo of herself in a bikini. "Thinking of summer being here. #summer #bikinilife #babyitscoldoutside #90dayfiance #michaelandjuliana #tlc."Juliana has also remained very close with Sarah, and it appears she gets along beautifully with Max and Cece.Juliana revealed she was hanging out with Sarah in her Instagram Stories on January 14, and she captioned one photo of them both growling, "Men don't control us."On January 13, it appears Juliana did a "closet challenge" with Sarah's new husband Sean Naso and Michael's daughter Cece in which Sean had to pick out feminine clothes blindfolded from a closet and then try them on.Michael also posted photos of Juliana meeting a guitar craftsman he finds remarkable on January 9, and four days earlier, he shared a photo of his love and gushed about her on Instagram."I think this is now my all-time favorite photo of my wonderful and beautiful {word redacted}, @julianacustodiooo.... and she took it herself," Michael captioned the image of Juliana looking naturally beautiful and posed."#lovehersomuch #nofilter #mensdoesntcontrolher #90dayfiance #2020 #homestudio #selfportrait #michaelandjuliana #beautiful #thankful #grateful."On January 4, Juliana and Michael both shared photos from when they celebrated a friend's 50th birthday at what appeared to be a fancy black-tie affair.Michael also took to Instagram on December 25, 2019 with photos of Juliana, his children and their dog."Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones from the Jessen/Naso family @maxwell.jessen @julianacustodiooo @keathley76 @the_real_naso @howardthedog87 @dogpercythe #gusgusthedog," Michael captioned the slideshow."We wish you a wonderful and safe holiday season and hope that you enjoy much love, happiness, and health in 2020."After the episode aired earlier this season in which Michael and Juliana met with a mediator to discuss a prenuptial agreement, Michael slammed TLC and the show's production company on Instagram for alleged "bullsh-t" editing that painted himself in a bad light."It's something where I feel like I need to call a little bit of bullsh-t because it's not really who we are. It's not really reflective of our reality," Michael said in a series of videos posted to his Instagram Stories in mid-December, according to In Touch Weekly."I think we're all a little upset that it's kind of cut out the kindness that we truly share together and it was something that was a part of the narrative of our experience that was departing from who we really are... We're all upset about the harshness for which we were portrayed. It hurts our feelings... We're not paid actors. This is still our real lives."Michael also shot down criticism he's selfish in his relationship with Juliana.In the process of defending himself in the video clips, Michael revealed he and Juliana had decided to adopt her niece and nephew from Brazil and bring them over to the United States!"Juliana and I, today, just initiated the process of adopting her niece and nephew from Brazil," Michael reportedly shared on December 15."They're 8 and 6 years old. And they're in [a] dire situation. The only way to give them a chance at a good life is to bring them to America. We've reached out to my lawyer, we're bringing them over here."For Juliana's part, she posted a video on Instagram Stories of herself walking around New York City with Michael at the time. The couple was shown hugging and then the video ended with the pair lying in bed together with Michael shirtless.Juliana also gushed about Michael and defended him following the episode of their prenup dispute."I love this guy. I just wants to share how much I love this man, and so many sacrifices he made just to be with me, isn't fair he being attacked just for what people seem on tv, the fact that I haven't been smart with my own stuff have nothing to do with him," Juliana wrote on Instagram."He doesn't deserve all this hate, he is a prince, I'm so happy that on the real life he is the most amazing human being I have ever met and has a beautiful soul, love you @michael_jessen_77 #90dayfiance."Michael later re-posted the video and wrote, "Here's the real love that isn't being shown on TV."As for Sarah, she re-married and tied the knot with Sean in early December, and based on a photo Max posted on Instagram, Michael and Juliana attended the small and intimate wedding reception at a waterfront restaurant in Greenwich, CT, together.And when Sarah posted an Instagram photo of Sean, Max, Cece and herself on her wedding day, she tagged Michael and Juliana in her post.On November 27, Juliana confirmed she no intention of returning to Brazil. While standing next to an American flag, she wrote, "At home in the USA."More pictures of Juliana, Michael and their blended family date back to November 2019.Want spoilers? Click here to visit our Spoilers webpage!
FILE PHOTO: Employees are seen during a technical visit of Brazil's Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi at the Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA in the city of Lapa, Parana state, Brazil, March 21, 2017. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino/File Photo

A business dispute between the disgraced billionaire Batista brothers in Brazil and the heir to an Indonesian pulp and paper fortune is throwing a wrench in meatpacker JBS SAs plans to list its international operations in the United States.

The dispute stems from a 15 billion-real ($3.5 billion) deal in 2017 for Jackson Widjaja, a member of the second-richest family in Indonesia, which Forbes estimates is worth $9.6 billion, to take over Brazilian pulp maker Eldorado Brasil Celulose SA.

Widjajas pulp business Paper Excellence agreed to buy Eldorado from J&F Investimentos, the Batistas holding company which also controls JBS. The deal in now in arbitration in Brazil after the two groups could not complete the second stage of the acquisition.

On Monday, JBS SA accused Paper Excellence of unleashing a lobbying campaign in the United States against its interests, according to a Brazilian court filing.

JBS said in the filing, made in a civil case in Brazil, that Paper Excellence hired lobbyists to argue against it getting U.S. subsidies meant for farmers suffering from the fallout of the trade war with China, and successfully persuaded some members of Congress to send letters to the Department of Agriculture to withhold payments to it.

The lobbyists also urged investigations into JBS, given the Batista brothers confession to bribing almost 2,000 politicians in a Brazilian corruption case, and sought to prevent a U.S. listing by the meatpacker, according to the filing.

In a statement to Reuters, Paper Excellence denied the accusations, and said these are bad faith allegations to "attack the company, its shareholders and workers."

The company said it is focused on completing the Eldorado deal.

Even so, court documents, lobbying records and interviews with people on both sides of the dispute show Widjajas Paper Excellence lobbied against JBS in the United States following their dispute over the Eldorado deal.

The lobbying has raised pressure on the Batista brothers, who are still waiting for a final decision of Brazil's Supreme Court expected in June on whether their plea deal and immunity from prosecution should be annulled or maintained.

Over the past few months, some lawmakers have written letters to the Trump administration asking for an investigation into JBS and subsidy payments to it. Reuters could not determine whether those letters were a result of lobbying by Paper Excellence.

A JBS executive told Reuters the company is proceeding with its plans to list its international operations in the United States, but without raising new money from investors. The initial IPO plans, drafted four years ago, have failed because of a veto from Brazil's development bank BNDES, and difficult market conditions. BNDES is a shareholder in JBS.

The executive denied that the changes in the listing plans were a result of the lobbying pressure, and said the company expects the transaction in the first half of the year.

JBS declined to comment on the IPO and the U.S. lobbying.

DEAL TURNS SOUTH AT THE RITZ

A turning point in the relationship between Widjaja and the Batistas was an August 2018 meeting. By then, Widjaja had bought 49% of Eldorado and the two sides were meeting at the urging of a Brazilian judge to negotiate terms for the remainder of the business.

At the meeting at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Los Angeles, the Batistas representatives said the company's value had changed since they first signed the deal and the price should be higher, if six more months were required to close the deal, according to an audio recording of the meeting reviewed by Reuters. Widjaja can be heard saying the new valuation numbers were "shocking."

After the meeting Widjaja told Claudio Cotrim, his top Brazil executive, he would rather "spend millions on lawyers than give them (Batistas) another cent," Cotrim said.

In a statement to Reuters, J&F said it did not ask for additional money within the original contract.

Paper Excellence designed a strategy with three pillars to counter the Batistas once it was clear that there would be litigation, Cotrim said. The first was the arbitration, which should have a decision by August. The second was appointing executives to the board of Eldorado during the arbitration period. The third involved a public relations campaign, with the hiring of PR firms.

Last year, Paper Excellence hired Jeff Miller, a former Republican Florida Congressman, as a lobbyist, according to lobbying reports to Congress filed in 2019.

Although Paper Excellence has no farming activities in the United States, Millers firm worked in "efforts related to subsidies in 2018 farm bill benefiting foreign companies" and "USDA trade mitigation benefiting foreign companies," according to lobbying records.

Paper Excellence declined to comment on why it hired Miller.

Last month, Miller joined another Washington lobbying firm, Mercury Public Affairs, known for lobbying for companies such as China's ZTE and firms owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Mercury said Miller did not bring his contract with Paper Excellence to his new employer.

But since last December, Mercury's co-chairman and former Louisiana senator David Vitter, has been lobbying House congressional aides asking for an investigation of the JBS listing in the United States, alleging potential risk to investors, according to emails reviewed by Reuters and confirmed by Mercury.

In Mondays court filing, JBS alleged that Mercury was hired indirectly by Paper Excellence but did not offer proof.
The move is particularly striking given how aggressively Trump, emboldened by his acquittal by the Senate, has moved to take revenge on his perceived enemies and push the limits of his power. But just as they did before the 2018 midterm elections, Democrats appear to have decided that focusing on Trumps near-daily stream of norm-shattering words and deeds only elevates him, while alienating the swing voters they need to maintain their hold on the House and have a chance at winning the Senate.
A fraudster who pretended to be a prince and swindled $16million from Australian taxpayers may not have to pay the money back, because 'he's spent it'.

New Zealand-born Joseph Hohepa Morehu-Barlow stole money from his employer Queensland Health over four years while working there as a finance officer.

In 2013 he was sentenced to 14 years behind bars at Wolston Correctional Centre in Brisbane and became eligible for parole in December 2016.

After two failed attempts at being released from jail, he has now been granted parole and is due to be released.

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Kiwi-born Joseph Hohepa Morehu-Barlow (pictured) stole money from his employer Queensland Health over four years after getting a job there as a finance officer

At the time of his arrest, the state government seized his riverside apartment and cars, recovering $11.8million, Nine News reported.

But Morehu-Barlow still owes the state government $12million because of commission, but he will likely never pay it back because he does not have the money.

Queensland Councillor for Civil Liberties, Terry O'Gorman, said: 'It makes sense of the Government to face reality and write [the money] off.

'The only way the government will get it is if he wins the lotto in New Zealand big time.'

The now-45-year-old is set to be released before the end of February and will be deported back to New Zealand within days.

After two failed attempts at being released from jail he has now been granted parole and is due to be released

Family members have reportedly been told to be prepared for his release as officials organise his travel back to New Zealand.

Since his arrest, Morehu-Barlow has claimed to be a 'changed man', dubs himself the 'perfect prison inmate' and pushed for his freedom.

Morehu-Barlow applied for parole twice and was denied before putting a third application in, in November 2019.

In February last year letters were released between Morehu-Barlow and his mother, where he expressed his anger for his two rejected parole applications.

In letter written from his cell, Morehu-Barlow explained that he turned to crime because he wanted to 'become someone'.

He also claimed to have helped more than 50 inmates with their parole applications and they've all been successful, except for his.

'My one is political, I know that, that's why I expect not to go home,' he wrote.

'I am prepared for them to say no again. I am the perfect inmate, a role model inmate. If my crime wasn't against the government I would be home already.'

In 2013 he was sentenced to 14 years behind bars at Wolston Correctional Centre in Brisbane's south-west and became eligible for parole in December 2016

Despite that Morehu-Barlow still owes the state government $12million but will likely never pay it back because he does not have the money

In the letters, he acknowledged the shame he brought to his family and asked for forgiveness from his mother.

He said the time in jail had taught him to appreciate family more than ever before as he is preparing a third application to the Parole Board.

'I know now the most precious gift/item/things in life is not money, wealth, flash house or cars  it's people, particularly family,' he said.

The fraudster's crimes began in 2004 when he walked into Queensland Health with a fake law degree and quickly climbed the ranks to become a finance officer.

In the following six years he stole money and covered it up by saying he was royalty, beginning by transferring small amounts meant for charities into his private bank account.

Kiwi-born Joseph Hohepa Morehu-Barlow (pictured) defrauded his employer Queensland Health in a four year span where he roped in almost $17million

In 2013 luxurious items seized from Morehu-Barlow's were auctioned in Brisbane, raising money for Queensland Health

When he found he wasn't getting caught he started transferring public funds into his own accounts.

In 2011, $11 million went missing from Queensland Health, which Morehu-Barlow used to buy a luxury apartment for $5.4 million, gaining attention from authorities.

Before his arrest in December 2011, Morehu-Barlow would tell friends and colleagues he was a Polynesian prince.

Before his arrest in December 2011, Morehu-Barlow would tell friends and colleagues he was a Polynesian prince

This allowed him to live an extravagant life where he would splash on exorbitant branded goods, gifts for friends and a multimillion-dollar luxury New Farm unit.

Morehu-Barlow was handed a 14-year jail sentence in 2013, with parole eligible in December 2016.

Since being eligible for parole, he has cost taxpayers almost $130,000 while remaining locked away in Wolston Jail, near Brisbane.

According to official Queensland Corrective Services prisoner prices, it would cost a minimum of $65,000 to house and feed him for a year.

The first request for parole in February 2017 was denied by the parole board while a second request in November 2017 was deferred before it was again denied.

The outcome of the request was unclear but it is understood the board previously decided he would be an 'unacceptable risk to the New Zealand community'.

Despite authorities claiming they have recovered about $11.88 million, Morehu-Barlow owes the state an increased amount of $11.6 million - due to more than $50,000 of interest accumulating each month.

This allowed him to life an extravagant life where he would splash on exorbitant branded goods, gifts for friends and a multimillion-dollar luxury New Farm unit (pictured: police investigating his riverfront apartment)

Morehu-Barlow's visa was automatically cancelled under the Migration Act.

The act, which was updated in 2014, aims to target foreign nationals convicted of crimes with a minimum one-year jail sentence.

When eventually released in New Zealand, Morehu-Barlow will face 'parole-like' conditions.

The State Government can continue to pursue him for the money by applying to register his debt.

In 2013 luxurious items seized from Morehu-Barlow's were auctioned in Brisbane, raising money for Queensland Health.

The auction included dozens of items from his one of his favourite designers, Louis Vuitton, as well as art, designer alcohol and appliances.
Frustrated pharmacists have complained to the competition regulator after a major supplier of P2 face masks increased their wholesale price from $2.50 to $38.50 per unit, amid increased demand following the bushfires and coronavirus outbreak.

Pharmacy Guild Victorian president Anthony Tassone referred the issue to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission last week, accusing Livingstone Pty Ltd of "being opportunistic in significantly increasing the prices of their goods during a public health scare to maximise profit and price gouge customers."

"It's just an extraordinary price increase," he told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Pharamacists have complained to the ACCC about supplier price hikes on face masks. Credit:Getty

Mr Tassone said pharmacists were bearing the brunt of customer frustration over the 1500 per cent mark-up, which they had no choice but to pass on to consumers.
The Department of Health and Human Services logo in Washington on Jan. 28, 2020. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Indiana Paid $1.1 Million on Behalf of Dead Medicaid Beneficiaries, Audit Shows

The state of Indiana paid some $1.1 million in Medicaid-related payments in 2016 and 2017 to managed-care organizations (MCO) on behalf of beneficiaries who were dead, according to federal auditors.

The audit (pdf), carried out by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) and released on Feb. 13, revealed that in a random sample of 100 so-called capitation disbursements made to MCOs, the state of Indiana made 95 unallowable payments.

We confirmed that 70 of the 71 beneficiaries associated with the 100 capitation payments in our stratified random sample were deceased, the OIG concluded. On the basis of our sample results, we estimated that Indiana made payments totaling at least $1.1 million ($862,097 federal share) to MCOs on behalf of deceased beneficiaries.

The organizations that received the unlawful payments are part of the Medicaid Managed Care health care delivery system.

Medicaid managed care provides for the delivery of Medicaid health benefits and additional services through contracted arrangements between state Medicaid agencies and managed care organizations (MCOs) that accept a set per member per month (capitation) payment for these services, the Medicaid program site states.

MCOs use capitation payments to manage health care costs, utilization, and quality.

Capitation is a fixed amount of money per patient per unit of time paid in advance to the physician for the delivery of health care services, said Patrick Alguire, M.D., director of education and career development at the American College of Physicians.

By contracting with various types of MCOs to deliver Medicaid program health care services to their beneficiaries, states can reduce Medicaid program costs and better manage utilization of health services, Alguire said.

Yet aspects of the system have been plagued by problems, with the Indiana report coming on the heels of others that similarly found that some states had improperly paid capitation payments on behalf of the deceased.

An audit released in September 2019 found that Illinois paid an estimated $4.6 million to MCOs to cover deceased Medicaid beneficiaries.

Illinois Medicaid administrator Doug Elwell acknowledged the findings in a written response to the audit (pdf) and said state authorities would try to recover the improper payments and refund them to the federal government.

Similarly, Indiana Medicaid Director Allison Taylor said in a written response included in the audit that the state agrees with the conclusions of the report and will seek to recoup the payments.

There are more than 71 million people currently covered under Medicaid, the social safety net program created five decades ago and expanded by President Barack Obama through the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

The Trump administration has sought to reform the system, recently announcing that it would test letting state Medicaid programs limit health benefits and prescription drug coverage for some patients in return for changing how federal government contributions to the states are made.
The parent company of prominent fashion brands Gorman and Dangerfield is locked in a court battle against Gerry Harvey's retailing giant Harvey Norman over the use of the phrase 'Black Friday'.

Factory X Pty Ltd has taken Harvey Norman to the Federal Court after the ASX-listed retailer attempted to have the fashion label's trademark over 'Black Friday' struck off the register.

Factory X, which owns popular clothing brand Gorman, has been ramping up the enforcement of its 'Black Friday' trademark. Credit:Paul Jeffers.

Factory X first registered the trademark for Black Friday in 2008 for a new brand aimed at the "gothic market", but since then the term has become synonymous with a massive sales weekend, which has surged in popularity in the past few years.

In late 2017, Harvey Norman filed a trademark for the phrase 'Black Tag Friday', intending it for a promotional campaign where products with black tags would be discounted on Friday.
Another 117 were tested for coronavirus overnight as the total screened soared over 3,000 with a sixth Briton infected by the deadly contagion.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said on Sunday that 3,109 tests have been carried out in the UK so far, with nine positive results.

Eight of those patients have now been discharged from hospital after recording two negative tests for the strain known as Covid-19.

But 'millions' of Britons with flu-like symptoms could be told by authorities to 'self-isolate' by staying at home for a fortnight if the UK's number of confirmed cases passes 100, the Sunday Telegraph has reported.

NHS staff wrapped in protective gear were seen at the back of an ambulance at St Thomas' Hospital on Thursday

Coronavirus isolation pods that have been put in place outside Addenbrooke's A&E Department in Cambridge

The paper said that senior NHS managers have been told that the service will stop testing for Covid-19 'once around 100 cases have been confirmed' across Britain.

In the last week hospitals have created 'isolation pods' to keep those being tested away from other patients, it added.

Pictures show pods outside Addenbrooke's A&E Department in Cambridge which have been erected as a precautionary measure but are not yet operational.

Yet if large numbers fall ill with mild symptoms there would be an increased risk of the virus spreading as isolation could not be maintained.

If the number of cases rises significantly those with coughs and colds may be asked to stay home to limit the chance of the outbreak spreading.

However this could spell havoc for workplaces with millions taking off two weeks if they are feeling under the weather.

Symptoms of the virus include a dry cough, fever and tiredness - many of which are also present for the common cold and flu.

The dramatic government strategy comes after the global death toll hit 1,666 and an 80-year-old man in France became the first fatality from the infection in Europe.

The change of tack follows the announcement by French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn who confirmed the death of an elderly Chinese tourist, who travelled to the country from the Hubei province on January 16.

The victim, who was quarantined in Bichat hospital in Paris on January 25, leaves behind a daughter who is battling the infection but making a good recovery.

He died of a lung infection sparked by the bug which caused his condition to 'rapidly deteriorate'.

A sign on the isolation pods outside Addenbrooke's A&E Department in Cambridge. Yet if large numbers fall ill with mild symptoms there would be an increased risk of the virus spreading as isolation could not be maintained

The isolation pods outside Addenbrooke's A&E Department in Cambridge are not yet operational

All NHS hospitals in England have been ordered to create secure pods to assess patients with suspected coronavirus

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called for 'more international cooperation' to ensure that the virus does not escalate into a global pandemic.

The World Health Organisation advises countries to do in-depth investigations of at least the first 100 confirmed cases of any pandemic.

Sixth British national tests positive for coronavirus after staying at Les Contamines-Montjoie resort in French Alps A sixth person has tested positive for coronavirus after they are thought to have contracted the infection from 'super-spreader' businessman Steve Walsh. Sales executive Steve Walsh was sent to an isolation unit at St Thomas' Hospital in London after picking up the disease from one of the 100 other delegates at a Singapore gas conference last month. Five Britons  four adults and a child  staying at the same chalet as the 'super-spreader' in France tested positive for the coronavirus. Environmental consultant Bob Saynor, 48, and his nine-year-old son were named locally as two of the Brits After the five Britons tested positive, another six were taken to hospital and put in isolation where one has now been diagnosed. A statement from the French Ministry of Health said the man's condition is not believed to be serious. Advertisement

Britain's Pandemic Influenza Response Plan includes how the 'first few 100 cases' have protocols in place to ensure isolation and treatment to ensure medics can gather sufficient information about a new virus.

However the plan details how a different approach should be taken if there is 'evidence of sustained community transmission'.

NHS England said on Saturday that all 94 people in quarantine at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral had been released.

They had been kept in isolation at the hospital after returning to the UK from Wuhan in China - the centre of the outbreak.

More than 100 people remain in isolation at the Kents Hill Park Hotel in Milton Keynes after being on a later rescue flight, the NHS added.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: 'I am also pleased that eight of the nine individuals who tested positive for coronavirus have now been successfully treated and discharged from hospital.

'I want to stress that any individuals who are discharged from hospital are now well and do not pose any public health risk to the public.'

'Again, this is evidence of how well prepared our NHS is to deal with the Wuhan coronavirus.'

Britons on board the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan have said they fear being stuck in isolation beyond the initial February 19 deadline.

So far 355 of the 3,500 people on board the ship moored at Yokohama Port near Tokyo have tested positive for the virus.

Princess Cruises president Jan Swartz said that Japanese officials may extend the quarantine for guests who have shared cabins with someone who has tested positive for the virus.

She added: 'We also now understand the Japanese may handle a select group of guests differently, anyone who had close contact with a person who tested positive - such as a cabin mate - may have to restart their quarantine from the date their close contact ended.'

But Briton David Abel said on Sunday that passengers had heard they could be stuck on board for up to two months.

In a video on YouTube Mr Abel added: 'To cut a long story short we could be here another month, not two weeks extra.

'We could be here for six, seven, eight weeks, that's what we've heard.'

The death toll in mainland China has risen by 142 to 1,665.

Chinese authorities also reported the number of new cases has fallen for the third straight day to 2,009.

The number of people infected globally stands at 68,500, according to the country's National Health Commission.
A BREWERY boss has celebrated winning a beer award only months after recovering from being seriously ill.

Chris Hearn, who founded the Loddon Brewery in Church Lane, Dunsden, with his wife Vanessa, said he was delighted.

The brewery was awarded gold at the Champion Winter Beer of Britain Awards for its traditional dark ale Hocus Pocus.

The beer will automatically qualify for the British Beer Festival in August and have the chance to be crowned the best in the country. Mr Hearn, 62, from Benson, was suffering with septicaemia, meningitis and pneumonia in May last year and was in a coma at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford for three weeks. He has been left deaf as a result of his illness.

Mr Hearn said: Its the biggest award weve ever won and I want to give full credit to everyone involved.

It has obviously been a very challenging year for me personally, so winning this award feels even sweeter.

His son Dan, 35, who is the companys marketing manager, said: Dad was in hospital for about two months in total.

He very nearly died and the whole brewery was thrown into disarray.

 To win this award, given how difficult the last year has been, is incredible. It is a hugely positive end to a horrible year. Mr Hearn jnr and his brother Luke, 33, who is the companys sales manager, attended the awards ceremony in Birmingham, which was organised by the Campaign for Real Ale.

Hocus Pocus, which was one of nine finalists, was devised by Loddons former head brewer Steve Brown, who retired in December 2018 after more than 15 years at the brewery.

It is brewed using goldings and fuggle hops, pale and dark malts and a small amount of sugar. The brewing process takes four weeks and each batch produces 5,760 pints.

Jake Bartleet-Perry, who is now head brewer, said: The name comes from a Danish band called Focus. They do lots of yodelling over the top of progressive rock music, which is not my type of music.

Steve was the head brewer from the day we opened and we have been brewing Hocus Pocus for 16 years.

The original recipe has been modified only slightly in all that time. The secret to brewing is 50 per cent science and 50 per cent creativity.

It is a beer that I really enjoy. It is actually the first beer that I brewed when I started working here under the supervision of Steve, so it is quite nice to have won an award for it. It was a complete surprise.

Mr Bartleet-Perry was unable to attend the ceremony as he was ill.
A 75-year-old man on Death Row at San Quentin State Prison in connection with a January 1991 first-degree murder died Saturday morning at a hospital away from the Marin County prison, of unknown causes, the California Department of Corrections said.

John Abel had been in prison since 1992 on multiple armed robbery counts when, in 1995, he was connected to a fatal January 1991 shooting at a Tustin bank. An Orange County jury sentenced Abel to death on Sept. 26, 1997 for first-degree murder during the commission of the Tustin robbery and for lying in wait.
Delhi University student Nauman Rafiq took his father and sister, who'd come all the way from Jammu and Kashmir to visit, to Asha Residency, an Oyo registered four-star hotel in Vijay Nagar near North Campus. But to his dismay, the hotel refused to allow them to stay

On Saturday, Nauman Rafiq, a law student at Delhi University, excited about his father and sister coming all the way from Jammu and Kashmir's Doda to visit, booked a hotel room for them near the university.

Around noon, he took his father and sister to Asha Residency, an Oyo registered four-star hotel in Vijay Nagar near North Campus.

But to his dismay, the hotel refused to allow them to stay. And on what grounds?

Rafiq explained, "They asked for proof of identity. After we furnished it, they asked where the ID is from. I said 'Jammu and Kashmir'. They said they don't allow people from Afghanistan, Balochistan, Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan to stay in their hotel. They said it is part of their policy."

After insisting he'd like to see this hotel policy in writing, Rafiq was told that "the internet is weak" and "it might not show right now" on the app. Then he was told the hotel had orders from the Delhi Police not to allow any persons from these areas till the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens protests are on.

Firstpost is in possession of the video in which Rafiq can be heard talking to the hotel manager over the phone. The manager Rahul Gautam can be heard saying, "Dekhiye, humara jo hotel hai na, wo police ground ke saath me hai".

"Actually, the problem is that we don't have a scanner or a check-in machine because of which we can't check people's luggage. It doesn't look good if we check your luggage by our hands, and you had a girl also with you. It wouldn't have looked good," Gautam said.

Gautam added that they have orders from the Delhi Police to not allow people from certain states and countries. He then continued, "We don't even accept couples, be it married or unmarried. We don't have any personal animosity against you, sir. You are also Indian, we are also Indians."

Despite multiple attempts by Firstpost, Gautam remained unavailable for comment.

The hotel receptionist Balvinder Rana denied any charges of discrimination. "There were three guests. Rafiq, who booked the room, looked like a decent person, and he had a Delhi Identity card. However, the other two guests didn't show me valid ID cards and that's why we didn't allow them to stay."

On asking what he meant by a valid ID card, Rana said the photographs in the identity cards shown by the customers didn't match the guests.

But according to Rafiq, the hotel refused to let them stay immediately after they learnt his family was from Jammu and Kashmir.

Rana added, "It is the habit of some guests to get aggressive at every little thing. They immediately accused us of discrimination when we asked for a valid ID card." Rana further denied the hotel has any policy that states that people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Balochistan and Jammu and Kashmir are not allowed to stay.

"I can show you the proof, I have many photocopies of people's ID cards from Jammu and Kashmir. This is a small issue, let's not blow it out of proportion," he added. On the hotel's official page, among the policy rules mentioned are: "No unmarried couples allowed" and "only Indian Nationals allowed."Karan Singh Rana, Station House Officer of Mukherjee Nagar Police Station, said no such instructions have been given to hotels. "The only requirement to stay at a hotel is original documents," Rana said.

Rafiq has now decided to take legal action. "There have been so many such incidents. People from Jammu and Kashmir who take admission in Delhi University and come to stay here often face discrimination at PGs. I'll go to court. People who undergo all this humiliation don't have redressal. Oyo shifts blame to hotel, hotel shifts blame to local authorities, local authorities deny involvement. There is no proper redressal mechanism. Oyo just apologises every time and that's about it."

"I want the courts to issue guidelines for states to frame redressal mechanisms in such cases, And because not everyone can approach courts or even know their rights fully, I want to create a forum of lawyers who will be available to help victims of such discrimination," Rafiq added.

Hari Harpande, Oyo's senior guest experience manager, said that there is no such policy forbidding people from Jammu and Kashmir from staying in Oyo hotels. "The property had denied entry on the basis of some restrictions by local authorities. The feedback of the concerned person has already been submitted and our ground team is working on it," Harpande said.

According to an official statement from an OYO spokesperson, this act is a serious violation of the basic principles of Oyo's ethics of doing business. The statement read: OYO Hotels & Homes is committed to bringing quality living experiences to all our guests from around the world, irrespective of their religion, race, caste and gender. Any such action that tantamounts to discrimination is a serious violation of the basic principles of OYO's ethos of doing business."

While extending an apology, the statement also said Oyo has initiated an inquiry into the asset partners unilateral actions which resulted in the inconvenience caused to the customer. "As immediate steps, we have temporarily suspended operations with the asset partner." Oyo's statement further said.
Police officers in Highland, Utah, recently helped out a mother who had a baby formula emergency.

Shannon Bird, who is a mother of five, called 911 just after 2:00 a.m. local time after realizing she wasnt able to feed her hungry 6-week-old baby, according to KSL-TV. The outlet reported that Birds husband was out of town, and she didnt have any formula in the house because she usually breastfeeds.

She was screaming. I called my husband and we were brainstorming. I started calling neighbors and teenagers in the area and my little brother and no one was awake, Bird told KSL-TV.

Ive been calling neighbors and no one will answer, Bird reportedly said on the 911 call, which was obtained by KSL-TV. Ive never been in this predicament ever. My milk just literally dried out. This is my fifth kid and this has never happened.

Related Video: Influencer Talks About Giving Up Breastfeeding Her Baby

Officers with the Lone Peak Police Department responded to the call, and picked up a gallon of milk on their way to Birds home. Once they arrived, and realized the baby was too young for regular milk, they headed back out for formula, KSL-TV reported.

Well leave this with you, Officer Brett Wagstaff says in body-camera footage, according to KSL-TV. Well be right back with some formula for your baby  shes adorable.

Wagstaff and Officer Konner Gabbitas returned with the baby formula, and didnt let Bird pay them for it. Thats the same stuff we gave my daughter when she was first born, so hopefully it doesnt upset her stomach, Wagstaff reportedly told Bird.

RELATED: Mother Admits She Once Judged Stay-at-Home Moms  But Tearfully Reveals, I Get It Now

After news of the good deed went viral, the Lone Peak Police Department praised Wagstaff and Gabbitas on Facebook, writing, So very proud of our Officers and their dedication to duty.

Bird told KSL-TV that she was shocked by the gesture, explaining that she had originally called the police in order to have them protect her kids at home while she went out to buy the formula herself.

Ive never not had food for my newborn, she told the outlet. It was really scary for me.
India and the United States share "unshakeable" ties, said US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS), Alice Wells, on Sunday, adding that the upcoming visit of President Donald Trump will further strengthen the relationship between the two countries.

"The U.S. and #India enjoy a close partnership that grows stronger day by day. Together, we are breaking records. For example: we welcomed a record number of Indian exchange students to the US last year and hope to receive even more this year," said Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs in a tweet attributed to Alice Wells.

"The ties between our countries are unshakeable, and we look forward to an even warmer relationship as @narendramodi hosts @POTUS later this month," it added.

Trump will pay a two-day state visit to India from February 24 at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"India is at the heart of the Indo-Pacific region and plays an increasingly prominent role on the world's stage. The U.S. looks forward to partnering with #India at every step of the way, " Wells further said.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Trump is expected to attend an event at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad on the lines of the 'Howdy Modi' function that was addressed by the US President and Modi in Houston in September last year. Trump is slated to pay a two-day visit to India from February 24.

During the visit, Trump, who will be accompanied by First Lady Melania, will attend official engagements in New Delhi and Ahmedabad, and interact with a wide cross-section of the Indian society, the MEA said in a statement.

The announcement of Trump's first official visit to India was earlier made by the White House on Monday, which, in its statement, said that the US President and Modi had agreed during a recent phone conversation that the trip will "further strengthen the United States-India strategic partnership and highlight the strong and enduring bonds between the American and Indian people".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
>>> Vietnam, Brunei boost cooperation in combating crimes

Welcoming the delegation of the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security, the Sultan of Brunei said their visit will help enhance the two countries cooperation, especially between his countrys law enforcement agencies and the Vietnamese ministry.

The Sultan expressed his hope that the two sides will continue strengthening cooperation in the fields they have strength in, especially fighting against transnational crimes, terrorism, drug crime, cybercrime, and economic crime.

For his part, Minister To Lam said he hopes the Sultan will keep supporting and directing Bruneis law enforcement agencies to bolster ties with the Vietnamese ministry in safeguarding national security and combating crimes.

He also called on the two countries to soon build an action programme for implementing their comprehensive partnership, which was set up during the Sultans visit to Vietnam in March 2019.

Besides, they should continue supporting each other and coordinating their stances at international forums, particularly the ASEAN and the United Nations.

Vietnam and Brunei should also actively consult each other and cooperate with other ASEAN nations in the East Sea issue towards seriously implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties (DOC) in the East Sea and building an effective, substantive and binding code of conduct (COC) in the waters that ensures interests of the parties concerned and accords with international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the official added.

During his stay in Brunei, Minister To Lam and his entourage also had a meeting with staff of the Vietnamese Embassy in the country.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 22:39:48|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, in Munich, Germany, Feb. 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)

The WHO highly appreciates the tremendous efforts China has made to contain the epidemic, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

China protects not only its own people but also people from other countries in the world. The WHO sent experts to China not because China lacks capacity but to show the solidarity and cooperation, he said.

These important facts need to be understood by the world, and China's efforts and sacrifices deserve appreciation and gratitude from all countries, Tedros said.

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday met with the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus here on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

Wang said when an epidemic occurs, rumors spread and cause panic, and there should be someone to be impartial and tell the truth.

As head of WHO, Mr. Director-General has treated the novel coronavirus epidemic with professionalism and scientific attitude, affirmed the effective measures which China has taken, and called for all parties to maintain confidence, resist rumors and strengthen cooperation. "We appreciate it," said Wang.

No epidemic is invincible, and this one is no exception. With the great efforts of the Chinese people, the prevention and control of epidemic is heading in a positive direction, Wang said.

China welcomes the visit of WHO expert team and is willing to work closely with the WHO to defeat the epidemic as soon as possible, not only safeguarding the lives and health of Chinese people, but also contributing to international public health cause, he noted.

Wang said he believed that the mutual trust and cooperation between China and the WHO will be further consolidated through the fight against this epidemic.

For his part, the WHO chief said epidemic knows no borders, and the international community must unite against this common enemy of mankind.

Tedros said he has called for all countries to unite and cooperate in the scientific approach and on the basis of factual evidence, instead of spreading fake news and stigma.

Given the misinformation about the novel coronavirus epidemic, WHO has communicated with some companies including Google to ensure that the public will get the authoritative information from the WHO, Tedros noted.

The WHO highly appreciates the tremendous efforts China has made to contain the epidemic, Tedros said.

He said China protects not only its own people but also people from other countries in the world. The WHO sent experts to China not because China lacks capacity but to show the solidarity and cooperation.

These important facts need to be understood by the world, and China's efforts and sacrifices deserve appreciation and gratitude from all countries, Tedros said.

The WHO will continue to uphold the truth, adhere to the principles, stand firmly with China and provide all possible help. WHO is confident that the epidemic will be overcome at an early date, he said. 
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: There is an alarming shortage of doctors in the country with nearly 4 lakh required, said former Union Minister and Tiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor. Delivering the convocation address at St Johns Medical College on Saturday, Tharoor said, According to the World Bank, India had just 7 doctors for every 10,000 people. When we compare with the rest of the world, China has 19, USA 25 and Australia 33. India needs 4 lakh more doctors and many more institutions if we are to meet our healthcare needs. He said, India struggles with an absymal doctor to patient ratio with 1: 2000, double the WHO minimum standard of 1:1000.

It is worse with allopathic doctors, which is 1:11082 that is ten times what the WHO recommends, he added. In mental health, it is one doctor for every 1.25 lakh patients whereas the minimum prescribed by the Indian Psychiatric Association is 1: 10,000. It reflects the low priority given by the government to fund mental health care, which is 0.06% of the overall healthcare budget. This is a challenge compounded by poor policy making at the top and unwillingness to invest more in our public health system and sparse infrastructure, he added.

Calling upon doctors to update their skills, Tharoor said they need to acquire IT skills so that they can use Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for better diagnosis of patients. With just 0.06% of our budget earmarked for health care, the impact on it on the poor was enormous, he explained. Tharoor said that a World Health Organisation report in 2017 that assessed 184 countries placed India and Bangladesh at sixth position when it comes to public managing their health needs through out of pocket expenses. One economic shock is enough to send families below the poverty line, the MP said.

In a passing reference to the present political climate, Tharoor said, 21st century has presented us with unprecedented challenges: deep rooted poverty, the expanding nexus of discriminatory politics, resource crisis, a politics of hatred and division that exploit communal differences and perhaps the greatest threat of our times - the rapidly deteriorating environmental degradation - are the strongest reminders that education should be and remain our first priority. In a highly motivating speech sprinkled with humour and anecdotes, the MP urged students to be completely aware of ethical malpractices.
Last week, Indias ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) faced a massive rebuff in the local legislative election in Delhi. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a relatively new and small political party, swept the polls, winning 62 seats and leaving only eight for the BJP in the 70-member Delhi assembly.

Delhi does not have the status of a full state and the election for its assembly used to be rather low-key until 2015 when the BJP made it a high-pitched affair. That year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself led its campaign but, despite deploying his huge party machinery, he faced a humiliating defeat at the hands of the then-novice AAP, securing only 3 seats.

This year, the BJPs campaign in Delhi was led by Amit Shah, Indias home minister considered to be Modis right-hand man and close confidant, but he too was unable to lead the party to victory.

While some opposition-minded commentators welcomed the BJPs defeat in Delhi as a crack in its monopoly of power, what happened in this election cannot be celebrated.

The BJPs electoral defeat is not really a sign of its political weakness or the decline of its political project. To the contrary, the Delhi election demonstrated that, in fact, the ruling party has been successful in pushing its political opponents to the right and forcing them to play by its rules. It is also continuing to shape the Indian electorate, carving out of it a Hindu constituency that fully embraces its Hindu nationalist agenda.

Campaigning on anti-Muslim sentiment

As in previous election campaigns, in Delhi, the BJPs leadership focused its efforts on inciting anti-Muslim sentiment to rally the Hindu vote. In fact, the party tried to turn the election into an anti-Muslim vote, using recent Muslim protests to scare its constituency.

In late January, Shah exhorted constituents to press the button [of the electronic voting machine] with such anger that the current reaches Shaheen Bagh.

Shaheen Bagh is a Muslim-dominated neighbourhood of Delhi that has witnessed persistent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The CAA gives ethnic and religious groups, excluding Muslims, from the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh the right to apply for Indian citizenship and is considered by many as anti-Muslim.

Taking advantage of the Muslim face of the anti-CAA protests, the BJP tried to create a Muslim scare in the minds of Hindus, claiming that the Shaheen Bagh protests were a threat to the integrity of India and that the protesters were traitors and agents of Pakistan.

The AAP maintained a studied silence about the protests throughout the campaign. Not only did its leaders keep a physical distance from the sites of the protests, where its electorate was expressing its apprehensions about the policies and intentions of the ruling Hindu majoritarian party, they even refrained from making statements about it. They argued that the elections were about the state of Delhi and should be fought on issues of public amenities like water, electricity, health and education.

Then when BJP functionaries accused the AAP of sponsoring demonstrations, the AAPs leader, Arvind Kejriwal, felt compelled to respond. He accused the BJP of trying to make the vote about the protest and claimed that if he had power over the police force, he would have cleared the Shaheen Bagh area in two hours.

Political commentators applauded the AAP for its smart move in not taking the ideological bait thrown by the BJP by sidestepping the contentious issue. In private, AAP leaders were reportedly saying that speaking against the CAA at this juncture would be seen as being pro-Muslim and would alienate Hindus.

At the same time, Kejriwal also made an effort to prove his Hindu credentials by using Hindu symbolism in his campaign. He went as far as reciting the Hanuman Chalisa, a devotional hymn to Lord Hanuman, and visiting a Hindu temple on the eve of the election to prove his piety.

In the end, the AAPs strategy proved successful. Hindus, especially low-income communities, voted for a party they saw as an efficient provider of basic services like water, electricity, health and education. Muslims, on the other hand, had no choice. They made a tactical decision to support the AAP, despite its silence on their victimisation, as the other opposition party  the Indian National Congress  stood no chance.

By now Congress, which has spoken out in defence of the Muslim community, has become thoroughly discredited in the eyes of Hindu voters as pro-Muslim thanks to the BJPs relentless attacks. The party, which governed Delhi for 15 years up until 2014, won no votes in this latest election.

Shaping the Hindu voter

Some have wondered why the BJP invested so much and raised the stakes so high in an election that bears no major political significance, especially given the fact that the re-election of the AAP was a foretold story.

For the BJP, the Delhi election was not as important as the electoral platform it offered to promote its Hindu nationalist vision.

One has to remember that, for the last six years, in all elections, wherever they have been fought, the BJP has presented itself as a party concerned with the interests of Hindus, a category it uses interchangeably with Indians. It has carefully excluded Muslims from its political messaging and sought to systematically demonise them.

The BJP is trying to work on the Hindu mind and transform it to an extent where it defines itself only in exclusion of or opposition to Muslims.

It wants the self-image of Hindus to be that of a tolerant, progressive, modern and liberal people who face the threat of decimation by an overbreeding, obscurantist, fanatic and anti-modern Muslim community. Hindus have to see themselves as the first and authentic carriers of Indian nationalism and view others as latecomers, lesser Indians who need to be kept under observation, nationalised and disciplined in proper Indian manners.

The growing political distance between Hindus and Muslims further aggravates the situation and deepens the mistrust that Hindus nurse towards Muslims. The BJP keeps harping on these faultlines and, by doing so, is shaping a Hindu vote bank.

In the long term, the transformation of the Indian electorate into a Hindu one would guarantee the BJPs indefinite stay in power.

This process is also forcing opposition parties to adopt the BJPs rhetoric and policies in order to stay relevant on the political scene. As parties like Congress are slipping into obscurity with their stance in defence of pluralism and minority rights, survivors like the AAP have a chance of winning, at least at a local level, by keeping silent on Muslim issues and backing the anti-Muslim policies of the central government.

In this sense, the huge majority the AAP got in Delhi by using this strategy is no solace to Muslims.

The AAP had backed the abrogation of article 370 and division of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, which Muslim communities have protested against. Most of the opposition parties have also welcomed the announcement of a Ram temple trust, which is to raise funds to build a Hindu temple at the location of the destroyed Babri mosque.

With their complicity, central policies targeting Muslims will continue unabated and India will keep going down the majoritarian path that the BJP has put it on.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
The best-selling sedan of January 2020 in India is the Maruti Dzire with a sales growth of 17.47%.

The list of the top 20 best-selling sedans in the month of January 2020 sees a total sales figure of 39,816 units; a decline of 16.61% compared to that of January 2019 (47,477 units). The start of the new decade gave a tough time for sedans and only four models managed to cross 4,000 units, with the top three being compact-sedans.

Starting with the segment leader, the Maruti Dzire hit 22,406 units in January 2020 and registered a growth of 17.47% compared to the same month, last year. The Hyundai Xcent (now replaced by the Aura) gathered a collective sales of 6,691 units last month, compared to 2,121 units back in January 2019. The Honda Amaze faced a sales dip of more than 60%, but still managed to come in the third position at 3,160 units. At fourth position and with the last four-digit sales figure, 1,734 units of the Honda City were sold in January 2020. Compared to its sales in January 2019, the first proper sedan on the list faced a loss of 64.28%.

No Best Selling Sedans Jan 2020* Jan 2019 Diff % 1 Maruti Dzire 22,406 19,073 3,333 17.47 2 Hyundai Xcent 6,691 2,121 4,570 215.46 3 Honda Amaze 3,160 7,981 -4,821 -60.41 4 Honda City 1,734 4,855 -3,121 -64.28 5 Hyundai Verna 957 3,216 -2,259 -70.24 6 Tata Tigor 891 2,365 -1,474 -62.33 7 Maruti Ciaz 835 2,934 -2,099 -71.54 8 Skoda Rapid 815 844 -29 -3.44 9 Toyota Yaris 725 343 382 111.37 10 Ford Aspire 518 1,539 -1,021 -66.34 11 VW Vento 250 562 -312 -55.52 12 Skoda Octavia 207 173 34 19.65 13 Honda Civic 146 0 146  14 Skoda Superb 136 72 64 88.89 15 VW Vento 134 734 -600 -81.74 16 Toyota Camry 85 94 -9 -9.57 17 Hyundai Elantra 63 68 -5 -7.35 18 Nissan Sunny 39 18 21 116.67 19 Tata Zest 24 562 -538 -95.73 20 Toyota Corolla 0 190 -190 -100.00  Total 39,816 47,744 -7,928 -16.61

*Jan 2020 sales data via Auto Punditz. The Hyundai Verna, with 957 units and a sales drop of 70.24% in January 2020, sits ahead of the 10 sedans which hit only three-digit figures. The Tata Tigor attained 891 units with a decline of 62.33%. The Maruti Ciaz and Skoda Rapid attained 835 units (-71.54%) and 815 units (-3.44%), respectively. The Toyota Yaris, on the other hand, did rather well in January 2020 at 725 units (a growth of 111.37%).

The Ford Aspire hit 518 units last month compared to 1,539 units in January 2019. The Volkswagen Vento, at exactly 250 units, went through a sales drop of 55.52%. Meanwhile, the Skoda Octavia became the best-selling entry-level luxury sedan on the list with a sales figure of 207 units in January 2020, and a growth of 19.65%. The Honda Civic is a newcomer and attained 146 units last month.

The Skoda Superb and Volkswagen Vento gathered similar January 2020 sales figures at 136 units (+88.89%) and 134 units (-81.74%), respectively. They are the last models to hit three-digit figures on the January 2020 sedan-sales chart.

Last month, 85 units of the Toyota Camry Hybrid were sold (with a loss of 9.57%) while the newer Hyundai Elantra gathered 63 units at the same period (with a decline of 7.35%). Only 39 units of the Nissan Sunny were sold in January 2020, but the outdated sedan registered a growth of 116.67%. The Tata Zest (yes, it is still on sale) achieved 24 units compared to 562 units in the starting month of 2019. Finally, at the bottom of the list rests the Toyota Corolla with a sales drop of 100% in January 2020. In other words, not even a single unit of the sedan was sold last month.
Internally displaced people, who fled from Idlib, ride on a pick up truck with their belongings in Azaz, Syria February 15, 2020. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

More than 80,000 people are sleeping in the open air in freezing temperatures after fleeing a Syrian government offensive in the northern province of Idlib.

Most of that number have absolutely no shelter at all, while close to 20,000 are sleeping underneath trees for the little protection they provide.

At least six children are reported to have died from the cold in recent days, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC). One family was found dead in the snow after they were unable to find a place to stay.

The scale of the humanitarian crisis has shocked charity workers. Aid organisations were already stretched to breaking point when waves of people began to flee a government offensive to capture the last rebel-held province.

More than 800,000 people have fled their homes since December 1, the vast majority of them women and children, making it the biggest wave of displacement of the entire Syrian civil war.

"An already catastrophic situation in north-west Syria is getting even worse," said Misty Buswell, from the IRC.

"As people lose their homes, see their children killed by airstrikes or before their eyes as they desperately try to keep them warm, it is not only the humanitarian situation in Idlib that is at breaking point, but the people there too."

With temporary camps full, mosques and schools had opened their doors to provide shelter. But they, too, are now full and people have nowhere to go. Heavy snow in some parts of Syria's north has exacerbated the situation. As temperatures hit -11C, people are burning clothes, tyres and plastic bags to stay warm.

Mark Cutts, the UN deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, described the new displacement in Idlib as an "exodus" as he called for international action on the crisis.

"We've been calling repeatedly in the Security Council for the protection of the civilian population," he said last week.

"What's this world coming to if we're not able to protect three million civilians?" he asked. The battle in Idlib has pitted an array of nationalist and jihadist rebel groups, some of which are supported by Turkey, against the Syrian government and its backers Russia and Iran.

Russian and Syrian government airstrikes have targeted hospitals and emptied entire towns and cities of people. The fighting has taken a devastating human toll over the past year. According to the UN, at least 1,710 civilians have been killed in north-west Syria.
Setting his government's roadmap for the next five years after being sworn in as chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "blessings" for fast paced development of the national capital and asserted that people may have voted for different parties, but he is the "chief of minister of all".

Kejriwal along with his cabinet colleagues Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Gopal Rai, Imran Hussain, Rajendra Pal Gautam and Kailash Gahlot were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal at the historic Ramlila Maidan that was a sea of tricolour with a large number of people and party supporters turning up for the event.

Striking a conciliatory political tone, the 51-year-old bureaucrat-turned-politician sought cooperation from his rivals BJP and Congress in making Delhi the "number one city", saying he has "forgiven" them for the remarks against him during the high-octane poll campaign.

"We have forgiven our opposition for whatever remarks they made on us. I would also like to request the opposition parties to forget what happened during the elections. I want to work together with all the parties for the development of Delhi. I want to work together with the central government to make Delhi a world-class city," the chief minister said.

"I had also invited the prime minister for the oath ceremony today, but I guess he could not make it because he was busy. I want the prime minister to bless us so that we can work for the development and progress of Delhi, Kejriwal, whose previous tenure was marred by several run-ins with the Centre, said in his nearly 20-minute address.

The prime minister was in his constituency Varanasi, where he inaugurated several projects.

The AAP scripted a phenomenal victory by sweeping 62 out of the 70 seats in the Delhi assembly polls after a campaign where Kejriwal desisted from directly attacking Modi and stuck to his development plank.

Kejriwal termed himself Delhi's "son" and the "chief of minister of all" people irrespective of the party they voted for.

During his speech, he credited the people of Delhi for giving birth to a new kind of " of work and performance", listed the various initiatives and defended the 'freebies' extended by his government, saying it would be a shame if he charged people for basic amenities like education and health.

The new is "of schools, hospitals, 24-hour and cheap power supply, water, roads, women's security, corruption-free Delhi and is being discussed all over the country, he said, adding that initiatives like mohalla clinics are being replicated across the country and abroad.

"In the last five years, we have tried to develop Delhi on a fast mode and in the next five years, we will continue the same," he said.

The AAP supremo began his address with 'Bharat Mata ki Jai', 'Inquilab Zindabad' and 'Vande Mataram' and ended it by singing 'Hum Honge Kamyaab', in which he was joined by the crowd at the venue.

Several thousands carrying AAP and national flags converged at the Ramlila Maidan, which has been a witness to Kejriwal's transformation from an activist to a chief minister, as it reverberated with slogans of 'Lage Raho Kejriwal' and 'We Love You Kejriwal'.

Kejriwal's parents, wife Sunita, a former IRS officer, daughter Harshita also attended the swearing-in ceremony.

The AAP leader had extended an open invitation to Delhiites for the ceremony to see their "son" taking oath.

Supporters also poured in from several states, including Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.

At least, six 'Little Mufflermen' dressed up in Kejriwal's trademark winter wear and sporting a faux moustache were the cynosure of all eyes at the event.

Among them was Aavyan Tomar, who was specially invited after his pictures dressed up as Kejriwal on the counting day had gone viral when he appeared outside the AAP headquarters here.

The child played around and in front of the ceremonial platform while Kejriwal addressed the gathering after being sworn-in as the chief minister of Delhi for the third consecutive time.

AAP MLAs Raghav Chadha and Somnath Bharti also were seen taking selfies and playing with Tomar.

Party supporter and Bollywood musician Vishal Dadlani, who had composed 'Lage Raho Kejriwal' song, was among those who attended the event.

From 'Singham 3' to 'Nayak 2', AAP supporters at the swearing-in held posters likening their leader to popular Bollywood protagonists who fought for justice.

"Nayak 2 is back again," read one of the posters, which had a picture of actor Anil Kapoor on the right, and that of Kejriwal wearing the famous "Anna cap" with 'Aam Aadmi' written in Hindi over it on the left.

Huge banners sporting 'Dhanyawad Delhi' were also put up in and around the venue and there were tight security arrangements.

Many AAP supporters said it is time for Kejriwal to go national and his next aim should be to change the country's

"The atmosphere in the whole country has turned toxic, now the AAP should work towards changing that. It is very important to clean other parts of the country," Suman Rao, a construction worker from Bhopal, said.

The AAP had planned to keep the ceremony "Delhi-specific" and had not invited chief ministers of other states or political leaders. Only BJP MLA Vijendra Gupta, who was leader of opposition in the last assembly, attended the ceremony, though all BJP MLAs and MPs from Delhi were invited.

"Your son has taken oath for the third time as Delhi chief minister. This is not my victory but yours," the chief minister said.

Kejriwal said he did not give step-motherly treatment to anyone and has worked for all in the last five years.

"I am everybody's chief minister, be it supporters of the AAP, the Congress or the BJP. I have never discriminated against them in the last five years. I want to say to the 2 crore people of Delhi, irrespective of whom you voted for in the elections or what party you belong to, you are my family now. You can come to me without any hesitation and I will complete all your work irrespective of your affiliation, caste and whether you are rich or poor," he said.

"They say Kejriwal is making everything free, but I want to say that everything precious in the world is free. The love that a mother has for her child is precious and priceless, the fact that a father stays hungry to afford a good future for his child is priceless. Shravan Kumar served his parents with all his might. Kejriwal is your Shravan Kumar.

"Do I start charging people for education and health? Do I start charging patients for their operations? That is not possible," Kejriwal said.

Around 50 people from different walks of life who contributed to the development of the city during the last five years shared the stage with Kejriwal as special guests during the ceremony.

Shabina Naaz, who has been working with night shelters around Chandni Chowk and Kashmiri Gate for the past five years, said she can't believe it really happened.

"When the first time I got a call I could not believe that it is really happening. I can tell you that only the AAP government can invite a person as unimportant as me," Naaz said.

Lazwanti, who has been working as a sanitation worker for the last nine years in Delhi, said recognising people like her shows the "affectionate nature" and the ground connect of the AAP government.

"No one recognises our contribution but this government is different. It not only recognised our contribution but also honoured us," and an emotional Lazwanti said.

Arun Kumar, a bus marshall who saved a six-year-old from being kidnapped, said the experience has changed his life.

"It is an honour for me to represent bus marshals. We work hard every day to provide security to women. The AAP government is very serious about women safety and we are making the dream of Arvind Kejriwal true," said Kumar.

Kejriwal, in his address after taking oath as chief minister, also lauded the contribution of the 'Delhi ke nirmata', saying "it is not me, or AAP but all people like these who are responsible for developing the national capital".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Shaheen school sedition charges against women and students in Bidar also put the government into embarrassing situation.

BENGALURU: A stormy Budget Session awaits Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yediyurappas six month-old administration with the Opposition set to haul the government over hot coals on several issues including the clamp down on anti-CAA protests, failure to handle floods, sedition charges against two women and children in Bidar, and firing in Mangaluru during protests against the Union government. The joint session of legislature would commence on Monday and last till Friday, February 21. Subsequently, the budget session would commence on March 2 with Mr Yediyurappa scheduled to table the budget on March 5. Opposition has many burning issues to pin down the ruling party in the session. First, governments failure in handling anti-CAA protest rallies across the state and imposing ban on conducting protest rallies and high court slap on the government for imposing ban on protest rallies, during first leg of the session, Congress will take up the issues of CAA and Mangaluru firing to corner the government. Shaheen school sedition charges against women and students in Bidar also put the government into embarrassing situation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off Kashi Mahakal Express (Varanasi-Indore) via video conferencing here on Sunday.

The train will connect the three Jyotirling pilgrim centres of Varanasi, Ujjain and Omkareshwar.

The Prime Minister, who arrived in his parliamentary constituency on Sunday morning, is scheduled to inaugurate over 30 projects, including a 430-bed super speciality government hospital and a 74-bed psychiatry hospital at Benaras Hindu University, besides an exhibition titled 'Kashi Ek Roop Anek'.

Earlier he unveiled a 63-feet tall statue of Jana Sangh leader Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya and inaugurated a memorial centre in honour of the late leader.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A new rideshare service will soon launch in Sydney in what's being touted as a 'huge milestone' for the company's Australian expansion.

DiDi - which is already available in Melbourne, Geelong, Newcastle, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Perth -announced it would launch in Sydney on March 16.

The Chinese rideshare giant is offering 50 per cent off rides for the first four weeks of launch and up to $1,200 worth of discounts for new riders who sign up before March 16 in a bid to lure customers away from competitors Uber and Ola.

Customers who refer a friend to the service will also receive $20 in ride vouchers.

Rdeshare giant DiDi has launched in Sydney and offering huge discounts for new customers

DiDi will try to poach customers and drivers from rival companies Uber and Ola

In a bid to poach drivers from rival companies, DiDi is offering a five per cent service fee for the first four weeks of launch, and a zero per cent service fee for anyone who signs up two or more friends to drive for the company.

That means drivers who sign up with DiDi will be able to take home virtually all of their fares for the first month, as opposed to the average of 75 per cent with other companies.

DiDi Australia's general manager Lyn Ma said they wanted to work with Sydney transport stakeholders, use local expertise and artificial intelligence to 'innovate and build a better, trusted product with the aim to be Sydney's preferred ridesharing platform'.

'DiDi's entry into the global economic and cultural hub of Sydney is a huge milestone for our continued expansion across Australia,' Mr Ma said in a statement.

'Sydney is home to some of the best attractions in the world and we are excited to provide its residents and visitors a safe, reliable and value-for-money way to get around one of the world's most stunning cities.'
Students take part in a climate strike demo on 14 February 2020 in London, England. In the 15 years since Kyoto was ratified, the climate change movement has become more vocal. Photo: Peter Summer / Getty

By Rosie McCall

16 February 2020

(Newsweek)  The Kyoto Protocol went to force a full 15 years ago todayand yet, the climate crisis is more urgent than ever.

On Sunday, 15 years will have passed since the Kyoto Protocol was ratified on February 16, 2005, which was eight years after it was negotiated back in 1997. Progress stalled because of a failure to achieve the quota of countries required to implement the protocol. The stalemate was finally broken when Russia signed up to the deal: once Russia joined, countries committed to Kyoto produced 55 percent or more of global emissions between them.

The purpose of the protocol was to provide structure to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC (1994)a treaty committing industrialized countries to make efforts to reduce emissions and meet individual targets. The UNFCCC itself was more a set of guiding principles laying down objectives than a concrete set of rules with rigid commitments. The Kyoto Protocol changed this by setting targets. These initially added up to an average 5 percent reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to 1990 levels to be carried out between 2008 and 2012.

It was the first international effort to tackle the problem of global warming. Today, 192 parties across the world participate in the Kyoto Protocol, with notable exceptions including the U.S.

Thousands of Australians attend a huge benefit concert in Sydney on 16 February 2020 aiming to raise A$10m (5.15m; $6.71m) to help communities devastated by bushfires. Photo: EPA / BBC News

However, by all objective measurements, it has been deemed to have failed. Emissions continue to rise, breaking records (again) in 2019, while the amount of CO 2 in the atmosphere reached 416 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in recorded history on Monday. Current temperatures are at least 1 above pre-industrial levels and according to recent projections, we are on course to exceed warming of 4 by the end of the century.

Whats more, the Doha Amendment, which was added to the protocol in 2012, has yet to come into force. The intention was to set out a new commitment phase between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2020 but it never received the 144 out of 192 acceptances required from the parties signed up to Kyoto.

One of the greatest stumbling blocks from the start was the failure of the U.S. to commitand which occurred for a second time with the Paris Agreement. While the U.S. has typically taken a leading role in international initiatives, there appears to be a strong reluctance to do so in climate-related matters. Just as President Donald Trump took the U.S. out of Paris in 2017, former-President George Bush took the U.S. out of Kyoto in 2001.

If the U.S. had been in from the start, it would have been a different trajectory altogether, Michael Lazarus, a Senior Scientist and director of the Stockholm Environment Institutes U.S. Center, told Newsweek. There would have been a sense that we were all acting together. []

Residents look on as flames burn through bush in Lake Tabourie, Australia, on 4 January 2020. Photo: Brett Hemmings / Getty Images

The ineffectiveness of global action is countries not being ready to act deeply and a global agreement alone is not sufficient to do that, said Lazarus. That motivation needs to come from the countries themselves and we are seeing more and more of that.

It has to be thought of as a first step and a product of its time, Steve Herz, the Senior International Policy Advisor for the Sierra Clubs International Climate and Energy Campaign, added. []

One of the major challenges to emerge is the advent of populist and nationalist politics around the world, Herz told Newsweek.

The idea that we will be ok if we build walls, if we keep those other people out, if we put our interests firstand that is not a realistic or reasonable solution, said Herz.

At the same time, the fossil fuel industry continues to channel vast sums into lobbying at high political levels. [more]

15 years after the Kyoto Protocol went into force, the climate crisis is worse than ever
UPDATE: 3:48 p.m. Monday, Feb. 17 - A Red Bluff woman is back in America after being quarantined on a cruise ship in Japan.

Wanda Schuler arrived at Travis Air Force base late Sunday night.

Schuler was one of more than 300 Americans quarantined on the Diamond Princess Cruise ship because of the coronavirus.

Those passengers will remain under quarantine at the Travis Air Force Base for two weeks.

Action News Now spoke with Schuler on Monday, she said shes happy to finally be back.

Were here, were back, thank god, Schuler said. Im an air force retiree so Im really happy to be here and I pray to god I can stay healthy because there was certainly a lot of exposure on that aircraft.

Schuler said shes still trying to get over the jet lag but has managed to get some rest.

She added shes comfortable with her accommodation. She has a living room, bedroom, shower, kitchenette, and a balcony with a nice view.

Listen to the raw phone interview that Action News Now had with Schuler in the Soundcloud player above.

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RED BLUFF, Calif. - A woman from here at home who has been quarantined on a cruise ship in Japan because of the Coronavirus outbreak will soon be back in America.

62-year-old Red Bluff resident, Wanda Schuler is among more than 3,700 people, including 428 Americans, who have been quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan for about two weeks.

Saturday, the U.S. Embassy in Japan emailed a letter to the American passengers saying they're finally going to be taken off the ship and flown back to either California or Texas where they must undergo two more weeks of quarantine.

Schuler says she believes she will be taken to the Travis Air Force Base which is located near Fairfield, California.

The letter also states that those U.S. citizens who choose not to return via the charter plane "will not be able to return to the United States for a period of time."

Reporter Kristian Lopez spoke with Wanda Schuler on the phone on Saturday, she says she remains in good spirits.

"I just want to be well-informed and know that we are going to be safe and not pose any risk to our family and friends when we get back to the United States and if that means going through another quarantine, so be it," Schuler said.

The letter from the U.S. Embassy also says, "We recognize this has been a stressful experience and we remain dedicated to providing all the support we can and seeing you safely and expeditiously reunited with family and friends in the United States."

At least 24 Americans are among the 219 people infected with Coronavirus aboard The Diamond Princess Cruise, Schuler is not one of them.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 22:13:44|Editor: Xiaoxia

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Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune attends a meeting of the Algerian government with local governors in Algiers, Algeria, Feb. 16, 2020. The Algerian government started on Sunday a two-day meeting themed "For a new Algeria" with local governors, Algerian official APS news agency reported. (Xinhua)

ALGIERS, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Algerian government started on Sunday a two-day meeting themed "For a new Algeria" with local governors, Algerian official APS news agency reported.

The meeting in the capital Algiers was attended by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad, other ministers and more than 1,000 central and local executives.

It focuses on improvement of the citizens' living conditions through rational management of economic property, modern management of new cities and the means to reduce road accidents.

During his presentation of his government's Plan of Action before the parliament on Tuesday, Djerad said one of the most important challenges of the government is to restore people's confidence in the country's institutions.
Israeli officials said on Sunday that their citizens who are being kept aboard a quarantined cruise ship in Japan will be flown back home to "save their lives."

The country's Foreign Minister Israel Katz said three Israelis have tested positive for the deadly new virus, and are looked after by Japanese health authorities.

According to Israeli media, 15 Israelis are aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which has docked at Yokohama, a port city southwest of Tokyo.Passengers have been quarantined on the ship since 5 February.Speaking after a meeting of the cabinet in Israel, Katz said the rest of the Israelis who they intend to bring back will be quarantined when they arrive.

(Image Credit: AP)
PHILADELPHIAGreat art elicits complex emotions that mirror the human experience, with layers of feelings that rise and fall. Theatergoers the world over have called Shen Yun Performing Arts a source of great art and deep emotion, inspired by Chinas 5,000 years of divinely-inspired civilization.

Denise DeProspo, a dance teacher and choreographer at New Jerseys Marcia Hyland Dance and Arts Center, attended New York-based Shen Yun with her husband Len. Both described the feelings of hope and sadness, beauty and pain that the show elicited.

The expression, the beautiful art expression, Denise began, The colors of the costumes, and the acrobatics of the dancing, and technique, it was just beautiful.

The DeProspos took in the evenings performance at Philadelphias Merriam Theater on Feb. 15, 2020.

The art director was amazing, Len said, who is retired and now attends numerous performances throughout the year, especially dance performances. I have no idea how he put all of this together, that covered so many thousands of years, and put it together for an hour and a half presentation that hit home, and made such a great point about the Chinese culture, about the dance, about the combination of dance and acrobatics. The instruments, the musicians, the dedication was just amazing. Im very, very impressed by tonight. My first Shen Yun will not be my last.

The dance expert agreed with her husband. It was a beautiful showing of dance and the arts. A wonderful experience. I would recommend anyone to come and see this show.

Shen Yuns mission is to revive Chinas true culture through highly-expressive art forms native to that ancient civilization such as classical Chinese dance, bel canto vocal performances, couture costumes, and more. The artists combine those with fine arts from the West such as orchestral compositions for a live orchestra, and digitally animated backdrops, to ultimately breathe new life into Chinas authentic culture. A deep spiritual essence and divine inspiration have comprised the core of the culture since time immemorial.

Thinking back on the performance he had just seen, Len remarked on the cultural experience of the Chinese, I mean, how many years it goes back and the concentration of the arts, the integrity of the arts, the delicacy of the arts, was amazing [in Shen Yun]. Very touching. I was very impressed by the different levels of culture that have gone on over the years.

Denise added her educated opinion about Shen Yuns dancers and their technique: It was excellent.  beautiful artistry. Oh, theyre magnificent. Theyre absolutely magnificent. Theyre strong and gentle and beautiful. I enjoyed every moment.

Shen Yun cannot perform in China today due to a decades-long campaign by the Chinese Communist Party to wipe out traditional Chinese culture, especially its spiritual beliefs and practices. Shen Yun depicts the persecution that the CCP is waging on innocent spiritual believers in China today, and the silver lining that has formed along with it as good people exhibit compassion and faith in the face of such brutality.

Len described what touched him the most about Shen Yunits cultural essenceand described a sense that many have watching great arta deep and complex tapestry of emotions.

It was sad to see in a way, the little bit of oppression that they cannot perform these arts in China. Its such a cultural, its such a soft, its such an openness that they want to share and not be able to do that is sad to me in a sense. But the excitement and the energy level that they exuded tonight was amazing. It touched me very deeply, very deeply. And I gotta say the costumes were amazing.

I see a history of people that are such hard-working people, Len continued, and are religious people, to go through what theyve gone through.  And to see such a faithful, hardworking culture not be able to express it openly in their own country, after all, theyve gone through, is sad. But it is, on a happier note, great to see they can express it here and share with us here in the United States, throughout the world really. Their feelings, their emotion, their religion, and their beliefs. It was really touching.

Shen Yuns divine themes brought a different aspect to dance, Denise added. The spirituality was a beautiful accent to the art of dance.

With reporting by NTD Television and Brett Featherstone.

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.
Six people were arrested for allegedly committing robbery at a senior citizen's house in Paschim Vihar (West) after gaining entry by posing as executives of a gas distribution agency and injecting her and the domestic help with sedatives, police said on Sunday.

The accused -- Arif (30), Moolchand (22), Javed (46), Mohd. Akhtar (28), Ghanshyam Tiwari (36) and Rajesh (30) -- were arrested while a co-accused, Vineet, is still at large, they said.

A 65-year-old woman had reported to police on January 29 about three unknown men who made a friendly entry into her house by impersonating executives of a gas distribution agency for obtaining metre readings, police said.

Later, the accused made the woman and her domestic help unconscious by injecting a sedative. They robbed the jewellery worn by the woman and that kept in the almirah by overpowering the victim and her servant, a senior police officer said.

With the help of technical surveillance, one of the suspects, Javed, was identified, he said.

On Friday, police received inputs about the presence of suspects and six of them were arrested from Delhi's Jwalapuri. Robbed jewellery was also recovered, police said.

Interrogation revealed that the accused made friendly entry in the victim's house by pretending to be executives of a gas distribution company for obtaining PNG metre readings and they made the victim unconscious by injecting some medicine before committing the robbery, they said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Saturday claimed that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had agreed to meet the protesters opposing the new citizenship law at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh and welcomed the "move".

Shah had told a news channel a few days ago that anyone who wanted to discuss issues related to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) with him could seek time from his office and they would be given time "within three days".

On Saturday, a section of Shaheen Bagh protesters said they were ready to meet Shah to raise their concerns over CAA but added that the onus was on the government to call them for talks.

However, despite Singh's claim, there is no official confirmation on whether Shah has agreed to meet Shaheen Bagh protesters.

The protesters, mainly women, have been staging a sit-in against the CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) there for the past two months.

"...Honourable Home Minister Amit Shahji has decided to hold talks with Shaheen Bagh protesters over their demand (on CAA) and this is a good signal. I am hopeful their demand for withdrawal of the new citizenship act will be met," Singh told reporters in Dhar.

Singh said if other demands of the protesters, like making the National Population Register exercise "friendly", were met, then it would create a "good atmosphere in the country".

Speaking in Indore, Singh said had the Narendra Modi government held talks with Shaheen Bagh protesters earlier, the situation would not have come to such a pass.

"If the Central government had held talks with mothers and sisters squatting at the Shaheen Bagh, the situation would not have come to such a pass in the country. But the dialogue should not be confined to discussions merely. I demand from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to withdraw the unconstitutional CAA," he told reporters.

Questioning the need for the CAA, Singh claimed one crore people have been given citizenship, including around 85 per cent Hindus, after Independence.

"There was also no need for the NRC and the NPR given that the people have Aadhaar cards, driving licenses, voter identity cards etc. which can prove their citizenship," he said.
As Khusei Daurov lay dazed after being caught up in inter-ethnic clashes near his home in southern Kazakhstan, he felt the cold steel of a pistol against his forehead. Violence had broken out among local Kazakhs and a group of ethnic Chinese Muslims called Dungans, who number more than 150,000 across Central Asia. Daurov, a Dungan community leader, was trying to calm tensions when a Kazakh man put the gun to his head. Another Kazakh intervened, convincing the man to let Daurov go. His eyes glazed with tears as he recalled the incident a few days later, a sling supporting an arm that was broken in the assault. But Daurov was still reluctant to condemn his Muslim Kazakh "brothers" for the violence. "It wasn't Kazakhs who did this to our people," he said. "These people were bandits and extremists." The February 7 rampage, which resulted in 11 deaths, saw hundreds of ethnic Kazakh assailants descend on the Dungan village of Masanchi, setting fire to homes, shops and livestock. In the worst such violence in nearly three decades of independence, at least nine of the dead were Dungans, while one was a Kazakh, officials said. One body has not yet been identified. The bloody clashes have highlighted underlying tensions in a region where many ethnic groups live side by side, and have left many in the Dungan community wondering what their future holds. - From China in fear - Life in Central Asia for the Dungans has proven quiet compared to the brutal repressions they fled in imperial China in the 19th century. Straddling the border between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the people who claim Chinese and Arab heritage mostly work in agriculture or run small businesses. The Mandarin dialect that Dungans speak, which is infused with Farsi and Arabic loanwords, sets them apart in a region where Turkic tongues dominate. Yet this has not prevented Dungans forming close bonds with other groups in ex-Soviet Central Asia, even if intermarriage is the exception rather than the rule. For Batyrbek Toreyev, a civil servant who lives in the majority-Kazakh village of Karakemer, the sudden raid of nearby Masanchi was "unthinkable". "Our families are friends with their families. We stop by each others' houses. What happened has happened now. We need to get on with our lives," he said, carrying a shopping bag with two bricks of white bread. Many Dungans of Central Asia have family ties to China, especially western China, where they are known as Hui. Beijing has targeted the group of some 10 million as part of a crackdown on Muslims that has also swept up Turkic groups like Uighurs, Kazakhs and Kyrgyz in the western Xinjiang region. Some Kyrgyz and Kazakhs argue that Dungans have leveraged their linguistic and cultural heritage to benefit unfairly from trade with China, which floods the region with imports. In 2013, dozens of ethnic Dungan truckers were reportedly beaten by Kyrgyz drivers at a border crossing with China where truckers compete for cargo bound for the country's bazaars. Earlier, Kyrgyz and Dungans were involved in a village conflict that saw Dungan homes burned and some families flee to Kazakhstan to join relatives there. But after the most recent clashes, it was Kyrgyzstan that became a safety net for thousands of mainly women and children seeking refuge from the fighting. Daurov said that all ethnic groups in Kyrgyzstan were due "enormous thanks" for providing food, aid and shelter to his fleeing compatriots, many of whom have since returned home. - Charred buildings - In Masanchi, where charred buildings have marred a once-tidy central strip, Kazakh state officials have set about restoring a sense of normality. Oil-rich Kazakhstan's authoritarian leadership prides itself on guaranteeing inter-ethnic harmony in a country where the foreign ministry says "over 100 ethnic groups are living in peace." At one of several mosques, Dungan elders sat down for steaming bowls of rice and mutton pilau with Kazakh police, whose heavy presence in the village was a welcome reassurance, residents said. Elsewhere, a team employed by the regional administration was removing burned debris from the shell of what used to be Masanchi's largest supermarket. But even among these workers, there were signs of resentment towards the minority. "The Dungans beat up one of our old men," said one man, Ermek Saparov, who called the conflict a "misunderstanding". Saparov said that the altercation two days before the February 7 clashes had prompted calls across online messengers for attacks against Dungan communities. His co-worker Ulan Ashirbek admitted he was tempted to respond to the calls but was busy at work. "You see, this was a Dungan shop, but it is Kazakhs who are doing all the clearing up," Ashirbek complained. Both Kazakhs and Dungans agree that the conflict, which drew in Kazakhs living hundreds of kilometres away, would not have erupted without online messengers that allowed information -- and disinformation -- to spread rapidly through communities. - 'He was a patriot' - One complaint about Dungans that circulated on messaging services -- seen by AFP -- was that the group disrespects the Kazakh language by instead speaking their own or Russian, whose use is controversial throughout ex-Soviet republics. But Malik Yasyrov, a Dungan man who died from a gunshot wound in the Masanchi attacks, was a Kazakh language teacher at a nearby middle school. "He was a patriot. He went to Masanchi to defend his fellow citizens," his mother Aishe Gadir said at a feast held for the neighbours and relatives who helped bury the 24-year-old. Yasyrov had kept in touch with his mother throughout the night, narrating scenes of murder and pillaging. As he described homes and cars ablaze, he begged her to take his two children to Kyrgyzstan. After 1:00 am, his phone went dead. Later that morning, Gadir learned her son had been killed. "We have been here, on this land, for 150 years. Why did Allah punish us in this way?" she asked. "How do we move on?"
The foreign ministers of China and the Vatican have met in the first high-level encounter between the sides -- a new sign of improving relations between two states with no diplomatic ties. The talks between China's Wang Yi and Archbishop Paul Gallagher in the German city of Munich on Friday come as relations steadily improve following a landmark agreement on the appointment of bishops in 2018. "Today is the first meeting between the Chinese and Vatican foreign ministers," Wang said, according to the People's Daily newspaper, a Communist Party mouthpiece. "This is a continuation of the exchanges between China and the Vatican for a period of time. It will open up more space for the future exchanges between the two sides," he said. Wang, who met Gallagher on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, called the 2018 agreement "groundbreaking", adding that it "has achieved positive results". - First bishop - In a statement, the Vatican said the talks were "cordial" and that contact between the two sides had seen "positive developments". Wang and Gallagher "highlighted the importance" of the 2018 deal and reiterated a willingness to continue "the institutional dialogue at the bilateral level to promote the life of the Catholic Church and the good of the Chinese people". The People's Republic of China broke relations with the Vatican in 1951. The Vatican is the only European diplomatic ally of self-ruled Taiwan, which is viewed by China as a breakaway province awaiting reunification. China's roughly 12 million Catholics have for decades been split between a government-run association, whose clergy were chosen by the atheist Communist Party, and an unofficial underground church loyal to the Vatican. But under the terms of the deal agreed in September 2018, both Beijing and the Vatican now have a say in appointing Catholic bishops. The first bishop to be ordained under the deal was Yao Shun of the diocese of Ulanqab in the northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in August last year. The law in China requires priests and bishops to register and align with the country's official church. But the Vatican said at the time that the bishop, who it named as Antonio Yao Shun, had also "received the papal mandate" at the ordination. Pope Francis has recognised seven clergy appointed by China as part of the deal, despite fears the accord would be used by Beijing to further crack down on worshippers outside the official church. - Epidemic talks - Wang and Gallagher also discussed China's efforts to contain the new coronavirus epidemic, which has killed more than 1,500 and infected at least 66,000 in the country. Official figures showed Saturday that 143 more people had died though the number of new cases had fallen, with 2,641 reported after a change in the criteria to confirm infections earlier caused a massive surge in the total. Wang said the outbreak has been "effectively controlled", according to the official Xinhua news agency. The Chinese foreign minister also said the Vatican can play a constructive role to encourage the international community to support China's efforts to combat the epidemic "in an objective, rational and scientific manner", according to Xinhua. Beijing has criticised the United States for banning arrivals from China and rejected US accusations that it has lacked transparency in dealing with the outbreak.
A prompt action taken by a Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable saved the life of a woman. The incident took place at Bhubaneswar Railway Station and a video of it, shared by news agency ANI, has left netizens stunned.

A woman passenger fell down in the gap between platform and train while she was trying to board a running train at Bhubaneswar Railway Station today. She was rescued by an RPF constable, reads the caption.

Check out the shocking video:

#WATCH Odisha: A woman passenger fell down in the gap between platform and train while she was trying to board a running train at Bhubaneswar Railway Station today. She was rescued by an RPF constable. pic.twitter.com/Xmi8Yg6qhK  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2020

Posted on February 15, the post has garnered over 76,000 views and tons of appreciation for the RPF constable.

Kudos to constable ji for presence of mind & initiative.  Rinku (@rinku_views) February 15, 2020

What a close save. Commendable job done by the security forces. Salute you Jawan  Kirti Tiwari  (@ikirtitiwari) February 15, 2020

Another similar incident took place at Byculla Railway Station, Mumbai. The clip, also shared by ANI, shows the passengers waiting at the platform pulling up a man from the tracks. Even the motorman of the incoming train is seen stopping the train in the nick of time.

People and security personnel at Byculla Railway Station saved a man who was crossing the railway track while a train was coming on the same track. Also, the motorman had stopped the train immediately, reads the caption.

#WATCH Mumbai: People and security personnel at Byculla Railway Station saved a man who was crossing the railway track while a train was coming on the same track. Also, the motorman had stopped the train immediately. #Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/cGRoY9wh2L  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2020

Both the incidents happened on the same day and have shocked netizens to the core. While some thanked the security for their prompt actions, others have expressed discontent over the unruly behaviour of the passengers.
Dozens of counties eligible for loans to repair agricultural damage from tornadoes
With nationwide protests against the new citizenship law continuing unabated, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said his government stood by the decision despite all the pressure to scrap the new law.

The Prime Minister was addressing a public gathering in his Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi.

Be it the decision on Article 370 or the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, it was necessary in the interest of the country. Despite pressure, we stand by our decision and will remain so, PM Modi told the gathering.

We took both these decisions after severe opposition from various corners of the world. We are committed to our decisions and we will continue with them, the prime minister said.

WATCH | Standing firm: PM Modis message from Varanasi amid anti-CAA protests

Protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act have rocked the nation since the controversial law was passed by both the houses of Parliament last year. Students in the leading universities of the country have also been protesting over the last two months against the law demanding that it should be scrapped since it was both discriminatory as well as unconstitutional. More than 30 people are believed to have been killed in the violence which occurred during the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests.

Earlier in the day, the prime minister inaugurated the 63-feet tall statue of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya along with 30 other projects in Varanasi. On a day-long visit to his constituency, PM Modi inaugurated a 430-bed super-speciality government hospital in the city.

He also flagged off the IRCTCs Maha Kaal Express through a video link during his visit. It will be the first overnight private train in the country to connect three Jyotirling pilgrim centres of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, and Ujjain and Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa were also present in the meeting at Varanasi.
When 64-year-old Robert Johnson of Highland, Indiana thought he had kidney stones, he visited his primary care physician who couldn't see anything of concern. He pushed, saying "I'm not making up this pain. It's waking me up every night." When his urologist sent him for a CT scan, they found a large abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). He had an emergency surgery and a stentgraft was placed to cover the aneurysm and prevent it from rupturing.

After seven years with the stentgraft in place, Mr. Johnson went to the hospital with the same pain. His cardiologist sent him to Loyola Medicine for treatment, knowing that the problem was beyond the scope of the care the community hospital could provide. "Dr. Bechara at Loyola told me that I was having pain because the aneurysm was eroding into one of my blood vessels in the abdomen which brings blood back to the heart. I was very fortunate that my aneurysm came with pain because I was able to seek medical treatment."

Carlos Bechara, MD, is a vascular surgeon at Loyola who performs both open and minimally invasive aneurysm surgery.

The most important thing for us to provide patients and physicians is education and awareness about AAAs. An aneurysm is "a ballooning of the vessels, the larger it gets, the thinner the wall of the blood vessel gets. It's important to detect it before it ruptures. Not all patients are lucky like Mr. Johnson - some patients present with rupture as their first symptom, so it is very crucial to detect an aneurysm before this occurs." Dr. Carlos Bechara, MD, vascular surgeon at Loyola Medicine

Aneurysms can be detected with an ultrasound or CT scan. Patients most at risk for AAAs are men over age 65 who have smoked cigarettes and/or have a strong family history of aneurysm. For these patients, a one-time screening is recommended. The goal of detection and treatment is to prevent the aneurysm from rupturing.

Support for patients at Loyola with AAAs includes vascular and cardiac surgeons and a full spectrum of therapies for aneurysms regardless of location. Dr. Bechara explains, "Surgical treatment for an AAA can be performed through open surgery or endovascular surgery. During open surgery, the damaged section of the aorta is removed and a graft is put in its place to restore blood flow." Medical monitoring is recommended for patients who have small asymptomatic aneurysms. In addition, Loyola also recommends and supports patients in making lifestyle modifications. Dr. Bechara adds, "Patients worry when they have a small aneurysm that it will rupture. The risk is very small. You can do moderate exercise and live a normal life. But the most important thing a patient can do is stop smoking. Smoking can cause aneurysms to continue to enlarge and rupture."

Dr. Bechara has particular expertise in caring for patients with aneurysms in the chest and abdomen, as well as patients with vascular diseases. He provides a variety of medical, endovascular and surgical interventions for his patients. He also performs clinical research on aneurysms, particularly complex aneurysms in the chest and abdomen. His research was cited in the most recent guidelines established by the Society of Vascular Surgery's (SVS) for screening and treatment of AAAs. Dr. Bechara is a member of SVS as well as the American College of Surgeons.
Actor Lee Min Ho is coming back to the small screen with a new historical drama soon! The drama series is titled "The King: The Eternal Monarch". The story of this drama will focus on two parallel worlds which are the Empire of Korea and the Republic of Korea.

This The historical fantasy thriller is one of the most anticipated Korean drama to air this year 2020. Since this will be the very first project of the lead cast Lee Min Ho after being released from his military services. Before his enlistment, his last project was "The Legend of the Blue Sea" which aired in the year 2016 under the SBS network.

In this drama, Lee Min Ho will be working once again with writer Kim Eun Sook. Both of them have worked together in the most famous Kdrama "The Heirs" in the year 2013. In The King, the Korean heartthrob will be portraying the emperor named Lee Gon.

His character in this drama is a man whose main priority is closing the doors between the two worlds which is the Empire of Korea and the Republic of Korea. He does that by linking with a detective named Jung Tae Eul from modern-day Korea. The two of them will be working side by side to protect the lives of people by fighting against the devil.

On a live broadcast on Instagram last August, actor Lee Min Ho announced some details about his upcoming historical drama. He shared with his Instagram followers that the series will be a romantic thriller and they can look forward to seeing him as a "King of romance."

The female lead is going to be portrayed by actress Kim Go Eun. She will be portraying two characters. One is the lookalike criminal from the Empire of Korea named Luna and the other one is the detective named Jung Tae Eul from modern-day Korea. Her detective character is said to have a love triangle with the emperor and one of her team members.

Other actors that are also cast in the Kdrama are Woo Do Hwan, Kim Kyung Nam, and Jung Eun Chae. Do Hwan will be playing two roles in this Kdrama which is the ordinary public service worker named Jo Eun Seob and the bodyguard of Emperor Lee Gon named Jo Young.

The character of a detective named Kang Shin Jae will be portrayed by Kyung Nam who is characterized as a young and handsome person but with a cold personality. He is popular for having expertise in solving cases. Kang Shin Jae also has a close relationship with the female lead Tae Eul and eventually falls in love with her.

The young female prime minister of the Korean monarchy named Gu Seo Ryung will be played by Eun Chae. Gu Seo Ryung's character is an ambitious person, who targets the emperor due to this the onscreen couple will be facing several challenges.

The King: The Eternal Monarch is penned by Kim Eun Sook and is expected to premiere on SBS in March 2020.
A doting husband has given his wife the ultimate Valentine's Day gift that saved her life - a new kidney - after learning he was the perfect match.

Leigh Anstey, from Queensland, said he didn't think twice about donating one of his kidneys to his loving wife Leigh Taylor when he made the 'easy decision'.

'When you see the girl that you love dying, you don't have to think too hard about it,' Leigh told Sunrise.

Scroll down for video

Leigh Anstey (pictured left) didn't think twice about donating his kidney to his ill wife and said it was an easy decision

His wife had suffered from kidney damage after being poisoned on a farm 30 years ago, and the condition worsened last year when she caught influenza, forcing her into dialysis treatments.

The process of finding a suitable donor could have left Leigh on a lengthy waiting list for years, but luckily her husband was an ideal candidate.

'I'm so lucky, he was my perfect match in more than one way,' she said.

'It was such a relief to us. Had he not been a match there were still some other options, but I'm so fortunate and so grateful.'

The couple's main message highlighted the important of organ donation and they hope their story will encourage others to sign up to become organ donors

Leigh continued to explain how she now feels a lot better after the treatment.

'Leigh's kidney, his beautiful gift, started working straight away and I think psychologically it's given us such a renewed lease of life with such happiness and hope for the future,' she said.

The couple's main message highlighted the important of organ donation and they hope their story will encourage others to sign up to become organ donors.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

Its a federal law that has been on the books for nearly 150 years.

Critics point to EPA data showing 40% of the watersheds in Western states have been polluted by abandoned mines and other reports that estimate American taxpayers have had to pay billions of dollars to remediate roughly a half-million abandoned mining sites and that the federal government is missing out on billions in royalties under an antiquated law.

Yet, the General Mining Act of 1872 remains on the books without much modification since it was signed into law during the first term of President Ulysses S. Grant.

Our mining laws are ancient. They need to be updated, said Anna Hansen, the Santa Fe County Commissioner behind a resolution unanimously approved last week in support of federal legislation that aims to reform the mining law.

The law, enacted after the California Gold Rush, opened up land in the public domain to prospecting and mining for such minerals as gold, silver, copper and platinum, and other valuable mineral deposits, to individuals and corporations.

American citizens 18 and older got the right to make mining claims of hardrock or gravel on lands within the public domain. That includes land managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, but excludes national parks, wilderness areas and wildlife refuges.

The proposed Comexico drilling operation near Tererro straddling the Santa Fe-San Miguel County line is located in the Santa Fe National Forest, but Hansen said her resolution wasnt offered with that in mind.

You know me, Im an environmentalist, and I care about the water, earth and sky, said Hansen, who helped establish the Green Fire Times, a monthly publication with a focus on environmental and sustainability issues. Mining is one of the most toxic industries and protecting our rivers in New Mexico is extremely important to me. I see this as an opportunity to protect our rivers, and this (resolution) is a way of doing it without going after one person or mining company.

Opposing views

An email seeking comment from Mike Haynes, the managing director and CEO of New World Cobalt, the Australia-based company of which Comexico is a subsidiary, was not returned this week. But Haynes cited in a phone interview last August the 1872 mining law as justification for his company to apply for permits to drill exploratory holes in the national forest about 10 miles north of the village of Pecos and not far from the Pecos River.

Residents of the area have been up in arms over the proposal. Many remember the damage done in the 1990s when tailings from long-shuttered mining operations were captured by runoff from a heavy snowmelt and flowed into the river. It cost $28 million to clean it up.

In 2014, throngs of people turned out for a County Commission meeting to protest a proposed 50-acre gravel mining operation on La Bajada Mesa, which led to the county imposing a one-year moratorium on mining.

Those proposals aside, Commissioner Hansen said she had other reasons for introducing the resolution. She said the resolution complements amendments made to the countys Sustainable Land Development Code last year that adopted new mining rules and was meant to update out-of-date sections of provisions developed 20 years earlier.

She also did it for sentimental reasons. She points out that 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day celebration. And she says that part of her did it out of respect for Sen. Tom Udall, who has championed changing the old mining law and is retiring at the end of the current election cycle.

The mining industry is opposed to changing the law governing prospecting and mining for economic reasons, saying it would be a job killer.

All the recent efforts we have seen to reform mining law  including this bill  have been nothing more than a collection of punitive royalty rates, tax increases and overreaching land withdrawals, Ashley Burke, senior vice-president for communications for the National Mining Association, said in an email of current legislation in Congress. Pursuing this path will only drive investment and jobs away from the U.S. at a time when our import dependence is exposing our supply chain to increasing risk. If anything, lawmakers should be looking at ways to encourage  not discourage  domestic minerals production.

The New Mexico Mining Association, which met in Santa Fe last week, referred questions to the national organization.

Latest efforts

There have been several efforts to reform the old mining law in recent years, and New Mexicans played prominent roles.

Former U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, now chairman of the Republican Party of New Mexico, helped put a stop to a proposed change in the law in 2006, siding with the mining industry.

Why would a nation want to send our metals and uranium mining offshore, then wind up reliant on foreign countries for the raw materials we need for our industries and new power plants? said Pearce at a time when he was the ranking Republican on the House minerals subcommittee.

A year later, the House did pass the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007, which would have imposed royalty payments from mining operations, but it died later in the Senate.

In 2009, Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico introduced a similar bill, but it wasnt acted upon before Congress adjourned in 2011.

Sen. Udall has introduced hardrock mining legislation three times, including last year.

Last May, Udall and U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, a fellow Democrat from Arizona, held a press conference to introduce new legislation to update hardrock mining laws. It requires companies to pay royalties, which would be used to clean up abandoned mines. It came in response to the 2015 Gold King mining disaster that sent 3 million gallons of toxic wastewater down New Mexicos Animas and San Juan rivers.

If mining companies want to profit from the American peoples public land, then they need to pay their fair share and clean up the mess they leave behind, Udall said. But since 1872  for 147 years  the hardrock mining industry has enjoyed an outrageous sweetheart deal, unlike any other industry, where the miners get the gold and the taxpayer gets the shaft.

Just a few months later, the Tererro proposal came up and Udall called it the poster child for how foreign corporations can exploit our countrys antiquated mining laws.

We have an Australian company proposing to come in and mine U.S. public land in a treasured outdoor recreation area without paying any royalties, while taxpayers are still wrestling with the legacy of toxic waste piles left behind by the previous mining operation that contaminated the Pecos River, killed thousands of fish, buried a creek, led officials to declare the area a Superfund site and hurt the areas tourism economy, Udall said.

The bill Udall introduced is a companion bill to Grijalvas House bill. He has requested a hearing in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in the Senate.

The royalties and permitting requirements in the bill would apply to commercial mines, while excluding casual use  or the recreational collection of rocks, soils, minerals that have a negligible impact on federal land or resources, Udalls office said in a statement to the Journal. Mining on public lands would otherwise largely continue as it does today  just with royalties and reclamation fees to pay for cleanup and to make sure companies are paying their fair share to use the American peoples public land.

The NMAs Burke says the mining industry in the U.S. already pays between 40% to 50% of earnings in federal, state and local royalties, taxes and other fees to benefit the local communities where mining operations take place and to the U.S. federal government. She said that in 2017, domestic mining activity generated an estimated $17 billion in federal, state and local taxes that supported direct, indirect and induced taxes of $42 billion.

Adding additional punitive federal royalties will push the U.S. beyond the upper limit of the range in effect in other countries, significantly impairing our global competitiveness and making investments in the U.S. far less attractive, she said, adding that the domestic supply chain provides minerals for consumer and industrial goods, as well as national defense. Inevitably, such measures would increase our reliance on foreign sources of minerals, which is already alarming, creating additional supply chain vulnerabilities for the U.S. manufacturing, energy, infrastructure and defense industrial sectors.

Burke agrees that mining is not appropriate on all federal lands, such as national parks and recreational areas already protected from mining.

In fact, new mining operations are already either restricted or banned on more than half of all federally owned public lands, she said. Unnecessarily restricting access to additional federal lands is unwarranted given that existing laws, including environmental requirements and land use planning, and historic and cultural preservation processes, effectively protect special areas.

Long odds

Its also important to note that the royalties would be implemented on a prospective basis, meaning they would apply to mines that begin operation after enactment of the act. But the reclamation fee would apply to both existing and future mines.

Grijalvas bill is already set to be voted on in the House in April.

It requires royalties to be paid on the gross income resulting from mining on federal land, creates a Hardrock Minerals Reclamation Fund to be funded by royalties, ends the public lands giveaway and encourages local autonomy over mining, according to a news release.

New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland (D) is a co-sponsor of the bill.

It is long past time to reform our outdated mining laws, she said at the same May 2019 news conference announcing the legislation. This bill will ensure taxpayers dont have to foot the bill to clean up pollution caused by mining companies, require meaningful tribal consultation, and update existing laws to preserve sacred spaces and protect public health and the environment.

The resolution passed by the County Commission calls on Congress to pass Grijalvas House bill and resolves that reforming the 1872 Mining Law would help protect our public lands, water resources, wildlife and fish populations, and recreational activities that support our local economies from mining activity and pollution; and includes robust stipulations for consulting with local governments in the planning process of hardrock mineral leasing and extraction.

Skopos Labs, a New York AI platform that predicts the impacts of policy-making on companies and markets, gives Grijalvas bill a 3% chance of passing.
Help India!

TCN News

Interfaith Coalition for Peace wrote a letter to the home minister Amit Shah demanding complete rollback of CAA. ICP also sought an appointment with home minister Amit Shah to discuss the concerns of people about CAA, NPR, and NRC. TCN has a copy of the letter sent to the home minister today. In this letter, the interfaith coalition for peace gave strong reasons why CAA must be repealed. We would like to put it on record for our readers so that they may know what concerns have been put before the home minister.

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We are publishing the letter below.

Respected Home Minister Sri Amit Shah Ji,

We, at Interfaith Coalition for Peace ([email protected]) are grateful to you for saying on February 13, 2020, at Times Now Summit that you are open to anybody approaching you for discussion on merits regarding CAA and that your office should be approached for an appointment which will be fixed within three days. We are willing to come over for discussion. We would request you to kindly direct your office to inform us of the date and time.

In the meanwhile, we take this opportunity to apprise you of our evaluation of the CAA. In our well-considered yet dispassionate view, the CAA violates (a) not only Articles 14, 25, 26, 27 and 51 of the Constitution of India but also (b) Articles 1, 2, 6, 7, 14, 15, 22 and 28 of the UNOs Universal Declaration of Human Rights and (c) Article 13 of the New York Declaration on Refugees & Migrants, 2016 which was attended and endorsed by Indias MoS External Affairs. Thus, the CAA is unjustifiably selective in providing largesse to favored citizens of only three countries and ignores similarly placed citizens of many other neighboring countries with similar characteristics. Thus, CAA places parochial interests on top of and superseding the general interests of humanity. The detailed note is appended for your kind perusal. Besides, in an unprecedented move there are ongoing protracted countrywide & worldwide protests against CAA, many state assemblies have passed resolutions, and many international organizations have spoken against it. Therefore, we earnestly request you and our Government of India to kindly (a) either repeal the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 or, alternatively, (b) delete the words belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from the Provisos below Sections 2 and 6 in the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019.

Looking forward with warm regards

Yours sincerely,

Interfaith Coalition for Peace www.icpindia.org

(I) CAA violates the following Articles of the Constitution of India:

Equality before law

The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.

Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion:

(1) Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this Part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion.

Freedom to manage religious affairs:

Subject to public order, morality and health, every religious denomination or any section thereof shall have the right-

(a) To establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes;

(b) To manage its own affairs in matters of religion;

(c) To own and acquire movable and immovable property; and

(d) To administer such property in accordance with law.

Freedom as to payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion

No person shall be compelled to pay any taxes, the proceeds of which are specifically appropriated in payment of expenses for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religion or religious denomination.

39A. The State shall secure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice, on a basis of equal opportunity.

Promotion of international peace and security

The State shall endeavor to (a) promote international peace and security; (b) maintain just and honorable relations between nations; (c) foster respect for international law and treaty obligations in the dealings of organised peoples with one another; and (d) encourage settlement of international disputes by arbitration.

(II) CAA violates the following Articles of the UNOs Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Article 1:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.

No distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs.

Article 6.

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7.

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 14

(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

Article 15.

(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.

(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 22.

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 28

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

(III) CAA violates the following international covenant:

UNs New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants, 2016 endorsed by Indias MoS External Affairs.

Para 13. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. We recall that our obligations under international law prohibit discrimination of any kind on the basis of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinions, national or social origin, property, birth or another status.
France yesterday warned Boris Johnson to expect a bitter, bloody battle in Brexit trade talks  as its foreign minister predicted the two sides would rip each other apart.

Jean-Yves le Drian said it would be hard to achieve Britains aim of agreeing a free trade deal by the end of the year as the nations are at odds over a range of issues.

Tonight, Britains EU negotiator David Frost will make a speech in Brussels reiterating that the UK will not bow to EU demands to stick to its rules on workers rights and environmental protections.

Jean-Yves le Drian, speaking at a Munich security conference, said: I think that on trade issues and the mechanism for future relations, which we are going to start on, we are going to rip each other apart'

London and Brussels have already clashed over rules for British financial firms access to the EU after Brexit.

And retailers last night warned that consumers will face higher costs and reduced availability of goods if a free trade deal is not reached by the end of the year.

Britain formally left the EU two weeks ago but will continue to trade like a member under a transition period lasting until the end of this year.

Speaking at a Munich security conference, Mr le Drian said: I think that on trade issues and the mechanism for future relations, which we are going to start on, we are going to rip each other apart. But that is part of negotiations, everyone will defend their own interests.

France yesterday warned Boris Johnson (pictured above in a Cabinet meeting with new Chancellor Rishi Sunak) to expect a bitter, bloody battle in Brexit trade talks  as its foreign minister predicted the two sides would rip each other apart

The remaining 27 member states are currently drawing up their mandate for the talks on the future relationship, with France in particular pushing for a strong stance  notably on fishing.

France and several other countries want to keep fishing in British waters, while London wants full autonomy and limited access for European fishermen.

Lets hope the talks are done as quickly as possible, but there are a lot of issues and some difficult points to deal with, said Le Drian, who is from the French fishing region of Brittany.

The blocs chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said the EUs top priorities are fishing, security and maintaining fair trading conditions for European companies.

Tonight, Britains EU negotiator David Frost (above) will make a speech in Brussels reiterating that the UK will not bow to EU demands to stick to its rules on workers rights and environmental protections

Mr Frosts speech this evening will set out Britains preferred trade deal, demanding the same terms as Canada, South Korea and Japan.

He will say Britain does not want a special, bespoke or unique deal but one that includes the benefits offered to other countries.

Last night a Government spokesman said: We want a relationship based on friendly co-operation between sovereign equals, one centred on free trade and inspired by our shared history and values.

The British Retail Consortium last night pointed out that almost 80 per cent of all food imported by UK retailers comes from within the EU, making the negotiations particularly important for these essential goods.

It said there was no possibility of a return to frictionless trade under the Governments present negotiating stance.

It also called for action to mitigate this, including a zero-tariff trade deal, co-ordination on VAT, customs and excise procedures, and advance information on new checks and paperwork.

Helen Dickinson, the consortiums chief executive, said the Government must set about to negotiate a zero-tariff agreement that minimises checks and red tape.
A PRIEST who was accused of indecently assaulting a teenage boy at the parochial house in the Limerick parish where he worked was acquitted by a jury following a five-day trial.

The 64-year-old had pleaded not guilty to six charges relating to offences which were alleged to have occurred over a 22-month period in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

It was alleged that he exposed himself to the complainant and inappropriately touched him when he called to carry out errands such as getting Mass cards signed.

During the trial, the jury of five women and seven men heard evidence from the complainant who was aged 17 when the first of the offences is alleged to have taken place.

The man, now aged in his early 40s, made a complaint to gardai in 2016  26 years afterwards.

In his closing speech, Mark Nicholas SC urged the jurors to act like scientists and to forensically examine the evidence before them. He submitted there was no corroborative evidence in the case and that there was no supporting evidence before them.

You have to rely entirely on his memory, he said urging the jurors to put any sense of disquiet to one side.

He told them his client remains a priest but had temporarily stepped aside from active minister pending the outcome of the trial.

Following almost five hours of deliberations the jury foreman indicated the jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict.

However, they did return majority not guilty verdicts in relation to each of the six charges.

The defendant held his face in his hands and sobbed as each of the verdicts were read out by the court registrar.

There was no reaction from the complainant who sat next to a relative in the public gallery.

Last year the same priest was acquitted of eight similar charges relating to a different complainant.

Those offences were alleged to have occurred in the same parish around the same time.
By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal on Sunday evacuated 175 of its nationals from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak, an official said, after protests by parents of students studying in the city.

A plane operated by state-owned Nepal Airlines carrying 134 men and 41 women, mostly students, landed at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport before dawn, Health Minisitry spokesman Mahendra Shrestha said.

All evacuees will be held in quarantine for two weeks in the nearby town of Bhaktapur.

"They will be under the close observation of doctors in quarantine and will be allowed to join their families if found healthy after two weeks," Shrestha told Reuters.

Last week parents protested in front of the Health Ministry demanding that Nepali students in Wuhan be brought home sooner. The government said delays were due to the time needed to prepare buildings to keep the returnees in quarantine.

Nepal has only one confirmed case of coronavirus so far.

(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Alexandra Ulmer and Richard Pullin)
The bodies of two children who had died after sorcery practices were allegedly performed on them in West Bengal's Malda district were buried by family members without the conduct of post-mortem, police said on Sunday.

The bodies of the children, who had died in Kadamtali village on Friday night, were later exhumed and sent for autopsy, a police officer said.

The bodies of the boys, aged five and seven, were brought to the village from Malda Medical College and Hospital and buried on Saturday, keeping the police in the dark, he said.

The personnel of Gajol police station exhumed the bodies from two graves in the village in the presence of a magistrate the same day, the officer said.

"One person has been arrested in connection with the incident and an awareness campaign against superstitious beliefs has been launched in the village," Malda Superintendent of Police Alok Rajoria said.

Officials of Gajol block, police personnel and members of West Bengal Vigyan Manch carried out an awareness campaign in the village on Sunday.

Two children had died and as many were injured in the incident, an officer said.

The condition of the two sisters, aged three and six, is stable, Amit Kumar Daw, superintendent of the hospital said.

Parents of the children, all of them daily wagers, had said that sorcery practices were performed on the four boys and girls after they fell unconscious upon their return from a nearby jungle on Friday evening.

The children had gone there to play, they said.

Preliminary investigation suggested that the children might have eaten poisonous fruits in the jungle, a police officer had said.

"Such an incident in this era is shameful," Sunil Sarkar, district secretary of the West Bengal Vigyan Manch said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held several meetings on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, including with the US special envoy on Afghan reconciliation and the Saudi foreign minister, and discussed regional and global issues with them. "Met @US4AfghanPeace Zalmay Khalilzad at #MSC2020. Appreciated his update on the Afghanistan negotiations," Jaishankar tweeted.

In another tweet, he said he had a meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Saturday (local time) and "appreciated his perspectives on global and regional issues".

"Look forward to working with him in the Strategic Partnership Council," he added.

The meetings come in the backdrop of a possible deal between the US and the Taliban to reduce violence, which could eventually lead to withdrawal of American troops from the war-torn Afghanistan.

The Munich Security Conference, being held from February 14-16, is the world's leading forum for debate on international security policy and is held annually. It was established in 1963.

The external affairs minister also met Australian and Singaporean defence ministers Linda Reynolds and Ng Eng Hen, respectively, and said India is working with them to take security cooperation forward.

On his meeting with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah, Jaishankar said, "Our contemporary relationship has been built on strong historical and cultural foundation. Will work together to take it to greater heights."

He met members of the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee and held "a very good conversation" on the EU, Germany and India.

"Appreciated their strong interest in taking our relationship forward," he said.

The external affairs minister also had a meeting meeting with a US congressional delegation led by Senator Jim Inhofe, the chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee.

"Discussed our growing strategic cooperation.Value their interest in building this relationship," he said.

Earlier Saturday, Jaishankar met US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and discussed bilateral relationship ahead of American President Donald Trump's visit to India this month on February 24 and 25.
MONTREAL - Bombardier Inc. has reached a preliminary deal to sell its train division to French rail giant Alstom SA for more than US$7 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/2/2020 (695 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Bombardier logo is shown at a Bombardier assembly plant in Mirabel, Que., Friday, Oct. 26, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

MONTREAL - Bombardier Inc. has reached a preliminary deal to sell its train division to French rail giant Alstom SA for more than US$7 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

The news outlet quotes unnamed sources as saying the deal could be announced as soon as Monday.

Bombardier and Alstom did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday from The Canadian Press.

The reported deal with Alstom would come after Bombardier, which is carrying long-term debt of US$9.3 billion, announced last month it was studying its options to accelerate its deleveraging, or reducing debt by selling assets.

Bombardier reported a loss of US$1.61 billion for 2019.

The sale of its train division would add to the list of assets the company has sold in the last five years, which includes Q400 turboprop planes, the CRJ regional jet program and the former C Series aircraft.

The sale would mean the Quebec company, which was founded in Valcourt, Que., in 1942 as a snowmobile manufacturer, will focus its business on high-margin private jets.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Paris-based train maker is expected to use mostly cash and some stock to complete the transaction.

Quebec's pension fund manager, the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, has reportedly agreed to sell its 32.5 per cent stake to Alstom in return for a minority stake in the combined company, according to the sources quoted in the article.

On Sunday, a spokesman for Caisse refused to confirm the information.

"The Caisse never comments on rumours or the trading opportunities it may or may not consider," Maxime Chagnon wrote by email.

Bombardier Transportation is based in Berlin and employs some 1,000 workers at factories in Quebec's Bas-St-Laurent region and in St-Bruno-de-Montarville, on Montreal's South Shore.

Claude Michaud, the head of the union representing employees at the plant in La Pocatiere, Que. said by telephone on Sunday that he had not been informed of the deal by the employer.

Bombardier announced last week it had sold its remaining stake in the A220 jetliner program, which represented its last commercial aviation venture.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 16, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:BBD.B)
Booming drums and Native American hymns emanated through Mission County Park on Saturday as dancers wore elaborate traditional regalia for the 21st Annual United San Antonio Pow Wow.

Members of numerous nations joined for the intertribal event that is meant to preserve Native American culture after many ceremonies for decades were banned in the U.S., said Milo Colton, an associate professor at St. Marys University and a member of the Cherokee Nation who helped organize the United Pow Wow.

We almost lost this. In 1884, the United States outlawed our religion and cultural events, Colton said. You wouldnt see these sort of things in the 1980s in this part of Texas.

But since then, Colton said, efforts to rebuild cultural events have been successful in this area.

Its not only cultural, its religious. Dancing is part of the way we pray, Colton said. When the Puritans went into buildings and were solemn, were happy, and we throw our whole body into it.

The event began with a gourd dance, in which around a dozen men sit in a tight circle and rhythmically beat a drum while singing. The drummers are circled by veterans or family members of veterans who dance around the group.

Weve always honored the warriors, Colton said.

After the gourd dance purifies the circle for the powwow, the grand entrance saw men and women in detailed, largely handmade traditional clothing and headdresses perform different religious dances.

Dakota Oso, 13, was one of the youngest participants in the ceremony. A member of the Navajo Nation, Oso said her mother took her to her first powwow when she was a week old and just out of the hospital. Its been a regular part of her life since.

She said she has seen the Navajo language fade  sometimes she has trouble speaking with her grandmother  but is looking to pass the cultural traditions on to the next generation one day.

Even when I have my own kids, I still want to teach them the Navajo ways, Oso said as her thick, decorated braids hung over each of her shoulders.

Texas has the fifth-highest number of American Indian or Alaska Natives among all the states, with 136,000, according to the census. In Bexar County, there are 13,000 Native Americans.

People dont know theres a lot of Native Americans in Texas, Victor Gomez said behind black and white face paint. Its like being stuck in a house and not knowing whats outside  this is like opening your eyes and seeing something different. Its something worthwhile to learn about.

diego.mendoza-moyers@express-news.net
Bloomberg Announces Labor Plan Promising $15 Minimum Wage

Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg released his plans for American workers on Saturday that promises raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, strengthening union protections and other concessions.

His proposals include signing legislation that would raise the minimum wage, providing employees with 12 weeks of paid family leave and seven days of paid sick leave, expanding overtime protections, prohibiting right to work laws for private-sector unions, preventing gender discrimination through several legislations, and guaranteeing the right to unionize and bargain collectively to public sector employees.

I started out in an entry-level job, and in building my business, I have always believed that our companys most valuable asset is our 20,000 employeesand thats why we are committed to providing good pay and the best benefits money can buy, including industry-leading paid parental leave, Bloomberg said in a statement.

Bloombergs plan echos some of the plans proposed by other Democratic candidates that have garnered widespread support. Frontrunners Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Joe Biden have also proposed labor policies that would increase the minimum wage, provide workers with some sort of paid family leave, and broaden union powers.

The billionaire said his plan will also provide workers protections for farmworkers and domestic workers, such as the minimum wage, overtime pay, and other essential labor standards. The plan would also expand protections for undocumented workers by ensuring that they can join unions, report labor violations, and receives remedies without being afraid of immigration consequences.

He also said that his plans will protect pensions and retirement savings by passing legislation and provide workers in the gig economy with full employee benefits.

The former New York City mayor has already spent over $300 million on his bid for the presidency, outpacing most of his rivals. Analysts from Advertising Analytics said that Bloomberg has dropped $345 million on the 2020 race between Novemberwhen he launched his campaignand February. The analysts also said that as of Feb. 10, Bloomberg had aired about 4,106 hours worth of political ads, or 171 days if every airing ran consecutively.

Bloomberg has a net worth of about $62.8 billion. A campaign spokesman told the New York Post last year that Bloomberg would spend whatever it takes to ensure that Donald Trump is not re-elected.

According to RealClearPolitics, Bloomberg is currently polling in third place at a national average of 14.2 percent as of Feb. 15. He is behind Biden and Sanders, who are polling at an average of 23.6 percent and 19.2 percent respectively. Warren is trailing behind in fourth place at an average of 12.4 percent.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
Chandigarh, Feb 16 : Now, visitors from Japan and South Korea will also be screened for Coronavirus, Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said on Sunday.

The guidelines in this regard have been issued to all the districts, especially Amritsar and Mohali which have international airports.

The minister said the state Department of Health has also identified 23 passengers who came from Singapore.

One passenger, belonging to Jammu, had fever and was immediately kept in isolation ward at the Government Medical College in Amritsar. The test report of the passenger has come negative and he was discharged.

Sidhu said till date, the Health Department has screened approximately 22,000 passengers at Amritsar and Mohali airports, while around 7,500 have been screened at Wagah Border and Dera Baba Nanak points.

He said till date, the state has identified 1,603 passengers with travel history or transit stay in these countries. Of the 39 samples were tested, 38 have reported negative.

He said one child, with transit stay in Thailand, was admitted to isolation ward of the District Hospital in Barnala. The child is healthy and fine now, but the test reports of the sample sent to NCDC New Delhi is awaited.

A total of 947 passengers were under the 28 days observation period and 567 persons are in home isolation and are being tracked daily by staff of the Health Department, he added.
You never know what is going to happen when you put your email address at the bottom of a story.





I found that out a few days back, when I received, not one, but two pieces of information about an East Chattanooga Methodist church I had written about several months back.







After being back in Chattanooga for nearly two years, I became interested last year in some of the former Methodist churches around Chattanooga that had closed or merged, but their buildings were still there.

My interest had begun due to the fact I am a longtime United Methodist Church member and the husband of a UMC minister.After being back in Chattanooga for nearly two years, I became interested last year in some of the former Methodist churches around Chattanooga that had closed or merged, but their buildings were still there.

So, after learning of several such edifices, I drove around last winter and took pictures of a few and wrote a story.





One of the churches I featured was the old Manker Memorial Methodist Church at 2625 N. Chamberlain Ave. that later became East Chattanooga UMC before closing in 1991 following a merger with St. John UMC off Highway 58.



After my article ran, I received an email from Deacon Ron Griffin of New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church, which had later begun occupying the old Manker Memorial church building.





I ended up being invited to see the church and was given a first-class tour by him and several others and wrote a story about it with a little additional historical information I had learned and gathered about the church.



I later started thinking that a retired United Methodist pastors group might enjoy seeing the old Manker Memorial church as well during one of its monthly meetings, and that was set up with the help of Mr. Griffin.

Several of us went to the New Jerusalem church last September for a tour, my second one, and a great time of Christian fellowship was enjoyed by both hosts and the clergy visitors, some of whom knew of the ministries or pastors of the old Manker church. That also led to a follow-up story.

Then, over the Christmas holidays, I received an email from Patrick Sallee, who said he was doing some genealogy research and came across one of my stories about the old Manker Memorial Methodist building. He said that not only was the family of his mother, Sue Jones Pflug, connected to that church, but that his father, Steve, was also mentored at First-Centenary UMC in downtown Chattanooga by the Rev. Ralph Mohney, who had served as minister at Manker Memorial after World War II.

The Rev. Steve Sallee had gone on to become quite a respected United Methodist minister. An early proponent of contemporary style worship in the Methodist church in this part of the country, he started Christ UMC in East Brainerd and guided it on its road to becoming the largest Methodist church in Chattanooga.

He then became senior pastor of the also-large Cokesbury UMC in Knoxville and led it until his untimely death from heart complications in 2013 at the age of 61. So, the ministries and ministries of Manker Memorial have had quite a reach.

So obviously does the Internet.

On Feb. 7, I received an email from the Rev. Victor H. Morgan, who is the rector of St. Lukes Anglican (Episcopal) Church in Blue Ridge, Ga., in Fannin County, just below Polk County, Tn.





He had found an old Manker Memorial church bulletin from 1948  when Rev. Mohney was the pastor  in a used book someone had given him. He did not have any family connection to the church and was going to throw the program away, but he googled the church name and found my story from last year.



As a result, he kindly mailed the bulletin to me. And then a short time later that day, I was forwarded an email from Deb Fladmark in Janesville, Wi. She had also found my story and was emailing me scanned copies from of an old church history from 1952.

When I told her someone else that very day had emailed me something about Manker Memorial, she said, How strange, bizarre and wonderful that someone else also contacted you yesterday! God works in mysterious ways.

She said she was looking for information online the day before about a different Tennessee church, First Baptist in Woodbury in Middle Tennessee, which her great-great-grandfather, Elder JMD Cates, a writer, helped found. Suddenly, she said, she remembered the booklet her grandmother, Ollie Lattie Cates, had given her about Manker Memorial.

She then saw the story or stories I had written about the church, so she scanned the pages and emailed them.





She said her great-grandfather, Thomas Lattie, was a builder who built and lived in one of the earlier houses in East Chattanooga at 2500 York St. He also was one of the founders of what became Manker Memorial.



Ms. Fladmark also passed along his obituary from 1932 and the death notice of one of his daughters, Mae Lattie, from 1931. At the time of his death, four other daughters besides Mrs. Cates survived him. They included Mrs. H.L. (Jessie) Long, Mrs. W.W. (Ella) Funk, Mrs. Fred (Cora) Wright, and Mrs. W.C. (Minnie) Braddock.

The church history she forwarded from 1952 says the church  which descended from a group that had begun meeting in Avondale not long after the Civil War -- was first located beginning in 1888 in a home at Glass Street. It then built a handsome new church, apparently on Campbell Street in East Chattanooga, in 1901.

About this time, Dr. J.J. Manker was serving as local district superintendent, and the church was named for him, although the history is still not clear why Memorial was also used, since he did not die until 1916. He had also been an early pastor at First Methodist Church and through determination got the stone structure built.

The 1952 church history  which included memories from Belle Smith, the last remaining charter member -- said he sold a lot of hickory walking sticks from the woods of the area Civil War battlefields to Northern veterans. Today, only the steeple by Georgia and McCallie avenues remains, after the church in the 1960s had merged with Centenary to create First-Centenary United Methodist Church.

United had become part of Methodist church names in 1968, after a merger with the the Evangelical United Brethren Church.

Dr. Manker had also been involved with Highland Park Methodist Church early in his career.

The booklet also says that the Rev. Sidney Stringham was pastor of Manker Memorial when the later structure was built by Mark Wilson contracting company in 1925. It was designed by architect J.G. Gauntt, whose other local works included the current DuPont Elementary on Hixson Pike.

Apparently, the Manker church was growing or anticipated growing enough to necessitate a need for a larger church building just 25 or so years after the other one had been built. At that time, East Chattanooga was a popular and still-growing middle class area of the city.





The booklet said an open house was held at the newly constructed church on Oct. 22, 1925.







The Depression caused problems with monetary donations to the church, but the construction debt was eventually paid off about the end of the pastorate of Dr. Mohney. As a result, a special dedication service was held on Sept. 10, 1950.



The booklet provided by Ms. Fladmark also talks about revivals held at the church led by such people as the Rev. George Creswell, and even references a tent revival on nearby Bachman Street.







The church also had a Hammond organ installed in 1951, the history said.



The bulletin Rev. Morgan from Blue Ridge forwarded was dated from Oct. 10, 1948. It featured a picture of the medium-sized church on the front, as well as the Rev. Mohneys residence address of 2313 Elmendorf St. and phone number of 4-4516.

A check on Saturday revealed that the bungalow-style Elmendorf Street home a few blocks north of the church is still there and appears to be in good condition. Also still standing is the old vertically shaped Lattie home on a steep bluff going up the ridge next to the Sherman Reservation.







According to the old bulletin, the order of service that day in 1948 included a unison prayer with a lot of thees and thous no longer used in most Methodist churches, and a silent prayer. Hymns sung included O Worship the King, O Day of Rest (done by the choir), and Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken.





Dr. Mohneys sermon was on Gideons Three Hundred.



But perhaps even more interesting were all the announcements. One said church school/Sunday school attendance the week before had been 180, while another mentioned that the altar flowers had been presented in memory of Mrs. W.R. Jernigan by her family.

The Sunday evening worship service was to take place at 7:30, and a number of groups were also meeting in this obviously vibrant church. The Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF) was going to install officers in the coming days, the Fidelis Circle was going to meet in Mrs. Neil Sewells home on Route 2, and choir rehearsal was going to be Tuesday night, as was the Boy Scout gathering.



And then there was the all-important message about church pledges. The Board of Stewards reported that pledges for monetary donations for the coming year had been received from 115 people. And of those, 40 had agreed to tithe, or give 10 percent of their income.

That written announcement closed with this message, We trust that each member will consider seriously this aspect of their Christian opportunity and responsibility.

This church under Dr. Mohney was evidently being quite pro-active in growing and building up the kingdom of God, as its last message was that members were asked to phone the names of prospective members to the church office. It was located on the west side of the church at 2410 Fairleigh St. in a structure no longer standing.

At that time, the church in general was so much a part of most or many Chattanoogans lives. Chances were that if people were not attending your church, they would be attending some other house of worship. For example, Highland Park Baptist Church under Dr. Lee Roberson a few blocks south was starting to blossom about that time into what would be Chattanoogas first mega church not in the immediate downtown area.

When Dr. Mohney came to Manker Memorial in 1945, he was just getting started in a ministry that had begun when he felt called to the ministry at Vanderbilt and served a circuit of five small churches there.

He went on to divinity school at Boston University, a Methodist-affiliated college where a man named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. later did some advanced theology studies.

While serving at Manker Memorial, Dr. Mohney met a woman named Nell Webb. She was a Methodist youth administrator in Western North Carolina, and they became acquainted at a youth world evangelism event in Norway in 1947 and later at a Christian caravan event in Poland.

They were married on Dec. 31, 1948, just weeks after the service highlighted by that bulletin, and she joined him as a very supportive spouse at the church. They would raise two sons, Richard Bentley Mohney  born while the family was living on Elmendorf Street -- and Ralph Mohney Jr.

From 1950-56, Dr. Mohney served as pastor at Washington Pike Methodist in North Knoxville, and then became the district superintendent in Kingsport from 1956-59.

From 1959-65, he was president of the then-Tennessee Wesleyan College in Athens. During that time, the schools enrollment grew, and several buildings were constructed.





He served as senior pastor at Centenary Methodist in downtown Chattanooga beginning in 1965 and was still there when it merged with First Methodist, Dr. Mankers old church that had seen an attendance decline during the urban flight of the 1960s.

He continued to lead the merged First-Centenary Church through the opening of its new sanctuary in 1973 until 1981, a long tenure at one church for a Methodist pastor during that time.

While Dr. Mohney and Nell enjoyed many highs in their rewarding ministerial work in Chattanooga, they did suffer one tragedy. Oldest son Rick, who was 20, was riding his 1969 Honda 750 motorcycle in the 400 block of Signal Mountain Boulevard about 6:35 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7, 1969, and struck two power poles supporting a generator, an old newspaper article said.

He was taken to Erlanger Hospital, where he died from his injuries on Nov. 21.

This family used to comforting others suddenly found themselves having to be comforted.

Rick Mohney had enrolled at Baylor School along with younger brother, Ralph, when the family arrived back in Chattanooga in 1965, but Rick left after a year to go to City High, where he graduated in 1968. Ralph went on to graduate from Baylor in 1969.







Rick Mohneys obituary said he was a student at UTC, was working at Industrial Supply Co. and was interested in scuba diving and other water sports.

After Dr. Mohney left First-Centenary UMC in 1981, he began serving as pastor of First Broad Street in Kingsport until 1987, at which time he and his wife did such work as studying fast-growing churches and telling their stories.

He died in 2008 back in Chattanooga after he became reconnected with First-Centenary Church in an emeritus role.

Nell Mohney greatly carved out a large niche of Christian ministry as well, writing a column for the Chattanooga Free Press, and becoming an author and Christian inspirational speaker.

She also helped start the Positive Christian Singles program at First-Centenary and stayed active with the church until her death in 2016 at the age of 94. Both Mohneys and their son are buried at Forest Hills Cemetery.

I occasionally had an opportunity to talk with Ms. Mohney. I used to attend First-Centenary United Methodist as a young adult some before Laura and I got married and started attending my childhood church of Red Bank United Methodist prior to her seminary studies, and I met her once.

She had apparently recognized me as someone she had not seen before sitting in front of her, so she kindly introduced herself.

And in later years, I remember running into her once on an elevator at the Holston Annual Conference in Lake Junaluska, N.C. I re-introduced myself and had a congenial brief chat with her. She was a familiar face in Chattanooga primarily due to her column, so I had easily recognized her.

I unfortunately never had a chance to talk with Dr. Mohney personally, although I remember seeing him at First-Centenary during my infrequent visits.

But when I graduated from sixth grade at Bright School in 1972, he had been the graduation speaker. The reason I remember that is not because I was seriously paying attention to what he said, as my age and mind-wandering tendencies caused me not to grasp a single word he uttered.

Instead, it was because I recall my mother, Velma Shearer, talking with me and another family during a lunch afterward and highly praising his speech. So, it was obviously my loss that I was focused more on getting through the ceremony and enjoying my last few moments with my classmates than paying attention to a middle-aged preacher, who no doubt gave more of an ecumenical talk of encouragement.

But thankfully, plenty of those did listen to him closely at the old Manker Memorial Methodist Church, First-Centenary and beyond and were touched by him, and that the old church building in East Chattanooga did plenty of Christian good.

And, based on my two visits last year, New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church continues to try and do this same Christian good from this same building in a neighborhood that now has a lot more hurts and needs, as well as potential.

It is an ongoing story for this building to spread the word of Christ, and I am thankful I was recently given two written documents of its hopeful journey along the way.

* * * * *

To see the first story written on touring the former Manker Memorial Methodist Church in March 2019, read here:







To see the story of the retired ministers visiting visiting New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in the former Manker Memorial building, read here:









* * * * *


Newsfrom Japan

Munich, Feb. 15 (Jiji Press)--Visiting Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on Saturday urged Iran to implement its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal with major powers.

At a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif, Motegi also called for Iran's full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Japan will continue its diplomatic efforts patiently to help ease tensions in the Middle East, Motegi told Zarif.

Zarif replied that his country highly evaluates the Japanese efforts and wants to continue the two countries' close cooperation.

The two ministers had a meeting for the first time since September last year, when they met in New York.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
HON MRS JANET M DIFIORE < " janetmdifiore. " @ lake.ocn.ne.jp> Feb 4, 2018 11:36 AM:



I AM HON MRS JANET MARIE DIFIORE, THE CHIEF JUDGES NY SUPREME COURT USA



OVER-DUE PAYMENT RELEASED. FINALLY, YOUR FUND IS NOW HERE IN THE USA

AWAITING TO BE SHIPPED TO YOUR ADDRESS



The reconciliation of accounting data to budgetary data is required

under Government Code (GC) sections 12460 and 13344.GC 12460 requires

information in the State Controller's Budgetary/Legal Basis Annual

Report to account for funds on the same basis as that of the

applicable Governor's Budget. GC 13344 requires departments to prepare

and maintain financial and accounting data for the Governor's Budget

and related documents, and the Budgetary/Legal Basis Annual Report

described in GC 12460,according to the methods and bases provided in

regulations, budget letters, and other directives of Department of

Finance (Finance). By law, year-end financial reports must be prepared

consistent with the applicable budget. Information provided to Finance

for the Governor's Budget must be consistent with information provided

to the State Controller's Office (SCO) for the Budgetary/Legal Basis

Annual Report. The following instructions will assist Departmental

accounting and budget staff to reconcile year-end financial reports to

budget schedules in accordance with government code and state policy.



Sequel to the above specifications, the management of the Fund

Reconciliation Department here in New York City USA, wishes to let you

know that every precept regarding your funds has been concluded. You

will be receiving your funds from this Surrogate Court any moment from

now. We take, keep and make report of every transaction done here in

the USA. Investigations gathered by the Fund Regulatory Agency {IMF},

shows you have been receiving numerous emails from several offices

requesting you to claim your funds. In some cases, you tried a lot but

still the transfer or delivery was not completed due to one reason or

the other. The fact is that you are stuck between the chains which

make it impossible for you to differentiate the real office from it' s

counterfeit.



We noticed that the only real offices that had ever contacted you in

respect to your funds were United State Embassy Benin Republic and

Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It was brought to our notice that

the former Ambassador to the republic of Benin, Ambassador James

Knight, made voluntary effort to bring your funds along to your home

address but couldn' t due to some fall-out on your ends. The Federal

Reserve Bank of New York came up to make a wire transfer but they said

you couldn' t meet up with the fee demand for the transfer, so they

gave up on you. In a more proper and legalized manner, the

International Monetary Fund and the Federal Reserve Bank solicited us

Fund Reconciliation Department to allow your fund to be written as a

Check or Credited as Visa Card and be shipped to your home address

through the USA Priority Express Mail.



These options, we supposed could be the best, easiest and the most

efficient way to have you get hold of your long Awaited United Nations

approved funds. Like you were told by the Federal Reserve Bank

aforementioned, your funds was transferred from about four different

banks; Central Bank of Nigeria, United Bank of Africa Benin Republic,

Bank of America and Nat west bank London. In total, your funds were

amounting to the tune of USD2.8 Million United State Dollars As we

speak, your funds have been credited in your Visa Card and also

available as Cashier' s Check well documented and packaged. The

documented package will be shipped to your mailing address by the USA

Priority Express Mail here in NY, USA.



The ONLY thing needed before we can POST your ATM CARD or CHECK is the

PROCUREMENT FILE of your funds. The procurement file is at the Origin

Country of your funds in West Africa Cotonou Benin Republic. For the

purpose to avoiding double payment on your end, we had an agreement

with the IMF and Federal Reserve to document every charge necessary

until the package gets to your home address. The analytical group of

the two offices mentioned above had an accurate sum of USD192.00 for

Procurement.



So it was constituted and officially submitted to the " Court of

Justice " that the ONLY charge you will EVER pay before your package

leaves our office here in USA to your home address is USD192.00 for

your Procurement File to be signed and conveyed down here in the USA

and YOU WILL NEVER pay a dime again as agreed. We are renowned and

reputable USA Agency and we don' t like an undocumented process that is

why it had to be written down in Court that you will never pay any

other money apart from the US$192. The USD192.00 is for " PROCUREMENT

FEE " (That is for some one to sign your file on your behalf). USA

Ambassador to Benin Republic, " Ambassador Han Tani" , who will be

coming to the United State in few days will have the Power of Attorney

to stand in and sign on your behalf (since you can' t travel down to

Benin because of that ) so that he can sign and bring along with him

your PROCUREMENT FILE to us here to enable us POST your loaded ATM

CARD or WRITTEN CHECK to your mailing address via Priority Express

Mail without any hitch.



Therefore, the days of you being subjected to paying twice Double

Payment is over as that is the case with some corrupt officials down

there in Africa, whom always strife to subject beneficiaries to hard

bureaucratic bottleneck, thereby making it impossible for most

innocent citizens spread across the globe and the likes to claim what

rightfully belongs to them. Thank GOD that your funds are here in NEW

YORK SURROGATE COURT, USA and so we decided to follow the USA

constitutions so as to ensure that your money is in your hands this

weekend. Without mincing words, it will be desirous if you consciously

adhere to the above instruction by remitting the PROCUREMENT FEE

calculated to be US$192.00 down to the office of Ambassador Han Tani

at the USA Consulate/Embassy in Benin so that your ATM CARD or you're

Check depending on your choice, could be shipped to your home address

as soon as the Ambassador arrives here with your procurement file.

The, PROCUREMENT FEE of USD192.00 is PAYABLE in two payment options:



MONEY GRAM MONEY TRANSFERS TO:

Recipient:

Country: United States

Text Question: WHEN.

Text Answer: TODAY.

Amount: USD192.00.



WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER TO:

Recipient:

Country: United States

Text Question: WHEN.

Text Answer: TODAY.

Amount: USD192.00.



We hope your immediate positive response with payment details or

payment slip once you make the payment to enable a speedy shipment of

your Check to your home address.



Kindly Still Update Us With:



1. Your Name which you prefer we use when shipping your Check

2. Your Current mailing ( Delivery ) Address where your Check should be mailed

3. Your Private Mobile Number for the Priority Express Mail to Contact

you when they arrive at your door step.



Once again, we are sorry for the inconveniences you might have

encountered in the past, in pursuit of your funds. Now that this

office, Fund Reconciliation Department is involved, you will have no

cause to ever regret again as soon as you adhere to the above given

instructions.



Regards,

Hon Mrs.Janet DiFiore

The Chief Judges New York

Address: 400 Carleton Ave, Central Islip, NY 11722, USA Chiefministerforfinance Dubenin < chiefministerforfinancedu@gmail.com > 10:09 PM:





BENIN MINISTRY OF ECONOMY AND FINANCE



Address

Rue 2381

Cotonou



Benin

Mailing Address

PO Box 755

Cotonou

Benin







THIS IS TO NOTIFY THE BENEFICIARY TO THE PAYMENT FILE WITH REF #

LMPD/S008/11409PDF AT VALUE OF $11.500.000.00 US DOLLARS AND THE

PUBLIC OFFICIALLY THAT THE SAID PAYMENT FILE WITH ITS VALUE WAS

SUCCESSFULLY REPATRIATED BY THE UNITED NATIONS COALITIONS FOR HUMAN

RIGHTS ORGANISATION AS ORDERED BY THE IMF ORGANIZATION TO REDUCE THE

PANIC OVER THE VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE DEALING WITH AFRICAN INSTITUTIONS

DUE TO HIGH RISE IN FRAUDULENT ACTIVITIES WITHIN THE CONTINENT.

KINDLY CONTACT THE COALITION TEAM AT UNITEDNATIONSHUMAN9@GMAIL.COM

RIGHT NOW WITH RELEASE ORDER AND CLAIM YOUR FUNDS

EMAIL. . . UNITEDNATIONSHUMAN9@GMAIL.COM

CONTACT PERSON. . . MRS JANET M. DIFORE( HON. CHIEF JUDGE US COURT OF

JUSTICE NEW YORK)

DO LET US KNOW ONCE YOU MAKE SUCCESSFUL APPLICATION AND CLAIM YOUR FUNDS

TO ENABLE US TAKE THE NECESSARY RECORD.

YOURS SINCERELY IN SERVICES

CHIEF MINISTER FOR ECONOMIC AND FINANCE

BENIN REPUBLIC UNITEDNATIONS HUMANRIGHT Attachments 12:25 am (1 hour ago): I AM HON MRS JANET MARIE DIFIORE, THE CHIEF JUDGES NY SUPREME COURT USA



OVER-DUE PAYMENT RELEASED. FINALLY, YOUR FUND IS NOW HERE IN THE USA

AWAITING TO BE SHIPPED TO YOUR ADDRESS





All required to receive your ATM card from this office is $200 us dollars and payable via itune card Kindly send the card and expect your ATM delivery today within 6 hours.



Regards,

Hon Mrs.Janet DiFiore

The Chief Judges New York

Address: 400 Carleton Ave, Central Islip, NY 11722, USA

UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHT Attachments 1:41 AM: I AM HON MRS JANET MARIE DIFIORE, THE CHIEF JUDGES NY SUPREME COURT USA



OVER-DUE PAYMENT RELEASED. FINALLY, YOUR FUND IS NOW HERE IN THE USA

AWAITING TO BE SHIPPED TO YOUR ADDRESS



I am sorry for the little time delay as i had to go through heap of documents backing your paperwork to find your Affidavit as attached bellow to rest assure you that you will receive your card in Seoul Korea 07682 12 hours after the payment by itune card. Kindly adhere to the payment guideline



Regards,

Hon Mrs.Janet DiFiore

The Chief Judges New York

Address: 400 Carleton Ave, Central Islip, NY 11722, USA

UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHT Attachments 10:05 PM: I AM HON MRS JANET MARIE DIFIORE, THE CHIEF JUDGES NY SUPREME COURT USA

OVER-DUE PAYMENT RELEASED. FINALLY, YOUR FUND IS NOW HERE IN THE USA

AWAITING TO BE SHIPPED TO YOUR ADDRESS

That is blatant lies and i cannot stoop so low as to argue with some miscreant like Marian young the world most wanted criminal for any reason but it is left for you to differentiate the reality from the fake It is either you comply with the required payment of $200 or loose your funds but never jest with my office, names, email information or position .

UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHT 11:26 PM: I AM HON MRS JANET MARIE DIFIORE, THE CHIEF JUDGES NY SUPREME COURT USA

OVER-DUE PAYMENT RELEASED. FINALLY, YOUR FUND IS NOW HERE IN THE USA

AWAITING TO BE SHIPPED TO YOUR ADDRESS

This coalition had been appointed by the UN organization for human right to supervise your transaction repatriated from UBA and we have perfected every arrangement to accomplish your ATM delivery but it is grievous mistake on your side worthy to cost you the payment file by seeking advice from impostor You better correct the impression by sending the $200 or loose your funds

If you received a similar letter, please ignore it. Do not answer it. If you do, you will end up on more of the mailing lists used by the criminals behind this fraud. Read more....
New Delhi: The Election Commission is collaborating with IIT Madras to work on a new technology that will allow you to vote from far away locations without having to go to a polling station.

Senior deputy election commissioner Sandeep Saxena explained how this works: "Suppose there is a Lok Sabha election and a Chennai voter is in Delhi. Instead of going to Chennai to vote in his or her constituency, the voter can reach a predesignated spot set up by the Election Commission (EC), say in Connaught Place, and cast his vote there."

However, it does not mean voting from home, he hastened to add. A voter will have to go to a designated venue at a pre-decided time to be able to use the facility.

The project, still in the R&D stage, will use block chain technology.

It will have a two-way electronic voting system that works on white-listed IP devices on dedicated internet lines, enabled with biometric devices and a web camera.

The remote voting process would require voter identification and authorisation using a multi-layered IT-enabled system working on the Election Commission's electoral registration officer network (ERONet) using biometrics and web cameras.

After a voter's identity is established by the system, a block chain-enabled personalised e-ballot paper (Smart Contract) will be generated.

When the vote is cast (Smart Contract executed), the ballot would be securely encrypted and a block chain hashtag (#) will be generated. This hashtag notification would be sent to various stakeholders, in this case--the candidates and political parties, Saxena said.

The encrypted remote votes so cast will once again be validated in the pre-counting stage to ensure that they have neither been decrypted, nor tampered with or replaced.

Voters may have to apply in advance to the returning officers to opt for remote voting.

Another top Election Commission functionary, who refused to be quoted, said at present it is only an R&D project.

If the technology is found to be okay, then only after stakeholder consultations and changes in the election laws and rules will it be tried in actual conditions, he said.

There have been demands from various parties that the Election Commission should ensure that migrant workers should be allowed to vote for their constituency from the city they are working in.

A bill to allow proxy voting for overseas Indians had lapsed following the dissolution of the previous Lok Sabha.

The Law Ministry recently tweaked election rules to allow One Way Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS), enabling service voters consisting of personnel belonging to the armed forces, central paramilitary forces and central government officers deployed at Indian missions abroad, to get their postal ballots electronically. They have to fill up the ballot papers and post them back.

During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the ETPBS system helped such service voters in participating overwhelmingly in the polls, with a turnout of almost 62 per cent which used to be dismally low in single digits earlier.
Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad on Sunday is leading a march in New Delhi against the Supreme Courts ruling on reservations in appointments and promotions in government jobs, news agency ANI reported.

Chandrashekhar Azad had given a call for the Aarakshan Bachao march from Mandi House to Parliament on February 12 and also declared a nation-wide shutdown on February 23 the same day.

His Bharat Bandh call is against a Supreme Court ruling that states are not bound to provide reservation in promotion and appointments in public employment and that quota is not a fundamental right.

All friends should prepare for Bharat Bandh on 23 February. We will march from Mandi House to Parliament on February 16 and tell the government that tampering with reservation will be tolerated. I appeal to all political parties to cooperate in the Bharat Bandh of 23 February. Jai Bheem, he had tweeted in Hindi.

Chandrashekhar Azad had also urged MPs and MLAs belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes to build pressure on the government to bring an ordinance to nullify the ruling.

The government is not bound to provide reservation for appointments and promotions to public posts, and courts cannot give directions compelling states to reserve jobs or positions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/STs), the Supreme Court had said in its judgment last week.

The top court also said that an individual does not have a fundamental right to claim reservation, and it is for the government to decide whether reservations are required in appointments and promotions.
M illions of couples around the world celebrated Valentines Day on Friday, but there are those for whom this annual celebration of sex and romance holds little attraction.

An estimated one per cent of the worlds population identifies as asexual  also known as ace  according to sexuality research, but the number is likely to be much higher owing to the limitations of available data.

Yet the general publics understanding of asexuality tends to be vague at best and at worst aggressively ignorant, with a growing number of social media groups dedicated to harassing the ace community.

Asexual activist and model Yasmin Benoit told the Standard that it's time the world starts acknowledging, and celebrating, this sexual orientation in all its rich and diverse forms.

What is asexuality?

The Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), defines an asexual person as someone who does not experience sexual attraction, meaning they are not sexually drawn to other people and do not desire to act upon attraction to others in a sexual way. Just like any other sexual orientation it is an intrinsic part of who a person is, unlike celibacy, which is a conscious choice to abstain from sexual activity. Many ace people experience forms of attraction that can be romantic, aesthetic, or sensual, but which do not spark an urge for sexual action. They still form strong, fulfilling relationships  but in the absence of any sexual desire.

The 23-year-old from Reading has become a renowned spokesperson for the community, but her role as an ace icon came about almost accidentally.

A masters graduate in Crime Science, she already had a social media following due to her work as a lingerie model, but when she started mentioning her sexuality more in her posts, she realised people were interested.

Because there are so few people on any kind of platform who will openly say Im asexual, heres a name, heres a face, do what you want with this information, I think thats how the momentum started.

It was kind of an unintentional thing, but when I realised people were looking at me to do stuff I thought I might as well do it, because someone needs to.

Yasmin (centre) at an Asexual Takeover event at the Pride in London Shop / Yasmin Benoit

Ms Benoit, who identifies as both asexual and aromantic  meaning she experiences neither sexual nor romantic desire  started the online hashtag This is What Asexual looks Like to combat the misrepresentation of asexuality within society.

She wanted to give ace people a chance to celebrate their individual identities and form their own narratives by showing there is no such thing as asexual way to look or dress.

Yasmin's 'ThisIsWhatAsexualLooksLike' campaign has encouraged ace people to share their stories / Yasmin Benoit

When the hit Netflix series Sex Education introduced an asexual character in the form of Florence  an intense, largely solitary thespian  Ms Benoit welcomed it as progress, albeit with a long way to go.

It was nice to have something in a show, she said. And at least it was something. I mean, when you have a show about sexuality, it makes sense to include asexuality and aromanticism.

However, acknowledging that Florences character was not explored in great depth, she added: I think the briefness of her inclusion is symptomatic of where were at. We got a thing in a programme  guaranteed other sexualities got a lot more  but, still, we got a thing and I guess we should be grateful for that.

Florence, played by Mirren Mack, discovers she's asexual after admitting she doesn't want to have sex / Netflix

The odd thing about asexuality, Ms Benoit explained, is that swathes of the public hold strong opinions about it, despite three quarters of Brits being unable to accurately describe what it is, as a 2019 Sky News survey found.

There are streams of Twitter accounts whose sole purpose is to troll asexual people online, but thats just part of a wider issue, Ms Benoit explained.

They will pose as some sort of support group or figure to draw in their target and then theyll bombard them with disturbing sexually explicit pictures and random verbal abuse  death threats, things like that," she said.

Online, asexual has become synonymous with something along the lines of physically, mentally ill, sad, attention-seeking loser who is too ugly to date, or a bit of a psychopath who probably got molested as a child'.

People are genuinely starting to use asexual as an insult.

Hundreds of people responded to the controversial tweet / Twitter

One Twitter user sparked a fierce debate last week, by writing: 13 yr olds online identifying as asexual is so f***ing funny to me. oh youre disinterested in sex and it makes you kind of uncomfortable? so you mean youre a 13 yr old? (sic).

The post received more than 102,000 likes in a matter of days, but also thousands of replies from ace people, sharing their own experiences of coming out in their early teens.

There is so much support within the community, Ms Benoit said. So many positive things happening  talks, meet-ups, online meme pages, documentaries, written pieces, awareness weeks and an annual conference  the issue is not enough people from outside seem to care.

Still, Ms Benoit has been invited to speak at numerous universities and LGBTQ+ events across the country and, last year, she hosted Londons first asexual bar as a pop-up for Pride month  showing platforms are starting to emerge, she said.

The more these can be established across the country, the more the ace voice will start to be heard in the mainstream, and the more damaging stereotypes will start to break down.

Yasmin draws in the crowds at a 2019 Pride event in Reading / Yasmin Benoit

In 2018, she summed up in a blog post the richness and diversity of the ace community by looking at her fellow attendees at that year's Asexual Conference.

They included: "Married asexuals, asexuals with children, transgender asexuals, Muslim asexuals, asexual people with disabilities, polyamorous asexuals, homoromantic asexuals, aromantic asexuals, teenage asexuals, and older asexuals," among others.

Asexual people arent just shy, white, young people who are sad because they cant get dates  aromantic asexual people exist," she wrote.

Asexuality isnt a new thing that only young people are doing.

"Asexual people are perfectly capable of living fulfilling, happy, complete lives, whether they date and have sex or not."
BRUNSWICK, Maine - A high school class ring that was lost in Maine in 1973 has been found in a forest in Finland.

Debra McKenna, 63, lost the ring in Portland when she was a student at Morse High School, the Bangor Daily News reported. She said the ring was largely forgotten until a sheet metal worker found it under 8 inches (20 centimetres) of soil in a Finnish forest 47 years later.

The ring belonged to McKennas late husband Shawn, who she dated all throughout high school and college. The couple was married for 40 years until Shawn died in 2017 after a six-year battle with cancer. Shawn gave McKenna the ring before he left for college, and she accidentally left it in a department store.

McKenna said she cried when the ring arrived in the mail at her Brunswick home last week.

Its very touching in this world of negativity, to have decent people step forward and make an effort. McKenna said. There are good people in the world, and we need more of them.
Photo credit: Hearst Owned

From Town & Country

Open the newspaper, turn on the televisioneverybody is trying to screw everybody over, said Neal Hersh, founding partner of Los Angeless Hersh Mannis law firm. If you say your word is your bond, put it in writing.

Thus is the case for the prenuptial agreement, casually know as a prenup. With American divorce rates hovering at around forty to fifty percent, these preventative contracts before marriages have skyrocketed in popularity. In a recent study conducted by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 62% of lawyers surveyed saw a rise in prenups from 2013 to 2016, with half of lawyers seeing a rise among millennials, especially.

But, what even is a prenup? And, more importantly, do you need one? T&C spoke with three skilled celebrity divorce lawyers to explain this phenomenon and how it may affect your impending marriage.

A quick disclaimer: laws vary state to state, so be sure to consult with an attorney in your state, if youre considering a prenup.

Photo credit: Hearst Owned

What Is a Marriage Contract?

Laura Wasser has been dubbed Hollywoods Divorce Queen. The Los Angeles lawyer has represented clients ranging from Ryan Reynolds to Angelina Jolie (twice) and was the inspiration and advisor for Laura Derns divorce attorney character in Marriage Story (she also represented Dern in her own divorce). Along with practicing law, Wasser now runs ItsOverEasy.com, an online divorce and mediation resource.

The purpose of a prenup is to opt out of certain provisions that the couple would otherwise be entering into under the laws of their state, Wasser said. You design [a couples] own contract for how they want their money to be treated if they are to divorce in the future.

Wasser explained that getting married is essentially opting into a contract your state has designed. A prenuptial agreement is the rewriting of that contract to suit the needs and preferences of the couple getting married.

Eleanor Alter, a high-profile family law attorney at New Yorks Alter, Wolff & Foley firm, divided the prenup into three components. The first: agree to what will happen if the parties get divorced. The second: agree what happens at the death of one of [the parties] and decide whether to opt in or out of a states inheritance rights. And third: to contract what will happen during the marriage, though Alter stated that this final component is much rarer and more difficult to enforce.

Story continues

Additionally, a prenup can, and often does, deal with the issue of spousal support, Hersh told us. You may be a very very wealthy person and if you were getting divorced you would have to pay enormous alimony. You, in a prenup, may want to eliminate the alimony right of your soon-to-be spouse or put a maximum on it, he said.

There have also been cases where couples asked for stipulations regarding children, religion, or even sex written into their prenups, but none of the lawyers we spoke to recommended these additions, as they are difficult to negotiate and nearly impossible to enforce.

I believe that the more simple the prenup the better chance you have at having it really enforceable, Alter said.



Who Should Get a Prenup?

It can be confusing to figure out whether a prenuptial agreement is right for you. They can be expensive, not to mention, they entail a lot of time and effort. According to all of the lawyers spoken with, the most important thing is that all parties are familiar with the laws in their state.

I dont necessarily think that everybody needs a prenup; I think that everybody needs to know the law, Wasser said. So if you know the law and if youre comfortable with the law, then you dont need to have a prenuptial agreement.

Alter broke down the people she believes are the best fit for a prenuptial agreement into four categories. The first is people with family money, meaning large inheritance prospects or a family business. The second are individuals with a valuable premarital business or a premarital career (the Mark Zuckerbergs and Jennifer Lawrences of the world). Alters third category includes anyone who has been married multiple times and has children from prior marriages. Finally, she told us that anyone who is marrying someone with a large age difference should probably have a prenup.

Since prenups mostly deal with premarital assets and wealth, our lawyers recommend getting one if you have either family or career money going into the marriage. This is especially the case with people who are on their second or third marriages.

Once you have any wealth, either inherited or your own, you need one, Hersh said. Certainly if youve had one divorce already and youre going to get married a second time, the rate of divorce statistics go up, and its likely youll get divorced a second time, and you need to protect whatever assets you have.

As for who should not get a prenup? Basically anyone who is going into a marriage with few assets. In that case, the money the couple will earn, theyre making together. Should someone choose to keep all future earnings separate, according to Hersh, I dare say you wouldnt have a marriage.

Photo credit: Hearst Owned

What to Expect When Youre Expecting (a Prenup)

So youve decided to get a prenupnow what? There are certain ground rules that the couple and the lawyers need to follow in order to make a prenup enforceable. Most states require that both individuals going into the prenup have attorneys. Many states also require full disclosure, meaning that everyones assets going into the marriage need to be revealed and discussed. This helps lawyers figure out how to structure the prenup and helps both members of the couple see what their options are. Additionally, all states require that if the prenup is written in English, and its not one partys first language, that it be translated. Most states mandate that there is some sort of time requirement, so that there isnt pressure to sign before walking down the aisle. Finally, and more vaguely, nothing deemed unconscionablebasically anything really absurd or cruelcan be put in a prenup, otherwise it would be unenforceable.

The first step is to find a lawyer and, preferably, a matrimonial lawyer that does a lot of prenups. Both parties need to have a lawyer and, so that one party cannot claim insufficient counsel, Hersh told us, Its as important if not more important that your fiance has as good a lawyer as you have.

Alter pointed out that the lawyers must be from the state where youll be living, not where youre getting married. Alter has even encountered differences in laws when a couple moves out of New York and into a Connecticut suburb. If you think you might move your lawyer should have [the other states lawyer] advise as well, she said.

Once everyone has found and met with their lawyers, usually the two sides have a meeting to discuss options. We are trying to do this collaboratively and were trying to keep everybody happy, Hersh said. We all have the same goal. That goal is usually keeping everyone calm, while working out a fair arrangement.

After the deal is agreed upon, the lawyers will draft an agreement. When that is done, and sometimes there may be a few drafts, the prenup is ready to sign. There can, however, be some modifications in the signing process. For example, Hersh often has a judge supervise the signing and question both parties. This prevents one party from later making negative claims about the signing, as they will have sworn under oath that they were consenting, had access to a good lawyer, and so on. Hersh also sometimes videos these signings for even further assurance, should there be disputes later on.

Ideally, the prenup should be signed as far before the wedding as possible. It should be signed sealed and put away in a drawer a month in advance, Wasser said. Most people take a lot of time planning their weddings and theyre doing all of these things that very last month and weeks before. Theyre having their final dress fittings and doing their cake tasting and going to the venue and picking the flowers. It would be nice to be able to go through that process not concurrently with negotiating your prenup.

During this negotiation, it is also important to make sure you get across your own feelings and preferences. Take control of the situation and make sure that you and your partner are having conversations, rather than letting them all filter through the communications between attorneys, Wasser said. You have to handle this process because after the agreement is signed and put away, youre living with this person for the rest of your life, hopefully.

While you dont want to have your prenup act as a black cloud over your marriage, its also important to pay attention to how your partner handles the process. Alter, who has practiced law for fifty-five years, said, You can tell a lot about the person youre marrying based on how they conduct [the prenup]. If someone says, Take it or leave it or Mommy says or Daddy saysbe careful.

Photo credit: Hearst Owned

Prenups Come with a Cost

The lawyers we spoke with do not come cheap. Wasser charges $950 per hour and said a prenup can cost around $25,000. Alter told us that shes seen very complicated prenups run up to $100,000, though she admits that is uncommon. However, prices can vary dramatically depending on your state and lawyer.

You dont have to get a Rolls Royce or Ferrari kind of lawyer, but you need a lawyer, Hersh said, as he does not believe cost should be a barrier for a prenup. Its just like saying, with all due respect, if something is wrong health-wise would you say, Oh well that doctor costs a little too much, Im not going to attend to it. You could do that, but thats sort of cutting off your nose to spite your face. So, it wouldnt be my advice.

Hersh noted that this is even more the case with previously married individuals. People who have been through a divorce understand that theres a need for these things. They may not like it, but they get it, he said.



A Fading Stigma

Prenuptial agreements certainly require difficult conversations between couples, and the topic is not always met with positive reactions. However, our lawyers believe that, while the subject will never be romantic, it is important for many individuals.

Youre negotiating a divorce before people get married, which is a pretty difficult thing, Alter said. Its a terrible process.

The fact that the process is difficult does not make it less necessary. Wasser believes that engaged couples should have these sorts of conversations  involving income, the division of property, and the future  regardless of whether they actually decide to get a prenup.

I do believeand Ive been doing this for 25 years and Ive done a lot of prenupsthat if the couple has the kind of conversations that go into a prenup, whether they have a prenup or not, but have some very realistic, probably unsexy and unromantic conversations leading up to their marriage they will likely stay together longer, Wasser said. Its not just all about romance and butterflies in your stomach and sexiness, it also has to do with some real issues and real expectations of what roles you will each be filling in the relationship.

Clearly the stigma against prenups is becoming less and less noticeable. Both Alter and Wasser agreed that they have many more clients asking for prenups than ever before, in accordance with national statistics. They both believe it has to do with individuals getting married later, wealthier, and wiser, and that a greater number of women now have their own careers and assets, giving them more equal negotiating power. I also think its not quite as taboo as it used to be, Wasser said.

While the lawyers disagreed on whether to play hardball in the negotiation (you can always be nicer later) or to be generous (it helps the relationship and makes the process less onerous), they agreed on a few key pieces of advice. Alter, Wasser, and Hersh all advise their clients to be honest and communicative, and to keep in mind their love for their fiance throughout the often trying negotiations.

If you want to have a marriage thats going to work, my best advice to you, as a divorce attorney, would be to be communicative and considerate of your spouse and really think about what it is youre doing, Wasser said. Even if that means having some difficult conversations at times.

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China's container transport for export purposes saw an overall increase in January, according to the Shanghai Shipping Exchange (SSE).

The average China Containerized Freight Index (CCFI) rose 10.3 percent month on month to stand at 927.91 last month, up from an average of 823.53 in 2019, said the SSE.

The freight rates of all routes were raised, buoying the container transport market last month.

The sub-indices for the Persian Gulf/Red Sea and Mediterranean routes led the increase, soaring by 31.4 percent and 30.6 percent, respectively.

The CCFI tracks spot and contractual freight rates from Chinese container ports for 12 shipping routes across the globe, based on data from 20 international carriers.

The index was set at 1,000 on Jan. 1, 1998.
Police in Azerbaijan on Sunday detained opposition party leaders and dozens of their supporters before they were due to take part in a protest against the results of last weeks national election.

The Musavat party said in a statement that its party leader Arif Gajily and REAL party leader Ilgar Mamedly, as well as opposition candidates and election observers, were among the 55 arrested demonstrators, some of whom were picked up near their homes.

Dozens of riot police surrounded the Central Election Commissions (CEC) building, where the protest had been due to start from, and put anyone arriving to take part in the demonstration on a bus, a witness told Reuters news agency.

Protesters held up posters that read: Abolish election results! or We demand free elections!

Some of those detained were taken in police vans to remote, deserted places 200-300km [120-180 miles] from Baku and abandoned there, Gadjily told AFP news agency after he was freed.

Police officials declined to comment on arrests, Reuters reported.

According to the CEC, the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan (New Azerbaijan) party won 72 out of 125 seats in the single-chamber Parliament in the February 9 vote, with nearly all other seats going to small parties and independents loyal to President Ilham Aliyev.

But international observers and the opposition denounced violations ranging from fraud to intimidation.

International monitors found widespread procedural violations in the vote count, which they said raised doubt about the honesty of the election. Aliyev had called the election nine months early to consolidate his authority and speed economic reforms.

The CEC has so far cancelled the results in four election constituencies following reports about violations.

Azerbaijan has been governed by Aliyev since 2003 when he succeeded his late father, Azerbaijans Soviet-era Communist leader and former KGB general Heydar Aliyev.

Western nations have courted Azerbaijan because of its role as an alternative to Russia in supplying oil and gas to Europe, but various European bodies and rights groups have accused Aliyev of muzzling dissent and jailing opponents, charges Baku denies.
CHICO, Calif.  Just minutes after midnight on Feb. 15, the Chico Police Department received reports of gunshots heard in the area of W 2nd Ave and Warner Street. Officers arrived and located a large party letting out.

Police say as they canvassed the crowd, partygoers denied any knowledge of a shooting or hearing shots. The party dispersed as officers stood by with no one coming forward.

According to officials about 10 minutes after officers left the area, a 20-year-old male arrived at the Enloe Medical Center Emergency Room suffering from a gunshot wound. At the time of this press release, the victims injuries are believed to be non-life threatening.

Police say the victim, a Chico resident, indicated that he had been shot outside of a party, following a large fight. It appears the party and fight that preceded the shooting, all occurred at the very location officers initially responded to.

Officers resumed the investigation but have minimal information about the shooting.

Police believe that there are individuals who were at the party who have more information or who might have been eyewitnesses to the fight/shooting.

Police ask anyone with more information to please come forward, call the Chico Police Department at 530-897-4900 and reference case #20-001060.
When Mangal Kewat, a resident of Domri village in Ramnagar at Varanasi wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi inviting him to his daughter's wedding, never would he have imagined that he would get a reply.

Kewat a rickshaw puller, sent the invitation of his daughter's wedding to PM Modi and was overjoyed when he got a letter blessing the couple. He claims it was on the insistence of his friends that he sent a letter to the PM.

"Some of my friends asked me to send an invitation to Modiji so I sent one to Delhi and one to his Varanasi office. I never expected a response but now that we have got his letter, we are overjoyed. I have shown the letter to all guests at my daughter's wedding," he said.

PM Modi, in response to the invitation, wrote a letter to Kevat thanking him for sending the invitation and including him in the family's moment of joy. He also gave his blessings to the newlyweds.

The wedding took place on February 8 2020.

While speaking to ANI, Mangal Kevat said, PM Modi is my god and guru, so I had sent the first card of my daughters marriage to PM. We have got his letter and we are overjoyed.

PM Modi was on a one-day visit to his parliamentary constituency of Varanasi today (February 16) where he inaugurates 36 projects and laid the foundation of 14 others besides unveiling the 63-feet statue of RSS ideologue Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyay at Padao.

(With agency inputs)
Dear Amy: I had a horrific childhood with an alcoholic, violent father who physically beat my mother, sisters and me on a regular basis. l would get so scared I would literally pee in my pants during the beatings because I thought that he would kill me, or them -- it was that bad.

When I was 9, the sexual abuse started. No one protected me.

To make matters worse, when I started the fifth grade, there was a girl who bullied me consistently, and beat me up a couple of times. She made my days hellish.

I recently found her on Facebook under a different (married) name.

I am told she is a nice person now, but I wouldn't know, because our paths haven't crossed since the end of fifth grade.

I feel such rage when I see her picture. I want to contact her and let her know about my home life and how horrible she made me feel for an entire school year.

I want to say that I never forgot her cruelty and that I am now a grown, successful woman who would "kick her behind" if I ever saw her.

She caused me so much pain, it is only fair that she suffers for what she did to me. Unfortunately, I start getting anxious. I revert back to the child that was terrified of the bully, and my monster father.

My father died suddenly, so I never got the chance to stand up to him.

I don't know if I am a coward or being kind to myself by letting sleeping dogs lie.

I would appreciate your words of wisdom.

-- Survivor

Dear Survivor: You were victimized by unspeakable abuse during childhood. Your survival is a triumph.

"Letting sleeping dogs lie" is not the answer for you, because, for you, the dogs never sleep. These memories still pace and stalk and threaten to pounce.

You need to deal with your rage. Vengeance doesn't quiet rage ... it stokes it. You deserve (and would be well-served by) professional help with a trauma specialist to continue to recover from years of childhood abuse.

Children who bully and violate other children are often re-enacting and expressing their own rage. Unless she is a genuinely deranged psychopath (a true rarity), I suggest that the monster who bullied you in school was most likely also a wounded, desperate, degraded child whose twisted instinct was to target the only person she saw who was perhaps more wounded and vulnerable than she.

You are still too close to this, and too triggered, to feel compassion for her.

It might seem like cliche, but you truly need to tend to, love, and honor both sides of yourself: the terrified and victimized child, and the fierce and angry survivor.

Becoming a warrior does not mean that you victimize other people, but that you stand up for yourself (and others) bravely and with honesty and integrity.

When you are ready, you could contact this woman to speak your own truth without threatening her, but you're not there yet.

Until then, disengage from her on social media and continue to work on your own recovery.

Dear Amy: You frequently mention therapy or finding a therapist in your columns. Could you offer some advice in a future column of how to go about this?

I lucked into a great therapist years ago, but she moved away. Since then, I've tried half a dozen therapists and haven't found one who I click with or who works for my schedule.

I've given up on therapy because starting with a new therapist is arduous and I've been burned before.

I wonder if others are in a similar position. Your advice?

-- C

Dear C: The American Psychological Association offers a helpful database for finding therapists on their website: apa.org (search psychologist locator). You can type in your ZIP code and nearby therapists are located with their specialties noted, and the forms of insurance they accept.

Many therapists will connect with clients virtually, using telepsychology. Even though your previous "good fit" therapist has moved away, she might be happy to provide Skype sessions.

Dear Amy: I have an idea that might help relationships in this divided age.

Each person should watch one hour of the other person's news program (of that person's choosing) each day.

What do you think?

-- Balanced Perspective

Dear Balanced: Yes, this might help. It might also make both sides of this divide want to set their collective hair on fire.

(You can email Amy Dickinson at askamy@amydickinson.com or send a letter to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068. You can also follow her on Twitter @askingamy or Facebook.)
Sea Isle Citys polar bear plunge is off and running as people race into the frigid Atlantic Ocean in Sea Isle City on Saturday morning. Read more

SEA ISLE CITY, N.J.  After days of what could have been mistaken for April showers, Philadelphia got a jolt of February frost Saturday.

Unfortunately, that coincided with thousands of people running, diving, or simply standing and shrieking in bone-chilling shock in an Atlantic Ocean that was about 40 degrees Saturday morning. The water temperature could have been worse. The February average for that stretch of Atlantic surf is 35 degrees, according to National Centers for Environmental Information data.

Then again, those who signed up for the Polar Bear Plunge in Sea Isle City had to know comfort was not going to be part of the experience on a February weekend on the East Coast.

Its about having a good time," said Pat Johnson of Haddon Township, who has been putting himself through this shock to the system for 27 years. All we do is work eight days a week. ... Life is not all about working. You gotta have a good time."

Johnson took Saturdays plunge wearing ... a thong.

Its not just about testing ones discomfort endurance. The plunge is timed to capitalize on the long Presidents Day weekend to infuse some midwinter life into a Shore town usually desperate for some right about now.

And because this is just how life works, milder temperatures are on their way now that the frigid adventure is over.

Temperatures are expected to reach the upper 40s Sunday and into the mid-50s on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

This seasons mild temperatures make it among the warmest of the 146 winters tracked in the region by the weather agency. In only five of those winters has the temperature failed to go below 15.
Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a former military officer at the National Security Council who testified during the impeachment hearings on Capitol Hill, walks down the steps of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington on Jan. 27, 2020. (Susan Walsh/AP Photo)

No Investigations Into Key Impeachment Witness Vindman: Army

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said Friday there are no plans to investigate Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the former National Security Council (NSC) staffer who was dismissed from his post after he testified during the impeachment inquiry.

When asked about whether the Army would investigate or punish Vindman, McCarthy said he was scheduled to come back to the Army and was detailed to the NSC.

We brought him back. So hes got basically a bridging assignment for a couple of months within an [headquarters of the Department of the Army] assignment, and then he will be heading to a senior service college this summer. Theres no investigations into him, he told reporters.

The statement comes after President Donald Trump said the military might take a look at whether Vindman should face punitive measures after his dismissal. Before that, the president explained he was removed because of concerns raised by his former superior, Tim Morrison, and other staffers about whether he had leaked information. His reliability and judgement were also questioned during the impeachment inquiry.

It turned out that what he reported was very different [than what occurred], Trump said of what Vindman had said about the presidents July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which was central to the impeachment inquiry and trial.

And also when you look at the person he reports to, said horrible things, avoided the chain of command, leaked, did a lot of bad things. And so we sent him on his way to a much different location, and the military can handle him anyway they want, Trump added.

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters during a meeting with President of the Republic of Ecuador Lenin Moreno, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on Feb. 12, 2020. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Gordon Sondland, the U.S ambassador to the European Union, testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill on Nov. 20, 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Earlier this month, Vindmans lawyer, in a strongly worded statement, said the NSC staffer was removed and escorted from the White House premises, adding that it was political retaliation for testifying in the impeachment inquiry in November.

On the same day, Ambassador Gordon Sondland, another impeachment witness, confirmed via his lawyer that he was being recalled from his post. However, he thanked Trump for allowing him to serve in that role.

The personnel changes prompted Democrats in Congress to call for investigations into how they were dismissed. But national security adviser Robert OBrien said last week that he made the decision to remove Vindman and his twin brother, explaining that it wasnt carried out in retaliation for the testimony.

I can absolutely tell you they were not retaliated against, OBrien told the Wall Street Journal, referring to Vindman and Yevgeny Vindman, an NSC ethics lawyer who was also removed on Friday. Yevgeny did not testify in the impeachment inquiry.

Trump, meanwhile, did not instruct him to remove the two, according to OBrien.

It was just time for them to go back. Their services were no longer needed, he said, adding that Trump is entitled to staffers that want to execute his policies and he has confidence in.
A man was dragged into a house and shot in front of four children, police said (Niall Carson/PA)

A man was shot during a merciless attack in a house with four children inside, police said.

He was targeted by two masked men in Ardglen Place, Ardoyne, in North Belfast who dragged him into the property on Saturday night.

PSNI Detective Inspector Andrew George said: This was a savage attack carried out by two masked men who showed no regard for the other people who were present in the house, which included a woman and four children under the age of 16.

There is no doubt the merciless actions of the thugs responsible will have left them all traumatised.

Nothing gives these people the right to violate the human rights of people, and their actions should be condemned by allAndrew George

The victim was aged in his 30s and was taken to hospital.

He had been walking in the Jamaica Road area when he was approached by two men and directed to the house, where he was shot in the thigh.

Mr George added: Those who are involved in these attacks do not represent the interests of this community, nor do they contribute anything to it.

Nothing gives these people the right to violate the human rights of people, and their actions should be condemned by all.

Our investigation is under way and we are working through a number lines of enquiry to establish a motive for this brutal attack.

He appealed for anyone with information to contact police.




By Baek Byung-yeul







Hyundai Motor is accelerating efforts to develop hydrogen technologies, planning to launch hydrogen fuel-cell trucks in 2023 in a bid to take the lead in next-generation electric vehicles.







The automaker said Sunday that it recently signed a memorandum of agreement with Yeosu Gwangyang Port Authority to conduct jointly a project to develop hydrogen-powered trucks and related businesses.







"Under the agreement, Hyundai Motor will develop two hydrogen-powered trucks for logistics purposes by 2023 and 10 more trucks in the following year. YGPA will provide support to build a hydrogen recharge station on its site," the company said.







YGPA will offer about 2,000 square meters of land for a recharge station scheduled to be built in 2022.







The hydrogen fuel-cell truck will be capable of driving about 320 kilometers, equivalent to a round trip route between the southern ports of Gwangyang and Busan.







Hyundai Motor has been expanding its presence in the hydrogen-powered auto business. The company signed a contract with a Swiss hydrogen company H2Energy in 2018 to supply its hydrogen fuel-cell trucks, starting in the first half of this year.


The Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Akoto, has made a passionate appeal for support towards the implementation of one of Ghana's flagship policies, Planting for Export and Rural Development.



He explains that his appeal seeks to expand Ghana's country's tree crops export capacity.



Dr. Afriyie Akoto made this known at the 43rd Session of the Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) held in Rome.



He also met with the Director General of the FAO, Dr. Qu Dongyu. Discussions with him centred especially on what the Minister was doing in Ghana to bring about transformation of the economy and what FAO as a UN body, can do to support the country's agenda.



Video below





Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Tension within Queensland's parliamentary Labor Party is set to detonate on Monday afternoon when caucus meets in Brisbane ahead of the second sitting week of the year.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk invited disgruntled members of her backbench to air grievances over Jackie Trad's long-running integrity saga at caucus, instead of continuing to speak with the media.

Jackie Trad referred herself to the Crime and Corruption Commission over her purchase of the Woolloongabba house. Credit:Glenn Hunt/AAP

"I think everyone knows that there has been damage to our government, there is no denying that," Ms Palaszczuk told reporters on Friday.

"I am the first person to admit it and I am quite sure Jackie admits it as well.
The ties between India and the US are "unshakeable", a top American diplomat has said, asserting that the Trump Administration looks forward to an even warmer relationship as Prime Minister hosts President later this month.

President Trump will pay a state visit to India on February 24 and 25 at the invitation of Prime Minister Modi.

"The ties between our countries are unshakeable, and we look forward to an even warmer relationship as" the prime minister hosts the president later this month, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice Wells tweeted on Saturday.

"The US and India enjoy a close partnership that grows stronger day by day. Together, we are breaking records. For example: we welcomed a record number of Indian exchange students to the US last year and hope to receive even more this year," she said.

India, she said, is at the heart of the Indo-Pacific region and plays an increasingly prominent role on the world's stage. "The US looks forward to partnering with India at every step of the way," Wells said.

Ahead of the presidential visit, Alyssa Ayres senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations think-tank, said that Trump appears to be focused first and foremost on the stadium event and the prospect of very large crowds, then on a trade deal.

"So, I am watching most closely what happens with the ongoing trade negotiations - which despite efforts last fall, did not manage to reach an agreement," Ayres told PTI.

"I expect whatever emerges on the trade front to be modest as we are not talking about something resembling even a bilateral investment treaty, let alone a more ambitious agreement, she said.

But any progress would be a positive step forward, given how tough some of these trade issues have been over the years, she noted. "The resort to tariff increases on the part of both the US and India has made this a moving target, and it can't be easy for the negotiators," Ayres said.

According to Aparna Pande, director, Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia at the Hudson Institute think-tank, Trump's visit to India symbolizes how far the two countries have come in their relationship.

"Prime Minister Modi has the honour of welcoming two US Presidents, one Democrat (Obama) and one Republican (Trump) to India," she said.

The two countries have a strong strategic partnership, economic and defense, bolstered by people-to-people ties based on shared values of democracy, pluralism and tolerance, Pande said.

"However, the visit will be high on symbols, visuals and optics but low on substantive deliveries. A genuine trade deal is difficult for two populist and nationalist leaders, each of whom had promised 'Make in America'/'Make in India' as their goal. So, we have a combination of defence deals and minor adjustments from each side on the commercial side," Pande said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bhumika Popli By

Artist Neeraj Guptas ongoing curated exhibition can be viewed as a blueprint for public art in Delhi. The third edition of his Sculpt For Delhi comes with a tagline thats worth reading, The show is a prelude to the making of the master plan for public art for Delhi.

Gupta is the President of Delhi Art Society and has been crusading to make Delhi into a burgeoning hub for public art for more than 15 years now. In his opinion, the city has a number of locations apt for installing artworks.

The lawns under the Dhaula Kuan flyover, roundabout in Lutyens zone, outdoor areas of various malls, exit and entry points at Indira Gandhi International Airport and so on are fit for this project, he says.

The artist has sent a proposal to Delhi Urban Art Commission with various suggestions on this initiative. He says, Delhi Art Society has made a policy document which enlists how funds for the public art could be used. The document has been sent to the government.

Artist Neeraj Gupta

It includes names of the artists, locations and a section on the allocation of funds.

"As artists, we just want this policy document to be approved so that work is streamlined for many creatives. It is under consideration with Ministry of Urban Development. But it appears that things have slowed down for some time now, he says, sounding a bit disappointed.

According to Gupta, every year a number of students pass out from the many art institutions in Delhi, but only handful take up arts full-time.

Many a times a promising artist takes up career as a teacher or simply leave arts for not making the ends meet. And while in teaching they dont get enough time to pursue their passion for the arts. This show displays works of impactful art, in tune with the conscience of the city.

Mukul Panwars Cityscape featuring a marble sparrow perched atop a suggested landscape of a modern city, points at the declining rate of house sparrows in Delhi. Artist Shovin Bhattacharjee places his own figure in his installation.

The figure is looking at the city of multi-storeyed buildings. Delhi is an inspiration for this, he reasons.

The artist urges city-dwellers to be more sensitive to nature. He says, I have realised that in the race of urbanisation, we are becoming greedy by taking a lot of space from the nature. There are tall buildings at the cost of our nature which contradicts our very own vision of green Delhi.

Till: February 17At: Visual Art Gallery, IHC

Artworks

Mukul Panwars Cityscape featuring a marble sparrow perched atop a suggested landscape of a modern city, points at the declining rate of house sparrows in Delhi. Shovin Bhattacharjee places his own figure in his installation. This show displays works of impactful art, in tune with the conscience of the city, says artist Neeraj Gupta.
Editors Note:

The transgender industry is doing everything it can to normalize extreme medical interventions as the appropriate way to deal with gender dysphoria and confusion. But what about those who have made the transition and now deeply regret it? Trans proponents have no interest in our hearing from these victims, which makes it even more important for them to tell their unvarnished stories. Fortunately, several state legislatures are now paying attention to the physical and psychological damage, especially for minors. Their bills to stop the abuse deserve our support. Reprinted with permission. Pat Daugherty, Ed.D.

February 12, 2020

My New Life After Transgender Despair

Last December, I received an early Christmas present that I would have rejected just one year earlier: an M for male on my drivers license.

The switch back to male marked the end of a long journey of gender confusion and self-deception. Along the way I became a transgender activist and then Americas first legally non-binary person.

By Christmas Eve 2019, I was done with the lies. By Gods grace, a Portland judge granted my petition to legally restore my sex to male.

This has been a five-year ordeal. I first rose to become a transgender activist in 2015, telling The New York Times: I now live in a world where radical, conservative politicians and religious groups routinely attack my very existence with legislation to deny me basic human rights such as a bathroom that matches my gender-identity.

New to identifying as a woman at that stage of my life, but indoctrinated by the peddlers of transgender ideology to believe I was one, I incorrectly believed that gaining access to female bathrooms was a human rights issue for me.

I was wrong. In hindsight, it was all part of a selfish quest to nourish my long-held sexual fantasy of being a womana mental disorder called autogynephilia.

Although my landmark court case was built on lies, deceit, and pseudoscience, I didnt care. It didnt matter to me that the sex change petition fictitiously claimed my sex was non-binary and got two doctors to say so.

It didnt matter to me that before the brief hearing, which lasted mere minutes, my lawyer had confided that the case was essentially fixed, that the judge had a transgender child and had recently granted a sex change for a 12-year-old.

None of that mattered, because winning meant getting sweet revenge against those who Id come to believe were harming me and stopping me from engaging in my addictionthe feminists, and conservative Christians.

Fine, I thought to myself back then. If all these parties dont want me in female bathrooms, then Ill help destroy the very thing they want to protect: The definition of sex as weve known it for over 200 years in America.

When I was finished, sex was no longer grounded to science by things like chromosomes and genitals observed at birth. It was determined by personal feelings rooted in what I would later come to realize were sex stereotypes.

It wasnt lost on me that if I won the case and had my sex declared as non-binary (neither male nor female), and had that codified into law, then bathrooms would subsequently have to be made gender-neutral.

People who are hurt end up hurting people, so at the time I didnt care if my actions were detrimental to women and young girls.

In my mind, by winning the case, I was sticking it to those radical feminists who had refused to accept me as one of them. Being legally no longer classified as female meant this vicious group of women could no longer accuse me of appropriating womanhood and being a caricature of a femaleeven if that was true (and it was).

Likewise, I intended to take revenge on the Christians, another group that had antagonized me since Id begun donning a wig and dress and acting out sexually in public.

I didnt know much about the Bible back then, but I knew enough to know they cherished its teaching about how God created only male and female. So I vowed to destroy that sacred belief.

Going Nonbinary

When I officially broke the gender binary, the media circus was spectacular. Media outlets from as far away as Germany cheered me on, celebrating my victory and embracing me as their latest LGBT hero.

Before long, states were debating whether to recognize up to 73 gender identities, and gender activists testified about how those false-identities rooted in mere feelings were valid and real.

For me, the celebration went on for months as I entertained reporters with tales of how I was the third gender: a special combination of male biology and a female gender identity.

Of course, it was all a complete delusion, but journalists ate it up. Not once did they question me. And above all, I believed it. Having an official X marker on my drivers license served as validation from the government that I was, indeed, nonbinary.

The X marker is supposed to mean sex unspecified or indeterminate, but thats not what I or any of the other people getting the designation believe about ourselves. At birth, my correct sex was easily determinable by the male genitals I have always possessed.

Today, back to my senses and having legally reclaimed my male birth sex, I recognize the damage Ive done. But my return to sanity and embrace of my male sex have caused the cheering on the left to fall silent.

Even more importantly, though, Ive taken responsibility for the harm I have caused, for the millions of dollars spent to advance the fraud that I shamefully participated in. In church and public, I confessed my sins, and humbled myself before the Lord, pleading for Him to lift me up.

As a result, the Lord has lifted me, and Im now getting the help I should have gotten all along.

Setting the Record Straight

In April 2019, the Department of Veterans Affairs reluctantly agreed to diagnose me with a sexual paraphilia, the true cause behind my previous sexual confusion. And in December, despite my past and who I had been, a Christian legal organization agreed to help me change my sex back to male.

On Dec. 12, a Portland attorney submitted a new sex change petition on my behalf to the very court that had once declared my sex as non-binary.

In the documents, we asked for reclamation of the male birth sex that I was correctly observed to be at birth, and for the restoration of the precious name given to me by my parents.

After receiving the news that the petition was successfully filed, I prayed. Others joined me in prayer, asking the Lord for speedy success in our endeavor. And within just a short time our prayers were answered.

In only a week, a more competent judge signed the order, ending the legal fiction behind the fraud that had allowed an X marker on drivers licenses in over a dozen states.

On Dec. 24, a courthouse clerk deposited the signed and notarized court order declaring my sex male and my name James Clifford Shupe into the postal system, with a destination of my new home state of Florida.

President Ronald Reagan taught me as a young soldier to vote with my feet, so I did, leaving Oregon with the intention of sending a clear message that I wouldnt be party to the mutilation of children that goes on there under the guise of gender therapy.

Moving Forward

Im often asked what has prompted my turnabout and conversion to Christ.

The answer lies in the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, which also apply to other addictions, such as my compulsive sexual behavior.

I have admitted that I am powerless over my mental illness and transvestic disorder. I have accepted that my life has become unmanageable and that only a power greater than myself can restore me to sanity. And I have made a conscious decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God as I understand Him.

During my long journey of first identifying as a female and then later non-binary, Ive walked among the many drug and alcohol-addicted homeless people sleeping on the streets of the West Coast each night. Ive abused my flesh in Portland sex clubs, BDSM dungeons, and adult theaters. Ive harmed my body with cross-sex hormones and risky sexual behaviors. And Ive dishonored my wife and my marriage vows with inexcusable transgressions, of which there are many.

It took seeing and experiencing all of that destruction and recognizing the harms of it for me to finally understand that Christianity builds stronger families, safer communities, and most importantly, a better nation.

Like the Apostle Paul, my past actions of harming Christians, and in my case also harming women and girls by entering their bathroom space, will always humble me before women, the American public, and the Lord.

Similarly, like Paul, I too will carry an irremovable thorn in my flesh. Biblical scholars are unable to agree about the type of thorn Paul carried, but for me, it is a transvestic disorder with autogynephiliaa mental disorder I will battle for the remainder of my days.

Will I stumble and fall, or relapse again as we call it in recovery? Maybeand to be honest, I already have. Going into my detransition, I set an unrealistic goal of perfection for myself, throwing away all of my womens clothing and vowing to never cross-dress or act out sexually again.

That proved to be disastrous because as my testosterone quickly returned, I soon relapsed into another bout of stockpiling female garments.

But no relapse like this means that I or any other male with this mental disorder is female.

Some Christians have compared my circumstances to Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade who later became a pro-life advocate.

In my non-binary court case, I lied about not being male. Similarly, McCorvey lied about being sexually assaulted. And in both cases, a loophole in state law was exploited to advance destructive medical practices. In Texas, for McCorvey, it was the right to get an abortion. For me in Oregon, it was the right to change your sex.

Both of our court cases then went on to unleash something monstrous.

Like McCorvey, because of the magnitude of my misdeeds and the amount of damage done, I sought forgiveness in the only place capable of bestowing forgiveness: the loving arms of Jesus.

Should I relapse, the correct response for others would be to promptly get me help. Civilly commit me if necessary, if the relapse has progressed to self-harm. But do not, under any circumstances, indulge my past delusions or new ones.

In Christ, I am a new creation. The old has gone; the new has come.

James Shupe (formerly Jamie) retired from the Army with the rank of sergeant first class. He previously identified as transgender and was the first American to obtain nonbinary status under law. Follow him on Twitter at @NotableDesister.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held several meetings on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, including with the US special envoy on Afghan reconciliation and the Saudi foreign minister, and discussed regional and global issues with them.

"Met @US4AfghanPeace Zalmay Khalilzad at #MSC2020. Appreciated his update on the Afghanistan negotiations," Jaishankar tweeted.

Met @US4AfghanPeace Zalmay Khalilzad at #MSC2020. Appreciated his update on the Afghanistan negotiations. pic.twitter.com/Nw6zRtvUGF  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) February 15, 2020

In another tweet, he said he had a meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Saturday (local time) and "appreciated his perspectives on global and regional issues". "Look forward to working with him in the Strategic Partnership Council," he added.

Was a pleasure to meet His Highness Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia. Appreciated his perspectives on global and regional issues. Look forward to working with him in the Strategic Partnership Council. pic.twitter.com/9oq0PxU1au  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) February 15, 2020

The meetings come in the backdrop of a possible deal between the US and the Taliban to reduce violence, which could eventually lead to the withdrawal of American troops from war-torn Afghanistan.

The Munich Security Conference, being held from February 14-16, is the world's leading forum for debate on international security policy and is held annually. It was established in 1963. The External Affairs Minister also met Australian and Singaporean Defence Ministers Linda Reynolds and Ng Eng Hen, respectively, and said India is working with them to take security cooperation forward.

On his meeting with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah, Jaishankar said, "Our contemporary relationship has been built on a strong historical and cultural foundation. Will work together to take it to greater heights."

He met members of the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee and held "a very good conversation" on the EU, Germany and India. "Appreciated their strong interest in taking our relationship forward," he said.

The External Affairs Minister also had a meeting with a US congressional delegation led by Senator Jim Inhofe, the chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee. "Discussed our growing strategic cooperation. Value their interest in building this relationship," he said.

Earlier Saturday, Jaishankar met US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and discussed bilateral relationship ahead of American President Donald Trump's visit to India this month on February 24 and 25.
MUNICH  China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Saturday that U.S. criticisms of Beijing were "lies" and blamed Washington for the tumultuous relationship between the world's two largest economies.

"The root cause of all these problems and issues is that the U.S. does not want to see rapid development and rejuvenation of China, still less would they want to accept the success of a socialist country, but that is not fair, China has the right to develop," Wang said during a discussion at the Munich Security Conference.

"China's drive towards modernization is an inevitable trend of history and will not be held back or stopped by any force in the world because it represents the direction of human progress," he added.

Wang's comments at the Munich Security Conference followed those of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, both delivering back-to-back speeches accusing China of malign activities.

"China encroaches on the exclusive economic zones of Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia. And on that point, China has had a border or maritime dispute with nearly every nation bordering it," Pompeo told an audience at the security forum. "And let's talk for a second about the other realm, cybersecurity. Huawei and other Chinese state-backed tech companies are Trojan horses for Chinese intelligence," he added.

Esper said Beijing was caring out a "nefarious strategy" through telecommunications firm Huawei. "It is essential that we as an international community wake up to the challenges presented by Chinese manipulation of the long-standing international rules-based order," he warned.
Sinn Fein is the country's most popular party, with 120,000 votes to spare. Those who voted for the republicans in their droves are concerned with the pressing issues of the present, such as housing.

The TDs they propelled into Leinster House say they are focused on the future. Yet several key figures who spent the past four years setting Sinn Fein on its path to success are part of its troubled past. They are considered key backroom figures in republican politics in Northern Ireland but, Sinn Fein being an all-Ireland party, their influence has extended on this side of the Border, too.

Sean Hughes is a former IRA commander from South Armagh who was reputedly a close associate of Thomas 'Slab' Murphy and is known as The Surgeon. He has been a key organiser for Sinn Fein. When turbulence broke out over allegations of intimidation, bullying and excessive control in several regional branches of the party, Hughes was one of those drafted in to smooth things over.

Another Northern man who was drafted in to settle internal disputes was Brian Tumilty, a key SF election strategist originally from Newry. He presided with two others on an internal panel in a dispute in Wicklow that resulted in three councillors being expelled. He was convicted in the early 1980s for possession of one of the weapons suspected of having been used in the Kingsmill massacre in 1976.

Martin Lynch is an ex-IRA prisoner and a former driver for Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, who served as SF's head of human resources. His responsibilities included ensuring that staff and TDs paid themselves the average industrial wage and "volunteered" the rest to the party - including those working in Leinster House. (A policy that has since changed in 2016).

Bobby Storey, another former IRA figure from Belfast, is often referred to as a key part of Sinn Fein's kitchen cabinet in Belfast. The reach of his political influence in the Republic emerged during the controversy over Mairia Cahill's allegations that her IRA abuser was shielded by the republican movement. Storey emailed instruction to SF's elected representatives north and south of the Border on Mairia Cahill: "At a wider level, party activists should refrain from making any comment on social media sites or in any other way around the issue of the sexual abuse of Mairia Cahill. Such comments are both inappropriate and elements of the media will attempt to misuse or misinterpret any comment - as has already happened." Not one veered from his diktat. Sinn Fein's critics claimed the memo showed how the party's elected representatives take their orders from an unelected shadowy figure behind the scenes.

Padraic Wilson, from West Belfast, is another influential member of Sinn Fein's Northern kitchen cabinet. He was sentenced to 24 years for explosives offences in the early 1990s but released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. He was accused of presiding over an internal tribunal into Mairia Cahill's allegations against an IRA member. His involvement with the party is among the reasons Fianna Fail cited for refusing to enter into a coalition with Sinn Fein.

Ted Howell, who is in his early 70s and from Belfast, is a highly influential republican, a Sinn Fein negotiator over 20 years, and one of Gerry Adams's closest advisers. He kept out of the spotlight, even in Stormont. But his name has worked its way into political discourse not just in Stormont, but in Leinster House when he was cited as "evidence" that Sinn Fein takes its orders from unelected representatives. Emails disclosed to an inquiry into the "cash for ash" scandal in the North showed how the SF finance minister there, Martin O Muilleoir, emailed Howell to ask if he was "content" that he "sign off the business plan on Wednesday". "That is documentary evidence that Sinn Fein ministers seek approval and consent from 'senior republicans' when it comes to major decisions in government," Leo Varadkar said in the Dail.

During the election campaign, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said he "could never be sure" who he was dealing with were he to go into government with Sinn Fein. "Is it unelected officials in Belfast who rule the roost, who control the levers of power within that party?"

SF insists this is nonsense while Mary Lou McDonald famously declared: "Nobody's pulling my strings." The party has, on several occasions, welcomed former IRA prisoners into the SF fold, precisely because they have embraced the peace process.

When the party's Waterford poll-topper, David Cullinane, apologised for declaring "up the Republic, up the 'Ra and Tiocfaidh ar La" at a late-night victory speech, he said his comments were about the past, not the future: "The IRA is gone as everybody knows."

It is a little over four years since a report by the Police Service of Northern Ireland and MI5 found that a slimmed-down army council still existed and suggested that it held sway over Sinn Fein. "PIRA members believe that the Provisional army council oversees both PIRA and Sinn Fein with an overarching strategy - we judge this strategy has a wholly political focus."

Four months ago, the PSNI said its assessment of the relationship between the IRA and Sinn Fein "had not changed".
A plane of Vietnam Airlines (Photo: VNA)

Among the three flights, two departed from Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi for Guangzhou, and the remaining one from Nha Trang for Chengdu.

While conducting the flights, Vietnam Airlines has applied strict protection, inspection and quarantine measures to ensure security, sanitary and epidemiological safety and health for both passengers and crew members.

Vietnam will actively consider the granting of licence for Chinas planes to fly to Vietnam to bring Chinese citizens home according to request.
'There is no UPA now': Mamata Banerjee takes swipe at Cong, calls for unity of regional parties against BJP

Elgar case transferred to protect previous Fadnavis government: Sharad Pawar

India

oi-PTI

Mumbai, Feb 16: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday alleged that the Centre has handed over probe in the Elgar Parishad case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) as the previous Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra wants to "hide something".

Pawar, who earlier demanded constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case in which human rights activists have been arrested for alleged links with Maoists, said the Centre should have taken the Maharashtra government into confidence before handing over the case to NIA.

Pune session court transfers hearings of Elgar Parishad case to NIA court

The former Union minister also asked whether speaking against the government is an "anti-national" activity. "There seems to be something that the then Fadnavis government wants to hide, hence the investigation has been handed over to NIA. When the Koregaon-Bhima violence took place, Fadnavis government was in power," Pawar told reporters in Jalgaon.

It is the Centre's prerogative to investigate the Elgar Parishad case, but it should have taken the state into confidence, said Pawar, whose party is an alliance partner in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government. "Koregaon-Bhima, and Elgar Parishad, held in Pune a day before the violence, are two different issues. Is writing rebellious literature and speaking against the government an an anti-national activity?" he asked.

Every year people gather at Koregaon Bhima (village in Pune), but some people went to nearby villages and "turned them against those who regularly visit the place". Police have taken action against these people, including (right wing leaders) Sambhaji Bhide, Milind Ekbote, Pawar said.

In a change of stand, the Maharashtra government recently said it has no objection to NIA taking over probe into the Elgar Parishad case.

The Centre last month transferred the probe in the case from the Pune Police to NIA, a move then criticised by the state Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government.

The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave, held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed, triggered violence near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in the district the next day.

The Pune Police have claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar faults Uddav Thackeray over transfer of Bhima-Koregaon case

During the probe, the police arrested Left-leaning activists Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Varavara Rao for alleged Maoist links.

These nine activists, currently in jail, are among 11 people booked by the NIA in the Elgar Parishad case.hers, and certain sections of the anti-terror act UAPA.

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Story first published: Sunday, February 16, 2020, 15:23 [IST]
The United States plan to evacuate Americans and their families from the Diamond Princess cruise ship appears, on its face, to be the case of a powerful government coming to the aide of its most vulnerable citizens.

But the decision has prompted anger from some exhausted passengers, who believe the move could actually set back their ability to return to normal lifejust as that option was within their grasp.

Thousands of people have been stuck in their cabins under mandatory quarantine aboard the Diamond Princess, which is docked off the Japanese port city of Yokohama, since Feb. 3. With 356 confirmed cases of coronavirus on board, 70 of which were announced Sunday, the ship has the largest concentration of novel coronavirus cases outside mainland China. On Feb. 19, the controversial quarantine period was set to finally end.

Until Saturday, the U.S. government seemed on board with that plan. The consensus among government agencies, which had been communicated to the more than 400 Americans aboard, was that remaining on the ship for the quarantine period was the best course of action.

Most passengers werent thrilled but accepted the plan.

After the quarantine, virus-free passengers were told they could take commercial flights back to the United States.

Then came the email.

On Saturday afternoon, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo sent a notice to Americans on board the Diamond Princess laying out plans to evacuate nearly 400 Americans back home.

Once there, another 14 days of mandatory quarantine would begin. Anyone who chose not to get on the flight would have to wait another 14 days in Japan to ensure they were symptom-free before returning to the United States.

That decision has prompted anger among the American passengers, with many demanding answers to two simple questions about the U.S. response: Why did the American government wait so long to make the about-face decision? What prompted such a dramatic shift in U.S. policy?

Financially and Emotionally Devastating

On Feb. 18, the Japanese government plans to begin testing all those who remain on board for the virus. Results should be provided within three days. From Feb. 21, staggered disembarkations would begin.

But American passengers who are evacuated will not be tested.

From tragedy to comedy to farce, wrote American passenger Matthew Smith on Twitter, pulling no punches. The US government instead wants to take us off without testing, fly us back to the US with a bunch of other untested people, and then stick us in 2 more weeks of quarantine? How does that make any sense at all?

Those who decide not to board the flight will still have to spend two weeks in Japan before being able to head home.

For Karey Mansicalco, who owns a real estate company in Utah, the news yanked freedom from her hands at the 11th hour.

Its like a prison sentence for something I did not do, she told CNN from her cabin. They are holding us hostage for absolutely no reason.

Mansicalco said another two weeks away from home would cost her upwards of $50,000. It is financially devastating as well as emotionally devastating. I was in tears when I got the news and  I did not have the words to explain how I felt. And now I just feel angry, she said.

The evacuation also puts the family of Americans who have tested positive for the virus in a tough spot. There are at least 29 Americans who have tested positive and anyone who has the virus or is showing symptoms wont be able to board the chartered flight.

We are spinning out of control again, said Kent Frasure, whose wife, Rebecca, tested positive last week and was moved to a Tokyo hospital. I would not get on a flight without Rebecca.

A Failed Quarantine?

One reason the passengers are so upset is because, as early as last week, experts had been questioning the Japanese governments decision to quarantine people on the ship.

I dont understand why they have to be kept on a ship, said Peter Hotez, of the Baylor College of Medicine. Were employing what I call 14th-century approaches and ethics to individuals with transmissible disease.

The abrupt change in U.S. policy led some to believe that Washington lost faith in the effectiveness of the Japanese response. Earlier this week, it emerged that some 1,000 crew on board the ship had not been kept in quarantine, eating meals together with masks off and working side by side.

The American move has put pressure on other governments with citizens on board the ship to respond.

Rose Yerex, a Canadian who along with her husband has struck a decidedly positive tone throughout the quarantine, could not hold back her anger on Saturday.

It really kind of shows the difference here between the two countries, she said. So, hey, congratulations to you guys who are Americans and you are getting to leave. Your government is supporting you, ours isnt.

On Sunday, the Canadian government announced its own evacuation plan. The Hong Kong government also announced Sunday that it was arranging a chartered flight to bring home residents free of charge as soon they were permitted to disembark.

But perhaps worst off are the Diamond Princess crew.

After some crew members issued desperate pleas for help, Princess Cruises told them on Saturday that once all passengers had left the ship, they would have to endure their own 14-day quarantine.

It is disappointing for all of us, said Jan Swartz, president of Princess Cruises.

On Sunday, Princess Cruises announced it would cancel voyages aboard the Diamond Princess through April 20 because of the prolonged quarantine period.

Customers with questions about their itineraries are being asked to consult the Itinerary Modifications and Cancellations page on the companys website.

We ask that you please minimize calling our call center for itinerary change information as we work through all the travel changes and subsequent impacts on itineraries. Thank you for your patience and understanding, the company wrote on Twitter.

The-CNN-Wire

 &  2020 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.
Newsfrom Japan

Tokyo, Feb. 16 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday vowed to make full efforts to contain the new coronavirus after a series of infection cases reported from many parts of Japan.

"We'll significantly strengthen our screening systems in cooperation with local governments," Abe told a meeting of a government task force to deal with the coronavirus crisis.

"We'll do all we can to expand and enhance medical and consultation services" to prevent any further spread of COVID-19 infections, Abe added.

Earlier in the day, health minister Katsunobu Kato said on television that coronavirus infections inside Japan are increasing.

Abe also said the government will make its utmost efforts to realize the early return home of four Japanese passengers on the cruise ship Westerdam.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
Many businesses and services will be closed on Monday for Heritage Day in Nova Scotia. Here's a list of what's open and what's not across the Halifax region.

Groceries

Sobeys, Atlantic Superstore, Costco and Walmart are closed. Gateway Meat Market in Dartmouth will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Beer, wine and liquor

NSLC: Closed, but agency stores will be open.

Garrison Brewing: The downtown Halifax location will be open from noon to 7 p.m., while the Quinpool Road location will be open from noon to 10 p.m.

Propeller Brewing: The Halifax location will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., while the Dartmouth location will be open from noon to 8 p.m.

Nine Locks Brewing: Open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Moosehead Cold Beer Store: Open from 10 a.m. to midnight.

Private liquor stores Bishop's Cellar (10 a.m. to 10 p.m.), WestSide Beer, Wine and Spirits (noon to 8 p.m.), RockHead (noon to 8 p.m.) and Harvest Wines and Spirits (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) are all open.

Malls

The Halifax Shopping Centre, Mic Mac Mall, Sunnyside Mall, Bedford Place Mall, Scotia Square and Park Lane Mall are all closed, although the movie theatre at Park Lane will be open.

Halifax Public Libraries

All library branches are closed.

Transit

Halifax Transit's buses and ferries will be operating on holiday service.

Waste collection

There will be no waste collection on Monday.

Recreation

Several city recreation facilities will be closed, so residents should call ahead to find out whether they're open. The Halifax skating oval will be open and will have free public skates throughout the day.

Federal services

The designation of the third Monday in February as a statutory holiday is by provincial legislation and doesn't cover federal government employees, nor federally regulated industries such as telephone companies, railways and airlines.

That means many federal services will still be offered on Monday.

Service Canada offices will be open. Canada Post outlets will be open regular hours and there will be mail delivery.

Story continues

Nova Scotia Archives

This year's Heritage Day honours the community of Africville. The black community stood along the Bedford Basin for more than a century before it was demolished by the city of Halifax in the 1960s.

Decades later, in 2010, the municipality apologized to the African Nova Scotian families that lost their homes and their community. This Heritage Day, people will gather at the site for a day of dedication and celebration.

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The winter season can be very depressing in the absence of color. Everything appears so drab and dark, especially in an election year. Add to this drabness and dark feeling the ongoing attempts of the Democrats to remove President Trump from office. One consistent aspect of these three years of such efforts has been the abject failure of the Democrats and the media.

Underlying their efforts has included the use and abuse of the their majority in the House of Representatives, the FBI, the Department of Justice, the CIA, etc.

The most recent attempt at impeachment was a classic example of the end justifying the means. The House inquiry was begun before the House voted to approve an inquiry thereby negating, theoretically, all subpoenas issued and testimony taken during this period. Then there was the taking of testimony in a basement room absent the media, most Republicans, or lawyers for the President. Those Republicans present were allowed to ask the witnesses very few questions. In some cases, the Democrats told the witnesses what to say.

Add to this the Democrats' desire to do away with the Electoral College. If successful, the Democrats would control the country well into the foreseeable future by virtue of the high density of Democrats on the two coasts. The role of middle America would be to keep producing cheap food, pay taxes, and keep their collective mouths shut.

Along with dividing the country between the haves and have-nots, what would such a future look like? The most immediate examples are some of the promises of the various Democrats running to be the Democrat presidential nominee. Every one of them is, to a varying degree, a socialist. To these folks the government is the foremost source of solving all of our problems. Some of the more interesting promises include dissolving the trillion dollar student debt, free college tuition, free healthcare including for illegal immigrants, increasing taxes on those who create jobs, impose stringent climate-related controls, increase the minimum wage to $22 an hour, do away with all charter schools, no limitations on abortions or on the abortion industry, to name a few.

Some thoughts on these promises:

Student loan forgiveness  Where does the trillions of pay back dollars come from?

Healthcare for all  Only Sen. Warren attempted to publicize the costs of her plan. The result being that her campaign began to falter. The other candidates saw what happened to her and refuse to publicize the cost of their plans.

Free college tuition  No one has said how much that would cost and who would bear that cost.

Increase taxes and the minimum wage on business  Typically, that means a return to fewer businesses, fewer jobs, and an increased dependency on government handouts.

Increase climate controls  Sen. Sanders does not provide a cost of his Green New Deal plan but does admit his plans would cost jobs

Charter schools  Elimination of charter schools in the inner cities would result in generations of ill-educated citizens consigned to low skill jobs.

Abortions and the abortion industry  These candidates seem to accept abortion at any time in any clinic conditions.

The Democrats are saying that we folks need to learn to love government control of our lives, or else.

Robert Mooth is a resident of Decatur.

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Forty Americans are among hundreds with the new coronavirus on a cruise ship quarantined off Japan, a US official said on Sunday, after other Americans on board left for chartered flights home.

The evacuation coincided with stepped-up warnings from Japanese authorities over the deadly outbreak, urging citizens to avoid crowds and non-essential gatherings.

The Diamond Princess was placed in a 14-day quarantine in early February after a former passenger tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

But US authorities announced on the weekend they would offer American passengers the option to leave the ship and fly home, where they will face another 14-day isolation period. Several other governments also have announced plans to remove their citizens from the ship.-

More than three dozen Americans are not going home, however, Anthony Fauci, a senior official at the National Institutes for Health, said on CBS.

Forty of them have gotten infected, Fauci said. Theyre going to be in hospitals in Japan.

It was not immediately clear whether the 40 Americans were among the figure of 355 people from the ship which Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato earlier Sunday said were infected.

He said that 1,219 people on the vessel had been tested.

Late Sunday and into the early hours of Monday, Americans who opted to leave were brought off the ship in groups. They passed through a makeshift passport control but underwent no health checks, American passenger Sarah Arana told AFP.

They boarded buses driven by personnel in head-to-toe protective suits and were told that the more than a dozen vehicles would travel in a convoy.

I am happy and ready to go, Arana told AFP before leaving the ship. We need a proper quarantine. This was not it.

The US government should have intervened much sooner, at the beginning, the 52-year-old medical social worker said.

This was too much for Japan, and they shouldnt have had to bear the burden, she added. The people of Japan did not deserve this. I am full of gratitude.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Saturday that 400 Americans would be flown home.

 Declining to leave 

Other Americans on board declined the evacuation, despite being warned they will still have to wait two weeks and test negative for the virus before being allowed back to the United States.

My health is fine. And my two-week quarantine is almost over. Why would I want to be put on a bus and a plane with other people they think may be infected when I have spent nearly two weeks isolated from those people? tweeted Matt Smith, an American lawyer on the ship with his wife.

He described a fellow American passenger standing on her balcony chanting USA, USA as buses arrived to collect them.

Of course, in contravention of the rules of quarantine, shes not wearing a face mask, and shes talking with a passenger on the adjacent balcony And you wanted me to get on a bus with her?

Japan has not been able to test all those on board the ship due to limited supplies of testing kits, facilities and manpower, which are also needed by authorities tracking the spread of the virus on land.

 A new phase 

Hong Kong also said it plans to charter a flight for 330 city residents on the ship. Canada announced a similar decision, and on Sunday Italy said it wants to quickly get its roughly 35 citizens off the ship.

We will be next, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said, adding a meeting is to be held on Monday to decide how to bring them back.

The death toll jumped to 1,665 in mainland China after 142 more people died from the virus. More than 68,000 people have now been infected.

In Japan, the number of new infections has continued to rise, with six new cases reported on Sunday, most of them in Tokyo. At least 59 cases have now been confirmed, including more than a dozen among the hundreds of Japanese nationals and their relatives repatriated from Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the outbreak.

With the rise in local infections, Kato warned the country was entering a new phase.

We are seeing infection cases that we are unable to trace back their transmission routes, he told reporters.

We want to ask the public to avoid non-urgent, non-essential gatherings, Kato added.

I think its important that we exercise Japans collective strength.

SOURCE: AFP | PHOTO: AFP
The Israeli military on Sunday said it has thwarted an attempt by the Hamas militant group to hack soldiers' phones by posing as young, attractive women on social media, striking up friendships and persuading them into downloading malware.

Lt Col. Jonathan Conricus told reporters that the phones of dozens of soldiers had been infected in recent months, although he said the army detected the scam early on and prevented any major secrets from reaching the Islamic militant group.

We do not assess there is any significant breach of information, the military spokesman said.

Conricus said this was the third attempt by Hamas to target male soldiers through fake social media accounts, most recently in July 2018.

But he said this latest attempt was by far the most sophisticated.

He said Hamas used a number of social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Telegram, to make contact with unsuspecting soldiers.

Posing as young women on social media, the group struck up friendships with the soldiers, sending photos, texts and voice messages to them.

The women claimed to be new immigrants to explain their poor Hebrew, and even claimed to be deaf or hard of hearing as an excuse for texting, instead of speaking directly on the phone, Conricus said.

The profiles appeared on multiple platforms, and he said the photos were disguised to make it difficult to reverse track them, giving the accounts additional authenticity.

We see that the level of social engineering is much higher and much more advanced and sophisticated when compared to previous attempts done by Hamas, he said.

We see that they're of course learning and upping their game.

Eventually, they sent the soldiers links to seduce them into downloading what they said was a Snapchat-like app to exchange photos that could quickly disappear, Conricus said.

In reality, the links were to three malware programs Catch&See, ZatuApp and GrixyApp that allowed Hamas to gain access to the soldiers' phones.

He said it was very clear that Hamas was behind the effort.

He said the malware linked to known Hamas servers and at least one of the profiles had been used in a previous Hamas scam.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas Conricus declined to say how many soldiers had been targeted.

But he said that dozens had downloaded the malware.

He said soldiers had reported the suspicious activity relatively early on, allowing the army and the Shin Bet internal security service to monitor their phones.

It is now in the process of removing the malware, he said.

Israel and Hamas, an Islamic movement that seeks Israel's destruction, are bitter enemies that have fought three wars and numerous skirmishes since the group seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

The enemy sides have been holding indirect talks through Arab and UN mediators aimed at reaching a long-term truce under which Israel would ease a blockade on the Gaza Strip in exchange for Hamas assurances to maintain quiet.

But low-level fighting has persisted.

Early Sunday, Israel carried out a number of airstrikes on Hamas targets in Gaza in response to the firing of two projectiles from Gaza into southern Israel. No casualties were reported on either side.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 16

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of Lithuania Gitanas Nauseda.

It is on the occasion of the National Holiday of the Republic of Lithuania that on my behalf and behalf of the people of Azerbaijan I offer my cordial congratulations to you and the friendly people of Lithuania, Ilham Aliyev said in his letter.

The present level of Azerbaijan-Lithuania relations is gratifying. I believe that mutually beneficial expansion of these relations across all areas will serve further the interests of our peoples, reads the letter. I seize this opportunity to wish strong health and success in every endeavor to you, and peace and prosperity to your people.
For two years after a 26-year-old waitress from upstate New York was killed inside her 7th Ward apartment, one of her fathers hands shook uncontrollably.

Lauren Tanski was killed in January 2013 by a man who had been threatening his on-again, off-again girlfriend  Tanskis roommate  for days before the attack. New Orleans police were aware of at least one incident, and Tanskis father believed they could have stopped the man before he killed.

The anxiety and the shaking hand came crashing back recently for Leonard Tanski, a 66-year-old former truck driver whose voice is still tinged with anguish when he talks about his daughter's death. Prosecutors told him that a judge had declared suspect Henry Dolliole ready for trial after years of questions about his mental competency.

But instead of a trial, Dolliole, 47, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Tuesday under a plea agreement for a 35-year sentence, which Lauren Tanskis father approved.

He destroyed our lives, so now his life is gone, Leonard Tanski said in a telephone interview from New York. He ain't going to get out until hes 80-something years old.

When Criminal District Court Judge Laurie White handed down the agreed-upon sentence, she brought to a close a case that raised questions about the New Orleans Police Departments handling of domestic violence cases in the early 2010s.

Lauren Tanski was a kind-hearted, aspiring poet who idolized Charles Bukowski. She spent most of her life in the Albany area but dreamed of seeing the world. So she left for New Orleans, like many transplants in the years after Hurricane Katrina, and planned to stay through Mardi Gras.

Leonard Tanski had begged his daughter not to move to New Orleans because, he said, he knew how dangerous the city was.

But she went anyway and got a job at a French Quarter oyster restaurant where, fatefully, she met a roommate who was in the aftermath of a stormy relationship.

New domestic violence initiative follows deadly breakdowns in New Orleans Leonard Tanski still cant fathom what he heard a New Orleans police officer tell him almost two years ago.

Witnesses told police that Dolliole had repeatedly threatened Samantha Placek, the mother of his children, in the days before he broke into the women's shared apartment in the 2000 block of Urquhart Street early on Jan. 14, 2013.

Placek and Dolliole had broken up weeks earlier.

Three days before the killing, officers responded to a 911 call about a fight between Dolliole and Placek. Placek said shed repeatedly suffered abuse at Dollioles hands, but police said they saw no signs of physical injuries.

Cops walked Dolliole a few blocks down the street and let him go, even though he was on probation for heroin possession.

Aware of the volatile situation with Dolliole, Tanski was in the process of moving out of the apartment.

Dolliole later admitted that on the morning of the killing, he broke into the women's apartment. He claimed he was looking for his belongings. When Tanski confronted him, Dolliole beat and strangled the 110-pound woman.

After his arrest the day after the killing, Dolliole claimed his attack was self-defense.

Then-Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas called Dollioles quick arrest an impressive effort, but the police forces response to earlier incidents involving Dolliole quickly came under scrutiny.

In a lawsuit filed the next year, Tanskis parents, Leonard and Linda, said cops missed a chance to arrest Dolliole and prevent their daughter's death during the Jan. 11 incident. They also claimed that cops knew of a separate incident, outside the oyster restaurant hours before the killing, when Dolliole threatened to kill Placek.

Tanski's parents said their daughter's death was part of a pattern where New Orleans police officers ignored obvious signs of domestic violence.

Cops never bothered to search for witnesses to the Jan. 11 incident or take into account Dollioles previous abuse of Placek, Tanskis parents said.

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U.S. Justice Department investigators had come to similar conclusions about the local departments general response to domestic violence in a cornerstone March 2011 report about the NOPDs post-Katrina failings.

Training was grossly inadequate, cops rarely asked about prior incidents, and efforts to find witnesses were weak or nonexistent, the federal investigators said.

It was terrible. The victims were not taken seriously. Perpetrators were allowed to just walk away, said Mary Howell, a civil rights attorney who has helped guide the Tanski family through the local criminal justice system.

The Justice Department report eventually led New Orleans to sign a broad reform agreement with the federal government known as a consent decree. A federal judge approved the document the same week as Tanskis death.

In the years since then, advocates and police reform watchdogs have credited the NOPD with a broad revamp of its domestic violence policies and practices.

Officers are now required to ask victims about prior histories of violence and to identify suspected aggressors. Police have a pro-arrest policy that mandates a trip to jail for suspected offenders. Victims are referred to social services like counseling, legal assistance and housing. Beat cops are retrained yearly on the departments policies.

In August 2016, federal monitors said the department had engineered a remarkable turnaround on domestic violence investigations. In a statement this month, the Police Department said it had radically changed its policies.

Those changes helped prompt U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan to declare in December that the Police Department was close to fulfilling the terms of the consent decree.

Howell said she too sees improvement. But for her, the Tanski case is a reminder of what could happen if the NOPD reverses course.

The real crucial question is: What do we need to put in place to ensure that we dont slide backwards and that whatever gains have been made are sustained? she said.

Dolliole was arrested days after the killing and accused of second-degree murder and aggravated burglary, but his case went nowhere for years.

Drawing on testimony from forensic doctors that he suffered from mental illness and intellectual disability, a judge declared him mentally incompetent in 2014. Meanwhile, his probation on the heroin conviction was revoked, and he was sent to the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, which further complicated bringing the murder case to trial.

For years, mental health professionals debated whether Dolliole was genuinely incompetent or just faking. One set of doctors said he was likely irrestorably incompetent. Another said he was malingering and refusing to cooperate.

Dolliole's defense attorney Barksdale Hortenstine provided results of an IQ test in which a psychologist concluded Dolliole was in the bottom 1 percentile for his age. Assistant District Attorney Jason Napoli argued Dolliole was feigning stupidity.

What helped to decide the issue for White, the judge, were jailhouse phone call recordings and a tape of Dolliole's confession to police, where according to the judge he seemed to be well aware of the seriousness of the charge and his avenues of defense. White declared Dolliole competent for trial in November.

+2 New York woman beaten, strangled in 7th Ward: Friends and family search for answers Lauren Tanski, 26, a petite and spunky brunette, had just moved from Albany, N.Y., to New Orleans in October and was ready to embark on a new 

At the brief plea hearing Tuesday, Dolliole didnt provide any explanation for what happened inside Tanskis apartment seven years ago.

Leonard Tanski said he may never learn the full truth. He decided not to attend the plea hearing in person to avoid giving Dolliole a chance to smirk at him, he said.

Tanski still has a lawsuit against the city over the NOPD's actions before her death, or lack thereof. A federal judge placed it on hold while Dollioles criminal case was pending. Tanski is not sure if hell revive it. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that police have no constitutional duty to protect the public.

Im very unhappy with the way police conducted themselves, but I suppose thats New Orleans, Tanski said. Youve got a tough city down there.
"Clever girls" is a popular, music-focused Bay Area Facebook group that was started by a Facebook user known as "Concert Raptor" who wanted to bring people together and give away tickets to shows. Courtesy of Ari the Raptor

Just before the 2015 edition of San Francisco's Outside Lands music festival, a mysterious Facebook user who went by the name of "Concert Raptor" devised a 20-clue scavenger hunt across the city for any music fans skillful enough to get through it. The top prize was a free three-day pass. Approximately 50 people showed up for the scavenger hunt, putting in place the foundation for Clever Girls, a music-focused Bay Area Facebook group that was previously known as Concert Raptors. "That hunt was definitely a turning point for me, the energy within it and just the amount of interest that there was," the original Concert Raptor told CNBC. He now goes by "Ari teh Raptor," an alias he said he uses to keep the focus on the community rather than himself. The group has since grown to more than 11,600 users and is now used by music lovers around the Bay Area to share news and early bird ticket codes, and to buy, sell or give away concert tickets. Occasionally, members will also use the group to share any quality raptor memes that they come across. It's just one example of the changing relationship between Facebook users and the social network, which boasts more than 2.5 billion visitors per month. Until recently, users were focused on the site's News Feed, which contained updates from friends. But as that main billboard got clogged with random news stories and political screeds, Facebook has begun to nudge people more toward participating in groups with others who share their interests.

Make music free again

The project began in 2014 when Ari was living in San Francisco, working as a data scientist by day and hitting up concerts at night. He noticed that people were often stuck outside concert venues, unable to get in. This made him realize that money was a huge blocker for true fans, so he decided to use some of his extra cash to give tickets away in unique ways. At first, he would post on concert event pages, telling people to find him at a bar to receive a free ticket. "I had always wanted to do a scavenger hunt from the get-go, but there was a lot of trust I had to garner because I just looked like a scam, I was just this dinosaur saying 'I got free tickets,'" said Ari with a laugh. As music fans grew to trust him, Ari began to ramp up the challenges. After the 2015 Outside Lands scavenger hunt, a group of the people who had participated in a number of his ticket give-aways encouraged him to create a community. A few months later, he officially started the Facebook group. After the group started, the scavenger hunts grew. In many cases, people had to search for hidden stickers with raptor emblems on them.

"Clever girls" is a popular, music-focused Bay Area Facebook group that was started by a Facebook user known as "Concert Raptor" who wanted to bring people together and give away tickets to shows. Courtesy of Ari the Raptor
An Economist, Dr. Adu Owusu Sarkodie has advised the Akufo-Addo's government to take precautionary measures aimed at managing the countrys economic gains and debt stock.

He says a disregard of Ghanas debt stock which can be best described as alarming may plunge the country into no other situation other than a debt-distressed one.

Advancing his argument on The Big Issue, he raised issues such as the low level of industrialization, unemployment, too much focus on social intervention program other than infrastructural development as some of the challenges affecting the countrys revenue generation drive.

Dr. Adu-Sarkodie therefore, warned that country risks jeopardizing its economic milestones if stringent steps are not adopted to tackle the ever-rising debt stock.

We have not made any strides in industrialization and significant changes. 43 to 50 percent of the average growth from 2017 to 2018 came from the extractive sector. This is the same situation we had with the previous administration. That was not the first time Ghana enjoyed macro stability.

It is good that we are making economic stability but the public debt that is staring at our face will disturb the macroeconomic stability. We do not seem to have gotten to the optimal level of revenue growth so I think that the public debt is very alarming. If we go at the rate at which we are going, we are likely to be in the position of a debt-distress country and this will disturb the macro-economic gains that we are enjoying right now. Ghanas debt stock

According to the Bank of Ghana's latest data on economic figures, the country's total public debt reached GHS214.9 billion as of November 2019.

This represents 62.1 per cent of the total value of all goods and services produced in the country for the period.

Out of the amount, the external debt component reached 111.9 billion cedis, with the domestic component accounting for 102.9 billion cedis.

The total public debt has increased from GHS122 billion in 2016 to GHS214 billion in November 2019 representing 62.2 per cent of GDP.

The World Bank has also cautioned Ghana against piling its external debt and exceeding the sustainability threshold .

Ghana's recent sale of $3 billion in Eurobonds puts it in high risk of distress, according to the International Monetary Fund. Return to IMF?

The economist also predicted that should the issue of the huge debt stock, Ghana may have to go back to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for support.

In terms of the nominal figures, the debt has worsened. The issue of the debt stock is a very big problem and so I do not want to see Ghana in a debt-distressed position. If we get there, IMF will start knocking at our doors and we will have to go back to them if we do not deal with the public debt.

Debt accumulation under Akufo-Addo lowest in a decade  Bawumia

Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, says the rate of debt accumulation over the last three years is the lowest Ghana has achieved in a decade.

He noted that there's been  significant progress  in this regard because other promises, like the realisation of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, had been met.

The strong fiscal adjustment that has taken place and better debt management meant that the rate of debt accumulation has slowed down considerably to the lowest in a decade. Between 2008 and 2012, Ghana's debt stock increased by 267 per cent. Between 2012 and 2016, Ghana's debt stock increased by another 243 per cent. But between 2016 and 2019, the increase has been by 79 per cent. So there is a big difference.

He further attributed the decline in fiscal deficit on a cash basis from 6.8 per cent of rebased GDP in 2016 to 3.8 per cent in 2018, 4.8 per cent in 2019, to these promises.

Continuing to pat himself on the back, he added that for the first time in a decade, Ghana recorded primary balance surplusesthree years in a row.

The primary balance surplus was 0.5 per cent of GDP in 2017, 1.4 per cent in 2018 and 0.9 per cent in 2019 compared to a deficit of 1.1 per cent in 2016.

This is contributing to a slower rate of debt accumulation which Dr. Bawumia said means they are implementing good fiscal management and prudent fiscal management.

citinewsroom
Mississippi Governor Declares State of Emergency Over Fears of Major Flooding

JACKSON, Miss.Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency Saturday amid predictions that a river running in the area around the state capital of Jackson could burst its banks and spark widespread flooding.

Forecasters believe the Pearl River will crest at 38 feet Sunday evening to levels not seen in decades, following days of torrential rains across the Southeast. Reeves said the state should prepare for the third worst flood in its history.

This is a historic, unprecedented flood, Reeves said via Twitter.

Parts of Jackson and suburban Ridgeland were under evacuation orders, and some people had already filled trucks with furniture and other belongings to get out. Reeves said more than 2,400 homes and other structures in and near Jackson could either be inundated or isolated by the rising waters. That includes 1,925 structures in Hinds County, 461 in Rankin County and 31 in Madison County.

Heavy rains fell Monday leaving the Tuscaloosa, Ala., area with high water and washed out roads, on Feb. 11, 2020. (Gary Cosby Jr./The Tuscaloosa News via AP)

I cannot stress to you how important the next 24 to 48 hours is for the people who are going to be affected, Reeves said. He signed an emergency declaration to speed up spending for flood response and recovery. More than 96,000 sandbags had already been distributed by Saturday. The National Guard, the Highway Patrol and other high-water rescue teams were on standby, Reeves said.

Have a plan to protect yourself and a plan to protect your loved ones, Reeves said.

Although the sun was shining Saturday in central Mississippi, Reeves and Mississippi Emergency Management Agency director Greg Michel said people in low-lying areas should not be complacent about leaving because the river was expected to crest at night and remain high for days, with rain in the forecast for Sunday and Monday.

Do not wait until water gets into your house to evacuate, Michel urged.

Officials were bracing for what could be the worst flooding in Jackson since 1983. Nicholas Fenner, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, said the Pearl River crested at 43.2 feet on April 17, 1979its highest level. The second-highest level occurred May 5, 1983, when the river got up to 39.58 feet. He also said there was between $500 million and $700 million worth of damage in 1979, which saw 15,000 people evacuated.

The restrooms on the Madison County side of the Ross Barnett Reservoir Spillway Park are about the only structure still visible as floodwaters have covered both sides of the popular fishing and boat landing in central Mississippi, on Feb. 14, 2020. (Rogelio V. Solis/AP Photo)

The area is currently under blue skies, but Fenner warned residents against complacency.

Even though the weather has improved, the water will be rising soon. Dont get lulled into a false sense of security, he said.

Meanwhile, the Ross Barnett Reservoir is approaching capacity, which led officials to announce that they would begin slowly releasing water at 6 p.m. Saturday. WLBT-TV reported the move is an attempt to keep flooding to a minimum downstream, and to allow extra time for residents to get to higher ground.

John Sigman, manager of the Pearl River Water Supply District, had a phone conference with the National Weather Service and the Army Corp of Engineers on Friday. They said that areas north of the main lake have crested and were beginning to fall and described that as good news.

The crest at the reservoir is now expected Sunday morning. Officials told the television station they are holding their outflow right now at 65,000 cubic feet per second and will hold there for 48 hours, giving people downstream time to get out.
From a Gwalior resident who had painted slogans praising Arvind Kejriwal on his body to a supporter from Bulandshahr who wore a dual-sided billboard professing his admiration for the Aam Aadmi Party supremo, there was striking display of affection and admiration for the Delhi chief minister during his swearing-in at the historic Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on Sunday.

IMAGE: AAP supporter wearing 'Kejripankh' made out of broom sticks arrive to attend the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi. Photograph: ANI Photo

Shatrughna Sahu, president of AAP's Bihar unit and scores of his colleagues came all the way from Patna to attend Kejriwal's oath-taking ceremony.

Chandra Bhushan, the Bihar unit's spokesperson, sported the trademark white 'aam aadmi' cap and carried a big broom in his hand.

"We have come to express our support and admiration for our leader and witness him taking oath as the Delhi chief minister. People in Bihar are also celebrating AAP's win. Loads of sweets are being distributed in my native Araria district today," he said.

Fandom of Kejriwal, who led the AAP to a scintillating win in the February 8 polls bagging 62 of the 70 seats, was visible as people chose innovative ways to express their sentiments at the venue that was transformed into a sea of colours as the crowd waved party flags and the tricolours.

From the national capital, Uday Veer, a tailor from Gokalpuri in east Delhi attended the event wearing a special 'Kejripankh' made out of broom sticks.

"I made this special mayurpankh-styled accessory made of broom sticks as a tribute to CM Kejriwal. I have been following the party since its inception and I am happy that polarisation and divisive politics lost in the recent assembly polls. Love, equality and brotherhood should win, which did," he said.

Veer, who sported the 'Kejripankh' over his pyajama-kurta, sported colourful headgear that had the 'Acche Beete 5 Saal, Lage raho Kejriwal' sticker and a party scarf around his neck, besides party badges clipped onto his kurta.

J P Kushwaha, another admirer of the chief minister, came all the way from Gwalior. He had slogans like 'Jai Hind', 'Aap Zindabad', 'Shiksha ka Kamal', 'Mohalla Clinic' and the party symbol - broom - painted on his bare chest, back, neck and arms.

He also wore a colourful wig, adding to his unusual way of expressing love and support for the AAP.

"We want a leader like this in our MP too, who talks of development. So, I came here," he said.

S P Sharma, 42, an AAP supporter, came to the historic venue from Bulandshahr wearing a twin-sided billboard which read -- 'Dil diya hai jaan bhi denge, Ae Kejriwal tere liye; Dilli mey to jeet hamari hay, abhi to dusre rajya baki hayn'.

Sharma and many other Aam Aadmi Party supporters said it was time for the AAP chief to move onto the national political platform and his aim should be to change the country's politics with his "Delhi model".

"The 2020 Delhi polls was a victory of 'kaam' over 'kaum' (work agenda over politics of religion). People who did politics based on 'kaum' (religion) have lost the elections. Love wins, and we are here to show our love," he said.

Mohmmed Yunus, 23, a B. Com graduate from Moradabad, said he was excited to attend the event along with his friend Mohammed Shoaib, also 23.

"In our home state of Uttar Pradesh, religion and caste is being talked about so much since the new government took charge," Yunus alleged, and said, "politics should have the agenda of development".

Many supporters in the enormous crowd also waved banners with messages like 'Love Kejriwal', 'We Love You Kejriwal', 'Kejriwal Zindabad' and 'Lage Raho Kejriwal'. A number of supporters also chanted these slogans.

Kejriwal, in his speech after taking the oath as the chief minister, said he loves people of Delhi and Delhiites also love him.

The event, that took place two days after Valentine's Day, was full of the symbolism of the day of love. In 2015, Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony had coincided with Valentine's Day.

Ahead of the February 8 polls, many auto-rickshaw drivers had sported the 'I Love Kejriwal' slogan on the back of their vehicles to show support to the AAP supremo and his party.

In a near-repeat performance of 2015, the Kejriwal-led AAP retained power in the just-concluded Delhi Assembly polls, trouncing its main rival BJP and completely decimating the Congress in a keenly-watched battle that took place in the midst of anti-CAA protests.
The BART station at El Cerrito del Norte has just reopened as of 10:15 p.m. Saturday, about eight hours after an officer-involved shooting there left a young man with life-threatening injuries, BART said.

The shooting took place shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday when BART police officers responding to a rider report of a domestic violence incident aboard a train shot a young man, leaving him with "life-threatening injuries," BART police chief Ed Alvarez said at a press conference Saturday.
JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that an Israeli aircraft made a historic first flight over Sudan just two weeks after he met with the Arab states leader in Uganda.

The Israeli premier met with the head of Sudans transitional government, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, in a major step toward improving ties with an Arab state that has long been hostile to Israel.

Netanyahu touted his meeting with the Sudanese leader as yet another foreign relations accomplishment ahead of March 2s parliamentary elections, Israels third in a year.

Israel and Sudan are discussing rapid normalization, Netanyahu said Sunday, adding that the first Israeli airplane passed yesterday over the skies of Sudan. He was speaking at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem.

An Israeli government official said the plane was a private Israeli executive jet, not a flight with Israels national carrier El Al. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Flight data from the Flight Aware website showed a private business jet crossing Sudanese airspace on a flight from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, to Tel Aviv on Thursday night, landing in Israel at 4:25 a.m. local time on Friday morning.

It remained unclear whether Netanyahu was referring to the same flight.

Sudan, a longtime member of the Arab League, has joined other member states in rejecting the Trump administrations Mideast plan that Palestinians have said is heavily biased toward Israel. But to rebuild Sudans economy, the new administration in Khartoum also seeks an end to American sanctions as a U.S.-listed state sponsor of terror.

Longtime Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir was ousted in a 2019 military coup amid pro-democracy protests. Burhan heads the transitional council ruling the country now.

Netanyahus meeting with Burhan was kept secret until after the fact due to sensitivities of the Sudanese leader meeting with the prime minister of Israel.

Netanyahu has played up the development of covert ties with Arab states as a foreign policy coup during his administration, even as his bid for a fourth consecutive term in office is overshadowed by his indictment. He was formally charged last month on several counts of corruption.
Amid an ongoing tug of war, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and his fellow Congressman Jyotiraditya Scindia are expected to meet this week to sort out differences between them.

Congress general secretary and its Madhya Pradesh unit in charge Deepak Babaria said the two leaders would meet to work out the modalities for fulfilling the promises made by the party to the people of Madhya Pradesh before coming to power.

"Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia will be meeting this week and will work out the pending issues and find solutions to concerns and demands of various sections of people in Madhya Pradesh," Babaria told PTI.

Brushing aside reports of any differences between the two, he said all party leaders are working for the welfare of the people and for providing good governance in Madhya Pradesh.

Both Nath and Scindia attended the coordination committee meeting on Saturday and it ended on a "very cordial" note, the Congress general secretary said.

Babaria said a meeting of the Coordination Committee and the Manifesto Implementation Committee, of which former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan is the chairman, would be held later this month to work out implementation of pending promises.

Scindia has of late threatened to take to the streets if his party's government in Madhya Pradesh failed to meet the demands of protesting guest teachers, with Chief Minister Kamal Nath virtually daring him to do so.

After the coordination committee meeting on Saturday, Nath when asked about Scindia's threat said, "Toh woh utar jaaye (let him do so)."



The coordination committee meeting was convened by Deepak Babaria and top leaders, including former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh, were present.

While party leaders claim there are no factions within the state Congress, Scindia has often taken on the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, a move considered as a result of friction within the state unit.

Scindia had lost the Lok Sabha election from his Guna constituency and is now considered a hot favorite for the Rajya Sabha from the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Florida-based NextEra Energy, the main suitor for state-owned power provider Santee Cooper, wants to bypass South Carolinas utility regulators to charge customers $2.3 billion on new power plants even if those projects are canceled.

Some believe NextEras pitch smacks of the Base Load Review Act, the controversial law that jump-started the failed V.C. Summer nuclear expansion project, tied regulators hands and enabled Cayce-based South Carolina Electric & Gas to charge ratepayers billions for those unfinished reactors.

When the partially completed expansion failed in 2017, customers were left with nothing and utilities were saddled with debt. The V.C. Summer crisis led to SCE&G's sale to Dominion Energy and demands to sell off project partner Santee Cooper.

As part of an ambitious offer to buy Santee Cooper, NextEra is ready to pay off the Moncks Corner-based utilitys debt, provide refunds and rebates to customers, and settle an important class-action ratepayer lawsuit over a failed nuclear plant expansion.

But stowed away in NextEra's multibillion-dollar bid are special requests that some lawmakers, attorneys and consumer advocates believe could sink the sale.

The company wants the Legislature to avoid the normal regulations for investor-owned utilities in South Carolina and win pre-approval for at least four years of spending for new power projects central to its takeover of Santee Cooper.

Those proposed projects include: 800 megawatts of new solar generation; an expansion of Santee Cooper's Rainey gas-fired power station in Anderson County; and the construction of a new, 1,250-megawatt gas-fired plant in Fairfield County.

But thats not all. NextEra also wants assurances that it can bill customers for those plants if the projects are scrubbed because of state or federal regulatory changes, like a nationwide tax on carbon emissions.

David Reuter, a spokesman for NextEra, said those stipulations are a "key component" of the company's deal and necessary to pull off a successful takeover of Santee Cooper. Without those assurances, Reuter said it would create "significant uncertainty" for the company.

But the company's special requests worry South Carolina lawmakers, who want to avoid a repeat of the law that opened the door for the V.C Summer debacle.

"We've been down that road before. That raises a lot of concerns," said state Rep. Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, chairman of the House budget committee that will analyze NextEra's offer. "I'm sure it's going to raise a lot of concerns from the members."

House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia, added, "Anything that resembles the Base Load Review Act is going to be dead on arrival. We're not going to give anybody carte blanche to do that again."

The Legislature repealed that Base Load Review Act two years ago after ratepayers voiced outrage over the canceled nuclear project in South Carolina.

Gov. Henry McMaster, who pushed to sell Santee Cooper for the past three years, has already come out in support of NextEras purchase offer. But many of the states legislative leaders have yet to announce if they support the bid.

NextEras requests are included in a new bill, which it is asking state lawmakers to pass later this year. That bill had not been made public as lawmakers were being briefed on NextEra's plans that were first revealed Tuesday.

The Post and Courier received a copy of the legislation Friday evening after days of requests with NextEra and the state Department of Administration, which is overseeing the Santee Cooper bids.

The legislation spells out what was summarized in a Department of Administration review of bids for Santee Cooper that included a sale, a management plan and keeping the utility under state control.

NextEra, which is the only offer to buy Santee Cooper being considered by lawmakers, wants to skip a formal hearing in which state utility regulators, environmental groups and ratepayer advocates could scrutinize the company's plans and determine if they are the best option for power customers.

If NextEra gets its way, its $2.3 billion in proposed energy spending would be given the stamp of approval by state lawmakers who are largely untrained in utility matters.

A report put together by the Department of Administration said the pre-approval of NextEra's energy projects "poses risks" to ratepayers.

NextEra wouldn't be able to charge ratepayers during construction, like SCE&G did for V.C. Summer, but could collect project costs from customers for the work after it is completed or even if it is abandoned midway through development for specific reasons. And the state's utility regulators on the Public Service Commission would be powerless to intervene after the projects are approved by state lawmakers.

"The new legislation would largely displace the PSC and allow NextEra to operate an electric utility in South Carolina free from much of the regulatory oversight," the report noted.

Lawmakers previously complained about giving utilities a blank check to spend as much as they wanted on a power project ahead of time. They argued it removes any incentive for investor-owned utilities to hold down costs for customers.

NextEra, however, said there are customer protections included in its proposed bill.

The company will require competitive bidding among its contractors on the energy projects, Reuter said. And NextEra, he emphasized, has a track record of finishing its power plants. Reuter also suggested the legislation puts "hard cost caps" on the company's $2.3 billion in proposed energy spending.

Bob Guild, an environmental attorney who practices in front of the state regulators, is skeptical. He argues NextEra is asking the Legislature to "insulate the company from failure." Guild was a constant critic of the Base Load Review Act in the lead up to the V.C. Summer project being canceled.

Not allowing ratepayers and other groups to challenge NextEra's spending and energy plans, Guild said, eliminates any due process for ratepayers and kills the PSC's role of scrutinizing investor-owned utilities that operate as monopolies in South Carolina.

"Do we want to buy a pig in a poke like we did with the Base Load Review Act? No," Guild said. "The last thing we want to do is repeat that mistake. This is a land mine in the NextEra proposal. Have we not learned our lesson?"

Santee Cooper, which submitted its own bid to keep the utility under state control, is not regulated by the PSC. The Santee Cooper board, appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate, sets the utility's rates.

But state lawmakers are now being asked to consider changes that could allow the PSC to scrutinize future energy projects pitched by Santee Cooper, if the utility remains under state control.

Though the major terms of bids for control of Santee Cooper are unlikely to be changed now, some lawmakers said there could be wiggle room on certain points.

Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, said he expects the company-sponsored bill to be debated heavily in the coming months.

"I think that is clearly going to have a lot of questions and scrutiny on it," Massey said. "This is a big deal. People are taking it seriously. And they should be."
Three years ago last February, three Bitterroot filmmakers shot the first scene of the feature-length western they called Trail of Justice.

It was a movie that they hoped would have made the likes of John Wayne smile.

On that cold day, when they pulled on their cowboy boots and picked up their cameras, not a one had celebrated their 20th birthday.

They were young, but their dreams were big.

And maybe even more important, the three had the support of hundreds of folks from the Bitterroot Valley and beyond who were willing to give freely of their time to ensure their film was a success.

On Saturday, Feb. 29, many of those people and their friends will have their first opportunity to see the film that pushes time back to the 1800s as it follows three cowboys whose lives take a dark turn when tragedy strikes. Its a story of justice, revenge and loyalty told in a family-friendly way in the John Wayne-era style of western movie-making.

The movies director, Nick DeBoer and co-producers and actors Luke Valimont and Christian Jessop will join others who participated in the film at the red carpet screen testing at Hamiltons Pharaohplex Cinema at 9:30 a.m. The movie, free to everyone who gets there early enough to get a ticket, will start at 10 a.m.

On a recent morning, the three young filmmakers sat down in their home-based studio just outside Stevensville to talk about their journey they can trace back to their early teens when they began making low-budget western films that gained an appreciative local audience and support from the community.

Our teenage years were spent shooting movies, DeBoer said.

Valimont said he can remember going into the attic above the barn at DeBoers home to watch the then 12-year-old teaching himself how to create special effects on his computer.

He could CGI an arrow into you when he was 13 and make it legitimate, Valimont said.

At the same time, Valimont and Jessop were learning how to act and all the other behind-the-scenes work that goes into putting together a movie. They all worked on the local favorite Return to Zion Ranch. When members of that first company dissolved, a few local people stepped forward to offer some funding for the next project.

Valimont and Jessop wrote an outline for the film and pitched the idea to the Montana Film Office. With a state grant in hand, they were ready to start filming.

Montana Film Office Commissioner Allison Whitmer said the Bitterroot filmmakers applied for a Big Sky Film Grant that is available to Montanans looking to produce a film in the state.

Whitmer said its not usual for the grants to go to young people. Several have been awarded to high school-based programs.

These grants are all about developing that creative environment here in Montana, Whitmer said. The resident grants help people develop the kinds of filmmaking skills they can use to make films and other projects here in Montana.  We think its really empowering.

Whitmer has seen the Trail of Justice trailer and looks forward to seeing the full-length film. The trailer can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NSHgVNWMOE

It looks really great, she said. They are a great group of guys who have taken the spirit of the grant and ran with it. Im hoping for good things for them in the future.

All three agree that filmmaking is their future.

Its something that were all really passionate about, Valimont said. We loved every minute of it. Our end goal is to turn this into a career.

The next step will be to get the film accepted by as many film festivals as possible this year. Theyve already sent it to Australia and Orlando. They plan to enter the movie in other international, national and state festivals as well in hopes that someone will buy the rights to show it online or on the big screen.

Once they get through that process, theyre already starting to plan their next project.

Of course, it will be a western.

Were in Montana, Valimont said. We have all the resources we need right here to do westerns. We think it sets us apart. There are not a lot of westerns being made anymore and the ones that are arent like what they used to be. Theres no more John Wayne kind of movies. Thats the feeling we want. This whole movie is family-friendly. Any age group can sit down and watch about it without worrying about anything that might not be age-appropriate.

Beyond that, you can put a dude on a horse and throw a drone in the air and you have a crazy shot that no one else can get because of all the beautiful scenery we have around here, he said. It makes us unique. Everyone locally loves it.

All three agree the movie wouldnt have been possible without the support they received from the community. They estimate more than 300 people stepped forward to volunteer their time to help make it a success.

I think probably 70% of the cast and crew were from the Bitterroot, DeBoer said. They were all volunteers.

We owe the community a lot, Valimont said. We could not have done this without them. Thats why we wanted to show it here first. We wanted to make sure that they had a chance to see it before it went on the film festival circuit.

We encourage people to come down at 9:30, meet the cast and get their ticket, he said.

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Trisha starrer long-pending Tamil film Paramapadham Vilayattu is all set to release on February 28. The movie will be the actresss 60th outing on the silver screen as an actor. Directed by K Thiru Gnanam, Paramapadham Vilayattu also stars Manasvi and Vela Ramamoorthy in pivotal roles.

The political thriller has been passed with U/A certificate by the CBFC (Censor Board of Film Certification) board. The movie has been bankrolled by 24 HRS Productions and boasts of Amrishs music. The cinematography for the film has been rendered by J Dinesh along with Pradeep E Raghav's editing.

For the uninitiated, Trisha was last seen on-screen opposite Rajinikanth in 2019s Petta. In the meantime, the talented actress is gearing up for a slew of releases in 2020 including 1818, Raangi, Sugar and Mani Ratnam's magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan.

According to a few media reports, Trisha will soon be joining the sets of Ponniyin Selvan for the current schedule at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad. She will be seen in the role of Kunthavai and will be paired opposite Karthi

ALSO READ: Trisha Krishnan Wraps Up Shooting For Raangi! Pic Inside

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To everyone who was involved in bringing Fire Fight Australia together thank you.

That was a concert for the ages.

Take a bow Paul Dainty, TEG, Seven and Foxtel for an exhilarating concert. It rocked the house and moved us to tears in equal parts.

Congratulations to producer Julie Ward from ZigZagTV for the concert broadcast, Michael Pell for Seven hosting component and Graham Burrells for producing Foxtel hosting. The mammoth Live broadcast cant have been easy but it ran almost like clockwork.

Musically it had it all. From the rock royalty of Queen to the pin-drop stadium silence of kd lang, from country Lee Kernaghan to Hilltop Hoods hip hop. There was Delta singing I Am Australian, Tina Arena singing Divinyls, Daryl Braithwaite with his anthemic Horses, 5SOS rockin the rafters and Buble crooning from Melbourne. Olivia performed for the first time in 2 years and looked like a goddess.

It would take Farnsys Youre the Voice, complete with Brian May on guitar and Mitch Tambo in a First Nations language to top them all. An inspired choice.

The day was hosted by a very boisterous Celeste Barber, who honoured the volunteers in the house and couldnt resist the odd political jibe. Russell Crowe-produced videos also drew attention to climate change concerns.

Both Seven and Foxtel produced their own hostings for the big day with Larry Emdur, Kylie Gillies, David Koch and Samantha Armytage for Seven with Sonia Kruger and Sam Mac backstage. A very late night for breakfast TV hosts.

Foxtel had Rove McManus, Matt Shirvington, Deborah Hutton, Jason Dundas and Hannah Hollis with crosses to Eddie McGuire & Shaynna Blaze at Federation Square in Melbourne. Both produced their own magazine pieces highlighting communities, volunteers, wildlife and global reactions.

Sure there were some issues with sync on Foxtels 4K channel, and delays for Seven viewers outside AEDT states .but these aside it was a fantastic broadcast.

$9.5m was also raised during the broadcast, expected to top $10m when final numbers are in.

Like Sound Relief following the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009, and a post-Tsunami telethon, Fire Fight Australia will go down as a day where the power of music brings hope and unites a nation in the face of mother natures ferocity.
Enfield and Vernon police were able to locate a man who is blind using drones Saturday, after the man survived freezing temperatures overnight while lost in the woods.

Enfield police said the mans brother called them around 8:43 a.m. and said he had been unable to get in touch with his brother.

Neighbors told police the man had not been seen since 10 a.m. Friday.

Due to the temperature, there was concern about hypothermia and it was clear that time was of the essence for a successful outcome, Enfield police said on Facebook.

A drone pilot with the Vernon Police Department was called in, and set about searching.

The pilot found the missing man after about 30 minutes of searching, police said. He was found about 100 yards into the woods behind an embankment, where he was hidden from view, police said.

The man told first responders he had become disoriented, and had been forced to stay out overnight, when temperatures dropped to 9 degrees Fahrenheit.

Police said the man was outdoors for about 33 hours before he was found by the drone pilot and EMS personnel. He was carried out of the woods on a stretcher, according to video of the incident posted to Facebook.

The missing mans identity was not released.

He was transported to the hospital for evaluation and treatment, Enfield police said.
GRISWOLD  A tanker truck driver and the company he drives for were fined after the drivers truck crashed and spilled thousands of gallons of milk earlier this week.

The crash happened Tuesday near the intersection of Geer and Hopeville roads.

Connecticut State Police from Troop E in Montville responded to investigate the overturned tanker truck that was carrying 7,000 gallons of milk.

Police said the driver complained of minor pain  but didnt cry over the spilled milk.

A utility pole was damaged in the crash, prompting a response from Eversource Energy personnel.

The Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and local fire and ambulance companies also responded to the scene.

On Saturday, police said with help from members of the state police Traffic Services Unit Truck Squad, investigators learned the tanker hauling the milk had a number of violations.

The driver was operating over his allotted weekly hours, the truck and trailer were over the allowed maximum (weight) and the brakes were deficient and not in compliance with federal regulations, state police said.

As a result of learning this information, state police said they fined the driver and company with a combined $2,379.
The Royal Bank of Scotland is to stop financing oil majors such as Shell and BP unless they can satisfy the bank their businesses are in line with the Paris climate agreement.

RBS, which is rebranding as NatWest, said big oil and gas firms have until 2021 to put "a credible plan" in place, or face losing the bank's support.

"We plan a full phase-out from coal by 2030, also to stop lending and underwriting to major oil and gas producers unless they have a credible transition plan aligned with the 2015 Paris Agreement in place by the end of 2021," the bank said as new chief executive Alison Rose hopes to shake off the tarnished image it acquired during the financial crisis. It marks a step forward as many businesses have started to recognise the need to make their operations "greener".

However, several parts of the policy remain unclear. An RBS spokesman said the bank is still in the early days of its plans and has yet to set a cut-off point for what constitutes a "major" oil and gas producer. Many oil companies, including most US giants, have started withdrawing from North Sea production, leaving room for smaller firms, many backed by private equity investors, to squeeze the remaining oil out of the dwindling basin.

It is not clear how many smaller firms will still be able to borrow from RBS to fund operations and how many will be caught by the "major" definition.

Press Association
Outbreak of coronavirus in China is increasing compared to the world. So far more than 1600 people have died in China due to this dangerous virus. At the same time, more than 68000 people have been infected with this virus in China. 2641 new cases of infection have been reported on Friday. The number of people infected in this way has exceeded 67 thousand in China. The first death from coronavirus has been confirmed in France.

According to new data about this virus, 9,419 people have recovered from the disease. Out of 57,416 who are currently undergoing treatment for pneumonia due to new coronaviruses, 11,272 are in critical condition. There have been 70 new cases of corona virus on a cruise ship stranded on the Japanese coast. According to Japan's Health Minister Katsanobu Kato, 70 new cases of Kovid-19 (new coronovirus) have been reported on the Diamond Cruise ship. The minister said during a program on Sunday that the total number of coronovirus infected people on the ship is now 355.

Three cases of coronavirus have been reported in the Indian state of Kerala, the second patient being treated at Kanjangad District Hospital in Kasaragod has been discharged. It will be monitored. Nepal has evacuated 175 of its citizens from Hubei province of China. The Embassy of Nepal's Himalayan Nation said in a statement that a total of 175 Nepalese citizens from six different cities of the hit Hubei province have been airlifted from Wuhan.

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Priyanka Gandhi said this on the video released by Jamia, says 'if action is not taken'

Jaish warns before Trump's visit to India, 'atrocities on Muslims will be avenged'

Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat's big statement, says 'Everyone in the society is unhappy'

Rocket attack once again near US embassy in Iran's capital Baghdad, feared war
New Zealands sky-high house prices could drop if the government would introduce a capital gains tax and prevent high-income people from borrowing too much money, according to Helen Clark Foundations latest report.

The report revealed that the skyrocketing prices benefit baby boomers but threaten the younger generations, especially if the government would not do anything about it.

Jenny McArthur, the lead author of the report, blamed property speculators debt-fuelled buy-up of housing for the housing crisis  emphasising that investors would continue to buy property as long as they could borrow and get untaxed capital gains.
Forget the Good MannersTrump Should Keep Tweeting

Commentary

In the early days of this century, when people were just starting to blog, I wrote that with the explosion of the internet and cable news, with our attention and opinions being whipsawed at an unprecedented pace, we were living in the politics of the last five minutes.

That was only the beginning. Lately, its gone down to three or even two minutes. Soon, it will be instantaneous. In the time it takes to walk to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, the whole world could be turned inside out and back again.

And before you can figure out how to respond, something new has happened, your head is spinning, youre having trouble standing, and youve spilled the coffee. (Thats the least of it.)

At the fulcrum of all this, needless to say, is President Donald Trump, especially his virtually nonstop presence on Twitter.

The president has been criticized for his tweets, actually vilified for them, for a long time, roughly since he said something nasty about Rosie ODonnellor was it Megyn Kelly?

His most recent critic was far more augustAttorney General William Barr, who told the president to refrain from tweeting about criminal cases. It made it difficult for the AG to do his work.

Barr no doubt has a pointalthough one wonders what in the Sam Hill was going on with the exoneration (after being cited three times for lack of candorunder oath and recommended for prosecution by the inspector general) of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe?

This contrasted with the Draconian treatment of Roger Stone, who is likely to be incarcerated essentially for the crime of being a tedious braggart. If Stones ridiculous text messages really are criminal, half of Twitter should be under arrest.

Nevertheless, giving Barr his due, its clear more important players are in the DOJs (and John Durhams) sights, specifically, according to a New York Times report, former CIA Director John O. Brennan. Of course, The New York Times doesnt come out and say that directly. The article is really one of the papers oft-used attempts to get ahead of the curve on anything that looks bad for the left.

It may be that all the kerfuffles of the past week are mere noise compared to whats ahead (the exception being the reconsideration of Michael Flynns guilty pleaand that came from Barr). No wonder the Huffington Post thinks Barr and Trump are colluding. Actually, they dont have to.

But back to the president and his unseemly tweets. You will excuse my vulgarity, but I cant go along with those great exemplars of decorum who are urging him to quit or curtail his tweeting. I say, keep on keepin on, Donald.

The reason is simple. He has no choice.

He has no other place to go, really. Most of the media (the major newspapers, the networks, and all of cable news, with the exception of Fox, which isnt always reliable) are lined up against him. Indeed, as we all know, they have wanted him out of office from before he even had it.

Even The Wall Street Journal doesnt give him a fair shake in their front pages that are little different from those of The New York Times and The Washington Post. All rely on nefarious, anonymous leaks aimed at bringing the president down.

How, other than Twitter, can he really get his message out the way he wants it?

Now, he might want to do it a bit better, craft his tweets a bit more carefully, and learn when to keep his powder dry, maybe read or reread Sun Tzu and Machiavelli, who are miles better political strategists than anyone to come along in recent years, even Karl Rove or James Carville.

But who am I to talk? I use Twitter in the most slovenly manner for a professional writer. Its embarrassing how little attention I pay to what Im doing on there and how many typos I make. (I plead autocorrect!)

Twitter, for me, is braindead procrastination at which I am ashamed to waste my timebut Im, obviously, not the president. Nothing I say is very consequential in the end. Everything he says is.

Yes, I admit sometimes when I read his tweets, I want to shout: Look out below! But then, after a bit, nothing bad seems to happen. We should all keep that in mind the next time we think a presidential tweet is the end of the world. Or even going to lose him votes. Its not.

And how else is the president going to keep up with the politics of the last five minutes? Er two minutes.

The Epoch Times senior political analyst Roger L. Simon is an award-winning novelist and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter. His latest bookThe GOATis available on Amazon.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
According to a press release published on February 13, 2020, on the Official website of Austal, Austal USA has delivered its 11th Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) to the U.S. Navy at the companys shipyard in Mobile, Alabama. The future USS Kansas City (LCS 22) is the first Independence-class LCS to be delivered by Austal USA in 2020.

According to a press release published on February 13, 2020, on the Official website of Austal, Austal USA has delivered its 11th Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) to the U.S. Navy at the companys shipyard in Mobile, Alabama. The future USS Kansas City (LCS 22) is the first Independence-class LCS to be delivered by Austal USA in 2020.

Austal USA has delivered LCS22, the future USS Kansas City to the U.S. Navy (Picture source Austal USA)

Austal Chief Executive Officer David Singleton said the latest LCS delivery from Austals USA shipyard builds upon the companys strong record in recent years.

Austal USAs delivery of the Independence-class LCS program continues to impress, with quality, cost and productivity improvements being achieved with each new vessel.

We have now delivered 11 of the 19 Independence-class LCS currently contracted and its very pleasing to see more and more of these ships deployed around the world, adding a great capability to the U.S. Navy, Mr Singleton said.

Upgrades to the LCS program continue to take shape, both in production and post-delivery. Austal USA and General Dynamics Mission Systems teams recently integrated a new over-the-horizon missile system onto the USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) prior to her deployment. Gabrielle Giffords and her sister ship, USS Montgomery (LCS 8), are currently deployed and meeting U.S. Navy operational requirements in South East Asia.

Five Independence-class Littoral Combat Ships (small surface combatants) are under various stages of construction at Austal USA including the future USS Oakland (LCS 24) and USS Mobile (LCS 26) that are preparing for sea trials. Assembly is underway on the future USS Savannah (LCS 28) and USS Canberra (LCS 30), and modules for the future USS Santa Barbara (LCS 32) are under construction in Austals module manufacturing facility (MMF). Three more LCS are under contract and scheduled for production, through to LCS 38.

The Independence-class LCS is a fast, agile, focused-mission platform designed for operation in near-shore environments yet capable of open-ocean operation.

The 127-metre trimaran is designed to defeat asymmetric anti-access threats such as mines, quiet diesel submarines, and fast surface craft. The ship successfully integrates new technology and capability to support current and future U.S. Navy mission capability in any operating environment.

Austal USA is also under contract to build 14 Expeditionary Fast Transport vessels (EPF) for the U.S. Navy. The company has delivered 11 EPFs, while an additional two are in various stages of construction at the Mobile, Alabama shipyard.
More than 300 Americans rescued from a cruise ship quarantined off Japan because of the new coronavirus arrived back in the United States Monday for two more weeks of medical seclusion, as concern rose over passengers who dispersed around the globe after leaving another ship in Cambodia. The COVID-19 virus death toll exceeds 1,800 in China, where it has infected more than 72,000. Elsewhere, hundreds more have been infected and the virus has sparked panic buying, economic jitters as well as the cancellation of high-profile sporting and cultural events. With fresh cases emerging daily in Japan, the government has advised citizens to avoid mass gatherings, and has canceled public events -- including celebrations in central Tokyo for the Emperor's birthday and the amateur portion of the city marathon, affecting around 38,000 runners. In the Chinese capital Beijing, municipal authorities have ordered citizens arriving in the city to self-quarantine for 14 days, the presumed incubation period of the virus. State media said China may postpone its annual parliamentary session, which has been held in March for the last 35 years. Outside China, the biggest cluster of infections is from the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan's Yokohama, where an additional 99 cases were revealed on Monday. That brought the total to 454 diagnosed despite passengers being confined to their cabins during a 14-day quarantine. As criticism grew of Japan's handling of the ship crisis, governments are scrambling to repatriate their citizens. Canada, Italy, Hong Kong -- and the latest country, Australia -- were poised to follow the United States in removing nationals from the vessel. The first US flight touched down at Travis Air Force Base in California shortly before midnight Sunday, followed by the second early Monday at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. Before they boarded the flights, US officials were informed that 14 of the passengers tested days earlier had received positive results. Authorities allowed them to fly but isolated them from other passengers in a "special containment area". US officials deemed 13 of the cases "high risk" for COVID-19 and sent them to the University of Nebraska Medical Center for treatment and re-testing. All repatriated passengers must undergo a two-week quarantine period on US soil. One American traveler, Sarah Arana, told AFP before leaving the ship that she was ready to go because a proper quarantine was needed. "This was not it," she said. - 'My health is fine' - Some Americans on the Diamond Princess declined their government's offer. "My health is fine. And my two-week quarantine is almost over," tweeted Matt Smith, questioning why he should want to leave. Forty other US passengers tested positive for the virus and were taken to hospitals in Japan, said Anthony Fauci, a senior official at the National Institutes for Health. In China, authorities have placed about 56 million people in Hubei under quarantine, virtually sealing off the province from the rest of the country in an unprecedented effort to contain the virus. Chinese health officials on Monday urged patients who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate blood plasma which, they said, can be used to treat others. New cases outside the epicenter region have been declining for the last 13 days. There were 115 fresh cases outside Hubei announced Monday -- sharply down from nearly 450 a week ago. Chinese authorities have pointed to the slowing rise in cases as proof their measures are working. The apparent drop in new cases "must be interpreted very cautiously," World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday. Concerns remain about global transmission, but WHO officials cautioned against "blanket measures", when the virus is affecting "a very, very tiny" proportion of people outside Hubei. Fears are mounting over passengers on one vessel, the Westerdam, who all received a clean bill of health when they disembarked in Cambodia -- a staunch Beijing ally with a threadbare medical system. An 83-year-old American woman who disembarked was stopped by authorities in Malaysia over the weekend when she was detected with a fever and later diagnosed as having the virus. There were more than 2,200 passengers and crew on the ship when it docked in Sihanoukville, many of whom have now dispersed around the globe. Almost 1,000 were still aboard. - Battering tourism - With the virus battering tourism and disrupting global supply chains, experts are fretting about the toll it could take on a fragile global economy. IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said there could be a cut of around 0.1-0.2 percentage points to global growth but stressed there was "still a great deal of uncertainty." On Monday US tech giant Apple, citing disruption from the virus, said it did not expect to meet its revenue guidance for the March quarter. The company said worldwide iPhone supply would be "temporarily constrained" and that demand in China had been affected. Apple had forecast revenue of $63 billion to $67 billion for the second quarter to March. burs-rbu/je/dw/it/bgs/to/mdl A plane carrying American passengers released from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, quarantined off Japan, arrives at Travis Air Force Base in California -- the passengers will undergo further medical isolation in the US Map showing US states with confirmed cases of new coronavirus, and quarantine centers A medical staff member rests at the isolation ward of the Red Cross Hospital in Wuhan, China, the city which is the epicentre of the new coronavirus epidemic People wait for the train in Tokyo's Ginza area -- with fresh cases of new coronavirus emerging daily in Japan, the government has advised citizens to avoid mass gatherings, and cancelled public events
LIMA (Reuters) - LGBTQ couples in Peru took part in a symbolic wedding ceremony on Friday in an annual event aimed at calling for marriage equality in the conservative South American nation.

Eleven couples exchanged vows at a park in the Miraflores district of Lima in a ceremony to mark Valentine's Day called "Love does not discriminate."

Peru, a majority-Catholic country, is one of just a handful of nations in Latin America to not have at least partially recognized same-sex unions.

"We are here more than anything for a symbolic marriage," said Juan Carlos Martinez, who took part in the ceremony hosted by the LGBTQ community along with his partner.

"It is like a protest to the Peruvian state because it is really time for the country to have a civil union marriage which we, as Peruvians, really deserve and have the right to receive."

Other South American nations, including Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Colombia, have legalized gay marriage in recent years.

(Reporting by Reuters TV; writing by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
Central New York and New York state need to think bigger with the $200 million left from the $500 million Upstate Revitalization Initiative.

Four years ago, Albany awarded the region half a billion dollars to invest in industries and projects that would transform the economy, fight poverty and put people to work.

A recent accounting by staff writer Tim Knauss (States $500 million was supposed to transform CNY, but theres unfinished business," Feb. 6, 2020) showed that about one-third of the money is being used that way  notably to create a 50-mile drone testing corridor, one of only seven in the country.

But the URI also has been used as a convenient pot of cash for two dozen run-of-the-mill business expansions and building renovations. It also was tapped to pave a New York State Fair parking lot, to build an exit ramp from it, and to make up the difference when construction of the fairs new Exposition Center came in over budget. Those projects may have been worthy of a state subsidy, but they were not the kind of strategic, transformative investments the URI was designed to make.

We must do better with the remaining $200 million.

>>Spending $500 Million: What CNY has bought so far

The fact that it hasnt been spent or committed yet may turn out to be a blessing. New opportunities have arisen since the URI money came our way.

One is the Syracuse Surge, Mayor Ben Walshs plan to revitalize the southern portion of downtown through a 5G network, a STEAM school and other technology investments. In a little over a year, it has attracted funding from public and private sources, including a commitment from Microsoft to create a Smart Cities hub here. A grant from the URI helped the city attract a wireless equipment manufacturer to the citys South Side. The surge seems a likely place for more strategic investments from the URI.

The key word there is strategic. The URIs scattershot approach so far dilutes its impact on jobs, poverty and the economy.

As with other state economic development programs, its hard to judge if the URI is succeeding. Empire State Development doesnt release enough data or objective criteria for outsiders to analyze. The data ESD does publicize  numbers of jobs created, for example  are squishy, at best. Were looking forward to seeing a statewide database of economic development projects long promised by the agency.

Four years into the URI, it may surprise you to learn that only $170 million of the $500 million has been disbursed. Thats actually good news. Grants are made only after a business or developer meets milestones or completes the project. The private sector bears the financial risk of failure, not the public. If a project doesnt fly, the URI pays nothing. Fifteen projects out of the first 66 were canceled. The money that had been committed to them can now be spent elsewhere.

With $200 million in Upstate Revitalization Initiative money still available, and new leadership and momentum in Central New York, we agree with Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahons prescription: Lets re-strategize.

The URI was hyped as a tool to transform Central New York. It may never live up to that lofty goal. But it can be more ambitious and strategic than its recent history suggests.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 06:11:20|Editor: yhy

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The UN-backed Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Serraj speaks at a press conference in Tripoli, Libya, on Feb. 15, 2020. Fayez Serraj on Saturday highlighted the cease-fire as a precondition for any negotiation. (Photo by Hamza Turkia/Xinhua)

TRIPOLI, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- UN-backed Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Serraj on Saturday highlighted the cease-fire as a precondition for any negotiation.

"Agreement on lasting cease-fire means stopping all acts of violence, return of displaced people to their homes, and guaranteeing that the capital and other cities are safe from any threats," Serraj told a press conference in the capital Tripoli.

"We believe that without cease-fire, talking about the other (economic and political) tracks is useless. No negotiations under warplanes bombing and destruction of infrastructure," he said.

Libya's east-based army has been leading a military campaign since April 2019 in and around Tripoli, attempting to take over the city and topple the UN-backed government.

The fighting has killed and injured thousands of people, and forced more than 150,000 to flee their homes.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday adopted a resolution to endorse the outcome of Berlin Conference on Libya held on Jan. 19 and noted that the outcome represents "an important element of a comprehensive solution" to the situation in Libya.

Resolution 2510 also condemns the recent increase in levels of violence and demands the parties in Libya commit to a lasting cease-fire.
New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday attended the 73rd Raising Day Parade of Delhi Police organised at New Police Lines, Kingsway Camp area of the national capital.

While addressing the gathering, Shah remembered Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and said, "It is a matter of pride that the Delhi Police was started by the Iron Man of India, Sardar Patel, himself. I am certain it still provides inspiration to the entire organisation."

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s recent positive comments must have inspired every police officer of Delhi Police. We must also remember that over 35,000 policemen have laid their lives for the security of the nation. He acknowledged the sacrifices of these 35,000 and more policemen and built a National Police Memorial in Delhi. It lays the testimony of these sacrifices."

Shah also lauded Delhi Police for introducing new schemes to reduce crime in the region.

"Delhi Police has initiated the smart policing scheme, Dial 112 scheme under the Nirbhaya Fund of Government of India and have also started the National Cyber Forensic Lab to help citizens from cybercrimes." "Motor vehicles theft application, property theft application, Police clearance certificate application, online character verification report and the Himmat Plus Application are helping the police`s communication with the people," he said.

Apart from Shah, Puducherry governor Kiran Bedi also attended the 73rd Raising Day Parade.
Victorian taxpayers will be hit with a massive clean-up bill for a West Footscray warehouse inferno that burned for days in 2018 after the Supreme Court ruled the property was not insured at the time of the blaze.

The fire at the sprawling West Footscray property in August 2018 was the biggest industrial blaze in Melbourne since the Coode Island disaster of 1991 and sent toxic smoke billowing over the city's western suburbs.

The warehouse was an illicit dump, packed with steel drums filled with millions of litres of toxic and highly flammable chemicals.

WorkSafe Victoria has estimated that remediation of the toxic site will cost at least $15 million, but the full extent of the contamination is yet to be determined almost 18 months after the fire.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 04:48:14|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks in an interview with Reuters in Berlin, Germany, Feb. 14, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Qing)

Many European countries, including Britain and Germany, have adopted a calm, objective and scientific attitude towards the issue of Huawei's 5G, says Wang Yi, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister.



MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi Saturday expressed his belief that European countries will make wise choices on Huawei's 5G at their own discretion.

"Huawei's 5G is an old issue," Wang said in the Q&A session after his speech at the ongoing 56th Munich Security Conference which kicked off here on Friday and runs until Sunday.

Many European countries, including Britain and Germany, have adopted a calm, objective and scientific attitude towards the issue, he noted.

There is no doubt that all countries should safeguard the security of their own telecommunications infrastructure, he said, adding that at the same time, companies from all countries should also be offered a level playing field and non-discriminatory business environment.

Wang said this is a fair practice and it conforms to the principles of a market economy, and that he believes that European countries will make wise choices on the issue independently.
By Dmitry Orlov

February 15, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - I prefer to write on things I know about, but once in a while an opportunity presents itself for me to comment on some aspect of widespread mistrust and confusion while resting on a solid foundation of my professional curiosity. This is the case of the 2019-nCoV novel coronavirus. A lot of the elements of the coronavirus story just dont add up, and thats what I want to explore. At the outset, I want to make it clear that I am no expert on these matters. Is 2019-nCoV a genetically engineered biological weapon or is it a naturally evolved strain of a virus that is endemic in Chinas bat population? This we dont know, but it is interesting to look at the plausibility of each of these scenarios and also to consider whether what we are observing could be a combination of a little of each.



As a biological weapon of mass destruction, 2019-nCoV isnt particularly good. On the plus side, it is highly contagious and can be spread by infected individuals who are not showing any of the symptoms, such as fever and shortness of breath. On the minus side, the mortality rate is a mere 2.1% and is likely to trend down because this rate does not account for a potentially huge number of young, healthy people who contracted the virus but never developed any symptoms, were never tested for it, and will never know that they had survived it. For a virus to be potent as a bioweapon, its kill ratio needs to be optimized for killing the largest possible number of its victims, but doing so slowly enough so that the victims dont die before they have a chance to spread the infection.



Another minus: the average age of those who succumb to it is around 65, making it rather ineffective in impairing the productive capacities of a nation, be they industrial or military, since many of those who die are past their peak productive years or retired. In fact, taking a rather cynical view, this virus could be rather helpful in reducing the burden of economically unproductive sick an elderly people who, in an aging Chinese population, and given the respect Chinese society traditionally gives to its elders, consume a growing share of the countrys resources. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter

On the plus side, those who succumb to it are predominantly Chinese, male and elderly, and this may be taken as an indication of some very clever targeting. In fact, the selectivity of this virus may be indicative of an effort to selectively take out members of the Chinese Communist party, in order to destabilize China politically, to effect regime change there and to impose US-style Freedom&Democracy upon the hapless Chinese population. Given that the US no longer has the military might to take on China (and cant even respond to Iranian rocket attacks on its military bases), and given that the US has pretty much lost the trade war against China, a biological weapon may be the only arrow left in its quiver.



Lets keep in mind that the Pentagon has built quite a number of facilities around the world that research various pathogens. Given that this is the Pentagon, whose basic task involves killing people, not the World Health Organization, it seems likely that they also do something along the lines of developing effective biological weapons. A couple of years ago US operatives were caught collecting DNA samples from the Russian population and were promptly escorted out of the country.



The obvious supposition is that these samples were to be used to develop biological weapons to specifically target the Russian population. I suspect that the specialists charged with this task were most disappointed to discover that the vast majority of the Russian population consists of just your regular white people, pretty much the same the world over, and to target them is to target themselves. But that is not the case with the Chinese, whose genetic makeup is more distinctive. This is all clearly inconclusive, and it may very well be the case that the Pentagons biological weapons program is just another part of its giant money-burning machine, or the case may be that it actually does produce a biological weapon now and again, and that 2019-nCoV is the meager result it has so far managed to produce.



But then again, the way the epidemic started is not what youd expect if an artificial strain were released at some place and time. In that case, youd expect an instantaneous spike in infections, with symptoms showing up in a tight cluster right at the end of the incubation period. But instead what we saw was sporadic incidents of infection connected with a certain fish market in Wuhan gradually giving rise to an epidemic. This suggests that the source of the virus is a natural one, such as the bats which were sold at this market. However, the Chinese have been eating bats for thousands of years (bat soup is a delicacy), so why would this virus only emerge now?



The reason for the timing may simply be increased contact. The virus emerged right around the Chinese new year. According to the Chinese calendar, this is the year of the rat, and while the Chinese also eat rats, bats are preferred. Also, around two-thirds of all the pigs in China have recently been lost to swine flu, driving up prices of pork and also, incidentally, forcing China to start importing pigs from the US, which were previously subject to an embargo. This made the naturally abundant bats an attractive alternative to other sources of animal protein. Equally serendipitously, Chinas chicken population is now being ravaged by avian flu, and this, as you might expect, will force China to start importing chickens from the US as well.



Of course, this is all highly inconclusive, but a view may be taken that all is fair in love and warand trade war with the US especially. But what has set off a few alarms in my head was the reaction to the coronavirus epidemic, both in China and in the West, the US especially.



First, the Chinese government has treated the epidemic as an act of war, deploying all the means at its disposal, including the military, in order to contain its spread, building several large new hospitals, putting entire huge cities under quarantine and extending the national holidays. The response as been far beyond what this virus seems to warrant, with its low mortality rate. Without saying so, the Chinese government has treated this epidemic as an act of biological warfareperhaps as a dry run for a more lethal epidemic that may come in the future. At any rate, the Chinese government is seeing to it that nobody can blame it for not taking the problem sufficiently seriously, or not doing enough about it.



Second, the Western media response has been an exemplary effort to produce a panic and to smear China, making what is happening there into a horror story. Not only did the mass media outlets do their best to stoke mass hysteria about all things Chinese, but various bloggers and independent experts pitched in to produce a panic. There seems to have been a policy-driven reorientation from Russophibia (where it has been high time for the US to silently admit defeat and move on) to Sinophobia (where the US is yet to have its ass handed to it on a plate). Those notionally independent commentators who are exploiting this opportunity to attack China are acting as useful idiots in this centrally choreographed media campaign.



Third, the White House has recently requested that experts look into the possibility that 2019-nCoV has been genetically engineered. It is often the case that the person who shouts Catch the thief! the loudest happens to be the thief himself. I suspect that the next move will be to declare that this virus is indeed an engineered biological weapon developed by why, Russia, of course, and Mr. Putin personally.



Taking all of this into account, the scenario that seems most plausible to me was that this virus was genetically engineered in one of the Pentagons biological weapons laboratories and introduced into China via infected wild bats, having picked the technology and manufacturing mecca of Wuhan as a target. The ultimate goal, one might surmise, is to induce US corporations to repatriate production to the US mainland in order to make America great again.



But my suspicion is that this isnt going to work. The Chinese government will succeed in stopping the epidemic, in the process demonstrating that it cares about its people and is effective in protecting them. Already the infection rate, plotted on a log scale, is starting to slope down from a straight line, meaning that the epidemic is losing steam. And then, working alongside many other countries, China will move on with the main task of eradicating the other parasitewhich is the United States, a country that get something for nothing simply by printing dollars.

Dmitry Orlov is a Russian-American engineer and a writer on subjects related to "potential economic, ecological and political decline and collapse in the United States," something he has called permanent crisis. Orlov believes collapse will be the result of huge military budgets, government deficits, an unresponsive political system and declining oil production. https://cluborlov.blogspot.com

Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here

Copyright  Dmitry Orlov

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Linkedin Asip Hasani (The Jakarta Post) Kediri  Sun, February 16, 2020 20:01 695 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2064df156 1 Politics Pramono-Anung,political-dynasty,Kediri,East-Java,regional-elections Free

Hanindhito Himawan Pramana, the son of Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, confirmed his intention to take part in Kediri regency election in East Java, adding to the tally of children of government officials and politicians who will run in this years regional elections.

"If asked whether I am ready or not, I am ready. But now I am still communicating with the leaders of a number of political parties starting from the central office to the village level branches," Hanindhito or Dhito, as he is commonly known, told journalists on Saturday on the sidelines of an event at the Lirboyo pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Kediri.

The event was also attended by his father as well as Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi and Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono.

Dhito, however, added that he had yet to secure the backing of any political party to join the race, including the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), of which his father is a member.

Late last week, Dhito attended a gathering organized by PDI-Ps Kediri branch, which is led by Agus Sunoto, Pramonos brother-in-law and Dhito's uncle. Agus told the gathering that Dhito was running in the upcoming regency election.

Pramono, a former PDI-P secretary-general, said that, as Dhito's father, he would support his sons bid once the PDI-P declared its support for Dhito.

"Once it is decided by the PDIP [to nominate Dhito as its regent candidate] then we will communicate with the chairmen of other political parties. I meet with them almost everyday as fellow Cabinet members, he said on Saturday.

The PDI-P holds the most seats in the Kediri Regional Legislative Council (DPRD) with 15 out of 50 seats, ahead of the National Awakening Party (PKB), which has nine seats, and the Golkar Party, which has six seats. To run in a regional election, a candidate must have the support of a party or coalition that holds at least 20 percent of seats in the DPRD.

Dhito is not the only political blueblood set to take part in the upcoming regional elections.

President Joko Jokowi Widodos eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka has officially registered with the PDI-P to run in the 2020 Surakarta mayoral election in Central Java, while Jokowi's son-in-law Bobby Nasution has also registered with both the PDI-P and Golkar to run in the 2020 Medan mayoral race in North Sumatra. Vice President Maruf Amins daughter Siti Nur Azizah is also set to run for South Tangerang mayor in Banten.
Before Viola Desmond refused to leave the whites-only section of a Nova Scotia theatre and Hugh Burnett led sit-ins at restaurants unwilling to serve Black customers, a barber in Toronto pushed back against racial intolerance.

During the first decade of the 20th century, a roller-skating craze swept North America. Rinks sprang up in cities across the continent and Toronto was no exception. Citizens had several options including Victoria Rink on Huron Street and Granite Club Roller Rink at 519 Church. Roller skating appealed to all ages. The craze was so popular sporting goods stores quickly ran short of skates. Participants were required to rent skates from rinks. Ads placed in newspapers by competing arenas boasted Strictly select patronage.

The Taylors lived in a home in the shadow of St. James Cathedral on Francis Street. On a cool November evening in 1906, Arthur Taylor, 12, and his mother, Lydia, dressed against the chill and boarded a Toronto Railway Co. streetcar for the short ride north to the Granite Club, a forerunner of the citys current Granite Club. After purchasing tickets and entering, they queued up to rent skates. Before they could join the crowd on the floor, however, an attendant instructed by management informed them they were unwelcome because they were Black.

Mother and son returned home humiliated.

The Granite Club chose the wrong family to discriminate against. Arthurs father, the successful barber Armistead Pride Taylor, refused to take the slight lying down. Incensed, Taylor rushed to the courthouse at city hall and issued a civil claim for $50 in damages.

Armistead Taylor was born a freeman of colour in Virginia in 1845. After visiting an aunt in Toronto in 1870, she convinced him to settle here. Prior to the move, he wed Lydia Hegetscweiler in Virginia and relocated north of the border with his new wife.

The newlyweds initially resided in Yorkville, where Taylor opened a barbershop. Within a decade, he earned a reputation for challenging social norms. Fined two dollars for violating the Lords Day Act  Taylor shaved a customer on a Sunday  he won the case on appeal.

Taylor descendant Paul de la Rosa of Toronto is familiar with his ancestry but remained unaware of the specific indignity experienced by his great-grandmother and great-uncle.

What does de la Rosa suppose gave his great-grandfather confidence to challenge the WASP establishment? De la Rosa speculates, Being considered freeborn in a time of slavery gave him hope for a better life. His move from the States to Canada was also part of that. Self-esteem, pride, and a determination not to go backwards  probably were driving forces. Along with some rage!

The Taylor family eventually grew to 10 children. By then the barber had standing in the community. He opened the first bathhouse in Yorkville and managed barbershop facilities at the Queens Hotel. A talented musician, he was a member of local marching bands.

Lydia and Armistead valued education for their children. Those who survived into adulthood would pursue higher education, going on to make valuable contributions in the fields of medicine and law, in Canada as well as south of the border.

Judge Frederick Morson heard the case before Christmas 1906. With a reputation for fairness, the magistrate was known to dispense swift justice. The defence was mounted by Edward Bayly, a skilled lawyer later appointed deputy attorney general to the province of Ontario.

Hotelier Abram Orpen, a former bookie with previous run-ins with authorities, managed the rink. In years to come, Orpen would establish Dufferin Park Racetrack. The successful venture led Orpen to open additional horse tracks throughout the province. As his wealth and influence grew, he became a friend to politicians and a favourite son of the city.

At trial, the lawyer representing the Granite Club claimed the recreational and social club was not liable for damages since Orpen leased the rink from them for his own purposes.

From the witness box, Armistead Taylor surmised staff initially permitted his light-skinned wife and son entrance assuming they were white. For his part, Orpen unabashedly testified ordering mother and son from the rink after discovering they were Black. Upon hearing arguments, Judge Morson admitted never having adjudicated a race-based case such as this. Court was adjourned to allow his honour to examine Canadian jurisprudence and case precedents.

Two weeks later a decision was rendered. In a challenge against the WASP establishment of the day, a verdict in the Taylors favour seemed unlikely. Win or lose, Taylor would not tolerate the indignity afforded his wife and son.

He refused to back down and his tenacity paid off. This doggedness doesnt surprise de la Rosa. It runs in the family. I attended a large family reunion many years ago, he explained, During this reunion, I actually saw a bill of sale for one of my ancestors that had bought himself! It seemed that that determination and drive was alive then, and was passed down.

Judge Morsons judgment read, In this country nobody has a right to subject anybody to indignities because of his colour. Be a man or woman coloured  he or she is entitled to respect and protection. Reflective of the times, however, he stated that if management intended to deny entry based on skin colour, a notice should have been conspicuously posted.

The judge denied Taylors claim for punitive damages but ordered the Granite Club to reimburse the ticket cost.

What effect the small victory had on young Arthur is impossible to say but it is worth noting, after completing his education in Toronto, the young man attended Lincoln University in Philadelphia and then Yale to study law. He would become assistant district attorney for the District of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Why isnt the Taylor victory widely known? De la Rosa ponders. How many know that Toronto once had a Black mayor? (William Peyton Hubbard, elected Torontos first Black alderman in 1894, served as acting mayor on several occasions.) There were schools and streets named after prominent Black leaders in the community that have quietly had their names changed over time, and those stories have been lost to history as well.

Correction  February 16, 2020: This article has been amended from a previous version that misstated the location of the whites-only section in the theatre that Viola Desmond refused to leave. It was erroneously stated to be in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Author Edward Brown writes about Toronto history.

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It's been almost 10 years but Kartik Aaryan's monologues from the "Pyaar Ka Punchnama" series continue to be so popular with his fans that the actor says every time he delivers barely three lines people subconsciously think he is going for it again.

Kartik's one-man acts, where he ranted about his love life, played a significant role in the success of Luv Ranjan's "Pyaar Ka Punchnama" (2011) and "Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2" (2015).

But the 29-year-old actor asserted he has never delivered monologues beyond these two films.

"Monologues were there in just two films. Whenever I say a three-line dialogue, people think that I'm delivering a monologue. The dialogues in 'Pyaar Ka Punchnama' films were actually monologues. They were both six-page long scenes and 12 minutes in length.

"But it is just these two films out of my whole filmography -- 'Akash Vaani', 'Luka Chuppi', 'Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety', 'Pati Patni Aur Woh' and now 'Love Aaj Kal'. I have never done monologues. So it is wrong to compare," Kartik told PTI in an interview.

The actor said today people have a preconceived notion that he is doling out a monologue as a rant or in a confrontational scene in his films.

"Both the monologues went viral, they were a hit on social media. People have really loved them. Now, it comes subconsciously to people that I'm delivering a lot of monologues.

"In 'Luka Chuppi', I barely had any dialogues because it was a situational comedy. But whenever there is a confrontational scene or a scene where I'm ranting about something, you get a sense that a monologue has started or is about to come," Kartik said.

But the actor said he is not averse to delivering monologues, which he considers his USP, if it is an important part of the script.

"If it is an integral part of a film, only then it makes sense and everybody understands that as we are all professionals. It's no harm to work on someone's USP, to encash on it. So I wouldn't hide the fact that people want me to deliver monologues in films.

"But the kind of films I have chosen recently, they didn't have situations where you can fit in a monologue," Kartik added.

The actor's latest release was Imtiaz Ali's "Love Aaj Kal". Also featuring Sara Ali Khan, the film hit the screens last Friday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dhinesh Kallungal By

Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The three-decade-old ISRO espionage case that shocked the conscience of the nation in the 90s has now come to an end with former scientist S Nambi Narayanan, who is at the centre of the case, unconditionally withdrawing his petition against the state and Union governments after state agreed to pay him Rs 1.3 crore compensation. Nambi had filed the suit seeking a compensation of Rs 1 crore.

Though the sensational case finally came to a close, it has left too many loose ends hanging as the states out-of-court-settlement to pay Rs 1.3 crore is apart from the Rs 50 lakh compensation set by the Supreme Court. In a written memo submitted before the Subordinate Judges Court, Thiruvananthapuram, Nambi Narayanan claimed the compensation agreed to be paid to him by the defendants 1 to 5 (state government) is agreeable to him and hence he is withdrawing the suit seeking `1 crore compensation unconditionally.

According to the court order, no personal liability can be fixed on defendants 6 to 111 (officials accused of falsely implicating him) and no recovery will be effected from the defendants to realise the amount.

Just as the espionage case, even the denouement has raised many questions. Nambi had filed the case against the state government, including commissioner and secretary to Kerala, DGP (crimes), DIG of police, Inspector of police, Vanchiyoor, and officials like Sibi Mathew (then Vigilance IG), TP Senkumar (then state police chief), then DySPs S Vijayan, Jogesh, Mathew John, Joint director (IB), and R B Sreekumar, deputy director (IB) and the Union of India.

No mention of recovering money from govt officials

Following the out-of-the-court settlement, he has decided to withdraw the case against the officials who, according to him, had falsely implicated him in the case and the Union Government. All through the years, he has been demanding action against these officials. Further, the government has agreed to provide the compensation over `1 crore from state exchequer as there is no mention about recovering the money from the officials who allegedly implicated him in the case.

The Union government was party to the case and the GO sanctioning the Rs 1.3 crore has no mention about whether it has taken the decision in consultation with the Centre. In short, Rs 1.3 crore compensation would purely be the public money and the state even saved Union Government from paying its share.

Another question is why the state government has gone for an out-of-the-court settlement without waiting for the courts decision. He was seeking Rs 1-crore compensation. But now the state has agreed to pay Rs 1.3 crore. The GO sanctioning the compensation was issued at a time when the case was heading for its logical conclusion after the long-drawn legal battle.

In fact, the evidence was closed by the court in 2011 and had posted the case for argument around 110 times in the last nine years with either party refusing to start the arguments. It is still unclear on how the state arrived at the compensation amount. Though the decision was based on a report from former CS K Jayakumar, the terms of references have not been revealed.

High-octane saga

The espionage case dates back to 1994, when Nambi Narayanan, along with another scientist, was accused of selling classified information on Indias cryogenic engine programme to Russia and Pakistan

In Dec 2019, Kerala government decided to give him a compensation of Rs 1.3 crore including 18 per cent interest per year from the date of suit till realisation

In May 1996, the CBI filed a report before the chief judicial magistrate saying that the espionage case was false and there was no evidence to back the charges against the accused. The court accepted the report and discharged all the accused

In 2001, the NHRC awarded him interim compensation of Rs 10 lakh after taking into account the 1998 judgment

In 1998, the Supreme Court granted compensation of Rs 1 lakh to Nambi and others who were discharged in the case, and directed the state government to pay the amount

In Sep 2018, the Supreme Court held that Nambi Narayanan was arrested unnecessarily, harassed and subjected to mental cruelty in the espionage case and ordered to pay Rs 50 lakh compensation to him

Highlights of court order

Nambi claimed that he has no further claim against any of the defendants and is withdrawing the suit unconditionally as per GO (MS) No 203/2019 Home dated 27/12/2019

No personal liability can be fixed on defendants 6 to 111 (officials accused of falsely implicating him) and no recovery will be effected from any of the defendants and all other defendants to realise the amount



The compensation is paid on account of the compromise arrived towards the full and final settlement of the entire crime suit



The withdrawal memo of the Nambi and state government order shall form part of the order



Asked if he has decided to stop his fight against the officials, who according to him, falsely implicated him in the case, after the out-of-the-court settlement, Narayanan refused to comment on the issue. I have acted as per the law and dont want to comment on this issue any more, he said.
The opposition National Democratic Congress has asked the government to account for all excavators and ammunition seized during the Stop Galamsey Campaign.

According to the Communications Director of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi government had seized 900 excavators during the campaign.

He cited figures in the 2020 budget presented in Parliament to support his claim.

Addressing a press conference on the banks of River Pra at Twifo Praso in the Central region, Mr. Gyamfi challenged the government to make a public presentation on the state of the items.

The NDC demands that the Akufo Addo government as a matter of urgency should fully account for all items seized as listed in paragraphs 801 of the 2020 budget statement presented to the House of Parliament.

Ladies and gentlemen of the press if you check paragraph 801, it says government at the time had seized 900 excavators, not 500. 500 caterpillars are missing but we were told 900 had been seized at paragraph 801 of the budget statement. Also, it is indicated there that a total of 2,079 weapons and ammunition have been seized from illegal miners and 4,045 other mining equipment confiscated from illegal miners have also been seized. We are demanding that the government holds a public exhibition of these seized excavators. Missing excavators and arrest

The Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng. disclosed recently that most of the excavators that were seized from illegal miners had vanished.

He subsequently petitioned the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service to investigate the suspended First Vice Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party, Horace Ekow Ewusi over his alleged involvement in the missing earth-moving equipment.

Ekow Ewusi was contracted by the government to cart excavators and other vehicles and pieces of equipment seized by Operation Vanguard to designated areas for safekeeping.

So far, six persons arrested over the disappearance of the missing equipment have been granted bail.

The six, including Ekow Ewusi, have been cautioned with the offence of stealing and abetment to stealing.

It will be recalled that at the peak of the fight against illegal mining between 2017 and 2018, about 500 earth-moving machines were seized by the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry.

The then sector Minister, John Peter Amewu who sanctioned the seizure directed them to be parked at the premises of the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).

citinewsroom
By Steve Gorman

Feb 14 (Reuters) - Hawaii health authorities began a search on Friday for anyone who may have had close contact with a Japanese tourist who fell ill on the island of Oahu and tested positive for a new coronavirus soon after returning to his home country.

The case came to public attention at a Honolulu news conference by Governor David Ige and senior state health officials, who said the man in question is believed to have become infected in Japan before embarking on his trip, or while en route to Hawaii.

That assumption is based on the 14-day incubation period of the virus, and the fact that the man became symptomatic after less than a week in Hawaii, the state health officials said.

The patient and his wife visited the island of Maui from Jan. 28 to Feb. 3, then traveled to Oahu, where they stayed until flying on Feb. 7 back to their home in the Aichi Prefecture of central Japan, the officials said.

The man had exhibited no sign of illness until reaching Oahu, where he first developed cold-like respiratory symptoms but no fever, the state's health direct, Dr Bruce Anderson, told reporters.

Once back in Japan, he became more seriously ill and was tested for the coronavirus after going to a hospital, Anderson said.

Hawaii officials were notified through the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday, and state authorities in turn alerted local health providers to be on the lookout for coronavirus-like illnesses.

"We do believe that this is a serious concern, and I want to assure you that this scenario is exactly what we've been preparing for and are prepared for," the governor said.

The greatest immediate focus is to identify and track down individuals who had "prolonged, face-to-face contacts" with the Japanese man after he began showing symptoms on Oahu, said Dr Sarah Park, the state's chief epidemiologist.

Based on what is known about transmission of the disease, the patient was unlikely to have been contagious while on Maui because he was asymptomatic then, and anyone who had fleeting, incidental contact with him after he became ill, such as passing him in a hallway, would be considered at low risk, Park said.

Story continues

The man's apparent lack of fever while in Hawaii also bodes well because infected individuals are believed to be most contagious when feverish, she said.

The man's precise travel itinerary remained unclear, except that he stayed at a Hilton Grand Vacations time-share condo in the Waikiki section of Honolulu, Anderson said, adding that he only sought medical care upon returning to Japan.

State health officials said they were consulting Japanese authorities to get more details of his Hawaii visit.

Hawaii, the U.S. Pacific island state closest to the origin of the coronavirus outbreak, has seen no infections documented on its soil, while the number of U.S. cases confirmed nationwide stands at 15, none fatal. Eight cases are in California.

The worldwide total now exceeds 66,000 cases, with more than 1,500 deaths, most of them in China's Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak.

Beyond China, nearly 450 cases have been tallied in some 24 countries and territories, and three deaths. Japan is among the nations hardest, with 251 confirmed cases, most of them on a cruise liner quarantined in a port.

Japan confirmed its first coronavirus death on Thursday. (Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles Editing by Robert Birsel)
Extreme cold weather alert for Toronto comes to an end

Toronto Public Health says its extreme cold weather alert for the city has ended on Saturday as the temperature is slated to rise after a brief cold snap.

Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city's medical officer of health, said in a news release that the warming centre at Metro Hall closed at 12 noon as well.

According to Environment Canada, the forecast is calling for a high temperature of 1 C on Saturday and a low of 2 C on Saturday night. The wind chill was forecast to be 11 in the afternoon but 9 at night.

Extreme cold weather alerts are issued when the forecast suggests that temperatures will reach approximately 15 C or colder, or when the wind chill is forecast to reach 20 or colder.

The alerts enable the city to activate services for homeless people.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 22:32:47|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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COLOMBO, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena on Sunday summoned U.S. Ambassador in Colombo Alaina Teplitz to convey Sri Lanka's strongest objections over the U.S. government's move to impose travel restrictions on Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, Commander of the Sri Lankan Army and Acting Chief of Defence Staff, as well as his immediate family.

The U.S. government on last Friday banned the Sri Lankan Army Chief and his immediate family from entering the United States, over alleged human rights violations committed in the last stages of the island country's civil war which ended in 2009.

A statement from the Foreign Ministry said Minister Gunawardena formally conveyed to the U.S. ambassador Sri Lanka's strongest objections and asked that the United States government review its decision.

"Lt. Gen. Silva was appointed as the Commander of the Army by the then Head of State, taking into account his seniority and that there were no substantiated or proven allegations of human rights violations against him," the Foreign Ministry said.

"His elevation as the Acting Chief of Defence Staff by the current Head of State, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was on account of his being the senior most serving military officer," the statement added.

The Foreign Ministry further said that during discussions with the U.S. ambassador, the minister had raised disappointment that a foreign government should question the prerogative of a democratically elected president to call upon persons of proven expertise to hold key positions on national security related matters.

The minister further said this action by the U.S. government unnecessarily complicates the U.S.-Sri Lanka relationship.

Ambassador Teplitz informed that she would convey the concerns of the Sri Lankan government to Washington, and reiterated the continued commitment of the U.S. government to all aspects of on-going collaboration with Sri Lanka and to ensure its expansion, including in the field of defence.
Munich: Online content should be regulated with a system somewhere between the existing rules used for the telecoms and media industries, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has told global leaders and security chiefs.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Zuckerberg says Facebook has improved its work countering online election interference.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said special consideration is needed for social media at the Munich Security Conference. Credit:AP

He expanded on his previous calls for regulation of social media firms.

"I do think that there should be regulation on harmful content ... there's a question about which framework you use for this," Zuckerberg said during a question and answer session on Saturday.
CICERO, N.Y. -- Ethan Arnos family was driving home from a birthday dinner Monday evening when they saw the crash.

One moment, the family from Blossvale in Oneida County was on an unremarkable drive on Interstate 81 north in Cicero. The next, they were watching two cars collide.

All of the sudden, the headlights were facing us and the cars were in the air," Ehan said.

Ethans family did not drive past the crash. Instead, they pulled over and jumped out to help.

Ethan, 17, and his stepfather, Bob Williams, 45, helped free five people from the two damaged cars. Heather Williams, Ethans mom and Bob Williams wife, called 911.

The teen and his stepdad are volunteer firefighters with the McConnellsville Volunteer Fire Department in Oneida County. Even off duty, Heather Williams said her family would never question helping people in need.

We all knew we couldnt just drive by, she said.

Bob Williams, left, and his stepson, Ethan Arno, rightCourtesy of Heather Williams

The crash happened just before 8 p.m. Monday on I-81 north just north of Route 31, according to the Cicero Fire Department. Two people were hurt, according to the New York State Police.

As soon as Bob Williams saw the crash, he pulled over and jumped out of his car, Ethan said. His stepson followed.

Ethan said he ran to the vehicle that was upside down in a ditch. He said his stepdad ran toward the second car that was upright.

After telling her 12-year-old daughter to stay buckled up inside the familys car, Heather Williams said she called 911 and followed her son.

I ran after Ethan in case he needed help, Heather Williams said, and so I could make sure he didnt get hurt.

Two women -- twin sisters -- were trapped inside the upside-down vehicle, Ethan said. He went to the passenger side first, he said, and spoke to the woman who was hanging from her seat belt, unable to move.

Ethan said he opened the car door and started to cut off the womans seat belt. When the belt snapped, he said he lowered her down so she wouldnt get hurt.

The drivers door would not open, so Ethan said he crawled into the car through broken glass to unbuckle the drivers seat belt. Once the driver was free, it was hard to get her out of the car: Ehtan said his hands were slippery with blood.

After checking to make sure the women were OK, Ethan said he went to the second car. By then, Bob Williams had helped all three passengers -- a woman and two children -- out of the upright car, Heather Williams said.

Ethan is a senior at Camden High School. Hes been a volunteer firefighter for nearly a year and has responded to fires and calls about broken bones, accidents and strokes. But Monday marked the first time hes been on an accident without the fire department.

The teen said he likes helping people. And he plans to do so again.

A car was damaged in a two-car crash Feb. 10, 2020, on Interstate 81 north in Cicero.Heather Williams

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By Trend

The Armed Forces of Armenia blatantly violated the ceasefire regime and the serviceman of the Azerbaijani Army Seymur Alasgarov was killed by a sniper on Feb. 15, Trend reports with reference to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

"This provocation by the Armed Forces of Armenia just on the eve of the meeting of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia in the margins of the Munich Security Conference demonstrates that Armenia, as it was before the meeting of the foreign ministers of two countries in Geneva at the end of January in a provocative manner continuously and consistently, intends to jeopardize and even undermine the ongoing peace process under the auspices of OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs," the ministry's spokesperson Leyla Abdullayeva said.

"All responsibility for this bloody provocation which serves to rising tension lies with Armenia," Abdullayeva added.

"May the soul of our Martyr rest in peace."

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The Justice Department announced Friday that it is closing its investigation of Andrew McCabe, the FBIs former deputy director, over his false statements to investigators probing an unauthorized leak that McCabe had orchestrated. McCabe was fired in March 2018, shortly after a blistering Justice Department inspector general (IG) report concluded that he repeatedly and blatantly lied  or, as the Bureau lexicon puts it, lacked candor  when questioned, including under oath.

Why not indict McCabe on felony false-statements charges? That is the question being pressed by incensed Trump supporters. After all, the constitutional guarantee of equal justice under the law is supposed to mean that McCabe gets the same quality of justice afforded to the sad sacks pursued with unseemly zeal by McCabes FBI and Robert Muellers prosecutors. George Papadopoulos was convicted of making a trivial false statement about the date of a meeting. Roger Stone was convicted of obstruction long after the special counsel knew there was no TrumpRussia conspiracy, even though his meanderings did not impede the investigation in any meaningful way. And in the case of Michael Flynns false-statements conviction, as McCabe himself acknowledged to the House Intelligence Committee, even the agents who interviewed him did not believe he intentionally misled them.

I emphasize Flynns intent because purported lack of intent is McCabes principal defense, too. Even McCabe himself, to say nothing of his lawyers and his apologists in the anti-Trump network of bureaucrats-turned-pundits, cannot deny that he made false statements to FBI agents and the IG. Rather, they argue that the 21-year senior law-enforcement official did not mean to lie, that he was too distracted by his high-level responsibilities to focus on anything as mundane as a leak  even though he seemed pretty damned focused on the leak while he was orchestrating it.

The he did not believe he intentionally misled them defense is not just implausible; it proved unavailing on McCabes watch, at least in General Flynns case. Hence, McCabe has a back-up plan: To argue that it would be extraordinary  and thus unconstitutionally selective and retaliatory  for the Justice Department to prosecute a former official for false statements in a mere administrative inquiry (which the leak probe was), as opposed to a criminal investigation. Again, tell that to Flynn, with whom the FBI conducted a brace-style interview  at the White House, without his counsel present, and in blithe disregard of procedures for FBI interviews of the presidents staff  despite the absence of a sound investigative basis for doing so, and whom Muellers maulers squeezed into a guilty plea anyway.

Story continues

It will be a while before we learn the whole story of why the Justice Department walked away from the McCabe case, if we ever do. I have some supposition to offer on that score. First, however, it is worth revisiting the case against McCabe as outlined by the meticulous and highly regarded IG, Michael Horowitz. If you want to know why people are so angry, and why they are increasingly convinced that, for all President Trumps drain the swamp rhetoric, a two-tiered justice system that rewards the well-connected is alive and well, consider the following.

McCabes Leak

In October 2016, McCabe directed his counsel, Lisa Page, to leak investigative information about the FBIs Clinton Foundation probe to reporter Devlin Barrett, then of the Wall Street Journal. The leak had the effect of confirming the existence of the investigation, something the FBI is supposed to resist. While his high rank gave him the power to authorize such a disclosure if it were in the public interest, the IG found that McCabes leak was clearly not within the public interest.

In fact, the Bureaus then-director, James Comey, had tried to keep the Clinton Foundation probe under wraps, refusing to confirm or deny its existence even to the House Judiciary Committee. Comey had been right to stay mum: Public revelation would have harmed the probe and thrust the FBI deeper into the politics of the then-imminent 2016 presidential election, in which Hillary Clinton was the Democratic candidate and her investigation by the Bureau was an explosive campaign issue.

Notwithstanding these concerns, according to Horowitzs report, McCabe orchestrated the leak to advance his personal interests  to paint himself in a favorable light in comparison to Justice Department officials amid an internal dispute about the Clinton Foundation probe (specifically, about the Obama Justice Departments pressure on the Bureau to drop it). As the IG put it: McCabes disclosure was an attempt to make himself look good by making senior department leadership . . . look bad.

McCabes account has been contradicted by Comey, a witness who is otherwise sympathetic to him and hostile to the Trump Justice Department, and whose actions  like his  are being examined in prosecutor John Durhams probe of the Trump-Russia investigation. Comeys testimony is directly at odds with McCabes version of events, and the IG painstakingly explained why the former directors version was credible while his deputys was not. (Comey was, nevertheless, exceedingly complimentary of McCabe after the IG report was published.)

Page is regarded by McCabe backers as key to his defense. She reportedly told the grand jury that, because McCabe had authority to approve media disclosures, he had no motive to lie about the leak. Thats laughable. McCabe did serially mislead investigators, so plainly he had some reason for doing so. But even putting that aside, the IGs conclusion was not that McCabe lacked authority to leak; it was that he lacked a public-interest justification for exercising that authority. He leaked for self-promotion purposes, and then he lied about it because it was humiliating to be caught putting his personal interests ahead of the Bureaus investigative integrity. That said, Pages account does illuminate a problem for prosecutors: Its tough to win a case when your witnesses are spinning for the defendant. (Oh, and have you seen Pages tweet toasting McCabe in the aftermath of the news that the DOJ had closed the investigation?)

McCabes Multiple False Statements

Barretts Journal article appeared on October 30, 2016. The very next day, McCabe deceived Comey about it, indicating that he had not authorized the leak and had no idea who its source was. In Comeys telling, credited by the IG, McCabe definitely did not acknowledge that he had approved the leak.

Thereafter, the FBIs Inspection Division (INSD) opened an investigation of the leak. On May 9, 2017, McCabe denied to two INSD investigators that he knew the source of the leak. This was not a fleeting conversation. McCabe was placed under oath, and the INSD agents provided him with a copy of Barretts article. He read it and initialed it to acknowledge that he had done so. He was questioned about it by the agents, who took contemporaneous notes. McCabe told the agents that he had no idea where [the leaked information] came from or who the source was.

On July 28, 2017, McCabe was interviewed by the IGs office  under oath and recorded on tape. In that session, he preposterously claimed to be unaware that Page, his FBI counsel, was directed to speak to reporters around the time of the October 30 Journal report. McCabe added that he was out of town then, and thus unaware of what Page had been up to. In point of fact, McCabe had consulted closely with Page about the leak. A paper trail of their texts and phone contacts evinced his keen interest in Pages communications with Barrett. Consequently, the IG concluded that McCabes denials were demonstrably false.

Clearly concerned about the hole he had dug for himself, McCabe called the IGs office four days later, on August 1, 2017, to say that, shucks, come to think of it, he just might have kinda, sorta told Page to speak with Barrett after all. He might even have told her to coordinate with Mike Kortan, then the Bureaus top media liaison, and follow-up with the Journal about some of its prior reporting.

As the IG observed, this attempt to correct his prior false testimony was the appropriate thing for McCabe to do. Alas, when he was given an opportunity to come in and explain himself, he compounded his misconduct by making more false statements while under oath: In an interview with investigators on November 29, 2017, McCabe purported to recall informing Comey that he, McCabe, had authorized the leak, and that Comey had responded that the leak was a good idea.

These were quite stunning recollections, given that the deputy director had previously disclaimed any knowledge about the source of the leak. But McCabe took care of that little hiccup by simply denying his prior denial. That is, he insisted that he had not feigned ignorance about the leak when INSD interviewed him on May 9. Indeed, McCabe even denied that the May 9 interview had been a real interview. To the contrary, he claimed that agents had casually pulled him aside at the conclusion of a meeting on an unrelated topic, and peppered him out of the blue with a question or two about the Journal leak. As General Flynn could tell you, that sort of thing can be tough on a busy top U.S. government official . . . although Flynn did not get much sympathy for it when McCabe was running the FBI.

Again, the IG concluded that McCabes version of events was demonstrably false.

McCabe Covers His Tracks

As an old trial lawyer, Id be remiss if I failed to rehearse my favorite part of the IGs report  the part that would tell a jury everything they needed to know about good ol Andy McCabe.

Again, the Journal story generated by McCabes leak was published on October 30, a Sunday. Late that afternoon, McCabe called the head of the FBIs Manhattan office. Why? Well . . . to ream him out over media leaks, thats why. McCabe railed that New York agents must be the culprits. He also made a similar call to the Bureaus Washington field office, warning its chief to get his house in order and stop these terribly damaging leaks.

It is worth remembering McCabes October 30 scolding of subordinates when you think about how he later claimed that, on the very next day, hed freely admitted to his superior, Comey, that he himself was the source of the leak. Quite the piece of work, this guy: To throw the scent off himself after carefully arranging the leak, McCabe dressed down the FBIs two premier field offices, knowing they were completely innocent, and then pretended for months that he knew nothing about the leak.

This is the second-highest-ranking officer of the nations top law-enforcement agency were talking about, here.

The Non-Prosecution Decision

We may never get a satisfying explanation for the Justice Departments decision to drop the McCabe probe. Thats the way it is when such complicated reasons and motives are at play.

The aforementioned challenge of hostile witnesses is not to be underestimated. In addition, there are growing indications that the Justice Department had lost confidence in the U.S. attorney who was overseeing the probe, Jesse Liu. As I noted this week, while Liu was once seen as a rising Trump administration star, she was quietly edged out of her post last month, and the White House just pulled her nomination to fill an important Treasury Department post.

There have been rumblings that the McCabe investigation was botched. Kamil Shields, a prosecutor who reportedly grew frustrated by her supervisors inordinate delays in making decisions about the McCabe probe, ultimately left the Justice Department to take a private-practice job. Another prosecutor, David Kent, quit last summer as DOJ dithered over the decision on whether to prosecute. Things became so drawn out that the investigating grand jurys term lapsed. Meanwhile, the Justice Department endorsed Lius aggressive decision to bring a thin, politically fraught false-statements case against former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig, in connection with lobbying for a foreign country  the sort of crime that is rarely prosecuted. Craig was swiftly acquitted. Reportedly, Liu advocated charging McCabe, but the DOJ may have harbored doubts about her judgment.

No matter the outcome, the Justice Department stood to take some hits if McCabe had been charged. Focus on McCabes leak would have drawn attention to pressure DOJ officials had put on the Bureau over the Clinton Foundation investigation (which, reportedly, is likely to be closed without charges). It would also renew interest in the question of whether the FBI improperly allowed McCabe to play a role in Clinton-related investigations when his wife, as a political candidate, got major funding from Clinton-tied sources.

Moreover, new Freedom of Information Act disclosures  made to meet a deadline set by District Judge Reggie Walton, which may explain the timing of the non-prosecution announcement  indicate that the Justice Department and FBI did not comply with regulations in what appears to be the rushed termination of McCabe, adding heft to the former deputy directors claim that he was being singled out for abusive treatment, potentially including prosecution, because of vengeful politics.

On that score, Judge Walton took pains to decry the fusillade of tweets directed at McCabe by President Trump. I must note here that if a district U.S. attorney publicly labeled as a liar a suspect the Justice Department had indicted for false statements, that U.S. attorney would be sanctioned by the court. The U.S. attorneys, like the rest of the Justice Department, work for Trump. The president is correct when he insists, as he did this week, that he has the constitutional power to intervene in Justice Department matters. But that means he is subject to the same legal obligations that inhibit his Justice Department subordinates. Those obligations include protecting McCabes right to a fair trial  a duty the president may chafe at, but which is part of the deal when you take an oath to preserve the Constitution and execute the laws faithfully.

If you envision Judge Walton as part of the Obama-appointed robed resistance, check your premises. He is a no-nonsense jurist originally named to the D.C. Superior Court by President Reagan, and then to the federal district court by President George W. Bush. As Politico reports, he had this to say about President Trumps commentary on the McCabe investigation:

The public is listening to whats going on, and I dont think people like the fact that you got somebody at the top basically trying to dictate whether somebody should be prosecuted. . . . I just think its a banana republic when we go down that road. . . . I think there are a lot of people on the outside who perceive that there is undo inappropriate pressure being brought to bear. . . . Its just, its very disturbing that were in the mess that were in in that regard. . . . I just think the integrity of the process is being unduly undermined by inappropriate comments and actions on the part of people at the top of our government. . . . I think its very unfortunate. And I think as a government and as a society were going to pay a price at some point for this.

If you want to know why Attorney General Barr was warning this week that the presidents tweets are undermining the Justice Departments pursuit of its law-enforcement mission, Judge Waltons words are worth heeding. I have been making this point since the start of the Trump presidency. If you want people held accountable for their crimes, you have to ensure their fundamental right to due process. When the government poisons the well, the bad guys reap the benefits.

Finally, we must note that when the District of Columbia is the venue for any prosecution with political overtones, Justice Department charging decisions must factor in the jury pool, which is solidly anti-Trump.

The proof that McCabe willfully deceived investigators appears strong  it is noteworthy that IG Horowitz, who has strained to give the FBI the benefit of the doubt in many dubious contexts, was unequivocal in slamming McCabe. Nevertheless, a D.C. jury would be weighing that evidence, as discounted by whatever pro-McCabe slant reluctant prosecution witnesses put on it. And the jury would be weighing against that evidence (a) whatever problems caused prosecutors at the U.S. attorneys office to beg off, and more significantly, (b) defense arguments that McCabe would not have been fired or prosecuted if not for the fact that he had gotten crosswise with a president of the United States whom at least some of the jurors are apt to dislike.

Looking at all that baggage, the Justice Department must not have liked its chances.

McCabe is not out of the woods yet, of course: The Durham investigation is a separate matter, and it is continuing. But it is unclear whether he will face any criminal charges arising from that inquiry, whereas the now-dead-and-buried false-statements case against him looked cut-and-dried.

The FBIs former deputy director, though he undeniably misled investigators, remains a commentator at CNN. In the meantime, Papadopoulos is a felon convicted and briefly imprisoned for misleading investigators, while Flynn and Stone are awaiting sentencing on their false-statements charges. That covers both tiers of our justice system.

More from National Review
Smugglers are reportedly helping migrants scale sections of Donald Trumps multibillion-dollar border wall using $5 ladders.

US Border Patrol has seen a rise in camouflage hook-and-ladders within the far southwest region of Texas since May last year, according to the El Paso Times.

El Pasos urban stretch of border is said to be littered with the ladders, which are engineered out of rebar and match the rust brown colours of the wall.

Somebody is making money off those ladders, agent Joe Romero told the newspaper. The agents pulled it off the wall and cut it up so it cant be used again.

The rebar ladders began appearing in large numbers once construction of a replacement wall in El Paso was finished last May. According to Border Patrol, illegal crossings have increased ever since.

Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Show all 23 1 /23 Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border A group of migrants climb the US border fence in Tijuana AFP/Getty Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border A group of migrants cross the dried up Tijuana river AFP/Getty Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Mexico police emerge from a cloud of tear gas Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Mexico police work to keep migrants from getting over the border with the US AP Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border US border patrol agents stand guard as migrant seek to cross the border at Tijuana Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Adults help a child over the US border fence AFP/Getty Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Migrants near the US border in Tijuana Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Migrants climb the US border fence in Tijuana AFP/Getty Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Migrants clash with riot police as they near the US border in Tijuana Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border A migrant is detained by US border patrol officers after illegally crossing the border Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border A group of migrants cross the dried up Tijuana river Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Tear gas is deployed at the border Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border A group of migrants make their way to the US border fence Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border A migrant man wears a homemade gas mask Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Migrants stand on the banks of the Tijuana river opposite the US border fence Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border A group of migrants cross the Tijuana river Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Migrants gather at the border crossing in Tijuana AP Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Tear gas is fired by border police to deter migrants EPA Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border A migrant covers his face as tear gas surrounds him Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Migrant families seek to cross the US border at Tijuana Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Mexico police try to stop migrants from crossing Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Migrants force their way through the border fence at Tijuana Reuters Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border Reuters

Were starting to see a lot of evading activity, said Agent Ramiro Cordero. Were starting to see the criminal organisations working hand-to-hand on either side to avoid detection. More and more we are seeing failure to yields  they are utilising ladders to go over the fence and diversionary tactics.

Border Patrol apprehensions of single adults  those most likely to use the ladder method  have nearly doubled in the El Paso sector.

From October 2019 through January 2020, Border Patrol apprehended 10,030 adults, compared with 5,150 in the same period a year ago.

The ladders appear to be made by hand from two poles of 3/8in rebar and four thinner poles, fitted with steps and bent over at the end in a U-shape to hook on the top of the wall.

Recommended Trump set to divert billions more to border wall from military budget

The El Paso Times reports smugglers could be sourcing the rebar from a local hardware store in Ciudad Juarez, a Mexican city just south of El Paso, where six metres of the material costs roughly $5.30 (4).

To date, almost 100 miles of border have been built under the Trump administration, mostly to replace and improve existing barriers.

Mr Trumps campaign promised that Mexico would pay for the wall, but thus far the almost $10bn (7.7bn) budget has come from taxpayer money.

The president has proposed spending an additional $2bn for border wall construction.

A total 450 miles of the barrier is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Kaushani Banerjee By

"Taylor Swift is the face of the music industry, says one of the lines in the recently released documentary Miss Americana.

While some may disagree, its hard to ignore her songs which play constantly in the backdrop of malls, restaurants, salons and even share cabs.

The 30-year-old who graduated from country music to pop is the representative of millennials and the documentary perfectly captures that.

From winning her first VMA at the age of 17 to bagging several Grammy awards, the film charts her rise and her transformation from an aspiring music artist to a role model for young girls.

Filled with home video montages from her childhood, the film shows the road carved for Swift at the age of 10.

Swifts parents realised her potential and moved from the state of Pennysylvania to Tennessee to help her climb the ropes of country music.

Soon, record companies signed her on; she also appeared on local radios and went on to do many roadshows before becoming a prominent face in America.

In 2006, with her eponymous first album, she gained rapid success not just because of her talent but Kanye Wests stunt at the VMAs by snatching her mic and praising Beyonce instead.

Celebrity culture across the world is driven by controversy and this in a way helped fuel Swifts career.

The documentary tries to be neutral on these grounds but does show tabloid snippets where many claimed Swift played the victim card to rise to fame.

It also misses out on how the media stalked her personal life and made a mockery out of it. Due to a legal bond with one of her previous managers, the documentary only plays her recent songs and perhaps that binds the producers to stick to more recent issues Swift has been vocal about.

Her support of a Democrat or LGBTQIA and wanting to be the right role model for teenage girls are lesser known sides of the artist and the documentary deftly brings that forward.

I want to love glitter and also speak out against the double standards that exist in our society, says Swift.

She goes on to explain that she isnt willing to give up her identity for her voice to be heard, but rather she will stand up for herself and her beliefs while continuing to embrace her womanhood.

Im trying to be as educated as possible on how to respect people, on how to deprogram the misogyny, she adds.

The documentary follows her through her unlearning the biases that everyone in America has so that she could be better prepared to step into the role of an influential figure who can drive change.

As an artiste who embraces expectations, criticism and continues to prioritise her family, her friends, and her own well-being, she ends by saying: I want to still have a sharp pen and a thin skin and an open heart.

Miss Americana

Platform: Netflix

Directed by: Lana Wilson

Genre: Documentary
APD provided the following rundown of a majority of accidental shootings  some with fewer details than others. The Journal looked up police records to fill in some of the blanks. The list does not include accidental shootings that resulted in death.

Jan. 3, 2019  1400 Mercantile NE: Officers responded to the Panda Express after a man shot himself in the thigh while driving. The mans father, a passenger in the car, said his son was trying to pull the gun out of his pocket when it went off. The man was later charged for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Jan. 12, 2019  600 block of Espanola SE: A man was cleaning his gun when it fired and he was struck in the hand and leg.

Jan. 26, 2019  1305 Edith NE: A woman decided to clean her gun in her vehicle and it discharged, sending a bullet through her finger.

Feb. 3, 2019  400 block of Texas NE: Summarized as possible accidental shooting with no other details.

March 17, 2019  2000 Bellamah NW: Officers responded to an accidental shooting at Hotel Chaco. A man told police he was removing his gun from the holster and shot himself in the hand.

March 19, 2019  9320 Coors NW: Officers responded to Calibers gun shop and shooting range after a man shot himself in the hand unloading his gun.

March 29, 2019  600 block of Laguna SW: A man was shot by his friend as he was putting his gun away. The man told police he didnt want to press charges.

April 1, 2019  10000 Coors Bypass NW: A man fired a gun in his vehicle and accidentally shot his friend in the foot.

April 20, 2019  10800 block of Beaker SW: A man who was intoxicated shot himself in the foot.

April 25, 2019  2900 block of Ervien SW: A 20-year-old shot himself in the hand while cleaning his gun at home. The gun turned out to be stolen in a burglary, and the man told police he bought it off Snapchat for $400 two weeks before.

May 5, 2019  6300 block of Avenida La Costa NE: A man was trying to unload his gun when he shot himself in the shin.

May 5, 2019  1100 block of Aztec NW: A man shot himself in the leg. The gun turned out to be stolen.

May 10, 2019  10400 block of Constitution NE: A man was cleaning his gun when he shot himself in the leg.

May 21, 2019  2510 Central: A man was trying to unload his gun in his car when he shot himself in the leg. The man told police he was on his way to Kirtland Air Force Base.

May 22, 2019  9900 block of Hideout SW: A man shot himself in the stomach with a rifle as he slept in bed. The mans mother told police she had warned him multiple times to not fall asleep holding his gun.

May 25, 2019  10200 block of Del Mastro SW: A man shot himself in the leg as he got into a vehicle.

May 28, 2019  7220 Central SE: Officers responded to the Cinnamon Tree apartments after a man shot himself in the leg.

June 2, 2019  8100 block of Corona NE: A woman shot herself in the hip. She told police she was cleaning a room when she picked up the gun and it went off.

June 6, 2019  300 block of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Officers responded to the hospital after a man was dropped off with a gunshot wound to the leg. He told police a gun slipped out of his waistband, and down his pant leg, before he tried to grab it and it went off. The man was later charged for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

June 12, 2019  San Mateo and Interstate 40: Officers responded to the hospital after a woman was shot in the leg. The woman told police she was in a car with a man named Jacob  whom she had just met  when a gun went off. The woman got out of the vehicle and Jacob said (expletive), Im sorry before driving off. She told police she at first thought it was accidental but is now unsure.

June 15, 2019  11600 block of Montgomery NE: A man shot himself in the leg.

June 30, 2019  7220 Central SE: Officers responded to the Cinnamon Tree Apartments after an accidental discharge hit a neighbor child. No other details were given.

July 27, 2019  4340 Cutler NE: Officers responded to an accidental shooting at the Calibers shooting range and gun store.

July 30, 2019  600 block of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: A man shot himself in the leg and was later arrested for a warrant.

Aug. 8, 2019  600 block of Trading Post SE: A 13-year-old shot himself in the arm with his fathers gun. The father  a local fireman  responded to the call and rode with his son to the hospital. The teen told police the gun went off when he grabbed it while cleaning, but the father said the gun wasnt loaded. Police concluded the teen had been playing with it while home alone.

Aug. 13, 2019  3900 block of Tulane NE: Officers responded to an apartment where a bullet had gone through a wall and struck a woman in the hand. The neighbor said he was under the influence and handling the gun when it fired.

Aug. 14, 2019  1300 block of Avenida Cristo Rey NW: A 4-year-old accidentally shot himself with his brothers gun. No other details are given.

Sept. 19, 2019  9320 Coors NW: A woman shot herself in the foot at Calibers shooting range and gun store.

Sept. 20, 2019  98th and Central: A man shot himself while in his car.

Oct. 5, 2019  5500 block of Mansfield NW: A man was injured during an accidental shooting at a home.

Oct. 25, 2019  3010 Juan Tabo NE: A man shot himself in the leg trying to unholster a gun in his vehicle in the Lowes home improvement parking lot.

Oct. 26, 2019  9500 block of Snyder SE: A man shot himself in the ankle.

Nov. 19, 2019  200 block of Dallas NE: A man shot himself in the leg and the gun was discovered to be stolen. He was later charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of a stolen firearm.

Dec. 26, 2019  5151 Lang NE: A man shot himself in the foot in a vehicle in the parking lot of Cabelas.

Dec. 27, 2019  300 block of Adams NE: A man was handling a gun when he shot himself in the arm.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 02/16/2020



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[ Spoilers Warning: This report contains spoilers about Mike Youngquist and Natalie Mordovtseva's relationship status and if the couple reconciled or has split.]

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Did Mike and Natalie split and break up, or did they reconcile? Is the couple still together now?

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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

couple Mike Youngquist and Natalie Mordovtseva appeared to reach the end of their relationship on the show's seventh season, so did they truly break up or did they reconcile? What's the current status of the couple's relationship?Mike, a 34-year-old from Sequim, Washington, and Natalie, a 35-year-old from Kyiv, Ukraine, were one of the couples who starred on 's seventh season, which just aired its finale on February 9 on TLC. (The Tell-All special has yet to air).After dating around and not having anything stick, Mike -- who owns and runs a farm in a small town -- was introduced to Natalie through their mutual friend Matt.Matt and his wife Svitlana, who's also originally from Ukraine, apparently asked Mike and Natalie to be godparents of their baby girl Pollyanna.Once Mike saw pictures of Natalie, he thought she was gorgeous. He also loved how she seemed so close to her mother and very family-oriented.Mike learned Natalie rode horses, modeled and has obtained degrees in psychology and journalism."I was hesitant at first and thought why in the world would this woman possibly be interested in me?" Mike asked. "Not saying I'm not a catch, but you know."Mike and Natalie therefore began texting back and forth. A friendship blossomed and then Mike booked a flight to Ukraine so they could meet. They were both going through divorces at the time of their meeting but apparently found comfort in each other.Mike said their first moments together were "amazing," and he was impressed how she tested her limits with scubadiving, rockclimbing and snowboarding. He thought Natalie was so full of life and passionate.Mike noted, however, he and Natalie are opposites in a lot of ways. Natalie is a religious vegetarian, for example, while Mike is a non-religious meat eater. He also explained Natalie is elegant while he's like "a big ogre." Mike said they were like Beauty and the Beast.A few months later, the pair met in Paris and Mike proposed marriage to Natalie.Although they had only spent two weeks together, Mike felt they were meant to be, and so he returned to the United States and began the K-1 visa process.When began filming, the couple was waiting for Natalie's visa to be approved.Mike was trying to get himself out of credit card debt that had built up from buying a house and the expenses of Natalie's K-1 visa process. Mike planned to tell Natalie he wasn't well off financially, but he was afraid she may not want to move to Washington as a result.Natalie also had her friends in her ear, reminding her that her ex had been wealthy.But Natalie seemed crazy about Mike regardless and went through with her K-1 visa interview.Mike had already purchased Natalie a plane ticket to come to America, but the couple was devastated to learn her visa was delayed and they must wait another six months.Mike wondered if there was something in Natalie's background preventing her from moving, but Natalie said all of her documents were "fine" and so it was weird she was not approved.In order to support Natalie and be by her side, Mike purchased a plane ticket to Ukraine so they could be together despite his financial troubles."I'm going to do whatever it takes to get there. I love her and I want to see her," Mike said in a confessional.'s seventh season then featured Mike and Natalie getting into a series of fights during Mike's short stay in Ukraine.Mike and Natalie first argued over a timeline of when to welcome children.Natalie wanted to get pregnant immediately -- during that very trip, actually -- but Mike wanted to hold off until her K-1 visa got approved and he could save more money."I really want a kid as soon as possible, but I think our main thing right now is to wait a little bit and get you to America first, so we can put our feet on the ground," Mike told Natalie."Wrong answer," Natalie insisted.The couple also butted heads when it came to their faith, or lack thereof.Natalie is a devout Christian who wants Mike to have similar beliefs so they'll be on the same page when they raise children, but Mike is an atheist who believes in "a higher civilization -- like aliens or something," but not in God.Natalie said she's afraid of people who don't believe in God because Christians follow certain rules in life, such as no cheating or lying. Mike said just because he doesn't believe in God doesn't mean he's a bad person.Mike didn't appreciate how Natalie was pushing her religion on him, and he felt judged."My life is all about faith, and I don't know if I want to marry Mike if he doesn't believe in God," Natalie told the cameras.The final straw, however, was when a producer asked Natalie if she loved Mike on-camera and she responded by sitting in silence.Natalie replied, "God it's hard. I think we have potential because he's a good guy and there are moments that are good."Natalie acknowledged her feelings could grow into love and it was okay that she wasn't sure."It would be a lie from my side to say I love him," Natalie confessed.But Mike appeared extremely upset, so he vented, "That's a f-cking wrap for me!" He seemed to be referring to the interview with producers as well as his relationship with Natalie.Natalie then returned the engagement ring Mike had given her that had once belonged to his mother.Mike and Natalie had reached a breaking point in their romance, and Mike had unfortunately run out of time and needed to return to the United States.Natalie realized she might have been at fault for the argument, so she tried to sweet talk Mike and make it up to him. But Mike was brokenhearted and didn't think Natalie was taking their relationship seriously.Mike still wanted Natalie to walk him to the gate once they were inside the airport, but she refused and just said, "Go," before leaving on her own.Once Mike returned to America, he admitted to producers the status of his relationship with Natalie was unknown -- but one thing was for sure: they were no longer engaged."What if Natalie were to say, 'Let's get back together,'" a producer asked Mike."It's just too early to tell right now, dude," Mike replied. "It feels like sh-t."Natalie went on to ignore Mike's phone calls, and so Mike decided to meet with a lawyer to figure out how to proceed if his relationship didn't work out."Are you thinking of canceling the request for the fiance visa?" the lawyer Michelle asked Mike.Mike hesitated in answering and then said, "I don't know."Michelle explained Mike could easily put a stop to the visa but he'd have to be really sure because if he changed his mind, he'd have to start the K-1 visa process all over again.Michelle said since Mike couldn't find details on the status of Natalie's visa and documents were supposedly "classified," there could be something "pretty serious out there" he was unaware of.Michelle said this pending visa was actually advantageous for Mike because it afforded him some time to think and do some more research. It also gave him time to sort through his feelings for Natalie.Michelle explained to Mike that if Natalie's K-1 visa got approved and they got married in America within 90 days, Natalie could apply for a Green Card and then, if granted, Mike would be financially responsible for her, potentially for the rest of Natalie's life.Mike didn't plan on making any rash decisions, and he said there was a lot he had to process.After being back in the United States for about a week, Mike said he had yet to speak to Natalie and it was the longest amount of time they had ever gone without talking.Mike therefore FaceTimed with Natalie in search of some answers or explanation."I've always loved you, Natalie, but right now, I don't know. You kind of cut me deep," Mike told her.Natalie asked what she had done to upset him, and Mike reminded her that she had returned her engagement ring and couldn't tell the producers that she loved him."I think you cut me really deep. I have my view and it's different from yours," Natalie said."I did nothing bad to you -- nothing... I gave you the ring, I had my reasons. And you know. Many moments that happened [off camera]. When they asked me if I love you, before that, a few things happened, if you forgot. And I discussed it with you why I didn't respond."Natalie said instead of treating her like an equal, Mike pushed her away. Natalie said she had been nothing but good to Mike and on his side.Natalie needed Mike to be stronger and more responsible, but Mike argued he was "beyond responsible" at that time and she was allegedly the one who wasn't serious.Natalie accused Mike of pretending to be such a great guy and she was tired of the drama. Natalie said it was hard to rely on Mike and she didn't trust him. She feared moving to America for him.A producer then asked Mike why Natalie suddenly seemed to have trust issues, asking what had happened when cameras were turned off. Mike, however, said he had no idea what was going through Natalie's head.The conversation didn't get the couple anywhere, so Mike hung up the phone and said he wasn't going to do this anymore."I really don't care... F-ck this relationship," Mike told the cameras.Mike and Natalie apparently worked out their issues because they were spotted filming in America recently!Mike and Natalie were spotted several times in January 2020, beginning with a sighting in which Mike was seen waiting at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport with flowers in his hands and a camera crew nearby."[Mike] spotted at the airport last night, with flowers and cameras in tow. Could he be picking up Natalie?" the Instagram account Fraudedbytlc captioned a January 17 posting of a photo showing Mike at the airport.The next day, the Instagram account posted a photo of Mike and Natalie walking side-by-side at Seattle's historic Pike Place Market as a camera crew filmed them."Spotted! Film crew filming Mike in Seattle at Pike Place Market," Fraudedbytlc wrote alongside the image on January 18, confirming it was Natalie, Mike and what appeared to be a film crew.And then on January 19, the same Instagram account shared a photo that appears to show Natalie waiting with her luggage after she arrived Seattle-Tacoma International Airport."Natalie at SeaTac without [Mike]. But we saw him there too," the account wrote.And finally, a different Instagram account called 90dayfiancesavageedition2 uploaded a photo showing Natalie being filmed in a Seattle street with producers surrounding her on January 22, but Mike was not pictured.Given 's seventh season is pretty much over, Mike and Natalie's new stateside filming seems to indicate the couple will be appearing on an additional future season of or one of its spinoffs.Neither Mike or Natalie has posted about the other person on social media, but Natalie did upload a cute photo of the pair on December 21, 2019 with no caption.Want spoilers? Click here to visit our Spoilers webpage!
Happy Mum, Happy Baby is a modest, moving, instructive and altogether life-affirming exploration of young motherhood as told by the most famous  and certainly most significant  young mother in the country.

It's sometimes said the Monarchy's greatest strength is that it survives generation after generation, no matter what. Its primary duty is to survive, and its secondary task is to reproduce.

The Duchess of Cambridge has, it seems, effortlessly achieved these two objectives while looking dignified and regal.

Yet here, in her own words, we learn that what appears effortless is only achieved through hard work, sleepless nights and the curse of morning sickness, not to mention periods of anxiety and doubt.

The Duchess of Cambridge gave the tell all interview to the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast hosted by Giovanna Fletcher

The future Queen Catherine offers us a cheerful alternative to the cringeworthy spectacle of her brother-in-law and sister-in-law debasing their Royal status in North America.

In the process she has reminded us that the Windsor succession is not just secure, it's actually flourishing.

So Catherine, whose voice few Brits could claim to know well, achieves added impact with this podcast because we're not used to hearing her speak.

In an age when everybody seems determined to hog the mike, it's refreshing to hear her unfamiliar and unrehearsed Middle England voice talking in assured tones about a subject so dear to her heart.

The Duchess calls for us all 'to find ways in which we can unify people to work together'. Amen to that.

With this project, Catherine resembles her late mother-in-law Princess Diana, who devoted herself to using her profile and influence to draw attention to those at the bottom of the heap.

While Diana identified with those who she felt shared her sense of exclusion from mainstream life, she never forgot her patronages of mother and baby and children's charities such as Barnardo's, the Pre-School Playgroups Association and Wellbeing of Women (formerly Birthright).

Catherine, whose voice few Brits could claim to know well, achieves added impact with this podcast because we're not used to hearing her speak (pictured alongside Prince William with George (bottom left), Charlotte (bottom right) and Louis (in William's arms)

Diana's instinctive understanding of what children need to thrive was often what sustained her through the turmoil of her own divorce, leaving a powerful if unintended lesson in gutsy motherhood to the most forgotten yet deserving women in the country.

The demands but also the rewards of motherhood gave her a rare experience of unconditional love, perhaps compensating for its sad absence from much of the rest of her life. Hence her special concern for childless couples, the motivation behind her support for fertility research.

There's a famous photo of her throwing her arms around the small William and Harry when reunited with them on the Royal Yacht Britannia in Canada in 1991, which perfectly captures the spontaneity of her affection for them.

She was determined that loving hugs should be a natural part of their lives, knowing that formality would inevitably rule much of their time in and out of the public eye.

She knew also that their father was raised in a more restrained tradition in which love  though no less sincere  took a less demonstrative form.

It's hard to imagine Diana having made a podcast about motherhood but if she had, it might have focused on her experience of reconciling these two very different styles of parenting, and proving a mix of both is possible and necessary given the Royal duty to which her children were born.

Catherine will hopefully never suffer the betrayal and isolation experienced by William's mother. Instead she has chosen her own way of using her position of privilege to benefit young mothers in need of support.

In this way she is delivering on the expectation all princesses must shoulder and, by making it personal through the 5BigQuestions.org.uk website, she has taken it upon herself to see the project through to a conclusion.

My respect is deepened by Catherine's repeatedly stated belief that good early years provision helps build national unity. What better message could a future Queen offer mothers and fathers today? The future of the Monarchy is clearly very safe in Middleton hands. Lucky Windsors. Lucky us.
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Recently, my mother waited for over an hour for what turned out to be a 5-minute visit with her primary care doctor. Her doctor seemed rushed and stressed, her questions perfunctory, the management plan hurried. And then she was gone. Its like she didnt even know I was there, my mom relayed to me.

This is a physician who is thoughtful, intelligent, and kind, with excellent clinical instincts. After this visit, though, my mom felt profoundly disheartened. She sensed that she had been a cog in the machinery of a busy day for her doctor, that there was no relationship to speak of in that visit, no deeper or more human connection. Just a brief and impersonal business transaction.

As I heard this story, I felt profound sympathy for my mother. And I also felt profound sympathyeven empathyfor her doctor. As a primary care physician myself, I know that some days, despite my best intentions, I am the doctor rushing her patient through the end of a conversation because my next three patients are waiting for me. Whether its the pressure to return phone calls in between patient visits or the mandate to document an ever-increasing number of quality measures, executing the technical tasks required of me can so easily distract me from the humanity of the patients coming to me for care. I feel the shame of letting my patients down on these days. And I imagine that my moms doctor would feel equally heavy-hearted.

Which brings me to Harry Potter.

A few friends and I recently had an impassioned conversation about which Houses of Hogwarts we would be sorted into. For the uninitiated, heres a quick overview: Gryffindors are brave, Ravenclaws clever, Hufflepuffs loyal, and Slytherins ambitious and cunning.

Clearly, Im a Ravenclaw, I told my friends. I am cerebral to a fault, I love learning new things, and I am a big fan of solving puzzles. Ravenclaws also embody many attributes that the medical community cherishes: intelligence, intellectual curiosity, and critical thinking skills. Every time we bear witness to fascinating pathophysiology, learn an intriguing new clinical fact, or solve a medical mystery, we channel our inner Ravenclaw. As a profession, we celebrate these moments of cognitive delight with great fanfare. We devote Grand Rounds presentations and journal articles galore to rare diseases and diagnostic dilemmas. In medicine, Ravenclaw reigns supreme.

My good friend Kerri laughed.

You are so clearly a Hufflepuff, she said, like this truth was so obvious that one would be delusional to believe otherwise.

Indignant, I had to stop myself from replying, Am not! Hufflepuffs were simple, sweet, even a little boring. I turned to the Internet to settle this disagreement, taking multiple Which House Would You Belong To? quizzes. I wanted to prove Kerri wrong, but soon, I found myself wondering at the intensity of my anti-Hufflepuff bias.

After all, as the many (many) quizzes I took reminded me, the classic Hufflepuff character traits like loyalty, patience, and an orientation towards community are attributes that could heal so much of what ails us in medicine. And yet the medical profession so often prizes intellect over kindness. My self-professed identity as a Ravenclaw was intimately intertwined with the more cerebral attributes we are taught to hold dear as physicians.

It turns out, Kerri was right: On my best days, when I love practicing medicine the most, I am more Hufflepuff than Ravenclaw. I lean into patienceand my patients. I luxuriate in the human connectionwith people who ask me how my baby is doing even though hes seven years old; who share their innermost fears; who ask for help when they feel desperate; who tell me about the Bruce Springsteen concert that changed their life; who offer to drive me to work in their pick-up truck in the midst of a blizzard. It is an awe-inspiring privilege to simply exist in these relationships, and to hold the trust of these human beings and their families. Ironically, as doctors, we know this honor to be true when we start medical school. And then we become overworked and jaded, the prior authorization denials and FMLA forms pile up, and we forget the beauty of the true doctor-patient connection.

Sometimes, simply being present for a patient in pain, or celebrating a patients hard-earned successes, or being honest with a patient who asks us with great care, how are YOU doing?  this is deep, restorative stuff. This fills our cup. This is the Hufflepuff of Medicine.

Perhaps, to this end, the medical profession can more radically embrace our inner Hufflepuff, instead of pooh-poohing it as I once did. Imagine the ripple effects if, as a profession, we selected for traits of loyalty and kindness with the same fervor we attach to intelligence. Maybe if my mothers doctor had said, briefly, you matter to me, during their five-minute visit, the connection would have buoyed them both. And so, I hope to celebrate the spirit of Hufflepuff and bring more simplicity and sweetness to my own patients, one visit at a time.

Neda Frayha is an internal medicine physician and can be reached on Twitter @nedafrayha.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
By Express News Service

KOCHI: Ahead of commissioning the Thykoodam  Petta stretch in March, Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) on Saturday conducted a trial run from Thykoodam to Petta, the last stretch of phase I of the project. Top officials of KMRL and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) attended the test run conducted on Saturday. The test run started at 7:40am from Thykoodam and reached Petta at 8:00am. The officials inspected the functioning of track and traction system.

The return trip started at 8:20am and reached Thykoodam at 9:00am. The first trial run was a success, In the coming days, further trial runs will be conducted, said KMRL Managing Director D Alkesh Kumar Sharma. Officials said the main focus of the trial run was to identify the obstructions if any. Signalling trials will be conducted on February 15 and February 16 during night for track data checking. The commissioning of Thykoodam- Petta stretch Metro service is expected to reduce traffic congestion along the Tripunithura-Vytilla stretch. KMRL is anticipating a huge footfall on the stretch. After commissioning of the stretch, KMRL will take up the project to execute Metro connectivity from Petta to Tripunithura.
CAIRO - Yemens warring sides have agreed to implement a long-delayed and major prisoner swap, the United Nations said on Sunday, in a sign that talks to end the disastrous war between the countrys internationally recognized government and its Houthi rebels could be making progress.

It would be the first official large-scale exchange of its kind since the beginning of the conflict in the Arab Worlds poorest country, according to the U.N.

The prisoner swap deal was seen as a breakthrough during 2018 peace talks in Sweden. The Houthis and the internationally recognized government agreed then to several confidence-building measures, including a cease-fire in the strategic port city of Hodeida.

Implementation of the tentative peace plan stumbled amid ongoing military offensives and a deep-seated distrust between the two sides.

The conflict also has been a theatre for the regional rivalry between Iran, which backs the Houthi rebels, and Saudi Arabia, which leads a military coalition supporting the internationally recognized Yemeni government.

The U.N. mission in Yemen said that both the rebels and Yemeni government had decided to immediately begin with exchanging the lists for the upcoming release of prisoners. Sundays statement came after seven days of meetings between the two sides in Jordans capital, Amman.

Today the parties showed us that even with the growing challenges on the ground, the confidence they have been building can still yield positive results, the U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths said.

The U.N. mission did not disclose specific numbers for the expected prisoner exchange.

Abdul-Qader al-Murtaza, a rebel official in charge of prisoners affairs, said in a tweet that the first phase of the deal includes the release of more than 1400 prisoners from the two sides. He said talks would continue for another two days to prepare and revise the final lists.

The talks were co-chaired by Griffiths office and the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC. Representatives from the Saudi-led coalition also attended the talks, the U.N. said.

Griffiths urged both parties to move forward with the agreed-upon prisoner exchange with the utmost sense of urgency. He did not elaborate when they would start the exchange.

Franz Rauchenstein, the head of the ICRC in Yemens capital, Sanaa, welcomed the step as encouraging.

Today, despite ongoing clashes, we saw that the parties have found common humanitarian ground that will allow many detainees to return to their loved ones, Rauchenstein said.

The war in Yemen has also spawned the worlds worst humanitarian crisis, leaving millions suffering from food and medical shortages. It has killed over 100,000 people, including fighters and civilians, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, which tracks violence reports in Yemen.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Salam said Saudi and Sudanese prisoners would be included in the release from his side. The Saudi-led coalition has brought into Yemen Sudanese fighters on its side.

Yemeni Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdullah al-Hadrami said he welcomed the phased agreement to release prisoners, in a tweet Sunday.

The breakthrough in talks came after another bout of intense fighting in different areas in Yemen, that killed and wounded hundreds of people from both sides.

Strikes on Saturday killed more than 30 civilians in the mountainous northern Yemeni Jawf province, said the U.N. humanitarian chief for the country, calling the attack shocking.

The Houthis accused the Saudi-led coalition of launching retaliatory airstrikes, after they shot down a coalition warplane over Jawf.

The coalition said it was investigating possible collateral damage from a rescue operation in the area after the downing of the European-made Tornado warplane late Friday.

The renewed clashes threatened to overshadow the hopes raised by back-channel talks in the Gulf state of Oman between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis.

The talks focus on interim agreements, such as re-opening Yemens main international airport in Sanaa, which was shut down by the Saudi-led coalition in 2016. In a sign of progress, two United Nations flights ferrying dozens of seriously ill Yemenis abroad for treatment took off last week from the rebel-held capital, the first since the start of the air blockade.

The conflict in the Arab worlds poorest country erupted in 2014, when the Iran-allied Houthis seized the capital and much of the countrys north. A Saudi-led coalition, determined to restore the authority of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Hadis government, launched a military intervention months later.
Home Minister Amit Shah should have gone to Shaheen Bagh to talk to the protesters, said Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury here on Sunday.

"The BJP never acts on things it says. I think Home Minister Amit Shah should have gone to meet Shaheen Bagh protesters and talk to them about their concerns," Chowdhury told ANI.

Talking about the latest video purportedly showing police personnel assaulting students inside Jamia Millia Islamia library on the night of December 15, the Congress leader said that the "Home Minister is the driver of the Delhi Police."

"As everybody knows that the Delhi Police act on the orders of the Home Ministry, we want a probe into the Jamia incident. This probe will let everyone know the real culprit behind the incident," he added.

The Congress leader also asked Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to focus more on the city infrastructure than giving freebies. "Kejriwal is only concerned about welfare schemes. He should also work on infrastructure."

"During the Congress' tenure in Delhi, Sheila Dikshit had brought Delhi up to international standards. I think Kejriwal should also work on this sector as the people from all states come here for jobs," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
JACKSON, MI  A supper of warm soup next month will help feed senior citizens all year long.

The annual Soup's On for Seniors is set for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 10, in the new American 1 Credit Union Event Center at the Jackson County Fairgrounds/Keeley Park, 200 W. Ganson St.

The event, hosted by Friends of Jackson Seniors, raises funds for Jackson County's Meals on Wheels program.

Those attending will enjoy specialty soups and desserts from Bone Island Grille, The Crazy Cowboy, Grand River Brewery, Kibby Cobb Deli, One North Kitchen & Bar, Rocky Top BBQ & Grill, Steves Ranch, Veritas and Vitos Espresso.

Desserts, a silent auction and music from Matt Walch also are part of the event. The first 120 guests will receive a hand-painted souvenir soup bowl to take home.

Tickets are $30 for one or $50 for two when purchased by March 9. On March 10, tickets are $35 each. All proceeds benefit Meals on Wheels.

To purchase tickets, visit www.MealsOnWheels-JacksonMI.com or call 517-788-4364.
European Council president Charles Michel on Sunday met with leaders of the six Western Balkan nations seeking to join the EU, for 'frank' talks ahead of a key summit in Zagreb in May. The EU is struggling to maintain credibility in the Balkans after it broke promises to start membership talks with Albania and North Macedonia last October, leading to another postponement despite major reforms on their part. "I look forward to a frank, intense and open discussion," Michel said before the meeting began. While most member states were ready to open the negotiations, France has led a small group that vetoed the move, while Germany has led efforts to get the accession process back on track.. "We are going to work today and tomorrow for the next European Council (summit) to open the door to the European perspective of the Balkan countries," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Sunday. He attended the informal talks as did EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic of Croatia, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency. Next month the European Commission is due to publish an individual report for each of the six Western Balkan candidate countries -- Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia and Serbia. "It's about engaging in a political dialogue at the highest level" with the Balkan nations "and to understand their expectations, before the summit in Zagreb" on May 17, a European official said. - Stormy weather - What is set to emerge is a more rigorous route to membership, as sought by France. The EU Commission has already submitted a plan along those lines, but it must still receive unanimous support from the existing 27 European Union member states. "We have revised our methodology and the methodology in its revised form should create and regain trust in all sides in this process because it's accelerating the structural reforms," von der Leyen said. "On the other hand it's creating a credible perspective for the Western Balkans to join, over time, the EU. We want also to pave the way for Albania and North Macedonia to start the accession talks with EU if possible for before the Zagreb summit," she added. Under the new proposals, the EU accession process would focus on "fundamental reforms" first, and create an option for membership talks to be "put on hold in certain areas... or suspended overall." Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama, attending the Brussels meeting, declared himself "very interested to see and discuss the new methodology, see if it can come out as a platform of common understanding with the member states". Stormy conditions on Sunday made it difficult for planes flying in and out of Belgium and other European countries. "We landed with some difficulties, so it's a kind of signal that the landing for us will not be easy," quipped Rama. He wasn't the only Balkans leader making the connection. "We had a landing on our fourth attempt... and I made a comparison to our attempt to start the accession talks," said North Macedonia's Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov. Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia are already official EU candidate nations, along with Turkey. Bosnia and Herzegovina along with Kosovo are officially categorised as "potential candidates".
Medical staff in protective wear at a field hospital that Ho Chi Minh City sets up in its outlying district of Cu Chi for quarantining those returning from China, February 10, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

Vietnam has responded well to the Covid-19 epidemic from the very outset, preventing its spread, WHO says.

The World Health Organization said in a statement Saturday that the first days of the outbreak, when China had detected just 27 cases of the acute respiratory disease, Covid-19, in Wuhan City, Vietnams Health Ministry had already issued prevention guidelines, including close monitoring of border areas and steps to prevent possible infections among people.

When China confirmed the first death caused by the new coronavirus on January 11, Vietnam quickly tightened medical control at all border gates and airports. Visitors body temperature was checked on arrival; and anyone showing symptoms of cough, fever, chest pain or breathing difficulties were isolated for testing and strictly monitored at medical facilities.

Apart from a hotline to provide the public with needed information on the disease, Vietam also established 45 rapid response teams at major hospitals across the country to deal with suspected cases of new coronavirus infections.

Vietnam has also been doing a good job in monitoring and quarantining those suspected of contracting the virus and in treating infected patients, ever since the nation detected the first infection cases, the WHO statement said.

So far, Vietnam has recorded 16 cases, of whom seven have been discharged from hospitals while the rest are all in stable condition.

Of the 16 infections, 11 have been detected in northern Vinh Phuc Province. The 11 and others who came into contact with them have been quarantined for treatment and testing.

"Early detection, early isolation, and active treatment is extremely important," WHO said.

The UN health agency said it highly evaluates Vietnams ability to address urgent public health issues, including emerging outbreaks of infectious diseases.

This result was made possible by many years of investment to improve Vietnam's healthcare capacity, WHO said.

But WHO also urged Vietnam to stay on high alert and be ready to respond adequately because more infection cases should be expected in coming days.

WHO had said earlier this week that the first vaccine targeting the novel coronavirus could be available in 18 months "so we have to do everything today using available weapons."

As of Sunday afternoon, the Covid-19 global death toll had climbed to 1,669 and confirmed infections reached 69,276. As many as 9,702 have recovered.
Oman has been named as the official partner of ITB Berlin 2020, the world's leading travel trade show, which will take place from March 4 to 8, in Berlin, Germany.



Oman is the first country from the Middle East to be named as a partner for this global event. The official Oman delegation is set to be headed by Ahmed bin Nasser Al Mahrazi, Minister of Tourism, and will be accompanied by over 50 tourism-related companies, including hotels and establishments, five tourism investment companies, three adventure tourism companies and the Oman Aviation Group. Participation at this year's event falls in line with the Ministry of Tourism's continuing efforts to promote the sultanate's tourism potential, including the ability to host and organise international tourism events.



Having been selected as an official partner for ITB Berlin demonstrates the event's confidence and appreciation for the sultanate's commitment to elevate the tourism industry, which plays a key role in promoting Oman's economic growth and diversification.



The opening ceremony of ITB Berlin, which is dubbed as one of the most important events of the show, will be held on the eve of the launch of the exhibition--across the presence of decision makers, German tourism officials, 180 participating countries and representatives from top global media organisations. This year's event is dedicated to ITB Berlin's official partner, Oman.



The exciting five-day event will throw the spotlight on sustainable tourism in Oman, particularly its diverse portfolio of tourism offerings, cultural potential and related components.



Among the most awaited events at this year's exhibition is the official opening ceremony dedicated to the sultanate-taking place on the eve of the exhibition's opening day (March 4) with a special ribbon cutting event to be held at the Oman Pavilion across an attendance of various participating delegations and global media.



The Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra will hold a concert in Berlin during the global event, while the Ministry of Tourism will organise two roundtable discussions and visual presentations focusing on Omani history, civilization and culture--further promoting the country's potential as a highly preferred tourism destination.



As an official partner of ITB Berlin 2020, Oman will enjoy advertising and media features and prominent spaces for display, in addition to allocating the main opening ceremony to talk about the sultanate's cultural identity. Moreover, the agenda during the opening day of ITB Berlin will officially start at the Oman Pavilion, which will be supervised by the Ministry of Tourism.



Held annually with the participation of approximately 10,000 exhibitors from over 180 countries, ITB Berlin attracts around 160,000 visitors, with extensive media coverage from more than 500 international specialised media outlets, 7,000 media figures and 1,500 dedicated tourism bloggers--affirming its reputation as one of the most prominent events of the global tourism industry.



Under the supervision of the Ministry of Tourism, the Oman Pavilion is set to feature 40 entities from the country's thriving tourism segment--including five tourism investment companies, three adventure tourism companies and an independent section for the Oman Aviation Group.



The sultanates participation as an official partner of ITB Berlin will open new avenues for the Ministry of Tourism, capitalising on the media coverage and the marketing platforms, programs and events provided by the exhibition to have access to approximately 570 million people in the European market alone, as well as 19 million personnel specialised in global tourism industry from various tourism authorities, agencies, establishments and entities. The exhibition will also give Oman the opportunity to showcase its distinctive identity to more than 14 million followers of ITB Berlins website.



Dating back to its first edition in 1966, ITB Berlin has established itself as a deep-rooted, well-established international exhibition and has earned the reputation of being the most significant of all when it comes to global tourism events. - TradeArabia News Service
The probe into the drug trail after the arrest of gangster Sukhpreet Singh, alias Budha, has traced the links of other gangsters to the nexus leading to Pakistan, according to Punjab Police.

Wanted gangster Budha, was deported from Armenia and arrested when he landed at the Delhi airport in November 2019.

Jagdeep Singh, alias Jagga, and Gurvinder Singh, alias Pehalwan, were arrested three days ago with Pakistani sim cards in a joint operation of the organised crime control unit and the Mohali Police, a Punjab Police spokesperson said. Both belong to Kot Dharam Chand Kalan village in Tarn Taran district.

Investigations so far have revealed that Jagga and Pehalwan, who were absconding since 2014-15, received a large quantity of heroin and fake Indian currency from Pakistan through various routes. They were wanted by the Directorate Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Rajasthan Police and the Punjab Police for receiving huge consignments of heroin from Pakistan, the spokesperson said.

Both Jagga and Pehalwan had evaded arrested for the past five years by operating as transporters (Dhillon Transport Company) on the route from New Delhi to Madhya Pradesh. They had set up their own empire with the drug money and had purchased a house at Makhu in Ferozepur. They had also purchased about four acres of agricultural land at Kot Dharam Chand Kalan village, the spokesperson said.

Investigations have revealed huge money transactions in their bank accounts, the spokesperson added.

The accused received drug money from Pakistan dealers through hawala. Jagdeep Singh, alias Jagga, was involved in the cross-border smuggling of heroin since 2008, when he first started using Pakistan sim cards. Jagga received the drug consignments from Jecka Pehalwan and Abad Ali, both Pakistanis, in Rajetal and Mahawa villages near the Attari border by using Pakistan sim cards, which were functional in the region. He also used to procure drug consignment from Bodi Lamma, a resident of Pakistan, near the Fazilka-Ferozepur border, the spokesperson said.

Jagga came in contact with Malik, a resident of Narwad village of Pakistan, in 2015 and had been receiving huge consignments of drugs from the latter since then. He received most of his drug consignments from Pakistan through the Ravi and from the fencing in the plastic tubes. The drug money was transferred by Pakistan dealers through the hawala route, he said.

After his arrested twice in drug cases, Jagga started using WhatsApp on an international number. He was initially arrested in a drug case involving the seizure of 13-kg heroin in 2009. He was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2011 but jumped parole in 2014. He was again arrested by the DRI in a case involving the recovery of 42 kg of heroin in January 2015. He fled from police custody during in October 2015 and was absconding since then.

Pehalwan had been absconding since 2014 in a case involving the seizure of 10-kg heroin seizure. To evade arrest, he had changed his appearance and had started tying a turban, the police spokesperson said.
More than $5 million will be spent in three west-central Illinois counties to expand access to high-speed internet in rural areas.

The largest share, about $3.5 million, will go to Macoupin County to provide broadband internet access to 630 houses or businesses  defined as locations.

The grants through the Federal Communications Commission will provide the backbone for internet access with minimum download speeds of 100 megabits per second. That level allows for use of multiple internet-connected devices in the same location.

U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis said the eight counties he represents will receive more than $7.3 million in assistance. He called the expansion of broadband internet access critical to the communities.

Access to broadband ensures individuals living in rural communities have the same educational and economic opportunities as people living in more urban areas, he said.

His congressional district also includes Greene County, which will receive $746,490 for 222 locations and Jersey County, which will get $762,362 for 176 locations.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the funding is part of the effort to close the digital divide and connect rural residents of Illinois with the economic, healthcare and educational opportunities possible through high-speed broadband.

In my travels around the country, Ive had the opportunity to see firsthand how funding provided through the FCCs Connect America Fund  is having a positive impact on rural communities, Pai said.
Italy escaped a new round of U.S. trade tariffs on European goods including wine and food after directly lobbying U.S. government officials.

Italy today emerges undamaged from the revision of the list of products subject to tariffs imposed by the U.S. last October, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said in a statement on Saturday. Wine, olive oil and the other Italian products that risked tariffs as much as 100 per cent are safe.

In a sign of the delicate economic environment facing European nations, Italy reached out directly to the U.S. Ivan Scalfarotto, undersecretary at the foreign ministry, told Bloomberg in an interview that Italy deserves special treatment because its not part of the Airbus SE consortium at the heart of a long-running trade dispute between Europe and the U.S. He discussed the issue with U.S. officials last month.

Were doing everything possible to limit the impact on Italy, but the Americans have the upper hand, said Scalfarotto, from the small Italy Alive party led by ex-premier Matteo Renzi. Italy isnt part of the Airbus consortium, and tariffs will have a cost for American companies, restaurants, families.

U.S. President Donald Trumps administration said Friday it will increase the tariff rate imposed on aircraft imported from the European Union to 15 per cent from 10 per cent on March 18. Last fall, the World Trade Organization said the U.S. could legally impose tariffs on $7.5 billion (U.S.) worth of European exports in retaliation for Europes aid to Airbus.

In October, the U.S. imposed 10 per cent duties on Airbus aircraft and 25 per cent tariffs on a range of European consumer exports including Scotch whisky, French wine and Spanish olives.

Scalfarotto pressed Italys case in Washington in late January, meeting with senior officials at the White House, the State Department, the Commerce Department and the U.S. Trade Representative, as well as lawmakers from both houses of Congress. He said they gave him no assurances.

Italy is in danger of missing its already unambitious growth targets for 2020 because of the coronavirus outbreak, Deputy Finance Minister Antonio Misiani said in an interview on Wednesday. The government targets 0.6 per cent growth for this year, and output unexpectedly shrank 0.3 percentage points in the final quarter of 2019.
Armenian leaders, always in the very decisive moment of negotiations, found some excuses in order not to continue, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at the panel discussions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict held as part of the Munich Security Conference, Azernews reports.

"You know, during my experience of negotiation with Armenian leaders, I had this opportunity with two predecessors of Mr Pashinyan. Always in the very decisive moment of negotiations they found some excuses in order not to continue. Otherwise, to put it, all of them wanted to keep status quo unchanged but all of them tried to do it differently. Now, when Prime Minister Pashinyan talks about his proposal that the resolution must be accepted to the people of Azerbaijan, I answered to that and I said what is acceptable to the people of Azerbaijan? People of Azerbaijan, those who suffer from Armenian aggression want to go back to their homes. It is their fundamental right. They are deprived from this right for almost 30 years. Because Armenian leadership, it is not Nagorno-Karabakh, and when Prime Minister talks about the so-called self-defense forces of Nagorno-Karabakh again he is telling thing which is not true. Because he knows very well and I know, that more than 80 percent of the so-called Nagorno-Karabakh army are citizens of Armenia, and this is true, maybe even more than 80 percent. Therefore, there is no Nagorno-Karabakh army. There is no Nagorno-Karabakh republic. Only two parties to the conflict, Armenia and Azerbaijan," President Ilham Aliyev said.

"Ask the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. Who are the parties to the conflict? They will say the same. Armenia and Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh is not. Why is not? It is other question, but it is not and we are not going talk to them. We are talking to aggressor. We are ready to talk to Nagorno-Karabakh in case, Armenia stops funding this illegal entity, Armenia pulls back all their military troops from Nagorno-Karabakh and completely withdraws from our territory. And then, we will have arguments to talk to this people. But until then there is no way and they want to keep status quo unchanged. They think that they can keep these territories under occupation forever, and I am sure that will not be the case, and our territorial integrity must be restored. We had, coming to the second part, we had exchange of journalists recently. And I think that was an experience which we need to evaluate. We need to evaluate its positive and negative side. Because part of society in Armenia and in Azerbaijan was not very supportive to that format but that was the decision by two leaders to try. We want to try every opportunity to find a peaceful settlement. To persuade Armenian people that they can not live like that forever. They need to find solution with us, and live in the future, in peace as neighbors," President Ilham Aliyev added.

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Update: A man has been arrested and charged following the crash.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.-- A 47-year-old man is in police custody Sunday following a fatal crash on the West Shore Expressway.

Emergency crews responded at about 5:40 a.m. to a report of the incident southbound lanes, near the South Avenue exit, authorities said.

Police initially reported the crash occurred on the Goethals Bridge.

The man in custody was operating a Honda SUV headed northbound when he allegedly crossed into the southbound lanes and crashed into a Toyota minivan and a Ford pickup truck, according to an NYPD spokesman.

No charges had been filed against the man, as of Sunday afternoon.

A female passenger in the Honda SUV was transported to Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton where she was pronounced dead. The man in custody refused medical attention, the spokesman said.

A section of the expressway was temporarily shut down Sunday morning, as an investigation remained ongoing.

Police said the 63-year-old male operator of the minivan suffered neck and back pain, and is in stable condition Sunday at Staten Island University Medical Center, Ocean Breeze.

The 46-year-old male driving the pickup truck refused medical attention at the scene, authorities said.

Several police officers remained at the scene at least three hours after the incident. An NYPD vehicle stationed on the New Jersey-bound side of the Staten Island Expressway was blocking exit 5, resulting in heavy traffic Sunday on the approach to the exit.

This is a breaking story. More information will be posted as it becomes available.
The Ghaziabad police arrested a minor girl and her 19-year-old male friend on Saturday for allegedly murdering the girls mother. According to the police, the mother had slapped the girl when she came to know of their relationship on February 14 (celebrated as Valentines Day). The police said that the girl and her friend threw chilly powder into her mothers eyes and then strangled her with a rope at their house in Brij Vihar on Friday.

The girls mother was a head constable with the Delhi Police. Her husband, who was in Vaishali, Bihar, at the time of the murder, returned and filed a complaint at the Link Road police station. He named the man, Jitendra Kumar, and his daughter as the perpetrators.

On February 14, Jitendra met the girl at her house to celebrate Valentines Day. When her mother found out, she slapped her in anger. The woman then went to Jitendras house and complained to his parents. When his parents found that he was not home, the woman asked them to send him to her house when he returned, an officer of the Link Road police station said.

The police said that Jitendra went to her house around 1pm on Friday.

Meanwhile, the girl had spoken to Jitendra on his mobile phone and they planned to throw chilly powder into her mothers eyes to avenge the slapping incident. When Jitendra arrived, the woman slapped Jitendra as well. After this, the girl brought chilly powder from the kitchen, which they both threw on her mothers face, the officer added.

After being partially blinded by the chilly powder, the woman started to grapple with them.

Upon this, the two picked up a grinding stone and hit the womans face. When she fell, the two strangled her with a rope until she lost consciousness. Later the girl made up an alibi and called her neighbours, telling them her mother had fallen unconscious. The woman was taken to GTB Hospital but she had already died, Rakesh Mishra, circle officer (Sahibabad), said.

When the police came to know about the incident, they investigated and questioned Jitendra and the girl.

They both broke down and told us that they had been in a relationship for the past year and the girls mother had seen them together on Valentines Day. The girls father has given a police complaint, based on which we have lodged an FIR against both the perpetrators under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 302 (murder), Mishra added.

The girl is stated to be a student of Class 10 while Jitendra is a Class 6 dropout. They are neighbours.

We received information about the murder from the neighbours. The police informed us of the involvement of the girl and Jitendra. We didnt know anything and it seems that my sister found out only on Friday. The girl does not have siblings, the girls aunt said.

The police recovered the rope, the grinding stone and a packet of chilly powder from the duos possession.

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The national media are flabbergasted that Americans won't consent to President Trump's removal from office. How can so many of his compatriots be indicted and so many government bureaucrats condemn his behavior without giving them what they desire: self-assurance that they are "on the right side of history"?

If they ever wish to understand, the critical starting point in their education is not the current presidency, but the last one. Although there are numerous ways to describe the present divide in America, one of the simpler is thus: those Americans who take Barack Obama at his word that his presidency was historically "scandal free" and those Americans who see the unrelenting stream of Deep State attempts to take down President Trump as a continuing coup and the natural extension of an unethical, criminal, and at times unconstitutional Obama presidency.

For those of us in the latter camp, Barack Obama presided over a corrupt administration and used his historic election as the first non-white American president as a get-out-of-jail-free card to abuse his power while silencing his critics.

Whataboutery is frowned upon now that President Trump is in office, but if President Trump had done a tiny percentage of what Obama orchestrated, he actually would be in federal prison. Imagine what would have happened if President Trump had done the following:

used a recession to bilk a trillion dollars from the public to stuff the pockets of campaign donors like Solyndra

facilitated Agent Brian Terry's murder by arming the Mexican cartels

targeted American citizens for assassination without a whiff of due process

lied to voters that their doctors would be protected and premiums reduced, while illegally funding Obamacare and covering illegal aliens' health care

stolen from victims of Iranian terrorism by plundering escrow accounts protected by law while handing over $1.7 billion in untraceable European currency and planeloads of American cash, releasing twenty-one Iranian convicts, and shutting down a decade-long DEA operation against Hezb'allah's double-whammy assault of smuggling cocaine into the U.S. and financing terrorism against us, all for the glory of an "Iran deal"

spied on reporters while putting a record number of their sources in jail

used the IRS as his personal gang of thugs to target conservatives before the 2012 election

allowed a 9-11 anniversary terrorist attack to unfold without sending reinforcements while falsely blaming the four resulting American deaths on a YouTube video and American free speech

sent an untold number of American veterans to early deaths through widespread negligence and corruption at the V.A.

protected his attorney general who lied to lawmakers on the president's behalf so persistently that Democrats joined Republicans to make him the first A.G. to be held in contempt of Congress

protected his CIA director, who spied on lawmakers and lied about it

protected his director of National Intelligence, who illegally spied on all Americans and lied about it

protected his heir apparent, who used an illegal and compromised email server and lied about it

promoted his U.N. ambassador to national security adviser for unashamedly circuiting Sunday-morning talk shows and peddling demonstrable lies to the American public

and all of this while betraying his oath of office by vigorously attacking Americans' constitutionally protected free speech, religion, and right to bear arms; squeezing colleges and private companies to submit to his socialist vision; and punishing his ideological foes by using a corrupt Justice Department and FBI to hunt his enemies

If President Trump had done all this and everything else Obama pulled off, well, then the American media might finally see how luminous the federal government's corruption over these many years truly has been. Instead, not only have they rebuffed Obama's critics as mere racists, but they flood their editorials and airwaves with the commentary of the very actors who took part in his crimes. Never before have we seen intelligence chiefs and justice department officials so quickly run to television studios to demean themselves as propagandists intent on protecting the last president by taking down the current one.

For those of us not seduced by pretty words and skillful theatrics, the Obama years were a cesspool of corruption that brought back the stench of the Clinton years in a fashionable new package. Obama ignored court orders and congressional oversight, protected his friends from criminal prosecutions, and stirred up racial tensions by creating unnecessary controversies and playing whites and blacks against each other for electoral gain. He entered the White House as one of our poorest presidents, and he will die as one of the richest ex-presidents. Whereas the Clintons found fortune through their charity, Obama has found fortune by greatly benefiting in his post-presidency from companies who coincidentally benefited greatly during his time as president. Wherever he goes, he picks up checks, including a staggering sixty-five-million-dollar book deal advance from Penguin Random House, a publishing house taken over in 2013 by Bertelsmann, a privately held German company; one of the world's largest media conglomerates; and the parent of Bertelsmann Investments, an international network of private banking funds in the services and natural resources industries, including those in Iran. The "most transparent president in history" has now become the "most transparent billionaire in history," adding to his vast wealth in ways the public can only imagine.

So, for the preening junior senator from Utah who manages to be on the wrong side of every issue, the formerly esteemed conservative pundits who now push Bernie Sanders's communism on the United States, and all the news personalities who pretend to have original thoughts by repeating endlessly what the Democratic Party has written for them, if you are dense enough to misinterpret the unprecedented coup against the sitting president instead as crimes worthy of his repeated condemnation and impeachment, it is way past time to sit down, open your mind, and begin learning about the presidency of one Barack Obama. It will be a lot to take in; it certainly was for those of us who endured it.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.
Countries across the globe have issued travel and health advisories to warn citizens travelling by air to different parts of the world in their efforts to battle the Coronavirus outbreak, according to reports. Many airlines have either cancelled their flights to China or temporarily halted transits to the mainland. As airports across the world have become the primary source of transmission of the disease, strict instructions have been issued by the government to ensure the safety of the passengers.

READ: US Woman From Cruise Ship Docked In Cambodia Tests Positive For Coronavirus

Countries issue travel advisory

India has advised its citizens to avoid travelling to China and added that anyone with a travel history in China since January 15, 2020, could be quarantined. India has taken preventive measures in order to control the possible transmission of the virus in the country. The US has also issued travel advisories for its citizens and banned entry of foreign nationals who travelled to China in the last 14 days. The advisory states the citizens returning to the US Who have been in Hubei province in the last 14 days will be quarantined for two weeks.

READ: France Reports First Death In Europe From Coronavirus

The UK also came up with strict travel advisories for its citizens travelling to and from China and other parts of South Asia. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has restricted all travel to Hubei province amid ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak.

China has confirmed more new cases of deadly coronavirus outbreak on February 15, according to the reports.

CNHC confirms new cases

Chinas National Health Commission said it had recorded 121 new deaths and 5,090 new coronavirus cases on the mainland on February 13, taking the total infected tally to 69,266 people. Nearly 55,748 people are presently undergoing treatment at various hospitals across the country and 1,669 people have died from the novel coronavirus outbreak that has emerged in Hubei provinces capital, Wuhan, in December. The hard-hit Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, has reported 116 new fatalities and reported 4,823 new confirmed cases on Thursday, the provincial health commission said.

READ: Trump Defends China's Alleged Cover-up Of Coronavirus, Says Didn't 'want To Create Panic'

READ: WHO Experts Set To Join Battle Against Coronavirus In China As Death Toll Crosses 1500
February 13, 2020

ERA is DOA

Today the House voted to remove the ERAs 7-year ratification deadline (H.J.Res. 79). For Members of the House supporting H.J.Res. 79, this was a purely symbolic vote. The ERA doesnt give women anymore protections than they already have. The 14th Amendment, as well as many other laws like Title IX, the Equal Opportunity Act of 1963, the Equal Employment Opportunity Discrimination Act, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and the Equal Pay Act provide women equal rights.

Removing the 7-year ratification deadline doesnt bring the Amendment any closer to ratification. For 24 of the states that passed the ERA, their votes to ratify the ERA explicitly expired on March 22, 1979. To add to this, in 1982, the Supreme Court ruled in NOW v. Idaho that ERA failed ratification and was effectively dead. Earlier this year, the DOJ released an opinion supporting this decision.

On Tuesday, a Vox headline said, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has dealt a fatal blow to the Equal Rights Amendment. According to Justice Ginsberg, the ratification process must start over for the ERA to become enshrined into the Constitution. Phyllis Schlafly and RBG agree: ERA is dead on arrival.

The article went on further to say that, Ginsburgs comments are likely to be the death knell for the ERA. Without Ginsburgs vote, its tough to imagine that five members of the Supreme Court would agree the ERA was properly ratified.

Congress should heed RBGs advice instead of passing a Resolution removing a deadline that cant be removed. In doing so, these Members have failed to protect the many women whove elected them. said Eagle Forum President Eunie Smith. Under the guise of womens equality, the ERA will remove every distinction between the sexes and enshrine abortion into the Constitution. The ERA is not about protecting women. The Senate will be wise to not consider the measure.

Eagle Forums Washington, D.C. staff, Tabitha Walter and Kirsten Hasler, were able to witness the vote in the House Gallery.

For more information on the ERA, please visit Eagle Forums website and listen to episode 6 of our podcast, Engage with Eagle Forum. Kirsten Hasler, Tabitha Walter, and Anne Schlafly Cori have also written on the harms of the ERA.
Published on 2020/02/16 | Source

A student looks at bulletin boards of debates over a transgender student at Sookmyung University in Seoul on Feb. 6. /Yonhap

A transgender student who was born male has relinquished her place at a women-only university after vociferous protests from students there.

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On the day of the deadline for tuition payment, the student said she would not enroll at Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul despite becoming the first transgender student in Korea to be accepted at a women-only college.

"After the news broke I heard that students were protesting against my admission and got scared", she said in an interview.

She plans to take the college entrance exam again later this year to apply to other, non-segregated schools.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of Lithuania Gitanas Nauseda.

It is on the occasion of the National Holiday of the Republic of Lithuania that on my behalf and behalf of the people of Azerbaijan I offer my cordial congratulations to you and the friendly people of Lithuania, Ilham Aliyev said in his letter.

The present level of Azerbaijan-Lithuania relations is gratifying. I believe that mutually beneficial expansion of these relations across all areas will serve further the interests of our peoples, reads the letter. I seize this opportunity to wish strong health and success in every endeavor to you, and peace and prosperity to your people.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Doctors should be in hospitals not streets: Kejriwal writes to PM Modi on NEET counselling

Punjab elections: You will never have to stage another dharna says Kejriwal

Covid-19 cases are rising in Delhi, but no need to panic as hospitalisation low, says Kejriwal

No lockdown in Delhi for now but some curbs, says Arvind Kejriwal amid Covid surge

PM Modi congratulates Kejriwal on taking oath as Delhi CM, AAP chief responds

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Feb 16: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday congratulated Arvind Kejriwal on taking oath as Delhi chief minister for the third successive term and extended him best wishes for a fruitful tenure.

Taking to twitter, PM Modi posted, "I congratulate Shri @ArvindKejriwal on taking oath as Delhi's CM earlier today. Best wishes to him for a fruitful tenure."

The Delhi CM responded quickly and said that they must "now work together towards making Delhi a city of pride for all Indians."

Earlier, Kejriwal had sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "blessings" and reached out to rival parties, while noting that the country is discussing new kind of "politics of work and performance" after his party's win.

Kejriwal along with his cabinet colleagues Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Gopal Rai, Imran Hussain, Rajendra Pal Gautam and Kailash Gahlot were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal at the historic Ramlila Maidan that was a sea of tricolour with a large number of people and party supporters turning up for the event.

Striking a conciliatory political tone in his address to the gathering, the 51-year-old bureaucrat-turned-politician sought cooperation from his rivals BJP and Congress in making Delhi the "number one city", saying he has "forgiven" them for the remarks against him during the high-octane poll campaign.

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Story first published: Sunday, February 16, 2020, 22:31 [IST]
The following are statements and opinions expressed by Tamino Minerals, Inc.:



MONTREAL, Feb. 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tamino Minerals, Inc. ("Tamino" or the "Company") (TINO). Through its subsidiary, Minerales Tamino S.A. from C.V. and other subsidiaries filed a Federal Complaint against an individual with Mexicos Attorney General's, FGR, for Financial Fraud in the offices residing in the State of Sonora, under Case number 2017/5734/R and under Case Number with the Human Rights Commission in Mexico: CNDH/5/2017/5734/R and File Number 77906/2017.

The company has been in communication with the authorities regarding this case and intends to demonstrate to the Attorney General that the Mining claim hasnt been drilled yet. Therefore, we would like to remind Prosecutors that they are obliged to assist us in pursuing this investigation.

It is important that the Prosecutor's Office in charge of this case respond in an appropriate manner to the senior executives of the company in order to conclude said investigation satisfactorily.

It should be clarified that the company has been the victim of several abuses by several Mexican businessmen in recent months, so the company has full confidence that the authorities will support us in resolving this investigation abiding to Law and demonstrating respect for Mexican Laws.

We hope that the authorities contribute to solving this case and that no witness is extorted or intimidated, so that the investigation be resolved expeditiously.

The investors consistently acknowledge that our efforts have been very good. In the same way we consider it important that the same investors cooperate so that this project is explored using modern methods and we do not fall into the same mistakes of the past.

It is important to mention that some investors are not happy with the way Mexican Authorities have reacted to this Fraud Complaint, and they would like to mention that a group of Mexican Businessman willfully impaired our progress while attempting to resolve this issue abiding to law. We believe that this is not fair and that we have not managed to advance at the necessary pace that our investors would demand in order to keep them satisfied.

Story continues

Most of this message are attribute to our CEO, Pedro Villagran Garcia that would like to add that the current government must be accountable for this matter, and must respect us, since they are the ones in command for the Fourth Mexican Transformation, their support to resolve this case is very important.

The most important thing is that our Company can carry out our exploration programs. This program includes an exhaustive Drilling Program within an important mining region of the State of Sonora.

Sonora is the main producer of Gold in the Mexican Republic. The task of drilling could provide us enough evidence in order to quantify the value of the fraud.

Our CEO hereby communicates to the Mexican and South American Mining Community that we request your support to continue our job so that this investigation does not remain unpunished, like others have due to lack of support.

TAMINO MINERALS, INC.

Pedro Villagran-Garcia, CEO

Tamino Minerals, Inc.

Phone 1-514-432-7746 or email info@taminominerals.ca
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday ruled out resigning and vowed to see out his term, even as he admitted he had offered to step aside twice since being elected. Speaking ahead of a general election next Friday, Rouhani also appealed to voters to turn out despite the fact that many moderate and reformist candidates were disqualified from the race. Rumours have swirled in Iran recently that the 71-year-old, whose second and last term ends next year, had been planning to quit, but his office denied the reports. Rouhani's government has come under fire over the state of Iran's sanctions-hit economy and for allegedly failing to fulfil election promises. The legitimacy of Rouhani and his government have been called into question after they were left in the dark for days after the armed forces admitted they "accidentally" shot down a Ukrainian airliner on January 8. Hardliners have attacked his administration for negotiating a nuclear deal with world powers that ultimately backfired when the United States withdrew unilaterally and reimposed harsh sanctions. "My resignation does not make much sense... we have made promises to the people and we will continue to fulfil those promises" despite the economic situation and pressure from "the enemy", Rouhani said, referring to the US. "The idea of resigning (because of these recent problems) never occurred to me." But Rouhani admitted he had offered to resign twice in the past, and that they were rejected by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "In the first months after my election, I told the supreme leader 'If you think for some reason that someone else or another government can serve the country better, I'm ready to go'," said Rouhani. "He vehemently rejected it," he told a news conference in Tehran. Rouhani, a moderate conservative, said he raised the issue with the supreme leader again during his second term. "I would not even let the government leave its responsibility an hour earlier, not a month or a week earlier'," he quoted Khamenei as saying. - Election appeal - Rouhani's supporters suffered a setback in the lead-up to the February 21 election after more than half of the 14,444 who sought to stand were disqualified, most of them moderates and reformists. Despite the purge, Rouhani called for a strong showing at the election. "All elections are important to us, and I urge all people to come to the ballot box and vote... to choose the best (candidates) and have a good parliament," he told Sunday's news conference. Iran's seventh president, Rouhani won election in 2013 after promising greater social freedoms and the benefits of engagement with the West. He delivered on the second pledge in 2015, when Iran agreed to limit its nuclear activities in return for the lifting of international sanctions. The president was re-elected in 2017 with the support of reformists. But support from those who backed him in the past has fallen away badly amid criticism over his austerity measures. In November, street protests broke out in Iran over a surprise petrol price hike. They spread to dozens of urban centres and turned violent before being put down by the security forces. Iran's economy has been battered since the US pulled out of the nuclear deal, with the World Bank estimating it shrunk by 8.7 percent in 2019. The government of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has come under fire over the state of Iran's sanctions-hit economy and for allegedly failing to fulfil election promises Speaking ahead of Friday's general election in Iran Rouhani has ruled out resigning and vowed to see out his term
Being a lifelong learner and especially interested about history in recent years, I couldnt pass up an opportunity to hear about the history of Sandoval County.

Last Wednesday afternoon, I headed to Meadowlark Senior Center, where, along with about two-dozen other folks, I was treated to just that by renowned local historian and archivist Martha Liebert. When a person has a library named after them, as Liebert has in Bernalillo, instant credibility is attached.

Liebert started her presentation with geology  where it all started 110 million years ago, give or take a century. She explained how the Rio Grande Trench cut the state in half, a little about the formation of the Valles Caldera and a series of arroyos leading into what is known as Rio Abajo from the Sandias to the east.

The area was besieged over a few hundred years, she said, by stretches of drought, followed by stretches of flooding and then back to drought.

Bernalillo began on a flood plain, she said, showing photos of 20th-century flooding and talking about destruction in 1949 of Our Lady of Sorrows Church there.

Liebert kept her talk, for the most part, in chronological order, which I appreciated: the Indian Period, Coronados arrival in 1540  and she chuckled as she said she recently learned the viceroy of Spain had sent Coronado to the New World to find a land bridge to China; the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and the Spanish Inquisition; the arrival of the U.S. Army, which repossessed land from earlier settlers; the arrival in 1880 of the railroad; and a few more highlights from her life in Bernalillo.

She had quite a few old photos, plus reproductions  arguably one of the neatest was of San Felipe Pueblo in 1880.

Liebert told how Bernalillo was the original choice of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad to be its division point. The areas major land-owner asked for an exorbitant price per acre, sending the ATSF to Albuquerque, which meant countless jobs and other economic opportunity.

Of course, back then, Bernalillo had the White Pine Lumber Co., which had its logs hauled to the town by rail from the Jemez Mountains. That mill died when workers went on strike in the 1930s  apparently workers thought they were worth more than 20 cents a day.

The rails were removed during World War II, with the steel needed for the Allied war machine.

In an interesting link from the past to the present, Liebert told about the August feast of San Lorenzo, more than 300 years old and still gloriously celebrated annually.

In some of my own research, I have been reading about the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos in 1943-45, with that research leading to the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, ending World War II.

Yes, she knew Los Alamos back then was part of Sandoval County, but she had no information to share  nor, she added, was there anything about the Atomic City at the DeLavy House, where the county museums collections and monthly talks take place.
Looking back, effusive praise has been given to China. Has the Chinese government approached the WHO to ask it to stand up and say that China is doing a good job?

That is a question thrown by a western journalist to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a news conference after a global research and innovation forum held by the UN health body in Geneva, Switzerland on the night of Feb. 12, local time.

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia, China has taken prompt and effective measures. The epidemic situation has shown positive changes and the prevention and control work has achieved notable outcomes thanks to the countrys hard work. Such achievements have been recognized and highly praised by the WHO and many foreign countries.

However, some countries blew the epidemic out of proportion and made overreaction. Certain foreign media outlets, rendering threats and creating panic, even called black white and made groundless attacks on China, which is exactly indicated by the above question raised.

The question was later answered by the WHO chief with facts. The pathogen was identified in a record time and immediately they (China) shared the sequence. When they shared the sequence (with the WHO), it helped other countries to prepare the diagnostic tools to test cases. That by implication means, they have helped in preparing other countries and in preventing the problem from growing. Because when you dont test or diagnose, cases will be missed and local transmission can be established, Tedros explained.

Later, Tedros introduced a successful case of cooperation between China and Germany to prevent the virus from spreading.

There was a Chinese lady who visited Germany, and she returned to Shanghai and she was found positive. Then the Chinese authorities immediately notified Germany that the positive person had visited Germany and that they had to take action. And Germany took that information and immediately took action to prevent any serious problem, and thats why now things are under control in Germany, he said.

It's very important to appreciate a country or an individual qualified for something you see. It's the truth, Tedros noted.

We were in this board room for a board meeting (the 146th session of the Executive Board) and almost all member states were praising China for what it did. And they had a reason that China took action massively at the epicenter at the source of the outbreak. Its shutdown of the Wuhan city helped in preventing cases from being exported to other provinces in China and the rest of the world. And I remember a board member from the UK who said that that this is heroic, because when you shut down city and province like that, it has consequences, economically, and so on, serious consequences. The actions of China are making us safer, said the WHO chief.

Acknowledging countries for the right things they did helps in two ways, Tedros noted. One, it helps them to continue doing the right thing they are doing; and secondly, it helps other countries recognize the good practice that country which is recognized is doing and they can learn from that country he stressed, adding that China doesnt need to ask to be praised. It was not, it is not.

We have met the President (Chinese President Xi Jinping). We have seen the level of knowledge he has on the outbreak; we saw firsthand that he is leading the outbreak directly. You know, we always ask for political commitment, political leadership, thats what we have seen. So, dont you appreciate that kind of leadership thats really committed?

China is doing many good things that are slowing the virus. The country has opened a window of opportunity, said the WHO chief.

Facts speak for themselves. Let the truth speak for itself, and the world can judge, he added.

Lets show the solidarity. But now whats important is not stigmatizing or attacking the country, but standing in solidarity, and fighting against this common enemy- COVID-19, or the virus. I think it s time to really unite and attack this virus. Lets calm down, no panic, no fear and try to do the right thing with solidarity. Thats what I would ask, he pointed out.
The Sihani Gate police here arrested three people on charges of robbery and murder, an official said on Sunday.

They had allegedly looted and murdered Sanjay Saini who used to transfer money online to mobile recharge retailers, police said.

Sanjay was robbed and murdered by the owner of a communication shop, his brother and neighbour.

The body was then thrown into the Hindan river, police said.

DSP Atish Kumar said Sanjay had gone missing on February 7 after which his father Jaipraksh Saini lodged a complaint, stating that his had gone for the collection of the transferred money in Nand Gram Colony.

During investigation, police found that Sanjay had called his wife last time on February 7 evening around 5.30 pm.

As per his last mobile location, police on Saturday called the owner of Balaji Communication, Neelesh, for interrogation.

Police said he confessed to robbing and killing Sanjay with the help of his brother Dinesh and neighbour Gaurav.

The accused told police that they took Sanjay to their house and battered him to death by iron rods and snatched Rs 1 lakh from him.

The body was wrapped in a tarpaulin sheet and thrown into the Hindan river, police said



Police have recovered the victim's bike and Rs 89,000 in cash from the looted amount.

NDRF teams are trying to fish out his body, DSP Kumar added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
If this Justice Department had done it once, you might understand, but they have done it over and over, and its only ever to re-examine an outcome that the president didnt like, said Matthew Miller, a former spokesman for Holder, who said the practice does enormous harm to the departments reputation. When you are constantly launching politically motivated probes, the public cant tell which investigations are legitimate and which are political, and ultimately they question everything. And that is clearly part of the goal.
Are county leaders listening to their constituents? How will you show that you are listening over the next four years, if elected?

As the Midland County commissioner for Precinct 1, my first responsibility is to serve our community and be responsive to the needs of its residents. Everyone deserves a chance to have their voice heard and their concerns addressed, which is why I make the concerted effort to be readily available by phone, text or email, to receive the thoughts and input of those I represent.

That resident input is crucial to the success of our county, because as hard as we might try, the five members of the Commissioners Court simply cant be everywhere at once or see every problem that needs to be addressed on our own. We rely on residents to communicate their thoughts and concerns about the challenges they face while living, working and raising their family in Midland County.

This level of personal communication and responsiveness is what makes local government so special. Unlike Washington D.C., or even Austin, we live and work every day in the community  it is the best and purest form of representative government in the United States. My fellow commissioners and I are your neighbors  we see each other at church, our children attend the same schools, we see each other in line at the same grocery store. We are an everyday part of this community, not faceless politicians behind a wall of bureaucracy.

That interaction between the court and its constituents has resulted in many recent projects and programs that have directly improved the quality of life in Midland County. When the residents of our community asked for better county law enforcement, the Midland County Commissioners Court listened and directed more than $3.6 million to the Midland County Sheriffs Office to hire more jailers and patrol officers. When we received complaints about the conditions of our roads, we responded by outlining an aggressive road reconstruction plan in our 2020 budget, including the reconstruction of Cotton Flat Road (CR 1200), Midkiff Road (CR 1210) and Fairgrounds Road. We are also in the early stages of planning the redevelopment of Industrial Avenue.

Its no secret that those of us privileged to live here in Midland County tend to be more conservative by nature and expect their taxes to be low and their government to be frugal. As a result, the Midland County Commissioners Court has voted multiple times to cut taxes  giving Midland the lowest county tax rate in the great state of Texas.

The residents of Midland County also expect a transparent government. Just last year, the court held budget hearings in open court so anybody who wanted could attend and make comments if they desired. We also post the county budget on our website, so everyone is able to understand exactly where our money comes from and how it is spent.

Over my first term in office, Ive tried to encourage anyone who has thoughts or concerns about the future of our wonderful community to contact me with your questions. My contact information is listed on our website which includes my phone number and email address. Though Im elected by the residents of Precinct 1, I do what I can to be responsive to every resident in this county, as well as every county employee across our 27 different county departments.

I am personally committed to addressing each concern to the best of my ability, and if I dont have the answer, I will find the person that does. Whether its a question about how to post bond for a relative, how to pay a traffic ticket or what the progress is on one of our many road construction projects, my goal is to answer every question to the best of my ability and address the problems I was elected to solve. You have my ongoing commitment that I will continue to put the taxpayer first and serve the people of Midland County as a business-minded conservative that wants the very best for this remarkable community, now and in the future.
Doctors remove six-inch rod from back of 19-year-old

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Feb 16: Doctors at a city hospital have removed a six-inch-long pointed iron rod that was lodged in the back of a 19-year-old man and had pierced through his internal organs up to his chest.

Mukul was rushed to the emergency department of the hospital on November 15 with a part of the iron rod protruding out of his back. He was stabbed in the back and about 6-7 cm of the rod was buried in his body puncturing the posterior chest wall, doctors said.

Excessive mediastinal bleeding is a significant complication of cardiac operations with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). It increases risks of cardiac failure and infection, Dr Priyadarshini Singh, Head of Department - Emergency - Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals said.

45-year-old doctor who treated Unnao rape victim's father in 2018, dies

The CT scan showed massive blood clot in the right side of the chest. The iron rod was seen lodged close to major blood vessels. He was immediately shifted to the cardiac ICU and was prepared for an emergency surgery.

"The major challenge was that all procedures had to be done with him lying on his stomach as he had this huge iron rod sticking out of his back. In such cases, the foreign body should not be touched till the patient goes to the operation theatre. "This is because, the object is actually helping to control the bleeding as it creates pressure. If removed without proper precautions, there could have been blood loss and even death within minutes. To prevent blood loss we had also made arrangements for blood in advance," Singh elaborated.

Explaining about the procedure, Dr Muthu Jothi, Senior Consultant, Paediatric Cardio Thoracic Surgeon at the hospital said after evaluation they decided to perform thoracotomy which is a surgery to open the chest. There was a big clot on the aorta and an additional injury to area of left corner lope of lung.

"An incision was made between 2 ribs in the chest wall from front to back to operate on lungs. "We then placed a chest tube to make sure that blood or air does not collect in the chest. Later he was put on nasal prongs with oxygen. There was also a linear tear in the diaphragm which was repaired to prevent any complication. We sealed all the wounds and closed the chest in layers," Jothi said.

Mukul improved gradually and with the support of medication. He was discharged on November 18. "We suggested ample rest and precautions for two months post-surgery. When Mukul visited us last week for follow up, he was advised to resume to his normal life as he seemed perfectly healthy," Jothi said. Father of Mukul said that his son received immediate attention and was immediately examined and operated. "When we were told that the operation is successful, we had no words to express our gratitude to the doctor and his team," he said.

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Story first published: Sunday, February 16, 2020, 14:53 [IST]
Gordon after Slam Dunk Contest loss: My participation is over, I feel I should have two trophies NBA He lost to Derrick Jones

There was controversy at the NBA's annual Slam Dunk Contest as Aaron Gordon failed to win, even though he made a dunk over Tacko Fall, who is 2.26m tall.

The Orlando Magic player said after that setback that he wouldn't be competing in the contest again, after failing to win it in 2016, 2017 and now in 2020.

"It's a wrap," he said afterwards, when asked if he'd keep trying to win it.

"I feel like I should have two trophies.

"[My participation] is over for that.

"My next goal is going to be to try to win the three-point contest."
The members of Heartland Marimba dont travel lightly.

When they arrive at First Presbyterian Church Sunday afternoon, theyll be hauling four marimbas. A marimba is a wooden percussion instrument similar to a xylophone, only much bigger.

Earlier this week, founding member Joe Millea said each of the groups marimbas is about 8 feet long, 4 feet deep on the high end and 2 feet deep on the low end.

"Casual setup takes about an hour. We can do it faster, but we prefer not to," he said, adding that setup and teardown of the massive instruments takes special care.

Millea, along with three other members of the group, will perform a free concert at 4 p.m. today at the church, located at 512 3rd St. SW, as part of its "Festival of Music" series.

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Prior to traveling to Rochester, Millea, whos originally from Rosemount but currently based in Phoenix, spoke with the Post Bulletin.

How did Heartland Marimba begin?

The organization was founded in 2014 by Matthew (Coley), the artistic director and executive director of the organization. The quartet was founded in 2016 to be the professional-level performing branch of the organization.  Were all in different parts of the country.

Tell me about the instrument.

In a nutshell, its like a big xylophone. Its origins are from West Africa and Central America, so this version, which is the modern version of the marimba, first came about in the early 20th century. Its a chromatic instrument, so you can play the same notes as a piano. We play five-octave instruments.

Did any of you start on piano?

I dont think any of us got our start on piano; were all classically trained percussionists, and the marimba is part of that. It has a really rich tradition at the university level. We all spent a lot of time learning it in college.

What type of wood is it made of?

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Rosewood  a Honduran type of rosewood from Belize. Its a really durable wood. Its very hard and very dense, and it vibrates really well.

Is this your first time playing in Rochester?

Yes. First Presbyterian has a really great concert series called "Festival of Music" that they sponsor. Oftentimes churches and other venues reach out to us; sometimes we reach out to them.

Is this a full-time job?

No. We all also work where we live; for instance, I work at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. We all do some teaching. Michael teaches a lot of private lessons.

Do you play for all ages?

We perform for all ages. This past fall, we did a residency with the Dubuque (Iowa) Arts Council; we went to 23 elementary schools in two weeks. We also go to high schools.

Its such a huge part of percussion education in general, especially in this country, that theres huge interest. Everyone who plays percussion learns the marimba.

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What do elementary-school kids think of it?

They love it because its so visual. The instruments are huge, so we have to move a lot just to facilitate the playing. Its such a visual experience, its almost like dance  its very movement-based.

Tell me about the "mealtime" promo photo.

We needed to update our photos about a year ago, and we knew we wanted to do something fun. Something sort of quirky.

Its an amalgam of what we do  we live, breathe and eat marimba. I play every day, so we thought that would be a fun way to show how its a huge part of our lives, like sustenance.
He attended the Oscars last weekend in Hollywood with his mother.

But Keanu Reeves returned to San Francisco to continue filming The Matrix 4 on Friday.

Joining the actor, 55, on set was his girlfriend, Alexandra Grant, who was seen bundled up in an animal print coat, watching production unfold in San Francisco's Financial District.

Enter the Matrix: Keanu Reeves returned to San Francisco to continue filming the fourth chapter of The Matrix series on Friday

Keanu was seen surrounded by crew as he milled about outdoors, seemingly clad in all-black.

The group were seen filming at a cafe named 'Stimulatte', and various actors were seen wearing 'SWAT' attire.

It was a who's who of The Matrix world that day, with director Lana Wachowski and Carrie Anne-Moss pictured on set.

Carrie, who will be reprising her role as Trinity, was seen with her back facing the camera.

Hanging out: Joining the actor, 55, on set was his girlfriend, Alexandra Grant, who was seen bundled up in an animal print coat, watching filming unfold

Lights, camera, action: It was a who's who of The Matrix world that day, with director Lana Wachowski and Carrie Anne-Moss pictured on set

Star-studded: Carrie, who will be reprising her role as Trinity, was seen with her back facing the camera

Reeves last portrayed his iconic character in the 2003 third installment The Matrix Revolutions.

It was released the same year as the second film The Matrix Reloaded, following the massive success of the 1999 original.

New faces in the franchise include Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra, Jonathan Groff and Andrew Caldwell.

On location: The crew were seen filming in the Financial District of San Francisco

Since The Matrix Revolutions was released in 2003, Keanu's acting resume has included starring roles in Constantine, The Lake House, and more recently, a role as himself in the Netflix comedy Always Be My Maybe.

Carrie-Anne got her start in modelling before eventually shooting to stardom with her starring role of Trinity in The Matrix.

Following The Matrix, Carrie-Anne enjoyed success on television, with roles in Chuck, Vegas, Humans, Jessica Jones, and more recently, Tell Me A Story.
The federal government will evacuate Canadians from a quarantined cruise ship docked in Japan, Global Affairs announced late Saturday, citing the "extraordinary circumstances" on board.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/2/2020 (695 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A bus leaves a port where the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship is docked Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020, in Yokohama, near Tokyo. The federal government says it will evacuate Canadians quarantined aboard a cruise ship docked in Japan. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Jae C. Hong

The federal government will evacuate Canadians from a quarantined cruise ship docked in Japan, Global Affairs announced late Saturday, citing the "extraordinary circumstances" on board.

Ottawa said it has chartered a plane to bring home many of the 255 Canadians on the Diamond Princess, where some 3,500 passengers have been stuck for 10 days amid an outbreak of the novel coronavirus. So far, 355 people have been infected, including 15 from Canada.

It's the biggest concentration of confirmed cases outside of mainland China, the World Health Organization has said.

"In light of the extraordinary circumstances facing our citizens on the Diamond Princess, we are taking action to return Canadians home from Japan, while ensuring that appropriate measures are in place to prevent and limit the spread of the novel coronavirus," Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said in a written statement.

The timing of the chartered plane had yet to be announced.

Global Affairs said the passengers would be screened before boarding the plane, and those who exhibit symptoms of COVID-19 will be transferred to the Japanese health-care system.

Those who make it onto the plane will be brought to Canadian Forces Base Trenton in southern Ontario, the government said. From there, they'll be assessed and taken to the NAV Canada Training Institute in Cornwall, Ont., to undergo another 14-day quarantine.

The would-be evacuees had mixed reactions immediately after learning the news, with some saying the quarantine added a sour note to the otherwise sweet development.

"Well, you know, it's not OK, but it's better than here," passenger Trudy Clement said. "We'll be home."

She said the evacuation gives her something to look forward to after weeks aboard a ship she previously described as a "luxurious prison."

"The only hurdle we've got to cross now is they're swabbing everybody," Clement said. "So as long as neither one of us comes up positive, we'll be on that plane."

The two-week quarantine on the Diamond Princess would have been done as early as Wednesday.

But experts have questioned if the close quarters have contributed to the virus's spread. Japanese authorities announced Thursday tentative plans to allow those who remain on the ship to disembark and finish their isolation period on land.

The U.S. previously announced it would evacuate roughly 400 Americans aboard the ship, so news of Canadians following suit didn't come as a surprise to passenger Lolita Wisener of Red Deer, Alta.

"We were just saying, if Canada does anything, we follow the U.S.," she said shortly after returning from an hour of designated "fresh air" time with her husband.

But the couple was as yet unsure whether they'd board the plane to Canada. The idea of recirculated air and cramped quarters worried them.

"We're all going to be breathing the same air, whereas on the ship, we're breathing fresh air," she said.

They also have their vacation to think about, Wisener said. They were supposed to be in Lisbon on Feb. 4 as part of a whirlwind tour around the world that was supposed to keep them out of Canada until April.

But she noted it's unclear whether Portuguese officials would let them into the country after their ordeal aboard the Diamond Princess.

Champagne said about 250 Canadians on a separate cruise ship off the shore of Cambodia, the Westerdam, have tested negative for the coronavirus and will be returned to Canada at the expense of the cruise line, Holland America.

Meanwhile, there are about 400 Canadians under quarantine at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in southern Ontario. They were repatriated by Canada from the Chinese province of Hubei, which includes the city of Wuhan, considered as the epicentre of the outbreak.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2020.
Meghan Markle's homeless half-brother has slammed the royal couple for helping good causes and not their own family.

Tom Markle, 53 - son of Meghan's father Thomas Sr - was left homeless after he lost jobs and his relationship ended.

He claims his surname has prevented him being hired and added: 'Being associated with Meghan has nearly destroyed me.'

Meghan Markle's homeless half-brother Tom Markle, 53, (left) has slammed the royal couple for helping good causes and not their own family. Right: Meghan and Harry stepped off a plane in Canada on Valentine's Day

He has now moved to his elderly mother's home in New Mexico but says the process has been a 'f***ing nightmare'.

Mr Markle, 53 - son of Meghan's father Thomas Sr - was left homeless after he lost jobs and his relationship ended

Mr Markle told The Sun: 'I am homeless and could have been under a bridge with a cardboard sign begging for money.'

He added: 'For her to sit there on her royal pedestal and watch this happening to her family  she should have done her humanitarian work for us.'

Since beginning a transition phase of living in Canada and the UK with Prince Harry and nine-month-old son Archie, Meghan has been photographed visiting two Vancouver charities: climate change group 'Justice for Girls' and Downtown Eastside Women's Center.

It comes as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were spotted together for the first time since Megxit as they stepped off a plane in Canada on Valentine's Day.

The couple were presumed to be in the States for business meetings as they look to start making money independent of the crown.

Talking about the couple's decision to step back as senior royals, Meghan's brother previously said he didn't 'necessarily support' his sister's move, but believes it comes down to 'two people in love wanting to live their lives.'

It comes as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were spotted together for the first time since Megxit as they stepped off a plane

Since beginning a transition phase of living in Canada and the UK with Prince Harry and nine-month-old son Archie, Meghan has been photographed visiting two Vancouver charities: climate change group 'Justice for Girls' (pictured) and Downtown Eastside Women's Center last month

He said: 'I think that's (royal title) probably one of the biggest achievements you can ever get in life and to be on that pedestal and that position is a major honour for anybody in the entire world.

'It would just have to be a simple explanation that they want to live their lives the way they want to live it and I guess they wanna do it in private,' he told Australian morning show Sunrise.

Mr Markle admitted he was surprised to learn Meghan was disrupting years of tradition which he called 'a little bit insulting.'

'It can be one thing, it could be Meghan wanting her way and not wanting to live under anybody's control, and then it could be her and Harry wanting to go off and be private and not be bothered by any responsibilities except for their own.'
One hundred years ago, a gold prospector named Ralph Cameron attempted to claim the Grand Canyon. It seems ridiculous now, but its true  he wanted to get rich mining the land, and if President Theodore Roosevelt hadnt signed into law a powerful conservation bill, we might have lost one of our nations greatest treasures.

Since its passage in 1906, the Antiquities Act has since been used by almost every president, Republicans and Democrats alike, to conserve wild places and expand Americans access to public lands. On this Presidents' Day, its worth celebrating these 15 presidents who have used the Antiquities Act exactly as it was intended. It has helped create and preserve 170 national monuments, including Pompeys Pillar, Big Hole National Battlefield, Lewis and Clark Caverns and the Upper Missouri River Breaks here in Montana. It represents one simple yet powerful democratic ideal: that public lands belong to all Americans, no matter our class, race, party or creed. These spaces arent reserved just for the privileged class to enjoy. They are for all of us.

We both are worried about the future of our public lands. Precedents are being set that put public lands in grave jeopardy. Our 640 million acres of public lands should be responsibly managed  not defiled and used strictly to generate money for a select few.

The current administration, fueled by the extractive industries, is intentionally stripping protections from public lands lawfully designated by previous administrations, including the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah. Thats never been done before. It is an insult to the American people and an attack on our natural heritage. So are its efforts to roll back management plans that conserve the western sagebrush steppe, push for oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, weaken the National Environmental Policy Act and dismantle the Clean Water Act. And lets not overlook the administrations pick to lead the Bureau of Land Management  an individual whose personal agenda could unravel our legacy of public lands and waters.

But we are feeling optimistic about this fight for two important reasons: Patagonia and Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, working with local communities, have built a record of winning protections for our lands and waters. Further, our livelihoods depend on us winning  especially in a state thats nearly 30% publicly owned and whose outdoor recreation industry is the second-largest sector of the economy. Whether for work or play, to hunt or to hike, Montanans rely on healthy, vibrant natural spaces. Eight in 10 Americans think that conserving natural resources is patriotic. Two-thirds of voters in Western states believe that Congress should prioritize conserving public lands. Thats why early last year both Republicans and Democrats in Congress passed a popular, veto-proof conservation package that established more than 1.3 million acres of wilderness in the West, created three new national parks, and withdrew mining claims around Yellowstone, one of our most iconic and treasured landscapes.

Were part of a broad coalition of conservation groups, outdoorsmen and -women, hunters and anglers, sovereign tribal governments and indigenous communities who recognize that when our leaders would rather enrich polluters over the stewardship of increasingly scarce wild lands, we as a people are poorer for it.

Tomorrow, Patagonia Films premieres "Public Trust," a film that tells the story of how public lands are integral to American life. In it, Hal Herring, an outdoorsman and journalist who hosts BHAs podcast, says, Its as if there were oil and gas under Notre Dame. And somebody chose to make the money from that oil and gas rather than preserving the cathedral.

This Presidents' Day is as good a time as any to remind ourselves that we deserve leaders who will protect America's greatest treasures  not sell them out to the highest bidder. Lets get our hands dirty and get to work. Our public lands and waters need us.

Rose Marcario is the president and CEO of Patagonia. Land Tawney is the president and CEO of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.

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Responding to Amit Shah's open invitation for discussions on CAA, protesters at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi announced that they will rally till the Union minister's residence in the National Capital on Sunday. The march from Shaheen Bagh, the epicenter of anti-CAA protests in Delhi, to Shah's residence will commence at 2 pm, reports have said.

The Delhi Police on Sunday denied Shaheen Bagh protesters permission to march to Amit Shah's residence, asking them to secure an appointment first.

In a letter to the protesters, the New Delhi district police said the march will pass through two other districts and a request in this regard has been sent to the police headquarters for further appropriate actions.

Police said they had asked the protesters at Shaheen Bagh to give the details of the delegation for its meeting with Shah. In a written response, the protesters said 4,000 to 5,000 demonstrators will march towards Shah's residence.

Delhi: Protesters begin march from Shaheen Bagh towards Home Minister Amit Shah's residence https://t.co/VfPSVJ52pu pic.twitter.com/TmCf4BkiXS  ANI (@ANI) February 16, 2020

According to media reports, the permission was later denied after the application was received by the Delhi Police headquarters. Reports have further said that the delegation accepted the decision and returned to the protest site.

Responding to Shah's open invitation for discussions on amended citizenship law, protesters at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi had announced that they would rally till the Union minister's residence at Krishna Menon Marg. The march from Shaheen Bagh, the epicenter of anti-CAA protests in Delhi, to Shah's residence commenced at 2 pm.

Earlier today, the Delhi Police has reached out to the protesters asking them to form a delegation which will meet Shah on Sunday.

However, the proposal was rejected with the protesters dismissing any "intermediaries". They have demanded to speak to the home minister directly, News18 reported.

Protesters were expected to voice their demands, with the primary one being withdrawal of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). They have also demanded that the National Population Register (NPR) exercise be immediately stopped and the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) stand cancelled.

The Indian Express quoted a protester as saying, "No representatives but everyone, who has a problem with CAA would be sharing their demands with Amit Shah." However, home ministry officials told news agency PTI that they did not receive any request for an appointment to discuss issues related to anti-CAA protests.

On Thursday, Shah said he was open to discussions with anyone, including protesters at Shaheen Bagh. "I want to say that they (Shaheen Bagh protesters) should ask for time from my office. Within three days, I will give time. I have said I will meet anyone, but nobody wants to discuss," Shah said at the Times Now summit.

A section of Shaheen Bagh protesters on Saturday said they were ready to meet the home minister to raise concerns over the new citizenship law, but added that the onus was on the government to call them for talks.

"We are ready to meet the home minister. But he should make it clear how many people he wants to meet," PTI quoted Syed Ahmed Taseer, one of the protesters, as saying.

Mehrunnisa, who has been a regular at the protest, said the protesters would march to the home minister's residence on Sunday. "We will ask him to withdraw CAA-NRC-NPR," she said, adding that the protest would continue till their demand was met.

Protests had erupted in Shaheen Bagh, Zakir Nagar, Jamia Nagar, Khureji Khas and other places in the National Capital and elsewhere across the country in December, 2019, to oppose the CAA and the NRC.

According to the CAA, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till 31 December, 2014 and facing religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants but will be given Indian citizenship. The law excludes Muslims.

Those opposing the law alleged that the CAA along with the NRC is intended to target the Muslim community. However, the Centre has dismissed the allegations, maintaining that the law is intended to give citizenship to persecuted people from the three neighbouring countries and not to take away citizenship from anyone.

With inputs from PTI
An AFLW star has labelled Tayla Harris 'useless' in a brutal post-match sledge, one year after the Carlton forward was attacked by online trolls over a now-iconic photo.

Collingwood defender Stacey Livingstone, 32, made the swipe during an interview after her side defeated Carlton 39-24 at Ikon Park on Sunday.

When asked by a reporter how she prepared to defend against Harris, Livingstone replied: 'This is year four, so Id like to think that I know how to play her already.

'Youve just got to stop her in the air - thats her game. If you can that, shes useless.'

Collingwood defender Stacey Livingstone, 32, labeled Tayla Harris as 'useless' in a brutally honest interview after her team beat Carlton 39-24 at Ikon Park on Sunday

Carlton forward Tayla Harris, 22, rose to prominence in March last year when a photo of herself performing an airborne kick garnered a number of sexist comments after it was posted online

Livingstone had 15 disposals for the match, while Harris took two marks, had six disposals and managed one goal in the 15-point defeat.

Livingstone practiced what she preached, challenging Harris in the air at several points in the tense game.

Harris made headlines in March last year after a picture of her kicking for goal during an AFLW match was posted to the 7AFL site.

Livingstone (left) competes for the ball against Harris (right) during Sunday's match up

After the match, Livingstone and Harris embraced each other with a hug before parting ways. Minutes later, the Collingwood defender gave her brutally honest opinion about Harris' playing style in an interview

The post was as inundated with vile comments of sexual nature, before the image was taken down.

'Some of the comments were sexual abuse, what I would consider sexual abuse on social media,' Harris told RSN Radio's Breakfast Club at the time.

'These people need to be called out by the AFL, but something needs to go further. It's something maybe Victoria Police should have to look at.'

The Carlton forward's famous drop punt was immortalised in a bronze statue erected in Melbourne's Federation Square last September.
Gan Ruyi tests blood samples in the laboratory. [China Women's News]

Gan Ruyi, a post-1995 female doctor working in the laboratory of a health center of Jiangxia District, Wuhan City, in Central China's Hubei Province, has recently been known to many Internet users for her courageous action of rushing back to work by riding almost 300 kilometers on a bicycle for four days.

When the outbreak started, Gan was on annual leave at her hometown in Matou Village, Gong'an County in Hubei, which is more than 300 kilometers away from Wuhan.

Considering that there was a shortage of medical workers in her workplace, Gan decided to go back to respond to the emergence situation.

"She is just such a person," said Li Gaojie, Gan's classmate at the Hubei College of Chinese Medicine. She was not surprised at all when reading the news about Gan.

"Gan is shy and quiet, and talks little," Li said. "But she is very persistent in doing things. Being tenacious, she does the things she thinks right and does them really well."

"The epidemic is in a serious situation, and some villagers might feel panic even if they just catch a cold. However, the department only has two staff, including me," Gan explained. "My colleague, 58, had been working alone in the department since the 29th of the twelfth month of the lunar year (January 23) for many days. If I go back to work, I can test more villagers and get them relieved, and reduce her workload."

The road closure caused by the lockdown of Wuhan to contain the spread of the virus posed a challenge for Gan, as there was no public transportation for her to get to Wuhan.

"It doesn't matter, I'm going by bike," she said.

Born in the countryside, Gan used to ride a dozen kilometers from the village to school in junior high school, which gave her the confidence to believe riding could be a feasible means of transport at such a special period.

With a work permit and a temporary pass, Gan set off on the morning of January 31, carrying a little food and wearing a thick coat.

Riding alone for four days and three nights, she managed to arrive at the workplace at 6 pm, February 3, after experiencing a lot of difficulties and hardships.

"When I had no idea of where to go and how to find the way, I told myself to keep going. Going ahead, I would eventually arrive at the destination," Gan said.

Although feeling exhausted and having difficulty in walking due to sore and painful legs, Gan began working the next day and tested more than 20 blood samples on a daily basis.

"I am aware of the lack of medical staff at the grassroots hospitals, so I am willing to join hands with peers across the country to fight against the epidemic," said Gan. "I believe the solidarity of medical workers will eventfully defeat the disease."

(Source: China Women's News/Translated and edited by Women of China)
Liberals revive bill on sex-assault law training for judges, Feb. 5, and She was so innocent, Feb. 11

The sadly familiar case of four-year-old Keira Kagan is a parents worst nightmare, and the best reason to require that judges be mandated to attend domestic violence training.

Separation and divorce are times of heightened tension and rising incidents of power and control. Too often, violence ends in the tragic death of young children and the perpetrator.

Repeatedly, we learn that judges minimize and reject repeated allegations of abuse  dismissing them as not compelling or there is no risk to the child, despite repeated findings of lying, aggressive and bullying behaviour.

Research shows that false allegations of child abuse occur in about one per cent of contested family cases and that 95 per cent of sexual-assault victims are reluctant to come forward.

Perhaps if judges were mandated to have domestic violence training, children in contested custody cases would be safer, and sexual-assault victims would have confidence in our judicial system.
Paras Chhabra claims to be the biggest winner after Bigg Boss 13 winner Sidharth Shukla after walking away with 10 lakh. Paras, who was in a relationship with TV actor Akanksha Puri when he entered the Bigg Boss house, has now opened up about why he chose to break up with her.

Talking about breaking up with Akanksha, Paras told Pinkvilla in an interview post the finale, Ive cleared it out ample of times in front of the cameras about my breakup with her. It now makes no sense to add fuel to the fire. However, I have understood one thing that if during my absence, she can spill out personal details in the media, then it is crystal clear that we cannot have a future together. So, it is better to move on in life, and embrace positivity. All negative things have been said and done, its time now to move towards an optimistic environment.

Also Watch | Sidharth Shukla wins Bigg Boss 13, Asim Riaz is first runner-up

Paras had become close to fellow contestant Mahira Sharma during their stay in the Bigg Boss house. He is now all set to find a bride for himself on new reality show, Mujhse Shaadi Karoge. The actor, has however, made it clear that his mothers decision will be the final verdict for him. He said, Every mother wants her son to marry a girl of her choice. She is not wrong at all. If I like a girl and my mother may or may not like the girl on the show, the final decision will be taken by my mom. A mother would never want bad things to happen to her child, she will always want the best for him. If I turn blind in love and move away from the right path, my mom would catch me and I will have to adhere to her advice. She is the first and foremost for me.

Also read: Bigg Boss 13 Finale highlights: Bigg Boss 13 winner Sidharth Shukla lifts trophy, Asim Riaz is first runner-up

During the final episode, Salman had said in sarcasm that his mother should take part in the reality show instead of him. Salman had also asked his mother about the quality she is looking for in her future daughter-in-law. She had said that Paras wife should be of calm and composed nature so that she can balance his aggression. She also expressed her desire to get him married to a girl from Vrindavan.

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Microsoft, the US technology company, is in talks to acquire a further 20 acres of land in order to construct a data centre and 120-person office development in Dublin.

The land is within Grange Castle Business Park, next to its existing data centre campus, as the US giant looks to meet ongoing demands in the data centre and cloud computing sector.

Microsoft has been in discussions regarding purchasing the land with South Dublin County Council, which approved the sale of the land subject to several conditions in December.

According to the documents setting the conditions of the land sale, the council hopes to charge 600,000 an acre, meaning it could generate around 12m should the deal go through.

In addition to the proposed data centre, the documents also include details of a proposed office development to the south-west of the site. It would support a "minimum staff of 120 persons" and would form part of the first phase of development.

South Dublin County Council has also set a condition that the lease will run for 999 years, starting from an agreed date, and be subject to a yearly rent of 500. The rent will be reviewed every five years in line with the Irish consumer price index.

Under the lease conditions, the US tech giant would also become a "member of the management company for the business park", paying an annual service charge.

Microsoft will be required to submit a full planning application for the site. It must submit this "no later than six months" after signing the final contract or an alternative agreed date.

South Dublin County Council has approved the land sale to Microsoft.

In a statement, it said the legal conveyancing required to progress the sale formally is still in progress.

Microsoft declined to comment on the land acquisition.

Microsoft, whose Irish managing director is Cathriona Hallahan, opened its Irish base in 1985. It employs more than 2,000 people at its giant campus in Sandyford.

In 2007, South Dublin County Council agreed to sell 18.9 acres of land to Microsoft at the Grange Castle Business Park.

Since then, the council has sold a further 119 acres of land to the US technology company, which it has used to construct data centres.

In 2016, Microsoft was given the go-ahead to construct four data centres in Grange Castle. It was reported that this could involve an investment of as much as 900m.
More than half of the female population in the state actively participates in the electoral process.

I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress its women have achieved, said Dr B.R. Ambedkar, concerned as he was about womens condition in our society and the systemic oppression she faced. Perhaps, this should have been the prime action plan for political parties as well as governments.

If one takes Dr Ambedkars observations seriously, the first question that comes to mind is: are we progressing? Do our development indices show that as a nation we have grown? Should people and not financial wealth be placed at the heart of development? The fact is that women continue to face deep misogyny and sex bias in our society where their independence and outspokenness are feared and despised. And many still believe discussing womens issues will adversely affect our culture and the family.

The Telangana government today is tom-tomming Kaleshwaram, a multi-purpose irrigation project on the Godavari. What many do not know is how the project displaced families whose land was acquired to build the dams. Of these families, the women  who could no longer cultivate their own land nor, bound by custom and the expectation to keep members together and continue to tend to them, migrate, as their men did, to other jobs and places  were the worst-hit.

More than half of the female population in the state actively participates in the electoral process. But are they to be seen as a vote bank only?

Telangana has a long history of women taking part in various social and political movements, right from the days of armed struggle. Women writers and poets took part in all the socio-cultural movements which resulted in the creation of Telangana state. Yet there was not a single woman minister in the first state cabinet. And while the government has taken various measures for the welfare of women, their effects are hardly felt. Being a proud Telanganaite passionately working on issues involving women and marginalised, it is a distressing experience.

As I write this piece, comes the news of murder of 19-year-old Mutta Radhika in her house in Karimnagar, a smart city, supposedly well-furnished with security and CCTV cameras. The same day, too, a disgusting drama of sleaze and blackmail got exposed in Sircilla district, the Assembly constituency of minister for information technology and working president of Telangana Rashtra Samithi K.T. Ramarao. Outsiders harassed young adivasi women at the local Scheduled Castes and Tribes hostel and asked them for sexual favours in exchange of money. These girls were studying intermediate at a nearby co-education college. But why had their hostel been picked by the perpetrators? The answer is that, for ages, SC/ST womens hostels have been neglected in terms of amenities and enforcement of regulations.

A team of various women, dalit and bahujan organisations, including Dalit Women's Collective, Women & Transgender Joint Action Committee, made a visit to this hostel. It was found that the Telangana polices SHE teams had shied away from taking up the case. They had taken the young women to a Sakhi womens centre instead. It was Sakhi that had immediately got an FIR registered under the Pocso Act.

One of the victims informed us that Vijayamma, the cook appointed by the food contractor, T. Devaiah, was helping him approach the girls. Predictably, hostel warden G. Bhudevi claimed she was unaware of the incident. In any case, she was not required to be at the place of her employment and she rarely visited. There were no security guards in the congested lanes where the hostel appeared to have been purposefully located and the cameras in the vicinity were in a state of disrepair. Our fact-finding team also came to know that the food contractor belongs to the ruling party. The question is, will heads roll post this expose?

A few years back, when two adivasi girls, Bhumika and Priyanka, disappeared in Warangal district, we came to know of it only when their bones were carried by stray dogs into the village. Not a single person has been arrested. Their horrific deaths have receded from public memory perhaps because the media appears unmoved by them, quite unlike in the cases of Nirbhaya and Disha.

That women are a forgotten entity in the state's politics and governance is reflected in the fact that there is no functional commission for women in a state where crimes against women are rising day by day. The last chairperson of the state womens commission, Tripurana Venkataratnam, demitted office in July 2018. While the Telangana government takes credit for Kalyana Laxmi, a scheme under which financial assistance is given to poor to marry daughters and thus perpetuate the evil of dowry, would not this money be put to better use in the form of free and compulsory education to all women in a safe environment? A full-fledged womens commission can not only investigate breach of rights but can also give concrete suggestions to the government in this respect. It can look into policy matters and set up guidelines as well. It can work on instituting constitutional safeguards and protection mechanisms.

The issue of women is structural and complex. After Sircilla, we feel that the need for a fully-operational womens commission is more than ever as it can hold the state police and bureaucrats accountable. Will Telangana see such a body, revived and rejuvenated, populated by women who have a track record working on womens issues, on March 8, International Women's Day?
MOSCOW  Two Jehovah's Witnesses have been convicted of extremism in Russia and four more arrested, one of whom reported being tortured in custody, the religious group said Friday.

A court in Kamchatka on Friday sentenced Mikhail Popov and his wife Yelena to fines of $5,500 and $4,700 for engaging in extremist activities related to their membership in the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Earlier this week the police raided some 40 homes of Jehovah's Witnesses in Chita, a city in southern Siberia, and arrested four members of the group. One of them, Vadim Kutsenko, was beaten and tasered by men who identified themselves as officers of Russia's National Guard, his lawyer Artur Ganin told The Associated Press.

"They handcuffed him, put a hat on his head and over his eyes and drove him away in an unknown direction," Ganin said in a phone interview Friday. He said officers brought Kutsenko to a forest, where they choked, beat and tasered him, trying to extract a confession.

"He is currently in custody  in pain and worried about his family, because he was threatened that something could happen to his wife," Ganin said.

The National Guard did not respond to a request for comment.

Russia officially banned Jehovah's Witnesses in 2017 and declared the group an extremist organization. The Kremlin has actively used vaguely worded extremism laws to crack down on opposition activists and religious minorities.

Since then, hundreds of members have been subjected to raids, arrests and prosecution. Twenty-eight members of the organization have been convicted, nine of whom have been sentenced to prison, and more than 300 people are currently under criminal investigation.

Last February, seven Jehovah's Witnesses in western Siberia reported being tortured during interrogations by operatives of the Investigative Committee, eliciting widespread public outrage.

The crackdown on members of the group continues despite a promise by Russian President Vladimir Putin to look into "this complete nonsense."

"Jehovah's Witnesses are Christians, too, so I don't quite understand why persecute them," Putin said at a meeting with the Presidential Council for Human Rights in 2018.

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By Tuvan Gumrukcu and Polina Ivanova

ANKARA/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Turkey dismissed on Saturday Russian accusations that it has flouted de-escalation agreements with Russia and Iran in Syria's Idlib province, and threatened to take military action in the area if diplomatic efforts with Moscow fail.

Turkey and Russia, which back opposing sides in Syria's war, agreed in 2018 to set up a de-escalation zone in the northwestern province. But their fragile cooperation has been disrupted by a Syrian government offensive in Idlib, in which 13 Turkish soldiers have been killed in the past two weeks.

Ankara has said it will use military power to drive back the Syrian forces unless they withdraw by the end of February, and President Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey will strike government forces anywhere in Syria if another Turkish soldier was hurt.

Erdogan discussed the situation in separate phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday and U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday, but there was no immediate word of a diplomatic breakthrough.

Russia, which backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, says Turkey, which has poured military forces into Idlib, has aggravated the situation and failed to neutralise militants there.

But Turkey blames the situation on the advances by Syrian government forces in Idlib.

"We cannot overlook the cruelty happening in our neighbour," Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay told broadcaster NTV. "Turkey has fulfilled its responsibilities in Idlib."

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey wanted to resolve matters with Russia over Idlib through diplomacy. But, speaking during an international security conference in Munich, he added: "If it won't work through diplomatic channels, we will take the necessary steps."

Ankara has been angered by the seizure by Syrian government forces of Turkish military observation posts established in Idlib under the 2018 deal.

Story continues

"It is impossible for us to remain silent against their siege. We are doing what is necessary against them," NTV quoted Erdogan as saying on a flight back from Pakistan.

Erdogan also chided the United States, a NATO ally, saying U.S. statements of support did not instil trust.

Speaking in Istanbul later on Saturday, Erdogan again said Turkey would drive back Syrian forces unless they withdrew to the borders outlined by Ankara and Moscow in 2018. But he also appeared to bring forward his end-of-February deadline.

"The solution in Idlib is the (Syrian) regime stopping its hostility and withdrawing to the borders in the agreements. Otherwise, we will handle this before the end of February," Erdogan said.

"We would like to do this with the support of our friends. If we have to do it the hard way, we are also up for that," he said, apparently referring to Ankara's Western allies.

"Until we clear Syria of terrorist organisations and the cruelty of the (Syrian) regime, we will not rest easy."

TALKS

Despite the tough rhetoric, Russian and Turkish officials are talking behind the scenes. Turkish and Russian officials held talks in Ankara on Saturday and Cavusoglu said a Turkish delegation would go to Moscow on Monday for talks.

Cavusoglu also had talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Munich on Saturday - the first ministerial level meeting between Ankara and Moscow since the situation deteriorated in Idlib.

Cavusoglu tweeted that he had a "positive meeting" with Lavrov but that Turkey would not be "making an evaluation" until after Monday's talks in Moscow. Lavrov said Russia had very good ties with Turkey, but the sides did not always agree on issues.

Cavusoglu was also quoted by Russian news agencies as saying differences over Syria should not affect Ankara's relations with Moscow or disrupt a contract for the purchase of Russian S-400 missile defence systems which has strained Turkey's ties with Washington.

Erdogan said his phone call with Putin - his second since the Turkish troops were killed - had been positive and that statements by other Russian officials that criticised Turkey did not reflect the tone of the call.

However, Erdogan later criticised Russia for its support of Assad in the conflict: "Russia's efforts to capture land for a regime that is the enemy of its own people is nothing more than extending its life through a respirator. Soon even a respirator won't work and, God willing, the regime will suddenly turn into a corpse."

In the conflict in Syria, which began in 2011, Turkey has supported rebels looking to oust Assad. Erdogan said this week the Turkey-backed rebels launched an offensive to retake some areas they had lost to Syrian forces.

State-run Anadolu news agency said buses carrying commandoes and trucks with more military equipment had been sent to reinforce the Turkish observation posts.

The increased violence in Idlib has caused hundreds of thousands of people to abandon their homes and head north to the Turkish-Syrian border. Turkey, which hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees, has said it cannot handle a new influx.

Syrian state media said Syrian troops had began clearing barricades from a highway between Damascus and Aleppo after recovering full control of the road for the first time in more than seven years.

Syrian state media also reported advances by Syrian government forces towards rebel-held Atarib, some 24 km (15 miles) west of Aleppo, and three towns to its northwest.

On Friday, Turkish and Syrian state media reported Turkish-backed Syrian rebels shot down a government helicopter west of Aleppo in the Idlib region.

(Additonal reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut and Umit Bektas in Istanbul; Editing by Edmund Blair, Helen Popper and Timothy Heritage)
Seven Maldivian nationals including a child housed at the quarantine facility in Delhi's Chhawla may leave for their country on Monday evening after completing screening for coronavirus infection, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) said.

"We are comfortable with the services they are providing. We have six beds here. Doctors do our check-up on a daily basis," one the Maldivians said.

Maldivian nationals along with 406 Indians who were evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of coronavirus, were sent to the quarantine facility in Chhawla.

ITBP had earlier said that 406 people housed at the quarantine facility in Chhawla area will be discharged next week if they test negative for coronavirus.

In the first test, samples of all 406 people were found negative, officials had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Caroline Flack addressed her struggles with mental health on social media in the months leading up to her death.

The former-Love Island host killed herself after a worried friend who was staying with her went to the shops, just hours after she was told she would face trial for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend Lewis Burton, something she denied.

Yet the star - who died age 40 - had admitted in recent months that she had been feeling 'weird' and revealed 'when I actually reached out to someone they said I was draining'.

'You don't know what's going on... Ever' The late Caroline Flack posted about mental health on social media in the lead up to her death - including a particularly poignant message for Mental Health Day

In an Instagram post she uploaded on 14 October 2019, Caroline captioned a photo of herself: 'I wanted to write something about mental health day last week but I was knee deep in work. And some days its hard to write your feelings of your not in the right place.

'The last few weeks Ive been in a really weird place... I find it hard to talk about it... I guess its anxiety and pressure of life... and when I actually reached out to someone they said I was draining.

'I feel like this is why some people keep their emotions to themselves. I certainly hate talking about my feelings. And being a burden is my biggest fear...

'Im lucky to be able to pick myself up when things feel s**t. But what happens if someone cant. Be nice to people. You never know whats going on. Ever.' [sic]

Tragedy: The star - who died age 40 - had admitted in recent months that she had been feeling 'weird' and revealed 'when I actually reached out to someone they said I was draining' [pictured in December]

CAROLINE FLACK: A CALL FOR HELP? Caroline Flack spoke often about her struggles, both in interviews and on social media. Caroline said, following her Strictly success: 'Fame doesn't make you happy' STRICTLY CURSE? The Strictly Come Dancing 2014 winner has said that she felt depressed following her victory on the BBC show. After she won the series along with professional partner Pasha Kovalev, she admitted that she felt like she was 'being held together by a piece of string which could snap at any time'. In an unearthed interview cited by the Daily Star following her death, Caroline claimed that, 'It all started the day after I won Strictly. I woke up and felt like somebody had covered my body in clingfilm. I couldn't get up and just couldn't pick myself up at all that next year.' She went on: 'People see the celebrity lifestyle and assume everything is perfect, but we're just like everyone else. Everyone is battling something emotional behind closed doors - that's life. Ignored? 'When I actually reached out to someone they said I was draining,' Caroline admitted in October 2019 'Fame doesn't make you happy.' 'BEING A BURDEN IS MY BIGGEST FEAR' In an Instagram post she uploaded on 14 October 2019 - to mark World Mental Health Day - Caroline captioned a photo of herself: 'Some days its hard to write your feelings of your not in the right place. 'The last few weeks Ive been in a really weird place... I find it hard to talk about it... I guess its anxiety and pressure of life... and when I actually reached out to someone they said I was draining. 'I feel like this is why some people keep their emotions to themselves. I certainly hate talking about my feelings. And being a burden is my biggest fear... 'Im lucky to be able to pick myself up when things feel s**t. But what happens if someone cant. Be nice to people. You never know whats going on. Ever.' [sic] SOCIAL SILENCE Signs of suicide? She liked tweets about calling The Samaritans over Christmas Caroline was told to stay off social media following her assault charge in December 2019. However, she notably liked a string of tweets in the days afterwards, before Christmas, encouraging those feeling lonely over the holidays to seek help. The tweets - posted by the likes of actress Sheridan Smith, journalist Stacey Dooley and comedian Luke Kempner - included the telephone number for The Samaritans' suicide hotline. She also posted to Instagram around the same time: 'This kind of scrutiny and speculation is a lot to take on for one person to take on their own... Im a human being at the end of the day and Im not going to be silenced when I have a story to tell and a life to keep going with... 'Im taking some time out to get feeling better and learn some lessons from situations Ive got myself into to. I have nothing but love to give and best wishes for everyone.' SELF-HELP? It was reported that Caroline had decided to write a book, during her recent time off. 'Caroline has found the process incredibly cathartic,' one of her friends told the Mail. 'She wants it to be more than just a story about her. She wants to talk about the problems shes encountered and how shes overcome them. 'She hopes to be able to help others who may be going through similar difficulties. Part self-help, part memoir is the style that Caroline is looking for.'

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This post was uploaded following World Mental Health Day on 10 October.

Caroline also liked a string of tweets at Christmastime encouraging those feeling lonely over the holidays to seek help.

The tweets - posted by the likes of actress Sheridan Smith, journalist Stacey Dooley and comedian Luke Kempner - included the telephone number for The Samaritans' suicide hotline.

After Caroline took part in 2014's series of Strictly Come Dancing - which she won along with professional partner Pasha Kovalev - she admitted she felt depressed.

In an unearthed interview cited by the Daily Star, Caroline claimed that, 'It all started the day after I won Strictly. I woke up and felt like somebody had covered my body in clingfilm. I couldn't get up and just couldn't pick myself up at all that next year.'

Food for thought: She took to Instagram often to post inspirational quotes

Love yourself? Caroline appeared to struggle with self-care

Signs: Caroline's woes were apparent in 2018; in another, now-heartbreaking, post, she captioned a quote - 'My dad always taught me this. And there has been times this week when I havent felt like doing this at all. But woke up today thinking HELL! Hes right'

She went on: 'I felt I was being held together by a piece of string which could snap at any time. People see the celebrity lifestyle and assume everything is perfect, but we're just like everyone else. Everyone is battling something emotional behind closed doors - that's life. Fame doesn't make you happy.'

She took to Instagram often to post inspirational quotes. In early December, next to a quote that read 'In a world where you can be anything, be kind', she typed: 'Anything... we can literally choose to be anything...'

She also posted a Stephen Hawking quote which read: 'One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don't throw it away.'

She posted to Instagram in July 2018: 'Just be nice. You never know how someone is feeling even if they are smiling on the outside'

Caroline's woes were apparent in 2018. She posted to Instagram in July of that year: 'Just be nice. You never know how someone is feeling even if they are smiling on the outside.'

In another, now-heartbreaking, post, she shared a quote that read: 'No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.'

She captioned this: 'My dad always taught me this. And there has been times this week when I havent felt like doing this at all. But woke up today thinking HELL! Hes right.'

It was also reported that Caroline had decided to write a book, during her recent time off.

Self-help: It was also reported that Caroline had decided to write a book, during her recent time off

'Caroline has found the process incredibly cathartic,' one of her friends told the Mail. 'She wants it to be more than just a story about her. She wants to talk about the problems shes encountered and how shes overcome them.

'She hopes to be able to help others who may be going through similar difficulties. Part self-help, part memoir is the style that Caroline is looking for.'

Caroline's friend had been staying with her recently, concerned for her well-being.

On Friday, Caroline was told the case against her for assaulting her boyfriend last December would go ahead, something she denied.

A call for help? Caroline also liked a string of tweets at Christmastime encouraging those feeling lonely over the holidays to seek help

According to sources, the morning afterwards, Caroline's producer friend went to the shops. She returned to find she could not get into the flat in East London. She called Caroline's father, Ian, who gained entry to the property and found his daughter's body.

The family confirmed Caroline's death with a short statement on Saturday evening. It said: 'We can confirm that our Caroline passed away today on the 15th February.'

Caroline's management hit out at the CPS for pursuing the 'show trial' against her, after her boyfriend Lewis Burton - whom she is said to have attacked - chose not to press charges, she denied the charges.

A CPS spokesperson issued a statement, they said: 'Our deepest sympathies go to the family and friends of Caroline Flack.

'Given the tragic circumstances, we will not comment on the specifics of this case at this stage.'

Her trial was due to take place in less than three weeks and had left the presenter feeling 'she was on her own' and 'couldn't see a way out', friends have said.

Lewis said she hit him with a lamp at her former home in Islington in December before retracting the statement. It is also thought that she was using anti-depressants before her death.

If you have been affected by this story, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org.
MORADABAD: Congress leader Imran Pratapgarhi, who had contested 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Moradabad on a Congress ticket, has been issued Rs 1.04 crore show cause notice for 'violating section 144' by addressing anti-CAA protesters at a sit-in in Moradabad.

The notice issued by additional city magistrate (first) Rajesh Kumar, asks Pratapgarhi `why Rs 1.04 crore spent on deploying force to maintain law and order in and around the Eidgah should not be recovered from him`.

Imran Pratapgarhi, who has termed the notice as `pressure tactics by the BJP government to silence opposition`s voice`, has been accused by the administration of allegedly provoking people of a particular community and fuelling enmity between two communities.

He said that the notice was issued on February 6. He has been asked to explain why he should not submit a personal bond of Rs 10 lakh with two sureties. Official sources said that Rs 13.42 lakh is spent per day on the police and paramilitary forces, including one platoon of Rapid Action Force, half section of Provincial Armed Constabulary and police force deployed at the Eidgah. So, the eight-day expense adds up to Rs 1.04 crore.

Pratapgarhi said, "I reached Moradabad on February 7. But, the notice was issued on February 6. Besides, I had informed the SP (city) as well as the administration of my visit so that they could provide me security. I reached the Eidgah directly. During my address, I also appreciated the police and administration for their support."

He further said, "I have been participating in similar protests and sit-ins across the country, but not received any such notice. Recently, I was in Lucknow where I addressed the people there. Local administration says that Section 144 is in force. But, it is actually for those who are opposing the government. Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya was recently in Moradabad and addressed a large gathering in support of the CAA but for him Section 144 is not effective," he said.

People, including a large number of women, have been protesting at the city Eidgah since January 29, and such notices, according to an official, are "only precautionary measure to avert violent protests".

ACM Rajesh Kumar, however, explained, "The organizers of the dharna and Congress leader Imran Pratapgarhi have been issued notices. Since, Section 144 is in force in the district any such assembly is unlawful. Police had informed us on February 6 about his arrival the next day. So, we had to issue the notice on the same date. Such notices are issued as precautionary measures to warn those people who may pose a threat to law and order. No further action will be taken until any untoward situation erupts at the protest site. We mentioned an amount of Rs 1.04 crore in the notice. Imran has been instructed to submit a personal bond of Rs 10 lakh with two sureties."

The Moradabad administration has issued notices to at least 12 individuals, which include Imran Pratapgarhi. The official further said that 11 of them had already submitted a personal bond of Rs 5 lakh each. Pratapgarh was given seven days to respond which has now expired.
The four men convicted for the December 2012 rape and murder of Nirbhaya are yet to be hanged. President Ram Nath Kovind had earlier rejected a mercy petition filed by one of the convicts. India has carried out four executions since 2004, the last having been in 2015.

Three of the accused were convicted of terrorism, while one was guilty of raping a minor. In 2018, 186 convicts were awarded the death penalty, a 53% rise from 121 in 2017, according to the latest Prison Statistics India-2018 of the National Crime Records Bureau. More than 40% of those sentenced to death in 2018 ...
Original Jimi Hendrix 1969 Gunther Kieser "medusa head" concert poster The Kieser Hendrix poster is probably one of the most iconic and enduring rock concert posters produced in the 1960s.

Avid Collector, Andrew Hawley from Vintage Rock Posters, announces his search for original Jimi Hendrix 1969 Gunther Kieser "medusa head" concert posters. The Kieser Hendrix poster is probably one of the most iconic and enduring rock concert posters produced in the 1960s. According to Hawley, "German concert poster artist Gunther Kieser was one of the top designers in the 1960s. He created 33 x 47 inches and 24 x 33 inches in size tour blanks for a nine-city tour over 12 days in Germany in January 1969. The tour started in Hamburg and ended in Berlin. The word Experience is written in white lettering over the Hendrix image on the smaller poster, while the larger poster has Experience printed in black ink on the white tour blank section. Kieser placed his credit along the middle edge of the poster on the right side in small letters."

Hawley adds, "Many American GIs in Germany went to the Hendrix concerts, so it is likely a retired veteran still possesses a poster." For examples of psychedelic concert posters, please go to

Jimi Hendrix psychedelic concert posters.

Hawley is willing to pay $5,000 cash for original Kieser Jimi Hendrix 1969 German tour posters or any other vintage 1967-1970 Jimi Hendrix concert posters. Please call 310-346-1965 or email andrew(at)vintageconcertposterbuyer(dot)com.
Police have declared a major incident in South Wales after severe flooding from Storm Dennis overnight.

Streets have been evacuated with the help of a lifeboat in some of the worst-hit areas and people moved to emergency rescue centres after their properties and businesses were devastated by water from overflowing rivers.

On Sunday afternoon South Wales Police said they had declared a major incident as firefighters and rescue crews continued to help communities who have been cut off due to the flood water.

Assistant Chief Constable Jennifer Gilmer, said: I would like to reassure the public who have been affected that we are doing everything we can, and will continue to work tirelessly until all risks dissipate.

I would like to thank all our emergency services and rescue partners for their assistance and professionalism.

A member of the public wades through floodwaters (Ben Birchall/PA)

I have very clear advice for everybody, which is not to panic, and to be sensible, stay well clear of any danger such as streams and rivers, and contact us in an emergency.

The force have told people in affected areas to stay indoors unless a journey was necessary, avoid waterways, and monitor local and social media for updates.

Advice for people in affected areas 



 Remain indoors, unless your journey is absolutely necessary.

 Steer well clear of dangers such as waterways.

 In an emergency, dial 999  let highly skilled emergency service and rescue staff deal with incidents safely.  South Wales Police (@swpolice) February 16, 2020

Ms Gilmer later told the PA news agency she felt her force had done enough to warn the public of the risk of flooding, stating that the subsequent rainfall was worse than people had anticipated.

She said: When things began to escalate overnight we were very well placed to escalate our response and get to as many people as possible.

South Wales Fire and Rescue Service area manager Ian Greenman said the the service had received an unprecedented 1,300 calls during Sunday and had carried out 76 life rescues.

One of the worst-hit areas in South Wales was the village of Nantgarw, Rhondda Cynon Taff, near Cardiff, which had seen entire streets left underwater since the early hours of Sunday morning.

Emergency teams including firefighters and volunteers had been evacuating the villages Oxford Street since around 5am and were still working midday on Sunday.

Paul Mason, group manager of South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, said the scene his team had faced was the worst he had experienced in his 31-year career.

Rescue operations continue in Oxford Street, Nantgarw (Ben Birchall/PA)

He said: We started getting calls at 5am.

The water was up to the window sills in some instances, so we sent a number of boats and crews down here to assist with our partner agencies, systematically going through each of the houses, knocking on doors, trying to prioritise individuals.

This weather is unprecedented.

(PA Graphics)

We havent seen this, its incredible, and its right throughout the South Wales Valleys.

In my 31 years in the service this is the worst Ive ever seen.

Ive never experienced anything like this before.

He said some residents had refused to leave their homes despite being encouraged to, but would be monitored for their safety.

Resident Greg Curtis, 68, was rescued by lifeboat from the street around 1pm, said he and his wife were first woken by neighbours banging his home at 4am on Sunday morning, and described the incident as a nightmare.

#StormDennis continues to affect the UK. Here are the latest rainfall totals (all in south Wales) and highest gusts from the storm 



Stay #WeatherAware pic.twitter.com/iWUxQHmn6J  Met Office (@metoffice) February 16, 2020

He said: The water was about two feet up to my house.

It just came really quick.

I feel a bit miffed, but it is what it is.

Ive lived here for 46 years and weve never had anything like this here.

Residents are taken to safety (Ben Birchall?PA)

When the water comes down Ill go back and then well get into the insurance part and fight to get whatever.

Melanie Hughes, 38, was also evacuated by lifeboat with along with her husband and two daughters, said she was awoken by shouting and car alarms in the early hours, and said many of their familys possessions had been lost.

She said: Everyones safe, which is the main thing. We were lucky.

But our cars, kitchen, furniture, its all gone.

Provisional rainfall for last 48 hours (12pm today) 

Maerdy (Rhondda) 163mm

Crai Reservoir (Upper Usk) 162mm

Tyn y Waun (Rhonnda) 156mm

Nant Yr Isfa (Cynon) 154mm

Storey Arms (Taff/Usk - Brecon Beacons) 135mm

Hirwaun (Cynon) 135mm https://t.co/s7p34zZnKM #flooding pic.twitter.com/eAom1f9NfI  Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru | Natural Resources Wales (@NatResWales) February 16, 2020

Its going to be a couple of months of hard work, now.

It was filthy, there was nothing to salvage.

Katherine Murphy, another evacuated resident, said: Our downstairs is just a total mess.

Its filthy everywhere, it smells, its horrible.

I went downstairs about 5am because an alarm was going, and I saw there was water coming in downstairs. It was really quick.

Outside the cars were under water.

Chris Davies, director of the Arc Training company in the nearby Treforest industrial estate, said the bottom floor of his business was totally under water, and said he was concerned whether the incident would be covered by insurance.

He said: My thought now is whether this is covered by insurance, because its a natural occurrence.

It could mean a loss of business for us. It will take weeks to get back now. By the time you get your insurance claim in, get money back in, buy all new stuff, start trading again, youre talking thousands.

Elsewhere, the town of Pontypridd was also hit by flooding after the River Taff burst its banks, forcing shops and businesses to remain closed on its main shopping street while cars were left stranded in roads.

In Swansea, a man was declared dead after being pulled from the River Tawe near Trebanos Rugby Club.

Dyfed-Powys Police said that a man in his 60s was seen entering the river near Gorsedd Park in Ystradgynlais area at about 10am on Sunday morning.

The force said he was rescued further along the river, but despite paramedics battling to save his life he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said the death was not being treated as suspicious or being linked to the bad weather.

Rhondda MP Chris Bryant set up a crowdfunding page to raise a target of 3,000 for residents affected by flooding in his constituency.

I have set up a crowdfunder to support those affected by the floods in the #Rhondda.



If you can, please donate and RT:https://t.co/h1F4fObhP0  Chris Bryant (@RhonddaBryant) February 16, 2020

The Labour MP wrote: Seeing the floods devastate our communities is truly heartbreaking.

Homes and businesses across the Rhondda have been affected by the winds and rain of Storm Dennis and many families will have lost everything.

Weve been inundated with offers of support and help. At present the emergency services are advising volunteers to stay safe but will require support in the aftermath.

In Carmarthen, west Wales, the RSPCA had to save a flock of sheep who were stranded on farmland.

A flock of sheep stranded in Carmarthen (RSPCA)

Jason Finch, RSPCA inspector national water rescue coordinator, said: Were on full alert status. Weve responded to more than 50 major incidents in just the past few hours today.
To be counted as a suspected case, individuals have to check several boxes, including symptoms and travel history

A lab technician works on samples being tested in Wuhan. AFP photo

A sudden surge in the number of novel coronavirus cases in China has put a spotlight on the ways patients are tested for the illness, from lung imaging to uncomfortable lab tests that are not always accurate.

On Thursday, China saw its largest one-day jump in confirmed cases  adding over 15,000  after health officials in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, changed their counting criteria to include those "clinically diagnosed".

Here's a look at what that means and how testing for the COVID-19 illness works in China:

How does China test for COVID-19?

In China, the main way to test patients is using the Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) technique.

RT-PCR tests can detect the new coronavirus in patient blood or respiratory tract samples, including those taken from the nose or throat.

In a video released last week by a hospital in Wuhan  the quarantined city where the virus first emerged  medical staff demonstrated how to retrieve samples from a patient's nose.

Inserting a stick deep inside her colleague's nostril, one of the women instructed viewers to move the instrument in clockwise and counterclockwise circles.

The depth should be "halfway between the tip of the nose and earlobe", she explained, as the mock patient's eyes pinched shut.

Once samples are collected, they are sent to labs and processed in batches.

Zhang Hongxing, head of Wuhan's health commission, said last week the city tested about 6,000 to 8,000 people daily.

Besides nucleic acid tests, another method to confirm cases uses genetic sequencing, according to guidelines released by China's National Health Commission.

Patients test positively if the genetic sequence of their blood or respiratory tract sample has a "high degree" of similarity with that of the virus.

Who qualifies for testing?

Not everyone can be tested for the illness  patients have to be marked as a "suspected case" first.

To be counted as a suspected case, individuals have to check several boxes, including symptoms and travel history.

Anyone who has travelled to Wuhan or neighbouring areas are considered more likely to be infected, according to NHC guidelines.

Those who have had contact with confirmed COVID-19 patients or Wuhan visitors with a fever are also higher risk.

"Suspected" patients can also show symptoms linked to the new coronavirus, such as a fever or low white blood cell count.

Why is Hubei counting differently?

Apart from lab-based tests like RT-PCR kits, Hubei health officials are also using lung imaging to "clinically diagnose" patients.

If lung images show pneumonia, patients who are already marked as suspected cases are confirmed as infected without the need for a positive RT-PCR test.

As of Saturday, around 17,000 people were clinically diagnosed in Hubei.

The goal is to "facilitate early diagnosis, early treatment... and improve the success rate of treatment," said Zeng Yixin, vice minister at the NHC at a press conference Friday.

No other provinces have adopted Hubei's standard, he added.

"It's a very interesting and logical approach," said Jessica Justman, associate professor of medicine in epidemiology at Columbia University.

Using lung images only works for "people with more advanced symptoms", she told AFP, which means it would not be used to screen patients early on.

But for those later-stage individuals, if there is no access to RT-PCR tests "it makes sense", said Justman.

What are the key challenges to testing?

Testing capacity remains a challenge in China, said experts, especially as the number of cases continues to soar while researchers race to develop faster and more accurate tests.

Laboratory tests like RT-PCR require special equipment, a clean environment, and "highly skilled staff", said Justman, to prevent samples from becoming contaminated.

The genetic sequencing option is also not "widely available", she explained. "For now it is an exciting but costly 'high tech' approach and interpretation of the results can be complex."

To mitigate this issue, Hubei province  which accounts for 82 percent of nationwide cases  has received reinforcements from other regions and China's centre for disease control to process nucleic acid tests.

Chinese genetics firm BGI Genomics also set up a lab in Wuhan earlier this month, which it says can process up to 10,000 samples a day.

Another issue with current tests is speed  RT-PCR tests can take two to three hours, said John Nicholls, clinical professor in pathology at the University of Hong Kong.

And if hospitals have a limited daily capacity to run tests, that in turn becomes a "ceiling" for monitoring the spread of the epidemic, said Ben Cowling from Hong Kong University's School of Public Health.

Finally, RT-PCR kits can result in false negatives for a variety of reasons, including issues with the kits themselves, the technicians, or improper sample collection, said Cowling.

"No test is totally accurate," added Nicholls. That's why testing is "very much an area that needs improvement".
For the second time since the start of the Novel coronavirus outbreak in China, Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland is being called on to quarantine American evacuees from Asia. This time it is passengers stranded on a cruise liner in Yokohama, Japan, who are to be flown here.

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo sent an email to American passengers aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship saying that a chartered flight will arrive today for those who want to return to the United States. The evacuees will follow a similar procedure of those Americans brought home earlier from China. They will first be flown to Travis AFB in California and some will then be flown to quarantine at Lackland AFB.

The exact number of evacuees that will be quarantined at Lackland and when they will arrive is still being determined, said Scott Pauley, a spokesman from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Buses will move Americans and their belongings from the ship to the chartered plane, and the evacuees will be screened for symptoms before boarding, the email read. We recognize this has been a stressful experience, and we remain dedicated to providing all the support we can and seeing you safely and expeditiously reunited with family and friends in the United States.

Pauley said the time of arrival of the passengers is still being determined, based on the number of evacuees and how long the screening process takes.

On Feb. 7, more than 90 American evacuees from China arrived at Lackland from Travis AFB to start a 14-day quarantine. Since then one person has been hospitalized in San Antonio with Novel coronavirus.

Currently, passengers aboard the cruise ship are being monitored for symptoms of the virus, including a fever. If anyone shows signs of the illness, they will be taken to a hospital. This will continue through out their process back to the United States.

The passengers will be screened before leaving the ship and monitored and evaluated by medical and public health personnel every step of the way, including before takeoff, during the flight, and after arrival, the CDC and Department of Health and Human Services said in a joint statement Saturday. U.S. Government staff will conduct risk assessments to ensure the health of each traveler, including temperature checks and observation for respiratory symptoms.

Once off the ship, Americans will board the State Department-chartered aircraft that will fly them to Travis AFB. There, the travelers will be screened again. Any passengers showing symptoms of the illness will be taken to a hospital.

Some of the evacuees aboard the flight will be quarantined at Travis AFB while others will be flown on to Lackland, where they will again be screened upon exiting the plane.

There are approximately 400 U.S. citizens aboard the cruise ship, at least 40 of which have already been taken off the ship after being infected with the virus. Pauley said the number of evacuees coming to the U.S. may decrease, depending on if anyone shows symptoms during the screening process in Japan.

American passengers aboard the ship can also opt not to fly back to the U.S. and serve the remainder of their quarantine in Japan.

News from aboard the ship is coming out over social media. A passenger, Matthew Smith, has posted tweets and photos from aboard the Diamond Princess. Smith said he and his wife were against taking the chartered plane back to the U.S. just to have to undergo another two weeks of quarantine.

If we stay on board through next week, we will be tested and will likely come up negative, Smith tweeted Saturday. The U.S. governments alternative is to cram us on a bus and plane  all so we can be locked up for 2 more weeks in the US? Thats just stupid.

The passengers have been quarantined on the ship since Feb. 5. That 14-day quarantine is due to end Wednesday. The U.S. State Department urged American passengers to return home.

To fulfill our governments responsibilities to U.S. citizens under our rules and practices, as well as to reduce the burden on the Japanese health care system, the U.S. government recommends, out of an abundance of caution, that U.S. citizens disembark and return to the United States for further monitoring, the department said in a statement.

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said those who choose not to return on the charter flight will be unable to return to the United States for a period of time.

Japans Health Ministry allowed 11 passengers to disembark Friday, saying that those over 80 years old or with underlying medical conditions, as well as those staying in windowless cabins during the 14-day quarantine, can stay at a designated facility on shore.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Next year it will be 20 years since I packed up my Volkswagen Polo with everything I owned and headed to Canberra to start a career as an economist at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

The memory of seeing Parliament House in the distance after the seven-hour solo drive from Melbourne remains vivid. As is the memory when a few weeks into my new job Australia was rocked by its biggest ever corporate collapse, that of insurer HIH.

HIH founder Ray Williams attends the royal commission into the collapse of the insurance giant in 2002. Credit:AAP

The HIH collapse shook confidence in the entire insurance industry and its regulator, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). In response my-then boss, prime minister John Howard called a royal commission.

While that royal commission did not find APRA responsible for HIH's collapse, it did find that the regulator had not recognised the trouble the large insurer was facing until too late. Recent comments from APRA's current head of private health insurance signal that the regulator does not intend to let lightning strike twice.
UAE Classification Society (Tasneef) has been authorised by the Government of Gabon to carry out surveys on the countrys behalf and issue statutory certificates on Gabon flagged ships.



The International Ship Registry of Gabon has signed a historic agreement with the UAE Classification Society (Tasneef) on February 12, to be its approved Recognised Organisation to carry out ship surveys and issue Statutory Certificates on Gabon Flagged ships.



This will help UAEs Tasneef to help fast track ship survey and boost Gabons ship registry.



The agreement was signed by Engineer Saeed Saleem Al Maskari, chief executive officer of Tasneef and Hysham A Shaikh, commissioner for Maritime Affairs, Republic of Gabon, at the head offices of Tasneef in Abu Dhabi.



Each ship is required to undergo survey and classification before being registered by a particular country in order for it to become available for commercial use or chartering. A vessel cannot be commissioned for use without a proper registration by a particular country.



According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) worldwide more than 96,000 ships with a combined capacity of 1.97 billion dead-weight tonnes (DWT) handle about 90 percent of the $19.48 trillion annual global trade. The rest of the goods are transported through land and air. Of these, 65,000 ships or 67.9 per cent of the global fleet are registered with the developing countries.



We are very excited to assign UAEs Tasneef to handle ship surveys and issue Statutory Certificates on behalf of the Republic of Gabon that will help boost the Gabon Flag, Hysham A Shaikh, commissioner for Maritime Affairs, Republic of Gabon, said after signing the agreement.



This is a very good news for all stakeholders and will help boost bilateral cooperation between the UAE and Gabon  an emerging economy, he said.



In 2018, 90 per cent of global shipbuilding, in terms of tonnage, was located in China, Republic of Korea and Japan.



As of January 2019, the top five ship-owning economies combined accounted for 51 per cent of world fleet tonnage. Greece held a market share of 18 per cent, followed by Japan (11 per cent), China (11 per cent), Singapore (6 per cent), and Hong Kong (5 per cent).



Almost half of the worlds tonnage was owned by Asian companies. Owners from Europe accounted for 41 per cent and from Northern America for 6 per cent. Companies from Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Oceania had shares of one per cent or less.



Many commercial ships are registered under a flag that does not match the nationality of the vessel owner. For example, at the beginning of 2019, one half of all ships owned by Japanese entities were registered in Panama; one fifth of the ships owned by Greek entities were registered in the Marshall Islands, and another fifth in Liberia.



Panama (333 million DWT), Marshall Islands (246 million DWT) and Liberia (243 million DWT) were the leading flags of registration. Hong Kong and Singapore followed in fourth and fifth place. Among these five, Marshall Islands have recorded the strongest increase in registrations in recent years.



Tasneef is a leading Non-IACS (International Association of Classification Societies) Classification Society in the Gulf Region and Gabon Flag is a rising ship registry with the Maritime Administration office based in UAE.



The signing ceremony was attended by Waleed Al Tamimi, general manager and Gulab Ramchandani, head of Classification & Statutory of Tasneef and Karan Kapoor, technical director and Ibrahim Shaikh, technical manager from Gabonese Maritime Administration, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Candidates for Midland County sheriff revealed who they would select to serve as chief deputy. The men made the announcement at a forum Thursday night at the Greenwood Volunteer Fire Department.

The current chief deputy, Rory McKinney, said he would choose Jeff Haile, a captain with the Midland County Sheriffs Office public safety division and former sergeant with the Midland Police Department.

Hes been here. He knows the citizens of Midland County, McKinney said in an interview following the forum. We already have a good relationship with the police department, but since he retired from there, its even better. Hes real respected. Hes a Christian man. The employees really respect him.

Hes one of those guys, too, when he has an idea, its not his way or the highway. If he has an idea, hes going to listen to his employees  I think thats huge, also.

Tom Hain, University of Texas of the Permian Basin police chief, said he would select Ronny Aaron, an investigator with the Midland County District Attorneys Office. He said Aaron worked at MCSO for about 15 years before he began working for the district attorneys office.

Hes well-liked in the community. Hes well-liked at the DAs office. Hes a wealth of knowledge  very intelligent man  and he knows the ins and outs of the sheriffs office, Hain said.

Joe Lozanos choice would be Glenn Wells, former assistant constable for Precinct 2.

Ive known him for years, Lozano said. Weve worked together in different ways. I even helped him re-run again for constable Precinct 2. I campaigned for him, put up signs for him.

More for you Sheriff candidates respond to MCSO criminal investigation

And David Criner, Precinct 1 constable, said he had not yet decided on his choice for chief deputy.

The chief deputy position is the second-in-command at the sheriffs office. Although sheriffs are elected every four years, the sheriff has the power to appoint his chief deputy, according to the Texas Association of Counties.

Primary early voting for all county positions on the ballot begins Tuesday. Election Day for both parties primaries is March 3.
Doug Timmerman, president of Ally Auto Finance, and Susanna Schrobsdorff, executive editor and chief partnerships officer of TIME, announced Moffitt as the winner at a ceremony where all the dealer nominees were honored. Timmerman remarked: "Everyone nominated for the TIME Dealer of the Year Award deserves recognition for their selfless dedication not just to their businesses, but to the communities that support them. It's my pleasure to recognize Susan for her outstanding work, and to thank all the incredible dealers across the country who put giving back at the center of their careers."

In addition to Moffitt, four dealer nominees were recognized as Dealer of the Year finalists:



David Kelleher , David Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram, Glen Mills, Pa.

, David Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram, Natalie Tindol , Tindol Ford Roush, Gastonia, N.C.

, Tindol Ford Roush, David Cuene , Broadway Automotive, Green Bay, Wis.

, Broadway Automotive, Diana Pfeiffer , Alaska Sales and Service, Anchorage, Alaska

As exclusive sponsor of the TIME Dealer of the Year Award, Ally will give $10,000 to the charity of Moffitt's choice. Ally also will donate $5,000 to each of the nonprofit organizations selected by the four finalists and Will Green, president of the Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association, who nominated Moffitt for the award. In recognition of their achievements and generosity, Ally also gave $1,000 to the charities of choice for each of 49 nominees. For more information on each of the nominees, please visit www.AllyDealerHeroes.com.

Moffitt earned degrees in business administration and finance at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, La. in 1983 and 1984 before joining the Bossier City, La. dealership founded by her father, Fred. After college, Moffitt was the dealership's cashier and telephone operator, and also worked in the service department. She later switched to sales, where she excelled and found her niche.

Today, she shares ownership of Moffitt Automotive with her two brothers and sister. The group oversees dealerships in Bossier City and Shreveport, representing the Audi, Mazda, Porsche and Volkswagen brands.

Moffitt continues her father's legacy of giving back by spearheading numerous charitable initiatives. She is a lifetime sponsor of the Louisiana State University (LSU) Health Foundation and LSU Health Shreveport and served as chair of An Evening for Healers in 2017, a fundraiser for the medical and research center. Moffitt is also proud of her association with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. For the last four years, Moffitt Automotive has donated a car to the hospital's fundraising initiative, the St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway.

Other groups that Moffitt supports include Catholic Charities; Shriners Hospitals for Children; Betty & Leonard Phillips Deaf Action Center (Shreveport); Shreveport-Bossier Military Affairs Council (liaison between the civilian/business community and the commanders of Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier Parish); Barksdale Air Force Base (Bossier Parish); Special Olympics; Volunteers of America North Louisiana; Shreveport Symphony Guild; Boy Scouts of America Norwela Council; and the Holy Angels residential care and programs for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Shreveport.

The TIME Dealer of the Year winner and finalists were chosen by a faculty panel from the Tauber Institute for Global Operations at the University of Michigan. Dealers are nominated for the award by state and regional automotive trade association executives.

About Ally

Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) is a leading digital financial-services company with $180.6 billion in assets as of December 31, 2019. As a customer-centric company with passionate customer service and innovative financial solutions, we are relentlessly focused on "Doing it Right" and being a trusted financial-services provider to our consumer, commercial, and corporate customers. We are one of the largest full-service automotive-finance operations in the country and offer a wide range of financial services and insurance products to automotive dealerships and consumers. Our award-winning online bank (Ally Bank, Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender) offers mortgage-lending services and a variety of deposit and other banking products, including savings, money-market, and checking accounts, certificates of deposit (CDs), and individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Additionally, we offer securities-brokerage and investment-advisory services through Ally Invest. Our robust corporate finance business offers capital for equity sponsors and middle-market companies.

For more information and disclosures about Ally, visit https://www.ally.com/#disclosures.

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All of Westminster was aflutter this week with news of the prime ministers (or was it Dominic Cummings?) reshuffle. Some were pushed, one jumped.

In the days before the announcement, conflicting reports emerged as to what was in store for the governments top jobs.

One publication lauded the prime ministers intention to catapult a whole legion of women into the cabinet; while another warned he was primed to axe several women.

In the end, there was definitely no catapult, nor did anyone spot a legion of women descending on No 10. And while the use of the word axe seems a bit extreme, we have wound up one less woman in the cabinet than previously.

The general election of 2019 saw a record number of women standing for parliament and a record number of female MPs elected; 220 of the 650 overall total in the Commons.

Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Show all 17 1 /17 Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Sajid Javid Resigned as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr Javids departure comes just one month before a crucial budget, intended to chart the course for the new government  and makes him the shortest-serving chancellor for more than 50 years Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Rishi Sunak Promoted from Chief Secretary to the Treasury to Chancellor of the Exchequer after the dramatic resignation of Sajid Javid Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Esther McVey Sacked as housing minister AFP via Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Andrea Leadsom Sacked as business secretary EPA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Changed role: Alok Sharma Appointed business secretary (previously international development secretary). He has also been put in charge of the UKs COP26 climate change summit PA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Attorney General Geoffrey Cox Resigned as the government's most senior law officer AFP via Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Suella Braverman Appointed Attorney General and she will attend cabinet EPA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Theresa Villiers Sacked as environment secretary PA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: George Eustice Appointed environment, food and rural affairs secretary. He was a farming and fisheries minister Reuters Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Changed role: Anne-Marie Trevelyan Appointed international development secretary (previously parliamentary under-secretary for defence) Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Julian Smith Sacked as Northern Ireland secretary Reuters Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Brandon Lewis Appointed Secretary of Northern Ireland Reuters Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Stephen Barclay Appointed chief secretary to the Treasury PA Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out In: Oliver Dowden Appointed culture secretary, succeeding Nicky Morgan Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Chris Skidmore Sacked as eucation minister Getty Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: Nus Ghani Sacked as transport minister Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament/CC BY 3.0 Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle: Who's in and who's out Out: George Freeman Sacked as transport minister Getty

Women make up roughly half the population  both in the UK and globally  and yet only a third of MPs and a quarter of the cabinet are female.

The i newspaper policy editor, Jane Merrick, said it feels like successive prime ministers [have been talking] about pipelining women through junior ministerial ranks so they can one day get to the cabinet for about 20 years.

Former MP Cathy Jamieson pointed out that men dont need to be pipelined through the junior ministerial ranks towards career success.

Just look at the meteoric rise of our brand new chancellor. Rishi Sunak followed in William Hagues footsteps when he successfully held the seat of Richmond in Yorkshire for the Tories in October 2014; six years later, he holds the second most powerful office in the land. (Or does he? But thats for another column, another day.)

Sunak was appointed as chief secretary to the Treasury in 2019, a position he held for all of 10 minutes in political years before being handed the keys to No 11. To be fair, he did also hold the impressively long title of parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for 18 months before that.

Lets take a look at Andrea Leadsoms credentials by comparison. (I know, I know, Id really rather not as well, but Im trying to make a point here). She has been economic secretary to the Treasury (13 months), energy minister (14 months), environment secretary (11 months), leader of the House of Commons (11 months) and business secretary for seven months. And she was an arch-Brexiteer. But where is she? Gone.

And what about Esther McVey? She worked in various roles from parliamentary under-secretary of state for disabled people to employment minister, deputy chief whip, work and pensions secretary and housing minister. Also a fervent supporter of Brexit  adios.

Women are getting pipelined then sidelined... brought into a junior role, sometimes rising to a mid-rank role then ousted. They rarely rise up to one of the four great offices of state.

The United Kingdom has had two female prime ministers and three female home secretaries  but thus far, no woman has ever held the title of foreign secretary, chancellor of the exchequer  or leader of Labour party, for that matter.

The women who have risen to the pinnacle of the political profession have been held in peculiarly different regard from each other  Maggie Thatcher, the Iron Lady, was beloved of all Tories and despised by all of Labour. Theresa May, on the other hand, was seemingly hated, or at least strongly disliked, by almost everyone, and pitied by a few.

Thatcher was seen as an anomaly, the exception that proves the rule as far as women in leadership roles go. May was seen as a reason why women shouldnt be allowed anywhere near power ever again.

Yet men arent labelled as proof their gender shouldnt hold office when they move on. Their individual failure at a job isnt used as proof that no member of their gender is equipped to hold certain roles.

May annoyed many of her Tory colleagues during her tenure as PM due to her refusal to schmooze and play the political game. She preferred, instead, to read every single word of briefing documents several times over to ensure she was fully informed of the facts before participating in a discussion or taking a decision. Thatcher operated in a similar way  on just four hours sleep a night apparently.

Our two women prime ministers put in the hard yards; they had to know more than anyone else in the room, to have all of the facts at their disposal in a way that did not generally apply to their male colleagues.

All because, Maggie and May knew, even just one slip-up would never be forgiven, and definitely not forgotten. They had to deliver a clear career scoresheet, free of infractions and indiscretions.

There is no bouncing back from a scandal seen to be caused by women MPs in the way we so often see it with men.

Probably most depressing of all is the realisation that for all the attempts that women make to ascend the political ladder, the decision to get them into the top jobs rests, for the most part, in the hands of men (general election aside).

Despite the fact there are a record 220 female MPs in the Commons now, of the Conservative partys thumping majority of 364 MPs, just 87 are women.

With Boris Johnson touted to be in government for the best part of the next decade, were unlikely to see many more women getting anywhere near the top for a good while yet. Predictable it may be, but it is no less depressing.
A long run of dismal figures for retail sales is expected to end this week, delivering a welcome boost for the economy.

Official numbers for activity in January, due on Thursday, are likely to show some return to growth after five months of either flat or declining sales.

The volume of retail sales fell by 0.6 per cent in December compared with November.

And once motor fuel such as petrol was excluded, the figures were even worse, with both the volume and value of sales dropping 0.8 per cent.

Divine intervention: Has Boris Johnson's election victory positively affected consumer sentiment?

But the British Retail Consortium said its sales monitor, covering the period up to January 20, showed sales had picked up.

Chief executive Helen Dickinson said: 'January saw a return to growth. However, recent political uncertainty and a decade of austerity appear to have ingrained a more thrifty approach among consumers.'

Peter Dixon, international economist at Commerzbank, said this week's figures from the Office for National Statistics 'will be the first post-Christmas and post-Election monthly numbers'.

He added: 'It will be interesting to see if the Boris factor has positively affected consumer sentiment.'

Alasdair McKinnon, manager of Scottish Investment Trust, told The Mail on Sunday: 'I would not expect any fireworks, but I am interested to see how the first full set of post-Election figures turn out.'
It wasnt going to get a hearing, so sad to say this was the negotiating process. We had to find a way to open up a dialogue with the super majority, because the people leading the Senate and the House have no sympathy for Gary and often come up with creative ways to make it worse, he said.
The Research and Innovation Forum on novel coronavirus was convened in Geneva, Switzerland on Feb. 11 and 12.

Co-organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness, the forum was convened in line with the WHO R&D Blueprint  a strategy that coordinates global R&D forces to discover the research focus of the novel coronavirus, discuss therapeutic schemes and promote development of vaccines.

Over 400 experts and deputies from relevant organizations attended the forum, both in person and virtually. They believe that the focus of the short-term research should be developing easier means of diagnosis, providing the best treatment plans for patients, and the study on epidemiology. The development of vaccines and drugs shall be the focus of the mid-term research, they said.

Attendants to the forum praised Chinas measures and responsibility in containing the epidemic, saying the international society should join hands to curb and eliminate the epidemic as early as possible.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus extended his greeting to Chinese scientists participating in the event through Internet in his opening remarks at the forum. He said the WHO stands with the Chinese people in solidarity, and wishes them courage, patience, success and good health in these extremely trying circumstances.

Multiple consensuses were achieved at the forum, including naming the novel coronavirus pneumonia the COVID-19. Tedros noted that naming the disease can avoid inaccuracy or stigma, and offer a standard format for other coronavirus epidemics that will possibly occur.

Facing the challenge posed by the COVID-2019, the WHO and attendants to the forum called on the international society to work with solidarity and collaboration, and shift major focus on R&D and epidemic prevention.

The director-general noted that the international society should use the window of opportunity and try its best to contain the COVID-2019, as there are still not many infections outside China. He called on the public to enhance protection and stressed to avoid overreaction.

Attendants to the forum agreed to cope with the epidemic with solidarity. Executive Director of WHO Health Emergencies Programme Michael Ryan said that the WHO doesnt recommend measures to restrict travel or trade. Risks exist everywhere, and the key to cope with them is to match strategies with the level of them.

It is learnt that the first batch of experts organized by WHO have arrived in China to assist with controlling the epidemic. They are specialized in multiple areas such as clinic management, virology, vaccine and drug development, ecological investigation, epidemiology, public health and risk communication.

At the forum, the WHO recognized the decisive and forceful measures taken by China which helped avoid massive spread of the epidemic in other parts of the world. It believes that it is because of Chinas quick identification of the pathogen and sharing of the sequence that larger spread was avoided.

Meanwhile, the WHO called on national leaders to demonstrate strong leadership and political will when dealing with public health challenges, stressing that Chinas performance was worth learning from.

Director Carlos Morel of the Center for Technological Development in Health under Brazils Ministry of Health told Peoples Daily that the Chinese government and Chinese people have made huge sacrifices in and contribution to combating the epidemic. He said that China has earned a valuable window of opportunity for the international society, adding that the world would have faced more pressure were it not for Chinas decisive measures.

Chinas quick response to the epidemic left a deep impression on Marion Koopmans, head of the Viroscience department of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. She appreciated the efforts made by Chinese scientists who isolated and sequenced the virus in two weeks and shared it with the world.

She said the two makeshift hospitals with over 1,000 beds each built by the Chinese government in Wuhan were completed in amazing speed, and China demonstrated unusual execution in the combat against the virus.
Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - The Sixth African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARDF-VI) will be held from 24 to 27 February in Victoria Falls (tourist city of Zimbabwe) under the theme: "2020-2030: A decade to ensure the advent of a transformed and prosperous Africa through the Programme 2030 and Agenda 2063," sources close to the organizers indicated on Sunday
A large number of Bhim Army members took out a protest march on Sunday against the Supreme Court's ruling that state governments are not bound to provide reservation in promotions in public services.

Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad led the protest march from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar. He has given a call for a 'Bharat Bandh' on February 23 demanding that the government brings an ordinance to nullify the ruling.

Harjeet Singh Bhatti, the spokesperson of the Bhim Army, said, "The judgment of the apex court is totally against the Constitution's promise of right to equality."



The Supreme Court has held that states are not bound to provide reservation in appointments and there is no fundamental right to claim quota in promotions.

The apex court said this while dealing with pleas regarding Uttarakhand government's September 5, 2012 decision to fill up all posts in public services in the state without providing reservations to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The government's decision was challenged in the Uttarakhand High Court, which struck it down.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Nepal government on Sunday evacuated 175 Nepali citizens, mostly students, from Hubei province, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus, by a special aircraft and put them under quarantine for two weeks.

A chartered plane- Airbus A330- took off from Tribhuvan International Airport to Wuhan Tianhe International Airport on Saturday afternoon to bring back the Nepali nationals, including 170 students, an employee, two visitors and two children.

Three pilots, six crew members, an engineer, a loadmaster and a medical team comprising a doctor, nurses and paramedics from the Nepal Army were on board the flight to China.

The Nepalese were evacuated from six cities of the province, including provincial capital Wuhan, Enshi, Shiyan, Yichang, Jingmen and Jingzhou.

Highest number of Nepalese, 55, were evacuated from Wuhan, according to a press release issued by the Embassy of Nepal in China.

Out of the 185 applicants who expressed willingness to fly back home, four later decided to stay back in China, while six could not board the plane due to medical reasons.

Those evacuated have been taken to Nepal Electricity Authority Training Centre, Kharipati in Bhaktapur district, 15 km east of Kathmandu, for quarantine after undergoing a health check-up at the Kathmandu airport.

According to a notice issued by the Ministry of Health and Population, the evacuees would be kept under quarantine for two weeks or longer.

Those evacuated will stay in 60 rooms, with six persons sharing one restroom. Each evacuee has been provided with masks, hand sanitisers, towels, soaps and slippers.

Those quarantined should record their body temperature twice a day and should immediately inform the medical team if they think they have any symptoms of COVID-19.

The evacuees will not be allowed to meet their family members during the quarantine period and will be under CCTV surveillance round the clock, according to the health ministry.

The government has also made provisions for psychological counselling in the centre.

The health ministry, through a notice, asked the evacuees to abide by the rules and regulations during their stay in quarantine.

A time-table has been fixed for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also, the evacuees can spend their time by playing various games at the centre.

Five Nepalese, who arrived from China last month and suspected to have developed symptoms of the virus, have been admitted to state-run Shukraraj Hospital in Kathmandu.

Of them, one person, who had tested positive for the coronavirus, was discharged after treatment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held several meetings on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, including with the US special envoy on Afghan reconciliation and the Saudi foreign minister, and discussed regional and global issues with them.

"Met @US4AfghanPeace Zalmay Khalilzad at #MSC2020. Appreciated his update on the Afghanistan negotiations," Jaishankar tweeted.

Met @US4AfghanPeace Zalmay Khalilzad at #MSC2020. Appreciated his update on the Afghanistan negotiations. pic.twitter.com/Nw6zRtvUGF  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) February 15, 2020

In another tweet, he said he had a meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Saturday (local time) and "appreciated his perspectives on global and regional issues".

"Look forward to working with him in the Strategic Partnership Council," he added.

The meetings come in the backdrop of a possible deal between the US and the Taliban to reduce violence, which could eventually lead to withdrawal of American troops from the war-torn Afghanistan.

The Munich Security Conference, being held from February 14-16, is the world's leading forum for debate on international security policy and is held annually. It was established in 1963.

The external affairs minister also met Australian and Singaporean defence ministers Linda Reynolds and Ng Eng Hen, respectively, and said India is working with them to take security cooperation forward.

On his meeting with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah, Jaishankar said, "Our contemporary relationship has been built on strong historical and cultural foundation. Will work together to take it to greater heights."

He met members of the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee and held "a very good conversation" on the EU, Germany and India.

"Appreciated their strong interest in taking our relationship forward," he said.

The external affairs minister also had a meeting meeting with a US congressional delegation led by Senator Jim Inhofe, the chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee.

"Discussed our growing strategic cooperation.Value their interest in building this relationship," he said.
Kim Min-ju, designer of "Minju Kim" and the winner of Netflix's fashion competition series "Next in Fashion," poses during an interview with The Korea Times at the paper's office, Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul





By Park Ji-won







You may assume that if a fashion designer continues to sweep up international awards and run his or her brand successfully for years in the cutthroat industry that the person would become self-centered and picky about everything  like a devil wearing Prada.







But Kim Min-ju, designer of "Minju Kim" and the winner of Netflix's latest fashion competition series "Next in Fashion," which aims to establish a designer to lead the next generation of the international fashion scene, completely reverses the norm.







Kim won the fierce race by releasing 10 breathtaking design pieces in the final competition round and ended up receiving $250,000 as a prize with a chance to release her brand at high fashion online mall Net-a-Porter. Throughout the competition, Kim's designs received high appraisal for their voluminous silhouettes and feminine details in playful patterns; which is the identity of Kim and her brand. Her latest collection is available online, and some items have already sold out.







In addition to her achievements on the Netflix show, Kim has been already showing unprecedented performance as an emerging designer; in 2013, she won the H&M Design Award as a student working on a capsule collections with the fast fashion brand while being shortlisted for the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers in 2014.







She also has been successfully running her own brand "Minju Kim" since 2015, releasing collections every year in the global market and working with leading K-pop groups such as BTS and Red Velvet. She is the one who designed BTS's world tour costumes for their songs "DNA" and "I Need You," while dressing Red Velvet in the music video for its song "One of These Nights."







However, regardless of her triumphant designs, as many witnessed in the show, she insisted to remain remarkably humble and knew the significance of working with others and the power of asking questions, which may have played a significant role in her victory in the competition and which resulted in designs resembling the designer's personality.







"I love feedback. I am so happy when someone gives me an answer. I cannot create fashion designs by myself. I always have my team behind me. I ask my sewers and staff everyday whether I am okay with making the design in certain ways," 33-year-old Kim told The Korea Times during an interview at the paper's headquarters in Seoul, Thursday.







"I am extremely happy to win the competition But I am a very lucky person. I have really good memories and experiences in my life. I will do my best with my work so that I could give people a choice in fashion and share good things with them. That is what I believe and I continue to try to become a better personwhich is forever my goal."







Girl with no intention to pursue fashion







Born and raised in the southwestern city of Gwangju, Kim studied in New Zealand in her teens with hopes to become an art teacher but then started studying fashion at Samsung Art and Design Institute (SADI) in Seoul after graduation following her parents' advice.







"I loved painting and wanted to become a cartoonist since I was young. I was planning to enter an art school in New Zealand, but my parents gave me advice to study fashion in Seoul and that was the beginning of my career in fashion I was not a person who was born to become a fashion designer. I was far from being fashionable and envious of my colleagues who wore fashionable clothes in design school. That's one of reasons that it took me such a long time to study fashion and assure myself that I really love fashion."







She later went to Belgium to continue her fashion career at the prestigious Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, where she learned the joy of being a fashion designer and the love toward fashion being surrounded by renowned fashion figures including designer-professor Walter Van Beirendonck, she recalls. At the school, Kim learned how to be make art and design into fashion, which helped her to launch her own brand rather than working as an employee of a fashion company.







Kim Min-ju, designer of "Minju Kim" and the winner of Netflix's fashion competition series "Next in Fashion," poses during an interview with The Korea Times at the paper's office, Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul





Kim Min-ju, designer of "Minju Kim" and the winner of Netflix's fashion competition series "Next in Fashion," poses during an interview with The Korea Times at the paper's office, Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

A piece from Minju Kim's Spring/Summer collection 2020 / Courtesy of Minju Kim





Kim aimed to make her own path in the international stage with her brand based on her international background. However, she found it hard to keep working remotely with clients overseas without a local base. That's when she decided to establish a base camp in Seoul where there are lots of garment factories with skilled cutters and sewers.







"When I first started my collection, I kept trying to release them for overseas markets. However, even though I worked with highly renowned fashion designers, it didn't work well as I was far away (from the client) and could not using my mother tongue, Korean. So I came back to Korea so that I can communicate with people face-to-face and control the products' quality directly."







She also took the advice of Jung Ku-ho, creative director of KUHO and one of the most renowned local designers, urging her to promote her brand in Korea, which was one of the main reasons that she accepted Netflix's proposal to participate in the fashion survival show.







"I met Jung, the artistic director of Seoul Fashion Week, and was told that a Korean designer needs to be loved by Korean people as it makes the fashion brand sustainable. The advice helped me to settle my mind to expand business here."







Inspirations from daily life in Korea







Kim's artworks are known for being voluminous, wearable and their sophisticated coloring that is uniquely feminine. Her works look somewhat similar to Korean traditional "hanbok" garments.







She said she didn't mean to create hanbok-like costumes, but it comes out naturally while being inspired by her daily life and the things around her.







"When I release my patterns and designs, people often say they are very Korean style. (My experiences here) come out naturally in designs My hometown is Gwangju. That's why I said in the pattern-making episode that forsythia is pretty in spring. I get inspiration when I take rest alone. I play games a lot, watch movies, go to museums and buy design books."







She self-proclaims her brand as "fairytale-like" and her collection as a diary because it contains so many things inside, that can be interrelated in many ways and touch the hearts of all.







"My collections are like my diary. I try to make my thoughts and moments which were beautiful or sad into part of my collection. For example, in my third collection which includes patterns about cats, I wanted to recall the moment I adopted my kitty. When I had bad dreams after breaking up with people who I liked, I put the memories into my collection."







Goal as aspiring designer







Kim is now working on her Fall/Winter 2020 collection to be presented at the Paris Fashion and Seoul Fashion weeks, which are slated for the last week of February and the beginning of March, respectively; while also collaborating with Korean fashion firms. She is planning to expand her design lineup which has primarily been dresses so far. Kim not only works as a designer, but also busy a lecturer at Kookmin University nurturing the fashion designers of tomorrow.







She said the reason she can work as a designer and a lecturer is simply because she likes her past work and doesn't want to regret being idle with her art pieces.







"I didn't give up because I love what I did. Some people say designers should not look back. But I think my past works can create the next me; my new work. That's why I want to do my best and be more honest with myself."







She said she will continue to do what she does and keep working hard to help people get inspired through her work.







"I am so happy that I can teach the way I get inspired and make ideas into illustrated artworks I would remain the same with my brand as well. There are so many brands in the world. I don't have a big picture. But I simply want to stay close to customers. I want to make my brand as one of the options that give people a chance to sense their feelings and styles which were easily forgotten."







Kim Min-ju, center, designer of "Minju Kim" and the winner of Netlix's fashion competition series "Next in Fashion," poses with the programs hosts Alexa Chung, left and Tan France after winning the competition in this undated photo. Courtesy of Minju Kim




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While many of the ways we tried to reduce violence were right, and we reduced murders by half, there is one approach that I deeply regret: the use of a police practice called stop-and-frisk, he said. I defended it for too long, I think, because I did not understand the unintended pain it caused to young black and brown kids and to their families. I should have acted sooner and faster to stop it. And for that I have apologized.
According to her, the recent threat by Shekau targeted at Pantami is as a result of SIM card and registration policy affecting them.
It started out as a joyous day for Olumide. On 31 January, the 32-year-old Nigerian American learned in an email that the US was finally processing the visa applications of his wife and daughter in Nigeria.

Hours later, Donald Trump shattered their celebration, announcing that he was adding six countries to the travel ban, including Nigeria. The decision cuts off pathways to permanent US residency for Nigerians, throwing Olumides case into limbo at the final stage of the process. It leaves his wife and and 11-year-old girl stuck across an ocean with little hope of making it to the US.

This is inhuman, said Olumide, a systems analyst and US military veteran who served in Afghanistan and lives in Washington DC. He asked to use his middle name out of fear he might jeopardize his case. As a soldier, I understand the need to protect the country. But to completely shut the doors  its just plain wrong.

Millions of Africans now banned: We are not criminals

Trumps January order builds on the 2017 travel ban that has continued to target five Muslim-majority countries, and significantly restricts permanent residency for nationals from Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria and Myanmar. It also blocks people from Tanzania and Sudan from obtaining green cards through the diversity visa lottery.

Just like the 2017 restrictions, it blocks permanent immigration from the targeted countries, making limited exceptions if applicants prove that denials would cause undue hardship and that granting them visas would support national interest.

The original ban already resulted in denied visas for more than 42,000 people, the majority from Iran. The addition of the new countries has doubled the number of Muslims targeted across the globe to roughly 320 million, advocates estimate. Roughly one-quarter of all Africans are now affected.

The restrictions now apply to 13 countries, including Nigeria, home to Africas largest population and economy. It cuts off countries where some are fleeing violence. Some estimate the new ban, which goes into effect on 21 February, could hinder more than 12,000 immigrants seeking to resettle in the US and reunite with family in the next year.

Story continues

The restrictions are a signature component of Trumps aggressive anti-immigrant agenda, which has included curbs on legal migration, a destruction of the American asylum system, an all-time low cap on refugees, expanded detention and mass deportations.

Trump started out by scapegoating Muslims in 2017, said Javeria Jamil, attorney with Asian Americans Advancing Justices Asian Law Caucus, who has been fielding calls from families affected by the new ban. Now, its not just the Muslim ban. It has turned into an African ban.

The Trump administration has claimed that the ban, which blindsided some diplomats, is a national security measure, and that the added countries failed to meet US security and information-sharing standards.

But immigrant rights groups said the policy is a political maneuver amid Trumps re-election campaign  and one that will have profound consequences.

People are in turmoil, said Audu Kadiri, a 43-year-old community organizer who left Nigeria in 2014. He had planned to bring his mother to the US, but the ban may make that impossible. The activist, who now lives in the Bronx, hasnt yet told his mother about Trumps order, because he doesnt know how to break the news. There is so much collateral damage, its hard to quantify.

In Nigeria, Kadiri was an LGBTQ+ rights advocate who worked on HIV prevention and other human rights issues. He was forced to flee due to his activism and sought asylum in the US. Its now unsafe for him to return to Nigeria, which is why he wants his 68-year-old mother to come to the US.

He hasnt seen her since 2014 and, if Trump is re-elected, he fears it will be at least another five years before they reunite. Shell probably miss the birth of his third child.

Nigerians have contributed to the development of this country, like every immigrant community, he said. We are not criminals.

Torn apart, with dwindling options

Before the January announcement, the Trump administration had already clamped down on travel from Africa, including hikes in visa fees, and new obstacles and increased denials for Nigerians seeking approval for short-term visits. The US further suspended visitor visas from Eritrea in 2017.

That means families have been fighting for years to use the dwindling avenues available to them to reunite, and for those who have invested significant time and money into the process, the sudden news of an outright ban was particularly brutal.

Theres nothing you can do, and it makes you feel so helpless, said Olumide, the veteran. Olumide arrived in the US from Nigeria when he was 10 years old. He met his wife in Nigeria in 2012 after he left the military, and the two got married last year.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services approved the petition for his wife and daughter in January, just before the announcement of the ban. But they dont yet have their visas  and the ban may make it impossible to get them.

Olumide had hoped they would be starting their lives together in the US by now, and said he was pained by feelings of guilt: I made promises to her. The couple hasnt fully processed the news, he added: We dont want to think about not being together.

He noted that his daughter has typhoid and his wife has malaria, and he constantly fears for their health and safety.

Hana Mohamed, a 20-year-old student in San Diego, who grew up in Sudan, said she was eager for her grandparents to come to the US, especially so her grandmother could get medical care in California: Its just so sad and frustrating. They are getting older, and I want to see them before anything happens.

Mohamed said it was difficult to accept that the US was banning large groups of Muslims in the name of safety while seeming to do little about the ongoing terror threat of American mass shootings: Its just so shocking that we have come to this day where a whole nation of people are getting discriminated against. Isnt the purpose of the United States to stand up for everyone who is getting hurt and treat them right?

Isnt the purpose of the United States to stand up for everyone who is getting hurt and treat them right? Hana Mohamed

One Eritrean American who works as an engineer in Silicon Valley, and requested anonymity for fear of hurting his familys case, has petitioned for his mother to come live with him in the US and was hoping she would soon get an interview date at the embassy. Then the new ban was unveiled.

Weve waited our turn. Weve followed the law. Im a tax-paying citizen contributing to the economy, he said, noting that his mother is 69 years old and lives alone in Eritrea. This is just pure evil.

He said he felt Trump was implementing the ban as a soundbite for the campaign while disregarding that it would leave Eritreans like his mother with no options: This was our only hope to get her here.

For Eritreans, the ban comes as as the Trump administration has ramped up deportations of Eritrean asylum seekers, despite the US governments own acknowledgment of the torture and arbitrary detention Eritreans are currently facing.

Abraham Zere, an Eritrean journalist who was granted asylum in the US and now lives in Ohio, said it seemed some Eritreans were reluctant to speak out about the ban and live in fear of potential repercussions from both governments: People are scared to even discuss it.

Zeres own family is affected: his mother is still in Eritrea, separated from her children. She cant even video chat with her family because of the poor internet in Eritrea, which means she never gets to see her granddaughter, an eight-year-old she hasnt yet met, he said.

Some warn the ban may have life-or-death consequences. For queer and transgender migrants in the targeted countries, it could lead them to embark on perilous journeys to escape to the US as they run out of options, said Zack Mohamed, who is Somali American and a member of the Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project: This is a big not welcome sign in front of our faces.

In response to questions about the impact on migrants fleeing violence, a US state department spokesperson said the ban was not meant to limit the ability of an individual to seek asylum, adding: Our first priority remains national security. We continue to work with our dedicated consular officers in the field to identify and expedite those individuals with urgent travel needs.

Asked about charges that the ban is discriminatory, the spokesperson said the restrictions are based on nationality and visa category and that consular officers do not adjudicate based on religion. The spokesperson said there were specific criteria to determine which countries are restricted and noted that Chad was on the original list but removed in 2018.

Fighting to end the ban

With the first travel ban upheld by the US supreme court, there are few recourses left to challenge the policy. Advocates are hoping a Democratic president will immediately repeal the ban and have also recently renewed the push for Congress to pass the No Ban Act, which would end the ban and prevent discriminatory immigration policies.

Until then, Trump will continue to use his executive power to try to redefine what it means to be a citizen, advocates warned.

The president of the United States, the US government is explicitly trying to decide who gets to be an American, said Eric Naing, who is Burmese American and works with Muslim Advocates, a group that has challenged the ban. His family would not have been able to come to the US if the ban on Myanmar had been in place. Hes saying I shouldnt be American. My parents shouldnt be American. Its deeply upsetting.

Olumide noted that the ban was punishing countless American citizens like him: Its hurting the exact people youre trying to protect.
A Langwarrin man is lucky to be alive after he was shot at before being hit by a car in Carrum Downs on Sunday morning.

Police say the 25-year-old man was walking along Cadles Road when he was approached by a person with a gun who fired a shot at him at around 8.20am on Sunday morning.

Detective Senior Constable Jonathan Silk said the man was uninjured by the shots, but was almost immediately run down by a driver in a stolen car black Ford Focus.

"Two shots were fired at the victim, who was then struck by the vehicle almost immediately after.

"At this stage we believe its (the Ford Focus) driven straight at him and struck him on the footpath."
The past decade really has been a story of bust to boom. Ten years ago many of Ireland's Rich List regulars were experiencing the harsh realities of the recession.

The 2010 Rich List opened by describing how the country was 'on its knees' and explained how the property values had fallen drastically. It listed several prominent business names from the noughties who had seen a dramatic reversal of their fortunes. Few of them have recovered the wealth they lost in the crash.

First among these challenged business leaders was Sean Quinn who was still in the top ten overall at this stage. But the list estimated that he was down 2.5bn, leaving him with a wealth of just 845m. Worse was to come for him.

Former Anglo Boss Sean FitzPatrick, whose fate would be intertwined with Quinn's, was also flagged as someone who had seen a dramatic reversal in fortunes.

Back in 2010 developer Bernard McNamara owed 1.2bn - he was to go bankrupt in 2012. However, he has since rebounded, getting back into the property market although not at the extents seen before the crash.

Another boomtime developer Liam Carroll owed over 1bn when the Rich List was compiled in 2010. Dubbed the shoe-box apartment developer, he has not re-emerged as a builder during the recovery.

While many of the top noughties Rich List names are no longer in the top ten - including Quinn and the former owner of Independent News and Media, Tony O'Reilly - several have held onto their wealth and increased it.

Dublin-born Hilary Weston, whose family owns Brown Thomas, Arnotts and Selfridges, was estimated to be worth 3.67bn in 2010. The Westons are now worth 8.6bn. The low profile Pallonji Mistry from India, who is married to Dubliner Patsy Perin Dubash, topped the list in 2010 with riches of 4.4bn - today that wealth is worth an estimated 13.8bn.

The most notable change to the top ten has been the rise of the Collison brothers from Limerick. When the Rich List was published a decade ago, Patrick was 21 and John just 18. They were already being tipped as promising tech entrepreneurs but their $35bn payments company Stripe was just being founded in 2009. The latest fundraising puts a valuation of $4.2bn each on their stakes in Stripe, on paper at least. The brothers have created a massively valuable company over the decade.

Others to see their worth increase significantly over ten years have been Eugene Murtagh, founder of insulation company Kingspan. In 2010 his worth was just 440m. It has risen to 1.88bn as the value of the company has soared. Developers the Comer Brothers made some fantastic returns on properties they bought during the recession. They have broken into the top ten on the Rich List after revealing further information about their extensive property portfolio. Beef Baron Larry Goodman has also moved into the billionaire's circle over the last decade, with new documents from Luxembourg giving new insights into the scale of his empire last year.

While there are several new entrants to the 2020 list, there are plenty more promising entrepreneurs building up their businesses - and their bank balances.

For example, Irishman John Lyttle, the new chief executive of BooHoo.com is in line to collect 50m (58m) in company shares if he delivers enough growth at the online fashion retailer. Tyrone woman Sarah Friar, CEO of Nextdoor, oversaw a funding round last year which valued the social network company at $2.1bn and she is likely to earn a big payday if the company lists on the stock market.

In the world of film and music, there are also some extremely bankable Irish stars including Saoirse Ronan, who was nominated for her fourth Oscar for her role in Little Women. Like the other potential future rich listers, she looks set to have some very lucrative years ahead.

Select 1. The MIstry Family 2. The Weston Family 3. The Collison Brothers 4. John Grayken 5. Denis OBrien 6. The Comer Brothers 7. Larry Goodman 8. John Magnier 9. John Dorrance III 10. JP McManus 11 - 25 26 - 50 51 - 75 76 - 100 101 - 125 126 - 150 151 - 175 176-200 201-225 226-250 The Rich List 2020




A body of industrialists in Jammu on Sunday welcomed the initiative of the administration to conduct roadshows across the country from February 17, ahead of the Global Investors' Summit in Jammu and Kashmir later in the year.

Bari Brahmana Industries Association (BBIA) expressed hope that the step followed by the proposed summit would attract massive investment in the industrial sector in the coming months and create employment opportunities for local youth.

In the run-up to the mega event, the Union Territory administration has come up with a plan to send 54 of its top officers to conduct roadshows across the country from February 17. Each roadshow will focus on showcasing specific sectors for seeking investment in Jammu and Kashmir.

"BBIA hails the initiative taken by the UT administration to hold roadshows...Our association is receiving a number of inquiries from prospective Investors for setting up their units in Jammu and Kashmir but they are waiting for the announcement of Central and state government fiscal incentives and the industrial policy which is under active consideration of the administration," president of the association Lalit Mahajan said.

Chairing a meeting of the association, he said the Central and state governments provided fiscal incentives from 2002 onward for the setting up of units in Jammu and Kashmir keeping in mind the disadvantages of location, shallow market due to hostile neighbouring countries and other related issues for long.

"It is the need of the hour to provide long term fiscal incentives for the inter-state sale and also for the intra-state sale to compensate the additional cost of raw materials and dispatch of finished goods to attract new investment," Mahajan suggested.

Drawing the attention of Lieutenant Governor G C Murmu, he said a lot of attention is being given to attract investments from big industrial houses across the country which is a welcome step for rapid industrialisation in Jammu and Kashmir but focus is also required on the MSME sector as well.

"MSME sector has the potential for providing mass scale employment to local youth," he said, adding that the sector can also provide an opportunity to local youth to set up their own units with comparatively less investment.

"We request the Lt Governor to take up the matter with the Central government for the finalisation of the central package of incentives as well as state fiscal incentives for the industrial sector of Jammu and Kashmir and also to notify the new industrial policy as early as possible to attract massive investment in the industrial sector," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Reduction of Karnataka's share in central taxes, appointment of Anand Singh as Forest Minister with pending cases against him under Karnataka Forest Act, shooting incident at Mangaluru during anti-CAA protests are expected to turn the legislature session, beginning Monday, into a stormy affair.

The session will begin with Governor Vajubhai Valas address to both the Houses of the legislature, and will conclude on Thursday, February 20. The State budget will be presented on March 5, after the session resumes on March 2. The session concludes on March 31. The Houses had last met from October 16 to 24 in Bengaluru as the winter session scheduled in Belagavi was called off, citing damages caused by floods in the region.

It is also the first session after the December by-poll results ensured a clear majority to the Yediyurappa-led BJP government, formed after the defection of 17 MLAs from the previous Congress-JD(S) coalition.

While the governors speech will highlight the achievements of the government, the opposition parties are planning to corner the government with a large number of issues that has rocked the state in the past few months.

Questions on the decrease in tax share to Karnataka effected by the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission, the Mangaluru shooting incident and sedition cases against those criticising the Citizenship Amendment Act - especially against children in Bidar - and irregularities in flood relief are likely to be raised by

the Opposition.

The controversy over the conflict of interest appointment of Anand Singh as Forest Minister, when several cases for violation of the provisions of the Karnataka Forest Act are pending against him might also force the government on the back-foot.

Moreover, the alleged involvement of Revenue Minister R Ashokas son in an accident that claimed two lives in Ballari district has provided ammunition for opposition parties.

Complaints of irregularities in providing relief to victims of one of the worst floods in almost a century are also expected to embarrass the government, which had promised all help to victims.

Concerns over reduction in funds allocated to several schemes of the government along with allegations of disparities in funds sanctioned to various constituencies might also be raised by the Opposition MLAs.
New Delhi: Actress Tara Sutaria was joined by her boyfriend Aadar Jain (Ranbir and Kareena Kapoor's cousin) at the ongoing Lakme Fashion Week on Saturday. The couple made the spotlight follow them as they were seen twinning in black. Tara wore a crop top and camouflage pants and looked totally chic while Aadar pulled off a casual look. Tara and Aadar were spotted taking a stroll at the ground and soon left the venue in the same car.

Here are the pictures we are talking about:

(Images Courtesy: Yogen Shah)

Tara and Aadar have been dating for some months now but have yet not acknowledged a romance officially. However, pictures of them together at family events, parties and get-togethers tell a different story.

She was Aadar's plus one at brother Armaan Jain's wedding parties and also performed with him. Just last week, Ranbir Kapoor's sister Riddhima also sort of confirmed Tara and Aadar's relationship status by posting a 'family picture', which she later deleted. Riddhima shared the frame with Armaan and his wife Anissa Malhotra and Aadar and Tara.

On the work front, Tara, who made her big debut with Karan Johar's 'Student Of The year 2' in 2019, was last seen in 'Marjaavaan' opposite Sidharth Malhotra. Aadar Jain made his film debut in 2017 with 'Qaidi Band'.
New York

In fall 2018, Emily's List had a dilemma. With congressional elections approaching and the Supreme Court confirmation battle over Judge Brett Kavanaugh underway, the Democratic women's group was hosting a fundraising luncheon in New York. Among the scheduled headline speakers was Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor, who had donated nearly $6 million to Emily's List.

Days before the event, Bloomberg made comments in an interview with The New York Times, expressing skepticism about the #MeToo movement and questioning sexual misconduct allegations against Charlie Rose, the disgraced news anchor. Senior Emily's List officials seriously debated withdrawing Bloomberg's invitation.

In the end, the group concluded it could not risk alienating Bloomberg. And when he addressed the luncheon, Bloomberg demonstrated why. "I will be putting more money into supporting women candidates this cycle than any individual ever has before," he declared.

Bloomberg spent more than $100 million helping Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections. Of the 21 newly elected lawmakers he supported, all but six were women.

The decision by Emily's List foreshadowed the choice Bloomberg is now asking Democrats to make by anointing him their presidential nominee.

A former Republican who joined the Democratic Party in 2018, Bloomberg has long mingled support for progressive causes with more conservative positions on law enforcement, business regulation and school choice. He has often given voice to views that liberals find troubling.

Yet in a primary campaign defined by Democrats' hunger to defeat President Donald Trump, Bloomberg is offering himself up as a person singularly equipped to do so.

In less than three months as a candidate, Bloomberg has poured more than $400 million. But that figure pales in comparison with what he spent in prior years positioning himself as a national leader with presidential ambitions.

A Times examination of Bloomberg's philanthropic and political spending in the years leading up to his presidential bid illustrates how he developed a national infrastructure of influence, image-making and unspoken suasion that has helped transform a former Republican mayor of New York City into a plausible contender for the Democratic nomination.

Since leaving City Hall in 2013, Bloomberg has become the single most important political donor to the Democratic Party and its causes. His personal fortune, built on a financial information and news company, is estimated at more than $60 billion. It fuels an advocacy network that has directed policy in dozens of states and cities, mobilized movements to take on gun violence and climate change, rewritten election laws and health regulations, and elected scores of politicians to offices as modest as the school.

In all, Bloomberg has spent at least $10 billion on his charitable and political pursuits. The vast majority has gone to philanthropy, for causes that reflect his personal interests and passions.

But the Times' examination illustrates how deeply that philanthropy is entwined with Bloomberg's political preoccupations. In fact, in 2019, the year he declared his presidential candidacy, Bloomberg's charitable giving soared to $3.3 billion.

Bloomberg's political and philanthropic spending has also secured the allegiance or cooperation of powerful institutions and leaders within the Democratic Party who might take issue with parts of his record, were they not so reliant on his largesse.

It was during his 12 years at City Hall that Bloomberg wrote the playbook for propping up allies and co-opting opponents with a mix of political and charitable giving. Even as he spent $268 million on his three campaigns and made $23 million in campaign contributions to others, his philanthropy gave away $2.8 billion

His philanthropy comprises three separate streams of money. But only one of them, the Bloomberg Family Foundation, is publicly accounted for. The Times' examination found billions of dollars in donations under the Bloomberg Philanthropies umbrella not previously disclosed or itemized  corporate giving by his company, Bloomberg LP, and from his personal checkbook.

In all, by his own accounting, Bloomberg has given away nearly $9.5 billion since 1997. His spending on electoral politics has also steadily increased, from $11 million in 2013 to the more than $100 million during the 2018 midterms.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

All of those funds flow not just from Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg's super PAC, Independence USA, but through an array of advocacy groups that rely on him for millions of dollars.

The foundation, along with Bloomberg's other entities, has become something of a talent stable for people he admires. The foundation's board includes political luminaries as well as current or former executives from major companies.

Much of his giving has been focused in areas like the arts, higher education and global public health. But it has sometimes overlapped with his political agenda, tying him closely to powerful progressive interest groups and amassing reservoirs of gratitude, admiration and influence across the country.

Howard Wolfson, a senior adviser to Bloomberg, said the former mayor tended to approach his large-scale causes by seeking out trusted partners and using various parts of his operation to support them.

The range and reach of Bloomberg's spending, experts said, cannot but play to his advantage.

"The fact that he can call in all these favors all over the country  a normal person can't do that," said Adav Noti, chief of staff at the Campaign Legal Center. "A normal person will never be able to do that."

In the presidential race, Bloomberg has activated his network of allies to great effect. It is that network, as much as the raw force of his campaign spending, that has propelled Bloomberg into contention in the Democratic race. He has climbed to the top rank of contenders.

Bloomberg has promised to spend aggressively to defeat Trump no matter who the nominee is. But advisers acknowledged the scale and focus of his spending would differ depending on whether he is the Democratic standard-bearer.

"If Mike Bloomberg is the nominee, he will ensure that the Democratic Party has the greatest funding in its history," Wolfson said.

If Bloomberg is not nominated, Wolfson suggested a narrower focus. "If you're trying to defeat Donald Trump and you're not on the ballot, you're going to focus on the battleground states," he said.
Joe Swash paid an emotional tribute to his friend Caroline Flack following her tragic death on Saturday, aged just 40.

The Dancing On Ice star, 38, worked with Caroline when they presented the I'm A Celebrity spin-off show together between 2009-2010.

And taking to Instagram Story hours after her death, Joe fought back tears as he revealed that he's going to 'miss her so much' and revealed his sadness that she didn't reach out for help.

Devastated: 'Joe Swash paid an emotional tribute to his friend Caroline Flack following her tragic death on Saturday, aged just 40'

Speaking into the camera, a clearly devastated Joe said: 'I want to send a message to everyone and let everyone know that Caroline Flack was the most amazing person you could ever come across.

'She was funny, super talented, and she had the most infectious laugh.'

As he struggled to contain his emotions, he continued: 'I wish that she could have asked for help because there's so many people that love her and I am going to miss her so much.

'We can't let this happen, we can't let this happen to anyone else.'

'I'm going to miss her so much': The Dancing On Ice star, 38, worked with Caroline when they presented the I'm A Celebrity spin-off show together between 2009-2010

Meanwhile, his partner Stacey Solomon revealed that she was planning on taking some time away from social media following the sad news.

She penned on Instagram Story: 'I'm going to come off of here for tonight.

'I'm going to spend some time reflecting on how lucky I am to have my family and remind myself that you NEVER truly know what's going on in someone's life.

'Kindness is EVERYTHING and it costs NOTHING. Sending so much love to you all, tonight and always.'

So sad: taking to Instagram Story hours after her death, Joe fought back tears as he revealed that he's going to 'miss her so much' and revealed his sadness that she didn't reach out for help

The Loose Women star also shared contact details for a series of helplines.

Their words come after the former ITV presenter killed herself at her new flat in Islington, north London hours after finding out she would face trial over the alleged assault of boyfriend Lewis Burton last year - while the producer friend who was staying with her went to the shops.

When the friend was unable to get back in, she called Flack's father Ian, who made his way into the property before discovering his daughter's body.

The star's management team had previously described her as 'vulnerable' and slammed the Crown Prosecution Service for pushing ahead with her 'show trial' despite Mr Burton saying he did not want to press charges.

Heartbreaking: 'I wish that she could have asked for help because there's so many people that love her and I am going to miss her so much'

In the wake of her death, legions of tributes poured in for the star from several well-known names who knew, loved and worked with her.

Tributes for Caroline included several former Love Island contestants, narrator Iain Stirling and Caroline's pal and show replacement Laura Whitmore.

Following Caroline's death, many fans have taken to social media to demand that Love Island be axed, after she became the third person associated with the show to take their own life.

Moved: Meanwhile, his partner Stacey Solomon revealed that she was planning on taking some time away from social media following the sad news

Time out: 'I'm going to come off of here for tonight. I'm going to spend some time reflecting on how lucky I am to have my family and remind myself that you NEVER truly know what's going on in someone's life'

Former contestants Mike Thalassitis and Sophie Gradon, took their own lives in March 2019 and June 2018.

Among fans calling the show out was This Morning presenter Eamonn Holmes who paid tribute to Caroline while insisting there needs to be 'repercussions.'

He wrote on Twitter: 'Caroline Flack .... Dear God. Shocked beyond belief. May she have found peace. #Rip Has to be repercussions for Love Island now surely?' which garnered more than 27K likes.

CAROLINE FLACK: A CALL FOR HELP? Caroline Flack spoke often about her struggles, both in interviews and on social media. Caroline said, following her Strictly success: 'Fame doesn't make you happy' STRICTLY CURSE? The Strictly Come Dancing 2014 winner has said that she felt depressed following her victory on the BBC show. After she won the series along with professional partner Pasha Kovalev, she admitted that she felt like she was 'being held together by a piece of string which could snap at any time'. In an unearthed interview cited by the Daily Star following her death, Caroline claimed that, 'It all started the day after I won Strictly. I woke up and felt like somebody had covered my body in clingfilm. I couldn't get up and just couldn't pick myself up at all that next year.' She went on: 'People see the celebrity lifestyle and assume everything is perfect, but we're just like everyone else. Everyone is battling something emotional behind closed doors - that's life. Ignored? 'When I actually reached out to someone they said I was draining,' Caroline admitted in October 2019 'Fame doesn't make you happy.' 'BEING A BURDEN IS MY BIGGEST FEAR' In an Instagram post she uploaded on 14 October 2019 - to mark World Mental Health Day - Caroline captioned a photo of herself: 'Some days its hard to write your feelings of your not in the right place. 'The last few weeks Ive been in a really weird place... I find it hard to talk about it... I guess its anxiety and pressure of life... and when I actually reached out to someone they said I was draining. 'I feel like this is why some people keep their emotions to themselves. I certainly hate talking about my feelings. And being a burden is my biggest fear... 'Im lucky to be able to pick myself up when things feel s**t. But what happens if someone cant. Be nice to people. You never know whats going on. Ever.' [sic] SOCIAL SILENCE Signs of suicide? She liked tweets about calling The Samaritans over Christmas Caroline was told to stay off social media following her assault charge in December 2019. However, she notably liked a string of tweets in the days afterwards, before Christmas, encouraging those feeling lonely over the holidays to seek help. The tweets - posted by the likes of actress Sheridan Smith, journalist Stacey Dooley and comedian Luke Kempner - included the telephone number for The Samaritans' suicide hotline. She also posted to Instagram around the same time: 'This kind of scrutiny and speculation is a lot to take on for one person to take on their own... Im a human being at the end of the day and Im not going to be silenced when I have a story to tell and a life to keep going with... 'Im taking some time out to get feeling better and learn some lessons from situations Ive got myself into to. I have nothing but love to give and best wishes for everyone.' SELF-HELP? It was reported that Caroline had decided to write a book, during her recent time off. 'Caroline has found the process incredibly cathartic,' one of her friends told the Mail. 'She wants it to be more than just a story about her. She wants to talk about the problems shes encountered and how shes overcome them. 'She hopes to be able to help others who may be going through similar difficulties. Part self-help, part memoir is the style that Caroline is looking for.'

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Eamonn later added: 'Meaning out of respect, can the series continue?' (sic)

A CPS spokesperson issued a statement, they said: 'Our deepest sympathies go to the family and friends of Caroline Flack.

'Given the tragic circumstances, we will not comment on the specifics of this case at this stage.'

If you have been affected by this story, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org.
The Indian Embassy said it was making efforts for early de-boarding of all the Indians from the ship after the end of the quarantine period

Tokyo: The condition of the three Indians infected with the novel coronavirus on board the cruise ship moored off the Japanese coast has improved and no new cases of infection among the Indians on the quarantined vessel have been reported, the Indian Embassy in Japan said on Saturday.

A total of 138 Indians, including 132 crew and 6 passengers, were among the 3,711 people on board the quarantined ship that arrived at the Japanese coast earlier this month. Three Indians were among the 218 people infected with COVID-19 on the ship.

The Indian Embassy said it was making efforts for early de-boarding of all the Indians from the ship after the end of the quarantine period.

"Happy to inform that health conditions of three Indians being treated for COVID-19 have improved and no new cases of infection of Indians on the ship," the embassy tweeted.

The embassy is in discussion with the Japanese government and the ship management company for the disembarkation modalities and welfare of Indians, it said.

"We have continued our efforts with all of them for early disembarkation of our nationals after the end of the quarantine period and subject to favourable results of their tests for COVID - 19," an embassy official told PTI on Saturday.

The ship was quarantined after a passenger who de-boarded last month in Hong Kong was found to be the carrier of the COVID-19 on the ship. The embassy also sent an email to all Indian nationals on board the ship, assuring them of all help and assistance.

They are also requested to follow the Japanese government's health and quarantine protocols, the embassy said on its Facebook page. The Japanese government on Thursday announced that passengers aged 80 or older will be given the option to disembark the ship if they test negative for COVID-19.

Those who meet the age requirement and have pre-existing conditions or are staying in rooms without balcony will be prioritised for disembarkation. No Indian national falls under this category, eligible for early disembarkation, the statement said on Friday.

The death toll in China's novel coronavirus epidemic climbed to 1,523 with 143 new fatalities reported mostly from the worst-affected Hubei province, while the confirmed cases jumped to over 66,000, health officials said on Saturday.

More than 580 cases have been confirmed outside mainland China and three deaths, one each in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan. The coronavirus outbreak originated in central China's Hubei province in December last year and has spread to several countries, including India.

Many countries have banned arrivals from China while major airlines have suspended flights to the country.

Chinese president Xi Jinping has called for the use of digital technology such as big data, artificial intelligence and cloud computing to better support epidemic monitoring and analysis, virus tracing, prevention and treatment, and resource allocation.
BAKU -- Police in Azerbaijan have detained three opposition party leaders and more than 100 activists ahead of a protest in Baku against the results of last week's parliamentary elections that were criticized by international observers.

Many of those detainees were released later on February 16.

The ruling Yeni Azerbaijan (New Azerbaijan) party won 72 out of 125 seats in the single-chamber legislature on February 9, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC). Nearly all other seats went to small parties and independents loyal to President Ilham Aliyev.

WATCH: Azerbaijani Police Disperse Postelection Protest

Before the February 16 unauthorized protest was scheduled to start, police detained either at their homes or outside their party headquarters the leader of the REAL party, Ilgar Mamedly, the leader of the Musavat Party, Arif Hajili, and the head of the D18 opposition movement, Ruslan Izzatly.

They were later released outside of Baku. Izzatly said he will sue the Interior Ministry.

Riot police surrounded the CEC building where the rally had been planned and put anyone arriving to take part in the protest on buses.

After his release, Hajili said some of those detained were "taken in police vans to remote, deserted places 200-300 kilometers from Baku and abandoned there."

Mehman Huseynov, who ran as a candidate in the municipal elections, was among those taken away from the capital. He posted on Facebook a picture of himself sitting on the side of a road in a deserted area.

On February 11, police in Baku detained more than 20 opposition and independent candidates who protested the results of the elections in front of the CEC building.

In a preliminary report, monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe cited widespread violations in the vote count, instances of ballot stuffing and multiple voting, as well as pressure on voters, candidates, and observers. The observers also noted that the number of registered voters in more than half of the 125 constituencies deviated by more than allowed by the Election Code.

The 58-year-old Aliyev, who has ruled Azerbaijan since shortly before his father's death 17 years ago, called the elections in December, nine months before it was formally due, amid public discontent over a slowing economy.

Since the South Caucasus country declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, its elections have repeatedly been deemed as falling short of democratic standards by international observers from the OSCE and Council of Europe.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP
State media says government forces make significant gains in northwest amid push against last major rebel bastion.

Syrian government forces have made significant advances in their military push against the last major rebel bastion in the countrys northwest, according to state media, in a ferocious offensive that has forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

State television said on Sunday that the Russian-backed forces have liberated all the villages and small towns west of Aleppo city.

Backed by Russian air raids, Syrian President Bashar al-Assads troops have kept up the assault on the Idlib region and parts of neighbouring Aleppo and Latakia provinces since December.

The offensive has disrupted a fragile cooperation between Turkey and Russia, which back opposing sides in the conflict but have collaborated towards what they say is a political solution to the nearly nine-year war.

Turkey, which supports several Syrian rebel groups in the northwest, has been outraged since Syrian attacks in Idlib province killed 13 Turkish troops in two weeks. It has called on Russia to stop the attacks, warning it would use military power to drive back Syrian forces unless they withdraw by the end of the month.

Syrian state television said army units have liberated all the villages and small towns west of Aleppo city [AFP]

The latest advances come after al-Assads forces drove rebel fighters from the key M5 highway linking Aleppo to the capital, Damascus, and reopened the fastest route between Syrias two biggest cities for the first time in years.

Turkey-backed rebels have, meanwhile, launched an operation in Idlib to retake areas lost to the Assad forces. Turkeys state-run Anadolu news agency said on Sunday that a 100-vehicle convoy of reinforcements, including troops, tanks, military vehicles and equipment, had been deployed to Idlib.

Turkey has so far sent thousands of troops and hundreds of convoys of military equipment to reinforce its observation posts in Idlib, established under a 2018 de-escalation agreement with Russia.

According to that deal, Turkey has 12 observation posts in Idlib, some of them now in Syrian government-controlled territory following gains by Damascus.

Turkey-Russia talks

As Syrian government forces continued their push in the northwest, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Sunday he told his Russian counterpart that attacks in Idlib must stop immediately and a lasting ceasefire has to be achieved.





Speaking to reporters during a briefing at the Munich Security Conference, Cavusoglu said Turkish and Russian officials would discuss the issue in Moscow on Monday.

The offensive has triggered the largest wave of displacement in Syrias devastating war, with more than 800,000 people fleeing towards the Turkish border since December, according to the United Nations.

Aid workers have warned that the humanitarian situation at the overcrowded border area has become dire. About one million displaced people are living near the border, with IDP camps already at full capacity.

The UN has warned of an impending humanitarian catastrophe.

Turkey, which already hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees, says it cannot absorb any more.
A 20-year old engineering student was stabbed to death by a three-member gang for resisting their attempt to rob him of his mobile phone near Sulur on the outskirts, police said on Sunday.

Tami Selvan, a third year mechanical engineering student was returning home when three men on two bikes approached him from behind and tried to snatch his mobile phone, at K M Patty on Saturday, they said.

When the victim resisted and raised an alarm, one of the gang members stabbed him on the chest with a knife and fled the scene, they added.

The profusely bleeding student rushed to his house and his father took him to a nearby private hospital, where he was declared brought dead.

A search is on for the suspects, they said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PHILIPSBURG:--- During a routine control on February 14th, 2020, Customs Officers at the harbor facilities confiscated a container originating from Jamaica with almost 2500 kilo of marijuana. The Marijuana was hidden in a large amount of boxes where the packages were hidden. The contraband was brought over with the assistance of the police to the Philipsburg police station for weighing. When the weighing process was finalized, police and other entities assisted in destroying of the contraband at the dump under the supervision of the public prosecutors office.

Once again on Saturday, February 15th Customs Officers at the Princess Juliana airport confiscated and detained a female passenger arriving on the Caribbean Airlines flight from Trinidad originating from Suriname. During a routine check, Customs officers found 4 cylinders filled with cocaine which was in the luggage of the female passenger a Suriname National with initials F.P.W., external help with special tools was needed to extract the cocaine from the cylinders. The cocaine confiscated weighed a total of approximately 5 kilos. This investigation is currently ongoing.

Also on January 25th Customs Officers at the Princess Juliana International airport arrested 2 (two) female passengers arriving on the Winair 805 flight from Curacao. Passengers with initial A.E.P and K.D.S. both American nationals were in possession of approximately 8 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a professional double-layered compartment in their suitcases. This investigation is ongoing.

On February 8th during an intense control at the Princess Juliana Airport, Customs officers detained a male passenger with initials B.C.V., the Surinam national arrived on the Caribbean airline flight (BW884) from Trinidad. Two cocaine-filled packages with a total weight of almost 2 kilograms were found hidden in a black makeup bag inside the luggage of the passenger. This is investigation is currently ongoing.

Customs will continue to intensify controls on both airport and harbor facilities.

Chief of Customs Anthony Doran will also like to thank his staff for their continued dedication, hard work, and determination to combat contraband/illegal goods from entering and/or leaving our country. Our aim is to continue to build up and strengthen our department.

A heartfelt thank you to all the law enforcement departments and entities who participated in assisting The Customs department on February 14th, for finalizing this lengthy process. This is the first time in history for my department to have such a large haul at once.
Andrew Yang speaking at a rally in in Washington Square Park last May. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

When Andrew Yang, the peppy UBI evangelist, dropped out of the presidential race last Tuesday, he immediately stoked speculation he was ready to seek another prestigious office: mayor of New York City.

I would certainly not rule out running for office again, Yang said, later intimating to the New York Times a run for mayor was a possibility.

Though the Manhattan tech entrepreneur and Columbia-educated lawyer came nowhere close to running competitively in either Iowa or New Hampshire  he garnered 1 and 2.8 percent of the vote, respectively  he outlasted Establishment favorites like Kamala Harris, qualified for most major television debates, and raised north of $30 million, all the while building a young, die-hard internet following known as the Yang Gang.

With a few stray remarks, Yang set New Yorks insular political world aflutter. Is he serious? Will he do it? Can he win? Those close to Yang continue to fan the flames.

Andrew isnt taking anything off the table, one Yang insider told Intelligencer. The campaign-finance rules could be very advantageous to somebody like Andrew who understands the power of digital organizing and who could also talk to so many different constituencies in the city.

Neal Kwatra, a prominent Democratic consultant unaffiliated with Yang, thinks he could have a real shot. Anyone who underestimates his potential impact doesnt understand the political moment we are in, he said. Kwatra doesnt think Yang will ultimately run, but believes New Yorkers would be enamored with a fresh face if he decides to take the plunge.

Yangs energy and novelty could help him make a big splash in New Yorks political pool, but he would still face some significant obstacles. The top three mayoral contenders  City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, City Comptroller Scott Stringer, and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams  are all courting key local constituencies that may view Yang skeptically. Yang never caught on with black voters. Traditional liberals gorging on MSNBC in the brownstone belt preferred Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, or Pete Buttigieg.

What would a Yang mayoral campaign look like? Like his presidential campaign, crammed with both big-ticket and obscure policy proposals (he took a few stances on circumcision), it wouldnt be light on ideas. That said, he hasnt weighed in with specifics on many core local concerns  for instance, we dont know how Mayor Yang would, as hes suggested, de-emphasize New Yorks specialized high-school admissions exam, or how hed manage the closure of Rikers Island. One certainty, meanwhile, would be his very-online fanbases relentless promotion of all things Yang  and pushback on his detractors.

UBI  or universal basic income  was, of course, the calling card of Yangs presidential campaign. If elected, Yang promised to give $1,000 a month to every American citizen, rich and poor alike, no questions asked. The freedom dividend, as Yang cannily rebranded it, appealed to some progressive and more libertarian-minded voters: Everyone from right-wing economist Milton Friedman to Martin Luther King Jr. had championed the idea as a way to eliminate poverty. Yangs overriding concern has been ensuring automation doesnt worsen the already precarious state of the low-wage worker.

Yang has already signaled a willingness to bring a version of UBI to the five boroughs, but pushing his signature issue in New York would likely create some complicated dynamics with voters on the left that could cost him in the Democratic primary. Among the increasingly vocal progressive organizations and activists who could, in theory, be open to a Yang candidacy, there would be new scrutiny of UBI, which would fund the cash payments, in part, by downsizing the traditional social-welfare services that poor New Yorkers rely on.

Theres a cleavage between progressives pushing it for progressive reasons and libertarians and right-wingers being wolves in sheeps clothing, pushing it as an excuse to eviscerate the safety net, said Joel Berg, the CEO of Hunger Free America and a longtime city activist. Unfortunately, Yang comes out of that tradition, whether he knows it or not.

Yangs competition, who wont view him as a sentimental long shot, would attack him from the start. Negative ads could shred Yang for trying to rip food stamps away from needy families. The Westchester County native would also face questions about why he didnt vote in New York between 2008 and 2016.

During his presidential campaign, Yang was unable to peel a significant number of voters away from Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren  voters who make up the progressive base critical to any insurgent mayoral coalition in New York. But there is also reason to think hed at least have a chance to overcome progressive skepticism and attract a meaningful share of support in the city.

Most progressives and leftists look at Andrew Yang and see someone who is basically motivated by the right things, said Karthik Ganapathy, a progressive strategist and former Sanders aide. Other parts of his proposed solutions to broad structural problems are actually not that helpful and are quite regressive in a pretty serious way.

Yang would bring obvious strengths to a mayoral campaign. He is more famous than any of his potential rivals. He has a million followers on Twitter. And the citys 8:1 public-matching funds system will, indeed, be a boon to a candidate who was powered by small donors online.

Candidate Yang would likely be an immediate draw in the citys booming Asian community, particularly among Chinese-American voters. Of course hes viable! gushed State Senator John Liu, the first and only Asian-American to ever win citywide office and a former mayoral contender himself. Andrew is our Shirley Chisolm.

The introduction of ranked-choice voting into the 2021 mayoral race would probably boost a celebrity candidacy like Yangs, since voters in New York are less familiar with their local officials. Name recognition can take a candidate far: Before a second sexting scandal destroyed his 2013 campaign, the infamous Anthony Weiner was a consistent leader in the polls.

Yang is still a long way from making any kind of decision though. He could forego New York altogether for a national role  public speaker, think-tanker, or anything with the kind of prestige that wouldnt require him to slug it out with a handful of seasoned pols who would immediately take his candidacy seriously and try to cut him down.

Im willing to sit down with him, just as I did before he launched his presidential campaign, said Ron Kim, a Queens assemblyman and early Sanders backer. To see if we are aligned on local issues.
Shocked swimmers who witnessed a man drown at Bondi Beach have recounted the chilling screams of his distraught wife after he disappeared beneath water's surface.

The 47-year-old man drowned after being swept off rocks by large swell at the north end of the famous Sydney beach about 5.30pm on Saturday.

His wife, 45, was also washed into the ocean by a rogue wave but managed to climb back onto the rocks, however she suffered cuts and two broken toes in the process.

NSW Police confirmed to Daily Mail Australia the couple were Russian tourists.

Shocked onlookers said the man's wife was 'screaming' as lifesavers and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter tried desperately to find him among the barrage of waves.

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'Screaming and covered in blood': Shocked onlookers have told of the horrific scenes at Bondi Beach on Saturday evening where a man drowned as his wife (pictured) watched on helplessly

Lifesavers and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter began searching for the man at 5.30pm, before pulling him unconscious from the water at 6pm. NSW Police confirmed the 47-year-old was a Russian tourist

'The lady was covered in blood and screaming for her partner as he was drowning,' a female swimmer said.

'We watched as they plucked him out later and it was obvious he had passed (and) all I could think is the horror she would be going through.'

A Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter was deployed about 5.30pm Saturday to aid in the search for the man.

About 6pm lifeguards in on jet skis and in dinghys pulled the man from the water.

Paramedics worked to save the man's life as large crowds on the beach watched on but he was unable to be revived.

The woman was rushed to St Vincents hospital in a stable condition and has since been released.

Lifesavers at Bondi Beach searched for the man alongside bystanders and rescue helicopters

Beachgoers on jet skis and lifesavers also joined the search in finding the missing swimmers

Crowds gathered at Sydney's Bondi Beach after swimmers were pulled from the water as witnesses report huge swells

NSW Ambulance duty operations manager Sally Groves said it was an 'absolutely horrendous outcome'.

'Paramedics worked closely with other emergency services and did everything possible to try and save his life, but sadly he was unable to be saved,' Ms Groves said.

'No matter what you are doing near the water, please be vigilant - it is not worth risking your life.'

A beachgoer told Daily Mail Australia: 'It's absolute carnage, the whole beach is watching. The swell is massive.'

Despite the mostly sunny day, beaches across Sydney have continued to be plagued by large swells, a week after severe storms smashed the city.

A Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter was deployed to the popular beach in Sydney's east just before 6pm Saturday as paramedics rushed to the beach

The man's wife was also knocked into the water but was able to make her way back onto the rocks, suffering cuts and two broken toes in the process

The 45-year-old woman was taken to St Vincent's hospital where she was treated for her injuries and shock. She has since been released

Coogee beach, a few kilometres south of Bondi, was closed on Saturday because of the dangerous conditions.

Dangerous surf warnings were in place on Saturday along much of Australia's east coast as ex-tropical cyclone Uesi continued to move south.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a hazardous surf warning for coastal activities in the Hunter region, Sydney, the Illawarra, Batemans region and Eden Coast.
3.24 million work days were lost to labor strikes and lockouts in 2019, the most since 2004, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Why it matters: Labor disputes can cost workers and businesses in missed wages, decreased productivity and stunted revenues.

By the numbers: There were 25 labor disputes involving more than 1,000 workers last year, the most since 2001.

425,500 workers joined work stoppages, with 270,000 in the educational services industry alone.

Between the lines: Labor disputes may increase when the job market tightens, giving workers more leverage in negotiations for higher wages or expanded benefits, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The unemployment rate fell to a 50-year low in 2019, but wages only increased by 2.9%  the lowest level in a year and a half and well below the 2018 average of 3.3%, Axios' Dion Rabouin reports.

United Auto Workers' 40-day General Motors strike was the largest dispute, totaling 1.33 million days of lost labor and involving 46,000 workers.

GM reported a profit hit of 8.7% in Q3 of 2019 as a result of the stoppage.

The big picture: Labor union membership fell by 0.2% in 2019, Axios' Orion Rummler reports.

Only 10.3% (14.6 million) of wage and salary workers said they were union members, and around half of the members lived in just seven states  California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio and Washington.

Go deeper: Unions shrink fast in swing states
By PTI

ISLAMABAD: UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Sunday it was important for India and Pakistan to de-escalate "militarily and verbally" and exercise "maximum restraint" as he began his four-day visit to the country, amidst tense relationship between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

Addressing a press conference after his meeting with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the UN Secretary-General said he was "deeply concerned" over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and tensions along the Line of Control.

The UN chief on Sunday arrived on a four-day visit to Pakistan during which he will attend an international conference on Afghan refugees and visit Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib.

"Diplomacy and dialogue remain the only tools that guarantee peace and stability with solutions in accordance with the Charter of United Nations and resolutions of the Security Council," Guterres told reporters.

He emphasised the importance to "de-escalate, both militarily and verbally" while talking about relations between Pakistan and India.

Guterres said he had "repeatedly stressed the importance of exercising maximum restraint".

"I offered my good offices from the beginning. I am ready to help if both countries agree for mediation," he said.

Tensions between India and Pakistan spiked after New Delhi abrogated ended the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5 last year.

India's decision evoked strong reactions from Pakistan, which downgraded its diplomatic ties and expelled the Indian envoy.

ALSO READ | Don't worry, one democracy will settle it: Jaishankar to US Senator on Kashmir

India has defended its move, saying the special status provisions only gave rise to terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

"The country took the decision of abrogation of Article 370, which had only given separatism and terrorism to that state," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in October last year.

The UN chief said that the issue of Kashmir should be resolved according to UN resolution.

"UNMOGIP (UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan) should be given free access. It is already there on the Pakistan side, and it should also be given on the other side," he said.

"We have taken a position that UN resolutions (on Kashmir) should be implemented, there should be ceasefire (on LoC) and human rights should be respected," he said.

India maintains that UNMOGIP has outlived its utility and is irrelevant after the Simla Agreement and the consequent establishment of the LoC.

ALSO READ | Google Maps marks Kashmir's outlines as 'disputed' when seen from outside India

India has rejected any third party intervention to the Kashmir issue and has maintained that all outstanding matters in Indo-Pak ties should be resolved bilaterally.

In August last year, Prime Minister Modi categorically rejected any scope for third party mediation on Kashmir, saying it was a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan, and "we don't want to bother any third country".

Calling the Kartarpur initiative a "symbol of interfaith harmony, a unique experiment in cross-border ties", the UN chief said that the opening of the corridor showed "Pakistan's commitment to peace".

Guterres said one of the main purposes of his visit was to "spotlight the real Pakistan, with all its possibilities and potential."

Qureshi in his remarks said that he briefed Guterres on the "challenging situation" after India revoked the special status of Kashmir.

He also demanded that UN human rights commissioner should come up with a report on post-August 5 situation in Kashmir.

Earlier on Sunday, the UN Secretary-General was received by Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Munir Akram and senior officials of the Foreign Office and the United Nations in Pakistan on his arrival at the Nur Khan Airbase, Radio Pakistan reported.

According to Pakistan Foreign Office, Guterres will also hold talks with President Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Imran Khan.

During these meetings, Pakistan will share its perspective on the Kashmir issue, it said.

His other engagements include interactions with parliamentarians and the youth.

He will deliver special talks on themes of sustainable development, climate change and peacekeeping.

Guterres will also visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, the final resting place of the founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak Dev, in Kartarpur.

Guru Nanak Dev spent the last 18 years of his life at Gurduwara Kartarpur Sahib, which has now become the world's largest Sikh Gurdwara.

The UN chief will speak at the international conference on '40 Years of Hosting Afghan Refugees in Pakistan', which is being organised by Pakistan and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

The two-day conference starting from Monday will be inaugurated by prime minister Khan.
Nearly 50,000 people who have had their claims for asylum rejected after arriving by plane are still in Australia awaiting deportation, raising questions over the efficiency of our border controls.

A government backlog is being blamed for the slow progress in tackling the problem, with Labor warning that people smugglers are using the system to exploit illegal workers.

The rising number of airplane arrivals represents a work scam run by people smugglers, pure and simple, Senator Kristina Keneally said. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The number of people who have had their claims rejected after arriving by air increased to 46,391 at the end of January, according to government figures that show almost all of them remain in the country.

The long appeals process also means 37,913 of the "plane people" are still waiting for their refugee status to be determined, an increase of more than 1000 over the past month.
The Hamriyah Free Zone Authority (HFZA) will have a strong presence at the Gulfood exhibtion with a full-fledged pavilion, bringing together some of the top companies operating in food and beverage industry at the free zone.



The 25th edition of Gulfood 2020, the world's largest annual food and beverage trade exhibition, which opened today (February 16) will run until February 20, at the Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai.



The authority stressed that its involvement in the event aims to highlight HFZAs competitive advantages, services, infrastructure, and investment solutions as well as its facilities, which made it one of the most sought after business hub by prominent food and beverage companies in the world.



It will also introduce the international business community to the promising investment opportunities available in Sharjahs food and beverage industry and will shed light on its mega project Sharjah Food Park, which was launched in 2017 as the regions first and largest city dedicated to food and commercial industries, said a statement.



Saud Salim Al Mazrouei, director of the Hamriyah Free Zone Authority, said: Gulfood provides a perfect opportunity to more than 5,000 exhibitors from the worlds leading food and beverage companies to showcase their products.



We would like to take advantage of this annual platform to interact with decision makers, pioneers and regional and international investors looking forward to making the most of Sharjahs investment opportunities in the food industry, which is one of the key pillars of Emirates economic diversification strategy, he said.



We, at Hamriyah Free Zone, pay utmost attention to providing investment incentives and developing state-of-the-art infrastructure and legislations that support the aspirations of leading brands in the food and beverage industry to strengthen their presence in the regions markets. Our efforts have yielded good results, making HFZA an incubator to major food and beverage companies through a 380,000-sq-m Food, Plastics and Packaging Park that effectively meet the needs of companies involved in consumer goods added Al Mazrouei.



We have also developed Sharjah Food Park, which comprises of different sizes of offices, warehouses with built-in offices, utility and facilities; plots of land starting from 2,500 sq m onwards; in addition to licenses and activities related to the food industry; and labour accommodation on a total area of over 11 million sq ft, he said.



Al Mazrouei pointed out that the food and beverage sector in the GCC will continue to grow at a rate of 7.1 per cent annually to reach $196 billion by 2021 compared to the current rate of $130 billion, adding that HFZA will spare no efforts to support this growth by providing all kinds of facilities and unparalleled services, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
A car bomb exploded on Sunday in the Syrian town of Tel Abyad, near the Turkish border, killing four people, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said.

The Arab town, from which Turkish-backed forces last October pushed out the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, has seen a spate of car blasts that has killed dozens of civilians.

There was no immediate comment from the authorities.

Anadolu, citing security sources, said the attack was carried out by the YPG, which Turkey considers a terrorist group linked to Kurdish insurgents on its own soil.

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Counting out Cory Gardner is way too easy of a narrative for the times we live in. Thats especially true if the storyteller would never vote for the Republican incumbent to begin with.

A lot of things could go awry for Democrats victory party.

Lets begin with Super Tuesday. The presidential primary will say a lot more about Colorado than it says about who eventually winds up in the White House. Four years ago, back in the days of the Colorado caucus, Sen. Bernie Sanders beat the establishment favorite, Hillary Clinton.

Colorado has moved further to the left since then. In a vacuum, that fact would provide the ink for Gardners political obituary.

Allow me to make a bold prediction based on polls, history and common sense: Donald Trump will not win Colorado this year. He lost it by 5% in 2016. He could lose it by 10% in November.

Im betting that most of his campaign time and money will go to critical states in the Rust Belt and, gasp, Georgia. If Trump has to duke it out in Atlanta in October, he wont be throwing haymakers in a losing cause in blue-state Colorado; candidates swing hardest in swing states.

Trump is expected to hold an event in Colorado Springs alongside Gardner this week, perhaps a reward for the senators loyalty. Early on, candidates seed the fields rather than harvest the crops, however. Mike Bloomberg had two campaign stops in Alabama last week. He wont win Alabama, unless its on Super Tuesday.

On the Senate floor and in a phone call with me immediately after he voted to acquit, Gardner said Trump didnt do anything worthy of undoing the 2016 election and delivering the 2020 vote on a silver platter to the Democrats.

I asked Gardner, a powerful member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, whether it would be OK for him to ask a foreign country to investigate John Hickenlooper, the candidate presumed to be his November foe. He said Hickenlooper already is under investigation  by the state ethics commission, which is reviewing who paid for some of Hickenloopers travel as governor.

Gardner told me Trump only cared about corruption in the Ukraine, the same way the previous administration had. Neither President Obama nor his vice president, Joe Biden, though, rooted out corruption by investigating Mitt Romney or his family dog in 2011.

The embattled incumbent said he wasnt thinking about his political fortunes when he voted on acquittal. Sure, there was reporting in the Wall Street Journal that said Gardner and other vulnerable senators were sweating the effect of a long Senate trial on their reelection campaigns. Translated, the more Americans heard, the more he might have to answer for on his vote.

The problem with anonymous sources and tips is they get things wrong, Gardner said.

He told me, effectively, he had heard enough in the testimony of 17 witnesses in the House sent over. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer were the ones playing election-year politics, he said.

I worry not about politics but about the country, and how this impacts the people of these United States, he said on the call.

Democrats are counting on taking back the seat Gardner took from Democrat Mark Udall six years ago to take back the majority in the Senate. If they dont, careers will be affected, and not just the names on the ballot.

Gardner might want to hold off on teeing up Hick just yet. We will soon find out if hes as blue as the state shows itself to be on Super Tuesday.

Hickenlooper, the moderate friend of fracking and win-win compromises, has to pick a lane that is headed in the direction of the partys voters.

The Hick I used to know was always up for a rhetorical challenge, always glad to answer questions. Thats not him anymore. Shielded by his own party from actual debates with more liberal Democrats, Hickenlooper is as good with his talking points as Gardner is with his.

Democrats wont know until after the June primary, Im guessing, whether Hickenlooper can handle a bare-knuckle political brawl, the kind hes never faced but that is surely coming.

Meanwhile, Andrew Romanoff is tweeting about climate refugees and a strong field of qualified women are looking to their partys voters for a little bit of parity.

Parties these days do themselves no favors shoehorning nominees onto the ballot. They only shovel in cynicism.

The election of Donald Trump to the White House and Sanders caucus win in Colorado in 2016 suggest voters are fed up with the profession of politics. They gravitate to bold, brash messages, even if the messenger is flawed.

At a Jan. 26 forum put on by Longmont Latinx Voice, Hickenlooper clashed red-faced with environmental extremists in a hallway, providing video to demonstrate hes no mate of the progressive fringe.

If Sanders takes Super Tuesday in Colorado, the message is that this Senate race is still anyones game, with or without the former governor.

Independents and moderates might not be willing to veer that far to the left when they pick their senator, too. Colorado voters are a wishy-washy bunch.

In 2014, Gardner won a Senate seat by 2%, as Hickenlooper won a second term by 3%.
President Muhammadu Buhari has warned against revenge following an attack on two communities in Katsina state. More than 30 people...





President Muhammadu Buhari has warned against revenge following an attack on two communities in Katsina state.





More than 30 people were killed in the communities located in Batsari local government area of Katsina on Friday night.





The police say they have been able to arrest a suspect connected to the incident.





In a statement on Sunday, Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, quoted Buhari as saying that authorities must be allowed to investigate any security breach.





No one in the country has a right to take laws into his hands by the way of self-help or revenge, Buhari was quoted as saying.





Local communities that catch bandits should hand over the suspects to law enforcement authorities instead of meting out capital punishment, leading to a cycle of revenge and counter revenge.





The authorities must be allowed to investigate and deal with any breach that occurs. There is no place for violence in a decent society.





The president urged community leaders to work with law enforcement agencies to ensure that there is peace between farmers and herders in the state.





Buhari prayed that God will comfort families that have lost loved ones in the attacks.




Some of the states illest children will soon be able to follow a rainbow-coloured bridge leading them out of the Perth Childrens Hospital grounds and across to Kings Park and Botanic Garden.

PCH patients, their families, carers, and hospital staff are set to benefit from a purpose-built footbridge that will connect one of the worlds newest and greatest hospitals to the city park.

Perth Children's Hospital bridge to Kings Park. Credit:WA government

The Kids Bridge will extend 225 metres by 3 metres over Winthrop Avenue, allowing children and their families to get out into nature without having to navigate busy roads.

The $6.5 million project has been a decade in the making and finally made possible, despite initial PCH construction setbacks and delays, by the PCH Foundation and Main Roads WA.
RED WING, Minn.  A suspect charged with check forgery stemming from mail theft cases in Red Wing was arrested by Scott County officials and transferred Feb. 13 to Goodhue County Jail.

Deonte Maurice Lundeen, 30, Brooklyn Park, Minn., was charged in September 2019 with allegedly making or altering a check, offering or possessing a forged checked with intent to defraud and misdemeanor receiving stolen property. He posted bail but failed to show up for his Goodhue County court appearance in December 2019, prompting a warrant for his arrest.

Jessica Marie Schwalen, 27, Chanhassen, Minn., is the other suspect alleged to be involved in the mail-theft cases. Schwalen, who also missed her court appearance after posting bail, was arrested in January. She was in Goodhue County custody as of Feb. 14 on charges of identity theft, mail theft and possession or sale of stolen or counterfeit checks.

According to a criminal complaint:

Red Wing police pulled over a vehicle driven by Schwalen after area residents reported seeing a white car driving around their neighborhood. Upon searching the vehicle, police allegedly found 13 personal checks, nine business checks, two Minnesota drivers licenses, one credit card and a variety of other mail items, all sent to different names and addresses.

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The vehicle in the traffic stop also was picked up on bank security camera footage allegedly showing Lundeen trying to cash a check originally written for $50 but altered to read $500. A bank employee took a copy of Lundeen's identification card for authorities and kept the check.

Lundeen is being held on $5,000 bail with conditions, or $10,000 bail without conditions.
Studies expected to show the UK will gain little from post-Brexit trade deals with the US and the big Asian economies are being suppressed by the government, The Independent can reveal.

Analyses were completed as long ago as 2017 into the probable impact on growth from agreements long hailed as the prize for leaving the EU, but ministers are refusing to release them.

One trade expert said he had little doubt they were being concealed because they would  like independent studies  reveal that significant damage from new trade barriers with the continent will far outweigh the gain from other deals.

Alan Winters, professor of economics at the University of Sussex, joined with Labour in calling on ministers to reveal what they had been told, saying: The entire Brexit debate has been conducted in a great fog of obfuscation.

Paul Blomfield, Labours Brexit spokesperson, said: These reports must be released immediately. If Boris Johnson wants to risk European trade to secure a deal with Donald Trump, we need to know the cost.

Recommended Britons face being turned away at EU airports over new passport rules

The controversy comes after the Treasury refused to even carry out an evaluation of the prime ministers plans for a Canada-style deal with the EU, cutting ties with the single market and customs union.

Economists have estimated that will deliver a hit to the UK economy of anything between 70bn and 130bn in the long run, leaving people thousands of pounds worse off.

Now, in response to a freedom of information request submitted by The Independent, the Department for International Trade (DIT) has said internal analysis into other trade deals is a work in progress.

But it also revealed academics at the Centre for Economic Policy Research had evaluated the benefits from a US deal, an agreement with Japan and from membership of the CPTPP, a trade partnership of 11 Pacific nations.

Brexit timeline: How did we get here? Show all 20 1 /20 Brexit timeline: How did we get here? Brexit timeline: How did we get here? Britain votes to leave the European Union - 23 June 2016 A referendum is held on Britain's membership of the European Union. Fifty-two per cent of the country votes in favour of leaving AFP via Getty Brexit timeline: How did we get here? David Cameron resigns - 24 June 2016 David Cameron resigns on the morning of the result after leading the campaign for Britain to remain in the EU Getty Brexit timeline: How did we get here? Theresa May takes the reins - 13 July 2016 Theresa May becomes leader of the Conservative party and prime minister, winning the leadership contest unopposed after Andrea Leadsom drops out Getty Brexit timeline: How did we get here? High Court rules parliament must vote on Brexit - November 2016 - 3 November 2016 The High Court rules that parliament must vote on triggering Article 50, which would begin the Brexit process Brexit timeline: How did we get here? Article 50 triggered - 28 March 2017 The prime minister triggers Article 50 after parliament endorses the result of the referendum Getty Brexit timeline: How did we get here? May calls snap election - 18 April 2018 Seeking a mandate for her Brexit plan, May goes to the country Getty Brexit timeline: How did we get here? May loses majority as Labour makes surprise gain - 8 June 2017 After a disastrous campaign, Theresa May loses her majority in the commons and turns to the DUP for support. Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party makes gains after being predicted to lose heavily AFP/Getty Brexit timeline: How did we get here? Negotiations begin - 19 June 2017 David Davis and Michel Barnier, chief negotiators for the UK and EU respectively, hold a press conference on the first day of Brexit negotiations. Soon after the beginning of negotiations, it becomes clear that the issue of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic will prove a major sticking point AFP/Getty Brexit timeline: How did we get here? MPs vote that withdrawal deal must be ratified by parliament - 13 December 2017 The government suffers a defeat in parliament over the EU withdrawal agreement, guaranteeing that MPs are given a 'meaningful vote' on the deal Brexit timeline: How did we get here? Boris Johnson resigns as foreign secretary - 11 July 2018 Following a summit at Chequers where the prime minister claimed to have gained cabinet support for her deal, Boris Johnson resigns as foreign secretary along with David Davis, the Brexit secretary Reuters Brexit timeline: How did we get here? Draft withdrawal agreement - 15 November 2018 The draft withdrawal agreement settles Britain's divorce bill, secures the rights of EU citizens living in the UK and vice versa and includes a political declaration commiting both parties to frictionless trade in goods and cooperation on security matters. The deal also includes the backstop, which is anathema to many brexiteers and Dominic Raab and Esther McVey resign from the cabinet in protest Getty Brexit timeline: How did we get here? May resigns - 24 May 2019 After several failed attempts to pass her withdrawal agreement through the commons, Theresa May resigns Reuters Brexit timeline: How did we get here? Johnson takes over - 24 July 2019 Boris Johnson is elected leader of the Conservative party in a landslide victory. He later heads to Buckingham Palace where the Queen invites him to form a government Getty Brexit timeline: How did we get here? Parliament prorogued - 28 August 2019 Boris Johnson prorogues parliament for five weeks in the lead up to the UK's agreed departure date of 31 October. Stephen Morgan MP Brexit timeline: How did we get here? Prorogation ruled unlawful - 24 September 2019 The High Court rules that Johnson's prorogation of parliament is 'unlawful' after a legal challenge brought by businesswoman Gina Miller Getty Brexit timeline: How did we get here? Johnson agrees deal with Varadkar - October Following a summit in Merseyside, Johnson agrees a compromise to the backstop with Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar - making the withdrawal agreement more palatable to Brexiteers Getty Brexit timeline: How did we get here? Final Say march demands second referendum - 19 October 2019 As parliament passes the Letwin amendment requiring the prime minister to request a further delay to Brexit, protesters take to the streets in the final show of force for a Final Say referendum Getty Brexit timeline: How did we get here? Johnson wins 80 seat majority - 12 December 2019 The Conservatives win the December election in a landslide, granting Boris Johnson a large majority to pass through his brexit deal and pursue his domestic agenda Getty Brexit timeline: How did we get here? Withdrawal deal passes parliament - 20 December 2019 The withdrawal agreement passes through the commons with a majority of 124 Getty Brexit timeline: How did we get here? EU parliament backs UK withdrawal deal - 29 January 2020 Members of the European parliament overwhelmingly back the ratification of Britain's departure, clearing the way for Brexit two days later on 31 January. Following the vote, members join hands and sing Auld Lang Syne AFP/Getty

The last two were completed in August 2019  while the study into an agreement with Washington has been gathering dust since July 2017.

Brexiteers have called for the UK to join Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Chile and others in the CPTPP, despite the UK being thousands of miles from the Pacific.

And Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, recently spent several days in the region, saying: Now is the time to put global Britain into action. The Asia-Pacific region is full of opportunities.

However, DIT has refused to release any of the three studies, citing an exemption if information clearly relates to the development of government policy.

Premature release of this analysis would be detrimental to the progress of future trade discussions once the UK has left the EU, the department said.

Professor Winters, of the UK Trade Policy Observatory at the University of Sussex, said: If the government thought it had a very strong case that these deals would be big and strong then they would publish these studies.

Its an indication that theres nothing there. To the extent that we have any analysis, it suggests that the benefits of these deals are very small.

And, with any modelling, what we gain from an agreement with the US and Japan is a lot smaller than what we lose from the EU.

And Mr Blomfield added: The government is embarking on the most important negotiations in our postwar history. The British people deserve to know the impact of the decisions being made on their behalf.

However, a Downing Street spokesperson said: New FTAs represent a significant economic opportunity. With new freedoms to strike these ourselves, independently, we can open up our markets, increase wages and improve living standards across the UK.

In the last parliament, Labour was able to secure the release of similar studies by laying a humble address, but this route has been shut off by the 80-strong Conservative majority.

The secrecy leaves a November 2018 Treasury document as the only official forecast  putting the GDP gain from deals with the US, Australia and New Zealand at a puny 0.2 per cent.

It has frequently been dismissed by Brexit-backing Tories because Philip Hammond, the then-chancellor, opposed a hard Brexit  but has not been updated.

The hoped-for US deal is already in trouble over Washington demanding access for lower-quality agricultural goods and to the NHS drugs market, and because of the bust-up over the UKs planned tech tax.

The UK enjoyed a deal with Japan as an EU member and is in a race against time to secure hoped-for improvements before the Brexit transition period ends in December.
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) London  Sun, February 16, 2020 11:00 695 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2064d403f 2 Entertainment Caroline-Flack,United-Kingdom,obituary Free

British television presenter Caroline Flack was found dead on Saturday, her family said in a statement, the third star connected with the hit reality show "Love Island" to have died.

"We can confirm that our Caroline passed away today on the 15th February," the 40-year-old's family said in a statement.

Read also: Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas dead at 103

British media reported that the star, who was soon to go on trial accused of assaulting her boyfriend, was found at her London flat having taken her own life.

She was best known for previously hosting the smash show "Love Island", whose future has been thrown into doubt by a string of tragedies.

Contestants Mike Thalassitis and Sophie Graydon previously took their own lives having appeared on the dating program.
After its defeat in the Delhi polls, there are demands in the Congress to investigate allegations of mismanagement, particularly of not hiring a publicity company to manage its media campaign. The insistence of top Delhi leaders that only companies of their choice be given the contract led to none getting any.

The leaders also resisted suggestions that former chief minister Sheila Dikshits photographs be put on the hoardings and advertisements. This move was vetoed by two top leaders. However, after adverse media reports, both agreed (on using Dikshits pictures) but ...
Ivanka Trump lauded Sunday a handful of Mideast countries, including close US allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for embarking on significant reforms to advance womens rights, while speaking at a gathering of women entrepreneurs and regional leaders in Dubai.

The daughter of US President Donald Trump was delivering the keynote address at the two-day Global Womens Forum held in an opulent resort overlooking the citys Persian Gulf coastline.

We know that when women are free to succeed, families thrive, communities flourish and nations are stronger, Trump said.

The theme of the forum in Dubai was The Power of Influence. It was an apt theme for Trump, whose loyalty and support for her fathers presidency saw her and her husband, Jared Kushner, take up formal roles in the White House as his advisers.

The 38-year-old mother of three has positioned herself as an Oval Office confidante while spearheading initiatives that broadly back womens empowerment. Her husband has become a top adviser on US Mideast policy.

Once the owner of an eponymous fashion line, Ivanka Trump has wielded her proximity to the president to promote policies affecting women and deliver speeches around the world about womens economic empowerment. She meets with world leaders as a key White House official. Some of her efforts even have some bipartisan support in Washington, standing in sharp contrast to the level of controversy and political division surrounding her fathers presidency.

In her keynote speech at the womens forum in Dubai on Sunday, Trump touted what she said was the progress of women in the United States.

Today, American women are leading in every aspect of society. Last year, there were more women than men in the United States workforce, with women securing over 70 per cent of new jobs, she said in her address.

Trump made no mention, however, of legislative obstacles in the US around paid family leave, which she and the US president support. Currently, just a few US states offer paid leave.

While questions continue to swirl over just how much influence she wields with her father, the US president gave a glimpse into their relationship in 2017 when he wrote on Twitter: She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Shes previously said that when she disagrees with her father, he knows it.

During her speech in Dubai, Trump congratulated Saudi Arabia for recent changes in the law that allow women to travel abroad and obtain a passport without the permission of a male relative. In 2018, a ban on women driving cars was lifted. The changes are part of a wide-ranging push to transform the Saudi economy, attract greater foreign investment and ease international criticism.

Trump pointed to changes in other Mideast countries, as well. She said Bahrain had introduced legislation against discrimination in the workplace; Jordan had eliminated legal restrictions on womens ability to work at night; Morocco had expanded womens land rights; and Tunisia had introduced laws to combat domestic violence.

She said, though, more work needed to be done. She noted that across the region, women on average still have only half the legal rights of men.

The audience for her speech in the UAE included Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, World Bank President David Malpass and International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva.

The Dubai ruler is wildly popular at home and is seen as a modernising force. He has, however, faced some criticism abroad concerning womens rights following reports that one of his daughters tried to flee the country and was forcibly returned. In previous years, Jordanian Princess Haya, with whom Sheikh Mohammed has two children, would have attended a forum of this kind by his side, but she too has reportedly fled the country and is seeking custody of their children in a British court.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia have worked to cultivate close ties with the Trump administration and were early supporters of the Womens Empowerment Fund, a World Bank initiative to help female entrepreneurs that Ivanka Trump strongly backs. During the first trip abroad of her fathers presidency to Saudi Arabia, the two Gulf countries pledged USD 100 million to the fund.

In her speech at Sundays forum, Trump lauded Emirati leaders for removing barriers to women joining the workforce and developing a national strategy that recognizes that women are central to sustainable growth. She noted that although 70 per cent of Emirati university graduates are women, only 10 per cent of the UAEs total national income is derived from women.

We know that this going to grow and flourish in the years ahead, she said.

During her two-day visit to the UAE, Trump met with women entrepreneurs and discussed a US government project shes leading thats aimed at helping women in developing countries. The Womens Global Development and Prosperity Initiative was launched last year with backing by her father.

On Saturday, she toured Abu Dhabis grand mosque, visited Abu Dhabis branch of the Louvre Museum, and met privately with the countrys day-to-day ruler, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.
New Zealand authorities have found the body of the British hiker, Stephanie Simpson, on February 14 after nearly a week she went missing in Mount Aspiring National Park. Her body was reportedly found in the Pyke Creek area where her backpack and boots were located earlier. Police Sgt Mark Kirkwood said in a statement that the search had been significant challenges due to rugged terrain. However, he did not indicate if there was anything suspicious about the female hiker's death.

Read - NZealand Teams Search For UK Hiker In National Park

The 32-year-old hiker reportedly went hiking in the National Park in New Zealand last weekend and was then reported missing on February 10 after failing to arrive at an appointment. Helicopters were used to search for Simspon over the hilly region in Mount Aspiring while her family was desperate for any information. According to international reports, Simpson's brother, Sam Hazelton had earlier told an media outlet in New Zealand that his sister was an experienced hiker and was very fit. According to Hazelton, Simpson had also taken part in triathlons and running races.

Shes an extremely determined, strong-willed person, Hazelton said.

Mount Aspiring National Park is located in South Island and has been known for its rugged remoteness and striking river valleys. Earlier, the police authorities had narrowed down their search to Pyke Creek area and used two dog teams along with cliff and canyon rescue teams to locate Simpson's body.

Read - 'Angel In The Sky': Hiker Captures Stunning Photo Of Rare Weather Phenomenon

Heart-throbbing rescue of hiker

While Simpson died in the mountainous regions with no rescue teams aware of the cause of death, a heart-throbbing rescue took place in California on January 25 when an elderly women hiker fell off the track and paramedics saved her life. According to international reports, the 69-year-old woman was hiking at Rubio Canyon which is near to Pasadena in the afternoon, when she fell.

Paramedics along with first responders arrived at the scene and managed to lower one of the emergency service workers down through a harness. The woman was hanging for nearly 10 minutes by then. She was clinging to a few tree roots that were jutting out of the cliff face, and just 100 feet away from falling off to the bottom when she rescued by the emergency worker in the nick of time.

She was then lifted up and carried back to safety, reunited with her partner, before she and her partner were led on foot to a clearing. The lady even posed with the emergency workers for some photos after she was rescued.

Read - Hiker Falls Off Trail At Cliff, Paramedics Save Her Through Helicopter Rescue

Read - Alaska Hiker Rescued An Hour After Being Buried Upside Down In Avalanche

(With AP inputs)
But that's "not the kind of popularity I'd been seeking," he added.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky stated that he had wanted to become popular in the United States as an artist, not as a result of his phone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump.

"I'm often asked around the world about [Donald Trump's] impeachment [process]. In my previous life, in my previous profession, when I was a producer or a screenwriter or an actor, I dreamed of getting an Oscar, I sought to become very popular in the U.S. I am now president, and very popular in the USA. But, listen, I didn't want that. That's not the kind of popularity I'd been seeking," the president said jokingly, speaking at the Munich Security Conference.

Zelensky also joked that with this experience, if necessary, he was ready for another telephone conversation with Trump.

Read alsoU.S. senators in Ukraine: Democrats and Republicans have no disagreements on support for Ukraine

"We have a very good relationship with the United States, and I'd like to thank everyone who has contributed to this  the president, the senators, and ordinary Americans first and foremost," he said.

Zelensky also thanked the United States for its support to Ukraine during the war.

According to UNIAN, an investigation into the possibility of Trump's impeachment began in the United States in September 2019 after an intelligence whistleblower filed a complaint about the alleged pressure U.S. president supposedly put on Zelensky in order to affect his possible rival in the 2020 elections, Democrat Joe Biden.

On December 19, the House of Representatives announced impeachment on two charges: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

The allegations were based on the freezing of military aid for Ukraine in the summer of 2019 and evidence that the president demanded that Kyiv investigate into Biden's son's activities in Ukraine.

The obstruction of Congress charge was based on the White House's refusal to testify and provide documents related to the investigation.

On February 6, 2020, the U.S. Senate acquitted Trump of both impeachment charges.
Passengers arriving into Sydney on cruise ships will be assessed by health experts for coronavirus to prevent the spread of the disease.

NSW Health on Sunday said a risk assessment will be completed before each ship's arrival into the harbour city and then a decision will be made on whether to disembark passengers from the ship.

The health authority insists it is a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Passengers arriving in Sydney on a cruise ship from New Zealand on Sunday will be assessed as a "safeguard," the health authority said in a statement.

"No outbreak of COVID-19 has been identified by doctors on board the vessel that set sail from Auckland and travelled around New Zealand to Australia however, as a safeguard, any unwell passengers will be assessed by health teams here," NSW Health said.

Passengers queue at Sydney Harbour while a ship is checked by medical personnel on Friday. Source: Getty Images

The testing process will be similar to the assessments being done for passengers arriving at Sydney airport.

NSW Health said thousands of passengers, including the elderly, are often on cruise ships and can require medical management for unrelated infectious diseases while on board, or when they disembark.

It comes after one person onboard the Norwegian Jewel cruise ship was tested and cleared of the virus during a precautionary assessment on Friday.

The ship, which arrived in Sydney on Friday and was scheduled to depart on Saturday for a 14-day cruise of Australia and New Zealand, was never locked down.

The ship's owner slammed "false and inflammatory" media reports which suggested someone on board could have contracted the disease.

A passenger on the Norwegian Jewel cruise ship was cleared of coronavirus. Source: Getty Images

First coronavirus death outside of Asia

France on Saturday reported the first death outside Asia of a person infected with the new virus, with the death of an 80-year-old Chinese tourist who two French hospitals initially turned away. France also reported a new confirmed case that brought the countrys total to 12.

Story continues

Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said she learned Friday night about the death of the patient, a man who tested positive for the virus in late January and had been isolated in intensive care at a Paris hospital.

The patient, who was from the province in central China thats been hardest-hit by the virus, had a serious lung infection. All the previous deaths outside mainland China, were in Asia: one each in Japan, the Philippines and Hong Kong.

France has reported a death from coronavirus after an 80-year-old man died. Source: Getty Images (file pic)

The Health Ministry announced Saturday night that Frances latest case was a British person who, like five other infected Britons, had stayed in an Alpine chalet with a businessman from England who had attended a conference in Singapore. The ministry said the new patient been tested daily while in isolation at a Lyon hospital before testing positive Saturday.

There were contradicting reports about the timing of when the Chinese tourist who died in France became ill and started to receive treatment. Ms Buzyn said he arrived in France on January 16 and was hospitalised on January 25 under strict isolation measures but his condition deteriorated rapidly.

Other French medical officials had said previously that the patient arrived in France on January 23 and quickly fell ill.

A China Southern Airlines flight passenger arrives at Perth International Airport. Source: Getty Images

with AAP and The Associated Press

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Real Housewives Of Atlanta star Kandi Burruss is speaking out about the Valentine's Day shooting at her restaurant in East Point, Georgia that injured three people.

In a statement posted on Instagram on Saturday, Buruss sent her thoughts and prayers to the individuals affected by the horrific act of violence.

'My family and I are truly saddened by the unfortunate events that occurred at Old Lady Gang (OLG) Camp Creek, on the evening of February 14th, an evening that was meant to celebrate love, unfortunately turned into something quite different,' she began in the caption along with the quote, 'God's got you.'

Devastated: Kandi Burruss posted a statement on Instagram about the Valentine's Day shooting at her restaurant in East Point, Georgia that injured three people

Investigators say a gunman entered the restaurant on Friday around 8 p.m. and targeted a man inside, according to WSB-TV. He was shot along with two other innocent bystanders; all three are expected to survive.

Police are still on the hunt for the shooter.

In her statement, Burruss said she and her husband Todd Tucker are cooperating with law enforcement to help bring those involved to justice.

'We appreciate all of the love and prayers that have come our way and we encourage anyone with any information regarding any aspects of the events that occurred to please reach out to law enforcement as soon as possible.'

Heartbroken: Burruss said that she and her husband are saddened by the act of violence

Valentine's Day tragedy: Police say a gunman walked into the Old Lady Gang restaurant in East Point, Georgia around 8 p.m. on Friday and targeted a man inside; two other bystanders were also shot, but all of the are expected to survive

The reality star went on to share some heartfelt feelings about the establishment that she and her husband co-founded in 2018 following the success of their Castleberry Market location two years earlier.

'As African-American business owners, it has been our goal to invest in our community by bringing jobs, quality dining, and a positive experience to the greater Atlanta area.'

She added: 'We hope that you know and understand that the acts of violence that occurred yesterday evening do not, in any way, serve as a reflection of OLG or its values.'

Family business: The Old Lady Gang restaurant is co-owned by the Real Housewives Of Atlanta star and her husband Todd Tucker

Active search: Police in the Atlanta suburb are still on the hunt for the gunman

Police Captain Allyn Glover told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 'We are actively looking for a suspect but do not have any further information at this time.'

Witness Brynae Kinsey told CBS46: We were waiting for our spot at the Juicy Crab, and we were waiting outside actually at that bench right there. We heard two gunshots and I seen somebody run out that door, and I ran.'

Another witness described the scene, as guests ran into the kitchen in the back of the restaurant after the shots were fired.

'I just heard her scream 'ahhh,' and then I heard two pops. Pop, pop. I just wondered what was going through his head for him to pop off like that.'

Burruss has long referred to her mother Joyce Jones, Aunt Nora Wilcox and Aunt Bertha Jones as the inspiration for the Old Lady Gang name on The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Sydney's iconic New year's Eve fireworks display could be scrapped and replaced with a drone light show if a new proposal is given the green light by council.

The City of Sydney Council is set to discuss a more eco-friendly option for future New Year's Eves, following calls to scrap the explosives in a bid to curb emissions.

Liberal councillor Craig Chung will propose the idea on Monday in hopes of finding alternatives to the multi-million dollar pyrotechnic show that draws a crowd of more than a million people each year, The Sun-Herald reported.

Fireworks explode over the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the midnight display on New Year's Eve on Sydney Harbour on January 1, 2019

The city is considering scrapping its multimillion-dollar fireworks display and replacing it with a drone light show instead. Pictured: 600 drones form a pattern during a 15-minute light show in China

Mr Chung said the move would be 'a great signal to the world that Sydney is progressive and looking for ways in which it can reduce emissions.'

The move would also be more cost-effective as light shows using 500 drones can cost as low as $75,000 - a fraction of the $6.5million the city spends on fireworks.

The fate of last month's show had already been in question in the lead up to 2020 due to concerns for bushfires.

A petition calling for the fireworks to be scrapped was signed by 250,000 people demanding funding be redirected to NSW drought and bushfire relief.

Liberal councillor Craig Chung will propose the idea on Monday in hopes of finding alternatives to the extravagant pyrotechnic show that draws a crowd of more than a million people each year

Councils cancelled fireworks displays in Parramatta and Cambelltown in Sydney's west, Wollongong in the south, and Maitland on the mid-north coast.

But Sydney's celebrations ultimately carried on at the behest of Premier Gladys Berejiklian who said the show should go on as long as experts deemed it safe.

The city's famous celebrations tends to attract one million people to the harbour foreshore and generated $130million for the NSW economy.

Sydney's Clover Moore said they had already begun incorporating drones into the display and council staff have been 'continually investigating improvements and new technologies'.
Islamabad: United Nations (UN) chief Antonio Guterres on Sunday said it was important for India and Pakistan to de-escalate "militarily and verbally" and exercise "maximum restraint" as he began his four-day visit to the country, amidst tense relationship between the two nuclear armed neighbours.

Addressing a press conference after his meeting with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the UN Secretary-General said he was "deeply concerned" over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and tensions along the Line of Control.

Guterres on Sunday arrived on a four-day visit to Pakistan during which he will attend an international conference on Afghan refugees and visit Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib.

"Diplomacy and dialogue remain the only tools that guarantee peace and stability with solutions in accordance with the Charter of United Nations and resolutions of the Security Council," he said. He also emphasised the importance to "de-escalate, both militarily and verbally" while talking about relations between Pakistan and India.

Guterres said he had "repeatedly stressed the importance of exercising maximum restraint".

"I offered my good offices from the beginning. I am ready to help if both countries agree for mediation," he said.

Tensions between India and Pakistan spiked after New Delhi abrogated ended the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5 last year. India's decision evoked strong reactions from Pakistan, which downgraded its diplomatic ties and expelled the Indian envoy.

India has defended its move, saying the special status provisions only gave rise to terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

The UN chief said that the issue of Kashmir should be resolved according to UN resolution.

"UNMOGIP (UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan) should be given free access. It is already there on the Pakistan side, and it should also be given on the other side," he said. "We have taken a position that UN resolutions (on Kashmir) should be implemented, there should be ceasefire (on LoC) and human rights should be respected."

India maintains that UNMOGIP has outlived its utility and is irrelevant after the Simla Agreement and the consequent establishment of the LoC.

India has rejected any third-party intervention to the Kashmir issue and has maintained that all outstanding matters in Indo-Pak ties should be resolved bilaterally.
Shaheen Bagh protesters stopped from marching to Amit Shah's home turn back

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Feb 16: The anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protesters at Shaheen Bagh have stopped their march to Union home minister Amit Shah's house midway after being denied permission.

The women had started the march around 2 pm, hoping for a dialogue with Amit Shah on the citizenship law. However, they did not have an appointment or the permission for a protest march from the police.

"They (Shaheen Bagh protesters) told us that they wanted to take out a march (to meet HM) but we told them they cannot as they do not have an appointment call from Union Home Minister. We are talking to them and we hope that they will understand," RP Meena, DCP (South East), said according to ANI.

An eight-member delegation of elderly women, popular now as 'Shaheen Bagh dadis', asked the police who had set up barricades for an update on their request for permission to meet Shah. They were stopped after a little distance.

Last week, Shah had said anyone who wants to discuss issues related to the CAA with him can seek time from his office. "(We) will give time within three days," he had said.

The protesters, mainly women, have been staging a sit-in against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) for the past two months.

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Story first published: Sunday, February 16, 2020, 17:23 [IST]
Octogenarian Z R Quraishi has seen bloodshed after the country's partition in 1947 and during the 1984 riots, and his only appeal to people is to not fall prey to "politics of polarisation" but promote brotherhood.

Old Delhi resident Quraishi, 83, was among the people born before India's independence who attended Arvind Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony at the historic Ramlila Maidan on Sunday.

"Our country is going through a churn right now. The kind of situation we are seeing among people is what we saw during the British-era among all sections of society," he told PTI.

Quraishi, who used to earn a living earlier by running a meat shop in the walled city, said he shut his shop many years ago after all his children got settled in government jobs.

"I was born in the 1930s and India at that time was also going though massive ruptures in its bid to become a free nation. People came together and fought together for a common cause. I am seeing that same kind of coincidence and union among people today ('waisa ittefaq aur ittehad aaj phir se hai)," he said, referring to the anti-CAA protests happening across the country.

He lamented that politics today has become of "low quality" where real issues of development "take a backseat" and "politics of communal polarisation is used as a tool to gain power".

"People should not fall prey to politics of polarisation but promote brotherhood instead," the 83-year-old cautioned.

Devki Nadan Chaudhary, 85, came all the way from Bihar's Begusarai to attend the event.

"I was moved by the results of the elections and wanted to be part of the swearing-in event. So I came here accompanied by a neighbour from my hometown," he told PTI.

"My neighbours said it (the ceremony) would be a festival of democracy, so I wanted to join in. I get excited to see youth caring about our country," he said.

Chaudhary and Izhar Ansari, 42, came to Delhi on Saturday in a train from Bihar.

"In our times, flour, dal, ghee and milk was pure and inexpensive. Now we get all adulterated stuff. Even our politics has got mixed up now. But it is important that we work towards building the future of the nation. People should know the real meaning of freedom and never let it be compromised," Chaudhary said.

"I have seen the struggle for 'azaadi'. We must never take it for granted," he said.

Namita Devi, 81, who came from Bhuj, said she can identify with the thought process of the present generation who are protesting.

"The freedom struggle was similar for us. I think Kejriwal can assume the role of the leader who can take us through this struggle (in reference to anti-CAA and NRC protests)," she said.

Surender Singh, Devi's husband who is 85, said, "After a long long time we have seen a leader like Kejriwal who we know can change things and we are willing to see if his model can be replicated in the whole country".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Previous article

How Oshiomhole failed to stop PDP in Bayelsa The embattled and loquacious national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, after mobilizing the federal might at the behest of the ruling party, ended in deep frustration in his plot to stop the inauguration of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the November governorship election as Governor of Bayelsa State last Friday after the Supreme Court in its judgment on Thursday nullified the victory of the APC candidate. Oshiomhole, having been warned by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State to desist from making statements that would throw the Niger Delta into chaos or cause disorder in the country, had resorted to conduct an extra-legal court proceeding at the APC national Secretariat, Abuja, re-interpreting and misinterpreting the judgement of the Supreme Court. In Oshiomholes extra-judicial court process, no candidate met the constitutional requirement of securing one-quarter votes in at least two-thirds of the local governments in Bayelsa State. In Oshiomholes erroneous arithmetic, 2/3 of 8 local governments translates to 6 LGAs; he noted that the PDP candidate managed to get  in 5 LGAs. The APC national chairman, in a letter to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), dated February 14, 2020, requested that INEC should not issue Certificate of Return to the PDP candidate or any other candidate since none met the mandatory requirement. He reiterated that the PDP cannot be sworn in as governor. Oshiomhole, therefore, solicited INECs cooperation to conduct fresh governorship election in Bayelsa State. Oshiomholes letter to the Executive Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abuja, attention to the Secretary of the Commission, reads: Dear Sir, Judgment in Appeal No. SC1/2020 Between Peoples Democratic Party & 2 ORS V. Lyon David and 3 ORS; Request for Conduct of Fresh Governorship Election in Bayelsa State Kindly recall that the governorship election in Bayelsa State was conducted on the 16th of November 2019, and our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), duly participated at the said election. You will also recall that the All Progressives Congress emerged victorious at the election leading to our candidate  Lyon David Pereworinimi, being declared and returned as winner of the election. Our attention has been drawn to the judgment of the Supreme Court delivered on 13th February 2020, in the pre-election appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship as well as deputy governorship candidates. In the said judgment of the Supreme Court, the candidature of our governorship and deputy governorship candidates were nullified and the Commission was ordered to issue fresh Certificate of Return to the candidate with the highest number of votes and with the required geographical spread. It is, however, to be noted that the Supreme Court did not void the votes that our party polled at the election and the implication of this is that the votes of the All Progressives Congress must be reckoned with in determining whether any other candidate polled majority of lawful votes cast in one-quarter of at least two thirds majority of the state. We have received the judgment of the Supreme Court and we are of the firm opinion that the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party cannot be issued Certificates of Return and/or sworn in as the Governor and Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State respectively. We are aware that Section 179(1)(b) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria mandatory requires a candidate for an election to the office of governor of a state to have not less than one-quarter of the votes at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the Local Government Areas in the State before the candidate can be deemed to have been duly elected as the Governor of the State. This mandatory requirement was affirmed by the Supreme Court in the judgment under reference. Bayelsa State has eight Local government areas, hence, the two-thirds of at least the eight Local Government Areas will be approximated to six Local Government Areas. From the results announced and duly published by the Commission, it is clear that NO CANDIDATE meet this mandatory constitutional requirement, including the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party who only managed to poll one-quarter of the votes cast in only FIVE Local Government Areas. Our position is fortified by the fact that there is a condition precedent to the winner being issued a Certificate of Return as evidenced by Paragraph 7 of the judgment and this condition is that the candidate to be issued with the Certificate of Return must have one-quarter of the votes in at least two-thirds of the Local Government Areas. In view of the above, we hereby request that Certificate of Return should not be issued to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party or any other candidate whatsoever, since none satisfies the requirement of one-quarter of the votes cast in at least 2/3 of all the Local Government Areas in the State as required by the Supreme Court Judgement. We further request that a fresh election be conducted by the Commission for the office of the Executive Governor of Bayelsa State. Thank you for your anticipated cooperation. INEC, however, complied with the judgment of the Supreme Court, reviewed the result of the election, declared the PDP candidate winner, and he was subsequently, sworn into office on Friday.
T ransport Secretary Grant Shapps has played down suggestions the Chinese state railway builder could be brought in to rescue the troubled HS2 project.

The China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) wrote to HS2 Ltd last month offering to complete the project in just five years at a significantly reduced cost.

However Mr Shapps said there had been no contact between CRCC and the Department for Transport.

He dismissed the idea that the project  which is not due to be completed until 2040  could be built in such a short space of time.

Grant Shapps said there has been no contact between the China railway builders and the Department for Transport / Getty images

They dont have our planning system, they dont have our legal system, they dont have to respect peoples property rights in the same way, he told BBC1s The Andrew Marr Show.

I really want to get this thing built faster if it is possible. But when you look at what is required, the contracts that need to be laid and so on and so forth  it is an enormous project.

An artist's impression of a HS2 train on the Birmingham and Fazeley viaduct / Press Association Images

You are not going to build it in five years.

The Government last week gave the green light for the line  which will link up London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds  to go ahead, despite running tens of billions of pound over budget.

Mr Shapps said that he was also anxious to use the HS2 programme to develop British construction skills and capabilities.

I want to train up an entire new generation of youngsters with the skills that are required. We want some of that home-grown, he said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said a deal between the United States and the Taliban on a weeklong reduction of violence in Afghanistan "looks very promising," but warned it was not without risk.



Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on February 15, Esper said it was time "to give peace a chance" through a political solution to the nearly 19-year conflict.



"That means taking some risk," he said. "That means enabling our diplomats and that means working together with our partners and allies on the ground to affect such a thing."

The Afghan presidential palace said in a statement on February 15 that the deal was conditions-based and would be finalized possibly in the next few weeks.



The palace statement said that U.S. officials told President Ashraf Ghani that the Taliban was ready to "quit violence" and accept a "pluralistic society."



The remarks came a day after a senior U.S. official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity, told reporters at the sidelines of the Munich conference that the United States and the Taliban had reached a deal on a weeklong reduction of violence that would take effect "very soon."



If successful, the weeklong truce could lead to the signing of a broader agreement between the United States and the Taliban on the withdrawal of around 20,000 foreign troops from the country.



That deal would trigger the start of intra-Afghan peace negotiations over the political future of the country.



The truce deal was announced after a meeting between Esper, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on the sidelines of the conference.



U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad and General Scott Miller, the commander of the U.S.-led international force in Afghanistan, also attended the meeting.

The unnamed U.S. official who addressed reporters said the Taliban had committed to stopping roadside and suicide bombings as well as rocket attacks.



The official said the deal was "very specific" and covered the entire country, including Afghan forces.



The United States would monitor the truce and determine if there were any violations, the official said.

With reporting by AP
The All Progressive Congress (APC) has warned a former Attorney General of the Federation, Kanu Agabi (SAN) to desist from influence peddling and veiled intimidation of the Supreme Court in a matter currently before it.

While reacting to a written address wherein the former justice minister asked the Supreme Court to reverse itself on the January 14, 2020 judgment that sacked Hon. Emeka Ihedioha as governor, the APC in Imo State decried the veiled threats by Agabi.

In a statement issued by the APC Chairman in Imo State, Chief Marcelinus Nlemigbo, the party frowned at the choice of words by Agabi who asked the Supreme Court to redeem itself.

The party said that the imputation of Agabis statement was that the Supreme Court erred in law and brought the judiciary to ridicule. The APC noted that Agabi who is now the Counsel to Ihedioha wants to use his former exalted position to intimidate the judiciary instead of arguing on points of law.

According to the party, the matter that led to the sack of Ihedioha was that INEC deliberately and fraudulently in collusion with PDP excluded lawful votes cast in 388 polling units in favour of APC.

It noted that whereas APC was able to produce the copies of the result as given to its party agents by the same INEC, the electoral body and PDP were unable to produce a contradictory proof.

The APC further argued that the submission of PDP and Agabi that votes accredited to Governor Hope Uzodinma and APC were higher than the accredited voters was untenable because the figures being bandied did not actually include the excluded votes from the 388 polling units. The party said that it was surprised that Agabi elected to represent Ihedioha whom his original lawyers had already given up knowing that the exercise of seeking a review of the Supreme Court verdict was a mere academic exercise that is futile.

It stressed that Agabi, having realized the futility of the exercise, decided to use intimidation and influence peddling to pursue a matter that is dead on arrival.

It accordingly warned the former minister to stop insulting the sensibilities of the justices of the Supreme Court all in the name of representing a client with a lost case.

Meanwhile, the Imo State Chapter of Oil and Solid Mineral Producing Area Landlords Association of Nigeria(OMPALAN) has called on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to stop distracting Governor Uzodinma from delivering the dividends of democracy to the people of the state.

The State Chapter Chairman, Chibunna Ubawuike, who made this known while speaking with newsmen in Abuja, recently, said that the protests staged by the party in the state were deliberate moves to distract the governor from fulfilling his mandate to the people.

Ubawuike, an All Progressives Congress(APC) stalwart, said that his organisation, like other sons and daughters of Imo State, were solidly behind Uzodinma, who was earlier denied of his mandate to bring succour to the people.

My organization, OMPALAN, wants to express its support for the government of Hope Uzodinma.

And we want the world know that OMPALAN worked to ensure that his mandate was retrieved and we thank the Supreme Court for doing justice to his case by declaring him the governor on January14. We want to let the world know that all the political demonstrations that the ousted PDP government in Imo State is embarking on is not acceptable.

No right thinking Imolite will come out to demonstrate against the government of Governor Hope Uzodinma, he said.

While reacting to a written address wherein the former justice minister asked the Supreme Court to reverse itself on the January 14, 2020 judgment that sacked Hon. Emeka Ihedioha as governor, the APC in Imo State decried the veiled threats by Agabi.

In a statement issued by the APC Chairman in Imo State, Chief Marcelinus Nlemigbo, the party frowned at the choice of words by Agabi who asked the Supreme Court to redeem itself.

The party said that the imputation of Agabis statement was that the Supreme Court erred in law and brought the judiciary to ridicule. The APC noted that Agabi who is now the Counsel to Ihedioha wants to use his former exalted position to intimidate the judiciary instead of arguing on points of law.

According to the party, the matter that led to the sack of Ihedioha was that INEC deliberately and fraudulently in collusion with PDP excluded lawful votes cast in 388 polling units in favour of APC.

It noted that whereas APC was able to produce the copies of the result as given to its party agents by the same INEC, the electoral body and PDP were unable to produce a contradictory proof.

The APC further argued that the submission of PDP and Agabi that votes accredited to Governor Hope Uzodinma and APC were higher than the accredited voters was untenable because the figures being bandied did not actually include the excluded votes from the 388 polling units. The party said that it was surprised that Agabi elected to represent Ihedioha whom his original lawyers had already given up knowing that the exercise of seeking a review of the Supreme Court verdict was a mere academic exercise that is futile.

It stressed that Agabi, having realized the futility of the exercise, decided to use intimidation and influence peddling to pursue a matter that is dead on arrival.

It accordingly warned the former minister to stop insulting the sensibilities of the justices of the Supreme Court all in the name of representing a client with a lost case.

Meanwhile, the Imo State Chapter of Oil and Solid Mineral Producing Area Landlords Association of Nigeria(OMPALAN) has called on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to stop distracting Governor Uzodinma from delivering the dividends of democracy to the people of the state.

The State Chapter Chairman, Chibunna Ubawuike, who made this known while speaking with newsmen in Abuja, recently, said that the protests staged by the party in the state were deliberate moves to distract the governor from fulfilling his mandate to the people.

Ubawuike, an All Progressives Congress(APC) stalwart, said that his organisation, like other sons and daughters of Imo State, were solidly behind Uzodinma, who was earlier denied of his mandate to bring succour to the people.

My organization, OMPALAN, wants to express its support for the government of Hope Uzodinma.

And we want the world know that OMPALAN worked to ensure that his mandate was retrieved and we thank the Supreme Court for doing justice to his case by declaring him the governor on January14. We want to let the world know that all the political demonstrations that the ousted PDP government in Imo State is embarking on is not acceptable.

No right thinking Imolite will come out to demonstrate against the government of Governor Hope Uzodinma, he said.
Wishing luck for their coming board examinations, Kolkata Police Commissioner Anuj Sharma on Saturday asked students to dial 100 or contact the force in case of any disturbance due to music played on loudspeakers or any other issues they face.

In a tweet on Saturday evening, Sharma provided four mobile numbers 9432610443, 9432610446, 9874903465, 9432624365 for the students to contact in case of such disturbances.

The move, police sources said, was taken after requests poured in to the Kolkata Police headquarters in Lalbazar and its social networking page from students seeking help as their board examinations are approaching.

Respected authority, as board exams and other exams are approaching, we students are facing the problem of loud music in our locality almost everyday. Be it a private function or a political agenda, people are setting up huge speakers and decks even after 10PM, tweet of one student Raghav Agarwal, read.
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Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 05:09:16|Editor: yan

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DUBLIN, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Ireland exported a record high of 152.5 billion euros (about 165 billion U.S. dollars) worth of goods in 2019, up by 8.5 percent compared with 2018, according to the latest preliminary figures released by the country's Central Statistics Office (CSO).

In 2019, the country imported a total of 89.1 billion euros worth of goods, down 3 percent over a year ago, said the CSO, adding that the country's goods trade surplus stood at about 63.4 billion euros, up by 30 percent year-on-year.

The largest category of the goods exported by Ireland in 2019 was medical and pharmaceutical products, whose exports increased by 7 percent to nearly 50 billion euros in the year, accounting for nearly one-third of the country's total exports, said the CSO.

The drop in the imports was largely due to a decrease in the country's imports of other transport equipment including aircraft in 2019, which fell by 10 percent to 19.8 billion euros, making up more than 22 percent of the country's total imports, it said.

The European Union (EU) accounted for nearly 48 percent of the total goods exported by Ireland in 2019 with the remaining 52 percent or so to be balanced by non-EU countries, said the CSO, adding that the United States was the largest export destination for Ireland in 2019, accounting for almost 31 percent of the country's total exports in the year.

Imports from the EU were valued at 52.9 billion euros in 2019, accounting for nearly 60 percent of the country's total imports, it said, adding that Britain was the largest source of imported goods for Ireland in 2019, accounting for almost 23 percent of the country's total imports. (1 euro= 1.083 U.S. dollars)
Las Vegas - Democratic US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said on Saturday Mike Bloomberg would not generate the "excitement and energy" needed to win the White House, focusing on a rival still not fully participating in the race.

"The simple truth is that Mayor Bloomberg, with all his money, will not create the kind of excitement and energy we need to have the voter turnout we must have to defeat Donald Trump," Sanders said at a Democratic party gala.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks at the Clark County Democratic Party "Kick-Off to Caucus 2020" event on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. Credit:John Locher

Sanders, eager to build momentum after winning New Hampshire and a photo-finish for first place in Iowa, mentioned only the billionaire former New York City mayor among his competitors in a Las Vegas speech. He was critical of Bloomberg's stances on minimum wage laws, policing, taxing the rich and regulating Wall Street.

Nevada will hold on Feb. 22 the next contest in the state-by-state race to pick a Democratic opponent for Republican President Trump in November's election.
By PTI

KARACHI: The Asia Internet Coalition has urged the Pakistan government to revoke its newly-approved social media rules, warning that such regulations to control cyberspace will make it extremely difficult for companies to operate and cripple the country's economy.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf government last week announced a new set of rules to regulate social media activity and has given all digital companies and social media platforms three months to adhere to the new rules.

Under the new rules, social media companies will be obliged to disclose any information or data to a designated investigation agency, when sought.

Failure to abide by any of the provisions will entail a fine of up to Rs 500 million.

The Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) is an industry association that comprises leading internet and technology companies, namely Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, AirBnb, Apple, Booking.

com, Expedia Group, Grab, LinkedIn, LINE, Rakuten, and Yahoo.

Managing Director AIC Jeff Paine said the government's new rules to regulate social media activity will make it "extremely difficult" for digital companies to operate in Pakistan.

In a letter sent to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and other senior officials dealing with technology and digital/social media, he said the new rules were against the basic right of expression and information.

ALSO READ: Pakistan not taking any concrete step against terrorism, says Afghan President

Paine warned that while members recognise Pakistan's strong potential for investment and business, the sudden announcement of these rules belies the government of Pakistan's claims that it is open for business and investment.

"In fact, the rules as currently written would make it extremely difficult for AIC members to make their services available to Pakistani users and businesses," he said.

The letter also said that AIC was deeply concerned to see the Pakistan government release a set of broad-reaching online rules without any consultation with stakeholders, including the industry.

Though the government has insisted that the new rules have been created for the protection of citizens, rights groups, media bodies and opposition members in Parliament have expressed concern that they are meant to curb freedom of expression and sharing of information.

"We urge the government of Pakistan to consider the potential consequences of the rules in order to prevent unexpected negative impacts on Pakistan's economy," the letter said.

It said the AIC members had been working in consultation with governments on this challenge for years, using both computer science tools and human reviewers to identify and stop a range of online abuse.

The letter also observed that the rules were vague and arbitrary in nature, which was a result of the absence of public consultation.

The lack of such discussion was problematic given that the rules demanded that social media companies deviate from established human rights practices concerning user privacy and freedom of expression.

The letter said the way these rules were passed was causing international companies to re-evaluate their view of the regulatory environment in Pakistan, and their willingness to work and invest in the country.

Under regulations that were approved by the Cabinet late last month but were not immediately made public, social media companies will be obliged to help law enforcement agencies access data and to remove online content deemed unlawful.

The new set of rules were approved at a cabinet meeting without being brought up in Parliament for discussion.

AIC seeks to promote the understanding of Internet policy issues in the Asia-Pacific region.
A private ultrasound centre was sealed in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir for violating norms, an official spokesman said on Sunday.

The centre in Kotranka town was sealed following an inspection by an official team headed by Additional Deputy Commissioner, Kotranka, Surinder Mohan Sharma on Saturday, the spokesman said.

He said the team conducted a surprise inspection of the ultrasound centre and found that it is being run in violation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act and the doctor operating it was not suitably qualified.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress high command is likely to announce the partys key troubleshooter in Karnataka, DK Shivakumar as the next state unit president with MB Patil as the working president, according to party leaders who spoke on condition of anonymity, in what could be a delicate balancing act between competing caste claims in the state..

Former CM S Siddaramaiah is likely to continue as the Congress Legislature Party leader, the leaders added.

The KPCC presidentship has been vacant ever since the incumbent Dinesh Gundu Rao resigned following the defeat in the bypolls, in which the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) won 12 of the 15 seats, ensuring a majority for itself in the state assembly.

The state leadership issue became contentious following that, with Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga, lobbying to ensure that his role as partys main go-to man during difficult times be rewarded, the leaders cited above said. Patil, a former home minister and a Lingayat leader, was the favoured choice of Siddaramaiah, they added.

A former minister in the Siddaramiah cabinet told HT on condition of anonymity the appointment was now just a formality.

How long could the current uncertainty continue? Shivakumar is a go-getter who can also help generate funds for the party. For instance, on the Bidar school sedition issue, we were late and started an agitation only after the accused got bail. With Shivakumar at the helm, we will be more aggressive and able to put the BJP government on a mat by highlighting all their omissions and commissions, the former minister added.

The decision to appoint Shivakumar -- a seven-term MLA who served in the cabinets of former CMs S Bangarappa, SM Krishna, Siddaramiah and HD Kumaraswamy -- is likely to be a controversial one. He faces ongoing income tax and Enforcement Directorate (ED) probes, is currently on bail after being jailed by the ED in a money laundering case. He

In his 2018 poll affidavit, Shivakumar declared assets worth Rs 840 crore, making him one of the richest politicians in the state. His brother DK Suresh is a two term parliamentarian and is the sitting MP from the Bangalore Rural constituency.

Shivakumars latest move to build the worlds largest Christ statue in his constituency in Kanakapura has also come in for severe attack from Sangh Parivar outfits, who claim the land he donated was government-owned and illegally usurped by him.

Political analyst Manjunath said that Shivakumar, if appointed, is likely to inject a great degree of dynamism into the functioning of the party.

He sees himself as a future Chief Minister and is very ambitious. If the appointments are confirmed, it will only vindicate the fact that the party high command has tried to balance caste interests by having a Vokkilga, a Lingayat and a Kuruba  the three leading castes in the state - heading different parts of the party. Also since the BJP is making a concerted effort to break into the Vokkaliga votebank, nominating Shivakumar would be a smart move to consolidate the community behind the party, he said.
If the L62A portion can be completed by 2029, then the state will look at improvements on Highway 385 north of Alliance to Chadron and the South Dakota border to make that stretch a Super two highway with passing lanes, broader shoulders and flattening of some curves and hills without actually building two more lanes.

The last word we heard from both Doug Hoevet, who is the district engineer, as well as folks from Lincoln and Doug Leafgreen, the highway commissioner, is that that is still on the planning process, Cottier said. They will not commit to when that might happen because it is not in an area where there is enough traffic volume to really push the issue, but as an organization, our goal remains the same to have a four-lane divided highway all the way and were probably not going to give up until it happens.

The Heartland Expressway began 25 years ago as a group hoping to bring a four-lane highway system from the Colorado border to the South Dakota border in the Panhandle. The Heartland Expressway would be a portion of a greater Ports-to-Plains highway system from Mexico to Canada. Cottier said the scope of the project has turned it into a lifetime project.
Sri Lanka on Sunday asked the US to review its decision to impose a travel ban on its army chief Lt Gen Shavendra Silva, who has been accused of grave human rights abuses during the final phase of the country's civil war against the LTTE, and warned that America's move "unnecessarily complicates" bilateral ties.

The US last week imposed travel restrictions on Lt Gen Silva and his immediate family members over alleged gross violations of human rights during the final phase of the military conflict that ended in 2009 with the killing of LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.

US ambassador Alaina Teplitz was summoned by Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena on Sunday.

Gunawardena conveyed to Teplitz Sri Lanka's strong objections on the imposition of travel restrictions by the US on Lt Gen Silva and his family.

He said that the move unnecessarily complicates the US-Sri Lanka relationship.

Noting that Lt Gen Silva was one of the senior military officials who contributed significantly to liberate Sri Lanka from terrorism over a decade ago, the minister said it is disappointing that a foreign government should question the prerogative of a democratically elected President to call upon persons of proven expertise to hold key positions on national security related matters.

Noting that the designation was not based on independently verified information, the minister requested the United States to verify the authenticity of the sources of information.

Gunawardena asked that the United States Government review its decision.

Ambassador Teplitz said that she would convey Sri Lanka's concerns to the US.

Earlier, Sri Lanka's ruling and opposition parties strongly opposed the US move to impose a travel ban on Lt Gen Silva.

"Silva was only conducting a war against a designated terrorist group which was the LTTE. The US themselves named many organisations terrorist after 9/11 attacks," Gunawardena told reporters.

Sajith Premadasa, the main opposition leader, echoed a similar view.

"Imposition of a travel ban on army commander Shavendra Silva and his immediate family is regrettable and unfortunate. He is one of the heroic field commanders who spearheaded the national effort to eradicate terrorism," Premadasa tweeted.

"All of us stand by him and his family at this hour of need. As a country we shall always stand with the war heroes that brought about an end to 30 years of terrorism," he said.

Other opposition figures also said that Silva was doing his job as a battle commander and should therefore not be punished for fighting the LTTE.

Lt Gen Silva, 55, was appointed as the Sri Lankan Army Commander last year and previously headed the Army's 58th Division in the final battle against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels of the civil war in 2009.

His brigade was accused of attacking civilians, hospitals and stopping humanitarian supplies to trapped Tamil civilians.

The Sri Lanka Army has denied the alleged rights abuses.

After the brutal civil war ended, Silva served in New York as Sri Lanka's Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN Mission.

According to a United Nations report, some 45,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the last months of the war alone.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rima settles in a chair at an upscale Riyadh cafe, looks around carefully and, seeing no one she recognises, drags on her electronic cigarette before exhaling a cloud of smoke. "I feel that smoking in public is a part of exercising my newly won freedoms. I am happy that now I can choose," the 27-year-old Saudi who works for a private company in the capital told AFP. Like Western feminists of the early 20th century, in an era of social change in Saudi Arabia some women are embracing cigarettes, shisha pipes or vaping as a symbol of emancipation. The sight of women smoking in public has become much more common in recent months, an unthinkable prospect before the introduction of sweeping reforms in the ultra-conservative kingdom. The kingdom's ambitious de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has rolled out an array of economic and social innovations to project a moderate, business-friendly image. Women are now allowed to drive, attend public sporting events and concerts, or obtain passports without the approval of a male guardian. Rima, who started smoking two years ago, dismisses concerns about the harmful effects of tobacco, but is worried her family will find out. She says she is prepared for a showdown. "I won't tell them that this is about my personal liberty, because they won't understand that women are free to smoke like men," said Rima, dressed in a traditional black abaya with gold embroidery matching the hijab that covered her hair. Najla, 26, who like Rima asked to use a pseudonym, said that despite the rapid social changes, double standards still existed, and that it was still considered a "scandal and disgrace" if women smoked. The only woman lighting up amid several tables of male smokers, she said she intended to "challenge society" and ignore the occasional dirty looks. "My rights will be fully respected when my family accepts me as a smoker," she said, recalling that a friend was sent to an addiction clinic when her parents found out about her smoking. Najla started smoking while still a school student and, like her, up to 65 percent of female Saudi high schoolers light up secretly, according to a 2015 study by the medical faculty at King Abdulaziz University cited by Arab News. - 'Everything is allowed' - Despite the limitations, in a country where until just a few years ago religious police would chase and hit women for infractions like wearing nail polish or allowing a strand of hair to escape from their hijab, the changes have been head-spinning. "Most of our women clients order shisha. It's something that was totally unimaginable just three months ago," a Lebanese waiter told AFP at an up-market cafe in north Riyadh. Heba, a 36-year-old longtime smoker who sat at a table nearby, described growing up in a closed country where "everything was forbidden to women". "I never imagined I would be able to smoke shisha in public next to men," she told AFP. "Now, everything is allowed. Women venture out without hijab, without abaya and they even smoke publicly." But even as the kingdom has introduced reforms, it has attracted condemnation for a heavy-handed crackdown on dissidents including intellectuals, clerics and female activists. In 2018, authorities arrested at least a dozen women activists just before the historic lifting of the decades-long ban on female motorists. Many of the detained have accused interrogators of sexual harassment and torture. Saudi authorities reject the accusations. "There is no doubt that at the persona level there is more freedom," said Walid al-Hathloul, whose sister Loujain is on trial over allegations of having contacts with foreign media and diplomats. "But the reforms in favour of women are part of a public relations campaign to improve the kingdom's human rights record," he told AFP. "The arrest and demonisation of women activists is proof of this -- it's designed so that the reforms will not be credited to the activists." A Saudi woman smokes a cigarette at a cafe in Riyadh Even as the kingdom has introduced reforms -- including allowing women into sports stadiums -- it has attracted condemnation for a heavy-handed crackdown on dissidents
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray was on Saturday forced to wrap up his speech at a convention in Aurangabad  which was expected to witness more than 10,000 people  within one-and-a-half minutes, after he was greeted by empty chairs. Thackeray, who was supposed to undertake a four-day visit to the city, also cut short the trip and came back to Mumbai in three days.

Peeved at the large-scale factionalism in the party, the MNS chief reportedly called some party workers traitors and said they would be thrown out of the party.

Thackeray, who recently shifted to Hindutva from the earlier Marathi Manoos plank, was looking to gain ground in Aurangabad which has been the citadel of the MNSs arch rival, the Shiv Sena. He is said to be indirectly being supported by the BJP, which wants to displace the Sena from power in the Aurangabad corporation.

Meanwhile, MNS leaders claimed that the Maharashtra English Teachers Associations convention was just a last-minute courtesy call by Thackeray, and was not related to the party. However, some local MNS workers claimed his address was part of the programme.

On Saturday, when Thackeray went to inaugurate and address the teachers convention at Shrihari Pavilion, he was greeted to a crowd of barely 100-200 people, in place of more than 10,000 teachers and school staff members who were expected to turn up. Thackeray then took the mike, thanked the teachers for calling him and within one-and-a-half minutes, wound up his speech and left the venue.

MNS leader Abhijeet Panse said the programme was not on Thackerays schedule. Some of the teachers called him to attend the programme and he went there. It was not on the agenda at all, he said, blaming vested interests for spreading misinformation about the whole tour. It was a successful tour. In fact, Rajsaheb will once again visit the city after 15 days owing to the forthcoming municipal elections, he said.

However, some local MNS workers said loyal functionaries of the party were upset as new entrants were being given prominence. Prominent Sena leader Suhas Dashrathe, who was considered a close aide of former Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire, and turncoats Harshvardhan Jadhav and Prakash Mahajan who have returned to the party fold once again, are among these new entrants.

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An IRA knife killer who once acted as Martin McGuinness' bodyguard wants to see the PSNI "disbanded".

Sinn Fein supporter Bart Fisher made the comment during a recent social media discussion about policing in Derry.

Predicting a time when the PSNI, which is supported by Sinn Fein, will be dissolved, the ex-Provo said: "That's what republicans want, but until then they must be held to account."

Fisher then added: "I'm not interested in bringing in new legislation in terms of dealing with political policing, I'm only interested in getting them disbanded.

"I've never had any contact with them and neither has 99% of republicans because our vision is a united Ireland, thus the PSNI will be disbanded.

"In the meantime our leadership have tried everything at hand to make them amenable for their actions no matter what."

Fisher's comments show how a sizeable section of mainstream republicans, while outwardly supportive of policing structures in Northern Ireland, want to see the PSNI dissolved.

Senior Sinn Fein figures have also been highly critical of the force, with leader Mary Lou McDonald previously claiming that no one within the PSNI was fit to become Chief Constable before Simon Byrne's appointment last year.

Although no longer a member of Sinn Fein, convicted killer Bart Fisher remains close to several high-profile members including ex-Derry city and Strabane councillor Colly Kelly who he was pictured with at a Celtic game.

Fisher served a three-year prison term for the 2003 manslaughter of Jimmy McGinley, who he stabbed through the heart with a 12-inch dagger during a brawl.

Fisher is also a suspect in the murder of Mark 'Mousey' Robinson in Derry city two years earlier. The 22-year-old died after being stabbed 11 times and beaten with scaffolding poles in an alley in the Shantallow district.
My integrity means more to me than any fame or money. When I say something, I want people to take it to the bank that I mean it and I believe in it. -Tim Tebow

In a sane society, the Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mrs Joi Nunieh should be facing interrogators for bringing shame to herself, deceiving the nation and earning fat pay for the few days she was in charge of the juicy agency. But this is Nigeria where might is right and criminals allowed to flourish and even given protection by our security agencies.

No one really knows much about the lady in charge of NDDC. Despite her years on earth and around the corridors of power right from former President Goodluck Jonathan's days, no one has a biography of her. Her educational background is like a secret cult, just as her work history is shrouded in secrecy. We need not talk about her alleged marriage to three men as that will be passing through the camels eyes. The only thing known about her is that her father was a Senator and indeed, the dad was a man of integrity. How he ended up fathering a lady who lacks what he cherishes most should be a debate for her family.

For weeks, she has been accused of not possessing NYSC certificate. She has not only been accused but dared by the accusers to produce one if she truly has. There is no denying the fact that she is a lawyer, which in my view is still subject to contest. In Ogoniland where she hails from, her only claim to fame is being among the lawyers who defended Ken Saro-Wiwa, though a baby lawyer then. It was not a case they won and thus she could not have been celebrated as one of those who stopped the evil Gen. Sani Abacha from killing the hero of Ogoni.

The era of telling accusers to prove their case seem to be over. I refuse to agree with my senior respected colleague; Ibanga Isine who is her Special Adviser on Communication that her accusers should bring forth proof to show that she does not possess a valid NYSC certificate. No, she is a public office holder and owes us explanation on what happened that she could not serve her fatherland in her youthful age. For someone that schooled in Nigeria and graduated before the age of 30, it is mandatory that she passed through the one year of National Service. She has an explanation to give to her accusers, President Buhari who employed her via the surrogate called Godswill Akpabio and indeed all Nigerians who pay her through their tax.

If the number six man in the country, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege could be dragged before the public, which prompted him to bring a superior court judgment all the way from California, there is no reason under the earth that Joi Nunieh who schooled in Nigeria cannot tell us what happened to her NYSC certificate. Did she serve and it got lost in transit? We need to know. Did she serve and she was expelled before the end of service year? We need to know. And if indeed she served but cannot find her discharge certificate, we will sympathize with her. However, she must have taken pictures during her camping days as well as written down her name inside the NYSC book of life. As a type, I cant find my own certificate but Im not bothered because I have more than enough proofs that I served in Maiduguri.

We must stop the practice of encouraging national truants like Joi Nunieh to get away with misbehavior simply because they control public funds to throw around. The honorable thing for her to do is take the Kemi Adeosun's route  RESIGN and apologize to the country for taking us for a ride. If she fails to resign, the President should immediately fire her and get a replacement before handing her over to the security agencies forfurther probe. There are over one million qualified Niger Deltans without scandal to head the IMC, before the new board is constituted.

Nothing about her has really been fantastic right from the days of old. Perhaps, she should tell us what happened at Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP), a multi billion agency where she was also made the Acting Coordinator. Her stay there was filled with corrupt practices, illegal award of contracts, high-handedness, favoritism and even insubordination, so much that she began to fight her godfather, Ambassador Abdulkadir Musa, who was then the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum, just as shes fighting her surrogate father now, Godswill Akpabio. The messy details of her years in HYPREP will be opened in due course for Nigerians to know that NDDC is not safe with her.

The truth remains that Joi Nunieh is a crafty woman who has mastered the act of staying on top even when there are allegations against her. NDDC will not be the first place for her to exhibit such attitude but it can be the last place. Her plot to stylishly stay for over a year in the name of forensic audit is well known. It is all in a bid to rake in money from the commission. Or is she here to breaking the jinx of Acting and scheme her way to be nominated as the substantial MD in the new board that is to come? She was acting coordinator in HYPREP and now an Acting head of an IMC. Is this a conspiracy theory about to play out in the Joi Nunieh movie script?

It is befuddling how Mr President was deceived to allow a lady with vested interest in NDDC to sit over the same agency where shes a contractor. How can an offender be a judge in her own case?

She is known to have used her company Cyprus and Jenny Limited to secure contract worth N326.3 Million on 29th of November, 2016 for emergency repair of Beeri Internal roads in Khana LGA. This contract was not paid for in the last NDDC administration but as soon as she was made the IMC head, she paid herself, despite the company not having compliance paper. The CAC search of December 2019 still have her as a director of the company, which is against the public service rule that demands her resignation of any company which she is a director.

The interim board since inauguration operates without a budget which is also against the law, but she is Joi Nunieh, a goddess, who is above the law of the land.

Self styled as the Queen Esther of Ogoniland, the Acting MD should not be allowed to sit over this forensic audit, with such academic scandal dangling over her head. Her usual cry that those who are against the audit are sponsoring write-ups and protest is a stale tale told to idiots. Is it Senator Peter Nwaoboshi who sees me as his number one enemy for dragging him before the EFCC and exposing his corrupt practices through the media that she will finger as sponsoring this? She is not only a major beneficiary of the system she seeks to audit but lacks the complete academic process which ends with going for NYSC to supervise any audit companies.

The law is no respecter of person and this is what President Muhammadu Buhari must display by telling her to resign like Kemi Adeosun or sacking her. If the President could face the pressure from Nigerians to bring his affidavit when he lost his WAEC certificate, a Joi Nunieh should not stay more than month, keeping quiet and telling us to go to hell. Let bring NYSC affidavit if she has it and we will accept it after due diligence.

The board needs someone who has not tasted from the waters of corruption, bitten from the seed of compromise nor bath from the rivers of ethnicity. Sadly, shes a victim of them all and like Jonah who will cause the ship to sink, she should be let go, go to where she practices her law trade and will not need her NYSC to work or her past crime in HYPREP comes haunting. Let her go President Buhari.

These little things matter

Fejiro Oliver, an investigative journalist can be reached on +2348022050733 (SMS ONLY). He tweets with @fejirooliver86 and IG Handle @kingofqueendom
Mask-clad commuters get off a train at a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stop in Taipei, Taiwan, on Jan. 30, 2020. (Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images)

First Coronavirus Death Reported in Taiwan, Fifth Outside Mainland China

The fifth coronavirus, or COVID-19, death outside of mainland China was confirmed in Taiwan after health officials said a taxi driver succumbed to the mysterious new illness.

Taiwanese Health Minister Chen Shih-Chung confirmed Sunday during a press conference that a 61-year-old man was the islands first COVID-19 victim. The man had already suffered from diabetes and hepatitis B.

So far, we are not able to gather his contact history, so we are actively making investigations, hoping to find out the source of the contraction, Chen said, adding that the man hadnt traveled outside of Taiwan recently but had clients who came from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau.

One of the mans family members contracted the virus, said Chen, explaining that it was the first case of person-to-person transmission in Taiwan. Officials are now working to find out how the deceased man contracted the virus.

As of Sunday, Taiwan has reported 20 cases of COVID-19 and barred entry to mainland Chinese visitors. Taiwan, starting Monday, will now test all patients who show symptoms associated with the virus and who have traveled abroad recently, the health ministry confirmed.

A bus with a driver wearing protective gear departs from the dockside next to the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which has around 3,600 people quarantined onboard due to fears of the new COVID-19 coronavirus, at the Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama port, Japan, on Feb. 14, 2020. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)

The death comes about a day after a Chinese tourist died of the virus in France, marking the first COVID-19 death in Europe. An 80-year-old man who was visiting Paris with his daughter, who also tested positive for the virus, was hospitalized after falling ill, according to Frances health minister, Agnes Buzyn.

His condition declined rapidly and he had been in a critical state for several days, Buzyn told reporters. Its the first death from the coronavirus outside Asia and the first in Europe.

Other deaths have been reported in Hong Kong, Japan, and the Philippines, while tens of thousands of cases have been reported in mainland China, namely in central Hubei Province and its capital, Wuhan. Chinese social media users and citizen journalists have said the Chinese Community Party (CCP) is engaging in a mass censorship campaign to cover-up the true scope of the virus. The CCP has also been accused of draconian measures and human rights abuses in its attempts to curb the spread of the virus.

The largest outbreak of the virus outside of China is on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, where more than 330 cases have been confirmed by Japanese health officials. The vessel is currently docked and being held in medical isolation at a port in Yokohama, located near Tokyo.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Police detained Patrick George Zaki, an Egyptian university student in Italy, upon arriving in Cairo earlier this month.

Egypts chief prosecutor has denied allegations that the police tortured a detained human rights activist and researcher during interrogations.

Police detained Patrick George Zaki, an Egyptian student at the University of Bologna in Italy, after landing in Cairo earlier this month for what was supposed to be a brief visit home.

Zaki told his lawyers he has been beaten, subjected to electric shocks, threatened and questioned about his work and activism, according to The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a Cairo-based human rights group that previously employed him as a gender rights researcher.

The researchers lawyer Huda Nasrallah also told The Associated Press news agency that Zaki repeated his torture allegations on Saturday during a court hearing to appeal against his detention. The court rejected the appeal. Zaki is being held while prosecutors investigate claims of disseminating false news and calling for unauthorised protests, among other allegations.

But in a two-page statement on Sunday, the office of General Prosecutor Hamada el-Sawy said Zaki did not report that he was harmed or violated during his arrest or detention when he spoke to the public prosecution on February 8, the day after his arrest.

The public prosecution also did not observe any visible injuries that could be useful to the investigations, and that the defendant responded denying the existence of any injuries to his body, the statement read.

As evidence in the case against Zaki, Egypts national security agency provided 10 pages printed from a Facebook account carrying the name Patrick George Zaki. The statement described it as inflammatory material against the state institutions and figures.

It said Zaki denied the claims against him, and that the prosecutors office ordered him to remain in custody pending further investigations.

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Egypt outlawed all unauthorised protests in 2013, months after President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, then defence minister, led the militarys removal of the countrys first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, following mass protests.

Zakis case has sparked alarm among human rights groups and has also rattled Italy amid fears of a repeat of the case of murdered Italian doctoral student Giulio Regeni.

Regenis body was found on a roadside on the outskirts of Cairo in 2016 showing extensive signs of torture.

After four years of investigation, no one has been arrested or charged over the killing of the 28-year-old, despite months of presumed cooperation between Egyptian and Italian prosecutors. Italy is still pressing Egypt to speed up the investigation.
PRESS RELEASE: INTEND BICYCLE COMPONENTS

The changes to the New Age suspension forks include the following points:



 Less mass on the shaft, more mass in the crown

 SKF seals as wipers / oil seals

 New 20to15 axle adapters

 Heavy and light axles with knurled clamping surfaces

 Higher bushings

 New royal flush coating

 CNC-made adjustment knobs

 New cable routing

 No more pre-orders, all forks are in stock

 Intend Edge suitable for e-bikes



Less mass on the shaft, more mass in the crown

Cornelius Kapfinger states that the prejudice that USD forks are not torsionally rigid is a major concern for potential customers. Although this concern is completely unfounded, he will continue to try to counteract the prejudices.



With the Intend Edge New Age, the mass on the shaft is reduced, but the mass in the bridge is increased. The current shaft is no less stable and firm as with all other manufacturers, no lightweight construction was carried out. With the same total weight, however, an increase in the torsional rigidity can now be achieved. In order to achieve this, the Edge New Age moves mass from the shaft into the bridge. If the mass is located in the bridge, it can increase both torsional and directional stiffness, if the mass were in the shaft, it can only increase the latter.



SKF seals for wiper and oil seals



The old seal is seen on the left, the new seal on the right. Cornelius says, "With the increasing number of forks sold, there is also a problem that I did not consider: supplying spare parts independently of me as the manufacturer. As a one-man company, vacation also means incapacity for Intend. However, wear does not adhere to time agreements and with the increasing number of suspension forks, it is necessary that spare parts such as seals can be obtained everywhere.



Therefore, SKF dust wipers in 35mm (without collar) are now installed in the New Age suspension forks. The seals cannot be retrofitted to the "Old Age" suspension forks. The supply of spare parts for the previous dust/oil seals is guaranteed forever (since they are industry-standard parts). There is no functional advantage or disadvantage for new or old suspension forks, only that the new seals are around 20g heavier .



New 20 o15 axle adapters

"Unfortunately, the previous 20to15 axis adapters caused problems for some customers. To further simplify handling, the adapters are now screwed with cross screws. This solution cannot be retrofitted to old age forks, but the supply of the previous 20to15 adapters is 100% secure and I believe they also work perfectly."



Heavy and light axles with knurled clamping surfaces

This change is only relevant for extremely hard riders. During extreme driving maneuvers, the axle could in some instances, slightly turn in the dropouts. This has never happened to me in my riding and I have no feedback from customers in this regard either.



It has happened occasionally with my really fast team riders and to avoid this happening in the future, the clamping surfaces are now knurled, which enables a better clamping connection. This innovation can be retrofitted with a new axle if previous customers never had any problems in this regard, but it's also not necessary.



Higher bushings

Cornelius Kapfinger states, The growth of my company goes hand in hand with an improved supplier structure and I can now have some parts manufactured according to my own specifications. This is what happened with the sliding bushes. A big thank you goes to the employees of the company SR-Suntour who made it possible for me to get into the suspension fork business with high-quality and precisely fitting sliding bushes.



Now I have invested heavily in my own molds and have bushings with increased height manufactured according to my own specification. Unfortunately, they are a few grams heavier, but they also reduce the surface pressure. These sockets have been installed as standard for a few months now."



Royal-Flush Coating

For around 2 years now I have only been building the beloved and hated gold slide coating. The reason for the change from black coating to natural hard anodizing was the excessive risk of wear of the black coating. The black pipes initially installed were occasionally affected, which was unacceptable to me. And again and again, I discover a slight lightening of the black anodized color on competitor forks and am therefore very happy about my decision. Since the introduction of gold slide coating, the number of wear cases has dropped to 0.



But, improvement is everywhere and so, I found a supplier who subsequently sanded the pipes again and optimized the surface roughness on the new sliding bushes and the Fox Gold lubricating oil using a precisely adjusted polish.



CNC-made adjustment knobs

New cable routing

No more pre-orders, all forks are in stock

Intend Edge suitable for e-bikes

Bild 14

15 16

General information:



Wheelsizes: 29 & 27,5, not changable after purchase

Weight: 2130g (29) & 2085g (27,5)

Standard colors: Black, blue, raw (not anodized). Special colors for 250 Euro additional in red, orange, green, violett

Offset: 44mm (51mm is no longer available)

Brake mounts: 180 und 203mm (both in boost and non-boost), changable after purchase

Steerer length: 243mm

Axle diameter: 110x15(Boost) & 110x20(Boost or non-boost), changable after purchase

Stroke & ATC:

29: 180mm (591,5mm), 170mm (581,5mm), 160mm (571,5mm), 150mm (561,5mm), 140mm (551,5mm), 130mm (541,5mm), 120mm (531,5mm), 110mm (521,5mm), 100mm (511,5mm), 90mm (501,5mm), 80mm (491,5mm)

27,5: 180mm (571,5mm), 170mm (561,5mm), 160mm (551,5mm), 150mm (541,5mm), 140mm (531,5mm), 130mm (521,5mm), 120mm (511,5mm), 110mm (501,5mm), 100mm (491,5mm), 90mm (481,5mm), 80mm (471,5mm)

(can be reduced with clip spacers in 10mm increments, no change of air shaft necessary)

Adjustments: Airpressure, progression, lowspeed-compression, lowspeed-rebound

Prices: 1949 Euro (29) & 1899 Euro (27,5) incl. VAT



For more information:

29 & 27,5, not changable after purchase2130g (29) & 2085g (27,5)Black, blue, raw (not anodized). Special colors for 250 Euro additional in red, orange, green, violett44mm (51mm is no longer available)180 und 203mm (both in boost and non-boost), changable after purchase243mm110x15(Boost) & 110x20(Boost or non-boost), changable after purchase29: 180mm (591,5mm), 170mm (581,5mm), 160mm (571,5mm), 150mm (561,5mm), 140mm (551,5mm), 130mm (541,5mm), 120mm (531,5mm), 110mm (521,5mm), 100mm (511,5mm), 90mm (501,5mm), 80mm (491,5mm)27,5: 180mm (571,5mm), 170mm (561,5mm), 160mm (551,5mm), 150mm (541,5mm), 140mm (531,5mm), 130mm (521,5mm), 120mm (511,5mm), 110mm (501,5mm), 100mm (491,5mm), 90mm (481,5mm), 80mm (471,5mm)(can be reduced with clip spacers in 10mm increments, no change of air shaft necessary)Airpressure, progression, lowspeed-compression, lowspeed-rebound1949 Euro (29) & 1899 Euro (27,5) incl. VATFor more information: https://www.intend-bc.com/

Freiburg component manufacturer Intend Bicycle Components heralds a new era for the new year. "New Age" describes a comprehensive update of the suspension fork lineup, which contains some technical subtleties and also brings a new model with it.The Intend suspension forks have been designed, assembled and developed by Cornelius Kapfinger, for around five years and a lot has happened in these five years. Tube diameters have increased, details have been refined and just under two years ago, the reconstruction from non-boost to boost was necessary to reach more customers. During this time, the number of forks sold continued to grow.This has given Intend reason enough to take the next step and introduce their 2020 model range with the name "New Age". With the New Age model series, a special upsidedown model called Flash is being created in a special "Freudenhammer Edition", which will be introduced in the next few weeks. In terms of weight, this will line up well above the Edge enduro fork and was specially designed for the requirements of enduro sport, which is becoming ever tougher, and the requirements of eMTB that have to be assessed in terms of loads placed on the fork.All of the information below has been provided by Cornelius.Axles are available in two versions: light and heavy. The heavy axles have doubled wall thickness for maximum torsional rigidity and weigh around 170g, roughly twice the mass of the light axle. I ride the light axle myself. Tough, heavy riders and those with a bit of self-confidence can choose the heavy axle. With the new axles, the occasional turning of the glued hexagon socket is eliminated.Due to the tribologically coordinated surfaces, the friction and the stick-slip effect were significantly reduced. You can recognize this by the slightly lighter anodized color. The Royal Flush Coating has been in series production for almost a year and the results and durability are undoubtedly sublime.One of the most characteristic features of the Intend suspension forks are the hi-fi stereo adjustment knobs. One joy, the other suffering, they give way to specially made CNC knobs for the compression, rebound and valve caps on the New Age forks. This significantly improves the appearance of the suspension forks and is a clear indication that the product has now grown up since it is no longer necessary to use products from third-party manufacturers. The new knobs can be retrofitted to previous suspension forks.In parallel to the adjustment knobs, the cable routing was also made more appealing. Thanks to a contact by the Trickstuff company to the Polygon DH team, which in turn made contact with the Promax company from Taiwan, I was able to get the shapely and screwable plastic guides and thanks to a TESA employee who reads on Facebook, they now have double-sided TESA industrial adhesive tape on the forks perpetuate.Thanks to everyone involved, sometimes it takes five corners to get to a goal! The new cable routing is completed with a CNC milled cable clamp for the hose guide arm at the dropout. Of course, this solution can be retrofitted to previous forks. Only the Hose Guide Arm is only compatible with the Boost models, but not with the older non-Boost models."Independent of the product, there is also a change at Intend that the products are almost all in stock and pre-orders are no longer possible because they are not necessary. Due to the variety of variants, it can always happen that a color or special variant is sometimes not in stock, but the tendency is clearly in the direction of stock items, away from production on demand. So all Intend suspension forks and almost all other Intend products are now in stock and, depending on the workload, available within an assembly time of 1-3 weeks.Strictly speaking, there is no change here, because the previous Edge forks also met all the requirements of the e-bike segment according to the EFBE test laboratory. But specific areas of application also require special marketing. In this respect, it is now announced that the Intend Edge is absolutely suitable for eMTB because its design makes it inherently more stable than conventional suspension forks.
Pauline Hanson has called on the government to 'tighten up' immigration laws after a new report revealed 50,000 migrants who were denied asylum in Australia remain in the country.

The One Nation leader slammed the current lengthy appeals process that is being blamed for the backlog, saying migrants should not be allowed to apply for asylum online.

Ms Hanson said asylum seekers - the majority coming from Malaysia, China and India - have been arriving in Australia via plane by the thousands on tourists visas, only to apply to stay in the country as asylum seekers.

'It's absolutely ridiculous and I've been on about this for quite some time. When they actually come to country they put an appeal to AAT (the Administrative Appeals Tribunal),' she told Today on Monday.

'Then they are giving a bridging visa, they're entitled to work like any other Australian.

'A lot of ones that are applying in Malaysia - that's the biggest country that we have mostly visa holders - there was nearly 2,000 in January alone that are over staying.

'They come here as tourists and apply to stay in the country as asylum seekers. Most of them don't get to stay. About 90 per cent are denied the right to stay in Australia.'

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson slammed the current lengthy appeals process that is being blamed for the backlog, saying migrants should not be allowed to apply for asylum online

The Queensland senator's rant comes after The Sydney Morning Herald reported 46,391 people are awaiting deportation from Australia as the government struggles to deal with a backlog.

Meanwhile, about 38,000 of those who travelled to the country by plane are still waiting to hear back on their refugee status.

According to government figures, 1,931 people from overseas arrived in Australia seeking asylum during the month of January, resulting in fewer than five involuntary deportations and 19 voluntary deportations from those who were denied.

Of those 1,931 people, 255 came from India, 83 from Fiji, 61 from the Philippines and 309 from China.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported 46,391 people are awaiting deportation from Australia as the government struggles to deal with a backlog (pictured are asylum seekers boarding a plane at Cocos Islands in July 2014)

Only 3.3 per cent of those who travelled from China end up being granted a protection visa, the publication said.

The remaining 546 were from Malaysia, where tourists can obtain electronic travel authority from travel agents.

'If they can apply online from Malaysia, and India is another one, and China - they're the three countries. Well, they should be looked at whether they go embassy to get their visa,' Ms Hanson added.

'Don't allow them to do it online because it can take up to two years for their knock back and then they work in the period of time, they get all the money they want to, then just before it comes down, they will fly out of the country.

'It's a joke. It's absolutely ridiculous. We've got to tighten up the laws in the country. They should not be able to use our services and the AAT to apply for asylum seeker.

'The government should make their decision based on those facts. They should not be able to appeal against it.'

Late last month, Labor's home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally delivered her first major policy speech since taking on the portfolio, saying Australia has changed from a nation built by permanent residents to an economy reliant on temporary visas.

Labor's home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally suggested asylum seekers arriving by plane had been exploited by unscrupulous employers

She also repeated earlier warnings that people smugglers have switched their business model from boats to planes, with 100,000 asylum seekers arriving by air over the past six years.

The number of people on temporary visas in Australia has jumped from 1.8million to 2.2million over the past four years.

Australia is now home to the second largest temporary migrant workforce in the world, behind the United States.

Senator Keneally acknowledged the importance of attracting skilled labour but accused the government of doing nothing to reduce its 'exacerbating' reliance on temporary migrants.

Ms Keneally suggested asylum seekers arriving by plane had been exploited by unscrupulous employers.

'There's nothing wrong with claiming asylum - it's an important right,' she said in October.

'However, in 90 per cent of these particular cases, the individuals are not legitimate refugees and are often being trafficked to Australia for the explicit purpose of being exploited.'
The criminal trial of the French chemical company Arkema and several of its top employees accused of releasing pollutants and assaulting two deputy sheriffs during Hurricane Harvey is set to start this week in Harris County.

The Harris County District Attorneys Office charged the company and its then-vice president for logistics Michael Keough last April, for allegedly telling county emergency officials that Arkema had real-time monitoring data of all of the trailers holding hazardous organic peroxides at its Crosby plant when that wasnt the case. About nine months earlier, the state had brought another felony reckless charge against the company, its CEO Richard Rowe and its plant manager Leslie Comardelle for releasing toxic chemicals.

At the center of the states case is why Arkema didnt move its organic peroxides, which are used to make plastics and must often be kept at temperatures at or near freezing to prevent the chemicals from self-combusting, as it prepared for the landfall of Hurricane Harvey. Also, the DAs office says that the company misrepresented how closely it could monitor the temperature all of the hazardous material remotely to be able to warn emergency responders to safely evacuate.

But the defense argues Harvey was an act of God, and that it was impossible to foresee that it would stall and dump historic amounts of rainfall in some areas of Southeast Texas. Besides, the attorneys question how Keogh can be charged with a felony of reckless assault on public servants when he was in Pennsylvania during the hurricane.

Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath killed nearly 70 people and flooded more than 300,000 structures, forcing about 40,000 people to evacuate their homes.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg took many by surprise when she filed criminal charges both against the company, which experts say is on its own somewhat unusual, and against individuals, especially going after a top executive for reckless assault, which defense attorneys said was a first in Texas.

During a press conference, Ogg said she wanted to send a message to polluters who hadnt been swayed by financial penalties. The Houston area had just been hit by three chemical fires in as many weeks.

The facts show Arkema knew of the dangers, withheld vital information, and unleashed harm on first responders and the community, Ogg said then. This felony indictment is a wake-up call to companies that would pollute our air and waterways, ignore best practices in safety, and put our communities at risk.

But attorneys for Arkema and its employees assailed the newest charges as an example of prosecutorial overreach.

Harris County prosecutors are making an unprecedented and outrageous attempt to criminalize a natural disaster, Rusty Hardin, a lawyer for Arkema Inc., said in a written statement posted on the companys website ahead of the trial. This is a political prosecution in search of a theory, and Harris County taxpayers will have to foot the bill for this very political attempt to stretch the meaning of our laws.

Tim Johnson, lawyer for Rowe, added: Houston still has not recovered from Harveys flooding more than two years ago. The fact that prosecutors persist in trying to blame a company and its employees in criminal court for the ravages of this unprecedented storm should concern us all.

As Harvey bore down on Aug. 25, 2017, the companys hurricane preparedness plans had gone into gear, even though the Crosby plant was initially not projected to be in the direct path of the storm, according to the Chemical Safety Board investigation of the incident. The board is a federal agency that investigates root causes of some industry incidents and offers recommendations.

The company halted production, secured loose materials and equipment, got a boat and forklift that could operate in floodwater, staged sandbags and made sure there was adequate reserve fuel. But based on what some of its long-time employees had experienced, the CSB said, Arkema officials didnt think much of the plant would be under water, as it turned out to be. The Crosby facility is within the 100-year and 500-year floodplain.

Investigators found that Arkemas main power transformers and backup generators were not high enough off the ground. The plants last line of defense also failed when flood waters inundated the fuel tanks that power freezer trucks.

This led to the first fire in the middle of the night of Aug. 31, with fumes from one trailer containing organic peroxides sweeping over the evacuation zone, where sheriffs deputies were patrolling. Law enforcement officers manning the perimeter and responding medical staff reported vomiting and gasping for breath, according to a civil lawsuit filed against Arkema by first responders, including David Klozik and Bryan Sweetman, the two sheriffs deputies named in the April criminal indictment. In all, 23 people were briefly hospitalized.

The state alleges first responders were told Arkemas products were being continuously monitored but that the companys managers, including Keough, knew that several trailers were unmonitored and no warnings could be given.

Over the next week, more than 350,000 pounds of organic peroxide combusted, the CSB said, sending pillars of fire and thick plumes of black smoke into the air. As a result, more than 200 residents living within 1.5 miles evacuated and could not return home for a week.

In 2016, Texas A&M University and the Houston Chronicle conducted an analysis and concluded the Arkema Crosby site posed a high potential for harm if a chemical incident occurred on site. This analysis was based on the chemicals it had on site, its regulatory history and the number of people within 2-mile radius of the facility.

The emission charges against Arkema, Rowe and Comardelle carry a penalty of up to five years in prison for the individuals, and a fine of up to $1 million for the corporation. The reckless assault felony charge against Keough carries a penalty of up to 10 years.The case will be heard before state District Court Judge Belinda Hill.

The last time a chemical company faced criminal charges for a major incident in Texas was in 2005. BP paid $50 million in fines for an explosion at the Texas City refinery that killed 15 workers and injured almost 200, but no one from the company served prison time.

perla.trevizo@chron.com
ABC News

Former President Donald Trump, his sister Maryanne Trump Barry and the estate of his late brother Robert Trump tried on Tuesday to convince a New York judge to dismiss a lawsuit by Mary Trump that accused her family of swindling her out of at least $10 million. Attorneys for the Trump siblings argued Mary Trump's claims are time-barred by a six-year statute of limitations and prohibited by legal releases she signed in 2001 when the family settled the estate of Fred Trump Sr., the former president's father. The Trumps also argued Mary Trump possessed "boxes and boxes of information" about the estate settlement that should have given rise to any claims at the time.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 10:56:44|Editor: Xiaoxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Although the beginning of this year's new semester has been postponed over safety concerns amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, students in China have never given up studying.

During the special period, Chinese students have access to various classes online or study via television. In addition to their regular studies, students are also required to learn knowledge about epidemic prevention and control and psychological health, according to the Ministry of Education.

The following are snapshots of teachers' experience teaching from home and students taking online classes across the country.

TEACHERS TURN INTO ONLINE ANCHORS

Facing a camera, instead of children in the classroom, Chen Hui, an English teacher with the Lushan International Experimental Primary School in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, was giving a vivid class to her students watching on screens at home as she showed some pictures of a family tree on the blackboard.

Wu Xingchun, an English teacher at a middle school of Ningshan County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on the other hand, regarded online teaching as a challenge. Wu lectures to more than 500 ninth graders in the mountainous county.

Without face-to-face interaction with her students, Wu needed to carefully prepare Powerpoint documents, summarize major points from the textbook and find useful knowledge for the students.

"The previous 45-minute class is compressed into a 25-minute online class now, so we have to use highly concise teaching language and offer concentrated knowledge points to students," Wu said.

At the very beginning, Wu had to practice several times, and then listen to the recording repeatedly to improve her online teaching.

Wang Lufeng, 37, an associate professor at the College of Food Science and Technology of Huazhong Agricultural University, hasn't stepped outside the front door after returning to his hometown in Jinxiang County, east China's Shandong Province from Wuhan during the Spring Festival.

At the end of January, the university instructed Wang to prepare for the online classes which were scheduled to start in mid-February.

Preparing for classes was not overly difficult for Wang, however, the poor network signal in the rural town had become a big problem. On Feb. 10 when the online class began, Wang came up with a good idea to set up his classroom on the roof for the signal was better there.

As the camera turned on, his students were shocked by the rooftop classroom on their screens, and felt moved by Wang's efforts.

"The environment around my teacher is very quiet, accompanied by birds tweeting. He tried his best to deliver class on time," one of Wang's students said, adding that the students were all deeply moved and encouraged by the teacher's spirit of overcoming difficulties.

After class, Wang's hands had turned red in the bitter winter wind, but he still continued to answer students' questions patiently.

"Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. I hope the epidemic will end as soon as possible and all the students will return to school in good health," Wang said as he ended the class.

NEVER STOP LEARNING

Tang Mingying, a high school graduate from southwest China's Guizhou Province, turns on the TV at 9 a.m. to watch the online classes launched by the provincial education department every day.

"There are only four months to go before this year's college entrance examinations," Tang said.

When first hearing about the postponement of the start of the school semester, Tang, from Qianxi No. 1 Middle School in Qianxi County in the city of Bijie, felt very anxious.

To minimize the impact of the epidemic on the learning of senior high school students in the province, the Guizhou provincial education department and provincial radio and television network company launched the online classes for senior high school students on Feb. 3.

Now with the help of the "cloud class," Tang has more confidence in preparing for the college entrance examinations.

About 8,000 students in the county will take the college entrance examinations this year, many of whom are from poor mountainous areas.

Song Hongxiang, a head teacher from Qianxi No. 1 Middle School, said that there are more than 30 students in his class and nearly half of them are from rural villages. They hope to get good results in the college entrance examination and go out of the mountains to study at universities in the future.

Over the past week, Chen Zining, a primary student at the Changsha Experimental Primary School in central China's Hunan Province, watched a TV program on the prevention of the novel coronavirus at 8:30 a.m. every day. The program was made by the provincial education department to help the students learn about the virus and relevant prevention measures.

The city's education bureau prohibited schools from teaching students new classes, except for the graduates in middle schools. The online classes should only focus on science, mental health, home exercise, comprehensive practice, and winter vacation homework comments, the bureau required.

Children have been fascinated by the TV courses on epidemic prevention, which are displayed in a variety of forms such as letters, cartoons and songs.

"At first, I was worried that my child would be bored at home, but now I find many online courses are very useful and interesting. In fact, children are freer taking online classes as they can stand up to have a break at any time when they feel tired," said Peng Jia, a parent from Changsha.
India on Sunday flatly rejected UN chief Antonio Guterres's offer of mediation on Kashmir and said the real issue needed to addressed is to vacate territories "illegally and forcibly" occupied by Pakistan.

The assertion by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) came after Guterres said in Islamabad that he was concerned over the situation in Kashmir, and that he was ready to mediate between India and Pakistan to resolve the long pending issue.

MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said Jammu and Kashmir is and will continue to be an integral part of India and hoped that the UN secretary general would press Pakistan to take credible and irreversible action to stop cross-border terrorism against India.

"India's position has not changed. Jammu and Kashmir has been, is, and will continue to be an integral part of India. The issue that needs to be addressed is that of vacation of the territories illegally and forcibly occupied by Pakistan," Kumar said.

"Further issues, if any, would be discussed bilaterally. There is no role or scope for third-party mediation," he said.

Guterres is currently undertaking a four-day visit to Pakistan.

"We hope the UN secretary general would emphasize on the imperative for Pakistan to take credible, sustained and irreversible action to put an end to cross-border terrorism against India, which threatens the most fundamental human right - the right to life - of the people of India, including in J&K," the MEA spokesperson said.

Addressing a press conference after his meeting with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Islamabad, the UN secretary general said he was "deeply concerned" over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and tensions along the Line of Control.

Guterres said it was important for India and Pakistan to de-escalate "militarily and verbally" and exercise "maximum restraint" on the Kashmir issue.

He said he was ready to help if both countries agreed for mediation.

"Diplomacy and dialogue remain the only tools that guarantee peace and stability with solutions in accordance with the Charter of United Nations and resolutions of the Security Council," Guterres said.

The UN chief said he had "repeatedly stressed on the importance of exercising maximum restraint".

"I offered my good offices from the beginning. I am ready to help if both countries agree for mediation," he said.

Guterres arrived in Pakistan on Sunday and during his visit will attend an international conference on Afghan refugees and visit the Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib.

In August last year, India announced its decision to withdraw special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into two union territories.

Pakistan reacted angrily to the move and even downgraded its diplomatic ties with India by expelling the Indian High Commissioner.

Islamabad also unsuccessfully tried to rally international support against India on the issue.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Joe Biden slammed Mike Bloomberg over his record in a new interview, saying the former New York City mayors past support for a controversial stop-and-frisk policy would alienate black voters as he seeks the Democratic presidential nomination.

In an interview with NBCs Meet The Press on Sunday, the former vice president predicted the media would soon turn its focus towards Mr Bloomberg and his position on issues relating to the African-American community now that the billionaire presidential hopeful has taken to the campaign trail.

Mr Biden also seemingly criticised Mr Bloomberg for spending hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising in key battleground states, saying: $60bn (46bn) can buy you a lot of advertising, but it cant erase your record.

Theres a lot to talk about with Michael Bloomberg, Mr Biden said. You all are going to start focusing on him like you have on me ... His position on issues relating to the African-American community, from stop-and-frisk to the way he talked about [former President Obama].

He added: You take a look at the stop-and-frisk proposals. You take a look at his ideas on redlining hes talking about. You take a look at what hes done relative to the African-American community. Im anxious to debate Michael on the issues relating to, you know, what were going to face on Super Tuesday.

Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Show all 18 1 /18 Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Jessica Canicosa, a precinct captain for Bernie Sanders, waits to greet caucus voters at Liberty High School in Henderson, Nevada REUTERS Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Hotel workers at the Bellagio in Las Vegas get to grips with voting papers during the Nevada caucuses AFP via Getty Images Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A caricature of Bernie Sanders is projected on to a tree during a rally in Las Vegas EPA Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A woman waits to have a photo taken with Elizabeth Warren during a town hall meeting in Las Vegas REUTERS Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures The threat of coronavirus and other germ-borne illnesses was on some voters' minds at the Democratic caucuses in Henderson, Nevada Getty Images Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Former vice-president Joe Biden takes a selfie with a voter in Las Vegas ahead of the Nevada caucuses REUTERS Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Amy Klobuchar changes her shoes backstage after giving a speech in Exeter, New Hampshire AFP/Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A warmly-wrapped-up dog attends an Elizabeth Warren event at Amherst Elementary School in Nashua, New Hampshire AFP/Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Bernie Sanders, who romped to victory in New Hampshire against Hillary Clinton in 2016, talks to the media in Manchester Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Joe Biden was hoping to improve on his poor showing in Iowa in the New Hampshire primary Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Elizabeth Warren, renowned for giving time to supporters for selfies, works the crowd at the University of New Hampshire in Durham Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Joe Biden takes a selfie with a supporter and his child outside a campaign event in Somersworth, New Hampshire on 5 February Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders quarrel after a confrontation in a TV debate in which Sanders claimed that Warren was not telling the truth about a conversation in which she claimed he had said a woman could not win the presidency on 14 January AP Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Supporter Pat Provencher listens to Pete Buttigieg in Laconia, New Hampshire on 4 February Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Concord, New Hampshire while awaiting the results of the Iowa caucus Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Elizabeth Warren is presented with a balloon effigy of herself at a campaign event in Nashua, New Hampshire on 5 February Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A Trump supporter rides past a rally for Amy Klobuchar in Des Moines, Iowa on 14 January AP Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A man holds up a sign criticising billionaires in the presidential race in front of Michael Bloomberg in Compton, Califronia. The former New York mayor skipped the first caucus in Iowa and instead campaigned in California on 3 February Reuters

Mr Biden continued to focus on Mr Bloombergs past record as a Republican mayor, acknowledging that he was a real ally on issues like gun control yet wouldnt even endorse Barack [Obama] in 2008.

He continued: He wouldnt endorse him. You know, he endorsed Bush. He endorsed, you know, the Republican before that. All of a sudden hes his best buddy.

Recommended Trump launches wild rant against Bloomberg with bizarre image

His comments came as Mr Bloomberg has climbed in national polls and state surveys throughout crucial battlegrounds ahead of Super Tuesday, when voters cast their ballots in several key states.

While the former mayors late entry to the Democratic primaries caused him to snub Iowa and New Hampshires first-in-the-nation votes, he has since reportedly planned to double spending on TV ads and hire thousands of more staffers nationwide.

Mr Bloomberg has also addressed his past support for the controversial stop-and-frisk policy, which targeted black and brown communities in New York City under his tenure as mayor.

But a recording of him expressing support for the measure back in 2015 stirred controversy after it went viral last week. In it Mr Bloomberg can be heard saying: Ninety-five per cent of your murders  murderers and murder victims  fit one MO. You can just take the description, Xerox it and pass it out to all the cops.

They are male minorities, 16 to 25. Thats true in New York. Thats true in virtually every city, the former mayor can be heard saying. And thats where the real crime is. Youve got to get the guns out of the hands of the people that are getting killed.

The clip garnered widespread backlash, including from Mr Trump, who appeared to use the recording to discredit Mr Bloombergs presidential bid, calling him a total racist in a tweet. Mr Trump has previously called for the stop-and-frisk programme to be implemented nationwide.

Mr Bloomberg released a statement after the recording was published saying that he cut back the programme by 95 per cent upon leaving office, adding: I shouldve done it faster and sooner. I regret that and I have apologised  and I have taken responsibility for taking too long to understand the impact it had on black and Latino communities.

He added: But this issue and my comments about it do not reflect my commitment to criminal justice reform and racial equity.
Mumbai: Actor Kartik Aaryan found Sara Ali Khans confession about having a crush on him on a chat show cute, but he has never spoken about Sara and himself to the media.

The actor opened up about his equation with his "Love Aajkal" co-star Sara on the show "By Invite Only", which airs on zoOm.

In a #NothingToHide segment, Kartik cleared the air on the buzz around Sara and him.

"I have never said that I want to go on a date with someone. I was constantly being asked about other people wanting to go on dates with me. I've never spoken about Sara and me to the media. When Sara expressed her feeling, it was the first time an actor openly confessed her liking for an actor," he said.

"I think it was very cute and natural," he added.

The actor also made a subtle statement on his relationship status as he said: "I wouldn't know what is the best thing about being single."

When Sara was asked which actor makes her blush, she said: "Ryan Gosling makes me blush", to which Kartik added: "She calls me Ryan."

In the quickie section, Sara found a match for Kartik, saying: "I'd set up Kartik with Deepika Padukone."

When Kartik was asked if he had to choose a same-sex partner from the industry, he said: "Shah Rukh Khan".
Bloombergs Meme Blowout

Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire businessman and former New York mayor, was all over Instagram this past week after he hired dozens of the internets biggest influencers to produce tongue-in-cheek memes to promote his bid for the presidency. Hes also poured money into Facebook ads, outspending Mr. Trump  whose campaign relies heavily on social media  by about five to one. And hes paying his staff handsomely, in some cases nearly double what other candidates are offering. But will his digital-heavy, no-expense-spared strategy work? Hey, maybe! Hes currently polling just as high as some of the top candidates, and may qualify for the next Democratic primary debate  his first  on Wednesday.

Image Credit... Giacomo Bagnara

Whats Next? (Feb. 16-22)

What Happens in Vegas

How will Democrats avoid repeating Iowas caucus chaos when the pack of presidential hopefuls  or whats left of them  head to Nevada for the next round of caucuses next Saturday? For starters, the party scrapped its plans to use a smartphone app similar to the one that played a role in Iowas results-counting debacle. Instead, officials will use an iPad, calculators and Google forms to tally the totals. (So, less software, but still plenty of room for human error.)

Delegate-wise, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg remain neck and neck, which has some business leaders biting their nails. Mr. Sanders is a staunch critic of Wall Street, while Mr. Buttigieg has taken punches for being too cozy with wealthy elites.

And Then There Were Three

If youre a Sprint customer, youll soon be under T-Mobiles network umbrella. Its been a tough road for the yearslong merger campaign, but now its really happening. The $26 billion deal has survived attacks by state attorneys general, who said it would lead to higher costs for consumers because of less competition  the United States will be down to just three major carriers. But thanks to backing from the Trump administration and the Justice Department, T-Mobile was able to elbow past antitrust regulations and proceed. Its unclear whether customers will see a difference in service or pricing  or notice any change at all, at least for now.
The Perth-to-Lombok flight introduced in June last year has contributed to a 40 per cent jump in hotel occupancy rates in the burgeoning south of the island.

But the new push to make Lombok a tourism destination has not dented Australias love affair with its next-door neighbour, Bali.

Lombok has experienced growth in tourism since the introduction of a Perth direct flight. Credit:Shutterstock

Air Asia began the direct flights in June last year as part of an Indonesian government push to create "10 new Balis" and improve tourism on Lombok, which had suffered since the 2018 earthquake.

According to figures for six operating hotels in the islands south, occupancy jumped 18 per cent to 70 per cent in July. It reached 92.7 per cent in July and August before dropping back to the low 80s in October.
"Teachers and principals have been working in a context of ever-changing government priorities and prescriptions, social expectations and conflicting demands on school operations and teachers and principals time."

"This inquiry is well overdue, said the federation's new president, Angelo Gavrielatos.

Former West Australian premier Geoff Gallop will lead the 12-month investigation, holding public hearings across the state, collecting submissions from teachers and principals and examining policies and reforms imposed on the sector since 2004.

The NSW Teachers Federation has commissioned a former premier to chair an independent inquiry into how much the work, workload and conditions of public school teachers and principals have changed over almost 20 years.

Professor Gallop, a former director of the Graduate School of Government at the University of Sydney, will chair the inquiry alongside former Industrial Relations Commission Judge Trish Cavanagh and the former head of the NSW Institute of Teachers, Patrick Lee.

Their report is due in early 2021. The government is under no obligation to act on the findings, but Professor Gallop said "we want it to be influential, obviously.

"I hope that a report will go out there and become the basis on which we consider education issues in the state of NSW. We want to make relevant points, independently determined and valuable in terms of the advice they give.

"We've got longstanding backgrounds in public policy, and I think will come up with some very good recommendations. I know how government works - one thing they need is they need to know what the facts are."

The last examination of teachers' work was held in 2004 before the NSW Industrial Relations Commission, which found there had been a "significant" change over the previous 12 years. It led to a pay rise of between 12 and 20 per cent.
Strasbourg, 15 February 2020 (SPS) - The new representative of the Polisario Front in Europe and in the European Union (EU), Oubbi Bucharaya Bashir, welcomed on Thursday the creation of the European Parliamentary Intergroup "Peace for the Saharawi people," considering it as a "core part" of Saharawi people struggle for independence and self-determination.



"The European Parliamentary Intergroup "Peace for the Saharawi people" is required to make Europe more accountable to our people and to keep pace with its just struggle in the context of supporting the diplomatic action of the Polisario Front and the Saharawi Government in general," said Oubbi Bucharaya Bashir, shortly after the official announcement of the creation of this new support group for the Saharawi people, led by German Social Democratic Party MP Joachim Schuster.



According to the Polisario Front's Representative, Europe has been in recent years, especially since the decisions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in 2016 and 2018 and due to the positions of some influential countries within this continental bloc, "part of the problem of Western Sahara instead of contributing to the efforts to achieve a final solution in accordance with legitimacy and law as stipulated in the relevant United Nations and Security Council resolutions."



"Despite the challenges presented, due particularly to Moroccan arrogance and intransigence, which are fed by the lack of political will of the UN Security Council to exert sufficient pressure for the organization of the referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara, and the negative role of some parties, there are promising opportunities during this year and also in 2021, in particular with regard to the expected court decisions and also with regard to the appointment of a new personal envoy of the UN Secretary General to resume the process of settling the conflict in Western Sahara," occupied by Morocco since 1975.



The European intergroup "Peace for the Saharawi people" was officially announced on Thursday in Strasbourg.(SPS)

062/SPS/APS
What we learned from a week of listening to Russian propaganda on KC airwaves Illustration by Christian TothIn January, Radio Sputnik, a Russian state-sponsored news agency that U.S. intelligence has called a "propaganda machine," reached a deal to broadcast on three frequencies in Kansas City, all under the banner of Liberty-based KCXL. The agreement made national news; the Kansas City Star published an outraged editorial.

A smallish station broadcasting foreign influence at low wattage made a great deal of news this week. Here's a hot take from locals who suffered through the content. Checkit:
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I was on the phone, looking out the kitchen window, talking with my mom about some ingredients for a recipe she wanted, said Tom Kane, a Zion-Benton High School student who had just come home for the day. Then I just heard this noise; a loud noise like something blew up. So then I looked out the window and saw these two planes kind of coming apart from each other.
A 21-year-old man was fatally shot Friday night in a Pittsburg park, police said Saturday.

Police responded to 911 calls reporting shots fired near Crestview Drive and Alta Vista Circle, and when officers arrived, they found the man with more than one gunshot wound, Pittsburg police said in a Facebook post Saturday.

Despite lifesaving efforts by emergency crews, the man did not survive.

The man's name has not been released and a time of the shooting was not available. Police first posted on Twitter about the shooting about 8 p.m.

Police said it appears the man was in Woodland Hills Park, next to Alta Vista Circle, when someone approached and fired several shots.

The suspect ran away and got into a compact car and drove away, police said.

Anyone with information or security camera video of the area is asked to call the Pittsburg police tip line at (925) 252-4040.

The Santa Clara County Superior Court is seeking people to serve on the county's Juvenile Justice Commission, a volunteer panel with oversight responsibilities for the juvenile justice system.

Among the commission's roles is inspecting juvenile facilities, holding hearings on county juvenile law matters, and advocating for youth services, according to the county.

Commissioners must reside in the county and be able to attend meetings on the first Tuesday of every month from noon to 3 p.m. in San Jose, along with other requirements that take about eight hours per week for two- or four-year terms.

There are up to 15 members on the commission, with two youth commissioners who must be between 14 and 21 years old. Adult commissioners must be 18 or older, according to the county.

"The Juvenile Justice Commission plays an important oversight function for Santa Clara County for our children, youth and families," Presiding Judge Deborah Ryan said in a news release.

More information on the commission, as well as application forms, can be found online at http://www.scscourt.org/court_divisions/juvenile/jjc/jjc_home.shtml. People can also email sccjjc@gmail.com with any questions or to speak to a current commissioner.

A man and woman discovered dead in a driveway near San Anselmo Friday morning may have died after using an illegal drug, authorities said Saturday.

The 32-year-old Mill Valley man and 30-year-old Tiburon woman were found about 8 a.m. Friday in a driveway in the area of West Oak Knoll Drive in Sleepy Hollow, according to the Marin County Sheriff's Sgt. Brenton Schneider.

Their names have not been released pending notification of family.

Authorities have not yet named the illegal substance the pair might have used, but said foul play is not suspected and there is no threat to the community.

Toxicology tests are scheduled for next week, Schneider said.

A dog found inside a car parked in the driveway when the bodies were discovered was not harmed and is being cared for by Marin Humane, authorities said.

A new sculpture honoring the lives and sacrifices of merchant mariners now welcomes visitors to the International Maritime Center at the Port of Oakland.

The sculpture, called "Sea Remembrance," is a large metal figure standing near the center's steps.

It's round, supported by a cylindrical base set into concrete and it's contoured, curving surface is reminiscent of the heavy ropes and cables used aboard merchant ships.

"Seafarers make costly sacrifices being away from home at sea for months at a time," said Margaret Reasoner, an official with the Oakland chapter of the International Maritime Center.

"The sculpture honors them for their hard work and perseverance, and serves as a memorial for the mariners who gave their life at sea," Reasoner said in a press release Friday announcing the sculpture's unveiling.

The artist, James Allen King, is a bosun with the Sailor's Union of the Pacific, and while he's aboard ship, helps oversee the sailors who maintain the ship's rigging, anchors, cables and all the other systems and equipment on deck.

Police arrested a suspect after two women were injured in separate attacks early Saturday along San Francisco's waterfront, police said.

In the first attack, a woman at Pier 19 was stabbed shortly before 7 a.m. by a man who then rode away on a bicycle, police said. Then, about 7:10 a.m., a suspect attacked another woman at Pier 39 with a tool, police said.

Police arrested a man suspected in both attacks and said they are still investigating the incidents.

Both women were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

San Francisco Public Works on Thursday launched a new initiative to deep- clean busy neighborhood corridors throughout the city.

Dubbed SidewalkSpotlightSF, the initiative will focus on litter removal, steam cleaning, graffiti abatement, trash pickup and public education.

The initiative is part of the department's efforts to address quality of life issues and is relying on data, community partnerships and field staff to target cleaning locations.

There will be extensive sidewalk cleanups through June, which will be followed by a comprehensive education campaign.

The department will also prioritize rapid response to dog and human waste, sidewalk dumping, trash pickup, graffiti removal and tree basin cleaning.

A motorcyclist was hospitalized with major injuries after crashing into a slow-moving tree-trimming truck Friday morning on Canfield Road west of Rohnert Park, the California Highway Patrol said.

The large boom truck was towing a wood-chipper southbound on Canfield Road north of Blank Road when the southbound motorcycle approached it at an unsafe speed, the CHP said.

The male rider lost control while attempting to slow and the motorcycle slid on its side, hitting the tire of the wood-chipper.

Injuries to the rider are considered life-threatening, officials said in a release.

They said there was no indication of impairment for anyone involved.

The roadway was closed during the investigation and reopened at 10:40 a.m.

A traffic stop in Millbrae on Wednesday led to the arrest of a man in connection with several crimes including possession of controlled substances for sale and DUI.

Bryan Orlando Hernandez Rodriguez, 19, of San Francisco, was arrested on suspicion of possession of controlled substances, possession of controlled substances with the purpose of sales, transporting controlled substances for sales, possession of marijuana in excess of 28.5 grams and operating a vehicle under the influence of drugs, according to the San Bruno Police Department.

On Wednesday at 11:08 p.m., a San Bruno police officer conducted a traffic stop in the 900 block of El Camino Real in Millbrae.

During the traffic stop, the officer determined the driver, identified as Hernandez Rodriguez, was operating the vehicle under the influence of drugs, police said.

A subsequent search of Hernandez Rodriguez and the vehicle revealed suspected methamphetamine, marijuana, suspected Xanax for sales, suspected Oxycodone for sales and other items indicative of narcotics sales, police said.

Police also seized and undisclosed amount of money.

A driver was killed early Saturday after an SUV went off U.S. Highway 101 in Burlingame, the California Highway Patrol said.

The solo-vehicle wreck was reported about 5:30 a.m. along southbound 101 near the Broadway off ramp, according to the CHP.

The driver, whose name has not been released, was ejected and the SUV rolled on top of her, the CHP said.

Rollins Road, where the SUV ended up, is closed between Cadillac Way and Toyon Drive for the investigation, the CHP said.

Authorities have no reason to suspect the driver was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, the CHP said.

A man in custody and awaiting trial in a 2016 shooting in San Jose has had the charges changed from attempted murder to murder, San Jose police announced Friday.

The case dates back to July 14, 2016, when the victim, 41-year-old Martin Cardenas, was found suffering from at least one gunshot would shortly before 12:30 a.m. in the 700 block of East Mission Street in San Jose.

The shooter fled and was not immediately identified. Detectives later identified Jesse Jimenez, 22, as a suspect in the case and a warrant for attempted murder was issued.

Jimenez was arrested in January of 2017 and has since been in Santa Clara County Jail awaiting trial.

More than two years after the shooting, in October 2018, Cardenas was admitted to a Monterey County hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

His death was reviewed by Santa Clara County Coroner's Office and on Feb. 2 the office ruled that Cardenas' manner of death was a homicide.

Officials on Friday said the charge against Jimenez will be amended from attempted murder to murder.

The incident will count as the fifth homicide of 2020 in San Jose, officials said.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact Detective Sgt. John Cary or Detective Elizabeth Ramirez at (408) 277-5283.

Information can be submitted anonymously at (408) 947- 7867.

The driver of a big-rig was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence following a Friday morning crash on State Route 4 near Discovery Bay in unincorporated San Joaquin County that left one man dead and hospitalized five others, including an 11-year-old boy who suffered major injuries, the California Highway Patrol said.

The big-rig was headed westbound on State Route 4 near South Tracy Boulevard shortly before 8 a.m. when it crossed the double-yellow lines and slammed head-on into a westbound 2010 Dodge Journey, killing the 35-year-old male driver at the scene and injuring the 11-year-old, who was flown to a hospital. The driver and child are from Stockton.

The truck then sideswiped a 2015 Chrysler Town and Country driven by a 32-year-old woman. The woman and three juvenile passengers, all from Stockton, were treated at a hospital for minor injuries.

The truck driver, also from Stockton, was treated at Sutter Tracy Hospital for moderate injuries then taken to San Joaquin County Jail, officials said.

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An inter-ministerial group has approved sale bid documents for privatisation of India's second biggest oil refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), and a notice seeking bids will be issued after a small group of ministers approves it, sources said.

An inter-ministerial group or IMG comprising representatives from the ministries of finance, petroleum, law, corporate affairs and department of disinvestment has approved Expression of Interest (EoI) and Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) for the company. This will now be put up for approval by 'Alternative Mechanism' which is essentially a very small grouping of key Cabinet ministers, sources privy to the development said. Once the approval is granted, an EoI seeking interest from potential buyers will be floated, they said, adding the EoI along with PIM was likely to be out in the market within this month.

The government plans to sell its entire 53.29 per cent stake in BPCL that will give buyers ready access to 14 per cent of India's oil refining capacity and about one-fifth of the fuel market share in the world's fastest-growing energy market. Sources said a two-stage bidding process will be followed wherein request for proposal or RFP in the first stage will be followed by due diligence-cum-bidding by qualified bidders in the second phase.

BPCL has a market capitalisation of about Rs 1.03 lakh crore and the government stake at current prices is worth about Rs 54,000 crore. The successful bidder will also have to make an open offer to other shareholders for acquiring another 26 per cent at the same price.

Privatisation of BPCL is essential for meeting the record Rs 2.1 lakh crore target Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has set from disinvestment proceeds in the Budget for 2020-21.

BPCL operates four refineries in Mumbai (Maharashtra), Kochi (Kerala), Bina (Madhya Pradesh) and Numaligarh (Assam) with a combined capacity of 38.3 million tonnes per annum, which is 15 per cent of India's total refining capacity of 249.4 million tonnes. While the Numaligarh refinery will be carved out of BPCL and sold to a PSU, the new buyer of the company will get 35.3 million tonnes of refining capacity.

It also owns 15,177 petrol pumps and 6,011 LPG distributor agencies in the country. Besides, it has 51 LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) bottling plants. The company distributes 21 per cent of petroleum products consumed in the country by volume as of March this year and has more than a fifth of the 250 aviation fuel stations in the country.

Sources said the disinvestment process being followed for privatisation of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) is based on decision-making through inter-ministerial consultations and involvement of professionals and experts. After in-principle consent by the administrative ministry of the state-owned company concerned, approval of the proposal to disinvest is taken from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

CCEA approved BPCL stake sale in November last year. Following this, an inter-ministerial group (IMG) was constituted. IMG appointed advisers for the transaction, including merchant bankers, asset valuers and legal advisers. The 'Alternative Mechanism' approves reserve or base price as well as price bids. Sources said BPCL privatisation process may take six to eight months to complete.

Also read: French energy major Total SA to buy 50% stake in Adani's solar business for $510 million

Also read: India to look into long-term gas pricing mechanism from Qatar: Dharmendra Pradhan
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has latched on to the video tweeted by a group of students of Jamia Millia University allegedly showing Delhi police personnel assaulting students inside a reading room in the varsity and demanded that the government took action failing which its intentions would stand exposed.

Look at how Delhi Police is blindly assaulting students in the library. A boy is flashing his book but the policeman is continuing to attack him with batons, Priyanka said in a Hindi tweet, while responding to the video put out by Jamia Coordination Committee on its official Twitter handle about an hour ago.

The video was put out as proof of police brutality during the December 15 crackdown on Jamia Millia Islamia University students during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the national capital.

Varsity students had claimed that Delhi police personnel entered the varsity campus without permission and assaulted students. They claimed over 40 students, including girls, were injured in the police action that day when unsuspecting students in varsitys library, bathrooms and also on the streets outside the campus, were assaulted by cops.

Priyanka Gandhi also accused the home minister and the Delhi Police of lying and said the video proved that Jamia students were beaten up inside the library.

Home Minister and the Delhi Police lied when they said students were not beaten up in the library, Priyankas tweet added.

Students had held a demonstration outside the police headquarters after the incident later that night and demanded that cops be punished and a CBI inquiry is ordered into their conduct.

Priyanka said the video called for action against the erring policemen and will also test the governments intentions.

If no action is taken even after watching this Jamia video, the governments intentions would stand exposed before the whole country, she said in her tweet.

Delhi Police said they have taken cognisance of the video and will investigate it as part of their ongoing probe into the incidents of December 15.

The Delhi Police had earlier denied using excessive force and said the police action was meant to flush out miscreants hiding inside the campus.

It claimed nearly half a dozen policemen and fire service personnel were injured in stone-pelting by the miscreants, who had also set alight several vehicles including public buses and police jeeps, near New Friends Colony, a stones throw away from the varsity campus.
In 2009, a GM manager complained to a 59-year-old GM technician about the hassle of retrieving items from a pickup truck bed after driving shifted the cargo. In two days, the tech had come up with the ideas that, ten years later, would debut as the MultiPro tailgate. The engineering teams kept the tailgate secret in part by hiding mock-ups in a locked storage closet in GM's Vehicle Engineering Center in Warren Michigan for two years. A piece in the Detroit Free Press reveals that another storage closet in Warren would play the same role in a different cloak-and-dagger operation, this time for the power-sliding center console in GM's new full-sized SUVs. During a meeting in early 2017, bosses gave the job of the console's creation to 24-year-old design release engineer Alex Archer, just two years out of Stanford University with a degree in engineering and product design.

This time, the catalyst for the feature was an internal GM think tank called co:lab, where employees suggest ideas. Execs gave Archer the task because "They needed someone willing to ask a lot of questions," her 36-month mandate to produce a six-way console that could be a standard cubby or a gaping maw able to swallow four gallon jugs or hide a secret compartment. Clearly, she succeeded. It took Archer and the team nine months to devise a prototype, another six months to get the green light for production.

As with the tailgate, the team working on the console grew to include designers, production engineers, and suppliers. Archer, now 26, shepherded the process, and her name is on the patent. "It took a ton of people, I'm just somebody who stuck with it the whole time," she said. GM like her work well enough to produce the "Day in the Life" segment above, five months before the world would hear about the console.

Archer's path to engineering was as unlikely as getting the job for the console. She had entered Stanford with plans to be a doctor. But an innovation class during her freshman year, and a sophomore summer spent helping her grandfather rebuild a 1937 MG engine recharted her course. Her grandfather told her, "You know, you could be an engineer for a car company."

Story continues

Consumer reaction to Archer's work won't be far off, the SUVs slated to hit dealerships soon. Meanwhile, she's busy on something that could be just as intense as the console: Restoring a 1955 Packard Clipper in her garage. Head to Freep to check out the story of Archer and the console.

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A PARISH priest ended his address on, What Does it Mean to be a Catholic Priest with the Chinese proverb, a man who speaks the truth needs a fast horse.

Luckily, Fr Roy Donovan, of Caherconlish & Inch St Laurence, has ridden at the local Boskill Equestrian Centre. The Galbally man didnt spare the whip during a talk this week in Dublin hosted by lay reform group, We Are Church Ireland. From horses to horsepower, he likened the Irish church to that of an old car that has gone off the road into a bog

It has sunk into the bog and is stuck. The engine is still running, but the wheels are spinning and going nowhere. Cant go forward or backwards, as in the U2 song, Stuck in a Moment You Cant Get Out Of. A similar image for the Irish Church is of a car that has a puncture and then quite quickly all four wheels are punctured. And no jack to lift it up! said Fr Donovan, who is one of the leaders of the Association of Catholic Priests. He says we have reached a crisis point in the Irish Church.

A number of people up and down the country are beginning to see that our systems/structures/parishes are no longer fit for purpose. We have too many dioceses, parishes, too many churches  more than we need. We have too many celebrations of Masses on Sundays with small gatherings. We have reached a crisis point in the Irish Church.

If you go into rural churches for weekend Masses, you will find most people at the back of the church, nobody at the upper middle, or at the top. This demonstrates the huge distance that people have been taught to keep. The priest stands alone up at the top of the church. He might as well have kept his back to the people as in the Tridentine Mass.

Continuing the equine theme, Fr Donovan said we hold on to what we know but its a dead horse.

A lot of priests are saying sure, it will see me out and continue to work out of the old model. There is not enough appetite for change which would require major reversals. We never implemented the Vatican II idea of empowering the people. There were so many priests in Ireland back then and only certain external changes were made. I dont understand how a church that attracted some of the best brains in the country as priests could have allowed us to end up where we are today?

What is left of us are tired and havent got the energy to change and move on. Let me alone; I dont want to go to any more meetings, might be another unheard cry of many priests. Most remaining energy goes into maintaining the old paradigm. Pope Francis in his Christmas message said, The world has changed and so must the church. I dont think we are up to the massive changes required.

And if the ageing priests are getting tired there arent exactly many whipper snappers biting at their heels. Fifteen began their studies for the priesthood for Irish dioceses last September. Fr Donovan has called for women deacons and priests for a long time.

There are still bishops, priests and people praying for tons of vocations. The vocation crisis was 40 years ago. There has not been a vocation in our parish for over 40 years. If you break it down, priesthood in its present form is very elitist. One has to be a male, have to be celibate, cant be married unless your wife is deceased, have to be over 18, you could say not much point going for it over 70. I reckon priestly ministry is chosen from a few percentage of the people. Surely Christ never intended that exclusive scenario?

To surmise his address which ran to almost 7,000 words, Fr Donovan believes the church has so much to offer but you could say the horse has bolted.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-17 01:04:02|Editor: huaxia

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German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier addresses the 56th Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany, on Feb. 14, 2020. (Xinhua/Lu Yang)

The so-called "Westlessness" is essentially a lack of collective action to address the most urgent threats to international security as nations dwell on narrowly-defined national interests and retreat from dialogue and cooperation.



The MSC discussions highlight the fact that multilateralism is not out-of-date and even more needed at a time when the international community face many common security challenges.

The majority of speakers at this year's conference sounded the alarm for the current global security environment.

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- More than 500 high-level international decision-makers gathered over the weekend in Munich to discuss the world's current crises and future security challenges at the annual Munich Security Conference (MSC).

This year's agenda was centered on the theme "Westlessness", referring to the loss of the common standing of what it means to be part of the West, according to a security report published ahead of the conference.

As many participants pointed out, the so-called "Westlessness" is essentially a lack of collective action to address the most urgent threats to international security as nations dwell on narrowly-defined national interests and retreat from dialogue and cooperation.

The MSC discussions highlight the fact that multilateralism is not out-of-date and even more needed at a time when the international community face many common security challenges.

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks at the 56th Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany, Feb. 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Lu Yang)

"SOUL-SEARCHING" OF THE WEST



The majority of speakers at this year's conference sounded the alarm for the current global security environment. In his opening remarks, MSC chairman Wolfgang Ischinger expressed his disappointment at the lack of collective action to address the most violent crises and most dangerous threats to international peace and security.

"It's not enough for the most powerful people in the world to shrug your shoulders and say that this is the way things are," Ischinger said, adding that "the present state of global insecurity is absolutely unacceptable."

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who delivered an opening speech this year, said that the withdrawal to concentrate on a narrowly-defined national interest prevents the nations from taking joint action and coming up with convincing answers to the issues and problems that no one can solve alone.

"The idea of international community is not outmoded," Steinmeier said, adding that "withdrawing into our national shells leads us into a dead end, into a dark age."

Like many European leaders, Steinmeier reflects on the lack of unified action on the European level to address common challenges. "Each of the major players is pursuing its own advantage even at the expense of Europe's unity."

Echoing Steinmeier, French President Emmanuel Macron, who attended the conference for the first time, called for "a European strategy", hoping to see "a Europe that can protect the basis of its sovereignty, a Europe that has more vitality, and a Europe that is enthusiastic about its future."

Macron said in a dialogue with Ischinger that Europe needs to develop their own European policy, instead of a transatlantic policy, when it comes to relations with neighbors such as the Middle East, Russia and Africa.

Gu Xuewu, professor of political science at the University of Bonn, said that discussions on "Westlessness" expose problems that currently plague the relations between the European Union and the United States.

"There is a sense of loss on the European and American influence in leading global affairs, a loss of trust, and a loss of solidarity between Europe and the United States," Gu said, noting that it is difficult for the West to formulate a unified strategy with the "America First" policy of the United States in place.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi makes a speech at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany, on Feb. 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Lu Yang)

CALL FOR UPHOLDING MULTILATERALISM

For some participants, talking about "Westlessness" may seem a little self-absorbed, as it is questionable that to which degree the West and Non-West divide is still relevant these days.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a panel discussion that the core of "Westness" is the "respect for diversity." The Western model is not the only one that matters in the world.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said she found the theme of "Westlessness" a little insular. Multilateralism is also being practiced by Asian countries, according to Kang, who cited the example of ASEAN centrality.

At the conference, the Chinese delegation renewed their call for upholding multilateralism in the face of a complex and changing international environment.

"Strengthening global governance and international coordination is urgent right now," Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a speech on Saturday.

"We need to get rid of the division of the East and the West and go beyond the difference between the South and the North, in a bid to build a community with a shared future for mankind," Wang said.

He said that the novel coronavirus epidemic had made mankind realize that it is now an era with traditional and non-traditional security threats being interwoven. A regional issue can be transformed into a global one, and vice versa. No country can stay alone and be immune to the threats.

Wang further expounded the concept of multilateralism from the Chinese perspective. Multilateralism denies the priority of a single state and holds that all countries share the same right for development, he told the conference.

Meanwhile, the West should also discard its subconscious mentality of civilization supremacy, give up its bias and anxiety over China, and accept and welcome the development and revitalization of a country from the East with a system different from that of the West, said the Chinese top diplomat.

Success of multilateralism calls on major nations to play key roles and take major responsibilities. Therefore, big nations must shoulder responsibilities and safeguard the common interests of all countries, Wang also noted.

Major nations should strive to maintain the openness of the world, not to confront and counteract each other, and to join hands to safeguard world peace and stability, he added.

He said that China will further deepen the strategic partnership of coordination with Russia, continue to explore ways of peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation with the U.S., and will comprehensively deepen cooperation with Europe.

At this year's conference, discussions on new security challenges posed by technology, climate change and global health issues underline that need for more cooperation and coordination among nations, as well as among big companies, media and other concerned parties. 
A man has been charged with serial grooming after allegedly meeting teenage females for sex over Snapchat.

But cops believe they have only scratched the surface in their investigation into Andrew Forsythe, a court has been told.

Forsythe (22) appeared before Belfast Magistrates Court on Saturday where he was remanded into custody on eight underage sex charges and one of causing grievous bodily harm.

They include inciting a female under 16 to engage in sexual activity, sexual activity with a female under 16, making an indecent image and possession of an indecent image of a female under 16.

All are dated between February 12 and 13 and concern four female teenagers aged 14 and 15.

The charge of grievous bodily harm relates to Forsythe allegedly breaking the thumb of a stepfather of one of the girls when he confronted him in her bedroom.

Opposing bail for the Carrickfergus man, a police officer told the court they were alerted by a stepfather of one of the teenagers.

According to the girl, Forsythe pretended to be a 16-year-old boy and began sending her sexual messages, then sexual images before asking her to engage in sex acts via a live camera.

He also allegedly asked her to send him sexual images of her and performed a sex act while she in her school uniform.

The girl then agreed to meet Forsythe for sex at the Forestside shopping centre in south Belfast.

In the case of another teen he went to her fathers home while he was out and spent two hours there and tried to kiss her before the girls friends arrived.

The friends pointed out to her that Forsythe was not 16 before getting her father who came and told him to leave.

Forsythe told him he wasnt leaving without his girlfriend and when the man stepped towards the bed Forsythe allegedly grabbed his thumb and fractured it in three places.

The officer told the court there were two other cases of a similar nature but added that when they get access to his phones and laptop they believe there will be many more possible victims.

He added their investigation had identified potential offences dating back to 2017 but in four separate interviews Forsythe gave no comment throughout.

The officer added that Forsythe has not provided investigating officers with the PIN or passwords to devices.

Forsythes solicitor said if he was granted bail to his parents house he would have no access to any internet capable devices.

He said he came from a strong family unit and was on bail throughout the investigation.

Giving evidence in support of the bail application, Forsythes father told the court his son takes medication but when doesnt he is a different person.

He also said that he once reported his son to police in 2017 on suspicion of inappropriate behaviour and asked them to lock him away for a night.

When asked by the prosecution lawyer if he was blaming his sons alleged offending on him not taking his medication he replied no.

Refusing bail the district judge said he could not release Forsythe due to fears of reoffending.
People wearing protective face masks walks along Orchard Road on 14 February 2020. (Photo: LightRocket via Getty Images)

UPDATE: The Ministry of Health has clarified that one of two new cases is a regular serviceman in the Singapore Armed Forces.

SINGAPORE  The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Sunday (16 February) confirmed three new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases here to 75.

All three cases have no recent travel history to China.

There are at least five such identified clusters here. Apart from the Grace Assembly of God cluster, the other four clusters are those associated with health products shop Yong Thai Hang along Cavan Road, The Life Church, and Missions Singapore in Paya Lebar, a business meeting at the Grand Hyatt hotel and the construction site at Seletar Aerospace Heights.

Case 73 and Case 74: linked to Grace Assembly of God cluster

Two of the new cases are a 43 year-old Singaporean man and a 29 year-old Singaporean man linked to the Grace Assembly of God cluster. Both men were confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on Saturday afternoon.

The 43-year-old man is currently warded in an isolation room at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).

He reported onset of symptoms on 9 February and sought treatment at a general practitioner (GP) clinic on Monday. As he was identified as a close contact of a 48-year-old Singaporean man with no recent travel history to China (Case 51), he was served a home quarantine order on Thursday and conveyed to NCID on Friday. The 48-year-old man worked at Grace Assembly of God at the Tanglin and Bukit Batok branches.

Prior to hospital admission, the 43-year-old man had attended church service at Grace Assembly of God at Tanglin Road. He is a regular serviceman in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) but had not gone to work since onset of symptoms. He stays at Lorong 8 Toa Payoh.

In a post on Facebook, the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) said on Sunday night that the serviceman last visited his place of work at Building 613 of Tengah Air Base on 6 February.

The SAF has been in contact with the serviceman to provide support and assistance. And as a precautionary measure, the SAF has carried out immediate and thorough disinfection of the premises he had been in, Mindef said.

Story continues

The 29-year-old man is currently warded in an isolation room at Alexandra Hospital (AH).

He reported onset of symptoms on Wednesday. He had sought treatment at the Urgent Care Centre at AH on the same day, and again on Saturday when he was admitted and immediately isolated.

Prior to hospital admission, he had gone to work at Hi-Yew Technology at Ubi Road. He stays at Mei Ling Street.

Case 75: linked to family member who is confirmed case (Case 41)

The third new case is a 71 year-old Singaporean woman. She is confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on Sunday morning and is currently warded in an isolation room at NCID.

She is a family member of a 71-year-old Singaporean man, who had no recent travel history to China and was confirmed to have COVID-19 on 8 February.

MOH also provided more details of the previously confirmed cases.

Case 68 and Case 70: Family members of Case 66, linked to Grace Assembly of God

Case 68 is a 79-year-old Singaporean woman with no recent travel history to China. She is currently warded in an isolation room at NCID. She is a family member of Case 66, a 28-year-old Singaporean man who is linked to the cluster at Grace Assembly of God.

She reported onset of symptoms on 30 January, and went to NCID on Friday. Subsequent test results confirmed COVID-19 infection on Friday afternoon.

Prior to hospital admission, she had attended church service at Bethany Presbyterian Church at Paya Lebar Road.

Case 70 is a 27-year-old Singaporean woman with no recent travel history to China. She is currently warded in an isolation room at NCID. She is also a family member of Case 66.

She reported onset of symptoms on 3 February and sought treatment at a GP clinic on the same day. She went to NCID on Friday. Subsequent test results confirmed COVID-19 infection on Saturday morning.

Prior to hospital admission, she had attended church services at Gods Kingdom Bread of Life Church at Jalan Pemimpin, and had gone to work at HipVan Singapore at Kallang Avenue.

Both women stay at Mei Hwan Drive.

Case 69: Linked to cluster at Seletar Aerospace Heights construction site

Case 69 is a 26 year-old Bangladesh national who is a Singapore Work Pass holder, and has no recent travel history to China. He is currently warded in an isolation room at NCID. He is linked to the cluster at Seletar Aerospace Heights construction site.

He had been identified as a close contact of Cases 42, 47, 52 and 56 - all of whom are also Bangladeshi nationals.

He had been quarantined at a government quarantine facility from Tuesday. He reported onset of symptoms that night and was conveyed by ambulance to NCID on Friday Subsequent test results confirmed COVID-19 infection on Saturday morning.

Case 71: Close contact of Case 66 and Case 70

Case 71 is a 25 year-old Singaporean man with no recent travel history to China. He is currently warded in an isolation room at NCID. He is a contact of Case 66, the 28-year-old Singaporean man linked to the cluster at Grace Assembly of God, and Case 70, the 27-year-old Singaporean woman who is a family member of Case 66.

He reported onset of symptoms on 1 February and had sought treatment at a GP clinic on Monday. He went to Sengkang General Hospital on Friday and was transferred to NCID on Saturday.

Subsequent test results confirmed COVID-19 infection on Saturday morning.

Prior to hospital admission, he had gone to work at a construction site at Fernvale Lane and had attended church services at Gods Kingdom Bread of Life Church. He stays at Fernvale Road.

Case 72: Non-medical contact of 61-year-old Singaporean man (Case 59)

Case 72 is a 40 year-old male Chinese national who is a Singapore Work Pass holder, and has no recent travel history to China. He is a non-medical contact of Case 59, a 61-year-old Singaporean man with no recent travel history to China. The latter was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on Thursday.

He reported onset of symptoms on Monday and sought treatment at a GP clinic on Tuesday and Thursday. As he was identified as a close contact of Case 59, he was sent to NCID by an ambulance on Friday. Subsequent test results confirmed COVID-19 infection on Saturday morning.

Prior to hospital admission, he had visited Marina Bay Sands Casino and gone to work at Aim Heng Car Service at Woodlands Industrial Park. He stays at a rental apartment at Woodlands Crescent.

Other cases

One patient was discharged from hospital on Sunday. In all, 19 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospital.

Of the 56 confirmed cases who are still in hospital, most are stable or improving. Five are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

As of Sunday, 12pm, apart from the 75 confirmed cases, 871 of the suspect cases have tested negative for COVID-19, while test results for the remaining 119 cases are pending.

MOH has identified 2,179 close contacts. Of the 2,045 who are still in Singapore, 1,781 have been contacted and are being quarantined or isolated. Efforts are ongoing to contact the remaining 264 close contacts.

COVID-19s death toll surpasses SARS epidemic

The novel strain belongs to the same family of coronaviruses as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed nearly 800 people globally during a 2002-2003 outbreak and also started in China.

It likely originated from Wuhans Huanan Seafood Market, where live animals or products  such as foxes, wolf puppies, giant salamanders, snakes, porcupines, and camel meat  are sold.

Declared a global emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO), COVID-19 has spread to 28 territories beyond mainland China. The WHO also said that cases being transmitted by people who have never travelled to China could be the "tip of the iceberg".

By territory, Singapore has the second-highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases after mainland China.

The global tally includes cruise ship Diamond Princess, moored off Japan, which has 355 cases. Five Singaporeans on board the ship have reported that they are physically well, said a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson on Wednesday, in response to Yahoo News Singapores queries.

As of Sunday, more than 1,600 people have died of the virus in China, which has sickened over 69,000 people. The last two days saw a steep rise in the number of cases after a change in diagnostic methods in the country.

Five territories  Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines and France  have each reported the death of a patient infected with the virus.

Patients suffering from the new strain may exhibit fever and symptoms of lower respiratory illness  such as coughing or difficulty in breathing  as well as pneumonia-like symptoms like a runny nose, sore throat, and headache.

However, some who have died from it have not displayed symptoms of fever, according to details released by Chinas National Health Commission, potentially complicating global efforts to check for infected travellers as they arrive at airports and other travel hubs.

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore

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For nearly four years, NASA's Kepler spacecraft whisked through space, surveying our corner of the galaxy. It monitored more than 150,000 stars, looking for planets about the size of Earth that belonged to other solar systems. The mission didn't disappoint; Kepler found countless examples of a type of planet known as a super-Earth .

These faraway planets might remind you of home  they're rocky, smaller than gas giants, located near their star and sport a relatively thin atmosphere. But they're way larger than the blue marble: These super-Earths are a honking two to 10 times bigger in mass than our Earth.

Because there are so many super-Earths out there, it begs the question: What would happen to our planet if it were two or even 10 times the size it is now?

Related: What if the Earth was flat?

It's possible that Earth and the other inner planets of our solar system were headed in that direction, Mickey Rosenthal, a doctoral candidate studying planet formation at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told Live Science. One theory is that the gargantuan planet Jupiter became so large that it cut off access to cosmic building blocks needed to make the inner planets bigger  effectively starving them, Rosenthal said.

No matter the reason for Earth's current size, there's no way to truly know what would happen to Earth if it were super. But scientists have some ideas based on what they've learned about our faraway cousins.

For starters, you'd be shorter  you, Mount Everest and every tree in California's Sequoia National Park  because if you increase the size of a planet and keep everything else identical, gravity increases, too. If Earth were twice its size, you'd be heavier, because the force of gravity increases as the planet's density and radius increase. It would take more energy to resist gravitational pull, so the structures we have today wouldn't be strong enough to stand as tall as they do now.

With a larger planet and stronger gravitational field , Earth would also experience more collisions, Rory Barnes, a theorist who studies planet habitability at the University of Washington, told Live Science. As a superplanet, Earth's greater gravitational pull would effectively attract more and larger asteroids, so "Armageddon-type" collisions would become more of a concern than they are now, Barnes said.

If the hypothetical super-Earth were even bigger, say, 10 times its current mass, dramatic changes could start happening in Earth's interior. The iron core and liquid mantle would also be 10 times larger, and with more gravity acting on a larger mass, the pressure beneath Earth's surface would increase. This high pressure could cause the iron core to solidify, Barnes said.

As of now, convection currents in our partially liquid core generate Earth's magnetic field. But if the core solidified, the currents would stop and the magnetic field could be weakened or eliminated, Barnes said. If our magnetic field faded or disappeared , it would be very bad for life on Earth, Barnes said.

Our magnetic field "shields life on the planet from the nastiness of space," Barnes noted. Without it, charged particles flying through space, also called solar storms, could slam into Earth. And these tiny particles can cause all kinds of problems, including breaking up DNA and increasing the risk of cancer, he said.

Barnes also pointed out that a larger interior could make super-Earth more volcanically active than it is now. As the radius of the planet increases, there's more energy inside and fewer places for that energy to escape. More volcanic eruptions wouldn't be surprising, he said. Plate tectonics, too, would be different on a super-Earth. But the exact effect is still an open question. A larger mantle would also be hotter, possibly causing more vigorous convection currents that would push plates around more. In contrast, it's possible that under the high pressure, the crust would be totally fused together and plate tectonics wouldn't exist at all.

Based on the super-Earths that scientists have found so far, we can't really be certain Earth would even be habitable if it were a super-Earth. The Kepler space telescope was best at detecting planets close to their star  much closer than Earth is to the sun. Most super-Earths known to science are almost as close to their star as Mercury is to our sun.

For Earth to be comparable, it would need to have an orbit of about 100 days, said Hilke Schlichting, an associate professor of astrophysics at the University of California, Los Angeles. That orbit might be habitable in systems with a star smaller than the sun, but if our Earth were that close to our sun, all of the water on the planet would vaporize, Schlichting said.

In other words, Earth would be out of the habitable zone and, in essence, would become a steam planet, she said.

Surprisingly, many of the super-Earths discovered so far seem to be water rich, like entire water worlds, Rodrigo Luger, the Flatiron Research Fellow at the Simon Foundation's Center for Computational Astrophysics in New York City, said in an interview. It's possible that these planets formed from large pieces of ice and then later migrated close to their stars, which prompted their ice to melt, he said.

However, these planets might not be habitable, since their deep oceans plummet to a solid ice layer. This ice is not formed by low temperatures, but by the intense pressure of the super-deep ocean, which forces water molecules into a solid state. This ice layer blocks any interaction between the atmosphere and the planet's interior, meaning there is no carbon cycle (a process in which carbon cycled through the atmosphere, ocean, and crust) or no mineral exchange (which regulates Earth's long term temperature via an interaction between atmosphere and the mantle), according to Luger. That doesn't promote habitability  at least for life as we know it.

The reality is that scientists have more questions about super-Earths than they have answers. And we don't fully understand the physics of our own interior, much less that of a planet many solar systems away, Luger said. We don't know what would happen if Earth were supersized or closer to the sun. But, so far, it seems very fortunate that we aren't living on a planet that's any of those things.

Editor's note: This story was updated to note that if Earth were twice its mass, gravity would increase, but not by twice as much. Also, to clarify that super-Earths are planets that are between two and 10 times the mass of our planet.

Originally published on Live Science.
Olivia Newton-John is set to hit the stage on Sunday night to do a duet with John Farnham at Fire Fight Australia.

But the 71-year-old has revealed to The Daily Telegraph that until the charity concert to support bushfire relief came along, she wasn't planning to ever do any more concerts.

'I haven't done a show in two years and I wasn't planning on doing any more, but for this event, and to sing with John, it's just going to be a phenomenal day,' she said.

'Music can uplift you': Olivia Newton-John, 71, has admitted she never wanted to perform again - before being coaxed out of retirement by the chance to sing with John Farnham at Fire Fight Australia concert

Olivia was coaxed out of her retirement to perform at the charity event, which will raise money for those affected by the recent bushfire disaster.

'Music can uplift you, can take you to a place of joy and the concert will show those people in regional places that yes, we care about you and are doing what we can to raise funds for recovery,' she said.

The 10-hour show will star more than 20 local and international acts at Sydney's ANZ Stadium and it will be hosted by Celeste Barber.

Duet: Olivia is set to hit the stage on Sunday night to do a duet with John Farnham (pictured together in 2014) at Fire Fight Australia to raise money for bushfire relief

The line-up includes 5 Seconds of Summer, Michael Buble, Alice Cooper, Amy Shark, Baker Boy, Conrad Sewell, Daryl Braithwaite, Delta Goodrem, Illy, Grinspoon, Guy Sebastian and Queen with Adam Lambert.

Viewers from all over the world will be able to watch the charity event, which will be aired live on Foxtel's Fox8 and Channel V as well as Network Seven from 1pm.

Olivia's decision to no longer perform comes after the Grease star's shock stage four diagnosis with breast cancer in 2017.

Stellar line up: The 10-hour show will star more than 20 local and international acts at Sydney's ANZ Stadium, including Queen with Adam Lambert (pictured)

Appearing on The Project last Thursday night alongside her daughter Chloe Lattanzi, Olivia insisted that she's feeling 'fantastic'.

'I'm doing really well... Thank you for your love and support, I really appreciate it,' she told the audience.

Olivia told the panel - made up of Peter Helliar, Waleed Aly, Lisa Wilkinson and Em Rusciano - that her recovery was moving in the right direction.

'My last MRI, which is an exam where they look inside, things are shrinking and going away, or staying the same, and I'm living well with it and feeling great,' she said.
President Donald Trump, right, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speak during a meeting in New York on Sept. 25, 2019. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Ukraine President Says Hes Ready for Another Phone Call With Trump

Zelensky rejects assertions that his country is still corrupt

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday disputed claims that Ukraine is a corrupt country, saying from now, its not true, and that we want to change this image, while adding that hes ready for another phone call with President Donald Trump.

Throughout the impeachment inquiry into Trump, there were numerous references to corruption in Ukraine. But in a new interview, Zelensky said Kyiv is fighting against corruption every day.

When I had a meeting with President Trump and he said that in previous years (Ukraine) was such a corrupt country, I told him very honestly and I was very open with him. I told him that we fight with corruption. We fight each day, Zelensky told CNN on Saturday.

He added, From now, its not true. We want to change this image.

Zelensky and Trump spoke during a phone call on July 25, where Trump asked him to look into allegations surrounding former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who sat on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings. The founder of Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky, is under investigation for corruption in Ukraine. His whereabouts are currently unknown.

Throughout the inquiry, both Trump and Zelensky have said there was no pressure from the White House to launch investigations. Both also denied there was any quid pro quo, as was alleged by House Democrats.

Following the inquiry and impeachment trial, Zelensky told CNN that Ukraine and the United States have a very good relationship and thanked Trump for his support.

I want to thank the president, and the USA, and ordinary American people for supporting Ukraine, especially now when we have war. Thank you for your help We feel it, we feel it with our hearts, with our body, Zelensky said.

Earlier this month, the Senate acquitted Trump on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress impeachment articles. House Democrats for months claimed that the president violated his oath of office by allegedly withholding aid from Ukraine in exchange for investigations and for Zelensky to meet Trump at the White House.

The July 25 phone call was mentioned on a near-daily basis as Trump urged Americans on Twitter to read the transcripts of the call, which he had declassified shorty after the allegations first emerged.

Zelensky joked with CNN that he wanted to be popular in the United States.

He said, In my previous profession, when I was a producer, scriptwriter and actor, I wanted to get an Oscar, I wanted to be popular in the USA Now I am very popular in the USA. If this way will help Ukraine, I am ready for the next call with Mr. Trump.
Below are the Editorial Boards endorsements for several races in the primary elections for Democrats and Republicans that we believe are especially important to local voters. In some cases, the winners of these contests will face off against each other in the general election in November. In others, the opposing party is not running a candidate. Early voting begins Tuesday and runs through Feb. 28. Election Day is March 3, also known as Super Tuesday.

REPUBLICANS

U.S. Senate  John Cornyn. He is expected to win his primary race easily against four minor challengers, but Democrats think he is vulnerable in November. Cornyn could strengthen his chances and help his country by standing up more often to President Donald Trump when he departs from conservative principles, which he unfortunately does too often.

Jefferson County sheriff  David Odom. Two retired lawmen are running for this position, but we think Odom has the better background to take on the challenges of this job. He served as a military policeman in the Marine Corps, and then worked for the Nederland Police Department for 25 years before retiring last year. In Nederland, Odom rose from patrolman to detective and patrol supervisor. He was a sergeant for 20 of his 25 years with the department. Thats a good background for sheriff.

Also running is Emil Serda, a former Jefferson County sheriffs deputy who retired when Mitch Woods term ended four years ago. He has worked in the oil business since then in a management position.

Orange County judge  John Gothia. Hes the former county commissioner who was selected for this job by his colleagues to fill the seat left open when Dean Crooks abruptly resigned last year. Gothia is far and away more qualified for this important job than his opponent. He has an incredible depth and breadth of knowledge about Orange County and what it needs to grow in coming years. The county is facing its biggest opportunity in decades with the possible expansion of the Chevron Phillips facility; it could bring hundreds of good-paying permanent jobs and thousands of construction jobs. This is the most important issue for every public official in the county  getting that plant here and making sure the tax abatement deal is as fair as possible. Gothia is better positioned than almost anyone to lock this down and end the years of stagnation that have plagued Orange County.

Also running is Ernest Bayard, a 77-year-old blueberry farmer who lacks the management experience that is vital to this job.

Orange County sheriff  Rob Strause. Two good candidates are running for this job to replace the retiring Keith Merritt, but we think Strause edges out current Precinct 4 Constable Jimmy Mooney. Strause has worked in several local law enforcement positions, including the sheriffs department. He has served a term as an elected constable, meaning he has experience leading people and managing a public budget. Strause understands that the sheriff and all elected officials have to do the best they can with the resources they have in a county with a tight budget. He knows that the county faces special threats from methamphetamines and game rooms and wants to fight these problems aggressively. Strause says his deputies should be a bit tired after a busy and productive shift, and thats a good attitude for any sheriff.

DEMOCRATS

Chair of the Jefferson County Democratic Party  Joseph Paul Trahan. This contest has not one candidate but three, a rare competition for a party chairman in the county. The position came open when Cade Bernsen resigned. Interim chair Ava Y. Graves is running for the rest of this term, and Paul M. Martin wants the job as well. Any one of these candidates could serve; each one has commendable strengths. But Trahan stands out with his determination to grow the party by reaching out more to young voters and the emerging Hispanic population. His family has a history in Jefferson County politics, and hes one of the all-too-rare group of young men and women who returned to this area after graduating from college elsewhere. He wants a chairman or chairwoman for every precinct in the county, and not just from the Beaumont area. Trahan understands that in a closely divided county, Democrats must turn out all of their voters to win elections.

U.S. Senate  Amanda K. Edwards. This is one of the most crowded contests on the primary ballot, with no less than 12 Democrats vying for the chance to take on incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the fall. A runoff election is likely, and Democrats would do well to make sure that Edwards is in that final pairing. Shes a member of the Houston City Council and brings real energy and enthusiasm to this contest. Edwards is an attorney who understands the lawmaking process. Her focus on goals like better health care and more economic opportunities for Texans are issues that Senate candidates need to be talking about. Shes serving now on a nonpartisan city council and says that background will help her work with Republicans in Washington on the many issues that both parties care about.

President  Michael Bloomberg. This is an unconventional choice for Democrats, but it may take an unconditional candidate to defeat a resurgent President Trump in November. And make no mistake about it, that must be the No. 1 priority for Democrats in choosing a nominee. None of the current group of presidential candidates has stood out so far as a unifying candidate who can win, even though many of them have good ideas about improving our country. If the party chooses democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, it will almost certainly doom any chances of winning. Bloomberg is a brash billionaire from New York  just like the current president. Hes on the moderate side of Democratic politics, but thats what the party needs to attract swing voters who defected to Trump in 2016 or just stayed home. Donald Trump is going to come out swinging hard against whoever runs against him in the fall, throwing in plenty of personal insults along with the policy differences. Democrats need someone who can stand up to this onslaught and fight back when needed. Bloomberg has the personal fortune to take on this challenge. Primary voters should give him that opportunity.
By ANI

NEW DELHI: Shaheen Bagh protesters on Sunday tried to march to Home Minister Amit Shah's residence here for a dialogue over the amended citizenship law, but were stopped by police after a little distance from the sit-in site as they did not have permission from authorities to take out the rally.

The protesters, who had announced that they will take out the march on Sunday, said they were awaiting a nod from the police which, they claimed, had sought some time.

A large posse of security personnel was deployed at Shaheen Bagh in south-east Delhi where hundreds of women protesters gathered to march towards Shah's residence on the Krishna Menon Marg for a dialogue over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

Barricades were put up in the area and the protesters were stopped a little distance from the site.

The protesters chose an eight-member delegation, including elderly women called 'dadis' of Shaheen Bagh, to approach the police "to allow them" to meet Shah and asserted that they will carry out the march peacefully.

"Police said they have forwarded our request to meet the home minister and have sought some time to arrange it," Javed Khan, one of the protesters, said.

He said the protesters will replan their march after getting confirmation from the police.

Another protestor Arbaaz said, "We will not march ahead as the police have assured us that our request has been forwarded to the authorities concerned. Amit Shah has not communicated to us anything directly but it was through a news channel."

"So, how does he want us to meet him. We are carrying out a peaceful protest so why would we need an official appointment from him?" he asked. Another protestor Aamir said "We don't have any doubt about the CAA. We don't need any explanation or clarification on it. We are only going to meet Amit Shah to teach him the Constitution."

ALSO READ| Shaheen Bagh protest an attempt to impose views on others: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan

Unable to get the requisite permission, the anti-CAA protesters, mostly women, returned to the site where they have been holding the sit-in against the citizenship law, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) for the past two months.

Police officials, including DCP (Southeast) R P Meena and Additional DCP (Southeast) Kumar Gyanesh, held talks with a group of protesters and assured them that their application has been forwarded to the authorities concerned for further action.

"The protesters wanted to know about the status of their application. This was regarding permission for marching from Shaheen Bagh to the residence of the home minister. They had given the application to us."

"We told them that the application was given to DCP New Delhi and it will be further submitted to the police headquarters which will take a final call on it," Meena said.

After continuous dialogue and efforts by senior police officials, including additional DCPs, of the South-East District with a group of protesters, including the 'dadis' of Shaheen Bagh', the march was postponed, he said.

The march was unlawful as it did not have necessary permissions from law enforcement agencies concerned, Meena said in an official statement.

"The protesters accepted the police officials' requests and did not proceed. Police have requested them to make a delegation and the same will be facilitated for further appointment and meeting," he added.

Three days ago, Shah had said anyone who wants to discuss issues related to CAA with him can seek time from his office.

"(We) will give time within three days," the home minister had said.
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Rio de Janeiro, February 12, 2020  The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the online harassment campaign against Brazilian journalist Patricia Campos Mello.

Yesterday, during a congressional hearing on fake news in Brasilia, the capital, Hans River Rio do Nascimento, a former employee of a digital marketing company, gave a statement attacking Campos Mello, suggesting she lied in her reporting and accusing her of being willing to trade sex for information, according to a video of his testimony.

Campos Mello is a reporter at Folha de S.Paulo, Brazils largest daily newspaper, and was a recipient of CPJs 2019 International Press Freedom Award.

Following Nascimentos testimony, Campos Mello received hundreds of harassing messages on social media, and several politicians, including Eduardo Bolsonaroa congressman and son of President Jair Bolsonaroshared and repeated Nascimentos allegations on Twitter, she told CPJ via phone.

The Parliamentarian Commission of Inquiry on Fake News was established in September 2019 with the goal of investigating online harassment and false news on social media, according to its official website.

It is deeply ironic that a congressional hearing to investigate so-called fake news in Brazil has been used to ignite an online campaign spreading false accusations and smears against a journalist, said CPJ Central and South America Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick in New York. This targeted harassment shows just how far some in Brazil are willing to go to discredit investigative reporters like Patricia Campos Mello, and how female reporters face additional barriers and threats to their work.

After Nascimentos statement went public, hundreds of users on Facebook and Twitter posted memes featuring her photo and messages that undermined her integrity and her work as a journalist, many with sexual language, Campos Mello said.

She told CPJ she had not received any direct threats, but said it was absurd that she had to defend myself against such lies.

Nascimentos statement referenced an article by Campos Mello and Artur Rodrigues published by Folha de S.Paulo on December 2, 2018, which alleged that a group of digital marketing companies, including one where Nascimento worked, had stolen the identities of elderly Brazilians to spread political propaganda against the Labor Party through WhatsApp messages during the 2018 presidential election in Brazil.

Congressman Bolsonaro, along with two other congressmen, Carlos Jordy and Filipe Barros, repeated the accusations against Campos Mello on Twitter and supported Nascimentos characterization of her journalism.

In response to the testimony and harassment, Folha de S.Paulo published an article denying each of Nascimentos allegations.

Campos Mello has consistently received threats since her reporting on the WhatsApp messaging campaigns in 2018, which CPJ and other organizations publicly condemned at the time.

CPJ could not locate Nascimento. CPJ called the company where Nascimento worked. The employee who answered the phone said there was no one available to comment today and asked CPJ to reach out tomorrow.

CPJ Emergencies has published a Safety Note on psychological safety and online harassment.
Heads of German and Ukrainian defense departments met on sidelines of Munich Conference

February 15, in the framework of the 56th Munich Security Conference, Ukrainian Minister of Defense Andriy Zahorodniuk met with his German counterpart Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. The press service of the Ukrainian defense department reports.

In particular, Zahorodniuk thanked his colleague for the efforts of the FRG in the framework of the "Norman format" to end the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and restore the country's territorial integrity.

The interlocutors discussed a safe situation in the region. In particular, the Ukrainian minister informed Kramp-Karrenbauer about the current situation in the area of rebuffing and containing Russian armed aggression in eastern Ukraine.

Zahorodniuk expressed hope for receiving military-political support in the issue of Ukraine becoming a NATO partner with advanced capabilities

The parties also discussed promising areas of bilateral cooperation. Zahorodniuk invited Kramp-Karrenbauer to visit Ukraine

As we reported, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Andriy Zahorodniuk and the Minister of National Defense of Romania, Nicolae Ionel Ciuca, discussed cooperation in the context of the security of the Black Sea region
Varanasi, Feb 16 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday spoke in four different languages -- Kannada, Telegu, Marathi and Hindi -- at the closing ceremony of the centenary celebrations of the Shri Jagadguru Vishwaradhya Gurukul in Varanasi and won a resounding applause for it.

Speaking on the occasion, he said that he was fortunate to get the blessings of saints and seers. He said that 'Veershaiva' tradition encouraged people to rise above 'virodh' (opposition).

"Nation is run not by power but by 'sanskriti', We must introduce the young generations to our spiritual heritage and show them the path from 'bhakti'to 'mukti'," he said.

The Prime Minister said that the Jangambadi Matth could create an app in order to digitalize spiritual knowledge. "We can use technology to spread knowledge," he said.

He said that as a representative of Varanasi in the Lok Sabha, he was happy to see that people had started taking the responsibility of cleaning the Ganga. "The Namami Gange project has shown good results only because of people's participation," he said.

Talking about the Ram temple, Modi said that with the setting up of the trust, temple construction would begin soon and all this was possible with the blessings of saints.

The Jangamwadi Matth is one of the oldest Matths in Varanasi. Literature dates it back to Satyuga -- first of the four Yugas in Hindu timeframe. The documented historical records date it back to 8th CE, however, it is hard to verify the exact date. It is said that Raja Jaichand donated land for this Jangamwadi Mutt that has seen an unbroken lineage of 86 Jagatgurus.
A section of Shaheen Bagh protesters on Saturday said they were ready to meet Home Minister Amit Shah to raise their concerns over the new citizenship law but added that the onus was on the government to call them for talks.

However, Home Ministry officials said no request has come for an appointment with Shah to discuss issues related to anti-CAA protests.

Some protesters also said they would march to the Union Home Minister's residence on Sunday afternoon.

The protesters, mainly women, have been staging a sit-in demonstration for the past two months against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR).

They said the protest was "leaderless" and it was up to the Home Minister to decide who all he wanted to call for talks.

An announcement in this regard was also made by a speaker from the dais at the protest venue.

"We are ready to meet the Home Minister. But he should make it clear how many people he wants to meet," Syed Ahmed Taseer, one of the organisers, said.

Mehrunnisa, who has been a regular at the protest, said the protesters would march to the Home Minister's residence on Sunday.

"We would ask him to withdraw CAA-NRC-NPR," she said, adding that the protest would continue till their demand was met.

In an interaction with a news channel earlier this week, Shah said anyone who wants to discuss issues related to CAA with him can seek time from his office.

"(We) will give time within three days," the Home Minister added.

Quazi Emad Ahmed, a protester, said, "The protesters would begin their march from Shaheen Bagh to the home minister's residence at 2 pm. There will not be any particular representative, but all the people opposed to CAA, NRC and NPR would go there to talk to the minister."

Protests had unfolded in Shaheen Bagh, Zakir Nagar, Jamia Nagar, Khureji Khas and other places in the national capital and elsewhere across the country in December to oppose the CAA and the NRC.

According to the CAA, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 and facing religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants but will be given Indian citizenship. The law excludes Muslims.

Those opposing the law contend that it discriminates on the basis of religion and violates the Constitution.

They also allege that the CAA along with the NRC is intended to target the Muslim community in India. However, the central government has dismissed the allegations, maintaining that the law is intended to give citizenship to persecuted people from the three neighbouring countries and not to take away citizenship from anyone.
V-Day: 5 Bajrang Dal workers arrested for vandalising mall, restaurant in Hyderabad

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Hyderabad, Feb 16: Five Bajrang Dal workers have been arrested for allegedly indulging in vandalism in the city on On Valentine's Day, February 14, police said. They said about 10 to 15 activists on two wheelers vandalised a shop in Kattupalli area on February 14.

They held aloft flags and raised slogans against celebration of Valentines Day and "created havoc" at different malls, a police press release said.

On receiving information, police rushed to a mall, but the Bajrang Dal activists escaped from the spot.

Valentine's Day 2020: Will not tolerate indecent behaviour, says Bajrang Dal

Five of them were later identified with the help of CCTV footage and arrested, police said. The others too have been identifed and efforts were on to nab them, police said. Two cases have been registered against them under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code on a complaint from shop owners, the release said.

In yet another incident, Bajrang Dal activists also forced a newly-married inter-faith couple in Moradabad to call off their wedding reception despite 50 of the protesters being detained. According to police, the couple was to host the wedding reception on Valentine's Day in the Civil Lines area of Moradabad. While the woman is from Moradabad, the man who is a Muslim hails from Bijnor. Parents of neither had any objection to the marriage.

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 16th, 2020

Bajrang Dal workers had alleged that this was a case of 'love jihad' since the woman was a Hindu and the man a Muslim. 'Love jihad', a term coined by rightwingers, is the alleged effort by Muslim men in targeting women belonging to non-Muslim communities for conversion to Islam by feigning love.

These hilarious Valentines Day 2020 memes are totally relatable to Single people

Meanwhile, a case was also registered against four Bajrang Dal activists for attacking Telugu film critic Kathi Mahesh who came to Imax mall to watch a movie. It is learned that Kathi had earlier made derogatory statements against Hindu gods. he was banned from Hyderabad for six months by the Telangana police under the Telangana Prevention of Anti-Social and Hazardous Activities Act, 1980, during a similar controversy.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Sunday, February 16, 2020, 11:32 [IST]
SHELBY TOWNSHIP, MI --An off-duty police officer discovered a secret camera hidden at a tanning salon Friday evening, causing concern for customers and ownership who dont know how long itd been there or what images were captured. The camera was found at the Chili Peppers Tanning located at Van Dyke at 25 Mile Road in Shelby Township.

WDIV reports the Shelby Township location was closed Saturday, but planned to reopen Sunday. Police were on the scene investigating the store until 5 a.m. Saturday looking for additional cameras and clues on who could have placed the camera in the room. It is unclear how many secret cameras may have been on site.

Upon learning about the camera, the company said it began searching its other locations around Metro Detroit. The company also hired a private investigator and installed new locks and security systems at the locations. Chili Peppers is also offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

A press release issued by the Shelby Township Police Department says the camera was found in the wall of one of the rooms. Police were called to the business around 7:40 p.m. Friday night.

Management for the tanning salon said it believes the camera was placed there by an outside source and not by anyone who works at the facility. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Shelby Township Police Department at 586-731-2121.
Met Eireann is warning of severe and damaging gusts this Sunday in Limerick as Storm Dennis passes over the country.

As well as the high winds, the storm brings with it a risk of coastal flooding as well as hail and thundershowers.

A Status Orange wind warning for Limerick came into effect at 10am and will remain in place until 10pm.

A separate Status Yellow wind warning, which came into effect on Saturday remains in place until 11pm this Sunday.

The effects of Storm Dennis will continue. Very windy everywhere with strong&very gusty SW winds. Stormy at times near W&N coasts with gales&severe/damaging gusts&a risk of coastal flooding. Sunshine&widespread heavy squally showers with a risk of hail&thunder. Highs of 6 to 9C. pic.twitter.com/k57GEXuIho  Met Eireann (@MetEireann) February 16, 2020

The Orange weather warning is also in place for Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Sligo, Clare, Cork, and Kerry.

Due to the storm, the Limerick v Waterford Allianz Hurling League tie wont take place this Sunday after the LIT Gaelic Grounds again failed a pitch inspection.

Read also: Off: No reprieve for Limerick and Waterford Allianz Hurling League clash

Meanwhile, Gardai have asked road users to be extra cautious, and to be aware of potential floods and fallen debris.

We are asking road users to exercise caution while using the roads as Met Eireann have issued Orange and Yellow weather warnings for strong winds.



Take extra care, check local weather and traffic conditions before setting out on a trip. pic.twitter.com/Ec21mL8p7U  An Garda Siochana (@GardaTraffic) February 16, 2020

Send your weather photos and videos to news@limerickleader.ie or tag us on social media.
New Delhi, Feb 16 : Third time Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at his swearing in ceremony on Sunday asserted he would work for the next five years in coordination with the Centre without discriminating against those who did not support his party during the recently-concluded Delhi Assembly polls.

Calling his victory a success of every Delhiite, Kejriwal said he is the Chief Minister of everyone even if they voted for AAP's rivals Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or Congress.

"I am the Chief Minister of all who voted for AAP, BJP or Congress. I want to tell all the two crore people of the Delhi that you all are my family. It does not matter from which party you belong or from which caste, creed, or region you come. No matter if you are poor or rich," Kejriwal said.

In his 20-minute speech at Ramlila Maidan, Kejriwal said: "I will work for everyone for the next five years." Kejriwal appealed to all political parties to forget things that happened during the run up to the polls and sought their help for the development of the capital city. He announced to work in coordination with the Centre and also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help his government for Delhi's progress.

"All parties should forget the past things and support this government for the progress of Delhi. We want to work in coordination with the Central government. I invited the Prime Minister for my swearing-in ceremony. I also urge the Prime Minister to help us in the development of Delhi," Kejriwal said.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener took oath as Chief Minister in a grand ceremony at the Ramlila Maidan for the third time in presence of a huge gathering.

The AAP got a massive mandate in the Delhi polls as it was elected in 62 of the 70 Assembly constituencies here while the BJP managed only eight seats and the Congress again failed to get a single seat.

Addressing a huge crowd, Kejriwal said immediately after his swearing-in that the future electoral politics in the country will be based on the development plank. "Delhiites, you have given birth to a new brand of politics -- the politics of performance, of setting up schools, healthcare facilities, providing water, power, and women's security." Kejriwal also extended an olive branch to the Centre, indicating his eagerness to work with the BJP-led government for Delhi's development. "I had invited the Prime Minister to today's event, but he could not make it. I seek his blessings for Delhi's progress and development," he said, indicating his intention to let bygones be bygones.

The AAP and BJP had fought a bitter battle in the run-up to the Assembly polls held on February 8.

Kejriwal's speech also hinted at his national ambitions. He said, "When every Indian gets security, health, education and employment only then will the tricolour flutter proudly." The crowd composition at Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony was a tribute of sorts to the strata of society that have stood by him in the no-holds-barred electoral battle with the BJP.

In his speech, Kejriwal acknowledged the role that the common people play in the development of Delhi.

During the course of his speech, Kejriwal specifically mentioned names of an IIT student, a former teacher who is presently farming, a metro rail pilot, and city bus marshal. Kejriwal said that it is people like them that run Delhi, not the politicians.

"Teachers, doctors, rickshaw drivers, students, bus drivers, tradesmen, are the people who run Delhi. These are the people who give life to Delhi. Politicians come and go," he said.
Bird formations have inspired researchers conducting tests to see if flying aircraft close together could make use of "wingtip vortex" effect to make them more economical.
Boris Johnson now has a War Cabinet. The effective sacking of Sajid Javid means he has surrounded himself with like-minded people who will drive its agenda through in a way that the UK has not experienced since the early years of Tony Blair, before he and Gordon Brown fell out.

This will have a profound impact on the trade negotiations with Europe and the rest of the world.

It has already become clear that our choice is less about the hardness or softness of our relations with Europe, and more about whether we should prioritise the EU vis-a-vis the rest of the world.

Last year, exports to non-EU markets rose by 14 per cent, while those to the EU fell by 0.9 per cent. China became our third largest market after the US and Germany.

War cabinet: Prime Minister Boris Johnson has surrounded himself with like-minded people

The elevation of Rishi Sunak to Chancellor fits into this shift. There have been suggestions that he will be a pliable Chancellor, taking his instructions from No 10.

That is to misunderstand the man. Look at his CV. He is, of course, of Indian heritage, was head boy at Winchester, studied PPE at Oxford, and was a Fulbright scholar at Stanford in California  where he met his wife, Akshata Murthy.

She is the daughter of the co-founder of the giant Bangalore-based software house Infosys.

He then worked, among other places, for Goldman Sachs. So not only is he a huge success in his own right, he has married into Indian high-tech aristocracy.

The Indian connection matters. It probably passed the UK last year to become the world's fifth largest economy. By 2030, it is projected to pass both Germany and Japan to become number three in the world.

China matters, but India matters very much too. The first practical example of this Government's drive will come in the Budget, probably still to be held on March 11, though maybe now delayed a little.

The first thing the new Chancellor has to do is to avoid mistakes. For example, there was a danger that the Government might make one over tax treatment of pensions.

While there is a case for overall pension reform, it needs to be done thoughtfully.

The next thing to look for will be whether the Government can really create policies that will boost productivity and hence growth.

Rishi Sunak is a huge success in his own right & has married into Indian high-tech aristocracy

There is no magic wand, for the causes of Britain's relatively poor productivity are complex. Our core problem is we are uneven: the best companies are global leaders but there is a long tail of mediocre ones.

The much-cited problem of poor infrastructure will presumably be high up the Chancellor's list of things to tackle and that is something a Government can do.

It would be nice to have more faith in its ability to deliver, given the debacle over London's Crossrail project and the deaths on the so-called smart motorways. But let's see.

Let's see too about the Government's other priorities, for this first Budget of the Johnson era will be the vital statement of just that: what it plans to do and how.

It is all very well having drive, and much better than having drift. A Prime Minister and a Chancellor heading in the same direction is a welcome change. Let's hope it is the right direction.

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So the brand of the Royal Bank of Scotland is to die and its branches outside Scotland become NatWest ones. There are many lessons here. One is that longevity is no assurance of survival.

RBS was founded by Royal Charter of George I in 1727, and is even older than the Equitable Life Assurance Society, founded in 1762  and which technically ceased to exist at midnight on December 31, 2019.

The RBS group, unlike Equitable Life, was rescued by the Government and will survive as NatWest. But the value of the RBS brand has been destroyed.

Another lesson is that the group should probably have been split into a 'good' and a 'bad' bank, as suggested by Mervyn King, then Governor of the Bank of England, back in 2013.

The good side would have become a vibrant competitor, while the bad would have run off the dodgy debts.

Still another is just how badly RBS was managed. Its chief executive Fred Goodwin carried the blame and was stripped of his knighthood. But the rest of the board was responsible too and got off far too lightly.
Student was member of rock band and wanted to study journalism: Getty

A teenage boy has been arrested and charged with murder over the stabbing of a New York college student  an incident that rocked the city.

Officials said the 14-year-old had been taken into police custody on Friday evening for last Decembers killing of Tessa Majors.

Another teenager has already been detained over the killing of the 18-year-old, who was a student at Barnard College.

New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said on Saturday the 14-year-old had been charged with murder and robbery. He is currently being charged as an adult.

We are confident that we have the person in custody who stabbed her, Mr Shea said at a press conference. And that person will face justice in a court of law.

Majors was stabbed as she walked through Morningside Park early on the evening of December 11. She staggered up a flight of stairs to street level and collapsed in a crosswalk.

A criminal complaint released on Saturday described Majors as struggling on a landing with three people and screaming, Help me! Im being robbed.

Officials said they have evidence from videotapes, witness identification and DNA evidence from Majors fingernail clippings linking the teenager to the crime.

The attack, two days before the start of final exams at the womens college, anguished city residents because of its proximity to campus and its apparent randomness.

This arrest is a major milestone on the path to justice for Tessa Majors, said district attorney Cy Vance.

A 13-year-old who was arrested in December and charged as a juvenile with felony murder told detectives he was at the park with other youths but was not the one who stabbed Majors.

Majors, of Charlottesville, Virginia, played in a rock band and had told an editor from a newspaper internship in high school that she planned to take journalism classes in college.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

Read more

Tessa Majors: NYC mayor slams police union chief over marijuana claims

13-year-old arrested in Tessa Majors murder

18-year-old college student found stabbed to death in NYC park
Germany, UN host ministers and top officials in bid to cut off external military support to Libyas warring sides.

Violations of an arms embargo in Libya have become a joke and those who breach it must be held to account, a senior UN official has said.

Foreign ministers and other top officials from about a dozen countries gathered on Sunday in Munich to discuss the conflict in Libya and reaffirmed a commitment to respect a much-violated arms embargo and back a full ceasefire.

The arms embargo has become a joke, we all really need to step up here, UN Deputy Special Representative to Libya Stephanie Williams said.

Its complicated because there are violations by land, sea and air, but it needs to be monitored and there needs to be accountability.

Germany and the UN hosted the meeting in a bid to maintain pressure to cut off external military support for the warring parties in Libya.

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It has been obvious in the last weeks there have been many not insignificant breaches of the weapons embargo, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said at the press conference after the meeting.

There have been decidedly differing explanations offered up from Libya as to what the reasons for this are but everybody agrees that the path we have taken, which is to separate the conflicting parties from their supporters is still the only path to a possible successful outcome in ending the civil war in Libya.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said a previous agreement reached in Berlin last month has been repeatedly violated by continuing arms deliveries and escalating fighting.

Libya has been in turmoil since 2011, when a civil war toppled longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was later killed.

There are two competing administrations in the country: the UN-recognised, Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), and a separate administration based in the eastern city of Tobruk, which supports the rebel military commander Khalifa Haftar.

The UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) is supported by Turkey, which recently sent thousands of soldiers to Libya.

Haftar, whose forces launched an offensive to capture the Libyan capital of Tripoli last April, is backed by the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

Reporting from Munich, Al Jazeeras James Bays said Sundays talks were similar to those that took place in January, noting that some countries have continued to supply arms in high numbers to both sides.

If you dont succeed, try again, that is what is happening at the conference in Munich. The foreign ministers hope to try and get the international plan back on track to stop all the weapons flowing to Libya, to get to the two sides to hold a ceasefire, then to get all the Libyan parties to talk and eventually have a UN-brokered election in Libya, he said.

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Reporting from Tripoli, Al Jazeeras Mahmoud Abdelwahed said sporadic fighting has continued over the past two weeks.

In Libya, the two major issues of the arms embargo and the ceasefire on the ground have not been implemented, he said.

In April, Haftar launched a campaign to seize Tripoli from the GNA, dramatically escalating the crisis.

Since the Berlin summit, the rival Libyan military factions have met in Geneva in a UN-led effort to forge a lasting truce.

A first round faltered when officials concluded negotiations without signing an agreement, though another round of talks is expected next week.

On Wednesday, the UN Security Council endorsed a 55-point road map for ending the war in Libya and condemned the recent increase in violence in the oil-rich North African country.

The European Union, whose foreign ministers are set to discuss Libya on Monday, is considering whether and how to have naval ships enforce the UN arms embargo against Libya.
Theres a new front in the battle over the Interstate 10 Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project: the 2020 Legislature. And the maneuvers suggest a bleak future for any new plan to toll Alabama roads.

Three bills addressing the issue are already winning attention.

Two of them would amend Alabamas Constitution to restrict how tolls could be assessed. Another would mandate a full economic impact study by the Alabama Department of Transportation prior to any tolling being considered.

Toll roads are a new controversial issue  a paramount issue in Mobile and Baldwin counties with I-10, said Steve Flowers, an author and longtime state political observer who once served as Republican member of the Alabama House. But its also creeping up in other areas of the state.

Tolling controversy erupted in coastal Alabama last year when ALDOT called for a $6 one-way toll on drivers as a means of paying for the $2.1 billion Bridge/Bayway project. Tolls also would have been applied to the existing George Wallace Tunnel on I-10 at Mobile.

As upset mounted, a Facebook page titled Block the Mobile Bayway amassed 54,000 followers.

Gov. Kay Ivey declared the project dead in August after the Eastern Shore Metropolitan Planning Organization  consisting of city and county government leaders -- voted to remove it from its list of short-term transportation priorities.

An alternative project to the Bridge/Bayway has surfaced in recent weeks that would build an expressway across the northern edge of Mobile Bay, as well as a new bridge. This project would supposedly cost about $1.2 billion, but the financing arrangements arent know, nor has the Alabama Department of Transportation gotten on board with it.

People are paying for these roadways and they shouldnt be double-taxed on them, said state Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Daphne, who is sponsoring two toll-related bills.

No Tolls Amendment

Orange Beach businessman and former congressional candidate Dean Young talks about the latest poll he commissioned on tolling interstates during a news conference on Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2019, in Foley, Ala. Young, in August, vowed that legislation was coming to restrict tolling in Alabama via a constitutional amendment. That legislation was introduced recently by state Rep. Tommy Hanes. (John Sharp/jsharp@al.com).

Heres what is being proposed:

-SB151: Prior to building a new road financed through tolling, the Alabama Department of Transportation would have to undertake an economic impact study. The study would look at how a toll project would affect existing commercial and industrial development, employment, future development near the project area, state revenues, etc.

-SB152: This is a constitutional amendment that says voters would get to decide whether an existing public road in their county should be assessed a toll to pay for construction or renovation.

-HB210: This is a so-called No Tolls Amendment sponsored by state Rep. Tommy Hanes, R-Bryant. Similar to SB152, it would require any toll project to receive voter approval before its allowed to proceed. But this legislation goes further than SB152 in that it prohibits any kind of tolling of a public road unless authorized by voters within the county or counties where the project is set to occur.

Like Flowers, Elliott and other supporters of tolling restrictions note that the issue isnt just a coastal Alabama concern. They point to a new toll bridge project over Lay Lake on the Coosa River system that would connect Shelby and Talladega counties.

That project, unlike the I-10 project, would be overseen by a for-profit entity. In Alabama, the only thoroughfares that are assessed a toll are owned and operated by a private company, American Roads LLC. The state receives no revenue from them, nor does it manage the roads.

They are not a very common practice in Alabama, said state Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, who opposes the Coosa River Express toll, that would assess a $2 fee on bridge users.

He added, I dont think youll be seeing a flood of tolls, but I get the outrage that is out there.

Legislation restricting tolls are surfacing at time when tolls are increasingly becoming a method torwad financing financing expensive road projects. Tolls exist in a majority of states, and are almost ubiquitous in neighboring Florida. Recent toll developments include the state of Michigan, where lawmakers recently voted to study the feasibility of tolling state highways as a way to raise money to restore deteriorating infrastructure.

Political whims

Alabama Department of Transportation Director John Cooper speaks on Wednesday, December 19, 2018, inside his office in Montgomery, Ala. (John Sharp/jsharp@al.com).

Meanwhile, the political side of last years toll uproar is playing out in bills that would affect the position of ALDOT director.

SB141 and HB19  which are more or less identical -- would create a State Transportation Commission composed of five gubernatorial appointees, one each from ALDOTs five regions. Those commissioners would select ALDOTs director. At present, the governor chooses the ALDOT director.

Elliott and state Rep. Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, are the main sponsors of the two bills.

Elliott said the bills take politics out of transportation discussions, and provide more consistency with state transportation planning. The commissioners would be appointed to staggered six-year terms.

An ALDOT spokesman declined to comment.

Presently, Elliott said, ALDOT functions with a five-year plan thats subject to change with each new gubernatorial administration. Its not a way to run transportation planning. We need to make decision based on where traffic really is, and not on the political whims of a particular governor, he said.

Elliott said the bills take an intermediate step toward a system like that in Mississippi. In that state, three elected commissioners  one each from north, central and south Mississippi -- guide the transportation agency.

The Mississippi Department of Transportations three-member commission has been in place since 1930. The commissioners are charged with appointing the departments executive director.

Elliott said, I just dont think there is support to have an elected transportation commission. There is a good likelihood to have an appointed commissioner that sets the minimum standards on who the ALDOT director is.

Pringle said hes pitched his bill previously because he believes that ALDOT severely lacks long-term planning.

He said he would like to see Iveys office embrace the bill similar to the way that Gov. Don Siegelman, in his term two decades ago, supported shifting the appointment of the director of the State Docks from the governors office to the nine-member Alabama State Port Authority.

Youve seen the benefits of long-term planning in the way it has turned our docks around, said Pringle. I think the Highway Department would benefit from the longer-term planning.

He said the bill isnt political retribution toward ALDOT Director John Cooper, who came under hot criticism by local lawmakers during the public debate about the Bridge/Bayway project.

Its not a slap at Mr. Cooper, and this governor would be able to appoint all the members of the (transportation commission), said Pringle. You would assume those members appointed by the governor would hire the person the governor liked. But it would give whoever it is a long-term ability to coordinate a strategic plan.

An Ivey spokeswoman said that the governor will thoroughly review any bill that the Legislature considers.

Change does not come easy in Montgomery, said Pringle. This is change. I never had a governor get behind it.
Todays papers pick up ConservativeHomes enquiry last week about new council tax bands. We drew on David Camerons memoirs in pointing to this potential alternative to a Mansion Tax, which has reportedly been mulled by the Government during this run-up to next months budget.

The former Prime Minister wrote that the idea of such bands for more expensive properties has meritthere is a strong argument that in the UK they are under-taxed. Our probe was given legs by the former Chancellor with whom Cameron once worked so seamlessly  George Osborne.

The latter tweeted in response to our article that he thinks new bands of this type would be a sensible tax reform. (Interestingly, he and Cameron gave different figures for the change they once considered. Osborne said he wanted two new council tax bands for homes worth over 5 million and 10 million. Camerons account refers to 2.5 million and 5 million  presumably a consequence of the Liberal Democrats pushing for a threshold nearer that of own their original Mansion Tax plan.)

At any rate, Boris Johnson and Sajid Javid united in eventually backing off a Mansion Tax next month  or so it is claimed today  and new council tax bands too. But that last if not the first will be back on the table sooner or later: The institutional Treasury believes that the best way to tax property is to bring in new council tax bands. All the mergers in the world between its top team and Number Tens wont prevent the idea being pushed again and again.

This raises three main questions. One is about the proposal itself. The second is a broader one about what Conservatives should tax. The third is an even bigger one  about how much they should tax.

First, the plan. It is very hard to see how it could be implemented without a revaluation. These are perilous. They lead inevitably to changes in the value of one property being compared to that of another. The media projects hard cases and strange anomalies. Voters seethe. It is sometimes forgotten that one of the reasons for the poll tax was the row over a revaluation in Scotland.

The second consideration leans in other direction. What should Tories tax? this site asked in a 2018 series  for, after all, they must tax something, at least in a modern country in which the state provides public services. And the classic doctrine is that it is better to tax property than income, if one has to tax either at all. Cameron has a point when he suggests that it is inequitable to treat houses worth 500,000 and 5 million at the same rate.

The third raises profound questions about Conservative policy in general and this Government in particular. Lets imagine for the sake of the argument that new bands are eventually introduced. Should they be a part of a tax hike? Or should such a rise in a property tax be balanced out by a cut in income tax? Or even exceeded by it? What should a Tory Government be trying to do?

Our answer is uncompromising. Government cannot tax its way to prosperity, nor the Conservatives their way to success. Taxes are too high.- at their highest level since the 1940s, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

So tax rises should be outpaced by tax cuts  at all levels. But these must broadly march in step with spending cuts; thats to say, with reductions in the rate of growth of public spending. And it is here that Johnson and Javid clearly ran into difficulties, which were a contributor to the latters resignation last week. In a nutshell, the Prime Ministers instinct is to spend more, and his then Chancellors was to spend less (comparatively speaking).

Johnson wants more nurses, police, surgery appointments and millions more invested every week in science, schools, apprenticeships and infrastructure, to pick out items and words from the Conservative Manifesto. So does Javid. But he would stress the three words in the manifesto immediately after those just quoted: while controlling debt. The former Chancellor won the internal debate within the Tory top team pre-election over whether or not to use those words to frame an electoral and political choice.

The fruit of this was the manifestos two fiscal rules: public sector net investment will not average more than 3 per cent of GDP, and that if debt interest reaches 6 per cent of revenue, we will reassess our plans to keep debt under control.

The Sunday Times claims today that last week the Prime Minister explicitly asked his Chancellor to look at how he might tear up the restraints on spending  in other words, junk the fiscal rules. Some in Downing Streets political circle certainly want to do so.

This takes us to the heart of the issue, which is of more import even than the resignation of a Chancellor. What is this Conservative Government for? Is its purpose to tax better-off voters in its south-eastern base in order to fund less well-off ones in its new northerly seats? Should Surrey South-West fund North West Durham? And Tory Blue Heartlands stump up for the Red Wall  in some parodistic version of what the Cummings Circle wants?

Or should governments instinct to tax be curbed by the only ultimate realistic means: spending control  which is also the only practicable means of delivering tax cuts? But if it is to provide this, what will become of Johnsons urge for bread and circuses  or rather, thinking of his urge to build one between Scotland and Northern Ireland, bridges and circuses?

One conclusion is inescapable. If there are to be significant tax cuts, together with the spending discipline that would underpin them, those Blue Heartlands will have to take a hit. The readers of the Daily Telegraph may not howl because theyve been stung by a Mansion Tax, but rather because theyve been hit by social reform. Because sustainable spending discipline means curbs on the third of it that goes on health and pensions.

Whatever your take on fiscal rules, either in principle or in practice, Javid was right to stand up for spending discipline. The question is whether a Number 11 than dovetails better with Number 10 can now deliver it. Rishi Sunaks energies will be bent on his Budget, which is due in less than a month.

Its a challenge set within a wider one  namely, to level up Britain rather than level it down. To bring better infrastructure, joined-up transport, more skills and higher wages to the recession-prone country outside the greater south-east. But without provoking the terror and slaughter of the Gods of the Copybook Headings.
BAGHDAD - At least four rockets hit near the sprawling U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and a Iraqi base hosting American troops inside the Green Zone early Sunday, but caused no casualties and only minor damage, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

The attack came just before 3:30 a.m. local time, according to Col. Myles B. Caggins III, a spokesman for the U.S. military operation in Iraq. He only said the rockets hit the base hosting U.S. and other coalition forces.

However, three Iraqi security officials said two of the rockets fell inside the U.S. Embassy compound, while another hit near the coalition base. The Iraqi officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The attack was the latest in a recent series of rocket and mortar strikes on Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops. On Thursday, a mortar shell exploded in the K1 Iraqi military airbase in Kirkuk province in northern Iraq. No casualties were reported, Iraqi security officials said.

An Iranian missile attack on Iraqs Ain al-Asad air base on Jan. 8 injured dozens of U.S service members. It was in retaliation for the U.S. drone strike in Baghdad that killed Irans most powerful general, Qassem Soleimani, on Jan. 3.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has also been a flashpoint amid wider U.S.-Iran tensions in the region, which have played out inside Iraq in recent weeks. Iraqi supporters of an Iran-backed militia stormed the embassy compound Dec. 31, smashing the main door and setting fire to the reception area.
KYODO NEWS - Feb 16, 2020 - 19:27 | All, Japan

The approval rate for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet stands at 41.0 percent, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday, down 8.3 points from the previous poll in January and marking the sharpest fall in nearly two years amid yet another cronyism scandal.

In the nationwide opinion poll, conducted Saturday and Sunday, 82.5 percent said they were either "worried" or "worried to a certain extent" about the negative impact of the new coronavirus outbreak on the Japanese economy.

While 63.5 percent welcomed the government's decision to prohibit some foreigners from entering Japan to prevent the spread of the virus that originated in China, 30.4 percent said it was insufficient.

The survey also showed that 71.4 percent expect an unfavorable impact on Japan if Donald Trump is re-elected in the U.S. presidential election in November, while 16.7 percent anticipate a favorable impact.

The disapproval rate stood at 46.1 percent, up 9.4 points, following criticism of the government's handling of documents related to publicly funded annual cherry blossom viewing parties at the center of another allegation of cronyism.

At issue is the opaque selection process for guests, with the government compiling the list of invitees based on recommendations from Cabinet members, including the prime minister, and ruling party lawmakers.

In the telephone survey, 84.5 percent said Abe had failed to provide an adequate explanation regarding the matter.

With the arrest last year of former ruling party lawmaker Tsukasa Akimoto for allegedly receiving bribes from a Chinese company in connection with a casino project, 77.5 percent said the government should review its plan to open "integrated resorts" including casinos, hotels and conference facilities.

Japan last year legalized casinos as part of integrated resorts, with the government planning to choose up to three locations for the complexes that are expected to start operating in the mid-2020s.

When asked about the most appropriate time to dissolve the lower house for a general election, 46.4 percent replied "after the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics," followed by "in the next year or later" at 31.1 percent. The four-year term of House of Representatives members will end in October 2021 unless Abe dissolves the chamber.

On who should succeed Abe as next prime minister, 22.6 percent said Shigeru Ishiba, a former secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and 12.0 percent endorsed Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, while 13.4 percent hoped Abe would remain in office.

Regarding Abe's push to amend the country's pacifist Constitution, 56.5 percent expressed opposition while 33.3 percent were supportive.

The survey, covering 742 randomly selected households with eligible voters and 1,296 mobile phone numbers, obtained responses from 513 and 516 people, respectively.
Berkeley remains a city where the Campanile marks the skyline, Fourth Street feels like a genteel mall, and foodies line up to buy organic produce at Monterey Market. But these days, theres another feature on the landscape: new buildings.

After decades where no more than one or two multifamily structures might rise each year, a housing boomlet has made construction crews and wooden framing common sights. Roughly 900 apartments have been completed in the past two years, and 1,000 or so are under construction.

To be sure, Berkeley remains a fiercely liberal city where many community activists view developers with suspicion or outright contempt. But it also has emerged as a surprising example of how older Bay Area communities are trying to respond to the regions housing crisis  though not without resistance.

Some pressure for change comes from residents frustrated by a political culture that long has put more value on the complaints of individual homeowners than the larger benefits that new housing can bring. Nor has the arrival of bigger buildings along major streets brought the uproar that opponents predicted.

Whatever the factors, the evolving dynamics are on view at the City Council level  where a progressive majority that was expected to curtail new market-rate construction instead is urging it on. This includes Mayor Jesse Arreguin, who entered public life as a pro-tenant member of the rent stabilization board.

My position is that we dont have enough market-rate housing, and we dont have enough affordable housing, said Arreguin, Berkeleys mayor since 2017. Sometimes this means thinking differently about things that once might have been controversial.

That was the case in December, when the City Council voted unanimously to pursue negotiations with BART to fill the parking lots around the Ashby and North Berkeley stations with multistory housing. The vote calls for at least 35% of the units to be reserved for low-income residents.

More recently, the citys planning commission said this month that it will conduct environmental studies to allow upward of 1,300 apartments on the blocks south of the UC Berkeley campus. Those would be in addition to four residential structures already under construction.

Arreguin and other council members even support the universitys effort to redevelop Peoples Park, a scraggly green on Cal land created during the student protests of 1969, with dorms and supportive housing for formerly homeless people.

Allowing much taller structures around the campus makes sense, said Arreguin, who graduated from Cal in 2007. We need to do what we can to make it possible for more student housing  buildings that would help relieve pressure on our housing that already exists.

Another potential source of relief can be seen in the construction sites that dot the city of 122,000, best known to outsiders for the university and its long history of political activism.

The most concentrated changes are in Berkeleys downtown core.

A half-dozen housing projects that would hold 370 apartments are now under construction, with another half-dozen approved. Five others have been completed since the 2012 approval of a downtown plan that raised heights throughout the district. Theres also the new home of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive on Center Street, while a 16-story hotel tower is rising next door.

Put all this together, and were seeing a positive transformation downtown, Arreguin said.

Arreguin struck a much different note in 2014, when he co-wrote a ballot initiative that essentially would have undermined the then-new downtown plan. It proposed lower heights on several blocks, while raising fees and affordability requirements and setting tougher environmental standards.

The measure lost by a hefty margin. But when the approval of an 18-story residential tower at 2190 Shattuck Ave. was appealed last year to the City Council  opponents were upset that the tower would crowd views of the bay from the foot of the Campanile  the mayor was part of the 6-0 majority vote to let the tower proceed.

From Arreguins perspective, the dearth of housing has altered the context of decision-making. Not only will the contested tower hold 274 apartments, the developers are obligated to pay $10.1 million to the citys affordable housing fund.

At one point, I was critical of the (downtown) plan, Arreguin conceded, but as mayor, my responsibility is to think about the needs of the entire city. A small intrusion into a view corridor was a compromise we needed to make.

Arreguins co-author of the 2014 initiative, Sophie Hahn, is now vice mayor. Unlike her progressive ally, Hahn abstained from the 6-0 vote in favor of what would be Berkeleys tallest residential building.

Iconic views are a public asset, one of the things that make this an exhilarating region, Hahn said. As for the housing funds generated if 2190 Shattuck gets built, I dont think that approving any old project because it will pay a fee is a good idea.

Hahn, who represents northeast Berkeley, questions how the current debate is framed.

Im not that interested in housing, Im interested in homes, said Hahn, who considers the word housing to be cold and transactional. What needs to be emphasized instead, she argued, is the creation of, and protection of, places where lower-income people live.

Hahn and Arreguin led the successful 2018 campaign for a ballot measure that will allow the city to sell $135 million in bonds to help fund low-income housing. The first allocation of $14 million will go toward 152 low-income rental units as well as 44 shelter beds. Construction should begin this spring.

What makes Berkeley Berkeley is the people, Hahn said. When we lose our diversity, our artists and our scrappy activists, we cant get that back.

But that diversity already is under siege  the median sales price for houses and condominiums was $1.21 million as of December, according to Zillow. The Jones, a five-story apartment complex on San Pablo Avenue near fabled Acme Bakery, will open with monthly rents for studios beginning at $3,000.

Hahn, like other Bay Area housing activists, says the solution lies in the nature of homeownership itself.

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.

Im in favor of social housing, the Vienna or Copenhagen model, Hahn said, referring to shared land trusts and other communal ownership models. Im a person who believes we can really transform how housing is done in America, and that can begin in Berkeley.

Other council members take a more pragmatic view.

People get lost in these conversations about how we need to transform Berkeley into a social housing model, said Lori Droste, who joined the council in 2015 and represents southeast Berkeley. If we could, great. But what we need is to build lots of housing, all kinds.

Droste also is critical of the citys drawn-out review process. The tower at 2190 Shattuck, which fit the parameters of the approved downtown plan, took 10 hearings and nearly three years to get approved. Other controversial projects have been delayed by lawsuits that can tie things up for another year or more.

I dont want to question some peoples good intentions when they oppose new housing, Droste said. But when its the same group of people again and again, you wonder.

The pace of development reviews will change going forward. The cause: SB330, a statewide housing bill passed with relatively little fanfare last fall.

No more than five public hearings are allowed for any project, including appeals. Neighborhoods cannot be down-zoned. Permit charges or impact fees cannot be added to a project as it moves forward.

Its going to be an adjustment, Arreguin admitted. But he supports the new legislation, which was written by state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley. The one thing I have heard from developers is time is money. We need to reduce the time it takes to get a permit.

Theres another factor at work, one that plays out in Bay Area cities beyond Berkeley: a generational tension between older homeowners who dont want their surroundings to change and younger people frustrated by a lack of even semi-affordable housing options in large parts of the region.

Theres no simple correlation between age and being for or against multiunit buildings. But it has been a factor in recent Berkeley housing debates, including the push for dense housing at the North Berkeley BART Station. That station is surrounded by one- and two-family homes, yet neighbors raising the specter of intense growth were outnumbered by pro-housing neighbors as well as proponents of transit-oriented development.

More and more, Were hearing from a lot of younger people who are turning their frustration into local activism, said Councilwoman Rashi Kesarwani, who represents the neighborhood around the North Berkeley BART station and was elected in 2017. Theyre bringing a different viewpoint  that Berkeley needs to embrace change and grow in an environmentally sustainable way.

Kesarwani sees the challenge facing Berkeley and other progressive cities as making sure new development is aligned with a communitys social and cultural values, but also accepting they cant pretend that the regions housing crisis doesnt matter.

We cant let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Our ultimate goal is to keep building the housing we need, she said. One midsized city cannot solve what essentially is a statewide problem. But we can do our part.

John King is The San Francisco Chronicles urban design critic. Email: jking@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @johnkingsfchron
A popular Russian DJ who drowned while swimming at Bondi beach on Saturday has been remembered as the 'kindest human being in the world'.

Andrei Ivanov, 47, and his wife Yulia, 45, were standing on the rocks at the north end of the beach when a rogue wave washed them into the ocean.

She managed to swim back to safety, however her husband disappeared below the surface of the water.

After searching the large swell for 30 minutes lifesavers eventually pulled Mr Ivanov to land and performed CPR, but could not revive him.

As news of his death filtered back to his homeland, his friends flooded Facebook to pay tribute to the talented DJ.

Scroll down for video

Popular Russian DJ Andrei Ivanov (pictured) who drowned while swimming at Bondi beach on Saturday has been remembered as the 'kindest human being in the world'

Lifesavers and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter began searching for the man at 5.30pm, before pulling him unconscious from the water at 6pm. NSW Police confirmed the 47-year-old was a Russian tourist

Mr Ivanov's friend Alexandra Kallas told Daily Mail Australia she 'wanted the world to know who he was'.

'He was the nicest, the kindest human being in the whole world,' Mrs Kallas said.

'He met his wife Yulia back then, and they were an amazing, loving, fun couple that everybody loved.

'He was one of the legends of the Russian nightclub scene and an incredible human being. We all will miss him forever.'

Mr Ivanov became popular throughout Russia in the early 1990s where he regularly appeared on radio station Maximum.

Under the name Triplex he regularly produced hit albums and held residencies at a number of top nightclubs.

Leading dance DJ Pavel Loginov posted: 'The big news today just killed me... we will remember you... Andrei Ivanov'.

Shocked swimmers who witnessed the horror drowning told how Mrs Ivanov was at the water's edge screaming in despair after her husband disappeared.

Leading dance producer Pavel Loginov posted on Facebook: 'The news today just killed me...'

Prominent trance DJ Vladimir Fonarev paid tribute on Instagram, posting: 'We will remember you... Andrey Ivanov (Triplex)'

Mr Ivanov's wife Yulia, 45, was also washed into the ocean by the rogue wave but managed to make it back to safety. She suffered cuts and two broken toes in the process and was taken to hospital, but has since been released

'The lady was covered in blood and screaming for her partner as he was drowning,' a female swimmer said.

'We watched as they plucked him out later and it was obvious he had passed (and) all I could think is the horror she would be going through.'

A Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter was deployed about 5.30pm Saturday to aid in the search for Mr Ivanov.

About 6pm lifeguards in on jet skis and in dinghys pulled his body from the water.

Mrs Ivanov suffered cuts and two broken toes in her desperate efforts to escape the large swell and was rushed to St Vincents hospital, but has since been released.

Shocked swimmers who witnessed the horror drowning told how Mrs Ivanov (pictured) was at the water's edge 'screaming' in despair after her husband disappeared

NSW Ambulance duty operations manager Sally Groves said it was an 'absolutely horrendous outcome'

NSW Ambulance duty operations manager Sally Groves said it was an 'absolutely horrendous outcome'.

'Paramedics worked closely with other emergency services and did everything possible to try and save his life, but sadly he was unable to be saved,' Ms Groves said.

'No matter what you are doing near the water, please be vigilant - it is not worth risking your life.'

Despite the mostly sunny day, beaches across Sydney have continued to be plagued by large swells, a week after severe storms smashed the city.

Lifesavers at Bondi Beach searched for the man alongside bystanders and rescue helicopters

Beachgoers on jet skis and lifesavers also joined the search in finding the missing swimmers

Coogee beach, a few kilometres south of Bondi, was closed on Saturday because of the dangerous conditions.

Dangerous surf warnings were in place on Saturday along much of Australia's east coast as ex-tropical cyclone Uesi continued to move south.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a hazardous surf warning for coastal activities in the Hunter region, Sydney, the Illawarra, Batemans region and Eden Coast.
There is a barrage of criticism flooding newspapers about President Trumps executive order on federal architecture, mostly from architectural critics and people in the architectural profession. Remember, as you read this criticism, that the client in federal architecture is we the people, not architectural critics or the architectural profession. This is an important distinction. Architects love the idea that they could somehow be the acting body of the people. After all, they are the experts right? And there it begins. Architects today, unlike at other points in history, are trained to espouse a quality of self-expression and originality in their work. They rejoice in the opportunity to decree in our federal architecture their own expression of what our country is and what it could be. This freedom of expression is something the critic will say is greatly at stake right now. But what about the rest of us? Do we have a say? We didnt elect these people. Is there a collective sense that we like what theyve designed?

These are important questions. For one of the essential complications in the shift to modern architecture was a shift in the idea of beauty, something once considered to have a universal sense. Once art became abstracted, architecture followed suit, and ideas of beauty were left much more so to the eye of the beholder. This isnt necessarily a bad thing  but my, what an opening! Now anything can be beautiful to some, including things thought ugly by others. So who is to judge? Furthermore, why even bother with focusing on beauty at all when you can focus on more measurable things, like function and economy? Let freedom of expression ring! The gateway to no aesthetic standards is opened.

In the meantime, a masterpiece may be made  something unimaginable without this total freedom and disregard for aesthetic standards. With that comes a price: There will be hundreds of terrible buildings for that one inexplicable masterpiece. A masterpiece that has no legacy to give the next generation, because it is so original that it cant be replicated. Thus, it becomes an expression of its time, in that it is the expression of the individual architect who designed it.

Story continues

This shift in ideas of beauty is not only a shift in aesthetic, but also in power, from client to architect.

This is a very different approach from the one classical architecture takes. The classical is a language with a grammar. Once mastered, this language has gloriously inventive ends. Its sense of beauty is based on a proportional system related to the scale of the human body. It has three core principles: that buildings endure, be functional, and be beautiful. It is important to understand how architecture progressed away from this understanding. Robert Venturi recognized the merits of classical architecture in his book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966), which Vincent Scully, in his introduction to the original edition, called probably the most important writing on the making of architecture since Le Corbusiers Vers une Architecture, of 1923. Venturi argued that the early modernists created beautiful buildings in their purity, but didnt provide a language of architecture that was fit to handle the complexities of real life. He quotes Paul Rudolph, former dean at the Yale School of Architecture (from 19581965):

Indeed, it is characteristic of the 20th century that architects are highly selective in determining which problems they want to solve. Mies, for instance, makes wonderful buildings only because he ignores many aspects of a building. If he solved more problems, his buildings would be far less potent.

Venturi uses classical architecture as a point of confidence, and as a language that not only can handle these complexities, but that also provides the method in which to simplify them  without being simplistic. He regarded the classical as the inclusive language, and the modernist the exclusive. In the face of Mies famous less is more, Venturi argues that More is not less, and in fact, less is bore. It was a book that created yet another revolution in architectural trends: the postmodern. Here, architects didnt necessarily return to classicism, but they searched for a new way, now recognizing the limitations of early modernism. As they argued about this new way, they banded together in groups with revolutionary names like the Chicago Seven; earlier on, there were the Texas Rangers. In New York, there were the Whites and the Greys. They all vouched for their own positions, hoping to make the next mark of brilliance. Some strands looked to deconstructivism, some to a version of poking fun at the classical with cartoon-like forms  recognizing classicism but not fully its friend; and some looked to a collage-like method mixing Renaissance and Corbusian elements. But as Tom Beeby once said, even within his own group, the Chicago Seven, We didnt agree on anything.

Even Joseph Hudnut, who 40 years earlier, in 1936, founded Harvards Graduate School of Design, was uncomfortable with the outcome of his decision to bring Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius to Harvard to direct the architectural department. Once allied with Gropius as a common enemy of the old-guard classical academy, he didnt realize until much later how different their personal views were. Hudnut feared what Modernism would do to the fabric of the American city; he also feared that modern architecture was losing human values. He was the first to pen the term post-modern, in an essay he wrote (in 1949) warning against the tendency to mistake novelty for progress.

The biggest problem with Hudnut, who was a humanist at heart, is that while he was this leader in trying to figure out a new way for American architecture  something he thought was more progressive than classical architecture  he belonged to a generation of thinkers that were unfortunately trying to seek truth in systems without any real tangible goals. The excitement was more about the experience than the end product. As Jill Pearlman writes, he rarely suggested and never demonstrated any way to translate his ideas into actual buildings or new modern plans. His students claimed that he never made his philosophy clear, whereas his emigre European contemporaries could and did. The very European modernists he procured teaching positions for in the States left him in the dust. They had vision, and goals, and methods of achieving them. This generation of modernists was first trained classically, and in this they had an innate sense for design that subsequent generations lacked. In this, they were similar to Picasso, whose abstract art was so compelling because he first drew so well classically.

However, this group espoused ideals of international socialism, handed down from English romanticism, now stoked by the age of the machine and mass-production. They had a fire in their bellies lit by the tragedies and horrors of the First World War, and then the Second. A sameness ensued, clothed in the word equality. History was jettisoned. They called this the architecture of our time. It was modern architecture, not because it utilized modern technology, which it did, but because it represented an entirely new way of looking at the world. It was a new world, discontinuous with the old. These ideas proliferated in our universities, locked in for decades with tenure. With this as a new foundation, American architecture spun in a direction from which it has never recovered.

Vincent Scully (19202017) grew up during this time. He was a legendary art history professor at Yale, where he taught six decades of students. Scully made architectural history come alive in the most tangible of ways. If you havent had the pleasure of hearing him speak, many of his lectures are available on YouTube. He once spoke to an auditorium of his Yale students:

Everybody in my generation, was brought up to despise [classical] architecture. It is really hard to imagine, but its really true. Theyd say  oh, what a shame, that doesnt express us, it doesnt express our time. [Laughs]  our time! All of a sudden, we began to realize what our time was, and what classical architecture was.

He goes on to describe what classical architecture was for him: What it was for me, when this architecture first reduced me to tears, was in John Kennedys funeral. He points to a slide showing an axonometric aerial view of the Lincoln Memorial, with the road circling the monument, and describes the casket coming round:

It came around like this, and it went around like this  and when it got about here [diagonal to Lincoln]  you suddenly realized what was there. Inside, was the other martyred president, sitting in the shadows  and this great figure, by Daniel Chester French; looking out, the way weve come. And suddenly, you understood it all. Classical architecture has the dimension of history.

He adds about the more modern Vietnam Memorial: And Maya Lins [design] . . . is so wonderful, because it calls to both [Lincoln and Washington], but it stays out of the way. What Scully was indicating here is that, at the end of the day, classical architecture is a responsible art. At the moments when it matters most, thats what we need.

Classicism is not a style. No architecture really is. People use the word style for lack of a better word. Architecture is really the manifestation of values. Classicism is the language of humanism, and a universal sense of beauty that is based on that humanism. Humanism is what America is. It is the legacy of Democratic Greece, Republican Rome, the rebirth of their ideals in the Renaissance that led to the Enlightenment  and, for us, the Scottish Enlightenment. This was the line of thought that birthed our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution, and the very ideas of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Just after our nations Founding, there was also debate on Federal architecture and what it should be. Jefferson was set to the task. He writes to William Buchanan and James Hay from Paris in 1786:

Gentleman, I had the honor of writing to you, on the receipt of your orders to procure draughts for the public buildings. . . . In the execution of these orders, two methods of proceeding presented themselves to my mind. The one was, to leave to some architect to draw an external according to his fancy, in which way, experience shews, that, once in a thousand times, a pleasing form is hit upon; the other was, to take some model already devised, and approved by the general suffrage of the world. I had no hesitation in deciding that the latter was best, nor after the decision was there any doubt what model to take. There is at Nismes, in the south of France, a building called Maison quarree, erected in the time of the Caesars, and which is allowed, without contradiction, to be the most perfect and precious remain of antiquity in existence. Its superiority over any thing at Rome, in Greece, at Balbec or Palmyra, is allowed on all hands. . . . I determined, therefore, to adopt this model. . . . We know that the Maison querree has pleased, universally, for near two thousand years.

Jefferson chose the Maison Carree (42 B.C.) as the model for the first Virginia statehouse, not only for its history, but because it had proven to endure over time and was considered to be universally beautiful, as he wanted the new republic to endure.

If youre wondering why so many federal buildings today are in large part unattractive, its because of the current guiding principles for federal architecture. The current principles were written in the 1960s, a time when we produced the worst architecture in our history. And while they call for buildings to convey dignity, enterprise, vigor, and stability, they have not provided an effective enough standard through which to achieve or measure this. Furthermore, the guidelines discourage the use of the language of architecture that surveys say most Americans like best.

Trumps executive order for federal architecture is an attempt to rectify these issues, and to provide a method for achieving more beautiful federal buildings; in this, it attempts to create a standard. It uses and prefers classical and traditional architecture as models that have stood the test of time. While it doesnt allow for brutalist and deconstructivist architecture, it does not exclude the experimentation of new, alternative styles. In the case of these other styles, it states: care must be taken to fully ensure that such alternative designs command respect by the public for their beauty and visual embodiment of Americas ideals. It puts the flow of design back in the hands of the people, by opening review of design competitions to a public not associated with the design industry. It establishes a re-beautification committee of qualified and appointed people tasked with recommending revisions to the current principles and General Services Administration policy. Even here, it opens these recommendations to the public for comment.

Classical architecture is a point of confidence that stands on its three principles: that buildings endure, be functional, and be beautiful. The last of these three things is the great unifier. Beauty calls us to something higher than ourselves. To create beautiful federal buildings that represent and inspire us should be an architectural challenge of our day.

More from National Review
Baghdad (AFP) - Multiple rockets hit an Iraqi base hosting American troops near the US embassy early Sunday, the latest in a flurry of attacks against US assets in the country.

"The Coalition confirms small rockets impacted the Iraqi base hosting (coalition) troops in the International Zone... No casualties," said coalition spokesman Myles Caggins.

That base, known as Union III, is the headquarters for the US-led coalition, deployed in Iraq since 2014 to help local troops fight the Islamic State jihadist group.

Iraq's military said three Katyusha rockets hit inside the Green Zone, the high-security enclave where the US mission and Union III are located, as well as Iraqi government buildings, United Nations offices and other embassies.

A fourth rocket hit a logistics base in a different neighbourhood operated by the Hashed al-Shaabi, a military network officially incorporated into the Iraqi state, the Iraqi military said.

There was no immediate statement from the Hashed.

Strikes on assets of both the US and Hashed at the same time are unusual, as Washington has blamed hardline elements within the military network for repeated rocket attacks on American installations across Iraq.

Sunday's was the 19th attack since October to target either the embassy or the roughly 5,200 US troops stationed alongside local forces across Iraq.

No group has claimed responsibility for any of the incidents.

In late December, a rocket attack on the northern Iraqi base of K1 left one US contractor dead and unleashed a dramatic series of events.

Washington responded with retaliatory strikes against Kataeb Hezbollah, a hardline Hashed faction in western Iraq.

Days later, an American drone strike in Baghdad killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and his right-hand man, Hashed deputy chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

Hashed factions have vowed revenge for the pair's death but said they would prioritise a political objective first: the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

Story continues

But the network includes a broad range of groups and some have appeared more willing to harass US troops militarily.

Sunday's attack came just hours after one of the Hashed's Iran-backed factions, Harakat al-Nujaba, announced a "countdown" to ousting American forces from the country.

A top leader within Nujaba, Nasr al-Shammary, tweeted a photograph of what he claimed was an American military vehicle, adding: "We are closer than you think."

Sunday's assault sent warning sirens blaring across the diplomatic compound, a US military source and a Western diplomat based nearby told AFP.

AFP's correspondents heard multiple strong explosions followed by aircraft circling near the Green Zone.
Panaji: Taking a swipe at the anti-CAA protest at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan on Sunday said what is happening there is not an expression of the right to dissent, but "an attempt to impose views on others".

Some people have decided to take the law into their hands and disrupt normal life, he said on the sidelines of a conference here.

A group of protesters, mainly women, have been staging a sit-in at Shaheen Bagh against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) for the past two months.

The sit-in on the major thoroughfare connecting South Delhi with Noida has led to suspension of vehicular traffic.

"This is not the right to dissent, this is an attempt to impose views on others. You have the right to express your views but you don't have the right to disrupt normal life," the governor told reporters.

Asked about protests in various parts of the country against the CAA, he said that even in 1986 there were lakhs of people who were opposed to the Supreme Court's Shah Bano judgment being reversed.

"But was it justified on my part to say that I am going to sit in (in protest) till the law is withdrawn," said Khan, who had in 1986 walked out of the Rajiv Gandhi Cabinet over the issue.

Khan was here to speak on the topic "Free Speech, Censorship & the Media: Does Law Impede Freedom of Speech?" at the 'Difficult Dialogues' conference at the International Centre Goa.

He said one can have a dialogue with somebody who is expressing an opinion but it is difficult in this instance when protesters refuse to budge.

"When you have this attitude that only I am right then dialogue is not happening. Dialogue happens when you are open to listening. Here, it is being asserted forcefully that we will not get up unless this law is withdrawn. The government is not going to decline dialogue if somebody comes," Khan said.

Citing a survey done by a Pakistan-based NGO, he said in 2019 more than 1,000 girls were kidnapped and forced to change their religion in the neighbouring nation.

"I feel the manner in which Pakistan was created and the manner in which it is conducting its affairs has unfortunately distorted thinking of many people here in India," he said.

He said that taking into consideration India's culture and civilisation "we have to be liberal, opinionated, we have to accept and respect diversity but at the same time we cannot ignore facts".

On the Kerala government invoking Article 131 in the Supreme Court to challenge the CAA, he said the matter will be decided by the court.

"It is for the court to decide whether the government can come to it without clearance from the governor," Khan said.

The Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government in Kerala last month moved the apex court seeking to declare the CAA as illegal for violating of the Constitution's Article 131, which empowers the Supreme Court to hear disputes between the government of India and one or more states.

Under the new citizenship law, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014, and facing religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants, and be given Indian citizenship.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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Ashwini M Sripad By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: As Agriculture Minister in the BS Yediyurappa cabinet, police officer-turned-film star-turned politician BC Patil is keen to take pro-active confidence-building measures to reassure farmers that the government is with them. Preventing farmers from taking extreme measure is his biggest challenge and Team BSY is confident of supporting farmers, he said in an interview. Excerpts.

As Agriculture Minister, what are your biggest challenges?

The biggest challenge is to prevent farmers from taking extreme measures and we want to take up confidence-building measures and also create awareness about the governments initiatives. We might have given good schemes and assured them about measures like farm loan waivers, but the challenge is to stop them from taking the extreme step. We want to educate farmers, increase their confidence and make them strong.

What are your expectations from the state budget?

I just took over as minister last week. CM Yediyurappa is known for his pro-farmer approach and I am sure he will do justice. He has already held meetings with farmer associations. I dont know how much money he will allocate to the Agriculture Department. But this time, it will be a farmer-centric budget.

Last year, farmers suffered because of floods and drought. How prepared are we this year?

Last year, people in many parts of the state suffered due to floods. Yediyurappa was alone at that time, but that did not stop him from taking steps. He travelled and interacted with farmers, assuring them not to lose hope. This time, we are a team. Come what may - flood or drought -- we will stand with Yediyurappa and farmers. We hope that this year there will be good rains to help farmers.

What are your priorities as Agriculture Minister?

One of the permanent solutions is to fill ponds and lakes. A few months ago, when Yediyurappa came to my constituency Hirekerur, he announced Rs 185 crore for various works, including filling up of 90 tanks and lakes in my constituency. I hope in this budget, he will allot more money to fill water bodies that will make farmers self-sufficient. I will travel across the state and listen to farmers opinions. When I was in the police department, I came across many cases where farmers were cheated with substandard seeds. I am going to write to the DG &IGP, asking him to direct the police to support our vigilance team in cracking down on the substandard seed mafia.

Opposition leaders still term you and other newly inducted ministers as disqualified legislators?

How can anyone say this? The Supreme Court clearly said that we can become ministers if we won, and we have won with big margins. Even the Janatha Court has given its decision in our favour. In 2018, I won by 555 votes and now by more than 29,000 votes. This means, people in large numbers have supported my decision.
The death toll from Chinas coronavirus epidemic jumped past 1,600 on Sunday after 139 more people died in hard-hit Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak.

In its daily update, the provinces health commission also reported 1,843 fresh cases -- the third day that reported new infections declined in the province.

At least 1,662 people have now died from the outbreak that first emerged in Hubeis capital, Wuhan, in December and spiralled into a nationwide epidemic.

More than 68,000 people have now been infected, with most deaths occurring in Hubei.

The province added more than 14,000 cases in a single day this week after officials there changed their criteria for counting cases to include people clinically diagnosed through lung imaging, in addition to those with a positive lab test result.

The revision added nearly 15,000 patients to Hubeis tally on Thursday, with the World Health Organization noting that cases going back weeks were retroactively counted.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the body has asked China for details on how diagnoses were being made.

France reported the first fatality from the new coronavirus outside Asia on Saturday, fuelling global concerns about the epidemic.

Chinas central bank said Saturday that to control the outbreak spreading, used banknotes were being disinfected and stored for up to 14 days before they are put back into circulation.
Editors Note: The Reporter-Telegram is running this story with permission of the Texas Scorecard.

At several recent candidate forums for the 10 candidates vying for the Republican nomination in the Congressional District 11 race, several candidates have gone on the attack with varying allegations. The accusers have repeatedly alleged (without naming names) that two other candidates in the race have received support from major Democrat backers such a billionaire and current Democrat Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, February 16, 2020 10:17 695 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2064ce115 1 Food Ubud-Food-Festival,food,Ubud Free

The annual Ubud Food Festival (UFF) is set to return for its sixth year on April 17 to 19.

Featuring cooking demos, food tours, master classes and more, the "Heroes"-themed festival is said to take place in more than 30 venues across Ubud, Bali.

Read also: Ubud may be named global 'gastronomy destination'

One of the most significant aspects about the food on our table is the people behind it. When were eating, we tend to forget that theres a story behind every food item, every meal, every cuisine, said UFF founder and director Janet DeNeefe in a statement. We want to highlight the people behind the process and the significant role they play in creating the exemplary flavors that we have today.

Among the highlighted lineup who will represent the theme are Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards 2020's Chef of the Year, Paul Carmichael; 2019 James Beard Foundation Book Award winner Matt Abergel; Chris Salans; Khanh Nguyen; Germanys youngest female Michelin-starred chef Julia Komp; Bangka-born Eddrian Tjhia; MasterChef Indonesia judge Renatta Moeloek; and Wayan Sukarta.

Tickets for the programs are on sale online (http://www.ubudfoodfestival.com/). (kes)
A total of 138 Indians, including 132 crew and 6 passengers, were among the 3,711 people on board the ship, Diamond Princess, that arrived at the Japanese coast earlier this month.

Tokyo: Two more Indians on board a quarantined cruise ship off Japan have tested positive for the novel coronavirus even as India assured that it will provide all possible assistance to its nationals on the ship to return home after they test negative in the final coronavirus tests that would begin on Monday, the Indian Embassy said on Sunday.

A total of 138 Indians, including 132 crew and 6 passengers, were among the 3,711 people on board the ship, Diamond Princess, that arrived at the Japanese coast earlier this month.

The total number of people infected with COVID-19 on the ship rose to 355 on Sunday.

"Over the last 2 days, 137 new cases on #DiamondPrincess tested positive for #COVID-19, including two Indian nationals, taken to onshore medical facilities for treatment. Three other Indian crew members, receiving treatment are responding well, with no fever or pain," the Indian Embassy tweeted.

Earlier, three Indian crew members tested positive for the virus and are receiving treatment.

The Indian Embassy in a tweet said that the final tests for the COVID-19 on the ship would begin on February 17 and continue over multiple days.

"Hoping our Indian nationals - braving the situation, to test negative, allowing them to travel back HOME. @IndianEmbTokyo stands ready for all possible assistance," the mission said.

On Saturday, it said that the condition of the three Indians infected with the virus was improving.

The embassy said it was making efforts for early de-boarding of all the Indians from the ship after the end of the quarantine period and was in discussions with the Japanese government and the ship management company for the disembarkation modalities and welfare of Indians.

The ship was quarantined after a passenger who de-boarded last month in Hong Kong was found to be the carrier of the COVID-19 on the ship.

The embassy has also sent an email to all the Indian nationals on board the ship, assuring them of all help and assistance.

They are also requested to follow the Japanese government's health and quarantine protocols, the embassy said on its Facebook page.

The Japanese government on Thursday announced that passengers aged 80 or older will be given the option to disembark the ship if they test negative for COVID-19. Those who meet the age requirement and have pre-existing conditions or are staying in rooms without balcony will be prioritised for disembarkation.

No Indian national falls under this category, eligible for early disembarkation, the statement said on Friday.

The death toll from China's coronavirus epidemic climbed to 1,665 after 142 more people died, mostly in the worst-hit Hubei Province, and the confirmed cases jumped to 68,500, officials said on Sunday.

The coronavirus outbreak originated in central China's Hubei province in December last year and has spread to several countries, including India.

Many countries have banned arrivals from China while major airlines have suspended flights to the country.
Fr. Nicholas Oboh

The Catholic Church has released the photograph of Fr. Nicholas Oboh, the Catholic priest kidnapped on Friday in Edo State.

Oboh works at the Diocese of Uromi.

He was abducted by gunmen at a place close to Benin while on his way to an important function.

We are sure that he is alive, and since the incident, steps have been taken to ensure that Rev. Fr. Nicholas Oboh is released without any harm, the chancellor of the Uromi diocese, Fr. Osi Odenore, said.

Four children were also kidnapped at the same time.

Fr. Odenore has said that the diocese is now working to secure Obohs release. The chancellor also urged prayer for the priests release.

The kidnapping is the latest in a series of abductions and killings in Nigeria which have involved Catholics and other Christians; clergy, seminarians, and lay people.

In Kaduna, four seminarians were kidnapped last month. Three of them were eventually set free, while one 18 year-old Michael Nnadi was killed. In Adamawa state, Rev. Lawan Andimi was also kidnapped when Boko Haram attacked Michika. He was later gruesomely beheaded by the brutish terrorists.
As workers continue $50 million in renovations at MassMutuals headquarters on State Street in Springfield, its former Enfield campus remains on the market.

And while he didnt go into details, Roger W. Crandall  MassMutuals chairman, president and CEO  seemed to indicate in recent interviews that there hasnt been too much interest in the 66-acre property. With enough space to accommodate 2,200 employees, its been for sale since 2018.

There isnt much interest in office parks in states that are not seeing job growth, Crandall said in a recent visit with reporters and editors from The Republican and MassLive. Thats just the reality.

And its a warning, Crandall said, against Massachusetts returning to the old days of Taxachusetts or failing to address pressing needs for improved transportation and better access to housing.

In 2018, the state of Massachusetts offered $46 million in tax incentives to encourage MassMutual to consolidate its operations in Springfield and Boston.

There are 1,500 workers in Enfield now. But MassMutuals plan is to move them little by little, mostly to Springfield, as part of a companywide restructuring that will see the Springfield headcount rise from 3,500 to 4,500 at the end of 2021 or early 2022.

Crandall said he expects the transition of employees from Enfield to Springfield to go well. Its only nine miles from the Enfield campus at 100 Bright Meadow Boulevard, just south of the state line and overlooking Interstate 91, to State Street. And when the company did a zip-code study of its employees, it found about half the Enfield employees live in Massachusetts.

MassMutual hopes to move its high-tech operations to Boston in order to take and advantage of and to attract talent. About 500 people work in its Boston office now, with the headcount expected to reach 700 by the end of the year and, eventually, 1,000.

Assessed at $48.4 million, MassMutuals Bright Meadow Campus is Enfieldss highest-valued property and biggest taxpayer, bringing the town about $1.6 million in annual revenue.

The property is listed by CBRE New England. MassMutual has said it will only disclose the asking price to a serious potential buyer.

According to marketing materials, the campus has three buildings, and the infrastructure would support a fourth. A 5,000-square-foot data center could be expanded to 20,000 square feet to accommodate high-tech uses, a sales brochure says. Special features include a helipad and childcare center.

In 2014, MassMutual unveiled more than $38 million in renovations at the Enfield campus. At the time, it was the primary location for the companys retirement services and workplace insurance businesses. MassMutual took over the complex from The Phoenix Companies Inc. in 2004.

Gary Cote, a member of the board of the North Central Connecticut Chamber of Commerce, said MassMutual will maintain its presence with the chamber.

And he sees hope for the property. He cites the former Hallmark complex on Bacon Road in Enfield, which closed in 2015 at a cost of 570 jobs. The property is now owned by Massachusetts-based Winstanley Enterprises, which has divided it up among several employers.
In the February issue of the New Criterion John Steele Gordon revisits the Flashman novels of George MacDonald Fraser. Gordons essay is No flash in the pan. For reasons that are apparent from the outset of the essay, Gordon is a fan. The essay is an excellent weekend read.

The premise of Frasers Flashman novels lies in the discovery of the papers of Harry Flashman; the novels purport to be his memoirs. Gordon explains:

Fraser took this thinly fleshed-out character [from Tom Browns School Days] and brought him to life by means of a masterly literary conceit. Had he simply written these books as third-person novels, it is unlikely they would have caught on, because Flashman was apparently devoid of the redeeming qualities that the heroes of picaresque tales always have. Consider Tom Jones, for instance, or, for that matter, Robin Hood. Instead, Fraser wrote them in the first person, explaining that they were actually the memoirs of Harry Flashman. The great mass of manuscript known as the Flashman Papers, he wrote, was discovered during a sale of household furniture at Ashy, Leicestershire, in 1965. . . . The papers, which had apparently lain untouched for fifty years, in a tea chest . . . were carefully wrapped in oilskin covers. All Fraser had to do, he explained, was edit them very lightly and supply footnotes and endnotes. As far as I know, the Flashman Papers are the only novels in the English language, perhaps besides Tolkiens, with extensive back matter, at least back matter written by the author and not an English professor determined, as they always are, to make a good book boring.

I remember reading the first Flashman novel when it came out in paperback in 1970. Frasers introduction (quoted by Gordon) tells the story of the discovery of the Flashman papers. Having just spent four years studying eighteenth-century English literature in college, I was delighted by Frasers pastiche of the true story of the Boswell papers (which itself reads like a humoristss creation). Yale University Press drily relates:

It had been known that Boswell left behind a large collection of letters and journals, but these were thought to have been destroyed. In 1807, Boswells friend and editor Edmond Malone mentioned in a footnote in the fifth edition of the Lifeone letter in particular having been burned in a mass of papers in Scotlandand nobody even attempted to recover the papers until Dr. George Birkbeck Hill, in the 1880s, went to Auchinleck to retrieve the proof-sheets of the Life of Johnson in preparation of his edition of that work. But even he reported no other papers, and when some of Boswells library was auctioned off at Sothebys in 1893, there was no mention of any correspondence or journals. In the 1920s and 1930s, the scholarly world learned that James Boswells considerable archives had survived and were, as it happened, unceremoniously packed away in the haylofts and croquet boxes of his descendants at Malahide Castle in Ireland and Fettercairn House in Scotland. The process of persuading Boswells descendants to part with the papers and then assembling them into one collection was the achievement of the intrepid American collector Ralph Heyward Isham. Colonel Ishams mission, costly and often frustrating, would take the better part of two decades to complete. In 1949 the Boswell collection was acquired by Yale University. In the next half-century, Colonel Ishams belief in the importance of Boswells papers would be justified many times over: they have become a primary source for literary scholars and historians of the eighteenth century and an object of interest to the wider reading public.

The Boswell papers proved to be a treasure trove. Not entirely unlike the Flashman papers, the Boswell papers show their author to have met approximately everyone worth knowing and to be something of a rogue. In the first published volume of his London journal, for example, Boswell laments in January 1763: The evening was passed most cheerfully. When I got home, though, then came sorrow. Too, too plain was Signor Gonorrhoea. Next day: I rose very disconsolate, having rested very ill by the poisonous infection raging in my veins and anxiety and vaccination boiling in my breast.

Boswells lament continues: Am I now to be laid up for many weeks to suffer extreme pain and full confinement, to be debarred all the comforts and pleasures of life? And then must I have my poor pockets drained by the unavoidable expense of it? And then am I prevented from making love to Lady Mirabel, or any other woman of fashion? Oh dear, oh dear! What a cursed thing this is! What a miserable creature am I!

Boswell ruminates: Thus ended my intrigue with the fair Louisa which I flattered myself so much with, and from which I expected at least a winters safe copulation. It is indeed very hard. I cannot say, like young fellows who get themselves clapped in a bawdy-house, that I will take better care again. For I really did take care. However, since I am fairly trapped, let me make the best of it. I have not got it from imprudence. It is merely the chance of war.

As the YUP entry recalls: The first volume of the trade edition, the London Journal 17621763, appeared in 1950 and, surprising both its publishers at McGraw-Hill and Heinemann and its scholarly editors, became an immediate worldwide bestseller. I wonder whether the Flashman novels might not have taken some of their inspiration from Boswell, a question beyond the scope of Gordons delightful essay.
Istanbul, Feb 16 : Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Turkey has "no intention to invade or annex the Syrian territory".

Speaking on Saturday at an event of his ruling party in Istanbul, Erdogan noted that the problem in Idlib, the last rebel-held stronghold in Syria, would not be resolved until the government forces are drawn to the limits set by the Sochi deal, Xinhua reported.

"Otherwise, we will handle it before the end of February," the Turkish president stressed.

Earlier in the day, Erdogan and US President Donald Trump exchanged views by phone on ending the crisis in Idlib as soon as possible, Turkey's Directorate of Communications announced on Twitter.

The two leaders agreed that the attacks of the Syrian government forces against the Turkish soldiers in Idlib were unacceptable.

On Monday, five Turkish soldiers were killed and five others wounded in a Syrian government forces' artillery attack in Idlib.

Earlier in February, the Syrian forces killed eight Turks, including five soldiers, in another artillery offensive in the region.
Police at the scene of a shooting incident in the Ardglen Place area of Ardoyne on February 15th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

A man has been hospitalised after being shot in the leg in north Belfast.

Police said the victim, who is in his 30s, was dragged into a house in the Ardglen Place area of Ardoyne by masked men at around 10.40pm on Saturday.

He was shot once in the thigh.

Expand Close Police at the scene of a shooting incident in the Ardglen Place area of Ardoyne on February 15th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook

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Whatsapp Police at the scene of a shooting incident in the Ardglen Place area of Ardoyne on February 15th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

The victim was taken to hospital for treatment as police sealed off the property.

A PSNI spokesperson said: "An investigation is underway and detectives would appeal to anyone with any information to contact them at Musgrave on 101, quoting reference number 1893 15/02/20."

Information can also be provided anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
16.02.2020 LISTEN

The world at large and China, in particular, is dealing with the deadly Coronavirus, which has claimed so many lives so far. The issue of whether or not Ghana is truly prepared to deal with such a deadly disease outbreak has been part of our national discourse over the weeks.

The skepticism heightened the more last week when the government decided not to evacuate to Ghana, our students studying in China. To some minds, the governments decision not to evacuate Ghanaian students from China seeks to portray the countrys unpreparedness to handle such cases should we record some.

Various health experts have assured the public to be calm but to adhere to personal hygiene practices including but not limited to frequent handwashing practices as well as not coughing or sneezing anyhow in public. Whereas health education on such preventive measures is essential, the most important thing is for the country to prepare adequately to handle the curative aspects of such an outbreak to forestall many people dying.

We heard of how some health workers of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital panicked and were running helter-skelter who the hospital recorded two suspected cases, which were later not confirmed. We cannot blame these frontline workers of the KBTH. Perhaps they were aware of how unprepared their system was for such cases. After all, natural human behavior follows the guide that in the face of adversity or danger, there is irrepressible instinct to survive and human beings are likely to strive for survival.

Despite the fact that China is wealthier and far more developed than Ghana, the commitment with which they have handled the situation so far is commendable. Sometimes, you may not have enough money but your orientation or attitude to solving a problem may be equal to or better than that of a wealthier person.

So far, we have heard from the Ghanaian authorities that Tema General Hospital, Ridge Hospital and the newly established Ga East Municipal Hospital will serve as holding and treatment bays should we record cases. It is unclear whether or not these hospitals have been supplied with adequate number of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). It appears that the Coronavirus is very expensive to treat in terms of the logistical supplies required. We must not leave things to chance. This is like death staring in our faces and we have to struggle for survival. We should not pay the usual lips service to the preparedness required.

So far, the country has only one laboratory facility, Noguchi Medical Research Institute, which has the capacity to test for the Coronavirus. What are we doing to strengthen the capacities of some of our teaching hospitals to be able to test for the virus at their laboratories? We know that Noguchi alone cannot take such a load from all over the country.

We have built the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC) and called it a quaternary health facility and therefore it is higher in medical capacity than most of the teaching hospitals. Yet we had spent so many months fighting over whether or not the University of Ghana or the Ministry of Health is the owner of the facility. What is the role of the UGMC in our preparedness for the Coronavirus? It has been said that China even built a new hospital within six days for handling the outbreak. If the UGMC, a quaternary health facility is not made to lead the way in our preparedness for such an outbreak, then which other facility should be made to do so?

Knowing the kind of health system we run, all the major hospitals in the country should have been supplied with PPEs for now and the teaching hospital laboratories tooled to be able to test for the virus. We must act proactively as if the virus is already in Ghana.

Just last week, the managers of various health facilities across the nation, Association of Health Service Administrators, Ghana (AHSAG) made a press release relating to a number of healthcare issues. Regarding the PPEs, AHSAG stated inter alia, Government must ensure that all frontline staff and Emergency Departments/Units at all levels of healthcare are provided with adequate PPEs and other logistics to enable them deal with the threat.

The people of Mepe my hometown often say that one must not take it with a pinch of salt, if tilapia reports that crocodiles mother is dead. This is because both tilapia and crocodile live in the same aquatic habitat. The members of AHSAG are the ones managing various health facilities in Ghana and per their press release, they are calling on government to supply PPEs. It means that AHSAG knows that there are no PPEs for now at the hospitals or even if they have stock, it is woefully inadequate. They are speaking the voice of the Mepe proverbial tilapia who says the mother of crocodile is dead so we must not take for granted, their press release.

AHSAG also advised that education should be intensified so that public awareness of the disease will facilitate early case detection and prompt intervention. In Ghana, we use private and commercial vehicles mostly to transport patients to and from health facilities. In the process, these drivers will infect more people should we record Coronavirus cases. Methinks we should commend AHSAG for the advice to government and we hope government takes it seriously and works with it for the good of the public.

Lack of the required health commodities in the face of a disease outbreak can overburden health professionals and lead to preventable deaths as well as nosocomial infections.

What we did when we had cholera outbreak in 2014 should not repeat itself. In 2014, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ministry of Health and other government officials announced to the nation that cholera treatment at the public hospitals was free. Meanwhile, government through the Ministry of Health only supplied the hospitals with intravenous (IV) fluids and other medications but even the cannulas needed to give the IV fluids to patients were not supplied. The public hospitals funded the cholera treatment largely from their Internally Generated Funds (IGFs) with the governmental promise that they would be refunded yet none of them received a refund from central government after the outbreak. At the same time, the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) also over delayed in reimbursing the public hospital insurance claims submitted.

One would think that during such outbreaks, funds would be used from the Contingency Fund to intervene appropriately and not only the meagre IGFs of the public hospitals. It is however commendable to read in the media that government had allocated GHC2.5 million to facilitate preparedness for any possible outbreak of the disease. Let me caution however that if we use the same 2014 cholera treatment approach in handling any Coronavirus cases, then my foreboding is that the disease will wipe off a whole generation or population.

While others are putting pragmatic measures humanly possible in place to deal with such a situation, Ghana is depending heavily on prayers or the finger of God largely.

God cannot come and equip UGMC for instance to enable us test for the virus as Noguchi does. AHSAG also advised in their press release that government should equally equip the infectious disease treatment centre at Tamale Teaching Hospital to cater adequately for the northern sector should Ghana record any Coronavirus cases. Not all the cases in an outbreak must be brought down south for attention.

The procurement of the PPEs must be taken seriously because the virus is so contagious that the treatment of only one patient leads to the use of so many PPEs that must be discarded after use. Coronavirus is a disease and not a political issue so we need to team-up in war against the disease, irrespective of our political affiliations. To designate only three holding and treatment bays and one testing laboratory for over 31 million population of Ghana is too small. We hope that the GHC2.5 million allocated for preparedness for the Coronavirus is used just for that purpose and nothing else.

~Asante Sana ~

Author: Philip Afeti Korto.

Email: [email protected]




Haiti - Health : The Caribbean and Latin America trained in the detection of COVID-19





Efforts to ensure that Latin American and Caribbean countries are ready for laboratory diagnosis of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) continued this week with training in Mexico City, organized by the Pan American Organization for Health (OPS) and the Institute of Epidemiological Diagnosis and Reference of the Mexican Ministry of Health (InDRE) for the benefit of virologists from 6 Central American countries : Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua, as well than Cuba and the Dominican Republic.



During the training, which was held at the InDRE National Influenza Center (NIC) and led by experts from PAHO, participants were trained in the main tests and protocols to detect and diagnose COVID-19 using molecular technology. The training was also attended by virologists from Baja California public health laboratories, Jalisco and Quintana Roo to increase and expand Mexico's response capacity. Participants also received diagnostic equipment necessary to test the disease, including primers, probes and positive controls.



"Preparing laboratories to perform early diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 in a safe environment is essential to ensuring that countries can respond quickly and effectively," said Cristian Morales, PAHO/WHO Representative in Mexico.



The training organized in Mexico is the latest in a series of sessions which will guarantee that 29 laboratories (including the National Public Health Laboratory (LNSP) of Haiti) will be ready to detect COVID-19 in the Region by 21 February 2020, the American Atlanta CDC serving as a regional reference laboratory.



Last week, PAHO conducted training in Brazil for 9 South American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay), as well as in Venezuela.



Training has also taken place in the Caribbean, including Suriname, Barbados, Haiti https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-30015-icihaiti-health-haiti-now-has-the-means-to-detect-the-new-coronavirus-covid-19.html , to Jamaica and Dominica. This will continue in the sub-region next week with laboratory training in the Bahamas and Guyana. The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) has also informed that its laboratory is ready to respond to the new coronavirus, and the Institut Pasteur in Guyana is also operational to support surveillance in the French Caribbean territories.



COVID-19 Global assessment February 15 :

Sunday February 16, 2020, the number of people infected worldwide with the Coronavirus COVID-19 (laboratory and clinical confirmed cases) amounted to 69,261, an increase of 2,170 cases, however less than the previous day https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30034-haiti-news-zapping.html ; 1,669 deaths (+ 9.3%), 142 more than the day before (1,527); 9,687 people healed, i.e. 1,190 people (+ 14%) more than the day before (5.8 times more healing than death compared to 5.5 times the day before).



To date, there have been 756 confirmed infected people outside China, or 161 more than the previous day (+ 27%), including 67 new cases aboard the cruise ship "Diamond Princess" in quarantine off Japan.



Number of deaths abroad (4): 1 in the Philippines, 1 in Hong Kong, 1 in Japan and 1 in France.



See also :

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-30015-icihaiti-health-haiti-now-has-the-means-to-detect-the-new-coronavirus-covid-19.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30010-haiti-flash-coronavirus-the-number-of-infected-and-deaths-explodes-in-24-hours.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29955-haiti-health-surveillance-measures-are-deployed-in-the-country-s-ports-and-airports.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29950-haiti-flash-the-ministry-asks-the-hospitals-of-the-country-to-prepare-for-the-coronavirus.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-29947-icihaiti-dr-towards-the-establishment-of-a-sanitary-cordon-at-the-border.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29926-haiti-news-zapping.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29923-haiti-coronavirus-emergency-meeting-of-caribbean-health-ministers.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29919-haiti-flash-chinese-banned-to-go-out-of-a-plane-to-port-au-prince.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29879-haiti-health-chinese-coronavirus-the-ministry-of-health-is-reassuring.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29858-haiti-flash-chinese-coronavirus-haiti-is-preparing-and-activating-its-alert-system.html



HL/ HaitiLibre


















TobyMac's son Truett, 21, died of an accidental overdose back in October.

The Christian hip-hop artist paid tribute to his son's tragic passing by performing his new single 21 Years during his show at The Forum on Saturday night.

'I just want to start out by telling you it's been really hard,' began TobyMac as he addressed his nearly 18,000 concert attendees.

Tragic: Christian hip hop artist TobyMac reflected on the tragic pass of his son Truett, 21, during his concert at The Forum in Inglewood on Saturday night. Above TobyMac is pictured on stage at The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN in May

He continued: 'I want to thank you for the letters that have been sent to us, the cards, the social media posts to encourage us  but mostly, I want to say, thank you for the prayers. And I know by no means are [my family and I] the only ones going through something hard. I know you guys are going through your own pain and heartache and loss.'

TobyMac urged his predominantly Christian audience to 'find what [God] did promise [them],' instead of using loss as fuel to distance themselves from faith.

'...A friend once told me this: 'When you experience something like that you're going to start reaching for things that you think are the promises of God but maybe they weren't things that God promised at all. He didn't promise us that we wouldn't experience heartbreak or pain or loss. 'And that [promise] is that [God] will never leave us or forsake us.'

He insisted that he is 'hanging onto that promise' for himself, as well as for son Truett.

Gone too soon: It was revealed that the 21-year-old, who passed away in Nashville in October, died of an accidental overdose fentanyl and amphetamines

Strength in faith: During his concert at The Forum, the hip hop artist reflected on his grief and urged his fans to use loss to fuel, not deter their faith in God; TobyMac pictured with Truett (left)

'And I just want to say, we came from Nashville to love on you guys [here at The Forum] with some music. So let's do that,' concluded the hip hop artist before jumping into his track The Elements.

On October 23, TobyMac's son was found dead in a Nashville, TN residence.

According to the Tennessean, Truett was 'unresponsive in bed' when he was discovered by a friend during a welfare check.

On January 22, Davidson County medical examiner Feng Li concluded that 21-year-old's death was caused by an 'accidental' drug overdose of fentanyl and amphetamines.

Li detected that the rapper's son had had a 'history of drug and alcohol abuse, as well as possible nitrous oxide use' prior to his death.

During Saturday's concert, the six-time Grammy winner performed a track he penned in Truett's memory titled 21 Years.

But before delving into the emotional track, TobyMac spoke to his eager audience once more.

'A lot of people have come up to me and said, You know what, Toby? Youre gonna see him again. And I believe that with all my heart. I truly do,' insisted TobyMac.

21 years: TobyMac dropped his track 21 Years on January 10, which is a dedication to Truett

As he spoke, the hip hop star walked the stage, even stepping down a ramp that led to the arena's jam packed pit.

'But the question is, why? Why do I get to see him again? Because his goods outweigh his bads? No. Nah, he was my wild child. His good didnt outweigh his bad, just like my good doesnt outweigh my bad.

'I get to see him again for one reason,' spoke TobyMac before reciting the New Testaments most quoted verse, John 3:16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Im holding onto that.'
File photo

According to NewTelegraph, armed bandits have reportedly killed 21, including 16 members of the same family in an attack in Kaduna. The act came as a revenge attack by criminal gangs on the village of Bakali.

This was disclosed by residents on February 13.

Gunmen on motorcycles had raided the village of Bakali in Kaduna State on Tuesday. They shot sporadically and set homes and vehicles on fire. The attackers were said to be on a mission to avenge a raid on their hideout by local vigilantes.

A community leader in Bakali, Sani Nuhu, who confirmed this to journalists, said the attackers killed 21 people.

Furthermore, residents revealed that the assailants burnt 16 members of the same family alive; including six children. Also, five members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) were burnt alive after locking themselves up in a house.

Meanwhile, the Kaduna Police Command admitted that it had received reports of an attack in Bakali; located in Fatika District of Giwa LGA. Nevertheless, spokesman of the Command, Muhamnad Jalige, noted that the casualty figures could not be ascertained. Sources reveal that the area where the attack happened has been a haven of sorts for criminal gangs.

The gangs were alleged to have been engaged in cattle rustling and kidnapping for ransom in recent years. Consequently, local communities had to inform vigilance groups to protect themselves. However, this had not succeeded in quelling the crimes.
Portuguese President Marcelo



Rebelo de Sousa on Sunday visited churches in Old Goa, including the Basilica of Bom Jesus where relics of St Francis Xavier are preserved.

He also paid a visit to the Institute Mater Dei Santa Monica, a church in the Old Goa heritage complex, and the Christian Art Museum located in the premises.

All these structures at Old Goa, located about nine km from Panaji, are part of the complex certified as world heritage monuments by UNESCO.

Basilica of Bom Jesus rector Fr Patricio Fernandes told reporters that he showed de Sousa the cascade containing relics of St Francis Xavier.

"The Portuguese president prayed to the relics of St Francis Xavier and went around to see the building, which was constructed in 1605," he said.

The president was "impressed" with the structure and the spiritual vibes at the Basilica, he added.

The relics of Spanish saint are revered across the world by faithfuls.

The Portuguese president arrived on a two-day visit to Goa on Saturday after which he chaired a function where several MoUs were signed between Goa and Portugal in sectors like education, ship-building, water and sewage management.

He also addressed a seminar on 'Urban Designs' in Panaji on Saturday before attending a dinner hosted by Goa Governor Satya Pal Malik.

The Portuguese president on Saturday said he was feeling at home in India, especially in Goa because of the coastal state's "human micro-climate".

He said there are no first class or second class cultures. "All cultures are first class cultures and civilisation," he added.

Goa was under Portuguese rule till early 1960s.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 02/15/2020



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[ Spoilers Warning: This article contains spoilers revealing the current status of couple Emily Larina and Sasha Larin's relationship and if they are still together].

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Are Emily and Sasha still together? Has the couple's wedding bliss lasted?

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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

couple Emily Larina and Sasha Larin got married on Season 7 of the TLC reality series, so did the couple's marriage last or have they called it quits? What's the latest on their relationship?Emily, a 29-year-old from Portland, OR, and Sasha, a 32-year-old from Moscow, Russia, starred on the seventh season , which just wrapped on February 9 on TLC. (But the Tell-All special has yet to air).Emily met Sasha, a personal trainer, when she joined a gym in Russia, where she was living after finishing college. The couple began dating in June 2016, according to Starcasm.As they dated, Emily was able to tutor Sasha in English, and then Sasha proposed marriage in an elevator after the pair ordered takeout one night. They reportedly announced their engagement on Facebook on February 27, 2017.After a couple of years together, Emily got pregnant and she submitted an application for Sasha's K-1 visa so they move to the United States together.But Sasha brought a lot of baggage into the relationship considering he already had two ex-wives. He had welcomed a son with each of his two exes."Sasha just made mistakes in the past and he happened to marry those mistakes, but we're different. Our relationship it perfect," Emily said in a TLC video.Although there was a pattern of Sasha getting women pregnant and the relationships falling apart, Emily insisted, "I am going to be Sasha's third wife. This is his third child with another woman, but we're going to last."Emily's family was concerned Sasha would eventually leave her for Wife No. 4 and she'd be stuck raising a child alone, but Emily had confidence in Sasha and their relationship. Sasha also promised he's "actually a good guy."But Sasha's first ex-wife felt differently, as she told the cameras, "Sasha and I dated for a year. Then we were married for a year and got divorced because he met his second wife. She got pregnant, and he came to me and said, 'I want a divorce.'"Masha wasn't happy about the idea of Sasha leaving the country when he had two other children to worry about and take care of. She called him a selfish man."Where the wind blows... a man flies," Masha vented to 's producers. "His family will not keep him. His children will not keep him... Men only think about themselves.""I don't know if Sasha will leave Emily the way he left his first two wives. He left me for his second wife," Masha told the cameras."She was also good, kind, calm. But still, he left her for his third. I think America is the next step forward in his life. And Emily is just an excuse."Emily later welcomed her son with Sasha in a Russian hospital via Caesarean section because the baby was not positioned correctly to be delivered the natural way.Sasha, who remained by Emily's side throughout her labor and delivery, cried when he saw his son for the first time and called him "perfect." The couple named the baby boy David.When Sasha's K-1 visa to come to America was finally approved, unfortunately, he and Emily were still waiting for their son's Russian passport.Six months of time had passed following David's birth, and Emily couldn't help feeling a little resentful because Sasha hadn't applied for the passport right when their son was born like he was supposed to.Emily admitted she and Sasha fought often about his mistake.Emily was also exhausted from taking care of the baby all on her own since Sasha apparently worked "all the time" from 5:30AM to 11PM. Emily said she and Sasha had no time as a couple and she felt very isolated and alone. Emily was also sad Sasha hadn't been able to bond with his child.Emily said Sasha spent about five hours a week with his son, so she was worried Sasha may not be able to handle the responsibilities of being a father while she works a day job in America.Emily pointed out Sasha had a lot to learn -- from changing diapers to taking the baby on daytime strolls."Speak to him, play with him. He can't just be in the chair all day," Emily said."Okay. Do I have a choice?" Sasha asked.Sasha thought Emily was worrying too much and he didn't deserve to be nagged. He thought she was constantly finding reasons to argue, which is what happened in one of his past relationships when a child was welcomed into the picture.Despite their issues, Emily and Sasha finally headed to the airport for their flight to America."Everything will be fine," Sasha's father told him while they embraced goobye. "We all love you. You did all this. Everything is for a reason. It's not in vain, understand? You grab your luck and you hold it."Sasha promised his parents that he wouldn't let them down, and then his father said, "We want you to live a good normal life. Not like we do here."Once in the United States, Emily and Sasha temporarily moved in with Emily's sister Betsy, but Betsy and Sasha bumped heads and didn't get along.Sasha didn't approve of Betsy's eating habits, and she didn't like how he seemed to force Emily to get back into the gym to lose her pregnancy weight.Sasha felt trapped in Betsy's home and said it felt like a prison.Emily told Betsy that Sasha was just in a bad mood and it was going to take time for him to get used to life in America. Emily said Sasha's concerns were coming from a place of love, but Betsy insisted that's what everyone says who's in an unhealthy relationship.Betsy wanted Sasha to return to Russia, but Emily begged her sister to give him another chance.Emily didn't want the situation to become more awkward, so Emily said they could move out soon. However, their savings were quickly depleting.While Emily always wanted a big, beautiful wedding, she said it would be okay to have a small wedding because she loved Sasha and just wanted to be his wife. Sasha agreed they didn't need all the luxuries of a fancy wedding because it was just about them as a couple.Emily then went shopping for a wedding gown and fell in love with a lace dress that wasn't too ostentatious."I am happy for you. I'm just nervous," Betsy said at the wedding shop. "I think you have the right dress. I just hope you've got the right groom."The sisters, however, ended up having a magical moment in the bridal shop when Betsy cried after Emily put on a veil.then showed Emily and Sasha's beachside wedding in Portland, OR.Betsy still didn't think the wedding was a great idea, but she decided to support her sister and give Sasha a chance to earn her trust.The night before the wedding, Betsy asked Sasha to promise to love her sister forever, and Sasha said, "Of course I promise to love her, if she will not stop loving me."Sasha vowed to love Emily and do his best, and he told Betsy he's not the type of guy who cheats on his wife. Betsy hoped Sasha would prove her wrong and he'd be a wonderful husband and father who takes his marriage very seriously.On her wedding day, Emily was a little nervous because the wedding was so rushed and details were not well-planned out. However, she was excited, and Sasha and Betsy were finally getting along.Sasha was convinced he had finally found the love of his life, and then the couple exchanged vows and said, "I do."Emily and Sasha are definitely still a couple, and they appear to be happy living in Portland, OR, together.In mid-February, Emily posted a selfie of the couple and captioned it, "Happy 33rd birthday, my love. You know they say God loves threes, so I have a feeling this will be the best year ever. For your birthday, I promise to keep the promise I made you during our engagement."She continued, "I'll always love you. I'll always treat you the way I would want my son's wife to treat him. I'll definitely never hit you or throw things at you. Happy birthday, Sashulia!!"And on February 5, 2020, Emily and Sasha both shared photos on Instagram of a nice dinner out they had together.In the caption of her post, Emily expressed regret over how TLC had edited her relationship with Sasha, insisting viewers didn't get to see the real Sasha."For a while, I was disappointed that the world didn't get to meet the Sasha I know. The man I know is always thinking about how he can be a better provider for his family. The man who sees something in the store and says, 'I want to send this to my father, son, brother, etc,'" Emily wrote alongside the slideshow of photos."The man who doesn't have a lot of possessions because he's so giving. I remember asking why he was always giving his clothes away to his brother, and he'd say, 'Because it's better that he has them than me.'"Emily continued of her husband in her post, "He would work split shifts but still come home on a long metro ride to check on me. He's the kind of man who will help others and expect nothing in return. He's never afraid to chase his dreams.""When his family calls, he answers. I love you, and I'll forever appreciate you for all you've done. I've come to terms with everything. I'll keep the real you to myself. @alexander.g.larin #90dayfiance," she concluded.In the comments section of her post, Emily revealed Sasha gets along better with her sister Betsy now and he's "the most determined person" she's "ever met."In response to criticism Sasha didn't seem like an attentive father on the show to David, Emily said, "I know I've also been guilty of scrolling on my phone while my son is playing. Sasha has also told me to put my phone down and vice-versa. My inattentive moments weren't recorded."Emily also insisted the past should not define Sasha considering he's twice divorced and had welcomed a child with each of his two former wives."God knows if I married the person I was with at 21, I'd be in the same situation," Emily wrote.When a follower noted the franchise is "heavily edited for dramatic purposes," Emily responded, "They film hours and hours the good and the bad, and it's up to them what they air... and they love to air the bad."Earlier that week, Emily revealed to the world she and Sasha were celebrating six months of marriage, meaning they had tied the knot in August 2019."6 months married. Since we never took a honeymoon, I was thinking of planning a short get away here in the US. I want to celebrate new jobs and making it through immigration paperwork (even though we aren't quite done)," Emily captioned a happy selfie of the couple."I don't want to blow a bunch of money, so I was thinking Miami or So Cal would be fun. Where would you vacation in the US? #90dayfiance #honeymoon."Emily and Sasha's son was born in November 2018.After Emily and Sasha wed, Emily changed her name to Emily Larina -- the traditional Russian feminine version Sasha's surname -- on Instagram on February 17, 2019."I haven't changed the name on my passport yet. But I wanted to take this username before anyone else. Also, I love my fam #family #happiness," Emily captioned a photo of Sasha, herself and their baby.The family then moved to the United States in May 2019, according to Starcasm.Emily made it clear she was living in America in October 2019, and then one month later, she hinted her relationship with Sasha was still going strong by defending him on Instagram.Emily took to her Instagram Stories and denied that Sasha got his second wife pregnant while still married to his first wife, Masha, according to screenshots captured by Instagrammer John Yates.Emily posted alleged photos of Sasha and Masha's Russian divorce certificate as well as what appeared to be the Russian birth certificate of Sasha's second child."Sasha and Masha's divorce certificate from 2012," Emily wrote on one document, which appeared to be written in Russian.And on another document, Emily claimed, "Sasha's second son wasn't born until 2014."Considering there was allegedly a two-year gap from when Sasha and Masha divorced and when his second wife welcomed her baby, the documents -- if valid -- appear to demonstrate Sasha was no longer married to Masha when he got his second wife pregnant.Emily also shared a slideshow of photos of her son David, some of which also featured Sasha, on November 17 on Instagram, which was a few days after the episode showing his birth aired on TLC."I'm so glad the world got to meet our perfect, sweet David Alexandrovich Larin. He is the sweetest baby I could ever ask for," Emily wrote."Our little baby is quite an international guy. He's Russian/Ukrainian/Armenian/Irish etc. I think he'll grow up to be a diplomat. P.s. Sasha DOES remember where he was the day his other sons were born. He's told me many times. He was just exhausted. #90dayfiance #babyboy."As for Sasha, he hinted he was in the United States by posting a photo of himself driving a car, which he had captioned, "Exploring... new places. Our land is so interesting."When Sasha thanked a couple people for being able to explore in his Mercedes Benz, Emily commented, "And Emily!"Emily's comment suggested Sasha should thank her as well for his new opportunities in America.In mid-December, Sasha gave away he was still living in the United States by posting a photo of himself next to an American flag. He added hashtags such as "far from home," "michigan," and "great lakes."And then on December 12, Sasha posted a selfie with Emily and wrote alongside it, "Sometimes you need to clean your mind from negative emotions. The best way is just walking around and enjoying the beautiful nature #anotherland #nature #walking #fitnesseverywhere #enjoinglife #lifeisgood #cleanyourmind #america #usa #lifemotivation #90dayfiance #90dayfianceseason7."As for Emily, she conducted a Q&A session with her followers on Instagram on mid-December and revealed she'd give up a life in the United States for Sasha.Emily also revealed she'd "maybe" be interested in starring on a spinoff with Sasha but she doesn't want to welcome another baby for about five years.On January 1, 2020, Emily conducted another Q&A session with her followers in Instagram Stories and revealed she does not think Sasha will cheat on her and they were saving up for a trip back to Russia.Emily also shared she and Sasha had moved out of her sister Betsy's place.Want more spoilers? Click here to visit our Spoilers webpage!
"The way we are living, timorous or bold, will have been our life'' - Seamus Heaney

So much has been said about Keelin Shanley's stellar career in RTE, but she also excelled in her personal life as a wife to my brother Conor and especially as a great mother to her precious children, Lucy and Ben.

She lived for her family, and as a role model to her children she was exceptional. She showed them what true courage and love look like, how hope and acceptance go hand in hand, and, ultimately, how to go on by putting one step in front of the other.

Lucy (13), creative, sporty, dreamy and so kind, and Ben (11), dynamic, thoughtful, and strong, were their mother's joy, and her love for them was fierce.

Keelin was a force of nature. In everything she put her mind to, she was the energy that made things happen.

Just as she made colleagues want to work harder, she inspired people to be fearless. Never indulging in procrastination or self-pity, she had a resilience born of a zest for life.

That tenacity kept her going longer than we imagined. She had the ability to rebound from the many knocks that terminal cancer bestows, with an incredible grace and acceptance. She never gave up, and in the two years since she had the diagnosis she finished restoring the large tumbledown house she loved in Dun Laoghaire, added another new facet to her journalistic career as anchor for Six One news, took to swimming regularly in the Forty Foot with her children, made new memories, lasted past Christmas into spring against the odds, and, ultimately, gave her children time to grow up a little bit more.

Keelin always had gusto. Or, as Conor lovingly put it, a humble gumption.

The last time she broadcast Six One in RTE six months ago, she knew it was the last time - but no one else, apart from her close colleagues who also knew, would have guessed, such was her consummate professionalism. She was always impressive, with a drive that inspired everyone who came in contact with her.

She was curious and genuinely interested in people and their stories from all walks of life which made for some brilliant documentaries in her career. She gave time to people and was able to draw them out of themselves.

Something of a paradox, she was gregarious in her public life, yet very private in her personal life. There was a quirkiness to her that wasn't always apparent, and she liked nothing more than strolling through the gritty byways of Dun Laoghaire, taking it all in. She liked real life, as opposed to any sanitised or polished-up version.

It was 1983 when Keelin first noticed my brother Conor on Grafton Street; she was 14 and he 16. Mind you, it was hard to miss him. Conor was a goth, complete with sticky-up hair, black eyeliner, lipstick (all raided from my stash, actually).

It was a slow-burner. They became good friends, hanging out together around town over the years. Keelin went off to Bologna to work for a year, becoming fluent in Italian. When she got back, they met up during the Dublin Film Festival. It was 1995 and she had begun her career in media as a film reviewer. This impressed Conor, always a film buff, and they finally graduated from just friends to going out together.

But even before they got together, they were nearly married as far back as 1990. They met up again not long after he reluctantly came back from New York when his J1 visa expired. All he wanted in life was to get back and live there. He met her, as they often did, on Christmas Eve and she reminded him that she had dual US citizenship and offered to marry him so that he could go and resume his destiny in New York. To anyone, this was clearly a crazy idea, but Conor said she made it seem completely plausible. He was still pondering it a few weeks later when he realised that he wasn't quick enough and she had gone back to Bologna to resume her life there.

From the beginning, theirs was an intense, always lively, and at times tempestuous relationship. Never a dull moment, sometimes you had to stand back and let them at it. Sparky, humorous and argumentative, they were made for each other.

Where Keelin led, people followed. Literally. Conor said she would come out of a shop and stride off in one direction and it took him a while to realise she didn't know where she was going either. You just assumed she did. Her decisiveness along with an ability to respond fluidly to changing circumstances made her a formidable force.

From the time they got together, it was always obvious to us how much Conor adored Keelin. And vice-versa.

In the year 2000, they were married at a lovely, fun wedding in Markree Castle and celebrated their 20-year anniversary just a couple of weeks ago.

In the last years, their love grew even deeper. The diagnosis of terminal cancer revealed new depths in their relationship. She felt lucky to have lived such a full life but especially to have met Conor and to have their beloved Lucy and Ben together.

On the day before she died, she said she had married the most amazing man. That she always knew he was a kind man, but it was only when she got really sick that she discovered just how kind.

She wanted people to know this. She knew at her funeral there would be much talk about her and her achievements. But she wanted highlighted the man without whom she felt she couldn't have gone on the last few years. She was proud of him and his achievements, too. A talented and award-winning filmmaker and photographer, he happily took a back seat on his own career to spend more time at home so that she could be free to take on the exciting new job at RTE, despite her illness. He even learned to drive for her.

Just as Keelin's courage grew beyond the confines of the inevitable, so, too, did Conor's. For better. For worse. All of it was just more time together, salvaging something beautiful out of the pain. Fearless yet practical, she always forged a way forward with optimism and bravery. In the end, she went swiftly and peacefully as she deserved.

Ever the pragmatist, she bought her own Chinese urn at auction for, well, the next thing.

Conor said it was a privilege to be able to be there for her. And he was there through it all, helping her to do it her way. That's how she was able to hold on to the light inside of herself amidst all the layers of loss - to keep her strength, humour and perspective. To hold herself with dignity and grace to the end.

And I think that's all any of us could wish for from true love.

The sun came out in the hospital room shortly before she died and again when we exited the church after her love-lit service.

Ever the force of nature. Our bold, brilliant and beautiful Keelin.
The unbearable pain and a series of coughs are first felt until it becomes a lethal sickness with no invented cure. An increase in temperature and the feeling of slowly drifting from life. The experience of contracting the 2019-nCoV is such an exhausting fight between the body and the virus.

Medicines are provided to control the symptoms of the virus. However, what makes the Novel Coronavirus infection lethal is the inexistence of a drug that can destroy the virus. This leaves a person's recovery from the virus in the hands of the infected patient's immune system.

Interview with Wuhan-Virus-Infected Individuals

A few adults who were tested positive for the Coronavirus were interviewed. The infected individuals lived in Wuhan, China. Wuhan is the center of the worldwide outbreak.

Tiger Ye, not the real name of the infected individual, shared how scared he felt after finding out he had caught the infection. He describes how he witnessed the increase of the virus's cases and how every medical practitioner wore protective clothing and gears. He said that he had never seen anything like that in the past.

An article from Latin Times it was stated that Ye endured weeks of anxiety and depression. He was scared that he had caught the 2019-nCoV. Later, he decided to visit a medical center near his residence to get treated.

After visiting the medical institution, he was diagnosed with 'not very severe' symptoms of the disease. Doctors asked Ye to go home and advised him to quarantine himself.

Tiger Ye's Story of Survival

Ye survived the threats of the virus and recovered. He credits his recovery to his father who is a healthcare worker. His father was aware of the risks of the virus before most.

In the first few days after finding out about his infection, Ye experienced high fever and intense pain that resonated throughout his body.

By the time of his follow-up appointment with doctors, he complained about severe coughs. He explained to his doctors that he felt he was going to die from the coughs he was having. He even described his coughs as several knocks to the doors of hell.

He was thankful for surviving the newly discovered pneumonia-causing virus' wrath. Also, he had emphasized his gratitude to the medical workers who risked their lives so that they can save him.

Another Story of Survival from the 2020 Coronavirus

Another person was also interviewed. He also shared his story of survival from the virus.

A 31-year-old engineer residing in Wuhan, China told the story of when he had first learned that he had contracted the virus. He described how scared he was because of the insufficiency of testing resources.

After testing positive for the dreaded virus, he was immediately offered treatments. The treatments given to him helped him feel confident that he would survive the disease. The treatments helped him live and tell his tale today.

He expresses his concerns for the young and strong who might catch the infection. He described the disease as similar to a "heavy cold." He shared how he had learned that the infection caused panic to people because it is very contagious.

How Did They Overcome the Illness?

The recovery from the illness differs in every individual. However, the two men who lived to tell their story of survival from the viral infection had similar recovery points. The first one is the timely action upon the discovery of infection. Lastly, quarantining oneself. These are the two common points that the two expressed in their story of preventing the spread and return of the Wuhan virus infection.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 22:21:45|Editor: xuxin

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ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopia Federal Attorney General Office (FAGO) on Sunday disclosed it has pardoned 1,270 prisoners in the first six months period of the current Ethiopian Fiscal Year 2019/2020, that started on July 8.

In a press statement, the FAGO said a total of 2,934 cases of pardon were presented to it, out of which 1,270 prisoners were approved.

"Many of the pardoned prisoners had been given prison sentences for financial crimes including those related to cheque fraud and circulation of fake money," said the statement.

The Ethiopia Federal Attorney General Office said, among the 1,270 pardoned prisoners are 21 elderly prisoners and 49 foreigners.

The statement further said 1,664 prisoners who had applied for pardon were not granted their wish, as they have not shown remorse for their action or have committed grave crimes.
RIO RANCHO  Jan Blachowicz, having wreaked his revenge on Corey Anderson, loves his chances of getting in the Octagon with Jon Jones.

Meanwhile, Diego Sanchez loves New Mexico  where fate, or something, just wont let him lose.

Blachowicz, a decided underdog in his main-event light heavyweight fight Saturday at the Santa Ana Star Center, caught Anderson (14-5) with a short right hand in the first round and finished him with a punch on the ground.

Blachowicz had lost to Anderson by lopsided decision when the two faced each other in 2015.

The stoppage at the 3:08 mark improved the Polish fighters record to 26-8 and greatly enhances his chances of being the next challenger to Albuquerques Jones, the UFC heavyweight champion.

I believe I should get the next title shot, Blachowicz said after his dramatic victory. I dont want (any other) fight.

Jones, who attended Saturdays event, agreed that Blachowicz has earned a title fight.

To finish the fight the way he did, first-round knockout, I dont see how he can be denied, Jones said.

In the nights welterweight semi-main event, Albuquerques Sanchez (30-12) almost upstaged the main event in bizarre fashion, winning by disqualification when opponent Michel Pereira (23-11) landed an illegal knee to the Albuquerque fighters head. The disqualifying blow came in the third round of a fight that Pereira appeared to be dominating.

All three official scorecards had Pereira winning the first two rounds.

The last time Sanchez fought in New Mexico, in 2014, he defeated Englands Ross Pearson by split decision on a UFC card at Tingley Coliseum. Virtually everyone except two judges thought Pearson had won the fight decisively.

Sanchez, who suffered a cut to the head as a result of Pereiras blows, was taken to a hospital and was unavailable for interviews.

Attendance at the Star Center was announced at 6,449.

In other main-card fights involving New Mexico fighters;

Albuquerques Ray Borg (13-4) 128 pounds, dominated Brazils Rogerio Bonterin (16-2), 126, in taking a unanimous decision.

After a competitive first round, Borg simply overwhelmed the Brazilian with superior strength and leverage, taking him down time and time again.

Often riding Bonterins back like a jockey on a quarter horse, Borg several times appeared close to securing a rear naked choke. Bonterin managed to fight off the submission attempts.

The scorecards read 30-27, 30-27 and 30-25.

Borgs joy was muted by his failure on Friday to make the 125-pound flyweight limit (plus a permissible one pound for non-title fights). He has had difficulties making weight before, not only at 125 pounds but at the 135-pound bantamweight limit.

Its something thats plagued me and followed me around, Borg said, expressing concern about how those continued problems might affect his future with the UFC.

But thats something for another day, he said, his young son Anthony in his arms. Right now Im just happy to get this win.

Albuquerques Lando Vannata (11-4-2), 135 pounds, defeated Hawaiis Yancy Medeiros (15-7), 135, by unanimous decision.

Vannata has won two Fight of the Night bonuses during his UFC career. This was not destined to be a third; the relative lack of action drew scattered boos from the crowd.

But Vannata thoroughly out-struck Medeiros throughout the three rounds, landing some sharp punches and leg kicks while Medeiros was fanning the air.

There were no takedowns, though Vannata came close on a couple of occasions

Vannata, however, did not leave the Octagon unscathed  limping out of the arena with a foot injury.

I think my movement kind of kept (Medeiros) guessing on what to do, Vanatta said during his media-room interview, after entering on crutches with his right foot heavily wrapped.  Theres no better way to start 2020 than with a good win in my city  over a good opponent.

All three judges scored it 30-27.

In other main-card fights:
An Amazon-owned home security company has netted hundreds of police contracts  including nearly a dozen in the Bay Area  that could help solve neighborhood crime. But critics say the quick spread of such partnerships has skirted public oversight, turned police departments into corporate marketing machines and threatened the privacy of innocent people.

Ring, well known for its popular video doorbells, has capitalized on a rise in package thefts and law enforcements growing interest in private surveillance by teaming up with police departments in San Jose, South San Francisco, Milpitas, Union City, Walnut Creek, Novato, Foster City and Hercules, as well as the Marin County Sheriffs Office. All but two of these agencies signed agreements in the past three months.

Their officers have the use of a law enforcement portal on Rings Neighbors app to request and obtain videos within a specific time frame and area from users who grant permission. Residents location and identity remain anonymous. More than 900 agencies in the country had contracts with Ring as of Feb. 6, when the company last updated its information.

Bay Area agencies laud the agreements, which come at no cost. The technology helped solve two package thefts in Milpitas during the holidays, police Capt. Raj Maharaj said. Five other departments said they had no examples of crimes solved yet, pointing instead to the potential benefits of their Ring partnerships.

If a crime does occur, it just gets the info to those that are entrusted to help solve the crime quicker. Thats a point you cant argue, San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia said.

But some cities have raised privacy concerns about Rings services, prompting a congressional investigation last year and alarming watchdogs.

The cameras, they say, intrude on other peoples privacy by recording motion detected up to 30 feet away. The rights of passersby such as dog walkers, mail carriers, and children playing across the street are being violated without their consent, said Mike Katz-Lacabe, a member of Oakland Privacy, a coalition of people who are concerned about privacy and surveillance.

Personally, I dont want to live in a surveillance dystopia where my neighbors are essentially spying on me on behalf of my local law enforcement, he said.

Ring

The Neighbors app, Katz-Lacabe said, can also tie up police resources when theyre not needed, stoke fear and spark discrimination.

I think it tends to lead to a perception that crime is greater than it is, even though its at historic lows, Katz-Lacabe said. It tends to focus on black and brown people, because the people who are buying Ring cameras oftentimes are in wealthier neighborhoods with less minorities, and in that case, anybody who doesnt look like the people who live in that neighborhood are going to be found suspicious.

Though violent crime rates have fallen in recent years, property crimes increased in Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties in 2017, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. San Francisco had the highest per-capita rate of property crime of any major U.S. city that year, with 6,168 crimes per 100,000 people  largely because of the rise in auto break-ins.

Foster City police signed an agreement with Ring in May, and have sent out just one request for footage from residents, said Lt. William Sandri, a department spokesman. The residents did not reply.

Still, Sandri said, the technology could help link a suspect to several crimes. Its not going to solve every crime, but it just provides us with another lead or another angle to work, he said.

In late January, Oakland police sought help from the public by posting photos and video captured by a Ring doorbell camera on social media. The images showed two people violently robbing a woman on her doorstep. Although the crime remains unsolved, department spokeswoman Officer Johnna Watson said that security videos are always helpful because they can help identify a weapon and provide a suspect description.

Oakland police are in the early stages of conversations with Ring about becoming a partner.

San Francisco police have not signed a contract with Ring, but officers use home security footage provided by residents for investigations. Last year, Cole Valley resident Deanna Hodgin said, she was getting ready for church when her husband called from London. Ring had notified him of an intruder fiddling with the lock on their front door. Her husband shouted at the man until he left and sent the video to police, but Hodgin was too scared to go to church.

The 58-year-old resident said her family purchased the device  and plan to get more  after their home and car were broken into several times. She understands privacy concerns but says she has to protect herself.

After you realize that youre ... the prey, she said. You sort of lose the concern for the rights of people who have no concern for your rights.

Ring said its mission is to make neighborhoods safer and that it upholds user privacy standards. No one can view video recordings without the residents permission, for example, and Ring encrypts communication between devices and the Amazon server that stores the videos, according to the company, and it does not knowingly collect information about children younger than 13.

Weve seen many positive examples of residents and local police engaging on the Neighbors app and believe open communication is an important step in building safer, stronger communities, Ring officials said.

Video doorbells send a notification to camera owners, who can tap in to the live stream and initiate two-way audio. The cameras capture clear footage at night, too, according to the company. Ring then stores the video on a cloud server reserved for users who pay for a separate plan.

Law enforcement officers must cite a specific active investigation and can request footage only within a limited time and from a distinct area related to that case. Customers can decide whether to share all relevant footage, choose certain videos to share, decline to provide any of the doorbell recordings, or opt out of all future requests.

Critics, including at least one senator, argue that there is no evidence that Ring cameras make communities safer, and they point to a string of high-profile hacking incidents as proof of the contrary.

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., led a months-long investigation into Ring by the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that found an alarming disregard for basic privacy protections for consumers.

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.

Fight for the Future, a nonprofit digital rights advocacy group, blasted Ring in an open letter in October signed by more than 30 civil rights groups. The letter followed a Washington Post report that 400 police agencies had entered into agreements with the company as of August.

Evan Greer, director of Fight for the Future, said the lack of public oversight and accountability of these partnerships is a fundamental problem.

If the cops in your neighborhood wanted to put a surveillance camera on everyones front door, they would clearly have to go seek approval from a city council or a mayor or some elected officials, Greer said. In this case, Amazon is ... providing a seamless process by which police can vacuum up that footage, store it indefinitely and use it for all sorts of abusive purposes without any meaningful oversight or accountability.

Ring said it is careful with customer data. We maintain administrative, technical and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information against accidental, unlawful or unauthorized destruction, loss, alteration, access, disclosure or use, its privacy notice says.

The company collects users online browsing activity, the notice says. It relies on residents to follow privacy and video surveillance laws, which vary by jurisdiction, such as posting a notice that they are recording.

Another worry of critics is Rings oversight of police departments public communications, which they say relinquishes control of government employee resources. Departments must seek written approval from the company for news releases that mention Ring or include the companys logo, according to contracts obtained by The Chronicle.

Officer Mike Howard, a spokesman for Novato police, said his department allowed Ring to review its first news release to make sure it was factually correct. But the department has since avoided using Rings name to maintain control of its communications.

Quite honestly, its because we dont want the appearance that Ring writes our press releases, because they dont, Howard said.

Chief Garcia said he also signed a contract allowing Ring to review the San Jose Police Departments news releases, but said he would sever the contract if Ring were to request substantial changes.

Although its in the contract, no one controls the message of this Police Department other than me, Garcia said.

Not every local agency maintains the same level of independence. Sgt. Brent Schneider, a spokesman for the Marin County Sheriffs Office, said he planned to tell a Ring representative that he had spoken with The Chronicle about Ring, as the company requested.

Greer said these partnerships require the oversight of elected officials to ensure they are not being abused.

I think its very Silicon Valley to assume we can either have a world with package theft, or we can live in a totalitarian surveillance state  but you cant do both, she said. Given the choice, Id rather live in a world with a little bit of package theft and a little less fascism.

Anna Bauman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: anna.bauman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @abauman2
"If you move, I'll blow your (expletive) head off."

That's what 19-year-old Jaylan Butler said police told him last year, with guns pointed at his head near an East Moline rest stop.

The Eastern Illinois University student was on a bus, headed back to Charleston, Ill., with his teammates after a swim meet in South Dakota when he was accosted by several law enforcement officers in what has turned into a lawsuit alleging civil rights violations.

The ACLU of Illinois filed the suit, naming officers from East Moline, Hampton and Rock Island County as defendants. Two others, who could not be identified, also were named.

Butler says he never resisted, never did anything that could be mistaken as a threat, yet he says one officer had a knee in his back, and his head was held down. If he moved, he said, he was told he'd be killed. The bus driver says he heard this, too.

Rock Island County Sheriff Gerry Bustos says his deputies arrived after Butler was detained by officers from other agencies and their interaction with him was brief. He says they are innocent of the allegations.
A man who left his 2013 Chevrolet at 311 Chestnut St. said someone got inside and stole it. The man said he is in possession of the only key for the vehicle. He said he did not know how the suspect(s) were able to start the vehicle. The OnStar vehicle tracker was able to track the vehicle to an alley off E. 42nd Street between 15th and 16th Avenues. The vehicle was found unoccupied. The interior of the vehicle smelled heavily of burnt marijuana. The owner was able to recover his vehicle. The damage to the interior of the vehicle is estimated at $1,000.

* * *

Police responded to an abandoned vehicle/traffic hazard at 6086 Hwy. 153. It was parked in the middle of the road at the median with no lights on. It was an unlit road and police said the vehicle's position posed a traffic hazard for northbound and southbound traffic, in addition to traffic entering/exiting the apartment complex at this location. The vehicle was towed by Conley's.

* * *

Police spoke to two women at 3702 6th Ave. One said her vehicle had been broken into and money taken. The vehicle had been left unlocked. Four males are seen on video coming down the back alley and checking the vehicle door handles. Two of the men are seen going into the vehicle and looking through it. The males all leave headed on E 37th Street. They took $200 cash and a cellphone. Police searched the area but did not locate anyone.

* * *

At Applebee's at 5606 Brainerd Road, police spoke to the manager, who said a white female and black female came in and dined together. When it came time to pay the bill, both left the restaurant together in a silver Cadillac. The females walked out on a tab of $27.38.

* * *

At 4411 Midland Pike, a woman said her car had been stolen. She said she was getting ready to go pick up a friend, and had started her car already when she realized she did not have her purse. She went inside to get it and, when she came back, her car was gone. She said she was not inside but for maybe five minutes at the most. There are no distinguishing marks on the vehicle, since it was new. The vehicle was entered into NCIC.

* * *

Officers responded on a shoplifting at the Home Depot, 7421 Commons Blvd. An employee said she recognized Ricky Talley moving through the store with a cart filled with expensive merchandise. She said Talley is known to her to be a "problem." He has made several shoplifting attempts in the past, it was claimed. Accompanying him was an unknown white female, who was described as approximately five feet tall, very thin, with short brown hair. She appeared to be in her forties or fifties. The employee observed the unnamed female place a Milwaukee hammer drill/ impact driver kit ($299,) a twelve pack of Bounty paper towels ($23,) two Milwaukee hammer drill/ impact driver/ reciprocating saw combo sets ($1,098 total,) and one back pack style Milwaukee wet/dry vacuum ($299). The female suspect left the store via an exit on the eastern side of the store with a shopping cart. The employee stopped her and recovered the merchandise. The suspect then got into a 2012 Chevrolet Impala. This Impala is registered to Talley. Police attempted to stop Talley on Gunbarrel Road. However, he fled the scene.
File photo

Forestry workers on Vancouver Island have voted to ratify a collective agreement, ending a strike that kept 3,000 workers off the job for eight months.

The United Steelworkers Local 1-1937 says in a statement that members voted 81.9 per cent in favour of ratifying the agreement with Western Forest Products.

Members of the union working for contractors represented by Forest Industrial Relations also ratified the agreement by 93 per cent.

Brian Butler, president of the union local, says members negotiated a contract that achieves many of its goals and did not grant the company concessions on pensions, job security and health and welfare benefits.

However he says the union did not achieve its goal of ending what members believe are "dangerous" alternate shifts.

Instead, he says the dispute process was improved by compelling the company to conduct trials of shift schedules proposed by the union, so that members can show alternative schedules are equally productive and also safer.

"Going forward, it will be incumbent on WFP to understand that simply ignoring the safety of our members and forcing them to work on alternate shifts that members believe will lead to serious injuries and even fatalities, cannot continue," Butler says in the statement.

There is still a small number of ratification votes to be conducted in remote areas of coastal B.C., but the union says it will not significantly alter the percentages noted, the union says.

After the tentative agreement was reached Monday, Port McNeill Mayor Gaby Wickstrom said the strike has been financially devastating to mill workers and businesses that rely on them.

Wickstrom said people were relying on food banks and help from volunteer groups who were donating necessities to families.

Don Demens, president and CEO of Western Forest Products, said in a statement Monday that the deal was reached with the assistance of special mediators Vince Ready and Amanda Rogers.

"This has been a particularly challenging time and I'm pleased that we were able to find common ground through the efforts of all involved," Demens said.
The Portland Police Bureaus Gun Violence Reduction Team is looking for help from the public after three men were injured in shootings overnight  and its not clear where it happened.

According to a release from Portland police, officers responded to the 10200 block of Northeast Knott Street at 1:41 a.m. Sunday morning after receiving a call that someone had a gunshot wound.

Meanwhile, police said, another call came in, this one from an area hospital where two adult men had walked in with gunshot wounds.

Officers talked to all three victims, the release said. At the hospital, one man was shot in his leg, and the other had a gunshot wound to his abdomen. The man on Knott Street was shot in his arm.

All the injuries are believed to be non-life threatening, police said.

According to officials, police located two vehicles, both four-door sedans, and believe after an initial investigation that the shootings happened between the two vehicles somewhere near the intersection of Northeast Glisan Street and Interstate 205.

No arrests have been made, and the Gun Violence Reduction Team is asking anyone with information about the incident to contact them. Anyone who heard shots or witnessed the shooting or finds or has evidence, such as video or photos, should call 503-823-3333.

Information can also be reported anonymously through Crime Stoppers of Oregon. The case number is 20-53816.

Police ask anyone who finds evidence not to touch or move it.

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052, lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Dubai: Thirty-one people were killed in airstrikes on Yemen Saturday, the United Nations said, the victims of an apparent Saudi-led retaliation after Iran-backed Huthi rebels claimed to have shot down one of its jets.

The Tornado aircraft came down Friday in northern Al-Jawf province during an operation to support government forces, a rare shooting down that prompted operations in the area by a Saudi-led military coalition fighting the rebels.

The deadly violence follows an upsurge in fighting in northern Yemen between the warring parties that threatens to worsen the war-battered country's humanitarian crisis.

"Preliminary field reports indicate that on 15 February as many as 31 civilians were killed and 12 others injured in strikes that hit Al-

Hayjah area... in Al-Jawf governorate," the office of the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen said in a statement.

Lise Grande, the UN coordinator, denounced the "terrible strikes".

"Under international humanitarian law, parties which resort to force are obligated to protect civilians," she said.

"Five years into this conflict and belligerents are still failing to uphold this responsibility. It's shocking." The rebels reported multiple coalition air strikes in the area where the plane went down, adding that women and children were among the dead and wounded, according to rebel television station Al-Masirah.

The coalition conceded the "possibility of collateral damage" during a "search and rescue operation" at the site of the jet crash, which left the fate of its crew uncertain.

Without stating the cause of the crash, a coalition statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency said the crew, comprising two officers, ejected from the plane before it crashed but the rebels opened fire at them in "violation of the international humanitarian law".

"The lives and wellbeing of the crew is the responsibility of the terrorist Huthi militia," the statement said, without specifying whether they had survived.

The Huthi rebels released footage of what they called the launch of their "advanced surface-to-air missile" and the moment it struck the jet in the night sky, sending it crashing down in a ball of flames.

"The downing of a Tornado in the sky above Al-Jawf is a major blow to the enemy and an indication of remarkable growth in Yemeni (rebel) air defence capabilities," Huthi spokesman Mohammed Abdelsalam tweeted.

The escalation follows fierce fighting around the Huthi-held capital Sanaa, with the rebels seen to be advancing on several fronts towards Al-Hazm, the regional capital of Al-Jawf.

The province of Al-Jawf has been mostly controlled by the Huthis, but its capital remains in the hands of the Saudi-backed government.

The downing of a coalition warplane marks a setback for a military alliance known for its air supremacy and signals the rebels' increasingly potent military arsenal.

"At the start of the conflict the Huthis were a ragtag militia," Fatima Abo Alasrar, a scholar at the Middle East Institute, told AFP.

"Today they have massively expanded their arsenal with the help of Iran and its proxy Hezbollah," Lebanon's powerful Shiite movement.

Huthi rebels now possess weapons bearing signs of Iranian origin, according to a UN report obtained by AFP earlier this month, in potential violation of a UN arms embargo.

Some of the new weapons, which the rebels obtained last year, "have technical characteristics similar to arms manufactured in the Islamic Republic of Iran," said the report, compiled by a panel of UN experts tasked with monitoring the embargo.

The panel did not say whether the weapons were delivered to the Huthis directly by the Iranian government, which has repeatedly denied sending them arms.

The coalition intervened against the Huthis in 2015, in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people, most of them civilians, and sparked what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The coalition force has been widely criticised for the high civilian death toll from its bombing campaign, which has prompted some Western governments to cut arms deliveries to the countries taking part.

On Wednesday, the coalition said it would put on trial military personnel suspected of being behind deadly air strikes on Yemeni civilians
AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal arrived at the Ramlila Maidan here to be sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Delhi for the third consecutive time.

Besides Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Satyender Jain, Gopal Rai, Kailash Gehlot, Imran Hussain, and Rajendra Gautamas will take oath as the ministers in Delhi.

Around 50 people from different walks of life who are responsible for 'Delhi nirman' will share the stage with Kejriwal during his swearing-in ceremony, AAP leader Manish Sisodia said.

These people would include teachers, bus marshalls, sanitation workers and families of firefighters.

Winning 62 seats by cashing in on the plank of development, AAP nearly repeated its 2015 performance, sweeping the Assembly polls in the face of a high-voltage campaign by the BJP, which had fielded a battery of Union Ministers and Chief Ministers in its electioneering.

The BJP marginally improved its tally, managing just eight seats from its 2015's tally of three seats. Congress failed to open its account, just like last time.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Whod have thought that a student show about Henry VIIIs wives would become a global megahit? The two friends who created Six certainly didnt  and, as they tell Julia Llewellyn Smith, theyre still trying not to lose their heads

Welcome to Six, the musical thats taken the West End  and now the globe  by storm

Its Tuesday night in Londons West End and on the tiny stage of the Arts Theatre six women dressed in slinky, studded costumes  like Tudor gowns cut off above the knee  are rocking out to an all-female band. Divorced, sings one, introducing herself. Each continues in turn: Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived. The audience whoops and applauds as they all belt out: Everybody knows that we used to be six wives.

Welcome to Six, the musical thats taken the West End  and now the globe  by storm, with 700,000 tickets sold worldwide. The barnstorming show, where Henry VIIIs six wives are transformed into a Little Mix-style pop group indulging in a sing-off about who was most ill-treated by the Tudor monarch, was written by Cambridge University students Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow in just ten days while revising for their final exams. It went on to be nominated for five Olivier Awards last year and the cast recording has been streamed more than 100 million times, making it one of the most streamed musical soundtracks after Hamilton. The shows most popular song, Dont Lose Ur Head, sung by Anne Boleyn, has been watched on YouTube 20 million times.

Right now, Six is sold out in the West End until spring. The success of the show has even spawned a themed tour at the National Portrait Gallery, where paintings of the six wives hang in the Tudor Galleries.

The musical is also touring the UK and Australia, playing on three cruise ships and in various venues in Canada and the US. It previewed on Broadway this Thursday and talks are in progress about a film version. Its unbelievable, says Lucy, 26. Broadway was always on my radar as the shiniest, most exciting place in the world but I never thought Id work there, let alone at the start of my career.

Sixs creators Toby and Lucy with the current cast, From left, Jarneia Richard-Noel as Catherine of Aragon, Courtney Bowman as Anne Boleyn, Hana Stewart as Jane Seymour, Collette Guitart as Anna of Cleves, Zara Macintosh as Katherine Howard and Danielle Steers as Catherine Parr

Its quite a feat for the friends, just over two years since Six was spotted by West End producers when playing at a tiny Edinburgh Fringe venue. Now  as Toby, 25, puts it  they are constantly gallivanting around the world supervising international openings of the show. Sometimes life can be really glamorous, he admits. It wasnt what I expected after uni. I thought I was going to be working at the Apple store in Cambridge  theyd offered me a job.

Other highlights include attending the Olivier Awards at the Royal Albert Hall, and the Evening Standard Theatre Awards where they were invited to share a table with US Vogue editor Anna Wintour, who took time out of her jam-packed Fashion Week schedule to see Six when she was in London.

As well as meeting Wintour that night, Lucy recalls, cringing, Olivia Colman came up to me and said congratulations. I said Congratulations to you, too, youre a very famous lady. I sounded like such an idiot. But I ended the evening by making a date with the wine waiter, so it was all good.

A few weeks after the awards they attended the West End premiere of the musical Dear Evan Hansen, where they were seated next to Andrew Lloyd Webber, a self-declared fan of their show (others include Geri Horner, Holly Willoughby and Dustin Hoffman). He told us that to write a musical about Henry VIIIs wives was a no-no because everyone knows what happened so no one cares, Lucy laughs. Only idiots like us, who were too stupid to realise that was a problem, would touch it.

The show is more like going to a pop concert than the theatre

Clearly he was wrong. But why has Six struck such a chord with audiences  particularly teenage girls, whose raving about the show on social media played a huge part in its success? Partly its because of its format  The X Factor with a touch of Horrible Histories  combined with insanely catchy tunes and witty lyrics. Anna of Cleves (in the show she is called Anna not Anne) performs a Rihanna-style number about how Henry rejected her because I didnt look like my profile picture.

It feels much more like going to a pop concert than a serious bit of theatre, says Lauren Brown, 20, one of the fans waiting in the foyer after the show to meet the cast. But, according to Lucy, its also because it tapped into a call brought on by the #MeToo movement for female empowerment  with Sixs message being that these women were brilliant individuals, not just wives.

We decided we wanted to do something with a majority of females. Until then, Id been thinking, Why is it that every show I see is about these stupid boy characters and the only women are the girlfriends? The world was ready for something different. Toby and I thought, We want loads of women who are funny and as entertaining as hell, who are telling me that I can be someone, that theyre not just shunting me to the side.

Sitting in the bar of the Arts Theatre, Lucy and Toby (she focuses on choreography and directing; he writes most of the tunes, but they both do a bit of everything) are clearly terrifyingly talented, but also couldnt be more fun. Lucy grew up in Ealing, West London, the daughter of a fund-manager dad who died of multiple sclerosis when she was 14, and a tax-adviser mother. Lucy attended dance school for two years, supporting herself by working as a cage dancer, before studying history at Cambridge. Shes the more reflective of the pair, while Toby, a former child actor from Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, is the more flamboyant. He devised Six after the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society asked him to write something original for the Edinburgh Fringe, as it had no money to pay royalties for an established show.

Toby, right, once found himself on stage playing Catherine Parr

Wed been wanting to do a show about a famous group of women  we were thinking of The Real Housewives of Shakespeare, he says. But his thoughts kept returning to the six wives  although he just couldnt work out how to make a snappy show from their complicated histories. Then, during a poetry seminar for his English degree, the idea hit him. I thought, What if its a concert and theyre a girl band? I kept thinking how they could sing about their lives with microphones and wear funky costumes and crowns. I knew I had to talk to Lucy as soon as possible.

Lucy smiles. My first thought was that this could be really naff, she says. But I trusted Toby.

The pair, who Toby describes as having a relationship something like weird, married siblings, quickly devised a structure where each queen sang a song in the style of a particular pop star  so Catherine of Aragon became Beyonce, while Anne Boleyn has a zippy Lily Allen-style number and Katherine Howard does an Ariana Grande-esque pop tune.

Audiences love the shows message, says Danielle Steers, who plays Catherine Parr: You cant compare yourself to others  instead you should celebrate the sisterhood. Collette Guitart, who is an understudy for all the queens, adds, There are six powerful women on stage and we are saying, Everyone has their moment to shine.

Fans love seeing women of different shapes, sizes and races on stage. I remember going to the theatre when I was a kid and everyone was stick thin, says Courtney Bowman, who plays Anne Boleyn. We are showing so many ways to be [a woman] and theyre all great.

I think thats really important  a lot of girls long to see someone who looks like them on stage, says Hana Stewart, who currently plays either Catherine Parr or Jane Seymour.

Hana also thinks that teenagers enjoy history being retold in a way that engages them, with plenty of twists to the familiar stories. For example, Anna of Cleves  whom Henry divorced after six months for being too ugly  actually ended up, as Lucy says, living her best life, drinking mead, going out hunting and outliving all of them in a palace in Richmond.

School isnt great at making history interesting, Hana says. All I could remember about the six wives was the Divorced, beheaded rhyme, so it was amazing to learn the stories of these women. Why didnt we hear about them before? They are the reason Henry is famous.

Even the shows costumes have become stars, with internet forums on how to re-create them and a wall in the theatre dedicated to fan art. Toby wears jumpsuit, Escada, Fenwick. Earrings, Butler & wilson. Lucy wears suit, Stella McCartney, selfridges. Shoes, Jimmy Choo

The show has even spawned its own cosplay scene (dressing up in costume), with passionate fans filling internet forums with tips on how to re-create the queens costumes, and the Arts Theatre has a special wall reserved for fan art. Hana says, Ive never felt so involved with an audience as I do during this show. By the end theyre all going crazy and you actually feel as though you are in Little Mix. Its a shock when you remember youre just you then go home and eat toast.

Fans were equally enthusiastic when, last summer, Toby found himself playing Catherine Parr for two West End performances, after no other cast member was available to deputise. A refund was offered but no one accepted it. I was nervous because people had paid to see a show and they were going to be seeing this weird version but it turned out to be really fun, Toby says. Id only do it again in an emergency.

So what next? Theyve both been signed up by music company Warner Chappell to compose songs for pop stars such as Katy Perry (Lucys dream is to write for Rihanna, Tobys for Sam Smith). Theyre also working on a second musical, but Lucy says, When we made Six the only stake was not to embarrass ourselves or our friends. Now theyre much higher. Its really scary, so were trying to take our time. I genuinely have a feeling that this is when it all goes wrong. Im still waiting for this to stop and Ill have to go and look for a proper job.

Even with work going well, the pair joke that the rest of their lives are shambolic. Both are single (the waiter Lucy briefly dated after the Evening Standard Theatre Awards ended up emigrating). My mum says, Youre too busy to find love. Id like to prove her wrong, Toby sighs.

On the contact us section of their website, marlowandmoss.co.uk, potential partners can get in touch. But theres a box saying I dont want to date you, I have a serious enquiry and when I looked the other day every email fell under that category  it was all people saying, Can you get my niece tickets for Six on her birthday? Lucy laughs. Can you mention wed love people to contact us? Toby asks. Were not fussy. Ideally, it would be someone not in the theatre industry but beggars cant be choosers. Single would be good, Lucy jokes. And alive.

They can cheer themselves up by reflecting on how Six has created jobs worldwide for female performers, who  as Lucy says  would otherwise be playing bloody girlfriends.

Toby adds: These are women who have been in the business a long time and have always been playing supporting parts. Now that theyre finally able to be at the front, theyre, like, Im hilarious, Im a star.

Six is currently at Londons Arts Theatre; for details and tickets go to sixthemusical.com

Styling: Sophie Dearden. Make-up: Nicky Weir using Marc Jacobs Beauty. Hair: Sven Bayerbach. Production: Sian Parry.
New Delhi, Feb 16 : The reason writer Aatish Taseer signed up for the recently aired Al Jazeera documentary series "In Search of Indias Soul" was because the producer didnt want the typical Western documentary about India, in which Left-wing talking heads go on about the rise of fascism, but something that would deal seriously with the Hindu sense of hurt, perceived or real, that was causing the present conflagration.

"That was what sold me. I was much interested in moving past the political fractures of today and getting to the deeper historical tension that drives the politics of division," says Taseer, insisting that he considers himself, culturally and historically, to be a Hindu.

"It's very hard to pinpoint that deepest layer at which a religious culture touches you. How do you feel when you hear the liturgy, or the azan? What is the effect of ritual upon you? Does your heart stop when you first look upon that sight of an Indian temple town curled around a river? This is that part of religion that is deeper than belief. And, for me, since childhood, these deepest feelings have tied to Hinduism, and, more specifically, to the worship of Shiva. For me, there is no image more powerful than the creative dance of destruction, followed by the calm of Vishnu on the primal waters, floating upon the snake of residue. The waters heating, aeon after aeon, bringing forth the lotus calyx from Vishnu's navel, which contains Brahma and the promise of renewal. This image is the closest thing I have to religious belief." The writer, whose Overseas Citizenship of India was revoked recently, stresses that he was appalled the moment the news reached him.

"To weaponise a technicality so that an Indian writer, who has thought and written about India all his life, as well as grown up there and lived there for 30 of 40 years, can't go home to his grandmother and mother - it's appalling. But not surprising. This government, above all, will be remembered for its extraordinary efficiency in going after each of its critics, big or small, from the teenager who writes a critical Facebook post to the writer and journalist.

"Their supreme contribution to Indian life is their pettiness. No one has gone so big on being small ever before. As far as the recourse goes, We are currently in a review process but the Home Ministry won't give us the documents, which they have used to accuse me of fraud and concealment. If they refuse, we'll have to file a writ in court. But yes, every channel of redress available to us is being used." As the conversation veers towards the cover story he wrote for Time magazine, post which his OCI was revoked, the New-York based writer insists that was very fair, and critical of the opposition party in India too. Adding that to call Modi the "Divider-in-Chief" in May 2019 might have been provocative, but to do that now is a mere understatement of fact, he says, "I did not expect the volcanic reaction I got, but it makes sense in retrospect. The Prime Minister longs for approval from the West and his entire mission in life is to circumvent the Westernised classes in India in order to bask in Western approval of himself." Taseer, who has to his credit critically acclaimed novels like "Stranger to History: A Son's Journey Through Islamic Lands", "The Temple-Goers", "Noon", "The Way Things Were" and recently, "The Twice-Born: Life and Death on the Ganges" insists that the trolling and abuse on social media doesn't really bother him.

"I couldn't care less. I've been in this business for a while now and I've dealt with all manner of excitable mediocrity. You should see what trolling in Pakistan is like. They don't leave it on the Internet; they come and kill you afterwards. Now that is something to be sore about." Now, he is a writer whose work is immersed in Indian life, and he can't return to his country....

"It's a nightmare on a personal level, but I'm not sure yet of the effect on my creative life. Exile, as you know, can be both a fertile and a sterile state for a writer. It's too early to judge what mine will be. What I can say is that I feel very stimulated, very alive. Something about closing the door on the physical India has awakened the India of imagination and memory. It has also freed me from the oscillation between East and West, which was tearing me apart.

"I have this wonderful sense of purgatory, of feeling myself in the boarding lounge of life, with all the experience of the past forty years, both in India and in the West, bristling inside me. I cannot say what it will yield, but it doesn't feel like stasis." Adding that even before the protests over CAA- NRC, he had said that a mountain of anger was coming towards the present regime, Taseer feels that the anger is not strictly confined to the failings of the leadership but also at oneself, for having believed so ardently in the promises of the government.

"When this government is confined to history, we will have to deal with the disappointment of the Indian people. This was a real moment, of trust, and hope, and promise. And it was utterly wasted. Moments like this don't come often in the lives of countries. We will all have to ask ourselves why we were so badly misled, and why this task ahead of us of becoming a certain kind of country, with certain basic modern conditions, cannot be achieved as a mere emanation of spirit. It is not enough to say I love my India. We have allowed ourselves to become an un-serious people." But what really made him leave India for the US? "I met a boy, I fell in love. That was it, really. Wait, no: there was something else, a premonition. If you read 'The Way Things Were', you will see that it is full of a sense of foreboding. On some level, I think I knew, after that Modi election, that an India would come into being where there would not be room for me. I was too exposed. I was a man without a tribe in India, and there is nothing more dangerous." Taseer says that he may never be able to see his 90-year-old grandmother who brought him to India when he was two, and gave him his middle name - Ali.

"And never in all my life did I hear a bad word from her about Muslims, or Pakistanis. Her husband, my nana, had fought wars against Pakistan. He had lost everything at Partition. But it did not poison his view of human beings, or even Muslims in what is now Pakistan.

"I think he saw them, along with himself, as being victims of history, rather than perpetrators. To be civilised in my view (tehzeeb-yafta, yan sabhya) is to recognise the corrosive nature of crude emotions; and, by this reckoning, my grandfather was the image of refinement. He never let what was base corrupt his mandala. I have always thought of that core of stillness, unmolested by the material world, as being curiously Indian, part of the fullness of what we describe as shunyata."

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Sen. Bernie Sanders tore into 2020 rival Michael Bloomberg at a Las Vegas campaign event Saturday, saying the billionaire and former New York mayor is trying to "buy the presidency" by paying millions of dollars in advertising.

Why it matters: Bloomberg has surged in national polling recently, having poured millions of dollars into campaign ads largely targeting Trump. His candidacy has become an obvious foil for Sanders, whose grassroots campaign railing against billionaires and the establishment has vaulted him to front-runner status.

A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted.

What he's saying: At the event, Sanders also said, "We will not create the energy and excitement we need to defeat Trump if that candidate pursued, advocated for, and enacted, racist policies like stop-and-frisk, which caused communities of color in his city to live in fear. We will not defeat Donald Trump with a candidate who in 2015 stated, and I quote: I, for example, am not in favor, have never been in favor of raising the minimum wage.

We will not defeat Donald Trump with a candidate who opposed modest proposals during Barack Obamas presidency to raise taxes on the wealthy, while advocating for cuts to Medicare and Social Security. We will not defeat Donald Trump with a candidate who, instead of holding the crooks on Wall Street accountable, blamed the end of the racist policies such as red-lining for the financial crisis. Mayor Bloomberg with all his money, will not create the kind of excitement and energy we need to have the voter turnout we must have to defeat Donald Trump."

 Bernie Sanders, per the WashPost's Dave Weigel

The big picture: Bloomberg is not on the ballot in Nevada, which will host its caucuses next Saturday. He does, however, have a chance to qualify for the Las Vegas debate on Feb. 19, which would mark the first time he and his 2020 competitors would face off in person.

Go deeper:

Editor's note: This article has been updated with more details from Sanders' speech.
US and Iraqi military officials say rockets hit the capitals heavily fortified Green Zone with minor damage reported.

Several rockets landed near the embassy of the United States in Iraqs capital early on Sunday, US and Iraqi military officials said, in the latest of a series of attacks against US assets in the country.

The rockets struck an Iraqi base hosting US troops and other coalition forces in Baghdads heavily fortified Green Zone, an area that is home to foreign embassies and government offices.

According to Colonel Myles B Caggins III, a spokesman for the US military operation in Iraq, the attack  which took place just before 3:30am (00:30 GMT)  caused no casualties and only minor damage.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Iraqs military said three Katyusha rockets landed inside the Green Zone, while a fourth hit a different neighbourhood, striking a logistics base operated by the Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation Forces, a military network officially incorporated into the Iraqi state.

Frequent attacks

Rocket attacks, which the US blames on Iran-backed militias within the Hashd al-Shaabi, have frequently landed near and sometimes on the US embassy, which is next to the base.

Sundays attack came just hours after one of the Hashds Iran-backed factions, Harakat al-Nujaba, announced a countdown to ejecting American forces from the country.

The factions leader Akram al-Kaabi tweeted a photograph of what he claimed was an American military vehicle, adding: We are closer than you think.

The attack was the latest in a recent series of rocket and mortar attacks on Iraqi bases housing US troops. On Thursday, a mortar shell exploded in the K1 Iraqi military airbase in Kirkuk province in northern Iraq. No casualties were reported, Iraqi security officials said.

Last month, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution calling for an end to the presence of foreign troops linked to the US-led alliance fighting the ISIL (ISIS) group in the country. There are currently approximately 5,000 US troops stationed in Iraq.

The resolution came after a US drone attack in Baghdad killed top Iranian commander, General Qassem Soleimani; it later prompted Iranian missile attacks against Iraqi military bases housing US personnel. Dozens of US military personnel were wounded in the attacks.
Furniture, like fashion, always has its moment in the sun. Some items from the 1970s through to the 1990s are now setting new benchmarks at auction houses around the world.

Furniture by designers such as Marc Newson, an Australian now based in Britain and represented by the prestigious Gargosian Galleries in London, can fetch eye-watering auction numbers.

A limited-edition Marc Newson Lockheed Lounge, as seen the Madonna video for Rain.

Newson's first 10 furniture designs were exhibited at Sydneys Roslyn Oxley Gallery in 1984.

In 2015, Madonna purchased Newsons limited-edition metal Lockheed Lounge for more than 2.4 million ($4.6 million), after "trying it out" in her video hit Rain.
Billionaire Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg once told a female employee struggling to find childcare to hire 'some black,' according to a 1998 lawsuit.

'It's a f***ing baby! All it does is eat and s**t! It doesn't know the difference between you and anyone else! All you need is some black who doesn't have to speak English to rescue it from a burning building,' Bloomberg said in July 1993 to a female salesperson who'd just had a baby, according to the lawsuit.

The woman responded by crying at her boss's harsh words, according to the lawsuit, which is the subject of a new report by the Washington Post.

The incident is one of many descriptions of sexist and demeaning remarks compiled in a lawsuit filed against Bloomberg and his financial information company in 1998 by Sekiko Sakai Garrison.

Bloomberg is seen at his company's television studios in 1994. A resurfaced lawsuit claims that he made cruel remarks to women who worked for him in the 1990s

The central claim in the lawsuit is that when Bloomberg learned on April 11, 1995, that Garrison was pregnant, he allegedly said to her, 'Kill it!'

Garrison asked Bloomberg to repeat what he said, and she said he responded, 'Kill it! Great! Number 16!,' which she took as a reference to the number of pregnant women and new mothers at the company, according to the lawsuit.

Sekiko Sakai Garrison (above) filed the lawsuit in 1998. It was settled out of court

Garrison said in the suit that she interpreted Bloomberg's remark as an instruction to 'have an abortion to keep her job.'

The case was settled out of court, and Bloomberg denied that he had made the cruel remark, insisting that his comment had been misheard or the context mangled.

A spokesperson for Bloomberg's campaign did not immediately respond to an inquiry from DailyMail.com regarding the alleged 'some black' remark.

The old lawsuit, and others regarding discrimination complaints at Bloomberg LP, are the subject of fresh scrutiny as Bloomberg's presidential campaign faces hard questions about the former New York City mayor's ability to win over black voters.

As mayor, Bloomberg presided over sharp drops in crime that continued from the term of his predecessor, Rudy Giuliani, and was a strong advocate of 'stop-and-frisk' policies.

Bloomberg credited stop-and-frisk with getting illegal guns off the streets and dramatically reducing shootings, but his critics decry it as a racist policy that targeted black and Hispanic youth.

Earlier this week, Bloomberg tried to tackle race concerns head on by launching a 'Mike For Black America' outreach initiative.

Bloomberg rallied black supporters in Texas on Thursday, with his sights set on so-called 'Super Tuesday' on March 3, when voters in 16 states and territories will cast their ballots in the Democratic primary.

'This month, we look back and celebrate black history together, because black history is American history,' Bloomberg said at the Buffalo Soldiers museum, named after a Civil War regiment of African-American soldiers, where he kicked off his 'Mike for Black America' campaign.

On Thursday he again apologized for backing arbitrary 'stop-and-frisk' searches by the New York police when he was mayor.

'I defended it, looking back, for too long, because I didn't understand then the unintended pain it was causing to young black and brown families and their kids'.

Bloomberg had already apologized over the scandal, but it surfaced again after a recording was spread widely on social media -- and retweeted by Trump -- in which he said police should be deployed to minority neighborhoods because 'that's where all the crime is.'

He received the support Thursday of the influential, black Democratic mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner.

'It's important for me to hear the recognition that the policy that was put in place was not the right policy, that it was flawed, that it was insensitive,' Turner said.
16.02.2020 LISTEN

'Africa has the richest concentration of natural resources such as oil, copper, diamonds, bauxite, lithium, gold, hardwood forests, and tropical fruits. It is estimated that 30% of the earth's mineral resources are found in the African continent. Additionally, Africa has the world's biggest precious metal reserves on earth. Despite the wealth of natural resources, Africa still lags in development due to corruption and resource mismanagement'-according to World Atlas, August 2018.

Despite the wealth of the African continent, its' states continue to struggle to meet the basic needs of its people. Africans still struggle for basic, fundamental necessities such as good drinking water and food despite its excellent fertile lands that support year-round food production. Africa's annual food import bill is currently estimated at $35 billion, estimated to rise to $110 billion by 2025 (Adesina 2017).

Part of the reasons argued over the years for Africa's current weakened, failed or failing systems have been attributed to leadership failure, mismanagement, corruption, and exploitation. In most African states, leaders are often accused of amassing huge wealth for themselves at the expense of the poor masses who live at the mercy of poverty, hunger, and diseases. Others have been cited for corruption, greed and poor management of their economies.

All these reasons are re-echoed by the media, as accusations of corruption and poor leadership are discussed daily in the media from the news, morning shows, and discussion programs. For over 50 years, many development programs have been pursued in an attempt to redeem the sinking African economy. Notable among these policies is the Millennium development goals, Poverty Reduction Strategies 1&2, HiPC, Sustainable development goals among others.

Despite the lucrative contents of these numerous development strategies, none of them have been able to move Africa from a state of stagnation to a state of development. In fact, some scholars have argued that these policies have rather contributed to Africa's deepened stagnation, if not backward development. This seeming retrogression in the face of excellent development policies have led some scholars to suggest that 'if development were a seed, it will never grow in Africa' -Dr.Adu-Bempah Brobbey (Personal communication, November 2020).

In the light of these arguments and the wealth of the African continent, it is critical to attempt new questions in the light of the helplessness posture of African leaders. These questions, of course, stem from the seeming helpless uniformity posture of all African leaders in the face of the glaring suffering and cry of their citizens for improved lives. The questions seek to look beyond the normal rhetoric and theories offered as an explanation of the obvious failure of the African continent in terms of development.

The questions are based on the assumption that all African leaders campaigned to their fellow citizens for an opportunity to lead them out of poverty and suffering. Yet, once in power, they seem to appear helpless, hopeless, clueless and unconcerned about the plight of the ordinary citizens whose cause they swore to advance.

 Are African leaders so wicked that they simply do not want to replicate the great systems and development they witness in the developed states they visit?

 Is it a case of simple wickedness or they simply do not care about the plight of their people?

 Is something holding African leaders from pursing real development in their countries?

 Why do African leaders seem to have the best of antidote in opposition only to look helpless in power?

 Are there hidden and untold stories and struggles of the African leader?

 Why are African leaders quiet?

 Why do they seem so HELPLESS?

 Are there answers to these questions?

These questions may seem difficult to answer but we must start thinking about them and begin a conversation around them. For over 50 years, we have been resounding the same blames-corruption, leadership failure, greed, etc. These cannot be the only problems contributing to the underdevelopment of the African state-for these are also present in other equally developed states, although not as phenomenal comparatively.

It is time to begin a relook at the contributing factors to Africa's underdevelopment predicament by asking new questions and subjecting our interrogations beyond the old constructs that have been created over the years.

A new Africa requires a new questioning paradigm and we must be ready to attempt this difficult but thought-provoking enquiry.
More than 300 people gathered for a peaceful demonstration in Saint-Amarin, in the east of France on Saturday. They were protesting against lynx poaching after one of the animals was shot in the Ballon des Vosges in the middle of January.

A further 800 have registered to join a Facebook group created following the shooting. Many members of the Facebook group participated in the march.

Lynx protest

The protest comes on the foot of an initiative by two women from Saint-Amarin who mobilized on social networks with the Facebook page: Ma Thur Sauvage.

A statement on the Facebook page reads:

This is too much! We can't keep silent any longer... It is our duty to make the voices of those who refuse to let more murders be committed heard!

One lynx too many has been killed! Yes, one too many. There was a lynx in that beautiful valley...

But he's no longer [with us] And it has to stop!

If you're one of those people who want to see the wilderness live and flourish, then you've come to the right place.

We are simple individuals, from no political background, from no side, except for the respect of the fauna and flora.

To gather enough people here to organize a walk in the Thur Valley to get our message heard. But, above all, to make the voice of those who unfortunately cannot defend themselves heard."

A judicial inquiry has been opened to try to find the perpetrator of the killing of the animal.

An autopsy revealed "the probable origin of the animal's death by firearm".

The lynx, discovered dead on 16 January, is described as an adult male specimen that was not known to the services of the French Office of Biodiversity under the national monitoring program.

Proteced animal.

The species, which is protected, has been the target of a national action plan since 2018, although the plan has still to be finalised.

According to the 30 Million Friends Foundation, while 21 lynx were reintroduced between 1983 and 1993 in the Vosges, the species has almost disappeared again as the department has only four or five individuals, including three from the reintroduction programme carried out on the other side of the border, in Germany.

The Foundation claims that poaching which has been rampant since 2010 in the Vosges, the Jura and the Alps, has been responsible for the decline in numbers and is calling on the public authorities to "take their responsibilities by strengthening criminal repression" against poachers.

The lynx is the only large feline naturally present in France. Conservationists hope that they will be able to save this endangered species, despite the fact that there are only about one hundred individuals alive in the wild.
US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Saturday launched a string of attacks against China at the 2020 Munich Security Conference, claiming that China has posed challenges to the world by "manipulation of the long-standing international, rules-based order."

His accusations are completely groundless. China has always been an advocate of multilateralism as it pursues a community with a shared future for mankind. In contrast, the US is the true challenger to the current world order.

US President Donald Trump's administration has formulated and implemented foreign policies under the guidance of the "America First" doctrine, placing its own interests above those of all others. In addition, Washington has withdrawn from several international organizations and treaties, as it believes those mechanisms no longer benefit the US itself. All of these moves have greatly disrupted the existing international order.

Esper also accused China of "more predatory economic practices" and "a more aggressive military posture" which is "most concerning" for him. Regarding China's economic activities, he accused China of stealing the intellectual property of Western countries. The fact is that many US companies provided China with technologies on their own initiative in exchange for entering the Chinese market. Only recently have they started to make unfounded charges.

In terms of China's military, this is not the first time Esper has accused China of "military expansion." In December 2019, a spokesman for China's Ministry of National Defense responded to his previous remarks, saying, "If someone insists on forcing China into being a competitor, then China will certainly be a formidable one." Washington needs to reflect on its own military behavior. For instance, the Trump administration has established the US Space Force, sparking an arms race in space. Such examples are numerous, giving the US no grounds to find faults with China. The US itself has long sought superiority and has militarized its foreign relations.

Since Trump assumed office, US policy toward China has seen an obvious adjustment. It has turned into one that underlines great power competition. High-ranking US officials would miss no opportunity to smear China at international arenas. At the just ended Munich Security Conference, Esper again called on Europe and other countries to "wake up" to China's threat. It's obvious that Washington has put great efforts into targeting China, hoping its European allies will help it impede China. At NATO's 70th anniversary summit from December 3 to 4, 2019, the US also attempted to unite its allies by hyping China as a major threat.

These nefarious efforts by Esper and other US officials are futile. From my perspective, Europe is indeed waking up, but not to some make-believe China threat. It is becoming aware of the weakness of its own strength, and that it has been overly dependent on the US. Recent remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have implied that Europe should be more independent and enhance its own power base. I believe the continent will stop pinning its hope on the US and start relying more on itself.

The 2020 Munich Security Conference was focused on "westlessness." A major cause of "westlessness" is the divergence within the Western camp. With the rise of populism and unilateralism inside the US, the traditional values of Europe have suffered huge impacts. As some European scholars put forward, the US has posed many more threats to the West than China or Russia.

In response to Esper's arbitrary accusations, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi refuted that Esper and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "say the same thing about China wherever they go," and laid bare that their words are only lies. He also appealed to all countries to practice multilateralism and get rid of the old divisions that separate the West and the East.

It is believed that with China's development and its increasingly significant role in the international community, the world will gradually cast off prejudice, manage differences through cooperation, and eventually build a community with a shared future for humanity.

The author is an assistant research fellow with the Institute of American Studies of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
The Jewish fashion pioneer changed the way women dressed and did business.

Lena Himmelstein, a 16-year-old Jewish orphan from Lithuania, arrived alone in New York City in 1895. Lena sewed dresses. She married David Bryant, a Russian Jewish immigrant, and had a baby boy, Raphael.

David died suddenly a month after Raphael was born. Lena would hold him on her lap while she sewed late into the night.

She was very successful and opened her own shop in 1904. The bank loan misspelled her name as Lane. She didnt correct the error and kept Lane Bryant as her business name.

In 1907, Lena designed one of the first ever maternity dresses. At the time, pregnant women were rarely seen in public. But a generation of modern, working women wanted the freedom to wear comfortable clothes during pregnancy. Lena designed an elastic-waist maternity dress for a pregnant customer. An instant hit, it became her bestselling item.

Lena married Albert Maslin in 1909. He ran Lenas business while she focused on design. They had two children together, Theodore and Helen.

When the New York Herald broke conformity and ran an ad for Lenas maternity clothes in 1911, her supply sold out the next day. To reach customers, Lane Bryant started one of the first mail-order catalogs. It became one of the nations most popular catalogs.

Lena then designed stylish, plus-sized clothing, changing the way American women dressed.

Lena and Albert opened the first Lane Bryant store in Chicago in 1915, appealing to women of all sizes. Within 50 years, there were 100 Lane Bryant stores across the US.

When Albert died in 1923, Lena pioneered new ways of doing business. Her workers had employee benefits, rare in the early 1900s. They enjoyed health insurance, pensions, disability, life insurance and profit sharing.

After World War II, Lane Bryant stores became drop-off and distribution centers for needy people in Europe, including Holocaust survivors living in Displaced Persons camps.

Lena insisted that Lane Bryant replace the wardrobe of any customer who experienced a natural disaster.

Lena was active in supporting American Jewish causes, including the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and the NY Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. She died in 1951 at the age of 71. Her children continued Lane Bryants ethos of stylish fashion for all. Lenas legacy is a testament to her values, faith and determination to help others.
WASHINGTON  More than 1,100 former federal prosecutors and Justice Department officials called on Attorney General William Barr on Sunday to step down after he intervened last week to lower the Justice Departments sentencing recommendation for President Donald Trumps longtime friend Roger Stone.

They also urged current government employees to report any signs of unethical behavior at the Justice Department to the agencys inspector general and to Congress.

Each of us strongly condemns President Trumps and Attorney General Barrs interference in the fair administration of justice, the former Justice Department lawyers, who came from across the political spectrum, wrote in an open letter Sunday. Those actions, they said require Mr. Barr to resign.

The sharp denunciation of Barr underlined the extent of the fallout over the case of Stone, capping a week that strained the attorney generals relationship with his rank and file, and with the president himself.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

After prosecutors on Monday recommended a prison sentence of up to nine years for Stone, who was convicted of obstructing a congressional inquiry, Trump lashed out at federal law enforcement. Senior officials at the department, including Barr, overrode the recommendation the next day with a more lenient one, immediately prompting accusations of political interference, and the four lawyers on the Stone case abruptly withdrew in protest.

The Justice Department said the case had not been discussed with anyone at the White House, but that Trump congratulated Barr on his decision did little to dispel the perception of political influence. And as the president widened his attacks on law enforcement, Barr publicly reproached the president, saying that Trumps statements undermined him as well the department.

I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me, Barr said during a televised interview Thursday with ABC News.

In the days after the interview, Trump has been relatively muted. He said on Twitter that he had not asked Barr to do anything in a criminal case. As president, he added, he had the legal right to do so but had so far chosen not to!

But lawyers across the Justice Department continue to worry about political interference from the president despite public pushback by Barr, long considered a close ally of Trumps.

Protect Democracy, a nonprofit legal group, gathered the signatures from Justice Department alumni and said it would collect more.

In May, Protect Democracy gathered signatures for a letter that said the Mueller report presented enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of justice were that an option. At the close of his investigation, special counsel Robert Mueller declined to indicate whether Trump illegally obstructed justice, citing a decades-old department opinion that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime. That letter was also critical of Barr.

Even as the lawyers condemned Barr on Sunday, they said they welcomed his rebuke of Trump and his assertions that law enforcement must be independent of politics.

But Barrs actions in doing the presidents personal bidding unfortunately speak louder than his words, they said.

The letter comes days after some Democratic senators pressed for Barr to resign, and after the New York City Bar Association said that it had formally reported the attorney generals behavior to the Justice Departments inspector general.

Strikingly, the lawyers called upon current department employees to be on the lookout for future abuses and to be willing to bring oversight to the department.

Be prepared to report future abuses to the inspector general, the Office of Professional Responsibility, and Congress, they wrote, and to refuse to carry out directives that are inconsistent with their oaths of office.

Prosecutors who currently work at the department should withdraw from cases that involve abuses or political interference, the lawyers said.

As a last resort, they asked Justice Department employees to resign and report publicly  in a manner consistent with professional ethics  to the American people the reasons for their resignation.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
A Melbourne mother-of-four has revealed why she does not allow her husband to see her naked  and has done so for six years.

Jessica Hood shared an image to her 'House of Hoods' Instagram page with a meaningful, detailed caption explaining how she lacks body confidence around her husband since having kids.

'From the moment my first born arrived my body has been covered in front of my husband. I'm confident but not with my husband,' she said.

Jessica Hood (pictured with her husband) shared an image to her 'House of Hoods' Instagram page with a detailed caption explaining how she lacks body confidence around her husband since having children

'From the moment my first born arrived my body has been covered in front of my husband. I'm confident but not with my husband,' she said

The 31-year-old fears her husband will see her and 'run away' or will be 'disgusted' and 'turned off'.

'I know it hurts him and although I feel like I'm accepting my body more and more every day, I'm afraid he won't accept it,' she continued.

'He tells me all the time he doesn't care but what if it's different when he actually sees me? All of me? My saggy tummy, my stretch marks, my cellulite, my rolls. I'm not the girl I was when we first met.'

Jessica also revealed they only have sex in the dark, she never gets dressed in front of him and she feels anxious when he touches her stomach.

Jessica revealed they only have sex in the dark, she never gets dressed in front of him and she feels anxious when he touches her stomach

The lengthy caption slowly transforms into a seemingly poetic verse of an emotional plea, as Jessica describes herself as a woman who has lost herself, her identity, her physique and her sparkle since becoming a mother.

While she knows this feeling is common among women, she says 'one day' she will no longer be self-conscious of her flaws and her body.

'But I don't want to feel this way forever. He deserves me. All of me,' she said.

'Just give me time. One day you will get all of me.'

While she knows this feeling is common among women, she says 'one day' she will no longer be self-conscious of her flaws and her body

The confession was praised on social media with many other women saying they too have shield away from their husbands after having children.

'Thank you for putting into words what so many of us struggle to say,' one woman said.

Another added: 'This made me sad. We all have had these insecurities at some point or another, you're not alone. You are beautiful.'
For a fashion industry veteran, Mary Fellowes has some rather surprising views. Forget trends! she exclaims. Forget I must have this brand or this style because everybody else is wearing it. Thats all rubbish! I cant bear it.

Mary, whos in her 40s, is the woman that actresses such as Olivia Colman and Scarlett Johansson turn to when they want to dazzle on and off the red carpet.

Shes on a mission to make such actresses, who dont conform to the stick-insect film-star stereotype, look glamorous, while being comfortable. Shes also determined to make her industry finally recognise the needs of real women with jobs, families and bodies of every shape and size. Fashion should enhance and empower these amazing women. It shouldnt shrink them, she says.

Sitting in her agencys office in Central London, Mary burns with fury at how  in general  the fashion industry ignores middle-aged women. They are its biggest users, women with something to say for themselves, with money to spend, she cries. But so much of the industry still seems to be designed for tall, thin young women.

Mary Fellowes (pictured) who has styled A-list celebrities for red carpet events including the Baftas and Oscars, shared styling advice for midlife women

Grown-up women arent interested in logos and street sportswear, but the big luxury brands are putting all that out there, for the customers who aspire to be the likes of the Kardashians and the Hadids, who dont represent their customers at all. I find it so frustrating, its like theyre a bank that wont allow customers to withdraw money or an insurance company that never pays out.

When it came to finding last years Bafta and Oscar outfits for Colman, 46, whod been nominated for her role as Queen Anne in The Favourite (she won both), Mary was outraged by what was offered to her by many fashion houses.

Olivias an extremely intelligent and profound person, painfully funny, a working mum, very strong, a national treasure. But then you start asking round What have you got in her size and just because somebody has a real body and is not a size zero, Id be sent something a secretary would wear.

She had similar problems when Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie turned to her for styling tips after being pilloried for their outfits at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

They always had to keep their arms covered in the presence of the Queen, but I just couldnt find modern, fashionable, interesting clothes that had sleeves, which is what most women want. The stuff Id be sent was all more suited to a politicians wife.

In the end, Mary had to have virtually every outfit for the princesses custom-made. With Colman, she plumped for a bespoke ivory and black Emilia Wickstead gown for the Baftas and an emerald-green turtle-neck Prada dress with a grey cape for the Oscars.

Key to these looks was feeling relaxed. Ive stood on the red carpet and its an absolutely petrifying experience, with thousands of flashbulbs and people shouting your name. Youre freezing and wearing shoes youre not used to walking in and clothes that probably constrict you, which is horrible. Its all very well to wear clothes that look good on you, but if youre aware of them and cant move freely, youre going to feel very self-conscious and not have a nice day.

Mary was introduced to Olivia Colman by mutual friend Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and went on to style the actress in a bespoke ivory and black Emilia Wickstead gown for the Baftas (pictured)

She was introduced to Olivia by mutual friend Fleabag actress and creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge, 34. Phoebe said, I want you to meet the lady who plays my wicked stepmother [in Fleabag].

Mary had styled Phoebe for various events, most notably dressing her in a black Roland Mouret trouser suit for last years Golden Globes, when actresses wore black on the red carpet as a gesture of support to the #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns. Im very proud of that. It sent such a powerful message to see all those big names wearing black, she says. Fashion should be doing its bit for causes.

Like many women, Phoebe and Olivia arent keen on stilettoes. The maximum heel height both will go is 80mm. They wont go to 100mm, thats too much, she says. Id never encourage them to go higher  if a womans teetering and uncomfortable she cant relax. Most women dont want heels  thats certainly the reality of my life. I dont go everywhere in taxis  I drive a Piaggio moped.

Im astonished to learn from Mary how rigid Hollywoods style parameters are, with even actresses as gorgeous as Scarlett Johansson being considered the wrong shape for designer clothes. (Other clients have included Julianne Moore, Suranne Jones and Elizabeth McGovern, as well as Lashana Lynch, the British star of the upcoming James-Bond film No Time To Die.)

Scarletts tiny, really petite, but also curvaceous and its hard to find designer clothes made for that kind of shape, she says.

Mary who studied at Central St Martins College of Arts, has worked for 11 different international editions of Vogue magazine, pictured: Her client, actress Suranne Jones

Her outspoken, feminist approach to life extends to any questions about her personal life. She wont reveal whether shes married or has children or her precise age  all questions she deems irrelevant. Why cant women be judged on achievements and the scores of other things that make us who we are ? she asks.

Something else she hates to talk about is her extremely pukka background: her uncle is the Queens former private secretary Sir Robert Fellowes, the brother-in-law of Princess Diana and shes distantly related to Downton-Abbey creator Lord Fellowes. Another uncle was the Prince of Waless closest confidant the late Hugh Van Cutsem, and her grandmother inherited one of Britains largest landholdings.

But Mary, who started making her own clothes at the age of five, was always something of a rebel, going through a Goth and punk stage at school  though other days Id dress like a preppy, just because I felt like it. Ive never understood the herd mentality, who says that being on trend makes you more valid? Its so silly! You have to be yourself.

After attending Central St Martins College of Arts, Mary, whos based in London, but travels constantly for her job, assisted legendary stylist Isabella Blow at British Vogue, before working for 11 different international editions of the magazine, including U.S. Vogue under its legendary editor Anna Wintour (one of the most driven women Ive ever met).

Mary encourages her clients to buy fewer, better-quality pieces as she hates throwaway fast fashion, pictured: Her client, actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Mary hates throwaway fast fashion, encouraging her clients to buy fewer, better-quality pieces, ideally second hand. Today shes wearing black vintage trousers with a red vintage Givenchy jacket.

I know charity shops can be a bit dusty and the goods arent merchandised well, but youre bound to find better quality there, she says. I buy things from eBay all the time.

According to Mary, all women look best if they stick to classic, loose tailored clothes. The tailoring is like architecture, it holds your body and creates a nice silhouette and a frame.

A case in point is the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, whom she styled for a magazine shoot when she was still acting in the TV drama Suits, a year before she met Prince Harry. I put her in tailoring by a designer called Charles Harbison and she looked really good in it.

Brands she recommends are for those with cash to splash  Roland Mouret, while in the mid-market, she likes Me & Em. Though shes no fan of disposable High-Street fashion she admits you can occasionally find good tailoring in Reiss and Zara.

Mary said generally bigger actresses care least about fashion, seeing style as superfluous, pictured: Her client, actress Elizabeth McGovern

She adds that many of our best-known actresses are often the ones least interested in fashion. Generally, the bigger the actress is, the less shell care. Shell just be really into her craft and style is secondary and superfluous, something they have to engage with only when theyre promoting a film, she says.

But Mary isnt saying its frivolous to want to look good. I say to all my actresses: You dont have to have great style or wear trendy brands, but you do need to put your best foot forward because when youre well presented, people respond to you differently.

So grateful are these actresses for Marys services that one, whom she refuses to name, burst into tears before stepping on the red carpet. I was horrified, I thought Id done something wrong. I put my arm around her and said Are you all right? Have I done something wrong? She said, I didnt know I could look this good in clothes, I thought my body shape made it impossible.

I see it all the time with women who dont quite fit into that fashion mould. Theyve felt disenfranchised and alienated, they dont think they can ever be fashionable and that theyll always just be given second-best. They get really emotional when they realise this doesnt have to be the case.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Its been obvious for years to commercial real estate broker and dedicated jogger Conor Coakley that Cleveland should have a 3-mile recreational loop connecting the Ohio City neighborhood to downtown via bridges over the Cuyahoga River.

With skyline views and vistas of the Flats along the river, such a route would be a handsome amenity for a Midwest industrial city striving for revitalization.

Last year, Coakley and a team of volunteer executives and architects associated with the Leadership Cleveland program unveiled a proposal showing how such a loop could be created at relatively low cost, in part by re-striping Huron Road behind Tower City Center to create a track for cyclists and runners.

But a recently completed $13 million repaving project omitted a bike path, leaving a 2,200-foot-long gap on the east side of the river between paths that now traverse the Detroit-Superior and Lorain-Carnegie bridges.

Conor Coakley, of Leadership Cleveland, stands on Onstario St. near Huron Rd. Coakley led a proposal in 2019 to create a formal running-bike-recreation path looping downtown's bridges and great skyline views. The city repaved part of Huron Road (indicated by orange barrels to the left of Coakley) without a bike lane.The Plain Dealer

It just gets frustrating that we lose these opportunities, said Ward 12 Councilman Tony Brancatelli, chair of City Councils Development, Planning and Sustainability Committee.

Reviewing performance

The failure to create a downtown loop is an example of the mixed record of Mayor Frank Jacksons administration in observing the citys 2011 Complete and Green Streets ordinance, Brancatelli and others say.

Modeled on similar initiatives in cities across the country, the legislation takes the view that streets can do much more than merely move traffic. Thats especially true in Cleveland, a city in which declining population has left streets oversized in relation to the diminished traffic loads they carry.

The ordinance authorized repaving or road reconstruction projects to include bike lanes and pedestrian amenities such as wheelchair ramps and bump outs at intersections, which shorten walking distances across streets. It also called for green infrastructure, which can add shade and soak up storm runoff, while beautifying streets.

But the legislation lacked mechanisms to require action or transparency, said Ward 3 Councilman Kerry McCormack, whose ward includes downtown and Ohio City.

Instead, he said, the administration has made too many decisions on street projects in-house, sometimes without consulting neighborhoods or council representatives far enough in advance to enable changes in design.

Observers say the only project to receive a full complete and green treatment since 2011 is the mile-long, $8.5 million reconstruction of Fleet Avenue in Slavic Village, in Brancatellis Ward, completed in 2016.

Lost opportunities

Bike Cleveland, the citys leading advocacy group for bicyclists, with over 1,000 members, compiled a map last year detailing missed opportunities. It shows that of 66 repaving projects completed on 78 miles of major streets since 2012, 19 projects totaling nearly 23 miles, or 29.5%, didnt get bike paths and received only minimal complete and green elements.

Those projects included portions of Lakeside Avenue, East 9th Street, Pearl Road, East 55th Street, Cedar Road and Woodland Avenue.

Elsewhere, bike lanes created by the city are uneven in design quality or have failed so far to create a network, said Jacob VanSickle, Bike Clevelands executive director.

If youre not thinking in terms of a network, youre not going to get people out riding, and its all for naught, VanSickle said.

As for design, Van Sickle and other critics point to a 2015 repaving project on West 25th Street that included bike lanes between Bridge and Detroit avenues with buffered zones at the curb, guiding bicycles to ride closer to traffic instead of farther away. (A buffered zone is striped to indicate that riders and cars should stay out).

Of the citys record on complete and green streets, McCormack said: Legislation is useless unless its producing the results in the community it is intended to produce.

Revision in the works

The councilman plans to introduce revisions to the ordinance this spring that would create an oversight commission, with a majority of appointments made by Council. Members would include representatives of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District and the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, which guides federal and state spending on transportation in the region.

Darnell Brown, the citys chief operating officer, and Freddy Collier, its planning director, disputed the criticisms in an interview Wednesday.

They said the city deserves more credit for what it has accomplished in recent years by repaving streets and adding nearly all 70 miles of bike routes specified in its 2007 Bikeway Master Plan. Additional bike routes will be considered as part of a comprehensive city plan update beginning in 2021, Collier said.

Brown said the administration collaborates with residents, outside agencies and members of council on street projects.

Response to critique

We cant reconstruct or redo a street or resurface a street without going over to Council and getting a piece of legislation passed, he said. Theres always lots of advance notice on when these things are occurring.

Road projects differ in scope and scale, and that some are more appropriate for complete and green elements than others, he said.

McCormack, Brancatelli and other observers said in the administrations favor that it has worked hard on certain projects to follow the streets ordinance.

The administration has included a bike path as part of the upcoming Opportunity Corridor boulevard. It is spearheading a project to transform more than 2 miles of Superior Avenue from Public Square to East 55th Street with the $16 million Midway, the first leg of a proposed citywide system of bicycle thoroughfares that would occupy parts of streets once used by streetcars. Construction could begin in 2021.

A similar project on Lorain Avenue, would extend a cycle track from West 20th to West 65th Street and could start as soon as 2022.

Not all such projects need to be costly. In 2017, bike enthusiasts applauded the city for spending $81,000 to add bike lanes to the Detroit Superior Bridge, including an eastbound lane separated from traffic by curbs, stripes and delineator posts.

Vision Zero

Also on the plus side, the Jackson administration is participating on the Vision Zero traffic safety task force created in 2018 by City Council, headed by Ward 15 Councilman Matt Zone.

The project takes inspiration from a global movement launched in Sweden in 1995, aimed at shifting responsibility for safety from road users to road designers.

Zone said the group will soon seek a consultant to study how the city can improve its practices.

The Vision Zero group also has provided feedback on the proposed revisions to the complete and green street ordinance, McCormack said. But he wants to have the new legislation adopted now, not after the Vision Zero task force completes its work.

I dont want to wait for a consultant to come on board, and for months and months and months to go by before we have this conversation, he said.

Coakley, meanwhile, still regrets that the Huron Road rehab failed to incorporate the concept for a loop trail.

A 2019 rendering by the Cleveland architecture firm of AoDK Inc., Architecture depicts a concept for a portion of a proposed downtown recreational loop for cyclists and joggers that would connect downtown to Ohio City. Advocates say Cleveland missed the opportunity to create a portion of the new trail on a recently repaved section of Huron Road behind Tower City Center. They'd like to see the city's "Complete and Green Streets" ordinance updated to improve the chances that such projects could become a reality.AoDK Architects

He said he consulted most property owners along the proposed 3-mile loop last year, and they were enthusiastic about the idea.

Everyone was like, hey this is great what can we do?  he said. But he said the Jackson administration never gave it serious consideration.

When asked whether hed agree to discuss the proposal, Brown said, Im still willing to meet if they want to meet.

Read more:

Red Line Greenway trail shows great promise

Beacon apartment towers facade most visually dynamic architecture in new downtown skyline

Sherwin-Williams new HQ should create positive ripples downtown
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Linkedin Rizal Harahap (The Jakarta Post) Pekanbaru  Sun, February 16, 2020 09:47 695 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2064cd92a 1 National elephant,elephant-poaching,Riau,TessoNilo,calf,treatment Free

After two months of treatment for injuries caused by a poachers snare, 3-year-old elephant calf Puan Pandan Wangi died on Friday morning at the Minas Elephant Training Center in Siak regency, Riau.

Spokesperson Dian Indriati of the Riau Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA Riau) said that officials at Tesso Nilo National Park in Pelalawan regency had rescued the calf in December after they found her with severe foot injuries from a trap.

Puan's condition had initially improved, but started declining mid-month.

She refused to drink the milk," said Dian. The veterinary team resumed treatment on Thursday, giving her intravenous fluids and vitamins to [try and] improve her condition.

However, the 101-kilogram calf continued to refuse to feed and died at 6 a.m. on Friday, she said.

The body of Puan Pandan Wangi, the three-years-old baby elephant, was laying on the ground at Minas Elephant Training Center. Puan died on Friday morning (Feb. 14) after receiving medical treatment for the past two months. She suffered from serious injury after trapped in poachers snare. (Courtesy of Riau BKSDA/-)

The veterinary team immediately performed a necropsy to determine the cause of the elephants death.

She had developed a digestive disorder, so her nutrient absorption was disrupted. This could be seen in changes in her internal organs, Dian said.

Read also: Wild female elephant found dead in Riau

Puan was part of a herd of wild elephants that live in Tesso Nilo National Park. Her foot became trapped in a snare as her herd was passing through an industrial forest in Pandan Wangi village of Peranap district, Indragiri Hulu regency. The forest concession is managed by PT Rimba Peranap Indah.

The young calf struggled to free herself from the trap, nearly severing her foot in the process, and she was eventually abandoned by her herd.

Upon receiving a report from the public on Dec. 16, 2019, officials from Riau BKSDA located Puan, freed her from the trap and transported her to the Minas elephant center for treatment. (hol)
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The World Health Organization is warning against spreading coronavirus conspiracy, but that didnt stop Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) on Fox News.

Cotton said on Fox Newss Sunday Morning Futures, We also know that just a few miles away from that food market is Chinas only biosafety level four super laboratory that researches human infectious diseases. Now, we dont have evidence that this disease originated there, but because of Chinas duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning, we need to at least ask the question to see where the evidence is, and China right now is not giving any evidence on that question at all.

When asked what they do at the superlab, Cotton said it is unclear.

Video:

This is incredibly dangerous  a conspiracy theory, costumed as a question; and an interviewer unprepared or unwilling to push back with facts. pic.twitter.com/8XqCoVmnl7  David Gura (@davidgura) February 16, 2020

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, I would also like to speak briefly about the importance of facts, not fear. People must have access to accurate information to protect themselves and othersAt the WHO were not just battling the virus, were also battling the trolls and conspiracy theories that undermine our response.

Tom Cotton and Fox News are part of the conspiracy theorists and trolls that the WHO has to battle against. Cotton is suggesting that the virus started in a Chinese military lab with zero evidence to back up his questions.

The theory itself is ridiculous, and it is brain-melting that both a sitting US Senator and a US television network could be so irresponsible.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: As allegations of high level corruption in Gandhi Hospital get murkier, Health Minister Eatala Rajender conducted a review meeting and said that authorities have been ordered to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident and submit a report. Dr Vasanth Kumar, a casualty medical officer from Gandhi Hospital, alleged that a substantial number of house surgeons managed to get certificates without doing internship, putting Dr Shravan Kumar, superintendent, Gandhi Hospital in the eye of the storm.

This allegation has been levied by multiple activists, senior doctors and even students in the past.

While most medical colleges have installed biometric systems to record attendances and the time spent in each shift, this issue still seems to plague top government medical colleges. However, superintendents do not seem to have any new provisions in place to tackle the issue. Speaking to Express, Dr B Nagender, superintendent of Gandhi Hospital said, We currently have a biometric system only for tracking attendance for centrally posted house surgeons. We also get postings from other peripheral colleges whose attendances are recorded manually.

He continued, The students who joined in 2014, will be completing their session in March this year. The last day to complete all administrative work with regards to internship is February 25. If any lapses are noticed, the student will be asked to redo their entire internship, and no clearance certificate will be provided. While, admitting that there have been loopholes previously, especially due to the manual entry of attendance, he said, From 2014 onwards, the students sign an undertaking that puts the onus on them to have the required attendance. The health minister also added, Action will be taken against whoever is found guilty of any scam. Practical knowledge is important for medical students, which is why 100 per cent of internship attendance is required. Superintendents will no longer have the privilege to provide leeway for any student who does not fulfil the attendance mark.
Multiple rockets hit a U.S.-led coalition base near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad early on February 16, causing little damage and no injuries, a U.S. military officer said.



Colonel Myles B. Caggins III, a spokesman for the U.S. military operation in Iraq, said the attack occurred just before 3:30 a.m. local time.



Warning sirens blared across the embassy compound, but it was not known where all of the missiles struck or how many were fired. The embassy is next to a coalition military base.



An AFP correspondent reported hearing multiple strong explosions followed by aircraft circling near the Green Zone, the high-security area of the city where diplomatic sites, including the U.S. Embassy, are located.



So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the shelling, the latest in a series of attacks targeting the Green Zone.



Washington blames Iran-backed militias for a series of rocket attacks on U.S. assets in Iraq.



The militias have vowed revenge following a January 3 U.S. air strike near Baghdad that killed Major General Qasem Soleimani, the leader of Iran's elite Quds Force, along with a senior commander of an Iran-backed Iraqi militia and several other people.



In response to Soleimani's killing, Tehran launched missile strikes on two bases hosting U.S. troops in Iraq. The Pentagon says 109 U.S. service members have been diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injuries following the attack on the Ain Al-Asad air base in western Iraq, though no one was killed.

Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and dpa
Boris Johnson was facing a full-frontal Cabinet rebellion today over the appointment of Dominic Cummings's controversial new aide.

Ministers and their special advisers are flatly refusing to work with Andrew Sabisky, 27, after he was found to have advocated extreme positions to enforce teenage contraception.

The self-described 'super-forecaster' who answered Number 10's call for 'weirdos and misfits' also likened women's sport to the Paralympics.

His position at the heart of government has sparked such fury in Westminster that ministers are prepared to boycott meetings with Mr Sabisky and stonewall all communication.

They will also demand the Prime Minister overrules his top aide and sacks Mr Sabisky - setting the stage Mr Cummings's first major slap down since he began ruling the roost in Downing Street.

'How f***ing dumb is this 'super-forecaster,' a source hitting out at the new hiring told Buzzfeed.

Andrew Sabisky answered Dominic Cummings's call for 'weirdos and misfits' to take jobs in Number 10

Ministers will demand the Prime Minister overrules his top aide and sacks Mr Sabisky - setting the stage Mr Cummings's first major slap down since he began ruling the roost in Downing Street

The self-described likened women's sport to the Paralympics as well as found to have advocated extreme positions to enforce teenage contraception

Another asked why officials had not trawled through Mr Sabisky's background to check for anything which could cause the government embarrassment.

In 2014, he wrote on Mr Cummings's website: 'One way to get around the problems of unplanned pregnancies creating a permanent underclass would be to legally enforce universal uptake of long-term contraception at the onset of puberty. Vaccination laws give it a precedent, I would argue.'

On another blog post discussing female genital mutilation, he claimed: 'It is still unclear to what extent FGM represents a serious risk to young girls, raised in the UK, of certain minority group origins. Much of the hue and cry looks more like a moral panic.'

The Cambridge graduate, who is a government contractor rather than a fully-fledged SpAd, has deleted several tweets, including one dismissing female Labour politicians Yvette Cooper, Angela Rayner and Rebecca Long Bailey as 'dim'.

In another tweet, Mr Sabisky said: 'I am always straight up in saying that women's sport is more comparable to the Paralympics than it is to men's.'

Boris Johnson's first cabinet meeting following his reshuffle on Thursday which saw the resignation of Sajid Javid

Since his appointment, Cambridge graduate Mr Sabisky has deleted several tweets, including one dismissing female Labour politicians Yvette Cooper, Angela Rayner and Rebecca Long Bailey as 'dim'

Downing Street tonight declined to comment on the reports of a Cabinet revolt.

Mr Cummings, the architect of the Vote Leave campaign in 2016, has imprinted his style as a political maverick on Whitehall since becoming Mr Johnson's right-hand man in July.

But special advisers are becoming increasingly disgruntled at how he treats them - before Thursday's reshuffle he joked that not all of them would be in the next day's meeting.

Mr Cummings is also believed to have masterminded the resignation of Sajid Javid as chancellor by making his political survival conditional on sacking his entire team of advisers - which had been locked in a briefing war with Number 10.

Downing Street's chief strategist has also caused concern in Labour's ranks.

Leadership frontrunner Sir Keir Starmer today warned against the growing reach of the unelected political appointee.

He told Sky's Sophy Ridge: We see the same old divisions in the Tory party and Dominic Cummings is just getting more and more power.

'I know Boris Johnson doesn't much like coming to Parliament, he does at least come for PMQs, I think we're going to have to have DCQs for Dominic Cummings before too long because he is actually holding all the power and how do we hold him accountable?'
Move would be a reversal of past US administrations which have supported US companies sales to Chinas aviation sector.

The United States government is considering whether to stop General Electric Co from continuing to supply engines for a new Chinese passenger jet, according to people familiar with the matter, casting uncertainty over Chinas efforts to enter the civil aviation market.

The potential restriction on the engine sales  possibly along with limits on other components for Chinese commercial aircraft such as flight control systems made by Honeywell International Inc  is the latest move in the battle between the worlds two largest economies over trade and technology.

The issue is expected to come up at an interagency meeting about how strictly to limit exports of US technology to China on Thursday and at another meeting with members of President Donald Trumps cabinet set for February 28, sources told the Reuters News Agency.

The White House and the US Commerce Department, which issues licenses for such exports, declined to comment, as did a GE spokeswoman. The departments of Defense, State, Energy and Treasury did not respond to requests for comment.

For years, the US has supported American companies business with Chinas budding civil aviation industry.

The government has provided licences that allow those companies to sell engines, flight control systems and other components for Chinas first large commercial aircraft, the COMAC C919. The narrow-body jet has already engaged in test flights and is expected to go into service next year. COMAC is an acronym for Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd.

But GE has received licenses for the LEAP engines since 2014 and was last granted one in March 2019.

The CFM LEAP engine is a joint venture between GE and Frances Safran Aircraft Engines. The proposal to halt the deliveries of the engines was also reported on Saturday by the Wall Street Journal.

Safran did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and French government officials could not be reached for comment.

Flight control systems

Aside from aircraft engines, flight control systems are up for discussion at the February meetings. Honeywell International has received licences to export flight control systems to COMAC for the C919 for about a decade, and one was approved in early 2020, according to a person familiar with the matter.

But future permission for such sales for COMACs passenger aircraft may be up for debate. Honeywell also has been seeking a licence for flight control technology to participate in the development of the C929, Chinas planned wide-body jet venture with Russia, the person said.

The flight control system operates moving mechanical parts, such as the wing flaps, from the cockpit.

A spokeswoman for Honeywell declined to comment.

An aerospace trade group official said his organisation would like to weigh in on any policy shifts.

If there are any changes, we would hope they would engage with us, as theyve done before, said Remy Nathan, vice president for international affairs at the Aerospace Industries Association.

At the heart of the debate over a possible crackdown on the sale of US parts to Chinas nascent aircraft industry is whether such shipments would fuel the rise of a serious competitor to US-based Boeing Co or boost Chinas military capabilities.

People familiar with the matter said some administration officials are concerned China could reverse engineer some items, though others say an abundance of LEAP engines in China has not brought that about to date.

If the US were to move ahead with the measure, one person familiar with the matter said, China could retaliate by ordering more planes from Airbus SE, rather than crisis-hit Boeing, which relies on China for a fourth its deliveries.

The Trump administrations meetings about technology issues also are set to include a discussion of whether to impose further restrictions on suppliers to Huawei Technologies, the worlds largest telecommunications equipment maker, which is on a US trade blacklist.
Countries around the world are taking measures to stem the spread of the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19, as the death toll continues to rise.

This page has updates from Feb. 16. For updates from Feb. 17, click here.

Top US Doctor: COVID Could Become Global Pandemic

A top official at the U.S. National Institutes of Health said the outbreak of COVID-19 is on the verge of turning into a global pandemic unless efforts to curb its spread become more fruitful.

Technically speaking, the [World Health Organization] wouldnt be calling this a global pandemic. But it certainly is on the verge of that happening reasonably soon unless containment is more successful than it is right now, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CBS News on Sunday.

As of Sunday, about two-dozen countries have more than 500 cases, he said. Several of them, are starting to get to the second and third transmission, Fauci said, adding that a pandemic means that there are several countries with sustained transmission from person to person to person.

Defense Department Prepared to Receive Evacuees

The U.S. Department of Defense confirmed to news outlets on Sunday that it will receive hundreds of Americans who are being held in quarantine for COVID-19 at two military bases.

The Defense Department is prepared to receive two Department of State-chartered evacuation flights from Japan, carrying passengers evacuated from the cruise ship Diamond Princess, currently docked in Tokyo, the Defense Department said.

One of the planes will land at Travis Air Force Base in California. The other will land at Kelly Field/Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, officials said.

Those evacuees will have to undergo a 14-day quarantine under the supervision of the Centers for Disease Control.

First Death in Taiwan

A taxi driver has died from COVID-19 in Taiwan, marking the first such death on the island and the fifth fatality outside mainland China from an epidemic that has curbed travel and disrupted global supply chains.

Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said during a news conference on Sunday that the deceased person was a 61-year-old man who had diabetes and hepatitis B. Taiwan has to date accumulated 20 confirmed cases.

The deceased person had not traveled abroad recently and was a taxi driver whose clients were mainly from Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China, the minister said. One of his family members was also confirmed to have the virus. The pair constituted Taiwans first local transmission cases, the minister said, adding that authorities were trying to find out as soon as possible the source of contraction.

Read more here.

3 Israeli Test Positive for Virus

Three Israeli nationals on the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship that is currently quarantined at the Japanese port of Yokohama, have tested positive for COVID-19, local outlet The Times of Israel reported on Sunday, citing the Israeli health ministry.

Japanese authorities said that two of the three infected have been taken to a local hospital in Japan, the Israeli ministry learned. Several other Israeli passengers were being tested for the virus.

Israels Health Minister Yaakov Litzman stated that a doctor was being sent to Japan to treat the Israelis and negotiations with the Japanese authorities were underway to bring back all other Israelis.

Quarantine Ends for Germans, Italy to Fly Citizens

More than 100 Germans evacuated from the hard-hit Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of a new coronavirus outbreak, were set to end their prescribed 14-day quarantine period on Sunday.

They have been kept isolated at a military base in the southern town of Germersheim. None of them have tested positive for the disease, German news agency DPA reported.

Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, meanwhile, announced Sunday that Italy will send a plane to Japan to bring back the 35 Italians aboard the Diamond Princess, the cruise ship that has had 355 passengers and crew test positive for the new virus.

The ship has been quarantined since early February. The United States also has announced plans to fly its citizens home.

Nepal Evacuates 175 Citizens from Wuhan Following Protests

Nepal on Sunday evacuated 175 of its nationals from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak, an official said, after protests by parents of students studying in the city.

A plane operated by state-owned Nepal Airlines carrying 134 men and 41 women, mostly students, landed at Kathmandus Tribhuvan International Airport before dawn, Health Ministry spokesman Mahendra Shrestha said.

All evacuees will be held in quarantine for two weeks in the nearby town of Bhaktapur.

They will be under the close observation of doctors in quarantine and will be allowed to join their families if found healthy after two weeks, Shrestha told Reuters.

Last week parents protested in front of the Health Ministry demanding that Nepali students in Wuhan be brought home sooner. The government said delays were due to the time needed to prepare buildings to keep the returnees in quarantine.

Nepal has only one confirmed case of coronavirus so far.

One More Briton Tests Positive in France

The latest case of the novel coronavirus in France involves a Briton who had stayed in a chalet in the Les Contamines-Montjoie resort, AFP reported on Saturday, citing local health authorities.

Last week, five UK citizens, including a 9-year-old child, tested positive for the virus after having stayed at the same lodge.

Currently, France has 12 known cases of coronavirus and one death involving an 80-year-Chinese tourist from Hubei province, the epicenter of the virus outbreak.

Hong Kong, Canada to Evacuate Nationals Aboard Diamond Princess

The Hong Kong government will send aircraft to Japan to bring back passengers from the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess, where the most coronavirus infections outside China have occurred.

In a statement late on Saturday, the Security Bureau said chartered flights would return Hong Kong residents to the city for free once Japanese authorities had confirmed the plan.

The passengers will be required to undergo a further 14 days of quarantine after arriving in Hong Kong, the bureau added.

There are around 330 Hong Kong residents on board, including 260 holding Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong passports and roughly 70 people with foreign ones.

Canada has also announced that it will organize an evacuation flight for Canadians aboard the cruise ship on Saturday.

This decision was taken because of the extraordinary circumstances faced by passengers on the Diamond Princess and to lighten the burden on the Japanese health-care system, read a statement from the foreign ministry. We are working closely with Carnival Cruise Lines and the government of Japan to assist in this evacuation.

Before boarding [the evacuation flight] in Japan, passengers will be screened for symptoms, it said. Those who exhibit symptoms of COVID-19 will not be permitted to board and will instead be transferred to the Japanese health system to receive appropriate care.

Evacuees will be transported to the NAV Canada Training Institute in Cornwall, Ontario, and stay for another 14-day quarantine period, the foreign ministry said.

Hong Kong and Canada join the United States and potentially Australia in evacuation efforts to manage the COVID-19 outbreak onboard the cruise ship.

The cruise liners 14-day quarantine is set to end on Wednesday.

Tokyo Reports 8 New Infections

Eight people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Japans capital city of Tokyo, local newspaper Japan Times reported on Saturday, citing local government officials.

Among the eight, seven had come in contact with an infected taxi driver, who tested positive for the virus on Thursday.

Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun reported on Thursday that the taxi driver might have picked up a Chinese passenger, citing local health authorities.

The eighth person reported to have the virus on Saturday is a businessman in his 40s. The man did not travel to China recently.

Outside of Tokyo, there was another confirmed case of coronavirus at Saiseikai Arida Hospital, which is located in the town of Yuasa in Wakayama Prefecture, bringing the total number of cases at that hospital to three.

The case involves a surgeon in his 50s, local outlet NHK reported on Saturday. At the same hospital, one doctor and one patient have already tested positive for the virus.

Currently, Japan has 43 known cases of coronavirus.

South Korea, Singapore Report New Infections

South Koreas Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Sunday one new case of the novel coronavirus, bringing the countrys total to 29.

The new case is an 82-year-old South Korean national who has no recent travel history outside of the country.

In Singapore, the countrys total known cases of coronavirus now stands at 72 after the local Ministry of Health announced five new cases on Saturday.

None of the new patients have recently traveled to China.

Among the five, three are Singaporean nationals, aged 79, 27, and 25; one is a 26-year-old Bangladeshi national; and the last one is a 40-year-old Chinese national. The two non-Singaporeans have a local work pass.

Of the three Singaporeans nationals, two are family members of the countrys 66th confirmed case, the other is someone who has come into contact with the 66th case.

Singapores 66th confirmed case involves a 28-year-old Singaporean national who also has no recent travel history to China.

The Bangladeshi patient is among five confirmed cases from a local construction site.

The 40-year-old Chinese national had come in contact with the countrys 59th confirmed case, who is a 61-year-old Singaporean national who has not recently traveled to China.

70 New Infections Detected on Cruise Ship in Japan

Japans Health Minister Katsunobu Kato, announced 70 more cases of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 on cruise ship Diamond Prince, bringing the total number of people infected while on the ship to 355, local outlet NHK reported on Sunday.

The ship, which has been quarantined in Japan since Feb. 4, is currently docked in Yokohama.

On Saturday, Japans Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it was working with the U.S. government to organize chartered evacuation flights for around 400 U.S. citizens and their family members still quarantined on the ship.

According to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, American passengers and crew have been notified that one chartered aircraft is due to arrive in Japan on Sunday evening.

Japans Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday said it appreciated the U.S. governments efforts to ease Japans burden regarding the situation on the Diamond Princess.

For updates from Feb. 15, click here.

Frank Fang contributed to this report.

From The Epoch Times
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal was on Sunday sworn in as the chief minister of Delhi for the third time in a row as thousands cheered him on in the Ramlila Maidan in the heart of the national capital.

Next to take the oath of office was his right-hand man Manish Sisodia, who was similarly egged on by the crowd at the Ramlila Maidan, which was decked with tricolours, party flags, posters and placards.

Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal administered the oath of office and secrecy to Kejriwal and his six ministers.

Before the national anthem was played, patriotic songs could also be heard at the Ramlila Maidan as excited party workers, as well as the crowd with people tricolour painted on their faces, clapped on.

Some wore the AAPs caps as they cheered for Kejriwal and shouted slogans like Humara Neta Kaisa Ho, Arvind Kejriwal Jaisa Ho (Our leader should be like Kejriwal).

A banner with Nayak 2 Has Come Again was also seen at the sprawling ground. It had a photograph of Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor on the left and Arvind Kejriwal wearing AAPs cap on the right.

The poster references the 2001 Hindi political thriller Nayak, a remake of Tamil film Mudhalvan (1999) in which Kapoor plays a reporter who becomes chief minister of Maharashtra for a day and strikes out at corruption.

The 50 Dilli ke Nirmata or Delhis architects, including teachers, bus marshals, sanitation workers and families of firefighters from different walks of life, also shared the stage with Kejriwal during his swearing-in ceremony.

The AAP almost repeated its 2015 performance by winning 62 of the 70 seats in the Delhi assembly polls in the face of a high-voltage and bitter campaign by the BJP, which had fielded a battery of Union ministers, chief ministers, legislators to canvass for votes.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) managed to win the rest of the eight seats from its earlier tally of three seats. Congress just like the last time drew a blank.
More than 300 Americans rescued from a cruise ship quarantined off Japan because of the new coronavirus arrived back in the United States Monday for two more weeks of medical seclusion, as concern rose over passengers who dispersed around the globe after leaving another ship in Cambodia. The COVID-19 virus death toll exceeds 1,800 in China, where it has infected more than 72,000. Elsewhere, hundreds more have been infected and the virus has sparked panic buying, economic jitters as well as the cancellation of high-profile sporting and cultural events. With fresh cases emerging daily in Japan, the government has advised citizens to avoid mass gatherings, and has canceled public events -- including celebrations in central Tokyo for the Emperor's birthday and the amateur portion of the city marathon, affecting around 38,000 runners. In the Chinese capital Beijing, municipal authorities have ordered citizens arriving in the city to self-quarantine for 14 days, the presumed incubation period of the virus. State media said China may postpone its annual parliamentary session, which has been held in March for the last 35 years. Outside China, the biggest cluster of infections is from the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan's Yokohama, where an additional 99 cases were revealed on Monday. That brought the total to 454 diagnosed despite passengers being confined to their cabins during a 14-day quarantine. As criticism grew of Japan's handling of the ship crisis, governments are scrambling to repatriate their citizens. Canada, Italy, Hong Kong -- and the latest country, Australia -- were poised to follow the United States in removing nationals from the vessel. The first US flight touched down at Travis Air Force Base in California shortly before midnight Sunday, followed by the second early Monday at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. Before they boarded the flights, US officials were informed that 14 of the passengers tested days earlier had received positive results. Authorities allowed them to fly but isolated them from other passengers in a "special containment area". US officials deemed 13 of the cases "high risk" for COVID-19 and sent them to the University of Nebraska Medical Center for treatment and re-testing. All repatriated passengers must undergo a two-week quarantine period on US soil. One American traveler, Sarah Arana, told AFP before leaving the ship that she was ready to go because a proper quarantine was needed. "This was not it," she said. - 'My health is fine' - Some Americans on the Diamond Princess declined their government's offer. "My health is fine. And my two-week quarantine is almost over," tweeted Matt Smith, questioning why he should want to leave. Forty other US passengers tested positive for the virus and were taken to hospitals in Japan, said Anthony Fauci, a senior official at the National Institutes for Health. In China, authorities have placed about 56 million people in Hubei under quarantine, virtually sealing off the province from the rest of the country in an unprecedented effort to contain the virus. Chinese health officials on Monday urged patients who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate blood plasma which, they said, can be used to treat others. New cases outside the epicenter region have been declining for the last 13 days. There were 115 fresh cases outside Hubei announced Monday -- sharply down from nearly 450 a week ago. Chinese authorities have pointed to the slowing rise in cases as proof their measures are working. The apparent drop in new cases "must be interpreted very cautiously," World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday. Concerns remain about global transmission, but WHO officials cautioned against "blanket measures", when the virus is affecting "a very, very tiny" proportion of people outside Hubei. Fears are mounting over passengers on one vessel, the Westerdam, who all received a clean bill of health when they disembarked in Cambodia -- a staunch Beijing ally with a threadbare medical system. An 83-year-old American woman who disembarked was stopped by authorities in Malaysia over the weekend when she was detected with a fever and later diagnosed as having the virus. There were more than 2,200 passengers and crew on the ship when it docked in Sihanoukville, many of whom have now dispersed around the globe. Almost 1,000 were still aboard. - Battering tourism - With the virus battering tourism and disrupting global supply chains, experts are fretting about the toll it could take on a fragile global economy. IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said there could be a cut of around 0.1-0.2 percentage points to global growth but stressed there was "still a great deal of uncertainty." On Monday US tech giant Apple, citing disruption from the virus, said it did not expect to meet its revenue guidance for the March quarter. The company said worldwide iPhone supply would be "temporarily constrained" and that demand in China had been affected. Apple had forecast revenue of $63 billion to $67 billion for the second quarter to March. burs-rbu/je/dw/it/bgs/to/mdl
The shape of the first grand coalition in the history of the State between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael was emerging last night.

Talks between the two parties, led by Micheal Martin and Leo Varadkar, will get under way this week, with Fianna Fail's Michael McGrath and Dara Calleary mandated to talk to equivalent senior representatives of Fine Gael.

The intention of the two old parties, which emerged from the Civil War almost 100 years ago, is to embrace the Green Party in a three-hand coalition to be presented to the public as "change" while also holding the centre ground of politics in Ireland.

Such a government, with 85 seats, would have a majority of five, with the prospect of individual, or a collective deal with Independent TDs for further stability should that be felt required.

A stumbling block may be the issue of a "rotating Taoiseach", but a view was taking hold this weekend that the Fianna Fail leader would ultimately be prepared to accede.

Mr Martin would lead the government for the first three years, before stepping down as Taoiseach and resigning as Fianna Fail leader, leading to a leadership contest, and allowing Mr Varadkar to take over as Taoiseach for the final two of a five-year term.

There is strong opposition, and at a senior level, within both parties to the emerging plan, with widespread opinion that such a government would not really meet the electorate's demand for change, nor would it be in the longer-term interests of either Fianna Fail or Fine Gael.

"I think they will have real difficulty getting this one through an Ard Fheis or past the grassroots," a senior Fianna Fail TD said. He added: "Basically what we have here is a three-year Fianna Fail leadership contest."

A Fine Gael source said: "They should bear in mind there's bound to be a lot of backbench TDs disappointed at being overlooked for ministerial positions. This could be a recipe for severe disgruntlement to say the least."

Furthermore, a grand coalition government could ultimately lead to a more traditional left-right realignment of politics here, with Sinn Fein, as leader of the opposition for the next five years, the driving force behind a possible left-wing majority government this decade.

However, on the issue of whether the putative new government would meet the demand for change, a senior Fianna Fail source said yesterday: "If Fianna Fail and Fine Gael formally coming together for the first time in the history of the State is not change, then I do not know what is."

A Fine Gael source said: "The inclusion of the Greens in such a government would help to meet one of the most pressing issues of the age, that of the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis."

There was also a growing view yesterday that Fianna Fail and Fine Gael would move quickly, with the Greens, to put such a government in place rather than allow Sinn Fein time to organise public opposition among its supporters. "Weeks rather than months," in the words of one well-placed source, perhaps before St Patrick's weekend.

"The policies between the three are not hugely different. So there should not be too many difficulties in that area. The real issue will be to agree on policies that will tackle the burning issues of the day - housing, health and the climate emergencies."

However, Sinn Fein, which won the largest share of the vote in the election, rejects any suggestion that a grand coalition, even with the Greens or Independents, could be interpreted as change.

Yesterday, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said: "And it now seems that Micheal Martin's plan is to deny the people what they voted for. That is an arrogant and untenable position, given the strength of Sinn Fein's mandate."

She added: "The political establishment of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are circling the wagons in defence of a status quo that will not deliver the change citizens voted for last weekend."

Speaking in Belfast, she said: "Nor, however hard they try they cannot block the growing demand around unity." The future, she added, "will see an end to partition and the achievement of unity in our time".

Yesterday, a senior Fianna Fail figure said the question of Irish unity was not a major issue in the election, but the housing and health crises were. "In our negotiations, we will be insisting that any such new government along the lines of what is being talked about will have radical plans on these issues in particular. And I mean radical."

Yesterday, Mr Varadkar hit back at Ms McDonald by branding her promise of being about change to be a "Sinn Fein marketing scam".

"Sinn Fein should explain why it appears to have thrown in the towel on its plans for a left-wing government," the Taoiseach told the Sunday Independent.

Mr Varadkar said Sinn Fein, the left and Independents had the seat numbers to form a majority government and noted it was done in 1948, 1997 and 2016.

"Was this vote left-transfer, left-change message just a Sinn Fein marketing scam after all?" he added.

He also criticised the Sinn Fein leader for claiming Fine Gael was not respecting her voters. "That smacks of hypocrisy to me. When has Sinn Fein ever shown any respect for Fine Gael and our 450,000 voters?"

Meanwhile, it has emerged a group of rural Independent TDs are seeking to organise a voting block of between 10 and 12 deputies which will be pitched to the main parties as an alternative to the Green Party.

The plot, which involves Denis Naughten, former climate change minister, would see a significant number of Independent TDs come together with a set of policy priorities for supporting the next government. Aontu leader Peadar Toibin is also part of the negotiations.

The group is seeking to gazump the Greens and appeal to rural TDs in both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail who are concerned about the impact of climate change policies on their constituents.
Newspapers across America, especially in rural areas like here in Sierra County, have been dying at an alarming rate, and Downieville was about to become the latest news desert. The obituaries for the paper had already been written. Don Russell, the hard-drinking, chain-smoking editor with a blunt writing style who had owned and run the paper for nearly three decades, was retiring, and he seemed happy enough for the paper to die with his retirement.
Shekau Abubakar, the leader of Boko Haram sect, has threatened to attack the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, for recently threatening to ensure that the communication lines of the sect members are blocked.

According to The Cable, the sect leader in the new video which was released on Thursday February 13th, said he has asked his men not to spare the minister anywhere they see him

This video message is specifically released because of one man, who thinks he is knowledgeable. I want him to archive this message and continue referring to it till his death comes. From today onward, you will continue to live in sorrow, because I, Shekau, say so.

This warning is for Isa Ali Panatami; dont think simply because you preach in English or because you are called a doctor, it means you have knowledge of Islam. You know nothing. Today you have become a minister, and you are feeling you can achieve your selfish ends. You must know that speaking English has nothing to do with Islam.

You said you are going to block phone lines and other means of communication, to frustrate the activities of Boko Haram, right? But you must understand that we dont depend on such to take out our messages. Our messengers are like the angels of God. How dare you attempt to stop the works we are doing for the creator of the heavens and earth, simply because you have become a slave to the white world and the country. We pity you if you dont repent.

I swear to God, you are nothing. Initially, we have not begrudged with you, but now you have become a slave to the infidels; repent now and become a good Muslim. If you dont comply from now on, death will come to you, Isa Ali Pantami. I call on my members in Africa, in Nigeria to rise and do the needful. Let them know that what we did to Sheik Jafar is just the tip of the iceberg. Anywhere you see Isa Ali Pantami, dont spare him. Isa Ali Pantami you are nothing; even Jafar tried the same thing but we dealt with him; talk less of you that is nothing in Islamic practice. And from today on, you would not have rest of mind because you have dared God. he said

Shekau in the video, also issued a stern warning to journalists on how they report on issues pertaining to members of the sect.

The journalists on BBC, Radio German, Radio France International, Dandal Kura, national dailies, be very careful in all that you write about us. We are not dealing with you people, we are doing the work of God. Our trust is in God and not in human beings.

We have understood your evil plots against the religion of God, and your hypocrisy has been made known to us. Go on and plot against us in secret, we too shall converge in secret and plot against and see who will take the day.

However, this video is purely created because of Isa Ali Pantami. And you Bulama Bukarti in England; you heard my words in the past. All these names I mention are insignificant elements. he said

Shekau in the video also attacked President Buhari. Making reference to when the president was booed in Maiduguri during a sympathy visit last Thursday, said

And you, President Buhari, you said you are almost 80 years old and you are busy going about, and now your people have started booing, right? You just wait for your angels of death.

Simply because some persons told you that they have killed our commanders, so now you are emboldened and you want to kill Shekau, right? Who is Shekau, a small person to you? But you are now in trouble Mr. Buhari; you are in big trouble. I am still here, that little boy that has defied the leaders of the world. I am still around, you just wait, it will soon be over before we all meet in the hereafter.

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Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu



on Sunday said India is known for unity in diversity, pluralistic ethos and peaceful co-existence of all religions.

This ethos should be nurtured and there should be no discrimination based on gender or differences between people, he said while addressing a global meet of Rotary International here.

Naidu called for making the youth of the country focus on creating social amity and work for strengthening community bonding.

The vice president said India wants good relations with all her neighbours and advocates for a climate of peace and progress.

He said the world community should take a pledge to fight against any force that promotes terrorism.

"We want to have good relations with all our neighbours. Let us take a stand... we must all seek to create an atmosphere where peace can flourish," Naidu said.

Without naming any country, the vice president observed there is a saying that "you can change your friends, but cannot change your neighbours".

"Peace is the prerequisite for progress. India has always believed in the concept of 'Vasudaiva Kutumbakam' (the world is a family)," he said.

The vice president said over the years, India has believed in "living together" and "working together".

"The world probably needs to adopt this approach as it moves to implement the ambitious 2030 Sustainable Development agenda," Naidu said.

The vice president, who had a long stint in the Parliament, appealed to the lawmakers to discuss and debate in a constructive manner.

"Discuss and debate to decide, not to disturb. Agree to disagree. Let the government propose, let the opposition oppose and let the House dispose. (This is) My request to all parliamentarians," he said.

Naidu also called upon the youth not to forget their mother tongues.

He spoke a few lines in Bengali and Hindi during his address to thunderous applause.

West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and state Science and Technology minister Bratya Basu shared the dais with the vice president.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Barclays boss Jes Staley would be willing to tell the US authorities everything he knows about paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Victims of Epstein last night called on the banking chief to hand over any information he might have about his former client.

Lawyers for the victims said Staley  who joined Barclays five years ago  might have gained valuable insights, particularly around Epstein's finances, while acting as his private banker at JP Morgan between 2000 and 2013.

As head of JP Morgan's private bank, Staley came to know Epstein well and the pair stayed in touch until 2015  seven years after Epstein was convicted of soliciting a child for prostitution.

Under pressure: As head of JP Morgan's private bank, Staley came to know Jeffrey Epstein well

Lawyers urged Staley to speak to the FBI about his dealings with Epstein  who died in prison last year  as it could help in the battle to win compensation for women who were abused, such as Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who has told how she was trafficked by the former friend of Prince Andrew.

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Staley. It is understood that the Barclays chief executive has not been approached by US authorities and is unsure what assistance he could offer.

However, it is understood that he would co-operate fully if asked.

Lisa Bloom, who represents several victims, told the MoS: 'For decades, prolific paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was allowed to victimise girls with impunity. Only now is law enforcement trying to get to the bottom of how this happened.

'Everyone who knew Epstein for any period of time must cooperate with law enforcement, including Jes Staley, who appears to have remained close with Epstein even after his sex crime conviction. We call upon Mr Staley to do the right thing and tell the FBI what he knows.'

Victim: Virginia Roberts Giuffre is one of the women coming forward

The intervention came as Staley's job hung by a thread last night.

Barclays chairman Nigel Higgins is understood to have become deeply concerned about the reputational damage to the bank after the UK financial watchdog last week launched a probe into whether Staley and Barclays had been truthful in their disclosures about the extent of his relationship with Epstein.

The Financial Conduct Authority is investigating after US regulators sent it a cache of emails between Staley and Epstein dating back to Staley's time at JP Morgan.

City sources said the FCA investigation had triggered a power struggle at Barclays as board members faced potential criticism for his appointment.

Barclays directors are understood to have been shown the cache of emails before they gave Staley their backing ahead of a crunch vote on his future in May.

The probe into Staley's longstanding relationship with Epstein was launched in December but only came to light last Thursday.

A friend of Higgins told the MoS: 'Clearly the current board is worried. I think the chairman is very stressed about it. [Nigel Higgins] is a nice guy, he's quite a straight-shooter. I think they're going to get rid of Staley.'

Staley has thus far received the full backing of the board in public.

Last night an influential MP slammed the Barclays board for sticking by Staley. Meanwhile, sources warned that activist investor Edward Bramson  who owns 5.5 per cent of Barclays shares  could try to use the crisis to destabilise the board.

A former Barclays executive came to Staley's defence and insisted the bank had done nothing wrong. He said headhunter firm Spencer Stuart, which helped recruit Staley, had not flagged any issues over Epstein before he was appointed.

PRINCE ANDREW'S EX AMANDA STAVELEY SET TO SUE BARCLAYS Hotshot City dealmaker Amanda Staveley will sue Barclays for 1.6billion this summer over the bank's emergency fundraising with Abu Dhabi investors at the height of the financial crisis. The legal action is due to start in June after a separate criminal case against Barclays' former executives has concluded, according to details buried in the bank's annual report. Suing: Hotshot City dealmaker Amanda Staveley's legal action is due to start in June It is thought that the case will last eight weeks. Staveley, who once dated Prince Andrew, brokered a 3.5billion investment by Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour into Barclays in 2008. Her company is estimated to have made about 40million from the deal. Investors from Qatar also took part in the fundraising, which raised a total of 7billion for the bank. Staveley, 46, from Yorkshire, will argue that her investment firm PCP Capital Partners is entitled to the same fees paid by the bank to the Qatar investors, who received 322million. Barclays has stated that her claim is now worth 1.6billion due to interest and charges. Staveley's case has been postponed so that it does not prejudice the verdict of the jury in the ongoing case brought by the Serious Fraud Office.

The former executive, who asked not to be named, said: 'Anyone who runs a wealth management business constantly meets and encourages people who are wealthy. All I know is Jes is a person of the highest integrity. It wouldn't be a sin to engage with wealthy people  and many wealthy people have skeletons in their cupboards.'

Staley visited Epstein during his 13-month prison sentence in 2008 and again in 2015 on a boat trip with his wife to Epstein's Caribbean retreat, later dubbed 'paedo island'.

The visit took place just months before Staley was named Barclays chief executive in October 2015. He has said his contact with Epstein had 'tapered off' by that point.

Questions remain over how financier Epstein  found hanged in his prison cell last August aged 66  accumulated vast wealth estimated at around $634million (485million).

He owned three valuable properties, two jets and the 75-acre island in the US Virgin Islands. He was also the owner of an expensive collection of art, jewellery and cars.

It has been suggested that his estate could be used for a victims' fund for the women he assaulted.

The Epstein scandal last summer prompted Barclays to cut ties with the flagship Pitch@Palace business initiative of Prince Andrew, who was friends with the paedophile.

Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake said: 'Barclays have decided maintaining a relationship [with Prince Andrew] would clearly bring the bank into disrepute. So they can hardly say Jes Staley's situation  if he maintained a relationship with Epstein  isn't problematic.'

Speaking to journalists last week, Staley said: 'I thought I knew him well and I didn't. For sure with the hindsight of what we all know now, I deeply regret having had any relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.'

At the company's annual general meeting in May, investors will vote on the re-election of directors to the Barclays board. If Staley, 63, loses his board seat, his position as chief executive could become untenable.

Barclays, Spencer Stuart, JP Morgan and Edward Bramson declined to comment.
In the sprawling Camp Kalma, refugees displaced by the Darfur conflict are overjoyed at the decision by Sudan's new authorities to finally deliver president Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court.

Bashir, who was deposed in April 2019 following mass protests, has for the past decade flouted International Criminal Court arrest warrants on charges of genocide and war crimes in the ravaged Darfur region of western Sudan.

On Tuesday, Sudan's transitional authorities agreed to transfer him to stand trial before the court based in The Hague.

"There was rejoicing across the camp after people heard Bashir is being handed over to the ICC," 65-year-old refugee Adam Ali, a longtime resident of Kalma camp in Nyala, capital of South Darfur state, told AFP.

Darfuris and rebel groups have repeatedly demanded he be handed over to the ICC over alleged war crimes in a conflict which according to the United Nations left 300,000 people dead and displaced 2.5 million others.

Local community leader Yaqoob Mohamed said the decision was "a victory for the victims" and would go a long way towards "rebuilding trust" with the leadership in Khartoum.

Profile of Omar al-Bashir. By (AFP)

Hundreds of thousands of those displaced by the conflict that broke out in 2003 in Darfur, a vast region made up of five states, still live in camps and remain dependent on aid provided by the UN and other international organisations.

The conflict erupted when African minority rebels rose up against Bashir's Arab-dominated government in Khartoum that they accused of marginalising the region.

To crush the rebellion, Bashir's government unleashed an armed militia of mostly Arab raiding nomads known as the Janjaweed, accused by rights groups of ethnic cleansing and widespread rape.

Thousands of the militiamen were later incorporated into the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by commander and current political powerbroker Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemeti.

'Great relief'

The decision to surrender Bashir to the ICC came after protracted talks between rebel groups including from Darfur and Sudan's ruling body who took power after Bashir's ouster and arrest.

Three of his aides, including former defence and interior ministers, are also to be handed over to the court, although a timeframe has not been announced.

"If Bashir and his aides are not handed to the ICC, peace will never find its way to Darfur," said Hassan Issac, another Darfuri living in Kalma.

Hassan Isaac Mohamed, an internally displaced person who escaped fighting in Sudan's Darfur region and lives in Camp Kalma. By - (AFP)

Hassan Isaac Mohamed, a 72-year-old Darfuri, said he felt "relief" in the wake of a war that had decimated his family, killing his father and two brothers.

Government spokesman Faisal Mohamed told reporters on Wednesday that "details of how Bashir and others will be presented in front of the ICC will be discussed with the ICC and armed groups".

Rights groups such as Amnesty International are pressing for a swift handover of the toppled strongman.

Since its creation in August, Sudan's transitional government has been pushing to forge a peace settlement with rebel groups and to end conflicts across the country.

It has promised accountability and kept Bashir in Khartoum's Kober prison on a string of charges including corruption.

In December, the veteran leader was sentenced to two years in a community reform centre over accusations of illegally acquiring and using foreign funds.

He was removed from power after street protests against his rule broke out in December 2018 triggering unrest that left dozens dead, hundreds wounded and thousands jailed.

"We were relieved when Bashir fell but now we feel like we can finally start to recover from the impact of war," said camp resident Jamal Muhammed.
MAGNOLIA, Miss. - A man accused of killing eight people in Mississippi was fearful of the breakup of his family and just snapped, an attorney for the defendant argued Saturday during the first day of his death penalty trial.

The killings began after Willie Cory Godbolt entered his in-laws home in Bogue Chitto and got into an argument with his estranged wife and her family over the couples two children, witness Vincent Mitchell testified in a Pike County courtroom, according to The Daily Leader.

Mitchell said Godbolt fatally shot a responding deputy and then killed Godbolts mother-in-law and two other people. Godbolt then went to two other homes in south Mississippis Lincoln County, killing two of his teenage cousins and a husband and wife, investigators said.

Godbolts attorney Katherine Poor told the jurors that her client, now 37, was trying to protect his family and didnt want his daughter staying at the home, since he believed she had been inappropriately touched by a family member there.

Cory just snapped, Poor said. Cory couldnt see the breakup of his family. He couldnt fail to protect his children. In that moment in a haze of fear at the breakup of his family, Cory pulled his gun out.

After being captured, Godbolt said Im sorry while a reporter was recording him on a cellphone. Jurors were shown the footage Saturday in which he also said, I just want to love my wife. I just want to love my family. I just want to love my kids.

Godbolt has pleaded not guilty to four counts of capital murder, four counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of armed robbery. He has remained in custody since his arrest on May 28, 2017, hours after the shootings.

Because of pretrial publicity in south Mississippi, jury selection was done in north Mississippis DeSoto County, 285 miles (459 kilometres) north of Lincoln County. The 12 jurors and three alternates were selected Friday. They are hearing the case in Magnolia, which is near Lincoln County.

The trial was scheduled to continue on Sunday.
A Facebook user, Vivian Chidinma Chidubem, who went viral years ago after advising women on how to kill their cheating husbands, has reportedly been kicked out of her marriage.

Some years ago, Vivian took to a Facebook group called Extraordinary Mums and Singles Ladies B, to express support for slaughtering of cheating husbands.

According to her while advising women, instead of using knife they should remove the brake of their husbands car so that he can be involved in a fatal accident that will lead to death or injury. She wrote:

Please please my fellow ladies if your husband cheats, do not stab or use hot on him. Simply go and remove his car break. If he survives it, either the spinal cord will break, or his two legs. With that, he will only be facing you. Thanks.

It is not clear whether Vivian was being sarcastic in her Facebook post which she has since deleted following outrage by angry Nigerians.

Vivian finally got married on January 16, 2019, according to her Facebook status.

Despite the fact thst she had deleted the outrageous post, trolls proceeded to Vivians Facebook marriage update to vent their anger and resentment, with many asking her husband to be careful.

Some digged up the screenshot of her comment, traced her husband and sent it to him.

A fresh report from Arise News237 has it that Vivians husband has sent her packing over the alleged insensitive post.

According to the report, the husband sent her back to her fathers house saying that he is still too young to die and even if he becomes old, he wouldnt want to die painful death in the hand of a murderous woman he assumed he trusted.

However, when contacted, Vivian denied the report of being kicked out of marriage by her husband.
After Sharmas elevation, BJP has to balance caste equation in state.

The BJP on Saturday appointed a new chief for its Madhya Pradesh unit, replacing Jabalpur MP Rakesh Singh with Khajuraho MP, V.D. Sharma, who is considered close to senior RSS leader Dattatreya Hosabale. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The BJP seems to be in a dilemma in Madhya Pradesh, which it lost to the Congress in 2018 after ruling the state for more than 15 years. While a majority faction within the BJPs state unit wants to tap on the chances to wrest the government from the Congress, citing factionalism in the ruling party and misgovernance, the BJP central leadership, sources said, is not in favour of it as of now.

In 2018 Assembly elections in the state, the BJP, under Shivraj Singh Chouhans leadership, lost the key state to the Congress, which remained three seats short of a simple majority but managed to form the government by getting the support of Independents as well as the BSP and the SP. The BJP managed to win five seats less than the Congress.

The BJP on Saturday appointed a new chief for its Madhya Pradesh unit, replacing Jabalpur MP Rakesh Singh with Khajuraho MP, V.D. Sharma, who is considered close to senior RSS leader Dattatreya Hosabale.

A former national general secretary of the RSS students wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Mr Sharma is not part of any factions within the state BJP which, sources said, boosted his chance for the post. BJP national president J.P. Nadda, who announced Mr Sharmas name, was also associated with the ABVP.

However, with Mr Sharmas appointment as the new chief, the central leadership of the BJP will have to fine-tune the caste equation in its state unit as the leader of Opposition, Gopal Bhargava, is also a Brahmin. Madhya Pradesh, which was under the BJPs rule from 2003 to 2018, had witnessed massive anti-BJP protests in 2018 over the partys aggressive campaign to woo the Dalit and OBC votebank after the BJP-led NDA government brought in a legislation to amend the Supreme Court order in SC/ST Protection Act, which was perceived by many as being against the two communities.

There are said to be around 60 per cent OBCs in the state and more than 20 per cent voters are Dalits.
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - Costa Rican officials say they have seized more than 5 tons of cocaine, the largest such haul in the Central American countrys history.

The Public Security Ministry said the 5,048 kilograms (11,128 pounds) of cocaine were found Saturday evening in a shipping container at the Caribbean port of Moin. The container, supposedly holding ornamental plants, destined for Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Costa Rican officials last year reporting seizing 45.7 tons of cocaine, but the largest individual seizures never topped 2 tons.

Police said that as of Sunday, the only person detained in connection with the new seizure was a 46-year-old Costa Rican who had driven the shipment to the port.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-15 23:39:52|Editor: huaxia

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A cured COVID-19 patient (C) is discharged from the hospital in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Feb. 15, 2020. The patient was the first cured patient who was once in critical condition in Shaanxi Province. (Xinhua/Liu Xiao)

China have called for plasma donation from cured patients who were infected with novel coronavirus as initial results have indicated the effectiveness of treatment using their plasma.



WUHAN, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese experts have called upon cured patients who were infected with novel coronavirus (COVID-19) to donate plasma at hospitals as neutralizing antibodies have been identified in the plasma of some patients.

Initial results have indicated the effectiveness of convalescent plasma-derived therapeutic products in curing infected patients in severe and critical conditions, said Zhang Dingyu at a Thursday press conference, as head of Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, a major designated hospital to admit confirmed cases in Wuhan, the epidemic center of COVID-19.

Zhang said that based on the clinical-pathological process, most of the cured patients will produce specific antibodies against the virus in their bodies, which can help kill the virus.

Four critically ill patients in Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital have received convalescent plasma treatment and all of the patients have shown improved clinical symptoms about 12 to 24 hours after they received the treatment, Zhang added.

After Zhang's nationwide appeal of plasma donation, Shanghai on Saturday urged recovered coronavirus patients to donate plasma, and designated hospitals began to adopt convalescent plasma therapy to treat critically ill patients.

"Designated hospitals in Shanghai welcome recovered patients who have been discharged from hospitals to donate plasma for the treatment of other infected patients in the coming weeks," said Lu Hongzhou, a member of the city's medical experts group on the treatment of COVID-19.

Official data showed 124 patients in Shanghai have recovered from COVID-19 and discharged from hospitals by Saturday afternoon, of whom 14 have shown willingness to donate their plasma to assist coronavirus research and treatment.

Some recovered patients regard the donation as a way to pay back to the society after they received timely and effective treatment.

"Before discharged from the hospital, I learned from the nurses that I can donate plasma, which I think is very helpful," said a recovered patient surnamed Liu who is willing to become a donor.

"We were helped by others and we want to help other patients as well," Liu said.

Meanwhile, Zhang also reminded the public not to have too high expectation on the convalescent plasma-derived therapeutic products as the treatment only helps relieve the symptoms to give doctors a shot and the recovery mostly relies on patients' natural immunities. 
The coronavirus disease outbreak has rapidly spread in China and across the globe, with more than 1,400 deaths and 69,288 confirmed infections in seven weeks. Now, medical experts project that if the virus can not be contained, it can infect 60 percent of the population and kill 45 million people.

The infection, which is now officially called COVID-19, started in Wuhan in Hubei province, China and has spread to 25 countries with 1,670 confirmed deaths, four of which reported outside mainland China  France, Hong Kong, Japan, and the Philippines.

Health experts believe that if a person tests positive with the virus, he can infect 2.5 more people, raising an alarm of the virus's potency in spreading rapidly. With this attack rate, it could go on and infect 60 percent of the world's population, which is equivalent to more than four billion people.

Image Credit: Christian Scheidegger / Shutterstock

Tip of the iceberg

Professor Gabriel Leung, chair of public health medicine at Hong Kong University, told The Guardian that those infected who have never visited China could be just the "tip of the iceberg." Though 99 percent of the infections are in mainland China, the outbreak poses a grave threat to the rest of the world, as the World Health Organization (WHO) dubs it as the "worst enemy you could ever imagine," which poses a greater danger than terrorism.

Further, Professor Leung said that if locking down major cities in China to control the spread of the virus is working, other countries should also adopt the measure. This way, other countries won't suffer the magnitude of the outbreak China is experiencing today.

Global spread fears

Professor Leung played an imperative role in the research of the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak that killed nearly a thousand people. The coronavirus death toll has surpassed that of SARS, raising alarms that it could still get worse since the outbreak is just starting in other countries.

WHO's director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus fears that if the current outbreak reaches and spreads in a country with a poor health system, it would be catastrophic. China has a sound healthcare system, with modern equipment. It has built two 1,000 bed capacity hospitals in just ten days. However, the country is still bombarded by the magnitude of the health problem.

If a third-world country, like those in neighboring countries in Asia, experiences the same rapid spread of the infection akin to China, more deaths will be recorded.

Status outside China

Currently, there are three deaths related to the coronavirus disease outside mainland China. In Japan, the third death, who is an 80-year-old woman who had been in the hospital since Feb. 1. The doctors first diagnosed her with pneumonia, but confirmation of COVID-19 came after her death.

Aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, 70 more cases were confirmed Saturday. The ship with 3,700 passengers and crew members has a reported a total of 355 confirmed cases.

In another cruise ship, Westerdam, there are no confirmed cases. Five country ports have not allowed the ship to disembark in fears of the coronavirus. The ship docked in Cambodia's Sihanoukville port.

Meanwhile, the U.S. confirms 15 cases of the coronavirus disease, including eight people in California, one in Massachusetts, one in Texas, one in Arizona, one in Washington, one in Wisconsin, and two in Illinois.

The United Kingdom has reported nine confirmed cases of the virus, after a woman who flew in from China presented herself with symptoms of the disease and tested positive. A total of 1,750 persons under investigation have tested negative for the infection.

The coronavirus has confirmed cases in 25 countries, a majority of whom were from Wuhan, China, who left the epicenter of the outbreak before travel bans took effect. Wuhan has a woman down to prevent people from going out and into the city. However, an estimated five million have left Wuhan before the lockdown, which is a city home to 11 million people.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi ruled out on Sunday any rethink on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, which has triggered protests in several parts of the country, and the nullification of the Constitutions Article 370, which stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its special status last year.

Modi said his government nullified Article 370 and passed CAA in December with Lord Shivas blessing, and maintained the steps were necessary. With the blessing of Mahadev [Lord Shiva], now the country is taking all those decisions which were not taken earlier, he said at a public meeting during a day-long visit to Varanasi, his parliamentary constituency. Be it the scrapping of Article 370... or the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the country waited for these decisions for years, he said. Modi added that despite pressure, the government will remain firm on these decisions.

Article 370, which prevented non-residents from buying land and getting government jobs in Jammu and Kashmir, was nullified in August. Measures taken to prevent protests against the nullification have led to much international scrutiny. They included the detention of hundreds of politicians and activists as well as a communications blockade and a lockdown. Most of the curbs have since been eased even as access to the Internet remains restricted.

Three former chief ministers Omar Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, who were among the hundreds detained in August, have since been booked under the stringent Public Safety Act that allows for detention without trial for up to two years.

Four influential US senators last week wrote to US President Donald Trump ahead of his visit to India, seeking an assessment of the human rights situation in Kashmir and religious freedom in the country. The senators pointed out that hundreds, including key political figures, remain in preventive detention in Kashmir. They cited the longest-ever internet shutdown by a democracy in Kashmir and other troubling steps, including the passage of CAA, which  threaten the rights of certain religious minorities and the secular character of the state.

CAA was passed to fast-track the citizenship process for non-Muslims, who have entered India from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh before 2015. Opponents of the law insist it is discriminatory and unconstitutional as it leaves out the Muslims and links faith to citizenship in a secular country.

Modi also referred to other important decisions the government has taken during his second term, including the setting up of the trust to oversee the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. This trust will work rapidly, he said.

The Union Cabinet on February 5 formed the trust, three months after the Supreme Court in November awarded a disputed plot of land in Ayodhya to Hindu claimants, who believe the site marks the birthplace of Lord Ram. The court had set a three-month deadline for setting up the trust.

Modi said a significant and visible improvement has been made in cleaning the Ganga. He added this could be achieved only because of the public participation. He said projects worth Rs 7,000 crore have been completed under the Namami Gange Programme, an integrated conservation mission for the Gangas conservation and rejuvenation.

Our party has made its stands clear on the issue like CAA or Article 370. The BJP leaders and government might be adamant, but so is the public. They will show this government the doors. Delhi voters rejected the BJP and UP voters will oust it in 2022. People are against BJPs policies and autocracy, said Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary.

Earlier in the day, Modi also launched and laid foundations for 50 projects worth Rs 1,254 crore in his constituency. He flagged off the Maha Kaal Express, the first overnight, privately run train that will connect three pilgrimage centres-- Varanasi, Ujjain and Omkareshwar (Madhya Pradesh).

Modi also inaugurated the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Memorial Centre. He unveiled Upadhyayas 63-foot statue. Upadhyaya was a leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the forerunner of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
The position of each eyeball is maintained by six extraocular muscles. These muscles get their innervation from the 3 rd , 4 th and 6 th cranial nerves (nerves that originate in the brain). These muscles move the eyes in various directions. Any weakness in movements either due to central mechanisms or due to direct involvement of the nerves or the mechanical restriction of eye movements can result in strabismus.

Strabismus or squint is a failure of the two eyes to maintain proper alignment. Proper evaluation and timely intervention are necessary to prevent permanent forms of visual dysfunction such as diminished depth perception and lazy eye.

Basics of Squint and Binocular Vision

Proper ocular alignment is necessary for 

Proper visual stimulation

Prevention of amblyopia (lazy eye)

Binocular single vision (the ability to perceive objects seen by both the eyes as one, along with depth perception)

Cosmesis

Visual stimulation is very crucial in children for proper functional development of the visual system. Any barrier to an appropriate visual stimulus (either in the form of an obstruction such as cataract or an ocular deviation such as squint) can result in the formation of a lazy eye (amblyopia), in which stimulation does not result in a good image, and hence renders vision in that eye subnormal. The younger the child, the greater the chances of and the depth of amblyopia.

Binocular vision has 3 grades -

Simultaneous macular perception (the images of objects in both eyes are appreciated by the person)

(the images of objects in both eyes are appreciated by the person) Fusion (separate images arising in each eye are appreciated as a single image)

(separate images arising in each eye are appreciated as a single image) Stereopsis (depth perception) - this is the highest grade of binocular vision, and which provides us with exceptional skill for certain tasks.

When there is a squint, one or more of these are affected to varying degrees, depending on the degree of squint, duration of squint, age at which squint develops and depending on whether it is an intermittent or a constant squint.

Strabismus can be either latent or manifest. In latent squint,the tendency to squint is present, but kept in check by the fusion mechanisms of the eyes. Whenever fusion is interrupted, or when it is weak either due to illness or fatigue, the squint becomes manifest or apparent.

Manifest squint

Manifest squint is of two types -

Comitant (degree of deviation constant in all directions of gaze and no limitation of eye movements)

(degree of deviation constant in all directions of gaze and no limitation of eye movements) Incomitant (deviation varies in different directions of gaze with limitation of eye movements)

Comitant squint

This is the most common type of squint that is present in children. It may either be a convergent squint (esotropia) or divergent squint (exotropia). Persons with comitant squint do not experience double vision.

Some of the risk factors for comitant squint are prematurity, central nervous system impairment, low birth weight, family history of squint (usually same type is present), and refractive error. Exotropia or divergent squint is more common in Asia, in contrast to convergent squint or inward deviation of the eyes (esotropia) which is more common in the west.

Convergent squint may present within the first few months or years of life. When it presents at around the pre-school age, it could be related to the use of accommodation (increased focusing power of the eye for near) either with or without associated hypermetropia (farsightedness). Overcorrection of a divergent squint or conditions that interfere with proper vision in younger children (such as drooping of the eyelid to obstruct vision, cataract, retinoblastoma or large refractive errors) can also cause convergent squint.

Divergent squint may be present at birth or later on when it is present intermittently initially, and later on becomes constant. Overcorrection of a convergent squint or long standing visual deprivation in one eye in adults (eg. cataract, corneal opacitiers, retinal problems) can also cause a divergent squint.

Incomitant squint

In incomitant squints, there is a limitation of movement of the muscles moving the eye, resulting in double vision.

Paralytic squint  due to a weakness in the muscles moving the eyes or the nerves supplying them eg. myasthenia gravis, nerve paralysis.

Restrictive squint  due to a physical restriction on the movement of the muscles eg. thyroid eye disease, tumors in the orbit.

Decreased vision , either due to refractive error, disorder in the eye, or due to suppression

, either due to refractive error, disorder in the eye, or due to suppression Outward or inward deviation of the eyes

Reduced binocular function

Double vision if there is intermittent squint

Suppression of image in the deviating eye to prevent double vision. Thus the higher degrees of binocular vision are affected.

Abnormal retinal correspondence -

A poor adaptation made by the sensory mechanisms to maintain some sort of binocular vision even in the presence of a squint.



This should be specifically looked for in every patient of squint prior to surgical correction. If present, this should be addressed, otherwise surgical correction of the squint can lead to double vision.

The outward or inward deviation is obvious and patient presents mainly with this symptom.

How do You Evaluate a Person with Squint?

Visual acuity measurement- Visual acuity is usually abnormal. It may be normal if it is an intermittent or a squint alternating between the two eyes. Diminished vision may either be due to a refractive error, pathology such as cataract or retinal disorders, suppression, or a combination of these factors. Visual acuity measurement in younger children is more challenging. There are special charts and devices for this purpose and it requires a great deal of patience.

Visual acuity is usually abnormal. It may be normal if it is an intermittent or a squint alternating between the two eyes. Diminished vision may either be due to a refractive error, pathology such as cataract or retinal disorders, suppression, or a combination of these factors. Visual acuity measurement in younger children is more challenging. There are special charts and devices for this purpose and it requires a great deal of patience. Cycloplegic refraction: It is an objective determination of the true refractive error, by elimination of the effect of accommodation. This is achieved by paralyzing the ciliary muscle with cyclopentolate eye drops or atropine eye ointment. These drugs also cause dilatation of the pupil making it easier for the doctor to examine the retina.

It is an objective determination of the true refractive error, by elimination of the effect of accommodation. This is achieved by paralyzing the ciliary muscle with cyclopentolate eye drops or atropine eye ointment. These drugs also cause dilatation of the pupil making it easier for the doctor to examine the retina. Slit lamp exam- This test checks for any diseases or abnormalities in the anterior portion of the eye

This test checks for any diseases or abnormalities in the anterior portion of the eye Fundus (retina) examination- It is also referred to as fundoscopy, and is used to view the eye's interior portion, involving assessment of the retina, optic nerve and blood vessels

It is also referred to as fundoscopy, and is used to view the eye's interior portion, involving assessment of the retina, optic nerve and blood vessels Measurement and quantification of the amount of deviation

Assessment of movement of the eyes in various directions of gaze

Assessment of double vision if present

Determination of the degree of binocular vision that is present

Paralytic and restrictive squints may require additional testing for certain diseases such as CT scanning of orbits and brain or lab testing for thyroid hormone levels

Concomitant squint can be managed both by non-surgical and surgical treatments depending upon the condition of patient.

Non-surgical methods

Correction of refractive error - Refractive errors like myopia, astigmatism, and high degrees of hypermetropia need to be corrected both for improvement of vision as well as to help in reducing the stimulus for squint.

- Refractive errors like myopia, astigmatism, and high degrees of hypermetropia need to be corrected both for improvement of vision as well as to help in reducing the stimulus for squint. Orthoptic treatment makes use of fusional training exercises and may be useful in some cases.

Occlusion : Occlusion of one eye (the non-deviating eye) is required in children who have amblyopia due to the deviation (to stimulate vision in the deviating eye).

: Occlusion of one eye (the non-deviating eye) is required in children who have amblyopia due to the deviation (to stimulate vision in the deviating eye). Prism therapy- Prisms incorporated into spectacles are extremely helpful in improving the appearance of the eyes and facilitating the patients communication and interaction with others. It alleviates difficulties associated with misalignment. It is useful for older patients with limited fusional capabilities.

Surgical correction

Surgery is generally considered only after unsatisfactory non-surgical approaches. The goals of surgery are restoration of alignment and binocular function.

Incomitant squint needs correction of the underlying cause. Any residual squint may need to be corrected by surgery.

Squint may be prevented in certain cases -
Caroline Flack's former Irish stylist Fiona Fagan has appealed for more kindness on social media in the wake of her tragic death.

The Dancing with the Stars stylist has been friends with Caroline for nearly 20 years after meeting her on the dance scene in London.

Fiona, whos from Finglas but lived in the UK capital for two decades, worked with the presenter styling her for two seasons of Love Island and said she was devastated at the news.

I cant quite believe it, Im actually in shock, she said.

I met her when I first moved to London when I was 22. We were both dancers together and worked on the same show together and became friends.

She touched so many peoples lives, she was that kind of person.

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She only text the presenter last Friday on Valentines Day after becoming concerned about her after seeing her social media post.

She never heard back and said it was a mutual friend of theirs that first raised the alarm the following day after trying to get into Carolines London flat.

Fiona said they had so many mutual friends and has been inundated with people checking in with her to see how she was coping with the tragic news.

I just cant believe Im never going to see her face again. I cant believe Im not going to hear her laugh again. As a person, she was bright and sparky and so clever. She was a brilliant live presenter. I knew her whole family and Im just devastated for them.

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She said that Caroline was a "true romantic" at heart and just wanted to find love.

However, despite the stars tough, confident exterior, she said there was a real vulnerability to Caroline and that she had a tendency to dwell on the negative, just like anyone else.

She's a fragile little thing - she always was and she always took it to heart, anytime anyone slagged her or her outfit off on Twitter, she wasnt able. People need to be kinder, she said.

Fiona said she also hopes that lessons will be learned in the wake of her sudden and tragic death and that social media users will think twice before Tweeting nasty messages to celebrities.

The trolling was ridiculous and you just cant go around saying these nasty things to people, she said.

She added that she has just signed a petition calling for an inquiry into how the British media vilifies certain celebrities. It has already garnered nearly 150,000 signatures.
Immunizations must be required

To the editor,

As a retired pediatrician I have empathy with Representative Qualm on feeling the parent has the right to refuse immunization for their child.

Unfortunately the great success of our immunization program preventing killing diseases such as hard measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, polio and others is only possible if herd immunity of about 90% immunized is reached. Newborns, young babies, children without or with poor immune systems and many cancer victims will die of forgotten diseases if herd immunity is not maintained. With out herd immunity the awful diseases of the past will again rear their ugly head and kill thousands.

This has happened in Europe where 72 children died in 2018 from measles, a disease that had seemed to be eliminated. Therefore only medical exemptions can be allowed if the immunization program is to work.

If anyone wants to research this further discuss this with the experts on immunization in the South Dakota Department of Health. I have found they are always up to date and rigorous in protecting the children and adults of South Dakota.

Sincerely,

Willis Sutliff MD, Rapid City retired pediatrician

Dissatisfied with Disanto's replacement

To the editor,

I have been bothered by some actions of our Governor and the recently appointed Senator Jessica Castleberry. Our former Republican Senator Lynne DiSanto, was elected by her constituents because of her conservative position on state issues.

I am seeing our Governor's true colors as she appoints yet another liberal to be her ringer in killing bills to protect our children and to push this social agenda of transgenders and big pharma. She certainly didnt appoint someone who would uphold the conservative values Lynne's constituents have voted for. Apparently the Governor needed the new Senator to vote for bills that would support her liberal agenda. I am looking forward to a true Republican candidate to challenge Castleberry in District 35 on the ballot in June.

Vera Cline, Rapid City

Dishonoring the Medal of Freedom

To the editor,

The Presidential Medal of Freedom was reestablished by President John F. Kennedy in 1963, and is the Nation's highest civilian honor (it was initially established in 1945 by Harry Truman to honor people who performed notably during WWII). It is now awarded to "individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the security or national interests of America, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors". It has been awarded over 500 times since 1963, the latest recipient being Rush Limbaugh. Among his "notable" endeavors, Limbaugh joined Mr. Trump in spreading the Obama "birther" libel, and he popularized the tune "Barack the Magic Negro" for his millions of listeners.

Limbaugh has been insatiably cruel to others in innumerable ways, from calling Michael J. Fox a phony over his Parkinsons, comparing a 12-year-old Chelsea Clinton to a dog, telling an African American woman to call back when she takes the bones out of her nose, naming children on government assisted lunches "wanton waifs", implying that gay men are Pedophiles, women "semen receptacles" and documented immigrants as "lazy". It is beyond me how this man could possibly join the truly notable recipients of the Medal of Freedom.

Mary Richards, Spearfish

Dumbing down students with communism

To the editor,

Dumbing down students by communism is most influential at the university level, it has also influenced primary and secondary school education. Its influence has undermined children's intellectual development and maturity, making them more susceptible to leftist influences in college.

It has caused generations of students to have less and less knowledge and less ability to reason and engage in critical thinking. This has gone on for over a hundred years. In addition to instilling atheism and communist ideology in students, primary and secondary education in the United States engages in psychological manipulation that destroys students traditional beliefs and morals.

Whether democratic politics can be pursued in a manner that is truly beneficial to all depends not only on the level of their knowledge and understanding. If voters are not well-versed in history, political and economic systems, and social issues, they will have difficulty electing officials who will base their platforms on the long-term and fundamental interests of the country and society. This puts the country in a dangerous situation. Unlike the rebellious student leaders in the 1960's who could speak eloquently, today's young people who participated in street protests and were interviewed by television news lacked basic common sense.

Rick Lewis, Spearfish

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An average of 118 calls a day to the federal government's aged care helpline, My Aged Care, went unanswered over the past year, as advocates renew their pleas for more face-to-face options to access services.

New figures provided to the Senate showed more than 110,000 calls to My Aged Care did not get through over the three years from 2016-17, with nearly 43,000 going unanswered in 2018-19 alone.

More than 100 calls a day to My Aged Care went unanswered in 2018-19. Credit:iStock

My Aged Care, billed by the government as the "starting point on your aged care journey," is the main way older Australians get assessed for government-funded aged care and find information about the different types of help.

It is largely only contactable via website or phone, although in 2019, the government put $7.4 million towards a "system navigators" trial that will pilot face-to-face options until June 2020.
World Vision's $3.7 million coronavirus campaign to aid nearly 400,000 in China

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As over 1,600 people in China have died due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the international evangelical humanitarian agency World Vision is spending millions to provide assistance to nearly 400,000 people in the midst of the deadly health crisis.

Sponsoring over 55,000 children and employing 300 staffers in China, World Vision is one of the largest humanitarian aid organizations operating in the country.

The organization remains concerned about the increasing rate of confirmed coronavirus cases as China reported at least 121 more deaths from the virus on Friday. The Chinese government reported Saturday that 1,665 people have died from the virus.



Erica Van Deren, World Vision program manager for humanitarian and emergency affairs, told The Christian Post that about 39,000 of World Visions sponsored children live in areas of China that are at immediate risk of the coronavirus.

However, she said that none of the World Vision sponsor children have contracted the virus.

Were working with our sponsor children and their families to make sure their families have the protective equipment that they need, Van Deren said. Then also [they need the] education and understanding of how they need to protect themselves from this and talk to kids about the fear and stress they may be having.

World Vision aims to help 390,000 people in 10 Chinese provinces by distributing personal protective equipment and sanitation products that include facemasks, thermometers, sanitizers and soap.

The cost of World Visions coronavirus-related efforts in China is estimated to be about $3.7 million.

Van Deren said World Vision has already distributed 50,000 hospital-grade facemasks to people in five counties in four provinces.

These are incredibly poor families, she said. World Vision China has a history of addressing the needs of these communities.

World Vision will work with local partners to reach vulnerable families to educate them on the importance of proper hygiene and handwashing techniques.

In addition to helping sponsor children and their families, World Vision is also helping local community health workers in provinces like Hubei and Hunan to ensure that they have the right protective supplies. Those include gowns, gloves, eye protection and respirators.

World Vision will also seek to assist Chinese institutional homes for vulnerable children. Such homes include orphanages or centers for disabled children.

Right now, that is sort of a gap in the response, Van Deren explained. World Vision is helping to fill that gap and working with the government to make sure that the people working in those homes have the protective equipment that they need.

World Vision has experience assisting vulnerable communities through its work in past health crises such as Zika, Ebola and H1N1.

As the total number of coronavirus cases has surpassed 68,500 worldwide, World Vision is also working on a global preparedness plan with all of its offices, especially those bordering China and some of its offices in Africa.

As of Saturday, four reported coronavirus-related deaths have been reported outside of China.

We dont want anybody out there to think there is a big fear of transmission being outside of China, Van Deren said. Really, the biggest concerns are inside China. But every office is assessing what is the World Vision capacity to respond if this were to come [to their countries] and if the host governments are ready to respond if this were to happen.

Van Deren said that in Vietnam, Nepal, Mongolia, Myanmar and the Philippines, they are confident in the abilities of the World Vision offices and the national governments to respond.

However, there is concern about countries with inadequate health systems.

Our biggest concern is if this were to go into countries that dont have strong health systems or dont have strong governments that are able to control and trace the virus, she stressed.

What we have right now is the grace of time. Lets be thinking about what would happen if this were to come to a country in southern Africa and think about who would lead our response there and who would be our public health leaders.

In a lot of these places we have worked for a long time on infectious diseases like Zika, Ebola and HIV and we already have strong connections to the ministry of health and local health workers, she added.

There has just been an incredible amount of learning from the Ebola outbreak that we can be applying to this coronavirus outbreak.

In the U.S. there have been 15 cases of the coronavirus confirmed in seven states.

"Right now we're in an aggressive containment mode," Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Robert Redfield told CNN, adding that they dont know a lot about the virus.

"This virus is probably with us beyond this season, beyond this year, and I think eventually the virus will find a foothold and we will get community-based transmission."
More than 1,100 former prosecutors and officials at the Department of Justice called on Attorney General Bill Barr to resign Sunday after he intervened in the case of Roger Stone to reduce the recommended sentence of President Trumps longtime friend and quasi-adviser. The former DOJ employees expressed outrage in an open letter at Barrs intervention after Trump tweeted his disapproval of the nine-year sentence recommended by prosecutors in the case where Stone had been convicted of seven felonies. Mr. Barrs actions in doing the Presidents personal bidding and the damage they have done to the Department of Justices reputation for integrity and the rule of law, require Mr. Barr to resign, the letter reads.

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The former Justice Department employees, from both Democratic and Republican administrations, said Trumps tweet and Barrs subsequent intervention was counter to the established procedural norms of the DOJ. The Department has a long-standing practice in which political appointees set broad policies that line prosecutors apply to individual cases. That practice exists to animate the constitutional principles regarding the even-handed application of the law, the former Justice employees wrote. Although there are times when political leadership appropriately weighs in on individual prosecutions, it is unheard of for the Departments top leaders to overrule line prosecutors, who are following established policies, in order to give preferential treatment to a close associate of the President, as Attorney General Barr did in the Stone case.

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The officials offered their support for the four prosecutors who resigned from the case. Since they considered Barrs resignation unlikely, the signatories suggested alternative means of expressing dissent and resisting inappropriate influence from the Trump White House: [W]e call on every DOJ employee to follow their heroic example and be prepared to report future abuses to the Inspector General, the Office of Professional Responsibility, and Congress; to refuse to carry out directives that are inconsistent with their oaths of office; to withdraw from cases that involve such directives or other misconduct; and, if necessary, to resign and report publiclyin a manner consistent with professional ethicsto the American people the reasons for their resignation.
The MWC 2020 has been cancelled  now what? As the biggest exhibition of mobile phones in the world, many new models were slated to be unveiled in Barcelona but companies had to change plans.

Everything wont happen at once and it certainly wont happen at the same place. So to help you keep everything organized, we made a list of what new smartphones were expected at the MWC and when and what will happen with them now.

Sony Xperia 1.1, 5 Plus  February 24

Sonys range of flagships and mid-rangers will be revealed on schedule  February 24  through a livestream instead of an event in Barcelona. The Xperia 1.1 and Xperia 5 Plus are expected to bring significant camera upgrades with 64MP sensors and 8K HDR video. That will be a treat to watch on Xperia 1.1s 4K HDR screen. The screen on the Xperia 5 Plus will grow to 6.6 but will likely stick with a sub-4K resolution.



Sony Xperia 5 Plus renders

These should also be Sonys first 5G phones. Sonys mid-range will be represented by the Xperia 9, which will also feature 5G thanks to the Snapdragon 765 chipset.

Oppo Find X2 - March

Oppo was supposed to unveil the Find X2  its Snapdragon 865-powered flagship with 120Hz screen and 65W fast charging. It will have a punch hole camera as the tech isn't ready for an under-display unit. The official reveal has been pushed back to March, more details to follow.

Realme X50 Pro 5G  February 24

The Realme X50 Pro 5G is the companys flagship version of its first 5G phone, the Realme X50 5G. With a 90Hz screen and 65W charging of its own, this is going to be one of the biggest releases in the affordable flagship segment. The X50 Pro will still be unveiled on February 24 but its going to be an online-only event.



Realme X50 Pro 5G teaser

LG G9, V60  TBA

LG had prepared the V60 ThinQ for the MWC  a 5G phone with a dual screen accessory in the vein of the V50. The companys new plan was to promote the premium V60 in North America and Western Europe, leveraging the rise of new 5G networks, while reserving the LG G9 for more price sensitive markets.



LG G9 (CAD-based renders)

The LG G9 and V60 will be unveiled at a separate event soon, but we are given no date or even a timeframe yet.

Xiaomi Mi 10  TBA

Xiaomi unveiled the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro this week and already had its first successful sale in China. However, the company was supposed to bring the two flagships to the MWC and announce details about their global launch. The even and the launch itself have been pushed back for a later date, the company will announce a new schedule soon.



The Xiaomi Mi 10 boasts a 108MP camera

Nokia  TBA

HMDs original plan for an MWC event on February 23 has been canceled in favor of a series of Nokia Live events. They will feature demonstration of 5G tech, but beyond that the company hasnt confirmed the slate of new devices it was meant to unveil in Barcelona.

The Nokia 9.2 seems a long way off as HMD works on the Snapdragon 865 chipset and tinkering with under display cameras. However, the Nokia 5.2 seems ready to go.

vivo Apex 2020  TBA

Vivo had a hot new concept phone, the Apex 2020 to show at the MWC, but this has been pushed back for a later date. Little is known about the new Apex, but the 2019 model was one of the first hole-free phones. And if we were lucky, we may have seen the iQOO 3 (set to launch on February 25 in India).

ZTE Axon 10s Pro  TBA

The ZTE Axon 10s Pro is a budget-friendly powerhouse with Snapdragon 865, UFS 3.0 and LPDDR5, plus 5G and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity. The phone is official in China and the companys presence at the MWC promised a wider availability, but ZTE cancelled its attendance. Theres no details yet on whats next on ZTEs event schedule.

Huawei Mate Xs - TBA

We've been hearing chatter about a Huawei Mate Xs, an upgrade to the company's first foldable phone with the latest Kirin 990 chipset. We expected to see this at the MWC along with new tablets, laptops and various accessories as a build up to the March reveal of the Huawei P40. The company is yet to announce how it will deal with MWC's cancellation.

TCL and Alcatel - TBA

TCL had plans to unveil new own-branded phones as well as new models bearing the Alcatel logo. The company is still mulling what to do now that MWC has been canceled (originally, it planned to skip the press conference and just show the phones at its booth, but that's not happening now).
ST. JOHNS, N.L.Sub-zero temperatures forced tenants out of their homes in Atlantic Canada this weekend because of damage from burst pipes.

The Canadian Red Cross says it assisted people in Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island after their apartment units were flooded from frozen water pipes that burst.

Eight people were evacuated from a three-storey complex in St. Johns, N.L., at 4 a.m. on Sunday after five apartments were damaged by flooding.

The organization says people expect to be out of their apartments for several days as the apartments are cleaned and inspected for safety.

A woman and two children were evacuated from their townhouse apartment in Summerside, P.E.I., at 4 a.m. on Saturday due to flooding.

The Red Cross says volunteers have assisted the affected residents with emergency lodging and food.
John Hartigan and Miche Paterson Credit:Shakespeare

John Hartigan may have retired from the board of regional broadcaster Prime Media in December but Rupert Murdochs former top lieutenant is not slowing down.

As we wrote last year, hes already ploughed some of his prodigious energy into racing, acquiring a filly (named Harto, of course) alongside businessman John Singleton.

Now, after three years together, he and partner Miche Paterson have set a date to wed.

The former News Limited chairman proposed to Paterson, a partner at corporate spin outfit Newgate Communications, at Woolloomooloo institution China Doll in October (albeit not having yet purchased an engagement ring).
A former Catholic priest convicted of the 1960 murder of a young teacher and beauty queen died Friday while serving a life sentence at a Texas prison.

The preliminary cause of death for John Feit, 86, was cardiac arrest, according to a statement from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Offender Feit was pronounced dead at 5:38 a.m. Tuesday at Huntsville Hospital," the statement said. He had been found unresponsive just before 5:00 a.m. in his cell at the Estelle Unit. His next of kin have been notified. Preliminary cause of death is cardiac arrest.

Feit was found guilty of the murder of Irene Garza in 2016, over 50 years after he bludgeoned the 25-year-old McAllen, Texas elementary school teacher, suffocated her with a plastic bag then sexually assaulted her before dumping the body in a canal.

Garza was crowned Miss All-Texas Sweetheart in 1958 before becoming a second-grade teacher to indigent students.

A devout Catholic, Garza went to confessional at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen, located within Hidalgo County, on the day she was murdered. Feit, who was 27 at the time of the murder, was a priest at the church.

Authorities suspected Feit from the beginning, but he denied killing Garza, despite admitting to police that he heard Garza's confession in the rectory instead of in the confessional.

The case eventually went cold, but McAllen residents never forgot about the slain beauty queen. Hidalgo District Attorney, Ricardo Rodriguez, ran for office in 2014 on the prospect of re-examining the case.

Although the case was reopened in 2004, Feit was not indicted until 12 years later, when Rodriguez presented new evidence to a grand jury.

The evidence included a portable photographic slide viewer belonging to Feit that was found near Garza's body. Two fellow priests also confessed that Feit admitted to killing Garza.

Prosecutors argued that elected and church officials covered for Feit to save the reputations of the church and Hidalgo County's elected office holders, many of whom were Catholic.

Story continues

Feit also pleaded no contest to attacking another young woman in a church in a nearby town weeks before he killed Garza.

After the murder, Feit spent time in a treatment center in New Mexico for troubled priests, then became a supervisor who cleared other priests for assignments.

One of the priests that Feit helped keep in the ministry was James Porter, a child molester who abused over 100 children before being sent to prison.

In 1972, Feit left the priesthood and moved to Arizona, where he married and worked for a Catholic charity. The couple had three children, according to the Phoenix New Times.

Feit resided in Phoenix until his arrest in 2016. He was later extradited to Texas to stand trial where he was convicted in late 2017 of first-degree murder.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ex-priest convicted in beauty queen's murder dies while serving life, says authorities.
New Delhi, Feb 16 : Along with Aam Aadmi Party National Convener Arvind Kejriwal, six MLAs will also take oath as the Cabinet Ministers, including Manish Sisodia and Gopal Rai.

On Kejriwal's advice, President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed six Cabinet Ministers for Delhi. They are: Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Gopal Rai, Kailash Gehlot, Imran Hussain and Rajendra Pal Gautam.

Manish Sisodia holds a Diploma in Journalism. The journalist-turned-politician has been with Kejriwal since 2006. They, along with a few others, established the Public Cause Research Foundation -- a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that campaigned for just, transparent, accountable and participatory governance.

Sisodia was also part of the Jan Lokpal Movement. He quit journalism to participate in the movement for Right to Information. He was a key member of the team that laid the foundation of the Jan Lokpal Andolan. Sisodia was also sent to jail with Anna Hazare during the anti-graft movement. Apart from being a strong voice against corruption, Sisodia has been working for revolutionary changes in the education system. He is the man behind the reforms in the city in the last five years. Sisodia was a Minister in 2013 and 2015 Kejriwal's Cabinet.

Satyedar Jain, a graduate in Architecture from the Indian Institute of Architects, he was earlier an officer in CPWD. Jain later quit his job to set up an Architectural Consultancy firm. He became involved in Anna Hazare's movement against corruption and quit his career to pursue the same earnestly. He is a founder member of the Aam Aadmi Party. Jain was a Minister in 2013 and 2015 Kejriwal's Cabinet.

Jain has been credited with the reforms in the primary healthcare through mohalla clinics across the city.

Gopal Rai, Post-graduate in Sociology from Lucknow University, Rai began his career with the All India Students Association -- the student wing of the CPI-M, in Lucknow University in 1992.

Rai became part of the Kejriwal's Cabinet in 2015 after being elected to the Assembly for the first time. He has been credited with the struggle for raising the minimum wages in Delhi to almost double.

Rajendra Pal Gautam, a law graduate from the Delhi University, he was a practising lawyer who joined the Aam Aadmi Party in 2014. He was elected to the Delhi Assembly in 2015 and became the Cabinet Minister. Gautam has been known for the work in the field of eradicating manual scavenging from the city and upliftment of the socially backward communities.

Kailash Gahlot, a Master of Law, he won his first election to the Delhi Assembly in February 2015. Professionally, Gahlot was an advocate in the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court with an experience of over 16 years of legal practice.

During 2005-2007, Gahlot was elected as the Member Executive in Bar Association of High Court of Delhi. He has been credited for bringing reforms in the transport sector.

Imran Hussain, a Graduate in Business Studies from the Jamia Millia Islamia, Hussain made his electoral debut in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections. He had been active in spreading social and political awareness among the oppressed and underprivileged, especially in the Walled City.

As a youth leader, he tried to provide social justice to the people in need. He took initiatives to remedy the environmental problems in the city to bring down the pollution. It was Hussain who took the decision of shutting down the Badarpur and Rajghat thermal plants and made it mandatory for vehicles to have Euro VI standards for vehicular emissions from 2017.

The six names are being repeated from the last Cabinet and are taking oath with Kejriwal at the Ramlila ground on Sunday.
Two forest department officials were on Sunday charred to death in a wildfire at Wadakkancherry near here, officials said.

Poongodu forest station watcher K U Divakaran (43) and temporary watcher A K Velayudhan (54) died during a bid to douse the wildfire that had spread at the HNL plantation.

"Two other officials also suffered burns and have been admitted to Thrissur Medical college hospital," officials said.

Forest minister K Raju expressed his condolences after the tragic incident.

"The department has allotted preliminary monetary assistance to the families of the deceased. Compensation for the families of the deceased and the injured will be decided soon," the minister said in a statement.

The press release also said the plantation was taken under lease by the HNL group.

"It appears that lack of precautions to stop wildfires have caused the accident," the release said, adding that fire responder vehicles from the district were trying to douse the fire which had engulfed the area.

The same area had witnessed a similar wildfire last year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A meeting of Maharashtra BJP leaders took place here on Sunday wherein a resolution was passed that the party will play a role of strong opposition in the state and corner the Maha Vikas Aghadi government on various issues.

The proposal regarding the same was presented by the newly appointed BJP's state unit chief Chandrakant Patil.

Patil said, "Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance has betrayed the mandate and breached the trust of people of the state for which people will not forgive them."

BJP also passed a resolution welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decisions like abrogation of the Article 370, triple talaq and formation of Ram Mandir trust to construct a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya.

Former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis also hit out at the state government and challenged Shiv Sena to fight elections again.

Hitting out at NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Fadnavis said, "I thank Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for transferring Bhima Koregaon case to Investigation Agency (NIA). Sharad Pawar was opposing it as he was afraid that truth will come out in the NIA investigation."

Hitting out at anti-CAA protests, he said, "Those who spread false things about CAA should apologize to the Prime Minister. There is nothing wrong in the CAA as it will not take citizenship of any Indian. Instead, it's a law to give citizenship."

Fadnavis also said that on February 22, BJP will stage a statewide protest in various district and cities over Maharashtra government's "failure" to provide security to women and resolve farmers issues.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
16.02.2020 LISTEN

Parliamentary Candidate on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ajumako Enyan Essiam, Dr. Rashid Kwesi Etuaful has threatened a law suit against some constituency executives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the constituency.

This follows a ress statement signed by Galahad Alex Andoh, Communications Officer, his deputy, Rexford Mensah and Andrews Kojo Duodo, Secretary, all executive officers of the NDC in the Ajumako Enyan Essiam Constituency accusing the Parliamentary Candidate for interrupting an ongoing investigations into the missing excavators seized from illegal miners.

They accused the PC based on a purported memo issued to NPP national executives by Dr. Ekow Ewusi to sweep matters under the carpet to set free the main suspect in the case, 1st Vice Chairman of the NPP in the Central Region Mr. Horace Ekow Ewusi.

The parliamentary candidate in an interview debunked the accusations described them as flawed, malicious and demeaning.

"So the point is that, I did not issue the purported memo, as a matter of fact I saw it as any other body on Facebook and I had to issue a disclaimer. So i must say, I have no idea, absolutely no idea about the said memo," the parliamentary candidate stated.

According to him, the NPP deals with poling station executives and that, the fact that the memo mentioned branches, revealed that it was concocted by the oppositionn members in the constituency.

The parliamentary candidate again debunked a claim that, Mr. Horace Ekow Ewusi purchased vehicles for him (Dr Rashid) and distributed across the constituency, saying that, the vehicles were purchased by himself to address the hardships on constituents.

"It is fallacious and unwarranted. Mr. Ekow Ewusi has given me not even a car tyre or bicycle let alone cars," he said.

Based on this, he has instructed his lawyers to file a law suit against signatories of the statement.

He said, the NDC has organized three press conferences within the space of one month in a calculated effort to tarnish his image.

According to him, the effort to unseat the current member of parliament for the area, Hon. Casely Ato Forsen is the reason for the vicious attack.

"They are just doing this to discredit the process and make me unpopular but they are rather making me popular. These are calculated efforts to impugn on my reputation and I shall take them on," he emphasised.
A provincial lawmaker of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was shot dead in Naushero Feroze district in Sindh province, police said.

Member of Provincial Assembly Shahnaz Ansari was shot dead on Saturday allegedly by a nephew of her recently deceased brother-in-law Zahid Khokar in Darya Khan, Naushehro Feroze, Sindh police said.

Ansari, who was nominated on a reserved seat, was attending Khokar's chehlum (a mourning ceremony that occurs 40 days after the death of a person) when the attack took place. She was rushed to a hospital where she was declared brought dead, Geo reported, quoting doctors.

According to police, Ansari had decided to attend the ceremony despite tensions between her and Khokhar's nephew.

Police said an investigation will be conducted to ascertain how many individuals were involved in the attack. Initial reports suggested that the attack was motivated by a longstanding land dispute.

Ansari was active within the PPP and was involved in Sindh's political scene. She was also the district president of the PPP Women's Wing in her



constituency.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari strongly condemned the murder.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
MINNEAPOLIS  A Super Tuesday duel for moderate Democratic voters in Minnesota is shaping up between two mild-mannered Midwesterners who few thought would ever make it this far.

A year ago, Sen. Amy Klobuchars hopes seemed as hazy as the Minneapolis blizzard that greeted the start of her presidential campaign; then-South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg was a political unknown with a hard-to-pronounce last name.

Now with former Vice President Joe Biden faltering in the early voting in Iowa and New Hampshire, moderate Democrats are looking for a candidate who can blunt the momentum of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a champion of the partys left who won Minnesotas Democratic primary four years ago.

Heading into the March 3 Democratic primaries, with Minnesota among the 14 states weighing in, Buttigieg and Klobuchar are each holding themselves out as a fragmented partys best chance of coalescing around a unity candidate who can beat President Donald Trump in November. Buttigieg is building on the momentum of a top finish in Iowa and a second-place spot in New Hampshire; Klobuchar, benefiting from low expectations in early polls, surprised the nation with a gritty third-place finish in the Granite State. Its given her enough momentum to at least make it as far as where it all began  her home state.

As a new face in Minnesota, Buttigiegs challenge is boosting his name recognition quickly in a state where he hasnt invested much in the way of time or resources. He visited Minneapolis last year for a private fundraiser, and his husband, Chasten, hosted a reception in October. But the campaign so far has no paid staff dedicated solely to Minnesota.

In place of a professional staff, a group of at least 100 Buttigieg volunteers has bubbled up in Minnesota, taking over phone-banking and door-knocking. They send out a daily e-mail newsletter and host regular Pete Ups, working peer-to-peer to target people who are Pete curious. At a recent debate watch party, organizers said attendance doubled after his strong performance in Iowa.

However well hes done nationally, it could still be a challenge for Buttigieg to peel away moderate support from Klobuchar, a three-term senator who has won reelection twice in Minnesota with more than 60% of the vote. Despite that, supporters say she isnt taking anything for granted in her home state, where a poor showing on March 3 could all but knock her out the race.

In view of that pressure, her national headquarters in Minneapolis has dispatched paid staff and surrogates on the ground who are organizing door knocks and get-out-the-vote efforts in Minnesota, a state still largely overlooked by the competition  with the exception of Sanders, whose wife visited Friday, and Michael Bloomberg, who has put up more than $4.5 million in ads across the state.

Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, represents a major X-factor in what has become an unsettled race: a self-funding billionaire magnate, he hasnt competed in the early states. But he has spent hundreds of millions on ads, staff and field offices in Super Tuesday states like Minnesota. Hes also courting rural and urban voters as a moderate alternative to Sanders.

There has not been a test yet whether Bloombergs strategy will work for him, said Jeff Blodgett, a former state director for Barack Obama and adviser to Klobuchars campaign. Its an extraordinarily costly effort to build name ID, and whether you can solidify that with votes at the polling place remains to be seen.

Sanders too is adding staff in Super Tuesday states like Minnesota. He recently launched his first television and digital ads in the state. His wife, Jane Sanders, made an appearance in Minneapolis on Friday for a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Womens March. She was also in Minnesota to campaign.

In every election the Democratic Party has chosen a moderate, theyve lost, she said in an interview. Theyve chosen the safe bet and theyve lost because theyve lost the enthusiasm that energizes the electorate.

Sanders recently won the first-ever endorsement of progressive group TakeAction Minnesota, which is trying to mobilize its 50,000 members to get out and support Sanders in the primary. Hes the only candidate who has stayed true to his vision and fight for the last 50 years, said TakeAction organizer Jamila Mame. No one else can say that.

In the hunt for moderate Democrats  the arena where Klobuchar and Buttigieg are competing  Biden is also still a force. He came in a disappointing fifth in New Hampshire and fourth in Iowa, but could see a boost in Nevada and South Carolina, which might bring back wavering Minnesota supporters.

Biden placed second in a Las Vegas Review-Journal poll on Friday, just behind Sanders. Tied in the middle of the pack, behind Elizabeth Warren and Tom Steyer, were Klobuchar and Buttigieg, at 10% support each  a result that underscores their intensifying rivalry as Minnesotans prepare to go to the polls.

Klobuchar supporter Jerry Gale of Brooklyn Park said she has proved her electability in Minnesota and could help Democrats win seats in states across the country. He said hes skeptical of Buttigieg, whose two terms as mayor of a city of 100,000 people isnt a broad enough test of his electability.

There are millions of Republicans who cant stand Trump and theyre not going to vote for Bernie and I think they would have some doubts about Pete, he said.

Vying for the same center slice of the Democratic electorate, Klobuchar and Buttigieg have drawn distinctions from one another in the debates. Shes criticized his relative lack of political experience, while hes criticized her for being part of the old Washington political guard. She said he has flip-flopped on Medicare for All, which neither of them support. Both support abortion rights, but Klobuchar has pitched a big tent attitude on the issue, welcoming voters who oppose abortion rights into her campaign.

Both need to court Biden defectors as well as Democratic voters who worry that Sanders progressive populism, however popular with the partys activist base, will be a losing formula in the fall general election.
Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed that they have shot down a Saudi led coalition warplane belonging to the Saudi-led military coalition in the northern province of al-Jawf, according to the reports on February 15. The Tornado aircraft was downed with surface to air missile in al-Masloub district, according to media outlet citing a statement by the Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saream, without providing any further details. According to the reports, the fighter jet was part of an operation to support Yemeni government forces, the coalition said in a statement carried by the official of the state media.

READ: Saudi Arabia, Yemens Houthi Rebels In Indirect Peace Talks

Saudi-Yemen peace talks

The Saudi-led military coalition involved in Yemen's conflict in 2015 to support the government that had been forced out by the Houthi rebels. Earlier, Saudi Arabia and Yemens Iran-backed rebels are held indirect, behind-the-scenes talks to end the impoverished Arab countrys devastating five-year war. Officials from both sides have told media that the negotiations are taking place with Oman, which borders both Yemen and Saudi Arabia, as mediator. The Saudi-led military coalition, which entered the war in 2015, is fighting on behalf of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his internationally recognized government.

READ: Yemen Hospital Suffers In Houthi Missile Attack, Eight People Killed

Yemen to become the poorest country in the world: UN

The United Nations said in an official report that if the ongoing civil war in Yemen continues till 2022 then it would become the poorest country in the world. The percentage of poverty in the year 2014 was 47 per cent, and it is expected to reach 75 per cent by the end of this year due to the war.

The United Nations Development Program published a report on September 26 which discussed the current scenario of Yemen. The report quoted the UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner who said that the war has made Yemen the 'largest humanitarian crisis in the world'. Yemen is currently among the poorest countries in the Middle-Eastern region and its condition deteriorated even more after the Saudi-led intervention in 2015.

READ: Yemen: Houthi Rebels Offer To Release Approximately 350 Prisoners

READ: Saudi Arabia, Yemens Houthi Rebels In Indirect Peace Talks

(With Agency Inputs)
Latest developments:

Government of Canada sending chartered plane to repatriate Canadians on quarantined ship .

More than 2,000 new cases of infection, 142 deaths confirmed in China.

Americans left cruise ship to be flown home Sunday.

The Canadian government said Saturday it was sending a chartered plane to repatriate the Canadians stuck on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which has been quarantined in Japan due to coronavirus.

"This decision was taken because of the extraordinary circumstances faced by passengers on the Diamond Princess, and to lighten the burden on the Japanese health care system," said a joint statement from Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, Health Minister Patty Hajdu and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan. "We are working closely with Carnival Cruise lines and the government of Japan to assist in this evacuation."

The ship has been docked in Yokohama since Feb. 3 carrying around 3,600 passengers and crew.

Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said Saturday another 67 people on the ship tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total to more than 300  the biggest cluster of infections outside China.

Canadians who are not showing symptoms of COVID-19 infection will be flown from Japan to Canadian Forces Base Trenton, in Ontario, after which they will be assessed and transported to the NAV Canada Training Institute in Cornwall, Ontario, to undergo a further 14-day period of quarantine.

Anyone showing symptoms of infection will be transferred to the Japanese health system to receive care, and will continue to receive full consular services, the statement said.

Watch: Canadian on board says 2nd quarantine period 'irksome'

8th case reported in Canada

Paul Mirko of Richmond, B.C., is among those quarantined on the ship.

He told CBC News via email on Saturday that Japanese officials are being very thorough with their screenings  noting that it was announced that there will be individual testing starting on Tuesday. He hopes to be back in Canada soon.

Story continues

"One of my main concerns is that the Canadian government would also quarantine us upon return," said the 63-year-old. "The efficiency and methods of the quarantine here are effective and tough."

Champagne said on Friday that Canadian health workers are assisting in Japan after 15 Canadians contracted the novel coronavirus while on the cruise ship, where 255 Canadians were initially confined to their cabins. Those infected have been moved to Japanese health facilities, and at least three required hospitalization, Champagne said.

WATCH | Canadian health staff deployed to Japan

Meanwhile, Canada has reported an eighth presumptive case of coronavirus, British Columbia health officials said on Friday, a woman in her 30s from the B.C. Interior who recently travelled to China. There have been four confirmed cases in B.C. and three others in Ontario, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. The risk to Canadians remains low, the agency said.

U.S. also bringing home citizens

American passengers were taken off the cruise liner on Sunday to fly home. An announcement on the public address system aboard the Diamond Princess told Americans to get ready to disembark on Sunday evening for charter flights home. Passengers wearing masks could later be seen waving through the windows of buses parked near the ship.

Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

About 380 Americans had been on board the ship.

WATCH | B.C. resident Spencer Fehrenbacher says he's eager to leave the Diamond Princess:

The United States urged its citizens on the ship to leave "out of an abundance of caution" on a special flight due in Japan on Sunday. They will face quarantine for another 14 days upon return, the U.S. embassy said in a letter.

"We understand this is frustrating and an adjustment, but these measures are consistent with the careful policies we have instituted to limit the potential spread of the disease," the embassy said.

China Daily via Reuters

American passengers will first be taken to the Travis Air Force Base in California and some will continue on to Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas.

Japan's Health Ministry allowed 11 passengers to disembark on Friday. It said passengers above 80 years of age, those with underlying medical conditions and those who stayed in windowless cabins during the 14-day quarantine can move to a facility on shore.

Death reported in France

The death toll from a coronavirus outbreak in mainland China had reached 1,665, the country's National Health Commission said on Sunday morning, up by 142 from the previous day.

There were also 2,009 new confirmed infections across mainland China, bring the total to 68,500.

An elderly Chinese tourist hospitalized in France has died of the coronavirus, becoming the first fatality in Europe, French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said on Saturday. France has recorded 11 cases of the virus. Buzyn said she was informed on Friday that the 80-year-old man, who was treated at the Bichat hospital in northern Paris since Jan. 25, had died of a lung infection due to the coronavirus.

Outside mainland China, there have been about 500 cases in 24 countries and territories. Until the death in France, there had been three deaths outside mainland China, with one in Japan, one in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines. On Friday, Egypt reported the first infection on the African continent.

MS Westerdam passenger tests positive

Passengers and crew aboard a cruise ship docked in Cambodia were allowed to disembark on Friday after spending two weeks at sea. Since stopping in Hong Kong on Feb. 1, the MS Westerdam, operated by Holland America, was turned away by Japan, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines and Thailand, before Cambodia allowed docking in the port town of Sihanoukville.

As of Friday, no passengers or crew were found to have COVID-19. However, an 83-year-old American woman who had been a passenger has tested positive for the illness in Malaysia, health authorities in that country said on Saturday.

The woman flew to Malaysia on Friday from Cambodia along with 144 others from the ship, the Malaysian health ministry said, adding that she is in stable condition. Her case brings the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Malaysia to 22.

In a bid to prevent the coronavirus from spreading, the Chinese government extended the New Year holiday to keep factories and offices closed, but officials have now been ordered to revive business activity as economic losses mount.

Most access to the central city of Wuhan, where the first cases were reported in December, was suspended on Jan. 23. Controls spread to cities with a total population of 60 million people. Restaurants, cinemas and other businesses were closed nationwide to prevent crowds from gathering.

Under new measures, people returning to Beijing will have to isolate themselves at home for 14 days, said a notice published by state media late Friday. It said people who fail to comply will face legal consequences but gave no details.

WHO mission to China

A WHO-led joint mission with China will start its outbreak investigation work this weekend, focusing on how the new coronavirus is spreading and its severity.

Nine more temporary hospitals have opened in gymnasiums and other public buildings, with 6,960 beds in Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, the National Health Commission announced. It said they were treating 5,606 patients with mild symptoms.

Meanwhile, the ruling Communist Party is trying to restore public confidence following complaints that leaders in Wuhan, where the outbreak has hit hardest, suppressed information about the disease. The party faced similar criticism after the 2002-03 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.

The party should "strengthen areas of weakness and close up loopholes" after the epidemic exposed "shortcomings and deficiencies," President Xi Jinping said at a meeting of party leaders Friday, according to state media.

The ruling party has replaced officials in charge of Hubei and Wuhan and tried to deflect criticism by allowing state media and members of the public online to criticize local officials.

Last month, residents of Wuhan shared videos online showing people being turned away from crowded hospitals. Some said on the popular Sina Weibo microblog service that family members showed symptoms but couldn't get tests.

Anti-disease measures are causing losses so severe that economic forecasters have cut their outlooks for China's growth this year.

The state-owned banking industry has provided more than 537 billion yuan ($102 billion Cdn) in credit to industries such as retail, catering and tourism that have been hurt most, according to Liang Tao, vice chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.
The CPI(M) in Kerala



on Sunday announced the expulsion of two party activists who were arrested in November last year under the UAPA for their alleged Maoist links.

Party state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told reporters here that Alan Suhaib and Taha Fazal, both students, used to "work with the CPI(M) and the Maoists simultaneously."



"They are not CPI(M) members anymore. The party has taken action against them," he said.

However, Jameela, mother of Fazal, told reporters though the of their expulsion hurt her, she was not ready to disown the party.

"Yes. It hurts when such comes out. None of the local party leaders have informed us about this. I still believe in the party. Not going to disown the party," Jameela, whose family members are staunch Marxists, said.

Balakrishnan was briefing the media after the two-day CPI(M) state committee meeting.

He said the party has decided to counter the communal polarisation by RSS and SDPI.

"RSS has been attempting Hindu polarisation with chanting of 'Jai Sriram' while SDPI and Jamaath-e-Islami were trying to polarise Muslims using 'Bolo Thakbir' slogans. Both need to be kept at bay," he said.

Taha Fazal (24) and Alan Suhaib (20)--students of journalism and law respectively and the CPI(M)'s branch committee members, were arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) on November 2 last year from Kozhikode, leading to widespread criticism in the Left-ruled state.

The case was taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) but Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written to Home Minister Amit Shah seeking to hand over the probe to the local police saying the investigation was going in the right direction.

When asked about the finding of CAG on missing rifles and live cartridges, Balakrishnan said the incident happened between 2013 and 2018.

"During the period, four DGPs changed. Regarding CAG findings there is a procedure to be followed and it has to be reported to Public Accounts Committee. Missing of cartridges may be a clerical error and it happens from time to time," he added.

The CAG report tabled in the state assembly on February 12, had stated that 25 INSAS rifles and over 12,000 cartridges had gone missing from the Special Armed Police battalion in the state capital and there was an attempt at a cover-up.

It had also come down on the DGP for flouting norms to buy luxury vehicles and diverting funds meant for building homes for sub-inspectors for constructing villas for senior officers.

The opposition Congress latched on the report to attack the Chief Minister Vijayan on the CAG report, alleging such serious corruption cannot take place without his knowledge.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prabhu Chawla By

Defeat is the great leveler but unlike death, it is a great teacher. There is no greater myth-buster than the ballot box, which urges course correction and intense introspection in all outlier elections.

Just as victory inflates ego, defeat pulverises personal glorification. BJPs humiliating drubbing in Delhi cannot be considered just another loss, but the erosion of its hitherto unchallenged acceptability as the party with a difference.

Even as its self-consoling leadership gloats over its enhanced vote share vis-a-vis its ballot basket in 2015, the saffron establishment is ignoring at its peril the fact that it has suffered a massive loss of around 15 per cent votes since May when it won all of Delhis seven Lok Sabha seats.

Dismembered by the K-Bomb, it couldnt even make it past double digits. For the second consecutive time, five year old AAP flattened the gargantuan 40 year old BJP. Arvind Kejriwal, a former Revenue Service officer and IIT graduate, has emerged as a powerful challenger to the Modi-Shah combo. Though Modi Moxie 2014 stays unchanged, Kejriwal 2020 has gone beyond the Angry Activist of 2015. Once an acerbic street fighter, Kejriwal has now become Delhis Chankaya by stealing Modis slogan of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas. Once a pseudo secularist, he has become the new Nationalist Liberal Icon who upholds Hanuman Bhakti as a badge of honour and conviction even as he replaces the Congress as the undisputed messiah of the Muslims.

The states have been sending May Day signals to BJP to look re-examine its version of Hindutva. After a communally corrosive election, Amit Shah even suggested that hate slogans led to the Delhi debacle which followed its loss of power in Maharashtra; its government in Haryana is at the mercy of a local outfit. These reverses have come seven months after Narendra Modis triumphant return to power with a record 300 seats.

It was a win for Mighty Modi but not for his party. The BJP had by then lost Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh to the Congress, which was in ICU. Successive debacles in over half-a-dozen states in the past two years indicate that Modi alone cannot repeatedly grab every state for his party. From 2014 to 2017, it had won state after state in Modis name, the number going up from barely five states to eighteen. In none of these states did voters ask for the CMs name. They blindly voted for Face Modi, inspired by his rhetoric. They saw in the prime minister, a chief minister as well. His towering hoardings dominated the national skyline like totems of mass mojo, which upended political fortunes both nationally and state-wise.

With Modi and his most trusted then-BJP chief Amit Shah taking charge of election campaigns in every state, the local leadership became either marginalised or lost credibility. Party cadres were convinced that the BJP can win just riding on the Modis mass magic and Shahs organisational ops. Hence, the entire election strategy revolved exclusively around them. The two men addressed more rallies than all local and national leaders put together. State satraps such as Shivraj Chouhan, Vasundhara Raje and Raman Singh were dwarfed in the electioneering effort. Even the affable Devendra Fadnavis and a simpleton like Haryana CM Khattar were downsized.

In Delhi, the BJP lacked a leader who posed even a minor threat to Kejriwal. Its state chief was at best seen as a regional community neta. Though the BJP boasts of possessing leaders of every caste and community, none of them enjoy Delhis confidence as vote magnets. Election management was handed over to Union ministers Prakash Javadekar and Hardeep Singh Puri whose connectivity with Delhis politics is at best superfluous. While an affable Javadekar has little exposure to Delhi politics, Puri spent over three decades out of the city as a diplomat.

In fact, his association with the Khan Market Gang or the Lutyens Mafia is more pronounced than any other old face. English speaking leaders with ideologically neutral friends from other states were drafted into the campaign. The annoyed old and loyal cadres distanced themselves from campaigning. If that wasnt enough, Shah was persuaded by rootless new spin masters to plunge into a new vector. They persuaded the prime minister and the home minister to believe that the party would get an absolute majority in Delhis assembly. BJPs plummeting connectivity with its own cadres and voters became evident when it was compelled to resort to nukkad meetings and house-to-house canvassing.

The BJP now resembles the Congress, burdened by a top-heavy leadership and lacking second level personalities with the regional charisma to swing voters. For the first time, it looks as if it suffers an ideological talent deficit. During the past five years, many state veterans have vanished but havent been replaced by equally strong leaders. Both Atal Behari Vajpayee and LK Advani could retain their undisputed national status while creating ocean of Gen Next powerhouses who could not only sway states but also played pan-Indian roles.

Modi, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Chouhan, Raje, Pramod Mahajan, Rajnath Singh, Uma Bharati, BS Yediyurappa, Raman Singh and Nitin Gadkari dominated the BJPs regional and national discourse. While the Congress has failed to find an alternative to the Gandhis, the BJP had dozens of qualified persons to manage the top posts both in the government and the party. In 2014, Modi by his sheer hard work and performance raced past his competitors and mentors to bring India under Hindutva control.

As the countdown for the next round of state polls begin, both Modi and BJP must revisit its heavy dependence on a single individual at the cost of an ideology-led organisation. The Opposition lacks national level challengers. But it has Kejriwal, Mamata, Hooda, Kamal Nath, Bhupesh Baghel, Pinarayi Vijayan et al to block the saffron juggernaut. Mandate-2014 gave India and the BJP an unputdownable national icon in Modi. Somewhere on the way it lost its gods of small things and big ideas. On the other hand, anti-BJP forces adopted soft Hindutva with temple runs and prayer chants. Congress-run states are today more concerned about cow safety than BJP. The need of the hour for the saffron party is more local Modis to consolidate and sustain current Modi Rajya, which is under serious threat at the moment.

prabhu chawla

prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com

Follow him on Twitter @PrabhuChawla
By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S

By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney William Barr has tapped the top federal prosecutor in St. Louis to review the Justice Department's politically-charged case against President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn, a department official said on Friday.

Jeffrey Jensen, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, will be working alongside the case's lead prosecutor Brandon Van Grack, a move that comes a month after Flynn told the court he wanted to withdraw his guilty plea in former Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The news of Barr's decision to tap an outside prosecutor on the Flynn case caps an extraordinary week at the Justice Department.

On Tuesday, the department lightened its sentencing recommendation for Trump political ally Roger Stone after criticism from the president that an earlier recommendation for seven to nine years in prison was too harsh.

The move prompted all four career prosecutors on the case to withdraw and one of them to quit the government entirely.

Barr on Thursday tried to beat back critics' concerns that he was doing the president's political bidding by intervening to help Stone, and said the president's constant tweets on criminal cases were undercutting his ability to do his job.

The very next day, prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C. revealed they would not be pressing charges against former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, a frequent punching bag of Trump's, over allegations he misled investigators about his communications with the media.

Barr's decision to bring in Jensen on the Flynn case, however, could potentially undercut his efforts to do damage control after Trump's flurry of tweets on the Stone case.

The Justice Department official stressed that Jensen's role was not to oversee career prosecutors' work on the Flynn case, but to work alongside them.

Jensen is assisting the department and prosecution team "to get a complete and thorough understanding of the facts and the record in a complicated case," the person told Reuters, speaking anonymously in order to discuss sensitive personnel matters.

Flynn pleaded guilty in late 2017 to lying to the FBI about interactions with Russias ambassador to the United States in the weeks before Trump took office.

He was supposed to help cooperate with the government as part of his deal. But he later switched lawyers and tactics, arguing that prosecutors in the case had violated his rights and tricked him into lying about his December 2016 conversations with Sergei Kislyak, then Russias ambassador in Washington.

The department has repeatedly denied the allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, and U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan rejected all of Flynn's claims in December and set a sentencing date.

Shortly after that, Flynn filed the motion to withdraw his plea.

Given all of the allegations that the case was mishandled, Jensen was brought in to help "review the whole thing, soup to nuts," the person said.

Jensen's involvement in the Flynn case was reported earlier by the New York Times.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Tom Brown)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media

BRIDGEPORT  A Stratford man was seriously injured after being hit by a vehicle while on a scooter Friday night, police said Saturday.

At 9:53 p.m. Friday, the citys 911 center got a call from Bridgeport Hospital personnel who said there was a male victim in the emergency department who had been hit by a car.
Governments must deliver decisive actions and "transformational change" to combat global warming, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Sunday, blasting a recent climate summit in Madrid.

The so-called COP25 climate talks in the Spanish capital in December were supposed to build on breakthrough promises made at the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris.

Instead, governments equivocated and observers decried their response as inadequate and unambitious.

"Our planet is burning but too many decision makers continue to fiddle," Guterres said in a speech he delivered in Islamabad.

"The only answer is decisive climate action... Gradual approaches are no longer enough." A United Nations panel concluded late in 2018 that avoiding global climate chaos will require a major transformation of society and the world economy.

The landmark report said global CO2 emissions must drop 45 percent by 2030, and reach "net zero" by 2050, to cap temperature rise at 1.5 degrees Celsius, the safe cap set as a goal in the Paris accord.

Guterres said that at the next climate conference, the COP26 in Glasgow later this year, "governments must deliver the transformational change our world needs and that people demand, with much stronger ambition." Guterres said rich countries should lead the way, including by ending "perverse" fossil fuel subsidies.

Following a year of deadly extreme weather and weekly protests by millions of young people, Madrid negotiators were under pressure to send a clear signal that governments were willing to intensify their efforts.

The summit was at times close to collapse as rich polluters, emerging powerhouses and climate-vulnerable nations groped for common ground in the face of competing national interests.

Guterres credited Pakistan for banning plastic bags in the capital Islamabad and for a large tree-planting programme.

Guterres is in Pakistan for a three-day visit that will include his attendance at a conference on Pakistan's hosting of Afghan refugees for 40 years.

Pakistan is one of the largest refugee-hosting nations in the world, home to an estimated 2.4 million registered and undocumented people who have fled Afghanistan, some as far back as the Soviet invasion of 1979.

Many live in camps, while others have built lives for themselves in Pakistan's cities, paying rent and contributing to the economy.

Guterres said the "preferred, durable solution for the refugees has always been one-time repatriation with safety and dignity to the country of origin".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Barely a week before US President Donald Trump begins his India visit, the security agencies of both nations are busy visiting places the President and his wife Melania will visit for official functions and sightseeing. However, the background noise generated by US congressmen and senators over Kashmir and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act persists. External affairs minister S. Jaishankar, after an unseemly Twitter row with celebrated historian Ram Guha over a claim in a new book on V.P. Menon that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru never wanted Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in his Cabinet, found himself embroiled in a fresh controversy at the Munich Security Conference.

The fundamental issue is the methodology a government adopts to deal with domestic or international criticism. Last month the public discourse sank to a new low in the electioneering for the Delhi Assembly polls where the Narendra Modi governments ministers, members of Parliament and other leaders used extremely provocative language. Led by none other than home minister Amit Shah, the BJPs total rout showed the peoples total rejection of negative campaigning. Rather surprisingly Mr Shah, at a public function soon afterwards, had the moral courage to concede that. Surprisingly, suave former diplomat S. Jaishankar has also abandoned a lifetime of measured articulation of his views for pugnacious public retorts in defence of a series of divisive and controversial executive and legislative actions of the Modi-2 government. It can be explained as a recent convert to the BJP-RSS acting holier than others of the faith to demonstrate ideological affinity. It could also simply be an attempt to conform to the take-no-prisoners approach of Mr Modi and Mr Shah. It raises the larger issue of how controversial domestic issues are best managed at a diplomatic level. US President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelts advice to speak softly and carry a big stick remains as valid today as a century ago.

The latest fracas occurred at the Munich Security Conference last week when Mr Jaishankar shared the stage with US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, President Trumps ally and friend, who was leading a 22-member bipartisan US delegation. He is heard distinguishing how democracies deal with internal or external disputes compared to autocratic regimes. He begins by wondering how Scotlands demand for independence may turn out, before deploring the Russian occupation of Crimea or the Chinese shutdown, apparently referring to Uighur issue, before wondering how the Kashmir problem will end, adding but lets make sure the two democracies will end it differently. This he felt was the best way to market democracy at conferences like MSC, where traditionally Russia-European Union relations get centre-staged. Mr Jaishankar retorted that one democracy would end it suitably, then acerbically concluding that the senator would know which one. Much applause followed in India for his sharp rebuke. Did Mr Jaishankar misunderstand Senator Graham, who was referring to UK and India as democracies, which dealt with disputes, internal or external, differently from China and Russia? So where was the need to get hot under the collar.

Perhaps the humility shown by Amit Shah in defeat needs to be emulated in South Block. Indian diplomacy has a tough task marketing normality in Kashmir when even European ambassadors  including the French and German envoys in New Delhi, after the latest conducted tour of Jammu and Kashmir, have accepted progress but simultaneously sought quick further steps. Obviously, the government seems headed away from such steps as two of the three former chief ministers and a former IAS officer have had the draconian Public Safety Act clamped on them. The Supreme Court is to examine the legality of that, in due course. Similarly, the CAA protests have not simmered down despite Mr Shah magnanimously offering to talk to whoever approaches him. The taste of the pie is, however, as they say, in the eating. On Twitter, the BJPs first tweet, after Mr Shahs public confession of failure over the sectarian and divisive electioneering in Delhi, still carried his insistence that the NRC is in the BJPs election manifesto and shall be implemented in future. This tweet was later deleted and a fresh tweet without the last part about the future posted.

Thus, on the eve of the US presidential visit, the backdrop of Indias domestic dissonance will continue. Fortunately for the Modi government, Mr Trump is unlikely to be overly stressed about these developments, except so far as it impinges on Pakistani cooperation, which he needs to implement the finalised-on-paper Afghan accord. Thus, Kashmir and Pakistan will figure in private, if not another public Trumpian stab at mediation. President Trump will seek a mix of hoopla, with teeming masses by the roadside or in a stadium, a trade deal with tangible takeaways that he can brandish particularly for his rural, semi-urban base, and defence deals. He will pitch for exclusion of Huawei and probably put on the table some matching allurement of India-US 5G collaboration.

Mr Jaishankar is also expected in Munich to test the waters for the India-EU summit, which has not taken place for a year and a half. The sticking point would again be Indias domestic developments, particularly Kashmir and the lurking resolution in the European Parliament. India has to also start looking at post-Brexit European Union, as indeed Britain. Meanwhile, South Block has to stop adopting a pugnacious tone in countering criticism abroad. It is one thing to tick off Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, when he absolutely wrongly compares Kashmir to Gallipoli. Did he even realise that many valiant Indian soldiers had laid down their lives in that attack, which was a strategic mistake by British commanders? Does he even know that India is in Jammu and Kashmir after its legal accession to India, and not like Britain trying to counter the emergence of free Turkey? These are arguments that diplomats are supposed to make to neutralise the leader of a major Muslim nation.

But civilised discourse, at home and abroad, begins at the top. Indias diplomats will adjust quickly once they know that the powers that be are willing to cut them the slack to engage and convert critics abroad, not sharply retort and alienate. Ironically, US diplomats are facing a similar dilemma as Twitter-addicted @realDonaldTrump is normally way ahead of the state department in crossing swords and smashing past policy positions. Thus, India can look forward to two days of unpredictable fun and games as Typhoon Trump hits India.
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Linkedin Sudibyo M. Wiradji (The Jakarta Post)  Mon, February 17 2020

Path to academic success: Junior high school students at the Sumuri Christian Education Foundation (YPK), Teluk Buntuni regency, West Papua, attend a class. According a study, the majority of students choose the wrong field of study in university education. Therefore, parents should take part in unlocking their talents and interests, which will help them to achieve academic success in the future. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)

What are you going to be? A doctor or a businessman? Or an engineer?

Thats the common question concerning children that almost every parent is familiar with, whether the question is addressed to them or not, but the reality of the answer can be far different from what they expect.

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Sanaa, Feb 16 : An airstrike in the Yemeni northeastern province of al-Jawf has killed at least 31 civilians and injured 12 others, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen said in a statement on Sunday.

"We share our deep condolences with the families of those killed and we pray for the speedy recovery of everyone who has been injured in these terrible strikes," Lise Grande said in the statement obtained by Xinhua.

"Under international humanitarian law parties which resort to force are obligated to protect civilians. Five years into this conflict and belligerents are still failing to uphold this responsibility," she added.

The victims were killed in the airstrike on Saturday that targeted a gathering of people at the site where a Tornado warplane of the Saudi-led coalition crashed in al-Masloub district in the southwest of al-Jawf, according to a local tribal source.

The victims were members of three relative families, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The strike came hours after the Houthi rebels claimed to have shot down the Tornado warplane.

Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition confirmed that a Tornado warplane crashed in al-Jawf during an operation to support Yemen's government forces.

The coalition held Houthis responsible for the lives and safety of the plane's crew, according to a statement carried by the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television.

The Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the Iran-allied Houthi rebels since its intervention in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 to support the internationally-recognised government of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
A militant vegan accused of raiding farms and stealing livestock has defiantly told of how he would rather go to prison than apologise.

James Warden, 25, rose to national attention after allegedly stealing a $1,500 calf from a Western Australian farm in 2018.

He was also arrested in Perth in February of last year after live-streaming from inside a pork farm on the social media page of US animal activist group Direct Action Everywhere.

Warden has pleaded not guilty to stealing and aggravated burglary but has admitted he is looking at jail time of between six and 12 months if convicted

James Warden, 25, (pictured) who is accused of raiding farms and stealing livestock, has defiantly told of how he would rather go to prison than apologise

Warden - who has pleaded not guilty to stealing and aggravated burglary - admitted he is looking at time behind bars if convicted.

'There's a very good chance of prison time - I'd say I'm looking at between six to 12 months,' he told The West Australian.

'We may be offered a fine and counselling, however we will reject counselling of any type as we refuse to be put through a "rehabilitation" process for an action we consider just - and when we did it whilst sound of mind.'

Despite the prosecutions, Warden launched the Perth branch of Direct Action Everywhere last year and said he plans to continue non-violent campaigns.

'We aren't sorry, we are proud,' he said.

He has criticised the passive nature of Perth's animal activism scene, saying there is a gap between assertive action and more direct protests regarding animal welfare.

He was arrested in Perth in February 2019 after live-streaming from inside a pork farm on the social media page of US animal activist group Direct Action Everywhere

On Saturday, another animal rights activist Tash Peterson ran onto the field at Perth's Optus Stadium

Earlier this month, another animal rights activist was tackled by an AFLW player after running onto the field at Perth's Optus Stadium.

In addition to appearing in the AFLW broadcast, Tash Peterson's stunt was also live-streamed to Facebook by Direct Action Everywhere.

In footage of the protest, Ms Peterson could be seen jumping the fence onto the oval with her flag in hand.

Wearing tights reading 'vegan booty' and a 'right to rescue' crop top, the activist made a beeline to the centre of the pitch.
A senior Chinese diplomat dismissed United States accusations that Chinese telecommunications company Huawei poses a threat to global political stability, at a security conference in Germany on Friday.

[Photo/Xinhua]

Fu Ying, vice-chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of China's 13th National People's Congress, was responding to concerns raised by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the Munich Security Conference, which hosts foreign leaders and security heads each year.

"Technology is a tool," Fu said. "China, since its reform started 40 years ago, has introduced all kinds of Western technologies - Microsoft, IBM, Amazon -- they are all active in China. 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G - all the technology came from Western countries, from the developed world, and China has maintained its political system. It is not threatened by these technologies. How, if Huawei's technology with 5G is introduced into Western countries, will it threaten the political system? Do you really think that the democratic system is so fragile that it could be threatened by this single high-tech company of Huawei."

Fu's comments drew applause from audience members at the conference. Pelosi had said that "China is seeking to export its digital autocracy" through Huawei.

"Nations cannot cede our telecommunications infrastructure to China for financial expediency," Pelosi said, noting that the US recognizes Huawei as a national security threat and restricts its engagement with US companies.

The US has heavily lobbied other nations to follow suit and boycott the Chinese company. German lawmakers remain divided on the Huawei question, while last month the United Kingdom ruled that Huawei may continue to operate in a restricted capacity.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's refusal to bar Huawei is thought to have greatly angered US President Donald Trump. Pelosi said that there is bipartisan opposition to Huawei in the US and that the world should not allow the "Sinification of 5G".

The UK has set a market share cap of 35 percent for Huawei equipment in 5G networks, ensuring that a diversity of companies are represented in British telecommunications infrastructure.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 15:55:08|Editor: xuxin

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KABUL, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Five Taliban militants were killed and 25 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were neutralized during an Afghan army operation in southern Kandahar province, the Afghan Defense Ministry said Sunday.

"The raid, that was part of preventive measures being adopted to ensure a high level of security and safety in Kandahar, was conducted in Khakrez district on Saturday," the ministry said in a statement.

The engineering teams of national army found and defused 25 rounds of IEDs across the district, in the northern part of Kandahar, according to the statement.

Taliban militants have been using home-made IEDs to make roadside bombs, landmines and suicide attack vest for targeting security forces, but the lethal weapons also inflicted casualties on civilians.

Security situation has been improving in Kandahar, the former stronghold of Taliban, over the past months, as security forces have conducted search and cordon operations across the province.

The Taliban insurgent group has been waging an insurgency of more than 18 years.
VANCOUVERSpeak English!

I looked up to see my Grade 1 teacher walking toward me and my two friends.

You are in Canada now, speak English, she said to us.

It was recess, and I was playing hopscotch.

Why my teacher told us to speak English that day, when we had already been speaking English, baffled my young mind. But even as a six-year-old, I guessed it had something to do with the fact that my friends and I were all ethnically Chinese.

By that time, English was already the language in which I was most proficient. Cantonese, the Chinese dialect my parents, grandparents and more than half a million people in Canada speak  and the first language I learned  was already fading in me.

But that experience pushed me to distance myself from anything that might lead people to believe I was different. I could speak Cantonese. That made me different.

New friends would sometimes ask me, Do you speak Chinese? And I would immediately tell them no, of course not. I speak English. And only English.

It was a lie.

My parents, who moved to Vancouver from Hong Kong at the ages of 13 and 14, switched between Cantonese and English at home. I understood Cantonese. I ate Cantonese food. I am Cantonese.

But over time, that lie became truth.

I forgot my Cantonese.

***

Neih sihk jo faahn meih ah? I force the sounds out of my mouth. The words feel foreign.

Its Saturday and Im sitting at the back of a small classroom on the third floor of a heritage building in Vancouvers Chinatown. I and two dozen other adults bravely recite common greetings in Cantonese, following the instructors cues.

Were here to learn Cantonese.

That afternoon, I speak more of my ancestral language than I have in my life  as far as I can remember, anyway. My parents tell me I spoke Cantonese as a toddler, and that I only learned English once I started going to kindergarten.

But by the time I was seven, I had stopped speaking the language altogether. Today, I have no recollection of ever speaking it.

I still understand dinner-table conversation and casual gossip  I can even recognize simple characters and some food items on dim sum menus.

But Ive never been brave enough to utter words in Cantonese. I knew that if I did, my butchered pronunciations would betray how un-Chinese I had become.

Cantonese, the Chinese dialect traditionally spoken in Hong Kong and parts of southern China, is an endangered language, says instructor Zoe Lam. Were sitting in the Wong Benevolent Associations lounge after Saturdays class, sipping tea.

Lam is a linguistics lecturer at the University of British Columbia and in 2018, she completed her PhD dissertation on how Chinese-Canadians speak Cantonese compared to Hong Kongers.

Many millennials of Cantonese heritage who were born in Canada are self-conscious about their Canadian accent due to a combination of racism from dominant mainstream society, as well as pressure from their own families, Lam says.

At school, we were too Chinese.

They would do everything to not eat Chinese food at school because people would laugh at them, said Lam.

We hid our lunches. We said we only spoke English.

But then there were times when we were not Chinese enough.

A lot of Chinese-Canadian students were traumatized when they were little, said Lam. Maybe their cousins or other relatives from Hong Kong laughed at them  saying things like, Oh my God, you said it wrong; your Cantonese is so horrible. 

Lam has taught dozens of Cantonese classes in her decade-long career, but none are as special to her as the one she teaches on Saturdays  a survival Cantonese class for adults.

Most who sign up for the class have an existing connection to Cantonese culture, whether they grew up in a Cantonese-speaking household or have a spouse who speaks Cantonese.

It doesnt just feel like a job to me, said Lam. It feels like its important work. Its something that may impact a persons life.

***

Its Brandon Yans second time taking a Cantonese class.

Yan, who grew up in a mixed-race household and ran in Vancouvers 2018 civic elections, knows the perils of navigating race.

When he added his Chinese name to the ballot, people threw accusations at him: Everything from pandering to the Chinese-Canadian community, to money laundering, to having connections to the opioid drug trade in China.

Growing up, I wanted to distance myself from being Chinese, and then I tried to embrace it and got in trouble for embracing it, the 33-year-old tells me. I was literally given this name when I was born. Its a real name.

But Yans father, who was born in China, never spoke Cantonese to his five children. Yan says he knows zero Cantonese, save for phrases such as happy birthday and cultural practices, such as how to say thank you when receiving a red envelope during Lunar New Year.

Yan, who grew up in the predominantly white suburb of Langley, used to push away the Chinese side of his heritage.

For a long spread of my life I always thought  and it goes to a lot of internalized racism  whenever I heard someone speaking Chinese I would get angry they werent speaking English.

But when Yans brother performed in drag a few years ago with the name Maiden China in over-the-top traditional Chinese dress meant to help him reclaim his identity and take away the shame of being Chinese, Yan was inspired to reconnect with his heritage.

We had conversations about being more proud of who we are and how part of that pride is being rooted in your history, he said.

It took until adulthood for both Yan and his brother to face internalized racism, because for them, it runs deep.

When Yan told his father he had signed up for a Cantonese class, his father told him Cantonese was an ugly language, that had no practical value anymore.

Besides, the world is moving toward Mandarin, he told his son.

***

Youngsters handwriting adorns the walls of the intimate 26-seat classroom that once held after school Cantonese classes. Now, the four walls are home to the revitalized Mon Keang Saturday school, brought back to life thanks to June and Doris Chow, sisters who run the Youth Collaborative for Chinatown.

Students, all adults, practise conversational Cantonese and learn about the history of Chinatown.

Its part of the sisters efforts to keep Cantonese, considered by many to be a dying language, alive.

Political forces in Hong Kong and in China are making people predict how long it will be before Cantonese in those areas are stamped out because of government policy, said June Chow.

Mandarin is the official language in the Peoples Republic of China and has become the language of business and education.

But in many Chinatowns around the world, where immigrants from Guangdong province and Hong Kong first settled more than a century ago, Cantonese remains the go-to language.

Some have characterized Chinatowns as sanctuaries or bastions for the Cantonese language, surrounded by cultures dominated by English, and increasingly, Mandarin.

In 2016, the number of Mandarin speakers surpassed the number of Cantonese speakers in Canada for the first time. According to Statistic Canada, 610,835 people reported Mandarin as their mother tongue. In contrast, 594,030 reported Cantonese as their mother tongue.

After school Cantonese programs are turning into Mandarin programs in order to cater to growing numbers of immigrants from mainland China.

***

As Saturdays class nears its end, I sit at the back of the room, listening to everyone take turns sharing why they are here.

Many say once upon a time they spoke Cantonese, but they let it slip away. Others say they had grandparents who were growing old and they wanted to connect with them better.

I felt a pang in my heart. There were so many like me.

Chow, who is in her thirties, says she sees the loss of language play out in her own family.

You can see the struggle with the language that is being experienced between all three generations.

Her mom speaks mostly Cantonese and struggles to communicate with her grandson. June and Doris speak Cantonese, but struggle to express more complex thoughts. The grandson only speaks English.

Now were getting to the generations where it is very much sic tang mm sic gong, said Chow.

We can understand but cant speak.

Or we just wont speak.

Sometimes when I teach my students, I feel like Im not teaching them the language itself, Im just giving them a safe space to practise, said Lam.

She said she sees an interesting relationship between shame and pride in many of her students.

When they shift that shame to pride, they start to become more open to the idea of picking up the language.

Were here not just to learn Cantonese, but to embrace our families and to accept who we are. I finally understood  learning Cantonese would not make me more Chinese or less Canadian.

One of the many ways Lam helps her students realize that shift is to explain all the various Cantonese terms used to describe ourselves.

We all belong, there are just many nuances, she said.

Jung gwok yahn refers to Chinese nationals, tong yahn, refers to Cantonese people, wa yahn refers to ethnically Chinese people.

And me? What am I?

I am wah yeuw ga nah daaih yahn  Chinese Canadian.

Read more about:
RICHMOND, Va. - Mike Bloomberg offered fresh mea culpas for his support of "stop-and-frisk" policing over the weekend in Virginia, a state where Democrats are riding high in no small part because the billionaire presidential candidate opened his checkbook.

Since 2013, he has plowed more than $10 million into promoting Virginia Democrats, either personally or through groups he's founded. Those investments are bearing fruit in a Capitol he helped turn fully blue for the first time in a generation.

Yet Bloomberg's visit also came amid renewed scrutiny of his support as New York mayor of stop-and-frisk, a tactic eventually ruled unconstitutional for targeting minorities, and of allegations of sexist behavior during his business career. At the Democratic Party's annual gala in Richmond, he received warm embraces and cold shoulders.

He did not address the criticism of his treatment of women, but he apologized for stop-and-frisk at the Saturday night gala and at an earlier stop at a craft brewery. He said the practice was meant to stem the "crisis" of gun violence.

"While many of the ways we tried to reduce violence were right, and we reduced murders by half, there is one approach that I deeply regret: the use of a police practice called stop-and-frisk," he said. "I defended it for too long, I think, because I did not understand the unintended pain it caused to young black and brown kids and to their families. I should have acted sooner and faster to stop it. And for that I have apologized."

The words drew applause at both gatherings. But his reception overall was decidedly mixed. While Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn hailed "his years of commitment" to state Democrats, Rep. Donald McEachin, D-Va., publicly needled him on Twitter.

Bloomberg's visit came two weeks ahead of the March 3 Super Tuesday primary, the first test of an unorthodox campaign strategy: skipping early voting states and tapping his estimated $50 billion fortune to compete elsewhere. It was his sixth stop in the state since declaring his White House bid in late November - and second in the space of a week.

"I've been to Virginia more than anywhere else - great beer," he said at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery. "If we're going to beat Donald Trump in 2020, we absolutely have to win this commonwealth."

Bloomberg has blanketed Virginia with five TV ads before any of his rivals have gotten on the air. He has more than 80 paid staffers in the state and seven field offices. The others have nothing close to that but are ramping up. They also say they have something money can't buy: thousands of fervent volunteers. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., for instance, filled an Arlington high school gym with an estimated 4,000 supporters last week.

Still, no one doubts Bloomberg's heavy investment could help him make inroads.

"He has put a huge footprint down in Virginia," said former governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat who's officially neutral as a CNN commentator and is a close friend of another 2020 contender, former vice president Joe Biden.

Another advantage Bloomberg has here: He can take sizable credit for the state's political transformation. Rivals such as Warren, former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., stumped for legislative candidates in the state last year. But only Bloomberg was in a position to bankroll them.

Bloomberg and groups he's launched - Everytown for Gun Safety, Independence USA, Beyond Carbon - have contributed more than $10 million to the state's Democrats since 2011, according to the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project. Everytown counts itself as the largest outside donor to Virginia Democrats last year, with $2.5 million in direct and indirect spending. That's on top of a combined $1 million from Beyond Carbon and Bloomberg himself in 2019.

With Democrats in charge, the legislature is advancing a host of bills that had no shot under Republican control, including measures to tighten restrictions on guns, loosen them on abortion and voting, ban anti-LGBT discrimination and ratify the federal Equal Rights Amendment. Bloomberg billed himself Saturday as a "big supporter" of that evolution while being careful to share credit.

"Virginians got voters to the polls," he said. "Thank all of you. Done by a lot of people."

That's a winning message for some.

"Mike Bloomberg's a great candidate - willing to step up and use his resources to defeat Donald Trump," said Lori Haas, a leading gun-control advocate who sat beside Bloomberg at the gala, which drew about 1,500.

But on the sidewalk outside, some liberal activists railed against the notion of a billionaire "buying" his way into the nomination contest.

"Oligarchy - just say no," read one sign in the crowd. They chanted: "No Trump! No Mike! Billionaires are all alike."

Pro-gun demonstrators rallied across the street and tried to disrupt the brewery event, shouting, "Guns save lives!" As Bloomberg began to speak at the gala, someone plastered a cardboard sign on the podium reading: "He protects racist systems." It was quickly torn off.

"It's nice to be welcomed," Bloomberg quipped after both interruptions.

Among Democratic primary voters, it could actually help Bloomberg that the National Rifle Association continually rails against him and splashed his face on billboards. Bloomberg could also benefit from Virginia's open primary system, since independents and Republicans turned off by Trump can participate.

"Virginia really does seem to be up for grabs right now, but Bloomberg seems to be making a pretty impressive push," said Bob Holsworth, a veteran Richmond political analyst.

Virginians have traditionally favored establishment Democrats over more liberal ones in statewide elections. But Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a self-declared democratic socialist, could have more success in the state this year if Bloomberg, Buttigieg, Klobuchar and Biden splinter the moderate vote.

Bloomberg was the only presidential candidate to accept an invitation to the gala, which Buttigieg and Klobuchar headlined last year. Other campaigns sent surrogates.

Some Democrats resent Bloomberg's heavy-spending approach and grumbled that he left Saturday night soon after making his speech at the top of the program.

"It's really been the anti-retail campaign, whereby you appear on a television screen," said state Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, who supports Klobuchar.

And some who benefited from Bloomberg's campaign cash said they do not feel beholden to him. Sheila Bynum-Coleman said she greatly appreciates the $148,000 Everytown gave last year to her long-shot bid against then-speaker Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights. But she's put off by Bloomberg's contention as mayor that high taxes on sugary sodas would benefit the poor by deterring consumption.

"It's deeply concerning to have someone seeking the Democratic nomination that has the views of poverty and black people that he does," said Bynum-Coleman, who lost her race and now advocates for criminal justice changes.

State Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, has a mixed take: He appreciates Bloomberg's gun-control efforts but still prefers Buttigieg as a "generational talent."

"I wish Pete had those personal resources to make his case," Ebbin said.
Osawa Kiniw Kayseas grew up in a traditional Nahkawe-Anishnaabe way, by going to ceremonies and learning how to pray. Since she was young, she has started her day the same way: smudging her home and herself to protect her energy.

Now, the Indigenous woman from Fishing Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan has a new person to include: her Muslim husband, Mohamed Hassan.

"He understands the teaching about cleaning your energy and cleaning the air. He understands that aspect of it," Kayseas said.

Their backgrounds are worlds apart  literally, as Hassan is from Ismailia, Egypt  but the way in which they approach their lives, informed by their vastly different cultural and religious backgrounds, has turned out to be refreshingly complementary for the two of them. And their cross-cultural love story has been an education for the two of them as well.

"I am connected to this land and I know who I am as an Indigenous person. My husband also knows who he is as a Muslim man," said Kayseas, pointing out the two of them have traditional Indigenous and Muslim names, respectively.

"So we as people understand our value system and we came together based on that, not on whether we were religious or not."

Submitted by Osawa Kiniw Kayseas

Aligning on values

Growing up on Fishing Lake First Nation, Kayseas tried dating Indigenous men  not that that she was under pressure to do so. The only warning her mother gave her was not to date within her community because they might be related.

"She always thought you should date somebody who is good for you, somebody who's kind, somebody who has good values, so that's what she encouraged me to do," said Kaysea.

But Kayseas had trouble finding a partner whose values and direction in life aligned with hers. She wasn't interested in started a family at a young age and also wanted to live a "sober life."

It was that latter goal that prompted her to start dating Muslim men in her mid-twenties.

Story continues

After marrying, then divorcing, a Muslim man from Morocco, she gave herself some time to heal. After a few months of focusing on herself, she returned to a method that she grew up with: praying.

Finding love across the world

She joined an online Muslim dating site and went "husband hunting" (she's only a little joking) with her mother alongside her. They both watched the messages pour in.

Although her mother encouraged her to delete her profile because she was getting too many messages, the first day on the site she met Hassan. There was a language barrier, so they used apps like Google Translate to communicate.

Osawa Kiniw Kayseas/Facebook

Seven months later, they were married and Hassan made the decision to move to Canada to start a life with Kayseas in the small town of Wadena, Sask.

Culture shock  and education

Kayeseas said that her husband experienced culture shock moving from Egypt.

"He had struggled with the fact that he was no longer working. He had to wait for his permanent resident card before he could start working and still he was in shock based on language, and the weather, the environment, being away from his family."

She said it took him almost a year to adjust to Canadian culture, including learning about Indigenous people here. Hassan had only seen and heard of Indigenous people in Western movies and Kayeseas was quick to teach him about the historical context that affects Indigenous people today.

He also sees that I experience racism on a daily basis and that's my Canada, that's my experience with Canada for me. - Osawa Kiniw Kayseas

"They took them to residential school and it affects their life, even until now ... some of them are struggling," Hassan said.

"Her mom worked hard to give them a good life and she [taught] them how to ... be good people in the community. This is what I've seen from my life because I have been here two years and I can see the difference between her family and different families. "

Hassan said that he noticed the deep cultural roots his wife's family has and their respect for the land.

"They follow nature and the stars, the sky  with nothing else. So I believe that what they learn about medicine, and about the nature, it's true."

Submitted by Osawa Kiniw Kayseas

Kayeseas added the two also found common ground in being from oppressed cultures.

"So I could see the parallel of behaviours and I could understand that," she said. "And it was easier for both of us to understand each other on that front."

'My husband gets treated better on my homelands'

Despite that common ground, Kayseas feels as if her and Hassan's coupling shows the inequality between the two, highlighting issues of prejudice and discrimination against Indigenous people in Saskatchewan.

"I do experience racism and my husband actually sees that he gets treated better than me in my own homeland because of the colour of his skin or because of the way he looks," said Kayseas.

"He also sees that I experience racism on a daily basis and that's my Canada, that's my experience with Canada for me."

She said that when they go shopping or out to restaurants, she feels service people will only address her husband.

Her husband isn't immune. Kayseas said Indigenous people have discriminated against him as well.

"It's been subtle, but he has experienced that," she said.

Hassan chalks it up to people misjudging something they don't understand.

"I saw some people don't understand the relation between us, because they don't know. They don't know me, they don't know her and that's it."

For him, though, their successful partnership is easy to understand: "we have common morals or principles, like there is respect and being honest with each other."
Architect Dao Ngoc Nghiem says the proposal to make the Hanoi Red River Delta the new 'Capital Region' would not receive strong support from the public or experts

Architect Dao Ngoc Nghiem. Photo baoquocte.vn

Nghiem is former director of the Hanoi Department of Planning and Architecture.

Whats your opinion on the plan to enlarge the Red River Delta area to include Ha Noi and the provinces of Bac Giang, Phu Tho, Thai Nguyen and Hoa Binh?

According to the plan, Viet Nam will be divided into seven regions, of which the Capital Region is among them.

The key objective of the plan is to create a close link between all seven regions and a fair playing field among these regions.

For the northern region, we should not call it 'the new Capital Region'. The term 'Capital Region' itself already reflects its role towards its neighbouring provinces.

In the past, there were two decisions to create the Capital Region. In the second decision, in its planning scheme, the Capital Region would have nine provinces, instead of six provinces as in the first planning scheme. However, until now such a plan remains on paper alone.

In its development, Ha Noi wants to have synchronous development to serve as a locomotive in the development of the Ha Noi region itself and also the Red River Delta.

There is a different concept on the role of the Capital Region and the Red River Delta. We should not put the two concepts into one basket. I dont think the general public or many experts will support that idea.

How many times has Viet Nam come up with an idea of revising regional planning?

Under the 1946 Constitution, Viet Nam was divided into three regions  the northern, the central and the southern regions. However, that decision didnt help solve anything and had no significance. Thats why Viet Nam was then divided into six economic regions as nowadays. Among the six economic regions, there are some key regions. This plan is suitable for the development of the country when Viet Nam has just come out of the threshold of a middle-income nation.

If we want to make a change in the plan, the change should be close to developments in real life.

What should the foundation be for revising regional planning?

The most important thing we should do is to understand the relationship between a region with its neighbouring provinces.

According to the Constitution, the relationship between provinces in a region is based on their mutual understanding and discussion, not on administrative decisions.

Adding to that there is a proposal that the Chairman of a region is rotated among the Chairmen of each member province. But under the Constitution, a region is not recognised as an administrative unit. Each province in the region is an administrative unit by itself.

Do you have any more comments on the proposal of creating a new Capital Region?

Im sorry to say that I dont support the proposal. Making any change in administrative management is very costly. Thats why we have to think twice before making any decision._VNS
A Cameroonian has been arrested for running a fake business of buying and selling kidneys and jersey cows.

Tah Bverka Jaff Declan, a resident of Kannur-Bagalur Main Road, was arrested by the CCB following a tip-off. The CCB said he had put up advertisements by creating websites such as hopediaryformsltd.com, sellyourkidney.in and novelontrafinggmbh.online. He also allegedly put up advertisements on other portals.

The CCB said Declan offered a staggering Rs 4 crore to anyone willing to sell a kidney. If anyone contacted to buy or sell a kidney or a jersey cow, he would take money from them and disappear. A case was registered against him at the Bellandur police station. He was also wanted in a different case in Ramanagaram district. Police suspect that he committed similar offences in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
There are multiple victims after a shooting at Majestic Lounge in Hartford, Connecticut, police say: AP

One person has died and several have been injured after a mass shooting inside a US nightclub, according to police.

A 28-year-old male was killed after someone opened fire at a bar in Connecticut, local police said.

Two men and two women were injured in the shooting, according to Paul Cicero, a lieutenant from Hartford Police.

Police officers stationed outside the nightclub reported the shooting in Hartford, Connecticut's capital city, at around 1.30am.

They were faced with a large number of people running towards the exits when they rushed in, Mr Cicero said.

Everybody started pushing their way out to get away from the gunfire, he said. It was kind of pandemonium.

No suspects have been detained, and police said the investigation is in its early stages.

Were not going to have anything for quite a bit of time, Mr Cicero said.

This is a very complex investigation.

Hartford Police said that two victims had surgery on Sunday morning, while two others were in a stable condition.

The shooting took place inside the Majestic Lounge, a nightclub in Hartfords South End neighbourhood, according to officials.

Last month, the US saw three unrelated shootings in bars across one night.

One gunman opened fire inside a Texas club, another shot at queue outside Kansas City bar and another person attacked people at a nightclub in Fort Myers.

The majority of Americans support stricter gun laws to prevent mass shootings, according to a poll last year.

Additional reporting by Associated Press.

Read more

Parkland survivors open up on their struggle in fight for gun control
Left parties will take out a rally on February 18 to stage a protest against the Union Budget 2020-2021 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament.

Speaking to ANI, CPI (M) leader Hannan Mollah said, "Left parties are organising a protest against the anti-people, anti-farmers and anti-workers budget on February 18 in Delhi. The protest will be from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar and there will be a rally."

Left parties have criticised the Union Budget and claimed that the budget is anti-poor and anti-farmers. They also claimed that the Union Finance Minister has failed to promise jobs for youth and in the unorganised sector.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India will send a consignment of medical supplies to China to assist it in the ongoing coronavirus (covid19), Vikram Misri, the Indian ambassador has said.

Misri, in a video posted on the official Twitter handle of the Indian embassy in China, expressed his solidarity with Chinese people and the government in the fight against the epidemic.

As a concrete step to tackle the outbreak, India will soon send a consignment of medical supplies to aid and assist China in tackling this outbreak, Misri said.

This is a concrete measure which will fully demonstrate the goodwill, solidarity and friendship of the people and government of India with the Chinese people, Misri said, adding that India would do everything within its means to support the people of China in this hour of crisis.

The people of the city of Wuhan and the province of Hubei are the worst affected by the epidemic. They have a very special place in the hearts of the Indian people. With courage, persistence and effective measures we will be able to overcome the crisis, the ambassador tweeted.

He expressed hope that the epidemic will be effectively controlled in the very near future, praising the determination of the Chinese people and government in dealing with this epidemic being evident to the world.

Misri said: At present India is also facing the threat of infections from the novel coronavirus epidemic. Our country is working hard to safeguard the health and wellbeing of our people.
Asawase Member of Parliament and Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak and his deputy, Ahmed Ibrahim, Banda MP are responding to treatment after they were involved in a near-fatal accident at Kubease near Konongo, Saturday morning.



The members of parliament were driving from Accra for a funeral in Sunyani when their SUV got involved in an accident,



According to reports, an immigration vehicle made U-turn on the Konongo highway, and in the drivers bid to avoid running into the vehicle, they veered off the road and entered the bush.



They were rushed to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) with their entourage including police officers and driver.



Eric Adjei, the Deputy Communications Officer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for Bono region said, It is with a grateful heart that I wish to inform all well-wishers that the two honourable members of parliament are fine and responding to treatment.



The two legislators were said to have been discharged at about 3 pm Saturday afternoon.





Read below post from Deputy Communications Officer  Bono Region



HON. MUNTAKA AND HON. AHMED IBRAHIM ARE OKAY AND RESPONDING TO TREATMENT



Earlier today news of the Minority Chief Whip and his deputy involving in a near-fatal accident was all over social media. It is with grateful heart that I wish to inform all well-wishers that the two Honorable members of parliament are fine and responding to treatment.



The members of parliament were driving from Accra for a funeral in Sunyani when their SUV got involved in an accident, they were rushed to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital with their entourage (Police officers and Driver) earlier today.



The members of parliament and everybody on board is fine and doing very well, we are grateful for your prayers and we wish them a speedy recovery.



Thank you



Signed



Eric Adjei

Deputy Communications Officer  Bono Region

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Iranian musicians release "Requiem for UIA Flight 752"

02/16/20

Source: Tehran Times

A group of Iranian musicians has released a song online in commemoration of the victims of a Ukrainian jetliner, which was hit unintentionally by Iran last month. Maestro Loris Tjeknavorian is the composer of the song "Requiem for UIA Flight 752" recorded at the Rad No-Andish Art and Cultural Institute in Tehran.

"I was deeply affected by the tragedy, so I decided to express my sorrows through music," Tjeknavorian said in a press release published on Sunday.



Iranian poet and art expert Yarta Yaran also collaborated on the project by reciting verses of poems from Sadi.

On January 8, A Ukrainian airliner was shot down shortly after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport, killing all 167 passengers and 9 crew members.



The Armed Forces General Staff announced that human error in an air defense system mistakenly targeted the plane.



The incident happened a few hours after Iran fired dozens of missiles at U.S. airbases inside Iraq in retaliation for the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.
BEIJING - Real estate agent Du Xuekuns sales usually jump after the Lunar New Year holiday. But this year, Du has been at home for a month with no income after vast swathes of Chinas economy were shut down in a sweeping effort to contain a virus outbreak.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/2/2020 (695 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In this photo taken Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020, a security looks past sculptures outside a quiet mall in Beijing, China. Millions of Chinese workers and entrepreneurs are bearing the rising costs of an anti-virus campaign that has shut down large sections of the economy. The government has imposed restrictions nationwide that have stalled travel and sales of real estate and autos. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

BEIJING - Real estate agent Du Xuekuns sales usually jump after the Lunar New Year holiday. But this year, Du has been at home for a month with no income after vast swathes of Chinas economy were shut down in a sweeping effort to contain a virus outbreak.

Du, who lives in Jiaozhuo, near the central city of Zhengzhou, is one of millions of people who are bearing the soaring cost of the most extreme anti-disease measures ever imposed. Some businesses are reopening, but Beijing has told the public to stay home if possible.

People will buy food and clothes online but for sure wont buy an apartment without seeing it, said Du.

Industries from auto sales to travel to retailing effectively shut down after curbs were imposed starting Jan. 23 with the suspension of most access to Wuhan, an industrial metropolis of 11 million people at the centre of the outbreak.

Travel restrictions expanded to cities with more than 60 million people, while curbs on business spread nationwide. The Lunar New Year holiday was extended to keep factories and offices closed. Nationwide, thousands of restaurants and cinemas have been shut to prevent crowds from gathering.

The rising losses threaten to become a political liability for the ruling Communist Party. Local officials have been ordered to revive business activity but are moving cautiously.

By Sunday, some 1,665 deaths and 68,500 cases had been reported in the two months since the first infections in December.

Economists warn optimism that the disease might be under control is premature. Even if auto manufacturing and other business resumes as planned, activity wont be back to normal until at least mid-March.

Losses are expected to be so large that forecasters have cut estimates for Chinas economic growth.

Forecasters including Capital Economics say growth, already at multi-decade lows, might fall to 2% in the three months ending in March, down from the previous quarters official figure of 6%.

If the economy really gets into a tailspin, the challenge for the party will be substantially increased, said Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at Londons School of Oriental and African Studies.

Locking down Wuhan might have hurt more than it helped by causing panic and was very damaging to the economy, said Tsang.

They will have to rethink the lockdown approach, he said.

The ruling party has responded to the mounting economic pressure by promising tax breaks and subsidies to companies hurt by the anti-disease measures.

The government needs to maintain stable economic operation and social harmony," President Xi Jinping said Wednesday.

On Friday, the Ministry of Finance announced that companies with monthly sales below 100,000 yuan ($14,000) will be exempt from value-added and other taxes. It said companies that cannot repay loans might be allowed to invoke force majeure, a last-resort legal measure that can waive obligations in disasters.

Travel and hospitality were hardest-hit after the government cancelled group tours and told businesspeople to put off travel. Airlines cancelled thousands of flights and hotels closed.

The manager of a travel agency in Shenyang, the biggest city in Chinas northeast, said its monthly revenue, usually 100,000 yuan ($14,000), fell to zero. He said the agency still is paying rent and wages of 20,000 yuan ($2,800) a month.

We dont expect to see a recovery until May or June, said the manager, who would give only his surname, Xu. We do hope the government can give us a tax exemption or reduction, but we still have seen no subsidies.

Property sales have fallen to almost zero over the past three weeks. The industry employs millions of people and drives demand for appliances, furniture and other consumer goods.

Du, the real estate salesman, said he usually closes two sales a month and earns 7,000-8,000 yuan ($1,000-$1,100). He needs to make a 3,000-yuan ($430) monthly loan payment whether he works or not.

I have no base salary and live on commission, said Du, 27. Without sales, there will be no income.

Chinese leaders already were struggling to shore up economic growth that slowed to 6.1% last year thanks to weak consumer demand and a tariff war with Washington. Some economists, citing industry surveys and other data, say real growth already was much weaker than that.

The anti-disease measures closed factories that supply the world with smartphones, furniture, shoes, toys and household appliances. That sent shockwaves through other developing countries that supply industrial components and iron ore, copper and other commodities.

South Korea and other economies that rely on China as an export market face potential job losses.

E-commerce companies are hiring extra workers to cope with a flood of demand as families stay home and buy groceries online. But streets in Beijing and other major cities are still empty and eerily quiet.

Auto sales plunged 20.2% in January from a year earlier, deepening a 2-year-old decline in the industrys biggest global market. Sales fell 9.6% last year to 21.4 million, well below their 2017 peak of 24.7 million.

That is squeezing global automakers that look to China to drive revenue as they spend billions of dollars to develop electric vehicles to meet government sales targets.

Enterprises are under huge pressure, said a statement by an industry group, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

China rebounded relatively quickly from its 2002-03 outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, but economic conditions now are less rosy.

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SARS struck when China was entering a history-making boom powered by construction and exports. Growth peaked at a blistering 14.2% in 2007. By contrast, the latest virus hit in the midst of a slowdown.

In smartphones, Apple, Huawei and other brands face a potential hit because China is both their No. 1 market and global production base.

Shipments might fall as much as 50% this quarter compared with the final three months of 2019, according to research firm Canalys.

There is a high risk that component suppliers, with factory workers still stranded in their hometowns by travel bans, will not be able to ramp up to normal capacity if the outbreak is prolonged, Canalys said in a report.

Apple and other global vendors face a serious impact if the virus spreads and those suppliers close, the report said.

The current situation will likely lead to some of the worst ever shipment numbers, it said.
New Delhi, Feb 16 : The swearing-in ceremony of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday was a completely different affair as none of the Opposition leaders were invited.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), who formed the government in Delhi for the third time, focussed on the common man rather than VIPs as it invited people who contribute in the development of the national capital instead of political leaders, especially from the Opposition.

Doctors, teachers, bike ambulance riders, cleaners, construction workers, bus marshals, auto drivers etc. were invited and given a place on the dais.

This has triggered a speculation that Kejriwal is either willing to go alone or is looking forward to work in coordination with Prime Minister Narendra Modi so that the disputes with the Centre can be settled. Kejriwal, in his speech, also said that he had invited Prime Minister Modi to the ceremony but since his schedule was already fixed so he couldn't attend the function.

In 2018 when the Congress supported Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) in Karnataka and agreed on the name of H.D. Kumaraswamy for the Chief Minister in order to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of the power in the state, the parties who were opposing the BJP were invited to the swearing in ceremony of Kumaraswamy to show unity of the Opposition. Kejriwal was also shared the stage with other leaders.

It was expected that after a triumphant victory in the Delhi Assembly elections, the AAP will also invite the Opposition parties but this didn't happened. It happened in 2014 also.

Kejriwal has always avoided giving a place to the Opposition leaders on his stage but has shared the stage in their respective states. In 2015 also, when Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Janata Dal-United (JDU) and the Congress formed an alliance to form the government in Bihar, Kejriwal shared the stage and even met Lalu Prasad, allegedly involved in various corruption cases and has since then also been convicted and sentenced to jail in some fodder scam cases.

Also, on various issues, Kejriwal's stand was different from that of the Opposition. For example, when Article 370 was abrogated from Jammu & Kashmir, he supported the Modi government. Similarly, when the Congress raised questions on the government over the formation of Ram Mandir Trust, Kejriwal said that there is no time frame for good work.

He has also been silent over the attacks of the BJP. For example, he didn't react to the BJP's attack on those who were opposing Citizenship Amendment Bill and Shaheen Bagh issue.

Interestingly, many Opposition leaders, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wished him on the victory of his party in the Delhi polls. The Jharkhand and Kerala CMs were present in Delhi on Sunday but Kejriwal didn't invite anyone to his oath-taking ceremony.
FP Studio

On the first episode in a series of three, we heard from industry bigwigs NR Narayana Murthy and Kishore Biyani about the challenges of setting up businesses and the philosophies that help them thrive.

The success of Indias small and medium businesses (SMBs) is at the heart of realizing India's dream of becoming a five trillion dollar economy. This was the assertion that lay at the core of Amazon SMBhav, a mega-summit held at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi under the aegis of global marketplace Amazon. Smbhav brought together more than 3600 micro, small, and medium business owners to engage in an open, constructive dialogue with their peers, industry and subject matter experts, and policy agents.

The stakeholders explored the challenges small and medium businesses face, the solutions technology has to offer, the opportunities eCommerce presents, and prevalent as well as foreseeable trends in global trade. The conference highlighted the infinite possibilities there are for small and medium businesses in the country to scale sustainably  all with the background of the aptly chosen infinity symbol.

The attendees also got to hear from the biggest names in thought leadership, including Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon, NR Narayana Murthy  Founder of Infosys, Kishore Biyani of the Future Group, to name just a few. The first episode of the series on Amazon Smbhav telecast on CNN-News18 captured these moments and more.

In his keynote speech, NR Narayana Murthy advised SMBs to practice discipline, hard work, good work ethics and good values. Sharing insights from his own experiences with Infosys, he said SMBs will play an extremely important role in taking Indias economy to the $5 trillion mark because they contribute 10% of the countrys business output. To do that, Murthy said, you have to create a differentiated business value proposition...better than any of your competitors. That is going to come because of innovation. He emphasized the importance of hiring the best quality people, putting together teams with collectively exhaustive but mutually exclusive skill sets, and embracing durable value systems. Advocating a durable value system as the bedrock of any successful company, and therefore a more thriving economy, Murthy advised a bottom-up approach to building institutions: Always ask, will what I am doing make this a better place for all of us?

Another major highlight of Amazon Smbhav was Kishore Biyanis fireside chat with Gopal Pillai, Vice President, Seller Services Amazon India. Biyani spoke with refreshing candor, recalling, I started by supplying fabric to the garment industry. It was a journey of learning. Recognising Indias heteregeneous markets was the first challenge he went about addressing by setting up offices in the four zones in the country.

He added, We decentralized on day one, and that helped us understand the nuances of each market. Advising the audience to not take failures personally, he explained, Today, failure doesnt disappoint us because thats the customer saying youve not done well. Change yourself, or change the product.

He also encouraged SMBs to embrace challenges, saying, Every challenge will teach you something. We need to introspect what this thing is teaching us, and how we apply that in our journey. Emphasising Mr. Bezoss sentiment earlier in the day, he said to the audience, India is a land of opportunities, and that the 20 crore people involved in the SME sector the most important component of Indias five trillion dollar dream.
When did Americans lose the ability to discuss issues? At the very core of our democracy is that we are free to disagree and free to debate. Anything less, and we are the forms of government that we broke from and still fight against today.

Our founding fathers are just that, our founding fathers. They dont belong to Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals.

The greatest attribute they envisioned was that after the debates, we realize that we are all still Americans. Its our responsibility to listen to other sides and discuss, not attack.

Youre not stupid if you dont agree with me, and Im not stupid if I dont agree with you.

The United States is stronger when we can disagree and stay united. I think too many of us have forgotten that.

Gery Whalen, Omaha

Ode to the Astro

Reading Erin Graces Feb. 10 column about the Chevy Astro brought back memories of 2005:
As AUC passes its centennial, the university is looking ahead to further investing in education in Egypt

The American University in Cairo (AUC) is celebrating the beginning of its second century by organising a vibrant programme of events at its New Cairo campus from 15 to 19 February.

The president of the university, Francis Joseph Ricciardone told Ahram Online: AUCs message from the centennial celebrations is that we are deeply rooted in this country. We are committed to this country for the next 100 years. 

Ricciardone added: Egypt is great place. It is worthy to invest in its people. We hope other investors will follow in our footsteps in education in particular.

Riccardone appointed the 12th AUC president 1 July 2016. The AUC Board of Trustees unanimously voted to renew its tenure for a second four-year term starting July 2020. 

We have the freedom to do what we think is right and get support from people who share that vision. AUC has many donors, from individuals and some foundations, and pursues diverse cooperations, Riccardone continued. He added that AUC stays out of politics and supports the programmes of the Egyptian government in improving the quality of higher education.

Through this year, AUC is focusing on the future and its plans for the next 100 years, under the slogan "Be the Future."

Riccardone stated that AUC's mission is to bring together great minds, and break down the barriers of culture, religion, history and politics that separate people and cause distrust of one another. 

People together from different disciplines and experiences can solve great problems of the world, he said.

AUC moved 12 years ago from Tahrir Square to its new campus in New Cairo. We have enough space (in New Cairo) to build for the future. AUC completed phase one, focusing on the architecture of the campus. Now, we are going to tackle phase two.

Ricciardone will meet Monday with Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly to discuss government priorities in education.

Ricciardone concluded: We cannot predict what the future will bring. We must invest in our people and in education. The future is full of opportunities beyond our dreams and full of threats and challenges that lie under our deepest fears.

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Minister had called Deoband seminary atankwad ki Gangotri.

New Delhi: Union minister Giriraj Singh, who had labelled Shaheen Bagh as the training ground for suicide bombers and Deoband as atankvaad ki gangotri, was summoned by BJP president J.P. Nadda on Saturday apparently over his controversial remarks.

Often in news for his controversial remarks, the Union minister of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries had earlier this week, in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, stoked a controversy when he said that Deoband, a town in the area, which also houses a famous Islamic seminary, is the Gangotri of terrorism from where terrorists like Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed came.

I had once said earlier that Deoband is the Gangotri of terrorists. All most-wanted terrorists of the world came from Deoband, including Hafiz Saeed or any of the others.

These people are not against CAA, they are against India. This is a kind of a Khilafat movement, Mr Singh had said while attacking the anti-CAA protests in Deoband.

After facing flak for his statement, the Union minister said that he stands by his statement. My statement is correct and if someone has a problem then ask Uttar Pradesh police to list how many people are involved in terror activities, he told reporters.

Deoband has seen fierce anti-CAA protests by Muslim women over the past months and has faced attack from BJP leaders.

Earlier this month, the Union minister had claimed that Shaheen Bagh, the anti-CAA protest site in the national capital, was a training ground for suicide bombers while referring to a video in which a some children made objectionable remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This Shaheen Bagh protest is no longer an agitation. A group of suicide bombers are being raised here and conspiracy against the country is being hatched in its capital, he had claimed.
Google Station, which is Googles global free Wi-Fi programme, is shutting down across the world. This includes its partnership with Think Wi-Fi in South Africa.

Since we first started, the ecosystem has evolved and combined with complex and varying technical requirements across countries and partners, we have been re-evaluating our plans and have decided to wind down Station through 2020, said Google South Africa.

We are transferring our Station operations in South Africa to Think WiFi, who will now carry out the project independently.

Google South Africa added that it will work with Think WiFi in a transition process that will span the rest of 2020.

Think WiFi said the service will continue to operate as users have become accustomed to, while plans are in the pipeline to roll the service out to more areas in the coming months.

The launch of the free Wi-Fi initiative in the Western Cape has been more successful than anticipated and plans are already underway to roll free Wi-Fi out to the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, and some areas in Mpumalanga, said Think WiFi CEO Janine Rebelo.

We endeavour to work with the private and public sector to bring connectivity to the unconnected.

Think WiFi said Google Station has already reached over a million people in South Africa, and the ISP sees a gap in the market to become the new preferred service provider for free Wi-Fi.

Testing the service

MyBroadband initially tested the quality of the service using our Speed Test server at NAPAfrica in Cape Town.

Internet sessions are 30 minutes in length, and to initiate or extend a session users must watch a video advert.

When using the MyBroadband Speed Test app, we achieved speeds of 1Mbps down, and 0.7Mbps up.

However, larger downloads peaked at a speed of 200kbps.

YouTube videos were watchable, but other pages  such as Khan Academy and Coursera  were unusable.
He played one of the most hated characters to ever live in Summer Bay after his character Angelo Rosetta shot and killed fellow police officer Jack Holden.

And now actor Luke Jacobz has announced his return to Home and Away, almost a decade after leaving the show in June 2011.

The 39-year-old told Sydney Confidential on Sunday that Channel Seven producers contacted him in January asking him to reprise his role.

Back to the Bay! Luke Jacobz, 39, (pictured) is set to return to Home and Away as police officer Angelo Rosetta after almost a decade

'[Channel Seven executives] called me in and said 'How do you feel about Angelo coming back to the bay?'' said the actor.

'I said 'very good' - and almost straight away it was 'Ok, let's get a haircut, a wardrobe fitting and look at some scripts,' he enthused.

While it's not know how long he will star on the show this time round, Luke revealed that Angelo will stick around the Bay for 'a good few months.'

Drama: Luke's character Angelo Rosetta (pictured) became one of the most hated characters to ever live in Summer Bay after he shot and killed fellow police officer Jack Holden

'[Channel Seven producers] haven't said to me I'm coming in to die,' he said.

Luke starred on Home And Away for three years before leaving the show.

His character will return to the Bay to investigate a crime.

Flop: Luke was last sen on-screens as the host of Channel Seven reality show The Proposal which failed to win over audiences

A spokesperson from home and away told What's On TV: 'It's been almost a decade since his character Angelo Rosetta left the Bay, and now he's back on the police force with everything to prove.'

Since leaving Summer Bay the Logie award winning actor has stayed busy with a number of high profile hosting gigs including The X-Factor and Instant Hotel.

He also danced his way into Australia's hearts as the winner of the 2008 season of Dancing With Th Stars and did a stint in the jungle on I'm a Celebrity... in 2019.

Most recently he hosted The Proposal, but the show failed to win over audiences.
The outbreak of the coronavirus in China has brought home the smallness of the world to many, with what happens on one side of the globe having far-reaching consequences

Setting its precarious health risks aside, the coronavirus will most certainly impact the global economy.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the outbreak of the coronavirus to be a global health emergency, though it has refrained from naming it as a pandemic thus far. But keeping track of confirmed cases or deaths from the virus or even lockdowns and quarantined cities has been extremely difficult as the numbers and the facts have been changing at whirlwind speed.

The full global economic impact of the virus will depend on how well and how fast China can contain the outbreak. While Chinas recent measures to impede the outbreak have been hailed by many, they are also bringing the Chinese economy to a halt.

The Chinese government has enforced a quarantine system barring 100 million citizens from free movement in a bid to halt the spread of the virus. Flights from and to China have been cancelled. Public transport has been shut down; hotels, restaurants and even streets remain empty; and the lunar new year public holiday has been extended for several days to prevent people from returning to work, even if they may of course not have wished to go in the first place.

Upon the reopening of the stock markets, trading was suspended almost immediately as stocks plummeted. However, the global selloff that might have been expected did not materialise, and media outlets, economists and stock-market gurus urged investors not to panic. As with all crises, such as during the outbreak of the SARS virus in 2003 or after the events of 11 September 2001, the markets rebound quickly.

However, Mohamed Al-Erian, chief economic adviser to the European insurer Allianz, advised against buying on the dip, or purchasing stocks after they had declined in price. When it comes to the reaction to the spread of the coronavirus, the banks may not be able to ride to the rescue soon enough, he said.

Should the crisis stretch out for a longer period, possibly for several months, Chinas GDP will likely decline sharply. To confront this emergency, the Chinese government has injected $22 billion into the markets in the hope of boosting the economy and adjusting the downward trend.

Even so, the manufacturing sector will likely be hit hard. International companies operating in China have already shut offices and stopped production, among them Apple, Ikea, General Motors and Starbucks. Kaho Yu, a Chinese economic expert, said that business interruptions and closures are likely to be especially devastating for many small and medium-sized enterprises.

Now we come to the global effects of the coronavirus outbreak. In 2003, when the SARS pandemic hit China provoking a global economic loss of $40 billion, Chinas share of the global market stood at a miniscule four per cent. Today, it stands at 16 per cent, and this will make the ripple effect across the globe more profound.

Tourism will suffer immediately in China and across the world. According to the US outlet CNBC, 163 million Chinese tourists in 2018 accounted for nearly a third of travel sales worldwide. Should the travel restrictions as a result of the outbreak of the coronavirus continue, the hospitality industry as a whole will face massive losses.

According to the US financial service Bloomberg, from Tokyo to London, hotels, casinos, airlines and retailers are already recording a downturn and are bracing for weeks, if not months, of plummeting spending after China curbed outbound travel and governments tightened border controls.

The Diamond Princess, a luxury cruise ship, has been quarantined off the Japanese coast after one passenger who docked tested positive. The latest numbers say that 61 passengers on the ship have tested positive, and these numbers have kept climbing.

During the SARS outbreak in 2003, China was still mostly the maker of low-value trinkets and cheap toys and clothing. Today, China has evolved into a main supplier of parts and components to many international industries.

In addition to being an integral part of global supply chains, China also makes cars for General Motors, smart phones and computers for Apple and mobile phone chips for Qualcomm. With flights in and out of China restricted and factories halting production, Chinas production role in global supply chains will be drastically affected and production lines across the globe will come to a halt.

According to the New York Times, all of this could play havoc with businesses that depend on China for components, from auto factories in the American Midwest and Mexico to apparel plants in Bangladesh and Turkey A single part of an advanced product like a smart TV may be made of dozens of smaller components, with each of these assembled from other pieces.

With factories remaining idle in China, and customers across the globe not buying what they need, Chinese factories will have to slash orders for imported machinery, components and raw material  computer chips from Taiwan and South Korea, copper from Chile and Canada, factory equipment from Germany and Italy. All this will affect global markets. Oil prices have already gone down by about 15 per cent, with Saudi Arabia contemplating a cut in its output to keep the price of oil from collapsing.

It is suddenly dawning on us all that the world is extremely small and that what happens at one end of the globe can have far-reaching consequences the world over, whether these are health risks or damaging economic fallout.

No one knows how long the coronavirus outbreak will last, how far it will spread, or how many lives it will claim. It is impossible to calculate the extent to which the virus will disrupt Chinas economy, but whatever happens in China will definitely resonate across the world.

The writer is the author of Cairo Rewind on the First Two Years of Egypts Revolution, 2011-2013.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 13 February, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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The best Lifestyle shows are right here, from Australia and around the world. Catch up with the experts on home design and interiors, food and cooking, the property market, and get fresh ideas with the savviest of renovators. Whether you need inspiration for cooking up a storm, to refresh a tired room, or tips to sell your property, Foxtel Lifestyle will always something new for you to watch. Enjoy your favourite experts like Andrew Winter and Neale Whitaker, or Shaynna Blaze and Jamie Oliver live or On Demand.
There's only so much that new blood can do to fix the troubles afflicting European banks.

The abrupt changing of the guard at Credit Suisse Group this week and the disclosure that UBS Group is seeking a successor to Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti extend what's already been an extraordinary run. HSBC Holdings, ABN Amro Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland Group, not to mention Nordic lenders caught up in money laundering scandals, have all hired new chiefs in past months or are looking to do so.

UBS is hunting for a successor for chief executive Sergio Ermotti. Credit:Stefan Wermuth

The turnover has yielded a fresh cast of characters to confront the same challenges: Interest rates at or near record lows as economies sputter; digital competitors that take away traditional banking business; US giants who are benefiting from higher interest rates. If that wasn't enough, politicians on both sides of the Channel are keeping Brexit tensions turned up, threatening to make an already fragmented banking market even harder to navigate.

"You have to be pretty hard-boiled to become a bank CEO right now," said Andreas Plaesier, a bank analyst at Warburg Research in Hamburg. "It's about scaling back businesses and finding savings to bolster profits. You may be successful on that front, but it's not exactly fun."
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani today ruled out resigning and vowed to see out his term, even as he admitted he had offered to step aside twice since being elected.

Speaking ahead of a general election next Friday, Rouhani also appealed to voters to turn out despite the fact that many moderate and reformist candidates were disqualified from the race.

Rumours have swirled in Iran recently that the 71-year-old, whose second and last term ends next year, had been planning to quit, but his office denied the reports.

Rouhani's government has come under fire over the state of Iran's sanctions-hit economy and for allegedly failing to fulfil election promises.

The legitimacy of Rouhani and his government have been called into question after they were left in the dark for days after the armed forces admitted they 'accidentally' shot down a Ukrainian airliner on January 8.

Hassan Rouhani waving to the crowd during a ceremony marking the 41st anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution last week. The Iranian president has come under fire over the state of Iran's sanctions-hit economy and for allegedly failing to fulfil election promises

Rouhani whispering with an unidentified official during a press conference in Tehran today

Hardliners have attacked his administration for negotiating a nuclear deal with world powers that ultimately backfired when the United States withdrew unilaterally and reimposed harsh sanctions.

'My resignation does not make much sense... we have made promises to the people and we will continue to fulfil those promises' despite the economic situation and pressure from 'the enemy', Rouhani said, referring to the US.

'The idea of resigning [because of these recent problems] never occurred to me.'

But Rouhani admitted he had offered to resign twice in the past, and that they were rejected by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

'In the first months after my election, I told the supreme leader ''If you think for some reason that someone else or another government can serve the country better, I'm ready to go'',' said Rouhani.

'He vehemently rejected it,' he told a news conference in Tehran.

Rouhani, a moderate conservative, said he raised the issue with the supreme leader again during his second term.

'I would not even let the government leave its responsibility an hour earlier, not a month or a week earlier',' he quoted Khamenei as saying.

Rouhani's supporters suffered a setback in the lead-up to the February 21 election after more than half of the 14,444 who sought to stand were disqualified, most of them moderates and reformists.

Speaking ahead of Friday's general election in Iran, Rouhani has ruled out resigning and vowed to see out his term

Despite the purge, Rouhani called for a strong showing at the election.

'All elections are important to us, and I urge all people to come to the ballot box and vote...to choose the best [candidates] and have a good parliament,' he told Sunday's news conference.

Iran's seventh president, Rouhani won election in 2013 after promising greater social freedoms and the benefits of engagement with the West.

He delivered on the second pledge in 2015, when Iran agreed to limit its nuclear activities in return for the lifting of international sanctions.

The president was re-elected in 2017 with the support of reformists.

But support from those who backed him in the past has fallen away badly amid criticism over his austerity measures.

In November, street protests broke out in Iran over a surprise petrol price hike.

They spread to dozens of urban centres and turned violent before being put down by the security forces.

Iran's economy has been battered since the US pulled out of the nuclear deal, with the World Bank estimating it shrunk by 8.7 per cent in 2019.
The Holyoke St. Patricks Parade Committee announced David W. Glidden as the 2020 JFK National Award winner.

Glidden, president and CEO of Liberty Bank, is the third Holyoke native in a row to receive the award.

The committee announced its decision Sunday at the Holyoke Lodge of Elks. Gliddens wife, Michelle, and mother, Helean Glidden, joined him.

The award honors the legacy of President John F. Kennedy and recognizes an individual of Irish descent who distinguished themselves in their field. The committee presented the award to actor and Holyoker TJ Jagodowski in 2019.

Glidden said he felt honored and humbled when the award committee broke the news to him. I almost didnt believe it. The Irish heritage means a lot but also my Holyoke heritage. The parade and the parade committee has been a huge part of my life, he said.

His father, Fred Glidden, was a longtime committee member and the 1985 Grand Marshal and 2014 OConnell Award recipient.

When you see the people who are on the last before me, to say beyond humble would be an understatement, Glidden said.

Past recipients include author Tom Clancy, actress Maureen OHara, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, journalist Neil Sheehan, historians David McCullough and Doris Kearns Goodwin, U.S. Ambassador Daniel M. Rooney and Dick and Rick Hoyt.

As a financial professional and banker, I often tell people that the best investment you can do, as far as return on investment, is to give back to the community and people in need. You always get more than you give, Glidden said. Its been a big part of my life.

He had to convince his family some that he was, indeed, the 2020 JFK Award winner. Michelle said they must be running be out of people to give it too. I said, No, Im serious, they called and offered the award to me.

Glidden added that he accepted the award on behalf of his family. I wouldnt be anywhere without them, he said.

Mike Ahearn, who chairs the selection committee, said, The Parade Committee takes special pride in recognizing the achievements of fellow Holyokers, and Dave is certainly one that we are proud to call one of our own.

Marc Joyce, the parade committees president, said, Daves personal and professional achievements certainly make him deserving of the prestigious JFK National Award. It will certainly be a great pleasure to have Dave and his family return to Holyoke for Parade weekend.

Glidden, who joined Connecticut-based Liberty Bank in 2019, has worked in the industry for over 30 years. He also serves on the banks board and charitable foundation.

In a statement, the committee said Glidden is a recognized leader and philanthropist in the banking and financial industry, where he also held positions as regional president for TD Bank in Northern New England and upstate New York.

In 2010, the Boy Scouts of America presented Glidden the 2010 Distinguished Citizen Award and was the 2009 Distinguished Citizens Campaign Chair for the Western Massachusetts Council.

The Glidden family remains steadfast in their commitment to the American Cancer Society. He was elected the societys Southern and Western New England chairman in January.

A recent capital campaign raised $35 million for Hopes Lodes in Boston and Burlington, Vermont, which provides comfortable and convenient lodging for cancer patients.

Glidden received the St. George National Award, the societys lifetime achievement honor in 2017.

Glidden and wife reside Glastonbury, Connecticut, and are parents to Rosemarie and Elizabeth, students at Providence College. The committee will honor Glidden at a reception held in his honor March 21 at the Log Cabin.

The parade committee honored Holyoke natives Arthur Archie Roberts, a renowned cardiac surgeon and Columbia Hall of Fame inductee, and actress Ann Dowd in 2018 and 2017.
An environmental scientist who earns $90,000 a year has offered a glimpse into her financial diary to show exactly how she spends her money.

The 28-year-old, from Sydney, gets paid about $4,500 per month after tax - and each time, she deposits $820 into her 'high-interest' savings account.

Speaking to Refinery29, the young woman revealed how she has managed to save $44,000 while renting a two-bedroom apartment with her boyfriend.

An environmental scientist who earns $90,000 a year has offered a glimpse into her financial diary to show exactly how she spends her money (stock image)

What's her regular monthly payment? RENT: $1,300 ELECTRICITY AND INTERNET: $105 PHONE BILL: $60 GYM MEMBERSHIP: $60 PUBLIC TRANSPORT: $200 STUDENT LOANS: $320 NETFLIX: $7 SPOTIFY: $3 CHARITY: $50 Advertisement

Splitting their living expenses in half every month, she said she pays roughly $1,300 for rent, $105 for electricity and internet, $3 on Spotify and $7 on Netflix.

The couple also share a vehicle - so she pays around $1,000 for her half on car insurance and registration per year.

Her other monthly expenses include $60 on her mobile plan, $60 on gym membership, $200 on (Opal card) public transport, $320 on student loans and donating $50 to charity.

She also has funds growing in investments where she puts away just $60 per month. She currently has $2,200 in funds.

On her first day back at work after a two-week break over Christmas, the woman said she decided to treat herself with snacks from Woolworths for $17 and a $10 salad from Soul Origin.

On Monday evening after work, the couple - who share a joint account - purchased their weekly grocery, which costs her $65 for her half of the bill.

Their shopping haul includes all the ingredients they need to make her meals this week - including breakfast, lunch and dinner.

She keeps on top of her meals for the rest of the week by preparing all her food at home to prevent her from spending money out.

For breakfast, she has fruit and coconut yoghurt, tomato and zucchini pasta for lunch and yellow curry for dinner.

On Tuesday, the woman said she had to work from another office so she needed to 'buy my second round of work snacks', which cost her $12.

'Dividing my time between two offices means two snack stashes. For this office, I buy muesli bars. I also grab a Coke Zero to wake myself up, since I forgot to bring one from home,' she said.

On Wednesday, she purchases a cardigan for $26 from Uniqlo which she had been keeping an eye on.

'It's on sale, so the total including shipping is not too bad,' she said.

On Thursday, she decided to work from home so she was able to eat what she already prepared without spending a cent. But she needed to head to a doctor's appointment, which cost her about $45 on fuel.

On Friday, she spent about $65 on a birthday gift for her sister. On Saturday, the couple host a dinner party for friends, which cost her about $40 for her half.

By Sunday, she enjoyed brunch with a friend and then went out to the movies, which cost her about $50. For dinner, she had pizza with her boyfriend, which cost her about $40.
KYODO NEWS - Feb 16, 2020 - 09:05 | World, All, Coronavirus

A woman from the United States who was among hundreds of passengers who disembarked on Friday from a cruise ship in Cambodia and flew to Malaysia has been confirmed as being infected with the new coronavirus, a Malaysian health official said Saturday.

The Westerdam, carrying 1,455 passengers and 802 crew, grabbed headlines after it was turned away by five ports in Asia over coronavirus fears before the Cambodian government allowed the ship to dock on Thursday on humanitarian grounds.

(Passengers disembark from the Westerdam cruise ship at the port of Sihanoukville in Cambodia on Feb. 15, 2020.)

Noor Hisham Abdullah, the Health Ministry director general, said in a statement that the 83-year-old woman and her 85-year-old husband, also from the United States, were among 145 passengers who flew into Malaysia on Friday after disembarking.

Airport screening discovered the couple to have "symptoms," the statement said, adding they were sent to a hospital on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. A test for the virus now known as COVID-19 came back positive for her on Saturday.

Her husband tested negative although he remains hospitalized for treatment of his symptoms and observation.

The couple were among the total 405 passengers who, after disembarking on Friday, boarded charter flights to either the capital Phnom Penh or to Kuala Lumpur.

On Saturday, 769 passengers, including all four Japanese passengers on the ship, as well as 66 crew disembarked and also flew out of Cambodia.

Due to the large number of passengers involved, the entire disembarkation process is expected to take at least three days to complete, according to a Cambodian official.

Before arriving in Cambodia, the ship's operator, U.S.-based Holland America Line, repeatedly stated that there were no suspected cases of virus infection on board.

With the latest case, the total number of the coronavirus infections in Malaysia rose to 22, also including 15 Chinese nationals and six Malaysians.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 16)  Senators are considering questioning the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) before the Supreme Court.

Senate President Vicente Tito Sotto III told CNN Philippines Sunday that this is among the options they are considering in response to the Duterte administrations move to end the Philippines military pact with the US, despite being advised against it by some of his Cabinet members.

Sotto said, however, that they are still formulating [their] stance and will decide this week.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said in a statement earlier in the day that Sotto and other senators will be crossing party lines to question the VFAs termination without the Senates nod before the Supreme Court.

The argument which they are eyeing to raise before the high court is similar to the one made by opposition senators before the Supreme Court in questioning the Duterte administrations withdrawal from the Rome Statute, which created the International Criminal Court (ICC).

It is our firm belief that if treaties and international agreements the President entered into cannot be valid without the approval of the Senate, the termination of, or withdrawal from, the same should only be effective with the concurrence of the Senate, Drilon said in a statement.

Drilon said Sotto is already preparing a petition and has asked him to co-author it. The minority leader said he accepted the Senate Presidents invitation.

The Constitution requires that the Senate concur in treaties for these to be ratified. However, it does not say if the Senates nod is also needed when the administration decides to exit from a treaty.

The opposition senators petition assailing the Duterte administrations withdrawal from the Rome Statute is still pending before the Supreme Court.

Drilon said that if the Supreme Court sides with their argument that the Senates concurrence is also required when the administration decides to leave a treaty, then the Duterte administrations termination of the VFA would also be considered invalid.

President Rodrigo Duterte ordered Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Teddyboy Locsin Jr. in early February to send notice to the US that it wants to end the VFA, despite his Cabinet members advising against it.

READ: Locsin: PH could lose up to 10 billion in aid if VFA ends

The US has received the Philippines notice and US President Donald Trump has shrugged off the countrys termination of the pact, which defense experts have warned will be detrimental to the Philippines.

EXPLAINER: The Visiting Forces Agreement

Duterte has said he is terminating the VFA because of moves in the US Senate to ban Philippine officials involved in the detention of opposition Senator Leila de Lima from entering the US and to sanction those involved in extrajudicial killings in the country.

The final straw was when the US canceled Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa's tourist visa. The Philippine senator, known to have close ties with Duterte, acknowledged that the revocation of his visa may have something to do with alleged extrajudicial killings under his watch as chief of the Philippine National Police from 2016 to 2018.
Julia Donaldson shouldnt have a worry in the world.

The 71-year-old is probably the most successful and loved childrens picture book author alive, worth a reported $50 million or so.

The Gruffalo's author Julia Donaldson. Credit:Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Her characters  the Gruffalo, Zog, the Highway Rat, the witch (and cat) from Room on the Broom  are instantly familiar to children, and her books rhythmic, witty verses are burned into the brains of parents around the world.

But she worries that along the way, she made a mistake. That, without realising it at the time, she made too many of her characters male, characters that had no reason to be any gender in particular.
European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS), an Amsterdam based think tank, strongly believes that Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed was sentenced for eleven years by Pakistan to prevent itself from unsustainable consequences.

It said the prosecution which came just before a significant meeting of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to be held in Paris from 16th to 21st of this month, was to avoid economic and military sanctions.

Describing the latest developments in Pakistan as strange and counterintuitive, EFSAS said: "Pakistan has taken such action after it realized that it could not afford the blacklisting from FATF which was looming in the wake of the escape of dreadful terrorist, Ehsanullah Ehsan from its prison".

EFSAS report says the International community is persistent in creating pressure on Pakistan but it ignored them all the time owing to the nature of threats that were limited to mere words.

It commended FATF for changing the narrative in which punitive leverages were unavailable with the international community.

EFSAS also believes that FATF must ensure that foot doesn't come off the pedal and those guilty of terrorism must be brought to justice.

Earlier, the Lahore Anti-Terrorism Court had found the Saeed guilty in two separate terrorism-related cases and had awarded him a sentence of five and half years in each of it.

EFSAS defines this whole exercise as a sell-out by Pakistan to save its own face.

Hafiz Saeed has, over the years, been a highly valued asset of the ISI, which despite coming under concerted international pressure after the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks to act against Saeed and his LeT cohorts, has withstood or circumvented this demand of the international community.

He was living under ISI patronage until now but the agency had to disown him keeping in view a looming disaster for the country.

Earlier, Ehsanullah Ehsan, a terrorist of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and an accused in several gruesome terror attacks in Pakistan including the attack of Peshawar Army Public school absconded Pakistani jails which had further pushed back the case of Islamabad.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Off as the 7-5 favourite, So Much More fired off cover to land first at the finish in the $36,000 Preferred Pace at Woodbine Mohawk Park on Saturday (Feb. 15).

Kendall Seelster led the field to a :27.2 first quarter with Easy Lover Hanover sitting in the pocket. Driver James MacDonald lagged So Much More off the gate and sat seventh around the first turn, but caught cover to race third over into a :56.1 half.

Fixed Idea led the overland charge around the final turn, drawing on near-equal terms with Kendall Seelster past three-quarters in 1:23.1 and taking a narrow lead into the stretch. MacDonald angled So Much More off cover and dashed down the centre of the track to the lead in the final stages, winning by a length over pocket-popper Easy Lover Hanover. Fixed Idea settled for third.

A four-year-old mare by Big Jim, So Much More won her 22nd race from 40 starts, surpassing $300,000 in earnings. Trainer Don Beatson co-owns the $4.90 winner with Kenneth Beatson and Cole England.

Trainer Richard Moreau claimed victory five times during the 11-race card. He began with back-to-back victories midway through the card, with Blu Crew ($6.00) winning in near wire-to-wire fashion and Legion Seelster ($3.30) winning in wire-to-wire fashion. Two races later, Sylph Hanover ($15.50) won in near gate-to-wire style while Wheels On Fire ($5.30) capped Moreaus evening with a first-over grind to victory.

The finale on the program, giving Moreau his fifth win on the night, featured a mandatory payout to the Jackpot Hi-5. Moreau trainee Peace Out Posse ($30.20) ripped off cover to win, with Play Jet Ray finishing second, 66-1 shot Ramblingamblinman closing for third, Foot Soldier finishing fourth and Freddy Bear rounding the ticket. With over $300,000 bet into a $150,000 carryover, the ticket combo of 9-4-2-8-3 returned $41,354.03 on a $.20 ticket.

To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.
Today, ex-President of Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutalibov responded to another attempt of the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, to attribute to him the words that the genocide in Khojaly was allegedly organized by the Azerbaijani opposition.

Pashinyan is brazenly lying. I never said that Azerbaijanis are responsible for the events in Khojaly. I said differently: in connection with the actions of the opposition at that time, the internal situation in the country was tense, media.az quotes the former politician as saying.

The Armenian side constantly makes this incorrect quote of my words a topic of discussion. But such statements cause only sarcasm. Naturally, President Ilham Aliyev, at a meeting with Pashinyan, correctly answered him that I didnt say such a thing, Ayaz Mutalibov concluded.
Unidentified miscreants looted over Rs 28 lakh from a Punjab Bank ATM by cutting open the machine in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr in the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, police said.

The miscreants cut open the machine to steal the cash, which was Rs 28.34 lakh. The incident happened at the PNB ATM near Triveni Sabitgarh sugar mill on Sunday.

According to Superintendent of Police (SP) Shivram Singh Yadav, the ATM's regular guard was on leave due to illness and his brother, who is differently-abled, was guarding the ATM for the past few days.

The guard told the police that he pulled down the shutter around midnight and went to sleep at the roadside dhaba. When he came back at 5 am, the ATM had been cut and the cash was missing.

The miscreant used a gas cutter to cut the ATM machine, police said.

Shivram Singh Yadav said, "We got the information about the loot in PNB ATM near Triveni Sabitgarh Sugar Mill. Some unidentified miscreants have used the gas cutter to steal the money."

"The machine was partly burnt and it seems that some cash must have been burnt in the process of cutting open the machine. The investigation is on in this matter and we will crack this case soon" he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday evening congratulated Arvind Kejriwal for taking oath earlier in the day as Delhi chief minister.

I congratulate Shri @ArvindKejriwal on taking oath as Delhis CM earlier today. Best wishes to him for a fruitful tenure, the PM tweeted.

I congratulate Shri @ArvindKejriwal on taking oath as Delhis CM earlier today. Best wishes to him for a fruitful tenure.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 16, 2020

Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party convener, had taken oath as Delhi chief minister for the third time earlier in the day. The oath ceremony was held at the Ramlila Maidan in central Delhi.

ALSO WATCH | Hum Honge Kaamyaab...: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal sings at rally after being sworn in

Replying to the PMs wishes, the Delhi CM said that they must now work together towards making Delhi a city of pride for all Indians.

Thank you for the warm wishes sir. I wish you could come today, but I understand you were busy. We must now work together towards making Delhi a city of pride for all Indians https://t.co/hHFvH8cLCJ  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 16, 2020

Addressing the rally after being sworn-in, Arvind Kejriwal had sought the PMs blessings to work for Delhis welfare.

I had also invited the prime minister for the oath ceremony today, but I guess he could not make it because he was busy. I want the prime minister to bless us so that we can work for the development and progress of Delhi, Kejriwal, whose previous tenure was marred by several run-ins with the Centre, said in his nearly 20-minute address.

Prime Minister Modi also had tweeted his congratulations to AAP and Arvind Kejriwal after the results were announced on February 11.

The AAP convener had invited PM Modi to his oath ceremony on Friday after his party stormed back to power in the national capital in the February 8 assembly election, bagging 62 seats in the 70-member Delhi Assembly.
DES MOINES, Iowa -Six hours before Iowa's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses were set to begin, an engineer for the Democratic National Committee offered a frank appraisal of the software that would be used to verify the results collected by hundreds of volunteer precinct leaders across the state.

"I've tested this as well as I can without real data but no guarantees it . . . won't all come crashing down once real data comes in," he wrote in a private channel on Slack, the online messaging platform, according to records viewed by The Washington Post.

The warning was prescient.

About seven hours later, leaders of the national party's tech team burst through the doors of a conference room in the Iowa Events Center, where Troy Price, the chairman of the state party, was gathered with his staff to oversee the operation.

There was a bug in the software, they told him, according to multiple people present.

That's when it all came crashing down.

No results were published until the following afternoon. When the numbers trickled out, they were riddled with obvious inaccuracies.

By the end of the week, an effort was underway to place blame squarely on the state party, which critics portrayed as ill-equipped and unprepared for its moment in the spotlight. The chairman of the DNC, Tom Perez, went on prime-time television to call the caucuses a "major league failure," saying of the Iowa chairman, "he owned up to it." Perez called on the state party to begin a hand audit, tweeting: "Enough is enough."

Six days later, Price, 39, once a rising star in Iowa politics, announced his intention to step down, declaring that he was "deeply sorry for what happened."

But a detailed review by The Post found that the chaotic events of Feb. 3 were years in the making, and that the responsibility extends beyond the local party leaders who have borne the brunt of the criticism.

Rather, the turmoil in Iowa reflected a systemic failure in which Democratic officials eager to avoid repeating the disastrous campaign of 2016 - marred by Russian hacks of party emails and allegations that the nominating process had been tilted against Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. - oversaw changes that triggered a whole new crisis.

At the heart of the reforms would be a newly transparent caucus process, with raw vote totals announced publicly for the first time.

Party officials, however, never effectively vetted the basic tool used to collect and publish those results, the review found. They hardly questioned why an app was necessary, rather than a simpler reporting method, though internal correspondence shows that DNC staffers were privy to discussions about the testing and rollout of the technology.

This account of the debacle in Iowa - the actions that caused it and the fallout that cast a cloud over the early days of the 2020 election - is based on an examination of internal documents and correspondence related to caucus planning as well as interviews with 54 people who were involved, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared for their future in Democratic politics.

A spokeswoman for the DNC, Xochitl Hinojosa, maintained that the national party's role was limited to ensuring the cybersecurity of the software, which was built by veterans of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign at a startup called Shadow, Inc.

She said the Slack messages showed only that DNC tech staff was brought in to "create a backup system to double check the delegate math from the app . . . as a precaution in case there was a hack." And she said their work had "nothing to do with the app code or the coding issue in the app that caused reporting delays."

Shadow apologized for its error, which it said did not affect the integrity of the underlying results.

But the episode has called into question the broader credibility of a process whose importance in determining American presidents has taken on epic significance since assuming the first-in-the-nation status in 1972. Multiple people with years-long involvement in the caucuses said the mathematical irregularities exposed by new transparency rules point to problems that have often been present but quietly glossed over by party leaders before final results were announced.

Just as Sanders won the popular vote this year but came in second in official results due to the process of delegate allocation, multiple people involved in 2016 said the same outcome likely occurred then. There was simply no public tally to prove it.

"We live in a different era, where people expect certainty and they expect it instantaneously," said John Norris, a longtime political operative and activist in Iowa. There was a "failure," he added, "to plan for complete failure."

The party's caucus woes may not be over - and not just because Sanders and former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg, who claimed most delegates in Iowa, are both asking the Iowa state party to audit the results.

Democratic officials in Nevada, who were to use two apps built by Shadow for their caucuses this month, are now racing to avoid a similar failure. Party leaders scrapped the software - though they had conducted earlier and more rigorous testing than was completed in Iowa, according to strategists involved in the two states - and devised a last-minute replacement in consultation with the DNC.

Iowa, however, continues to wrestle with the fallout.

Dozens of state and local Democrats interviewed for this story expressed dismay because, inside hundreds of precincts, the caucuses ran smoothly. What came unglued was technology out of their control - turning this quadrennial institution of U.S. politics into a national punchline, ridiculed by comedian Steve Martin at the Oscars as well as by President Donald Trump's campaign manager, Brad Parscale, who described the process as the "sloppiest train wreck in history."

"Talking heads didn't get to say what they wanted to say when they wanted to say it," said Rob Sand, the 37-year-old state auditor, defending the caucuses as an integral part of the "social fabric."

- - -

The roots of the fiasco in Iowa lie in the bitterness that followed the 2016 campaign.

So fractious was the Iowa party that Price, who had previously been its executive director and then a top Iowa strategist for Clinton's 2016 campaign, initially decided not to run for the chairmanship. He was worried about the animosity toward people associated with Clinton, whose razor-thin victory over Sanders led to accusations of bias, even of cheating.

National party officials, desperate to restore confidence in the nominating process, required states to make their caucuses more accessible or switch to primaries, as a handful of states did. The party also put out new rules requiring the calculation and publication of three figures on caucus night, including two different expressions of the popular vote.

Price, who decided to seek the chairmanship only after the previous party leader left for medical reasons, worked to unite warring factions of the party.

Dealing with the DNC, and its new rules, turned out to be the most difficult part of the job, he said.

"We were trying to take rules that were clearly different than our system allows," he said, referring to the mathematical rigidity imposed on what started out as an informal party-building exercise. "For the most part, I think we were successful in doing that."

Price first floated the idea of allowing people to caucus via teleconference - a system that came to be called "virtual caucuses" - at a DNC meeting in Puerto Rico at the end of 2018, and asked for expedited review from national leaders, he said.

But Price and his team struggled to get answers from the national party or its tech staff, according to multiple operatives involved in early planning, some of whom later left to run campaigns and so spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Raffi Krikorian, who left as the DNC's chief technology officer in April 2019, said he couldn't recall the requests but added it was "entirely possible" they were placed, saying the tech staff hadn't yet been "roped in on all the caucus-related things."

Iowa Democrats unveiled their plan in February 2019, beginning a public comment period before the proposals went up the chain to the DNC. At the time, Price predicted that the changes, which would have allowed Democrats to participate by phone in the week leading up to caucus day, would "make the 2020 caucuses the most accessible, the most transparent, the most secure and the most successful caucuses ever."

Around the same time, the state party began a process of engaging technology companies, including Microsoft, which had built the reporting app used by both Democrats and Republicans in the 2016 caucuses.

A request for proposal went out in May. About a dozen firms responded, according to people involved in the process. Contracts were signed for some parts of the system, but not for reporting results.

- - -

An app for reporting results appeared nowhere in the original request, which was obtained by The Post. Microsoft said it wasn't interested in doing another caucus app, according to state party operatives. Iowa Democrats were stuck.

That's when Iowa's caucus team heard about Shadow from top Democrats in Nevada, who were already planning to use the company for reporting software. The executive director of the Nevada Democrats, Alana Mounce, and the company's chief executive, Gerard Niemira, both worked on the 2016 Clinton campaign. Mounce declined through a spokeswoman to comment.

Shadow was founded as Groundbase in 2017, focusing mainly on texting tools that had a mixed track record in statewide races. In the election in Virginia that year, for example, its untested peer-to-peer texting platform stumbled, according to a Democratic operative involved in overseeing the race who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid jeopardizing career prospects. The tool regularly crashed, the person said.

Niemira, the Shadow CEO, said no issues were brought to his attention but that the company was brand new at the time.

The firm rebranded in 2019 with a major investment from Acronym, a nonprofit digital outfit with an affiliated political action committee. And it has provided services, including texting technology, to several Democratic presidential campaigns, according to aides for those campaigns.

As organizers in Iowa were beginning talks with Shadow about a reporting app, the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee, a panel of Democratic officials from across the country, gave conditional approval in June 2019 to plans for the "virtual caucuses." But they asked for input from the party's tech team, whose leadership had changed hands in May and expressed concerns about how the technology would function.

The DNC assembled a "red team" of cybersecurity experts to advise on phone-based voting, according to multiple people who either served on the advisory panel or were asked to participate but declined because members were required to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

In late July, the DNC proposed that Iowa party officials adopt language in its vendor contracts giving the national party access to source code and "operational plans" for the software's use, according to an email obtained by The Post.

Hinojosa, the DNC spokeswoman, said the language was designed to ensure the vendor would "work with the DNC's cyber-security consultant."

An additional clause added at the DNC's request absolved the national party of responsibility "for any allegation, claim, action, suit, proceeding or investigation asserted or initiated related to the Software or this Agreement . . . regardless of the DNC's actions, inaction, knowledge, or involvement with regards to the Software or this Agreement."

The company was paid about $63,000 for its services. It had been expected to receive additional payments in the new year but the status of the money is now uncertain.

When the DNC's rules committee convened in San Francisco in August 2019, its members signaled they would recommend against the virtual caucuses based on the expert advice - more than six months after Iowa Democrats had unveiled the details. Hinojosa, the DNC spokeswoman, said the timeline was "in line with previous cycles."

Price was fuming. He remembers the week in San Francisco as the worst of his professional life - until this month's fiasco.

"I might have to quit," he recalled thinking at the time.

The day after the full meeting, Price and his associates in Iowa, as well as Democratic leaders from Nevada, were scheduled to see the committee's leadership again. Price vowed that he was going to be aggressive with Perez, having spent months crafting a plan to fulfill the DNC's requirements, only to be told that it was unworkable.

They arrived at the Hilton and received a call directing them to Perez's suite, which looked out over the city's skyline. Price did not muster the aggression he had promised. But when he realized the virtual caucuses were out of the question, he made a different inquiry, according to three people present at the meeting: "Can we still use a reporting app?"

The three people said he was assured that the reporting app was acceptable. And two of the people present recalled Kat Atwater, the DNC's deputy chief technology officer, specifically saying the DNC would help work with Shadow to "get it done," as one person present recalled.

Hinojosa, the DNC spokeswoman, denied that national leaders had given Price the go-ahead. Atwater, she said, "had heard of Shadow and their work but never vouched for them and also mentioned it was also a tight timeline."

- - -

The beginning of autumn brought the state party and the national party closer together in planning for the development of the technology.

The DNC ordered and paid for a security audit of the software, which was completed by NCC Group, a Britain-based cybersecurity firm. Out of the review, which also involved threat assessment conducted with the national party as well as officials in Iowa and Nevada, came directions to guard the name of the vendor, and to take the software live as late as possible to prevent it from getting into the hands of hackers, according to multiple people who participated or had knowledge of the exercises.

By early January, campaigns were becoming fretful, asking when they were going to see the app.

The week of the January debate, Atwater traveled to Des Moines to run through incident response plans developed during a November simulation organized by leaders of the Defending Digital Democracy Project at Harvard University's Belfer Center. She had been invited to participate in conference calls with Shadow since at least Sept. 17, records show. A contract with the state party was signed on Oct. 14, according to a copy obtained by The Post.

Several news reports in January raised questions about the security of the reporting app, though the party remained tight-lipped about who was developing it. A top aide to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sent three emails before the caucuses to Bob Lord, chief security officer at the DNC, asking how to get more information about the software.

"In particular," the staffer wrote in the initial email on Jan. 14, "we'd like to find out if anyone has audited it."

The aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private communications, never received a response.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Lord urged the state party not to use the app, but Price said his last interaction with Lord was at the August meeting in San Francisco, when he got approval to move forward with the reporting software, according to three people present. In response to questions about Lord's role, Hinojosa, the DNC spokeswoman, said the party's "data and technology staff relayed concerns related to the use of technology in elections."

It was only days before the caucuses that volunteer precinct leaders were able to download a test version of the software. The state party set up office hours for precinct leaders stumped by the system to call in with questions.

But the resources were plainly insufficient, and Price, a week after the caucuses, could not answer questions about how many precinct chairs had downloaded the app, or when training on the software had begun.

On the Saturday before Iowa's caucuses, meanwhile, the state party in Nevada had conducted a dry run with its early caucus reporting app, which incorporated campaigns and used Harry Potter characters instead of candidates, according to a top Democratic official in Nevada who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Nothing of the sort was done in Iowa. Across more than 1,750 precincts, only 624 people logged in to the live version of the app, according to the state party. Just 439 people transmitted results via the app.

The others turned to a hotline number that was supposed to serve as a backup. It was staffed by about 50 volunteers in a boiler room at the Iowa Events Center in downtown Des Moines. They grew overwhelmed when caucus chairs began ditching the reporting app, opting for the call-in number instead.

As images of caucus materials featuring the hotline number began to spread on social media, chaos ensued. Volunteers started fielding calls from CNN reporters searching for results, according to multiple people staffing the phones.

The number was posted on 4chan, the online message board, with instructions to "clog the lines." Tim Gannon, a former Democratic candidate for Iowa's agriculture secretary, said more than a quarter of the calls he took when he went in to help in the aftermath of the caucuses were from people who announced their support for Trump.

Over a 24-hour period, 8,000 calls were placed to the boiler room, whose expected capacity was 2,000 incoming calls. Volunteers were able to answer 4,300 of them.

- - -

Price was outside having a cigarette when caucuses convened across the state at 7 p.m.

He returned to his second-floor conference room and waited for results. They didn't come.

Shortly after 8 p.m., leaders of the DNC's tech team came through the doors and announced there was a bug in the transmission of results. His mind raced with possibilities, including a potential hack. He was assured that the raw numbers were authentic, he said; they just couldn't be accurately produced.

Every 15 minutes, he received an update saying the team needed another 15 minutes. On the Slack channel, which had been created by a DNC engineer on Jan. 31, the national party's tech staff coordinated as they raced to verify the integrity of the results coming through the system. Also in the conversation were top Shadow executives and one representative from the state party.

A chart mapping how data would travel from caucus sites to the results board, bearing the DNC's logo and obtained by The Post, included checkpoints jointly assigned to the national and state parties. But Hinojosa, the DNC spokeswoman, said, "The results were always in the IDP's possession."

The entire setup became inoperative as party officials decided they would have to tabulate results from caucus math worksheets, using Google Forms hooked up via Ethernet rather than the numbers flowing into the database - part of a redundancy plan in the event of a breakdown.

Party officials huddled and decided not to release any results that night. Price and a top aide each held a conference call with the campaigns. Both conversations ended abruptly - the second when a Sanders aide suggested the state party had been riding roughshod over the numbers for years, according to a participant.

Volunteers started placing outgoing calls to caucus leaders to gather their results, and the state party dispatched people all over the state beginning the next day to collect physical records. Some were dropped in the mail.

Meanwhile, errors crept into the figures, which exhibited obvious problems. For example, delegates were assigned to candidates that had too few people in their corner - or, in some cases, no people - in the final expression of preferences. In other cases, the number of caucus-goers increased between the first and second alignment, which should not be possible.

Veteran strategists in the state fault Price for handling the crisis poorly, failing to go in front of television cameras, explain what was happening and take questions. He read a statement on a press call at 1 a.m. In retrospect, he wishes he had said more that night.

Price left the Iowa Events Center at 2:30 a.m. He picked up a pack of cigarettes and laid down for 90 minutes in the hotel room he had reserved "as a bug-out spot in case things go south." He showered and walked back to the events complex before sunrise. He worked from there through Thursday before returning to his small office at the party's headquarters across from the airport. A week later, the one-story, white-brick office was still strewn with boxes. A cake for Mardi Gras lay untouched in the kitchen.

Price said he lost 12 pounds in a week and sought medical care for dehydration. Police were patrolling his street after a sign was found on the interstate that read, "Troy Price will pay the price."

And he did, announcing his resignation nine days after the meltdown. His successor, Mark Smith, a longtime state representative, was elected on Saturday.

Price doesn't know what he'll do next, of if he has a future in politics. "This is my home," he said. "I don't know where I'd go."

What he does know, however, is that he'll be remembered for "a line of code."

- - -

The Washington Post's Lenny Bronner, Tony Romm and Neena Satija contributed to this report.
GREENWICH  Bird fans can watch for their favorites even in winter.

On Saturday, the Greenwich Audubon Center invited the public to participate in the annual Great Backyard Bird Count at its home on Riversville Road in the backcountry.

Naturalist Ryan MacLean of Greenwich Audubon was joined by about a half-dozen birding enthusiasts of all ages, who identified 14 different species of birds in a span of 30 minutes on the grounds.

The data collected was uploaded to an online database for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It used by ornithologists to study the health of the areas bird populations. The group also learned how to identify and count backyard songbirds at the bird feeders while taking a brief walk outside to find birds.
1classifieds1.com scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team

This CoolSocial report was updated on 13 Jan 2013, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.

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PAGE TITLE Free Classifieds  1Classifieds1.com DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS listed, category, service, november, 00 category, posting, other



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DOCTYPE XHTML 1.0 Transitional CHARSET AND LANGUAGE English (United States) UTF-8English (United States) DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER Apache OPERATIVE SYSTEM Linux Linux

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A Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel saved the life of a female passenger who slipped while trying to board a train at the Bhubaneswar railway station on Saturday, reported news agency PTI.



Nibedita Sahoo, a lecturer at the RD Women's College, lost her balance and slipped into the gap between the train and the platform, while trying to board the Puri-Sambalpur intercity express, which was on the move, officials said.

.@RailMinIndia commendable act of courage and swiftness shown by RPF constable Subrat Kumar Maharana in rescuing a lady passenger who had fallen while trying to board a train at Bhubaneswar. @rpfecor1 @DRMKhurdaroad pic.twitter.com/g0hWMyQr93  EAST COAST Railway (@eastcoastrail) February 15, 2020

Reacting within a fraction of a second, Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable Subrat Kumar Maharana - who was deputed on the platform - ran towards her and pulled her out of the gap.

Image tweeted by @eastcoastrail

"It is my pleasure to express gratitude to Maharana for saving my life," Sahoo said.

The entire incident was caught on CCTV cameras.

.@RailMinIndia Brave RPF Constable Subrat Kumar Maharana showed commendable courage and swiftness and rescued a lady passenger who had fallen while trying to board a running train at Bhubaneswar. pic.twitter.com/ll6BjrabAb  EAST COAST Railway (@eastcoastrail) February 15, 2020

RPF Constable Subrat Kumar Maharana. '

The East Coast Rail congratulated the brave cop, identified asBrave RPF Constable Subrat Kumar Maharana showed commendable courage and swiftness and rescued a lady passenger who had fallen while trying to board a running train at Bhubaneswar', the handle tweeted.
Its been more than a decade since Charleston and the State Ports Authority began their epic feud over the proper presence of cruise ships next to the citys historic core. Theres been precious little progress made, and we hope that changes soon.

Theres simply too much at stake beyond the cruise business.

As the S.C. Supreme and the U.S. District courts prepare to rule on aspects of the dispute, both sides should commit to restarting a dialogue about how they can find common ground and reset the important relationship between the state agency and the city. We recognize leadership will be required, and any breakthrough will take each side out of its comfort zone.

Cooperation between the city and state led to the creation of the State Ports Authority in the early 20th century, and its success has been crucial to South Carolinas modern economy. But the states economy also thrives on tourism, and the dramatic success of historic Charleston is one of the leading drivers of that. This success was brought about partly by aggressively regulating many aspects of tourism under the correct belief that Charleston is an attractive place to visit foremost because it is an attractive place to live.

We dont expect a resolution of the long-standing cruise debate would produce a clear winner or loser in this long-running dispute, partly because its complex nature includes the following issues:

 Whether there should be a legally binding penalty if the SPA exceeds its voluntary cap of no more than one cruise ship docking at a time, no more than 104 visits a year. The authority has abided by the cap for years and says it has turned down business to do so, but some in the city rightly wonder why, if the authoritys intent is to comply with the limit, it finds such a provision a problem.

 Whether cruise ship passengers should be taxed more to contribute to the city, where struggles with flooding and sea-level rise have increased dramatically since the cruise ship controversy began. Ports Authority CEO Jim Newsome has argued cruise ships are just another form of maritime commerce, but Mayor John Tecklenburg said, I respectfully believe that having cruise ships here is more than a maritime business.

 Whether the authority should take further steps to reduce cruise ship emissions while in port. Mr. Newsome said low-sulfur fuels have improved the situation, and any decision on shore power is tied up with the following issue.

 Whether a new cruise ship terminal should be located on Union Pier, near the current, outdated facility. The debate over this facility and what sort of mitigation the state should provide the city to help offset impacts on the Historic District are the basis of the pending lawsuits.

As with most big disputes, theres fault on both sides. Mr. Tecklenburg has talked about the desirability of a new tax on cruise passengers to help pay for the citys infrastructure needs, but he has not yet sat down personally with ports officials to make his case. Mr. Newsome and his board have excelled in positioning the Port of Charleston for long-term growth but have seemed insensitive at times to legitimate local concerns. This problem isnt unique to Charleston. North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey has his own frustration with the authority stemming from issues related to the new Leatherman terminal there.

The time is right for fresh talks, especially as the Ports Authority renegotiates a long-term deal with Carnival Cruise Line, whose ship Sunshine is based here, and as it plans for the future sale of its vast Union Pier site downtown.

There is some validity to the notion that no one wins except the lawyers whenever disputes are settled in court. When the two opposing sides are both arms of government  and accountable to many of the same people  inaction and litigation only increase cynicism about whether our government is really working for us.
A man took a Hanceville police cruiser Saturday night, authorities say, before he was taken into custody after a 20 minute chase involving three law enforcement agencies.

The Cullman Tribune is reporting the incident began when Hanceville police responded to an alarm call. After officers exited the vehicle, the man jumped into the vehicle and drove off.

Using GPS technology, authorities were able to track the vehicle as it proceeded down U.S. 31 through the City of Cullman. Cullman police were able to take the man into custody after a spike belt slowed the patrol car down and another officer performed a pit maneuver to bring it to a stop.

The man exited the cruiser and attempted to flee, but was taken into custody a short while later. Charges are expected.

Cullman and Hanceville police and the Cullman County Sheriffs Office took part in the incident.

Hanceville Mayor Kenneth Nail posted a photo to social media following the mans arrest:
By Gideon Levy

February 15, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - Israeli soldiers shoot children. Sometimes they wound them and sometimes they kill them. Sometimes the children wind up brain dead, sometimes disabled. Sometimes the children have thrown rocks at the soldiers, sometimes Molotov cocktails. Sometimes by chance they wind up in the middle of a confrontation. They almost never put the soldiers lives in danger.

Sometimes the soldiers intentionally shoot at the children, sometimes by mistake. Sometimes they aim at the childrens heads or the upper body, and sometimes they shoot in the air and miss, hitting the children in the head. Thats how it goes when a body is small.

Sometimes the soldiers shoot with the intent to kill, sometimes to punish. Sometimes they use regular bullets and sometimes rubber-coated bullets, sometimes from a distance, sometimes in an ambush, sometimes at close range. Sometimes they shoot out of fear, anger, frustration and a sense of having no other option, or a loss of control, sometimes in cold blood. The soldiers never see their victims afterward. If they saw what they caused, they might stop shooting.

Israeli soldiers are allowed to shoot children. Nobody punishes them for shooting children. When a Palestinian child is shot its not a story. Theres no difference between the blood of a small Palestinian child and the blood of a Palestinian adult. Theyre both cheap.

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When a Jewish child is hurt, all of Israel shakes, when a Palestinian child is hurt, Israel yawns. It will always, always find a justification for soldiers shooting Palestinian children. It will never, never find a justification for children throwing stones at soldiers who raid their village.

For six months a boy named Abd el-Rahman Shatawi has been convalescing at the rehabilitation hospital in Beit Jala. For 10 days a relative of his, Mohammed Shatawi, has been at Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem, in Jerusalem. Both are from the village of Qaddum in the West Bank. Israeli soldiers shot them both in the head. They shot regular bullets from a great distance at Abd el-Rahman as he stood at the entrance to a friends home, they shot a rubber-coated bullet at Mohammed from a nearby hilltop as he tried to hide from them down the same hill. The army said he had set a tire on fire.

Abd el-Rahman is 10 and looks small for his age. Mohammed is 14 and looks older than he is. These are the children of the Palestinian reality, both hanging between life and death. Theirs and their parents lives have been destroyed. Abd el-Rahmans father drives him home from Beit Jala to Qaddum once a week for a weekend in the village, Mohammeds father doesnt stray from the doorway of the neuro-intensive care unit at Hadassah Ein Karem, where hes alone facing his son and his fate. Neither of these children should have been shot. Neither should have been shot in the head.

After Abd el-Rahman was shot the army spokesmans office said that during the incident a Palestinian minor was wounded. After Mohammed was shot the spokesman said: A claim about a Palestinian who was wounded by a rubber bullet is known. The office is familiar with the complaint. The army spokesman is the voice of the Israel Defense Forces. The IDF is a peoples army, therefore the IDF spokesman also speaks for Israel.

The spokespeople publish their bloodcurdling statements from a new office tower in Ramat Aviv near Tel Aviv, where the office recently moved. They refer to a 10-year-old boy as a Palestinian minor and remark that the Palestinian claim is known about a boy fighting for his life because soldiers shot him in the head. The dehumanization of Palestinians has reached the IDF spokespeople. Even children no longer rouse human sentiment such as sorrow or mercy, certainly not in the IDF.

The IDF spokesmans office does its job well. Its statements reflect the spirit of the time and place. Theres no room to express any regret for shooting children in the head, theres no room for mercy, an apology, an investigation or punishment, and certainly not for any compensation. Shooting a Palestinian child is considered less severe than shooting a stray dog, for which theres still a chance someone will do some investigating.

The IDF spokesman announces: Continue to shoot Palestinian children.

Gideon Levy is an Israeli journalist and author. Levy writes opinion pieces and a weekly column for the newspaper Haaretz that often focus on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. Levy has won prizes for his articles on human rights in the Israeli-occupied territories

This article was published by "Haaretz"-

Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here

==See Also==
The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will soon be covered by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) and it will have jurisdiction to handle disputes and other issues related to the UT services there, Union Minister Jitendra Singh here on Sunday.

CAT so far had jurisdiction only over central services issues in Jammu and Kashmir.

Addressing the annual conference of CAT, he said the tribunal will soon cover the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and will also have jurisdiction to handle disputes and other issues related to the non-central and UT services there.

The Union Minister for PMO said that in due course of time, an exclusive bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal will be set up in Jammu and Kashmir and till then the Chandigarh bench of the tribunal may attend to the service disputes and other cases from the Union territory.

The Centre on August 5 had abrogated Article 370 provisions of the Constitution which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and divided it into two Union Territories.

Singh also disclosed that very soon more members will be appointed to the CAT. the process is already going on and shall be completed soon, he said.

One of the requirements projected by the CAT chairman is vacant posts in the tribunal, which presently has only 39 members against the total strength of 66.

The government is seriously working to fill the vacant posts, he said.

Singh lauded the working of the CAT, its chairman and its members, and said that in spite of increasing workload and the rise in the number of cases with the passage of time, the disposal rate is 100 per cent.

He, however, expressed concern over the number of appeals going to High Courts and Supreme Court against the CAT decisions and this, to some extent, defeated the very purpose for which the tribunal had been envisaged.

The conference was presided over by Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and attended, among others, by Supreme Court judge N V Ramana, Justice of Delhi High Court Dhirubhai Naranbhai Patel, CAT chairman Justice L Narasimha Reddy among others.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Season 24 of The Bachelor has been one for the books. Peter Webers down to the final four girls, quickly approaching the hometown episodes. In the wake of the recent controversy with contestant, Victoria Fuller, another apology surfaced. Her hope is for grace from Bachelor Nation, viewers, and probably Webers mom.

[Spoilers ahead for The Bachelor Season 24]

It doesnt matter what Victoria Fuller says now  fans dont want to hear it

Victoria Fuller and Peter Weber on The Bachelor | John Fleenor/ABC via Getty Images

Victoria Fuller may still be in the running for Peter Webers heart, but viewers of the long-running franchise show arent as giddy as the pilot himself.

After a surprise revelation that Victorias modeling days included a white lives matter campaign  for We Love Marlins which catches and releases white and blue marlins  she apologized. However, some questioned the sincerity, taking to Victorias Instagram page to tell her so.

Victoria denied much of whats been said about her, and her past, but many still point to the use of her involvement with the inappropriate slogan, regardless of the intentions. Cosmo even pulled the cover she and Weber won during that awkward group date.

Victoria Fs half-a**ed apology gonna sound like: everyone makes mistakes. Im deeply sorry for any pain I may have caused. i dont see color. we need to come together and stop hating on each other, this fan tweeted.

I know they are holding on this Victoria F drama but her apology is going to be like I dont think that way I had no idea, thats not who I am, this fan said.

At this point, can Victoria offer an apology Bachelor Nation will accept? She made an attempt (again).

What did Victoria say this time?

To give credit where credit is due, Victoria took to social media Feb. 15 to issue another apology via a screenshot of her Notes app. She posted it to her Instagram story where thirsty fans made sure to get receipts.

I would like to sincerely apologize for my involvement with We Love Marlins. My intention was only to support an endangered species, she said via TMZ.

She continued, I want to say that I unequivocally reject the beliefs of the white lives matter movement or any propaganda that supports racism of any kind. I would like to specifically apologize to people of color that are affected by racism daily.

And finally, Victoria ended by saying, It was never my intention to add fuel to the racial fire in this country. This has truly been an educational moment for me and I hope to be a voice against racism moving forward. I hope I can be shown grace as I navigate through this process.

Some question the timing of the apology

Some think another apology just before the hometown visits feels a little calculated knowing shes about to meet Webers parents and he will meet hers.

TMZ also caught the pair back in Oct. walking with Victorias dog, Buxton. They were apparently in Virginia Beach, which is Victorias alma mater, where they embraced and shared a kiss after watching a live band in a local bar.

Some took to Twitter where they called the Medical Sales Representative phony. A few said she should apologize for sleeping with married men. Those sentiments allude to the messages Reality Steve said he received about the Bachelor contestant suggesting she broke up marriages.

So I looked. And I found. And Im not talking about this happening once, or even twice. The info I was receiving was talking about her having done this three or four times, he wrote.

Victoria denied the accusations, calling them rumors. By now, viewers of Webers season seem to have already made up their minds. Hannah Brown even called Victoria annoying, while Webers ex-girlfriend recently spilled major tea about who the Virginian is behind-the-scenes. Its a lot to unpack.

The point is, Victoria may get through hometowns, and even the Fantasy Suite, but likely isnt who Weber chooses in the end and many are [more than] good with that.

The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on ABC.
Aligarh, Feb 16 : The Resident Doctors Association (RDA) of the medical college in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) staged a protest march demanding the release of Gorakhpur pediatrician, Kafeel Khan, who has been booked under National Security Act (NSA) by Aligarh police.

The resident doctors have demanded revocation of NSA charges against Khan. The medicos said raising one's voice against injustice is not a crime and Khan should be released immediately.

Shouting slogans against Uttar Pradesh police and the state government, the medicos also demanded withdrawal of Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

President of RDA, Hamza Malik, speaking about Kafeel said that a doctor, who has organized several free health camps to save people from encephalitis and floods, could not be a threat to the nation.

Shahnawaz Iqbali, vice-president of RDA, said the government's move of slapping NSA on Khan was nothing more than a blatant attempt to suppress his voice.
Abu Dhabi will welcome government leaders, global CEOs and other investment stakeholders for the 7th biennial United Nations Council on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Forum (WIF) and the Asian E-Commerce Week 2020, to be held later this year.



The forums mission is to promote investment for sustainable development and align international investment with the UNs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is the largest global platform for high-level dialogue and action on investment and development. It will take place from December 6 to 10, said a statement.



Abdullah Bin Ahmed Al Saleh, undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy for Foreign Trade Affairs, on behalf of Engineer Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori, UAE Minister of Economy and Mukhisa Kituyi, secretary-general of UNCTAD, signed an agreement to host the forum.



At the signing, the secretary-general emphasised the need for leadership and coherence on investment and sustainability, shown by Abu Dhabi.



Abdullah Al Saleh said: The 7th biennial World Investment Forum (WIF) is a unique platform to facilitate policymaking and joint action that is necessary to stimulate investments in development areas.



Apart from enabling productive discussions on challenges and opportunities in the global investment landscape, the forum will serve as an ideal opportunity to network with global leaders in business and politics. Therefore, the hosting of UNCTADs 7th World Investment Forum and the Asian E-Commerce Week 2020 in Abu Dhabi is of great significance to us. It will enable us to increase our contributions to the regional and international efforts to further enhance the business landscape, while also underscoring the UAE's position as a pivotal trade and investment hub in the region, he said.



This is particularly relevant given the UAEs inward and outward FDI movements continue to gain momentum. The countrys total FDI inflows were recorded at USD 10.4 billion, while the cumulative FDI inflows stood at $140.3 billion in 2018, with an 8 per cent growth rate compared to 2017, he added.



Abdullah Al Saleh continued: Meanwhile, $15 billion was the total value of our FDI outflow, with a total cumulative FDI outflow of $139.5 billion, with a growth rate of 12.1 per cent compared to that of 2017.



Furthermore, the UAEs issuance of the new Foreign Direct Investment Law, which allows up to 100 per cent foreign ownership of companies in selected 122 economic sectors, and the fast-approaching Expo 2020 in Dubai are creating a slew of investment opportunities, he added.



Today, it ranks first in the Arab world and 27 globally in terms of attracting foreign direct investment and is among the top 10 globally important sources of outbound investments, according to the UNCTAD classification.



Al Saleh further emphasized that the selection of the capital, Abu Dhabi, to host the Asian E-Commerce Week 2020 reflects the growing prominence of the UAE in the areas of digital economy and the provision of technology-related, legal and institutional frameworks and services. This ensures regulation of the e-commerce sector and enhances its growth, as reflected by many relevant global indicators.



For instance, the UAE ranked third globally in the digital penetration ratio in 2019, according to a classification by the British ING Media, and was ranked 16th globally on the Industry Digitalization Index for 2019 by Bloomberg NEF.



He added that according to the UNCTAD E-Commerce Index Report 2019, the country climbed five spots in B2C e-commerce to rank 28 globally and occupied the first place among the group of West Asian and North African countries for developing and transitioning economies on the same index during 2018 and 2019.



The World Trade Report 2019 issued by the World Trade Organization ranked the UAE first in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region in terms of the export of telecommunications and information technology services during 2018.



Rashed Abdul Karim Al Balooshi, undersecretary, Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED), explained that the emirates move to host the World Investment Forum (WIF) and the Asian E-Commerce Week 2020 of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) will play a key role in the efforts to contribute to the UAE economy in general and Abu Dhabi's economy in particular.



The move is also expected to help further enhance the emirate's economic and investment relations with the world's leading countries in line with the participation of around 190 countries and a diverse range of international companies.



During the MoU signing between the Ministry of Economy (MOE) and UNCTAD, Al Balooshi revealed that ADDED and the Ministry will work closely together for the successful hosting of the event via the integration of all concerned federal and local government entities, in addition to public sector companies operating within the UAE.



The new partnership fully complements the directives of the Abu Dhabi Government to reinforce regional and global partnerships to help achieve a sustainable and diversified economy that is capable of maintaining growth and development while also adopting a policy of openness and forging fruitful global partnerships.



Investors, firms and governments are, in increasing numbers, putting sustainability at the core of their activities. Initiatives like the World Investment Forum can change investor behaviour and further leverage investment for sustainable development. This change requires rapid and constructive dialogue between all stakeholders, the sharing of best practices, and the agreement of concrete investments and financing solutions. The forum therefore:



 Produces strategies to address global investment and development challenges;

 Facilitates networking between global leaders in business and politics;

 Stimulates public and private action on investment for sustainable development;

 Offers a unique opportunity to influence investment policymaking and shape the global investment environment.



The forum will provide the opportunity to interact with high-level participants from the global investment community, including Heads of State and Government, ministers, executives of global companies and stock exchanges, sovereign wealth fund managers, investment treaty negotiators, heads of investment promotion agencies, international investment location experts, heads of international organizations, parliamentarians, civil society representatives, eminent scholars, and the international media, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
CAIRO - Egypts chief prosecutor on Sunday denied allegations that the police tortured a human rights activist and vocal critic of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.

Police detained Patrick George Zaki, 28, an Egyptian student at the University of Bologna in Italy, after he arrived in Cairo earlier this month on what was supposed to be a brief visit home.

Zaki told his lawyers hed been tortured with electric shocks, beaten and blindfolded during interrogations about his activism, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. The group previously employed Zaki as a gender rights researcher and is now providing him legal representation.

His defence attorney Huda Nasrallah also told The Associated Press that Zaki repeated his torture allegations on Saturday during a court hearing to appeal his detention. Hes being held while prosecutors investigate claims of disseminating false news and calling for unauthorized protests. The court rejected the appeal.

Recent laws in Egypt have expanded the definition of terrorism and granted police and prosecutors broad powers to arrest and keep people detained for months and even years without ever filing charges or presenting evidence.

Egypt also outlawed all unauthorized protests in 2013, months after el-Sissi, then defence minister, led the militarys removal of the countrys first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi. Morsis one-year rule proved divisive and sparked nationwide protests.

Sundays two-page statement from the office of General Prosecutor Hamada el-Sawy said Zaki did not report that he was harmed or violated during his arrest or detention when he spoke to the public prosecution on Feb. 8, the day after his arrest.

The public prosecution also did not observe any visible injuries that could be useful to the investigations, and that the defendant responded denying the existence of any injuries to his body, the statement read.

As evidence of in the case against Zaki, Egypts national security agency provided 10 pages printed from a Facebook account carrying the name Patrick George Zaki. The statement described it as inflammatory material against the state institutions and figures.

It said Zaki denied the claims against him, and that the prosecutors office ordered him to remain in custody pending further investigations.

Zakis arrest and detention have generated tremendous interest in Italy, the country where hes been studying. Thats because of the 2016 death in Egypt of 28-year-old Italian researcher Giulio Regeni, whose battered body was found on a roadside on the outskirts of Cairo.

Italys public prosecutor has opened an investigation into several Egyptian police and secret service members in connection with Regenis torture and killing. Regenis death remains a source of simmering tension between the countries.
Though they are perhaps one of the most visible couples on the planet Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, have used everything in their arsenal to remain incognito amid Megxit and their transition away from the British royal family.

One of the main reasons the Sussexes decided to step away from their roles as working roles is because of the constant scrutiny that they endured. From commenting on their use fo private planes to racist attacks thrown at Markle  living amid the British press and public was suffocating them both.

Now, the pair have gathered their infant son, Archie, and moved across the pond to Vancouver Island in Canada, where they are living a peaceful and low-key life. However, the Sussexes arent planning on staying hidden forever now that they are financially independent of the British crown, they have to make some money. As a result, the duo has been secretly jetting across the United States.

Inside Meghan Markle and Prince Harrys future business plans

In addition to getting their Sussex Royal charitable foundation off the ground, the Sussexes have already begun making some major financial plans for their future.

Meghan is actively looking for representation. She has begun outreach, a source tells Us Weekly. It can be a manager or an agent, but shes reaching out to people to find someone to represent her for future professional projects. [Meghan] has no plans to do another show like Suits, but Harrys been encouraging her to do more voice-over work, writing, producing and directing in her free time.

In fact, the pair might be spending the summer in Los Angeles  the duchess hometown to be closer to business opportunities. They have started to look at homes online and are in the process of interviewing security teams, a source close to the Sussexes told E! News. They are getting their ducks in a row and seeing if its logistically possible. Theyve reached out to people in L.A. and would like to assemble a team of locals. Meghan would like to be able to do meetings at the house and also be able to host friends and entertain. Those are two things that are important to her.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been making secret appearances across the U.S.

When they were full-time royals, the Sussexes werent able to control their image as much. Post-Megxit, they are able to move about the globe with some semblance of privacy. Last week, the pair was in Miami where the duke spoke at a JP Morgan event for $1 million. It was all very hush-hush, with a lot of security, E! reported. The pair reportedly stayed at Markles best friend, Serena Williams Palm Beach home.

Earlier this week, the couple slipped away from Vancouver Island and headed to San Francisco where they held a brainstorming session and meetings with professors and academics at Stanford University. They were there to research ideas and initiatives for their charity. Stanford Universitys president, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, met with the Sussexes when they arrived.

The Sussexes are being very careful about their image

Though they are no longer working royals the Sussexes still represent the queen and they dont want to be seen as tacky for any opportunities that they take on. Theyve already turned down an opportunity to present at the Oscars.

We could easily compare them to any former presidents, Royal commentator and author Kristen Meinzer explained to Business Insider. My mind keeps going to Barack and Michelle Obama and how [they] make money. The reason I compare the two is that theyre already friends with each other and I would put them on the same level in terms of fame.
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As a state, our people have been very receptive to herdsmen and other visitors, but our hospitality and welcoming disposition should not be taken as an act of cowardice.
This is an opinion column.

What do you do, Randall Woodfin? What do you do?

The Birmingham mayor has a decision to make about the Confederate monument in Linn Park, and time to make that decision is running short.

Do you knock it down? Or leave it there forever?

If state lawmakers amend Alabamas monument law  which they are considering  there might not be anything the city can do to remove the monument after that.

The time to decide is now.

Woodfin has made his feelings about the monument clear.

Were saying preserve something, were saying protect something thats a slap in the face of black residents of this city, that are 74 percent of this city, and the fourth blackest city in America, he said this week. You want to have a statue that is in commemoration of relegating black people to being property and slaves? Its offensive. Its wrong.

We should not be debating about whether or not to keep a monument erected in defense of slavery in the 4th blackest city in America.



It is offensive, it is wrong and it is the exact opposite of progress. pic.twitter.com/vgxJdc78cf  Randall Woodfin (@randallwoodfin) February 12, 2020

But that doesnt answer the question: What are you going to do, mayor?

Woodfin inherited this conundrum from his predecessor. Facing calls from city council members to tear the monument down immediately, Mayor William Bell opted instead for a calmer, intermediate step. He placed four plywood walls around the base of the granite obelisk until cooler heads could find a compromise.

City employees told me then that Bell preferred to contextualize the monument with adjacent memorials rather than destroy it, but an election in 2017 took that decision out of his hands.

And put it into Woodfins.

Before Woodfin could figure out what to do with it, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall sued the city under the states brand new monuments bill. Marshall said the city was breaking the law by obscuring the monument and said the city could face fines of $25,000 every day those plywood walls remained.

That lawsuit went all the way to the Alabama Supreme Court, which agreed with Marshall on the first point but not the latter. The city was breaking the law, the court found, but the penalty, it said, was a one-time fine of $25,000.

Thats about 0.006 percent of the citys $436 million operating budget. The city could drop that change between the couch cushions and never miss it.

Also in the ruling, the Supreme Court didnt say the city had to take the plywood walls down.

I should note, the court was being as generous as it could to the states case. Interpreted strictly, the law doesnt even say theres a fine for removing or altering monuments older than 40 years, only more recent monuments.

In one of its trademarked acts of legal contortionism, the Alabama Supreme Court said the fine applied to monuments older than 40 years, too, even though the law doesnt say that.

If theres a monument to the ineptitude of Alabama lawmakers, the monuments law might be it.

Now, the laws original sponsor, state Sen. Gerald Allen, wants to amend the law to do what he meant for it to do the first time. Under his proposed amendment, cities such as Birmingham would face fines of $10,000 per day until such a monument is restored to its original condition and appearance.

If theres a reason the original law was so flawed, it might be that Allen himself has a problem meaning what he says and saying what he means. Allen  whos greatest hits include a bill he once introduced to ban books with LGBT characters and books by LGBT authors from libraries  says the law isnt meant to protect only Confederate monuments.

Were doing our best to preserve history in a way where entities and groups and cities will have an avenue to voice their concerns," Allen said.

Yes, cities will be able to voice their concerns. And nothing else. Like the men those monuments honor, Allens bill takes power away from black people.

But it hasnt taken all power away from them yet.

The bill has been held over in committee but Allen has been known to jam up the Legislature to get his bills moving before. This bill isnt dead. Just dormant, and Allen can bring it back to life whenever he pleases.

So, what do you do Mayor Woodfin? Because the time to decide is now.

Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.

You can follow his work on his Facebook page, The War on Dumb.

And on Twitter.

And on Instagram.

The War on Dumb is a thing on Facebook now, too. Expect better, demand better, come help Alabama do better. https://t.co/B2JeYkFWSf pic.twitter.com/GugqXDdsMC  Kyle Whitmire (@WarOnDumb) December 18, 2019

More columns by Kyle Whitmire
Some of the most vulnerable immigrants in Hudson County will soon have access to free, temporary housing in Jersey City.

Church World Service, which assists asylum seekers and asylees, is renting a house in Journal Square with space for eight residents and plans to begin moving people in by the end of the month.

I think this is just going to fill a need for people who are seeking safety here in New Jersey, giving them the space to breathe after going through a really traumatizing experience coming to the United States, said Courtney Madsen, the director of Church World Service New Jersey.

Her office is one of 25 Church World Service refugee and immigration offices across the country. For years, its caseworkers have helped those granted asylum settle in North Jersey by connecting them with health services, food, jobs, and housing.

In December, it kicked off a program that does the same for individuals seeking asylum. It was privately funded by the United Methodist Church and collaborates with National Justice For Our Neighbors, which helps the refugees navigate the legal aspects of asylum.

The home that Madsens organization will rent is owned by the St. Pauls Center of Caring, a nonprofit that offers space for social services on the St. Pauls Evangelical Lutheran Church property in Journal Square.

It was previously used as a childrens emergency shelter, but that operation ended in November, said Chris Greene, executive director of St. Pauls Center of Caring.

Greene searched for new potential uses and contacted various organizations that assist immigrants.

Courtney got wind and she called me and came out and said, This is what we want, Greene said.

Seeking asylum is a complex legal process that can be lengthy and burdensome. The U.S. asylum denial rate has been increasing annually, reaching 69% last year, according to Syracuse Universitys Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

About half of the 50 asylum seekers that Church World Service Jersey City is currently assisting are from Latin America, Madsen said.

A single caseworker manages the program, and a 50-person waiting list nearly doubled in a single day this week.

Obstacles for finding apartments include affordability, particularly for security deposits, Madsen said. Church World Service raises money to be able to cover the deposits, she said.

We have quite a few in our programs who do have family here, but there is a sizable contingent who do not, Madsen said. They are the people were more acutely concerned about.

Church World Service will pay $30,000 in annual rent for the new housing. It raised enough money online to cover the first months rent, as well as monthly bus passes for its residents.

It will continue to raise money to reach the $30,000 goal, Madsen said.

We dont want to lose people who should be here, Greene said. Aiding people who are trying to get established, that seemed to be a really good way of utilizing the house.
Rajesh Kumar Thakur By

Express News Service

PATNA: Three persons including the organising secretary of Shiv Sena were arrested for allegedly being involved in the attack of CPI leader Kanhaiya Kumar's convoy on Friday.

Stones and bricks were pelted on Kumar's convoy near Biganj in Ara when he was on his way to address an anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act rally.

On the eve of that rally, Kumar had alleged that the stage built for addressing the rally was also damaged by some unknown miscreants.

Ara SP Sushil Kumar said that three trouble mongers including a shiva Sean's office bearer were arrested and two motorcycles were seized from the spot.

"An FIR on the statement of an ASI, who assigned with the task of escorting the convoy, was lodged under relevant sections named against 10 and 15 unknown persons," the SP said.

The SP also added that investigation followed by raid is going on in the case to nab other involved persons.

Kanhaiya Kumar had escaped unhurt in the attack but window panes of one of the vehicles of the convoy were damaged. Locals had alleged that the tension leading stone-pelting had erupted in protest against a motorcyclist being knocked by the convoy.

This was the 8th attack on Kumar's convoy since he embarked on a statewide "Jana-Gana-mana" yatra against the CAA from West Champaran on January 30.

The Jana Gana mana yatra will culminate into a rally in Patna on February 29. Meanwhile, D Raja, CPI general secretary, wrote a letter to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar requesting him to provide severity on the adequate scale to the convoy of Kumar in the wake of recent so many incidents of attacks.
Egypt's Defence Minister Mohamed Zaki met with Senegal's Armed Forces Minister Sidiki Kaba on Sunday and discussed boosting military cooperation between the two countries, according to an Egyptian statement.

According to the statement by the Egyptian military, the ministers discussed the latest developments in Africa and the efforts exerted by Egypt to bolster security and stability on the continent.

Zaki praised Egypts deeply rooted ties with Senegal, saying the Egyptian armed forces are keen on cementing cooperation and partnership with their Senegalese counterparts in several fields.

Kaba said that his country is interested in strengthening cooperation with Egypt, hailing the prominent role that Cairo played during its chairmanship of the African Union in 2019 in countering terrorism and supporting security and stability efforts on the continent.

The meeting was attended by the chief of staff of the Egyptian armed forces, Mohamed Farid, and Senegalese chief of defence staff Birame Diop.

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Abstract: 31 films from 29 countries competed for various awards at the AIWFF, which focuses on womens issues

Related In Photos: Spanish actress Victoria Abril enjoys Egypt's Aswan Aswan Int'l Women Film Festival opens fourth edition 'Aga's House' won big at the fourth edition of the Aswan International Womens Film Festival (AIWFF), which ended on Saturday after a week-long run attended by dozens of Egyptian and international filmmakers and critics.

The comedy drama 'Aga's House' was named Best Feature Film, its maker Lendita Zeqiraj won Best Director, and its star Rozafa Celaj was named Best Actress. The film also won the jury's critics award.

'Aga's House', produced by Kosovo, Albania, Croatia and France, tells the story of a young boy living in a house of women who must hurry to save a woman who is teaching him Serbian, so he can continue searching for his missing father.

Meanwhile, American-Chinese production 'Confucian Dream' was named best documentary and Indian-French-British production 'Bombay Rose' won best animation script.

Dutchman Marwan Kenzari won the Best Actor award for his role in 'Instinct', while the jury awarded its special prize to 'The Names of the Flowers', which saw its African premiere in Aswan.

Amal Ramsis' 'You Come from Far Away' as shared the Euro-Mediterranean award with Marianne Khoury's 'Let's Talk'.

In the short film category, Oscar-nominated animation film 'Daughter' was named best film, Injy Ebaid was named best director for 'Pacific', and the jury award went to 'Sheep, Wolf and a Cup of Tea'.

The jury gave a special mention to Brazilian feature film 'To Us, Lonely Ones' and Egyptian documentary 'Heart, You Deserve That'.

In addition to film screenings and competitions, the festival, which focuses on womens issues and features women in the film industry, involved a series of seminars and workshops. The festival also honoured a number of women in the film industry including producer Nahed Farid Shawky and editors Rahmah Montaser and Laila El-Sayes.

Under the helm of president Mohamed Abdel-Khaleq, 31 films from 29 countries competed in the AIWFFs various categories, with the awards presented by the Aswan governor and a number of Egyptian cinema professionals.

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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Make in India was launched in September 2014. On his website (pmindia.gov.in), the Prime Minister explains that since years policymakers have been debating how to give an impetus to manufacturing in India and make India a global manufacturing hub. But it is Narendra Modi, who within a matter of months, launched the Make in India campaign to facilitate investment, foster innovation, enhance skill development, protect intellectual property and build best in class manufacturing infrastructure.

Manufacturing is important because it is the only way in which low income nations can transition to middle and then high income ones. There is no other pathway that we know of for rural and agrarian economies to become developed nations except first through light manufacturing (garments mainly), then more complex assembly before moving to high technology. It is a fact that India does a bit of all of the above, but as the Prime Ministers note indicates, the most important element is manufacturing.

In 2014, the share of manufacturing in Indias Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 15 per cent. Last year it fell to 14 per cent. Make in India has failed and it has been over five years since it was put into place. To give a comparison of where India stands and what the failure means, lets have a look at some other nations. China, which we like comparing ourselves to, has an economy more than five times the size of Indias. Manufacturings share of GDP is at 29 per cent (double that of Indias) and has remained there in the period of 2014-2020.

Vietnam is 16 per cent and has gone up from 13 per cent when we launched Make in India. Sri Lanka is at 16 per cent.

Thailand (27 per cent), Indonesia (19 per cent), Phillippines (19 per cent), Malaysia (21 per cent), Singapore (20 per cent). In Europe, Germany is at 20 per cent, which is not surprising because it has one of the worlds biggest automobile industries. This is the second stage of industrial development, after garments.

In the same period as Make in India, Bangladeshs share of manufacturing has risen from 16 per cent to 18 per cent. Bangladeshs GDP overall is growing at 8 per cent per year, much faster than India. And the surprising thing is that in this period, Bangladeshs garments exports have gone to $38 billion. Indias has fallen from $18 billion to $16 billion. Garments are important because large numbers of semi-skilled workers are employed, and especially women. In the around 5,000 garment manufacturing units in Bangladesh, 85 per cent of the employees are women. Even Vietnam exports more garments in dollar terms than India, which has long had a lead in this industry but has given it up in recent years.

Manufacturing is a full-time job with a fixed salary and therefore it is the sort of work that is preferred by people to part-time labour or making pakoras. Why has India failed at developing this? My response is that Make in India is not really a strategy, it is a logo and some words, and that, by itself, is meaningless.

Manufacturing comes to places where you have semi-skilled workers. The quality of education in China is many times superior to India, as those of us who have been there and interacted with their workers know. It is more expensive to set up manufacturing in China because the cost of labour is higher. But despite that, Chinas share of manufacturing has not fallen in the five years that Make in India has been promoted.

The Prime Minister says that the goal is to make India a $5 trillion economy. That is in itself not really a goal. Indias GDP will eventually reach that figure sooner or later. The question to be asked is how soon can it get there and what can the government do to quicken the pace? Those are the only important and relevant points. Here, it is unclear what the answer is.

Mr Modis strategy to redesign Indias economy was Make in India, but that has flopped. In fact, he doesnt even refer to it as much any longer if I am not mistaken. All of the data on that website that the PMs office runs: https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/major_initiatives/make-in-india/ refers only to data from 2014 and has not even been updated.

We need an acknowledgement that this strategy has failed and that we need to develop a new one, unless we are fine with further decline in manufacturing. I do not think that is an acceptable outcome whether or not one is an admirer of the Prime Minister.
Maura Higgins became overcome with emotion as she became the sixth celebrity eliminated on Dancing On Ice on Sunday.

The Love Island star, 29, and her skating partner Alexander Demetriou got the lowest score of the evening from the judges, receiving 30 points out of 40.

The pair landed in the dreaded dance-off with Paralympic sprinter Libby Clegg and her skating partner Mark Hanretty, with the judges divided on who should stay.

Scroll down for video.

Sent home: Maura Higgins, 29, became overcome with emotion as she became the sixth celebrity eliminated on Dancing On Ice on Sunday

Ashley Banjo and John Barrowman both voted to save Maura and Alexander while Jayne Torvill felt Libby and Mark delivered the stronger performance.

The decision on who should be sent home from the competition then came down to head judge Christopher Dean who decided to save Libby and Mark.

Speaking to presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby after her elimination, Maura admitted she was saddened her time on the show had come to an end.

'I really did want to stay,' she said, before she began to tear up, with Alexander comforting her.

Result: The Love Island star, 29, and her skating partner Alexander Demetriou got the lowest score of the evening from the judges, receiving 30 points out of 40

Emotional: 'I really did want to stay,' Maura told Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby as she was comforted by Alexander

Confidence: Maura also revealed she had been struggling with her confidence on the ice during the week as viewers saw her have an emotional video chat with her mother Sharon

Family: Maura's mother told her: 'Youre doing fabulous. Dont get upset because youll make me cry too, youre one in a million'

The skater was full of praise for the Irish beauty, telling Phillip and Holly: 'This girl is one of the greatest women Ive ever met. Shes genuine, shes everything.'

Speaking after her performance, Maura acknowledged she had made a few stumbles during the dance.

She said: 'What can you say? I did have a few stumbles there, I couldnt get my balance at one stage. I feel OK.'

Maura also revealed she had been struggling with her confidence on the ice during the week as viewers saw her have an emotional video chat with her mother Sharon.

Upset over the judges scores the previous week, where she had again received 30 points out of 40, Maura told her mother: 'I'v no confidence'.

Disappointed: The pair landed in the dreaded dance-off with Paralympic sprinter Libby Clegg and her skating partner Mark Hanretty, with the judges divided on who should stay

Verdict: Ashley Banjo and John Barrowman both voted to save Maura and Alexander while Jayne Torvill felt Libby and Mark delivered the stronger performance

Upset: Maura and Alex embraced and were comforted by their co-stars following their elimination

But her mother reassured her she had done brilliantly, saying: 'For a girl who has never done anything like this, you can be proud of yourself, hold your chin up high.

'Youre doing fabulous. Dont get upset because youll make me cry too, youre one in a million.'

Sunday's episode was props week, with each couple having to use a prop during their performance.

Maura and Alexander danced with a broom while Libby and Mark were tasked with performing with a suitcase.

Libby and Mark opened the show and received a score of 33.5, receiving 8.5s from three judges and an 8 from Christopher.

The sports star told Phillip and Holly she had an injury during rehearsals after hurting her chin with one of the props.

Impressive: Libby and Mark made it through to next week after Christopher was impressed with their dance-off performance

Score: Libby and Mark opened the show and received a score of 33.5, receiving 8.5s from three judges and an 8 from Christopher

Success: Next up were Joe Swash and Alex Murphy who danced with a candy cane stick and received 34 points out of 40, the highest score for the actor all series

Tribute: After his performance, Joe paid tribute to his friend and former colleague Caroline Flack, who took her own life on Saturday

Her skating partner Mark praised her, saying: 'Nothing seems to phase Livia, she has no limitations whatsoever.'

Next up were Joe Swash and Alex Murphy who danced with a candy cane stick and received 34 points out of 40, the highest score for the actor all series.

After his performance, Joe paid tribute to his friend and former colleague Caroline Flack, who took her own life on Saturday.

The presenter, who worked with Caroline on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! Extra Camp, admitted it had been a 'tough day' preparing for his routine after learning of her death.

Professional skate partner Alex added: 'It was really hard to do this and do a happy number when he feels like this so Im really proud of him.'

Headbanger: Following Joe and Alex's turn on the ice came Maura and Alexander who were then followed by Ben Hanlin and Carlotta Edwards

Woops: Next up were Lisa George and Tom Naylor who suffered a slip up when Lisa fell out of her chair

With wife Stacey Solomon supporting her husband from the studio audience, he said: 'I just want to send my love to her family and my condolences.'

Following Joe and Alex's turn on the ice came Maura and Alexander who were then followed by Ben Hanlin and Carlotta Edwards.

The pair, whose prop was an umbrella, delivered a stellar performance and received their best score of the series with 36 out of 40.

Ashley was full of praise for the couple, telling Ben: 'You made that look effortless. Youve improved so much and its really exciting.'

Next up were Lisa George and Tom Naylor who performed their routine with a chair. and received 31.5 points.

Showstopping: Perri Kiely and Vanessa Bauer delivered the final performance of the night where they were tasked with skating alongside a shopping trolley

The duo delivered a strong performance until Lisa slipped onto her knees while getting on the chair and later almost fell off it when she tucked it under a table.

Chris said: 'It kind of killed the moment Lisa, I have to say. It was great to see you skating again, this style suits you, just stay off your knees.'

Perri Kiely and Vanessa Bauer delivered the final performance of the night where they were tasked with skating alongside a shopping trolley.

The pair received 38 points, the highest score of the night and the same score they received last week.

Phillip and Holly opened this week's show by paying tribute to Caroline.

Statement: Phillip and Holly opened this week's show by paying tribute to Caroline in the wake of her passing (pictured in November 2019)

In an emotional preamble, a visibly devastated Phillip choked back tears while remembering Caroline, whose death at the age of 40 was confirmed on Saturday.

He began: 'Wed like to begin tonight's show by taking a moment to remember Caroline Flack in light of yesterdays awful news. We wanted to say that our hearts go out to her family and friends.'

Taking over from her co-host, Holly referred to one of Caroline's recent Instagram posts, adding: 'Many of us on the show knew Caroline as a friend and well all miss her enormously.

'As Caroline recently posted, In a world where you can be anything, be kind.'

Dancing On Ice continues on Sunday at 6pm on ITV.

If you have been affected by this story, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org
Gandhinagar, Feb 16 : The Gujarat government on Sunday evening announced that ignoring the controversial 2018 GR (government resolution), it will carry out the women LRD recruitment as usual, seeking to end the imbroglio that put the government in a fix as the 2018 decision had started an agitation among reserved class category aspirants.

A high-level meeting, held at Chief Minister Vijay Rupani's residence here, decided to ignore the controversial 2018 GR in the LRD recruitment for women. The GR, which reversed the practice on since 1997, sought to fill the reserved seats initially and then the rest of the seats for the general category, thus denying meritorious aspirants of the SC/ST and OBC category the right to avail recruitment from general seats. This had created a war of sorts between the reserved and the general category candidates.

The Gujarat government got itself in a fix when the girl aspirants of LRD recruitment had started agitating since more than two months back against the recruitment norms described in the 2018 GR, which, according to them, were against their constitutional rights of availing reservation and also against an SC order.

Hundreds of girls of the reserved category of the society had been carrying out the agitation at the Satyagrah Chhavani ground since December last year and the 2018 GR was also challenged in the Gujarat High Court. This had forced the Gujarat government to assure the court of coming out with an amended GR in place of the 2018 one.

The government found itself again into a fix when this announcement was made, as then general category aspirants came out on the streets in the state capital to agitate against this decision as they felt that now they were being deprived of their rights.

Thus, the government was in a fix and not wanting to displease any class or category, the decision process was being delayed. Finally, Sunday's high level meeting ensued where it has been decided that the government will carry out the recruitment of LRD as usual without taking cognizance of the 2018 GR.

"Every girl aspirant availing the minimum requirement of 62.5 marks, irrespective of their caste or class, will be recruited. The 2018 GR will be disregarded by the Gujarat government and the recruitment will be carried out as it has been since 1997 for women reservation. The biggest advantage for all the aspirants is that we have lowered the minimum required marks to 62.5 percentage which will benefit more aspirants," said Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel.

According to Patel, now the general category seats has been raised from 421 to 834, the OBC category seats from 1,834 to 3,248, those for Schedule Tribes (ST) from 476 to 511 seats and for Scheduled Castes (SC) category, from 346 to 588 seats. The non reserved category will also have seats increase from 421 to 880 seats.

However, it has been learnt that the non-reserved category aspirants are unhappy with the latest decision and have expressed that they will continue with their agitation.

The feelings on the other side were also not encouraging, as they want the 2018 GR to be totally scrapped.
As if eight Democrats vying for attention during the US primaries wasnt enough, some of the BBCs top journalists are tripping over themselves to secure airtime on the US election trail.

Analysis by The Mail on Sunday has found at least 13 BBC correspondents have covered the votes in Iowa and New Hampshire.

While some have travelled to those states from elsewhere in America, high-profile presenters including Newsnights Emily Maitlis have jetted across the Atlantic at considerable expense.

Emily Maitlis is among 13 BBC correspondents who have broadcast from the United States during the first two Democratic primaries ahead of this November's US Presidential election

Gary O'Donoghue and Anthony Zurcher have been providing updates for the BBC

Marianna Brady and Nick Bryant have also been in the US

Ms Maitlis, 49, broadcast from Iowa on two consecutive nights. On each occasion, she introduced reports by David Grossman, Newsnights US Correspondent, who is based in America.

She then travelled almost 1,000 miles to Washington DC to interview Kurt Volker, a former US special envoy to the Ukraine, about the recent impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump before returning to the UK. The BBCs special correspondent, James Naughtie, 68, spent at least a week covering the early exchanges in the race for the White House. During one broadcast from the city of Scranton in Pennsylvania, World At One presenter Sarah Montague asked if he had any clarity on the chaotic Iowa vote. No, we dont, Sarah. Its a complete fiasco, replied Mr Naughtie.

Christian Fraser, 46, who co-hosts Beyond 100 Days, flew out from London to join his Washington-based co-host Katty Kay in Iowa. For one package entitled So how does caucusing in Iowa really work, they visited a barn and assumed the roles of rival candidates.

US Correspondent David Grossman, left, and Ben Wright providing an update from Washington

Katty Kay and Christian Fraser have also been in teh US

Chris Buckler and Jon Sopel

James Naughtie and Laura Trevelyan

The idea  a light-hearted guide to the primaries  also appealed to Marianna Brady, the BBCs head of audience engagement in the US, who produced a film that compared the campaign to the Oscars. Brady is one of ten BBC reporters based in US providing coverage of the primaries. Others include Jon Sopel, the North America Editor, and Washington correspondents Gary ODonoghue and Chris Buckler. The MoS also understands that reporters Anthony Zurcher, Nick Bryant, Ben Wright and Laura Trevelyan were covering the campaign.

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: I think this level of largesse will only confirm in the public mind that the BBCs mechanism for funding needs to be reformed.

Such mass deployments may soon end. As part of a modernisation plan to save 80 million by 2022, BBC News and Current Affairs is cutting up to 450 jobs.

Last night, a BBC spokesman said: The BBC has a huge amount of output across our news channels, bulletins, radio, online programming and podcasts. This election is being primarily covered by our US-based team meaning we have sent far fewer London staff than we have ever done previously.
Prince William has praised Australians and firefighters for their bravery during the bushfire crisis ahead of his anticipated visit the country with his wife Kate Middleton.

The Duke of Cambridge's impassioned message was shown at the Fire Fight Australia charity concert at Sydney's ANZ Stadium on Sunday night.

'Hello, everyone. Catherine and I just wanted to say that we were very shocked and saddened to see the damage and devastation caused by the bushfires recently,' Prince William said.

'We know it's been a terrible time for all of those affected by the bushfires.

'We want to commend the bravery and resilience of all Australians involved, particularly the volunteer firefighters who have put their lives on the line to protect lives, livelihoods and wildlife.

'We think that's been a fantastic effort all 'round by everyone down there looking after each other.

Prince William gave an impassioned message from himself and his wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, that was televised at the Fire Fight Australia charity concert at Sydney's ANZ Stadium on Sunday night, in addition to its international broadcast

A lone NSW RFS firefighter battles a blaze in the Blue Mountains. The Duke of Cambridge praised Australians firefighters for their bravery in the recent bushfire crisis ahead of his anticipated visit Down Under with his wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge

'We know there's been lots of incredible acts of generosity as well and communities coming together to support each other.

'We wish you all the best for the rebuild and have a good evening.'

Prince William's message of support comes after it was revealed the Scott Morrison Government was in talks with Kensington Palace about details of a Royal Tour to bushfire-stricken areas.

Once discussions have concluded, Mr Morrison is expected to issue a formal invitation to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge 'soon'.

The trip would be William's fifth visit to Australia and the couple's first since 2014.

Mayors along the NSW South Coast hope a royal visit will boost tourism in the area after an intense bushfire season.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge hold Prince George as they board a flight to Australia from Wellington on their 2014 visit. On Tuesday, it was revealed that the Morrison Government is in talks with Kensington Palace about details of a Royal Tour to bushfire-stricken areas

Firefighters battle the Morton Fire as it burns a home near Bundanoon, NSW. Cabinet minister Simon Birmingham said there have been 'bad images' of Australia broadcast during the bushfire crisis and a royal visit would show the country in a better light

Cabinet minister Simon Birmingham said previous visits by members of the royal family had lifted tourist numbers to Australia.

'We hope that can all be locked down with an announcement from the royals pretty soon because it is going to be a great opportunity to remind the rest of the world that Australia is still a fantastic place to visit full of rich and amazing experiences,' the senator told Nine Network earlier this month.

Senator Birmingham pointed to the 2018 visit by Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, saying it produced a 120 per cent lift in the numbers of visits to the Tourism Australia website and subsequent 30 per cent boost in bookings.

'There are real economic benefits,' he said.

'Images of them on pristine beaches and bushland, where the green growth is starting to come back through, and cuddling recovering wildlife.'

'These are the key images we need the rest of the world to see because they saw plenty of bad images of Australia over the new year period.'

The 2018 visit by Prince Harry and his wife Meghan produced a 120 per cent lift in the numbers of visits to the Tourism Australia website and subsequent 30 per cent boost in bookings

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge meet Leuca the Koala during a visit to Taronga Zoo in Sydney in 2014

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been vocal about the recent bushfire season.

On Australia Day, the couple sent a message of solidarity by sharing a photo of themselves with a koala during their 2014 visit to Instagram.

'Happy Australia Day! This year we pay tribute to the incredible strength and resilience of all the Australian people and communities who have been impacted by the devastating bushfires,' the post was captioned.

On January 5, the Kensington Royals offered their condolences to those who died during the horrific bushfire season.

'We send our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those who have tragically lost their lives, and the brave firefighters who continue to risk their own lives to save the lives of others,' the message read.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected the claims made by his American counterpart, Donald Trump that Ukraine is a corrupt country at the Munich Security Conference. In his first interview with an international news outlet since the Senate acquitted the US President from all charges of impeachment, Zelensky said that he wants the image of his country to change, because that's not true. Ukrainian President further said that he was very open with Trump to mention that Kyiv fights with corruption each day.

Zelensky in an interview with CNN, Please, please stop saying that Ukraine is a corrupt country, because from now, it's not true. We want to change this image.

After several months of impeachment inquiry against Trump which had his July 25 phone call with Zelensky at the centre, Ukrainian President said that his relationship with the US President has not been damaged. Democrats have accused Trump of pressing the Ukrainian government to start an investigation against his political rival and former US vice president Joe Biden, in exchange of military aid worth nearly $400 million. However, speaking to an international news outlet, Zelensky still claims that Ukraine has a very good relationship with US.

Read - Trump Wins Acquittal, But Ukraine Saga Far From Over

Read - Russian President Vladimir Putin Picks New Negotiator For Ukraine

Zelensky hopes to end the war

On February 15 at the same event, Zelensky had also vowed to end the conflict in the eastern part of his country where the fight between Russia-backed rebels and Ukrainian troops has killed at least 14,000 people since 2014. However, before Zelensky's presidential term ends in 2024, he has reportedly stressed that he will end the conflict.

If in five years, we will end the war, bring our people back, then I did (became president) for a reason, Ukrainian President said.

Furthermore, the Ukrainian President has also said that he wants to start afresh with the US President and expressed his wish of Trump visiting Kyiv. Zelensky also said that he hoped to visit White House and also expressed gratitude to the Americans for their support.

We have a good relationship with the U.S., and I'm grateful to Americans for their support, he said.

Read - Ukrainian Leader Seeks More Independence, Fires Top Aide

Read - Italian And Ukrainian FMs Comment After Talks

(With AP inputs)
Investigators found no evidence that the body of Jennifer Dulos was at a Hartford trash plant after an extensive search that lasted nearly three weeks last spring, according to the lead prosecutor in the case of the death and disappearance of the New Canaan mother.

We didnt find any evidence of that, Chief States Attorney Richard Colangelo said in an interview Friday on WPLRs Chaz & AJ show.

Jennifer Dulos is presumed dead after she was last seen on a neighbors security camera returning home after dropping off her five children at school around 8:05 a.m. May 24. Police believe her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, was waiting and attacked her in the garage, according to arrest warrants.

Colangelo said finding Jennifer Dulos remains a priority.

That has been our No. 1 focus since Jennifer went missing back in May, Colangelo said in the radio interview. Weve unturned every stone that we possibly could, were still looking.

READ MORE: Jennifer Dulos family: Kids get closure with father

It was the first extensive interview Colangelo has given about the case since his request for a gag order in the case was granted in September. The gag order, which the defense has appealed to the state Supreme Court to overturn, prohibits anyone involved, including witnesses, from speaking publicly about the case.

Colangelo was the states attorney in charge of the Judicial District of Stamford and Norwalk when Jennifer Dulos was reporting missing on May 24. He was appointed chief states attorney, overseeing the Division of Criminal Justice, on Jan. 30  the same day Fotis Dulos died from an apparent suicide.

Colangelo said he was with attorney Kevin Smith, one of the members of the Dulos defense team, when Farmington police found the 52-year-old inside his running SUV in the garage of his home on Jan. 28. Colangelo and Smith were waiting for Dulos at the Stamford courthouse for an emergency bond hearing where a judge could have sent him back to jail.

It was real sad, Colangelo said. I was sitting with Kevin Smith when it was happening in real life.

Fotis Dulos maintained his innocence in his estranged wifes death and disappearance. In a note left in his car, Dulos said he was not involved and his former girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, and his friend, Kent Mawhinney, were also innocent.

Dulos and Troconis were charged last year with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution. In January, Dulos was charged with murder, felony murder and first-degree kidnapping. Troconis and Mawhinney were charged the same day with conspiracy to commit murder.

Mawhinney is also facing charges of sexual assault and violating a protective order for alleged incidents involving his own estranged wife. A Hartford judge on Friday said Mawhinney could be near a deal for those charges pending discussions in the Jennifer Dulos case.

Mawhinney has not entered a plea in the Dulos case and is next scheduled to appear Thursday in state Superior Court in Stamford.

When asked if he believed Troconis and Mawhinney could reveal information shedding light on the disappearance, Colangelo said, thats always the hope.

We are open and willing to get that information and see where it takes us, Colangelo said of the possibility of prosecutors cutting a deal with the defendants in exchange for information in the case.

Colangelo said its unknown if anyone else will be charged.

I dont know where the investigation will take us, he said.

Most of the evidence investigators have gathered was released in the arrest warrants and dozens of search warrants unsealed in January, Colangelo said. However, he said there is some video and DNA evidence that has not yet been made public.

One key video police found was of a man riding a bicycle from a red pickup truck believed to have been used by Fotis Dulos to get to New Canaan the day his wife vanished, Colangelo said.

You cant tell its him, but we found the bike (on video) in the pickup truck driving back up from the parkway, he said.

Through videos provided by neighbors, businesses and state transportation cameras, police said they believe they traced Fotis Dulos path leading to and from his estranged wifes home that day, according to arrest warrants.

Police believe Fotis Dulos was lying in wait when she arrived at her Welles Lane home, where they found evidence that she was the victim of a serious physical assault based on blood stains and spatter in the garage, according to arrest warrants.

Fotis Dulos and Troconis were initially charged a week after the disappearance when police discovered video footage of two people resembling them in Hartford around the time Jennifer Dulos was reported missing, according to arrest warrants. The footage showed Fotis Dulos dumping bags that were later determined to contain his wifes blood and clothing, arrest warrants state.

Fotis Dulos and Troconis were arrested in September on a second tampering with evidence charge related to cleaning up a pickup truck police say was involved in the disappearance, according to arrest warrants.

According to the warrants, Fotis Dulos drove a Toyota Tacoma belonging to one of his employees to and from New Canaan on May 24. Police said Dulos and Troconis took the vehicle to be washed in the days after the disappearance. Fotis Dulos also urged the employee to remove the seats, which the man did and turned over to investigators who found Jennifer Dulos blood on one of them, according to arrest warrants.
Protecting Social Security used to be a bedrock principle of the Democratic Party. As recently as 2010, on the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Social Security Act by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President Obama said, We have an obligation to keep that promise, to safeguard Social Security for our seniors, people with disabilities, and all Americans  today, tomorrow, and forever.

But for New Mexico Democrats in 2020, Social Security is just one more thing to continue to tax.

All of the undersigned senators wish to express our support for repealing New Mexicos tax on Social Security income, as proposed in House Bill 29 (sponsored by) Rep. Cathrynn Brown, House Bill 130 (sponsored by) Rep. Gail Armstrong and Senate Bill 81 (sponsored by) Sen. Jim White.

We are extremely disappointed that Senate Bill 81 has been sitting in the Senate Corporations Committee since the first day of the session without receiving a hearing. We are equally disappointed the speaker of the House voted to kill House Bill 29 in the House Taxation and Revenue Committee after expressing his 100% support in a press conference only a week earlier. If Republicans held the majority, these bills would already be on (the governors) desk.

The excuse that we dont have the money to repeal this tax rings especially hollow in a year where there was nearly $800 million of new money, and after increasing state government spending last year by around $700 million while also raising taxes.

New Mexico continues to be out of step with the tax policy of the vast majority of other states. Only 13 states tax Social Security benefits at all. Of those 13, New Mexicos tax is the second-harshest. This tax puts our state at the bottom of lists of best states to retire and drives away seniors who might otherwise retire here and help expand our job base. As Yahoo Finance put it in telling retirees to steer clear of New Mexico, Though retirement represents the end of ones career, it doesnt have to be the end of financial security, nor should it mean a lower quality of life.

This tax is particularly egregious because Social Security is taxed twice. State income tax is levied on the amount contributed to an individuals Social Security account, and then income tax is levied on the benefit received years later. Imagine that after you paid all your bills for the month you had some money left and it was placed into a savings account. Later, you take it out of savings and are told you must pay income tax on the interest and also on the amount you put in years earlier. This double taxation is wrong and should end.

No other retirement program is taxed twice. Contributions to voluntary plans such as a Traditional IRA, SEP IRA, Roth IRA (and) 401k, PERA and ERB are all taxed just once. They are exempt from income tax when the contribution is made, except for Roth, and taxed when the benefit is received, except for Roth. They are all taxed just once, either when the money goes in or the money goes out. Similarly, contributions to Medicare are taxed before being deducted from total pay, but not taxed when you receive the benefit. Other public benefits like Medicaid, SNAP and TANF are not taxed at all.

More than 55,000 children are being raised by their grandparents in New Mexico. These seniors must balance providing for their grandchildren against outliving their savings. We can reduce that burden and enhance the lives of those children by repealing this tax that never should have been enacted in the first place.

There is still a week left in this legislative session. If you are willing to take this burdensome tax off the backs of New Mexico seniors, we stand ready to help.

Senators against Social Security tax

The 15 other Republican senators who signed this letter, which was delivered to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Thursday:

Minority Whip Sen. Bill Payne, R-Albuquerque

Sen. Greg Baca, R-Belen

Sen. Craig Brandt, R-Rio Rancho

Sen. Bill Burt, R-Alamogordo

Sen Gregg Fulfer, R-Jal

Sen. Candace Gould, R-Albuquerque

Sen. Ron Griggs, R-Alamogordo

Sen. Gay Kernan, R-Hobbs

Sen. Mark Moores, R-Albuquerque

Sen. Steven Neville, R-Aztec

Sen. Cliff Pirtle, R-Roswell

Sen. Sander Rue, R-Albuquerque

Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington

Sen. Jim White, R-Albuquerque

Sen. Pat Woods, R-Broadview
Multiple people were shot at a Connecticut nightclub, leaving 28-year-old man dead, police said early Sunday.

Two males and two females were wounded in the shooting which took place after a group of people started arguing at Majestic Lounge around 1.30am, NBC reported.

Two police officers located outside the venue in Hartford's South End neighborhood rushed inside and attempted lifesaving measures.

One of the victims was then involved in a car crash at the intersection of Maple Ave and Franklin Ave as they were being transported to hospital.

Multiple people were shot at a Connecticut nightclub, leaving one person dead, police said early Sunday

One of the victims was then involved in a car crash at the intersection of Maple Ave and Franklin Ave as they were being transported to hospital

Police closed streets in a one-block radius surrounding the club for some time.

Brown Street shut down from Wethersfield Ave to Winship Street. Franklin Ave from Standish Street to Wayland Street was closed but later reopened, Fox 61 reported.

Two of the wounded were still in surgery as of 7.30am, a police tweet said, while two others were 'stable.'

Their exact conditions and the extent of their injuries weren't released. No names were released.

Further details, including information about the shooter, weren't immediately available. It's believed the shooter or shooters may have managed to escape as people fled the club after shots rang out.

They said the shooting was not random.

Police said there were two scenes of investigation; one the Majestic Lounge, located in Hartford's South End neighborhood, and the other a crash site nearby the hospital. Preliminary information indicated four others were wounded

Authorities are analyzing security footage in an attempt to find out what happened and who is responsible.

Hartford police Lt. Paul Cicero said it was going to be a 'long, complex investigation' after police left the scene around 7am.

'We're not going to have anything for quite a bit of time,' he said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact TIP LINE 860-722-TIPS.
Pakistani Christian girl reunited with family after kidnapping, forced conversion

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A 14-year-old Christian girl, who had been kidnapped, gang-raped and forcibly converted to Islam on paper and married off to a Muslim man, was rescued and brought back to her home in the city of Lahore in Pakistan.

The Christian girl, Sneha, who lives in the Bahar area of Lahore and is a Class 9 student at Franciscan Girls High School, is back with her family, according to the Center for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement, one of the groups that helped her family.

Sneha says that a Muslim man, identified as Zeeshan, proposed to her but she refused. On the evening of Jan. 14, he pushed her into a vehicle while she was returning home from an academy where she was studying for her final exams. Six other men joined in, beat her and took her to a location unknown to her where she was once again beaten and repeatedly raped.

The men tortured and forced her to sign some blank sheets of paper, which were later turned into a marriage certificate and a certificate of conversion to Islam.

The kidnappers also threatened that she would face serious consequences and her sisters would suffer the same violence if she told her family about the attack.

Sneha is the youngest daughter of Sabir Masih, and has two sisters and a brother.

The family reported her disappearance to the police, and a court ordered the police to investigate.

Five days later, the police rescued her. However, the kidnappers remain at large.

Muslim-majority Pakistan ranks as the fifth-worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution on Open Doors USA's 2020 World Watch List.

As the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reports, its estimated that as many as 1,000 women and girls are forcibly converted to Islam each year in Pakistan, many of whom are kidnapped, married, and subject to rape.

Earlier this month, a court ruled against the family of a kidnapped Christian girl who was forced into an Islamic marriage, saying that no law was broken if the girl had already had her first period.

The Catholic Charity Aid to the Church in Need-Italy reported that the Sindh High Court in Karachi issued the Feb. 3 ruling in the case of 14-year-old Huma Younus, who was taken from her home on Oct. 10, 2019, and later married to a radical Muslim man.

Judge Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro and Irshad Ali Shah ruled that the Catholic girls marriage to her alleged abductor, Abdul Jabbar, was valid under Sharia law because the child had already had her first menstrual cycle.

Once again justice has been defeated and once again has been proved that our state does not consider Christians to be Pakistani citizens, the mother, Nagheena Younus, was quoted as saying after the hearing.

Last year, Pakistani lawmakers rejected a national bill that would have raised the child marriage age to 18, after it was opposed by Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadari and other officials.
SALEM  The governor of Oregon has come out in favor of removing four hydroelectric dams on the Snake River in Washington state, saying that is the best way to increase endangered salmon runs.

Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, sent a letter to Washingtons Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee this week, offering her support for removing the dams.

The letter outraged Washington states three Republican U.S. House members, who want to keep the dams, the Tri-City Herald reported.

Gov. Browns position is not only misguided, it is shocking and extreme, said Reps. Dan Newhouse, Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Jaime Herrera Beutler, in a joint statement Friday afternoon.

The three said it is best to wait for the release of a federal environmental study of the Columbia and Snake river hydrosystems that was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon of Portland.

The four dams are located along the Snake River from Pasco to near Pomeroy.

Brown said it is clear the most certain and robust solution to Snake River salmon and steelhead recovery is removing the dams.

No other action has the potential to improve overall survival two-to-three fold, she said.

The dams generate electricity, provide some irrigation and flood control and allow barges to operate all the way to Lewiston, Idaho. But they are also blamed for killing salmon and steelhead that are migrating to the ocean or back to their spawning grounds.

The state of Washington, under an initiative spearheaded by Inslee, has been gathering information on what Northwest residents think about breaching the four dams. That report is expected in early March.

-- The Associated Press
VAN BUREN COUNTY, MI  A multi-county, high-speed chase, that ended when the driver of the suspect vehicle slid off the road and into a utility pole, resulted in a 22-year-old Detroit woman being airlifted from the scene in critical condition.

The driver, a 24-year-old male from Detroit, suffered three broken ribs and was treated and released from Lakeland St. Joseph Hospital, according to a news release from the Van Buren County Sheriffs Office.

He is currently being lodged at the Van Buren County Jail on several felony and misdemeanor charges and had an outstanding warrant from Wayne County, the release states.

Van Buren County sheriffs deputies were first alerted to the pursuit at around 8:45 a.m. Feb. 15 after receiving a radio transmission from the Berrien County Sheriffs Office that Berrien deputies had been pursuing a vehicle headed toward Van Buren County, the release states.

The suspect vehicle, a 2019 gray Chrysler 300, was first spotted by police, traveling at an excessive amount of speed, headed east on I-94, near mile maker 17, the release states.

Officers from the Baroda-Lake Police Department attempted to stop the vehicle, but were unsuccessful. The officers eventually lost sight of the vehicle, but a Berrien County unit located it shortly thereafter, the release states.

The suspect vehicle continued to flee police in Berrien County and eventually entered into Van Buren County on County Road 362 and then turned north on County Road 687 in Hartford Township, the release states.

The suspect then lost control of his vehicle in the 6700 block of County Road 687, due to excessive speeds and the icy road conditions, the release states.

The suspect vehicle left the roadway striking a 90-foot-tall aluminum utility pole, causing significant damage to the passenger side of the car.

The driver is being held at the jail on his outstanding warrant, fleeing and eluding, driving while on a suspended license and causing serious injury in a traffic crash, the release states.

The Van Buren County Sheriffs Office is continuing the crash investigation along with the assistance of the Michigan State Police, the release states. The Berrien County Sheriffs Office, Baroda-Lake Police Department, Watervliet Police Department, Hartford Police Department and Pokagon Tribal Police all assisted in the pursuit.

West Michigan Air Care, the Hartford Fire Department and Pride Care Ambulance Service also assisted, according to the release.

Also on MLive:

Police identify woman killed in freeway crash north of Grand Rapids

Court accepts insanity plea from woman who stabbed man in chest

Stolen truck last seen at Taco Bell, police say
Awkward was how a recent article by the Associated Press appropriately described the position of New Mexicos liberal congressional delegation when it comes to environmental review of plans to ramp up production of plutonium pits at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Our Democratic elected officials in Congress are all, to varying degrees, considered strong supporters of environmental causes. On LANL, which produces radioactive waste and will produce much more when it starts making the grapefruit-sized cores of nuclear weapons on a grand scale over the next decade, theyve walked something of a tightrope.

They want the billions of dollars in spending and the jobs that come with making pits for a historic (and historically expensive) upgrade of the nations nuclear weapons arsenal. Theyve even fought the idea of LANL having to share pit production with another national lab in South Carolina. They want all of the pits to be made in New Mexico.

But theyve also been supporters of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, an independent, congressionally created agency that provides a modicum of oversight of the national labs. The DNFSB over the past couple of years has been under attack as the U.S. Department of Energy tries to hinder its access to information and facilities.

New Mexicos senators and representatives also always make sure there is roughly $200 million a year in the federal budget for cleanup of legacy waste at the lab, although some say thats not nearly enough.

Now, as the APs Susan Montoya Bryan reported last month, As supporters of bringing more defense-related spending to New Mexico, the Democratic lawmakers have been reticent to speak about whether there should be a more in-depth review of the plutonium core project, despite their recent criticism of the Trump administrations plans to roll back environmental oversight of other federal projects.

At issue is whether DOEs National Nuclear Security Administration should conduct broad, in-depth environmental reviews of the pit-making plan. Watchdog groups say these reviews are required by law.

As of last month, the offices of U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich couldnt say whether the senators would support an expanded environmental review of pit production, pending a DOE briefing.

The burden is on DOE and Los Alamos to explain their NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) analysis and decisions to the public, and we will continue to prioritize worker safety and independent oversight of the lab, the senators said.

U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, a Democratic running to replace the retiring Udall in the Senate and whose district includes LANL, declined to comment as his office gathered more information.

The NNSA has said it completed a detailed review covering pit production activities in 2008 and a second programmatic review is not necessary.

But there are major issues to consider here. No pits have been made since 2011, in part because the lab has been dogged by safety lapses. While the pit production schedule demanded by Congress and the Department of Defense calls for LANL to gear up to making at least 30 pits annually, the most ever made at Los Alamos in a year is 11. LANL is currently authorized to make only up to 20 annually.

Lab critic Greg Mello has noted that the NNSAs 2008 study was based on now-outdated assumptions, such as plans for a big new building for plutonium work that were cancelled.

Any discussion of pit-making must include taking note of the countrys Cold War-era pit factory at Rocky Flats in Colorado, which was shut down in the 1990s amid an environmental scandal.

Yes, New Mexico reaps $3 billion in estimated economic benefit from LANL every year and that amount will grow as pit production kicks into gear.

But an exhaustive environmental review of pit manufacturing doesnt seem like too much to ask for, even in a poor state desperate for economic development. The feds are still trying to clean up the radioactive and hazardous waste left over from New Mexicos contributions so far to the creation and maintenance of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Doing the best job possible to ensure making pits is environmentally safe should be goal of everyone involved, including our delegation in Washington.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: CISF personnel nabbed an air passenger carrying smuggled gold, and seized gold bars weighing 1,100 grams from him. The passenger arrived at the RGI airport from Singapore with gold bars concealed in his socks. The air passenger identified as Senthil Kumar belongs to Tamil Nadu. He along with the smuggled gold were handed over to customs officials for further investigation.

CISF constables L Ramesh and KV Ramarao played an important role in detecting gold from the passenger. The passenger who arrived in Hyderabad by a Scoot Airlines flight TS 574 from Singapore, approached the security check-in. While checking, CISF personnel noticed suspicious behaviour and subjected him to physical checking. During the check, gold in paste form concealed in small pouches was found in his socks and under garments.

Two packets weighing 200 grams each and two packets weighing 350 grams each, making a total of 1,100 grams of gold in paste form were recovered from him.Inquiries revealed that he chose to fly into Hyderabad to evade custom checks at Chennai airport. He was planning to go to Chennai by road.






Gov't urged to reform wage system, labor market simultaneously



By Lee Kyung-min



Employment extension has emerged as a political hot potato after President Moon Jae-in triggered a debate Feb. 11 over whether the country should allow older people to work beyond their retirement age to cope with demographic challenges.



Critics say that extending employment is only a pretext for extending the retirement age, a thorny issue that sparks generational conflict and heated protests from businesses amid the prolonged economic slowdown.



The issue was brought to the fore after President Moon said it was high time for the country to seriously discuss the issue at a recent meeting with labor ministry officials.



"The only way for the country to deal with the rapid fall in the economically active workforce is to maximize the economic participation of women and the elderly," Moon said.



The issue warrants a debate amid the growing need for effective workforce utilization as Asia's fourth-largest economy is one of the fastest-aging societies.



Yet little progress will be made without prior discussions on concrete ways to overhaul the current seniority-based wage system and increase labor flexibility.



Young jobseekers outraged



"It is simply irresponsible," a jobseeker surnamed Kim, 29, said.



"Landing a job is getting more and more difficult these days due to the economic downturn, as old people try to keep holding onto the limited number of jobs and government policy support for them means young people are being deprived of opportunities to lead a decent life," he said.



Their collective anger and frustration is understandable and may even be justified, but these very people are neglecting to consider the fact that they too will become old someday and be pressured to give up work just because the law requires it, accoridng to Korea Development Institute (KDI) Public Finance and Social Policy Department head Lee Tae-suk.



"The young people's protest is a bit short-sighted," Lee said.



"The extension  regardless of the word choice  will take at least two or three decades, and they are the very age group that will benefit. I understand they are pressed for time to land a job to start life, but framing this as someone gaining at the expense of others is neither a correct nor constructive way to view the issue."



The ultimate objective should be to ensure job opportunities for everyone, not obsessing over setting a certain age to limit people's potential to contribute to the economy and lead a dignified life, the KDI head researcher said.



In his view, the government's job initiative therefore should be a two-pronged approach: reduce uncertainty for the young and increase security for the elderly.



"It is not about pushing for immediate results. It is about asking the right questions and having the right discourse to move the country in the right direction," Lee said.



Wage system, layoffs



A deeper and underlying concern driving the debate is the seniority-based wage system and rigid labor laws under which businesses are almost unable to fire workers.



A growing number of young people seeking jobs only at large conglomerates or state-run organizations is both evidence and a warning sign of what values are prioritized by the country's next generation, according to a labor economics expert.



"They are well aware that if you start in the wrong place, it will be harder to get out of there," Dankook University economist Kim Tai-gi said.



"Adding to such judgment is the seniority-based wage system whereby continued pay rises and job security are guaranteed regardless of performance," the former chairman of the Korean Labor Economic Association added.



Korea is infamous for the wide pay gap between workers at large or state-run firms and other companies.



The former are highly protected in terms of job security, wage increases, union rights, working environment and overall corporate benefits, while the rest  mostly irregular workers  are left vulnerable in every way imaginable.



Given the sobering reality, pushing for the employment extension without due measures to bolster youth employment will exacerbate the "polarization," Kim said.



"Under the current system, a large number of baby boomers nearing retirement age receive more than double or triple the wages given to young workers. Without a way to overhaul the wage system, the discussion is meaningless."



The view is echoed by Lee who supports ways to strengthen job opportunities over reductions in pay.



"Those able and willing to work should be able to do so, which goes a long way to adopting a wage system that rewards workers for performance and not seniority. A backlash from workers that benefit under the status quo can be managed with a proper and reasonable set of revised evaluation criteria," Lee said.



Businesses' concerns



Corporate profit will be severely undermined due to what is likely to become non-negotiable, high labor costs without management's discretion to lay off workers, according to an official at Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI).



"The discussion itself is a step in the right direction, but we have our hands full with unwanted side effects from the previous retirement extension," the official said on condition of anonymity.



Korea's retirement age was extended to 60 from 58 in 2016 following a related law revision in 2014.



The official stressed that without an overhaul of the wage system and grounds for layoffs, businesses will have to bear the full brunt of the rise in labor costs with a drop in productivity which will see their competitive edge severely undercut on the global stage.



"Many firms pay workers based on how many years they have worked, not on performance. Any hasty move to force the idea will destroy the business amid the steeper-than-expected downturn. Hiring and firing workers should be about corporate performance and not workers, not when corporate survival is on the line."


The Queen Of Soul, Aretha Franklin, handpicked Jennifer Hudson to play herself in the upcoming biopic, Respect, before she passed away in 2018.

Now, after five months of filming, Hudson and the rest of the cast and crew wrapped up the final scene of the movie on the bustling streets of Downtown Manhattan, near City Hall.

To mark the end of the shoot, director Liesl Tommy showed her appreciation by giving her leading lady a parting gift along with an emotional embrace as the crew and fans looked on.

That's a wrap! Jennifer Hudson shot her final scene for the upcoming Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect, in Downtown Manhattan on Saturday

For the final scene, Hudson came out of a high-rise building decked out in a retro gold dress and short heels.

With the temperatures hovering around the freezing point, the costume department covered her up in a fashionable yellow overcoat that came down to her knees.

Stylists were also spot-on with her 1950-60s bouffant hairdo, while adding a touch of class with a red and white scarf.

For the final scene, Hudson came out of a high-rise building decked out in a retro gold dress and short heels

Retro chic: The costume department also fashioned Hudson in a yellow overcoat that came down to her knees, short heels and a red and white scarf

The project had long been in development with the help of Franklin herself giving guidance and direction up until her death on August 16, 2018.

Eventually filming commenced in Georgia in September 2019.

The movie follows the rise of Franklin's career from the early beginnings when she sang in her father's church choir in Detroit, beginning when she was just five-years-old.

Franklin would go on to record 112 charted singles on Billboard, including 77 Hot 100 entries, making her the most charted female artist in history.

Retro fit: Stylists were also spot-on with Hudson's 1950-60s bouffant hairdo

Queen's choice: Aretha Franklin herself handpicked Jennifer Hudson to play herself in the biopic before she passed away on August 16, 2018

The film will feature the songs Respect, I Say a Little Prayer, Think, (You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman, You've Got a Friend, Dr. Feelgood, Do Right Woman, Do Right Man, Spanish Harlem and Young, Gifted and Black, among others.

Respect also stars Forest Whitaker, who plays Aretha's father C. L. Franklin, Marlon Wayans as Aretha's first husband Ted white and Audra McDonald as her mother Barbara franklin.

The cast also includes Mary J. Blige, Queen Latifah, Marc Maron, Tate Donovan, Tituss Burgess, Saycon Sengbloh, Hailey Kilgore, Heather Headley and Skye Dakota Turner.

Respect was slated to premiere in theaters August 14, 2020, but that date was pushed back to October 9, 2020.

Cynthia Erivo is also set to take on the role of The Queen Of Soul, Aretha Franklin, in the upcoming limited series Genius: Aretha.

It is slated to premiere May 25, 2020 on National Geographic.

Classy: Once the final scene was shot, director Liesl Tommy gave her leading lady a gift

Heartfelt: Tommy and Hudson also shared an emotional embrace

Grand premiere: Respect is scheduled to hit theaters October 9, 2020
The Vice President of the Republic, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has described the Free Senior High School (FSHS) programme as the most significant social intervention since Ghana attained Independence in 1957.

Dr Bawumia argues that Free SHS has touched and will continue to positively affect the lives of every Ghanaian, even to generations unborn, and the Akufo-Addo Government, which rolled it out in September 2017, will continue to pay great attention to the education of Ghanas children.

The Free SHS is the most significant social intervention introduced in Ghana since independence, Vice President Bawumia stated on Saturday, 15th February 2020 at Swedru in the Central Region.

The Vice President, who was speaking at the 61st Speech and Prize Giving Day of the Swedru Senior High School, emphasized that the surest way to develop a nation was to educate its people, and the Akufo-Addo Government is determined to properly position Ghana to take advantage of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), then in opposition, promised to make secondary education free if elected in the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections. The party has since enacted legislation to make basic education up to senior high school level and today, 1.2 million children are benefiting from Free SHS.

This was a promise we made prior to the election in 2016 and one that we have fulfilled. We are investing and building capacity for the future of this country.

The future of this nation depends largely on the kind of education that is provided for its citizenry. It is against this background that the Presidents focus is on the provision of quality education for every Ghanaian child, irrespective of their social or economic status in the society. Every Ghanaian child through quality education must be empowered to become economically independent, he maintained.

Addressing the issue of accessibility, Vice President Bawumia said Government, faced with the challenge of inadequate infrastructure, had to come up with the innovative double track system while speedily providing the necessary infrastructure, and assured that the system, though successful, would soon be phased out.

The fact is that without the double-track system, hundreds of thousands of students would not be able to access free SHS. Those who are criticizing the double-track system have not been able to offer an alternative. Abolishing the double-track system means abolishing free SHS as we know it. Thousands will have to stay at home. Whose child should stay at home?

This is why the government is investing in the construction of new infrastructure at senior high schools across the country and some schools are no longer on the double track. The double-track system will, therefore, be over in just a few years for all schools when the infrastructure is completed.

Dr. Bawumia stated that the Free SHS policy should never be put in the hands of those who did not believe in it and are not committed to it. "Under Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP, the Free SHS is irreversible; it has come to stay! He noted
N. Oregon Coast Museum Talks: Bio Systems, Washington Coast History

Published 02/13/2020 at 12:58 AM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Cannon Beach, Oregon)  Two of the north Oregon coasts history museums dig deep into diverse subjects, with the Cannon Beach History Center looking into Mans impact on bio systems and the Seaside Museum talking about history about an hour north of town.

The Cannon Beach History Center & Museum will host Professor Scott Fitzpatrick as part of their annual off-season lecture series. Fitzpatrick will be talking about humanitys impact on bio systems, ancient and present. The presentation will take place on Thursday, February 20 at 4 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Scott M. Fitzpatrick is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Associate Director of the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon. He is an archaeologist who specializes in the prehistory and historical ecology of island and coastal regions, particularly the Pacific and Caribbean. Much of his research has focused on prehistoric colonization events, seafaring strategies, and adaptations to smaller islands, exchange systems, and human impacts on ancient environments. Dr. Fitzpatrick is the founding Co-Editor of the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology and has published several books and more than 120 journal articles and book chapters.

There is a general consensus that we are now living in a new geological epoch called the "Anthropocene;" a time marked by human domination of Earth's bio systems. While the exact timing of this is still debated, there is no question that humans have caused widespread, and in some cases, irreversible damage to the environment. In this talk, Scott will discuss these issues using islands as case studies, which serve as ideal model systems for examining how Homo sapiens, through various cultural processes, have modified, disrupted, and permanently altered these pristine ecologies.

Seating for Fitzpatricks presentation is very limited, so guests to the Oregon coast favorite are advised to arrive a little early to get a seat, grab a cup of coffee or tea, and peruse the museum before the lecture starts at 4 p.m.

The Cannon Beach History Center & Museum is located in mid-town Cannon Beach (1387 South Spruce Street.) For more information visit www.cbhistory.org, find them on Facebook, or call 503-436-9301. Hotels in Cannon Beach - Where to eat - Cannon Beach Maps and Virtual Tours

Slightly more than an hours drive from the north Oregon coast and Seaside, the nationally reputed NW Carriage Museum in Raymond, Washington boasts one of the finest collections of 19th century horse-drawn vehicles: including carriages, buggys, sleighs, wagons, and historical artifacts.

Jerry Bowman, Curator of the Northwest Carriage Museum will be the featured speaker at Seaside Museums next History & Hops at 6 p.m. on February 27 at the Seaside Brewing Co. in Seaside, Oregon. Bowman, known for his vast knowledge of horse drawn vehicle history and restoration will talk about 19th century transportation and share entertaining stories about the Carriage Museum's incredible collection.

The museum was opened in 2002. Bowman and his wife, Laurie - the museums executive director - moved to Raymond 17 years ago and joined the museum in 2005. The collection has grown from 21 vehicles to 57, 30 of which Jerry has restored and conserved.

History & Hops, in its 6th year, is a series of local history discussions hosted by the Seaside Museum at 6pm on the last Thursday of each month, September through May, at Seaside Brewing Co., 851 Broadway. Hotels in Seaside - Where to eat - Seaside Maps and Virtual Tours









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Several farmers and entrepreneurs from the Ottawa-Gatineau area are concerned that a blockade near Belleville, Ont., that's brought rail service to a standstill could soon harm their bottom line if it's not resolved quickly.

CN Rail trains have not been running since Thursday as Indigenous communities and supporters have been protesting the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern British Columbia.

The pipeline would run through the hereditary land of the Wet'suwet'en people.

Some business owners are afraid the halting of rail traffic could replicate the effects of the CN Rail strike last fall, when they faced a shortage of propane gas, which is necessary to heat their facilities.

Marc Bourdon, the owner of Bourdon Feed and Grain in Maxville, Ont., said a lot of propane is transported by rail. Chicken farms in particular rely almost entirely on propane, he said.

Lars Hagberg/Canadian Press

Bourdon said while he's not yet experiencing a shortage, his reserves are decreasing and the situation could become worse if the blockades persist.

It's really worrying, it has to be resolved this week. - Marc Bourdon, owner of Bourdon Feed and Grain

But propane supply isn't the only thing Bourdon is concerned about.

He said a lot of essential livestock feed, such as soybeans, corn and grains, is also transported by rail.

"It's really worrying. It has to be resolved this week. And it's not just about farms, it will also affect residences," Bourdon said.

Radio-Canada

Quick action needed, says association

In a press release Friday, the Canadian Propane Association called on the federal government and the provinces to act immediately to lift the blockades.

The association cites a 2008 report which shows that about 60 per cent of all Canadian households that use propane as their primary heating fuel are in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

The agriculture industry isn't the only one expressing concerns, however.

According to the National Capital Business Association, several sectors of the economy are likely to be affected if rail traffic remains halted.

Story continues

Radio-Canada

Concerns for tourism, hotel industry

Lise Sarazin, executive director of the association, said the blockages also impact passenger transportation in and out of the region.

She said the association is concerned about how events and business meetings in the Ottawa-Gatineau region are going to be affected.

"When a person comes from another city, money is invested in catering, hotel, and taxi transportation. That equals thousands of dollars every day," she said.

Sarazin said companies are starting to mobilize and think about what they're going to do if the blockades don't end soon.

The region's business community is in discussion with the provincial and federal ministers, according to Sarazin, and she's asking that the blockade  which she considers illegal  to be stopped as soon as possible.
The Nebraska Pardons Board will soon consider the case of Caril Ann Clair (Fugate).

At the age of 14, she was convicted of felony murder in perpetration of a robbery, Dec. 20, 1958.

The Charles Starkweather murder case is one of the most memorable crimes in Nebraska history. The story was the basis for the 1973 movie "Badlands" and several other films.

Fugate and Starkweather, then 19, were implicated in a one-week murder spree that killed 10 people, most in the Lincoln area.

Charles Starkweather was sentenced to death and executed June 25, 1959, in the Nebraska electric chair.

Fugate had her life sentence reduced and was released on parole in the 1970s after 17 1/2 years in prison. She moved to Michigan and took a job at a hospital as a janitor.

The upcoming hearing would pardon her for the crimes. She has always insisted she was kidnapped by Starkweather and never a willing participant in the murders.

In her pardon request, Fugate writes:

The idea that posterity has been made to believe that I knew about and/or witnessed the death of my beloved family and left with Starkweather willingly on a murder spree is too much for me to bear any more... Receiving a pardon may somehow alleviate this terrible burden.

Fugate was denied a pardon in 1996. This is her second request.

At trial, Starkweather testified against Fugate, insisting she was a willing participant.

Murder history

Murder 1: Dec. 1, 1957

Victim: Robert Colvert, 21

Starkweather robbed a Lincoln service station of $100, drove Colvert to a remote area and, after a struggle over Starkweather's shotgun, shot Colvert in the head. (Fugate is not associated with this murder, other than later saying he stole the money to spend it on Fugate).

Murders 2, 3, 4: January 21, 1958

Victims: Fugate's mother, Velda Bartlett, 36, her stepfather, Marion Bartlett, 58, and 2-year-old sister, Betty Jean

Starkweather went to Fugate's Lincoln home, but the Bartletts told him to stay away. He shot both, then strangled and stabbed the 2-year-old, hiding the bodies behind the house.

Starkweather said Fugate was there during the murders. But Fugate said she arrived home to find Starkweather with a gun.

After the three murders, Starkweather and Fugate remained in the house until Jan. 27. A note posted on a window said, "Everybody is sick with the flu."

Witnesses said there were several visitors to the house between the murders and when police found the bodies and nobody noticed anything unusual.

At trial, it was learned Starkweather and Fugate spent the days watching TV, eating fast food and having sex.

Fugate's grandmother eventually had police go to the house to check on the family. Police discovered the three bodies, but Starkweather and Fugate had left. Arrest warrants were issued for Starkweather and Fugate.

Murder 5: Jan. 27, 1958

Victim: August Meyer, 71

Meyer was found shot to death on Jan. 27, one day after the bodies were found at the Fugate house, at his farmhouse outside Bennet, Nebraska (15 miles southeast of Lincoln). Meyer died of a gunshot wound to the head. His body was dragged to a wash house near the farmhouse.

Starkweather also killed Meyer's dog.

Murders 6, 7: Jan. 27, 1958

Victims: Robert Jensen, 17, and Carol King, 16

The bodies were discovered on Jan. 28, hours after the discovery of Meyer's body.

Not far from Meyer's home, Starkweather and Fugate got their car stuck in the mud and abandoned it. Jensen and King stopped to give Starkweather and Fugate a ride. That's when Starkweather forced the couple to drive to an abandoned storm cellar. Starkweather shot Jensen in the back of the head six times, and then shot King to death after trying to rape her.

Starkweather later claimed Fugate shot Carol King, but Fugate always insisted she stayed in the car during the murders.

Murders 8, 9, 10: Jan. 28, 1958

Victims: C. Lauer Ward, 47, Clara Ward, 46, and Lillian Fencl, 51

Their bodies were discovered on Jan. 29. C. Lauer Ward was president of Capitol Steel Works, and one of Lincoln's wealthiest residents. They lived in Lincoln's country club neighborhood.

Starkweather showed up at the house, forcing housekeeper Lillian Fencl and Clara Ward to the second floor of the home. He bound and gagged them and then stabbed them to death.

Starkweather later claimed Fugate killed the women.

C. Lauer Ward was at a conference with the governor of Nebraska at the time. When C. Lauer Ward came home, Starkweather shot him in the head as he entered the house.

Starkweather also killed the Wards' dog by breaking its neck.

Starkweather and Fugate stole the Wards' 1956 Packard, and some of Clara Ward's jewelry.

In response to the murder of the Wards, Nebraska Gov. Victor Anderson called on the National Guard and Lincoln Police to conduct a block-by-block search, and spread fear across the city and state.

Murder 11: Jan. 29, 1958

Victim: Merle Collison, 34

Collison was a traveling salesman, sleeping in his Buick near Douglas, Wyoming. Having fled Lincoln, and needing to get rid of the Wards' vehicle, Starkweather surprised Collison, and shot him nine times.

Starkweather and Fugate were captured shortly after the Collison murder. Starkweather was unable to drive away in Collison's car because he did not know how to release the parking break.

A man named Joe Sprinkler happened by and offered to help, but then saw Collison's body. He and Starkweather struggled over the shotgun when a Wyoming deputy sheriff drove by and saw the struggle.

As a deputy sheriff arrived, Fugate ran toward the deputy saying something like, "It's Starkweather, he's crazy, he just killed a man."

There are various accounts of what Fugate actually said that night.

Starkweather jumped back in the Wards' vehicle and drove away, leaving Fugate behind. A chase ensued at speeds of 100 mph. In Douglas, Wyoming, a shot by law enforcement shattered a window in the vehicle. Starkweather was cut by flying glass, stopped and was arrested.

Starkweather later tested at an IQ level of 86 (normal range is 90 to 110), and his vision was 20-200, close to being technically blind.

He also had a birth defect that created a curvature in his legs which he was teased about throughout grade school and high school.

Fugate always maintained Starkweather held her hostage throughout the ordeal.

Related video: Murder trial begins in 1979 cold case




Ambassador Tran Duc Binh, head of the Vietnamese permanent mission to ASEAN, chaired the event, the first of its kind under Vietnams ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2020, aimed to review cooperation activities within the framework of the EAS.

He highlighted the theme of a Cohesive and Responsive ASEAN and priorities Vietnam has set as Chair to promote the development of the ASEAN Community and step up relations with ASEAN partners for peace and sustainable development, as well as increase the constructive role of ASEAN in the international community.

An overview of the meeting (Photo: VNA)



EAS countries welcomed this years theme and affirmed their support for Vietnams priorities, saying they are ready to back ASEAN and Vietnam in implementing these priorities along with initiatives and activities proposed by Vietnam.

The meeting acknowledged and appreciated the positive results of cooperation activities to implement decisions made by senior leaders since 2005 and the Manila action plan for 2018-2022 to prevent terrorism and cross-border crime, intensifying ASEAN connectivity, marine cooperation, and collaboration in information technology and communications, energy, the environment and natural disaster management.

Countries also emphasised the need to cooperate in potential fields such as finance, education, climate change adaptation, plastic waste treatment at sea, and health care.

Given the complicated developments of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), participating nations expressed their support for the Chinese governments efforts to prevent the disease spread while stressing the importance of sharing information and experience to cope with the virus.

Regarding the East Sea, participants said ASEAN and China should reach an effective code of conduct in the East Sea (COC) in line with international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

They emphasised the principles of self-restraint, non-militarisation, settlement of disputes based on international law and UNCLOS, while avoiding actions that could increase tensions, undermine trust, and affect the process of negotiating the COC.

Established in 2005, the EAS now has 18 member countries, including the 10 ASEAN states and their eight partners  Australia, China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the US./.
Bigg Boss 13 finalist Paras Chhabras ex-girlfriend Akanksha Puri has reacted to his participation in upcoming reality show Mujhse Shaadi Karoge where he will be looking for a suitable match for himself. She has said that she had moved out of the relationship the day he had disrespected her on the show.

Paras had said in his post-finale interview that he broke up with her as she spilled personal details to media. On being asked about their break-up, Akanksha told Pinkvilla in an interview, I moved out way before..the day he disrespected me and lied about things in our relationship..for me it was over ..but I am not someone who will ever talk s**t about someone I have been with for so long because for me relationships doesnt happen everyday. I give my heart and soul and value every relationship in my life.

She claimed of having no regrets and would cherish all the time they have spent together. She expressed happiness over his achievements and wished him all the best for his future endeavours.

She said, I believe its very important for a girl to maintain her dignity..and I want to move ahead with a lot of dignity, and added that it will be very difficult for her to believe or trust any guy in future.

Also read: Bigg Boss 13: Paras Chhabra reveals he broke up with Akanksha Puri as she spilled personal details to media

Paras had told the publication in an earlier interview, If during my absence, she can spill out personal details in the media, then it is crystal clear that we cannot have a future together. So, it is better to move on in life, and embrace positivity.

Paras and fellow Bigg Boss 13 finalist Shehnaaz Gill will be looking for their respective life partners on upcoming reality show, Mujhse Shaadi Karoge. However, he made it clear that even if he likes a girl on the show, the final decision will be taken by his mother.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
MUNICH - Countries with interests in Libyas civil war recommitted themselves Sunday to uphold a barely working arms embargo, four weeks after a peace summit in Berlin was followed by numerous new arms violations, officials from Germany and the U.N. said.

Germany and the U.N., which co-hosted the Jan. 19 Berlin summit, gathered foreign ministers and other officials from a dozen countries on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to try to bolster a drive to cut off outside military support for Libyas warring parties.

The countries involved include the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, along with Italy, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Sundays meeting formally launched an international follow-up committee on Libya. Italy will co-chair the next meeting, in Rome in March.

At the Berlin summit, participants agreed to respect the arms embargo, hold off on military support to Libyas warring parties and push them to reach a full cease-fire. But U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says that agreement has been repeatedly violated by continuing arms deliveries and an escalation in fighting.

On Sunday, the participants had a discussion on the deplorable recent violations of the arms embargo, renewed their determination to contribute to its thorough implementation and welcomed progress regarding more efficient monitoring of the embargo, the German and U.N. hosts said in a statement.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said they spoke very openly about recent violations.

Different opinions were voiced on what this is down to, but everyone agrees that the road we have taken  namely, to separate the parties to the conflict from their supporters  remains the only promising road to ending the civil war in Libya, he told reporters.

Libya has been in turmoil since 2011, when a civil war toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed.

A weak U.N.-recognized administration that now holds the capital of Tripoli and parts of the countrys west is backed by Turkey, which recently sent thousands of soldiers to Libya, and to a lesser degree Qatar and Italy as well as local militias.

On the other side is a rival government in the east that supports self-styled Gen. Khalifa Hifter, whose forces launched an offensive to capture Tripoli last April. They are backed by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, France and Russia.

Since the Berlin summit, the rival Libyan military factions have met in Geneva in a U.N.-led effort to forge a lasting truce. A first round of talks ended without officials signing an agreement, but Maas said a second round will begin in Geneva on Tuesday.

The U.N. also expects to hold the first meeting of an inclusive Libyan political forum in Geneva in 10 days time but Stephanie Williams, the deputy U.N. envoy for Libya, said that the situation on the ground is deeply troubling.

A fragile existing truce is holding only by a thread, with numerous  over 150 violations, she said. An oil blockade by allies of Hifters forces is deepening Libyas economic woes.

On Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council endorsed the Berlin summit conclusions, including a 55-point road map for ending the war in Libya and condemned the recent increase in violence in the oil-rich North African country.

The European Union, which will discuss Libya in Brussels on Monday, has been arguing about possibly having naval ships enforce the U.N. arms embargo against Libya.

Maas, however, stressed the need to enforce the weapons embargo by sea, air and land, given that arms find their way to the warring parties by different routes. He said EU ships may not be needed in the Mediterranean Sea because sea routes, air routes and land routes can be monitored from the air.
The Congress and BJP hit out at



each other after the latter unveiled a 32-foot statue of Gond Queen Rani Kamplapati in Bhopal on Sunday.

The ruling Congress said the statue has been installed without permissions while the BJP, which is in power in the Bhopal Municipal Corporation, hit back claiming the former was insulting people of the Gond community by opposing the unveiling.

The statue was installed on the banks of Lower Lake here by Bhopal Mayor Alok Sharma, though Congress ministers Arif Aqueel, Jaivardhan Singh, PC Sharma and Govind Singh, named in the function invite boycotted the event.

Congress workers led by corporator Shabista Jaki protested at the site and showed black flags to the mayor.

Jaki alleged the approach to the statue was made after removing several legitimate homes, while a road adjoining a bridge leading to the statue was being built on land meant for a Muslim graveyard.

Eyewitnesses said workers from the two parties came to blows during the protests.

Sharma said the ministers' names were included in the invite after their consent was obtained, while Govind Singh, minister in charge of Bhopal, said he skipped the event as the statue had come up without permission.

"The Congress ministers should have come. They have insulted the Gond community and Rani Kamlapati," said Sharma who later staged a sit-in protest in front of Gandhiji's statue at Minto Hall, the old Vidhan Sabha complex.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Setting his government's roadmap for Delhi's development after being sworn in as chief minister for the third time, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "blessings" and reached out to rival parties, while noting that the country is discussing new kind of "politics of work and performance" after his party's win.

Kejriwal along with his cabinet colleagues Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Gopal Rai, Imran Hussain, Rajendra Pal Gautam and Kailash Gahlot were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal at the historic Ramlila Maidan that was a sea of tricolour with a large number of people and party supporters turning up for the event.

Striking a conciliatory political tone in his address to the gathering, the 51-year-old bureaucrat-turned-politician sought cooperation from his rivals BJP and Congress in making Delhi the "number one city", saying he has "forgiven" them for the remarks against him during the high-octane poll campaign.

"We have forgiven our opposition for whatever remarks they made on us. I would also like to request the opposition parties to forget what happened during the elections. I want to work together with all the parties for the development of Delhi. I want to work together with the central government to make Delhi a world-class city," the chief minister said.

ALSO READ| Tiny 'Mufflermen' make beeline for Arvind Kejriwal's oath ceremony at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan

He asserted that people may have voted for different parties, but he is the "chief of minister of all".

"I had also invited the prime minister for the oath ceremony today, but I guess he could not make it because he was busy. I want the prime minister to bless us so that we can work for the development and progress of Delhi," Kejriwal, whose previous tenure was marred by several run-ins with the Centre, said in his nearly 20-minute address.

The prime minister, who was in his constituency Varanasi where he inaugurated several projects, later greeted Kejriwal on Twitter.

"I congratulate Shri @ArvindKejriwal on taking oath as Delhi's CM earlier today. Best wishes to him for a fruitful tenure," Modi tweeted.

The AAP scripted a phenomenal victory by sweeping 62 out of the 70 seats in the Delhi assembly polls after a campaign where Kejriwal desisted from directly attacking Modi and stuck to his development plank.

Kejriwal termed himself Delhi's "son" and the "chief of the minister of all" people irrespective of the party they voted for.

During his speech, he credited the people of Delhi for giving birth to a new kind of "politics of work and performance", listed the various initiatives and defended the 'freebies' extended by his government, saying it would be a shame if he charged people for basic amenities like education and health.

The new politics is of schools, hospitals, 24-hour and cheap power supply, water, roads, women's security, corruption-free Delhi, he said, adding that initiatives like mohalla clinics are being replicated across the country and abroad.

This new politics is being discussed all over the country, Kejriwal said.

ALSO READ| No women in Arvind Kejriwal's new cabinet

"In the last five years, we have tried to develop Delhi on a fast mode and in the next five years, we will continue the same," he said.

The AAP supremo began his address with 'Bharat Mata ki Jai', 'Inquilab Zindabad' and 'Vande Mataram' and ended it by singing 'Hum Honge Kamyaab', in which he was joined by the crowd at the venue.

Several thousands carrying AAP and national flags converged at the Ramlila Maidan, which has been a witness to Kejriwal's transformation from an activist to a chief minister, as it reverberated with slogans of 'Lage Raho Kejriwal' and 'We Love You Kejriwal'.

Kejriwal's parents, wife Sunita, a former IRS officer, daughter Harshita also attended the swearing-in ceremony.

The AAP leader had extended an open invitation to Delhiites for the ceremony to see their "son" taking oath.

Supporters also poured in from several states, including Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.

At least, six 'Little Mufflermen' dressed up in Kejriwal's trademark winter wear and sporting a faux moustache were the cynosure of all eyes at the event.

Among them was Aavyan Tomar, who was specially invited after his pictures dressed up as Kejriwal on the counting day had gone viral when he appeared outside the AAP headquarters here.

The child played around and in front of the ceremonial platform while Kejriwal addressed the gathering after being sworn-in as the chief minister of Delhi for the third consecutive time.

AAP MLAs Raghav Chadha and Somnath Bharti also were seen taking selfies and playing with Tomar.

Party supporter and Bollywood musician Vishal Dadlani, who had composed 'Lage Raho Kejriwal' song, was among those who attended the event.

From 'Singham 3' to 'Nayak 2', AAP supporters at the swearing-in held posters likening their leader to popular Bollywood protagonists who fought for justice.

"Nayak 2 is back again," read one of the posters, which had a picture of actor Anil Kapoor on the right, and that of Kejriwal wearing the famous "Anna cap" with 'Aam Aadmi' written in Hindi over it on the left.

Huge banners sporting 'Dhanyawad Delhi' were also put up in and around the venue and there were tight security arrangements.

Many AAP supporters said it is time for Kejriwal to go national and his next aim should be to change the country's politics.

"The atmosphere in the whole country has turned toxic, now the AAP should work towards changing that. It is very important to clean other parts of the country," Suman Rao, a construction worker from Bhopal, said.

The AAP had planned to keep the ceremony "Delhi-specific" and had not invited chief ministers of other states or political leaders.

Only BJP MLA Vijendra Gupta, who was the leader of opposition in the last assembly, attended the ceremony, though all BJP MLAs and MPs from Delhi were invited.

"Your son has taken oath for the third time as Delhi chief minister. This is not my victory but yours," the chief minister said.

Kejriwal said he did not give step-motherly treatment to anyone and has worked for all in the last five years.

"I am everybody's chief minister, be it supporters of the AAP, the Congress or the BJP. I have never discriminated against them in the last five years. I want to say to the 2 crore people of Delhi, irrespective of whom you voted for in the elections or what party you belong to, you are my family now. You can come to me without any hesitation and I will complete all your work irrespective of your affiliation, caste and whether you are rich or poor," he said.

"They say Kejriwal is making everything free, but I want to say that everything precious in the world is free. The love that a mother has for her child is precious and priceless, the fact that a father stays hungry to afford a good future for his child is priceless. Shravan Kumar served his parents with all his might. Kejriwal is your Shravan Kumar."

"Do I start charging people for education and health? Do I start charging patients for their operations? That is not possible," Kejriwal said.

Around 50 people from different walks of life who contributed to the development of the city during the last five years shared the stage with Kejriwal as special guests during the ceremony.

He lauded the contribution of the 'Delhi ke nirmata', saying "it is not me, or AAP but all people like these who are responsible for developing the national capital".

Shabina Naaz, who has been working with night shelters around Chandni Chowk and Kashmiri Gate for the past five years, said she can't believe it really happened.

"When the first time I got a call I could not believe that it is really happening. I can tell you that only the AAP government can invite a person as unimportant as me," Naaz said.

Lazwanti, who has been working as a sanitation worker for the last nine years in Delhi, said recognising people like her shows the "affectionate nature" and the ground connection of the AAP government.

"No one recognises our contribution but this government is different. It not only recognised our contribution but also honoured us," and an emotional Lazwanti said.

Arun Kumar, a bus marshall who saved a six-year-old from being kidnapped, said the experience has changed his life.

"It is an honour for me to represent bus marshals. We work hard every day to provide security to women. The AAP government is very serious about women safety and we are making the dream of Arvind Kejriwal true," said Kumar.
Some members of the University of New Mexico community have voiced support for a proposal to build a homeless shelter on university property, but, behind closed doors, school leaders are warning that moving forward could be disastrous.

The city of Albuquerque is going to build a new homeless shelter, and UNM land north of Lomas and just east of Interstate 25 is one of the sites being considered for the project. But UNMs Campus Safety Council overwhelmingly voted last month to recommend the university not allow it anywhere at UNM, saying such a move could create a dangerous situation for students, strain limited police resources and hurt the schools already sliding enrollment.

The vote was referenced in a memo sent Jan. 22 from the safety council to President Garnett Stokes. The memo said the council  which is comprised of the chief of university police, the dean of students, the UNM emergency manager, the student body president and others  voted 11-1 against the shelter.

The (council) believes that campus safety and the perceptions of safety have led and will continue to lead to a decline in enrollment and having the Gateway Center located on university property will contribute and increase the safety issues we have experienced on campus and in the surrounding areas where students live, the council wrote to Stokes. If the (shelter) were located on university property the (council) wonders if that would impact our (crime) statistics, potentially leading to an even greater perception that the campus is unsafe.

The memo will be given serious consideration by university officials, Stokes said Friday.

The campus safety council was created to advise me on issues that affect the well-being and safety of our students, she said in a statement. Their recommendation will be seriously considered by university leadership, as well as other community inputs and relative information, as we deliberate whether UNM will support having the Gateway Center site at the proposed location.

The city late Friday responded to concerns raised in the memo by urging everyone to separate fear from facts.

As we face these challenges, we should not criminalize homelessness, said city spokeswoman Jessie Damazyn. These are people who need services and the proposed site is a considerable distance from campus. With shuttles, proper fencing and smart design solutions, we do not anticipate negative impacts on campus. On the contrary, the center should decrease the impact of vagrancy in our community.

We have a moral calling to come together as a community and a shared responsibility to create a center that will help people experiencing homelessness connect with housing and services.

Under consideration

UNM held four recent forums at which a panel of university and city officials answered questions and listened to feedback about the center. And UNM on Friday sent a survey, which is expected to be open for about two weeks, to everyone with an official UNM email address asking for their input on the facility.

The Gateway Center would be a 24/7 homeless shelter built to sleep around 300 people and guide them toward permanent housing and available resources. City voters have already approved the sale of $14 million in bonds to help fund the project. The city is vetting several possible sites and plans to announce a location this spring. The city has floated several possible locations in addition to UNM, such as the Second Street/Interstate 40 area, Montessa Park, and the former Lovelace hospital on Gibson.

But a vacant strip of university land south of the Office of the Medical Investigator has emerged as a leading contender for the site. It is located on the universitys North campus, while the main campus is located south of Lomas.

It is an open question whether the gateway facility will be placed on our campus, Stokes has said during the forums. There is much that remains to be considered.

Stokes said at a forum on Thursday that it remains to be seen when the proposal will go before the regents, and its not clear if that will coincide with when city officials plan to announce a final location. Stokes said she is waiting on survey results and a campus safety assessment before making a recommendation to regents.

When it gets brought up to regents will be at the point when I am ready to make a recommendation to them, Stokes said.

During the forums, feedback about the shelter at UNM was mixed. Some students, UNM employees and neighbors raised concerns about safety, which city officials and others countered by saying that homeless people are statistically more likely to be victims of crime than commit them.

And many people who attended the forums said the university property seemed like a good location, primarily because of its proximity to UNMs psychiatric and behavioral health services. UNM Health Sciences Chancellor Paul Roth is among those who have said there are several advantages to having the shelter there.

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller attended one of the forums and spoke favorably of using UNM land for the site, even suggesting the university has a responsibility to help the city assist its homeless population.

I do not anticipate foot traffic through campus  nor do I anticipate a safety impact on campus, Keller said at a student forum on campus last week.

Deeply concerned

But the safety councils memo shows many university officials are deeply concerned about campus safety should the shelter be built at the proposed UNM site.

The two-page memo, sent by safety council co-chairs Nasha Torrez, the dean of students, and Tish Young, a UNM police detective, said that transients have tried to break into sorority houses multiple times and that, in one case, sorority members were threatened by a homeless man with a knife. The proposed site for the Gateway Center is about a half mile from UNMs Greek row, which is located on the main campus.

The safety council said that in recent focus groups students frequently reported feeling threatened by homeless people on campus, and they raised concerns about how the facility would impact university crime stats.

Its not uncommon to see transients on the campus.

Jesus Bartholomew Ochoa, a homeless man who frequently sleeps on campus, said in an interview that transients are attracted to UNM for several reasons. He chooses to sleep at several spots on campus because he feels safe sleeping in a public space. He said others go to campus to beg or steal from students.

I dont know if its a good idea (to build a homeless shelter on campus), he said. The homeless at UNM tend to be people who dabble in drugs, and some are severely mentally ill.

UNM police Lt. Trace Peck said campus police are regularly called around the campus early in the mornings to roust people who slept on campus the night before. He said university police are also stationed at the UNM Hospital emergency department every night, because of the number of homeless people there.

UNMPD has fielded many calls about disturbances, as well as more severe issues, caused by homeless people on our campus, the safety council memo states. If the Gateway Center were located on UNM property, the (council) felt that it would contribute to these issues being even more of a problem.
Medha Dutta Yadav By

Inspired by the dakjee doll-making technique learned while on residency in Korea in 2017, artist Sudipta Das explores themes of exile, refuge and temporariness of life through these delicately crafted figurines.

Also, being a fourth-generation migrant, she seeks images and references from the Partition to give voice to her artistic vision.

Art has been a medium through which one would try to transform ones own personal world to a world that is coexisting with humans and the other species. Art, thereby, becomes a way of life for me. It has also played a crucial role in reflecting the pivotal components of life and I attempt to understand the different and evolving times that we live in, she says.

The ephemeral and versatile quality of the Hanji paper makes it her favoured medium in putting together fragmented interpretations.

Fragile, yet resistant at the same time, the paper has a quality that reflects the tenacity of the unnamed people whose stories she seeks to tell.

An unsuspecting medium, paper has long been a hidden protagonist in the narratives of placelessness. Without paper, one has no form of identification, and without identification; one loses the freedom to move from place to place and ultimately their proof of belonging, says Sudipta, almost echoing the chaos the country is facing with the CAA-NRC-NPR.

Her earlier work with Partition saw her cutting photographs and then repainting them and putting them together in a collage.

It was her way to piece together an inherited memory of dispossession and diaspora.

The photographs become a key to unlocking a personal history, and a lens to examine her experience of identity loss as a micro-minority community.

Sudipta believes that art has a duty to hold a mirror to society.

The themes that I try to explore are what I have experienced and my practice focuses on understanding, describing, and then re-interpreting the times we live in, she says.

Little wonder that at the recent show, she has created an installation which forces viewers to navigate a sea of nameless figures.

The arrangement reinforces the idea of mass populations who have to cross over impermanent thresholds into uncertain futures.

Elaborating on the art of dakjee doll-making, she says, Hanji paper is the local Korean paper which is a versatile but extremely durable material made from the inner bark of the mulberry tree, whose leaves feed silkworms as well. This paper is said to last 1,000 years.

"I usually start with painting over the paper and use watercolours for the same. The figures and their belongings in my work are made by combining and shaping paper in different ways. It involves layering of several pieces of paper together. This brings out the intricate textures and the colours that I have used on the paper add to it.

Rendered in incredible detail, the paper sculptures are positioned in such a way that further suggests their life in limbo.

Bhavna Kakar, the founder-director of Gallery Latitude 28, who has been following the artists practice since her days as a student in Santiniketan, says, Sudiptas works enable her to lend a different personality and identity to each of the figures. The works present these melancholic dolls who have lost their roots, but still, for a time, have each other, above their homes and the places they hold dear.

"They all seem on the tide of a flood, ready to be deposited somewhere else. She shows what we are doing to our fellow human beings. This is why her work is so resonant today.

Know the Artist

Born in Assam, Sudipta Das studied at Santiniketan. Her work refers to the physical and emotional losses caused by seasonal floods that annually devastate her hometown of Silchar.

Descending from a migrant family, she portrays the pain and agonies of cross-border migration. Her installations speak of the loss of ones own home and relocating to a strange new land.

The artist is currently based in Vadodara.

When & Where

The Exodus of Eternal Wanderers Venue: Gallery Latitude 28, F-208, First Floor, Lado Sarai, Delhi; Time: Till February 28, 11 am to 7 pm
An African American runway model refused to wear a costume which depicted her as a monkey with oversized ears and overgrown red lips during a show in New York City.

Amy Lefevre, 25, says she refused to don the racist accessories during a February 7 runway show staged by the Fashion Institute of Technology at Manhattans Pier59 Studios.

I stood there almost ready to break down telling the staff that I felt incredibly uncomfortable with having to wear these pieces and that they were clearly racist, Lefevre told the New York Post.

I was told that it was fine to feel uncomfortable for only 45 seconds.

Lefevre, who has been modeling on runways for four years, said it was the worst experience of her young career.

I was literally shaking, she told the Post.

Amy Lefevre (left), 25, was outraged when she was asked to wear a costume (right) showing overgrown lips and ears during a runway fashion show in New York City on February 7

Lefevre, who slammed the costume as 'racist,' continued to work the runway during that show, but she stormed out of the venue once the event was over

I could not control my emotions. My whole body was shaking.

I have never felt like that in my life.

Lefevre added: People of color are struggling too much in 2020 for the promoters not to have vetted and cleared accessories for the shows.

DailyMail.com has reached out to FIT for comment.

After refusing to wear the costume, she walked the runway without the getup. Immediately after the event was over, she stormed out of the venue.

The February 7 show was staged to honor 10 FIT alumni from the schools inaugural Master of Fine Arts class in fashion design, according to the school.

I stood there almost ready to break down telling the staff that I felt incredibly uncomfortable with having to wear these pieces and that they were clearly racist, Lefevre said

Lefevre added: People of color are struggling too much in 2020 for the promoters not to have vetted and cleared accessories for the shows.

The oversized lips and ears were designed by Junkai Huang, who recently graduated from FIT after arriving from his native China to study here.

According to the Post, the concept behind Huangs design was to highlight ugly features of the body.

It is likely that Huang was unaware of the racial connotations that his work might provoke in some observers.

One student who said she was backstage at the FIT show backed up Lefevres version of events, according to the Post.

The designs were meant to accentuate 'ugly features of the body,' according to observers. The images above show two models from the same show wearing similar costumes

The student said that Richard Thornn, the producer of the show, was made aware of the problem.

We brought it up to [Thornn] multiple times, the witness said.

We said she cannot wear this. This is wrong. He screamed in my face, You need to back down and get away.

It was such a grave lack of judgment.

According to the Post, the shows director, FIT professor Jonathan Kyle Farmer, was told by several of Lefevres classmates the day before the event that the costume was problematic.

Other models wore the costume down the runway.

The show was part of FITs 75th anniversary celebrations.

Located in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, FIT was founded in 1944. The school, which is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, has a student body of 7,406.

This program protects a students freedom to craft their own personal and unique artistic perspectives as designers, to be even what some would consider to be provocative, so that they find that voice, FIT president Dr. Joyce F. Brown told The Post.

However provocative design and fashion might be though, my commitment to ensure that people are not made to feel uncomfortable, offended, or intimidated is also of the utmost importance not only to me personally but to the college community as well.

Richard Thornn (left), the producer of the show, and FIT professor Jonathan Kyle Farmer (right), who directed the event, were made aware of objections by students that the costume was racist beforehand but declined to do anything about it, it has been claimed

We take this obligation very, very seriously and will investigate and take appropriate action regarding any complaint or concern that is made in this situation.

In recent years, the fashion world has been forced to wrestle with several high-profile controversies surrounding provocative designs that have been criticized as racist.

Last year, Gucci apologized earlier this year after it marketed a black sweater that included a balaclava knit top black that when worn above the neck resembled blackface.

The black sweater with a pull-up neck featured a cutout surrounded by cartoonish red lips.

Gucci apologized, saying that it was committed to diversity and considered it a 'fundamental value to be fully upheld, respected and at the forefront of every decision we make.'

The incident prompted African American celebrities like 50 Cent and Spike Lee to call for a boycott of the Italian brand.

In December 2018, Prada pulled off its shelves a line of accessories that featured a character with brown skin and exaggerated red lips after complaints they resembled blackface.

The Swedish clothing retailer H&M ignited outrage that same year when it marketed a hooded sweater on its web site.

The sweater, which was worn by a young black boy, read: Coolest monkey in the jungle.

A number of H&M stores were ransacked in South Africa by angry locals who denounced the ad.

H&M pulled the ad and apologized to 'anyone it may have offended'.
CAIRO  Egypts chief prosecutor on Sunday denied allegations that the police tortured a human rights activist and vocal critic of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.

Police detained Patrick George Zaki, 28, an Egyptian student at the University of Bologna in Italy, after he arrived in Cairo earlier this month on what was to be a brief visit home.

Zaki told his lawyers he was tortured with electric shocks, beaten and blindfolded during interrogations about his activism, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. The group previously employed Zaki as a gender rights researcher and is now providing him with legal representation.

His defense attorney Huda Nasrallah also told the Associated Press that Zaki repeated his torture allegations on Saturday during a court hearing to appeal his detention. Hes being held while prosecutors investigate claims of disseminating false news and calling for unauthorized protests. The court rejected the appeal.

Recent laws in Egypt have expanded the definition of terrorism and granted police and prosecutors broad powers to arrest and keep people detained for months and even years without ever filing charges or presenting evidence.

Egypt also outlawed all unauthorized protests in 2013, months after el-Sissi, then defense minister, led the militarys removal of the countrys first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi. Morsis one-year rule proved divisive and sparked nationwide protests.

Sundays statement from the office of General Prosecutor Hamada el-Sawy said Zaki did not report that he was harmed or violated during his arrest or detention when he spoke to the public prosecution on Feb. 8, the day after his arrest.

As evidence of in the case against Zaki, Egypts national security agency provided 10 pages printed from a Facebook account carrying the name Patrick George Zaki. The statement described it as inflammatory material against the state institutions and figures.

Zakis arrest and detention have generated tremendous interest in Italy where hes been studying. Thats because of the 2016 death in Egypt of 28-year-old Italian researcher Giulio Regeni, whose battered body was found on a roadside on the outskirts of Cairo.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

PRAGUE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th February, 2020) The Czech Republic has invited US State Secretary Mike Pompeo to visit the country in early May on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the western part of the republic from Nazi Germany by US troops, Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek said on Saturday.

According to Petricek, Pompeo has already received the invitation from Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Prague is now waiting for the confirmation from Washington.

"Last year we sought to carry out the visit of Mr. Pompeo. I hope it will happen this year. We have a number of bilateral issues for discussion  from mutual trade to security cooperation ... We would like to use for the visit the upcoming major celebrations in the city of Pilsen [western Czech Republic], dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the city by US troops," Petricek told the state television broadcaster in an interview.

Petricek noted that he had discussed this issue with Pompeo on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference that will end on Sunday.

Pilsen and the western part of the Czech Republic in general, liberated from Nazi Germany by US troops in early May 1945, hold annual celebrations to mark this event. This year, the city will be hosting celebrations during the first six days of the month.

The last US secretary of state to visit the Czech Republic was Hillary Clinton. In 2011, she attended the funeral of the president of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel.
Pitching for a political alternative in Haryana, former state Congress leader Ashok Tanwar on Sunday sought suggestions from people to build a "strong structure".

Tanwar claimed that people have rejected both the BJP and the Congress and are looking for a "viable third alternative".

Addressing a "Swabhimaan Rally" organised by his supporters in Karnal, Tanwar said, "There is a need for a credible third alternative in Haryana. A majority of people in the state I meet tell me that they do not have any hopes from the BJP and the Congress."



"A suggestion came from workers that a structure of our organisation should be set up. In the coming three months, we will build a strong structure," he said, seeking suggestions from his supporters.

He said there is a vacuum in the leadership and in the absence of an alternative, people are forced to vote for certain parties even if they do not wish so.

"Do you think the Delhi mandate is only on the basis of work alone," he asked.

Tanwar hit out at the ruling BJP and the Congress, claiming that people are fed up with both parties.

Without naming anyone, he said, "Some people have made a bazar, a mandi. Poverty, jhumla, liesthey sell everything here. You have to teach these people a lesson."



Tanwar had quit the primary membership of the Congress days before the Haryana Assembly polls in October last year. He had revolted against the party leadership, alleging irregularities and corruption in the ticket distribution.

The former Sirsa MP was replaced by Kumari Selja as the state party chief while Tanwar's bete noire and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was made the Congress Legislative Party leader.

"Some people have made the Congress a butcher house and those like me whose fight is based on principles and ideology are sacrificed," Tanwar said.

The former Congress chief said his fight was for "swabhiman", giving justice to the poor, farmers their dues and to uphold the rights of the Dalits besides ensuring security for women".

He wondered how the grand old party which played a key role in the country's freedom struggle was not in power in many states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for decades.

"The country has to be made the Congress and BJP-mukt," he told the workers.

Hitting out at the Congress, he said, "It is not Nehru or Patel's Congress anymore. There are dangerous people in the Congress today.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
What is Drug Delivery System?

Drug delivery refers to approaches used to deliver drugs at the target sites inside our body. It may employ a sustained release drug delivery system or a controlled release technology. The technology uses binding chemicals that release drugs at a controlled rate at the targeted location in the body.

Various types of formulations, approaches, technologies and systems

are used to transport a drug to a specific part of the body. The concept of drug delivery is precisely integrated with the dosage of a drug and route of administration. The technology involves deep understanding of the physiological barriers to efficient drug delivery like transportation of drugs in the circulatory system, metabolism, reactions of the mucosa and digestive juices and the movement of the drug through cells and tissues.

Various factors are taken into consideration for a proper administration of drugs and the drug delivery system is an interdisciplinary field.

The physico-chemical properties of the drug, carrier and the binder compounds.

Effects and interactions of these chemicals in the body

Improvement of the drug effect

Comfort and well being of the patient

However, the drugs interact with various parts of the body that are not the intended targets for the drug. This could give rise to unwanted and harmful side effects. These side effects limit the designing and choices of the carriers to bind with the optimal medications for serious diseases like neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, etc.

The variety of controlled release systems is due to the chemicals or the binders used, the routes of the administration, the combination of the carrier and the target drug.

Advantages of Controlled Release Drug Delivery

The various advantages of sustained or controlled release of drugs using the drug delivery system are:

Delivering the drug at a pre-specified rate, in a systematic manner

Improve the patients convenience; as in reducing frequency of drug intake

Maintaining drug levels in blood without any fluctuations

Increase the safety margin of a high potency drug

Reduction in cost of medications

Drug delivery systems are further divided into two types based on the method of drug release.

Conventional Drug Delivery System

This classification is based on the route of delivery. The various routes of drug delivery include:

Oral

Sublingual

Nasal

Vaginal

Transdermal

Transcutaneous

Intravenous

Rectal

Controlled Release

Classification of drug delivery systems based on the controlled release technique include:

Sustained release drug delivery system

Extended drug delivery system

Site-specific drug delivery system

Pulsatile drug delivery system

Routes of Controlled Drug Delivery System

There are various factors that influence the selection of the delivery route like:

Drug physico-chemical properties like molecular weight of the drug, half life and chemical stability.

Solubility in water (hydrophobic or hydrophilic)

Interactions of the drug in the body like membrane permeability, bacterial degradation, enzymatic degradation

Dosage size

Vehicles of Drug Delivery Systems

Ideally, the drug delivery vehicle must be non-toxic, non-immunogenic, biocompatible and biodegradable. It must also escape recognition of the hosts defense mechanisms. The various drug delivery vehicles used are:

Liposomes: These are the most common vehicles used for a targeted drug delivery system. They are non-toxic, non-immunogenic and non-hemolytic. Solid lipid nanoparticles are lipid-based, ligand-coated nanocarriers that store the target drugs in a hydrophobic or hydrophilic capsule.

Micelles and Dendrimers: These are polymer based delivery vehicles used to transport and deliver drugs that have poor solubility.

Biodegradable Particles: These particles can exactly reach the target diseased site and deliver the drug in a controlled release manner. Biodegradable particles are commonly used for drugs delivered to cardiac tissue.

Artificial DNA Nanostructures: Those which are artificially designed out of nucleic acids like DNA can be used. Nanostructures can sense the environment of the site of release and deliver the drug to the target site. Such a structure releases a drug only in response to a particular stimulus.

Drug delivery systems and controlled release technology come useful in various treatment procedures. For example, delivery of drugs to the target site in cardiovascular diseases can use the pharmaceutical drugs effectively and also reduce the cost of the treatment significantly.

Treatment for tuberculosis with liposomes as the delivery vehicles has been more effective than conventional chemotherapy. Liposome delivery system helps in microphage penetration of the drug and delivers optimal concentration at the infection site.

The method is an upcoming procedure that can be used as a potential cure for cancer. Nanotechnology in cancer treatment, immunotherapy for cancer, leukemia treatment and lung cancer treatment are some of the potential areas of using drug delivery systems.

Hazards of Drug Delivery Systems
Bushfire relief concert Fire Fight Australia sold out within 24 hours.

But many of the 70,000+ ticket holders who arrived at Sydney's ANZ Stadium on Sunday, were left frustrated by the lack of organisation by the event's management.

Fans claimed they were delayed entry to the venue, and missed the first few acts due to long lines.

And it begins! The bushfire relief concert, Fire Fight Australia, sold out within 24 hours. Pictured host and comedian Celeste Barber

'Poor organisation for such a worthy cause!' Fire Fight Australia patrons complain about long lines at bushfire relief concert as ticket holders miss opening acts due to delayed gate entry at Sydney's ANZ Stadium on Sunday

Fire Fight Australia airs live on Channel 7 and 7plus, and FOX8 and Foxtel GO from 1pm AEDT on Sunday 16 February.

More than 20 local and international acts, including headliners Michael Buble, 5 Seconds Of Summer (5SOS) and Queen with Adam Lambert, are on the lineup.

With thousands of fans queuing to enter the stadium around lunch time, frustrated ticket-holders took to Twitter to express their dissatisfaction with long wait times.

'People aren't very happy they are missing the concert due to these lines', 'Made it. Missed the first couple songs', and 'we got here well before gates opened and will miss multiple acts' were some Tweets.

Another simply wrote: 'Not sure how ANZ Stadium expected to get 70K in to a 1pm start by opening the gates at 12.45pm.'

'People aren't very happy they are missing the concert due to these lines': With thousands of fans queuing to enter the stadium around lunch time, frustrated ticket-holders took to Twitter to express their dissatisfaction with long wait times

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Fire Fight Australia, promoters TEG Live and Sydney's ANZ Stadium for comment.

The official Twitter account for Fire Fight Australia shared a post at 12.20pm, writing: 'Gates are just about to open for. Well see you soon!'

Fire Fight Australia Tweeted back at one fan about the delay, writing: 'We're just having to hold while production finishes sound checks. Shouldn't be much longer.'

Opening the show! Comedian Celeste Barber opened the show in Sydney from 12.40pm when the seats were noticeably empty

Cause of the delay: It appears the delay in entry times was due to sound checks being finalised for the venue

The crowds soon filed in! Olivia Newton-John, Alice Cooper, Queen + Adam Lambert and k.d. lang have all donated their time to appear at the event (Pictured at 2.20pm)

Olivia Newton-John, Alice Cooper, Queen + Adam Lambert and k.d. lang have all donated their time to appear at the event.

Joining the incredible musical bill for the concert series will be Australias own pop/rock sensation 5 Seconds of Summer - who are usually based in the US.

While based in the US, the group will fly back to perform in their hometown to support the bushfire crisis fundraising efforts.

Michael Buble will appear via a special live cross performance simulcast from his sold out Melbourne show at Rod Laver Arena at 8.45pm.

The concert is due to end at 11pm.

Donate to firefightaustralia.com with 100 per cent of the funds going to the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal's(FRRR) Fire Fight Fund.

Or text FIREFIGHT to 0400 662 662
Back in 2017, I started regularly leaving my office at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas, to speak to high school students in the Texas Panhandle. This past fall, I did the same thing in the South Plains. These two areas are the northern most 46 counties in the state of Texas.

Driving a silver SUV owned by the university, I logged a total of 14,000 miles throughout these two regions over a total of 10 months. I visited 132 high schools with student populations of all sizes.

For instance, in the South Plains tour this past fall, I visited 66 schools that ranged in size from Lubbock High School, where I spoke to 975 juniors and seniors, to Dawson High School, where I spoke with all 12 high school students in ninth through 12th grades.

No matter where I went  and no matter if I spoke with students and families that had a concrete plan for college and others that were less certain  I heard concerns about the cost of higher education.

And my message and response was always the same: Do not borrow money to attend West Texas A&M University (or any university) for the first two years. If you must borrow, attend community college, but dont borrow a penny for community college either. Pay as you go. And I should have added: Live with your parents rent-free as long as possible.

Planning for the future

You might think I was simply on a recruiting tour for the university where I serve as president. Yes, of course, I hoped that my visits helped make the university more appealing. My primary purpose, however, was not recruiting students, but helping them determine a long-range plan to enable them to become what I call noble citizens ready to work, engage, think and vote.

Of course, you can still be a noble citizen and have a lot of debt. Its just a lot more difficult. If you are saddled with debt, youre less able to contribute to the community, at least financially, or purchase a home. As I spoke with students, I shared a few statistics to help illustrate the point.

Seventy percent of college students graduated with debt in 2019  on average, US$30,000.

Some of those graduates will still be paying off their student loans decades later, when they get Social Security checks  either voluntarily or by having those checks garnished. Of Americans over 60, 2.8 million have student loans. While 73 percent of those are cosigners paying for children or grandchildren, the rest are students paying off their own education loans.

Additionally, a growing number of aging Americans have college debt that they will not pay back before dying.

Default rates for borrowers over 65 are nearly 40 percent, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Pell Grants, which are federal grants to help low-income students to pay for college, once covered 79 percent of tuition and fees in 1975 but only covered 29 percent by 2017  a downhill slide caused by escalating costs and easy loans.

Mixed results on borrowing

Some studies suggest borrowing yields an increase in credits earned and academic performance. Despite those benefits, other research shows that student loan debt can have a negative, long-term effect on people financially and emotionally.

I told the students if they must borrow, to never borrow more than 60 percent of their anticipated starting salary of the first job. This is consistent with what I call the 60 percent Rule, which a state higher education agency developed to make sure students dont borrow more than their degree is worth.

For example, if someone wanted to teach in a small Texas community with a $40,000 starting salary, they should not borrow more than $24,000 to attain a bachelors degree. Similar  although more lenient  advice can be found in Forbes, which urged borrowers to never borrow more than their expected first year salary. (For information about the expected salary for a particular job, check the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.)

In urging students not to take on too much student debt, I also highlighted other paths  aside from college  to noble citizenship: military service, certification programs or family businesses.

A duty to inform

I recognize the responsibility of university leadership to point out the challenges for students and families when borrowing for education. It is difficult for middle-income families to pay the increasing costs of a college education. Informed borrowing is the key issue for students. The need is highlighted for students who are first in their family to attend college and may accept the advice that any college degree is worth whatever it costs. It is not true. And, it is an unfair burden for university leadership to place on students.

But if students borrow for college, in my view, they should be aware that they are possibly being sucked into what I like to call a troubling triangle of treachery.

One side of the triangle is represented by elected officials who encourage everyone to go to college.

The second side is represented by lenders, who  in my view  do little to assess an individuals ability to repay a student loan. If a student borrows to enroll in a program, limits placed on amounts borrowed are quite high when federal and private loans are combined. And they tend to treat all college degrees, and by inference, employment opportunities as equal. Yet, the employment marketplace reveals that is not the case.

The third side is represented by university leadership, which  in my view  has not done enough to let students know the pitfalls of borrowing.

A students indebtedness is eventually their own responsibility. Debt responsibility will not disappear for the student  or for parents who are helping them. Its their responsibility too.

Just ask the 44 million Americans, many of whom did not graduate, who owe $1.5 trillion in student loan debt.

The tour was a learning experience. The value proposition of American higher education is changing. I saw it in the eyes of 20,000 students across 14,000 miles.

Walter V. Wendler is president, West Texas A&M University.
Grocery delivery firm Milkbasket is looking at bringing in private labels across categories like dairy, bakery and fresh produce, and expects about 40 per cent of its revenue to come from such products by the end of the year.

The company has been "experimenting" with private labels and has seen a good response to these products, Milkbasket co-founder and CEO Anant Goel told PTI.

"We have been experimenting with private labels for a year across categories like eggs, pulses, whole spices and dry fruits. We are now looking at creating five separate brand lines for dairy, bakeries, food, non-food and fresh produce," he said.

Goel added that sourcing of these items is under works, and brand name and other details will be formalised in the first half of the year.

"Private labels are already contributing 20-22 per cent of revenues and we expect to double this, get to about 40 per cent by the end of the year," he said.

Goel said the company has achieved an overall gross margin of 20 per cent for the business.

"While the margin is higher in Gurugram, it is lower in cities like Hyderabad where we have just started. We expect this to improve and the overall numbers could be around 25 per cent by the end of the year," he added.

By December 2020, the company expects its average revenue run rate to be upwards of USD 100 million (about Rs 710 crore).

Milkbasket operates in cities like Gurugram, Ghaziabad, Noida, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

The company has raised close to USD 26 million in equity funding from Mayfield India, Beenext, Kalaari Capital, Unilever Ventures, Blume Ventures, Lenovo Capital (LCIG), few family offices, and USD 2.2 million in venture debt funding from Innoven Capital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
UPDATE: 4:52 p.m.

Two charter flights carrying passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship departed Tokyo en route to the United States on Feb. 17 at 0705 Japan Standard Time, according to the U.S. Embassy in Japan.

U.S. Embassy Tokyo will continue to provide all possible consular services to the U.S. citizens remaining in Japan.

UPDATE: 3:40 p.m.

Officials at Joint Base San Antonio  Lackland are prepared to receive evacuees from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, where about 70 people have been diagnosed with novel coronavirus. The ship, which had been docked in Japan under quarantine since Feb. 5, had about 400 Americans on board.

A Kalitta Airlines flight from Tokyo International Airport was scheduled to leave around 1:25 a.m. Japan Standard Time and arrive at Kelly Field around 9:11 p.m. Central Standard Time, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware. Kalitta Airlines is the same airline that transported the first set of evacuees now quarantined at JBSA-Lackland.

Officials have not confirmed that this flight is the chartered flight bringing the Americans quarantined on the cruise liner. Officials also have not confirmed if the flight will fly directly to JBSA-Lackland, or stop first at Travis Air Force Base.

Once in San Antonio the passengers will be quarantined at JBSA-Lackland for two weeks and monitored for the illness.

Our team is prepared to provide the same lodging support for the quarantine in the same facilities we provided DHHS and the CDC earlier this month, JBSA officials said Sunday. The health and safety of the men, women and families living and working on JBSA-Lackland and in the San Antonio community is our number one priority.

ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES:

For the second time since the start of the Novel coronavirus outbreak in China, Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland is being called on to quarantine American evacuees from Asia. This time it is passengers stranded on a cruise liner in Yokohama, Japan, who are to be flown here.

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo sent an email to American passengers aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship saying that a chartered flight will arrive today for those who want to return to the United States. The evacuees will follow a similar procedure of those Americans brought home earlier from China. They will first be flown to Travis AFB in California and some will then be flown to quarantine at Lackland AFB.

The exact number of evacuees that will be quarantined at Lackland and when they will arrive is still being determined, said Scott Pauley, a spokesman from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Read what one American passenger on board the ship is tweeting about the possibility of being quarantined in San Antonio at our subscriber site ExpressNews.com.

Buses will move Americans and their belongings from the ship to the chartered plane, and the evacuees will be screened for symptoms before boarding, the email read. We recognize this has been a stressful experience, and we remain dedicated to providing all the support we can and seeing you safely and expeditiously reunited with family and friends in the United States.

Pauley said the time of arrival of the passengers is still being determined, based on the number of evacuees and how long the screening process takes.

Currently, passengers aboard the cruise ship are being monitored for symptoms of the virus, including a fever. If anyone shows signs of the illness, they will be taken to a hospital. This will continue through out their process back to the United States.

The passengers will be screened before leaving the ship and monitored and evaluated by medical and public health personnel every step of the way, including before takeoff, during the flight, and after arrival, the CDC and Department of Health and Human Services said in a joint statement Saturday. U.S. Government staff will conduct risk assessments to ensure the health of each traveler, including temperature checks and observation for respiratory symptoms.

Once off the ship, Americans will board the State Department-chartered aircraft that will fly them to Travis AFB. There, the travelers will be screened again. Any passengers showing symptoms of the illness will be taken to a hospital.

Some of the evacuees aboard the flight will be quarantined at Travis AFB while others will be flown on to Lackland, where they will again be screened upon exiting the plane.

There are approximately 400 U.S. citizens aboard the cruise ship, at least 40 of which have already been taken off the ship after being infected with the virus. Pauley said the number of evacuees coming to the U.S. may decrease, depending on if anyone shows symptoms during the screening process in Japan.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.
KOLLAM: A 26-year-old Bihari woman has proved language is no barrier as she emerged the topper in a literacy examination conducted in Kerala for migrant labourers. Romiya Kathur, hailing from a nondescript village in Bihar, scored the first rank with full 100 marks in the examination held by the Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority recently.

She had reached Kerala in search of a job along with her husband Saifullah and settled down in Umayanalloor in southern Kollam district in 2014. The mother of three, who runs a juice parlour here, had written the exam at a local higher secondary school carrying her four-month-old baby daughter, Thamanna last month.

A total of 1,998 migrant labourers had appeared for the literacy exam in the second phase of the scheme "Changathi" across the state on January 19. Changathi (Friend) project is aimed at teaching migrant labourers, living in the state, Malayalam within four months.

It had begun in Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district, the hub of migrant labourers in the state on August 15, 2017, Literacy Mission officials said. Over 3,700 migrants, who flocked to the southern state in search of better wages and living conditions, had cleared the exam under the initiative so far in two phases, they said.

Mission director P S Sreekala visited Kathur at her home here recently and congratulated her for the rare achievement. The migrant woman said she wanted to clear the higher secondary equivalency exam conducted by the Mission, for which the directed extended complete support.

She also said "Hamari Malayalam", the textbook prepared for students of the Changathi scheme, was very helpful in the daily life. "It has helped me a lot in communicating in Malayalam, life especially in railway station and market," she said, adding she also wanted to teach her children Malayalam.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 15:06:04|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on the sidelines of the 56th Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Feb. 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday met Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on the sidelines of the 56th Munich Security Conference, with both pledging mutual support in the fight against the novel coronavirus epidemic (COVID-19).

Wang thanked Japan for its understanding and support for China's fight against COVID-19, noting that stories of many Japanese people extending a helping hand to China have been spreading on the Chinese Internet, from which the Chinese people have felt the friendship and warmth from Japan as a neighbor.

The mutual support between China and Japan in this fight against the epidemic fully reflects the tradition of mutual help among Eastern countries, Wang said, adding that he believes the friendship between the two peoples will be further deepened.

Wang said that with the joint efforts of China and all parties, he believes the epidemic will end soon. The Chinese economy has been affected by the epidemic, but efforts can be made to make up for the losses. China's goals of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and winning the battle against poverty this year will certainly be achieved.

China is willing to continue to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation with Japan in economy, trade, personnel exchanges and other aspects to jointly push bilateral strategic relations of mutual benefit to a new level, and bring more benefits to the two countries and peoples, Wang said.

For his part, Motegi said that China has made great efforts to control the spread of the virus, which Japan highly appreciates, and that he believes China will be able to overcome the epidemic at an early date.

Japan is willing to continue to fully support and help China, work closely with China to further deepen cooperation in various fields, and jointly prepare for important high-level exchanges between the two countries this year, so as to score new developments in Japan-China relations, said Motegi.
MONTREALThe recent killing of a 22-year-old woman in Quebec has focused renewed attention on Canadas prostitution laws, which critics say are applied irregularly across the country and only make sex work more dangerous.

People connected to the industry say the Jan. 22 death of Marylene Levesque in a suburban Quebec City hotel has exposed hypocrisy in the way the law is enforced in this country and highlighted the cowardice of Canadas political class on the issue of sex work.

Sold to the public in 2014 as a way of protecting women in the sex trade, Bill C-36 has pushed women who sell sexual services into becoming invisible, Sandra Wesley, an advocate for women in the sex industry, said.

Things are definitely getting worse for sex workers, said Wesley, the head of Stella, a Montreal-based organization run by and for sex workers.

We have to make more and more compromises in terms of our safety so the client feels safe (from arrest).

Eustachio Gallese, 51-year-old convict out on day parole, has been charged with second-degree murder in Levesques death. He was imprisoned for murdering his wife in 2004 and had been convicted of assaulting a previous partner, but as part of his day parole, a risk-management strategy was developed to allow Gallese to meet women to respond to his sexual needs.

Wesley argues that Levesque, who was a sex worker, was placed in danger by the stricter laws governing prostitution.

Before 2014, Wesley explained, a man could pay a woman to have sex in a private hotel room and no one was committing a crime.

But under Bill C-36, purchasing sex or benefiting from the selling of sex is illegal. Sex workers cannot advertise sexual services, and potential clients cannot communicate with a prostitute in any way, or in any place, for the purposes of buying sex.

Although the law protects the sex worker from criminal liability, clients or the employer, such as a massage parlour, face arrest and prosecution.

Wesley said a woman in a hotel room with a client doesnt want to bring attention to herself, out of fear hotel staff will call police. Instead of screaming or running out of the room to the front desk, sex workers have learned to attempt to take care of hostile situations on their own.

There are other instances where the law forces women into dangerous situations.

Before, prostitutes could lean on a car window and negotiate services and a price with a client. They could take the time to inspect the car  and the man  to spot anything suspicious.

But now, Wesley said, the act of negotiating services is illegal. We have to jump in the car really fast as soon as it slows down, she said, referring to the women her organization represents.

Local media reported that Gallese had been banned from the massage parlour where Levesque worked after he had been aggressive. Wesley says massage parlour owners across Quebec are reluctant to report dangerous clients to police because they run the risk of being arrested or losing their business.

Yanik Chicoine, owner of a massage parlour in the east-end Montreal neighbourhood of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, agrees that most parlour owners dont dare call police if a client becomes problematic or if other trouble occurs.

I can say the majority of them would not call the police. Because they are afraid, said Chicoine, head of a massage parlour association that represents about 50 establishments in the province.

But Chicoine says he would welcome arrest to put the countrys prostitution laws to a legal test.

His massage parlour, called La Montrealaise, openly flouts Canadian law, detailing on its website various sexual services that are available.

Chicoine said hes ready to go all the way to the Supreme Court. If they come to arrest us, we are definitely already prepared ... to assert the rights of sex workers and their clients, he said in a recent interview.

But so far, he said, the police have left him alone, as long as he doesnt hire minors or have ties with organized crime.

La Montrealaise is located in a low-income neighbourhood that was previously home to many women selling sex from the street. The police, he said, prefer that the women work indoors, in a safe environment.

Levesques murder exposed other problems in the way the law is enforced. Although the parole board called the strategy inappropriate, documents show Gallese was permitted to meet women strictly for sexual purposes. It was essentially a green light to break the law and hire prostitutes.

Stan Stapleton, president of the union that represents parole officers, said he was informed the suspect saw Levesque in a hotel because he was no longer permitted by the parole board to visit massage parlours.

Stapleton said in a recent interview his office had received calls from correctional employees in different parts of the country saying the practice of letting offenders purchase sex was rare, but it did occur in the past.

A spokeswoman for Correctional Service Canada, which employs parole officers, said it is taking the unions allegations seriously. Let us be clear that the Correctional Service of Canada does not support offenders soliciting sexual services, Esther Mailhot said in an email.

Federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair has launched an investigation into the circumstances that led to Levesques death.

Blair was unavailable for an interview, and his office did not address specific questions about prostitution laws being ignored or loosely enforced, and whether the federal government plans to modify the legislation.

In an email, his spokeswoman, Mary-Liz Power limited her comments to the Levesque case, saying the investigation launched by Blair will determine whether or not correct protocols were followed in this case, and shine a light on which systemic changes could help ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again.

Wesley says she has been told by politicians that they realize that Canadas current prostitution laws arent working. She says they are reluctant to act because they are worried about being portrayed as encouraging the proliferation of the sex trade.

We know that their concern right now is whether or not decriminalizing sex work will affect their re-election chances, she said.
BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The volume of passenger trips during the Spring Festival travel rush this year is expected to be 45 percent lower than last year due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, with no peak in the number of return trips, said China's Ministry of Transport on Saturday.

"Multiple measures on staggering return trips have been implemented to lower the risks of epidemic transmission, and they are producing notable results," Li Wenxin, vice general manager of the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., said at a press conference in Beijing.

In the near future, there will be no large-scale flows of people in return trips on the railway, Li said.

It was estimated that the number of railway passenger trips after the Spring Festival would reach 280 million, with an average of 11.2 million per day, said Li, adding that in fact, the total number of passengers sent after the holiday was less than 40 million as of Friday, with an average of 1.84 million each day, down 83 percent from the same period last year.

The number of passenger trips made by air also dropped sharply, and from Jan. 25 to Feb. 14, civil aviation transported 470,000 passengers per day, a quarter of the number from the same period last year, said Li Jian, deputy head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

"The downward trend is expected to continue from Feb. 15 to 23, with less than 40 percent of seats filled," Li Jian said.

From Jan. 25 to Feb. 14, a total of 283 million passenger trips were made across the country, with 13.48 million per day, down 82.3 percent compared with the same period last year, said Liu Xiaoming, vice minister of transport.

The Spring Festival travel rush, also known as chunyun, lasts for 40 days from Jan. 10 to Feb. 18 this year.
Britain's 'worst mother' Karen Matthews, 44, has upset her paedophile fiance because of her obsession with Emmerdale bad boy Cain Dingle, reports suggest.

Paul Saunders is said to loath Matthews's obsession with the character, played by 40-year-old Jeff Hordley, with the mother setting the actor's face as her phone's screensaver and the show's theme tune as her ringtone.

Matthews - from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire - staged the kidnap of her daughter Shannon in order to cash in on a 50,000 reward for her safe return and she was jailed for four years.

Britain's 'worst mother' Karen Matthews, 44, has upset her paedophile fiance Paul Saunders (together left) because of her obsession with Emmerdale bad boy Cain Dingle (right), reports suggest

Saunders was jailed for five years in January 2010 for his abuse of a vulnerable young girl aged between 15 and 17.

A source told The Mirror: 'Karen is a massive Emmerdale fan. If its on, no one is allowed to speak.

'Her and Paul are constantly bickering about her obsession with Cain.

'He hates it because hes a long away from looking like Cain Dingle.'

Matthews - from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire - staged the kidnap of her daughter Shannon (left) in order to cash in on a 50,000 reward for her safe return and she was jailed for four years. Right: Handcuffed Matthews leaves a police station

It was revealed last month that Matthews and Saunders were engaged after the convicted paedophile asked her to marry him over Christmas and they now live together in a one-bedroom flat.

Matthews initially broke off her engagement to handyman Saunders after she discovered his conviction.

He targeted a 'vulnerable' girl and made indecent images of her.

He was jailed for five years and placed on the sex offenders' register for life.

With the engagement now back on again, Matthews's family have warned her that she should dump her paedophile lover for good or they will no longer support her.

Saunders was jailed for five years in January 2010 for his abuse of a vulnerable young girl aged between 15 and 17

Last month it emerged that Matthews was hoping to raise tens of thousands of pounds in cash by selling the rights to her wedding to Saunders.

However, her plan is unlikely to succeed as there are strict rules preventing convicted criminals from receiving cash from the media in order to benefit from their notoriety.

The pair have had a number of furious rows since their engagement was announced.

On one trip to the shops, Matthews was spotted without her 39.99 Princess Diana engagement ring.

Friends claimed Matthews bought the Cubic Zirconia cluster ring herself and was later reimbursed by Saunders but, during the time they had split last month, Matthews had considered trying to sell it.

It was revealed last month that Matthews and Saunders were engaged after the convicted paedophile asked her to marry him over Christmas and they now live together in a one-bedroom flat

Matthews was named 'Britain's vilest mother' after she and her ex-boyfriend's uncle Michael Donovan plotted to stage Shannon's kidnapping and claim the 50,000 reward for 'finding' her.

Matthews made a series of tearful TV appeals for help in finding her daughter as West Yorkshire Police launched one of the force's largest ever searches.

The youngster was being held in a flat belonging to her then lover.

Shannon was eventually found by detectives in Donovan's flat, around a mile from her home in Dewsbury, 24 days after she disappeared.

Prosecutors said the schoolgirl was drugged and probably kept captive on a leash during her incarceration.

Police described Matthews as 'pure evil' after she was found guilty of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.

Her then-boyfriend, Craig Meehan, was not involved in the kidnapping plot.

However, he was separately convicted of possessing 49 indecent images of children on a home computer.

She and Donovan were both sentenced to eight years in prison in January 2009 and released in 2012 after serving half their sentences.

Shannon was raised by a new family under a new identity and is now an adult.
With his impeachment and acquittal in the rearview  an outcome we all knew was inevitable based on the current make-up of the Senate and the Republican Partys complete and craven fealty to Trump  its important to recognize that we will now likely see a rapid and unrelenting fall toward fascism in this country led by an unbridled and malignant man.

That has already been clearly illustrated in recent days with his interference in the Roger Stone sentencing and subsequent resignations by Department of Justice prosecutors. It has been on display, as has his petulance, with the dismissal of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a witness who spoke out against the presidents conduct with Ukraine, from his position at the National Security Council.
United Nations, Feb 17 : US Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that the Security Council resolutions on Kashmir have to implemented - and although he did not make a reference to it, the main resolution requires Pakistan to withdraw from the areas it occupies.

Guterres, who is on a visit to Pakistan, said at a news conference in Islamabad on Sunday according to a transcript released here, that: "It is clear that we have taken a position about the need for Security Council resolutions to be implemented and for effective de-escalation and dialogue linked to that, with another very important condition, which is full respect for human rights and (fundamental) freedoms in Jammu and Kashmir." Security Council Resolution 47 adopted on April 21, 1948, requires the Pakistani government "to secure the withdrawal from the State of Jammu and Kashmir of tribesmen and Pakistani nationals not normally resident therein who have entered the State for the purpose of fighting, and to prevent any intrusion into the State of such elements and any furnishing of material aid to those fighting in the State".

Although Pakistanis and their supporters elsewhere cite the Security Council asking for a plebiscite to be held in Kashmir, they ignore the precondition of Pakistan's withdrawal from the occupied areas.

Guterres began a three-day visit to Pakistan, his first as Secretary General, on Sunday to participate in an international conference of 40 years of Pakistan hosting Afghan refugees.

During the trip, he is scheduled to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartapur, which gives direct access to pilgrims from India through a special corridor inaugurated last year.

Replying to a journalist's question about UN's role in Kashmir, Guterres said that while he as offered his good offices, he "can only work when accepted by both sides".

He said that the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet made an "important contribution to clarifying what has happened" in Kashmir through her report.

In a report released in July, her office criticised both India and Pakistan for not taking any concrete steps to address the numerous concerns it had raised in an earlier report.

While criticising India for what it said was the lack of accountability for actions by security forces and human rights violations, it also said that there were reports that two terror groups were recruiting children on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LOC) and carrying out attacks on civilians.

Bachelet has since criticised India over the restrictions and human rights violations after Kashmir was put under President's rule and the subsequent change in its special status under the Constitution's Article 370.

Guterres said that the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) should have full freedom of movement on the Indian side of the LOC as it has in the area under Pakistani control and that its equipment would be reinforced.

"We believe that UNMOGIP should have full freedom of movement; it has on the Pakistani side - we hope that this will also be achieved on the other side, and we will be strengthening its equipment capacity in order to better be able to implement its mandates," he said replying to the question that mentioned 287 alleged ceasefire this year.

In his introductory remarks, Guterres said that he was grateful for the UNMOGIP's work and that it "will continue to monitor the ceasefire at the Line of Control in accordance with its mandate".

India maintains that the UNMOGIP has no useful role in Kashmir because under the Simla Agreement of 1972 between the two countries, it is a bilateral issue.

India withdrew the government accommodation given to it in New Delhi.

Guterres earlier inaugurated a new UNMOGIP headquarters building in Pakistan.

Guterres said that he had discussed the situation in South Asia with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehood Qureshi, and he was "deeply concerned about the increase in tensions that we have witnessed last year".

"I have repeatedly stressed the importance of exercising maximum restraint and taking steps to de-escalate, both militarily and verbally, while reiterating my offer to exercise my good offices, should both sides ask." He added: "Diplomacy and dialogue remain the only tools that guarantee peace and stability, with solutions in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the resolutions of the Security Council." (Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
While India boasts of a mixed bag of travellers with distinct requirements and preferences including families, couples, senior citizens, millennials, group travellers, MICE, and several others, solo women travellers is a segment that is swiftly growing.

Backpacking to various international destinations has been a popular concept, with safety' being the biggest determinant.

Lately, however, domestic destinations are also garnering traction amongst solo women travellers. These women belong to diverse travel sub-categories including financially independent professionals, social media influencers, those belonging to DINK (double income no kids), and travel bloggers.

Suggested by Vikram Lalwani, Chief Customer Engagement Officer, Sterling Holidays, here are some of the highly recommended destinations:

Kufri

This small and cosy hill station located in the Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh is brimming with beautiful lakes, scenic landscapes and snow-clad mountains. It is extremely safe and welcoming towards tourists, which makes it ideal for women travellers to visit.

Munnar

Munnar is one of the safest destinations in India, popular for its tea plantations, surreal landscapes and lush greenery. Its locals are known to be extremely tenacious and warm, always ready to lend a helping hand to diverse travellers. The place also houses various resorts in different districts that are suitable for solo women travellers.
Doreen Hughes covers events and happenings across the county. Her column appears each Sunday. Contact her at newsroom@galvnews.com with Out and About in the subject line.
An Offaly designer has been announced as one of the Designer of the Year nominees at the Irish Fashion Innovation Awards.

Charlotte Lucas was also honoured in the One To Watch category this time last year, a prediction that certainly now seems to have been prophetic indeed.

This glamour-filled event, hailed as the country's Oscars for fashion, will take place on March 26th at the Galmont Hotel in Galway. The Awards pride themselves on providing a platform not just for more established names, but for emerging talents as well. And for Charlotte, returning as one of the main award nominees this year after being singled out as One To Watch in 2019, the feeling is a combination of surprise, gratitude, and excitement.

"Last year was amazing, it was such a privilege to be involved in the Irish Fashion Innovation Awards for the first time, and to be recognised in any way at all. To be going back twelve months later as one of those nominated for Designer of the Year itself, well I'm over the moon about that. It's such an incredible honour. We're a country brimming over with unbelievable talent in design, something which always serves as both motivation and inspiration. And the last year has been such a busy one, so intense in so many ways. But that's the life of anyone who strives to be successful in fashion. To reach a moment like the one where you get the news of a nomination like this, and then the feeling when the night itself comes, that's when you forget about the million late nights, early mornings, and all the rest of it. Those are the moments when you remember that you do this because you love fashion. So I'm very grateful for this nomination in every way possible."

Past winners include names Carla Johnson, Natalie B. Coleman, Una Burke, Niamh O' Neill, Martha Lynn, Blaithin Ennis, Deirdre Duffy, Rebecca Marsden, and last years main winner, Katie Ann McGuigan. Charlotte will be hoping to see her name added to that list come March.

Patricia McCrossan, managing-director of Golden Egg Productions who host the awards, points out that they're unique to Ireland, saying, "They are seen as providing a rite of passage for many of our top designers as they make their way up the rungs of the fashion ladder. This competition is a wonderful opportunity to emphasise our ethos of encouraging up and coming talent."

Tickets for the Irish Fashion Innovation Awards 2020 are available on eventbrite.ie. You can follow Charlotte Lucas on Instagram.
Until last spring, Justin Faircloth supported his family of three by working on the assembly line at the Honda plant in Talladega County. But his life was upended when he found out that he was dying.

In April 2019, the 33-year-old Odenville man was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer that had spread to his liver. He underwent several rounds of chemotherapy. But in December, Faircloth was booked into the Etowah County Jail on a probation revocation after being arrested and charged with crimes including drug possession and resisting arrest in the preceding months.

Since then he has been transferred to state custody. But he has not received chemotherapy or other necessary cancer treatments since October, according to his oncologist, Dr. Aasim Sehbai of Alabama Cancer Care in Anniston, who says that Faircloth's condition is worsening with each passing day.

I havent received any treatment. They havent even let me speak to my doctor since the 17th of January, Faircloth said in a call from Limestone Correctional Facility last week.

"They have me in [general] population and I have no immune system. I have problems digesting and I've got some bleeding in my stool."

Faircloth's situation is extreme, but it demonstrates the difficulty many inmates have getting access to sufficient medical care in jails and prisons across Alabama. For years, inmates and their loved ones have complained about inadequate care. Many have sued the Alabama Department of Corrections and local sheriff's offices for failing to provide needed treatment and protect people in their care from illnesses, medical complications and even death.

Beginning in December, Faircloth was held for a month in the Etowah County Jail in northeast Alabama, less than 40 miles from his wife, Amber, and their four-year-old daughter. He was transferred next to Kilby State Correctional Facility, a state prison near Montgomery, where he was incarcerated for two weeks. Then he was transported to Limestone, a state prison near Athens in north Alabama. He remains behind bars at Limestone, over 100 miles from his home and family.

The Alabama Department of Corrections, like the Etowah County Sheriff's Office before it, has not taken Faircloth for the chemotherapy and other treatment he needs to slow the progression of his cancer, according to Sehbai.

Today, Faircloth is one of dozens of inmates housed in a crowded open section of a dorm at Limestone. He says that he has lost over 20 pounds in recent weeks, that he is cold, dehydrated and hungry, and that he has experienced a wide range of symptoms since his incarceration, from severe pain and constipation to lightheadedness and nausea.

For the first seven weeks of his incarceration, Faircloth says he did not have access to the opioid painkillers, anti-nausea pills and other medications most people with stage 4 cancers rely on to keep the symptoms at bay. Instead, he says he was sometimes given ibuprofen, the anticoagulant Eliquis, and Colace, a stool softener. Earlier this month, he was put on hydrocodone, the first time he has been able to take a painkiller stronger than ibuprofen since he was booked into the Etowah County Jail in December.

Sehbai has repeatedly called for Faircloth to be released, or at least given access to adequate treatment.

"I feel like his care has been compromised. If he doesnt get treatment, which is already delayed, he can really die in the next month or two," Sehbai said in a phone interview late last month. "With proper treatment he could live two or three years, even up to five years. One way or the other, he needs to get treatment."

Justin Faircloth receives a chemotherapy treatment last year.Courtesy Amber Faircloth

'Kindly be lenient'

In Alabama, inmates serving long sentences who suffer from severe medical conditions can be released from jail or prison before the end of their sentenced terms only under specific circumstances. Sometimes, as AL.com and ProPublica reported last year, sheriffs urge judges to grant their release from local jails on medical bond in order to avoid paying their medical bills.

But once they reach the state prison system, the only ways prisoners can typically be released early are if they are pardoned, if a judge grants their release, if the Department of Corrections grants them a medical furlough, or if they are paroled by the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles either via the normal parole process or medical parole. Allowing inmates to be released from prison early due to medical issues is often referred to as compassionate release.

In a Jan. 13 letter to Etowah County Circuit Judge Sonny Steen, who presided over Faircloth's case, Sehbai made a plea for mercy. Steen did not respond to requests for comment, and Sehbai said he did not receive a response from the judge.

"I will request that the Judge kindly be lenient with him as he has advanced stage 4 colon cancer and a short survival," Sehbai wrote to the judge.

Four days later, Faircloth was transported to Kilby.

Etowah County Sheriff Jonathon Horton said in a phone interview that the judge made the call to move Faircloth to state custody. He said Steen determined that Faircloth should remain behind bars because he is a chronic offender.

A self-described former drug addict, Faircloth has been charged with numerous crimes over the course of his life, including theft, burglary, drug possession and manufacture, writing bad checks, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and others. He was arrested three times over the four months before he was taken into custody in December, for charges including resisting arrest, drug possession and violating probation.

"He's using his sickness as an excuse to get out of jail over and over again. In layman's terms, he just ran out of his chances. So the judge revoked [his probation] and says he has to serve his days," Horton said.

"Judge Steen said, basically, because of his offenses, he can't just keep cutting him loose and hoping he'll do the right thing.'"

The earliest date Faircloth can be released, barring such an intervention, is April 1, 2031, according to the DOCs online inmate records. Without treatment, hell be lucky to make it to 2021, Sehbai said.

DOC spokeswoman Samantha Rose said via email that while the department "can present a request for medical furlough as established with specific eligibility criteria" as outlined in state law and departmental regulations, "ADOC does not have the authority to release an inmate under a compassionate release, that is a decision made by the courts when requested and petitioned by the inmates attorney."

Last month, the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles sent an email response to a written request by Amber Faircloth for relief for her husband.

"The Board can only consider someone for parole if they are eligible under the law. Mr. Faircloth's file is being processed and he will receive a notice with his parole consideration eligibility date," the letter, which was signed only by "Board Operations Staff," states.

"However, for any health-related concerns you need to contact the Alabama Department of Corrections. The Bureau of Pardons and Paroles cannot arrange for any health-related treatment."

Justin Faircloth holds his daughter last year.Courtesy Amber Faircloth

'Cancer don't wait for nobody'

Justin and Amber Faircloth were in relatively good spirits when they sat down for a late breakfast at the Cracker Barrel in Trussville one chilly day in October.

His medical bills were piling up because he had recently lost his Medicaid coverage due to a slight monthly income increase. He had already been billed for tens of thousands dollars worth of life-saving procedures and treatments, and he was warily anticipating future costs totaling many thousands more.

A month later, the couple laid out copies of some of those bills on the table in a booth at a Waffle House in Irondale, a ten-minute drive from the house in the hills on the outskirts of Birmingham where they were temporarily staying. The numbers were eye-popping: $16,233.87 due to Regional Medical Center in Anniston for charges incurred between April and June; $742 for an October ambulance ride; a $1,314 balance with Surgical Clinic of Anniston.

Faircloth had no insurance, he was very sick and he was facing jail time. His wife was struggling to care for him, make a living and provide for their young daughter.

Im really concerned. His liver is just destroyed. He has no immune system with stage 4 colon cancer. It would be bad even if he just got a cold, she said.

And yet the Faircloths were quick to laugh as they discussed their lives over waffles and orange juice, and they seemed hopeful about the future, despite all the challenges they faced. They were unaware that the worst trials were yet to come.

Today, Justin Faircloth is behind bars and his wife has dedicated most of her non-working hours to trying to find a way to get him proper medical attention.

Calls to advocacy groups and lawyers have gone unanswered or led nowhere. The letter Sehbai sent to Judge Steen, which noted that Faircloth had not had a chemotherapy treatment since October, has gone unanswered.

Rose, the DOC spokeswoman, said via email that Faircloth "will continue to receive his prior free world care treatment and any future treatment as ordered by his treating physicians while" he remains in state prison.

But that has not been his experience to date, according to Sehbai and Amber Faircloth, who said that the department waited until nearly a month after he was transferred to state custody to take him to an initial screening appointment on Monday at a cancer treatment center in Huntsville that he had never visited before.

"They took Justin to a different cancer treatment center and they took his blood and didnt know anything about his medical stuff and said it could be another two weeks to a month before a chemo treatment," she said Monday.

Justin Faircloth confirmed that version of events.

They didnt transport me to any of my prior providers. I havent seen Dr. Sehbai since the Monday before I went to Etowah County, he said in a call from Limestone last week.

"It's all new faces and they have no clue what's going on with me. [The doctor at the Huntsville cancer center] was asking me what side the cancer was on and what was going on."

If Faircloth doesn't receive chemotherapy for another full month, that would bring the time since he has gone without a chemo treatment to more than five months.

"I'm not receiving the proper medical care. By now, I shouldve already had at least three treatments since I've been locked up and I haven't received one," he said.

Theyre doing enough to make it look like theyre doing something. But [the Huntsville doctor] told me it could be another month before I get treatment. And I said, You know, as well as I do, that cancer dont wait for nobody.
A petition opposing a new mosque in suburban Sydney has been labelled offensive by a prominent member of Sydneys Muslim community.

Sports agent Khoder Nasser said claims made in the petition, which has attracted more than 2300 signatures, were totally offensive.

A new mosque in Carlton has been proposed to provide a place of worship for members of the local Muslim community including Mohammed Ghassa, Ali Meihi, Yasser Nasser and Dr Mohammed Vaywda. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

The online petition said the mosque, which is proposed for a former nursing home in Carlton, near Hurstville, will not fit in with the street.

We fear for the safety of our children and local community members and for our peaceful streets and way of life, the petition said.
Alabama is one of just 17 states where medical marijuana is illegal, part of a dwindling coalition of holdout states in the Southeast and Midwest. But a new bill in the state Senate could potentially change that.

SB 165, which would create the compassion act, would pave the way for the state to legalize certain forms of medical marijuana, and create programs to grow, administer and tax it. But even if the bill, sponsored by state Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, passes, you shouldnt expect to see anyone legally smoking weed in the state.

The bill came last week after extensive study by a commission composed of doctors, legislators and lawyers. Melson chaired the study commission.

The bill would make it legal for people with certain illnesses or conditions, including anxiety, cancer and chronic pain, among other things, to get a medical cannabis card. But the bill wouldnt allow any form of smoked or vaped marijuana - or even edibles. Instead, the bill would allow oral tablets, gelatinous cubes or lozenges, topical creams/oils, suppositories, patches, nebulizers and inhalers.

If the bill passes, Alabama would be the 34th state to legalize medical marijuana. That includes the 11 states and Washington, D.C., where recreational marijuana is legal.

Alabama is among a minority of states where medical marijuana is illegal. Could that change? | Ramsey Archibald

Alabama is not alone in inching toward the rest of the country. Kentucky this month also advanced a bill that would legalize medical marijuana.

The Alabama bill would impose tight controls on those cultivating and selling medical marijuana. Both inventory and card holders would be electronically tracked. Products would be taxed at a rate of 9 percent, with some of the proceeds going back toward the operation of the program. A special account would also be created for the Medical Cannabis Research Fund.

Do you think Alabama should legalize medical marijuana? Answer the poll below to let us know what you think.

Do you have an idea for a data story about Alabama? Email Ramsey Archibald at rarchibald@al.com, and follow him on Twitter @RamseyArchibald. Read more Alabama data stories here.
A 14-year-old girl whose best friend helped to raise 300,000 to fund life-saving cancer treatment has died from a rare form of the disease.

Teenager Lily Wythe was only diagnosed five months ago with the deadliest type of childhood cancer.

Her heartbroken family announced that she sadly lost her battle with the condition yesterday morning.

The tragic news comes just a few weeks after her best pal, Lillie Cotgrove, 13, helped to raise an incredible 230,000 in just seven days towards a fund to pay for crucial treatment in the US for Lily.

But schoolgirl Lily, from Benfleet, Essex, had an inoperable brain tumour and died before she was able to travel to America for the experimental medical care.

Lily Wythe, 14, had an inoperable brain tumour and was hoping to travel to the US for experimental treatment

Lillie Cotgrove (right) managed to raise thousands of pounds to help her friend Lily Wythe travel to America

Celebrities including Rachel Riley, Steven Gerrard, Jonathan Ross and Game of Thrones' Alfie Allen joined the grassroots campaign to raise money for Lily.

Her devastated mother, Diana Wythe, 40, announced the news on a Facebook page dedicated to Lily's battle.

In a heartfelt statement, she said: 'It's with the heaviest of hearts we announce the passing of our beautiful brave Lily.

'On Thursday Lily suffered a huge seizure, she was ventilated and we were transferred to Addenbrooks Paediatric Intensive Care Unit.

'She fought long and hard all day Saturday into this morning. We are utterly heartbroken but we couldn't be prouder of our girl.

'Fly high beautiful, cancer free and forever 14 years old.'

Lily was diagnosed with a high-grade diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) in October last year.

Lillie was 'devastated' to learn Lily's cancer could prove to be fatal within 12 months of diagnosis.

But Lily's parents found new hope when they found out about 'promising' clinical trials for their daughter's cancerous brain tumour in Seattle, USA.

However they also learned they'd need a huge 300,000 to pay for the treatment.

Lillie Cotgrove (right) with her friend Lily Wythe. Lily died from brain cancer before she was able to go to the US for treatment

Lily Wythe pictured (above) in hospital. Celebrities including Rachel Riley, Steven Gerrard, Jonathan Ross and Game of Thrones' Alfie Allen joined the campaign to raise money for Lily

WHAT IS A DIFFUSE INTRINSIC PONTINE GLIOMA? A diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is the second most common type of high-grade brain tumour to affect children. The cancers begin in a part of the brain stem called the pons, which is responsible for vital functions such as breathing, sleeping and blood pressure. Because the tumours grow in such a sensitive and important area of the brain it is too dangerous to operate on them, so they are considered incurable. Most diagnoses occur in children between the ages of five and 10. The cause of the tumour remains unknown, but more than 90 per cent of patients are thought to die within 18 months of diagnosis. Each year, there are around 100 to 150 new diagnoses in the US and between 20 and 30 in the UK. Symptoms include lack of facial control, double vision, headaches, vomiting, weakness, seizures and balance problems. One of the early indicators of the cancer is a child falling, tripping or losing balance. Source: The Brain Tumour Charity

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Lillie was determined to do what she could to help her friend and so set up a fundraising page, The One Pound Warriors.

The page asked for a voluntary 1 donation from all its members and received a host of celebrity endorsements including Jonathan Ross, Rachel Riley, and Gemma Collins.

The Facebook page was set up by Lillie and her mum Sarah on January 16 and its 134,000 members managed to raise 230,000 in just seven days.

This total was added to 78,000 raised by a separate GoFundMe page, which was set up nine weeks ago in November 2019.

Lily's condition took a turn for the worst last Thursday when she suffered a seizure and was rushed to Addenbrooke's paediatric intensive care unit in Cambridge. She died there just two days later.

Sarah Cotgrove, who set up One Pound Warriors on behalf of her daughter Lillie, said: 'To say we have been astounded by the response and outpouring of love since we launched our page would be an understatement.

'We have had donations of pension money and pocket money, people writing songs, painting pictures, baking cakes and everything in between.

'Lily knew she was going to Seattle and that gave her so much positivity. We all need some time, we need to cry and shout and turn to each other.

A Facebook page was set up by Lillie Cotgrove (right) and her mum Sarah and its 134,000 members managed to raise 230,000 in just seven days

Lily Wythe's devastated mother, Diana Wythe, 40, announced the news of her daughter's death on a Facebook page dedicated to her battle

'Life is so unfair we need to scream. I would ask everyone who has supported us so far to please pray for Lily's family and hold them close in their thoughts.'

Hugh Adams, spokesman for Brain Tumour Research, which worked with the family to raise awareness of their campaign, added: 'We are devastated to hear the news that Lily Wythe has died.

'We know that Lily and her family drew great comfort from the enormous outpouring of love which followed an appeal, set up by her friend Lillie Cotgrove, to raise the 300,000 they needed for a possible clinical trial in Seattle.

'We cannot let this situation continue to happen. Families simply should not be placed in the hideous situation of having to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds, and seek treatment abroad.

'Lily's tragic story spurs us on to work ever more resolutely to raise funds for research and to campaign for the government and the larger cancer charities to invest more and work with us to make a difference.'
MIDLAND, Va. - A 17-year-old boy charged with fatally shooting his mother and 6-year-old brother in their Virginia home was apprehended after he tried to shoplift hair dye, clothes and a backpack from a North Carolina department store, police said Sunday.

Levi Norwood was arrested Saturday after employees at a Target in Durham, North Carolina, found him in the sporting goods section and called police, said Sgt. James Hartman, a spokesman for the Fauquier County Sheriffs Department in Virginia.

In the stores parking lot, investigators found a car Norwood stole in Virginia after killing his mother and brother and wounding his father on Friday evening at their home in Midland, Virginia, authorities said. Investigators didnt immediately find any guns in Norwoods possession, but Fauquier County Sheriff Robert Mosier said the stolen car would be brought back to Virginia and searched for weapons.

Norwoods father, who escaped and called for help, was in stable condition at a hospital on Saturday. The sheriff wouldnt provide any updates on the fathers condition Sunday.

Norwood was charged with two counts of murder in the killing of Jennifer Norwood, 34, and her son Wyatt.

Midland is about 55 miles (85 kilometres) southwest of Washington, D.C. Law enforcement officers initially believed Norwood had barricaded himself inside the familys home but didnt find him in there when they entered the residence after trying to contact him for several hours.

Fauquier Countys sheriff and public schools superintendent said they didnt know whether Norwood, a junior at Liberty High School in Bealeton, had any reported behavioural or health problems, the Washington Post reported.

Adam Moore, a 17-year-old classmate of Norwood, told t he newspaper that he saw the boy in school on Friday morning and he definitely didnt seem sad or anything.
Abruptly ordered to return home from Vietnam, David Jones could not say goodbye to his girlfriend, and it has haunted him for 47 years.

"Miss Saigon" is a famous musical about the tragic wartime romance of a young Vietnamese girl abandoned by her American boyfriend. It is also a mirror of Joness own story. But the 69-year-old Tennessee man has got another chance to rewrite the ending of his story.

He says: "Both my daughter and I loved watching Miss Saigon. Hearing the story of my first love, my daughter burst into tears and encouraged me to find her."

David and Phuong first met at the beginning of 1972, he-- a 21-year-old chef at Binh Thuy base in southern Can Tho City and she--an attractive girl working near the military base.

David Jones as 21-year-old chef at Binh Thuy Base in Can Tho. Photo courtesy of David.

He fell head over heels in love with a girl he describes as honest, lovely and shy. But the first time he professed his love for her she was silent, and the second time she outright rejected it saying he would return to his country soon.

Her resistance did not last long though, and she too decided to follow her heart.

They went on some romantic dates. Jones used to travel from his base to Phuongs neighborhood in Can Tho near what is now the new bus station in Cai Rang District.

They once took a picture together in which she was in a white shirt and black pants, he recalls. She looked feminine with smiling eyes and shoulder-length hair. Later she gave him a photo of her in which she had long black hair.

Around that time the U.S. began to withdraw its troops from Vietnam. He knew their time together was running out, but that day came earlier than originally scheduled. The U.S army closed all its bases and did not allow its personnel to go outside. He too was stuck in the base.

On April 10, 1972, he had to leave Vietnam without bidding farewell to Phuong. Their relationship had lasted four months.

A few months later he received a letter from Phuong. She reminisced about their old Vietnam days and said she had came his base but could not meet him.

"I immediately sent her a letter but there was no reply."

He did not give up their relationship. In 1974 he enlisted in the navy in the hope he would be deployed in Vietnam again. But the U.S. was pulling out of the war and did not send troops again to Vietnam.

David was unable to find his way back to Vietnam and feared they were separated for good.

He got married and had a daughter but his marriage broke up soon. He raised his daughter alone while also serving in the navy.

In the 1990s he quit and worked as a truck driver. He remarried and divorced again. He has been single since 2002.

"I could not help thinking about her during those years. The first time I thought of coming back to Vietnam was last year. Since then I have always longed for a reunion."

In 1994 he lost all their letters and photographs and her address in Vietnam.

Recently he uploaded his personal story on Facebook, which was shared by his Vietnamese friends and attracted 10,000 views.

He had assumed that Phuong did not write to him because she was tired of their long-distance relationship.

"But she might have not received my letter. She might have thought I had forgotten her. The thought of her misunderstanding me has haunted me for decades."

David Jones lives with his daughter and two grandchildren. Photo courtesy of David.

He plans to visit Can Tho. He will visit some old places such as Binh Thuy District and the old apartment building where Phuong used to live.

In a touching message on his Facebook page he wrote: "I do hope you got married to a good man and you are living happily with your family members.

"I wish you peace and happiness. I do not want to disturb your personal life but I crave a meeting with you again, like an old friend."
Rival leaders in war-torn South Sudan face a February 22 deadline to form a long-delayed government of national unity.

Just a few days before the milestone, hopes for a breakthrough dampened after Riek Machar, a former vice president and leader of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO), expressed his dissatisfaction with a peace proposal made by his rival, President Salva Kiir.

Announcing a painful compromise, Kiir on Saturday said the worlds youngest country would return to a system of 10 states from 32, a key opposition demand, in addition to three administrative areas: Pibor, Ruweng and Abyei.

A contentious issue that has lingered for several years, the number of states is one of the main sticking points of a peace agreement that has faltered on several fronts.

While Machar said he appreciated Kiirs decision to revert to 10 states, he expressed his dissatisfaction with the creation of the three administrative areas.

In a statement calling on Kiir to reconsider his decision, Machar said the establishment of the three areas opens up another Pandoras box that defeated the purpose of reverting to 10 states.

The issue of the number of states is contentious because they are the political bases of the top politicians in South Sudan, James Okuk, a lecturer of politics at the University of Juba, told Al Jazeera.

The refusal of Dr Riek Machar to accept the  three administrative areas  is a negotiating position from [his] SPLM/A-IO  it is not rejection of 10 states, Okuk said.

South Sudans rebel leader Riek Machar, right, and President Salva Kiir failed to honour previous peace agreements [File: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters]

When it gained independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan was made up of 10 states, as set out in its constitution.

Two years later, the country descended into war when Kiir accused his former deputy, Machar, of plotting a coup. The conflict has so far killed at least 380,000 people and forced millions from their homes, with nearly half the country in dire poverty.

In 2015, a fragile peace deal came under further pressure when Kiir increased the number of states from 10 to 28, and later 32  before reverting on Saturday to 10 plus the three administrative areas.

Of the three areas, oil-rich Ruweng in the north is thought to be the most contentious and was the scene of some of the heaviest fighting during the war.

Oil provides almost all of the governments revenue, making South Sudan one of the worlds most oil-dependent nations.

During the war, both sides unilaterally formed their own states with new boundaries, said Alan Boswell, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group.

The dispute over the configuration of states became a major impasse blocking the peace process from moving towards a unity government, he added.

Machar risks alienating the regional power brokers if he appears to be rejecting compromise, he added.

The civil war in South Sudan has killed nearly 400,000 people and displaced millions [File: Albert Gonzalez Farran/AFP]

Under pressure from countries in the region, as well as the United States and United Nations, Kiir and Machar signed another peace agreement in 2018.

Under the deal, they agreed to form a unity government in May 2019 but failed to meet the deadline amid disputes over territory and security arrangements.

A second deadline was missed in November last year and pushed back by 100 days, prompting the US to recall its ambassador and impose sanctions on senior officials for their role in perpetuating the conflict.

Against the lingering standoff and a battered economy, many South Sudanese said they hoped for a quick resolution.

The decision by President Salva Kiir to revert to 10 states plus three administrative areas gives assurance that peace is closer, Dhieu William, a Juba resident, told Al Jazeera.

The two parties have to show a certain degree of commitment to restore peace and win the hearts and minds of South Sudanese, William said.

For Okuk, the rival sides have no other desirable alternative available except to compromise and form the new government without further delays, and then carry on with the pending tasks during the transitional period.

Boswell agreed.

A return to war cannot be an option in South Sudan, especially since the two sides stopped fighting over a year ago, he said.

Ultimately, South Sudans regional neighbours will need to help broker a path forward between both sides to make sure the peace deal holds.
India will provide all possible assistance to its nationals on board the quarantined cruise ship moored off the Japanese coast to return home after they test negative in the final coronavirus tests that would begin on Monday, the Indian Embassy said on Sunday.

A total of 138 Indians, including 132 crew and 6 passengers, were among the 3,711 people on board the ship, Diamond Princess, that arrived at the Japanese coast earlier this month.

The total number of people infected with COVID-19 on the ship rose to 355 on Sunday. Out of them, three are Indians.

The Indian Embassy in a tweet said that the final tests for the COVID-19 on the ship would begin on February 17 and continue over multiple days. Hoping our Indian nationals - braving the situation, to test negative, allowing them to travel back HOME. @IndianEmbTokyo stands ready for all possible assistance, the mission said.

On Saturday, it said that the condition of the three Indians infected with the virus was improving.

Happy to inform that health conditions of 3 Indians being treated for COVID-19 have improved and no new cases of infection of Indians on the ship, the embassy tweeted. The embassy said it was making efforts for early de-boarding of all the Indians from the ship after the end of the quarantine period and was in discussions with the Japanese government and the ship management company for the disembarkation modalities and welfare of Indians.

The ship was quarantined after a passenger who de-boarded last month in Hong Kong was found to be the carrier of the COVID-19 on the ship.

The embassy has also sent an email to all the Indian nationals on board the ship, assuring them of all help and assistance.

They are also requested to follow the Japanese governments health and quarantine protocols, the embassy said on its Facebook page.

The Japanese government on Thursday announced that passengers aged 80 or older will be given the option to disembark the ship if they test negative for COVID-19. Those who meet the age requirement and have pre-existing conditions or are staying in rooms without balcony will be prioritised for disembarkation.

No Indian national falls under this category, eligible for early disembarkation, the statement said on Friday.

The death toll from Chinas coronavirus epidemic climbed to 1,665 after 142 more people died, mostly in the worst-hit Hubei Province, and the confirmed cases jumped to 68,500, officials said on Sunday.

More than 580 cases have been confirmed outside mainland China and three deaths, one each in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan.

The coronavirus outbreak originated in central Chinas Hubei province in December last year and has spread to several countries, including India.

Many countries have banned arrivals from China while major airlines have suspended flights to the country.
Lynn Cohen, the stage and screen actress best known for her role as Magda on HBOs Sex and the City," died Friday. She was 86.

In addition to her role on Sex and the City and its two big-screen films, Cohen also acted in television shows, including Nurse Jackie and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. She had roles in such feature films as Steven Spielbergs Munich, Across the Universe and The Hunger Games.

But the award-winning actress also had longstanding ties to a New Jersey theater company.

In 2010, Cape May Stage honored Cohen and her actor husband, Ron Cohen, for their philanthropic efforts at the annual NJ Theatre Alliance Applause Awards, according to broadwayworld.com.

Lynn and Ron Cohen have chosen Cape May Stage as their artistic home and have committed to sharing their work with our community bypassing far more lucrative and higher profile projects, the theater company said in announcing the award.

The couple would offer up a dinner date with them as a raffle prize supporting Cape May Stage. And despite her notoriety, Cohen would even write the theater companys solicitation letter for its annual fundraising event, according to reports.

The Cape May Stage playhouse was once a church that became available for art shows, dances and plays around the 1950s. It became an incorporated Equity theater company in 1988, according to the venues website.

The theater company could not immediately be reached for comment.

Cohen died in New York City, her manager told news outlets. She was a native to Kansas City, Missouri, and her acting career spanned the stage to the silver screen.

She acted on Broadway in Orpheus Descending and Ivanov.

The actor is survived by her husband, Ron Cohen, whom she married in 1964, BuzzFeed reported.

Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @BeccaPanico.
The Delhi Police on Sunday stopped a crowd of Shaheen Bagh protesters from marching towards Union Home Minister Amit Shah's residence as the protesters did not have the required permission to take out a march.

On Saturday, the protestors at Shaheen Bagh had told mediapersons that they would be going to the meet Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence on Sunday over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and NRC.

Soon after, the MHA had issued a statement on Saturday that Home Minister's Office had not given an appointment to anybody for Sunday.

DCP South East RP Meena told ANI, "They had applied for permission for a march by 4,000-5,000 people. Their letter has been sent to the Police Headquarters but till now no permission has been given."

"Besides, the protesters do not have an appointment with Union Home Minister. Hence, we are talking to them and we hope that they will understand," he added.

However, DCP also said that if in future the protesters want to send a delegation to talk to higher authorities, after proper permission "the police will facilitate them".

The development came three days after Home Minister Amit Shah said at Times Now Summit that anyone having doubts over CAA could seek an appointment from his office and he would be willing to meet the person(s) within three days.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In the international cacophony over the civil war in Libya, the silence of Algeria has been easy to ignore. North Africa's largest country has been too distracted by its own political upheaval to contribute to the conversation about the conflict raging to its immediate east.

Now, a new government in Algiers is trying to make itself heard amid the din - but its voice may not be strong enough, nor its pockets deep enough, to get the attention it deserves.

Consider all the countries that have a stake in the Libyan civil war. Each of the main belligerents - the U.N.-recognized Government of National Accord in Tripoli, and the rebel Libyan National Army led by the warlord Khalifa Haftar - has a number of backers. The GNA receives substantial military support from Turkey, financial assistance from Qatar and some diplomatic backing from Italy. Haftar's patrons include Russia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and France. The battlefield also features an assortment of mercenaries and Islamist fighters.

This is all deeply troubling for Algeria, which faces the consequences of political instability next door - a refugee influx, not only of Libyans but also of sub-Saharan Africans, and infiltration by Islamists. The costs of securing Algeria's border with Libya have soared since a 2013 terrorist attack on a gas plant that killed more than 40 staff, most of them foreigners. Many of the al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists are thought to have slipped into the country from Libya.

Algeria, which regards itself as North Africa's linchpin, has historically been leery of any foreign presence in its neighborhood. The regime in Algiers would have been the logical mediator in the conflict that broke out after the fall of Moammar Gadhafi in late 2011.

But the frail health of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, for so long a colossus in the affairs of the Maghreb and the Sahel, meant Algeria could not impose itself on Libyan affairs. Even as other nations got involved, Algeria's main claims to regional primacy - its oil-and-gas powered economy and stable government - weakened.

Even before a people-power movement forced Bouteflika's resignation last spring, the protagonists in the Libyan drama were ignoring Algeria's warnings about instability. The Algerians recognized the GNA, but tried to maintain neutrality, encouraging the warring sides to find a peaceful solution. Such efforts at diplomacy were no match for the arms and cash dispensed by the other players.

In recent weeks, the new government in Algiers has tried to re-establish the country's bona fides as regional arbiter. Last month, it hosted foreign ministers from nations bordering Libya to discuss the situation. The event yielded a photo-op, but was easily overshadowed by more meaningful Libya-related confabs in Moscow and Berlin.

Algeria's new leader, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, is in no position to take up Bouteflika's old mantle as a North African heavyweight. His political legitimacy at home is scant: Hirak, the protest movement that toppled his predecessor, has little confidence in him. Tebboune's election was marred by protests and the smallest turnout in the country's history.

His priority now is to address the problems that brought Hirak into the streets last year, and Libya isn't one of them. Tebboune has released many prisoners and promised constitutional reforms, a purge of old regime loyalists in government, and the recovery of money embezzled by former grandees. But his long ties to the old regime render him suspect in the eyes of the young Algerians who make up much of Hirak. They have vowed to keep up pressure on the government.

Arguably Tebboune's greater challenge is the resurrection of the Algerian economy, a task not aided by low oil prices. His prime minister, Abdelaziz Djerad, has described the health of the economy as "delicate," noting that public debt has rised from 26% of GDP to rose to 45% in the past two years.

Djerad may be right that all this is the "disastrous legacy" of Bouteflika, but undoing the damage will doubly difficult as oil prices remain stubbornly low. Hydrocarbon revenues of $30 billion in the first 11 months of 2019 represented a 14.5% drop from the same period a year earlier. Foreign exchange reserves fell by $10.6 billion in the last nine months. Deep cuts in spending are unlikely: Djerad can't touch subsidies for foodstuffs, fuel and medicine to avoid social unrest for fear of setting off another spasm of protests.

With such crises at home, Algeria's hopes for a role in ending the one next door will have to wait.

- - -

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners. Bobby Ghosh is a columnist and member of the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board. He writes on foreign affairs, with a special focus on the Middle East and the wider Islamic world.
Sajid Javid was secretly pushing for a two-year extension for unskilled EU migrants to come to work in Britain  stoking tensions with Boris Johnson's team.

Relations between No 10 and No 11 Downing Street were stretched by the then Chancellor's insistence that the UK's new border system will not be ready by December and the migrants were needed to meet Mr Johnson's 'levelling up agenda'.

But Mr Johnson's advisers insist the pledge to 'take back control of Britain's borders by December 2021 is a cornerstone of the PM's entire policy agenda' and that Mr Javid's extension plan had set the pair on a collision course. Mr Javid raised his 'immigration transition' directly with the Prime Minister on multiple occasions in January but The Mail on Sunday understands he received short shrift from No 10.

Relations between No 10 and No 11 Downing Street were stretched by the then Chancellor's insistence that the UK's new border system will not be ready by December and the migrants were needed to meet Mr Johnson's 'levelling up agenda.' Sajid Javid pictured on February 13

Hours after Mr Javid quit the Government in a row over a power grab, Mr Johnson's new Cabinet signed off his 'Australian style points system' without any such extension.

The Treasury-backed plan would have seen a temporary extension for low-skilled migrants from the EU to obtain a visa and come work in Britain.

It would have been targeted at so called 'low risk' countries and those coming would not be able to claim benefits or bring their family.

But a No 10 source said: 'Ending low-skill migration is at the heart of Brexit and failing to see that is a fundamental misreading of both the 2016 referendum and the 2019 Election result.'

A source aware of the Treasury plan downplayed the row but admitted that there was 'a difference of view'.

The Whitehall source insisted that the Home Office will not be ready for anything other than a 'crude' new immigration system by the end of the year and Mr Johnson's ambitious policy agenda requires a flow of labour.

Pointing to infrastructure building and broadband rollout as areas that would suffer as a result of 'turning off the taps too quickly,' the source added: 'Sajid agreed that freedom of movement had to end and that as a country we are hooked on cheap labour.

'But his transition would be legislated for only two years and be like using methadone to give up dependency on EU migrants.'
Islamabad: United States Secretary-General Antonio Gutarais arrived in Pakistan on Sunday on a four-day tour. He will hold a meeting with Pakistani PM Imran Khan here and discuss the Kashmir issue. During this time he will attend the International Conference on Afghan Refugees and hold talks with the top leadership of Pakistan. He will also offer prayers at the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur.

Pak PM Imran Khan on tension with army, said- I am not afraid of the army ...

According to local media reports, upon arriving at the Noor Khan Airport, the Secretary-General of the United Nations was welcomed by Munir Akram, Pakistan's permanent representative to the United Nations, and senior officials of the Ministry of External Affairs and the United States in Pakistan. According to the Foreign Ministry, Gutarais will hold a meeting with President Arif Alvi, PM Imran Khan, and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. The ministry has said that during these meetings Pakistan will share its stand on the Kashmir issue.

Saudi Arabia airstrike on Yemen, 31 killed in plane crash

It is also proposed to interact with MPs and youth in their other programs. He will hold special talks on sustainable development, climate change, and peacekeeping. He will also visit Lahore. He will also visit the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur. He will also deliver lectures at an international conference on 'sheltering Afghan refugees in Pakistan for 40 years'.

Jaish warns before Trump's visit to India, 'atrocities on Muslims will be avenged'
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday asserted that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act was brought in by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre out of "humanitarian considerations" and lambasted the opposition for "politicizing the issue".

The party's national general secretary in-charge for Bihar and Rajya Sabha member Bhupendra Yadav also told reporters that denial of a scheduled meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah to a delegation of Shaheen Bagh protesters was "a decision taken by the administration and police in Delhi taking into account the situation on the ground".

He, however, declined to comment on a video purportedly a two-month-old CCTV footage - viral on social media wherein police personnel can be seen storming a library inside the Jamia Millia Islamia and baton charging the students engrossed in books.

"I am not sure about the authenticity of the video and hence it would not be proper for me to comment on it," Yadav said.

The BJP leader was here to take part in a meeting of the party's office-bearers in Bihar which was attended, among others, by state unit chief Sanjay Jaiswal and the latters predecessor and Union minister Nityanand Rai.

"I must say that the CAA was a decision taken out of humanitarian considerations (maanavata ke aadhar par). It is deplorable that the opposition has politicized the issue to the hilt," said Yadav whose party is facing the heat of country-wide protests against the contentious legislation as well as the NPR which many fear would be followed by country- wide implementation of NRC despite statements to the contrary by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"It is about granting citizenship to people, not snatching it away from anybody," said the BJP leader about the law that aims to provide Indian citizenship to Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis who entered India on or before December 31, 2014 from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, having fled religious persecution in their countries.

Yadav also disclosed that BJP president Jagat Prakash Nadda will be here on February 22 to give a pep talk to workers of the party ahead of the assembly polls due later this year.

"Nadda will inaugurate 11 newly-constructed district- level offices of the party during his visit. These offices will serve as centres for training party workers and dissemination of the partys literature," he said.

The function will be followed by a meeting of the partys core committee where the strategy for ensuring the victory of the NDA in Bihar, under the leadership of the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, will be chalked out, the BJP leader said.

This will be Nadda's first tour of Patna after becoming the party chief. He last came here in November while he was the working president of the BJP during which he addressed party workers, recalled his close ties with the city where he was born and brought up, and met Nitish Kumar, who heads the JD(U), assuring him full cooperation from the Centre in running the state government.

Yadav also said, "We are also working to strengthen our party in Bihar, especially in rural areas. On April 6, when we celebrate the party's foundation day, we plan to hold functions in all Panchayats of the state."
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DUBAI, UAE / ACCESSWIRE / February 16, 2020 / As the world is waiting anxiously for the Expo 2020, themed "Connecting Minds, Creating the Future" in Dubai, it won't come as any surprise that blockchain will feature prominently in this grand event whose total investment is expected to exceed 6.8 billion USD.Equally unsurprising is the launch of OKDAX ( www.okdax.com) , a crypto trading platform headquartered in Dubai, just a few days ago. Working closely with Atlas Capital, a Dubai-based investment agency, OKDAX is the first crypto assets trading platform with which Blockchain Campus has formed a deep relationship. The exchange, backed by a wide industry network in Dubai while also partnering with such names as District 2020, SINOLINK INNO HUB and Dubai Blockchain Center, with a network covering MENA (Middle East and North Africa) and Asia-Pacific and extending all the way to Europe and North America, will become a new driver for blockchain growth in the Middle East. It will provide quality trading services to global users and grow in line with leading crypto projects around the world.Government Support and Strong PartnershipIn recent years, the Dubai government has been actively promoting the development of both blockchain technology and a larger ecosystem. As one of the first steps, Dubai Department of Economic Development launched the Unified Business Registry Platform (UBRP). Abdullah Hassan, CEO of the Corporate Support Services sector in the Department said: "we are proud to be in the forefront of Dubai's march to being the world's first blockchain powered government." After that, UAE announced "Emirates Blockchain 2021" and "Smart Dubai 2021" initiatives, which involve developing decentralized Apps in fields including E-government, payment system, land registry and passport-free travel for tourists, to make Dubai a leader in blockchain.Quality crypto trading platforms can play an important role in Dubai Blockchain Strategy. OKDAX plans to open its office in the Middle East's first "Blockchain Campus" in District 2020, which will be an innovation hub for Dubai Expo 2020. District 2020 connects people and spaces in a smart and sustainable urban environment designed to encourage creativity, collaboration, and innovation. The Dubai Blockchain Center is Dubai government's blockchain center, inaugurated by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. It will bring together blockchain thought leaders, developers, investors and educators who will contribute to Dubai's blockchain strategy aimed at integrating digital services and experiences seamlessly into people's daily life.According to a senior manager at OKDAX, compliance and standardization is always a top priority for exchanges. OKDAX is applying for approval with Dubai Financial Services Authority in the DIFC and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority in the ADGM. It will become the most trustworthy compliant crypto trading platform in Dubai.Top Team Taking Care of a Large Global CommunityThanks to the support of the Dubai government, OKDAX is able to extend its reach from MENA to the world, while attracting global resources, including famous agencies, investment banks, funds and traders. Its team members are based around the world in the UAE, US, Korea and HK, etc. Its business and operations team have extensive experience in strategy, investment, marketing and community development. All of the development team are from top blockchain projects and exchanges with an average of 4 plus years of blockchain development experience.Currently, OKDAX has more than 300,000 registered users from MENA, Europe, US, Japan, DPRK and ASEAN with effective DTU (daily trading user) of more than 5000. It is also a strategic investor in two blockchain media outlets tuoniaox.com and blockmena.io , based in China mainland and MENA respectively, who will funnel traffic to projects traded on OKDAX through their media resources and user communities so that projects can accelerate their time to the global market.Growing Fund Promises Innovation and Win-winOKDAX has also made innovations, not only in crypto assets trading, but also in the form of a win-win mechanism.To support the growth of projects, OKDAX has launched a Growing Fund to buy tokens from the market with 50% of its profits. It will also urge projects to withdraw outstanding tokens and help them with repurchase and destruction to create a deflationary effect of tokens. The Fund will also invest in other funds, prominent projects and asset management products.According to Dr. Aisha Bint Buti Bin Bisher, Director General of the Smart Dubai Office, Dubai wants to become the world's smartest city and a regional and global blockchain center.Her words were echoed by another senior manager at OKDAX, who promised that the exchange will fully mobilize its resources to keep providing quality services to users wherever they are in the world. The goal is to grow together towards a better digital world.Company name: OKDAXContact name: Allan LiuEmail: envyfly@ hotmail.com Website: https://www.okdax.com/ SOURCE: OKDAX
Some black voters consider other front-runners as Biden looks to South Carolina originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

Presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden is leaning into his base of black voters more than ever.

Results from the New Hampshire primary were barely rolling in when Biden chartered a last-minute flight to meet with his supporters at a campaign event in South Carolina, a state where two-thirds of the Democratic electorate is African-American. His warm reception appeared to remove the sting of his fifth-place showing in the Granite State.

MORE: 2020 New Hampshire primary election results

After coming in fourth place in Iowa just one week earlier, Bidens success in South Carolina will be paramount as he aims to cement himself as the most electable candidate to go up against President Donald Trump in November.

Look, we're moving in an especially important phase because up til now, we haven't heard from the most committed constituency in the Democratic Party -- the African-American community. And the fast and the fastest-growing segment of society, the Latino community, Biden said in Columbia, South Carolina, last Tuesday.

MORE: 2020 Iowa caucus election results

The three-time presidential hopeful urged supporters to remain optimistic, reminding them that the first two voting states are not a true representation of the Democratic Party and therefore not a fair assessment of his campaign.

When you hear all these pundits and experts ... talk about the race, tell them it ain't over, man. We're just getting started. Our votes count, too, he said.

MORE: Biden escalates attacks on Buttigieg: 'He hasnt been able to unify the black community'

His defensive stance on the race is a far cry from where he was in late November when he officially filed for the South Carolina primary. He greeted voters at local soul food restaurant in rural Abbeville before telling ABC News that he felt pretty confident about the state of his campaign in the Palmetto State. At the time, he was boasting a double-digit lead in the polls with the highest name recognition in the race.

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Biden so far is leading in South Carolina with 36% support among Democratic-leaning voters, according to a recent Fox News poll. Nationally, he now has 27% support among Democratic and Democratic-leaning African-Americans, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.

PHOTO: WFile Photo: Vice President Joe Biden is introduced by Rep. James Clyburn at the CBC Spouses 17th Annual Celebration of Leadership in the Fine Arts at the Nuseum Museum on Sept. 24, 2014 in Washington. (File-Earl Gibson Iii/Getty Images)

House Majority Whip James Clyburn, a longtime friend of Biden's, told ABC News that while strong political relationships aid in the campaigning process, they dont guarantee a primary win.

The support was real. I think I told people that. Joe Biden has a long relationship with South Carolina, Clyburn said. Joe has been all over and throughout South Carolina and he vacations here all the time. But that doesn't mean he will win South Carolina. It means he has that relationship with South Carolinians."

MORE: Despite a rocky primary start, Biden says he's still the best candidate to 'beat Trump'

Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, South Carolinas longest-serving House member who was recently hired to be a senior adviser on Tom Steyers campaign, warned that Biden may have sat on a victory in the Palmetto State after showing strong standing in the state earlier. She said it could be difficult to make the case to voters who have started to look elsewhere in the Democratic field.

Biden's lead was based on the perception that he was the strongest candidate to be Trump," Hunter told ABC News. "Over the month that image of him being the strongest candidate has diminished based on a variety of factors: his performance at debates for one and here in South Carolina. He hasnt been in the state [as frequently]. There is goodwill towards him but all relationships must be maintained.

I think, in some large part, the Biden campaign has played it safe and on some level has taken the voters here in South Carolina for granted," she continued.

But Marvin Pendarvis, a surrogate for the campaign, said Biden still has a good chance of winning in the state.

We know the momentum that he has here, the support that he has with so many of the people down here and so I think that what will carry him a long way once we get to the primary in a couple of weeks, Pendarvis said, adding that its still early.

Bernie Scott, the founder of the "Reckoning Crew," a group of African-American women who support Biden, said her team plans to ramp up canvassing efforts on behalf of the campaign leading up to Feb. 29. Despite his poor finishes in New Hampshire and Iowa, Scott told ABC News' Martha Raddatz on "This Week" that she believes Biden is the right candidate for the Democratic nomination and plans to use to her influence to organize for his campaign and vouch for his candidacy.

"All of them would be better than what we have ... Vice President Joe Biden is the man of the hour," Scott said. "I think he has the guts and the awesome experience ... Vice President Biden has that knowledge of the other countries and know most of the leaders over there and he can get in there and make us feel good again."

In a campaign relaunch, Bidens team sent more than 50 staffers into Nevada and South Carolina to bolster outreach in the must-win early voting states.

MORE: Biden campaign redeploys staff to South Carolina, Nevada ahead of critical primaries

PHOTO: Supporters take selfies with Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden at a campaign event in Columbia, S.C. on Feb. 11, 2020. (Travis Dove/The New York Times via Redux )

However, his newest push comes with new competition. Billionaire candidates Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg have leveraged their massive campaign investments to get a lead in the race.

Bloomberg has garnered over 100 endorsements from mayors in delegate-rich states. His multi-million dollar television ad spending has caught the attention of voters across the country, including those in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, a small town where the mayor won voters in a surprising majority during the first in the nation primary.

South Carolina state lawmaker Rep. J. Todd Rutherford told Raddatz hes strongly leaning toward endorsing Bloomberg.

I am excited about the prospect of getting Donald Trump out of the White House. And I believe at this point, the only way to do it is to go with somebody that has the resources necessary to make it happen, Rutherford said.

This election is "not about Democrats falling in love," he added. "This is about Democrats making sure that Donald Trump can no longer be the president. And people are so focused on that. Joe Biden's support here is starting to wane only because he'd limped out of Iowa, he'd limp out of New Hampshire. And we are not interested in somebody that cannot win.

While Biden was competing with other front-running candidates in Iowa and New Hampshire, Steyer has taken advantage of having South Carolina largely to himself.

Since launching his 2020 bid in July, the billionaire activist has built a robust team of 102 staffers. He spent upwards of $178 million in campaign advertisements with $18.7 million targeting black voters in South Carolina, according to Kantar/CMAG.

PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden addresses the crowd during a South Carolina campaign launch party, Feb. 11, 2020, in Columbia, South Carolina. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

Steyers robust outreach has resulted in his surge in South Carolina polling and subsequently, several candidates including Biden, Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren have complained that Steyers wealth gives him an unfair advantage in the race.

Rutherford told ABC News that if other presidential candidates are concerned with Steyers spending they need to step up.

If Tom Steyer is investing money into South Carolina, that is what the process is about," he said. "That is what everyone should be doing. Investing money in South Carolina. We encourage that. And those people that are opposed to it should simply get out of the way."

Chester, South Carolina, resident Tabatha Strother said she is still deciding between Biden and Steyer. She will ultimately choose the candidate who visits her state and has the best economic proposals to beat President Trump.

"Showing up is important to me, not just as a citizen of South Carolina, but also for our country," Strother told ABC News.

ABC News' John Verhovek and Molly Nagle contributed to this report.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 16, 2020 / Mota Ventures Corp. (MOTA.CN) (FSE: 1WZ:GR) (PEMTF) (the "Company") announces that it has entered into a joint venture agreement (the "JV Agreement") dated February 14, 2020, with BevCanna Enterprises Inc. (CSE: BEV, Q: BVNNF, FSE: 7BC) ("BevCanna"), pursuant to which the parties intend to partner in the development of a joint venture (the "Joint Venture") to distribute BevCanna branded products infused with hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) in the European market.

The Joint Venture will hold exclusive rights to sell and market BevCanna house brand lines of hemp-derived CBD products in Europe and will operate for an initial five-year term. Of BevCanna's multiple house brands the Joint Venture intends to launch, the parties have agreed to commence operations initially with "LEV", a line of fruit forward lightly sparkling CBD-infused spring water beverages, and water-soluble powders, which incorporates BevCanna's proprietary method for the nano-delivery of cannabinoids.

Under the JV Agreement, the Company and BevCanna will share equal ownership in the Joint Venture and will be jointly responsible for developing and funding its operations. In addition to capital, BevCanna will contribute proprietary brands, product formulations, formulas for nano-encapsulated water-soluble powders, marketing and manufacturing expertise to the Joint Venture. The Company will provide manufacturing, marketing and distribution infrastructure in the European market. The parties have determined an initial product launch and will provide further details on specific regions and timing once finalized.

"Beverages are a healthier way to consume CBD, as they are a non-carcinogenic familiar consumption format and contain precise dosages per serving. Water-soluble cannabinoids are absorbed by the body through the blood stream as opposed to the liver, making the actual dosage ingested more bioavailable and accurate. The absorption rate (bioavailability) of water-soluble CBD is up to two times faster than oil-based products, effectively achieving the same results in less time," stated Joel Shacker, Chief Executive Officer of the Company.

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Finalization of the Joint Venture remains subject to the establishment of a joint venture company by the parties, and the licensing and registration of intellectual property for use in Europe.

About Mota Ventures Corp.

Mota Ventures Corp. is seeking to become a vertically integrated CBD company with operations in Europe and the Americas. It's wholly-owned subsidiary, First Class CBD, is a profitable online retailer of CBD and CBD-infused products in the United States and the Company is currently in the process of acquiring Sativida, a successful online retailer CBD and CBD products in Europe. Mota Ventures, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, holds a license to cultivate non-psychoactive cannabis and produce CBD in Colombia and is developing cultivation operations on its 2.5-hectare site in Guasca, Colombia. Mota Ventures believes that low cost CBD production at its property in Colombia coupled with its international, direct-to-customer sales channels will propel its continued success.

About BevCanna Enterprises Inc

BevCanna Enterprises Inc. develops and manufactures cannabinoid-infused beverages and consumer products for in-house brands and white label clients. With decades of experience creating, branding and distributing iconic brands that have resonated with consumers on a global scale, the team demonstrates an expertise unmatched in the emerging cannabis beverage category. Based in British Columbia, Canada, BevCanna has a 292-acre outdoor cultivation site in the Okanagan Valley and the exclusive rights to a pristine spring water aquifer, as well as a 40,000-square-foot, HACCP certified manufacturing facility, with a current bottling capacity of up to 210 million bottles per annum. BevCanna's vision is to become a global leader in infused innovations.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MOTA VENTURES CORP.

Joel Shacker

Chief Executive Officer

For further information, readers are encouraged to contact Joel Shacker, President & CEO at +604.423.4733 or by email at IR@motaventuresco.com or www.motaventuresco.com

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release, which has been prepared by management.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statement

All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" with respect to the Company within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including with respect to the development and activities of the Joint Venture, its plans to become a vertically integrated global CBD brand, its plans to cultivate and extract cannabis to produce CBD and high-quality value added CBD products in Latin America for distribution domestically and internationally and its plans to acquire revenue-producing CBD brands and operations in Europe and North America. The Company provides forward-looking statements for the purpose of conveying information about current expectations and plans relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. By its nature, this information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited those identified and reported in the Company's public filings under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise unless required by law.

SOURCE: Mota Ventures Corp.





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/576600/Mota-Ventures-Formalizes-Joint-Venture-With-Bevcanna-Enterprises




Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 15:22:06|Editor: zh

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Greeks hold red lanterns at the foot of the Acropolis hill in Athens, Greece, Feb. 14, 2020. The pedestrian path at the foot of the Acropolis hill in the heart of Athens was lit red on Friday evening for an hour, as Greeks and Chinese people living in Greece held a symbolic gathering and walked around the neighborhood holding Chinese red lanterns. Under the auspices of the City of Athens, the Chamber of Greek-Chinese Economic Cooperation, along with business associations of the Chinese community in Athens and other groups representing citizens of Athens, organized the event to express solidarity with the Chinese people who are battling the novel coronavirus outbreak and stigmatization. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

by Maria Spiliopoulou, Valentini Anagnostopoulou

ATHENS, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The pedestrian path at the foot of the Acropolis hill in the heart of Athens was lit red on Friday evening for an hour, as Greeks and Chinese people living in Greece held a symbolic gathering and walked around the neighborhood holding Chinese red lanterns.

Under the auspices of the City of Athens, the Chamber of Greek-Chinese Economic Cooperation, along with business associations of the Chinese community in Athens and other groups representing citizens of Athens, organized the event to express solidarity with the Chinese people who are battling the novel coronavirus outbreak and stigmatization.

"We feel obliged ... this is something we feel deep in our souls, to offer support, to tell them we are here, standing by their side, they are in our thoughts, they have our solidarity. This is very important and we see it from their reactions to our emails," said Fotis Provatas, president of the chamber and former vice mayor of Athens.

George Vernicos, president of the Economic and Social Council of Greece, general secretary of the Greek Tourism Confederation and general secretary of the chamber, was also among the participants.

"There are very close ties connecting Greeks and Chinese historically and culturally. Whatever concerns China affects us and we feel the impact immediately. Therefore, we wish to send a message of friendship and solidarity that we stand by their side in this difficult period," Vernicos said.

"We are here to send a message of solidarity with Chinese people. We are all Chinese," said Stavros Monemvasiotis, member of the Chamber of Greek-Chinese Economic Cooperation.

"We hope that this will be over very soon so that we continue our creative cooperation," said Kostas Konstantinidis, managing director of a company specializing in digital consultancy in culture, which has been promoting China-Greece cultural exchanges in recent years.

Culture has been a strong link between China and Greece, the two ancient civilizations, and cultural exchanges between them have increased in recent years, strengthening bilateral friendship and cooperation in many other fields.

Ilias Chatzichristodoulou, director of Athens Digital Arts festival and member of the chamber, communicates with his Chinese friends every day via emails. They are organizing performances by Greek artists in China this May. The coronavirus epidemic is a factor which worries them, but has not derailed their plan.

"Everybody's heart, including people in Greece, should be this bright," he said, raising the Chinese red lantern.

"This bullying we are witnessing currently should not exist," he added, referring to the discrimination against Chinese people in a few countries recently.

"It is obvious that this is racism expressed by people with no education and no brains. But it is still a dangerous racism. It is equally dangerous if it is against Chinese or Africans or Europeans. We should be and we will be decisive in addressing this phenomenon in Greece and Europe as a whole," Provatas told Xinhua.

Many Chinese have been living and working in Greece for years, forging strong bonds of friendship with Greeks.

"We live together as brothers for decades. We cannot allow this. If we will allow any person with no brains to attack Chinese children today, if we don't stop it, tomorrow he will attack other children," Provatas stressed.

The Greek society defends the right of each individual, regardless of race, skin color or religion, to live in peace without anyone insulting them, he said.

The world should show gratitude to the Chinese people for their courage and sacrifices in battling the disease decisively and in preventing its spread to other countries, he said.

"We really admire the patience and determination of the Chinese people facing this problem ... We appreciate and we admire all this gigantic effort, their determination and discipline, because they know that this is the only way to help themselves and the world from the further spread of the epidemic," Provatas noted.
You might love the deer in town. I like them myself. Mostly.

Its fun late or early in the day to look out the big window in the den and see a trophy mule-deer buck silhouetted on the grassy hilltop across the street. And the grandkids love it when a white-tailed doe puts them up close and personal with her spotted fawns out in the front flower beds.

Deer are part of daily life in Rapid City. And its a part that elevates the quality of life here, up to a point. But theres a cost, too, and Terry Mayes has spent some time calculating that cost, starting with collisions between deer and vehicles within the city limits.

Theres one of those, on average, every day. There might be none one day and two or three the next. But over the last few years, the private contractor who picks up deer carcasses in the city has collected about 350 deer each year.

I spoke to the contractor, and thats a real number, Mayes told members of the Rapid City Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Thursday night. And there are real costs associated with that number.

After a career as a trooper and supervisor in the South Dakota Highway Patrol, Mayes knows about the costs of collisions and the role that deer often play. Now retired, he stays active in statewide wildlife issues and also chairs the Rapid City Urban Wildlife Committee, a subcommittee of the parks advisory board.

Mayes addressed the parks board on the economic expense tied to deer strikes, starting with the average cost of each deer-vehicle-collision across the United states of $4,100. But since those numbers include the many deer strikes at higher speeds outside of towns and cities, Mayes figured the average in Rapid City would likely be less. So he went with $3,000, just to be cautiously conservative.

Still, it adds up in a hurry.

The damage to vehicles from these collisions, using the low of $3,000 per event, exceeds $1 million per year in the city, Mayes said. With the average out-of-pocket cost for each collision at $500, that cost exceeds $175,000 per year. These numbers indicate that the economic cost of car-deer collisions is clearly unacceptable.

Then there are landscaping costs from deer damage. I know some of that, in part because we live near the Skyline Drive hills and in part because Im stubborn enough to plant stuff in our unprotected front yard  the backyard is fenced  that I simply want to grow there.

And the deer? Well, theyre every bit as stubborn as I am. And hungry. Its a win-some, lose-some competition that I kind of enjoy, despite the frustrations. Ive never totaled up the costs. Others have, however.

Van Lindquist brought his worries and his cost estimate to the parks board Thursday night. He said he that during 2019 he had to replace 52 plantings at his west Rapid City home at a cost of more than $2,000.

Im just one frustrated person, Lindquist said. But there are a lot of frustrated people out there.

The frustration isnt new. City deer have been a point of controversy and debate for years. City officials work with state Game, Fish & Parks managers to control the herd through a reduction program by city snipers, with the venison helping to feed the hungry.

GF&P is also looking at additional bow hunting in select areas around the city. Mayes says thats important. Its also important, he says, to have a clearer estimate of the city deer population and better idea of the costs of the herd.

Which is what brought him to the parks advisory board, hoping to encourage a new look at an old deer issue. After listening to Mayes and Lindquist, parks board Chairwoman Karen Gunderson Olson said such a look is justified.

Its very clear that we need to move the discussion forward, she said.

That could eventually mean a city council discussion on the size of the herd, the cost of the herd and whether more needs to be done to control both.

Meanwhile, enjoy the deer. But drive carefully. And start working on your spring planting strategy.

Kevin Woster writes a blog and offers radio commentary for South Dakota Public Broadcasting. He can be reached by emailing kevinwoster@rushmore.com.

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President Donald Trump reaches for Daria Ortiz, granddaughter of murder victim Maria Fuentes, as she speaks to members of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House in Washington on Feb. 14, 2020. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Woman Blames Sanctuary Policies for Rape and Murder of Grandmother by Illegal Alien

The granddaughter of a 92-year-old woman who was raped and murdered in New York City last month has blamed sanctuary city policies for the womans death.

President Donald Trump invited Daria Ortiz, 19, one of victim Maria Fuertess grandchildren, to speak during a border security event on Feb. 14 at the White House, where she told the audience that her grandmother would still be alive if the alleged assailant had been turned over to the feds after earlier arrests.

Daria Ortiz is the granddaughter of 92-year-old Maria Fuentes, who was raped and murdered by an illegal immigrant in Queens. Sanctuary city policies failed their family. pic.twitter.com/4uxtORc7tx  The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 15, 2020

A visibly emotional Ortiz began her speech by telling the audience that her grandmother had legally immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic and was a very generous and educated woman who dedicated her time to helping others.

She is a shining example of when people come legally to this country, work hard and do the right thing, and are law-abiding citizens, Ortiz said through tears. Unfortunately, my grandmother had to be example of why something like this, [these] horrific crimes, should never happen.

Our families hope is that her death was not in vain and that preventative measures are put into place to ensure that nothing like this ever happens to anyone again. The tragedy in all of this is that this could have been avoided had there been no sanctuary law. The tragedy is my grandmother is not ever going to be here again.

The man that is responsible for this should never have had the opportunity to do this, had his multiple offenses not been ignored. The system not only failed our family, but they failed our city.

Fuertes was sexually assaulted and killed as she walked near her home in Queens, according to officials. A 21-year-old Guyanese national, Reeaz Khan, was arrested by the New York Police Department on Jan. 10 and charged with murder and sexual abuse.

He had previously been apprehended in November 2019 on charges of assault and criminal possession of a weapon after allegedly beating up his father.

However, Khan was later released, even though immigration officials filed a detainer request with the NYPD asking that he be turned over for deportation.

At the time of his arrest in January, Matthew Albence, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told reporters at a press conference in New York that the so-called sanctuary policies of the city were to blame for Fuertess death.

Make no mistake, it is this citys sanctuary policies that are the sole reason this criminal was allowed to roam the streets freely and end an innocent womans life, Albence said.

These policies, plain and simple, both here and elsewhere in the country, make all of us less safe, which is the opposite of what the primary goal of what every law enforcement officer, every agency, and every elected official should be.

Albence said Fuertess death could have been prevented if city officials had complied with a federal request to turn over Khan for deportation. The NYPD, however, disputed those claims and said it didnt obtain a detainer in regard to this individual.

Trump also blamed the sanctuary city of New York for Fuertess death during his State of the Union address last month, telling reporters that she would still be alive today, if New York had honored ICEs detainer request.

Tragically, there are many cities in America where radical politicians have chosen to provide sanctuary for these criminal illegal aliens. In sanctuary cities, local officials order police to release dangerous criminal aliens to prey upon the public, instead of handing them over to ICE to be safely removed, he said.

On Feb. 13, Trumps administration announced that it will be extending the national emergency on the U.S.Mexico border for another year, to deal with the humanitarian crisis that threatens core national security interests.

Declaring the state of emergency last year allowed Trump to access federal funding to build the border wall. On Feb. 13, Defense Department officials notified lawmakers that they would divert $3.8 billion from various Pentagon accounts to fund border wall construction, the Hill reports.
While Harrison Ford has yet to join the throngs of celebrities endorsing their top 2020 presidential picks  from Sharon Stone and Kevin Costner for former Mayor Pete Buttigieg to Cardi Bs backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders  the veteran actor hinted at his political persuasions in a new interview with CBS Sunday Morning.

A few days after calling President Donald Trump a son of a b***h during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the 77-year-old star called for a moderate approach.

"I think it's come to the point where we gotta start talking politics," Ford told CBS correspondent Lee Cowan, who noted that the Star Wars legend typically refrains from getting political. "But we gotta talk about it in a positive way. We gotta regain the middle ground. We're in these ideological enclaves. But the truth is in the middle. Progress is made in the middle."

When asked if he thinks we can get back there somehow, Ford responded, we damn well better.

Harrison Ford, currently starring in The Call of the Wild, addressed politics and the environment in a new interview with CBS. (Photo: REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni)

While Ford  who himself played the president in the 1997 action thriller Air Force One  is not known for being as politically outspoken as some of his co-stars, he has spoken critically in the past of President Trump and former President George W. Bush. He also reportedly donated to former Vice President Al Gores 2000 presidential campaign, and visited the Obama White House in 2013.

Currently promoting his latest film, The Call of the Wild, Ford also addressed his environmental activism and passion for conservation. The actor has notably opposed President Trumps plans to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord.

"We're in danger of losing the support of nature for our lives, for our economies, for our societies," he said. "Because nature doesn't need people, [but] people need nature.

"I'm now seeing that I think we're coming close to being able to really commit the resources and energy to confronting the issue, because it's taken up on the highest level of politics, he added. It's taken up on the streets by young people.

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Ford also spoke about his love of flying, telling Cowan, I love being up in the air. Its a pursuit that drew criticism, however, last fall. Following Fords speech at the UN Climate Action Summit, critics accused him of hypocrisy by using private jets.

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MARCY, N.Y. --- A local Cross-Fit gym put on a fundraiser for a man who suffered from a seizure, and later discovered he had a brain tumor.

Mohawk Valley Wellness in Marcy hosted the fundraiser for The Balanced Chef-owner, Brian Donovan.

Brian underwent medical treatment at Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City. With the support of his family and friends, the tumor was removed from his body on January 30th.

The Mohawk Valley Wellness team said that they were honored to host this fundraiser for their fellow member and a good friend.

"So Brian has been a very good friend of mine for almost 8 years. He's been a member for just as long. And when we found out about these unexpected medical issues. I knew that there was something that we in this community and in this facility could do to help him out with. Obviously to offset some of the costs. But also to just show some support," said John Bartholomeo, Owner of Mohawk Valley Wellness.

Brian was at the fundraiser and said he is simply overwhelmed with all of the support from the community.

"It's overwhelming as I stated before the support that I've had. And I'm just grateful for the community and the relationship with Mohawk Valley Wellness," said Donovan.

All of the funds from today's fundraiser goes directly to helping Brian offset some medical costs.
Jayesh Kasat, 42, a medical shop owner from Narayan peth, who also works as a police mitra, was arrested in an extortion case by the Pune police on Saturday.

A police mitra is a person who helps the police under the community policing scheme in various areas. The complaint against Kasat was lodged by Hemant Adsul, 55, the brother of Manoj Adsul, a man who is also embroiled in a case of extortion of Dr Deepak Prabhakar Rasne, 69, an Ayurveda medicine practitioner, and his son Dr Sahil Rasne, 34, who specialises in medical gastroenterology.

In August 2019, a woman had allegedly filed a complaint of sexual harassment at the Vishrambaug police station against Dr Sahil Rasne which he claims was fake because the complainant did not wish to pay Rs 500 as the consultation fee. When the police called Dr Sahil Rasne to the station, Dr Deepak Rasne, the Adsul brothers and Kasat assembled through mutual contacts to help him out.

Since the day at the police station, Manoj Adsul started suggesting that in order to avoid arrest, Dr Rasne must pay Rs 1.50 crore. Of the total amount, he demanded that Dr Rasne pay at least Rs 75 lakh up front. He transferred Rs 54 lakh to Adsuls bank account and gave Rs 21 lakh to him in cash, according to his complaint.

Since then, Adsul kept on demanding more money, according to Dr Rasne. On January 2, Dr Rasne approached Kasat and asked him to help with Adsuls demand for more money. As per Dr Rasnes complaint, Kasat assure him that he will deal with the demands.

According to Hemant Adsuls complaint, on January 2, Kasat called him and his brother to his medical shop and threatened them with a case of extortion if Manoj did not return the money to Dr Rasne. He told them that he was close to multiple police officials and journalists. On January 6, the Adsul brothers claim to have paid Rs 5 lakh to Kasat, but Kasat failed to pass it on to Dr Rasne.

Kasat has claimed in his reply that there is a senior police officer and multiple journalists from locally renouned organisations involved in the extortion bid.

Subsequently, two cases were registered in the matter at Vishrambaug police station. Manoj Adsul was booked under Section 420 (cheating), 384 (extortion), 388 (extortion by threat of accusation of an offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life, etc), 389 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) while Kasat was booked under Section 384 (extortion), 386 and 387 of IPC.

He was remanded to police custody till February 18. We are investigating under the guidance of senior police inspector Rajendra Mohite, said police sub-inspector Sanjay Gaikwad of Pune police crime branch who is investigating the case.

The police are investigating the money trail between Adsul brothers and Kasat and if Kasat was working with anyone else.
From an emissions-reducing model jet that looks like something from a sci-fi movie to electric aircraft and sustainable fuel, the aviation industry is ramping up efforts to go green as consumer pressure grows. In an era when teen climate activist Greta Thunberg opts to travel on an eco-friendly boat and "flight-shaming" is all the rage in her native Sweden, air travel's reputation has never looked as dire. Aviation accounts for three percent of climate-damaging carbon emissions globally, according to the European Environment Agency, and the world is experiencing record heatwaves, wildfires and storm surges made worse by rising seas. "Sustainability" was the buzzword last week in Singapore at Asia's biggest air show -- which was powered by solar panels -- with manufacturers and airlines trying to outdo one another on vows to become more sustainable. Some environmentalists however have criticised such pledges as "greenwash", PR stunts that will do little to mitigate the damage caused by the vast quantities of jet fuel burnt every year. "Aviation is under significant pressure to improve its sustainability image," Paul Stein, chief technology officer for engine maker Rolls-Royce, told AFP. Airlines are "working with us to find pathways to increase the availability of sustainable fuels, look at how electrification can impact them... and also looking to more and more efficient engines and airframes". - Cutting emissions - The aviation industry has pledged to reduce its net carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2050 compared with 2005 levels, and the British sector went further this month with a vow to achieve net zero emissions by the same date. At the Singapore Airshow, European plane maker Airbus unveiled a model of a futuristic new jet that blends wings with body and has two rear-mounted engines. The demonstrator model's sleek design is meant to reduce aerodynamic drag, and the manufacturer says it has the potential to cut fuel consumption by up to 20 percent compared to current single-aisle aircraft. Dubbed Maveric, the 2.2-metre-long (7.2-foot) model had its first test flight in June last year. Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR was meanwhile keen to highlight that its turboprop aircraft -- popular for short hops, particularly in parts of Asia with poor infrastructure -- burns 40 percent less fuel compared with a jet of the same size. "It is a trade-off between fuel consumption and speed," ATR chief executive Stefano Bortoli told AFP. "You can gain five, 10 minutes with a faster jet but in terms of pollution, it is more damaging." - Slow-moving solutions - There have also been steps towards producing electric planes. The world's first fully electric aircraft -- designed by engineering firm magniX -- made its inaugural test flight in December in Canada. Swiss company Smartflyer is developing a hybrid-electric aircraft for four people and is aiming for a maiden flight in 2022. As well as reducing emissions, the aircraft is less noisy and cheaper to operate due in part to lower fuel costs. But Aldo Montanari, the company's head of avionics and user interface, cautioned such projects would not be quick. "The pressure is quite big... and I think the industry has understood but they need time to react, they cannot do it in one year," he said. "It has to be safe." Biofuels are touted as a major route for the aviation industry to cut carbon emissions, and several airlines have in recent years operated commercial flights using them. But prices remain higher than regular fuel, and they represent just a tiny proportion of jet fuel used globally. Despite the efforts, environmentalists accuse the aviation industry of moving too slowly as more evidence emerges of the devastating impacts of climate change. "It will take a long time for airlines to become sustainable," Dewi Zloch, climate and energy campaigner with Greenpeace, told AFP. "Technological solutions will take decades." cla-sr/mtp/qan/axn AIRBUS GROUP ROLLS-ROYCE HOLDINGS
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Amid an ongoing tug of war, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and his fellow Congressman Jyotiraditya Scindia are expected to meet this week to sort out differences between them.

Congress general secretary and its Madhya Pradesh unit in-charge Deepak Babaria said the two leaders would meet to work out the modalities for fulfilling the promises made by the party to the people of Madhya Pradesh before coming to power.

"Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia will be meeting this week and will work out the pending issues and find solutions to concerns and demands of various sections of people in Madhya Pradesh," Babaria told PTI.

Brushing aside reports of any differences between the two, he said all party leaders are working for the welfare of the people and for providing good governance in Madhya Pradesh.

Both Nath and Scindia attended the coordination committee meeting on Saturday and it ended on a "very cordial" note, the Congress general secretary said.

ALSO READ | Digvijaya Singh tries to pacify Scindia, Kamal Nath; says Congress 'together' in Madhya Pradesh

Babaria said a meeting of the Coordination Committee and the Manifesto Implementation Committee, of which former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan is the chairman, would be held later this month to work out the implementation of pending promises.

Scindia has of late threatened to take to the streets if his party's government in Madhya Pradesh failed to meet the demands of protesting guest teachers, with Chief Minister Kamal Nath virtually daring him to do so.

After the coordination committee meeting on Saturday, Nath when asked about Scindia's threat said, "Toh woh utar jaaye (let him do so)."

The coordination committee meeting was convened by Deepak Babaria and top leaders, including former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh, were present.

While party leaders claim there are no factions within the state Congress, Scindia has often taken on the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, a move considered as a result of friction within the state unit.

Scindia had lost the Lok Sabha election from his Guna constituency and is now considered a hot favourite for the Rajya Sabha from the state.
Delhi BJP leader Kapil Mishra, who had an unsuccessful bid for the Model Town seat in the recent elections, took a communally-charged jibe at CM Arvind Kejriwal in a letter stating that the latter won his term due to 'concentrated Muslim votes' and 'free electricity'. Mishra's letter comes ahead of Kejriwal's third swearing-in as CM in Delhi's Ramilal ground on Sunday.

In a letter, Kapil Mishra shared on Twitter, he congratulated Arvind Kejriwal over his stunning poll victory last week saying, "Concentrated Muslim votes and free electricity bill won you another term, congratulations on that." He then appealed to Kejriwal to focus on four issues  1) pollution, clean water, roads, industry and Yamuna river, 2) implementation of Ayushman Bharat, 3) funds to municipal bodies and 4) No more blocking of files of 'Tukde Tukde'gang.

Kapil Mishra letter to @ArvindKejriwal



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4.         pic.twitter.com/0sXht1Eh5q  Kapil Mishra (@KapilMishra_IND) February 16, 2020

READ | 'Dear Arvind Kejriwal, After Your Grand Win, Just Do One Thing...': Kapil Mishra Appeals

List of appeals

Kapil Mishra appealed to Kejriwal to take urgent action on the national capital's air pollution problem, contaminated water and cleaning of the river Yamuna. He said that inaction on these critical issues will take Delhi back several years.

He also appealed for the implementation of Central schemes like subsidised healthcare and housing programmes. "In your new term, kindly implement the Ayushman Bharat and PM Awas Yojana schemes in Delhi. It'll benefit the needy," Mishra wrote.

The BJP leader also suggested Delhi government release funds for municipal bodies for better functioning. There are five municipal bodies in the national capital  North Delhi Municipal Corporation, South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and Delhi Cantonment Board.

Kapil Mishra's final demand was the Kejriwal government ending its blocking of case files against "Tukde Tukde" gang. He said that since now the poll season is over, action need be taken. This was an apparent reference to the charge sheet by Delhi police in 2016 on then JNU students  Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and eight others  alleging that they raised anti-India slogans. However, the Delhi government did not sanction the charge sheet to be filed.

READ | 'Faith In Agendas & Thoughts Strengthened,' Claims BJP's Kapil Mishra Despite Delhi Rout

Mishra's previous communal rant

Stoking a communal controversy, Mishra had earlier during the election campaign said that AAP should rename itself as 'Muslim League'. He had claimed that AAP is playing divisive, vote-bank politics to seek votes of the Muslim community. Mishra on January 23, posted an extremely controversial tweet, equating the February 8 Delhi Assembly election as a fight between India and Pakistan on the streets of Delhi.

READ | Delhi Elections: AAP's Candidate Leads Against Kapil Mishra In Model Town Constituency

Delhi assembly elections result

Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party swept the Delhi assembly polls with 62 seats, five less than in 2015, as per the final results announced by the Election Commission on Tuesday night. While BJP secured victory in the remaining eight constituencies in the 70-seat Delhi assembly, up from three in 2015, Congress could not open its account for the second time in Delhi. The victory of the AAP ensured a hat-trick for Arvind Kejriwal in the office of Delhi Chief Minister.

READ | BJP's Kapil Mishra Bites The Bullet; Congratulates Arvind Kejriwal, Bemoans '5th BJP Loss'
New Covid curbs in UP: Government and private employees to work at 50 per cent capacity

Night curfew in Andhra Pradesh: Know timings, guidelines, rules; What is allowed, what is not allowed

Contacts of confirmed cases don't need to get tested unless identified as high risk: Govt

406 people brought back from Wuhan may be released next week

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Feb 16: A total of 406 people, who are housed at a quarantine facility of the ITBP after being brought back from China due to coronavirus outbreak there, may be released next week if their final samples turn out to be negative, officials said.

The final samples of all the people quarantined at the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) facility here were collected by a team of doctors on Friday and the reports are expected to be received by Monday.

"Based on the reports, a decision will be taken to discharge the travellers, if agreed to by the authorities, which is expected to be done in next week observing laid down protocols and due medical procedures as per the directives of Health Ministry," PRO of the ITBP Vivek Kumar Pandey said in a statement.

: India to evacuate citizens aboard Japan ship

A senior home ministry official said all of them will be released by next week if the final samples test negative.

A total of 650 people were brought back from Wuhan in China on February 1 and 2 in two 747 Boeing Air India aircraft after the novel Coronavirus outbreak there.

While 406 people, including seven from Maldives, are being looked after at the quarantine ITBP facility here, rest are at an Army centre at Manesar in Haryana.

The ITBP centre is being looked after by an expert team of doctors and medical professionals. There are seven children, including an infant in the group.

"No fresh symptoms have been seen today. Food, bed and other basic requirements are catered. Sufficient amount of medicines are also kept at the centre," Pandey said.

The death toll in China's novel coronavirus epidemic has climbed to 1,523 with 143 new fatalities reported mostly from the worst-affected Hubei province while the confirmed cases jumped to over 66,000, health officials said on Saturday.

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 16th, 2020

India has so far reported three confirmed cases of the virus, all in Kerala.

China: Coronavirus death toll nears 1,500

One of the three medical students, who had tested positive for novel coronavirus infection and were treated at a hospital in Kerala, has been discharged after recovery.

Passengers arriving in flights from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Japan and South Korea were being screened for possible exposure to the respiratory virus at 21 identified airports in India.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Sunday, February 16, 2020, 9:59 [IST]
DALY CITY (BCN)

North County Fire Authority firefighters at about 10:15 p.m. Saturday knocked down a two-alarm blaze at a house at 1137 Hanover St. near Crocker Avenue on Daly City's northeast edge, fire officials said.

The fire was first reported at 9:17 p.m. Saturday, and caused serious damage to the main section of the house, firefighters said.

The North County Fire Authority, which provides fire protection in Brisbane, Daly City and Pacifica, has asked the public avoid that area "for the next several hours."

There was no immediate word on injuries, and further information about the fire was not immediately available.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy went on to break all records at the recently held 65th Filmfare Awards 2020. The movie won in all the 13 categories it was nominated in. It also holds the distinction of bagging the most number awards for a single film ever at Filmfare.

Gully Boy won Best film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best, Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Dialogue, Best Music Director, Best Lyricist, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography and Best Background score respectively.

Producer Farhan Akhtar took to social media to share his happiness. He tagged each and even winner and wrote, What a wonderful night..! Gully Boy breaks the Filmfare record for most awards to a single film. Congratulations to the BTS teams at @excelmovies and @tigerbabyfilms for all the effort and hours they put into supporting the creation of our film. (sic)

He went on to add, Congratulations to the light boys, sound boys, setting dadas, spot boys, drivers and all set support staff. Congratulations to all post production teams, visual and sound, who worked on our film. And most of all, Congratulations to the rapper community for inspiring the film and supporting it with love and pride. Boht Hard..!!!! Aapka Time Aagaya.

The leading actors of the film Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt and debutante Siddhant Chaturvedi represented the movie wonderfully at the awards ceremony whilst bagging a trophy each for their stellar performances. Director Zoya Akhtar and Co-producer Ritesh Sidhwani too took to social media to thank one and all for the honours.

ALSO READ: Filmfare Awards 2020 Winners List: Ranveer Singh And Alia Bhatt's Gully Boy Wins Big

ALSO READ: Gully Boy's One Year Anniversary: Here's Why The Nation Is So Obsessed With Siddhant Chaturvedi
Tanzania has signed a $1.46 billion loan agreement with Standard Chartered Bank Tanzania to fund the construction of a standard gauge railway in the East African nation.

The Finance and Planning Ministry and Standard Chartered Bank Tanzania said in a statement late on Thursday the funding will be for building a 550 km section of the rail running between Dar es Salaam and Matukupora in central Tanzania.

The SGR project is one of the countrys biggest projects connecting Dodoma to Dar es Salaam via Morogoro and Makutupora.

Once complete, the SGR Rail project will provide a safe and reliable means for efficiently transporting people and cargo to and from the existing Dar es Salaam Port.

In 2017, the government said it planned to spend $14.2 billion over a five-year period to build 2,561 km of the new railway to connect its main Indian Ocean port of Dar es Salaam to its interior.

The rail network will connect Tanzania with Burundi, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Tanzania is building the rail in sections, with each being handed to different companies and having its own financing.
Published on 2020/02/16 | Source

The Seoul Metropolitan Government will raise guardrails along bridges to prevent people from jumping off to their death.

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It said the guardrails on 20 out of the 31 bridges over the Han River will be raised from 1.10-1.20 m to 2 m to deter people from climbing over them.

The city will spend W1.9 billion on Han River Bridge and Yanghwa Bridge this year (US$1=W1,188). Work on six other bridges will begin next year and the rest in 2025.

"We have prioritized work on bridges with a higher rate of suicide attempts", a city official said.
The Academic Staff Union of University is asking the Federal Government of Nigeria a simple question. Why NNPC, NIDC, CBN, FIRS and other lucrative revenue parastatals are not in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS? While up to today there is no sufficient answer from the side of government regarding this question raised by the ASUU Chairman, University of Abuja branch, Dr. Kassim Umaru.

There is dichotomy in every spare of Nigerian lives and organizations. There is dichotomy between Degree and Higher National Diploma, human rights in respect to gender opportunities, fit people between physically challenged persons, the rich and the poor, politicians and civil servants, state workers and federal government workers and dichotomy in almost everything.

The dichotomy between teachers and other staff of other organizations is a cancerous one that keeps making negative impact for Nigeria development. The dichotomy yields corruption which is a vulture that eats our prosperity despite campaigns against it, teachers that supposed to have the most conducive environment than other civil servants in the country, because they are the giver of all knowledge and the makers of every profession are left with sympathetic words that their rewards are in the heaven. Does this means our political leaders and other workers that are paid juicy salary dont like the reward of the heaven?

Teachers are left with peanut to cater for themselves when compared with other staff in other organizations. Fresh workers from juicy organizations collects more than an academic Dr. in Nigerian higher institutions of education while politicians at the national level collect more than the amount any prestigious professor in this country is earning. Former senator of Kaduna State, Shehu Sani revealed that a senator in Nigeria collects 750,000 million as basic salary while plus allowances the monthly package is 14.25 million naira while a professor collect less than a million naira. This difference is what keeps inflating corruption in Nigeria and in all ramifications.

The reason for stipulating juicy salary for some organizations is because the organizations are revenue oriented institutions according ASUU Chairman, University of Abuja branch, Dr. Kassim Umaru. Then what about our education? Does it mean our education is not important for the development of our giant African country? Education is the bedrock of any development and the keystone to our stronger future but in Nigeria teachers are the least concern when it comes to welfarism even though teaching work is the most tedious work because of its complexity of research, coordinating, supervision, marking and many.

Teaching job is the least desirable work for Nigerians and the last option. This is why the children of the rich and the powerful don't engage in it. Teaching is a skillful work that demands professionalism, experience, patience and control to impact knowledge. Is not every person that can teach but a teacher is a jack of all trades. The scarce of academicians in Nigeria is led by the dislike attitude of the work by many and the uncomfortability that characterized the work in the country and this is what necessitated the 2003 visitation Act of many lecturers to other institutions to fill the gap of man power in the academic circle. The underdevelopment and retrogressive effect of Nigerian universities are associated to the lower percentage budget on education. "The main source of funding for Nigerian tertiary institutions has been annual budgetary allocations from the state and federal governments. Though other institutions are raised to compliment the budget, an example is TETfund and Education Trust Fund in 1993 to support government tertiary institutions under the Tertiary Education Trust Fund Act that imposes a 2% education tax on the profits of Nigerias registered companies" But still that is not enough to rectify our educational falling standard. Isaac Adebayo Adeyemi, Professor, Nigerian Academy of Science.

Education in Nigeria has been suffering in the hands of Nigeria past leaders since after the First Republic with lower budget because between 2003 and 2013 education spending fluctuated from 8.21 percent of the total budget in 2003 to 6.42 percent in 2009, in 2019 a total of 520.5 billion was allocated in the budget and in 2020 a percentage of 6.1% was budgeted in education against UNESCO of 26 percent budget recommendation. All the budgets are lower than most of other African countries which range between 11% and 30% and when compared with many African countries and some Asian countries that obtained independence at about the same time as Nigeria, one would expect that we would have similar per capita income (PCI), Global Innovation Index (GII), Human Development Index (HDI), etc. Unfortunately that is not the case because Nigeria is stronger than many but Nigeria graduates are not productive like their counterparts because of poor funding of education, Professor Idris Bugaje, Skills not Degree, 2019

Nigeria universities lacked sophisticated infrastructure and social amenities such as water, good and conducive environment of learning for effective teaching and the instability of power in the country poses great challenge in educational research and innovation. The numbers of universities applicants are increasing rowdily in every year. The National University Commission (NUC), the government umbrella organization that oversees the administration of higher education in Nigeria, listed 40 federal universities, 44 state universities and 68 private universities as accredited degree-granting institutions in 2017 while in 2019 there are total of 43 different Federal Universities scattered across all the geo-political zones of the country; the country also has a total of 52 state universities and 79 private universities because there is underfunding of education a large proportion of lecturers at Nigerian universities are assistant professors without doctoral degrees: Reports from 2012 suggested that only 43 percent of Nigerias teaching staff held Ph.D. degrees, and that Nigeria had one of the worst lecturer-to-student ratios in the world. The University of Abuja and Lagos State University, for example, reportedly had lecturer to student ratios as high as 1:122 and 1:114 respectively." Report by World Education System. "According to the Nigerian University System Statistical Digest 2017, there were over 2,300 programmes across all universities with academic staff strength of about 61,000. That number is in decline as many lecturers who retired, died or left the universities for greener pastures abroad have not been replaced." Alex Abutu, 2019

The ratio of the Nigerian universities students is against the UNESCO recommendation because federal universities have enrolled over 400,000 students (9 per cent enrolments) while UNESCO (2008) reported that global enrolment of tertiary students is per 100,000 inhabitants. This is why the rich and influential parents in the country send their children outside to study in very conducive environment of learning leaving the children of the poor in the public schools. Years ago, the children of Muhammadu Buhari Zahra and Yusuf graduated from the University of Surrey, Gildford, England.

Nigerians travelled outside the country to get their studies at ease. UNESCO estimates that the number of Nigerians studying abroad is around 75,000 per year in 2015 and 2016. As of March 2019, there are 16,039 students from Nigeria studying in the United States with 54 per cent male and 46 per cent female students contributing to the American revenue of 514 Dollar. Andrew Haring reported that in 2014 student market in UK is worth more than 17 Billion dollars and Nigeria is the 3rd largest country after China and India that is sending a large number of its students to the UK.

Education in Nigeria is facing challenges and now the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information is pushing ASUU to the wall of indefinite strike. Since the conceptualization of the IPPIS in October, 2006 the then government in power noticed the problems of the system and abandoned it until in 2019. Now there are 452 MDAs registered under the IPPIS with exception of ASUU that demanded for its different version of IPPIS to suits its condition of work. The Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics have been clashing with government policies regarding their welfarism and the standardization of education but up to today the two unions have not achieved much because they are ruled in divided parallel lines of salary dichotomy meaning a lecturer of university earns much than that of polytechnic. ASUU started industrial strike since 1999 and the duration of all its strikes are calculated to three years of struggles.

There is a great tension on the rejection of ASUU enrollment in the IPPIS. The government has bowed to stop the salary of the academic staff of universities since December and ASUU has been mobilizing its member for industrial strike if the governments stop its members salary.

The IPPIS system come with its problems because many staff of the captured MDSs have not been receiving their intact salary while some have not receive theirs yet while others are given higher than what they supposed to earn since the commencement of the payment of staff through the IPPIS.

The national body of ASSU has criticized the activities of IPPIS as a fraud that will not yield a better prospect for education and its staff. To ASUU the IPPIS will only make more harm than good in the Nigerian circle of education.

President of ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi opened to President of the Senate, Senator. Ahmad Lawan when he paid him a courtesy call that the IPPIS will not yield better result for the growth of education and will also mar the right of the academic staff lecturing visitation which closes the gap of academic man power.

The stand of the Academic Staff of Universities is that the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System totally violate the autonomy of universities of Nigeria. The autonomy of university is enshrined in Section 2AA of the University Miscellaneous Provision Amendment Act of 2003 which clearly explained the role of the Governing Council and the ASUU 2019 agreement with government.

Strikes by Nigerian educational institutions disrupt education and pose negative impact on students. This is why it is very important for government and ASUU to seat round the table and have a stance for the sake of Nigeria students. A Nigerian proverb says when two elephants fight only the grass suffers, meaning only the children of the poor will suffer the strike most. There is need for man power in Nigerian universities and curtailing the restrictions of lecturers visitation will create a big vacuum in educational circle and will leave many universities empty. Though, ASUU is not rejecting to be in the IPPIS but soliciting for a convenient payroll system that will help education and their payment for other extra work, government should consider their request for the sake of Nigeria education and equity base on the ASUU Autonomy Act 2003 and to improve our educational system.

Auwal Ahmed Ibrahim Goronyo is a Lecturer, Mass Communication, Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna auwal[email protected]
New Delhi, Feb 16 : Expectations are high on a mini trade deal to be announced during US President Donald Trump's visit to India, industry body CII said on Sunday.

The business chamber's Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said: "Expectations remain high on achieving a bilateral 'mini' trade deal, which hopefully lays the foundation for a more comprehensive economic partnership.

"From meeting on the margins of the G7 in France, the G20 in Osaka, the UN General Assembly in New York, to sharing a stage at the 50,000-strong Indian-American Diaspora gathering at 'HowdyModi!' in Houston, the two leaders, Prime Minister Modi and President Trump have consistently engaged in constructive dialogue, with ever-growing bonhomie." President Trump's first official visit to India signals the significance of India-US relations from a strategic and economic point of view, Banerjee added.

"What the two leaders must also demonstrate now is an ability to work together through challenges and differences and enable more convergence of our shared ambitions and goals," he said.

Apart from the mini trade deal, Banerjee expect investments to take centrestage during the US President's visit.

"As Indian industry enhances its investment and job creation in the US, we expect an interaction of President Trump with leading Indian companies operating in the US. CII's own research shows that at least 100 Indian companies have invested nearly $18 billion and created over 113,000 jobs in the US," he added.

Banerjee said there have been several recent announcements by Indian companies, that have shown the growing impact Indian investment can have on US economy and society, and "we fully expect that to increase". "Likewise we expect investment even higher investment commitments from US companies into India," he added.

"Finally, as we look to enhance international collaboration for the future, we believe both countries must work together to be at the leading edge of the frontiers of knowledge and technology. Artificial intelligence and machine-learning are transforming business and lives as we know it. We hope governments, industry and academia will come together in an effort to explore this further and co-create technologies for the future," he said.

Latest updates on Howdy Modi Houston
Phuket Opinion: They kill children

PHUKET: Theres nothing as sick, sad or ridiculous as the coffin of a child. This week Phukets so-called Marine Office and the public relations machine, which has bleated nothing but marine safety for nearly the past two years since the Phoenix tour boat disaster, now have two more in their ledger.

opiniontourismtransportmarineSafetydeath

By The Phuket News

Sunday 16 February 2020, 09:00AM

The broken bow of the Payan 5 where the ALP111 slammed into the side, killing two children and injuring 19 other tourists. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

As anyone who has lived in Phuket long enough already knows, another accident was inevitable. The only aspect that could not be foretold was the toll.

Phuket marine safety officials were warned not even two months ago when another boat collision off the east coast killed one boat captain and injured dozens of tourists.

In that collision, local officials took no corrective action because the person who died, Surat Mat-O-Sot, the 49-year-old captain of the tour boat Choksuphasan 35, was the one deemed solely responsible for the accident.

No one asked why Surat was still driving a boat full of tourists after he had already killed two Korean tourists and injured more than a dozen more in 2014 in the notorious capsizing when he bent over to pick up a black plastic bag that had blown into the cabin.

Of course this one incident is not alone. The ongoing procession of tour speedboat accidents is nearly an annual event. For some reason officials in Phuket have failed to understand that with such consistent failures of tour boat drivers and the deadly consequences the problem is not the driver. It is the system. That means all tour boat drivers are a risk.

All the talk about safety training means nothing when there are no consequences for not knowing safety laws and procedures  until it is too late. Officials who do not understand this should be removed from office immediately, but everyone knows that is not going to happen. Our previous Marine Office chief was just transferred to Ayutthaya after the Phoenix disaster killed 47 tourists in a single incident, Thailands worst maritime disaster in modern history, and our Marine chief before that was promoted to watch over river taxis on the outskirts of Bangkok.

There are no consequences for officials failing to perform their duties. The official report into the Phoenix disaster has never been made public.

The powers that be are happy to promote that they will pay victims hospital bills and even compensate grieving parents for their dead children, but the one thing they will never publicly promote is that the Royal Thai Government and its agencies and offices are each a juristic person and can be charged and sued just like anyone else. Maybe thatll work.
Yemens warring sides have agreed to implement a major prisoner swap, the United Nations has said, in a breakthrough that came after another bout of heavy fighting, including air raids by a Saudi-UAE-led military coalition that killed dozens of civilians.

Sundays announcement over the long-delayed exchange came after seven days of meetings in Jordans capital, Amman, between the Houthi rebels and the internationally-recognised government, which is backed by the coalition.

The UN mission in Yemen said in a statement that both sides had decided to immediately begin with exchanging the lists for the upcoming release of prisoners, calling it the first official large-scale exchange of its kind since the beginning of the long-running conflict.

Today the parties showed us that even with the growing challenges on the ground, the confidence they have been building can still yield positive results, UN envoy Martin Griffiths said.

Concluding a 7-day meeting in #Amman, the parties agreed on details to complete the 1st exchange of prisoners-a step towards fulfilling their commitment to the phased release of all detainees related to the conflict in #Yemen as per the #StockholmAgreement:https://t.co/3csEU8G0vu  @OSE_Yemen (@OSE_Yemen) February 16, 2020

The UN mission did not disclose specific numbers for the expected prisoner exchange but Abdul-Qader al-Murtaza, a rebel official in charge of prisoners affairs, said in a tweet that the first phase of the deal included the release of more than 1,400 prisoners from the two sides.

He said talks would continue for another two days to prepare and revise the final lists.

The discussions were co-chaired by Griffiths office and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Representatives from the Saudi-UAE-led coalition also attended the talks, the UN said.

Griffiths urged both parties to move forward with the agreed-upon prisoner exchange with the utmost sense of urgency. He did not elaborate when they would start the exchange.

Franz Rauchenstein, the head of the ICRC in Yemens capital, Sanaa, welcomed the step as encouraging.

The prisoner swap deal was seen as a breakthrough during 2018 peace talks in Sweden. The Houthis and the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi agreed at the time to several confidence-building measures, including a ceasefire in the strategic port city of Hodeidah.

Implementation of the tentative peace plan stumbled amid ongoing military offensives and a deep-seated distrust between the two sides.

The conflict in the Arab worlds poorest country broke out in late 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of the countrys north. Months later, the Saudi-UAE-led coalition launched a military intervention in a bid to restore Hadis government.

Since then, nearly 20,500 air raids have been carried out in the country, according to information collected by the Yemen Data Project.

On Sunday, the Houthis said more than 30 civilians were killed in coalition air raids, with the UN confirming the death toll as it deplored a shocking failure to protect the war-torn countrys unarmed population.

The attack in the northern al-Jawf province came after a coalition fighter jet crashed in the same area, with the rebels saying they had shot it down.

The Houthis said women and children were among the dead and wounded in the air raids, while the Western-backed coalition fighting the rebels acknowledged the possibility of collateral damage during a search and rescue operation at the crash site of the Saudi plane.

The renewed fighting threatened to overshadow the hopes raised by back-channel talks in Oman between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis.

The talks focus on interim agreements, such as re-opening Yemens main international airport in Sanaa, which was shut down by the coalition in 2016.

In a sign of progress, two UN flights ferrying dozens of seriously ill Yemenis abroad for treatment took off last week from the rebel-held capital, the first since the start of the air blockade.
Antonio Guterres, the secretary-general of the United Nations, arrived in Islamabad on Sunday for a four-day visit to the nation.

In his first visit to Pakistan after taking office, Guterres will meet with the country's Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday and speak at an event on climate change, reported Dawn.

On Monday, the UN chief will address the International Conference on 40 Years of Hosting Afghan Refugees in Pakistan and hold talks with Pakistani President Arif Alvi. The two-day conference in Islamabad is being organised by the Pakistan government and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Guterres will also visit the eastern city of Lahore to meet local students and attend a polio vaccination campaign event.

He will depart for New York on February 19.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 22:03:44|Editor: xuxin

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TEHRAN, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that his administration will never negotiate with the United States under "maximum pressure."

"Iran will never negotiate in a weak position. We will make the enemy come to the negotiating table in a fair condition," Rouhani said at a press conference.

"The path ahead for the Iranians is the path of resistance against the U.S. pressures," he added.

Despite "sanction impacts on the livelihood of the people," the Iranians have overcome the pressures, the Iranian president noted.

Rouhani urged the United States to return to the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA), and remove sanctions against the Islamic republic.

"If this happens, we are ready for talks with the United States within the framework of JCPOA," he said.

Since its unilateral exit from the Iranian nuclear deal in May 2018, Washington has been mounting pressure on Tehran through a series of sanctions.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 17:29:18|Editor: xuxin

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SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Police shot and critically injured a young man Saturday at a commuter train station in Northern California, forcing the station to be closed for about eight hours, local media reported.

Police Chief Ed Alvarez of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system told a news conference that the young man, who was involved in an argument with a young woman, suffered "life-threatening injuries" during a shooting when police officers saw him produce a hand gun and opened fire.

The KPIX 5 TV quoted Alvarez as saying that the suspect ran out of the train and onto the tracks after encountering the police officers, which prompted the police to chase after him at the El Cerrito del Norte station.

"A gun was produced by the suspect and our officers shot, ultimately recovering a gun," according to the police chief.

The BART stations between the El Cerrito del Norte and Richmond in East Bay remained closed until late Saturday night.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 15, 2020 | 07:17 PM | PADUCAH

Registration begins at 4:35 pm, with a delicious Italian dinner served at 5:05 pm and lots of great comedy at 5:55 pm.





Reservations should be made before February 17 by calling 270-908-4241 or emailing UnleashedMinistry2010@gmail.com.





Bobby & Theressa Lindsey are the directors of Unleashed Ministry. They plan this event each year specifically to bless widows in the area.

Unleashed Ministry is hosting a very special evening to honor and entertain local widows on Saturday, Feb. 22. It's the 11th Annual God's Ladies Gala happening at Heartland Church, 4777 Alben Barkley Dr. in Paducah. This year's theme is "Roaring Into the 2020's".
New Delhi: Police conducts security checks using sniffer dogs at New Delhi railway station in New Delhi on Aug 21, 2017. Government Railway Police and Railway Protection Force carried out the searches after an anonymous caller warned a bomb would go Image Source: IANS News

Chennai, Feb 16 : The Railway Protection Force (RPF), Southern Region, rescued 2,151 runaway/destitute children and 295 others last year, Southern Railway said here on Sunday.

As many as 4,02,760 free trippers/ticketless travellers were apprehended and over Rs 16.33 crore fine was collected.

"The runaway/destitute children were rescued and handed over to parents/child helpline. It's apart from 69 missing women rescued and handed over to relatives/law-enforcing agencies," the Southern Railway said in a statement.

Under the 'Operation Dignitya', the RPF found 295 destitute and homeless people in trains/rail premises and handed them over to NGOs for rehabilitation.

Last year, 95,674 people were arrested for violations under the Railways Act and Rs 3.11 crore was collected as fine.

According to Southern Railway, the RPF also seized Rs 6.53 crore contraband, like ganja, habit-forming tablets, hashish oil, tobacco products and illicit liquor.

It also seized 14.3 kg gold ornaments worth Rs 4.73 crore, 140.173 kg silver material valued at Rs 52.83 lakh and Rs 4 crore unaccounted cash, the statement said.
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday underlined the need of creating more digital content in Indian languages for social good.

If the benefit of digital technology and e-governance is to reach the last man, it has to be in Indian languages, he said.

He exhorted the students and academia to work for creating more digital content in Indian languages, terming it as their Digital Social Responsibility towards the society and nation.

Naidu was addressing students and teachers of Pandit Dwarka Prasad Mishra Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design & Manufacturing (PDPM IIITDM), Jabalpur here.

He expressed concern over low levels of digital literacy, especially in rural parts of the country.

We should gradually move towards education and research in (our) mother tongue, he said.

Naidu called for sustained efforts to increase digital literacy with special focus at the school and college level.

He said youngsters should come up with ideas on best usage of technology for easing peoples lives and bring transparency in governance.

Currently, most digital content is in English, he said.

However, a KPMG report suggested that nine out of every 10 new internet users in India are likely to be Indian language users, he said.

Therefore, I call upon governments, private sector, professionals and the academic institutions like IIITDM to work towards bridging this language digital divide, he said.

The Bharatnet project was launched with an aim to connect each and every Gram Panchayat with high speed broadband. Under this program, over four lakh kilometers of Optical Fiber Cables (OFCs) have been laid in close to 1.5 lakh Gram Panchayats. The OFC has been connected and equipment has been installed in 1.35 lakh Gram Panchayats, he said.

This last mile digital connectivity will be crucial in delivery of e-governance and online services, he said.
Multiple rockets hit near the US embassy in Iraq''s capital early Sunday, an American military source said, the 19th attack against US assets in the country since late October.

Reports are still coming in

The assault sent warning sirens blaring across the high-security diplomatic compound but it was unclear exactly what was hit and how many rockets made an impact, the source told AFP.

Smoke rising above Baghdad after a reports of a series of explosions near the US embassy.

No word on the damage of the explosions.#Iraq

pic.twitter.com/cr4ykGOsmw  Marietta (@MariettaDaviz) February 16, 2020

AFP''s correspondents heard multiple strong explosions followed by aircraft circling near the Green Zone, the high-security enclave where the US embassy is located.

URGENT: VIDEO- sounds of explosions at the #USEmbassy attack a few minutes ago. Sirens confirmed to be going off in the background. Baghdad, Iraq Green Zone. pic.twitter.com/tN12YyeCkR  BANDIT XRAY   (@BANDIT_XRAY) February 16, 2020

(Image Credit: @mehrdadt1987/Twitter)
China has announced a drop in new virus cases for the third straight day, as state media released a speech by President Xi Jinping that indicated the countrys leadership was aware of the potential gravity of the outbreak far before the Chinese public was informed.

In the early days of the epidemic, which has been one of the biggest political challenges of Xis tenure, the president seemed to play a muted role, partly fuelling criticism of the governments approach to the outbreak. But during a speech Xi delivered February 3, which was published by state media on Saturday, he said he gave instructions on fighting the virus as early as January 7.

It was not until late January that officials said the virus could spread between humans and public alarm began to rise.

In the address, Xi said he ordered the shutdowns at the epicentre: On January 22, in light of the epidemics rapid spread and the challenges of prevention and control, I made a clear request that Hubei province implement comprehensive and stringent controls over the outflow of people.





On January 23, Wuhan became the first city to impose an unprecedented halt on outbound transportation.

The publication of the speech could be a sign the government hopes to demonstrate it was acting decisively from the beginning of the outbreak. It has been dealing with public anger, which reached a peak earlier this month following the death of Li Wenliang, a young doctor who was reprimanded by local police for trying to spread a warning about the virus. He ended up dying of the disease himself.

In an apparent response to the outrage, the ruling Communist Partys top officials in Hubei and Wuhan were axed and replaced last week.

The disclosure also opens Xi up to criticism over why the general population was not alerted sooner. Trust in the governments approach to outbreaks remains fractured after the SARS epidemic of 2002 and 2003, which was covered up for months.

Slowing for a third day

State media released Xis speech shortly before Chinas National Health Commission announced there were 2,009 new COVID-19 cases reported in mainland China on Saturday, the third day in a row the number of cases has dropped.

Meanwhile, there had been no significant increase in the number of new deaths, the commission said. To date, 68,500 cases have been reported and 1,665 people have died as a result of the virus in mainland China since the outbreak began in Hubei province in December.

The fall in new cases follows a spike of more than 15,000 on Thursday when the central province of Hubei adopted a new diagnostic method that includes clinical diagnoses in its official account.

Overwhelmed by suspected cases, the province has not been able to test every person exhibiting symptoms. The clinical diagnosis is based on doctors analyses and lung imaging and is intended to allow probable cases to be treated as confirmed ones without the need to wait for a lab result.

Saturdays numbers also marked twelve days of decline in new cases in Chinese provinces other than Hubei.





Despite the promising data, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Saturday that it was impossible to predict which direction this epidemic will take.

We ask all governments, companies, and news organisations to work with us to sound the appropriate level of alarm without fanning the flames of hysteria, he said, speaking at the Munich Security Conference.

China has bought the world time. We dont know how much time, he added.

The UN health body has asked China for more details on how diagnoses are being made. An international team of WHO experts will arrive in Beijing this weekend for a joint mission with Chinese counterparts.
https://www.aish.com/sp/pg/Are-You-Sitting-Down.html

When the unexpected happens.

Last spring my wife, Aviel, was standing at the Kotel.

Suddenly, she felt like someone turned off a switch. The world looked oddly dark. Was something off with her sight? Could it be that she had been living in the Northwest for too long? We returned home to the States, and things got worse. Shes always had such good sight, what could it be?

She tried glasses, eye drops, you name it. Nothing worked. Finally, an optometrist suggested that her poor vision could be the result of a stroke, a brain tumor or MS. We went to an ophthalmologist who ordered an MRI. By this time, Aviel couldnt read, drive safely or chop vegetables.

On August 15, the day before our wedding anniversary, we got a call from the doctor. She got us on the phone together to share a report from the MRI and asked, Are you sitting down?

The question took me back exactly 21 years.

Ken, I have some news that I need to share. Are you sitting down?

It was Friday afternoon, August 14, 1998, and Aviel and I were getting married on Sunday. Just before Shabbos, I got a call from my future brother-in-law, Bruce, with an anguished sound. Ken, I have some news that I need to share. Are you sitting down?

The question frustrated me. Im not the type to sit. Aviel was in an accident, Bruce said. She is going to be okay, but come right over.

Driving home before Shabbos, Aviel made a left turn from a busy road onto her street. She was hit  nearly head-on  by an off-duty police officer who did not see her turn. Had he hit her a moment earlier, the result could have been disastrous. I came to the house, where Aviel looked dazed. The next day, I visited her again. Lying in bed, she was in pain, unsure how she could walk down the aisle. In a strange way, as I thought about what happened, I experienced an even stronger resolve to marry her.

Like many religious Jews, I consider myself to be a person of emunah, of faith. When challenging events occur in my life, I say something like This is Gods providence. Sometimes I think to myself, what would I do in a real calamity?

Emunah  or faith  is a necessary quality. If we did not have some faith in the doctor, how could we undergo an operation? Aviels diagnosis in the are-you-sitting-down call was intracranial meningioma. This was a benign tumor between her brain and her skull that was pressing on the optic nerve. She was promptly scheduled for surgery.

Before Aviel was wheeled off, the surgeon looked at me with a serious expression. He promised me, We are going to go very slowly and very carefully. The hours that followed were a time of reflection. If we need faith in humans, how much more so in God?

One Core Principle

The Torah is filled with profound ideas about how to grow closer to God. The Talmud recounts the various attempts to reduce the entire Torah to a small handful of principles we carry with us. The prophet Habakkuk managed to distill the essence of the Torah to a single idea:

But the righteous person shall live by his faith. (Habakkuk 2, 4)

This one simple sentence can define all of life. But what does it mean to live by ones faith?

Habakkuks statement occurs in a discussion about one of Israels great enemies, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. The prophet writes that Nebuchadnezzars soul was unsettled within him as he pursued his conquests. In contrast with Nebuchadnezzars inner turmoil, the soul of the righteous person is calm.

How does he achieve this tranquility?

Rav Avraham Karelitz, known as the Chazon Ish, was a towering rabbinic figure. Born in Europe before moving to Israel in 1933, the world he came from was destroyed in the Holocaust.

The Chazon Ish writes that there is a widespread misconception about the concept of trusting and having faith in God. People think, he suggests, that faith means that things will turn out well, if we just believe that they will. Yet, Rav Karelitz asks, who is to say what the will of God is?

No, trusting in God is not that but rather the belief that nothing happens by chance, and that everything that occurs under the sun is the result of the decree of the Almighty. (Emunah & Bitachon)

What is faith in God? Some people may believe that faith means things will all work out. In modern culture, people talk about faith as a connection to something intangible in yourself or in the world.

Faith is the Jew's protest against chance. It is our inner belief that the world is imbued with meaning.

Judaisms view of faith goes deeper. Our emunah is our protest against chance. It is our inner belief that the world is imbued with meaning. We dont always know why things happen, but God has a plan for our soul. We live in that emunah by looking for meaning in our lives, even in the unexpected turns life takes.

And though we may not understand why something happens, we do know that we are not abandoned by God. Each path we walk down is an opportunity in some way to grow closer to God. That brings an inner sense of calm.

Our Chuppah

Aviels accident changed everything about our wedding weekend. Our Friday dinner plans got canceled. On Sunday morning, my sisters-in-law applied abundant globs of makeup up to cover the bruises on Aviels face. That afternoon, Aviel limped down the aisle to our chuppah.

Standing there, as I beheld her bruised face, I had an overwhelming sense of how fragile our lives are. We were so happy to be alive. And because of that, we saw a deeper meaning in our marriage.

Twenty-one years later, on our anniversary, I again lived to see her saved from a kind of accident. We have so many ideas about how time should go and what our lives should look like. But God teaches us how to spend our time.

Unexpected Places

Nothing about our summer turned out the way I anticipated. I thought we would spend our anniversary at a motel, hiking in Oregon. Instead, we were rushing to get Aviel admitted to the hospital.

After the surgery, Aviel was recovering in the Neurocritical Care unit. Thank God, her optic nerve was not damaged, and she was able to see again. I looked at her in the bed, and out of the window at the parking lot. As the sun set, I felt a new sense of calm.

Its hard for me to say how I would respond in a real tragedy. But I think back to that moment, and I try to take the calm feeling with me.

The next time that you find yourself faced with an unexpected challenge, take the time you need to reflect. Discover yourself in the place God prepared for you.
Political earthquakes are rare, but the result of the parliamentary election in the Republic of Ireland on February 8, 2020 stunned the political establishment by the surprising performance of Sinn Fein (We Ourselves), the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army, the IRA. Though it had run only 42 candidates, Sinn Fein, S.F., gained 14 seats, 24.5% of the vote, and won 37 of the 160 seats, while Fine Gael (Tribe of the Irish), the party of prime minister Leo Varadkar, got 35 seats and 20.9% of the vote and Fianna Fail (Soldiers of Destiny) got 38 seats and 22.2% of the vote.

S.F. had run a good electoral campaign with proposals for positive programs for mass housing, rent freeze, better health system, increases in public spending, and climate change. Yet whatever the sincerity of these promises, the real objective of S.F. is Irish unity and a referendum as the means to secure it. S.F. is now important in the parliament of the Republic, and it is the second largest party in Northern Ireland. It therefore puts the unification of Ireland on the political agenda.

The election result was disappointing for the 41-year-old Leo Varadkar, prime minister, Taoiseach,, openly gay, of mixed race (Indian-Irish), brought up as Catholic, trained as a doctor. Under his tenure, Ireland had rapid growth and is close to full employment, after some years of austerity and lack of affordable housing. His opponent in the S.F. was the party president, Mary Lou McDonald, 50 years old, a charming personality and good speaker who had replaced Gerry Adams, who had been president since 1983 and was long the face of S.F. Gerry Adams had also stepped down as leader of S.F. in Northern Ireland in 2018. S.F. did particularly well among younger voters, who presumably had no personal memory of the Troubles of the past. The party got a third of the vote of the young but only 12% of those over 65.

How does one restore stability after an earthquake? There are three possibilities. One, though unrealistic, is for S.F. to form a minority government. A second is to call another election to get a clearer picture. A third, more realistic but unlikely option is for S.F. to be part of a coalition government with one of the other major parties. But this has been rejected by the other parties for political reasons and in light of historic memories. At the core is the fundamental difference: the S.F. in the Republic is the only party resolutely committed to the unity of the whole island of Ireland. It is also the party historically linked to the IRA, some of whose members, calling themselves "Continuity IRA," planned to carry out a terrorist bomb attack using a truck on January 31, 2020, the day of Brexit.

The political outcome has been different in the two political entities in Ireland. On April 10, 1998, the Good Friday Agreement ended twenty years of the Troubles, the civil war that cost 3,600 lives in the six counties in the area now Northern Ireland, if not completely the more than two hundred years of hostility between Ireland, now the Republic of Ireland, and Britain. The long hostility stems from opposition to the violent repression of the Irish people that began in the 16th century and continued especially under the conquest by Oliver Cromwell beginning in 1649. Cromwell is still a hated figure because of his brutality and massacres at Drogheda and Wexford, and the consequences of famine, which led to the spread of diseases, the plague, decimation of the population, and destruction of the economic infrastructure.

The starting point to resolve the sea of Troubles is to assess the present and future actions of S.F., the radical nationalist party, founded in 1905, which declared that it had reshaped its form in 1970, a party active in both the Republic of Ireland (ROI) and Northern Ireland. Two factors are important: S.F. has been the most radical of the existing political parties, and it has embodied or linked to the IRA, the Irish Republican Army, which has had different names. Unlike other parties, S.F. from its beginning has gone beyond the cry for home rule, has opposed the existence of a separate political entity and any British rule, and has called for a republic of the whole of Ireland.

However, in the 1980s, the S.F. mainstream began to take a more moderate position, becoming part of the working system, taking seats in parliament, agreeing to a ceasefire in 1994, and then to Good Friday, power sharing in Northern Ireland, and entering a government coalition. It still favors a referendum on Ireland. The S.F. feeling is strong that Northern Ireland should be part of the Irish Republic, not part of the U.K.

Yet in spite of the impact of the Good Friday Agreement and the generally peaceful atmosphere since 1988, the two communities, Protestant and Catholic, remain separate if not totally divided, in schools and housing. Two facts are pertinent in consideration of unification of the two Irelands. One is that the Republic has 4.8 million residents and is mostly Catholic, while Northern Ireland has 1.9 million and a population in which, for the first time, Catholics probably outnumber Protestants. The other factor is the unpredictable effect of Brexit: Northern Ireland voted against it, while the Unionist party voted for it.

Differences are apparent, on issues like abortion, contraception, gay rights, constitutional changes, a flag and national anthem, and economic disparity. Sinn Fein may no longer be a political pariah, and its leader, Mary Lou McDonald, is a formidable, attractive, warm personality personifying a peaceful approach, not a prisoner of the past, as was her predecessor, Gerry Adams. She has broken the duopoly of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael and has staked a claim to political office and strongly criticized as "arrogant" her political rivals for denying her a place in the Irish government. All the same, considering the differences, it is unlikely that a united Ireland will emerge in the near future. Someday the unity will come, and how thrilling that moment will be, but at the moment, it doesn't stand a ghost of a chance.
Anu Jain Rohatgi By

Do you smoke? If you are one of those who just confidently shook his head, look around and think again.

A recent study reveals that passive or second-hand smoking can have adverse effects on memory and thinking power.

Air-filled with smoke affects functions of the brain and may lead to dementia. American researchers conducted a study on the lifestyle of 5,921 men and women in China.

The mental state of each participant was examined to find out whether they suffered from dementia or not, and then relevant questions were put before them.

They were asked to reveal their exposure to second-hand smoke during their lifetime.

Results indicated that those exposed for a longer period of time had 29 per cent more chances of developing severe dementia in old age than those who had no exposure to smoke.

According to the American Lung Association, second-hand smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals, hundreds of which are toxic and approximately 70 of which are known to cause cancer.

When smokers exhale these chemicals in the air, they cause harmful damage to the health of passive smokers too.

The study adds that besides causing cardiac and stroke, the practice also leads to dementia.

Most of the time, the smoke we inhale is less dangerous than the smoke we exhale as the quantity of smoke we inhale is lesser than the quantity we exhale. Besides, the filters of the cigarettes not only trap many of the chemical released during smoking but also reduces the amount of smoke which goes directly to the lungs. But during exhaling, there is no boundary of filter.

"Smoking releases many harmful chemicals in the air which slowly and gradually narrow the blood vessels of the brain, which in turn leads to vascular dementia. These chemicals also affect neutrons of the brain, which is yet another reason for vascular dementia, explains Dr A Marthanda Pillai, neurosurgeon at Ananthapuri Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram.

Nicotine, which is present in the smoke, kills brain cells and also stops the formation of new ones in the hippocampus area of the brain, which deals with memory, learning and other cognitive functions.

Smoking increases exposure of the nicotine to the air and hence non-smokers also face the ill-effects, Dr Pillai adds.

There are many types of dementia, most common being Alzheimers which is linked with increased age, besides being genetic.

The second-most common is vascular dementia. Dr Anshu Rohatgi, neurologist at Sir Gangaram Hospital, Delhi, says, Passive smoking should be taken seriously as it is an important risk factor in developing dementia. By avoiding second-hand smoke, passive smokers can reduce the problems of dementia. It has been seen that non-smokers inhale 60-80 per cent of airborne nicotine. Only 20-30 minutes exposure to bad air increases the risk of heart attack and stroke, can cause excess blood clotting and also prove a contributing factor to increase the rate of buildup of fat deposits in the blood vessels. So if your partner or family members are smokers, you are also at risk.

It has been observed that passive smoking increases the risk of coronary heart diseases too, which is indirectly linked to vascular dementia.

In another study, which was discussed at the EuroHeartCare, it was found that passive smoking was linked to a 13 percent increased risk of hypertension; living with a smoker after age 20 was associated with a 15 percent greater risk; and exposure to passive smoking for 10 years or more was related to a 17 percent increased risk of hypertension. Men and women were equally affected. Second-hand smoking has been associated with increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, affirms Dr Vinit Suri, neurologist at Apollo Hospital, Delhi.

It is not just the older generation that is at risk with second-hand smoking. Nicotine exposure hampers the development of the brain cells at a very young age. Small children face very high risk of passive smoking as they breathe at a faster rate.

A recent study published in JAMA Ophthalmology states that second-hand smoke affects children directly by making their choroid thinner, which in turn, may lead to various eye disorders, such as cataract and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) later in life.

How to avoid second-hand smoke

Discourage people to smoke in front of you or in close proximity

Avoid smoking at home and closed premises

Try to open windows and use fans to ventilate rooms from time to time

Avoid ashtrays at homes and working place
State-owned Oil India is likely to move the TDSAT this week against the telecom department, seeking about Rs 48,500 crore in past dues on the surplus bandwidth capacity it had leased to third parties, its Chairman and Managing Director Sushil Chandra Mishra has said.

Other non-telecom firms, which have also been slapped with similar demands, too are likely to move the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT). Those likely to go to the TDSAT include gas utility GAIL India Ltd, from whom Rs 1.83 lakh crore has been sought, Power Grid Corp that has been slapped with Rs 21,953.65 crore liability and Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd which faces a payout of Rs 15,019.97 crore.

Following the Supreme Court ruling of October 24, 2019 that non-telecom revenues should be included for considering payments of the government dues by firms holding any sort of telecom license, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) slapped Rs 1.47 lakh crore demand on mobile phone operators such as Bharti Airtel Ltd and Vodafone Idea Ltd and another Rs 2.7 lakh crore from non-telecom firms.

Non-telecom firms such as OIL, GAIL and PowerGrid filed clarificatory petition on applicability of the October 24 order on them, but the apex court on February 14 asked them to approach the appropriate authority.

"As per our licence condition, any dispute has to be referred to TDSAT and so we will be approaching TDSAT within a weeks time," Mishra told PTI here. On February 14, the Supreme Court had pulled up the DoT for not enforcing its October 24 order that gave telcos three months time to pay dues. Hours later, the DoT sent notices to Airtel and Vodafone Idea asking them to clear dues immediately but hadn't so far raised such demand with non-telecom companies, industry sources said.

OIL, the nation's second biggest state-owned oil producer, holds a National Long Distance Service Licence (NLD) with primary objective of monitoring and operation of its pipeline network. The surplus bandwidth capacity available with the company was leased out to the telecom operators/other users, on which the company regularly paid the applicable license fee to the telecom department (DoT). But after the October 24 Supreme Court ruling for including non-telecom revenues for calculating dues, the DoT included all revenues from oil and gas to seek Rs 48,489 crore from the company for the period from 2007-08 to 2018-19.

OIL believes that the October 24 judgement was not applicable to the company and had represented to the DoT stating that the demand raised is not sustainable either in law or on facts as the nature of licence in case of telecom service providers is different and distinct from the licences given to the company, Mishra said.

In case of GAIL, which held a IP-II licence, the DoT assessed Rs 1,83,076 crore as outstanding after including interest and penalty computed on the entire revenue of the company. PowerGrid, which holds NLD and Internet Service Provider (ISP) licences, was asked to pay Rs 21,953.65 crore (including interest and penalty) for FY 2012-13 to FY 2017-18 by adding revenue related to power transmission and consultancy as 'miscellaneous income' in adjusted gross revenue, company sources said, adding the firm will approach the TDSAT in next few days.

Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd, which had a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) and a Category 'A' ISP, was asked to pay Rs 15,019.97 crores for financial year 2005-06 to 2018-19.

Also read: India unlikely to face oil crisis even if Iran, US turn to war: experts

Also read: India unlikely to meet its FY20 power capacity addition target
In the backdrop of an apex court ruling that states are not bound to provide reservation in appointments or promotions, the Haryana Congress on Sunday held a protest, accusing the Narendra Modi government of attacking rights of the STs/SCs and OBCs.

The Supreme Court had given the judgment last week, upholding the contention of the Uttarakand BJP government.

The protest was led by state Congress president Kumari Selja, who alleged that the Constitution of the country and its principles were "constantly under attack" by the BJP government.

"Once again, the BJP has attacked the fundamental right of reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and backward classes," she said during the protest in Yamunanagar, a party release said here.

The Rajya Sabha MP also accused the BJP and the RSS of "conspiracy to end reservation".

"They have betrayed the people who belong to the SC, ST and backward classes," she said, slamming the BJP government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A security plan devised for the eight-phased Panchayat by-polls in Jammu and Kashmir next month will involve the deployment of the army as well, officials aware of the matter said.

The by-elections to over vacant 11,000 Panchayat seats are the second such electoral exercise since the region was stripped of its special status with the nullification of the Constitutions Article 370 and the incarceration of hundreds of politicians and activists in August.

The officials cited above said a security review meeting for the by-polls was held. They added that it was decided at the meeting that the army, in particular, will be involved in area dominance during nights in the run-up to the polls.

The officials said additional security checkpoints will also be set up ahead of the polls as part of the plan while security to the candidates will be provided as per the threat perception. They added South Kashmir remains an area of concern for security agencies due to the continued militant presence there.

A police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were working to provide a peaceful environment to ensure people turn out to vote. Last time [2018], at many places, people did not file nomination papers. This time things look different and people will not only file nominations but polling percentage will also go up.

Two main regional parties--the National Conference (NC) and People Democratic Party (PDP)--boycotted the panchayat elections last held in November-December 2018 when 22,214 panches (panchayat members) and 3,459 sarpanches (village heads) were elected. Around 60% of the total panchayat seats in the Kashmir Valley had remained vacant then amid the boycott that coincided with concerns over threats to the erstwhile states special status.

Deaths and resignations have since led to further vacancies. Another 307 panch and sarpanch seats fell vacant as a result of polls held to elect Block Development Council (BDC) chairpersons in October.

The by-polls dates were announced on Thursday last a week after two former chief ministers, Omar Abdullah of the NC and PDPs Mehbooba Mufti, were booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) that allows for detention without trial for up to two years. Another former chief minister, Farooq Abdullah, was booked under the PSA in September.

The NC and PDP, as well as the Congress, boycotted the BDC polls held in October 2019 citing the continued detention of political leaders, including the three former chief ministers.

The three were among the hundreds detained to prevent protests against the changes to Jammu and Kashmirs special Constitution status and decision to bifurcate the state into two Union territories in August. A communications blackout and lockdown were also enforced in the region, where most of the curbs have since been eased even as Internet services remain restricted.
Chris Muir can see the roofline of a storage building that houses radioactive uranium dioxide powder from his backyard in Torontos west-end.

The building is part of a nondescript plant on Lansdowne Avenue, north of Dupont Street, where more than half the uranium pellets that fuel Ontarios nuclear reactors are made each year by BWXT Nuclear Energy Canada.

Muir said he knew the plant was there when he bought his house in 2015, but he is now one of a chorus of community members who are asking the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) to deny BWXTs application to renew its licence for 10 years.

He made up his mind at a public information meeting CNSC staff held near the end of January in the Davenport riding.

Its their inability to answer some pretty straightforward questions, said Muir, sitting in the living room of the house he shares with his wife and two kids. I was like, What happens if there is an accident there? he said. And the answer was, Well there wont be. Thats when I got really scared.

The Toronto plant has never had an accident. And the nuclear safety commission said testing shows radiation levels in soil and air around the plant are not only far below allowable levels, but even lower than the radiation in our everyday lives, which comes from a variety of sources including the sun as well as the breakdown of radioactive minerals found naturally in rock and soil.

However, the application to renew the licence, which includes public hearings, is one of the first opportunities many residents will have to ask questions after finding out in 2012 from a Star story that the plant  owned by GE-Hitachi until December of 2016  was making pellets.

The story was the result of activist Zach Ruiter, a freelance journalist and Trent University graduate, who knocked on doors to alert residents that the plant existed. Ruiter said he felt there was a lack of public awareness and not enough public consultation by the CNSC.

At that time, signs on buildings at the Toronto plant simply said the companys name  there was no indication that it was a nuclear facility.

The CNSC required GE-Hitachi to have an outreach program, but most community members didnt know what the plant manufactured despite its presence in the neighbourhood since 1965.

Now, nearly 250 individuals and organizations have registered to intervene either as speakers or in writing during hearings in March, when the commission will hold two-day public sessions in Toronto as well as Peterborough, where BWXT owns another former GE-Hitachi plant. The Peterborough plant consolidates the pellets into fuel bundles for Ontario Power Generations Pickering and Darlington nuclear generating stations.

The licence renewal, which CNSC staff have recommended be approved, is for both plants.

From the CNSC staff perspective, there are no risks, said Caroline Ducros, director of the safety commissions nuclear processing facilities division. The quantities (of uranium) that are leaving the (Toronto) plant are negligible.

Despite the assurance, Muir said he didnt feel confident after leaving the CNSCs public information meeting.

There were a number of unanswered questions, he said, including what happens if the tank full of highly flammable liquid hydrogen  the pellets are baked in a furnace filled with hydrogen  catches fire? Whats the blast radius? Or the companys emergency plan?

The company says it has an internal emergency response plan for both sites, with guidelines for emergency staff and plant personnel, which is sent to the CNSC.

And that each BWXT facility has established emergency prevention programs to minimize the risk of fires and other hazardous events, as well as robust response plans that prescribe the actions to be taken to prevent or minimize potential health and environmental hazards, wrote Natalie Cutler, BWXTs director of communications and government relations, in an email.

Muir also wondered why, with such an increase in public interest, so few residents knew about the CNSC information meeting, where commission staff and experts, together with BWXT employees, anti-nuclear activists and politicians seemed to outnumber the 15 or so people from the community.

Kevin Lee, a senior regulatory policy officer at the CNSC, which employs 900 staff, said the commission couldnt afford to notify the public by advertising in newspapers because it was too expensive. The organization relies on social media.

BWXTs application is not only generating opposition in Toronto, but in Peterborough because of a provision in the new licence that would allow BWXT to move its Toronto pelleting operation anytime during its 10-year period to Peterborough.

Activists there say they are tired of dealing with the legacy waste from the GE-Hitachi plant, which used PCBs, asbestos as well as other chemicals at the Peterborough location, although in manufacturing operations that were unrelated to the nuclear fuel bundling division bought by BWXT.

At its height in the 60s, the GE plant in Peterborough employed 6,000 people. But the numbers steadily decreased and in 2017 the company laid off 350 employees in its large motor division, where it made motors for cruise ship propellers or to pump oil, among other things. About 50 employees remained in engineering and sales.

Its just worrying because theres alway accidents and fugitive emissions whenever theres a factory, said Jane Scott, who became aware of GEs nuclear division in Peterborough about 10 years ago when her children were students at nearby Prince of Wales elementary school.

I thought what the heck is a nuclear facility doing across from the school, Scott said.

Scott co-founded Peterboroughs Citizens Against Radioactive Neighbourhoods (CARN) in April of last year after hearing that BWXT might move the pelleting operation to Peterborough.

Extreme events happen and people make mistakes, as BWXT has in the past. And GE before that, Scott said. So its just a no-brainer that this should not be in the heart of our downtown.

Scott was referring to an incident at BWXT in Peterborough where two workers wore the wrong respirator filters 15 times over a two-year period, from 2015 to 2017, exposing them to airborne beryllium, a highly toxic metal used to join parts of fuel bundles together.

These employees were assessed and have been returned to normal duties, said Cutler in an email. There was no off-site exposure or release of beryllium, and there was no health or safety risk posed to the public or environment.

In Toronto, Julie Dzerowicz, MP for the Davenport riding, said she has consulted a number of people about the BWXT pelleting plant on Lansdowne and has not heard any information that makes her think its a danger.

Canadians typically receive a 1.8 millisievert dose a year of background radiation, which is found naturally in the air, soil, rocks, water, plants and food, according to the CNSC. We are exposed to higher doses when we have x-rays or diagnostic imaging.

The CNSC said the annual public dose from the Toronto plant in 2018 was 0.0004 millisieverts and that epidemiological studies show there are no adverse health effects for any dose below 100 millisieverts.

Dzerowicz said if anyone presents her with evidence that shows she should be concerned for the health and safety of Davenport residents, she will take urgent and immediate action.

However, Dzerowicz was adamant residents in her riding be allowed to ask their own questions and requested the CNSC hold hearings in her riding, as opposed to the original location  a hotel near the Yorkdale Shopping Centre where the commission planned to simulcast proceedings from a physical location in Peterborough.

The CNSC complied and the Toronto hearings on March 2 and 3 will be held at Casa do Alentejo at 1130 Dupont St., where Dzerowicz plans to speak as an intervener.

Id like to represent what Ive been hearing from Davenport residents, she said.

Those concerns include more transparency regarding test results of air and soil samples, more safety audits of the plant by the CNSC and information about the companys emergency plan.

BWXT does in-stack air monitoring every day and according to the companys website, the sample results are verified by an independent laboratory. At the perimeter of the plant, five monitoring stations draw air into a filter and the amount of uranium dioxide captured by the filter is analyzed by a third-party lab.

Soil sampling is done less often  once a year by BWXT and about once every two years by the CNSC  because there has been little change in the concentration of uranium over time, said BWXT president John MacQuarrie.

Wastewater used in the plant to clean floors, equipment and protective clothing is held in storage tanks and treated to remove as much uranium dioxide as possible before it is released into the citys sewage system.

We all get radiation in our daily lives. And what our plant contributes to that is insignificant, MacQuarrie said. And we operate well below what the regulators consider as safe ... And so were quite confident, after many years of the business being operated, that its a highly safe operation.

According to company reports, from 2014 to 2018 BWXT emitted 46.2 grams of uranium dioxide into the air and 3.6 kilograms into the citys wastewater, levels that are far below the allowable air emissions of 760 grams and water emissions of 9,000 kilograms per year. (The charitable organization Lake Ontario Waterkeeper has entered a submission recommending, among things, that what it calls absurdly high annual release limits be reduced.)

Among the experts Dzerowicz consulted was Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, who is contributing to a submission by the Canadian Environmental Law Association, which is intervening at the hearings on behalf of CARN.

Edwards is a former professor of math and science at Montreals Vanier College and has done consulting in the past on nuclear issues for government and industry.

He said studies about the effects of exposure to uranium dioxide have been largely inconclusive, mainly because there are few populations that have been exposed to breathing in the powder.

But he said the BWXT plant in Toronto is giving off a small but significant amount of radioactive heavy metal powder into the air that if inhaled could go deep into lung tissue and radiate a cell so that over time it could develop into cancer. He said it could take 20 years for any negative effects to appear because uranium releases its radioactive particles very slowly.

In the case of Peterborough, there is an elementary school right across the street. And the outdoor playground faces onto the BWXT company just across the street, possibly exposing kids to the powder for years if the pelleting operation is moved there, he said.

Im not saying theyre all going to get cancer. Theyre not, Edwards said. But some of them could very well get cancer. So its a life-threatening situation for those few individuals who might suffer the consequences.

BWXT says emissions from the Toronto facility are about one per cent of the regulatory limit and do not cause any health impacts to the public or the environment.

A group of scientists who live near the Peterborough fuel-bundling plant are also worried about beryllium.

In a letter to the Examiner newspaper, they expressed concern that recent testing by the CNSC showed concentrations of beryllium in local soil samples had increased since 2014.

The clear increase of Be in soil samples is likely being driven by significant increases in air concentrations, which is particularly worrying because beryllium can be toxic if inhaled, reads the letter. More worryingly, the highest values of beryllium in 2019 were found in the samples in the Prince of Wales school.

Although none of these samples have reached the threshold at which intervention is mandated, the increase alone mandates intervention and further evaluation to ascertain the source.

Answers to whether that will happen, as well as other questions, may have to wait until commission hearings in March.

A spokesperson for the CNSC said in an email that questions about where the escaping uranium dioxide goes, what the health effects are or details about the emergency plan will have to wait until then.

Since the Commission is a quasi-judicial administrative tribunal and currently seized with the matter of BWXT licence renewal, the Commission and CNSC staff cannot further address your followup questions, according to the email, as these are about substantive issues that are expected to be dealt with in the context of the upcoming hearing.

Meanwhile, BWXT says it has no immediate plans to consolidate pellet making and fuel bundling in Peterborough.

But Dzerowicz thinks the company will move the operation from her Toronto riding in the next five years.

What I would say to you is that over time, and my preference is sooner than later, I would love to see the uranium pelleting out of the riding and out of the city to a different location, said Dzerowicz, explaining that given land values, its only natural the plant would move out to allow more housing.

Im not suggesting they move to Peterborough, Dzerowicz said. I think it needs to be in a safe area.
About 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, just west of the Israeli settlement Shiloh, lies Tel Shiloh, an archaeological site that attracts tens of thousands of evangelical Christians every year.

There, Scott Stripling, an evangelical pastor from Texas, heads a dig in search of remnants of the biblical tabernacle  a portable dwelling containing a chest holding the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments.

In a recent interview with the Times of Israel, Stripling says his latest find  three horns that may have adorned an altar  supports his claim that Tel Shiloh is the site of the dwelling.

The site and surrounding area already advance this perspective: The nearby settlement has a synagogue designed as a replica of the tabernacle, and while the sites artefacts show a variety of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim groups residing in the area over a 3,700-year period, its attractions scarcely acknowledge anything outside the tabernacle story.

Stripling calls Tel Shiloh Israels first capital, based on the idea that Shiloh was the first capital of the Israelites for close to 400 years from the 15th century BCE. It is a claim Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also made on a visit to Tel Shiloh last year. He was accompanied by former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who tweeted at the time: Shiloh is proof from 3000 yrs ago this land was home to @Israel site of ancient Tabernacle.

Biblical scholars beg to differ.

Properly credentialed biblical scholarship does not assume the historicity of anything prior to King David [ca. 1010-970 BCE], says Southern Methodist University Professor of Old Testament Susanne Scholz. That Stripling projects the biblical stories into the historical record exposes him as a Christian fundamentalist. Thats the origin of his drive to do archaeology at Tel Shiloh.

Scholz also points out that the claim that Shiloh was the capital of ancient Israel is utter nonsense.

Such statements are used to advance geopolitical goals, she says.

Indeed, as Christian Zionists, Stripling and Huckabee believe that the state of Israel is the result of biblical prophecy. The belief stems from the idea that four millennia ago God promised the land to the Jews, who will rule it until Jesus returns to Jerusalem for the rapture. While Christians will be saved upon Jesuss return, those of other religions who do not convert to Christianity will be sent to hell.

About 80 percent of US evangelicals espouse Christian Zionist beliefs.

As a result of such beliefs, Christian Zionists support Israels illegal settlement enterprise in the West Bank and, indeed, any other policy  Israeli, US, or otherwise  that secures Israeli Jewish sovereignty over the land from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River and even beyond, into Jordans East Bank. This makes Netanyahus annexation pledges and Donald Trumps annexation-friendly Peace to Prosperity plan coveted moves. Christian Zionists generally ignore Israels violations of Palestinian rights, even of Christian Palestinians, or see them as a necessary means to an end.

Despite the matter of their supposed end-of-times demise according to this view, Jewish Israeli leaders have embraced the money and influence on US foreign policy that Christian Zionists offer, particularly with adherents Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the Trump administration and evangelicals constituting a large segment of Trumps base (81 percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump in 2016).

The influence of Christian Zionists spurred the administrations decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018, helping to cement Israels claim to the city.

And while expanding settlements, home demolitions, and a host of other strategies have been means by which Israel has seized Palestinian territory and dispossessed Palestinians, so too has archaeology.

For decades, the Israeli government has used archaeology to, in the words of scholar Nadia Abu El-Haj, create the fact of an ancient Israelite/Jewish nation and nation state, shoring up the narrative of Jewish historical ties to the land while ignoring or glossing over other peoples who have inhabited the same space  and erasing Palestinian claims to and presence on the land.

Moreover, archaeological excavation in occupied territory is largely illegal under international law.

Further, while biblical archaeology, the aim of which is to prove the validity of the Bible through tangible evidence, has been around for two centuries, the recent rise of Christian Zionism as a political force in the US and the movements cosy relationship with the Israeli government has made it all the more influential and pervasive.

Former Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, for example, has proposed an economic plan to the Trump administration that includes the development of almost two dozen biblical sites, mainly in the Jordan Valley  an area both Netanyahu and his political rival Benny Gantz have promised to annex. Israeli Minister of Defence Naftali Bennet has similarly announced the creation of seven new nature reserves in the West Bank and the expansion of 12 existing reserves, including the archaeological site Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the 1940s and 1950s.

Barkat names Tel Shiloh, which is managed not by Israels Nature and Parks Authority but by the council of the nearby settlement and a private nonprofit, as a model to be replicated across the West Bank. Thus a site explicitly run by and for the benefit of Israels settlement enterprise with the support and interest of Christian Zionists, some of whom travel thousands of miles and pay thousands of dollars to take part in Striplings dig, is touted as Israels ideal.

Barkat argues that the projects outlined in his plan, including the biblical sites, would provide Palestinians with jobs and higher wages than those they would make under the Palestinian Authority (PA). The opinion parallels the Trump administrations perspective that Palestinians, if given economic incentives  termed economic peace  will happily abandon their decades-long struggle for self-determination, freedom, and rights for a better quality of daily life, a stance that many analysts critique.

Ali Abunimah, a cofounder of the Electronic Intifada and policy analyst with Al-Shabaka, The Palestinian Policy Network, told Al Jazeera the US economic plan is an effort to buy Palestine for peanuts and give Palestinians nothing in exchange.

It is indeed clear that such plans of so-called economic peace bolster Israels seizure and domination of Palestinian land and the delegitimisation of Palestinian rights. They also reinforce the Israeli governments continued cynical ties with Christian Zionists. To be sure, the two ideologies  Zionism and Christian Zionism  reinforce one another and together impel a mutually beneficial, if brutal and illegal, system of Palestinian dispossession and oppression. That is, at least until the rapture.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
Things certainly don't look good for Married At First Sight's lesbian newlyweds Tash Herz and Amanda Micallef.

Tash was seen without her wedding ring on Saturday as she got cosy with another woman on the Gold Coast.

The reality TV star, 31, packed on the PDA with new girlfriend Madison Hewitt as they frolicked in the ocean together.

Pucker up! Married At First Sight's lesbian bride Tash Herz (right) put on a loved-up display with new girlfriend Madison Hewitt (left) on Saturday at a Gold Coast beach

The tattooed bartender recently debuted her new romance with girlfriend Madison, despite being 'married' to Amanda on the Nine show.

Tash appears to have moved on some time ago, as the affectionate display comes almost five months after her wedding with Amanda was filmed in September.

The pair are believed to have spent Valentine's Day together on Friday, and headed to a secluded beach on Saturday to go for a swim.

Moving on! The tattooed bartender recently debuted her new romance with girlfriend Madison, despite being 'married' to Amanda on the Nine show

Look of love! The pair are believed to have spent Valentine's Day together on Friday, and headed to a secluded beach on Saturday to go for a swim

The lovers were not shy about showing their affection, as they held hands on a stroll along the sand.

Tash's new partner Madison also showed appreciation by caressing the controversial reality TV star's posterior in the water.

Looking as happy as ever as she flaunted her incredible figure in a white bikini, Tash wore high-cut bottoms and a bandeau top.

The cheeky cut of the bottoms showed off her pert derriere.

Cute! The lovers were not shy about showing their affection, as they held hands on a stroll along the sand

Showing off her inked-up pins in the two-piece, Tash's heavily-inked arms were also on display.

Tash also kissed her tattooed blonde girlfriend passionately over and over during the outing.

Madison also showed off her slender frame in a red bikini.

Down on one knee! Tash ditched her MAFS wedding ring for the outing - seemingly separating from her TV wife many months earlier

Looking all-white! Looking as happy as ever as she flaunted her incredible figure in a white bikini, Tash wore high-cut bottoms and a bandeau top

Tash tied the knot with TV wife Amanda on the debut week of MAFS, and at first they appeared to be a perfect match.

But while on their honeymoon, Amanda complained about their lack of intimacy and Tash confessed that she wasn't attracted to 34-year-old brunette.

The tattooed bombshell also failed to show up to a planned meeting with Amanda by the pool and instead decided to meditate in her hotel room.

At the first dinner party, Tash then flirted up a storm with her fellow female co-stars in front of her wife.

She sat on Natasha Spencer's lap and complimented others on their appearances.

Inked up! Showing off her tattooed pins in the two-piece, Tash's heavily-inked arms were also on display

Peachy: The cheeky cut of the bottoms showed off Tash's pert derriere

Spoilers! According to reports in New Idea magazine last week, the entire MAFS cast have 'all been officially warned' by the show's executive producer, after some broke their contracts before the finale by stepping out with new partners

According to reports in New Idea magazine last week, the entire MAFS cast have 'all been officially warned' by the show's executive producer, after some broke their contracts before the finale.

The publication claimed the head boss had 'urgent meetings' with the stars of the show after some spoilers were surfacing online.

It comes after three brides were caught with new partners, despite the show only premiering on February 3.

Married At First Sight continues Sunday at 7pm on Nine
The trend started by 'Baby Mufflerman' Aavyan Tomar seems to have caught on as not just one but many 'Little Kejriwals' dressed up in his trademark winter wear and sporting a make-believe moustache showed up at the oath-taking ceremony of the AAP supremo at the Ramlila Maidan here on Sunday.

At least six infants dressed up as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal turned up at the venue accompanied by their parents and became the cynosure of all eyes.

Aavyan Tomar's pictures had gone viral on the vote counting day when he appeared outside the AAP headquarters here, played around in front of the ceremonial platform while Kejriwal addressed the gathering after being sworn-in as the chief minister of Delhi for the third consecutive time.

Tomar, who is little more than a year old, and his parents both attended the grand event as the infant was special invitee at the ceremony hosted at the historic Ramlila Maidan.

AAP MLAs Raghav Chadha and Somnath Bharti also were seen taking selfies and playing with Tomar.

But he was not the only 'Little Kejriwal' drawing attention and admiration of the crowd, as five more 'Baby Mufflermen', all belonging to the same family, added joy to the atmosphere.

Three brothers, Kashif, Sajid and Wajid from the Mirza family of Old Delhi brought their children, all five infants, aged two to six years, dressed in matching maroon sweater, black trouser and a muffler to boot.

The youngest among them, Abu Bakar, son of Sajid Mirza, 32, rode his father's shoulders as he waved a big tricolour in his hands.

"I am 'Kejriwal'," quipped the Abu, when asked his name, and chanted, 'Lage raho Kejriwal'.

Abu goes to KG (kindergarten), so he is "a KGwall", Sajid said in a lighter vein.

His brother, Basit, 6, the eldest among the children of the Mirza family, flashed a victory sign and showed his white 'aam aadmi' cap.

Wajid Mirza, Sajid's twin brother, also brought his two sons -- Hadi (5) and Umar (3), and 35-year-old Kashif Mirza, the eldest of the three brothers, brought his son Abdullah (3), the two generations were super excited to attend the event.

"Our family supports politics which is pro-development and one which does not try to divide people in the name of religions but unite them. During campaign, so much of hatred was being spread and attempts were made to polarise people to gain votes," Sajid said.

"Should our children grow in such an environment or should they see and talk about education, heath and other development metrics," he asked.

The Mirza brothers run a shop of disposable products in Sadar Bazar, the business set up buy their father nearly 40 years ago.

Asked about the fake moustaches used on children, he told PTI, "Oh, the women in the family daubed 'kajal' (kohl) for the make-believe moustache. And their grandmother bought the maroon sweaters for the five kids, especially for the occasion," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
It was certainly one of the most memorable moments of my life: being introduced to Prince George when he was a six-month-old baby.

A handful of journalists had been invited to meet the little fellow at a drinks reception at Kensington Palace just before his bedtime  and here he was, being carried into the room in his romper suit on his mother's hip.

I raised my hand in a little wave and he grabbed my finger with a gorgeously podgy little fist.

Emotional: She said she was 'deeply moved' by hearing the royal talking about the truth of being a mother

I fell in love. Then, once my panic at having breached some sort of palace protocol subsided, I was taken aback by how emotional I found it all, particularly as the Duchess of Cambridge was talking so openly about the struggles of having a newborn baby.

Perhaps my positive pregnancy test two weeks beforehand  my first baby  goes some way to explaining my mood.

So when I visited the Palace last week to hear the Duchess's podcast played for the first time, I was deeply moved again.

Here she was telling the world the warts-and-all truth about being a mother. And I am so glad she did.

Often so self-conscious when she gives television interviews, the podcast offers the most intriguing insight yet into the mind of the Duchess.

It is arguably one of the bravest and most honest interviews we have ever had from a member of the Royal Family.

Royal meeting: Kate Mansey tells of her memorable meeting with the little prince when he was just six months old and has praised the Duchess for speaking out about motherhood

The beauty of the podcast, rather than a television interview, is that it is so intimate  it could just be friends chatting over coffee.

And, by God, do you need those chats in the bleak early days after giving birth.

For Kate has revealed the unsayable secret that every mother feels in those gruelling, sleep-deprived weeks of early motherhood: have I done the right thing by having a baby?

I had the 'mum guilt' that Kate speaks about from day one.

It started when I took my little boy home for the first time after what turned out to be a traumatic birth (but what birth isn't traumatic?).

My husband strapped him into his pristine new car seat, but in our hurry to get to the hospital, I had ridiculously forgotten to pack a blanket, so we had to wrap our precious new cargo in one of my cardigans.

Unlike Kate, there were no cameras outside the hospital to greet me  but I was still terrified about my new responsibilities.

WE GOT home around 7pm and placed our darling boy gently down to sleep in a Moses basket set on a wooden stand in the lounge. We sat on the sofa. Shell-shocked, we eventually stopped staring at him and turned on the TV to watch Strictly.

Struggled: Kate Mansey reveals that while she didn't suffer from post-natal depression she certainly struggled after becoming a mother

We cracked open a bottle of champagne, ordered a pizza to be delivered and said to each other: 'So what the hell do we do now?!'

In the fog of early motherhood, you're caught between a very unusual heaven and hell: utter joy at the wonderful little creature who has come into your life, an overwhelming desire to do your best for your child and  in the bleakest moments when you haven't slept for more than two hours straight for four days  a persistent nagging feeling that preys on you and leads you to suspect your child would be better off with someone else.

I wouldn't say I suffered from post-natal depression, but I definitely struggled. Everyone does.

A friend of mine cried continuously for five days after she had her first, much longed-for child but she couldn't articulate why. Another threatened to return her child to the hospital and leave her there if her husband didn't take the baby away for a walk IMMEDIATELY. He promptly bundled the child into a buggy and set off to the park.

As well as a very supportive husband, I was lucky enough to have brilliant parents, in-laws, family and friends who got me through those early days. I clung to those people. Sometimes literally.

I'll never forget a wonderful French midwife who cycled round to our house on the third day, found me weeping in the kitchen and told me: 'Forget ze breast. You must sleep.

Tonight the baby has bottles with Daddy. You can breastfeed again tomorrow,' and duly dispatched my husband to Sainsbury's to buy formula and sterilising equipment.

I think she saved my life. I may not be a Duchess, but I count myself extremely lucky to have a great support network and financial stability.

And it was still the hardest thing I've ever done.

It's clear from the podcast that Kate felt a supercharged version of what I did. 'If it's this hard for me with everything I have, it must be utter hell for other people.'

But then she thought: how do I change that?

There was a big risk with this project that Kate might have come across as lecturing, but her genuine warmth and authenticity shine through.

She is relatable and gloriously unroyal when she giggles, says 'yeah' and 'hunky dory', or talks about George being noisy.

She comes across as the friend who would commiserate with you over a cuppa by saying 'I love my baby but it's bloody hard, isn't it?'

Too often mummy podcasts and bloggers  and there are hundreds  oscillate wildly between painting a schmaltzy, impossibly perfect vision of their lives and a hilariously dismal world which involves never-ending chores.

The truth, as Kate knows, lies somewhere in between.

I had a good chat last week with a friend expecting her first child. Yes, the stuff at the start is terrible, I said, but it's worth it because they are such a joy.

Now I have two children and every single day they make me laugh.

Yes they drive me mad at times but they have restored my faith in humanity and its innate goodness in its purist form.

As Bill Murray's character says in the film Lost in Translation: 'The most terrifying day of your life is the day the first one is born. Your life as you know it is gone But they turn out to be the most delightful people you will ever meet in your life.'

I realise, having struggled to have my second child, that if you're trying to conceive all this is very hard to hear.

THE Duchess has nannies and housemaids and that undoubtedly makes life a lot easier but, as she says, the 'mum guilt' hits us all. The most moving part of the interview, for me, was Kate's mantra that mums need to cut themselves some slack.

A 'wise man' told her  Prince Charles, perhaps?  that 'it's not possible to do every pick-up and drop-off'.

I often miss three bedtimes in a row due to work commitments and I feel guilty for the kids' sake but, selfishly, I mostly feel really sad for myself that I'm missing out on these precious moments.

I know stay-at-home mums who feel guilty too, though for different reasons.

Sometimes when you're around your kids the whole time they can drive you nuts and you can't help but snap at them, then you feel terrible afterwards.

Instead of beating ourselves up, we need to make the most of the time we do share with our children. Listen to them. Laugh with them.

Create memories that will last a lifetime. That's easy to say when you're not spending your weekends doing the laundry or cleaning the house. But I think the Duchess gets that.

And she is absolutely right, of course, that you can't do it all yourself.

'It takes a village to raise a child': The Duchess made the point in a speech in Pakistan

During a tour of Pakistan last October, Kate made a speech at an orphanage saying: 'Earlier this year I talked about the fact that it takes a village to raise a child.

'The village we have seen here today is the best representation of that ideal that I could have possibly imagined.'

In those early days after my son was born, I used my 'village'.

I called my aunt, a highly respected nurse and health visitor, and she gave me the best motherhood advice I've ever heard: 'It's like the safety drill you get on an aeroplane,' she said. 'You've got to put your own oxygen mask on first.'

By that she meant, of course, that by looking after yourself you ARE looking after your baby. We'd do well, then, to remember the podcast title: Happy Mum, Happy Baby.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said it will continue a search today for a missing vehicle at a north Alabama park almost two weeks after a vehicle was said to go into the water.

Senior State Trooper Chuck Daniel said a helicopter will be flying today, weather permitting, beginning this morning in the area of Bucks Pocket State Park.

The vehicle was first reported in the water Feb. 5. Authorities were called around 2:55 p.m. to Jackson County Route 452 and DeKalb County Route 174 in the park about the vehicle.

Troopers, the Scottsboro Rescue Squad and Bucks Pocket State Park officials tried to find the vehicle when the search was postponed because of darkness and the waters swift current. Authorities have since used helicopters in the search, which has been hampered by weather.
Emilia Fox has revealed how she 'plans to' swap her acting career for life as a teacher 'at some point.'

The Silent Witness star, 45, who plays forensic pathologist Dr Nikki Alexander, told how she had always planned to work in education, but was then offered the role of Georgiana Darcy in 1995's BBC drama Pride And Prejudice.

'My plan A at university was to use my English degree to become a writer or teacher,' she said, speaking to the Sunday Mirror.

'I loved reading books and writing, so I thought something would come of that.'

Emilia Fox, 45, has told how she wouldn't be against swapping her acting career for life as a teacher. Pictured, attending a VIP preview of the Halfpenny London 'Songbird' collection at Petersham Nurseries on October 23, 2019 in London

The Silent Witness star comes from a thespian family. Pictured, playing forensic pathologist Dr Nikki Alexander

Emilia comes from a thespian family with her parents, Edward Fox and Joanna David, both having successful acting careers - while her cousins Jack, Laurence and Lydia are also performers.

'I didn't want to do the same thing as my family, so acting was my plan Z,' she added. 'Then Pride and Prejudice took me down a path I wasn't expecting.'

'I hope to go back to plan A at some point.'

Emilia, who has recently starred in BBC drama The Trial Of Christine Keeler, previously told how her daughter Rose, nine, has no interest in following in her parents' footsteps and becoming an actor.

Emilia Fox has recently starred as Valerie Profumo in The Trial Of Christine Keeler, pictured with Ben Miles as John Profumo

Rose's father Jeremy Gilley is also an actor but she has no desire to enter the profession, citing the early morning starts as a deterrent.

Speaking on an episode of Lorraine on ITV in January, Emilia said: 'Nope, she does not want to do acting at all, she said you have to get up too early which is very sensible.'

The actress also spoke about her role in the BBC series The Trial of Christine Keeler where she plays film star Valerie Hobson Profumo, whose husband John Profumo has an affair with the title character.

She said: 'What I loved about it is that we have some idea of the headlines of that scandal, but actually this series with six episodes got to explore what happens to the human beings behind a scandal like that.'
It just doesnt understand what people want, Wong says. When government is not elected by the people, without that legitimacy  it will never recognise the importance of transparency and the free flow of information. I speak to Wong over a Facetime call to his office in Hong Kong, where he is preparing for an upcoming trial (he has been jailed twice for his activism) and handling mask distribution. Joshua Wong with fellow Demosisto member Agnes Chow, left, after they were granted bail in August. Credit:Bloomberg He is also fielding calls from around the world to publicise a new book: Unfree Speech, the threat to global democracy and why we must act, now. You can hear fatigue in his voice - and determination. His answers are concise and filed to a political point.

I pinch myself to recall he is only 23 years old. He is to Hong Kong democracy what Greta Thunberg is to climate activism: a young voice seeking to inspire the young. His impatience with me is his impatience with failed generations. The future belongs to the next generation, it should not be dominated by the upper class elite serving the interests of authoritarian rule, he says. Thats the reason for me to write this book, for the young generation around the world to be more actively engaged in politics, to be the change we want to see. I want to inspire Millennials, even generations younger than me, [so] they can be inspired to take action and engage in civil society development. As he puts it in the book, grassroots movements are increasingly led by Millennials and Generation Z-ers, as they are often the ones most impacted by older generations inaction and acquiescence. The books forewords see artist and filmmaker Ai Weiwei hail Wong as a new generation of rebel and the last British governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, warn you cannot defeat an idea by locking up its proponents.

It is a three-parter that morphs from anecdote to thesis: first Wong tells his own story, the remarkable journey of a dyslexic boy with a drive to question authority who was dubbed dokuo - a man with no girlfriends - at school and who delights in a solitary life playing video games. Loading Wong still relaxes by playing PS4 with his mates. But the dominant theme of his teenage years was rebellion: at 13 he started going to anti-government demonstrations, then he and a friend launched Scholarism, a pro-democracy movement that rapidly attracted thousands of followers. He was 14. Then came the "umbrella revolution" in 2017. By now Wong was one of the Hong Kong democracy movements leading voices. At a protest he called on demonstrators to occupy Civic Square and was arrested for the first time. That time was a paradigm shift, Wong writes, forever altering the relationship between state and citizens, the oppressor and the oppressed.

We did the best we could under the circumstances. The middle of the book holds his letters from prison, where every day he was required to shout at the top of his lungs: Good morning, Sir! I, Joshua Wong, prison number 4030XX, have been convicted of unlawful assembly. Thank you, SIR! By now he was Time magazines Face of protest, one of Fortunes 50 greatest leaders, a New York Times op-ed writer. But he was also a young prisoner in a juvenile jail, missing his mums hand-brewed milk tea and the chicken hotpot from the corner shop, sleeping on a wooden plank with no mattress, folding laundry and taking part in the endless marches staged for VIP visitors, scrubbing toilets and watching TV - and reading voraciously (on the day of his release he reached the last page of Malala Yousafzais memoir). The last part of the book is Wongs political call to arms  around the world.

If multinationals, international governments and indeed ordinary citizens do not start paying attention to Hong Kong and treating our story as an early warning signal, it wont be long before everyone else feels the same invasion of civil liberties that Hong Kongers have endured and resisted every day on our streets for the past two decades, he writes. Protesters confront police in Hong Kong in January. Credit:AP As new protests and harsher crackdowns flared on Hong Kongs streets, Wong places the blame firmly at the door of the government for the escalation of violence on both sides. Wongs book gets grim towards the end. In Hong Kong, he writes, local bookstores sell Hong Kongers Guide to Opening a Cafe in Taiwan and Emigration to Europe for Dummies. Around the dinner table and at the office drinks machine people ask: "How does the Australian [immigration] points system work? Will my score go up if I purchase a property?"

Meanwhile he charts Chinas seemingly unstoppable rise to economic and political dominance, its arm reaching beyond its soil to cow corporations and governments. Unfree Speech by Joshua Wong with Jason Y. Ng. Hong Kong is the first line of defence to stop or at least slow down the dangerous rise of a totalitarian superpower, he writes. Like the canary in the coal mine or the early warning system on a tsunami-prone coastline, we are sending out a distress signal to the rest of the world so that countermeasures can be taken before it is too late. He tells me he has not given up hope. He has no plan to seek political asylum, despite the prospect of more jail, the growing number of his friends facing a decade in jail and stories of live bullets being fired at protesters. He calls on the Australian government to recognise the erosion of universal values and stand with Hong Kong.
With its chic, modern daywear made from sustainable fabrics in Fairtrade factories, its no wonder Meghan Markle is a fan of Everlane.

The eco-friendly, San Francisco-based brand, which launched in 2010, has seen the Duchess of Sussex through some of the most significant moments of her life. She chose a 138 Everlane tote bag for her first appearance with Prince Harry at an official royal event (the Invictus Games in Toronto in 2017), adores its 53 skinny jeans and 121 slingbacks, and wore its 94 black jumpsuit when she guest-edited British Vogue last year.

Friends say she loves its casual, affordable (and ethical) basics. But now, Everlane (which also counts Angelina Jolie and Karlie Kloss as fans) has gone a step further than the average eco-brand, by breaking down not only the provenance, but the pricing, of every item.

Pictured: Coat, 92 (COST TO MAKE: 50.58 YOU PAY: 92), sweatshirt, 22 (COST TO MAKE: 12.10 YOU PAY: 22), leggings, 45 (COST TO MAKE: 13.67 YOU PAY: 45), and trainers, 76, all everlane.com

Pictured: roll-neck, 27 (COST TO MAKE: 11.78 YOU PAY: 27), yellow jumper, 52 (COST TO MAKE: 30.82 YOU PAY: 52,) blue top, 43 (COST TO MAKE: 18.17 YOU PAY: 43), trousers, 61 (COST TO MAKE: 24.92 YOU PAY: 61) and bag, 183, all everlane.com; Pumps, 265, atpatelier.com

Shoppers can see the name and location of the factory where their piece was made, as well as the exact cost of the materials, labour and transport required to get it from drawing board to shopping bag  all part of a policy Everlane calls radical transparency.

Take its black leather jacket. The leather, which costs 80.33, starts life on a farm in New Zealand, then makes its way to a factory in New Delhi, India, where one of 102 employees is paid 14.04 and uses 6.57 worth of hardware to turn it into a jacket. It then ends up at the Everlane warehouse, via 6.05 in export duties and 3.90 in transport costs.

The true cost of the jacket is 110.89, but its sold for 232, meaning Everlane is open about the 121.11 mark-up it adds.

Pictured: blazer, 140(COST TO MAKE: 71.05 YOU PAY: 140), jumper, 78 (COST TO MAKE: 36.04 YOU PAY: 78), rollneck bodysuit, 39 (COST TO MAKE: 18.83 YOU PAY 39), and skirt, 45 (COST TO MAKE: 18.82 YOU PAY: 45), all everlane.com; loafers, 235, russellandbromley.co.uk

Pictured: Jumper, 59 (COST TO MAKE: 36.04 YOU PAY: 59), roll-neck bodysuit, 39 (COST TO MAKE: 18.83 YOU PAY 39), top, 43(COST TO MAKE: 18.17 YOU PAY: 43), and cords, 53 (COST TO MAKE: 16.39 YOU PAY: 53), all everlane.com; loafers, 49, dunelondon.com

A traditional brand, it claims, would charge 546 (a figure calculated from a rough average of competitors price tags), meaning the customer would pay a staggering 435.11 on top.

This open approach has been helped by canny marketing: its Choose What You Pay sale gets rid of overstocked items; and since November it has offered UK delivery, capitalising on the Meghan effect.

In a world of fast-fashion, giving customers more knowledge of the effort involved in making their clothes arguably makes them less inclined to throw them away. Its certainly a refreshing approach.

Pictured: Roll-neck, 22 (COST TO MAKE: 8.19 YOU PAY: 22), leather jacket, 232 (COST TO MAKE: 110.89 YOU PAY: 232), sweatshirt, 37 (COST TO MAKE 14.46 YOU PAY: 37), skirt, 45 (COST TO MAKE: 15.38 YOU PAY: 45), all everlane.com; Pumps, 265, atpatelier.com
Child sex abuse victims want Kansas to lift the state's limit on civil lawsuits. One detailed how her father sexually abused her decades ago. Another recalled a priest fondling him as a teenager. And yet another remembered walking directly back to class after a priest raped her in the fourth grade.
Iran's hardliner dominated constitutional watchdog that vets election candidates, disqualified most of the reformists for the February 21 parliamentary elections, with the direct support of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

The widespread disqualification of reformist candidates came while political activists in Iran thought Khamenei would succumb to allowing some diversity in order to cope with the rising tensions in Iran's domestic politics and foreign policy. But this analysis turned out to be wrong.

Events proved that there was a will to create a totally conservative parliament in maximum accord with Khamenei's policies. Prominent politicians such as current MPs Ali Motahari and Mahmoud Sadeqi who occasionally criticized the party line and some institutions close to Khamenei have been disqualified.

This can be a prelude to returning to Khamenei's absolute rule, in the same way that it existed in the aftermath of the 2009 Presidential election. At the time, there was alike-minded president, the ultraconservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and a hardliner parliament (Majles) who were blindly at the service f Khamenei, at least up to a certain point.

Between 2008 and 2011 Ahmadinejad was totally obedient to Khamenei and opposition at the Majles was minimal. Chairman Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani was kicked out of the Assembly of Experts and the Expediency Council was manipulated in a way to limit Rafsanjani's power and give the upper hand to Khamenei supporters. In the meantime, the other pillars of power were also at the service of the Supreme Leader and any opposition was suppressed.

The outcome of Khamenei's absolute rule at that time led to one of the widest political divides in post-revolution Iran that was manifested in the post-election unrest in 2009, which led to Iran's total isolation in international community, widespread social and security crises and a harsh crackdown on the opposition.

However, these crises as well as serious domestic and international pressures and the fear of the regime's collapse prompted Khamenei to step back and offer limited concessions to domestic and foreign critics, which culminated in his submission to negotiations with the United States and the resulting nuclear agreement with the West; the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Regardless of such a complicated and costly experience, it appears that Khamenei is once again craving for a return to his absolute rule.

The widespread disqualification of Majles election candidates, grooming younger political figures affiliated with the institutions under Khamenei's direct supervision, his allusion to electing "a devoted revolutionary young man" as the country's next President, limiting the remaining authority of the Majles by giving prominence to the Expediency Council, and opposition to any negotiation and change in the country's foreign policy are among the signs that can lead to what Khamenei has earlier described as the "second step" of the Islamic Revolution.

One of the objectives of this second step is likely to be the consolidation of the structure of the Islamic Republic to ensure a safe transition to the post-Khamenei period in the coming years.

This consolidation of political structure may take place by unifying the body of the regime's institutions and even changing its master structure from a presidential system to a parliamentary system.

This could also signify Khamenei's opportunism. He assesses the experience of negotiating with the West as a failure. Now that the Rouhani administration as the advocate of that idea has been isolated and frustrated and Rouhani himself has to heed every remark by Khamenei, it is a good opportunity for him to control Iran's political atmosphere in a barely veiled totalitarian style.

Khamenei who had failed in his attempt to get rid of his political rivals in Iran in 2009, can take advantage of the opportunity now to isolate them while reformists are extremely weak, fragmented and tired, and consolidate his rule in a less costly way.

The unprecedented violent crackdown on dissent in January 2018 and November 2019 can be better understood within this framework. Khamenei believes the situation is ripe for eliminating his weak political rivals inside Iran. So, he would in no way allow a new faction or a new opposition political movement to take shape even if he has to bring the military into the streets or to cut off the Internet altogether.

The current political deadlock in Iran's domestic and foreign policies results from the rejection of any reconciliation inside the country and any negotiations with foreign governments. It is a by-product of Khamenei's will and multi-layer plans rather than being the result of the perception of threats from within the country or from abroad.
(Newser)  The Trump administration has left an organization created in honor of Chris Stevens, the US ambassador killed in the 2012 Benghazi attack, out of its next budget. The fiscal 2021 budget proposal eliminates the $5 million requested for the nonprofit Stevens Initiative, part of the $420 million cut from the State Department's cultural and educational programs, the Washington Post reports. The Stevens Initiative funding has been cut for the past two years, but Congress put it back in both times. A State Department official said it's possible the $5 million for the programthe same amount it has received the past two yearscould show up elsewhere in the budget before the final version is approved. The organization advocates online exchanges among US, Middle East, and North Africa students.

story continues below

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made his name investigating the Benghazi attack, Foreign Policy points out, and blaming Hillary Clinton, his predecessor, and other Democrats for the deaths of four Americans. Pompeo was a second-term congressman from Kansas at the time. Donald Trump said the same things in campaigning on the issue in 2016. "By the way, with Benghazi and with our ambassadorremember? Thats all Hillary Clinton, folks," Trump said. The Stevens Initiative says it's helped tens of thousands of students with virtual cultural exchanges. A colleague of the ambassador to Libya said Stevens' interest "was in communities we couldn't otherwise reach." (Read more federal budget stories.)
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has stumbled upon "evidence" of funding of terror groups through cross-border trade during its probe into the case of Deputy Superintendent of Police Davinder Singh who was caught escorting militants out of Kashmir Valley, officials said on Sunday.

The officials said NIA investigators grilled self-styled commander of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen terror group Syed Naveed Mushtaq Ahmed alias Naveed Babu, who was caught with Singh, about the funding of the organisation and the way they had been in touch with their masters in Pakistan.

The agency has stumbled upon "evidence" of terror financing through cross-LoC trade during Naveed Babu's questioning, they said.

The NIA had registered a case against unknown people in connection with the trade across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir in 2016 and carried out raids at trade facilitation centres in Salamabad in Kashmir's Baramulla district and Chakan-da-bagh in Poonch district of Jammu.

During its probe in the past four years, the NIA had been unable to find the final beneficiary of the money received from traders, the officials said, adding that after Naveed's questioning the agency had got a vital link.

The officials said that some more people were likely to be picked up for questioning in the case as the probe in the DySP's case has brought the four-year-old case to focus.

Recently LoC trade organisation president Tanveer Ahmed Wani was arrested by the NIA and was being questioned.

The cross-LoC trade, started in 2008 as a confidence building measure between India and Pakistan, was stopped in April last year by the Centre citing "funnelling of illegal weapons, narcotics and fake currency".

"The action has been taken after reports that the cross-LoC trade routes are being misused by Pakistan-based elements for funnelling illegal weapons, narcotics and fake currency, etc.," the government had said then.

The officials said that they did not rule out the possibility of arrested police officer Singh having knowledge about the funding pattern through trade as he had been associated with Naveed Babu for long.

Singh was arrested last month along with Naveed, Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Rafi Ahmed Rather and Irfan Shafi Mir, who claims to be an advocate. He is at present in judicial custody.

The officials said that if need be Singh and others could be summoned in connection with the LoC trade case as well.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Police at the scene of a shooting incident in the Ardglen Place area of Ardoyne on February 15th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Four children were in a house in Belfast when a man was shot by masked men in what police have described as a "savage" attack.

Police said the victim was walking in the Jamaica Street area of north Belfast at around 10.35pm on Saturday night when he was approached by two masked men.

He was directed to a house in the Ardglen Place area of Ardoyne, dragged inside and shot in the thigh. Both suspects then fled.

A woman and four children were in the house at the time.

The victim, who was aged in his 30s, was taken to hospital for treatment.

PSNI detective inspector Andrew George said: "This was a savage attack carried out by two masked men who showed no regard for the other people who were present in the house, which included a woman and four children under the age of 16.

Expand Close Police at the scene of a shooting incident in the Ardglen Place area of Ardoyne on February 15th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook

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"There is no doubt the merciless actions of the thugs responsible will have left them all traumatised.

Those who are involved in these attacks do not represent the interests of this community, nor do they contribute anything to it. Nothing gives these people the right to violate the human rights of people, and their actions should be condemned by all.

Detective inspector George said an investigation is underway and police are working through several lines of enquiry to establish a motive for the attack.

The gunman is described as being between 59 to 5 11 tall, aged in his late 40s or early 50s and wore black trousers, a black coat and a black peaked hat. The second suspect is described as being taller and wore a peaked cap.

Alliance councillor Nuala McAllister said whoever is responsible for the shooting "speaks for no one in the community".

This shooting is totally unacceptable. To carry out the attack in a house where a woman and four children lived is despicable and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. I hope the man makes a full and speedy recovery," she said.

Sinn Fein councillor JJ Magee condemned the attack.

"There is no place for guns on our streets," he said.

Anyone with information should bring it forward to the Police.

Police have appealed for anyone who was in the Ardglen Place/Jamaica Road area on Saturday night at around 10.35pm to contact them on 101, quoting reference 1893 15/02/20.

Information can also be provided anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
The head of NATO dismissed French president Emmanuel Macrons call for a European strategic dialogue about the role of Frances nuclear weapons, saying a tried and tested deterrent was already in place.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Saturday that thanks to the US and Britains atomic weapons, Europe was already protected by a longstanding and effective nuclear umbrella.

While a NATO member, France does not make its atomic weapons available to the alliance, but in a major speech last week Macron called for dialogue among EU countries about what role the French nuclear deterrent could play.

Stoltenberg, who last year clashed with Macron over the French leaders claims NATO was suffering brain death in its geopolitical thinking, gave his latest suggestion a frosty reception.

We have to remember that we have a European nuclear deterrent today -- 28 allies deliver that every day and its not only a promise, but its something that has been there for decades, Stoltenberg told reporters at the Munich Security Conference.

Its tried and tested, we exercise it, and its institutionalised, and it is the ultimate security guarantee for Europe. France is the EUs only nuclear power after Brexit and Macron has championed the idea of European strategic autonomy -- the ability to defend itself without relying on the US -- though he insists on his commitment to NATO.

Stoltenberg said France was a highly valued ally whose nuclear capabilities contributed to NATOs overall security.

German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer welcomed the French suggestion while insisting it did not mean undermining US nuclear protection.

If we reinforce Europe, it means above all reinforcing the European pillar of NATO, she said.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has criticized the conduct of online supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, saying his rival for the Democratic nomination for president has 'some accountability.'

Biden, in an interview with NBC's Meet the Press on Saturday, waded into a spat between Sanders supporters and leaders of The Culinary Union, a powerful labor group in Nevada that has been critical of the senator's healthcare proposals.

'He may not be responsible for it but he has some accountability,' Biden said in the interview that will air on Sunday morning. 'If any of my supporters did that, I'd disown them. Flat disown them. The stuff that was said online, the way they threatened these two women who are leaders in that Culinary Union. It is outrageous.'

Nevada holds the next nominating contest in the Democratic presidential primary.

Biden, in an interview with NBC's Meet the Press on Saturday, waded into a spat between Sanders supporters and leaders of The Culinary Union

Biden has criticized the conduct of online supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, saying his rival for the Democratic nomination for president has 'some accountability'

Sanders speaks during a campaign rally in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday. The state will hold caucuses on February 22

Biden has watched his standing in opinion polls slide as Sanders has risen to secure front-runner status.

The Culinary Workers Union said supporters of Sanders 'viciously' attacked the organization via Twitter, text, voicemail and direct messaging after the union criticized the senator's universal healthcare plan on Tuesday.

Sanders, in turn, called for an end to all online harassment, but stopped short of acknowledging that the attacks were coming from his supporters.

Instead, Sanders suggested in an interview on 'PBS NewsHour' on Thursday that the attacks might be coming from people posing as his supporters.

'Harassment of all forms is unacceptable to me, and we urge supporters of all campaigns not to engage in bullying or ugly personal attacks,' he said in a statement.

Sanders added: 'Anybody making personal attacks against anybody else in my name is not part of our movement. We don't want them. And I'm not so sure, to be honest with you, that they are necessarily part of our movement.'

Sanders won the most votes in Democratic nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire this month.

Leaders of the Culinary Workers Union are seen at a press conference on Thursday, where they announced they would not endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary. The union said that it received 'vicious' abuse from Sanders supporters over the decision

The next contests in the state-by-state battle to pick a candidate to face Republican President Donald Trump in November's election are in Nevada on February 22 and South Carolina on February 29.

Sanders' opponents have frequently criticized his legion of online supporters for engaging in attacks, including those aimed at female candidates such as his 2020 rival Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who defeated him for the 2016 Democratic nomination.

He previously urged his supporters to engage in civil discourse, but his backers have argued that they have been unfairly maligned.

The Nevada union, with outsized influence in a state heavily dependent on tourism, said on Thursday it would not endorse a presidential candidate, but warned its members that Sanders' Medicare for All proposal, which would replace private health insurance with a government-run program, could put their hard-won union health coverage at risk.

The Culinary Union, a 60,000-member group made up of housekeepers, bartenders, porters and others who work in the casino resorts, is considered one of the more influential forces in Democratic politics in the state. Democratic candidates have been aggressive in courting the group's support.

Nationally, many unions have stayed on the sidelines in the primary, wary of lining up behind a candidate in the absence of a clear front-runner.

Biden accused sanders of failing to rein in his supporters. Pictured: Sanders addresses his supporters at a massive rally in Queens in October

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, left, embraces Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., right, watches during the last debate

Compounding the anxiety is bad blood over 2016, when several unions endorsed Hillary Clinton early in the Democratic presidential contest only to see Bernie Sanders surge and hear complaints from members.

The Culinary Union sat out the 2016 Democratic primary after a divisive endorsement eight years earlier undermined its image as a well-oiled political machine.

With Unite Here's International Union deciding to stay neutral, the Las Vegas-based Culinary Union, its most closely aligned local, may follow its lead and sit out again. D. Taylor, the international president of Unite Here, is the former head of the Culinary Union and is still a fixture at the Las Vegas local's events.

In 2008, the Culinary Union waited until 10 days before the Nevada caucuses to announce it was backing Barack Obama over Clinton. The decision was a boon to Obama, but it caused division among the union's ranks and had a muted impact on the vote. Clinton won the popular vote in the state and had a strong showing at the at-large caucus sites dominated by Culinary members working on the Las Vegas Strip.

The leadership of the international union made the decision Tuesday during a meeting in Atlanta, according to spokeswoman Annemarie Strassel.

In a statement, Unite Here said, 'Any local endorsing in the primary will be weighing the candidates positions on the key economic justice issues for our Union, such as supporting the right to organize unions, immigration reform, criminal justice reform and reining in the price of healthcare.'

The union's decision to stay out likely reflects strong divisions within its ranks for who is the best candidate. Unions now find themselves in a similar role to the broader Democratic electorate, still undecided between many options.

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders speaks during a campaign rally in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 15, 2020

As evidence of that, one Unite Here affiliate issued its own endorsement Tuesday ahead of the international union's statement. Unite Here Local 11 out of Southern California jointly endorsed Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, saying the two liberal candidates have a 'track record of standing with Local 11 members in their fights against corporate power.'

It was not the first Unite Here affiliate to wade into the presidential race. The unions New York affiliate, the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council, issued an endorsement in June 2019 of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who later dropped out of the presidential race.

Without results from the first votes being cast, many unions and Democratic voters still seem to be weighing their options before aligning with a candidate.

'There's excitement about this election among the labor movement, and we're taking a close look at all of the candidates and all of the plans and raising the bar really high,' said Tim Schlittner, a spokesman for the AFL-CIO, which hasn't made an endorsement and doesn't know if it will.

The Service Employees International Union is also still holding its fire. 'The overwhelming majority of SEIU members are still undecided about who will best address their demands that the next president move power away from corporations and back towards working people,' its president, Mary Kay Henry, said. 'Just like voters across the country, they want to hear who is going to fight to ensure all families, no matter the color of their skin or where they were born, can thrive.'

Eddie Vale, a Democratic operative who has long worked in the labor movement, said unions may be hesitating because of 'an embarrassment of riches for labor.' In contrast to past cycles, the Democratic contenders have gone out of their way to tout their friendliness to unions. Labor doesn't 'have to put all of their hopes and support into one candidate, and membership support is divided up between a lot of people, so the incentives push against endorsement,' Vale said.

The exceptions have been the few international unions with long-standing ties to candidates who have endorsed, such as the International Association of Fire Fighters, which backed former Vice President Joe Biden, or the National Nurses United, a longtime supporter of Sanders' that also endorsed him in 2016.
This is the horrific moment a freak wave swept an unsuspecting couple off the rocks at Bondi Beach, killing a popular Russian DJ and injuring his wife.

Andrei Ivanov, 47, and his wife Yulia, 45, were standing on the rocks at the north end of the world-famous beach when the monster wave washed them into the ocean.

She managed to swim back to safety screaming for her husband as he disappeared below the surface.

After searching the large swell for 30 minutes, lifesavers eventually pulled Mr Ivanov to land and performed CPR, but could not revive him.

Popular Russian DJ Andrei Ivanov (pictured) who drowned while swimming at Bondi beach on Saturday has been remembered as the 'kindest human being in the world'

This is the horrific moment a rogue wave swept an unsuspecting couple off the rocks at Bondi Beach, killing a popular Russian DJ and injuring his wife

Lifesavers and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter began searching for the man at 5.30pm, before pulling him unconscious from the water at 6pm. NSW Police confirmed the 47-year-old was a Russian tourist

Chilling footage obtained by Seven News shows the moment before Mr Ivanov's death as the couple stood on the rocks, as the wave suddenly towered over them.

A witness said Yulia had been crying and shouting: 'My husband is inside the water'.

As news of his death filtered back to his homeland, Mr Ivanov's friends flooded Facebook to pay tribute to the talented DJ.

Mr Ivanov's friend Alexandra Kallas told Daily Mail Australia she 'wanted the world to know who he was'.

'He was the nicest, the kindest human being in the whole world,' Mrs Kallas said.

'He met his wife Yulia back then, and they were an amazing, loving, fun couple that everybody loved.

'He was one of the legends of the Russian nightclub scene and an incredible human being. We all will miss him forever.'

Mr Ivanov became popular throughout Russia in the early 1990s where he regularly appeared on radio station Maximum.

Leading dance producer Pavel Loginov posted on Facebook: 'The news today just killed me...'

Chilling footage shows the moment before Mr Ivanov's death as the couple stood on the rocks as the wave towered over them

Under the name Triplex he regularly produced hit albums and held residencies at a number of top nightclubs.

Leading dance DJ Pavel Loginov posted: 'The big news today just killed me... we will remember you... Andrei Ivanov'.

Shocked swimmers who witnessed the horror drowning told how Mrs Ivanov was at the water's edge screaming in despair after her husband disappeared.

'The lady was covered in blood and screaming for her partner as he was drowning,' a female swimmer said.

Prominent trance DJ Vladimir Fonarev paid tribute on Instagram, posting: 'We will remember you... Andrey Ivanov (Triplex)'

Mr Ivanov's wife Yulia, 45, was also washed into the ocean by the rogue wave but managed to make it back to safety. She suffered cuts and two broken toes in the process and was taken to hospital, but has since been released

'We watched as they plucked him out later and it was obvious he had passed (and) all I could think is the horror she would be going through.'

A Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter was deployed about 5.30pm Saturday to aid in the search for Mr Ivanov.

About 6pm lifeguards in on jet skis and in dinghys pulled his body from the water.

Mrs Ivanov suffered cuts and two broken toes in her desperate efforts to escape the large swell and was rushed to St Vincents hospital, but has since been released.

NSW Ambulance duty operations manager Sally Groves said it was an 'absolutely horrendous outcome'.

'Paramedics worked closely with other emergency services and did everything possible to try and save his life, but sadly he was unable to be saved,' Ms Groves said.

NSW Ambulance duty operations manager Sally Groves said it was an 'absolutely horrendous outcome'

'No matter what you are doing near the water, please be vigilant - it is not worth risking your life.'

Despite the mostly sunny day, beaches across Sydney have continued to be plagued by large swells, a week after severe storms smashed the city.

Coogee beach, a few kilometres south of Bondi, was closed on Saturday because of the dangerous conditions.

Dangerous surf warnings were in place on Saturday along much of Australia's east coast as ex-tropical cyclone Uesi continued to move south.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a hazardous surf warning for coastal activities in the Hunter region, Sydney, the Illawarra, Batemans region and Eden Coast.

Lifesavers at Bondi Beach searched for the man alongside bystanders and rescue helicopters
Leviathan 'Levi' Henry Norwood, 17, was apprehended on Saturday in North Carolina

A 17-year-old boy suspected of fatally shooting his mother and his six-year-old brother in their Virginia home has been arrested in North Carolina, authorities said.

Leviathan 'Levi' Henry Norwood was apprehended on Saturday when store employees called police to report him as a possible shoplifter.

A massive manhunt for Norwood had been in effect since Friday night, when his father Josh, 37, returned to their home in Midland, Virginia to find his 34-year-old wife Jen and their six-year-old son Wyatt shot dead.

Norwood shot and wounded his father, who escaped and called for help, according to the Fauquier County Sheriff's Office. The father was in stable condition at a hospital.

Police responded to the rural home, which is surrounded by forest, and found that Norwood had apparently fled.

Norwood's mother Jen, 34, and brother Wyatt, six, were found shot dead in their home on Friday night. Norwood's father says he was ambushed and wounded as well but survived

Police responded to the rural home, which is surrounded by forest, and found that Norwood had apparently fled. A massive manhunt was launched with drones and bloodhounds

Law enforcement officers initially believed Norwood had barricaded himself inside the family's home but didn't find him in there when they entered the residence after trying to make contact with him for several hours.

A dragnet was launched, including police drones and bloodhounds.

Midland is about 53 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. Sheriffs deputies blocked off roads and searched wooded areas near the family's home.

But Norwood evaded cops and was able to leave the area, apparently in a stolen Toyota sedan, police said.

Fauquier Sheriff Robert Mosier said on Saturday afternoon that it appeared Norwood had stolen a car about 10 miles from the home. Police were searching for a red 2007 Toyota Camry with the license plate WNG 7739.

The car had been reported stolen on Saturday morning. Mosier said bloodhounds had tracked Norwood's scent to the area of the stolen car.

Midland is about 53 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. Sheriffs deputies blocked off roads and searched wooded areas near the family's home

The search for Norwood ended Saturday when he was apprehended in North Carolina, after a store's employees reported a shoplifter to police, a sheriff's office spokesman, Sgt. James Hartman, said in an email.

Hartman said the car that Norwood was suspected of stealing was recovered near the store at the time of his arrest.

Hartman wouldn't specify where the teenager was arrested, saying Fauquier County detectives needed to get to North Carolina and "do their job first." He said he would release the location on Sunday or Monday.

Norwood is charged with two counts of murder in the killing of Jennifer Norwood, 34, and her son Wyatt.
Police divers will join the search on Monday for a missing woman, who disappeared last week while walking through the Gold Coast hinterland during heavy rain.

Yang Chen, who disappeared on the Gold Coast last week. Credit:Queensland Police Service

Yang Chen, 26, has not been seen since 11am on Wednesday when the man she was walking with near Gorge Falls, in the Tallebudgera Valley, lost sight of her.

Police said several creeks in the area were affected by recent rain at the time and divers will search those waterways in the area on Monday while searchers scour the area on foot once again.

Monday's search stretched from Springbrook down into Tallebudgera Valley.
OREGON -- This Wednesday, February 19th, is school exclusion day in Oregon. This means if your child is not up to date on immunizations they won't be allowed in school.

The Oregon Immunization Program wants to remind all parents to make sure their kid's records are also up to date. This is a state law and requirement for all schools; public and private.

The local health department says it sent more than 20,000 letters to parents on or before February 5th to remind them. Last year, more than 4,000 children had to stay home.

Parents wanting immunizations should call their primary doctor or call 211info or go to 211info.org.
Maharashtra minister and Shiv



Sena leader Subhash Desai on Sunday made it clear that his party has not changed its stand over the oil refinery project near Nanar village in Ratnagiri district.

He was talking to reporters in Dhule city of north Maharashtra.

The Shiv Sena had been opposing the refinery project citing adverse environmental impact to the Konkan region. However, a front-page advertisement of the Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (RRPCL) published in the Konkan edition of 'Saamana', the Sena mouthpiece, on Saturday listed the benefits of the project for the region.

The advertisement led to speculations that the Sena was endorsing the project.

When asked about it, Desai said, "We have cancelled the notification for the Nanar refinery project. No other party had gone to this extent. We have not changed our stand on it."



The Industries Minister said that Sena MP Vinayak Raut has already made the party's stand clear on it.

"One should not spread misleading information over the issue," he added.

Desai also said that his ministry is going to organise 'Magnetic Maharashtra' event in November this year to attract investment into the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The fishermen were presumably Ukrainian nationals Serhiy Hoha, Oleksiy Ivanov, Vasyl Tiurkedzhy, and Maksym Terekhov, according to Ukrainian MP Pavlo Melnyk.

Four Ukrainian fishermen detained by Russian authorities on board of a small vessel in the Sea of Azov will be remanded in custody for 10 days, that's according to a ruling handed down by a Russia-controlled "court" in the city of Kerch in Russian-occupied Crimea.

Read alsoUkrainian MP reveals names of Ukraine fishermen detained by Russians in Azov Sea off Crimea coast (Photo)

Ukrainians were found guilty of an administrative offense under Part 4 of Article 19.3 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences (failure to follow a lawful order or request of an employee of the federal security service), Russian news agency TASS reported on Sunday, referring to the press service of the Border Guard Service of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).

"They were assigned an administrative arrest for 10 days," the report said.

In addition, an administrative case was opened under Part 2 of Article 8.17 of the Code on Administrative Offences (violation of the rules of catching/fishing aquatic biological resources).

As was earlier reported, Russian authorities had detained in the Sea of Azov a small vessel with four Ukrainian nationals on board, according to a statement by the Russian Federal Security Service.

"The captain of the boat did not fulfill legitimate requirements of the coast guard to halt, and tried to escape," reads the Russian statement.

The report says a fishing net and almost 300 Black Sea turbot fish were found on board.

The crew had no fishing permits at hand that the Russian occupation authorities required.

Ukrainian MP with the Servant of the People faction Pavlo Melnyk earlier said four Ukrainian fishermen were presumably Ukrainian nationals Serhiy Hoha, Oleksiy Ivanov, Vasyl Tiurkedzhy, and Maksym Terekhov.
President Donald Trumps top energy official said hes confident that Russia wont be able to complete the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea -- and signaled that the U.S. will press forward with its opposition to the project.

Asked about Russian efforts to circumvent U.S. sanctions on the pipeline by completing it on its own, U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said they cant -- and dismissed claims that project owner Gazprom PJSC will face only a short delay.

Its going to be a very long delay, because Russia doesnt have the technology, Brouillette said in an interview at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. If they develop it, well see what they do. But I dont think its as easy as saying, well, were almost there, were just going to finish it.

The pipeline, which would pump as much as 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually from fields in Siberia directly to Germany, has become a focus for geopolitical tensions across the Atlantic. Trump has assailed Germany for giving billions to Russia for gas while it benefits from U.S. protection.

Nord Stream 2s owners had invested 5.8 billion euros ($6.3 billion) in the project by May 2019, according to company documents.
The Trump administration is considering halting to China the sale of an aircraft engine produced in part by General Electric, two people familiar with the discussions said, part of a broader effort to limit the flow of technology there that could one day give Beijing an economic and security edge.

Top Trump administration officials will discuss whether to prevent the sale at a cabinet meeting on Feb. 28, these people said. That meeting will encompass other restrictions on China, including whether to proceed with a rule change that would further curtail the ability of Huawei, the Chinese telecom giant, to have access to American technology.

The aircraft license review was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration has been increasingly wary of Chinas economic and military ambitions, including a strategy to fuse its defense and commercial economies known as civil-military fusion.

Chinese industrial plans like Made In China 2025 have promoted dual-use technologies like aviation, automation and information technology to benefit both the Chinese economy and its military abilities.
 Millions of Britons with flu-like symptoms could be told to self-isolate by staying at home for a fortnight if the number of UK coronavirus cases rises past 100, it has been reported.

The Sunday Telegraph said senior NHS managers have been told that the service will stop testing for the strain known as Covid-19 once around 100 cases have been confirmed across Britain.

Eight of the nine people diagnosed with the virus in the UK have since left hospital after two negative tests for Covid-19, with the paper reporting hospitals have in the last week made isolation pods to keep those being tested away from other patients.

If the number of cases rises significantly those with coughs and colds may have to stay home to limit the chance of the outbreak spreading.

Workers in protective suits conduct RNA tests on specimens inside a laboratory / REUTERS

The Department of Health and Social Care did not comment when asked about the self-isolation direction.

As of Saturday, 2,992 people in the UK have been tested with 2,983 confirmed as negative and nine positive, the department said.

Earlier, an NHS spokesman said all 94 people in quarantine at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral had been released.

They had been kept in isolation at the hospital after returning to the UK from China  the centre of the outbreak.

Coronavirus: Costa Smeralda cruise ship lock down - In pictures 1 /16 Coronavirus: Costa Smeralda cruise ship lock down - In pictures The Costa Smeralda cruise ship of Costa Crociere, carrying around 6,000 passengers, is docked at the Italian port of Civitavecchia Reuters Passengers wearing face masks are seen on a bus after disembarking from the Costa Smeralda cruise ship, after tests on a woman from Macau with suspected coronavirus came back negative, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters Passengers wait aboard the Costa Smeralda cruise ship, docked in the Civitavecchia port near Rome AP Buses wait for passengers to disembark from the Costa Smeralda cruise ship after tests on a woman from Macau with suspected coronavirus came back negative, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters Passengers are pictured on Costa Smeralda cruise ship, docked in the Civitavecchia port AFP via Getty Images Passengers stand on the Costa Smeralda cruise ship docked at the Civitavecchia port AFP via Getty Images The Costa Smeralda cruise ship, left, is docked in the Civitavecchia port near Rome AP Passengers have been unable to leave the vessel AFP via Getty Images A passenger holding her child gets down from a shuttle bus after disembarking from the Costa Smeralda cruise ship docked in the Civitavecchia port, 70km north of Rom AFP via Getty Images The Costa Smeralda cruise ship of Costa Crociere, carrying around 6,000 passengers, sits docked at the Italian port of Civitavecchia following a health alert due to a Chinese couple and a possible link to coronavirus, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters Passengers are seen onboard the Costa Smeralda cruise ship in Civitavecchia, Italy @Xaideta via Reuters A Guardia di Finanza boat passes the Costa Smeralda cruise ship of Costa Crociere, carrying around 6,000 passengers, as it sits docked at the Italian port of Civitavecchia following a health alert due to a Chinese couple and a possible link to coronavirus, in Civitavecchia, Italy Reuters

More than 100 people remain at the Kents Hill Park Hotel in Milton Keynes, the NHS added.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: I am also pleased that eight of the nine individuals who tested positive for coronavirus have now been successfully treated and discharged from hospital.

I want to stress that any individuals who are discharged from hospital are now well and do not pose any public health risk to the public.

Again, this is evidence of how well prepared our NHS is to deal with the Wuhan coronavirus.

What is self-isolating?

Self-isolating is when a person showing symptoms of the strain of coronavirus  also known as Covid-19  is asked to stay at home for 14 days to prevent the spread of the infection.

Symptoms include a cough, high temperature and shortness of breath.

Currently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates the incubation period to be up to 14 days, and recommends that the follow-up of contacts of confirmed cases is the same period.

Who should isolate themselves?

Anyone who has travelled from Wuhan or Hubei province to the UK in the last 14 days should immediately stay indoors and avoid contact with other people. They have also been told to call NHS 111, even if they do not have symptoms.

Anyone with symptoms of cough, fever or shortness of breath who has returned from anywhere in mainland China within the last 14 days should also self-isolate and call the NHS.

This guidance also applies to travellers who have recently returned from other parts of China, such as Macau and Hong Kong, or Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Republic of Korea or Malaysia.

Health professionals will then arrange for people with suspected cases of coronavirus to be tested.

How do you self-isolate?

People who have been asked to isolate themselves should stay at home and avoid contact with the public.

The NHS says people should not go to school, work or public areas, not use public transport or taxis and avoid visitors at home.

Friends, family and delivery drivers can still carry out errands such as delivering food.

What about living with a person in self-isolation?

People living with someone who is self-isolating are advised to limit contact with the patient as much as possible, Public Health England (PHE) said.

They should wash their hands often and thoroughly, ensure that shared spaces such as kitchens and bathrooms are well ventilated, and avoid sharing household items.

Visitors should not be invited to the home and people at increased risk of the illness  such as those with a chronic illness or weakened immune system  should avoid contact with the patient.

Laundry should be washed at the highest temperature possible, and surfaces should be cleaned every day.

Can you be forced to self-isolate?

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has said that the coronavirus outbreak represents a serious and imminent threat to public health.

New legal powers mean people with coronavirus can be forcibly quarantined and will not be free to leave, and can be forcibly sent into isolation if they pose a threat.

Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside and Kents Hill Park in Milton Keynes have been designated isolation facilities, the Government said.

How can you reduce the spread of the coronavirus?

Because it is a new illness, it is not known exactly how coronavirus spreads from person to person, but similar viruses spread in cough droplets, the NHS said.

It recommends people cover their mouths and noses with a tissue or sleeve  not their hands  when coughing or sneezing, and binning tissues immediately.
Ahead of swearing-in ceremony, Arvind Kejriwal invited Delhiites again for his oath-taking ceremony at Ramlila Maidan on Sunday at 10 am.

Referring himself as "son of Delhi", Kejriwal urged Delhiites to attend the ceremony. The AAP convener tweeted saying, "Delhiites, your son is going to take oath as Delhi chief minister for the third time. You must come to bless your son".



CM pic.twitter.com/98k4WHTOYB Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 16, 2020 Kejriwal will take oath as Delhi's chief minister -- for a third consecutive term today. Along with him, six other AAP leaders will also take oath, which includes--Manish Sisodia, Satendra Jain, Gopal Rai, Kailash Gehlot, Imran Hussain, Rajendra Pal Gautam. Hosted my Delhi Cabinet designate colleagues for dinner at my residence. Congratulated them on their victory in the election and wished them success for their terms as Ministers in the Delhi govt. pic.twitter.com/NTAT1yXQUn Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 15, 2020

A day before the oath-taking ceremony, Arvind Kejriwal had called for a dinner meeting of his new cabinet ministers to discuss the action plan of the Delhi Government for the next three months.

Also read: Arvind Kejriwal to take oath as Delhi CM at Ramlila Maidan today

In a near-repeat performance of 2015, the Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party retained power in the just-concluded Delhi Assembly polls. This time AAP bagged 62 out of the 70 seats while the BJP bagged the remaining eight seats. The Congress drew a blank for the second consecutive time.

Around 5,000 police personnel have been deployed at Ramlila Maidan. Also, over 120 CCTV cameras and 12 LED screens have been installed at the venue. As many as 45,000 chairs have been arranged for the people.

Also read: Arvind Kejriwal, 6 other ministers to take oath today at Ramlila Maidan
Rajasthan BJP president Satish Poonia on Sunday described Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot as the leader of the 'tukde-tukde' gang in the wake of his recent participation at a sit-in here against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

He said Gehlot has "attempted to push the state into anarchy" in the name of freedom of speech and expression.

"The chief minister's participation has encouraged such protests across the state. There have been reports that the protests are being funded by Popular Front of India (PFI) and the organisation has a connection with SIMI," Poonia said at a press conference here.

"These all indicate that there is a network working behind such protests. I don't have any inhibition in saying that Rajasthan chief minister is the leader of 'tukde-tukde' gang," he said, adding that Gehlot's act was "shameful" as it aimed at taking political mileage.

Addressing the indefinite dharna against the CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) at the Shahid Smarak on Friday, Gehlot claimed that information on birthplace of parents was being sought for the National Population Register (NPR).

"If I am not able to furnish the details, I too would be asked to live in a detention centre. You stay assured, if such situation comes then I would be the first to go there," he said.

Poonia said the chief minister's effort to equate Shaheed Smarak to Shaheen Bagh was an "insult" to martyrs.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PEARL, Miss.  Water continued to rise and spread in Mississippi on Sunday in what threatened to be one of the most severe floods in decades to hit the central part of the state. Officials warned residents to clear out, because the worst of the flooding was still to come.

We do not anticipate this situation ending anytime soon, Gov. Tate Reeves said Sunday at a state emergency operations center just outside of Jackson. It will be days before we are out of the woods and the water starts to recede.

The governor repeated a plea that he and other officials starting making as soon as the gravity of the flooding became clear: Protect yourself and protect your family.

Water levels did not rise as quickly overnight as officials had anticipated. Still, law enforcement officers were going door to door, repeating in person the call to leave. Sandbags were distributed by the thousands, and rescue crews with boats and high-water vehicles were standing by on Sunday to rescue anyone who became stranded.

The swollen Pearl River has already spilled into parts of Jackson, the state capital, and other communities along its banks. Forecasters expected the floodwaters to continue flowing outward, threatening a broader swath of the area, including the heart of the state government in downtown Jackson.

The river is rising so high because a reservoir just upstream has been filled to capacity by days of torrential rain. Officials at the Barnett Reservoir, a 33,000-acre lake northeast of Jackson, said they had to open its spillway Saturday night to release water into the river when the reservoir exceeded its capacity. As a result, officials have projected that the river by Monday would crest as high as 37.5 feet  almost 10 feet above flood stage.

Officials said the lake stabilized overnight, allowing them to release less total water than they had originally expected.

Officials estimated that more than 2,400 structures would be affected by the flooding  most of them in Hinds County, which includes Jackson, but also some in neighboring Rankin and Madison counties.

The Pearl River has not reached 38 feet since devastating floods in 1983 and 1979, two of the worst to hit the central part of the state in recent history. The 1979 event set the record, with the river cresting at 43 feet, submerging a large area of Jackson, including downtown.

The new flood has created yet another test for Reeves, the Republican who took office as governor just over a month ago and has already faced a spell of destructive weather.

Rick Rojas is a New York Times writer.
Anti-CAA protesters at Shaheen Bagh, who have called for a march till Union Home Minister Amit Shah's residence on Sunday, have not yet received permission from the Delhi Police.

In a letter to the protesters, the New Delhi district police said the march will pass through two more districts and request for it has been sent to the police headquarters for further appropriate actions.

Police said they had asked the protesters at Shaheen Bagh to give the details of the delegation for its meeting with the Union home minister.

In a written response to police, they said 4,000 to 5,000 demonstrators would be marching towards Shah's residence.

The protesters, mainly women, have been staging a sit-in against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) for the past two months.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Queensland police are appealing for information after arresting a man armed with a knife who allegedly threatened motorists in Brisbane's west on Sunday morning.

Police were called to Morrow Street in Taringa just after 8am to reports of a man armed with a knife making verbal threats to passing motorists.

Queensland police arrested the man in Indooroopilly who was allegedly armed with a knife and making threats.

Before police arrived in Taringa, members of the public made further calls about the same man allegedly disrupting traffic on Station Road at nearby Indooroopilly.

After arresting the man, police are appealing for information and dashcam footage from about 8am in those suburbs.
Most people would fall over themselves to name a prince as godfather to their precious first-born. But ahead of the imminent birth of his child, Tom Skippy Inskip has rejected the opportunity of asking his childhood pal Harry to do the honours  and insiders are speculating it is because he and wife Lara are still smarting over the hijacking of their 2017 wedding.

The two men used to be inseparable, with Skippy known as Harrys wingman thanks to their wild holidays together.

Harry was an usher at Skippys wedding to literary agent Lara in Jamaica but the couple now believe that Meghans presence  one of her first appearances with the Prince  unfairly took the spotlight off them.

Tom Inskip, pictured with his wife Lara at the Royal Wedding has not asked Prince Harry to become the godfather of their first child

Friends claim 'Skippy' and the Prince are no longer 'inseparable' because of the influence of Meghan. Inskip, pictured here with Harry at the wedding of James Meade and Lady Laura Marsham in 2013, was described as the Prince's 'wingman'

To make matters worse, Meghan and Harry are love-bombing another of their old circle  Charlie van Straubenzee and wife Daisy  ahead of the birth of their first child

A source says: Although they said they didnt mind at the time, Lara and Skippy are now telling friends they are furious with Meghan and Harry because, on reflection, they believe their wedding was hijacked by their presence and their demands, including asking for guests not to use their mobile phones. It would have been fine were it not for the fact that they were then left off the list for the Royal Wedding evening reception a year later.

Some friends hoped that the birth of his first child would have been an opportunity for Skippy to extend an olive branch to Harry. But instead of asking him to be a godfather, he has decided to keep the door closed.

To make matters worse, Meghan and Harry are love-bombing another of their old circle  Charlie van Straubenzee and wife Daisy  ahead of the birth of their first child.

Another source adds: Meghan has reportedly been sending Daisy some of Archies old baby clothes and has made it clear she or Harry would love to be called up for godparent duties. Lara and Tom cant work out why another couple are feeling the love and they arent. Skippy bent over backwards for Harry.

Breaking news Im on maternity leave for a few months from next week. Meanwhile, a shout-out to all the Diarys mischievous moles and readers (especially my dad, Nigel, who is currently unwell but, working for a rival Sunday newspaper, remains my toughest critic).

The column is left in the trusty hands of my brilliant team, Sophie Cockerham and Joanna Bell, while Alistair Foster takes over my seat next month. Keep those scoops coming
A member of the public is rescued after flooding in Nantgarw, South Wales (Ben Birchall/PA)

Storm Dennis has lashed parts of the UK with more than a months worth of rain in 48 hours, leading to a record number of flood warnings and alerts in England.

Roads and railways were flooded on Sunday morning after torrential downpours and high winds caused by the second storm in just over a week.

The situation was said to be life-threatening in South Wales, where the Met Office issued a red warning due to heavy rainfall and flooding risk until 11am.

The Environment Agencys (EA) flood and coastal risk management executive director John Curtin said on Sunday that there were a record 594 flood warnings and alerts in force.

Mr Curtin tweeted: Breaking: we now have the most flood warnings and alerts in force (594) in England than any other day on record.

The Met Office said that winds of more than 80mph were recorded across parts of the country, with the highest measuring 91mph in Aberdaron in north Wales on Saturday.

BREAKING: we now have the most flood warnings and alerts in force (594) in England than any other day on record. Stay safe and updated here https://t.co/K5GUW3z87V pic.twitter.com/0IEdWBAOpi  John Curtin (@johncurtinEA) February 16, 2020

A total of 156.2mm of rain fell at Crai Reservoir in Powys in the 48 hours from Friday to Sunday morning, it added.

The average monthly rainfall for February in Wales is 111.1mm, the Met Office added.

Severe flood warning have been issued for the rivers Neath and Taff in South Wales, as well as the River Teme further north.

Pictures on social media show the Taff bursting its banks and flooding parts of Pontypridd, while rescue workers were using boats to get families to safety after further flooding in nearby Nantgarw.

Rescue operations under way as a family is taken to safety, after flooding in Nantgarw (Ben Birchall/PA)

Gwent Police said that residents of Skenfrith, Monmouthshire, were being advised to evacuate due to the flooding.

At about 11am on Sunday there were 250 flood warnings, meaning immediate action is required, and 344 flood alerts warning people to be prepared, covering an area from Scotlands River Tweed to the rivers of west Cornwall.

South Wales Police said it had declared a major incident due to the flooding and severe weather.

It said emergency services were dealing with multiple floods and landslides, and have been required to evacuate residents from houses.

Severe flood warning were issued for the Scottish Borders but these were no longer in force by late on Sunday morning.

The Met Office has issued amber alerts  meaning people must be prepared to change plans and protect themselves and their family from the storm  for parts of Yorkshire, Wales, Devon, East Sussex and Kent.

(PA Graphics)

Rail services were suspended across South Wales after tracks were submerged by rain, while the line between Derby and Long Eaton was also closed.

Flooding saw the M54 westbound closed at Telford, along with the A616 around Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire and the A52 between Stragglethorpe and Gamston in the East Midlands, Highways England said.

Relief from Storm Dennis is still some distance away, the Met Offices Mr Dewhurst said, adding that heavy rain and strong winds would continue across large parts of the UK on Sunday.

South Wales will see a lot of rain fall before Dennis moves north later to Scotland and Northern Ireland.

An employee cleans a Poundland shop hit by flooding in Pontypridd (Ben Birchall/PA)

Earlier, the Ministry of Defence deployed British Army personnel to assist people in West Yorkshire areas badly hit by flooding during last weekends Storm Ciara.

The British Red Cross said that with water levels expected to peak on Monday or Tuesday it was ready to respond across the country.

Its crisis response officer Georgie Timmins said: British Red Cross have been liaising with relevant local authorities, offering to support people affected by Storm Dennis across the UK.

We are currently responding in Shropshire, Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire and Gloucestershire, and we are currently ready to help in Wales, Manchester, Buckinghamshire, Lancashire and Inverness.

Our volunteers know that when people are caught up in a crisis, one persons needs are different to the next person.

The storms are expected to continue, and water is anticipated to be at peak levels on Monday and Tuesday. It is important people are ready should the worst happen.

Flights have been grounded for safety reasons, with British Airways and easyJet confirming cancellations.

More than 230 easyJet flights in and out of the UK on Saturday were cancelled, while several sporting fixtures were also called off due to the weather.

Two bodies were pulled from rough seas on Saturday, before the worst of the storm hit.

One man was found following a huge search operation off Margate after an early-morning distress call, while another was found at Herne Bay.
AS Joaquin Phoenix rose to the podium to collect his Academy Award for Best Actor, ears were peeled as the actor made his speech about inequality and our disconnect with the natural world.

Social justice has been a recurring theme in his winners speeches throughout awards season. It was something that correlated with the suit he chose to wear all season  a tuxedo by Stella McCartney, the ethically-minded British designer.

In a Twitter statement, the designer wrote: He chooses to make choices for the future of the planet. He has also chosen to wear this same tux for the entire award season to reduce waste. I am proud to join forces with you. This is hardly a groundbreaking concept: men, especially those whose wardrobe is not nearly as important as the work they represent during awards season, ones with no apparent direct attachment to fashion, such as Phoenix, have gotten away with this for years.

Now, of course, its news because sustainability is as trendy as it is essential for the survival of our planet  in this sense, Phoenixs statement is problematic but at least a public figure is doing something to promote the sustainable cause.

Men have worn black suits since award season began. Classic and reliable, there were plenty of them on the carpet. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood winner Brad Pitt showed up in a sharp Brioni tux, Keanu Reeves arrived in Saint Laurent, Rami Malek also donned Saint Laurent, favouring an all-black look. There was no denying they looked good.

Look no further than the dapper Adam Driver wearing a custom Burberry black wool mohair English-fit tuxedo, white cotton pique-bib dress shirt with black onyx shirt studs. Bong Joon-ho winner for Best Picture, Best Director, Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay for Parasite, also wore a Burberry black wool mohair English-fit tuxedo, black cotton pique-bib dress shirt. Playing to the familiar was to their advantage.

The only downside to this tactic was the overwhelming lack of excitement present on the red carpet. The identity of mens fashion on the red carpet is changing. Its not just their female counterparts that dominate the discussion anymore.

The Oscars is the last hoorah  its the culmination of months and months of press and promotion, all leading up to that one moment. The fashion should represent that and end with a triumphant bang, said stylist Andrew Gellwicks, who works with clients such as actor Ryan Jamaal Swain and actress Catherine OHara.

The photos are seen by everyone  fans, directors, agents, writers  and you want to be at the top of your game.

Certainly, some stars rose to the challenge: There was Billy Porter, the Pose star who has circumvented tradition in each and every red carpet appearance since in the past year, most notably at last years Oscars in a tuxedo with an extravagant skirt and the Met Gala where he moonlighted as an Egyptian Sun god in 10-foot gold wings and a 24-carat headpiece.

Billy Porter wore a Giles Deacon breastplate and bouffant skirt on the Oscars red carpet.

For this Oscars red carpet, he chose a Giles Deacon breastplate and bouffant skirt, a London-based couturier. The bodice consisted of a plume of gold-foil-feathers, contrasting with a ball-gown skirt screen printed with images of Kensington Palace. He completed the look with gold heels. New red carpet royalty.

While Porter might be in a minority of men with the chutzpah to pull this kind of look off, he certainly proves that mens formal wear is not what it used to be. Gone are the days of little expectation, men are tasked with rising to the challenge in the same way their female counterparts have been for years. Furthermore, they have to deliver what Gelwicks calls, gut-level excitement. No small feat.

Its something that Timothee Chalamet, a veritable fashion darling and golden boy of the moment, is familiar with. Bedecked in a navy satin Prada zip-up jacket and matching trousers, it looked like a cross between space agent tracksuit and tux-adjacent. (Chalamet has become one of the most-watched stars on the red carpet for his daring approaches to dressing. One cannot remember the last time he stepped out in a classic tuxedo.) Men such as Timothee Chalamet, Donald Glover and Harry Styles have playfully eroded the traditional dress codes and all have a distinctly individual approach to evening attire, said Damien Paul, head of menswear at MATCHESFASHION.com, noting their alternative approach has influenced buying patterns in recent years, though tuxedo purchases do not necessarily increase during awards season.

Timothee Chalamet wore a navy satin Prada zip-up jacket and matching trousers

This certainly filters through and we find suits with strong fashion handwriting sell very well. Men are adapting the traditional with modern thinking, and this elegant approach works well with our designer partners at MATCHESFASHION, he said. The AW 2020 runways told the same story with suits in every colour of the rainbow. There was red at Givenchy, Alexander McQueen, and Zegna, pink at Berluti and Jacquemus, while it was all about blue at Louis Vuitton and Lanvin. Moreover, at Louis Vuitton, suits were decorated with cascading ruffles, and at Alexander McQueen they were enriched with glittering embellishment.

In short, what the Oscars red carpet delivered belonged to a bygone era.

Take the Grammys: from Becks embellished pinstripe Celine tux with a floral lapel pin to Quavos double-breasted satin Prada number, Shawn Mendes raspberry Louis Vuitton, and Lil Nas Xs hot pink rodeo gear. This is how to celebrate the fun in formal wear. No longer does tailoring have to be boring.

One can hold out hope that Hollywoods leading men will reflect the turning tide with amped up individuality on the red carpet. Once upon a time in Hollywood, there was a classic tuxedo. That fairytale has seen its day.
Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire who launched a late bid for the White House with a series of adverts lambasting Donald Trump, has released another advert likening the president to famous bullies.

The ad shows several clips of Mr Trump hurling insults and making incendiary comments at campaign rallies, during interviews and in speeches, beginning with a moment from a rally in which the president said: Go home to mommy  go home  bye! as a protestor was being forced out of the venue.

Those clips are then interspersed with infamous lines from some of the most popular contemporary films, including Mean Girls and Back to the Future.

At one moment, Mr Trump can be seen saying: Shes also guilty of stupidity.

The ad then flashes to a clip from Mean Girls, the 2004 teen comedy, in which the main protagonist Regina George shouted at her friend: God, Karen, you are so stupid!

The ad also featured Buford Biff Howard Tannen, the main antagonist in the Back to the Future trilogy.

A video of the president shouting to his security, Get him the hell out of here, would you? then jumps to a clip from the film showing Biff holding Michael J Foxs character Marty McFly by the neck as he said: Why dont you make like a tree and get out of here.

Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Show all 18 1 /18 Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Jessica Canicosa, a precinct captain for Bernie Sanders, waits to greet caucus voters at Liberty High School in Henderson, Nevada REUTERS Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Hotel workers at the Bellagio in Las Vegas get to grips with voting papers during the Nevada caucuses AFP via Getty Images Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A caricature of Bernie Sanders is projected on to a tree during a rally in Las Vegas EPA Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A woman waits to have a photo taken with Elizabeth Warren during a town hall meeting in Las Vegas REUTERS Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures The threat of coronavirus and other germ-borne illnesses was on some voters' minds at the Democratic caucuses in Henderson, Nevada Getty Images Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Former vice-president Joe Biden takes a selfie with a voter in Las Vegas ahead of the Nevada caucuses REUTERS Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Amy Klobuchar changes her shoes backstage after giving a speech in Exeter, New Hampshire AFP/Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A warmly-wrapped-up dog attends an Elizabeth Warren event at Amherst Elementary School in Nashua, New Hampshire AFP/Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Bernie Sanders, who romped to victory in New Hampshire against Hillary Clinton in 2016, talks to the media in Manchester Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Joe Biden was hoping to improve on his poor showing in Iowa in the New Hampshire primary Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Elizabeth Warren, renowned for giving time to supporters for selfies, works the crowd at the University of New Hampshire in Durham Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Joe Biden takes a selfie with a supporter and his child outside a campaign event in Somersworth, New Hampshire on 5 February Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders quarrel after a confrontation in a TV debate in which Sanders claimed that Warren was not telling the truth about a conversation in which she claimed he had said a woman could not win the presidency on 14 January AP Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Supporter Pat Provencher listens to Pete Buttigieg in Laconia, New Hampshire on 4 February Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Concord, New Hampshire while awaiting the results of the Iowa caucus Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Elizabeth Warren is presented with a balloon effigy of herself at a campaign event in Nashua, New Hampshire on 5 February Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A Trump supporter rides past a rally for Amy Klobuchar in Des Moines, Iowa on 14 January AP Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A man holds up a sign criticising billionaires in the presidential race in front of Michael Bloomberg in Compton, Califronia. The former New York mayor skipped the first caucus in Iowa and instead campaigned in California on 3 February Reuters

Mr Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City who was one of the last candidates to launch a presidential campaign during the Democratic primaries, posted the ad to his Twitter account on Saturday night.

Referring to the president, Mr Bloomberg wrote: He lies. He bullies. He gets away with it.

Our kids are watching Donald Trump, he added. Is this the lesson we want them to learn?

Mr Bloomberg has continued to steadily release ads deriding the president for his past controversial comments, releasing them on TV in key battleground states while seeking the Democratic nomination.

The billionaire snubbed Iowa and New Hampshires first-in-the-nation votes, a move critics said was reflective of his apparent efforts to buy support through ads in the primaries rather than campaigning in the early voting states seen as crucial for securing the nomination.

His ads have allegedly sent Mr Trump into a melt down, as the president reportedly stewed over one specific ad from Mr Bloomberg that discussed his girth.

The president has fired back at the former New York City mayor, dubbing him Mini Mike, seemingly exaggerating claims about Mr Bloombergs height, and claiming he was part of the Fake News in a tweet.
An 80-year-old Chinese tourist in France who had tested positive for the new Coronavirus has died recently. This marks the first fatality due to the Coronavirus in Europe and also the first fatality outside Asia. The tourist arrived in France on January 16 and had been under quarantine since January 25.

Condition of patient 'deteriorated rapidly' after hospitalisation

The victim was an 80-year-old man from China's Hubei province, the epicentre of the new novel Coronavirus named COVID-19 by the United Nations. Reportedly, the patient's condition had deteriorated rapidly after being hospitalised on January 25. France currently has 11 confirmed cases of people who tested positive for the COVID-19. Before this, three deaths had been recorded outside mainland China  in Hong Kong, the Philippines and Japan.

According to the French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn, the man's 50-year-old daughter who was travelling with him has also been tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently being treated in a hospital. Speaking to media, French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said that her health is no longer a cause of concern and should be able to leave the hospital soon.

COVID-19 has already affected more than 500 people outside mainland China, and has spread to at least 26 other countries. In China, COVID-19 has already claimed around 1,523 lives, with the death toll increases every day. China on Saturday reported that the total cases of infected had grown to 66,492.

Read: Indian Embassy: Condition Of 3 Indians Affected By Coronavirus On Japanese Cruise Improves

Read: China Quarantines Cash In Coronavirus-hit Areas To Prevent Spread Of Deadly Disease

Coronavirus Outbreak

The virus has claimed more lives than its predecessor Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that broke out in China in 2002-2003 and claimed more than 774 lives. According to reports, China on Thursday reported the highest number of deaths caused by the virus in a single day as 254 people died in Hubei province.

As per reports, the COVID-19 has claimed more than 1,500 lives in China alone and over 66,000 new cases have been confirmed in the country as of February 13.

US' Center for Disease Control (CDC) has said that the virus has already spread to 27 countries, including Japan, which reported its first fatality. Media reports had earlier suggested that the virus originated from a seafood market in China's Hubei province, where animals were being traded illegally. So far, the most number of deaths have been reported from Wuhan city, the believed epicentre of the disease.

Read: Coronavirus Hit Cruise Ship Diamond Princess In Japan Reports 67 New Cases

Read: Trump Defends China's Alleged Cover-up Of Coronavirus, Says Didn't 'want To Create Panic'
The rejection by Riek Machar dashes hopes of breaking a deadlock and ending a six-year conflict in South Sudan.

South Sudans rebels have rejected a peace offer by President Salva Kiir, which included plans to reduce the number of states but also create three administrative areas in the country.

The rejection by rebel chief Riek Machar, announced in a statement, dashes hopes of breaking a deadlock and ending a six-year conflict that has left at least 380,000 people dead and millions in dire poverty.

Kiir and Machar  who lives in exile  are under increasing international pressure to resolve their differences by a February 22 deadline.

Kiir on Saturday said the country would now be divided into the original 10 states  a key opposition demand  plus three administrative areas of Pibor, Ruweng and Abyei.

While Machar said he appreciated the governments decision to revert to ten states, he expressed his dissatisfaction with the creation of the three administrative areas.

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It cannot be referred to as reverting to 10 states (and) as such cannot be accepted, Machar wrote in the statement, cited by AFP news agency.

We therefore call upon President Kiir to reconsider this idea of creating administrative areas, he added.

Machar warned the three areas risked causing further problems, calling the issue a Pandoras box.

The number of states is contentious because the borders will determine the divisions of power in the country.

When it gained independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan had 10 states, as set out in its constitution.

Kiir increased that in 2015 to 28, then 32  and has now reduced them to 10, plus three administrative areas.

Painful decision

On Saturday, Kiir said returning to a system of 10 states was a painful decision but a necessary one if that is what brings peace.

He issued an order late Saturday, relieving the governors of all 32 states of their posts.

The president had said the final matter of states would be debated once the unity government forms.

Of the three proposed areas, the most contentious is thought to be oil-rich Ruweng, in the north.

Oil provides almost all of the governments revenue in South Sudan, making it one of the worlds most oil-dependent nations.

Ruweng has been one of the most heavily fought-over areas in the civil war and is claimed by both the Dinka people, of whom Kiir is one, and the Nuer, of whom Machar is one.

International pressure by the United States and others has been building on Kiir and Machar to meet a February 22 deadline to join forces in a transitional government.

The two rivals agreed on a peace deal in 2018, pressured by the United Nations, the US and countries in the region.
ANKARA, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Turkey has fulfilled its responsibilities in the northwestern Syrian region of Idlib in line with the agreements it made with Russia and Iran, Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Saturday, after violence spiked in recent weeks.

Turkey and Russia back opposing sides in the conflict, and agreed in 2018 to set up a de-escalation zone in the region. A Syrian government offensive disrupted Ankara and Moscow's fragile cooperation, after 13 Turkish soldiers were killed in the past two weeks.

Oktay told broadcaster NTV that Turkey was determined to stop the Syrian government advances in Idlib, repeating a threat that Ankara would use military power to push back Syrian forces if they did not withdraw by the end of February. He said Turkey had conveyed its position on Idlib to Russia during the talks. (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 22:30:47|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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DHAKA, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- A group of 312 Bangladeshis who were evacuated on a special flight on Feb. 1 from coronavirus epicenter Wuhan have spoken out after being released from a 14-day quarantine in their country, expressing their belief that China will beat and recover from the COVID-19 outbreak.

All of them have been released from a 14-day quarantine in the capital of Dhaka, according to a statement from the head of the country's institute of epidemiology released Sunday.

Fahim Al Faysal, a Bangladeshi student at the Hubei University of Technology, told Xinhua on Friday that China is "doing quite well" in fighting the novel coronavirus, particularly after he witnessed how Wuhan, a city with a population of over 10 million, suspended outbound public transportation on Jan. 23 to prevent the spread of the virus.

"This step was so good. Their best step was building the quarantine hospital in just 10 days with 1,000 beds" with "all the medical equipment that will help fight against coronavirus," he said, referring to the makeshift Huoshenshan Hospital.

Besides Huoshenshan, Wuhan has built another makeshift hospital called Leishenshan, which can accommodate 1,600 beds. It received its first batch of patients infected with the virus on Feb. 8.

Faysal added he believes that due to the unity of the Chinese people, there's no need to worry.

"Chinese people are working together, and they trust each other. That's the main thing. China already has taken all the big steps to prevent the virus," he said.

"This virus is serious, but we shouldn't panic now," Faysal added.

Alamgir Hossen, a PhD student at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, was also among the 312 evacuees.

"So far, I think China has taken good initiative on the preventive measures of COVID-19," Hossen told Xinhua.

Having been living in China for the past three and a half years, Hossen expressed his hopes that China would recover soon from the epidemic.

"Wuhan is a lovely city to live in ... Most of my Chinese friends have great souls," he said.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed recently said that China's efforts have effectively contained the spread of the virus, and she thanked Beijing for taking care of the large number of Bangladeshi nationals in China at this difficult time.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said that the situation in northwest Syria will not be resolved until Syrian troops withdraw beyond the borders that Turkey and Russia outlined in a 2018 agreement. Turkey and Russia both back opposing sides in the war in Syria but decided to cooperate in an effort to seek a political situation.

Turkey wants the complete withdrawal of Syrian troops

Back in 2018, Turkey and Russia collaborated together to set-up a de-escalation zone in Idlib in order to stem the violence in the region. A recent Syrian offensive has threatened to unravel this fragile cooperation.

Erdogan further added that the only solution remaining in Idlib is the withdrawal of the Syrian regime to the borders of the previous agreements. Erdogan claimed that if the Syrian regime did not withdraw to the borders as per the agreement, then Turkey would 'handle' the situation before the end of February.

Erdogan also made it clear in his statement that until Syria was free of terrorist organisations and the cruelty of the Syrian regime, Turkey would not "rest easy". And while Turkey would like to take any action with support from "friends", they would do it the hard way if they have to.

Read: Russia Urges 'implementation' Of Existing Accords With Turkey On Syria

Read: Kremlin Accuses Turkey Of Violating Agreements On Idlib Province Of Syria

"Fulfilled" its obligations

Earlier, Turkey had announced that it had fulfilled all its responsibilities in Syrias Idlib region under the 2018 de-escalation agreements with Russia and Iran, international media reported. Ankara on Saturday announced that it might take military action if diplomatic efforts with Moscow fail.

Syrian offensive in Idlib in the past two weeks has killed 13 Turkish soldiers and severed the cooperative ties between Russia and Turkey. Following the offensive, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to attack Syrian forces if any other Turkish soldier was hurt.

According to international reports, Kremlin urged Ankara on February 12 to implement the peace agreements. After a phone call between both leaders, Kremlin reportedly released a statement that Russia and Turkey 'noted the importance of full implementation' of the existing accords including the Sochi memorandum. The leaders have also reviewed the different aspects of the settlement of the Syrian crisis especially in the context of the recent escalation in the Idlib de-escalation zone.

It was in 2018 when both countries had agreed on a memorandum in order to enforce a demilitarized zone in Syria's Idlib region from which the 'radical' forces were asked to withdraw. However, Russia has insisted that groups of 'terrorists' have continued to fight in the same region.

(Image Credit: AP)

Read: Turkey Says It Fulfilled Its Responsibilities In Syria's Idlib Region

Read: India Rejects Turkey Poking Nose In J&K, Tells Erdogan 'Understand Pak Terrorism Facts'
Largely unknown to and unreported in the West, a large, two-day conference was recently hosted (Jan. 2728) by Al Azhar University in Egypt and attended by the leading clerics and politicians from 46 nations. Titled "Renewal in Islamic Thought," it is currently the most significant response to Egyptian president Sisi's calls for reform, which he forcibly made on January 1, 2015.

The conference focused on the most pressing topics affecting the Islamic  and in some cases non-Islamic  world, including women's rights, government and society, and the question of "radicalization" and the emergence of jihadi terror groups such as the Islamic State.

I've watched many of the panels with great interest, and in the coming weeks, I hope to remark on some of these, but for now I wish to discuss what can be learned from the closing remarks of the grand imam of Al Azhar (and Pope Francis's good friend), Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb.

First, he  in agreement with the other clerics present  closed the door on the possibility for reform on a great number of issues: "Renewal," he announced, "is in no way possible concerning those texts which are irrefutable in their certainty and stability; as for those texts that are not entirely credible, they are subject to ijtihad [reinterpretation, especially based on changing circumstances]."

In plain language, the teachings of those Islamic texts that are deemed entirely reliable  chief among them, the Koran as well as certain hadith, including, according to mainstream Sunnism, all nine volumes of Sahih Bukhari  are not subject to any change; only those secondary Islamic texts, including many other volumes of hadith, the sira (biography of Muhammad), and other works of history, are open to debate.

The problem is that some  many  of the worst teachings plaguing the Islamic and non-Islamic worlds are derived directly from those texts deemed entirely reliable. The Koran, for example, very clearly permits the sexual enslavement of non-Muslim women, the beating of one's wife, and polygamy. The Koran calls on Muslims to have hate for and when convenient to war on non-Muslims just because they are non-Muslims.

This leads to the other problem with the recent conference: many falsehoods were inevitably delivered concerning precisely those texts that are 1) closed to reinterpretation and 2) a source of ongoing problems. Here, for example, are al-Tayeb's closing remarks on the topic of jihad:

Jihad in Islam is not synonymous with fighting; rather, the fighting practiced by Prophet Muhammad and his companions is one of its types; and it is to ward off the aggression of the aggressors against Muslims, as opposed to killing those who offend in [matters of] religion, as the extremists claim. The established sharia rule in Islam bans antagonism for those who oppose the religion. Fighting them is forbidden  as long as they do not fight Muslims.

If only this were true! The world would have developed in a radically different way. But alas, al-Tayeb's words contradict both more than a millennium of Islamic theology  including as codified in those "unquestioned" texts  and Islamic history:

Beginning with Muhammad  whose later wars were hardly defensive, but rather raids meant to empower and aggrandize himself and his followers over non-Muslims  and under the first "righteous" caliphs and virtually all subsequent sultans and rulers, jihad consisted of "inviting" neighboring non-Muslims to embrace Islam or at the very least submit themselves to its political authority (as second-class dhimmis); if non-Muslims refused, as they almost always did, if they insisted on maintaining their own religious identity and freedom from Islam, then jihad was proclaimed, the non-Muslims' lands were invaded, and the aftermath looked like an ISIS setting, with pyramids of heads, burned churches and other temples of worship, and slave markets of women and children littering the landscape.

This went on unwaveringly for nearly 14 centuries. One need only look at a map of the Muslim world today and realize that the vast majority of it  all of the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey, Central Asia, as far east as Pakistan and farther  was taken by violent conquest in the name of jihad. Every Muslim child is taught this in elementary school; it is a source of great pride and validation.

This, in a nutshell, is the problem with the much touted international conference recently hosted by Al Azhar. While lots of encouraging and progressive talk was made, regrettably, much of it must by necessity be left as just that  talk.

The facts remain: some of those texts deemed too sacrosanct for "renewal" or reinterpretation (ijtihad) do teach problematic things. Nor will renewals built on lies  such as the notion that jihad was and is always defensive and for the protection of Muslims, never offensive and for the spread of Islam  ever find root and grow.

Raymond Ibrahim, author of Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is Shillman fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, Judith Friedman Rosen fellow at the Middle East Forum, and distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute.
Beijing/IBNS: Despite sharing strong bonds among themselves as all-weather alliance partners, several Chinese firms recently faced troubles in a Karachi expo, hinting the underlying difference shared by the two nations.

In a recent report published by The Economist titled 'Chinese investment in Eurasia is not always smooth', it has been said that staff from 120 Chinese firms, who attended the Karachi expo, had little success as they stood, brochures and electronic translation devices in hand, touting everything from hoses to pumps to window frames.

Alex Hou, from a firm in Zhejiang province that sells pvc film to factories, told the publication thatPakistani officials could have done a lot more to promote the event.

More broadly, Pakistan is a lesson in how China can fumble the politics of its prime foreign policy, reported the magazine.

Pakistan leaves behind its own students in Coronavirus hit China:

Interestingly, Pakistan left its own students in coronavirus-hit China, despite their pleadings, to showcase their bond and solidarity with the Asian behemoth that often backed the Islamic nation against India.

China recently said China and Pakistan are "iron-clad friends" appreciating Pakistan's decision of not evacuating its citizens from coronavirus-stricken Hubei and the city of Wuhan even as Pakistan continues to draw flak from its people for the decision.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying had said, "Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi highly commend and firmly support China's efforts to fight against the nCoV."

Chunying said the Pakistani government has appreciated Chinese assistance to Pakistani citizens and expressed full confidence in the capabilities of the Chinese system in controlling the outbreak and eliminating the disease.

Several Pakistani students posted videos expressing anger and frustration over Pakistan's stand to show solidarity with disease-hit China and comparing their situation with Indian students who were evacuated from Wuhan over the weekend.

The majority of the cases including deaths are from Hubei. Hundreds of Pakistani students are studying medicine in Wuhan, which is currently under lockdown amid Coronavirus scare.
A drunk man was spotted swimming naked in Melbourne's Yarra River after he stripped and jumped off a bridge.

Shocked onlookers filmed the man as he kicked and splashed alongside the Princes Bridge in central Melbourne on Sunday afternoon.

Laughter could be heard as the man paddled through the brown water next to sightseeing boats.

A drunk man stripped off and jumped into Melbourne's Yarra River on Sunday afternoon

Victoria Police said they were called to Princes Bridge at 4.15pm after reports that a man had stripped naked and jumped off.

The man was taken to hospital with injuries and is believed to be in his 40s and from Torquay, south of Melbourne.

Video showed how the man chose to breaststroke through the brown river before turning on to his back and lazily kicking.

Surprised witnesses could be heard questioning: 'Is he naked? Does he have any clothes on?'

One woman exclaimed: 'Oh my God.'

The naked swimmer is expected to be charged with drunk and disorderly and wilful and obscene exposure.
For once, conservatives were ahead of the curve.

American conservatism functioned as a political mass movement in the postwar era not because of the rhetorical gifts of its chief expositors (William F. Buckley Jr. et al.) nor because of the intellectual prowess of its best and most creative minds (ask George Nash for his list) but because of the threat presented by the Soviet Union and the worldwide Communist enterprise. The effort to link Soviet socialism abroad with the New Deal and the welfare state at home was always destined to fail, and it did fail as soon as the Soviet Union failed.

The conservative coalition did not crumble quite so quickly and dramatically as the Berlin Wall, but the end of the Cold War found the Right intellectually depleted. The Nineties saw the rise of a certain kind of rightist pseudo-intellectualism held in orbit around Newt Gingrich, the main project of which was providing ex post facto intellectual (even scholarly) rationalizations for the immediate political needs of the Republican Party. The Gingrich-era Right remained largely correct on most of the big policy questions, but that was in no small part a matter of happy accident and intellectual inertia; what intellectual rigor remained was subordinated to political necessity, which led, as it must lead, to the total surrender to what we sometimes call populism, which denotes only a bumptious style of mood-affiliation politics and the elevation of short-term electoral exigencies over all else. And so we now have a conservatism of slogans in power and a remnant conservatism of ideas in exile.

If anything, the Left and the Democratic Party are even more intellectually exhausted. The Lefts last Big Idea was socialism, and its enthusiasm for socialism was not and is not limited to admiration for Denmark, as Senator Bernie Sanders would have you believe. Lenin and Stalin had their American admirers and cooperators, and not only on the fringes of our politics but also in the pages of the New York Times and The New Republic, in government agencies, even in the White House. Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, and more modern figures such as Hugo Chavez  none of these was a democratic socialist, but all of them had (and many still have) their admirers on the American left. The Soviet disaster was a crisis for the Left. And though our progressive intellectuals were able to muster only a very modest, partial, and shallow reckoning with their own contributions to the psychotic gulag state that came crashing down at the end of the last century, the fall of the Soviet Union brought socialism into discredit and disrepute  for a period of time.

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Deprived of its Big Idea, the Left turned to a number of unsatisfactory substitutes. Those included academic fads (postmodernism, deconstructionism) that ultimately amounted to little more than gibberish and jargon, well-heeled boutique radicalism (which is really all American feminism ever has amounted to in practice), onanistic identity politics of an increasingly precious and overly refined character (intersectionality, now), and a long but ultimately abortive attempt to graft all of the hopes and dreams of the Left onto the green shoots of the environmental movement. All of that failed, which was inevitable. Never mind the voguish academic nonsense, even in the case of much more substantive concerns such as environmentalism there just isnt enough there there to bear the weight of all that the Left would pile on: anti-capitalism, anti-Americanism, anti-Christianity, scientific social engineering, etc.

Faced with those failures and, more to the point, with the undiminished electoral efficacy of the Republican Party  which, in spite of its being effectively brain-dead, refuses to actually roll over and die  the Left fell ever more deeply into a pointillist mode of politics. From roughly the Clinton years to the Obama years, the Left resentfully conceded (in theory) the basic legitimacy of what the rest of the world calls liberalism  free enterprise, individual rights, limited government, the rule of law, etc. (conservatism, in the U.S. context)  while taking issue with a thousand individual points: health-insurance regulation here, air-pollution rules there, a reformist progressivism of this, that, and the other. That produced some pretty good results: Even with its political poles defined by two such erratic and unsteady figures as Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich, the United States was reasonably well-governed in the 1990s, and the ClintonGingrich forced consensus might have endured for a generation if someone had not convinced George W. Bush that budget surpluses were an offense against the public interest. That, and the national psychic dislocation that followed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001  you poor Millennials may not remember that there was a time when this nation was not the paranoiac mess it is today  set things on a very different and exotic course.

But even absent the turbulent years stretching from 9/11 to the global financial crisis, the political homeostasis of the Nineties was never going to last: For one thing, political homeostasis never lasts; for another, the incremental, one-piece-at-a-time reformist mode of politics is far too conservative to satisfy the Left, which demands from its politics not only better governance but also meaning, identity, and a sense of transcendence. (One of the great cultural disasters of our recent history is that the Right now matches the Left in the religious fervor with which it practices politics.) Were more or less happy with everything except health care is not exactly a barricade to man in the war against the running dogs of capitalist imperialism or imperialist capitalism or whatever.

And memories are short: Some time between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of Lehman Brothers, a new generation sprung up with no real memory of thermonuclear dread, no meaningful knowledge of famineterrorism and Siberian concentration camps and the rest of the sorry story of socialism in practice. And so socialism has, for the moment, once again become the rallying cry of the day: For Senator Bernie Sanders, who as of this writing is the man most likely to becoming the Democratic presidential nominee in 2020, but also for younger figures such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and even a few callow young columnists at the New York Times. And now from a callow old New York Times columnist, the former economist Paul Krugman, we have the assurance that whatever it is that Senator Sanders means by socialism, it isnt socialism. Its just Denmark. Professor Krugman apparently is to be the Salena Zito of 2020: When the Democrats talk of socialism, we are to take them seriously but not literally.

Perhaps Professor Krugman thinks that is good marketing: If all you knew of the European welfare state were Copenhagen, then the European welfare state would look awfully good. And if all you had seen of capitalism were Zurich or Sydney, well . . . who needs political ideas when you have the travelogues of affluent American tourists who have seen all the nicest parts of Amsterdam, Stockholm, Oslo, Paris, Berlin, and concluded that these constitute Europe and that Europe is a synonym for socialism? That is Senator Sanderss platform, in short: He promises to implement Venezuelan policies to achieve Danish outcomes. And Sanders is the man of ideas in the Democratic Party, or at least the man of an -ism, in much the same way as Trump is the Rights man of an ism (nationalism, in his case). Like the campus postmodernism of the Eighties, this is really only terminology masquerading as thought, a pseudo-ideological linguistic marker of tribal affiliation.

But if it is preposterous that Senator Sanders is the Lefts man of ideas, consider his competition: Elizabeth Warren, a lifelong high-performing grifter who cannot be honest about who she is, what she believes, or what she wants; Joe Biden, a 77-year-old doddering illiterate who was a doddering illiterate when he was 40; Mike Bloomberg, a billionaire megalomaniac who has no time for ideas and promises only a passion for data and managerial competency; Pete Buttigieg, a retired small-town mayor who speaks French beautifully; Amy Klobuchar, a lawyer and general nonentity from the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party whose main argument for herself is that she is not Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, or Pete Buttigieg, and whose case for herself in the general election would be the same as any other Democrats: That she is not Donald Trump. (Trumps case will be the obverse of that plug nickel.)

That may be enough to win. But is winning enough?

All voting is a sort of gaming, Henry David Thoreau wrote, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. If we are to have something more than mere majoritarianism  if there is to be a truth superseding that power of the majority  then we are going to need those ideas that our populists and nationalists and self-declared pragmatists hold in contempt along with the kinds of minds that can produce them.

Oh, be practical! you say? Survey the scene in 2020 and tell me with a straight face that it represents the flowering of some practical good. As the philosopher might have asked, If the pragmatism you followed brought you to this, of what use was the pragmatism?

More from National Review
- Social media was identified as one of the main avenues used to incite ethnic violence

- The new law will permit fines of up to KSh 314, 000 for anyone who shares social media posts that are deemed to result in violence.

- Almost 300 legislators voted in favour of the bill with 23 votes against and two abstentions

- Legislators who opposed the bill said it violates a constitutional guarantee of free speech

- Ethiopia is currently listed among global leaders in the area of internally displaced people

Ethiopias parliament, the House of Peoples Representatives (HoPR), has passed a law aimed at combating fake news and curbing hate speech with hefty fines and long jail terms.

Nearly 300 legislators voted in favour of the bill known as the hate speech and misinformation Law on Thursday, February 13, with 23 votes against and two abstentions.

READ ALSO: Jackson Kibor advises married men against coming home late to avoid quarrels with wives

Nearly 300 legislators voted in favour of the bill known as the hate speech and misinformation Law with 23 votes against and two abstentions. Photo: Africa News.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: I did not kick out papa Dennis from my recording label - Sadat Muhindi

According to a report by Africa News, social media was identified as one of the main avenues used to incite ethnic violence leading to deaths and displacements in the country.

"Ethiopia has become a victim of disinformation. The country is a land of diversity and this bill will help to balance those diversities," legislator Abebe Godebo said.

The new law defines hate speech as rhetoric that fuels discrimination against individuals or groups based on their nationality, ethnic and religious affiliation, sex or disabilities.

READ ALSO: Nairobi househelp, employer break down during emotional farewell after 3 years working relationship

The law, however, says dissemination does not include liking or tagging such content on social media.

It permits fines of up to 100,000 Ethiopian birr (KSh 314, 000) and imprisonment for up to five years for anyone who shares or creates social media posts that are deemed to result in violence.

If the hate speech or fake news is disseminated by a social media page with over 5,000 followers or broadcast and print media outlets, the penalty shall be up to three years of prison term.

READ ALSO: DP Ruto: Mimi na Uhuru ni kama betri na gari

The passage comes three months after the cabinet led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (pictured), approved it and forwarded it to the house. Photo: Africa News.

Source: UGC

Several legislators who opposed the bill said it violates a constitutional guarantee of free speech.

Article 29/6 of the Ethiopian Constitution stipulates the greater need to protect people's safety as well as national security.

This should be done by providing legal frameworks that control disinformation, yet without affecting people's freedom of speech and opinion.

READ ALSO: Couple weds underwater in unique ceremony on Valentine's Day

Ethiopia, as Africas second-most populous nation, is currently listed among global leaders in the area of internally displaced people.

A significant portion of these displacements are conflict-induced, largely related to ethnic and border-based disputes.

Many also often blamed social media platforms for creating a conducive environment for individuals and groups that distribute hate speech and fake news, eventually triggering violence.

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Melbourne institution the San Remo Ballroom was spared by an early morning fire on Monday, after a blaze took hold in the foyer.

The Metropolitan Fire Brigade was called to the Carlton function venue in Nicholson Street at 3.30am, after a passerby noticed smoke spewing from the building and crackling noises.

Police at the fire scene on Monday morning. Credit:Simon Schluter

Twenty-eight firefighters found the two-storey building "heavily smoke-logged with a fire spreading from the foyer onto the first floor", the MFB said.

Crews wearing breathing apparatus tackled the blaze from inside the building and brought it under control within an hour.
A Sindhi leader living in exile in Germany has urged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to condemn Pakistan for its violation of human rights in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Balochistan, and Sindh.

Guterres is on a four-day visit to Pakistan, while Erdogan concluded his two-day visit to the country last week.

Shafi Burfat, who is the chief of Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM) said, "Pakistan occupied a part of Kashmir illegally (referring to PoK), while it continuously terrorised under the guise of religion in another part of Kashmir. Turkish President Erdogan must condemn the Pakistani Army's occupation of Kashmir."

"Pakistan has forced Sindh and Balochistan into slavery in the name of religion. Will Erdogan condemn this fascist and forced occupation? Pakistan Army is doing the same with women in Sindh, Balochistan, and Pashtunistan what it did with women of Bangladesh in 1971," he added.

Turkish President Erdogan, who has been committing the genocide of the Kurdish nation, is openly interfering in the political and internal affairs of India by commenting on the Kashmir issue, which falls into the category of political misconduct and irresponsibility.

In a joint declaration issued by Pakistan and Turkey following the conclusion of Erdogan's visit to Islamabad, the two countries had underscored the need for resolution of all outstanding disputes between Islamabad and New Delhi, including Kashmir issue through a sustained dialogue process, and in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

India had reacted sharply to the reference of Jammu and Kashmir in the joint declaration, calling upon Ankara to not interfere in New Delhi's internal affairs and develop a proper understanding of the facts on the grave threat posed by terrorism emanating from Pakistan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hong Kongs manufacturers say they will soon have the equipment necessary to produce 10 million medical masks a month from March  four times the governments output  as the city continues to struggle with serious shortages amid the coronavirus outbreak.

But they also are calling for government help that goes beyond the cash subsidies it has already pledged, including help with customs clearance, raw material sourcing and technical support.

A day after the government announced its HK$25 billion (US$3.2 billion) virus-aid package, which includes subsidies to support local mask production, several manufacturers say they need more than just cash.

The Post has learned that at least six production lines capable of producing 10 million masks a month could be up and running within weeks.

Elderly citizens queue for free surgical masks distributed by the Democratic Party in Yau Ma Tei. Photo: Sam Tsang

While that amount may be dwarfed by Hong Kongs estimated 300 million mask monthly demand, the organisations involved, a major pro-Beijing trade union among them, believe their efforts can make a serious contribution in the battle against the disease now known as Covid-19.

Four of the production lines will be run in the Tai Po industrial estate, where vertical vegetable firm Farm66 co-founder Gordon Tam Chi-ho last Sunday revealed he had agreed to surrender 8,000 square feet of space to a yet-to-be-named third party to produce masks.

The building involved is managed by the Science and Technology Parks Corporation, which is helping the governments bid to boost local mask production.

Speaking to the Post on Saturday, Tam said if the machines arrived in about three weeks, each of the four automated machines could produce about 80,000 to 120,000 masks daily  at least 9,600,000 a month in total.

Tam also said he understood that several private organisations or individuals were setting up more than 10 additional production lines, some of which would be run by non-government organisations with donations from a property developer he would not name.

No one has mentioned to me if they will apply for the governments subsidies, because they already paid the money, said Tam, who had some advice for interested parties.

Story continues

Many people with aspirations [to help] are rich.  Now, they need professional support, such as the cooperation of customs clearance, engineers and technical talents for setting up the machines, he said, adding officials could help source raw materials like filters and fabric.

Volunteer officers from Correctional Service Department produce masks in a facility at Lo Wu Correctional Institution on February 7. Photo: Handout

On Friday, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah said the government would support local private mask production by subsidising each production line with several million dollars, helping them identify suitable clean factory spaces, and placing orders to sustain their operations.

The move followed an admission that the citys global procurement excise has failed, with many countries restricting mask exports as well as a planned increase in mask production by prison inmates and retired Correctional Services Department officers from 1.8 million to 2.5 million a month.

Apart from the planned operation in Tai Po, the pro-Beijing Federation of Trade Unions has said it will be running two production lines of its own.

Federation chairman Kingsley Wong Kwok said his organisation would have a half-automated line capable of making 100,000 masks a month in the New Territories East starting this month. Another fully automated line would craft 100,000 every day, though that line will not be operational until next month at the earliest.

Space belonging to vertical farming company Farm66 in Tai Po has been obtained for use in mask production. Photo: Edward Wong

Wong estimated the first batch of masks would be offered for free to those in need within two to three weeks.

He said the union would consider accepting the government subsidy though it was not their primary focus. We are saving lives. Starting production quickly is the most important, he said.

He went on to suggest officials could help in securing raw materials, and agreed a government pledge to buy a certain number of masks could help sustain the businesses in the future.

HKTV mall, meanwhile, an online store that recently announced the acquisition of a mask-making machine from Taiwan, said the firm has yet to learn the details of the new government proposals.

A spokeswoman said subsidies towards securing a space and production costs, along with quicker border clearance and certification would be helpful.

The manager of a Hong Kong-firm that produces medical protective gear on the mainland, meanwhile, told the Post they were hesitant about the government subsidy.

While it was a good thing to have subsidies toward setting up production lines, they said, there were uncertainties about setting up a plant in the city, citing its higher labour costs.

Short-term subsidies are not enough. Is it really suitable for long term development?, the owner questioned, adding they would need to look into government policies and opportunities in the future.

More from South China Morning Post:

This article Coronavirus: mask production lines could be running within weeks, though Hong Kong firms seek aid beyond cash subsidies first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2020.
Charles Carr entered Darlington Seminary with me in 1978. A Philadelphia native, he was accepted by the Camden diocese. Halfway through his second year, he left the seminary.

It was not a good match for me to explore as a sexual being, said Carr, who has been with his now-husband, Jeffrey, for 39 years. They married in California in 2008 and are back in Philadelphia, where Carr works as a pharmaceutical executive. He worships regularly in the Episcopal church and has been involved in prison ministry.

Carr read the provocative book In the Closet of the Vatican, which was released last February, around the time Pope Francis convened the top Catholic hierarchy from all over the globe in Rome to address the clerical sexual abuse crisis. The publisher wanted to capitalize on its topic of Vatican officials allegedly leading double lives as closeted homosexuals, but the book never caught traction and faded from the headlines.

But the book is consequential for a different question: How honest is the church in addressing the sexuality of same-sex attraction?

I found the book upsetting, Carr said. We cant be holy without being whole.

Carr went on to assert that the church is naive and clueless about sexuality when to be healthy one needs to be sexually mature.

Frederic Martel, the books author, presents a compelling case that many of the Vatican officials -- up to 80 percent and through all ranks  are gay and practicing while upholding the churchs teaching that homosexual actions are sinful. For the book, Martel interviewed 41 cardinals, 50 bishops, 45 Vatican ambassadors and 11 Swiss Guards over four years. His footnotes total over 300 pages and are only available online.

At times, there is a breathy quality to people implicating others in a roundabout way. The author claimed that the most vehemently homophobic clergy are, in fact, the most likely to be gay.

The more homophobic they are, the more likely they are to be gay,'' he wrote. "Thats the No. 1 rule of the Vatican.

A secondary revelation in the book is the rich lifestyle of many cardinals of the church. No wonder they are referred to as princes. Martel visits many cardinals in Rome and describes how they live opulently and spaciously, often having Third World nuns as cooks and housekeepers.

Contrast that view with Gerald OConnells book The Election of Pope Francis, where the day-by-day rise of Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio, a runner-up in the 2005 conclave, is captured. In a three-and-a-half-minute talk Bergoglio delivered to the cardinals before the conclave, he spoke about the need for evangelizing because when the church does not it becomes self-referential and sick. And then spiritual worldliness sets in. He then prophesied what the next pope had to do: go out to the existential peripheries.

Bergoglio won on the fifth ballot in 2013 and took the name Francis.

OConnell also recounts how the pope would break tradition every step of the way and show how he would live simply.

And that makes the current clashes with Francis and the entrenched conservative cardinals so vivid.

Austen Ivereigh, Francis most astute biographer, captured this in his book Wounded Shepherd. Now I can read between the lines of Francis 2014 Christmas speech to the cardinals. Francis called out the cardinals for a lust for power, hypocritical double lives and the lack of spiritual empathy. He listed the 15 ailments and temptations that weaken their service and invited them to a true self-examination. Their most famous shortcoming: spiritual Alzheimers.

Remember, it was the alleged gay lobby that drove Benedict out of the papacy and into history-making retirement.

Francis overhaul of the Curia, reform of church structures and allowing of the most open synods  like the recent Pan Amazon one -- in the history of the modern church have ruffled many in the Vatican.

Many are disappointed that Francis did not follow the recommendations to ordain married men and women as deacons in the Amazon region.

Ivereigh explains Francis synodality process that attempts to decide by consensus and not from above. Its not enough to have a majority; Francis wants to bring people along to avoid splits in the church. This takes time and patience.

But, most importantly, he sees the church as a dispenser of mercy with an openness to analyze how dogma can drive people away.

Francis is unafraid of questions and dissent. In fact, he thrives on navigating it for a more merciful church.

His critics want the opposite, Carr said:

By keeping things secret and not telling the truth, they protect themselves and teach future generations to tell lies.

The Rev. Alexander Santora is the pastor of Our Lady of Grace and St. Joseph, 400 Willow Ave., Hoboken, NJ 07030. Email: padrealex@yahoo.com; Twitter: @padrehoboken.

Details ...

In the Closet of the Vatican: Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy by Frederic Martel; Bloomsbury Publishing; 2019. $30.

The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Account of the Conclave That Changed History by Gerald OConnell; Orbis Books; 2019. $28.

Wounded Shepherd: Pope Francis and His Struggle to Convert the Catholic Church by Austen Ivereigh; Henry Holt; 2019. $30.
By Eric Margolis

February 15, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - The US Senate, long the lap dog of the man who would be king, President Donald Trump, appears to have finally remembered its proper constitutional role.

Last week, the Senate voted 55/45 for a new bipartisan War Powers Act to constrain military action against Iran. The Congress voted a similar act. Both are designed to start returning the right to make war to Congress, as the Constitution clearly intended. The president is not the Warlord-in-chief in spite of what he thinks.

The Senate has been supine until now, intimidated by an unholy alliance of pro-war Christian evangelists and the Israel lobby, and over $100 million given to the Republican Party by casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. Senators who dare oppose this powerful special interest risk their political futures. The lifting of limits on political contributions has given Adelson enormous power over Trump and his friend, Israels prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump has been very successful in intimidating and punishing those who deviate from his party line. All he lacks so far is a KGB-style secret police to enforce his demands. The current fracas over Trumps efforts to undermine the prosecution of his ally, political low-life Roger Stone, is yet the latest example of the steady erosion of our democratic system.

Yet even Trump went too far with the murder of senior Iranian officer, Maj. Gen Qasem Soleimani, who had been invited to visit Iraq for peace talks by its US-installed regime. Americans, besotted by too many violent TV programs, saw this as a plus, but the rest of the world was horrified by the gangster act. It appears Trump & Co. were convinced to commit this murder by Israel, which had been stalking Soleimani for years.

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Ironically, the US killed the most moderate senior Iranian leader who was in line to become the Islamic Republics leader. Israel has long had the policy of assassinating Palestinian moderates, leaving only the radicals alive. This allowed Israel to assert we have no one to negotiate with.

Soleimanis murder was too much for eight Republican senators. This act of war was never approved by Congress, as the Constitution mandates. Better educated senators realized that Trump was pushing the US into a bloody war with Iran which, like the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, would have only one real winner, Israel.

These senators did the right thing. They arrested, at least temporarily, the decades-long shift to growing presidential dictatorship under the guise of war powers.

Think back to the 2003 Iraq War which was concocted by the Bush administration to justify a massive military intervention when, in fact, no real threat to the US existed. I know this because I was there and immune to all the official lies from Washington and London. A pack of lies, but the US still occupies Iraq.

The imminent threat scenario used by Republicans to promote warlike acts, such as the murder of Maj. Gen. Soleimani, is bogus. Anyone can justify war by claiming intelligence sources and internet chatter. Much of the intelligence the US gets from the Mideast is fake or twisted to promote other nations benefit. Washington was fed a farrago of intelligence lies and half-truths by its allies Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Israel to help promote the 2003 war against Iraq. Trump has used similar phony intelligence to justify his Mideast militarism.

The founders of our United States intended Congress to be the premier arm of government. But our once powerful Congress has been bleeding power and authority  not to mention respect  since the Vietnam era. Serving in Congress was supposed to be a part-time job for educated landowners, not small-town lawyers from the rural Bible Belt.

But will this attempt by the Senate to restore some of its power and prestige work? Trump will almost certainly veto this war powers act and further intimidate Congress. Yet unless Congress makes a stand, our balanced system of government is truly at risk. Americans should at minimum draw the lesson never to vote power to a president and Congress of the same party.

Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune the Los Angeles Times, Times of London, the Gulf Times, the Khaleej Times, Nation  Pakistan, Hurriyet,  Turkey, Sun Times Malaysia and other news sites in Asia. ericmargolis.com

Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2020

Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here

==See Also==
Trumps appearance as grand marshal was the first of several events this week for the president as he rallies supporters in a handful of key states. On Wednesday and Thursday, Trump will headline rallies in Phoenix and Colorado Springs. Then, on Friday, he will hold a rally in Las Vegas on the eve of Nevadas hotly contested Democratic presidential caucuses.
: The DMK on Sunday said the over two crore forms collected as part of an anti-CAA signature campaign by the party-led Secular Progressive Alliance in Tamil Nadu were sent to President Ram Nath Kovind.

Members of opposition parties including DMK, Congress and MDMK conducted the week-long signature campaign from February 2 demanding withdrawal of the Citizenship Amendment Act, National Population Register and the proposed National Register of Citizens.

DMK president M K Stalin had announced the campaign at a meeting of alliance party leaders here in January.

In a statement on Sunday, the DMK said over two crore signatures were received during the campaign and were sent to the President by flight.

"The signatures reflected the sentiments of the people against the CAA, NRC and NPR. Tamil Nadu is hopeful that the President would recommend withdrawal of CAA to safeguard democracy and Constitution...," the statement said.

The SPA has demanded that the CAA be withdrawn claiming that it affected Indian citizens.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Global Crew Management Systems Market

PR-Inside.com: 2020-02-15 22:11:17

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Airline crew management is one of the most complex function in the travel industry. The complexity is only increasing with increasing sizes and changing expectations of the crew. This increases the airline industrys needs for next-generation crew-management systems that can help improve efficiency. A crew management system is an application that is used for planning, tracking, and managing crew assignments. It performs the tasks with accuracy and improves speed to enhance effectiveness and crew utilization at low cost and redundancy.For Additional Insights, Click to Access Complete Report - https://www.gmiresearch.com/report/crew-management-systems-market/ The stringent regulations concerning the longer working hours of crew members and increased focus towards flight safety are the major factors driving the growth of the global crew management system market. Cloud technology is being widely adopted in the airline industry due to the increasing number of airlines, thus making cloud software is one of the integral part of the operation of online airline service. Crew management systems use advanced programming for increasing crew utilization. This system helps cabin crew in maintaining flight schedule and e-ticketing services, which increases the demand for the crew management system market. Moreover, rising focus on flight safety and continuous growth in air traffic across the globe, coupled with stringent regulations concerning working hours for crew members, are further fuelling the growth of the market. The increasing use of smart devices such as smartphones and tablets among the cabin crew to reduce manual or paper-based tasks in performing routine functions such as passenger management and meal distribution, which is further boosting the growth of the market. However, lack of management and skilled professionals, along with the inability of the crew management system to consider various human factors are restraining the market growth.Request for Sample Report  https://www.gmiresearch.com/report/crew-management-systems-market/sample-request Based on the application, the market has been segmented into crew planning, crew training, crew services, and crew operations. On which the crew operations segment is expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period. Crew operations application is also responsible for merging crew schedules with real-time flight data to enable the controllers to concentrate on specific areas such as delay in flight due to adverse weather conditions.Request for Customization  https://www.gmiresearch.com/report/crew-management-systems-market/request-for-customization Major players of the crew management systems market are focusing on expanding their customer base across the globe by leveraging on the strategic collaboration, joint venture, and partnership to increase their market share and their profitability. Various notable players in the crew management systems market include Sabre GLBL Inc., Lufthansa Systems, Fujitsu, Jeppesen, IBS Software Services Pvt Ltd., AIMS Inc., Blue One Management Sa/Nv, Intelisys Aviation Systems PDC Aviation, Aviolinx, Hexaware Technologies, Sheorey Digital Systems Pvt. Ltd. among others.Key Developments:In Dec 2019, Sabre entered into a strategic partnership with Wizz Air, a Europes airline to improve its network planning and scheduling technology. With this partnership, Wizz Air joined a portfolio of more than 80 airlines and implemented Sabres technology to enhance complicated schedule and slot management processes.In Sep 2019, IBS Software Services Pvt Ltd. entered into a definitive agreement with a Canada-based Kronos Incorporated to acquire AD OPT, an aviation crew optimization software provider. With this acquisition, the company will advance the airline crew management platform and to expand its footprint in North America.The global crew management systems market has been segmented based on the device, system, application, and region. Based on the device market is categorized into a smartphone, personal computers, and tablets. Based on the system, the market is segmented into cloud-based and server-based. Based on the application, the market is segmented into crew planning, crew training, crew services, and crew operations.For detailed scope of the Crew Management Systems Market report request a Sample Copy of the reportKey questions answered in this research report:At what pace is the global crew management systems market growing? What will be a growing trend in the future?What are the key drivers and restraints in the global crew management systems market? What will be the impact of drivers and restraints in the future?What are the regional revenue and forecast breakdowns? Which are the major regional revenue pockets for growth in the global crew management systems market?What are the various application areas of the global crew management systems market, and how they are poised to grow?About GMI ResearchGMI Research is a market research and consulting firm which provides research-based solutions to business executives and investment professionals so that they can make right business & investment decisions faster based on real facts. We help business leaders through independent fact-based insight, ensuring their business achieve success by beating the competition. GMI Researchs leadership team with extensive experience in research and consulting together with our research and domain expertise creates a strong value proposition to create solutions that addresses our clients business problems and add significant value to long lasting relationship.The company provides syndicated research report, customized research, sales enablement research, data analytics and KPO (knowledge process outsourcing) service for Electronics & Semiconductors, Information Communication and Technology, Energy & Power, Healthcare, Automotive, Transportation & Logistics and Chemical industries. Our analysts and consultants who are passionate about research and consulting are recruited from renowned local and global universities and have worked with the leading local and international organizations.Contact UsCompany Name: GMI RESEARCHContact Person: Sarah NashEmail: enquiry@ gmiresearch.com Phone: +353 1 442 8820Address:Level 1, The Chase Carmanhall Road, Sandyford Industrial EstateCity: DublinState: DublinCountry: IrelandWebsite: www.gmiresearch.com
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 22:56:50|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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WUHAN, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Clinically diagnosed cases, which have been treated as confirmed cases from Thursday, have driven the surge in the number of new confirmed cases in China's Hubei Province, center of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. The inclusion of the cases, however, boosts the confidence of frontline medical workers in their battle against the epidemic.

Any suspected cases with pneumonia-related CT scan results are counted as clinically diagnosed cases, according to the latest version of the diagnosis and treatment scheme released by the National Health Commission.

The province reported 14,840 new confirmed cases including 13,332 clinically diagnosed cases on Wednesday, the highest daily increases so far, but the diagnosis criteria revision will give those who have been clinically diagnosed the timely standard treatment of confirmed cases to further improve their treatment success rate, said the provincial health commission.

Early diagnosis and early treatment are essential to contain the spread of infection, said Wu Jing, head nurse of Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, one of the major designated hospitals to receive patients infected with COVID-19.

"The revision adds more workload, but we are relieved to see fewer suspected patients not given timely treatment in hospitals," said Wu.

Some infected patients tested negative up to four times before the test showed positive results, which indicates the possibility of errors in nucleic acid tests, said Chen Erzhen who leads a Shanghai medical team to assist Hubei.

He added that the current supply of nucleic acid tests can barely meet the demand, so it is key to include the clinically diagnosed cases.

"The production standards of diagnostic kits vary from different producers and the differences might negatively affect the test results, Chen said, adding that manual errors during the intense amount of tests can also be minimized.

The diagnosis criteria revision ensures more complete data of the infected cases, which is especially important in Wuhan, the epidemic center, Chen said.

As one of the medical workers on the front line, the government's determination to publish the data, albeit a surge in confirmed cases, boosts our confidence, Chen added.

Hubei Province reported 2,420 new confirmed cases and 139 new deaths on Friday. The figure for new cases included 1,138 clinically diagnosed cases, while the new deaths also included 34 who were clinically diagnosed.

The number of daily new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection outside Hubei has been dropping for 10 consecutive days, from nearly 900 on Feb. 3 to below 300 on Feb. 13.
US President Donald Trump (L) shakes hands with US Attorney General William Barr (R) during the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor presentation ceremony at the White House in Washington, DC on May 22, 2019.

More than 1,000 alumni of the Justice Department on Sunday released a letter condemning Attorney General William Barr over his intervention in the prison sentence of Roger Stone, a close associate of President Donald Trump.

Prosecutors recommended Stone receive 7-9 years in prison this week for lying to Congress about contacts with the document disclosure group WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential election. That night, the recommendation drew ire from Trump on Twitter. The next day, the DOJ filed a revised recommendation asking for "far less" time in prison for Stone. Four prosecutors working on Stone's case quit after the Justice Department reversed their recommendation, and one of the prosecutors left the department altogether.

Stone is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in federal court in Washington, but his lawyers have asked the judge for a new trial. The judge has scheduled a conference call for Tuesday with prosecutors and Stone's lawyers to discuss scheduling issues.

The Justice Department's actions sparked heated criticism, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer calling for the inspector general to launch an investigation into "improper political interference in a criminal prosecution."



Barr, in an interview with ABC, said the initial recommendation of 7-9 years had "surprised" him and once it became public, he had made plans to amend it prior to Trump's criticisms on Twitter. He said President Trump had not intervened in the case, but his tweets were "disruptive."

"I will make those decisions based on what I think is the right thing to do, and I'm not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody ... whether it's Congress, a newspaper editorial board, or the president," Barr said.

The DOJ alumni rejected Barr's explanations and called his for resignation.

"We welcome Attorney General Barr's belated acknowledgment that the DOJ's law enforcement decisions must be independent of politics," they wrote. "But Mr. Barr's actions in doing the President's personal bidding, unfortunately, speak louder than his words. Those actions, and the damage they have done to the Department of Justice's reputation for integrity and the rule of law, require Mr. Barr to resign."

The alumni said it is unheard of for top DOJ officials to overrule line prosecutorsin order to give preferential treatment to a close associate of the president.

"It is even more outrageous for the Attorney General to intervene as he did here  after the President publicly condemned the sentencing recommendation that line prosecutors had already filed in court," they wrote.

"Such behavior is a grave threat to the fair administration of justice," the former officials continued. "In this nation, we are all equal before the law. A person should not be given special treatment in a criminal prosecution because they are a close political ally of the President."

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to request for comment.



Read the full letter here.
Authorities are finalising a "potential operation" to rescue 200 Australians stuck on the Diamond Princess cruise ship that has been docked in Japan for the past 10 days amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Health Minister Greg Hunt confirmed a plan should be finalised on Monday after a senior medical officer boards the ship to assess the situation on board.

"If his advice is that there has been a secondary round of infections  which the presumption is there has  then we're looking at working with Qantas to bring these people home," Mr Hunt told Sunrise on Channel 7 on Monday.

"We are planning a potential operation to bring them home."
She was just soaking up the sun in Jamaica.

But Emily Ratajkowski's vacation appeared to have ended by Sunday, when the 28-year-old beauty was spotted back in New York.

The beauty couldn't help keep warm while cozing up to her husband Sebastian Bear-McClard as they enjoyed a walk around their neighborhood with their beloved dog, Colombo.

Love: Emily Ratajkowski couldn't help keep warm while cozing up to her husband Sebastian Bear-McClard as they enjoyed a walk around their neighborhood with their beloved dog, Colombo on Sunday

Emily's timeless look consisted of a warm, teddy-bear coat with boot-cut mom jeans and a tight white bodysuit underneath.

She tied everything together with white sneakers, simple gold hoops, and cat-eyed sunglasses.

Sebastian also did his best to brave the cold in various layers.

Stunner: Emily's timeless look consisted of a warm, teddy-bear coat with boot-cut mom jeans and a tight white bodysuit underneath

Bright jacket: The producer rocked a black sweater underneath a very insulated yellow puffer jacket

The producer rocked a black sweater underneath a very insulated yellow puffer jacket.

He teamed his look with eccentric colorful trousers and was seen taking reign of their dog.

Sebastian accessorised with some shades and appeared in high spirits as he walked next to his wife.

And the pair who are just days from celebrating their second wedding anniversary couldn't have appeared more in love.

Hand holding: And the pair who are just days from celebrating their second wedding anniversary couldn't have appeared more in love

Still in the honeymoon phase: Emily and Sebastian took a moment during the stroll to stop and cuddle up to one another while at a park

Emily and Sebastian took a moment during the stroll to stop and cuddle up to one another while at a park.

The dog parents were at Manhattan's Washington Square Park and enjoyed some time watching other dogs play.

The wintery NYC weather must have been a shock for Ratajkowski and her man, who were vacationing in Jamaica just days ago.

Sunday stroll: Emily Ratajkowski looked chic as she took her dog Colombo for a walk on Sunday

Bundled up: Emily's timeless look consisted of a warm, teddy-bear coat with boot-cut mom jeans and a tight white bodysuit underneath

Accessorize: She tied everything together with white sneakers, simple gold hoops, and cat-eyed sunglasses

The San Diego-raised stunner made the most of the tropical sunshine in various swimsuits.

There was no shortage of bikini selfies from the model, who proved her own best advertisement as she rocked a chic bathing suit from her own Inamorata brand on Instagram Friday.

Showing off her lithe figure, Emily struck a pose in front of a breathtaking tropical scene.

Sultry: Emily looked sexy as she modeled her own Inamorata swimsuit during a vacation to Jamaica

Patterns: EmRata wowed in her tiny bikini, which featured a clash of polka dot, chain and cheetah patterns

EmRata wowed in her tiny bikini, which featured a clash of polka dot, chain and cheetah patterns.

She gave the suit the ultimate endorsement on Instagram, calling it her favorite in not one but two selfies.

Her husband of two years also seemed to find the suit irresistible, seen kissing his love by the beach that same Friday, which was Valentine's Day.

Pucker up: Love is still very much in the air for the supermodel and her movie producer and artist husband of two years Sebastian Bear-McClard

Top line: And the cover girl made sure to show off her killer body as she modeled one of her swimsuits from her very own Inamorata line

While Emily was proud to parade her figure, Sebastian dressed down in green, yellow and blue trunks.

Both were barefoot as they enjoyed a beach vacation at a wood hut.

The two weren't the only ones on the trip. Later Ratajkowski shared an instant photo with pal Josh Ostrovsky AKA The Fat Jew and a female friend.
February 15, 2020 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada

Rob Oliphant, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, today concluded a successful visit to Australia where he delivered remarks at the seventh Australia-Canada Economic Leadership Forum, in Melbourne. The forum is one of the premier events that underpin Canada-Australia economic relations, attracting major business and political leaders from across both countries.

While in Australia, Parliamentary Secretary Oliphant visited the Victoria State Control Centre, which directs efforts to deal with the devastating bushfires. He met with a large group of Canadian fire specialists to thank them for their efforts and proudly representing Canada. Canada has provided 238 fire management personnel, among other support since the beginning of December 2019, and is prepared to do more if required. The Canada-Australia collaboration in forest management demonstrates a dedicated and practical approach to resource management, public safety and security.

During his trip, he met with the Governor of the State of Victoria, the Honourable Linda Dessau, the President of the Senate, Senator the Honorable Scott Ryan, and Senator the Honorable Simon Birmingham, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, to strengthen opportunities in the bilateral trade relationship. The Parliamentary Secretary and the Minister participated in a panel discussion with Canadian and Australian business leaders to address how both countries can build on their existing trade and investment to diversify further throughout the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region. In particular, this includes taking advantage of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Parliamentary Secretary Oliphant welcomed the launch of the Australia-Canada Indigenous Economic Partnership, a key component of the seventh Australia-Canada Economic Leadership Forum.
Actor Martin Freeman has admitted he smacked his son, 14, and daughter, 11, and called them 'little f***ers' when they were younger.

The Hobbit actor, 48, said he'd smacked his children Joe and Grace twice and sworn at them more than twice.

The father-of-two also conceded it was a rule at home with his former partner actress Amanda Abbington, 45, not to do either of the actions to the children 'but you know, I've done both'.

Martin Freeman admitted smacking his children even though the punishment was outlawed at home by his former wife Amanda Abbington. They are pictured together at the Los Angeles premiere of The Desolation of Smaug in December 2013

The Hobbit actor pictured in the first film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

'I know I'm not supposed to do it, but there are so many images about how (parenting) all just has to be brilliant that it makes people feel bad,' he said in a candid interview with The Sunday Times.

'Because it's not brilliant. I mean, it is - it's the best thing I'll do. But that doesn't mean it's not really hard. This idea you only ever rationalise with a toddler? Genuinely, good luck. If you could do that, God go with you. Amazing.

'I'm not proud I did that, but I have. I don't think it's a policy. And I'll do it again!'

It is illegal to smack children under The Children Act 2004 unless it amounts to 'reasonable punishment'.

The Sherlock Holmes actor said he had smacked his children twice and sworn at them more than twice. He is pictured with former wife Ms Abbington at The National Movie Awards, London, in 2010, and on the This Morning sofa in August last year

The NSPCC has called for a complete ban on smacking, saying that it only gives children a bad example on how to handle strong emotion, may encourage bullying, and could cause them to lie or hide feelings in order to avoid the punishment.

Scotland became the first country in the UK to ban smacking in 2019, and Wales will outlaw smacking by 2022 following a vote in the country's Assembly.

The Sherlock Holmes actor was speaking ahead of his new Sky1 series Breeders, in which he plays an angry father, that will be broadcast on March 12.
The United Statess top diplomat has arrived in Senegal at the start of a whistle-stop tour of three African countries, with analysts viewing it as a bid to counter Chinese influence in Africa at a time of growing confusion over Washingtons strategy on the continent.

On his first official trip to a sub-Saharan African country since taking office almost two years ago, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will also visit Angola and Ethiopia.

Pompeo has already warned of what he called Chinas dangerous influence on the African continent, saying in January that Chinese investment feeds corruption and undermines the rule of law, and presenting the US as an alternative.

Joseph Ochieno, a political analyst, called Pompeos comments almost hypocritical.

I dont think the US can tell Africa that American companies are necessarily the cleaner ones when it comes to the continent, he told Al Jazeera, alluding to past corruption and patronage scandals involving US companies in Africa.





Beijing surpassed Washington as Africas largest trading partner more than a decade ago, forming a relationship worth about $204bn in trade, according to Chinas Ministry of Commerce.

Several African states have also signed on to Chinas Belt and Road Initiative, which has seen Beijing finance power plants, roads and other infrastructure projects across the continent.

As a result of the billions of dollars in loans provided by China towards such projects, the country has become Africas largest debt holder.

The US is realising that they were playing games with Africa but China came in  and came in fairly big with minimum, if any, conditions, Ochieno said.



Africa is up for grabs, unfortunately.

Mixed messages

Pompeos visit comes at a tense moment, with Washington mulling military cuts in the restive Sahel region and imposing travel bans on four more African countries, bringing the total to six.

A perceived disinterest by President Donald Trump, who has yet to visit Africa and has described the continent in derogatory terms, has not improved the situation, worsened by travel bans recently imposed on four more African countries, bringing the total to six.

Al Jazeeras Nicolas Haque, reporting from the Senegalese capital said the US was sending mixed signals in encouraging trade and investment with African nations, while also expanding the travel ban and considering a potential reduction in US military presence.

Countries in West Africas Sahel region are struggling to protect their citizens against armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL, who have killed hundreds of civilians in the past year.

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Some have questioned whether the USs commitment to restoring stability in the region is waning as the Pentagon announced this week that it will start adjusting its military presence in Africa as it considers cuts, with resources instead expected to go to countering China, Russia and Iran.

This month, however, the US military will hold its annual Flintlock exercises in Senegal and neighbouring Mauritania to help train regional armies to counter armed groups.

One former US diplomat expressed confusion over the goals of Pompeos trip.

Its not clear why he is going now and whether this is part of any broader US strategy on Africa, especially when the administration has indicated in just the last few weeks that it intends to exponentially reduce its security and aid investments, the former diplomat, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

You cant just check the box of having an Africa policy by stopping in a few countries on a big continent and then call that a strategy.

Pompeo meets Senegals leaders

Following talks with Senegalese leaders on Sunday, Pompeo said the US would work closely with regional forces and European countries in the fight against armed groups in West Africa, adding that he had no specific announcement to make about any cuts in US troops.

When our review is done well have a conversation with not just Senegal but all the countries in the region, well talk through why were doing what were doing and well deliver an outcome that works for all of us.

Senegalese Foreign Minister Amadou Ba said Washington had informed Dakar of its wish to withdraw combat troops. This, he said, would still leave a US military presence, notably in the areas of training and intelligence.

But Ba also insisted that the US remained a key ally in the fight against armed groups in the Sahel.

More than ever, Africa is faced with major challenges linked to insecurity and terrorism, Ba said. It needs the United States of America as a strategic ally for a definitive return to peace and stability.

After Senegal, Pompeo will stop in Angola, an oil-rich but largely impoverished country where President Joao Lourenco has pledged to combat corruption, including actions against close relatives of the former leader.

Pompeo then heads to Ethiopia, a key US ally in the Horn of Africa, which has undergone dramatic political reforms since Nobel peace prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018.
Amid chants of mantras, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at Jangamwadi Math to participate in the closing ceremony of the centenary celebrations of Shri Jagadguru Vishwaradhya Gurukul.

Priests of the gurukul helped him in performing Puja at the event.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, Governor Anandiben Patel and others were also present at the event.

Thereafter the Prime Minister released the translated version of the Shri Siddhant Shikhamani Granth in 19 languages. He also released a mobile app of the Granth.

PM Modi, who arrived in his parliamentary constituency on Sunday morning, will also unveil a 63-feet tall statue of Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya besides inaugurating a memorial centre for the late leader.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Slovenian police have launched investigations into suspected abuse of office and fraud at the countrys former flag carrier Adria Airways, which declared bankruptcy on September 30, 2019 following three years of management by the German turnaround fund 4K Invest. In particular, law enforcement agencies are looking into allegations of malpractice and the disappearance of some 5.000 US dollars from the companys safe in the immediate aftermath of its collapse. Pre-trial proceedings are currently taking place. Adrias bankruptcy administrator, Janez Pustaticnik, told the Delo daily that auditors will begin a review of past operations at the company this month, however, there are currently no specific suspicions of misconduct.





Companies affiliated with 4K Invest, including Adria Airways former owner AA International Aviation Holding, have entered into liquidation following the collapse of the national carrier last year. The closure of these companies makes it difficult for law enforcement agencies to carry out an investigation and obtain necessary documentation. It is believed the fund funnelled money from Adria Airways and inked a number of highly damaging consultancy agreements on behalf of the Slovenian carrier with other companies in its ownership. 4K Invest has vanished from the business registries in a number of countries following Adrias demise. Its website has been shut down and its phone numbers disconnected.





The turnaround fund has companies registered in Germany, Malta, the United Kingdom and Luxembourg. The Slovenian Ministry for Infrastructure previously noted, Minister [for Infrastructure] Alenka Bratusek repeatedly warned that the airlines sale to the German capital fund was a mistake and that the then government of Slovenia should have found a strategic partner within the aviation industry that would have ensured the long-term existence and development of the carrier. The Slovenian Prime Minister, Marjan Sarec, branded 4K Invest as crooks. 4Ks questionable business moves involving Adria included the sale of its brand name, as well as absorbing the STBE company in December 2018, resulting in Stefan Beulertz, who was the head of STBE, becoming Adria's part owner. Mr Beulertz, a lawyer based in Malta who is close to 4K Invest, was implicated in the Paradise Papers, which exposed the rogue offshore finance industry. Mr Pustaticnik believes Adrias ongoing bankruptcy proceedings will take four years to complete due to litigations, numerous recoveries and other procedures expected to be launched in Slovenia and abroad.
By Alan L. Moss

In spite of the time, effort, and resources dedicated to selecting U.S. presidents, the results have been inconsistent and often deficient.

Of the last eight elected U.S. presidents, half have brought shame on the office. Two have been impeached (Clinton and Trump) and one (Nixon) resigned rather than go through the impeachment process. Another (George W Bush) blundered into Iraq costing over a trillion dollars, 4,500 U.S. casualties, and hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, while giving birth to ISIS and the destruction it has reaped.

Notwithstanding our leadership failures, there has been some progress over the last half century. Trade was opened with China, the Departments of Energy and Education were born, a treaty was signed between Israel and Egypt, pressure from U.S. defense budgets broke-up the Soviet Union, the Medicare drug benefit was established, and the Affordable Care Act greatly expanded health care to those who had no insurance. At the same time, effective steps were taken to counter adverse developments, such as the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the Great Recession.

One has to wonder, however, what if sustained, exemplary leadership allowed the nation to avoid quagmires that took lives, burned resources, and blocked steps forward. What if better communications between intelligence agencies blocked the September 11 attacks, or if retaliation was directed only at those responsible? What if foolish deregulation was prohibited maintaining sound financial institutions and sustained economic growth in 2007 and beyond? Certainly, the resources saved in these two areas alone could have sponsored such initiatives as modernization of our infrastructure, a major reduction in student debt, accelerated research to find cures for deadly diseases, and training and education programs to improve the futures of inner city residents while reducing crime and gun violence.

Perhaps, its time to hold presidential candidates to more precise standards, ones that promise enlightened decision making and steps forward for most Americans. An examination of prominent works on executive and political leadership yields 10 suggested traits/competencies needed for a successful president:

1. Through ethical behavior and integrity is able to establish good will and trust.

2. Is true to American values, the rule of law and the Constitution. Understands executive, judicial, and legislative responsibilities.

3. Has a clear vision for the future, understanding complex issues and situations while developing effective strategies for positive change.

4. Has an impressive record of accomplishments.

5. Communicates clearly, is decisive, and inspires support, sacrifice, noble deeds, and patriotism.

6. Stays calm under pressure; doesnt act without knowing the likely impact of results.

7. Maintains positive communications with members of the opposite party, those holding different views; encourages debate.

8. Works to find common ground. Is open to compromise that doesnt defeat the purpose of proposed policies and legislation.

9. Hires the best and the brightest, staff who are both ethical and qualified. Seeks expert advice, adapting objectives and initiatives accordingly. Encourages teamwork.

10. Recognizes and rewards accomplishments, admits failures, identifies problems and seeks solutions. Employs formal planning and evaluation systems.

The world is a dangerous place in which missteps can result in untold death and destruction. On the other hand, well-reasoned, intelligent leadership can greatly enrich and extend life. Trusting leaders based on 30-second soundbites and rehearsed responses to debate inquiries have not served us well.

Before one buys an automobile, you can pick-up Consumer Reports and review objective ratings both overall and for a number of meaningful criteria. When it comes to presidential candidates, too often we only see what managers and public relations experts want us to see.

Its time to more carefully assess candidate leadership qualities, regardless of party platforms. The Founding Fathers believed that the first responsibility of an enlightened citizenry is to be virtuous enough and wise enough to select the right kind of representatives.

One way to accomplish this would be to evaluate candidates relative to the leadership traits and competencies described above. Perhaps, a joint effort by The International Leadership Association and the American Political Science Association might verify the most relevant competencies, design interview and related tools, collect the required information, and publish candidate ratings for specific criteria and overall.

Evaluating presidential candidates based upon their leadership skills would provide voters with an objective basis on which their choices may be shaped. Furthermore, those in the race or considering candidacy who lack key competencies may drop out of contention while those not running who would be deemed highly qualified might determine to compete and expand the lineup of capable candidates.

Its time to bring the dispassionate measurement of key leadership abilities into the forefront of selecting future presidents.

Alan L Moss, Ph. D., is the author of Selling Out Americas Democracy, was chief economist of the U.S. Wage and Hour Division, and congressional fellow to the late U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg. Currently, he serves as an expert witness concerning issues of employment and wages.

The Star-Ledger/NJ.com encourages submissions of opinion. 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.
PRAIRIE TOWNSHIP  The Valparaiso man who died in a crash last week was a veteran, a father and husband, his friends said.

Daniel M. Mckeown, 27, was identified by the LaPorte County Coroners Office as the victim of a crash Thursday, in which his vehicle struck a tree in rural Prairie Township.

Mckeown died on his son's first birthday, said Max Maples, a longtime friend and co-worker of the Valparaiso man.

"The man has always held his own, always lent his shoulder out to cry on," Maples said. "He did everything he could to better his life and be a good man. He left us too soon, so much unfinished."

In coordination with Mckeown's loved ones, Maples began a fundraiser to help with funeral costs, which can be found on GoFundMe.com by searching Mckeown's name. As of Saturday night, $1,015 of the $10,000 goal was raised.

Maples also said Franklin House in Valparaiso, a former work place of Mckeown, is accepting donations on behalf of his family and have agreed to match contributions, Maples said.
Allentown, PA (18103)

Today

Mostly sunny and bitterly cold. It will feel like it's in the single digits and low teens..

Tonight

Partly cloudy and extremely cold. Wind chills around or below 0 degrees.
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate from New Delhi Arvind Kejriwal celebrates the party's landslide victory in the Delhi Assembly elections 2020 with his wife Sunita Kejriwal, Cabinet Minister and the party's candidate Image Source: PK

New Delhi, Feb 16 : Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal will take oath of the Chief Minister's office on Sunday at the Ramlila Maidan where big posters saying 'Thank You Delhi!' have been put up.

Kejriwal will take oath along with his designated Cabinet -- Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Gopal Rai, Kailash Gehlot, Imran Hussain and Rajendra Pal Gautam.

The AAP got massive mandate in the Delhi Assembly elections as it was elected in 62 of the 70 Assembly constituencies here. The BJP could only manage to get eight seats. And the Congress could get any seat.

The entire city has been invited for the ceremony.

The party is expecting close to one lakh people, with a major portion of the crowd being the common man of Delhi.

According to the party, the posters have been put up to thank the city for the massive mandate.

Senior officials involved in the preparations said around 5,000 security personnel, 125 CCTV cameras, 12 LED screens and 45,000 chairs will be deployed at the ground.

"Sitting arrangement has been done for about 45,000 people. The space has been given for people to stand," official said.

Kejriwal has invited the entire city, along with all the elected representatives from Lok Sabha and local bodies. The invitation has also been given to all the newly elected MLAs.

A total of 50 representatives, from different sectors contributing towards the Delhi governance, are the special guests, who will be sharing the stage with Kejriwal and the new Cabinet.
A philosophy professor and 'old school goth' says the only way to save the planet is to stop having children.

Patricia MacCormack, of Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, believes giving birth is 'the worst thing you can do' to the carbon footprint due to global overpopulation.

Her new book, 'The Ahuman Manifesto', has rattled people around the world, with one Italian news outlet calling her 'delusional' and she claims she has received death threats.

Prof. MacCormack, from Australia, told Yahoo Lifestyle: 'I simply propose people not reproduce, and it automatically translated into acts of violence.

Patricia MacCormack, of Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, believes giving birth is 'the worst thing you can do' to the carbon footprint because of the overpopulation strain on the planet.

Prof. MacCormack's new book, 'The Ahuman manifesto', has rattled people around the world, with one Italian news outlet calling her 'delusional' and claims she has received death threats

'So, somehow, I want to kill children, which is ridiculous. Somehow, I'm proposing eugenics or some kind of ethnic population control  and I think that what that shows is there is an anthropocentric - or a human - impulse to read acts of grace as, automatically, acts of violence.

'And that says a lot more about the people not reading the book and just taking over the message.'

The academic and London DJ says she understands why her position is 'triggering' because it confronts people with an idea which contradicts their fundamental view of the world.

But she says her view is shaped by her care for children who she believes are living on an earth which is becoming rapidly inhospitable due to our carbon output.

She says critics of her work have used images of her dressed as a goth in an attempt to discredit her

Far from being negative, Prof. MacCormack describes her work as optimistic and hopeful.

Among other suggestions in her manifesto is 'abolitionist veganism' which is the idea that no sentient being should be treated as property.

She told Yahoo: 'There are people living in the apocalypse right now - especially non-human animals, who have born into an apocalypse. They live to suffer and then they're murdered.'

Prof. MacCormack has even taken aim at the climate protest group Extinction Rebellion for not going far enough.

As well as her ideas on climate, Prof. MacCormack is lauded by Anglia Ruskin for her expertise in feminism, queer theory, posthuman ethics, animal studies and horror films

'Even Extinction Rebellion only focus on the effect this will have on human life when climate change is something that will affect every living being on the planet.' She told Cambridgeshire Live.

As well as her ideas on climate, Prof. MacCormack is lauded by Anglia Ruskin for her expertise in feminism, queer theory, posthuman ethics, animal studies and horror films.

The university's website says: 'Currently she is working on a new impact case study on inclusivity in mental health and criminal justice especially in relation with issues of sexual difference and Trans rights.'
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, reportedly made a quiet visit to Stanford on Tuesday, consulting with some of university's academics on a future project.

According to Today, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were met by university president Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Stanford professors for a "brainstorming session" about their charitable endeavors. The pair have said they plan to create their own charity and become financially independent as they step back from their roles as senior royals.
For Democrats frightened by either an openly socialist candidate or an untested man whom blacks dislike, the seemingly reasonable choices are an ex-Republican, sexist, anti-Second Amendment, micro-managing despot -- and Amy Klobuchar, the meanest Senator in Washington. Its time to remember that Klobuchar has no fixed principles but will, instead, do whatever it takes to advance herself in the Democrat Party.

On Friday, Klobuchars latest opportunistic move was to announce at a campaign event in Las Vegas that English should not be Americas official language, even though she voted for a Senate bill that would have made English the official language. She now says that she has taken a strong position against the English language in America, although she cannot seem to explain her past vote. One can certainly explain her current turnabout, though, despite her efforts to keep her various immigration positions opaque:

Her policy shift comes a week before the caucuses are set to take place in a state with a large Latino population and an area where Klobuchar has about 10 percent support. Klobuchar has flip-flopped on immigration policies, once supporting projects like a wall and E-Verify to ban employers from hiring illegal aliens back in 2006. The Minnesota senator has also been open about supporting amnesty but has hidden her support for exporting college graduate-level jobs overseas.

This conduct is typical Klobuchar. The PowerLine blog, which is headquartered in Minnesota, has been reporting on Klobuchar for years, revealing a calculating progressive who uses Minnesota nice as a way to avoid being tagged for the controversial and often inconsistent stands she takes.

In September 2017, Scott Johnson summed up Klobuchars tactics when it came to Trumps nominating Judge David Stras to the Eighth Circuit. Although Stras received bipartisan support in Minnesota from everyone who interacted with him, Klobuchar was blocking him from consideration, instead using his nomination as a cudgel to gain control over four other federal vacancies in Minnesota.

While the partisan Minnesota Star Tribune dutifully ignored Klobuchars machinations, PowerLines reporting on the issue irked Mrs. Minnesota Nice:

She refused to comment on our reporting about them. She chafed over our disclosure of them. She resented the bad attitude with which we viewed them. She sought to keep the lid on. She denied that she was blocking Strass nomination, although she was  pending some arrangement with the White House that would reward her for turning in her blue slip. Seeking to appease Klobuchar while it tried to reach an agreement with her, the White House reached out to me. The White House had a favor to ask. It requested that I knock off covering the moves of this highly partisan politician with an incredibly thin skin while it worked something out with her. After all, she prefers to present herself (in the title of her memoir) as the Senator next door and the local media have been happy to play along with her.

When then-Sen. Al Franken eventually announced that he would not consider Strass nomination, Klobuchar turned around and said that Stras ought to get a hearing:

Or course, she left her use of Strass nomination for leverage on the Minnesota vacancies unmentioned, and it remains unmentioned in the Star Tribune story by Jennifer Brooks and Stephen Montemayor today.

Klobuchar then issued a public statement gushing about how wonderful Stras was, only to end by stabbing him in the back:

Klobuchar wants us to believe she fits the mold of Minnesota Nice. Her sayonara to Justice Stras in the concluding paragraph, however, shows her to be worse than a phony politician. She is a contemptible human being.

Klobuchars habit of being cute in public and vicious behind the scenes was again on display with the Neil Gorsuch nomination:

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar specializes in avoiding outspoken stands on important issues. She looks for opportunities to lead the way on trivialities calculated to garner broad public support, such as her crusade against the threat to life and limb posed by The crisis of the detergent pod. Senator Klobuchar is a reliable vote for the Democratic Party line, but she is quiet about it. She doesnt want to upset anybody. She wants to preside over an era of good feelings  of good feelings about Amy Klobuchar. Its a form of inanity that has won Klobuchar followers among the mainstream media in Minnesota and elsewhere. [snip] Senator Klobuchar strongly supports the Democrats partisan filibuster of Judge Gorsuch. Why? Senator Klobuchar isnt saying. In addition, Senator Klobuchar strongly supports the retention of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees generally. Why? Senator Klobuchar isnt saying.

Klobuchars turnabout on English as Americas official language reveals the same M.O.: She presents a moderate front but generally works behind the scenes to ingratiate herself with the extremists in the Democrat party.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 16)  A lawmaker who sits as a vice-chairperson of the House panel that handles legislative franchises warned Sunday they may end up rejecting ABS-CBNs bid for franchise renewal if they are rushed in the process.

Isabela 1st District Rep. Antonio Tonypet Albano said in a lengthy statement that the timing of the first committee hearing on ABS-CBNs bid for a fresh 25-year legislative franchise has to be perfect, right and conducive lest we sacrifice the station due to all these animosities and negative emotions that are hounding it today.

Worse, we suddenly might end up rejecting the networks franchise to the detriment of the 11,000 employees and families that rely on the network for their very livelihood if we rush this, Albano continued.

He added that scheduling a hearing for ABS-CBNs franchise does not automatically mean that it will get renewed and may even result in the opposite.

And if it is rejected, we again in Congress will be maliciously get blamed for saying that the freedom of press is curtailed once more. So we proceed cautiously, he said.

Albano assured that there will be a proper time for the House panel on legislative franchises to hear ABS-CBNs franchise renewal bid and reiterated the position of the House leadership that the TV network will be given the chance to answer all criticisms hurled at it.

Not a rubber stamp

The lawmaker also denied that they are rubber stamps of President Rodrigo Duterte, who has been vocal about his distaste for ABS-CBN and has vowed to put it out of business.

Albano said that if they truly just followed whatever Duterte wants, they could have simply voted against the renewal of ABS-CBNs franchise due to a large number of complaints from politicians, businessmen, actors, producers and many more.

He also reiterated the claim of the House leadership that it is too busy to tackle the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN, stressing that there are more pressing issues that need to be addressed, like the novel coronavirus and African swine fever outbreaks, the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement, and the eruption of Taal Volcano.

However, he conceded that the House can multitask, but members of the majority are also working on their pet bills.

Joint resolution?

Albano said ABS-CBN can continue operating anyway until Congress adjourns on June 30, 2022, repeating a claim made by Congress leaders that the TV network can continue working even after its franchise expires on March 30 as long as there are pending bills pushing for the renewal of its franchise.

AKO BICOL party-list Rep. Alfredo Garbin suggested that Congress pass a joint concurrent resolution telling the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) that ABS-CBN can continue operating even after its franchise expires as long as bills seeking its renewal are pending.

The joint concurrent resolution would also be the assurance of Congress to the Filipino people that there will be no vacuum in freedom of expression, creativity, and press freedom because of the expiration of the ABS-CBN franchises, Garbin said.

Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman, among the lawmakers pushing for the renewal of the TV networks franchise, had called assurances like this an illusory alternative remedy."

TIMELINE: ABS-CBN franchise

The "legal, proper, and traditional course of action" is to decide on whether or not to grant ABS-CBN another 25 years to operate, Lagman stressed.

Aside from its bid for franchise renewal at the House, ABS-CBN is also facing another battle at the Supreme Court, where Solicitor General Jose Calida filed a petition seeking to void the networks existing franchise.

READ: SC the wrong place for complaint vs ABS-CBN  legal expert

Calida cited "highly abusive practices," including allowing foreign investors to "take part in the ownership of a Philippine mass media entity" as well as launching media services without prior approval from the NTC.

The quo warranto petition lodged against ABS-CBN Corporation and its subsidiary, ABS-CBN Convergence Inc.came weeks before the expiry of the networks existing franchise.

Several government officials including the media company itself denounced the move, saying it has no factual basis. Human Rights Watch Philippines also condemned the legal maneuver, saying it had "all the indications of political harassment."

Both the House leadership and Calida stressed that their decisions on the network's francise are not motivated by politics.

CNN Philippines Xianne Arcangel, Xave Gregorio and Eimor Santos contributed to this report.
Hong Kong: CE inspects anti-epidemic work

Chief Executive Carrie Lam today inspected anti-epidemic measures at various locations to see how front-line personnel are tackling the situation.

She expressed gratitude to them for standing fast at their posts during the epidemic to help Hong Kong fight the disease.

In the morning, Mrs Lam visited the Junior Police Call activity centre in Pat Heung to learn about the progress of converting part of its facilities into a quarantine centre.

It is expected that installation of fittings will be finished in February and ready for use once supplies are in place, providing about 90 units upon completion.

The Government will also construct more quarantine facilities on the centres vacant land using Modular Integrated Construction. That project is expected to be completed in April, providing an additional 100 quarantine units.

Given adequate quarantine centre facilities are of paramount importance to anti-epidemic work, Mrs Lam said apart from using holiday camps as quarantine centres, the Government has been proactively identifying suitable locations to provide more units.

While she understands neighbouring residents concerns, she appealed to people to support such facilities establishment in the spirit of fighting the disease in unison.

Mrs Lam reiterated that the quarantine centres operation needs to comply with stringent requirements including law enforcement and healthcare officers on duty around the clock.

She said people subjected to quarantine will be transferred in and out of the centres by dedicated vehicles and not allowed to move freely in the community. Therefore, such facilities should only have a minimal impact on residents nearby.

Mrs Lam then proceeded to the Shenzhen Bay Control Point to inspect the operation of the compulsory quarantine on people entering Hong Kong from the Mainland.

The new measures implementation has been generally smooth, with a significant drop in the number of cross-boundary flow of people.

As of yesterday, 7,858 people were subjected to compulsory quarantine, of which around 90% were Hong Kong residents, and a large majority of them underwent home quarantine.

To enhance surveillance using technology, all people under compulsory quarantine are now required to share of their real-time locations using their mobile phones at boundary control points.

Those who choose not to, are required to wear electronic wristbands to help Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) personnel monitor whether they are staying at their dwelling places.

In addition, Department of Health staff will continue to contact people under quarantine via phone calls, while disciplinary force members conduct spot checks.

Apart from Police, officers of the Fire Services, Immigration, Customs & Excise and Correctional Services departments have been taking part in spot checks.

Stressing that the Government will ensure the compulsory quarantines effective implementation, Mrs Lam said Police would consider issuing warrants against those under quarantine who cannot be contacted.

The Department of Justice and the Department of Health are considering prosecuting offenders. The maximum penalty is six months imprisonment and a $25,000 fine.

Mrs Lam also inspected goods clearance at the Shenzhen Bay Control Point. She confirmed with Customs front-line officers that goods vehicles are continuously delivering daily necessities.

She stressed that anti-epidemic measures have not affected cross-boundary freight services of peoples daily necessities and appealed to people not to worry.

At the Princess Margaret Hospitals Infectious Disease Centre, Mrs Lam received a briefing on work to combat the infection and viewed isolation wards under renovation.

She lauded Hospital Authority staff for tackling the virus and paid special tribute to front-line healthcare workers for caring for patients day and night.

She said the Government is in full support of the anti-epidemic work in hospitals, including the proposal to allocate $4.7 billion to the authority from the Anti-epidemic Fund for relevant purposes.

She stressed that the epidemic is still severe, and members of all government departments and the authority will work together to manage the disease.

I also appeal to members of the public to pay attention to information released by the Government and support various work on prevention and control of the disease, including going out less to avoid social contact and enhancing personal hygiene.

Earlier, Mrs Lam visited Lei Yue Mun Park & Holiday Village to view the progress on building temporary quarantine units using Modular Integrated Construction.

She also toured the temporary communication centre set up at the Customs headquarters in North Point to inspect the work by OGCIO personnel tasked with ensuring people under quarantine are staying in their dwelling places.

In addition to providing essential, emergency and limited public services to the public by various Government departments during the epidemic, thousands of current and retired civil service colleagues are working tirelessly to implement various anti-epidemic measures.

I have no doubt with the concerted efforts of the Government and the people, Hong Kong will definitely win the battle against the disease.

This story has been published on: 2020-02-16. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
The following items were taken from Barrington and South Barrington police department reports and releases. An arrest does not constitute a finding of guilt.

DUI

Frank X. Martinez, 61, of the 400 block of Old Mill Road, was charged Feb. 9 with driving under the influence with a blood alcohol concentration over .08 and speeding at Hillside Avenue and Route 14. Martinez is scheduled to appear in court March 12.

Speeding

Randall A. Bollinger Jr., 43, of the 900 block of Willow Lane, Sleepy Hollow, was charged Feb. 8 with speeding more than 35 mph over the limit and operating a vehicle with expired registration at Higgins Road and Bartlett Road. Bollinger is scheduled to appear in court March 4.

Austin T. Nord, 24, of the 7000 block of Longmeadow Lane, Hanover Park, was charged Feb. 12 with speeding more than 26 mph over the limit at Algonquin Road and Palatine Road. Nord is scheduled to appear in court March 4.

Drivers license

Ana K. Franco, 20, of the 1000 block of North McAree Road, Waukegan, was charged Feb. 1 with driving while license suspended in the first block of Lake Adalyn Drive. Franco is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 24.

Roberto Guzman, 25, of the 4000 block of Central Road, Glenview, was charged Feb. 2 with driving while license suspended at Palatine Road and Chipping Campden Drive. Guzman is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 24.

Volodymyr Oliynyk, 34, of the 6000 block of West George Street, Chicago, was charged Feb. 5 with driving while license suspended at Algonquin Road and Palatine Road. Oliynyk is scheduled to appear in court March 11.

Uriel Santiago Olea, 20, of the 200 block of East Pineview Drive, Round Lake Park, was charged Feb. 6 with having no valid drivers license at Route 59 and Route 62. Santiago Olea is scheduled to appear in court March 11.

Samuel W. Saxton, 29, of the 800 block of Shawnee Trail, Lake in the Hills, was charged Feb. 8 with driving while license suspended at Algonquin Road and Penny Road. Saxton is scheduled to appear in court March 4.

Jesus Pesina, 37, of the 3000 block of West 40th Place, Chicago, was charged Feb. 8 with disobeying a traffic signal and driving while license suspended at Algonquin Road and Penny Road. Pesina is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 24.

Santiago Garcia Avalos, 40, of the 100 block of Mora Road, Carpentersville, was charged Feb. 11 with driving while license suspended at North Barrington Road and Falcon Lakes Drive. Garcia Avalos is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 24.

kedquist@chicagotribune.com

Twitter: @kaitlinedquist
BETHEL  One person suffered non-life-threatening injuries during a fire at the home of the Bethel Fire Department chief on Saturday morning, fire officials said.

At 7:30 a.m., Bethel and Stony Hill firefighters were dispatched for a reported structure fire on Reservoir Street. Responding units would soon learn it was the home of Fire Chief Scott Murphy.

Stony Hill Volunteer Fire Company officials said intial reports indicated fire was in the walls, and the first responding units found heavy fire on the rear porch of Murphys home.

Units quickly knocked down the fire and prevented extension to the rest of the home, officials said. Members remained on scene for an extended period of time opening up walls to gain access to affected areas and deep-seated void spaces.

Officials said one resident was taken to Danbury Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

While Stony Hill and Bethel fire units were on scene, Danbury Fire Department provided mutual aid. Officials said the Brookfield Volunteer Fire Company provided station coverage and handled one carbon monoxide-related call.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Bethel fire marshal.

Later Saturday afternoon, Murphy confirmed the fire was at his residence in a Facebook post.

It was my house this morning that caught fire, Murphy wrote. It started in the wall by the chimney. The marshal is investigating so I cannot say exactly what happened.

He said he has not assessed the total damage done yet but added that hopefully its not as bad as it looks.

In his post, Murphy thanked the Bethel Fire Department, Bethel EMS, Stony Hill firefighters, Danbury Hospital paramedics, Danbury Fire Department and the Brookfield Volunteer Fire Department.

You guys are all first class and we thank you all for what you did, Murphy said. The fire damage was contained to mostly the exterior and minimal to the kitchen, smoke and water damage throughout.
Rajesh Asnani By

Express News Service

JAIPUR: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that central government can abolition of reservation too just like demonetisation while addressing a protest rally in Jaipur organised against BJP' s approach for promotion in reservations.

The protest was organized by the Tribal, OBC and Scheduled Castes wings of the Congress.

Gehlot also said that BJP government at the Centre is imposing RSS agenda on the people of the country.

The veteran Congress leader added that the intention of the Central Government is not right.

"The way the central government is imposing the RSS agenda, the situation of the country is worsening. The day their agenda ends, then the BJP government will end reservation, just like the demonetisation, they will announce the abolition of reservation.

"RSS people say, after 70 years, there is no need for a reservation. During the Bihar elections, Mohan Bhagwat said this but later after the elections, they say that they did not mean that," Gehlot remarked.

He further added that a dangerous game was being played on the reservation.

ALSO READ: Supreme Court verdict on reservation puts parties on defensive

"Last time the High Court abolished reservation in promotion and ordered to send our Chief Secretary to jail. Later we won from Supreme Court but now the people are nervous about the Supreme Court's decision.

"61 per cent of the people of the country are against the move, in spite of this, they are taking decisions against public opinion. Today SC/ST are suspicious of the intention of the Central Government," Gehlot said.

CM Gehlot then went to say that Rajasthan made decision of reservation in promotion easily and the Centre should also make a law in Parliament to ensure that reservation is given in promotion.

"For this, the Central Government should make Rajasthan a role model and implement reservation in promotion within the states of the whole country," Gehlot added.

State President of the party and Deputy CM Sachin Pilot said that the Congress government will always stand up to protect the interests of the underprivileged. He also added that the Central Government raises unnecessary issues to divert attention from the basic issues.

After the protest, CM Ashok Gehlot, Deputy CM Sachin Pilot and State in-charge Avinash Pandey and other leaders reached Raj Bhavan to hand over a memorandum to the Governor, Kalraj Mishra.
Actor Ranveer Singh set the stage on fire with a special retro performance at Guwahati, Assam on Saturday evening. Ranveer paid a special tribute to the iconic music composer RD Burman.

The superstar created and designed a super-energetic onstage act with the musicians who had actually performed with the legendary composer. Ranveer, who is a huge fan of the composer, had thought of this act all by himself and then developed all its elements in collaboration with the musicians who guided him in delivering the tributes.

A source informs, Ranveer is a huge fan of the maestro and he was clear that he wanted to conceive an act that gives a big tribute to the legend. Ranveer set up an act that saw him deliver a spectacular show that comprised him dancing, acting, singing, all rolled in one. He was accompanied by the actual people who have played with RD and that made the act really, really special. Guwahati was treated to a high voltage performance by Ranveer that mesmerised everyone!

Ranveer Singh during his performance at the Filmfare Awards.

Also read: Filmfare Awards 2020 full list of winners: Gully Boys 13 wins make history, Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh take top awards

The source adds, Ranveer wanted to show everyone how special RDs music is to him and how inspired he is by his sounds. RD defined generations with his outstanding blockbuster music and Ranveer is in own humble way wanted to capture the nostalgia and the brilliance of RD Burman. Ranveer performed on the classic songs like Aa Dekhe Zara, Mehbooba, Tum Kya Janno, Yamma Yamma. He brought is typical energy and exuberance on stage and was cheered on by audience who had gathered to watch his performance as the biggest highlight of the night.

Ranveers film Gully Boy swept the Filmfare Awards by winning all the major accolades at the event including the Best Film Award. While the lead duo of Ranveer and Alia won the Best Male and Female Actor Awards respectively, the director of the flick Zoya Akhtar was awarded Best Director.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
New Attorney General Suella Braverman is part of a controversial Buddhist sect that still reveres its founder, despite claims he was a sexual predator.

Suella Braverman took over as Boris Johnson's most senior legal advisor from Geoffrey Cox who was axed in the cabinet reshuffle this week.

Ms Braverman is a member of the Triratna order whose founder Dennis Lingwood - also known as Sangharakshita - faced multiple allegations that he coerced male followers into sex in the 1970s and 80s.

New Attorney General Suella Braverman (right) is part of a controversial Buddhist sect that still reveres its founder Dennis Lingwood (left), despite claims he was a sexual predator

Ms Braverman is a member of the Triratna order whose founder Lingwood (pictured) faced multiple allegations that he coerced male followers into sex

In the 1980s the group's centre in Croydon, London, was shut amid reports that members were being manipulated.

A survey by five members of the sect, which has thousands of members, found that of 423 followers, 13 per cent said they, or someone they knew, had 'experienced sexual misconduct by either Sangharakshita or other Triratna order members in past and recent times', The Observer reports.

Ms Braverman visits one of Triratna's main hubs, the London Buddhist Centre, one or two times a month, reports suggest.

One of Lingwood's alleged victims Mark Dunlop told the paper: 'The new attorney general must surely be aware of the long-standing allegations against the organisation.'

He claims Lingwood - who died aged 93 in 2018 - coerced him into sex over a four-year period.

But the sect's websites still feature images of Lingwood and information about his teaching.

Alleged victim Mark Dunlop claims Lingwood (left in 1966) - who died aged 93 in 2018 - coerced him into sex over a four-year period

A report by the followers said: 'While many respondents described misconduct between a more experienced male order member and less experienced male mitra ['friend' in Sanskrit], as has been described many times in the past, other types of misconduct were also reported, including male order members becoming sexually involved with very vulnerable women.'

How state-school educated daughter of an immigrant nurse became government's most-senior law chief aged just 39 By Sophie Law for MailOnline New Attorney General Suella Braverman has enjoyed a meteoric rise to the Cabinet at the age of just 39. The former barrister has already threatened to 'take back control' from interfering judges in politics amid Boris Johnson's battle with the judiciary, and will no doubt strengthen pro-Brexit voices at the top table. New Attorney General Suella Braverman has enjoyed a meteoric rise to the Cabinet at the age of just 39 The 39-year-old MP for Fareham was born and raised in north-west London by parents who came to the UK from from Kenya and Mauritius in the 1960s with little money in their pockets. During her 10 years as a barrister, she was on the Attorney General's Treasury Panel, and defended the Home Secretary in immigration cases and the Ministry of Defence in the Guantanamo Bay Inquiry. She won her constituency seat in 2015. A staunch Brexiteer, she campaigned Leave in 2016 and was made chair of the European Research Group of pro-Leave Conservative MPs a year later. But she relinquished that role when she was appointed a junior minister Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU) - but lasted just nine months. On the day Theresa May's proposed deal was published, she resigned in protest, saying Northern Ireland Backstop 'robs the UK of the main competitive advantages from Brexit'. Advertisement

Lingwood later apologised for his relationships with men in the order.

A spokeswoman for Triratna said: 'I would like to make clear that Sangharakshita has never been accused, charged or convicted of any crime.'

Lingwood's teaching focuses on the three elements known as 'jewels': The Buddha, Dharma (his Buddha's teachings) and Sangha (the Buddha's followers).

Lingwood believed that Buddhists are 'Going For Refuge' at the jewels, according The Buddhist Centre's website.

Ms Braverman was a surprise choice to replace Cox in the cabinet reshuffle Thursday which saw former Chancellor Sajid Javid purged from the government.

The former barrister has already threatened to 'take back control' from interfering judges in politics amid Boris Johnson's battle with the judiciary, and will no doubt strengthen pro-Brexit voices at the top table.

The new Attorney General sparked controversy last year when she was accused of being 'antisemitic' over her declaration that: 'As Conservatives, we are engaged in a battle against cultural Marxism.'

The Board of Deputies of British Jews asked her not to use the phrase again, but described her as 'clearly a good friend of the Jewish community'.

Braverman faced criticism on her appointment of Attorney General, with many deeming her 'unfit' for the role.

The Liberal Democrats party's justice spokesperson Daisy Cooper said it is 'the latest shocking step in Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings' assault on the rule of law'.

Meanwhile, the barrister and former Conservative MP Anna Soubry similarly tweeted that Braverman had 'little experience'.

She wrote: 'Genuine concern that as a hardline, no-deal Brexiteer with little experience [Braverman] will not undertake the important role of AG  which invariably means giving firm legal advice a Govt/PM doesn't want to hear because it doesn't suit them politically.'

Ms Braverman's office has been approached for comment.

Numerous other senior figures left the government this week as Mr Johnson wielded the axe.

Numerous other senior figures also left the government yesterday as Mr Johnson wielded the axe.

Julian Smith was unceremoniously dumped as Northern Ireland secretary just weeks after brokering a deal which restored the power-sharing administration at Stormont.

Andrea Leadsom was sacked as business secretary, Theresa Villiers lost her job as environment secretary and Geoffrey Cox was removed from his post as attorney general.

Esther McVey lost her role as housing minister, and the total number of women attending Cabinet fell from eight to seven - while the total number of ministers attending shrank from 32 to 26.
The foreign ministries of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova have signed a joint letter to the Members of the European Commission regarding importance of relevant financial support for the Eastern Partnership in the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework for 2021-2027 that is currently being shaped by the EU institutions.

The document was signed on the margins of the Munich Security Conference, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Foreign Ministers of the three Associated Partners called on the EU to take into account within its strategic budgetary planning for the next 7 years the scale and ambitions of the reforms, which are being implemented and planned by Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova in the process of their European integration.

In this regard, the Ministers stressed the importance to ensure in the EU Multiannual Financial Framework increased resources for the needs of the Eastern Partnership states that would correspond to their European commitments and priorities of relations with the EU.

The joint address of the Ministers is another sign of unity of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova in their approaches to future development of the Eastern Partnership, based on the differentiation principle, as well as to the idea of enhanced dialogue in the "EU + 3 Associated Partners" format.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  For years, law enforcement officials and Ohio policymakers have argued that annual training for police officers, sheriffs deputies and state troopers is critical.

It keeps officers and residents safe, shields cities and counties from litigation, and raises statewide standards of professionalism.

Calls for such training have increased, in Ohio and nationally, mostly in response to high-profile incidents involving police use of force, response to mental health crises and concerns about racial stereotyping.

Despite that, Ohio has failed to provide a steady stream of funding to reimburse local law enforcement agencies for annual training.

The state budgeted nothing to pay back departments for annual training in fiscal year 2019. Nothing for 2020. And nothing for 2021.

Why is that money essential? Without it, most of the training the state mandates becomes voluntary.

In addition, the current patchwork tracking process allows departments to self-report officer training information to the state, making it nearly impossible to measure how many of the 33,000 officers fail to complete annual training. And under Ohio law, an officer who lacks the training cant patrol the streets.

People want us to shoot like John Wayne, fight like Wyatt Earp and counsel others like Dr. Phil, but the state doesnt give us enough resources, said Tim Barfield, the chief of the Wellington Police Department in Lorain County.

Gov. Mike DeWine has strongly recommended raising the bar to 40 hours of mandated annual training, a change he pushed for during his tenure as attorney general. The current requirement is up to 24 hours.

DeWines first executive budget, however, did not include funding for training reimbursements, and none was added during the Ohio legislatures budget process.

The governor plans to address the issue in the next biennial budget bill, spokesman Dan Tierney said. DeWine also supports finding a dedicated funding source to make the training reimbursements more reliable for local law enforcement agencies, he said.

Recommendations, not mandates

Multiple statewide task forces, commissions and advisory boards, dating back at least to 2014, have urged lawmakers and elected officials to pay for annual training  and to increase training requirements.

One of those task forces resulted in the formation of the Ohio Collaborative, which in 2015 established  for the first time  statewide professional standards for officer recruitment, hiring, and departmental policies for use of force, vehicle pursuits and community engagement.

For officers to do their jobs safely and effectively, and to protect the public, the state should invest in training, particularly for critical topics such as de-escalation and cultural competency, the 2015 task force report said.

Critical, maybe. But still voluntary.

Dwight Holcomb is the Executive Director of the Ohio Peace Officers Training Commission.

State training panel

In Ohio, the training of police officers, sheriffs deputies and state troopers falls under the Attorney Generals office and its Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission, or OPOTC.

The training commission has 10 members, all but one of whom are in law enforcement. The panel, appointed by the governor to three-year terms, oversees the states police academy and the curriculum and training programs that can be used in the states more than 950 police departments.

That includes the two types of training spelled out in Ohio law: Continued professional training and statutorily mandated training.

Continued professional training or CPT is set as a certain number of hours annually, but it is only mandatory in years where reimbursement is available.

Lawmakers placed the second type, statutorily mandated training, on the books over the course of several years. It prescribes updates for veteran officers in specific categories, such as human trafficking, crisis intervention and domestic violence and is mandated regardless of funding.

In the last year, the training commission has had three different executive directors overseeing in-service work and its costs: Mary Davis, who held the job since 2014 before leaving in July to run the state prison systems training academy; Jeff Scott, the former Notre Dame College police chief who resigned after five months because of family reasons; and Dwight Holcomb, the current leader.

Davis did not return messages. Scott declined to comment.

Expenses for training are twofold: paying for certified instructors and replacing officers who are away from the job.

That makes steady funding important but extremely expensive, Holcomb said.

It costs the state about $660,000 to fully reimburse law enforcement agencies for each hour of required training at the current rate of $20, Holcomb said.

To fully reimburse for the currently required hours would cost the state more than $15 million each year.

Ohio ended up with its reimbursement system because mayors, police chiefs and sheriffs balked at the idea of the state creating an unfunded mandate by requiring a certain number training hours for officers to retain their certifications.

For small departments, in particular, reimbursement is important because chiefs often have to pay overtime for officers to cover the shifts of colleagues in training.

The training commission suggests that departments continue to train, even when there isnt any money available.

Chiefs say training is imperative

In a Plain Dealer survey filled out by nearly 70 police chiefs and sheriffs, most said annual training is vital to prepare officers for what they will face on patrol. Many argued, however, that one-size-fits-all requirement doesnt make sense because needs differ based on the size, location and communities departments serve.

Nearly all of the chiefs and sheriffs, however, called for reliable funding.

Since fiscal year 2004, the state has spent more than $26 million to reimburse departments and administer the program, but the funds have been cobbled together from civil settlements, attorney general funds or one-time budget allocations, and they have not been doled out consistently.

Five times since fiscal 2004, no state money was paid to law enforcement agencies for training, according to a review of Legislative Service Commission documents.

Compare that to Illinois, which has consistently spent more than $5 million a year since 2014 on mobile facilities to teach officers. The state uses money from fees on traffic tickets to pay for it.

When money is not available, many departments still try and provide some training for officers, according to The Plain Dealer survey. For others, the training becomes bare bones, limited to classes that provide updates on new laws. A few said they skip training altogether.

Jeff Ehasz, the director of the Ohio Small Police Department Association, said he fears that could become common for some departments. He said about 3 of every 4 departments in Ohio are made up of 25 officers or less, and finding money for training often becomes a major issue.

Its a huge problem, Ehasz said. We see it every day. Every day.

Twinsburg Police Chief Chris Noga said an officer who completes the police academy and begins working at a department could go years without receiving additional training under the current system.

Failure to train is one of the greatest areas of liability in law enforcement, Noga wrote in his survey response. If an entity cannot afford to continuously train its officers, it opens itself to potential litigation and settlements that would have been better spent on continuing training for their officers.

Authorities from across the country agree.

All it takes is one lawsuit, one smart attorney to wipe [an agency] out, said Bob Wertz, the training administrator for the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement. Who wants to lose lawsuits because someone dropped the ball?

The landmark case involving police training stems from the 1978 arrest of Geraldine Harris, a woman Canton police brought to the police station following a dispute during a traffic stop, according to legal briefs.

At the station, Harris slumped over and became incoherent. Officers failed to help her, and they later released her, allowing her family to take her in a private ambulance to a hospital. She stayed there for a week.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that municipalities can be held liable for constitutional violations if the failure to train officers amounts to the deliberate indifference of residents civil rights.

David Malik, an attorney from Chesterland who has sued several police departments, said the issue of training, or the lack of it, has come up in each of his cases against departments.

The state and law enforcement departments need a series of checks and balances to monitor officers in-service work, he said.

Training is so fundamental to good police work, but it is well-known in the police community and the community officers serve that there isnt enough of it, Malik said. Police officers themselves will tell you that they can always use more training, but it comes down to the need for money.

A muddied picture

Across the state, its hard to get a clear picture of the amount of training officers receive. The training commission relies on police departments to self-report officers training hours and provide the agencys executive director and staff in London, Ohio, with an annual spreadsheet.

The commission takes the spreadsheets, which the chiefs and sheriffs must vow are accurate, and enters the information for each individual officer into a database.

The training commissions staff then sends letters to police chiefs, sheriffs and county prosecutors notifying them of officers who are in what the state calls cease-function status; they cannot legally perform any duties of a police officer  including carrying a firearm  until the state has certified that they are back in compliance.

In 2017, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael OMalleys office received at least 55 letters from the training commission about officers in cease-function status. The office provided the letters to The Plain Dealer in response to a public record request but a spokesman said the office couldnt be sure that was the total number of letters for that year.

All of the letters stemmed from officers who failed to meet the hours for continued professional training, the records show. At least 23 of the officers also failed to get the statutorily mandatory training.

The officers worked in large departments  Cleveland police and the Cuyahoga County Sheriffs Department  and suburban offices such as Linndale, North Royalton and Mayfield Village.

In some cities, the lack of required training has caused legal problems.

In East Cleveland, the matter spilled into court in August. Thats when activist Mariah Crenshaw demanded action against dozens of police officers who she claimed had failed to satisfy Ohio training requirements.

Crenshaw argued that arrests and tickets should be dismissed because the officers were out of compliance and should have been pulled from the streets. The department and the state knew but did nothing, she said.

The case is pending in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

East Cleveland officials have since said all officers are now in compliance.

Crenshaw spent three years researching the issue and requesting officer training information from the state.

At her urging, the state training commission performed a rare audit on East Cleveland police two years ago that found about two dozen officers should have been off the streets for periods at a time during 2015, 2016 and 2017.

The audit also found that the state reimbursed East Cleveland for more than $10,000 in training that officers never received. The city was forced to repay the state.

People have rights, Crenshaw said. They have a right to be arrested by a real police officer, who took the proper training, and is in compliance with state law. If citizens have to follow the law, so should police officers.

Crenshaw called it ridiculous that the state doesnt have a database that tracks which officers are in compliance.

It just shows that the priorities are screwed up, she said. Some people act like it isnt a big deal, but it causes damage to trust.

Other state agencies do make it a priority, however. Such as the Ohio Supreme Court.

It keeps a database of attorneys required continuing legal education. Lawyers must attend classes and seminars and notify the court with supporting documentation to fulfill 24 hours of coursework over two years. Sponsors who put on the classes also provide information to the court about those who attended as verification.

The state court monitors the training of 44,000 lawyers, and it fines or suspends those who have failed to obtain the necessary classwork. The database is the cornerstone of our system, and without it, we could never track the compliance of attorneys, said Gina Palmer, who is the director of attorney services for the court.

But not everyone is in favor of tracking officers training or making the information publicly available.

What purpose would that serve? wrote Scott Reinbolt, the police chief in the village of Blanchester in southwest Ohio, in The Plain Dealers survey.

I dont want to spend 4 hours in court to testify in a DWI case about my agencys training because some defense attorney has checked the database and found that my officer only had 4 hours of DWI specific training in the past decade, and the defense claims my officer is incompetent.

Funding conundrum

Officials have long considered different ways to pay for training, Fayette County Sheriff Vern Stanforth, the chairman of the training commission, said.

Over the years, officials have discussed increases to traffic tickets, fees for rental cars and even a sales tax. Nothing, however, has been chosen.

Under Ohio law, a percentage of casino revenues, 2%, are deposited into the Ohio Law Enforcement Training Fund annually. A small portion of that goes to the Department of Public Safety but most of it supports the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy, or OPOTA, which provides basic training and also some in-person and online, free continuing professional training classes.

The funding doesn't cover reimbursements for lost time when officers attend those classes.

When the casino funding was agreed upon, legislators and law enforcement leaders believed the casinos would generate enough revenue to cover that reimbursement for the annual training, but revenues have fallen short of those projections.

Attorney General Dave Yosts office has been looking for possible funding alternatives for training reimbursements, Dominic Binkley, a spokesperson, said in an email.

Louisiana adds $2 to traffic tickets to fund a training program that is tracked in an online system. Each officer is required to take 20 hours of annual training that focuses on topics such as legal issues, firearms and domestic violence.

Massachusetts placed a $2 surcharge on most rental cars for municipal training.

Like Ohio, Massachusetts faces similar challenges with in-service training, particularly involving funding and accountability issues.

A November report by the Massachusetts auditors office found that the state spent more than $1 million on in-service training in 2019, while cities and towns spent $22.8 million. The state requires 40 hours of annual training but, like Ohio, has no way to track it.

The auditors report recommended greater accountability by utilizing an online system that would ensure officers participate in professional development and would decertify them if they dont.

In Ohio, some advocate the need for training that is not tied to state funding.

Oregon Police Chief Michael Navarre in northwest Ohio said he believes the state should mandate 40 hours of annual training for officers and that it should not be tied to the availability of funds. Navarre was part of the 12-member Ohio Collaborative panel that ushered in new professional standards in recent years.

Too many police chiefs fail to provide annual training when they lack funds, he said.

Thats just wrong, Navarre wrote in The Plain Dealer survey. Departments that cannot afford to provide training should not be police departments. They should merely contract with their county sheriff.

Read more about police training:

Ohio moves toward tougher police training standards

Ohios police use-of-force training standards should be more rigorous, task force concludes
More than one person probably killed a pregnant woman whose body was found in a cemetery, authorities say.

Valerie Benavidez, 26, of Cotulla apparently died from blunt force trauma to the head, LaSalle County Sheriff Robbie Thomas said Thursday.

Texas Rangers and the FBI are investigating the death of Benavidez and her unborn child as a capital murder case. An autopsy is pending.

Mourners at the Cristol Rey Cemetery in Cotulla found Benavidez's body Tuesday. She was about eight months pregnant, officials said.

Benavidez's boyfriend, Larry Laguna, and her father, Albert Benavidez, were charged with assault on a police officer Wednesday night. They allegedly hit a deputy who tried to break up a fight between the two men at Laguna's home in Cotulla, Thomas said.

___

Information from: San Antonio Express-News, http://www.mysanantonio.com
Rameswaram Island United Jamath on Sunday organised a protest rally against Citizenship Amendment Act near Pamban Akkalmadam in Rameswaram.

Spearheaded by Island United Jamat President, I.H.B Rabbani various political parties and communities gathered in large numbers for the rally.

Speaking to ANI, Rabbani said on Saturday talked about three demands for which they were protesting.

"We have three demands which we are articulating through this rally. Take back NRC, NPR and CAA. Second, Kerala Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal, all have passed the resolution against it. We also want to condemn the same in Tamil Nadu," he said.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Kasib, a member of Pamban Muslim Jamat who participated in today's rally in Rameswaram told ANI: "We've witnessed cyclones and many other natural calamities which caused us much hardship. We lost our certificates and belongings. We were uprooted. From where do we get our certificates?"

Participants at the rally also expressed their condemnation of the February 14 incident during a rally in Chennai where protestors were trashed and lathi-charged.

Island United Jamat President, Rabbani said: "We want immediate stringent action against those who thrashed, lathi-charged the protestors at Tambaram in Chennai," he added.

On the evening of February, 14 police had detained over 100 protesters following a scuffle during a demonstration against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and Register of Citizens (NRC).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Love Island will not air on Sunday night following the death of its former presenter Caroline Flack, but the current series will continue.

Flack was found dead at the age of 40 at her home in east London on Saturday, after taking her own life.

Saturday nights highlights edition of the ITV2 dating show was pulled, and there has been speculation about whether the rest of the series would air.

It has now been confirmed that although it will not be on tonight, Love Island will be back on Monday, with a tribute to Flack.

Caroline Flack (Ian West/PA)

An ITV spokesperson said: Many people at ITV knew Caroline well and held her in great affection.

All of us are absolutely devastated at this tragic news.

After careful consultation between Carolines representatives and the Love Island production team and given how close we still are to the news of Carolines tragic death we have decided not to broadcast tonights Love Island out of respect for Carolines family.

Love Island will return tomorrow night which will include a tribute to Caroline who will be forever in our hearts.

Video of the Day

Flacks family confirmed that she died on Saturday, adding in a statement: We would ask that the press respect the privacy of the family at this difficult time and we would ask they make no attempt to contact us and/or photograph us.

Ambulance crews were called on Friday night to a property in the street in Clapton, north east London, where Flack was thought to have recently moved but a London Ambulance Service spokesman refused to confirm or deny reports the paramedics attended her flat.

An LAS statement said: We were called shortly after 10.30pm on 14 February to a residential property on Northwold Road, N16.

Crews attended and, following a clinical assessment, the person was not taken to hospital. Due to patient confidentiality we cannot comment further.

The LAS also said crews were called to Northwold Road at 2.30pm on Saturday, adding that a person was pronounced dead at the scene, but would not comment on whether the two incidents were linked.

The shock news prompted a flood of tributes from celebrities but also questions about the decision to press ahead with prosecuting Flack for her alleged assault on boyfriend Lewis Burton, as well as the pressures faced by TV celebrities from the press and social media.

Flack, who was described as vulnerable by her management, stepped down from presenting the current winter series of Love Island after she was alleged to have assaulted Burton at her then-flat in Islington, north London, in December.

She entered a not guilty plea to the assault charge at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court and was released on bail, with conditions that stopped her having contact with her boyfriend ahead of a trial in March.

Her management company criticised the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for pressing ahead with what it called her show trial even after her boyfriend said he did not support it.

By Sunday evening, an online petition calling for a Government inquiry into the practices and policies of mainstream media organisations and social media platforms in their efforts to protect members of the public from harm had more than 200,000 signatures.

The tragedy has put the spotlight back on the pressures which come with TV celebrity.

Flack is the fourth person linked to the ITV2 dating programme to have killed themselves.

Sophie Gradon, who was a contestant in 2016, was found dead at her home in 2018 at the age of 32.

Her boyfriend Aaron Armstrong, who had found her body, killed himself three weeks later. He was 25.

Mike Thalassitis, who appeared in the 2017 series, was 26 when he was found dead in a park in March last year.

Tributes to Flack poured in after her death, with Burton saying that his heart is broken.

He said in an emotional message on Instagram that he would now be Flacks voice and would get all the answers.

Beside a picture of them together, he wrote: My heart is broken we had something so special.

I am so lost for words I am in so much pain I miss you so much I know you felt safe with me you always said I dont think about anything else when I am with you and I was not allowed to be there this time I kept asking and asking.

Burton, 27, added: I will be your voice baby I promise I will ask all the questions you wanted and I will get all the answers nothing will bring you back but I will try make you proud everyday.

I love you with all my heart.

Im trying to find the words but I cant  pic.twitter.com/FY3ppLzqsA  Laura Whitmore  (@thewhitmore) February 15, 2020

Flacks former X Factor colleague Dermot OLeary said he had candles lit in her memory, and her Love Island colleague Iain Stirling, the programmes narrator, shared a video of Flack from a performance on Strictly Come Dancing in 2014 and wrote: Today my friend slow motion walked into heaven. I will miss her always. Thank you for everything x.

Laura Whitmore, who replaced Flack as Love Island host for the latest series, tweeted Im trying to find the words but I cant, followed by a broken heart emoji.
(Natural News) Is there really good cholesterol and bad cholesterol? The medical community has branded low density lipoprotein, or LDL, cholesterol bad because high levels are linked to plaque buildup in the arteries, heart disease, and risk of ischemic stroke.

However, a new study from Penn State University argues that LDL cholesterol is necessary in moderate amounts. LDL cholesterol is not altogether bad because the right balance of this waxy fat-like substance is needed in order for the body to make hormones, produce vitamin D, and produce the metabolites that aid in digestion.

Forcing LDL cholesterol levels too low can have deadly consequences

The Penn State study shows that low LDL cholesterol levels may actually be dangerous and lead to an increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke. This is when a blood vessel bursts in the brain.

Lead author Dr. Xiang Gao, an associate professor of nutritional science at Penn State wrote, As is true with many things in nutrition, moderation and balance is key when deciding the optimal target level of LDL cholesterol. You cant go to either extreme  too high or too low.

Doctors typically recommend that patients get their LDL cholesterol levels below 100 milligrams per deciliter. Patients at high risk of heart problems are often put on cholesterol lowering drugs to ensure their levels stay below 70 milligrams per deciliter. But, pushing the LDL level too low may increase ones risk of hemorrhaging stroke by 65%.

The study involved roughly 96,000 participants from Tangshan, China. None of the participants had a family history of heart attack, cancer or stroke. Doctors measured the participants cholesterol levels every year for nine years. During the nine year period, there were 753 cases of hemorrhagic stroke, representing less than one percent of the population.

Taking a closer look, hemorrhagic stroke was 65% more likely for participants whose LDL cholesterol levels were below 70 mg/dL, compared to LDL levels between 70 and 99 mg/dL. Hemorrhagic stroke was even more prominent for participants with LDL cholesterol levels below 50 mg/dL. These people were twice as likely to suffer from a burst blood vessel in the brain.

Because cholesterol is important in the formation of cell membranes, when levels get low, red blood cells become weaker. Red blood cells, suffering from a shortage of cholesterol, are more likely to rupture. Because LDL cholesterol helps blood clot, low LDL levels increase bleeding risk. This is a dangerous formula that can lead to hemorrhagic stroke and brain bleeds.

Statin therapy could increase hemorrhagic stroke risk in healthy patients

Statin therapy is commonly used to lower LDL cholesterol, lessen plaque buildup in arteries and prevent ischemic stroke, but doctors should monitor patients to make sure that their cholesterol levels are not too low.

Multiple randomized clinical trials tell us that statin therapy can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes by 25% to 50%, even among individuals with normal or low cholesterol, says Dr. Ridker, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Womens Hospital.

Dr. Ridker is referencing a study published in The Lancet, which included 174,000 people and determined that their risk of cardiovascular events can be reduced by 20 percent over a five year period if a statin is used to lower their cholesterol by 40 mg/dL.

On top of statins other side effects  like muscle wasting, cognitive decline, diabetes, rapid aging, and mitochondrial dysfunction  doctors should be wary of this newly discovered risk. If medicating LDL levels down 40mg/dL means the patients level fall below 75 mg/dL, they could be nearly twice as likely to suffer from an unnecessary cardiovascular event called hemorrhagic stroke.

For more on this topic visit Statins.News.

Sources include:

LiveScience.com

Health.Harvard.edu

NaturalNews.com
CHICAGO, Feb. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- LotLinx, the auto industry's leading VIN Demand Platform, announced today its recognition in the 2020 Automotive Website Awards. PCG Companies' Brian Pasch founded the AWAs in 2008 to recognize the best vendors in automotive digital marketing. Since then, they have become a benchmark in the automotive industry for innovative products in technology, design, search marketing, and social media.

Through an extensive process, experts at PCG review, research, and rate the leading products for dealers to incorporate into their process or showroom. This year, LotLinx was proud to accept the NextGen Leader award in Marketing Automation in addition to the prestigious Vanguard award for their proprietary /AI/ product suite, LotLinx TURN.

In an effort to recognize innovative thinking, PCG created the Vanguard award. Brian Pasch, CEO and Founder of PCG Companies explains, "When you examine the definition of a Vanguard, I think you will agree that it's very appropriate: A group of people leading the way and at the forefront of new development or ideas."

"PCG's thorough review and research is a testament that those recognized in the AWAs are truly the best solutions for dealers to incorporate into their business. It's an honor to accept both the Vanguard and NextGen Leader awards," noted Len Short, LotLinx Chairman and CEO.

The AWAs took place the night prior to the start of the National Automotive Dealers Association Convention (NADA) where LotLinx will be exhibiting at Booth #3394C. The Wynn hosted the award show which presented dozens of awards to the best website and technology products on the market for car dealers, with over 150 industry leaders in attendance.

About LotLinx:

LotLinx is the automotive industry leader in VIN demand /AI/ technologies. Founded in 2012 and based out of Chicago, IL LotLinx provides a VIN Demand Platform that enables precision retailing via patented data science and /AI/ technologies. The company has been awarded the No. 1 spot on Crain's Chicago Business' 2018 Fast 50 list, annual recognition on the Auto Remarketing Power 300 list, several Automotive Website Awards (AWAs), and a spot on 2019's Most Promising Automotive Technology Solutions list by CIO Review. LotLinx is committed to providing unparalleled technology to the direct benefit of the dealerships they serve. To learn more about LotLinx, please visit www.lotlinx.com .

Media Contact:

Mary McDonnell

[email protected]

200 W Madison Street, Chicago, IL 60606

SOURCE LotLinx

Related Links

https://www.lotlinx.com


(Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.

Googles 2.4 billion-euro ($2.6 billion) fine is a small amount of cash to the search-engine giant, according to a European Union judge, who also raised the prospect of increasing the antitrust penalty that the company is seeking to overturn.

Colm Mac Eochaidhs persistent questioning of Googles representatives during the third day of a hearing at the EUs General Court caused lawyers to scramble through papers seeking a response when he told them the tribunal had the right to increase the 2017 fine, then the highest the EU had ever levied for antitrust abuse. The Irish judge is one of five justices who will rule in the coming months on whether Google unfairly discriminated against smaller shopping rivals.

Did that level of fine deter you from repeating the behavior? Mac Eochaidh asked before wondering how might it be justified to increase or alter the fine. He suggested that the penalty meant little to Google since it was only a small amount of your cash in hand, so not actually that eye-catching in the light of day.

Google hadnt bargained for a potentially bigger fine when it attacked the EUs antitrust findings during the hearing. Officials from the U.S. Department of Justice, EU investigators and company executives were in the Luxembourg court to hear Google argue that regulators had overreached and made crucial errors. The case is the first of three lawsuits against EU antitrust decisions and a loss for the EU could halt its tough enforcement of big tech firms.

When Googles attorney Christopher Thomas said there could be no increase in the fine because EU regulators hadnt asked for one, Mac Eochaidh immediately contradicted him. The EUs second highest-court has unlimited jurisdiction to increase the fine even if the issue hasnt been explored, he said.

The senior judge on the panel, Stephane Gervasoni, stopped his Irish colleague, asking if his questioning was theoretical or if there were actual reasons to increase the fine. Its rare for one judge to question another. Judges appeared to move away from the possibility of a higher penalty in the case, stressing that any such move would need additional legal analysis and the opportunity for Google to give its views.

Story continues

It isnt the first time Mac Eochaidh has needled Google during the three days of hearings on the appeal. On Thursday, he said it was perfectly apparent that the company had promoted its own services and demoted others -- a key point for the EU side.

On Friday, Mac Eochaidh urged Googles lawyer to imagine he had savings of 120 euros in his back pocket but was fined 2.4 euros for dropping some litter.

Would you miss the 2.4 euros? the judge asked.

(Updates with judges questioning in third paragraph)

To contact the reporters on this story: Aoife White in Luxembourg at awhite62@bloomberg.net;Stephanie Bodoni in Luxembourg at sbodoni@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider, Anthony Lin

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

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Former Vice President Joe Biden delivered a fiery speech at the Clark County Democratic Party gala a week before the Nevada presidential preference caucuses as he drew sharp distinctions with Bernie Sanders on guns and healthcare.

Biden didn't call Sanders' name Saturday night as he stood in a casino ballroom and recalled the worst mass shooting in modern American history that occurred several hundred yards away in 2017.

Then the former vice president alluded to the Sanders' Senate vote for a 2005 law that gave gun manufacturers immunity from civil lawsuits related to gun violence.

It's a horrible, horrible decision, Biden said, asking the audience to imagine Big Tobacco having legal immunity. He recalled meeting parents of children killed in school shootings. I will not rest until they're able to sue the gun manufacturers, he said.

Biden later turned to health care. Again without naming Sanders, Biden repeated a recent argument from the power Culinary Union that a single-payer Medicare for All system would eliminate union members' health coverage won through collective bargaining. Biden touted his idea to add a public option to existing health insurance markets.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders laced into billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a Democratic Party dinner in Las Vegas.

Sanders rattled off a list of Bloomberg heresies against the Democratic party -- implementing racist policies like stop and frisk in New York, opposing the minimum wage or higher taxes on the wealthy during the Obama administration.

"The simple truth is that mayor Bloomberg with all his money will not create the kind of excitement and energy we need to have the voter turnout we must have to defeat Donald Trump, Sanders said.

It was a rare attack by name from Sanders. Bloomberg is skipping the Nevada caucuses and was not at the Clark County Democratic Party dinner where Sanders and other 2020 contenders spoke.

Some Nevada Democrats who made Bernie Sanders their first choice in the state's early caucus voting say they think he has a better chance of being elected president now than he did in 2016.

Solana Kline of Reno says she supported Sanders last time too, but didn't think he could win so she opted for Hillary Clinton because she was more mainstream. Kline says the whole political climate has changed since then and Sanders vs. Donald Trump would be viewed more as good vs. evil.

Clinton carried Nevada in 2016, but Sanders won in Washoe County, which includes Reno and Sparks.

Brian Feeney says Sanders has more support and is better positioned to win this time around. The 42-year-old behavioral analyst who works with children with autism at the University of Nevada, Reno says he may consider the Green Party candidate if Sanders isn't the Democratic nominee.

Margaret Hines of Reno also backed Clinton in 2016 but says Sanders is inspiring voters to take back their power from leaders in Washington. She doesn't think vanilla is going to do it this time.

Paul Kiser is among the Nevadans who had the candidates' electability on their minds when they cast their early ballots Saturday ahead of the Feb. 22 presidential caucus.

The 62-year-old retiree from Reno says he settled on Pete Buttigieg because he's progressive but "reasonable. Kiser backed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and plans to support the candidate who wins the Democratic nomination.

But he isn't sure Bernie Sanders appeals to a broad enough spectrum of voters to beat President Trump and doesn't think Elizabeth Warren has proven she's viable. He says Joe Biden represents too much of the party's old guard.

Randall Chicola says it came down to a coin flip when he listed Sanders first and Warren second. The 33-year-old graduate student at the University of Nevada, Reno says those who dismiss the progressives ignore the fact that a right-wing extremist is president.

Chicola says Republicans don't bat an eye at spending $1 trillion on tax cuts, but claim that spending money on health care or lowering student debt is extreme.

A number of early-caucus voters in northern Nevada said health care was their top priority when they decided which Democrat to put on the top of their ballot.

Lindsy Judd says her family currently has no health insurance because it's too expensive. She was among several voters who told The Associated Press on Saturday they made Bernie Sanders their first pick and Elizabeth Warren second.

Judd says the candidate who wins the Democratic nomination will get her vote in November. And she says she understands why some Democrats believe the party is better off with more of a mainstream nominee.

But the 33-year-old who lives in a valley north of Reno says she needed to cast her ballot for someone who is serious about tackling the cost of health insurance, which she says rivals her housing costs.

Jennifer Cole, a 48-year-old librarian from Reno, listed health care and housing as her two top issues when she settled on Warren as her favorite. She put Pete Buttigieg second and Amy Klobuchar third on her ballot.

Early caucus-goers in Nevada waited more than an hour in line outside an AFL-CIO union office precinct site in a Las Vegas suburb on Saturday for their chance to fill in paper ballots for a Democratic challenger to President Donald Trump.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The incident occurred when workers at a construction site set fire to some bushes to clear the place. (Photo: Representational/ Pexels)

Hyderabad: Four puppies were burnt to death and two others survived with burns at Suryanagar, Sainikpuri, on Saturday.

The incident occurred when workers at a construction site set fire to some bushes to clear the place.

The puppies were hiding in the bushes which was apparently not noticed by the workers.

According to Arun, a resident in the area, it was only when some of the puppies caught fire and ran out yelping in pain that they were noticed.

Many of us ran out to see what the noise was about but their mother would not let anyone get close to them. But she managed to rescue two of her pups, he said.

Compassionate Society for Animals representative Nagam Pravalika said, it is a heart-breaking incident. Although they say they were not aware that the pups are inside the bushes, the workers should have checked.
Parliamentary opponents of a hard Brexit have not given up hope that Boris Johnson will eventually sign up for a trade deal with close alignment with the EU, one Remain-backing former cabinet minister has told The Independent.

The 80-seat Conservative majority in Decembers election has led to a marked hardening in the UKs stance on trade talks, with the prime minister declaring that he believes Britain will prosper in a no-deal Brexit  which he now refers to as an Australian-style settlement  and ditching ambitions for frictionless trade with the remaining EU.

But the ex-minister said that many in parliament expect him to back down as the reality of no deal approaches at the end of 2020, setting the scene for a do-or-die decision for Mr Johnson between inflicting serious harm on the economy or splitting his party.

With the economic shock of departure without a trade deal likely to ramp up pressure for Scottish independence and Irish reunification  and with emboldened Eurosceptics on his own side pushing for the hardest possible Brexit  Mr Johnson may have to rely on opposition votes to land a softer deal if he wants to avoid going down in history as the PM who crashed the economy and broke up the union, said the ex-minister.

And the experience of last October, when Mr Johnson abandoned his DUP allies and accepted EU demands for a customs border down the Irish Sea in order to salvage his divorce deal, suggests he may do the same again, the ex-minister suggested.

Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Show all 66 1 /66 Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A message projected onto the White Cliffs of Dover Sky News/AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Big Ben, shows the hands at eleven o'clock at night AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Nigel Farage speaks to pro-Brexit supporters PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-Brexit demonstrators celebrate on Parliament Square REUTERS Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU The Union flag is taken down outside the European Parliament in Brussels PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU campaigners outside the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A pro-Brexit supporter jumps on an EU flag in Parliament Square PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU EU Council staff removed the Union Jack-British flag from the European Council in Brussels, Belgium EPA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A pro-Brexit supporter pours beer onto an EU flag PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pedestrians pass in front of the Ministry of Defence Building on Whitehall, illuminated by red, white and blue lights in central London AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A Brexit supporter shouts during a rally in London AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU campaigners outside the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU campaigners take part in a 'Missing EU Already' rally outside the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A large pro-EU banner is projected onto Ramsgate cliff in Kent PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU supporters light candles in Smith Square in Westminster PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man waves Union flags from a small car as he drives past Brexit supporters gathering in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU The five-year old Elisa Saemann, left, and her seven-year old sister Katie hold a placard during a rally by anti-Brexit protesters outside the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Europe supporters gather on Brexit day near the British embassy in Berlin, Germany EPA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Anti-Brexit protester hugs a man while holding a placard REUTERS Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A decorated, old fashioned fire pump in Parliament Square PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit Elvis impersonator performs at Parliament Square Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU An anti-Brexiteers stands with his dog in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Paddy from Bournemouth wears Union colours as he sits next to an EU flag decorated bag in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A pro-EU activist plays a guitar decorated with the EU flag during a protest organised by civil rights group New Europeans outside Europe House, central London AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU People celebrate Britain leaving the EU REUTERS Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A Pro Brexit supporter has a Union Jack painted onto his face at Parliament Square Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Men hold placards celebrating Britain leaving the EU REUTERS Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit supporters dance in the street draped with Union Jack flags at Parliament Square Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU An anti-Brexit demonstrator spreads his wings during a gathering near Downing Street AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro EU supporters display a banner ' Here to Stay, Here to Fight, Migrants In, Tories Out' from Westminster bridge EPA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-Brexit supporters burn European Union flags at Parliament Square Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man poses for a picture on Parliament Square in a 'Brexit Day' t-shirt Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU People celebrate Britain leaving the EU Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man wears a pro-Brexit t-shirt Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Anti-Brexit demonstrators visit Europe House to give flowers to the staff on Brexit day Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit supporter wears a novelty Union Jack top hat outside the Houses of Parliament Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Customers Scott Jones and Laura Jones at the Sawmill Bar in South Elmsall, Yorkshire, where a Brexit party is being held throughout the day PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU activists protest Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A pro-Brexit demonstrator burns a European Union flag AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit supporters Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro Brexit supporters Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A Brexit supports holds a sign in Parliament Square AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man carries an EU themed wreath Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Ann Widdecombe reacts with other members of the Brexit party as they leave en masse from the European Parliament PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Anti-Brexit demonstrators in Parliament Square PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro EU supporters let off flares from Westminster Bridge Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU British MEPs Jonathan Bullock, holding the Union Jack flag and Jake Pugh leave the European Parliament, in Brussels on the Brexit day AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Newspapers and other souvenirs at a store, near Parliament Square Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Brexit supporters hold signs in Parliament Square AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU protesters hold placards in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU French newspapers PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald with a Border Communities Against Brexit poster before its unveiling in Carrickcarnon on the Irish border PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU National growers organisation British Apples & Pears has renamed a British apple to EOS, the Greek goddess of dawn, to commemorate Brexit day AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU protesters hold placards in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Britain's departure from the European Union was set in law on January 29, amid emotional scenes, as the bloc's parliament voted to ratify the divorce papers. After half a century of membership and three years of tense withdrawal talks, the UK will leave the EU at midnight Brussels time (23.00 GMT) on January 31 Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man poses with paintings on Parliament Square Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU People sporting Union Flags gather in Parliament Square Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man walks with a St. George's flag at Westminster bridge on Brexit day Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A British bulldog toy and other souvenirs at a souvenir store Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU British pro-brexit Members of the European Parliament leave the EU Parliament for the last time Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Jonathan Bullock waves the Union Jack as he leaves the European Parliament EPA

Despite everything, I think that close alignment is still the most likely outcome of this, said the MP. If theres a deal to be had with Brussels, it will be a deal with alignment on all sorts of things  social, environmental, workplace protections.

That agreement is there to be had and the alternative is no deal. There isnt a deal on offer that will give the UK easy access to the single market with no alignment. The question is which way does Boris jump?

Ive no doubt the prime minister will huff and puff right up to the wire about being ready to go for no deal, but just like last year he will be ready to fold at the last minute.

Treasury forecasts from 2018 put the damage to the UK economy from Theresa Mays softer Brexit deal, which accepted a degree of alignment with Brussels rules as a means to achieve as close to frictionless trade as possible, at 3.9 per cent of GDP over 15 years. By contrast, a no-deal Brexit could hit the economy by as much as 9.3 per cent over the same period, compared to the outcome from remaining in the EU.

The government is yet to update these predictions, which the ex-minister said suggested it was aware that they remain valid.

Already hauliers and businesses dependent on imports and exports are raising concerns about the prospect of increased red tape under Mr Johnsons preferred Canada-style free-trade agreement and tariffs and other barriers to commerce under an Australian-style no deal.

Meanwhile, the purported advantages of freedom from level playing field alignment with Europe appear to be fading, as the prospect of a US trade deal becomes more remote due to differences with Washington over US corporations access to the NHS, public health restrictions on foods like chlorinated chicken and the PMs decision to allow Huawei a role in the UKs 5G telecoms network.

These factors are likely to translate into intense pressure from business for the PM to sign a free trade agreement of some sort as the clock clicks down to 31 December.

But just as Ms May was blocked from getting her deal through by rebels from the Tory European Research Group, the ex-minister forecast that backbench Eurosceptics will baulk at supporting any agreement which limits the UKs scope to decide its own rules and regulations.

Their numbers have been bolstered by the large influx of new Tory MPs from formerly Labour Leave-voting seats in the midlands and the north, who regard their instructions from their constituents to be to get Brexit done in the cleanest way possible.

And the stock of potential ringleaders for a eurosceptic rebellion has been dramatically increased by this weeks reshuffle, which saw hard Brexit figureheads like Andrea Leadsom, Esther McVey and Theresa Villiers thrown out of the government.

Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen have until 31 December to reach an agreement (EPA)

Yes, hes got an 80-seat majority, but he only needs 40 of the ERG to decide that he is selling out British sovereignty and suddenly hes relying on opposition votes, said the ex-minister.

There were plenty more than 40 ready to vote against Theresa Mays deal, and the election result and Brexit day itself have emboldened them. They feel like theyve got Brexit under their belt and now they want more.

Added to them are the new Tories from the north, who are a lot more pro-Brexit than earlier generations of Conservative MPs. Theyre going back to their seats and going to the working mens clubs where people are solidly Brexit and just want to see an end to immigration and arent too fussed about the economics of it. And they have Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party breathing down their necks.

Warning that the prime ministers actions since the election have painted him into a corner as his self-imposed 31 December deadline for a deal grows nearer, the ex-minister said: The question really is whether Boris prefers to wreck the economy by going along with his backbenchers and going for no deal  or the Australia option as hes now calling it  with all the disruption to trade and price hikes and business closures and job losses that would mean, not to mention going down in history as the Tory PM who broke up the union.

Or whether he prefers to be the Tory PM who split the Conservatives and got a deal with Brussels through on the back of opposition votes.

He seems to be sitting pretty now, but I think thats the outcome hes faced with.

And hes painting himself into a corner now with all this defiant rhetoric about the UK breaking away from the bonds of Europe and sailing off to blaze a trail around the world. The Brexit wing of his party love that stuff. It fires them up and it will be difficult for him to rein them in and persuade them that sticking with the trade links we already have and maintaining them is the better option.

Ironically, the ex-minister said, if Mr Johnson does decide to go for a deal with some sort of level playing field on regulations, the UKs departure from the EU on 31 January will make it easier for him to win the support of Remain-backing opposition MPs, who no longer have the dream of blocking Brexit to hold onto.

If he goes for a deal, most of the opposition will be ready to back him rather than risk no deal, because the option of revoke just isnt there any more, said the ex-minister. Its deal or no deal now, not deal or no Brexit, and that changes the calculations. In the end, itll be Boriss choice, therell be a majority there for a deal, but his party may never forgive him for it.
London: In a rare personal interview, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, has spoken about how she learnt hypnobirthing to cope with the severe morning sickness of pregnancy, saying the techniques helped her "actually really quite like" labour.

The mother of three said she found the meditation and breathing techniques "hugely helpful", as she navigated pregnancy and birth.

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, speaks to users of the Social Bite cafe, during a visit to Aberdeen, to meet with locals for her Early Childhood survey last week. Credit:Getty Images

In an unprecedented insight into the future queen's personal life, she also spoke of the "mum guilt" she has in common with women across the world as she balances work and parenting, her morning sickness and Prince William's practice runs strapping a doll into a car seat before he did it in front of the cameras with a baby Prince George.

It is the first time Catherine has spoken so openly about her own life, and comes as part of a landmark project to boost children's early years development. She was interviewed on the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast, hosted by Giovanna Fletcher, and hopes to encourage others to share their struggles to spark a nationwide conversation about how to bring up a happy, healthy next generation.
The celebratory message was sent by the presidents media aide, Shehu Garba on Saturday. In his message, President Buhari said that although the governors entry into public service was accidental, his contributions so far to the growth of the nation have been well-thought-of and strategic.
People inspect purported plane crash site in, said to be, Al-Jawf, Yemen on, said to be, February 15, 2020 in this still image taken from a video. Houthi Media Centre/via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. MANDATORY CREDIT

Air strikes have killed more than 30 civilians in a mountainous province of northern Yemeni, the UN humanitarian chief for the country said, calling the attack "shocking".

The Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis, accused the Saudi-led coalition of launching retaliatory air strikes after they shot down a coalition warplane over the province of Jawf.

Saudi Arabia's state-run news agency quoted Col Turki al-Maliki, a spokesman for the coalition, as saying it was investigating "possible collateral damage" from a rescue operation in the area after the downing of the Tornado warplane late on Friday.

Col al-Maliki said the plane was providing air support for Yemeni government forces fighting the Houthis.

He said the two-pilot crew of the Tornado managed to eject safely before the crash, claiming that the Houthis opened fire on them. He said the Houthis were responsible for the pilots' "life and safety"..

He did not say whether there were causalities or provide further details.

The UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Lise Grande, said the "terrible strikes" in al-Maslub district killed at least 31 civilians and wounded 12 others, according to preliminary field reports.

"So many people are being killed in Yemen - it's a tragedy and it's unjustified. Five years into this conflict and belligerents are still failing to uphold this responsibility," she said.

"It's shocking."

She said many wounded people were taken to hospitals in Jawf and Yemen's capital, Sanaa.

Youssef al-Hadri, spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry, said the air strikes killed at least 32 people including women and children.

The Iranian-backed rebels released graphic images showing a destroyed building and vehicles, as well as bodies described the attack's victims. They also released footage allegedly showing the downing of the Saudi aircraft and its wreckage.

Humanitarian group Save The Children condemned the air strike, saying it showed that the conflict in Yemen was "not slowing down".

"This latest attack must be urgently and independently investigated, and perpetrators held to account," said Xavier Joubert, the charity's country director in Yemen.

He called for halting arms sales to the warring parties in Yemen's conflict.

"Those who continue to sell arms to the warring parties must realise that by supplying weapons for this war, they contribute to making atrocities like today's all too common," Mr Joubert said.
(Image credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

On Feb. 15, 2020, a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket launched into space carrying the Cygnus NG-13 cargo ship, called the S.S. Robert H. Lawrence, to the International Space Station.

The mission lifted off from Pad-0A of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia to deliver more than deliver more than 7,500 lbs. (3,400 kilograms) of science experiments, supplies and other vital gear to the station's Expedition 62 crew.

See how Northrop Grumman launched the mission (as well as prepared for the flight) in this photo gallery here. Just click the arrows to see the next photo!



Related: Northrop Grumman launches Cygnus NG-13 cargo ship to ISS for NASA

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Linkedin Ruslan Sangadji (The Jakarta Post) Palu  Sun, February 16, 2020 17:03 695 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2064dd3c6 1 National Matt-Wright,Chris-Wilson,crocodile,BKSDA,Palu,central-sulawesi,Australia,Indonesia-Australia Free

After five days of engaging in a cat-and-mouse game with a crocodile in Central Sulawesi to no avail, Australian crocodile observer Chris Wilson  who had assisted in local rescue efforts alongside fellow expert Matthew Nicolas Wright  decided to bow out and return to his home country on Saturday.

The crocodile, regularly spotted swimming in the Palu River, has had a used motorcycle tire stuck around its neck for years and has foiled repeated attempts to remove the tire, including a recent rescue contest held by the Central Sulawesi Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA Central Sulawesi).

Wilson wrote on his official Instagram page @willow_nt that his adventure in Central Sulawesi had come to an end and expressed hope that his colleague Wright would liberate the crocodile from its rubber shackles in the next few days.

My adventure in Palu has come to an end! Absolutely devastated Im not going to be here when Matty [Wright] finals [sic] gets him under control! he wrote in the post, which came with video footage of himself explaining the difficulties he faced on Saturday night.

He said he and other members of the rescue team, including Wright, had spent the entire day tracking the animal over 7 kilometers on foot.

Had a couple of close chances but once again the crowds, the high flowing water, full moon, and many other factors working against us! he wrote.

Wilson left Palu at 9 a.m. local time for Jakarta, from where he would catch a flight back to Australia.

Read also: We are up to plan D or E: Australian rescuers still have no luck catching crocodile

Chris had returned to his home country this morning, but Matt will remain in Palu for the next four days, BKSDA Central Sulawesi wildlife rescue team leader Haruna said.

He said the agency would continue local rescue efforts even after Wright returned to Australia.

We will keep using harpoons. Members of our team trained with Matt using harpoons yesterday. I hope our team will be able to put the knowledge to practice and work properly without Matts assistance, Haruna said.

Wright himself said in an Instagram post that everything was going well but that the BKSDA team had exhausted its funds.

Ive started a GoFundMe page, if you can jump on that, donate a bit of money, give these guys a bit of leg-up, and keep this operation rolling, he said. Im only going to be here for another couple of days. Now if we catch him, we catch him. If not, its going to be an ongoing process.

Wilson and Wright previously joined BKSDA Central Sulawesi to assist in the rescue of the crocodile. The participation of the two Australians is based on a decree issued by the Environment and Forestry Ministry on Monday to BKSDA Central Sulawesi, into whose operational control the crocodile rescue team has been entrusted.

Wilson and Wright had worked extensively with the agency in employing various tricks to attract the crocodiles attention over the past five days  the latest of which entailed tying a live duck onto a drone and having it hover over the crocodile on Friday. The effort failed, however, as the crocodile ignored the bait and swam away, disappearing without a trace for a several hours.

Wright tried to rescue the animal again using a harpoon, this time without Wilsons help, alongside BKSDA Central Sulawesi personnel in the early hours of Sunday. His harpoon had caught on the crocodiles hardened hide, but the animal eventually managed to shake it off.

The team kept trying to catch the crocodile with harpoons until the animal disappeared again at dawn. The word tired is not in our vocabulary. We will track it down again, Wright said. (rfa)
While Democrats in Iowa were still counting their votes from last weeks caucuses, voters in the Granite State went to the polls.

The 100th anniversary of their first in the nation primary produced the second consecutive win for Bernie Sanders. Although Sanders won the New Hampshire primary, it was by a dramatically decreased margin from his historic win over Hillary Clinton four years ago.

Sanders took roughly 25 percent of the vote, the lowest percentage for a winning candidate in New Hampshires storied history. He won about 60 percent in 2016.

Sanders second consecutive victory has many Democrats hitting the panic button over the prospects of having an avowed socialist (hes said he doesnt mind being called a Communist) at the top of their ticket against President Trump this fall.

They have reason to fret. Sanders has assembled a strong team and a passionate following. He believes what he says and his authenticity translates. Hes bragged about the fact that he has led the Democrat Party far to the left in just a few short years.

Hes right about that.

There are not many true moderate Democrats left in the elected ranks of the national party. There arent any in the top tier of presidential contenders.

Those labeled as centrist by the media are only that by comparison to Sanders, Warren and the very far left of the American political spectrum.

Pete Buttigieg, who finished second in both Iowa and New Hampshire, is the failed ex-mayor of a small city in Indiana. Hes tried to cast himself as a moderate but only after trying the far left lane and finding it was already full.

Amy Klobuchar, who had a good night in New Hampshire following an excellent night in their pre-primary debate, is also trying to cast herself as heir to the moderate wing now that Joe Bidens campaign is in free fall.

Klobuchars record is as a traditional liberal/progressive, though, not as a moderate who often reaches across the aisle. She was, at least, the ONLY Democrat to raise her hand when asked if any would be concerned over having a socialist at the top of the ticket this year. That undoubtedly won her some points among Democrats of the JFK and FDR mold.

Joe Bidens campaign is collapsing like a bad souffle. His dismal performance in Iowa was punctuated by his announcement during the debate that he would not do well in New Hampshire either. So much for energizing your base.

Biden left the state before the polls closed. He ended up a distant fifth. No candidate has ever finished fourth or fifth in both Iowa and New Hampshire and gone on to win their partys nomination.

Biden hopes to change that in Nevada and South Carolina. Hes banking on the fact that both states have significant minority populations.

With roughly 20 percent of Nevadas voters being Latino and almost a third of South Carolinas being African American, hes correct about the math. Whether or not hes right about being able to hold their votes is another thing altogether.

Elizabeth Warren couldnt move Bernie Sanders out of the lead on the far left side off the track. She has the money necessary to hold on for the time being, but getting into March is a daunting prospect for her.

The concern among a growing number of Democrats over Bernie Sanders is only going to increase. Hes in it to stay and he has a lot of far left momentum. Only three Democrats, Jimmy Carter, John Kerry and Al Gore, have won both Iowa and New Hampshire. They all went on to win the nomination.

Of course delegates to the Democratic National Convention are the real test. Only a handful were elected in Iowa and New Hampshire. It will take 1,990 to win the nomination. Sanders hasnt even gotten 50 thus far.

That makes Super Tuesday, when big states like Texas and California hold their primaries, loom even larger than usual.

At stake will be the largest bloc of delegates to be elected. Waiting to try to capture them is former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Bloomberg spurned the early caucuses and primaries to concentrate his hundreds of millions of personal dollars on delegate rich Super Tuesday. Hes spent more on television advertising alone in a single week than other candidates have in months.

Bloombergs television ads are slick. He sparred no expense on the production values, either. Unfortunately for Bloomberg, most voters dont make their choices based on television advertising. That may be enough to get attention, but voters want to see more.

When they get a closer look at Mike Bloomberg, they may not like what they see. He has a reputation as a pretty unlikable guy. The rollout of his racist statements of just a few years ago isnt doing much to enhance his image.

The Republicans held a primary on Tuesday, too. President Trump got about 120,000 votes. Thats the highest vote total of any candidate for re-election as president. By comparison, Barack got about 50,000 when he ran for re-election.

There is enthusiasm and voter intensity in 2020. Its all flowing in President Trumps direction.
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Munich, Germany, Feb. 14, 2020. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)

"True gold can stand the test of fire," Wang Yi said. Emerging from this test, the Chinese people will become more resilient and united and the Chinese economy will achieve more solid and sustainable growth.

"Adversity reveals true friendship," he added. As China battles the disease together with the world, its friendship and trust with other countries will be strengthened and deepened.

BERLIN, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- China has won the respect and recognition of the international community with its efforts and even sacrifice in the fight against the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19), State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Friday in an interview with Reuters.

The sudden outbreak of the epidemic has indeed brought a grave challenge to China and the world, but the Chinese government and people have stood up to the challenge, Wang said.

Wang noted that after the outbreak, the Chinese government, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, immediately established a nationwide mechanism to mobilize resources from across the country.

China has taken the most comprehensive, stringent and thorough prevention and control measures, many of which are well beyond what is required by the International Health Regulations and the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), he said.

Medical workers help the first batch of patients infected with the novel coronavirus move into their isolation wards at Huoshenshan (Fire God Mountain) Hospital in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 4, 2020. (Photo by Fan Xianhai/Xinhua)

China's decisive response is both right and effective, and that by and large, the outbreak is controllable and the disease curable, Wang said, citing figures that as of Friday, the number of newly confirmed cases outside Hubei province has been declining for 11 consecutive days against a rapid rise in cure rate, and nearly 7,000 people have recovered and been discharged from hospital; the case fatality rate stood at around 2 percent across the country, and just 0.49 percent for regions outside Hubei.

China has, from the very beginning, acted in an open and transparent manner in reporting relevant information timely to the world and carrying out international cooperation, Wang noted.

To date, the number of confirmed cases outside China is less than one percent of the total, he said.

China has been not only doing its best to ensure the life, safety and health of the Chinese people, but also taking effective measures to stem a global spread of the epidemic, making contribution and sacrifice for global public health, said the minister.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks at a press conference after the WHO emergency committee's meeting on the novel coronavirus in China at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Jan. 22, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Qu)

WHO has on multiple occasions commended China for its responsible actions, speaking highly of China's decisive response and expressing confidence that China will overcome this epidemic, he said.

Heads of more than 160 countries and international organizations have showed their support through telegrams or letters, and the governments and peoples of several scores of countries have donated needed supplies, Wang said, expressing China's gratitude for these acts of kindness.

"True gold can stand the test of fire," Wang said, adding that emerging from this test, the Chinese people will become more resilient and united and the Chinese economy will achieve more solid and sustainable growth.

The Chinese people will continue to march confidently toward the goal of establishing a society of moderate prosperity in all respects and embark on a new journey of modernization, he said.

Photo taken on Feb. 14, 2020 shows a view of an activity showing support for China's fight against the novel coronavirus at a school in Ayutthaya province, Thailand. (Xinhua/Rachen Sageamsak)

"There's another Chinese saying -- 'Adversity reveals true friendship,'" Wang said, adding that as China battles the disease together with the world, its friendship and trust with other countries will be strengthened and deepened.

Countries will realize that they live in a global village, with their future interconnected like never before, he said.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

Ten minutes after she left her home for her daughters softball practice, the woman received a call from her 13-year-old son, who moments earlier had been on his phone, lying in bed.

He kept saying the gun went off, the distraught mother told police that August evening.

The teen had shot himself in the arm with his fathers 9 mm Ruger pistol.

He told police he grabbed the gun while cleaning his parents room and it fired, but the father  a local firefighter  said it wasnt loaded.

A holster loop attached to the boys belt led police to believe the teen was playing with it.

The incident was one of 37 accidental shootings reported in Albuquerque last year  a dramatic jump from the 14 recorded in 2018. The figure doesnt include three suspected accidental shootings in which someone died. Two of those cases have been handed over to the District Attorneys Office for a final determination and the third ended in prison time for a young man.

As for the numbers leading up to 2018, thats anyones guess.

So, the increase from 2018 to 2019 is real, said Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Gilbert Gallegos. We just dont know what the numbers were like before that.

Local gun shop owners say there has been an increase in the purchase of guns in the past year, especially over the internet. They describe many as first-time buyers who want the guns for protection due to the high crime in Albuquerque.

The rise in accidental shootings comes at a time when the topic of gun access and availability looms large in the eyes of local politicians and the community as a whole as homicide numbers in Albuquerque hit a record high last year. Local concerns have sparked initiatives aimed at stemming gun violence, such as the so-called red flag bill that is awaiting the governors signature.

Organizations pushing for stricter gun laws espouse gun safety and less availability to prevent accidental shootings while business owners who make a living off firearms say the answer lies in responsibility and education by owners.

Gallegos said the department started tracking gun statistics, including accidental shootings, more rigorously in 2019 as a response to an increase in gun violence. They eventually started going back to 2018 cases to have a comparison.

The results showed a drastic increase.

In 2019 cases, most people accidentally shot themselves. Several people shot someone else. A stray bullet struck an innocent child. Eight people were cleaning, un-holstering or unloading a gun at the time. Two people were either drunk or high. Three of the guns were stolen, one bought through the social media app Snapchat. Men were responsible for most of the shootings; only three women shot themselves.

Out of the dozens of accidental shootings, many resulted in hospital visits and, in some cases, jail stays. A few ended in death.

On April 2, 19-year-old Zachary Hammond was showing his friend Eric Apisa, also 19, a gun outside a West Side home when it went off, a bullet striking Apisa in the face. Apisa was taken off life support three days later. Hammond pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Five days after that shooting, 8-year-old Diamond Williams was fatally shot after being left alone with two other children in her Northeast Albuquerque home. More recently, on Nov. 8, 17-year-old Isaiah Martinez was killed after a suspected accidental shooting at a West Side home.

APD has not given any more details on either of those shootings, but Gallegos said both cases have been sent to the District Attorneys Office for review and possible prosecution.

APD provided the Journal with a list and short summary of most of the accidental shootings. Among the findings:

 Nearly two dozen happened in a home, apartment or hotel. Another 12 happened in a vehicle  a few of them while people were driving. Three of the shootings happened inside or outside a Calibers shooting range, at both locations, and one in the parking lot of the Cabelas outdoor recreation store.

 On May 22, an 18-year-old shot himself while sleeping with his rifle in his arms. His mother, who awoke to find her son shot in the stomach, told police she warned him multiple times to put the gun away before he fell asleep.

 On. Aug. 13, a man was handling a gun when it went off  the bullet going through an apartment wall and striking a woman next door in the hand. The man told police he was intoxicated at the time.

 The next day, a 4-year-old boy shot himself with his brothers gun at a Northwest Albuquerque home. APD has said that case involved a charge of child abuse but gave no other details and has not responded to requests for more information.

 The day after Christmas, a Las Vegas, New Mexico, man was messing with a clip he had just bought for a pistol in the Cabelas parking lot and, thinking the gun was unloaded, pulled the trigger, shooting himself in the foot.

Unsafe hands

Miranda Viscoli of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence called the 2019 tally shocking.

Thats a huge jump, she said. Those numbers going up like that are staggering. It points to a major problem we have coming  (one) telling us that guns are getting into unsafe hands.

Viscoli said her group has tables at various events where representatives hand out gun locks and safety manuals. The organization has also participated in several gun buybacks statewide  in places such as Santa Fe, Espanola and Taos  where they pay a hefty $200 to $250, depending on the type of gun.

But the group hasnt organized such an event in the largest city in the state, yet.

Mayor Kellers office is already planning another gun buyback this Spring, after last Julys event was very successful.

During that APD-sponsored event  funded with $30,000 by City Councilor Pat Davis using council-directed funds  the department received more than 400 guns and at least five of them were found to be stolen.

Viscoli said she believes APD should have buybacks on a regular basis and offer more than the $75 to $100 given and they may take more guns off the street.

Viscoli said easy accessibility to guns in the Albuquerque area is a big problem, noting that teens can find and buy a gun through Facebook or Snapchat in an hour or two.

Any kid in that city that wants to get a gun can get a hold of a gun, Viscoli said.

She maintains accidental shootings are a result of lack of securing guns and requirements or experience needed to buy a gun.

You can buy any gun you want and not have to have any training, she said. Its ridiculous. I can buy an AR-15 and walk around with it loaded and not have any training  thats insanity.

As for getting guns off the streets, Viscoli said that genies left the box after decades of what she called unchecked, no questions asked gun sales and despite any background check legislation.

Its going to take us a couple decades to catch up to the amount of guns that got out there, she said.

You cant fix stupid

Amid an uptick in sales  particularly over the internet  those in the business of selling firearms and teaching concealed carry courses say they urge responsibility to new owners, who often arm themselves in response to crime in Albuquerque.

Ron Peterson, owner of Ron Peterson Firearms, said around 20,000 guns are sold in the city every year  up to 10,000 from his store alone.

Arnie Gallegos, co-owner of ABQ Guns, said he saw a 5% increase in sales in 2019.

A lot of that is to new gun buyers  at least 75%  who believe the local government isnt doing anything to curb crime.

They feel they have to get a gun to protect themselves, he said. They dont feel the police (offer) adequate protection in Albuquerque.

Gallegos said he and his employees always try to teach gun safety and suggest training to buyers, most of whom are receptive. But not all.

Weve actually turned people away and told them were not going to sell you anything because maybe their attitude wasnt right, he said.

Mark Abramson, co-owner of Los Ranchos Gun Shop, said much of the rise is from online sales where guns are sold at cheaper prices and stores are left to compete.

It also leaves a lot of questions as to who is buying the guns.

A lot of people are going online now and we dont know their level of experience, he said. Im always hesitant for a first-time gun buyer  to have them go to the internet and pick one. They dont know how it feels, they dont know how it functions.

Abramson said employees can take the time to show buyers how the gun works, how to use it, clean it, maintain it  a service he says the internet seller is providing none of.

We want people to go get the education they need, the challenge is people are afraid right now, he said. Eighty-two murders is a lot. Cars getting stolen is really scary. Every time theres a carjacking people say, What would I do? What tools do I have to defend myself?'

Abramson said the rise in accidental shootings is disconcerting but the data needs more analysis to find out the cause and come to a solution  if one exists.

The fact is, theres a lot of guns in peoples hands and the incidents of these negligent discharges is going to be there, he said. You cant fix stupid.  If you put a child in danger, youre a jerk. And if youre handling a gun when youre drunk, thats a criminal discharge beyond negligence.

Abramson said there are three basic rules to follow:

 Never point a gun at anything you dont intend to destroy;

 Keep the gun unloaded until its ready to use;

 Keep your finger off the trigger.

People are in possession of guns, but you still have to be responsible for it, he said. A lot more people cut themselves than shoot themselves, but the consequences can be different.
Permian Basin oil companies are known for their joint ventures with other companies. But those partnerships are spreading beyond the industry to other areas, such as conservation work.

Joni Carswell, chief executive officer of Texan By Nature, the nonprofit founded in 2011 by former first lady Laura Bush, visited Midland last week to meet with local companies and discuss current and future conservation projects.

The focus has been on how to take care of Texas long-term, doing good for the land and helping the economy, she said.

Noting that the nonprofit already has more than 75 conservation partners, Carswell said that studies have found productivity rises 64 percent when tasks are undertaken by teams rather than by individuals.

Carswell described the organizations method of operation as an accelerator. She said many conservation groups dont have marketing or media capability, and Texan by Nature can assist with raising awareness and educational efforts.

The organizations conservation partners submit projects each year and the organization chooses six projects -- what she called Conservation Wranglers -- to support. A program manager is assigned to assist with strategy, budgeting and other issues so the project can be expanded or replicated elsewhere. The projects must benefit natural resources and offer a measurable economic benefit.

Getting industry partners onboard involves demonstrating that the conservation project can reduce costs or increase revenues, she said.





One example is the Dark Skies Initiative that was a Conservation Wrangler project in 2018 promoted by the McDonald Observatory. Apache Corp., which had drilling operations in the area, saw that changing its lighting practices not only protected the skies for the observatory but improved safety on its drilling rigs and its cost structure.

Apache spokesperson Fay Walker told the Reporter-Telegram by email that the company partnered with Texan by Nature and the observatory to spread the word about lighting best practices and that Texan by Nature has been an integral partner in helping the company share its story across the state.

Apache is committed to the McDonald Observatorys efforts to educate the West Texas business community about the importance of protecting the dark skies, Walker said. Texan by Nature is an important resource and partner who uses their platform to champion initiatives like ours with the Observatory that bring business and conservation groups together around solutions for the benefit of all Texans.

Carswell said Texan by Nature is trying to get 100 percent commitment from operators across the state for the initiative.

A second focus is a playa lake  such as the one at the I-20 Wildlife Preserve.

Carswell said the nonprofit Texas Playa Conservation Initiative has federal funding to help landowners restore playa lakes on their land. She said the organization was having trouble getting subscribers until Texan by Nature stepped in to help with awareness and to educate landowners about the need for playa restoration, which helps recharge the Ogallala Aquifer and provide water for migrating birds.

At an annual conference where representatives of the Conservation Wrangler projects make presentations and industry representatives make presentations on their conservation initiatives, the playa lake initiative caught the attention of Pioneer Natural Resources.

Pioneer pulled out their maps and found they had 28 playa lakes on their leases, Carswell said. They committed to restore playa lakes on those leases, and we hope to get other operators to look at their leases. Its needed in the Permian Basin and the surrounding area.

Mark Berg, executive vice president of corporate operations with Pioneer, told the Reporter-Telegram by email, Pioneer greatly values the work of Texan by Nature in focusing all of us on the importance of maintaining the natural beauty of our state. Their partnership with the oil and gas industry is a great example of how we can both realize the value of our states vast natural resources, while also protecting the environment. Laura Bush and the other leaders who founded this organization should be commended for their vision.

A third concern is native habitat creation and pollinator habitat restoration. Oil and gas drilling operations and transportation work  such as laying pipelines  can disturb the habitat of pollinators, including monarch butterflies and bees.

Its a chance to do good when you disturb habitat because you can restore it for pollinators and birds, Carswell said.

Carswell said EOG Resources is working with her organization on its properties in the Eagle Ford to see how restoring land with native grasses, which are better for the pollinators, could be done more economically.

With EOG, were trying to get the cost down to parity or to savings. The cost for native restoration is more expensive, she said.

Theres also the tug-of-war between native grasses for pollinators and birds and what she called invasive grasses that are used to graze livestock and the need to accommodate both, she said.

EOG is interested in learning more about habitat creation in West Texas; Pioneer also, she said.

The interest of oil and gas companies is critical, she said, as is raising landowner awareness and getting them to agree to or ask for restoration projects.

But first she has to create trust with the companies that, even though conservation is not their product line and doesnt bring in revenue, it can be economically beneficial.



In her meetings with members of the industry, she said operators have been receptive, especially as they increase their focus on carbon neutrality and protecting the environment.

Theyre hungry for ideas for conservation projects that are truly impactful, that can be operationalized, Carswell said. Instead of throwing money at something, they want to be impactful. Theyre taking a leadership position.

Having grown up about 90 minutes away from Midland, Carswell said its always a pleasure to return to her roots.

I love that West Texas can-do attitude, that We can help with that attitude, she said.
February 15, 2020 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada

Ensuring the health and safety of Canadians is our top priority.

The Honourable Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Health, and the Honourable Harjit Sajjan, Minister of National Defence, today announced that the Government of Canada has chartered a plane to repatriate Canadians on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Yokohama, Japan.

This decision was taken because of the extraordinary circumstances faced by passengers on the Diamond Princess and to lighten the burden on the Japanese health-care system. We are working closely with Carnival Cruise Lines and the Government of Japan to assist in this evacuation.

The aircraft will bring passengers from Japan to Canadian Forces Base Trenton, after which they will be assessed and transported to the NAV Canada Training Institute in Cornwall, Ontario, to undergo a further 14-day period of quarantine.

Before boarding in Japan, passengers will be screened for symptoms. Those who exhibit symptoms of COVID-19 will not be permitted to board and will instead be transferred to the Japanese health system to receive appropriate care.

Those who remain in Japan will continue to receive full consular services from the Government of Canada.

In addition to experts from the Public Health Agency of Canada and Canadian Armed Forces medical personnel, four members of the Standing Rapid Deployment Team (SRDT) are on the ground in Tokyo to assist Canadians during this difficult time.

We will continue to provide more information on travel plans for returning to Canada as it becomes available. In the meantime, we ask all Canadians aboard the Diamond Princess to continue to follow recommendations for protecting their health and the health of others while under Japanese quarantine.

Canadians in countries affected by COVID-19 are encouraged to sign up with the Registration of Canadians Abroad service to receive the latest updates from the Government of Canada.

Canadians in Japan in need of emergency consular assistance can contact the Embassy of Canada to Japan in Tokyo at +81 (0) 3-5412-6200 or email tokyo-consul@international.gc.ca. Canadians can also contact Global Affairs Canadas 24/7 Emergency Watch and Response Centre in Ottawa at +1 613 996 8885 or email sos@international.gc.ca.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Further hardening its stand against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the Telangana State Cabinet on Sunday demanded that the Centre repeal the Act immediately.

The decision comes as a reply to Opposition BJP's taunts to TRS as to why it was remaining silent on the CAA after opposing it in the Parliament.

This was done in an attempt to expose what BJP sees as a dichotomy in the TRS policy on the Central legislation.

To take the war into the enemy's camp, the State Cabinet also decided to adopt a resolution in the forthcoming budget session of the State Assembly on the lines of four non-BJP-ruled States that have passed similar resolutions for the repeal of the CAA.

ALSO READ | CAA has become a nightmare to citizens, says Congress MP Shashi Tharoor

The TS Cabinet meeting, which was held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao at Pragathi Bhavan, appealed to the BJP government not to discriminate against the people on the basis of religion for according citizenship.

"The State Cabinet appealed to the Union Government, not to discriminate on the basis of religion for according Indian citizenship. It requested that all religions must be treated as equal before the law," according to an official release from the Chief Minister's Office issued late on Sunday night.

"The Cabinet requested that all religions be treated as equal before the law. It further requested the Centre to take measures to abrogate the CAA as it will lead to discrimination on the basis of religion while granting citizenship and thereby jeopardising secularism envisaged in the Constitution," the release further said.

The Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Rao, felt the CAA would lead to discrimination on the basis of religion in the grant of citizenship and jeopardise secularism envisaged in the Constitution.

ALSO READ | Worried about 'hatred inculcated' in society over anti-CAA protests: Tushar Gandhi

Coming out strongly against the CAA, Chief Minister Rao had said last month said he might convene a meeting of regional parties and chief ministers to oppose the amended citizenship law.

The state assembly may pass a resolution, like the other state assemblies did, against the CAA, he had said then.

The Cabinet meeting, which began on Sunday evening, concluded late in the night.

The Cabinet also decided to organize 'Pattana Pragathi' (progress of towns) programme, aimed at ensuring cleanliness, greenery and planned development in urban areas, for 10 days beginning February 24 in all towns and cities of the state, a separate official release said.

A state-level 'municipal conference', to be attended by mayors, municipal chairpersons, commissioners, MLAs and district collectors, would be held on February 18 here to finalise the guidelines for the proposed programme, it said.

(With PTI Inputs)
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters during a meeting with President of Ecuador Lenin Moreno: Getty Images

Donald Trump has promoted a claim he will campaign for re-election on a message of grievance, persecution and resentment following his acquittal in the Senate of impeachment charges.

The US presidents comments came just minutes after he shared on Twitter a video of a US mayor being caught on a hot mic going to the toilet.

Quoting a two-week old New York Times article, Mr Trump tweeted: "Ralph Waldo Emerson seemed to foresee the lesson of the Senate Impeachment Trial of President Trump. When you strike at the King, Emerson famously said, you must kill him.

"Mr. Trumps foes struck at him but did not take him down. A triumphant Mr.Trump emerges from the biggest test of his presidency emboldened, ready to claim exoneration, and take his case of grievance, persecution and resentment to the campaign trail.

Mr Trump then added, "The Greatest Witch Hunt In American History!" - a claim he has repeatedly made despite the fact 48 senators - including one Republican - voted to convict him over his attempts to pressure Ukraine into investigating his political rivals.

.....biggest test of his presidency emboldened, ready to claim exoneration, and take his case of grievance, persecution and resentment to the campaign trail. Peter Baker @nytimes The Greatest Witch Hunt In American History!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2020

Moments earlier, the president had retweeted a post which showed a 2015 meeting in which the-then mayor of Georgetown, Texas, forgot to remove his microphone before heading for the bathroom.

The video showed an embarrassed colleague reacting to a series of noises played through speakers which were emanating from the bathroom cubicle.

THIS IS HILARIOUS

Mayor of Georgetown in the US excused himself to go & use the washroom in the middle of a meeting & forgot to switch off his mic on his tie & this is what happened. pic.twitter.com/zXuyBxTo7E  Paul Samuel (@PaulSam27131285) February 14, 2020

The clip was posted by an anti-Trump twitter account alongside the caption: "THIS IS HILARIOUS. Mayor of Georgetown in the US excused himself to go & use the washroom in the middle of a meeting & forgot to switch off his mic on his tie & this is what happened."
India will soon send a consignment of medical supplies to China to assist Beijing in combating the deadly coronavirus outbreak, Indian Ambassador Vikram Misri said on Sunday as he expressed solidarity with the people of China in their fight against the epidemic.

The death toll from COVID-19 outbreak in China has climbed to 1,665 after 142 more people died, mostly in the worst-hit Hubei province, officials said on Sunday.

"As a concrete step to tackle the outbreak, India will soon send a consignment of medical supplies to China," Misri said, adding that this is a concrete measure which will fully demonstrate the goodwill, solidarity and friendship of the people and Government of India with the Chinese people.

He said India will do everything within its means to assist the people of China in this time of difficulty.

Indian officials said the details of the aid required by China are being worked out and the consignment would be sent as soon as they are finalised. Also, India has lifted the ban and cleared some of the medical equipment ordered by the Chinese importers to meet the requirements.

China has said that it needed medical masks, gloves and suits especially for the medical staff attending the virus affected patients. Masks also have become scarce in China in view of the nationwide demand in the last three weeks.

"During the past few weeks, the entire world has borne witness to the severity of the novel coronavirus outbreak and the tremendous challenges posed by it," Misri said in a video message released to Chinese media outlets on Sunday.

"I wish to convey my solidarity and support to the Chinese people and Government in tackling this epidemic," he said.

"We feel deeply for the people and the families that are affected by this epidemic. I would particularly wish to express support for the people of Wuhan City and Hubei province who have been most affected by this epidemic, and who hold a very special place in the hearts of the people of India," he said.

Hubei and its capital Wuhan have become the epicentre of the virus and most of the fatalities in China have been reported from the province.

"The determination of the Chinese people and Government in dealing with this epidemic is evident to all of us. We hope that it will be effectively controlled in the near future," he said.

Misri said that India is also facing the threat of infections from the novel coronavirus epidemic and the country is working hard to safeguard the health and wellbeing of its citizens.

"I once again express my support for all people in China affected by this outbreak, and I hope through courage, persistence and effective measures, we will be able to overcome this epidemic," he said.

On February 9, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote to Chinese President Xi Jinping, offering India's assistance to China to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang appreciated Modi's offer and said, "India's acts of goodwill fully demonstrate its friendship with China".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Brooks County and Falfurrias officials are searching for answers after a shrine dedicated to a South Texas folk saint was broken into and vandalized, according to the Brooks County Sheriff's Office.

Broken pieces of statues and glass littered the floor of the Don Pedro Jaramillo Shrine, located off FM 1418 in Falfurrias, when Deputy Jonathan Melendez was dispatched to the small structure Friday afternoon in answer to a call of criminal mischief.

"It was just a simple dwelling that people would come from afar to get healed," said Brooks County Sheriff Urbino "Benny" Martinez.

The shrine was the home and final resting place of Don Pedrito Jaramillo, also called the "Healer of Los Olmos," who died there in 1907. Born in Mexico in 1829, Jaramillo is popularized by tales of generosity and faith healing and would become a cultural icon for thousands of South Texans.

"I remember going there as a small child," Martinez said. "People would bring letters from family members serving in Vietnam or wherever, and leave them there. And pray over them so they would come home safely."

The official Texas Historical Marker at the shrine, dedicated in 1971, was the first in state history to be written in both English and Spanish. It tells the story of Jaramillo who came to Texas and the Los Olmos Ranch in 1881. He soon became renowned as a healer, a curandero. But according to the marker, "Unlike other faith healers, he claimed no power of his own, but said Gods healing was released through him.

The city of Falfurrias posted to its Facebook page several photos taken of the vandalism, along with a call to anyone who might have information to call the Brooks County Sheriff's office, 361-325-3696.

"On Valentine's Day of all days," Martinez noted but said the exact time of the crime will be hard to pin down as there are no surveillance cameras nearby to draw from. "Right now we're all in the dark as far as the motive," Martinez said.
Now its time for Words and Their Stories -- our weekly program about common, everyday expressions in American English.

During the next few weeks, many people in South America will celebrate Carnival. It is a time of music and dancing. The party ends before the Christian observance of Ash Wednesday, which this year falls on February 26.

Ash Wednesday has a very different feeling than Carnival. It is meant to be a day of prayer, sorrow and asking for forgiveness.

In American English, guilt or sadness is often expressed by the symbol of ashes  the gray matter left over from a fire. For example, if you are feeling really bad about something you did, you might say you are wearing sackcloth and ashes.

The phrase is repeated in several places in the Bible, the Christian holy book. The word sackcloth refers to a kind of clothing that feels rough on the skin. It was sometimes made of goat hair. Wearing something made of sackcloth was a sign that a person was trying to punish himself.

As for the ashes part, the willingness to be touched by dirty material showed that a person was humble and that he understood he would someday die.

Yes, the image is pretty serious. You can use the expression in a somewhat serious way, too. Lets say you forgot that you invited your boyfriend or girlfriend to a special birthday date. Your beloved waited for you, for hours, crying, in the rain. Much later, you sit up in bed and remember your missed appointment.

You immediately call your partner and say that you are so sorry. You promise to wear sackcloth and ashes for the rest of the month.

Of course, you do not really have to put on a shirt made of animal hair. But you could show you are sorry in a different way. Maybe you cook your partner dinner every night for a week, or buy a meaningful gift.

You can also use the phrase sackcloth and ashes in a sarcastic way. This means you say it, but do not really mean it. Lets say you have done some very small bad thing, like borrowed your co-workers coffee cup without asking. And now, she wont let you forget it. Every time you walk by, she holds her cup close to her and gives you an angry look. She also tells all your other co-workers not to trust you with any of their supplies, such as pens or plastic spoons. At the next team meeting, she asks your boss for a lock so she can keep her cup safe from you. Okay, okay! you might say. I'm sorry! Do I have to wear sackcloth and ashes?

Your angry co-worker just might say yes. She is clearly enjoying raking you over the ashes. In other words, she repeatedly brings up a past mistake. The phrase calls to mind a fire that has almost gone out, but that can be started again with a little effort.

Of course, being sarcastic is not always a good idea. It rarely makes other people want to forgive you. You would probably be better off apologizing honestly to your co-worker. But saying something nice when you are angry can be difficult. The sweet words might turn to ashes in your mouth. In fact, as an expression, anything can turn to ashes. A hopeful feeling, a relationship  maybe even your job if your co-worker keeps complaining about you  all can dry up and disappear.

Fortunately, most things can also rise from the ashes. In other words, what was thought to be dead or destroyed can return to life, often in a new and better way.

That is a good image to remember during periods of difficulty or loss. Usually, the situation does not last. In time, things get better, and you might soon find yourself playing music and dancing again.

And thats Words and Their Stories.

Im Kelly Jean Kelly.

Kelly Jean Kelly wrote this story for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

humble - adj. not proud : not thinking of yourself as better than other people

spoon - n. an eating or cooking tool that has a small shallow bowl attached to a handle
It has been more than two years since Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar have publicly acknowledged their third-born child, Jill Duggar. Critics of the Duggar family believe that Jill has been effectively cut out because her husband, Derick Dillard, has been speaking out against the family. Derick seems like he isnt willing to play by the Duggar family rules, and that means Jill is out too. While Jill has been effectively excommunicated, Jim Bob and Michelle continue to welcome their eldest son, Josh Duggar, with open arms. Josh, who molested several of his siblings as a teen, was also caught cheating on his wife, and may now be at the center of a federal investigation. So, why do the Duggars make allowance for Josh, while Jill hasnt been given the same level of unconditional affection?

Josh was positioned as the leader early on

Josh was clearly troubled from pretty early on. He molested several of his siblings while he was a teenager. While the news didnt hit the mainstream media until 2015, it was apparently a poorly kept secret around the familys hometown of Springdale, Arkansas. Regardless, Jim Bob and Michelle both decided to position Josh as a leader of his siblings. He served as a spokesperson of sorts of the kids during the familys first TV specials and was pushed into the public eye.

Josh Duggar | Kris Connor/Getty Images

Its possible that both Jim Bob and Michelle believed extra attention would right Joshs wrong or, at the very least, make him more accountable for how he behaved going forward. That clearly backfired. Now a father of six, Josh engaged in some seriously risky behavior, even as an adult. Not only was he caught up in the Ashley Madison data breach, but he was accused of frequenting strip clubs, messaging women via a fake OkCupid profile, and of engaging in sex with at least one woman who was not his wife.

Parental favoritism is real

Parents playing favorites is mostly frowned upon in modern society, but that doesnt mean it doesnt happen. In fact, Psychology Today notes that the vast majority of parents play favorites at some point in their childrens lives. Some forms of favoritism are considered acceptable. For example, a newborn receiving more attention than an older child is simply a necessity. The same is true if a child is sick or disabled and requires more attention and care than others.

Recent studies, however, have found that eldest children and the youngest child in a family are generally favored over middle children. Research studies have found that the familys oldest child gets the most privileges, while the familys youngest child benefits from the most quality time with their parents. Parents may favor one child over others if the child is particularly troubled, too.

Josh, being the eldest born, may have benefited from serious favoritism. To many followers of the family, that favoritism seems to have carried through to adulthood. Not only have Jim Bob and Michelle protect their oldest son despite his deviant behavior, but theyve also publicly praised him. In fact, Michelle took to the family blog to pen a long letter to her eldest child on his birthday; it is something she hasnt done for any of her other 18 children.

The Duggar family doesnt appear to value women

The Duggar family may preach a pro-family stance in political arenas, but most viewers have surmised the family is more anti-woman than anything else. While believing that women are utterly incapable of adult tasks, like attending college, handling money, and holding a job, they place an unimaginably damaging responsibility on their shoulders from a very young age. The ladies of the Duggar family are considered responsible for helping men both within their family and total strangers avoid temptation. They dont wear traditional bathing suits because it could cause a man to stumble. They avoid shorts and skirts with a hemline too far above the knee because its akin to nakedness.

Philadelphia points to Joshs molestation of his siblings as proof that the family is anti-woman. The publication notes that at no time were the young ladies who were molested given an apology, and the massive emotional mark left by the incident on the victims was considered a footnote. Josh, however, spoke earnestly about how his behavior could ruin his life. His parents backed up the sentiment.

Perhaps thats the reason Jill has been shunned, while Josh has been given chance after chance. Jill, as a woman, is dispensable. She was handed off to her husband, and now under his headship, neither Jim Bob nor Michelle have a say. Josh, on the other hand, is financially tied to his father, and can still be controlled, at least in a sense.
A police constable and his middleman were caught red-handed by the Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau sleuths while taking a bribe of Rs 6,000 from a villager for allowing his two coarse sand-laden tractor trolleys to pass a police check post, an ACB official said on Sunday.

Bundi's ACB Deputy Superintendent of Police Tarunkant Somani said Constable Surendra Somadwal, posted at Hindoli police station of Bundi district, was arrested along with middleman Devlal Gurjar from a hotel on National Highway 52, while accepting the bribe from complainant Naresh Kumar Gurjar of Sukhpura village.

He said the 28-year-old constable, a resident of Nagor city, had earlier raised a demand of Rs 12,000 for allowing Naresh Gurjar to take his Bajri-laden tractor trolleys across the check post through his middleman Devlal Gurjar, a resident of Salampura village of Hindoli area.

The complainant was able to take the trolleys only after paying Rs 6,000 to them and promising to pay the remaining amount later, he added.

But before paying the remaining sum, he lodged a complaint with the ACB, which organised a raid and arrested the duo from the hotel red-handed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dubai Investments Park (DIP), the unique integrated commercial, industrial and residential community wholly-owned by Dubai Investments, said that it has attracted investments in excess of Dh42 billion ($11.4 billion) over two decades.



Considered one among the largest integrated developments in the Middle East, the company has confirmed a sustained and progressive growth in the investment portfolio, with 97 per cent of the total leasable land area of 17 million sq m leased out till date.



Today DIP is a booming community, with over 12,000 residential units, more than 160,000 residents, six schools, five operational hotels as well as serviced apartments, one hospital and four clinics, 313 staff accommodation buildings, 20 million sq ft of office space, more than 4,200 tenants, 645 warehouse factories and industrial facilities, 25 office buildings, and 18 showrooms.



In line with reiterating the developments robust brand equity and integrating the uniqueness through enhanced value creation aligned to futuristic vision, DIP has unveiled a new logo and will continue to remain as a hot spot for investors with its ideal location and proximity to key business destinations.



DIP has witnessed qualitative growth in investments over the last 20 years. The growing investment figures testify the trust among the investors and reiterate DIPs commitment towards reinforcing positive perceptions of the developments competitiveness, said, Omar Al Mesmar, general manager, Dubai Investments Park.



Today, as one of the top investment locations in the UAE and the larger Arab region, DIP is continually enhancing infrastructure, services and regulations and increasing ease of doing business, headed in the right direction and reaping fantastic results.



Over the last few years, DIP has witnessed a sharp increase in DIPs sub-leasing reflecting the surging optimism in the regional business environment, coupled with the growing reputation of DIP as the preferred business destination. DIP has consistently developed its road network and upgraded its infrastructure and facilities, which continues to attract new tenants and the proximity to the Expo 2020 site has added to the strategic advantage of the development.



DIP has constantly imitated efforts towards the enhancement of various infrastructure facilities and has invested in excess of Dh1.5 billion only towards development of infrastructure.



As part of DIPs concerted efforts, an amount of approximately Dh125 million has been allocated towards improvement of public facilities, pedestrian track maintenance and upgradation of existing infrastructure, and air conditioned bus shelters over the next one year.  TradeArabia News Service


Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan met with Arancha Gonzalez Laya, Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of the Kingdom of Spain on the margins of the Munich Security Conference on February 15.

Foreign Minister Mnatsakanyan congratulated Mrs Laya on the occasion of assuming Minister's position, wishing her successes in that important and responsible mission.

Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Spain emphasized the reciprocal readiness to further strengthen and enrich the agenda of Armenian-Spanish friendly relations, based on mutual respect and understanding, which derives from century-old history. In terms of promotion of bilateral political dialogue, regular consultations between the Foreign Ministries, reciprocal visits and meetings on different levels were highlighted.

Touching upon the multidimensional agenda of Armenian-Spanish cooperation, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Arancha Gonzalez Laya, highlighted full use of the existing potential through promoting trade, economic ties, as well as the development of cooperation in the spheres of science and culture.

The sides touched upon issues on Armenia-EU partnership agenda, emphasizing the importance of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement as a legal framework which regulates bilateral relations with the EU, as well as the EU member states. In this context, Foreign Minister Mnatsakanyan highly appreciated the Eastern Partnership format, as a solid platform for substantive communication based on common values and established objectives with the EU and consolidating achievements at national level.
HAMDEN  Some drivers honked their horns in apparent support Saturday as they drove past four people who were standing outside the food store Thyme & Season while holding signs in protest of a bill that would eliminate religious exemptions for vaccinations of school children.

Other drivers yelled curses out their car windows at the protesters.

It was an indication of how controversial the issue has become: earlier this month, hundreds showed up at the state Capitol in Hartford to demonstrate their disapproval of the bill.

Under the legislation, parents would no longer be able to seek religious exemptions for vaccines. Without a medical exemption, a child would have to follow a recommended schedule of vaccination in order to attend public or private school in Connecticut, said state Rep. Josh Elliott, D-Hamden, a proponent of the bill.

Elliott owns Thyme & Season, which is why Saturdays protesters chose the location. They also indicated that the upcoming public hearing on the bill, scheduled for Wednesday, motivated them to act.

Arguments against the legislation are varied. Some parents, such as Shannon Gamache, one of the individuals protesting the legislation, worry vaccines can have adverse health effects.

The concerns are at odds with what most medical experts and groups like the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say about the issue.

Severe side effects from vaccines are extremely rare, according to the CDCs website.

Before a vaccine is ever given to people, FDA oversees extensive lab testing of the vaccine that can take several years to make sure it is safe and effective, the website says. After the lab, testing in people begins, and it can take several more years before the clinical studies are complete and the vaccine is licensed.

But Gamache said that after doing much of her own research, she was not convinced about the safety of vaccines. She genuinely worried about the health of her son, who as an infant, had two frightening reactions that began within 12 hours of receiving immunizations: in one case, he stopped breathing, and in the other, he had seizures, she said.

Her son could not obtain a medical exemption because the doctor did not believe the vaccines caused those reactions, Gamache said.

I understand their anger and I understand their fear, Elliot said. I dont question their value system and I dont question their motives.

But Elliott shared worries of his own: that decreasing vaccination rates in schools could put children who have medical exemptions at risk, and that ultimately, they could eliminate the widespread immunity that the population has built up against certain illnesses.

Even though pushing the legislation forward is unpleasant, Elliott does not have doubts about doing so, because I know that the medical establishment is almost universally behind the safety and efficacy of vaccines, he said.

Theres another reason people are upset about repealing religious exemptions: they do not feel the government has the right to interfere with parental decision-making. Its an argument that has been voiced by lawmakers.

No government should be at the kitchen table making decisions for parents and children regarding medical decisions at all, said Jamel Holley, a New Jersey assemblyman who addressed the crowd of protesters in Hartford earlier this month. Holley is a Democrat.

Parents at Elliotts store Saturday raised similar concerns.

If its forced, are we free? Gamaches sign asked.

Im out here to bring awareness to the issue at hand, said Marcella Kurowski, who stood beside Gamache on the sidewalk. First of all, I believe in freedomI dont want [the government] in my parental decision-making.

Elliott understands the argument, he said. This is not something that we look at lightly.

But, he said, We need to look at the health and safety of every child in the school system.

Meanwhile, Gamache and another mom, who identified herself as Erin but declined to give her last name, said they would move out of state if the bill passed. They do not feel safe vaccinating their children, but they also need access to schools, they said.

Kurowski said she would consider a move.

More information about the debate over religious exemptions and Connecticuts proposed legislation can be found here.

meghan.friedmann@hearstmediact.com
India and Norway will work together in exerting pressure on all countries for quick climate action and stressed that the finances promised to the developing world should be followed up, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Sunday.

Javadekar held fruitful talks with Norwegian Climate and Environment Minister Sveinung Rotevatn on bilateral and global issues at the 13th Conference of Parties (COP 13) to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) here.

We have agreed upon working jointly with Norway on the issues including development of relevant technology and create pressure for quick action on all countries. We also agreed upon strengthening our bond so that we can have joint efforts in waste management, ensuring marine litter goes down rapidly and Indias cooling action plan speeds up.

On climate change we have stressed that finances, which were promised to the developing world and have not come in the last 10 years, needs to be followed up. The amount stands at USD 1 trillion. All countries should create a buzz around it. So we have decided to partner in progress, Javadekar said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be officially inaugurating on Monday the CMS COP 13, which is being attended by 1,800 delegates from nearly 130 countries.

The Norwegian minister said India is showing that economic growth and bold action on climate can go hand in hand.

Norway sees India as an important international player on climate and environment. India is showing the world that economic growth and bold action on climate can go hand in hand. We are impressed with Indias efforts to beat plastic pollution, including Clean India Campaign.

Today we had a productive meeting. We discussed issues like bio-diversity, explored opportunities that come with forest preservation and saving carbon sinks. We also discussed issue of marine littering and fight to establish good waste management facilities, Rotevatn said.

India and Norway signed the letter of intent for establishing the India Norway Marine Pollution Initiative in 2019 to combat ocean pollution and had also signed an MoU to establish India-Norway Ocean Dialogue.

In the meeting at the COP 13, both the countries decided to step up actions that target climate change and air pollution and agreed to work closely to raise this agenda.

Later, in a high-level segment with all stakeholders, Javadekar said that 2020 is a super year for bio-diversity environment.

This is the biggest conference in the world. I can say that 2020 will be a super year for biodiversity and environment. It will set an agenda for next decade. I am very happy, the minister said.

He said, India cooperates with many countries on different initiatives. PM Narendra Modi has already formed two alliances  solar alliance and Climate Disaster Resilience Initiative (CDRI). 2020 is super year for environment. This COP will present to the world. Agenda for an entire decade will be set in this COP. We have decided to work hard. We want inclusive growth of forests, wildlife and biodiversity. The high-level segment was attended by all participating countries and its representatives.

Addressing the participants, Babul Supriyo, minister of state for environment, said, I am very proud that India is hosting this conference. Speaking at the conference which aims at conservation of migratory species, Supriyo said, We are also migrating from one department to another. Today I am in the environment ministry, tomorrow I may be in petroleum. As the host, India shall be designated the President for the next three years. The Government of India is Signatory to the Convention on Conservation of Migratory Wild Animals since 1983. The Government of India has been taking necessary actions to protect and conserve migratory marine species. Seven species that include dugong, whale shark, and two species of the marine turtle have been identified for preparation of Conservation and Recovery Action Plan.

The theme of CMS COP13 in India is Migratory species connect the planet and we welcome them home.

The mascot for CMS COP13 is Gibi  The Great Indian Bustard. It is a critically endangered species which has been accorded the highest protection status under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
Maggie Beer's daughter Saskia Beer died unexpectedly in her sleep at age 46 on Friday.

The Australian cook, 75, announced the tragic news in an Instagram post on Sunday, and asked fans for 'time and space' as the family 'grapple to come to terms' with their loss.

Saskia was an accomplished chef and caterer, and leaves behind husband Petar Jercic and three children.

Passing: Australian cook Maggie Beer, 75, announced the tragic death of daughter Saskia Beer (both pictured), who passed away unexpectedly in her sleep at age 46 on Friday

'It is with broken hearts we need to let you all know that our beautiful, extraordinary daughter Saskia died unexpectedly yet peacefully in her sleep on Friday night,' Maggie captioned a photo of Saskia and her husband Petar.

'We ask for time/space as we grapple to come to terms with our loss and appreciate all the support we have been given,' she continued.

Petar also shared a similar statement on Saskia's Instagram page.

Online: The Australian cook announced the news in an Instagram post on Sunday, and asked fans for 'time and space' as they 'grapple to come to terms' with their loss

Followed in her mother's footsteps: Saskia was an accomplished chef and caterer, and leaves behind husband Petar Jercic and three children

The life of Saskia Beer * A proud chef, caterer and businesswoman, daughter of celebrity chef and food author Maggie Beer * Founded Saskia Beer Farm Produce in 1997 after realising 'quality produce was not easy to source' * Leaves behind husband Petar Jercic and three children * Her business Saskia Beer Farm Produce will continue to be run by Petar Advertisement

'It is with broken hearts we need to let you all know that Saskia, our beautiful, extraordinary daughter, sister, wife and mother died unexpectedly yet peacefully in her sleep on Friday night.

'The business Saskia grew and loved will continue on with me, her loving husband.

'We ask for time and space as we grapple to come to terms with our loss and appreciate all the support we have been given.'

Support: Culinary stars including Kylie Kwong and Lyndey Milan offered their condolences underneath Maggie's Instagram post

Kylie Kwong offered her condolences underneath Maggie's post, writing: 'Your beautiful, special, darling Sassy-girl... I am just so, so sad for all of you. I loved Sassy so much and hold you all very, very closely in my heart.'

Lyndey Milan also penned online: 'Darling Maggie, I hope you got my message. So very, very sad. Sending you, [husband] Colin and family all my love.

'Devastating for us to be united by the loss of a child. Take care of yourselves as Saskia would want you to.'

Chef Neil Perry simply commented: 'No words xx'.

French-born chef Guillaume Brahimi wrote: 'So so sorry for your loss. Sending you all my love and support in this difficult time.'
MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday called for crossing East-West difference and practicing multilateralism at the Munich Security Conference (MSC).

In his speech, Wang elaborated the attendees on the current situation of China's fight against the outbreak of the novel coronavirus under the leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The top diplomat said that the strict measures taken by the Chinese government are taking effect, and China is fully confident in and capable of winning the fight against the epidemic.

"I believe that after the epidemic, the Chinese economy will stride forward on a healthier and more sustainable track. The Chinese people will become more resolute to build a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, eradicate the absolute poverty and achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," Wang said.

He added that the epidemic had made mankind realize that it is now an era with traditional and non-traditional security threats being interweaved. A regional issue can be transformed into a global one, and vice versa. Therefore, no country can stay alone and be immune to the threats. Instead, all countries are inter-connected and share a common destiny.

"Strengthening global governance and international coordination is urgent right now. We need to get rid of the division of the East and the West and go beyond the difference between the South and the North, in a bid to build a community with a shared future for mankind," added Wang.

Wang made four suggestions for multilateralism. Firstly, countries should stick to multilateralism and seek common development. Multilateralism denies the priority of a single state; instead, it holds that all countries share the same right for development.

"It is not multilateralism if only the Western countries prosper while the non-Western countries lag behind forever. It would not achieve the common progress of mankind," said Wang.

"China's modernization is the necessity of history. China's national conditions decided that it could not copy the Western pattern, and China's cultural genes do not allow the country to follow an old way of seeking hegemony as major powers in history," said Wang.

He said China sticks to peaceful development, seeks cooperation and a win-win deal with the world. The socialist path with Chinese characteristics has achieved great success and is showing energetic vitality and promising future.

China respects the Western countries' choices and hopes to learn from developed countries' experience in a bid to achieve common prosperity, he said.

Meanwhile the West should also discard its subconscious mentality of civilization supremacy, give up its bias and anxiety over China, and accept and welcome the development and revitalization of a country from the East with a system different from that of the West, Wang said.

Secondly, Wang noted that major nations should practice what they preach when it comes to sticking to multilateralism. Success of multilateralism calls on major nations to play key roles and take major responsibilities.

Therefore, big nations must shoulder responsibilities and safeguard the common interests of all countries, Wang said.

He added major nations should strive to maintain the openness of the world, not to confront and counteract each other, and to join hands to safeguard world peace and stability.

Wang said China will further deepen the strategic partnership of coordination with Russia, continue to explore ways of peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation with the U.S., and will comprehensively deepen cooperation with Europe.

Thirdly, Wang noted that international norms should be upheld in sticking to multilateralism.

He said multilateralism does not accept unilateral acts, and it implicates that international relations should be democratized and should be based on the rule of international law and the upholding of global justice.

China has always adhered to its original aspiration and is a firm defender of the international law and the purposes of the UN Charter, said Wang.

He added that China's foreign policy is based on the purpose of maintaining global peace and promoting common development, and stems from the adherence to the basic principles of international law and international relations, therefore it is not affected by temporary events and has no self-interest.

It has stood the test of history and won the trust of countries worldwide, said Wang.

Fourthly, he noted that the awareness of the community should be fostered in sticking to multilateralism.

Wang said that China's proposal to build a community with a shared future for mankind is based on the Chinese cultural tradition "all under heaven are of one family", reflecting the profound thinking and humanistic care of the future for mankind.

Wang said China is willing to work with all parties to transcend social systems, history, culture, and different stages of development, to take good care of the planet, and to build a global village shared by all.
N early one third of jobs in former Labour 'red wall' seats won by the Tories are at risk of being lost to automation by 2030, a report has claimed.

The report, written by think tank Future Advocacy, projects 32 per cent job losses in the former Labour heartlands. This is 2 per cent above their projected average of 30 per cent,

The area set to suffer the highest job losses is Haywood and Middleton, which could lose 39.3 per cent of jobs to automation.

Boris Johnson's constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip is set to lose 31 per cent. While Jeremy Corbyn's Islington North constituency is projected to lose 26.3 per cent.

Heatmap of areas set to lose the most jobs to automation / Future Advocacy

The key factor in the analysis is which industries each constituency contains.

"John McDonnell's constituency has one of the highest levels of automation, due to its proximity to Heathrow airport", Anna Pick, a researcher at the think tank said.

She added: "Healthcare, education, and the creative industries are the lowest."

McDonnell's constituency is set to lose 39% of jobs to automation / PA

Ms Pick warned that the effects will be unevenly spread across the UK, with the north suffering in particular.

"The effects will be unevenly spread across the country.

"A particular focus of this report was the red wall where we see 32 per cent job losses compared to the nationals figure of 30 per cent."

The report warns of significant geographical divides.

"We are seeing a north south divide as well as a country and city divide."

Future Advocacy have called upon the government to double down on its promise to "level-up" the UK's work force.

"The government is definitely saying that it's committed to levelling up in multiple ways", Ms Pick said.

"We think that there needs to be more done."

Mr Johnson has promised to 'level-up' the UK's workforce / Jeremy Selwyn

In response to their findings, Future Advocacy are calling for greater investment in infrastructure, such as broadband, and a "fine tuned policy approach".

"We know that an adequate policy response will have to take account of different skills", Ms Pick said.

"We need a fine tuned policy approach, one that takes into account different demographic groups across the country."
Two US Democratic presidential candidates said on Sunday they would welcome the chance to square off against billionaire Michael Bloomberg if he qualifies for the next debate in Nevada.

Bloomberg, a media mogul who has vastly outspent his rivals in campaign advertisements, was a late entry into the 2020 Democratic race for a nominee to face Republican President Donald Trump in November. Bloomberg, 78, has not qualified for any presidential debates but will be included in Wednesdays event if he scores higher than 10% on one more public opinion poll.

He just cant hide behind the airwaves, candidate and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar said on NBCs Meet the Press. I cant beat him on the airwaves but I can beat him on the debate stage and I think people of America deserve that to make a decision.

Bloombergs campaign has faced accusations he made inappropriate comments toward women and that his company, Bloomberg LP, fostered a hostile environment for female employees.

His campaign has denied the allegations.

In a Jan. 15 interview with ABCs The View, Bloomberg said his company, a major provider of news and financial information to Wall Street, has very few cases of sexual harassment given its large size, and said he thinks most people would say were a great place to work.

Former Vice President Joe Biden has said he would challenge Bloomberg over his support as mayor for a policing strategy known as stop and frisk that ensnared disproportionate numbers of blacks and Latinos.

Theres a lot to talk about with Michael Bloomberg. You all are going to start focusing on him ... like you have on me the last six months, Biden said on NBC, citing his position on issues relating to African Americans including stop and frisk.

Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was asked about the allegations against Bloomberg.

I think hes going to have to answer for that and speak to it, he told Fox News Sunday.

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Via AlMasdarNews.com

The Saudi News Agency quoted the Arab Coalition spokesperson Turki Al-Malki as saying on Saturday that one of their Tornado fighter jets was shot down over northern Yemen on Friday night.

At 23:45 P.M. on Friday, February 14, 2020, a Tornado fighter plane of the Royal Saudi Air Force crashed while on a mission of close air support to units of the National Army, Malki said.

Saudi Tornado fighter jet illustrative file image.

Houthi forces announced on Friday evening that their air defense troops shot down the fighter jet over the Al-Jawf Governorate after it carried out airstrikes on several sites in northern Yemen.

The air defenses shot down the coalition war plane with an advanced surface-to-air missile supported by modern technology. The sky of Yemen is not for a walk and the enemy must count a thousand time for that, the Ansarallah-affiliated Yemeni Army (Houthi) spokesperson, Brigadier General Yahya Sarea, said on Friday evening.

The Royal Saudi Air Force Tornado aircraft "crashed" in northern al-Jawf province during an operation to support Yemeni government forces, the coalition said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency on Saturday. ...Separately on Saturday, Al Masirah TV quoted Houthi health officials as saying that at least 30 civilians were killed in coalition air raids in the same region that the plane had gone down. The death toll could not be independently verified. Al Jazeera's Mohammed al-Attab, reporting from the Houthi-held capital, Sanaa, said "Saudi fighter jets have intensified their air strikes" in the area.  Al Jazeera

Yemeni Houthis showed videos as their airdefence forces shot down the Saudi "Tornado" fighter-bomber over Al-Jawf province by new SAM. Saudi Arabia confirmed today, that lost it's jet there on 23.45 14 Feb 2020. pic.twitter.com/qazcPB0ser  Yuri Lyamin (@imp_navigator) February 15, 2020

The Houthis released video of the jet's downing; it appears to show a sophisticated weapon deployed.

#Yemen  - Ansarullah released a video showing February 14 downing of a Saudi Tornado fighter jet | #_ pic.twitter.com/VABkrRfITK   (@zainabiyoun) February 15, 2020

The coalition and the army forces loyal to Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi are seeking to restore areas that they recently lost in the Marib, Sanaa, and Al-Jawf governorates, following a large-scale Ansarallah offensive.
Hyderabad: Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman holds an interactive session with Economists, Academicians & Policy Experts on Budget 2020, in Hyderabad on Feb 16, 2020. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Hyderabad: Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman holds an interactive session with Economists, Academicians & Policy Experts on Budget 2020, in Hyderabad on Feb 16, 2020. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Hyderabad, Feb 16 : Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said that there is no timeline for phasing out exemptions on personal income tax for those who opted to remain in the old regime.

She told a news conference here that her ministry wants to move step by step to achieve the eventual goal of a simplified, exemption-free and reduced rate of tax incidence.

"We have not made up our mind," she said when asked what would be the time frame to phase out exemptions.

"At the moment we have only started second alternative with some exemptions removed or some exemptions included, although the original intention was to remove all exemptions and give a clear simplified reduced rate of income," she said.

The minister said the gradient of increase of income tax for different income slabs is gentle and there is no sharp increase.

"This year, while proposing the second alternative we have not compelled anyone to leave the exemptions and come here (second alternative). For the sake of clarity we also issued a complete matrix, explaining the net gain for a particular income." Sitharaman also said it was up to the assessee to decide and the ministry would not force anyone to come to the new system.

She, however, pointed out that a simulation model worked out on the basis of an assumption that second alternative had been introduced in the last year revealed that 69 per cent would have net benefit and about 11 per cent would have want to opt for second alternative because of the simplification of the process.

"I am not aware of any such measure," she said when asked to comment on reports that the circulation of Rs 2,000 notes were being restricted. She said it was not proper for her to respond to allegations.

She also evaded reply to a query about banks voicing concern over the likely impact of the Supreme Court's order to the telecom companies to pay their dues to the department of telecom ministry.

"The concerned ministry (Communications Ministry) is looking into. It is not proper for me to comment," she said.

Sitharaman was talking to the media after interacting with representatives of trade and industry and other stakeholders on Union Budget.

She said this the ministry started this exercise taking the budget to different cities by meeting industry trade bodies, domain experts, economists and others, make clarifications which they might want, and explain aspects of budget.

She said the exercise was already completed in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. She will have a similar meeting at Bengaluru on Monday. Similar interactions are planned in Guwahati and Lucknow.
By Cobus van Staden





JOHANNESBURG  Overwhelmed by the coronavirus panic, U.S. President Donald Trump's impeachment folderol, and the chaotic Iowa Democratic caucuses, few took notice of the Trump administration's announcement that it will expand its controversial 2017 travel ban to six more countries, including four in Africa.



It is a politically expedient move that will do nothing to make Americans safer  and will help a country that the Trump's own White House describes as a "strategic competitor."



Trump's original policy, unveiled in 2017, barred travelers from Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen from entering the United States. The expanded version prohibits anyone from Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, and Nigeria from applying to live and work in the U.S., and blocks Sudanese and Tanzanians from participating in the Diversity Visa Program, the annual green card lottery created to boost immigration from underrepresented countries.



The Trump administration claimed that the 2017 ban was needed to protect Americans from Islamist terrorism. Its justification for the ban's expansion is "information-sharing deficiencies and national security risk factors," such as lapses in tracking suspected terrorists.



But, just as Trump's border wall is unlikely to stop inflows of undocumented migrants from Central and South America, the travel ban never had much potential to make Americans safer. None of the 14 most significant terrorist attacks or attempted attacks on U.S. territory in the last quarter-century would have been prevented by it.



The expanded travel ban is about politics, not security. An election looms, and Trump wants to boost his approval ratings. The expanded travel ban  with its blatantly racist undertones  is red meat for Trump's Republican base.



Trump's disdain for African countries is well documented. In 2018, he reportedly referred to them  as well as Haiti and El Salvador  as "shithole countries," suggesting that the U.S. should instead attract more immigrants from countries like Norway. The previous year, he commented that, once Nigerians get to the U.S., they will never "go back to their huts" in Africa.



Since then, the Trump administration has worked actively to restrict immigration from Nigeria. In 2018, the U.S. denied 57 percent of Nigerian applications for short-term visas  among the highest denial rates for any country. The revamped travel ban cements this pattern as the long-term default, making it almost impossible for Nigerians to emigrate to or work in the U.S.



The targeting of Nigeria is baffling. Statistically, Nigerians are model immigrants: 59 percent of Nigerian immigrants to the U.S. have bachelor degrees or higher (compared to 31 percent of the total U.S. population); Nigerians contributed more than $500 million to the U.S. education system last year; and Nigerian businesses invested $75 million in the U.S. in 2018.



Moreover, the Nigerian diaspora in the U.S. has led to strengthened diplomatic ties between the two countries. Nigeria is also among America's key African partners in the fight against terrorism. And as Africa's most populous country and largest economy, Nigeria has a crucial role to play in the Trump administration's "Prosper Africa" initiative, which aims to unlock business opportunities on the continent.



By preventing Nigerians from securing work and residency visas, the Trump administration will undermine Nigeria's prosperity. The country's tech sector will be hit particularly hard. It was supposed to be a powerful engine of Nigerian growth and development: Last year, venture capital investment in the Africa tech sector exceeded $1 billion for the first time, with Nigeria receiving the lion's share. But continued progress depends on exchanges with the U.S., which Trump's new rules will significantly impede.



Prosper Africa was never only about economics. As then-National Security Adviser John Bolton noted in 2018, the initiative is also supposed to help counter China's rapidly expanding influence on the continent. Nowhere is that influence more apparent than in Nigeria.



Last year, two Nigerian fintech startups, OPay and PalmPay, together received $210 million in Chinese venture capital. China is also a major buyer of Nigerian oil, and a major supplier of communications satellites, 5G networks, and armed drones. China is now financing a $3.9 billion railway project between Abuja and the Nigerian coast, a $7 billion rail link between Lagos and Kano, and several road projects, including a trans-Sahara highway connecting Nigeria with five other countries.



The effects of China's soft-power offensive extend beyond economics. For example, Nigeria's government is currently considering draft legislation that, following the Chinese model, would restrict free speech on social media.



If the U.S. wants to counter Chinese influence in Africa, greater engagement with Nigeria seems like a no-brainer. But that would mean taking Nigeria's development ambitions seriously and engaging with actual Nigerian businesspeople, graduate students, and civic leaders. The U.S. may claim that it wants to focus on "trade not aid" in Africa, but the expanded travel ban makes this kind of long-term strategy considerably harder to execute.



Instead, the ban is perpetuating a racist stereotype of Africa as a burdensome charity case. For Africans, the travel ban is America's, not Trump's. It is America that is rejecting them.



China has no such problem with African promise, talent, and money. And it is more than happy to swoop in to capitalize on what the U.S. has abandoned. But that won't help Africans who hoped to work  or join their families  in the U.S.



The Trump administration has systematically  and perhaps permanently  shattered Africans' perceptions of the U.S. as a land of freedom, justice, and opportunity. As Africans increasingly turn to China for trade and financing, they will not simply redirect their hopes there. They will remember America's rejection for the rest of their lives.





Cobus van Staden is a senior foreign policy researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs. His article was distributed by Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org).


Justin Bieber may be single himself, after breaking up with Selena Gomez, but a source said the 18-year-old still acts like a matchmaker for his friends.

Bieber and Gomez, 20, reported broke up following a New Year's vacation in Mexico filled with disagreements and a source said the on-again off-again couple is this time separated for good. Star magazine quoted a different source that said Bieber has now been spending his time acting as "Cupid" for those close to him.

"Justin absolutely loves setting people up. His bodyguard Kenny thought Glee star Amber Riley was cute, so Justin made sure the two would be at Bootsy Bellows club in West Hollywood on the same night - and they totally hit it off," a source revealed.

Bieber also acted on behalf of his mother Pattie Mallette, encouraging her to go on a date with "The Bachelor" host and divorce Chris Harrison.

"Pattie always talked about how cute Chris was, so Justin arranged for her and Chris to hang out at one of his LA shows in October," an insider explained.

Gomez and Bieber reportedly stayed at El Rancho, a rented mansion in a gated community of Puerto Vallarta, during their Mexico vacation. However, following their argument on the Dec. 30, they each went to separate resort hotels: Bieber was spotted at Four Seasons and Gomez checked into the Ritz-Carlton.

Gomez did not stay in Mexico long after that; She flew back to Los Angles at her mother's insistence and spent New Year's Eve in California.

Details of the infamous fight are scarce but one insider said following the dispute, Gomez went to a party in Mexico and told partygoers that Bieber said mean things to her during their argument such as "Don't let the door hit you on the way out."

As for hopes of a reconciliation, a source told HollywoodLife.com that Bieber is desperate for Gomez to forgive him, saying, "Justin is calling her 100 times a day and she's not picking up."
Sheriff Billy Rowles, the former Jasper County sheriff best known for keeping his community together following the horrific 1998 dragging death of James Byrd Jr., was elected nearly four years ago to be the sheriff of neighboring Newton County to right a shaky ship.

The office, with only 13 people at the time, had seen the turnover of some 70 people over the preceding few years  a staggering number even with the salary and workload complications common in a rural, lower-income county.

Today, the relationships are mended and Rowles is preparing to take off his badge once again, a step he admits hes not sure hes ready to take. The legendary lawman says he is for sure looking forward to spending time with his wife of 54 years.

The department seems poised for a change that is more than generational. Voters will elect either the countys first female sheriff or its first African-American one.

In Newton County, were going to make history, County Judge Kenneth Weeks said.

Thats not the lens through which Chief Deputy Cynthia Hall and her Republican primary opponent, former Texas City Police Chief Robert Burby, appear to be looking through.

No Democrat is running, so the winner of the GOP primary will run unopposed in November.

Hall has been with the Newton County Sheriffs Office for some 20 years. She says she was just as much a woman the first day she walked in as she is now.

I did everything the guys had to do, she said. Ive never been disrespected by a deputy.

Burby, likewise, said he doesnt think of this election as historic.

I dont wear my race on my shoulders. When I look in the mirror, I dont see a black man, he said. I see Bob Burby. I see a cowboy.

Hall, who says the people of the county are her resume, always knew she wanted to come back home to serve.

When she attended the police academy in 2004, an instructor asked the students who they were and where they wanted to go.

Hall raised her hand and said, Im Cynthia Hall. Im from Newton County, and Im going home.

But as much as she loves talking with residents who call the office and insist on speaking with Ms. Cynthia or waving at people as they drive by and holler her name, police work at home can be a challenge.

Born and raised in Burkeville, shes had to put friends and other people she knows in jail.

Its hard to work where you know people and also people know who you are, she said.

If elected, Hall wants to focus on youth programs to nip potential future crime in the bud.

Shed like to see the creation of a place for children to go after school while their parents are still at work.

We used to have what they called the Chicken Shack, she said. Everyone was there on Friday and Saturday night.

She also plans to continue communicating with residents and even has convinced Rowles to continue giving the quotes in the weekly sheriffs report.

But she knows taking on the job also means taking on the challenges.

Drugs have been a problem the entirety of her time with the office and she anticipates it will be for years to come, although shes seen deputies recently have marked success fighting the problem in part thanks to cooperation with community members who are just tired of robberies, burglaries and other crimes peripheral to drug use.

Additionally, the department desperately needs a new jail.

Rowles estimated a 48-bed jail, which is the size the county likely would build, would cost $9 million to $10 million.

Without that upgrade, the county can hold only 14 people in its jail. To make up for the lack of space, Newton County holds an average of 10 people per night in the Jasper County jail. That requires an additional expense of $40 per person, per night.

If there are really bad people that need to be in jail, were going to put them in jail, Rowles said. We just have to suffer the consequences from the jail commission.

And the county, which stretches about 90 miles long, constantly needs more officers and higher pay to be able to keep the officers it has. If not, sections of the county have to start over getting to know a new deputy every seven or eight months, which can hinder police work if members of the community dont trust the law enforcement representative for their area, Hall said.

She said shes grateful for the two additional officers and small raise the commissioners court recently granted the office, but shes prepared to keep asking for more.

Its hard to raise a family with what we get paid in Newton County, she said. And were outnumbered no matter what we do, and the citizens know that.

These asks and other administrative tasks, which typically fall on the shoulders of the sheriff, are the few that she hasnt yet done.

She said she wouldnt rule out another run for the office in four years, but noted shell be eligible for retirement in that time.

This is the last thing I can do for Newton County, she said. I just ask the voters to remember everything Ive done.

Burby may lack Halls hometown advantage, including Rowles mentorship and endorsement, but he has professional experience in several different departments.

Burby has owned property in Newton County since 2013, when he and his wife started using weekends to build their ranch from the ground up. They made it their permanent residence in 2018, when he retired from his post as chief of the Texas City Police Department.

Owning a ranch is the fulfillment of a dream he and his now-deceased brother held. But it wasnt long after he moved to Newton County that he was asked to consider running for the sheriffs job.

People had asked me to run for sheriff ever since I started coming up here because they found out who I was  that I was a chief and the things we were accomplishing in Texas City, he said.

Before the filing period for Marchs race opened, he realized he was never going to be finished putting his ranch together.

But I have it at a maintenance level, he said. So I told myself, Get off the tractor and go help. With my experience, theres no doubt I can make Newton County better.

Burby retired from the Air Force at age 38. The next day, he started his career as a law enforcement officer.

Hes worked in five different departments in Texas, Guam, Georgia and Mississippi. Hes been a member of a drug task force, a trainer and a police chief, twice. Hes testified as a gang expert, ran police response to the explosion of a major petrochemical plant and patrolled the area where torpedoes are stored.

Some people are called to ministry, I feel I was called to law enforcement, he said. I accept that. Thats where Im at.

He hopes to use many successful programs implemented in his past to make Newton County a place people look up to, not down on.

To address drug use in the county, he said the county needs to be more proactive in addressing how drug transactions are being conducted today, as opposed to the days when people simply stood on the street to sell. He also wants to start an Operation ID initiative, which would encourage county residents to identify and register their firearms and other high-dollar items with serial and model numbers on personal forms given to them by the sheriff's office.

Ideally, he said, peoples stuff wont be stolen. But with such a program in place, more stolen items could be returned to the owners.

Burby said he would also like to establish a Police Explorer Program, which wouldnt necessarily train county youth to become police officers, but would help them develop, achieve and stay focused on goals and learn how to give back to the community.

Since I was there in Texas City for 14 years, I saw kids come into the program at 15, grow up, graduate from high school, go to the military, be gainfully employed, get married and have kids, he said. One of the things Ive always said: If youre going to make a difference, you need to focus on the youth.

For older county residents, Burby would start a Civilian Police Academy. These trainees can become volunteers and help during emergencies  conducting police tasks that dont necessarily require a badge.

Im a public servant to the bone, he said.

Neither Rowles nor Judge Weeks could venture a guess as to why the county has yet to have seen a female or African-American sheriff. But the campaigns seem to be coming at a time when Newton County itself is turning a corner.

Weeks said after he was elected, he tried for about a year to bring several large businesses to Newton County, with little luck, something he attributed largely to available internet speeds and a housing shortage.

So I went back to the drawing board and I've come up with organic farming, he said. I have the extension agent on board. Were trying to kick that off. I think were the ideal place.

Weeks said theres already one woman in Newton County trying his idea, growing lavender and raising goats that produce organic goat milk.

If the idea catches on, Weeks said he sees shops in Newton County for tourists and locals to purchase organic items. Other products could be sold to cities such as Austin, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston.

He said this project is all part of his greater mission to make Newton County a place where younger residents want to stay or come back to, which requires bringing jobs that correlate with residents skill sets, creating a technical school and clearing or renovating old buildings, among other initiatives.

As for the sitting sheriff, many people have lamented his planned departure and worry that even if the weekly crime reports continue, they likely wont be as good as the ones he wrote each week. But theres no doubt that Rowles, one of the few remaining larger-than-life Texas lawmen, has earned the time off.

He said he first plans to facilitate a smooth transition fort he next person, regardless of whos elected.

He and his wife will then begin traveling, visiting an old Marine Corps friend in Montana and driving up the east coast on Interstate 95, hitting the remaining seven states he has yet to see.

The main thing is, we want to get off by ourselves, hug and touch and be lovey dovey with each other, he said.

Heather Foster contributed to this report.

kaitlin.bain@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com.KaitlinBain
Irans latest failed attempt to send a satellite into orbit has rekindled U.S. accusations that Tehran is using satellite launches to develop its ballistic missiles.



The U.S. accusations have, in turn, focused attention on what Irans military can learn from the countrys civilian space program and whether launches of Irans satellite-carrying Simorgh rockets amount to ballistic-missile tests.



U.S., European Allegations



U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made that claim after a three-stage Simorgh rocket launched by Iran on February 9 failed to reach the speed necessary to lift its payload -- a Zafar communications and mapping satellite -- into a low orbit around the Earth.



The technologies used to launch satellites into orbit are virtually identical and interchangeable with those used in longer-range systems, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, Pompeo said in a statement on February 11.



Each launch, whether failed or not, further allows Iran to gain experience using such technologies that could benefit its missile programs under the guise of a peaceful space program, Pompeo said.



Britain, France, and Germany have accused Iran of attempting to develop nuclear-capable ballistic missiles with recent launches of its Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile.



In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last year, ambassadors from the three European countries said the latest tests of Iran's Shahab-3 missile violate the UN Security Council resolution endorsing Tehrans 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.



The European diplomats said recent Iranian missile tests involved a version of the Shahab-3 that is equipped with a maneuverable reentry vehicle and is technically capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.



They also noted a 2015 International Atomic Energy Agency report on the potential military dimensions of Irans nuclear program that said extensive evidence indicated detailed Iranian research in 2002-2003 on arming the Shahab-3 with a nuclear warhead.



Pompeo says Tehrans satellite launches prove the 2015 nuclear deal fails to constrain testing that could support further advancement of Irans ballistic-missile program, including the development of systems capable of delivering nuclear weapons.



U.S. President Donald Trumps administration cited concerns about Iranian missile tests to justify its withdrawal in 2018 from the Iran nuclear deal and the reimposition of crippling economic sanctions against Tehran.



The worlds leading state sponsor of terrorism should not be allowed to develop and test ballistic missiles, Pompeo said in his February 11 statement.

Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami has rejected Pompeos allegations, telling the state-run IRNA news agency on February 12 that the subject of satellite-launch vehicles and satellites is a civilian matter without any military dimension.



Iran also insists that its separate ballistic missile tests are legal and not nuclear-related.



Tehran has announced a self-declared range limit of 2,000 kilometers for all of its ballistic missiles, saying its missile program is meant to provide security against regional foes in the Middle East and is not aimed at Western Europe or North America.



Satellite Launch Vs. Long-Range Missile Test



Independent experts in the United States and Western Europe tell RFE/RL they have no doubt that Irans military wants to learn all it can from civilian launches of satellite-carrying rockets.



Experts agree that Iranian engineers gain experience dealing with launch data from every satellite mission and could gain knowledge about improving multiple-stage rockets -- launch vehicles with two or more rocket stages that each contain their own engines and propellants.



But they say Iran has very little else to learn from the kind of satellite launches it has carried out so far that would help it develop long-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.



Michael Elleman, director of the Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Policy Program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank in London, agrees that technologies and components of satellite launchers are similar to long-range ballistic missiles.



He says both use powerful rocket engines, high-strength and lightweight airframes, inertial navigation and guidance units, and mechanisms for stage separation and payload separation.

He notes that space-launch vehicles and long-range ballistic missiles also both use tracking and telemetry systems to support development and operations.



But Elleman says it is misguided to suggest that Iranian satellite launches are a cover for trying to develop nuclear-capable, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).



He told RFE/RL that what Pompeo is implying in his objections to Iranian satellite launches is much different than the reality.



Theyre grossly exaggerating what Iran is learning from those particular launches, Elleman says.



Its a political statement, he adds. Theres nothing untrue about what Pompeo says. But its a question of whether Iran is learning enough to make a big difference in anything that they are doing. I believe what they are learning that is applicable to long-range missile development is minimal.



Researchers at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) have come to the same conclusion.



They say Irans satellite program has raised suspicions because of technological similarities between satellite-launch vehicles (SLVs) and ballistic missiles.



But Tytti Erasto, a senior researcher in SIPRIs Nuclear Disarmament, Arms Control, and Non-Proliferation Program in Stockholm, told RFE/RL there has never been a country that has turned space launch vehicles into long-range missiles.



There are many historical examples of states having converted ICBMs into SLVs, or developing the two technologies in parallel, Erasto says. However, the reverse scenario -- that is, SLVs being turned into long-range missiles -- has never happened because ICBM development is more demanding in many ways.



Missiles carry warheads that must not just reach space, but must also withstand reentry into the atmosphere and maintain an accurate course, she says.



Missile launchers also have to be mobile and ready to fire quickly under any weather conditions, she adds. Irans satellite carriers are launched from much larger, stationary facilities and can take weeks to prepare for blast off.



Although having a satellite program can contribute to ICBM development, it is not a shortcut to long-range missiles, Erasto concludes.



Even if Iran converted the Simorgh SLV into a long-range missile, it would still need to undergo the normal, time-consuming routine of missile testing, she says.



That could mean at least a dozen launch tests before a weapon can be considered ready for deployment, according to Erasto.



Such tests would not go unnoticed by Western observers, she says.



One European expert closely watching for any evidence of Iran trying to develop long-range ballistic missiles is Markus Schiller, a senior analyst at the ST Analytics space technology and rocketry consultancy in Munich.



From what we have observed over the past years, theyve really tried to keep below [Irans self-declared missile-range] threshold of 2,000 kilometers with everything they have demonstrated and shown to us, Schiller tells RFE/RL.



He says Iran has publicly revealed a lot of evidence indicating it is working to increase the accuracy of its existing short-range and medium-range missiles. But nothing to indicate it's taking steps to increase the range of its ballistic missiles beyond the 2,000 kilometers.



Since a U.S. drone strike on January 3 killed Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad, Schiller says some officials in Tehran have suggested that Irans 2,000-kilometer range limit could change.

Ive heard some statements suggesting they could easily and quickly start developing bigger rockets and missiles in the near future, Schiller told RFE/RL. But I havent seen anything actually pointing toward them doing so, aside from their rhetoric.



We have heard some statements over the past weeks that they want to reinvent the Shahab-4 program -- which was rumored to be something like an ICBM or long-range missile development program several decades ago, Schiller said.



Initiated in 1988, Iran has publicly described the Shahab-4 as an attempt to derive a space launch vehicle from its Shahab-3, medium-range ballistic missile.



But the Shahab-4 has never advanced beyond the drawing board.



Schiller says it would be in Irans interest to stay under the radar about any ambitions to develop long-range missiles or ICBMs.



He says that if Iran was serious about developing long-range ballistic missiles, they will soon have to start developing a different main engine for their rockets.



The engines that are used for the Simorgh for the main stage, as well as for the upper stage, are just not technically suited to power a sensible, high-performance ICBM, Schiller told RFE/RL.



If they start working on bigger engines, different than those that they already have, that might point to some ambitions toward getting an ICBM, says Schiller when asked about what telltale signs of a long-range missile program he is watching for.



Iran first successfully launched a small satellite into orbit with an Iranian-built rocket in 2009.



Since then, Iran is thought to have successfully sent three other small satellites into orbit -- the last in 2016.



All Iranian attempts since then have failed -- usually because of what is thought to be problems with the critical upper-stage rocket that should push the satellite payload to orbital speed.



Elleman says he thinks the failure of the February 9 satellite launch also was due to engine problems with the third stage of the Simorgh space-launch vehicle.
Indias economy has been sliding almost non-stop. The fundamentals of our economy, namely savings, investment, consumption and employment are severely challenged. The government on the revenue side has consistently been unable to mop-up enough revenues. The lack of tax collections is manifesting itself as a problem in myriad ways. Two key issues relating to the inadequacy of tax revenues are that on one hand the government has cut program allocations, and on the other, it is pressuring Public Sector Units (PSUs) to contribute more to the central kitty. PSUs are being asked to contribute more by either bearing the subsidy burden on the governments behalf or by making costly acquisitions to improve the governments budgetary position or by paying government heavy dividends.

PSUs not only play a pivotal role in the economy, but also contribute overall to nation building. The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) in the financial sector, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in the energy sector and the Food Corporation of India (FCI) as the guarantor of food security are sterling examples of this paradigm.

The LIC was established in 1956 with a capital of Rs 5 crore and is today estimated to be valued around Rs 8-10 lakh crore. The LIC is one such asset that the Indian state invested in early, and reaped dividends for several years thereafter. The LIC is among Indias biggest institutional investors. It is also the largest participant in public sector bond issuances. Therefore, it acts as a key lender to the government, without which the government would not be able to make infrastructure investments at the scale that it does. Today, the LIC is ailing. The LIC has an exposure of more than Rs 20,000 crores to various debt instruments that have now been downgraded to default category by credit rating agencies. The contagion that started in the shadow banking sector, then spread to housing finance companies and then to cooperative banks, has now made its presence felt in the insurance sector too, with none other than the gargantuan LIC feeling the heat. Its bond investments in various failing entities now in the headlines are all now default grade.

The LIC is not only suffering because of risky companies on its portfolio. The LICs precarious finances are also due to acute political pressure during the BJP-governments rule starting in 2014. Under that pressure, the LIC bought heavy stakes in a number of public sector companies when they went for their IPO. These include New India Assurance Company in November 2017, General Insurance Corporation in October 2017, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. in March 2018 and of course in its acquisition of loss-making state-run IDBI Bank. By September 2019, the LICs equity holdings in IDBI had fallen to Rs 10,967 crores from Rs 21,624 crores about a year ago. Such gross injustices to the LICs financial position due to the governments interference is sheer callousness on its part given that the LIC deals with peoples savings. The problem is that the LIC is one of those companies in India which is just too-big-to-fail. And unlike in the United States, the Indian government might not be able to save it, given its sheer size. So when it does fail, it will take the Indian economy down with it.

ONGC is also reeling under a mountain of debt, after the BJP-led governments interference brought matters to a head. Not long ago, ONGC was among Indias richest PSUs that was virtually debt-free, but has been reduced to a shadow of its former self by the current dispensation. ONGC is now cash-strapped and under a mountain of debt due to high dividend pay-outs and unnecessary acquisitions. In March 2018, ONGCs cash reserves were at their lowest since March 2001, and had registered a drop of more than 90 per cent in just one financial year. The government basically treats ONGC as its cash cow, expecting it to declare dividends whenever the government is looking to plug a fiscal shortfall. In FY-18, ONGC had to pay its highest dividend till then of Rs 8,470 crore, further imperilling its financial position.

However, this is not it. Two decisions that almost dealt a death blow to ONGCs financial position were its bailout of the debt-ridden Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) and the buy-out of the Central governments stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL). The GSPC investment turned out a dud due to limited production in its KG basin gas block. And because it could not acquire HPCL fully, it had to take on Rs 35,000 crore worth of debt from three private banks and four public sector banks, all of which could turn into NPAs because ONGC is struggling to service these loans. Not only will ONGCs downfall imperil banks, but it would also endanger Indias energy security, which is already under pressure due to sanctions on Iran and the wider tensions in the Middle East.

The story at FCI, which is the agency that manages the procurement and distribution of food grains and administers the Food Security Act, is no different. FCI has witnessed its debt treble since the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014. With no income stream of its own, FCI is completely reliant on budget allocations from the Union government for servicing its debt. Debt levels have grown from Rs 91,409 crore in March 2014 to Rs 2.65 lakh crore in March 2019, which is an increase of over 190 per cent. This is because the BJP-led government at the Centre had been budgeting much less than the required food subsidy amount, leading to FCI borrowing from the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF) to fill the gap. By the end of FY-19, FCI debt through the NSSF alone had ballooned up to Rs 1.91 lakh crores. Citizens below the poverty line benefit from the FCIs food grain distribution. As India further slips on the Hunger Index, on which it is already placed at 102nd among 117 countries  FCI may well become among the first public sector titans to turn into a NPA.

That is why I had commenced the discussion on the Union Budget by asking the finance minister to articulate whether the government believes that the public sector should exist in India or not.
Reaction follows Erdogan comparing Kashmir to Battle of Gallipoli.

New Delhi: A day after Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared the situation in Jammu-Kashmir to the Battle of Gallipoli, and talked about oppression in the Union Territory, the Indian government issued a strong statement asking him not to interfere in its internal affairs and develop proper understanding of the facts.

Reacting sharply to Mr Erdogans comments and rejecting his remarks on Jammu & Kashmir, India said the biggest threat to the region is due to terrorism emanating from Pakistan.

India rejects all references to Jammu & Kashmir, which is an integral and inalienable part of India. We call upon the Turkish leadership to not interfere in Indias internal affairs and develop proper understanding of the facts, including the grave threat posed by terrorism emanating from Pakistan to India and the region, ministry of external affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said on Saturday.

Mr Erdogan during his address in Pakistans Parliament on Friday had compared the struggle of Kashmiri people with that of fight by Turkish people against foreign domination during the World War I.

In his speech, Mr Erdogan mentioned Kashmir several times and went on to say that the Kashmir issue can be resolved not through conflict or oppression but on the basis of justice and fairness.

Events that happened a hundred years ago in Canakkale in Turkey are being repeated in Indian occupied Kashmir and Turkey will continue to raise its voice against the oppression, he said adding, Turkey will continue to stand by justice, peace and dialogue in the resolution of the Kashmir issue Today, the issue of Kashmir is as close to us as it is to you (Pakistanis), while reiterating Turkeys support for Kashmiris.

Mr Erdogan had also said, No distance can build a wall between the hearts of believers. If there is torture against any believers in the world, its our duty to help them Our Kashmiri brothers and sisters have suffered from inconveniences for decades and these sufferings have become graver due to unilateral steps taken in recent times.

Kashmir had also figured in Turkey-Pakistan Joint Declaration.

A strong ally of Pakistan, India-Turkey relations have taken a dip due to its repeated statements on Kashmir. Last October, Prime Minister Narendra Modis proposed trip to Ankara was called off after Mr Erdogan irked India by criticising it on Kashmir at the United Nation General Assembly.

Pakistan is trying to ramp up support among Islamic nations on the Kashmir issue and Turkey and Malaysia have been vocal in backing it.
The latest issue of the Oregon Historical Quarterly draws a bright line from the 19th-century arrival of whites in Oregon country to the May 26, 2017, stabbings on a Portland MAX train.

The quarterly, a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal published since 1900 by the nonprofit Oregon Historical Society, devotes its 268-page Winter 2019 special issue to articles detailing white supremacy and resistance throughout Oregon history. An editors note from one of the issues guest editors, Portland historian and educator Carmen P. Thompson, says the MAX stabbings were the catalyst for the issue.

Jeremy Christian, who killed two men and critically wounded a third on a MAX train at the Hollywood Transit Center in Northeast Portland, has been on trial since Jan. 28 on charges of murder and attempted murder. He also faces assault and hate-crime charges arising from his racist and xenophobic rant moments before the stabbings, and his speech and behavior toward a black woman the day before on another MAX train.

The issues cover features a photo of the memorial that sprang up following the stabbings, and the issue is dedicated to the men Christian stabbed: Ricky Best and Taliesin Namkai-Meche, who died, and Micah Fletcher.

The dedication page of the Winter 2019 issue of the Oregon Historical Quarterly, which has the theme White Supremacy & Resistance.Amy Wang/Staff

Eliza Canty-Jones, editor of the quarterly, said she received 18 article proposals in response to a call for proposals that specified topics such as pioneer-era white supremacy, native experience since contact/statehood, labor history, organized white supremacist/nationalist groups and organized resistance work and leaders, among others.

The published articles examine the racial consequences of the Oregon Donation Land Claim Act, Oregon abolitionism, racial discrimination in Portlands World War II shipyards, the 1988 murder of Ethiopian graduate student Mulugeta Seraw by white supremacist skinheads in Portland, and more. Interspersed among the articles are visuals that hammer home the theme: a table summarizing citizenship status and voting and property rights by race and ethnicity; a 1910 Oregonian headline that reads, St. Johns Mayor and 8 Indicted; True Bills Returned Against Men Accused of Riots Against Hindus; a 1949 letter marketing Lake Oswego properties that assures recipients, Property definitely restricted to the white race.

Thompson, a member of the quarterlys editorial advisory board, said her vision for the issue was to help readers understand that there is this history that has not been fully talked about.

She said she wanted to help create a discussion within a scholarly framework that really helps open the eyes of readers and the public to what (white supremacy) means. Its not simply a cross burning or somebody going around in robes.

Thompson said she was 100 percent satisfied with the final product: It means everything to me.

This is deep-seated, deep, deep, deep, deep work that just cannot be accomplished in an hour or 15 minutes of discussion, she said. These are words that people were saying, things that people were doing, laws and policies that were going on. Theres consequences to that.

Fellow guest editor Darrell Millner, professor emeritus and former head of the Black Studies Department at Portland State University, and an expert on the early history of African-Americans in the West, said of the issue, Its a capstone to all of the research and teaching and writing Ive done over a 40-year career.

He said he jumped at the opportunity to work on the issue because it was a chance to offer an alternative version of Oregon history to the traditional narrative that has been out there for so long.

We were especially committed to including the degree to which violence has been part of that story of white supremacy in Oregon, Millner said, as well as to providing an opportunity for people to understand the ongoing resistance to white supremacy that has been part of the Oregon story as well.

That story, Millner said, isnt about dividing history into a contest between black and white, as so often happens, but into a contest between right and wrong.

Canty-Jones said response to the issue had been mostly positive. One reader sent a handwritten note that began, More thanks than I can say, accompanied by a $100 donation. But another reader wrote that devoting a special edition to the latest progressive bete noire was not a good choice, adding that the topic was of passing interest to only a few.

Kerry Tymchuk, executive director of the Oregon Historical Society, disagreed with that sentiment. I am very proud of the special issue, and believe it is one that all Oregonians should read, he said.

Thompson, reflecting on what she called groundbreaking work, said, Theres more to be said, but the fact that you can make a big statement that really does open up that dialogue and lay the foundation to that, thats what Im really proud of.

Said Millner, When I came to the subject matter over 40 years ago, it was essentially submerged  what I think weve been able to do is to bring this topic and this approach to the surface so that its visible and available for people.

Its important to view this particular effort not just in the context of looking at the past but looking forward to the future, he said. One of our objectives  was to contribute to an understanding of Oregon history that can never return to the old channels.

The special issue costs $10 and is available at the historical societys gift shop, 1200 S.W. Park Ave., or by calling 503-306-5230.

awang@oregonian.com; Twitter: @ORAmyW

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.






BERLIN  Volkswagen said it will compensate owners of its heavily polluting diesel vehicles in Germany in a settlement that will cost the German carmaker $899 million (830 million euros).

In 2015 VW was caught by regulators using manipulated engine management software to mask excessive pollution levels in its diesel cars, sparking a raft of prosecutions and lawsuits.

The offer comes despite a breakdown in talks with German consumer association VZBV, which had been in negotiations with VW about reaching a settlement deal.

"The failure of settlement talks with Consumer Association VZBV should not come at the expense of customers," VW said in a statement, adding that all customers who had registered for compensation with VZBV would be eligible for the settlement.

VW said it had declined to reach a settlement with VZBV, blaming excessive demands for 50 million euros in fees by lawyers representing the consumer organizations.

VZBV said talks had failed because the carmaker had not guaranteed a system of redress which was adequate for consumers, adding it would continue to press for a settlement on VZBV terms through German courts.

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Hyundai chief Chung Eui-sun (right) poses for a photo with U.S. Under Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes in front of the Nexo hydrogen fuel-cell electric car at the U.S. Energy Department building in Washington on Monday. /Newsis

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Hyundai has formed a partnership with the U.S. government to develop hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.

Hyundai said on Tuesday it signed a memorandum of understanding to work with the U.S. Department of Energy.

It is widely seen as a move to lay the groundwork to further expand the carmaker's business there, as the auto market is rapidly changing due to the rise of autonomous vehicles and self-driving cars.

Under the partnership, Hyundai will provide its hydrogen-powered Nexo SUVs and help set up charging stations in Washington D.C.

The two sides will also increase cooperation in many fields such as gathering transportation and research data, conducting relevant training and running other programs to improve hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.
Representatives from 130 countries will discuss the priorities for conservation of migratory species for the next decade at the 13th Conference of Parties (COP) to the Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) in Gujarats Gandhinagar from February 17 to 22.

The CMS is an international agreement signed under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme in 1979 to conserve migratory species within their migratory ranges.

At a high-level segment, a day before the conference on Sunday, Union environment, forestry, and climate change minister Prakash Javadekar said, This is 2020 and we want this year to lay the foundation for what is to come in the next one decade. We will be celebrating this year as the super year for biodiversity.

The focus on preserving biodiversity, especially migratory species, comes after a UN report last year warned that around one million animal and plant species face extinction, many within decades. The rate of species extinction is accelerating, found the report by Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

The discussions at the CMS-COP 13 will focus on international cooperation for maintaining and restoring ecological connectivity and species-based conservation efforts.

We are losing biodiversity at an unprecedented rate. Ecological connectivity allows migratory species the freedom of movement and provides habitats to support their needs. An essential element is that countries cooperate for shared conservation goals. The current strategic plan that covers this decade, which will come to an end this year, does not include actually any commitment that countries will work together. It will be helpful if the strategy that comes out at the end of this year includes a commitment to work across political boundaries, said Amy Fraenkel, executive secretary, CMS. CMS is about species and we hope to see a strong species-goal of end targets included in the post-2020 framework.

The high-level segment discussed the zero draft of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, acknowledging that ambitious targets were needed to conserve biodiversity.

Speaking about the target of protecting 30% of land and sea areas by 2030 mentioned in the zero draft, Jochen Flasbarth, German state secretary at the ministry for environment, nature conservation and nuclear safety, said, What we need is the highest ambition on biodiversity. We have to target to stop the loss. When it comes to climate change, we have made ambitious targets like bringing down the warming target to 1.5-degree C from 2-degree C. We should have more ambition on biodiversity as well. Otherwise, we are losing the capital stock of our planet. We support 30 by 30. But, in a way, they are too conservative for me.

India has prepared a draft declaration focussing on the CMS priorities for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. It affirms the commitment to the sustainable management of migratory species and their habitats, promotion of international cooperation, addressing conservation needs of the endangered species. The draft recommends better synergies between various biodiversity-related conventions such as Convention on Biological Diversity, Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora.

The Gandhinagar declaration will be a historic one and will include suggestions and recommendations from here. This high-level segment will feature a special dialogue on the convention of migratory species priorities for 2020, said Javdekar.

The Gandhinagar declaration will be transmitted to the open-ended working group on the post-2020 and the Convention on Biological Diversity COP 15 in October.

The COP in Gujarat is the largest ever, with 3,200 people registering for it till Sunday. The six-day conference will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi through a video address.

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The advice was delivered in a beach-side gazebo on a private island in the Caribbean: if you need a private banker, talk to Jes Staley.

The speaker was Jeffrey Epstein, the remarks captured on tape in 2003, long before Epstein was accused of sexually abusing and trafficking hundreds of young women and girls on that very island.

Now, six months after his death in a Manhattan jail cell, his 15-year relationship with Staley has once again come to the fore. Today Staley is chief executive officer of the venerable Barclays Plc, and British authorities want to know more about the banker's ties to the mysterious financier who became an infamous symbol of wealth, privilege and abuse.

"It's clear in my own mind, going all the way back to 2015 when I joined Barclays - I have been very transparent with the bank and have been very willing and open to discuss the relationship that I had with him," said Staley (63).

Barclays has said the CEO retains the "full confidence" of the board.

Still, much hinges on the outcome of the investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which started inquiries last summer after press reports revealed the links between the men, a person familiar with the process said. The FCA opened a formal probe in December into how Staley characterised his relationship with Epstein.

The turmoil at Barclays is the latest indicator of how the late paedophile has haunted elite financial and social circles ever since he was found dead in his Manhattan cell. He was arrested on sexual trafficking charges in July and accused of abusing and exploiting dozens of girls.

Those who have been on the defensive include Leslie Wexner, the billionaire behind Victoria's Secret, who until Epstein's first arrest in Florida more than a decade ago relied on him to manage money. Then there is Glenn Dubin, who last month announced he would retire from his hedge fund, and Prince Andrew, who was forced to step back from royal duties after a disastrous TV interview in which he tried to explain his friendship with the convict.

Staley reiterated last week that he had known Epstein since 2000, when he was head of JPMorgan Chase's private bank and was told to strike up a professional relationship with the financial adviser. Epstein regularly brought Staley business and vice versa.

"They know they can call up and ask me, you know, there's an opportunity here and might take a very large sum of money, $100m or more, whatever the number may be," Epstein bragged to journalist David Bank in 2003. "And I can give them an answer by the end of the telephone call."

Around that time, Epstein and Staley traded calls at least every few months, according to telephone records which have been obtained by Florida prosecutors.

UK regulators have received a batch of emails between the men dating to the time Staley was at JPMorgan which suggested the pair's relationship was closer than Staley has claimed, according to the Financial Times, which cited people familiar with the matter without identifying them.

Epstein introduced Staley to Dubin, a connection that helped Staley arrange JPMorgan's acquisition of a majority stake in Dubin's hedge fund, Highbridge Capital Management, in 2004.

The deal elevated Staley within the bank, turbo-charging his career, which culminated in him emerging as a candidate to succeed Jamie Dimon. Ultimately Staley left JPMorgan in 2013 and, after a brief stint at hedge fund BlueMountain Capital Management, was named CEO of Barclays in 2015.

Yet even after Epstein's 2008 guilty plea for soliciting prostitution, in one case with a minor, Epstein stuck by his long-time client. Staley visited while Epstein was serving his time behind bars, according to the New York Times.

The pair were close enough in 2015 for Staley and his wife to stop off for lunch on Epstein's island while they were on a sailing holiday.

Staley said his relationship with Epstein "began to taper off as I left JPM and contact became much less frequent in 2013, 2014," before ending in 2015, after his visit to the island and before he took up his role at Barclays.

The beginning of his tenure at Barclays was marked by another scandal after Staley repeatedly and improperly attempted to unmask the identity of whoever sent letters to members of the bank's board and another executive. After a year-long regulatory probe, Staley kept his job, though the FCA and Prudential Regulation Authority said he failed to behave "with due skill, care and diligence".

For now, investors are signalling support for the executive, who has overseen a 25pc share price drop since he took over as CEO in 2015.

"Barclays is probably in a better position today than a few years ago, but these investigations are a continuing distraction," said Alan Beaney, chief executive at RC Brown Investment Management, which has held Barclays shares since 2012.

"The board may eventually think this guy is tarnished and decide at some stage that the bank will be better off without him. At the current time, they fully support him," said Beaney.

Staley is adamant he has been fully transparent with Barclays. But, like others drawn into Epstein's orbit, he admits to poor judgment.

"I thought I knew him well and I didn't," Staley said this week.

"With hindsight of what we all know now, I deeply regret having had any relationship with Jeffrey Epstein."
CBS anchors Gayle King and Norah O'Donnell will be the two main moderators for the upcoming Democratic debate in South Carolina, the network announced Wednesday.

Why it matters: The Feb. 25 debate in Charleston, South Carolina, is the final one before the South Carolina primary on Feb. 29 and Super Tuesday on March 3. The debate will run from 8-10 p.m. ET. It will air live on CBS, BET and Twitter, with the Congressional Black Caucus Institute joining CBS News as partners.

The debate will also see both billionaire candidates  former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former hedge fund manager Tom Steyer  take the stage together for the first time.

The hosts:

CBS News' Gayle King and Norah O'Donnell will moderate. They will be joined for questioning by Margaret Brennan, Major Garrett and Bill Whitaker.

The criteria:

Candidates must receive at least 10% in four polls approved by the DNC, 12% in two South Carolina polls, or win at least one pledged delegate to the Democratic National Convention from Iowa, New Hampshire or Nevada.

The qualifying window for polls begins on Feb. 4 and ends a minute before midnight ET on Feb. 24.

The candidates who have qualified:

Go deeper: Phoenix to host Democratic debate in March

Editors note: This post has been corrected to show that the South Carolina debate will be held Feb. 25 (not Feb. 23).
More than two dozen demonstrators with flags and signs are gathered at the P.E.I. side of the Confederation Bridge in support of the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs.

The demonstrators set up on a median at the road leading to the bridge on Sunday afternoon. Traffic was slowed in the area, but vehicles were able to proceed.

P.E.I. RCMP are on scene. However, they said Sunday afternoon the demonstration was peaceful and their presence was to help direct traffic.

Kyler Peters, from Lennox Island First Nation, is one of the demonstrators. He said he wanted to take part in the growing movement.

What Islanders and Canadians need to understand is that these protests happening across the country, and now in P.E.I., are about more than just the Wet'suwet'en situation. - Epekwitk Assembly of Councils

He said the initial goal was to stop transport trucks, not passenger vehicles, but it wasn't doable given the number of demonstrators.

"We are not here to have the people against us, just the Canadian government and companies," he said.

Peters said some people planned to spend Sunday night at the bridge and remain until Monday afternoon.

Rosanna Kressin, also at the event, and is with the group Masses Against Capitalist Oppression.

"It's really needed that the local Mi'kmaq people here are supported," Kressin said.

"What's happening with the Wet'suwet'en nation right now is symbolic, I guess, of systematic colonial violence that's been perpetuated to Indigenous people."

Sarah MacMillan/CBC

Statement from Epekwitk Assembly of Councils

In a statement on behalf of the Epekwitk Assembly of Councils, Chief Darlene Bernard and Chief Junior Gould said they support the peaceful protest, but that the issue is complex.

"We respect the environmental concerns raised by the Wet'suwet'en hereditary Chiefs and we also acknowledge and respect the decisions made by over 20 First Nations, including most Wet'suwet'en First Nations, that have signed impact benefits agreements with [Coastal GasLink] and currently support the pipeline."

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The statement addressed the importance of the matter being resolved peacefully and "within the law."

"What Islanders and Canadians need to understand is that these protests happening across the country, and now in P.E.I., are about more than just the Wet'suwet'en situation.

"They are about centuries of Canada's Indigenous people being denied access to the land and resources, they are about centuries of economic and social marginalization."

Submitted by Patricia Bourque

Opposition to Coastal GasLink

Sunday's event follows a gathering of about a hundred demonstrators at Province House in Charlottetown on Saturday afternoon.

Demonstrations have cropped up across the country in support of the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs, who oppose the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline on their territory in northern British Columbia.

RCMP enforced a B.C. Supreme Court injunction and made a number of arrests last week, sparking demonstrations across the country.

Sarah MacMillan/CBC

Representatives from 20 First Nations along the pipeline route  including the elected chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en  signed agreements with Coastal GasLink consenting to the project. However, the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs say those councils were established by the Indian Act and only have authority over reserve lands.

Members of the Mohawk First Nation in eastern Ontario were into their 10th day of protest Saturday in support of the hereditary chiefs. The blockade, near Belleville, prompted CN Rail to close its Eastern Canadian freight train network, and Via Rail has cancelled passenger trains nationwide because of demonstrations taking place along or on railway tracks.

More from CBC P.E.I.
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has said that the current rate of population growth poses a threat to the nation

Egypt is on high alert to combat population growth, the cabinet has said, as the country looks like it will pass the 100 million-population mark this week.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly held a meeting on Friday with a number of ministers to follow up with family planning efforts nationwide, describing overpopulation as the biggest challenge facing the state, according to a cabinet statement released on Friday.

Madbouly said the government will launch a new programme to control population growth and family planning, urging relevant ministers to prepare a comprehensive working paper on the issue.

He said the state is currently undertaking a number of related measures on subsidies, limiting them to two children per family for newborns, whether through subsidies or the Takaful and Karama cash transfer programmes.

The country's population reached approximately 99,945,000 at 10am on Saturday, according to official figures.

That number excludes Egyptians abroad, estimated at over 9 million people.

Since 2017, Egyptian officials have described the country's rapid population growth as a "catastrophe" that threatens national development plans and demands immediate attention, just like the country's war against terrorism.

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has repeatedly said that the current rate of population growth poses a threat to the nation and restricts Egypt's progress.

Last year, Egypt launched a two-year initiative called "Two Is Enough," to encourage people to have fewer children.

The social solidarity is providing EGP 75 million in funding and the UN EGP 10 million.

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In the past three years, the Israeli government has approved plans to improve conditions in East Jerusalem, designating nearly $50 million to upgrade waste and sewage systems as well as enhancing transportation and adding classrooms. There has also been a push for more Arab schools to adopt the Israeli curriculum, including Hebrew instruction, a move some residents say is an effort to erase Palestinian identity. Despite resistance from some in Israel, there has also been an easing of the process for approving building permits, allowing a slight uptick in construction on the eastern side of the city.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said this week she is encouraging companies to make Election Day on Nov. 3 a company holiday.

I am encouraging companies, actually, to declare for their employees Election Day to be a holiday, enabling their employees to work as poll workers, Benson said.

She praised Wayne State University for recently announcing such a move.

In an email to the campus community this week, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Keith E. Whitfield said Nov. 3 is a university holiday, with no classes held and only essential employees reporting to work.

We hope that faculty, staff and students will take advantage of the Election Day holiday to exercise their civic duty and participate in these important national elections, Whitfield wrote.

Thats the direction we should be moving in, Benson said.

In the legislature, Rep. Darrin Camilleri, D-Brownstown, has a bill to make regularly-scheduled election days in May, August and November state holidays.

When the state makes days like Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Presidents Day state holidays, he said, many other businesses end up following suit.

His dad is a UAW autoworker who has traditionally gotten Election Day off as part of the contract the union negotiated, he said.

I think that we want to make it as broad as possible, as easy as possible for people to participate in our elections, Camilleri said.
MUNICH  With backing from several influential Republican lawmakers, U.S. President Donald Trump is requesting a 20 percent increase in the budget for the federal agency that oversees the countrys nuclear weapons stockpile, which falls under the Department of Energy.

Energy Secretary Dan Broulliette  a former lobbyist for Ford Motor Company, and the deputy secretary until he was confirmed in December  is supporting the National Nuclear Security Administrations $19.8 billion budget, which must still receive congressional approval.

Heres part of his conversation with reporters on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

Why hasnt the Trump administration made a decision about whether to extend New START, the only treaty that constrains U.S. and Russian nuclear forces, set to expire next year? What engagement with the Chinese on arms control has there been here, and whats the dialogue between administration officials and European diplomats?

Ive heard bits and pieces of conversations in the hallway about perhaps bringing the Chinese into a larger conversation around START. Id have to defer to my colleagues at the State Department and other places as to whether or not that makes sense, or whether there is even interest on the part of the Chinese in doing something like that.

I fully suspect  or, Im optimistic, if you will  that were going to get to some agreement worldwide with the Russians and others on a new agreement. What that looks like and when that occurs is not something that I can really comment on with any sort of precision or insight.

The NNSA budget proposes a 20 percent increase. Could you talk a little bit about the justification for that increase and where the additional $2 billion would go? Much has been made about it being funded by the subtraction of one Virginia class submarine from DoDs budget request.

Well, the precise accounts where DoD pulled the additional funds from to cover the increase, I dont want to say precisely because I dont know. I can tell you that DoD is covering the cost for this increase. And I can tell you the purpose of the funding is to not only continue the life-extension programs already underway, its to build out perhaps more aggressively the infrastructure around the NNSA complex  Oak Ridge National Laboratory in particular.

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We look at the lithium processing facility, we at look the need for tritium down the road, and we look at the timetables in which we need them  its very important that we start now. And the president made the decision that he wanted to move up these projects and start them now. So thats been our direction. Thats been our mission. And thats what were going to do.

In order to do that we are going to front load some of this funding and work with Congress to achieve a $19.8 billion dollar request. How [lawmakers] react to it well know in a couple weeks when the hearings start. Well know even further when the appropriators put the pen to the paper as to whether or not theyre actually going to appropriate the funds. But it is our request.

We think weve made a strong case, especially with regard to the infrastructure, that the work needs to start now, or were going to be in a position in five or 10 years that were going to regret.

The Department of Energy has some role in the analysis of Iranian nuclear intelligence. Whats your take on where the situation stands right now, whether theres any kind of follow-on in the works to the Iran nuclear deal, or JCPOA? Wheres Iran at, wheres the administration at?

We do play an important role. We work closely with our colleagues in the interagency process, all of the three-letter agencies as well as others who collect information. We provide the technical analysis through our laboratory system as to whether or not these things are accurate.

The state of play, in Iran now is that what you see in the open source reporting is concerning. [Senior Iranian leaders] announced that they want to increase enrichment. We think that theyre serious about that threat. To the extent that they are, we will validate whether thats true or not. And, you know, from the standpoint of American policy, the maximum pressure campaign will in fact, continue.

I think what were starting to sense is more and more interest in the part of the Europeans and others, to collectively come together and address the issue of not only JCPOA, but the other activity that we see all throughout the Middle East, primarily driven by Iran. The most recent attacks in Saudi Arabia are the latest example and perhaps maybe the most dramatic example.

But the cyber activity in Europe is beginning to be a concern to many of the countries here. If that continues, I think youre going see an additional effort on the part of the Europeans to come together and look at a post-JCPOA approach to Iran.

As the concerns go up, I think the anxiety levels go up. And the time to act is now.

What signs are you getting from European allies here?

You know, after the attack in Abqaiq [a Saudi oil-processing facility], we saw a short spike in oil pricing worldwide. But it came right back down, so the economic impact was not nearly as large [as it could have been]. But with cyberattacks in particular, were starting to see very targeted, very, very direct, very effective efforts to shut down portions of a banking system or shut down portions of the telecommunication system.

When that happens, the effects are acute, and theyre noticed. I think its starting to draw attention in places like Berlin and places like London, other places here in Europe, where its going to force some activity and force some conversations.
Ivanka Trump, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, praised Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Feb. 16 for taking on significant reforms to expand womens rights.

We know that when women are free to succeed, families thrive, communities flourish, and nations are stronger, Trump, the daughter of the president, said in the keynote address at the Global Womens Forum in Dubai.

Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, hold senior advisory roles at the White House. The 38-year-old mother of three has led a number of womens empowerment initiatives at home and abroad. Some of her efforts have gained bipartisan support in Washington.

In the speech in Dubai, Trump touted the progress of women in the United States under the Trump administration.

Today, American women are leading in every aspect of society. Last year, there were more women than men in the United States workforce, with women securing over 70 percent of new jobs, she said in her address.

Trump congratulated Saudi Arabia for recent changes in the law that allow women to travel abroad and obtain a passport without the permission of a male relative. In 2018, a ban on women driving cars was lifted. The changes, spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, are part of a wide-ranging push to transform the Saudi economy and attract greater foreign investment.

Trump also lauded a handful of other Middle East nations: Bahrain for introducing legislation against discrimination in the workplace, Jordan for eliminating legal restrictions on womens ability to work at night, Morocco for expanding womens land rights, and Tunisia for introducing laws to address domestic violence.

She noted, however, that more work needed to be done, pointing out that women across the region on average still have only half the legal rights of men.

Trump lauded Emirati leaders for removing barriers to women joining the workforce and developing a national strategy that recognizes that women are central to sustainable growth.

She noted that although 70 percent of Emirati university graduates are women, only 10 percent of the UAEs total national income is derived from women.

We know that this going to grow and flourish in the years ahead, she said.

The audience for Trumps speech included Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, World Bank President David Malpass, and International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva.

The Dubai ruler is wildly popular at home and is seen as a modernizing force. He has, however, faced some criticism abroad concerning womens rights following reports that one of his daughters tried to flee the country and was forcibly returned.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia were early supporters of the Womens Empowerment Fund, a World Bank initiative to help female entrepreneurs that Ivanka Trump supports. During the first trip abroad of her fathers presidency to Saudi Arabia, the two Gulf countries pledged $100 million to the fund.

During her two-day visit to the UAE, Trump met with women entrepreneurs and discussed a U.S. government project shes leading thats aimed at helping women in developing countries. The Womens Global Development and Prosperity Initiative was launched last year with backing by the president.

On the day prior to the speech, Trump toured Abu Dhabis grand mosque, visited the Abu Dhabi branch of the Louvre Museum, and met with the countrys day-to-day ruler, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From The Epoch Times
Cyrell Paule and Eden Dally have welcomed their first child together.

The former Married At First Sight star, 30, gave birth to a baby boy on Sunday, February 9. The couple have not decided on a name for their bundle of joy and are calling him 'bub' in the meantime.

Announcing the child's arrival on Monday, Cyrell told New Idea magazine the birth had been a 'traumatic' experience.

Congratulations! Cyrell Paule and Eden Dally have welcomed their first child together

Cyrell had been rushed to hospital two weeks before her due date. She gave birth to a healthy 3kg baby after a four-hour labour.

'I probably took every drug you could take during labour,' she said.

'I ended up getting cut as well, and because I genuinely couldn't push anymore, he also had to get suctioned out.'

Eden, 27, who appeared on the first season of Love Island Australia in 2018, was by his girlfriend's side throughout the ordeal.

Baby Dally! The Married At First Sight star, 30, gave birth to a baby boy - whom the couple are calling 'bub' until they decide upon a name - on February 9. Pictured during her pregnancy

'I'll never be going through that again': Announcing the child's arrival on Monday, Cyrell told New Idea magazine the birth had been a 'traumatic' experience

The feisty reality star, who was nicknamed 'Cyclone Cyrell' on MAFS last year, has vowed to never have another child because the pain was 'so bad'.

But in the week since the child's arrival, the couple are starting to bond with 'bub'.

Cyrell and Eden are 'already obsessed' with their son, whom they claim takes after his father because he 'doesn't have a loud mouth' like his mother.

One is enough! The feisty reality star, who was nicknamed 'Cyclone Cyrell' on MAFS last year, has vowed to never have another baby because the pain of childbirth was 'so bad'

It comes after a challenging few months for the reality TV lovebirds.

Cyrell announced she had split from Eden in late October, saying they both wanted 'different things' and couldn't make their relationship work.

But they put their differences aside and reconciled in December.

'We're having a baby together and at the end of the day, first and foremost, our priority is our son and we always want to be a family,' Cyrell said at the time.

Eden added: 'I want our son to be in a happy family... it's not long now only two months, it's just flown.'

On and off: Cyrell announced she had split from Eden in late October, saying they both wanted 'different things' and couldn't make their relationship work. They later reconciled in December

They first met in March 2019, after Cyrell's 'marriage' to Nic Jovanovic on MAFS ended when they decided they were better off just friends.

The pair began dating officially within a matter of weeks, and Cyrell later moved into Eden's $2.9million family home in Drummoyne, Sydney.

They announced they were expecting their first child together in August.
Let me set the scene.

The city of Newark, N.J., is on fire and under siege as race riots break out and blacks demand equality during what history has termed The long hot summer of 1967.

People were being killed; there was looting, property being destroyed, windows busted out, cars turned over  and over it all, the cries of rage from black voices who were tired of unemployment, housing discrimination, lack of opportunity and ongoing poverty could be heard.

Cops and military men were walking the streets and were positioned on rooftops with weapons drawn. A curfew was in full effect.

That was the scene as my mother, brother, two sisters and I were walking rapidly because we were running late getting home from the supermarket.

We were about two blocks from home when we were aggressively stopped.

Have you ever been held in place by law enforcement with military-style weapons trained on you  while overhead, cops with the same type of weapons had you in their crosshairs?

Have you ever had to stand and watch helplessly while a cop pointed a weapon at your mother with his finger on the trigger? Do you have any idea what message that sends when you are young, impressionable and part of what some considered an inferior race when all you want is a better life?

While inspecting our grocery bags, my mother reminded the cops they were pointing their weapons at children.

It doesnt matter to me that police were doing their job; what mattered to me was they pointed a gun at my mother. It was terrifying and an image my brother, sisters and I have never forgotten.

And that is the problem with curfews: Everybody is a suspect  and it will be no different in Bridgeport. City officials recently announced it would resurrect and enforce its youth curfew to curb teen violence after a rash of shootings.

The curfew, which affects those 18 years old and younger, runs from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. on weeknights and midnight to 6 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

It may be a hallelujah moment for city officials and concerned members of the public, but they might want to hold the chorus.

According to well-respected organizations and think tanks such as the Brookings Institute, the Marshall Project and many, many others, not only do curfews not work, but studies suggest they could be counterproductive to public safety.

I think it is just a knee-jerk reaction that is going to do more harm than good to our children, because thats what teenagers are. They are children, said Bridgeport Board of Education member Joseph Sokolovic.

I talked to Sokolovic, as well as Councilman Ernest Newton, on Wednesday while taping my podcast, Real talk, Real people.

If children were nurtured and had a place to go where they felt safe to open up and talk to people, or they had after-school activities, children wouldnt be on the street, Sokolovic said.

On the face of it, a curfew sounds like a good thing. With bullets flying everywhere, kids lying dead on the street, how can any effort to make the streets safer be dismissed?

But not this one. It is a bad move and I agree with the American Civil Liberties Union that it is a violation of constitutional rights.

Still, we clearly have a problem and must find solutions. But that solution cannot lie in taking away rights and blaming all youth for the countrys ongoing failure to deliver the promise of America to all neighborhoods throughout the country.

Bridgeport Police Chief Armando Perez told Hearst Connecticut Media that police tracked trends of minors using stolen cars when they do a shooting, steal other cars or commit a home invasion.

And with new slap-on-the-wrist juvenile laws in place, it is getting difficult to hold them accountable.

We have 13-, 14-, and 15-year-old kids stealing cars because they know the law cant do anything to them, Newton said. And I think with whats going on now with how the laws have changed for our youthful young people, the City Council felt it was necessary to implement this.

But, as usual, the whole thing is convoluted with everything from fines for parents to having teens walk around with permission slips like theyre living in a foreign country and have to show papers on demand.

But Newton has a point. These kids are not dumb.

They are smart enough to figure out the odds are stacked against them, just as they were stacked against their parents and grandparents.

Theyre smart enough to figure out they are low-income, and as far as society is concerned, they have little value and their circumstances make them fodder and whipping boys for all social ills.

And most of all, theyre smart enough to figure out that the adults and alleged role models who come down so hard on them, are led away to jail every day for breaking the law. And though it applies, that is not a reference to Newton.

Perez said, A lot of these kids dont see a future.

Maybe that is because we dont offer them one that doesnt come with the nearly impossible task of climbing out of poverty.

But there is another, more personal reason I am against the curfew.

I have written numerous times about how brutal my childhood was. What I havent written is that there was no help, no one I could turn to, no one I could talk to about the abuse. There was no such thing as mental health services for blacks in those days, and access in 2020 is still minimal.

So, I walked at night. I walked and I walked. From one city to another, from one town through another, I walked because I could fade into the night.

And under that darkness, where no one could see and judge me, I cried and talked to myself. I knew no one was coming to my rescue and I didnt know how to save myself. I screamed at the world for the pain I was in and raged against myself for letting it happen.

I walked and walked for years and I healed as best as I could  and if I hadnt, you would not be reading these words today or hearing my voice Monday on my podcast.

And with the horrors and social pressures that many children are facing today, I have to believe that many are doing the same thing.

Memories are stored for a reason and I have come to believe that mine are so I can tell another side to the story. Because those stories are seldom told or heard.

Curfew? Resurrecting failure never works.

James Walker is the host of the podcast, Real talk, Real people. Listen at https://anchor.fm/real-talk-real-people. He can be reached at 203-605-1859 or at realtalkrealpeoplect@gmail.com. @thelieonroars on Twitter
U.S. Secretary of Defence Mark Esper warned that Beijing is moving further outside the international order and that allies using Chinese technology risk undermining NATO.

Under the leadership of Xi Jinping, China is heading even faster and further in the wrong direction  more internal repression, more predatory economic practices, more heavy-handedness, and, most concerning for me, a more aggressive military posture, Esper said at the Munich Security Conference Saturday.

Esper and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo dialed up the rhetoric on China after a more junior official said on Friday that there was no threat of retribution against allies that used equipment from Huawei Technologies Co.

The U.S. has warned that partners using Huawei hardware in their 5G telecommunications networks could put military and intelligence relationships at risk because of the danger of Beijing accessing their communications.

If you dont understand the threat and we dont do something about it, at the end of the day, it could compromise what is the most successful military alliance in history: NATO, Esper said.

The U.S. and China have been locked in a trade war during the administration of President Donald Trump and are competing for economic influence and military advantage in the Asia-Pacific region. Their inability to co-operate on the coronavirus is one sign of how much the relationship has deteriorated over the past few years.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi challenged the U.S. view when he spoke later.

All these accusations against China are lies, he said. The U.S. does not want to see the rapid development and rejuvenation of China, still less, the success of a socialist country. Chinas drive toward modernization is an inevitable trend of history and will not be held back by any force.

While Trump often touts his relationship with Xi, competition between the countries has only deepened since they signed their phase-one trade deal last month. The U.S. this week charged members of Chinas military over one of the biggest data thefts in American history.

The U.S.s hardline stance over Huawei has strained relations with its European allies, who have found themselves caught up in the power play between China and Washington.

Pompeo sought to push back against the idea that Trumps America First policy has made the U.S. an unreliable partner, telling the gathering that the demise of transatlantic partnership is grossly exaggerated.

He singled out statements from the last few years by senior officials from Canada, Germany and France suggesting that the U.S. is no longer interested in global leadership.

Im sure there are a lot of folks here who would call themselves foreign policy realists, Pompeo said. Let me give you an idea of whats real: The West is winning.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, one of Trumps staunchest critics, was also present. In a rare example of agreement with the president, she too warned of the danger of allowing Huawei hardware into mobile networks.

The U.S. raised the stakes in its fight with Huawei this week, charging the telecommunications equipment company with racketeering to engage in intellectual property theft. A company representative said the new charges are without merit and are based largely on recycled civil disputes.

Pompeo irked China with another speech this week in which he warned U.S. state governors that their pension funds could be investing in companies that help Chinas military and repress Muslims in its western Xinjiang region. Chinas ambassador to the U.S., Cui Tiankai, said the accusation is totally wrong.

Esper has made the Asia-Pacific region a key focus for the Pentagon since taking office. He wants to redeploy U.S. forces from other areas, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa, to confront a growing military competition with China.

The U.S. recognizes this critical challenge as we adapt and prepare our forces to deal with China in this new era of great power competition, Esper said.

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A strategic project to erect an anti-cut 'steel fence' along the Indo-Bangladesh border to bring down cross-border crimes and killings is hanging fire as the frontier force of that country is yet to give its nod, officials in the security establishment said.

The single-row fence, with loops of concertina wires on top, is to be erected by India



on vulnerable and infiltration-prone stretches along both its eastern (Bangladesh) and western (Pakistan) fronts.

While the modern fence will essentially help to curb infiltration of terrorists and smuggling of arms and contraband from across the Pakistan border, along the Bangladesh front it will also help to resolve a major issue of border killings of nationals of both sides as human movement here is not fully restricted, a senior Home Ministry official said.

The fence, which costs Rs 2 crore per kilometre, is anti-cut, anti-climb and anti-rust and hence will not allow criminals from either side to carry out their activities.

When the Border Security Force (BSF) stops these crimes along the eastern front, they are attacked upon resulting in deaths or injuries on both the sides, the official said.

Official figures state while 107 Indian smugglers or criminals have been killed in violent conflicts with the BSF at this border between 2010-19, 135 Bangladeshi nationals indulging in crime were killed during the same time period.

About 18 Bangladeshis have been killed in such instances this year.

Eleven BSF troops have also been killed and 960 injured while thwarting these attempts (2010-19) in more than 1,890 incidents.

"The BSF has made it amply clear to its counterpart BGB or Border Guards Bangladesh that our mandate is to ensure the sanctity of the border and criminals have no nationality. The BGB also agrees to this."



"If nationality of those who get killed or injured in violent confrontations is at all to be considered, there are considerable number of deaths of Indian nationals too," Shubhendu Bhardwaj, BSF spokesperson at its headquarters in Delhi told PTI.

He added that keeping these challenges of border crimes in mind, the BSF has proposed erecting a new anti-cut fence in vulnerable patches of the border few years back but a final nod by the BGB is still awaited.

A'pilot project' of this new fence is also being run at a 7 km stretch in Assam's Silchar along this border.

However, the Home Ministry official said any concrete work on the international border can only be done after the other side is on board.

At the Bangladesh border the aim is to cover about 96 km, out of the total 4,096 km frontier, with the new fence to start with, the official said.

The new fence has been designed keeping in mind the challenge of Bangladeshi criminals cutting the existing one for illegal activities like human trafficking and smuggling.

When these crimes are stopped by BSF troops, the criminals attack them with stones, sticks, sharp-edged weapons and sometimes with crude bombs.

The Union government had directed the BSF to adopt the strategy of using non-lethal weapons in 2011 to bring down border killing incidents but the move is now being seen as counter-productive by security officials.

"The criminals have been emboldened to attack a BSF patrol or troops as they know that the personnel will first use non-lethal weapons to disperse them and will use lethal weapons or regular rifles only when there is a very serious threat to their life," the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
They found no cash, but there was alcohol. Front and back windows at Gays the Word, which became the UKs first gay bookshop when it was opened in 1979 and which featured in the film Pride, were smashed last Sunday. But after ransacking the shop and drinking a bottle of tequila left on the premises after a member of staffs birthday, the burglars were caught by police in the stores kitchen drinking prosecco.  The Guardian (UK)
Furious victims of Jamaican criminals whose deportation was blocked by a judge last week have spoken of their horror that their attackers could soon be free to roam the streets of Britain.

The Mail on Sunday tracked down a teenager who said he had been forced to move house twice after he was sexually assaulted by career criminal Roan Samuels, 39, for fear of bumping into him on the street.

This newspaper also spoke with a woman who was abducted by rapist Fabian Henry.

She says she 'won't rest' until her tormentor has been kicked out of the country.

The Mail on Sunday tracked down a teenager who said he had been forced to move house twice after he was sexually assaulted by career criminal Roan Samuels, 39, (pictured) for fear of bumping into him on the street

Judges ruled last Monday that dozens of 'serious criminals'  including Samuels and Henry  could not be deported to Jamaica following last-minute legal challenges by Left-wing activists.

Between them, the criminals  also including killers and drug dealers  had been sentenced to an astonishing 136 years in prison in the UK.

Samuels, who lived in Sheffield where he has a young daughter, has 19 convictions which include attacking a police officer, possession of a knife, destruction of property and producing class B drugs.

But one who DID go back says: 'Mi feel good... deh a foreign too long' A Jamaican criminal who was deported from the UK last week declared joyfully: 'I am happy because I wanted to come home.' Some of the deportees had said their lives would be at risk if they returned home. But The Gleaner newspaper reported that one man stepped off the plane in Kingston and said: 'Mi feel good to reach home. Deh a foreign too long... I was in prison, locked up. I am ready to live my life.' The ex-prisoner declined to reveal his crime or length of his sentence but said he was last home in 1992. The man was among 17 former prisoners who failed to halt their deportation. The newspaper reported that he borrowed a police officer's phone to call his brother to pick him up while most of the other 16 deportees hid their faces. The criminals, who had committed a range of offences, arrived at a barracks in Kingston. Last February, another 29 Jamaican convicts were deported  including a murderer and sex attackers. By Jake Ryan Advertisement

He was sentenced to four years in jail in December 2017 over four offences of sexual activity with a 14-year-old boy who was the son of a friend.

Last night, the boy, now aged 18, said: 'I'm really shocked because my mum had been told by a friend he would be deported when he was released from prison. We didn't know he had appealed against the deportation order.

'I knew he had served half the sentence he was given and that he was supposed to be coming out in December last year. When he went to prison, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders and since then I have just wanted to move on with my life.

'We have moved house twice since it happened because we didn't want to be anywhere near where he had lived when he came out of prison.

'After what happened, I was just frightened and overcome with anxiety and depression. I had to be home schooled because I couldn't leave the house for six months.

'I can't really understand what he's still doing in this country.'

Sexual predator Henry avoided deportation despite being jailed for 12 years in 2013 for raping a 17-year-old girl and for abducting and sexually attacking a 15-year-old while on bail.

The 15-year-old victim, now 22, said he had even bombarded her with messages from behind bars in the past two years. The mother-of-two said he also phoned her mobile for months after his release and begged to meet up with her.

She said: 'Even after all these years and after everything he did to me, he is still torturing me. I have been to the police to make a complaint but they say there's nothing they can do.

'They refused to investigate when he contacted me from prison because they said there was no way he would have access to a computer in jail.

'No one contacted me to warn me when he was released from prison. He just started phoning me one day  about a year and a half ago  and making my life hell.

'I just hope and pray now that he is deported very soon. I won't rest or feel safe until I know he's been kicked out of the country.'

A woman who was abducted by rapist Fabian Henry (pictured) says she 'won't rest' until her tormentor has been kicked out of the country

Another would-be deportee, Fitzroy Daley, was sentenced to ten years behind bars after stabbing Eric Paul, 50, to death in a scuffle outside a pub.

In all, 25 criminals were given a reprieve because of mobile phone signal problems at the two detention centres  Colnbrook and Harmondsworth  near Heathrow.

The Court of Appeal ruled that the problems meant they did not have sufficient access to legal support.

The deportation of dozens of other offenders was also blocked after a range of legal challenges.

Government sources said they feared the criminals staying in Britain could be granted bail within days and released from immigration centres.

Seventeen deportees did leave on the flight to Jamaica.

Some claim they are now in hiding in the country over fears they will be targeted by gangsters.

Father-of-three Rupert Smith, 32, told the Guardian that he 'had his life taken away' after being deported because he received a 15-month sentence for attacking a man with a wrench.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: 'We will be urgently pursuing the removal of those who were prevented from boarding the flight.'
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday assured people that he will work for everyone irrespective of religion or caste, and dubbed residents of Delhi as his family.

"Elections are over, it does not matter who you voted for, now all Delhiites are my family. I will work for everyone, be it from any party, any religion, caste or strata of society," said Kejriwal addressing a massive gathering at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan.

Dedicating his massive victory in the Assembly polls to people of Delhi, Kejriwal said; "This is not my win, this is the victory of every Delhiite, of every family. In the last five years, our only effort has been to bring happiness and relief to the life of every Delhiite.

The Chief Minister said he is everyone's leader, including the supporters of BJP and the Congress.

"Party affiliation never stopped me from working for everyone," he added.

Kejriwal was on Sunday sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Delhi for the third time in a row at Ramlila Maidan here, after his party registered a massive victory in the recently concluded Delhi Assembly polls.

Kejriwal was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal.The AAP nearly repeated its 2015 performance in the elections, sweeping the Assembly polls winning 62 seats in the 70-member Assembly, in the face of a high-voltage campaign by the BJP, which fielded a battery of Union Ministers and Chief Ministers in its electioneering spearheaded by Home Minister Amit Shah.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The new Northern Ireland secretary travelled on helicopter flights last year worth more than 24,000 and paid for by a major property development firm.

Brandon Lewis took to the air five times in seven months at a cost of up to 10,000 a trip, all covered by English midlands firm Gallagher Developments Group Ltd.

On most of the trips the former barrister travelled in his capacity as chairman of the Conservative Party, a role he stood down from in July last year.

The donations were declared on the register of members' interests by the 48-year-old MP for Great Yarmouth.

In addition to his 79,468 salary as an MP, Mr Lewis will be paid a ministerial salary of 70,137 as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Warwick-based Gallagher Developments specialises in building large, out-of-town retail and business parks.

Last May, the former housing minister declared flights paid for by the firm from "London to West Midlands via Wales, and then from North East Lincolnshire to London. A member of staff accompanied me on a leg of this journey", worth a total of 10,015.08.

The following month, Mr Lewis travelled on "return helicopter flights from Manchester to Carlisle. The helicopter flights were donated to the Conservative Party and I travelled as party Chairman, along with three other party employees. My share of the costs was 779.20".

Less than a month later he was back in the private chopper, this time from Nottingham to Cardiff.

According to his entry on the register: "The helicopter flight was donated to the Conservative Party and I travelled as party Chairman, along with two other party employees.

"My share of the costs was 1,436."

In September, Mr Lewis took a flight from London to his constituency of Great Yarmouth, also paid for by Gallagher Developments Group, costing 5,982.

He took the same flight in December, also paid for by the company and again costing 5,982.

Among other donations declared by Mr Lewis was 19,000, paid in monthly instalments of 1,500, from Bateman Groundworks Ltd between November 2018 and November 2019.

The Norwich firm describes itself as "East Anglia's leading suppliers of roads, sewers and groundworks to national and regional developers and contractors".

Mr Lewis also registered 20,000 from Residential Land, one of the largest private residential landlords in central London, last June.

Last July he also received 17,000 from Woodlands School, a private prep school in Brentwood in Essex.

While in November he was given 15,000 by Countywide Developments Ltd, which shares an office with Gallagher Developments Group.

In the recent general election Mr Lewis stormed home with a majority of 17,663 votes ahead of the Labour candidate in the staunchly pro-Brexit seat, though he campaigned for remain in the referendum.

In the poll, 71% of those who voted in Great Yarmouth opted for Brexit and Mr Lewis now fully supports the UK's withdrawal from the European Union.

Earlier this month Mr Lewis picked up a CBE, one of several politicians given gongs by former Prime Minister Theresa May in her resignation honours list.
The length of time Sydney homeowners have to wait for development applications to be assessed has fallen by weeks in many areas where councils have installed the NSW government's online system for lodgements.

Following a trial over the past year, the government plans to require 42 local councils in Sydney, Illawarra, Newcastle and the Central Coast in 2020 to roll out the ePlanning tool.

The technology allows homeowners and developers to lodge their application online, instead of providing paper documents to councils.

The online portal has helped cut assessment times for development applications. Credit:James Alcock

It also means the public can view a development application less than a day after it is lodged with a council, instead of having to wait six to 18 months.
For Afreen Khan, a Delhi University student who came in early from east Delhi to attend the swearing-in of AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday, one of the best parts of his speech was when he referred to the issue of women's safety.

Kejriwal, who took oath as the Chief Minister of Delhi for the third successive time, in his address asserted that the people of Delhi have "given birth to a new kind of politics" which is focussed on development.

The AAP supremo said the "new politics" is about work, building schools, round-the-clock electricity supply and women's safety, among other issues.

"I voted in this elections thinking about women's safety," Afreen told PTI.

"I have come here with three of my college friends as we really wanted to attend the event. I am glad I was able to witness the occasion," she said.

Afreen was accompanied by her friends Neha, Nisha and Shagufta, all in their early 20s and students of a Delhi University college.

Shagufta said she liked Kejriwal's speech which touched on a wide ambit of issues that concern citizens.

"The CM even said he has forgiven his rivals who had said unsavoury things about him before the elections. That was really large-hearted of him to do. Who forgives anyone in politics today. It's is all cutthroat," she said.

Noor Jehan and Mumtaz Ansari, both in their early 40s, came from Maujpur-Babarpur and were happy to attend the event, albeit a bit late.

"We came a little late but were able to hear Kejriwal's speech. We had voted for AAP and we came because as women we wanted to say 'Shukriya' (thank you) to CM Kejriwal," Jehan said.

Both women who are neighbours said they came all by themselves, while the men were taking care of their children at home.

"I have a son who has special needs. My husband is taking care of him so that I could come," Ansari said.

Jehan said she came because the "kind of hatred" that was being "spread during the election campaign by a party" was also defeated in the elections.

"I attend Shaheen Bagh protests and at other places too. A struggle was being used to polarise people for votes," she said.

A group of transgenders also showed up at the swearing-in ceremony.

"We are here to thank him (Kejriwal)," one of them said.

"Yes, I voted and I expect that Kejriwal will work for ensuring our rights too, and that we face no discrimination," said 36-year-old Runa, a transgender, flashing her inked finger.

She said she hails from Kolkata but has been living here for the last 15 years to earn a living.

Several thousands of people from different parts of the country attended the oath-taking event at the Ramlila Maidan here.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Hyundai Venue BS6 diesel will come with the same engine as in the Kia Seltos, but in a lower state of tune.

The Hyundai Venue is one of the most demanded products from the South Korean brand and is a well-rounded package in the growing sub-four-metre compact-SUV segment, in the Indian automotive market. The vehicle is still in its BS4 format and now, we have received confirmation that the Hyundai Venues BS6 diesel avatar will borrow the engine from the Kia Seltos in a lower state of tune (mostly without a Variable Geometry Turbo or VGT).

Bookings for BS6 Hyundai Venue have now opened. The petrol Hyundai Venue retains the same petrol engines: 1.2-litre Kappa NA four-cylinder and 1.0-litre T-GDi turbo three-cylinder; but in BS6 avatars. The Indian automotive industry is busy updating products to BS6 specifications and the Hyundai Venue is relatively late to the party. Vehicles from all major categories are mandated to be BS6-compliant by 1 April 2020.

At present, the Hyundai Venue comes at a starting price of around Rs 6.55 lakh for the base petrol variant and Rs 7.80 lakh for the entry-level diesel model. The prices mentioned here are ex-showroom and are bound to see a hike in the case of the updated Hyundai Venue BS6 (especially for the diesel variant).

The Hyundai Venue BS6 diesel trims get a few additional features as well. While all four E, S, SX and SX(O) trims get AMS (Alternator Management System), the latter two gets TPMS (Tyre Pressure Monitoring System) and USB charging. This applies only to the DCT format of the SX trim. AMS is a new feature. It is a technology that will cut-off charging of battery, once it is fully charged. This will increase battery life.

Coming to the updated specifications, the petrol engines are expected to produce similar output figures as their BS4 counterparts while the new 1.5-litre diesel makes close to 100bhp and 230Nm of torque (it churns out 113bhp and 250Nm in the Kia Seltos). The diesel-powered Venue will come only with a 6-speed manual transmission.

In the current BS4 format, the 1.2-litre NA petrol motor is good for 83bhp and 115Nm. The top-of-the-line 1.0-litre turbo petrol unit generates 120bhp and 170Nm of torque. While the lesser petrol motor comes mated only to a 5-speed manual, the turbocharged unit can be opted with either a 6-speed manual or a 7-speed DCT.

As mentioned before, the Hyundai Venue is one of the best products in the segment and many are waiting to get it in the updated BS6 format. It mainly rivals the Tata Nexon, Mahindra XUV300 and of course, the segment-leading Maruti Suzuki Brezza.
The United States Department of Education has launched an investigation into Harvard University and Yale University. Earlier this month, the agency announced the schools had failed to report hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign gifts and contracts.

Yale University is in New Haven, Connecticut. It may not have reported at least $375 million in foreign money over the last four years, officials said in a statement. They are also concerned that Harvard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, may not have fully met reporting requirements.

This is about transparency, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said in a statement. If colleges and universities are accepting foreign money and gifts, their students, donors, and taxpayers deserve to know how much and from whom.

Federal law requires most colleges and universities to report gifts from and contracts with foreign sources twice a year, if the amount is more than $250,000.

Reed Rubinstein is the head of the Education Departments legal team. He recently sent a letter to Yale President Peter Salovey. The letter accused the university of not reporting "a single foreign source gift or contract" from 2014 to 2017. Yet the school operates in many countries.

The letter requested all records from the school related to gifts or contracts from Saudi Arabia, Saudi nationals, China, Huawei Technologies and ZTE. Huawei and ZTE are two major Chinese technology companies that aim to provide worldwide systems for the high-speed phone and internet network called 5G. The companies were placed on a U.S. sanctions list last year. The U.S. has said Huawei is a national security threat, and President Donald Trump has been highly critical of the company.

Reed Rubinstein sent a similar letter to Harvard President Lawrence Bacow. Rubinstein said the Education Department knew of information suggesting Harvard University lacks appropriate institutional controls."

The letter comes shortly after an investigation into Charles M. Lieber, the head of Harvard Universitys chemistry department. Leiber was charged with lying to federal officials about financial support, or grants, he had received from China. The Education Department requested all records linked to the Thousand Talents recruitment program and the Wuhan University of Technology. These Chinese organizations gave him the grants.

Lieber was arrested on January 28 and released early this month on a $1 million bond.

The investigation of Yale and Harvard is part of a larger examination by the Department of Education. The agency says since July its enforcement efforts have led to the reporting of nearly $6.5 billion in formerly undisclosed foreign money. Much of that money came from China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

This sum may be significantly underestimated, the education department said.

Karen Peart is a spokeswoman for Yale University. She confirmed the school had received a request from the department for records of some foreign gifts and contracts under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

We are reviewing the request and preparing to respond to it, Peart told reporters.

Harvard spokesman Jonathan Swain made a similar confirmation. He said that the school had received a "Notice of Investigation" from the agency and was also preparing an answer.

Last year, the department also sent letters to several other schools. They included Georgetown University, Texas A&M University, Cornell University, Rutgers University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Maryland. Department officials wrote that they were seeking records dating back as far as nine years ago. Their requests included records of agreements with groups and governments in countries like China, Qatar, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

A year ago, a U.S. Senate committee on investigations described foreign spending on U.S. schools as a black hole. It revealed that fewer than 3 percent of 3,700 higher education institutions that received foreign money reported receiving gifts or contracts over $250,000.

But some experts argue blame for this "black hole" should not fall on colleges and universities alone. In July, the American Council on Education, or ACE, which represents hundreds of colleges and universities, wrote a letter to the Education Department. ACE's senior vice president for government relations, Terry W. Hartle, pointed out the rules governing these gifts are over 30 years old. He added that the department has never made an effort to make the rules clearer.

"It isunfair to enforce requirements that do not exist in writing," Hartle wrote.

Im Dorothy Gundy.

And Im Pete Musto.

Pete Musto adapted this story for VOA Learning English using materials from Reuters, the New York Times and NPR. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

Quiz - US Investigates Foreign Influence at Two of Its Top Universities Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

________________________________________________

Words in This Story

contract(s)  n. a legal agreement between people or companies

transparency  n. the quality that makes something obvious or easy to understand

deserve  v. used to say that someone or something should or should not have or be given something

network  n. a system of lines, wires or other technology that are connected to each other

sanction(s)  n. an action that is taken or an order that is given to force a country to obey international laws by limiting or stopping trade with that country or by not permitting economic aid for that country

appropriate  adj. right or suited for some purpose or situation

institutional  adj. describing an established organization

bond  n. the amount of money that someone promises to pay if a prisoner who is permitted to leave jail does not return later for a trial or to prison

undisclosed  adj. not made known to the public

significantly  adv. in a way that is large or important enough to be noticed or have an effect
The Delhi Police on Sunday (February 16) clarified that the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protesters at Shaheen Bagh protesters will not be allowed to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah in a large group.

The police, however, said they have asked the protesters to form a delegation which wants to meet Shah on Sunday and they will try to arrange a meeting. "We have asked protesters (#ShaheenBagh) that who all are in the delegation which wants to meet HM Amit Shah today so that we can plan a meeting but they said that they all want to go. We have denied that but we will see what we can do," said Delhi Police in a statement.

On Saturday (February 15), the protesters at Shaheen Bagh had said that they will march toward Shah's residence on Sunday at 2 pm to hold discussions with him over CAA.

The protesters made the announcement a day after Shah said in a TV interview that he is open to hold discussions over the CAA with anyone, including the protesters of Shaheen Bagh. The Union Home Minister, however, had also said that those who want to meet him can get in touch with his office and they will get an appointment to meet him within three days.

Notably, the Shaheen Bagh protesters had not sought an appointment with Shah but they are saying that since the protest is not being led by any single person they cannot form a delegation. The protesters also said that since it is a people's protest everyone has the right to meet Shah because he is the Home Minister of all of us.

Live TV

For its part, Ministry of Home Affairs sources, too, had denied that a meeting was scheduled between the Home Minister and the Shaheen Bagh protesters.

The protest at Shaheen Bagh against the Citizenship Amendment Act has been continuing for the past nearly two months and has gained national attention. Hundreds of women and children have been staging protests at the site ever since the Rajya Sabha approved the Citizenship Amendment Act in December 2019. The protestors have also expressed reservations about National Population Register and are opposed to any move towards the National Register of Citizens.

The Citizenship Amendment Act grants citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Parsi, Buddhist and Christian refugees who came from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh on or before December 31, 2014.
Alleged misuse of police against



political opponents, 'failure' in getting the state's share of central funds and Anand Singh's appointment as forest minister are expected to be raised by opposition parties in a likely stormy first session of the Karnataka legislature in 2020, beginning here on Monday.

The session will commence with Governor Vajubhai Vala addressing the joint sitting of the legislative assembly and council on the first day and conclude on February 20.

It will then meet for the budget session from March 2, with the state budget being presented on March 5.

It will go on till March 31.

This will the first budget of the BJP government after coming to power last year, while for Yediyurappa,who holds the Finance portfolio, this will be his fifth budget presentation.

SpeakerVishweshwar Hegde Kageri has decided to hold a special discussion on March 2 and 3 to commemorate 70 years since the adoption of the Constitution.

Though his expectation is that the discussion should focus on the intent, specialty of the constitution and MLAs to take part in it,rising above party politics,there are apprehensions that issues like CAA and NRC may figure in the debate.

Kageri has also made it clear that the bar on media from telecasting House proceedings will continue in this session also and that the public broadcaster, like in the previous one, will provide live feed to private TV channels.

He has said he was merely implementing the system that exists in Parliament, being followed in several other states.

The session will also be the first after the December 5 bypolls that saw 11 of the 13 disqualified Congress-JD(S) legislators winning on BJP tickets after defecting from their respective parties, and ten of them being made Ministers.

"We wanted to enter the very assembly from which were were disqualified, as Ministers.

Most of us will now be entering as Ministers, after reelection," a newly elected Minister said.

While BJP will face the session with a sense of stability after the bypolls and keeping up the promise of making winning defectors Ministers, opposition parties, especially Congress, which has termed the government ineffective, are expected to corner it on the alleged poor state of finances and "failure" in getting Karnataka's share of central funds on time, despite having the same party government at the Centre.

Congress is also likely to target the government accusing it of targeting BJP's opponents and those criticising its "divisive policies".

The principal opposition party had indicated it will raise the issue in the assembly.

The party had taken out a protest march and attempted to lay siege to Chief Ministers office on Saturday.

Alleging that false cases were being filed under sections like sedition against political opponents and those opposing CAA and NRC like Congress leader U T Khader and a student from Mysuru University, Opposition leader Siddaramaiah has pointed out that ruling party leaders like Somashekara Reddy and Anant Kumar Hegde were not booked, despite "inflammatory speeches".

The opposition is also likely to raise the issue of alleged attempts by police to hush up a road mishap case, reportedly involving a Minister's son, in which one person was killed in Ballari district.

Anand Singh's appointment as Minister for Forests,Ecology and Environment, despite several cases pending against him, including under the Karnataka Forest Act, is also likely to be raised by the opposition to attack the government.

The opposition too is faced with its "weaknesses" ahead of the session, as Congress continues to remain in a "virtual vacuum" with new President and Legislature Party leader yet to be announced, and JD(S) too allegedly facing internal differences after the fall of the coalition government.

Though Siddaramaiah resigned as CLP leader after the party's rout in the bypolls,he is expected to continue as leader of the opposition during the session as his resignation has not yet been accepted by the Congress high command.

Six Bills are expected to be tabled during the session, including an amendment to the Lokayukta Act, to allow the incumbent Lokayukta to recuse from looking into a case that involves conflict of interest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
What is the coronavirus?

A coronavirus is a type of virus which can cause illness in animals and people. Viruses break into cells inside their host and use them to reproduce itself and disrupt the body's normal functions. Coronaviruses are named after the Latin word 'corona', which means crown, because they are encased by a spiked shell which resembles a royal crown.

The coronavirus from Wuhan is one which has never been seen before this outbreak. It has been named SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. The name stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2.

Experts say the bug, which has killed around one in 50 patients since the outbreak began in December, is a 'sister' of the SARS illness which hit China in 2002, so has been named after it.

The disease that the virus causes has been named COVID-19, which stands for coronavirus disease 2019.

Dr Helena Maier, from the Pirbright Institute, said: 'Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that infect a wide range of different species including humans, cattle, pigs, chickens, dogs, cats and wild animals.

'Until this new coronavirus was identified, there were only six different coronaviruses known to infect humans. Four of these cause a mild common cold-type illness, but since 2002 there has been the emergence of two new coronaviruses that can infect humans and result in more severe disease (Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronaviruses).

'Coronaviruses are known to be able to occasionally jump from one species to another and that is what happened in the case of SARS, MERS and the new coronavirus. The animal origin of the new coronavirus is not yet known.'

The first human cases were publicly reported from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where approximately 11million people live, after medics first started publicly reporting infections on December 31.

By January 8, 59 suspected cases had been reported and seven people were in critical condition. Tests were developed for the new virus and recorded cases started to surge.

The first person died that week and, by January 16, two were dead and 41 cases were confirmed. The next day, scientists predicted that 1,700 people had become infected, possibly up to 7,000.

Where does the virus come from?

According to scientists, the virus almost certainly came from bats. Coronaviruses in general tend to originate in animals  the similar SARS and MERS viruses are believed to have originated in civet cats and camels, respectively.

The first cases of COVID-19 came from people visiting or working in a live animal market in Wuhan, which has since been closed down for investigation.

Although the market is officially a seafood market, other dead and living animals were being sold there, including wolf cubs, salamanders, snakes, peacocks, porcupines and camel meat.

A study by the Wuhan Institute of Virology, published in February 2020 in the scientific journal Nature, found that the genetic make-up virus samples found in patients in China is 96 per cent identical to a coronavirus they found in bats.

However, there were not many bats at the market so scientists say it was likely there was an animal which acted as a middle-man, contracting it from a bat before then transmitting it to a human. It has not yet been confirmed what type of animal this was.

Dr Michael Skinner, a virologist at Imperial College London, was not involved with the research but said: 'The discovery definitely places the origin of nCoV in bats in China.

'We still do not know whether another species served as an intermediate host to amplify the virus, and possibly even to bring it to the market, nor what species that host might have been.'

So far the fatalities are quite low. Why are health experts so worried about it?

Experts say the international community is concerned about the virus because so little is known about it and it appears to be spreading quickly.

It is similar to SARS, which infected 8,000 people and killed nearly 800 in an outbreak in Asia in 2003, in that it is a type of coronavirus which infects humans' lungs. It is less deadly than SARS, however, which killed around one in 10 people, compared to approximately one in 50 for COVID-19.

Another reason for concern is that nobody has any immunity to the virus because they've never encountered it before. This means it may be able to cause more damage than viruses we come across often, like the flu or common cold.

Speaking at a briefing in January, Oxford University professor, Dr Peter Horby, said: 'Novel viruses can spread much faster through the population than viruses which circulate all the time because we have no immunity to them.

'Most seasonal flu viruses have a case fatality rate of less than one in 1,000 people. Here we're talking about a virus where we don't understand fully the severity spectrum but it's possible the case fatality rate could be as high as two per cent.'

If the death rate is truly two per cent, that means two out of every 100 patients who get it will die.

'My feeling is it's lower,' Dr Horby added. 'We're probably missing this iceberg of milder cases. But that's the current circumstance we're in.

'Two per cent case fatality rate is comparable to the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918 so it is a significant concern globally.'

How does the virus spread?

The illness can spread between people just through coughs and sneezes, making it an extremely contagious infection. And it may also spread even before someone has symptoms.

It is believed to travel in the saliva and even through water in the eyes, therefore close contact, kissing, and sharing cutlery or utensils are all risky. It can also live on surfaces, such as plastic and steel, for up to 72 hours, meaning people can catch it by touching contaminated surfaces.

Originally, people were thought to be catching it from a live animal market in Wuhan city. But cases soon began to emerge in people who had never been there, which forced medics to realise it was spreading from person to person.

What does the virus do to you? What are the symptoms?

Once someone has caught the COVID-19 virus it may take between two and 14 days, or even longer, for them to show any symptoms  but they may still be contagious during this time.

If and when they do become ill, typical signs include a runny nose, a cough, sore throat and a fever (high temperature). The vast majority of patients will recover from these without any issues, and many will need no medical help at all.

In a small group of patients, who seem mainly to be the elderly or those with long-term illnesses, it can lead to pneumonia. Pneumonia is an infection in which the insides of the lungs swell up and fill with fluid. It makes it increasingly difficult to breathe and, if left untreated, can be fatal and suffocate people.

Figures are showing that young children do not seem to be particularly badly affected by the virus, which they say is peculiar considering their susceptibility to flu, but it is not clear why.

What have genetic tests revealed about the virus?

Scientists in China have recorded the genetic sequences of around 19 strains of the virus and released them to experts working around the world.

This allows others to study them, develop tests and potentially look into treating the illness they cause.

Examinations have revealed the coronavirus did not change much  changing is known as mutating  much during the early stages of its spread.

However, the director-general of China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Gao Fu, said the virus was mutating and adapting as it spread through people.

This means efforts to study the virus and to potentially control it may be made extra difficult because the virus might look different every time scientists analyse it.

More study may be able to reveal whether the virus first infected a small number of people then change and spread from them, or whether there were various versions of the virus coming from animals which have developed separately.

How dangerous is the virus?

The virus has a death rate of around two per cent. This is a similar death rate to the Spanish Flu outbreak which, in 1918, went on to kill around 50million people.

Experts have been conflicted since the beginning of the outbreak about whether the true number of people who are infected is significantly higher than the official numbers of recorded cases. Some people are expected to have such mild symptoms that they never even realise they are ill unless they're tested, so only the more serious cases get discovered, making the death toll seem higher than it really is.

However, an investigation into government surveillance in China said it had found no reason to believe this was true.

Dr Bruce Aylward, a World Health Organization official who went on a mission to China, said there was no evidence that figures were only showing the tip of the iceberg, and said recording appeared to be accurate, Stat News reported.

Can the virus be cured?

The COVID-19 virus cannot be cured and it is proving difficult to contain.

Antibiotics do not work against viruses, so they are out of the question. Antiviral drugs can work, but the process of understanding a virus then developing and producing drugs to treat it would take years and huge amounts of money.

No vaccine exists for the coronavirus yet and it's not likely one will be developed in time to be of any use in this outbreak, for similar reasons to the above.

The National Institutes of Health in the US, and Baylor University in Waco, Texas, say they are working on a vaccine based on what they know about coronaviruses in general, using information from the SARS outbreak. But this may take a year or more to develop, according to Pharmaceutical Technology.

Currently, governments and health authorities are working to contain the virus and to care for patients who are sick and stop them infecting other people.

People who catch the illness are being quarantined in hospitals, where their symptoms can be treated and they will be away from the uninfected public.

And airports around the world are putting in place screening measures such as having doctors on-site, taking people's temperatures to check for fevers and using thermal screening to spot those who might be ill (infection causes a raised temperature).

However, it can take weeks for symptoms to appear, so there is only a small likelihood that patients will be spotted up in an airport.

Is this outbreak an epidemic or a pandemic?

The outbreak was declared a pandemic on March 11. A pandemic is defined by the World Health Organization as the 'worldwide spread of a new disease'.

Previously, the UN agency said most cases outside of Hubei had been 'spillover' from the epicentre, so the disease wasn't actually spreading actively around the world.
TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES -- A sexual abuse prevention presentation may have led to the arrest of a Crossville man, according to DeKalb County Sheriff Nick Welden.

Russell Banks, 31, was arrested Thursday and charged with sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12, the sheriff said in a press release. A student reported the alleged abuse by a family member after the Family Services of North Alabama made an educational presentation at a school within the county.

An investigation followed and the suspect was interviewed, leading to the arrest. He is being held in the DeKalb County Detention Center. Bond has not be set.

"This is a great job by our investigative team in quickly resolving this case," Welden said. "Our utmost priority will always be protecting the children of our county.

"I'd also like to thank Family Services of North Alabama for doing what they do. Having organizations like them active in our schools is a great resource for our investigators and crucial for protecting our children," he said.

"If it wasn't for educating our young people, some might not realize that this behavior is not OK. This gives us the opportunity to stop it before it turns in to something worse," said the sheriff.



2020 The Gadsden Times, Ala.

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Sources say that Mr Bhatnagar will work in consultation with K. Vijay Kumar, senior security adviser in the home ministry.

The Modi sarkar is likely to cut down on foreign training of bureaucrats under the Domestic Funding of Foreign Training (DFFT) policy due to the rising cost of sending babus abroad.

In 2018-19, the government spent `60 crores on training 332 bureaucrats, which is more than half of the annual training budget of the department of personnel and training (DoPT).

Under the policy, babus go to top global universities such as Cambridge and Harvard, among others, for long and short-term courses at the governments expense.

Now the DoPT has written to all cadre authorities stating that the DFFT policy will be overhauled, with emphasis on integrated training, getting reputed foreign trainers to India, training lessons through video conferencing and sending fewer babus for foreign training and then getting them to retrain officers in India. Clearly, austerity measures such as this indicate that we are in for a spell of belt-tightening in the Modi sarkar.

Of SEBI chiefs term

The Modi sarkar is likely to cut down on foreign training of bureaucrats under the Domestic Funding of Foreign Training (DFFT) policy due to the rising cost of sending babus abroad.

In 2018-19, the government spent `60 crores on training 332 bureaucrats, which is more than half of the annual training budget of the department of personnel and training (DoPT).

Under the policy, babus go to top global universities such as Cambridge and Harvard, among others, for long and short-term courses at the governments expense.

Now the DoPT has written to all cadre authorities stating that the DFFT policy will be overhauled, with emphasis on integrated training, getting reputed foreign trainers to India, training lessons through video conferencing and sending fewer babus for foreign training and then getting them to retrain officers in India. Clearly, austerity measures such as this indicate that we are in for a spell of belt-tightening in the Modi sarkar.

Cops miffed in J&K

Officials in Jammu and Kashmir Police are upset with lieutenant governor G.C. Murmus recent decision to give sweeping powers on security-related matters to his newly appointed adviser R.R. Bhatnagar. More pertinently, the ire is over the controversial move to give Mr Bhatnagar over the transfer of officials from the rank of station house officers (SHO), deployment of paramilitary forces and armed units of the state police force.

Sources say that Mr Bhatnagar will work in consultation with K. Vijay Kumar, senior security adviser in the home ministry. Interestingly, Mr Kumar, a 1975-batch Tamil Nadu IPS officer, moved to New Delhi since he was allegedly reluctant to serve under Mr Murmu, who is 10 years junior to him. Mr Bhatnagar is a former director-general of the CRPF but hasnt served in Jammu and Kashmir. Many senior cops say that despite his experience of heading the CRPF, Mr Bhatnagar has no experience of a counter-terrorism operation in the Union territory.

Further, it is believed that one reason the government decided to give Mr Kumar sweeping powers is due to the performance deficit of senior police officers after the abrogation of Article 370. Another could be that the Centre wants to remain in charge when it comes to dealing with security matters in J&K.
In order to maintain the integrity of the Constitution, we must always be mindful to adhere to it. In order to amend the Constitution legislatively, a resolution must be proposed and receive two-thirds support in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. After this step, the proposed amendment must be ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures. In 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment, which would amend the Constitution to guarantee equal rights regardless of sex (already enshrined by the 14th Amendment), passed the House and Senate and proceeded to the next step to be ratified by the states. However, the resolution proposing the ERA to the states explicitly provided a seven-year deadline for state ratification.

Last week the House debated H.J. Res. 79, a resolution to retroactively remove the 1979 deadline for ratifying the ERA. This proposal has serious consequences as it not only revives the expired resolution, but also does not require the codified two-thirds majority needed to amend the Constitution. Even Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has stated since the ERA deadline expired, the process for proposing the amendment must start over as well. Although I find myself rarely agreeing with Ginsberg, the case is clear and I voted against this resolution. H.J. Res. 79 passed in the House with a vote of 232-183, not close to a two-thirds majority.

We do not move our country forward by working around the Constitution. Instead, we must live up to the Constitution and use it as a guide for our laws. I took an oath to uphold this treasured document and all that it entails, and I will continue to be unwavering in my support for it.
In the past few years the repetitive refrain has been that educational outcomes in Australia are stagnant; and the policy response has been to ramp up the focus on standardised testing.

It is not just the outcomes that are stagnant but the education debate itself.

The problem is that NAPLAN has moved from being a mechanism to check the pulse of one part of the education system, to being the reason that schools exist.

Improved NAPLAN results have become the purpose of education.

Despite the fact that it only deals with literacy and numeracy, NAPLAN has become the surrogate arbiter of educational standards in all aspects of education.
The cruise ship had been shunned at port after port for fear it might carry the coronavirus, but when the Westerdam arrived in Cambodia on Thursday, the prime minister greeted its passengers with flowers.

Amid assurances that the ship was disease free, hundreds of elated passengers disembarked. Some went sightseeing, visiting beaches and restaurants and getting massages. Others traveled on to destinations around the world.

One, however, did not make it much farther than the thermal scanners at the Kuala Lumpur airport in Malaysia. The passenger, an American, was stopped on Saturday, and later tested positive for the coronavirus.

On Sunday, with passengers already headed for destinations on at least three continents, health officials were scrambling to determine how big a problem they now have  and how to stop it from getting bigger.
Researchers have used very small electronic devices to make jellyfish stronger and faster.

The scientists say they developed these electronic jellyfish in the hopes of sending them to study and explore the worlds oceans.

A report on the experiment was published in the journal Science Advances.

The study

Jellyfish are unusual creatures. They move through seawater by contracting, or reducing the size of, their muscles.

For the experiment, the researchers put an electronic device, about 2 centimeters in length, inside a moon jellyfish, a common kind of jellyfish.

The researchers said the device caused the creatures to move their bodies more often. They swam around three times faster than usual. These jellyfish use 10 to 1000 times less external power per mass than other aquatic robots reported in literature, noted Nicole Xu and John Dabiri, the two lead authors of the report.

Jellyfish are known to release mucus at times when they are tense or feeling stressed. No such reaction was noted during the study. The jellyfish swam normally after the electronic device was removed, the researchers said.

Care is taken not to harm the jellyfish, Dabiri explained.

The future

The next step will be to test ways to control where the jellyfish go. Another possible step: to develop small sensors that could take long-term measurements of ocean conditions, added Xu and Dabiri.

Its very sci-fi futuristic, said Xu, a bioengineer at Stanford University in California. We could send these bionic jellyfish to different areas of the ocean to monitor signs of climate change or observe natural phenomena.

One of the first goals will be deep dives, added Dabiri, who studies mechanical engineering and serves as a professor at the California Institute of Technology. Deep dives are important because of a major gap in human understanding of the deep oceans.

Basically, wed release the bionic jellyfish at the surface, have it swim down to increasing depths, and see just how far we can get it to go down into the ocean and still make it back to the surface with data, he said.

Jellyfish have existed for over 500 million years, and over that time, their body structure has remained largely unchanged, said Xu. So its interesting to figure out what makes them so special and how we can learn from them.

She added, Because we use animals with natural swimming motions, the hope is that they wont disturb the environment in the same way that a submarine might, so we can expand the types of environments we can monitor.

Im John Russell.

Will Dunham reported on this story for Reuters. John Russell adapted his report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

aquatic  adj. living or found in or near water

author  n. the writer of a book or report

mucus  n. a thick substance that is produced in some parts of the body (such as the nose and throat)

sci-fi  adj. short for science fiction, a story based on imagined improvements in science or technology and major changes in society or the environment

phenomenon  n. plural phenomena; something (such as an interesting fact or event) that can be observed and studied and that typically is unusual or difficult to understand or explain fully

gap  n. a hole or space in an object or between two objects

disturb  v. to interfere with the normal operation of something; to change the position, arrangement, or order of (something)

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BANGKOK, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Thailand has recorded one new case of coronavirus, bringing the total in the country to 34 since January, a health ministry official said on Saturday.

The new case is a 35-year-old Thai woman, a medical personnel, who got the disease from contact with a patient, Suwanchai Wattanayingcharoenchia, the director-general of the Department of Disease Control, told a news conference.

Fourteen people have recovered and returned home.

Over 1,500 people in China have died from the virus but Thailand has not recorded a fatality so far. (Reporting by Orathai Sriring and Panarat Thepgummapat; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
If you ever thought to yourself, I wish there was another federally-mandated activity in April besides Tax Day, youre in luck this year!

The 2020 Census, which aims to get an accurate count of everyone living in the United States, will begin asking questions of New Jersey residents this April. It only happens every 10 years, and this time it includes a major change -- instead of door knockers, youll likely be answering census questions online.

Heres all you need to know.

What is the 2020 Census?

The 2020 Census is the decennial count of every resident living in the country, conducted by the United States Census Bureau and mandated by the Constitution. New Jerseys census count is organized by the New Jersey Department of State.

What will happen?

In March, youll receive a census postcard in the mail, asking you and the members of your household to complete the census online. It will have a link to the online census survey.

Certain households will also receive the paper form to use if they would prefer. You can also respond to the census by phone, which is available in 12 different languages.

Mailings will be sent to homes and non-respondents in the weeks leading up to the census. Follow-ups will be conducted by census workers in early April. Paper questionnaires and letters will also be sent to those who have not yet responded.

If you dont respond to one of these three methods, a census worker will come to your residence to collect your information, which will start around mid-May, according to the Department of State.

Whats new?

The census is online this year. In previous years, filling the census out online wasnt an option. The U.S. Census Bureau is making the switch to make the process more efficient and cost-effective. Its also to give people another opportunity to respond, said Jeff T. Behler, the New York Regional Director for the bureau.

Residents arent required to fill out the census onlinethey can also provide their information over the phone or through a paper questionnaire. For areas with an older population or limited to no internet access, the U.S. Census Bureau will send them the same materials, along with a paper questionnaire in the first mailing.

As far as security issues with the census online, theres always concerns, he said. Cybersecurity is a concern thats been raised by many of our partners.

Behler said the bureau is working with industry experts both within the government and outside of it to ensure theyre safeguarding the data theyre collecting. He also said theyre working with those experts on aspects of the process they need to improve.

What will the census ask?

There are nine questions per person in your household on the census. Questions will include: the number of people living in the residence on April 1, 2020; if the residence is owned or rented; and the gender, age, race, ethnic group and relationship of all people living in the residence.

What will the census not ask?

Whether or not youre a citizen. President Donald Trump tried to add a citizenship question to the census last year, but the move was blocked by the Supreme Court. Also, the census will never ask for your Social Security number, your bank or credit card information, or money.

Is my data safe and confidential?

Yes. Personal census data is private and protected, which is required by Title 13. And data collected through the census cant be used against any person by any government agency, law enforcement organization, or court at any level, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Anyone working for the Census Bureau will have a badge and be able to prove their identity.

People should be reassured the census is confidential, said James W. Hughes, dean emeritus of Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.

They dont have to worry about people getting their info or using it nefariously, he said. The Census Bureau has always been a very above board organization.

Why should I care?

Money. And representation.

The data collected through the 2020 Census will determine the amount of federal funds New Jersey receives. The state currently receives about $23 billion in federal funds every year, for things like hospitals, health centers, housing, schools, federal student loans, infrastructure improvements, Medicaid, and much more. That figure can increase or decrease, depending on the new numbers collected.

Not only are federal funds decided through the census, but so is representation in Congress. Census data redistributes the House of Representatives, determining how many seats each state gets.

Currently, New Jersey has 12 representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives. The state lost a representative from the 2010 census.

If we come up short, a very low number, its not likely, Hughes said, but its possible we could lose one member of Congress.

Brianna Kudisch may be reached at bkudisch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @briannakudisch. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.

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Fadnavis said the strategy of parties opposed to the CAA is if you cannot convince them, then confuse them.

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will hold sit-in agitation at all tehsildar offices across the state on February 22 to protest the anti-people policies of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

The party workers should not sulk about Senas betrayal. The MVA government is cheating people after coming to power. The workers should hit the roads and participate in the protests on February 22, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said in the party convention at Nerul on Sunday.

Mr Fadnavis also said that his party-led government at the Centre has been fighting a perception war with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on the Citizenship Amendment Act, which will have to be countered by taking the fight to the streets.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar is playing a perception war against the BJP-led Union government and deliberately creating confusion over the CAA. A disinformation campaign that the citizenship (of certain communities) will be taken away by the CAA is being spread, he said.

The Narendra Modi government is facing protests nationwide over the Citizenship Amendment Act, which aims to give persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh citizenship but excludes Muslims.

Mr Pawar has called the Citizenship Amendment Act divisive and diversionary and has been vocal in his support to a plethora of national leaders who oppose the legislation until it is scrapped.

Mr Fadnavis said the strategy of parties opposed to the CAA is if you cannot convince them, then confuse them.

The opposition should either prove that CAA is going to affect the poor and nomadic tribes in Maharashtra or they should apologise to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their false claims, he said.
So here we are then. The situation is quite fluid but roughly speaking you could sum it up like this: If anyone won the election, Sinn Fein won it. Then they made the huge rookie error of saying they won the election. And Mary Lou said she should be Taoiseach. Other parties, at this point, began tripping over themselves to say how badly they lost the election, and to agree that Mary Lou, with a little bit of help from Sinn Fein, had indeed won the election.

Leo Varadkar signalled that he was happy to head to the opposition benches. Brendan Howlin agreed too, and stepped down as leader for good measure. People, including perhaps Sinn Fein, started to get a bit nervous then.

In some ways there was an element of a huff to the Fine Gael and Labour move. But equally, they would say they were just respecting democracy and the will of the people. We rejected them, so fine, they would leave us at it. And they wished us the best with our new flirtation. That made us really nervous.

Fine Gael clearly got together in secret and decided that their tone around all this would be the classic Irish approach - passive aggressive. Leo did a bit of it, even Paschal tried it, but Hildegarde Naughton gave a masterclass in it on last Thursday's Prime Time.

You almost felt she was trying not to laugh as she repeatedly basically refused to hear the questions and talked about respecting the will of the people and kept repeating that it was up to Sinn Fein now to form their 'Republican Socialist' government.

That's what Fine Gael keep calling it. Leo started it, and it's caught on. They stop just short of calling it a Nationalist Socialist Government, but they know what they're doing. State-farmed butter wouldn't melt in their mouths when they say it, but dogs for miles around prick up their ears at any mention of it. We know what they are threatening us with.

Meanwhile, Mary Lou is probably getting a bit nervous too. When you are the only one claiming to have won an election, and all your rivals are agreeing you did, you might suddenly start to feel slightly exposed. As Mary Lou started to notice that the two other big parties were clearly planning to get into government by pretending not to want to go into government, she might have got even more nervous. Because she was presumably doing the opposite - trying not to end up in government by acting keen to go in.

Sinn Fein are good at the politics of opposition and conflict, but this was a different game. And Mary Lou McDonald was dealing with some wily old coots here.

As it became clear to Sinn Fein that there would be no grand socialist collective, they had to start pivoting slightly. They had to begin selling a very complex message now in their apparent quest to be in government.

Now stick with me here because this gets complicated.

So the people had apparently overwhelmingly voted for radical change, though some would say the actual numbers make that contention debatable. That vote, apparently, was a kick against the last government, which was apparently a Fine Gael/Fianna Fail regime, those two parties being interchangeable anyway.

So Fine Gael and Fianna Fail could not go into government, because this would betray the will of the people, who wanted change. But from the point of view of who won the election, Mary Lou was not lumping FF and FG in together, because if she lumped them together for those purposes, they won the election.

Furthermore, while FF and FG do not represent change, somehow Mary Lou pivoted to a position where Fianna Fail could represent change, if they went into government with Sinn Fein.

This is a complex message to sell. It requires us to hold at least seeming contradictions in our heads at once. Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are the same party but they are not. And Fianna Fail does not represent change but it does if Sinn Fein wants it to.

After a campaign where Mary Lou seemed to be the only one who had learnt the lesson of 'Get Brexit Done', and where she was the master of the simple, digestible message, this is complicated stuff we're having to get our heads around.

Meanwhile, Fianna Fail seemed to get a bit spooked. Micheal Martin seemed to suggest in the heat of the count centre that he might go in with Sinn Fein. Then muttering began about Martin's leadership, and things started to seem shaky.

But then, much in the way that the hive-mind of FG scrambled to come up with the passive-aggressive approach, the Fianna Fail hive-mind calmed down, went to ground for a while to see how winning the election was going for Mary Lou, and then got together last Thursday for a tribal huddle.

After four hours the message was clear: Martin is safe, there'll be no going in with Sinn Fein, and Fianna Fail is in government-formation mode, with Fine Gael and the Greens. There was the standard mutterings from reliables like Eamon O Cuiv and John McGuinness, but essentially the message was clear: It's time for everyone to calm down and the adults will take it from here.

Some people were surprised that the notion of an FF/FG/Greens government was floated so quickly. People thought that the traditional big parties might have let things hang a bit more, with some idea that we would all come crawling back and apologise, say we've had our fun, and beg them to make a government.

Maybe they realised that we are in a uniquely unpredictable space here and that if they didn't go back on the pitch quickly, SF might have surprised them.

You'd have to think it's still too early to call, and it might be premature for FF and FG to get too cocky yet. But one thing they, and we, should all bear in mind is that democracy is a very brittle thing.

We take democracy and order for granted in this country. But then, they took it for granted in Britain as well.

We would do well to note how easily the things we take for granted can be eroded, how casually you can suddenly find yourself in a place where an unelected advisor is essentially staging a coup against the elected Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a well-performing secretary of state for Northern Ireland can be sacked for not adequately hailing to the chief.

Wherever this unpredictable journey takes us, the three quarters of the electorate who did not vote for Sinn Fein need to respect their mandate, and respect the people who did vote for them.

And equally Sinn Fein and their supporters need to support the vast majority who did not vote for them. Also, the normal standards to which we hold any political party need to be observed right now.

All in all, let's mind our democratic manners and keep things civil at this strange point.

And whoever makes a government, let us all accept that democratic outcome.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Chennai had its Shaheen Bagh moment as protests in Old Washermanpet continued for the second consecutive day on Saturday. Meanwhile, Chennai police commissioner A K Viswanathan met Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to brief him about the law and order situation in the city. Additional police strength has been deployed in different places including Alandur, Tambaram, Red Hills and ECR.

Thousands had gathered in the locality on Friday to protest the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). However, after police action against protesters, including detention and lathi-charge, the crowds continued the protest, now against police brutality, through the night. Police released the detained protesters late Friday following talks with the community, but protests against CAA and police action were also seen in Madurai, Tirunelveli, Nagercoil, and other parts of the State on Friday and Saturday.

On Saturday, although the crowds had thinned, hundreds of people, including women and children, still thronged the area near the Pencil Factory to make a statement against the CAA and the police brutality of Friday night.

Caning has only made us stronger

A new group of protesters were also seen near the Washermanpet metro station. Over 50 of our brothers are severely injured and we need justice for them, said Asifa Begum, a protester near the Pencil Factory.

According to the protesters, the peaceful protest on Friday turned violent only after the police used force against them. However, Viswanathan, speaking to reporters, reiterated that no protestor was injured, showing that police had maintained restraint despite the protest being held without permission. Viswanathan visited Apollo and Stanley hospitals to meet the police officers, injured at Old Washermanpet on Friday.

The injured police officers were, joint commissioner P Vijayakumari, inspector Rajkumar and AR constables Kala and Udayakumari.On Saturday evening, police also released a five-minute video showing protestors pushing barricades towards the police. The protesters at Old Washermanpet pointed to different videos of Fridays events. See the videos, the police kicked and dragged people who were just standing quietly. It was day-light brutality and the police humiliated people, said Asifa.

Many people had brought their toddlers, some on their shoulders, to the protests. There were school and college children in large numbers too.Police thought violence would disperse us, but it has only made us stronger, Umar Hussain, a protester, said. Near the Pencil Factory, the body of the 70-year-old, who died of natural causes near the protests area on Friday, was brought in. The protesters offered prayers and respects.
"Although I remember having the realisation where I was thinking, 'Oh my god this is going to be life now, we're not going to have any transport, walking for hours carrying our backpacks' ... because there was no phone, or running water or power or anything like that, often you weren't able to arrange a lift. So, if you just turned up randomly, it could take two or three hours to get where you needed to go." Amber Jackson with her mum at Amazon Acres as a child. Once at the commune, Susanne changed her name to Zoe. It was a conservative option; other women took names such as Moonshadow and Jaguar. "I think it was probably about shedding your old life, in hindsight it makes sense," Jackson says. "But I often laugh about it with my husband when I just mention someone who's called Compost and he's like, 'Oh my god, you have a friend called Compost'." Women on Amazon Acres varied greatly in their backgrounds, an ABC Radio National podcast on the commune documented last year: there were gender separatists, public servants, academics such as Higgs, but also some women with little education. Some used the place to leave situations of domestic abuse.

They lived a nomadic lifestyle, travelling on horse back, camping under the stars, building shelters when they needed them and going without clothes if the weather necessitated. Decisions were made by consensus, a governing structure which proved challenging on some issues, such as women having young sons with them on the property. The commune was said to be defined by the "three Ms": no men, no meat, no machines  although Jackson claims to have sighted all three in her time there. ("A lot of the women were vegetarians, but it really more had to do with us not having fridges.") The original big hut at Amazon Acres. Credit:Reach Foundation Schooling for the children was "sporadic", says Jackson, noting that what you learnt could depend heavily on the woman whose care you were in at the time. "You'd be doing acrobatics and the next week you might be doing hardcore feminist history. Then the next week my mum would be doing meditation, and the following week you'd be doing women's anatomy." Ultimately, Jackson decided to leave Amazon Acres aged 14, moving to a share house in Marrickville with two young women to complete high school while her mum stayed at the commune. "A lot of the girls who were hitting teenagehood were a bit over it and wanted to leave," she recalls. "For me, I just needed a change and wanted to be out of the women's land."
Las Vegas: As early voting surged in Nevada's nominating contest, former Vice President Joe Biden lashed out at Democratic rival Bernie Sanders on Saturday for not doing enough to control his most aggressive supporters.

Biden's attack came during an interview for NBC's Meet The Press, as he fights to rescue his struggling presidential bid and Sanders works to strengthen his strong standing with the contest speeding into a new phase.

Biden also sought to downplay expectations for next Saturday's Nevada caucuses, telling reporters that he did not need to win. In the interview, the former vice president seized on reports that Sanders' supporters insulted and made online threats against leaders of an influential union that declined to endorse any of the eight candidates still in the Democratic race.

He may not be responsible for it, but he has some accountability, Biden charged. He continued: If any of my supporters did that, I'd disown them ... flat disown them.

The Sanders campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Biden's assertion. But Thursday in an interview with PBS, Sanders distanced himself from such behavior. "Anybody making personal attacks against anybody else in my name is not part of our movement," Sanders said, denouncing such behavior in all campaigns.

Saturday night, Sanders laced into billionaire candidate Mike Bloomberg at a Democratic Party dinner in Las Vegas, rattling off a list of heresies against the Democratic party he accused the former New York mayor of committing. Bloomberg implemented racist policies like stop and frisk in New York, opposed the minimum wage and higher taxes on the wealthy during the Obama administration, Sanders said.

"The simple truth is that Mayor Bloomberg, with all his money, will not create the kind of excitement and energy we need to have the voter turnout we must have to defeat Donald Trump, Sanders said.

It was a rare attack by name from Sanders. Bloomberg is skipping the Nevada caucuses and was not at the Clark County Democratic Party dinner where Sanders and other 2020 contenders spoke.

The dinner capped the first day of a weekend of frenzied campaigning, colored by mobile campaign billboards cruising the Las Vegas strip and a diverse set of voters weighing in for the first time.

While the state's formal presidential caucuses are still a week away, Democrats opened the first of four days of early voting across more than 80 locations. State party officials at some sites across Nevada were overwhelmed by long lines.

Elizabeth Warren, meanwhile, also reeling after a weak performance last week in New Hampshire, looked to Nevada's women for momentum.
A 52-year-old man has been arrested after launching a 'horrifying' crowdfunding campaign to pay a hitman to assassinate anti-Brexit activist Gina Miller.

The man, who launched the donation drive under the name Jeff Blogger, has been detained by Northumbria Police.

He was arrested on suspicion of making malicious communications after expressing his aim to raise 10,000 to 'hire a contract killer to kill Gina Miller: The Traitor of Democracy'.

He has been released pending investigation and the GoFundMe page has been deleted, according to the Sunday Mirror.

A 52-year-old man has been arrested after launching a 'horrifying' crowdfunding campaign to pay a hitman to assassinate anti-Brexit activist Gina Miller (pictured in 2016 at the Supreme Court)

The page had been live for six months before it was wiped from the internet in October last year.

Ms Miller, 54, at the time told the newspaper: 'This is horrifying. It beggars belief that this can have been allowed to have been put up on this site and stayed there for so long.'

And the high profile Remainer, who has spoken out about social media bullying, tweeted: 'We need to heal our nation and my view is that the only way of doing that is to remember true British values of tolerance, decency, reason, civic duty, common sense and above all else honesty and kindness.'

The case was initially picked up by Scotland Yard, before seemingly being passed to the Newcastle-based force after identifying the man.

Ms Miller shot on to the political landscape in 2016 when she challenged the government in the courts, forcing Theresa May to put the Brexit withdrawal deal to a Commons vote (pictured outside Supreme Court after victory)

A Met Police spokesman in October said: 'Officers from the Met's southwest CID team are currently investigating a report of threats to kill that was reported to them on 23 October.'

A GoFundMe spokesman said in October: 'This campaign has been removed.

'We are sorry it got through our otherwise robust procedures. We are particularly sorry for any distress this caused Gina Miller.'

Ms Miller shot on to the political landscape in 2016 when she challenged the government in the courts, forcing Theresa May to put the Brexit withdrawal deal to a Commons vote.

Since then, she continued to bang the drum for Remain and threw her weight behind a second referendum.
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 24, 2019 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the opening of the General Debate of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 24, 2019. (Xinh Image Source: PK

Islamabad, Feb 16 : UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres arrived here on Sunday on his first official visit to Pakistan to attend an international conference on Afghan refugees. He will also be visiting the holy Sikh shrine in Kartarpur.

During his visit, the UN chief will speak at the international conference '40 Years of Hosting Afghan Refugees in Pakistan', reported Dawn news.

The two-day conference in Islamabad, starting on February 17, will be a recognition of Pakistan's "tremendous generosity" in hosting millions of refugees from Afghanistan over four decades, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said during a regular noon briefing at the UN Headquarters in New York on Friday.

The conference, which is being organised by the Pakistan Government and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Imran Khan. Various senior US officials will also attend the conference.

Guterres is expected to meet with Imran Khan and other high-level government officials, his spokesman said.

Dujarric said the UN chief will also meet Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and speak at an event on sustainable development and climate change. The UN Secretary General will meet Pakistan President Arif Alvi on Monday.

On Tuesday, he will visit Lahore where he will meet students and attend an event on Pakistan's polio vaccination campaign.

He will also travel to Kartarpur to visit the Sikh holy site of Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib.

Responding to a question, the spokesman said the UN chief will not be visiting the disputed Kashmir region during this trip.

He is set to return to New York on Wednesday.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-07 15:58:52|Editor: xuxin

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LUANDA, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Angola will receive 2 billion U.S. dollars from South Korea for the construction of a power plant in the southern province of Benguela.

The Africa-Korea Economic Development Association (AKEDA) and Angola's National Agency for Private Investment and Export Promotion signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday.

The amount is part of a global fund of 5 billion dollars the association plans to raise to invest in various projects in Angola.

AKEDA's secretary general Chung-Siwod said AKEDA has a particular interest in the energy and agriculture sectors as well as small and medium-sized companies.

"AKEDA is represented in 39 African countries and we are particularly interested in working with the Angolan authorities as Angola is located in a strategic region of Africa with an economy of a promising future," he said.
5 Reasons Socialism Is Not Christian

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Jesus confronted the money-changers and challenged believers to give to the needy. But, would he support socialism?

Increasingly, Americans think he would. In fact, a recent Barna poll found that more Americans think Jesus would prefer socialism (24%) than those who believe he would prefer capitalism (14%). The other 62% responded neither or not sure, but the poll still reveals a disturbing trend.

Last Saturday, Micah Conkling, a Christian writer and podcaster, argued on my radio program that socialism is the political and economic system that best fulfills the Golden Rule. Not surprisingly, Conkling is a Millennial, the most pro-socialist generation America has ever known. According to a recent Reason-Rupe survey, 53% of Americans under 30 view socialism favorably, compared to less than a third of Americans over 30. Similarly, Gallup found that 69% of those under 30 said they would be willing to vote for a socialist presidential candidate.

I understand why Millennials are wary of the current system. They've witnessed a consistently declining economy; one of the most partisan eras in American history; the fall of the twin towers; and a war predicated on weapons of mass destruction that were never found. I agree with them that our political system desperately needs reform. But, socialism is not the answer. Though it may sound compassionate and Christian, it's actually antithetical to everything Christianity teaches.

Here's why:

1. Socialism is Based on a Materialistic Worldview

According to socialists like Bernie Sanders, the greatest problem in the world is the unequal distribution of wealth.

His website declares: "The issue of wealth and income inequality is the great moral issue of our time, it is the great economic issue of our time, and it is the great political issue of our time."

This betrays a fundamentally materialistic worldview, which is the basis of socialism.

To socialists, all that really exists is the material world. In fact, Karl Marx, the father of socialism/communism, invented the notion of dialectical materialism  the belief that matter contains a creative power within itself. This enabled Marx to eliminate the need for a creator, essentially erasing the existence of anything non-material.

To socialists, suffering is caused by the unequal distribution of stuff  and salvation is achieved by the re-distribution of stuff. There's no acknowledgment of spiritual issues. There's just an assumption that if everyone is given equal stuff, all the problems in society will somehow dissolve.

This worldview contradicts Christianity, which affirms the existence of both a material and a non-material world  and teaches that mankind's greatest problems are spiritual. The Bible says the cause of suffering is sin and salvation is found in the cross of Christ, which liberates us from sin. Because of sin, though, there will always be inequalities in wealth. As the parable of the talents shows, those with good character tend to accumulate more; those with bad character may lose everything they have. Yet, even if we are unable to accumulate wealth, Christianity teaches that we can still have an abundant life. That's because our quality of life is not determined by how much stuff we have, but by our relationship to Christ.

2. Socialism Punishes Virtue

Socialists want to distribute wealth to individuals according to their need, regardless of virtue.

As Karl Marx, famously said, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."

However, whenever any institution provides aid, it runs the risk of removing God-designed rewards and consequences. It can punish those who are industrious by making them pay for those who are not. And, it can reward those who aren't industrious by giving them the fruits of another man's labor. This is precisely what socialism does.

Interestingly, Marx mooched off others his whole life, and failed to provide for his wife and children.

As Aristotle once noted, "Men start revolutionary changes for reasons connected with their private lives."

The Bible teaches that aid should be tied to responsibility. First, anyone who refuses to work should be refused aid.

As 2 Thessalonians 3:10 says, "The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat."

Next, no one should be given aid whose family can provide for him. In fact, the Apostle Paul said that a man who fails to provide for his family is "worse than an unbeliever." (1 Tim. 5:8) The church also required widows receiving aid to have "a reputation of good works." (1 Tim. 5:10) So, even in dispensing aid, the church rewarded virtue and discouraged vice. Unfortunately, socialism does just the opposite.

3. Socialism Endorses Stealing

Barack Obama once defended his socialist policies to a little girl by saying, "We've got to make sure that people who have more money help the people who have less money. If you had a whole pizza, and your friend had no pizza, would you give him a slice?"

That sounds pretty Christian, right? What Christian wouldn't endorse sharing your abundance with someone who has nothing? However, Obama wasn't endorsing people voluntarily sharing their wealth with others; he was endorsing the government forcibly taking a piece of the pie from one person and giving it to someone else. Put another way, that's saying that if you have three cars and your neighbor has none, the government has a right to take your car and give it to your neighbor. That's not Christian; that's stealing!

But, socialists don't believe in private property. And, some Christian socialists actually assert that the Bible doesn't either. That's preposterous.

Both the Old Testament and New Testament unequivocally affirm private property. We can't even obey the eighth commandment to not steal, unless we accept the notion of private ownership. Nor, can we steward our money as the Bible commands if the state owns our money, not us. So, for an economic and political system to be Christian, it must protect private ownership and allow individuals freedom to allocate their resources according to their conscience.

4. Socialism Encourages Envy and Class Warfare

Socialists demonize the rich, blaming all of society's problems on them.

Bernie Sanders once posted to his Facebook Page: "Let us wage a moral and political war against the billionaires and corporate leaders on Wall Street and elsewhere, whose policies and greed are destroying the middle class of America."

Here, Sanders is mimicking Karl Marx, who viewed history as a series of class struggles between the rich and the poor  and advocated overthrowing the ruling class.

Scripture strongly warns the rich and powerful not to oppress the poor.

In fact, Proverbs 14:31 says, "Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for his maker . . ."

But, Sanders  and other Leftists, including Hillary Clinton  go far beyond decrying specific acts of injustice. They basically condemn an entire class of people simply for possessing wealth. And, they encourage those who are poor to overthrow them. In fact, Clinton once said the U.S. economy required a "toppling" of the wealthiest 1%.

The rich are not causing all the problems in American society. People like Bill Gates are not acquiring wealth by stealing from the masses. They're creating great products, which produce wealth, and actually provide jobs for many people. But, even if they were exploiting the poor, nowhere does Scripture support the have-nots demanding money from the haves. Instead, it teaches that we should not covet (Exodus 20:17) and should be content in all circumstances (Phil. 4:11-13).

5. Socialism Seeks to Destroy Marriage & Family

A little known fact about socialism is that, from its beginning, it has sought to destroy marriage and family. Grove City Professor Paul Kengor explains this in detail in his book, Takedown: From Communists to Progressives, How the Left Has Sabotaged Marriage and Family. Essentially, what socialism seeks is for the state to replace the family. That way, it can indoctrinate children in its Leftist way of thinking, and remove from them any notions of God and religion.

Friedrich Engels, co-author with Marx of the "The Communist Manifesto," once wrote that the society he envisioned would be one where "the single family ceases to be the economic unit of society. Private housekeeping is transformed into a social industry. The care and education of the children becomes a public affair."

Similarly today, Bernie Sanders calls for a "revolution" in childcare and for the government to provide early childhood education beginning with children as young as six-weeks-old. And, he's a proud supporter of gay marriage  what Kengor calls "communism's Trojan Horse" to secure the final takedown of traditional marriage.

To socialists, what Bernie describes is a utopia. But, to Christians, it's a dystopia. That's because there's nothing Christian about socialism  and there's absolutely no way Jesus would ever support it.

Julie Roys is a speaker, freelance journalist and blogger at www.julieroys.com. She also is the host of a national radio program on the Moody Radio Network called, Up For Debate. Julie and her husband live in the Chicago suburbs and have three children
SKOPJE -- North Macedonias parliament has passed two key bills, on the public prosecutor's office and defense, before the chamber dissolved to pave the way for snap elections.



"I believe that all the decisions we have made in this parliament were in the interest of our citizens," speaker Talat Xhaferi told the last session of the 120-seat parliament on February 16.

Earlier, 80 lawmakers -- the minimum needed for the law's adoption -- backed the Law on the Public Prosecutor's Office, which the ruling Social Democrats hope will persuade the European Union to set a date for the start of accession talks.

The EUs October 2019 decision to halt the opening of membership negotiations with Skopje prompted the Social Democrats to call the early parliamentary elections for April 12 -- eight months before the normal expiration of the parliament's four-year term.

A total of 80 lawmakers also backed on February 16 a draft law on defense to align the countrys legislation with NATOs collective-security principles.

North Macedonia is expected to become a full NATO member later this year once the 29th and final member of the alliance -- Spain -- ratifies its accession protocol, which is expected to happen by mid-March.

North Macedonia was granted a protocol on accession to NATO membership a year ago after an agreement with neighboring Greece to change the name of the former Yugoslav republic.
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One thousand one hundred former federal prosecutors and DOJ officials, both Republicans and Democrats, have come together to call on Attorney General William Barr to resign.

Via The New York Times:

More than 1,100 former federal prosecutors and Justice Department officials called on Attorney General William P. Barr on Sunday to step down after he intervened last week to lower the Justice Departments sentencing recommendation for President Trumps longtime friend Roger J. Stone Jr.

.

Each of us strongly condemns President Trumps and Attorney General Barrs interference in the fair administration of justice, the former Justice Department lawyers, who came from across the political spectrum, wrote in an open letter on Sunday. Those actions, they said, require Mr. Barr to resign.

Two points are clear. William Barr is corrupt and should not be the Attorney General. Secondly, William Barr will never resign.

Donald Trump is delighted that he has an attorney general who is willing to act as his own personal lawyer. Barr is happy to ignore the law and politicize the Department of Justice.

Public pressure is a great tool and should be used to expose Barr and this administration at every opportunity, but the only way to get rid of William Barr is to defeat Donald Trump.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook
Yoon Seok-youl, right, prosecutor general greets his colleagues as he arrives at the Busan High Prosecutors' Office in Busan, Thursday./ Yonhap



By Kim Se-jeong



Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl lashed out at Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae's recent proposal to separate prosecutors into two groups  one in charge of investigations and the other in charge of reviewing the investigation and delivering indictments  behind closed doors with his colleagues, a local newspaper reported Sunday.



During a meeting with fellow prosecutors from Busan's High and District Prosecutors' offices last Thursday, Yoon made the case for the prosecution's responsibility, according to the Joongang Ilbo.



"An investigation is not just about putting together a report. An investigation also means indicting the accused and getting ready for trial. That's the job of prosecutors. An indictment is a part of the investigation," Yoon was quoted as saying. "If a judge tries a case, they have to reach a verdict. The same goes for prosecutors. It's right to say that prosecutors who investigate the case have the right to indict."



On Feb. 11, Choo unveiled the proposal to divide the prosecution, immediately drawing opposition from many prosecutors. Choo failed to give a heads-up to Yoon and her announcement was a total surprise  reportedly she only called him after she made the announcement, which enraged the chief prosecutor more.



Choo, with Cheong Wa Dae backing, has argued her goal is to reduce the power of the prosecution. President Moon Jae-in pledged prosecutorial reform during his presidential campaign.



Sunday's report came five days before a scheduled high-profile meeting between Choo and top officials of the prosecution Friday. The ministry said the goal of the meeting was to collect opinions about the proposal from top prosecutors. The ministry also said it invited the prosecutor general but he turned down the invitation.



The Supreme Prosecutors' Office said Yoon would be busy visiting prosecutors in other parts of the country. This week, Yoon is expected to have a session with prosecutors working in Gwangju, followed by Daejeon and Daegu in the following weeks.



Yoon and Choo have not been on good terms since the minister was appointed.



Choo reassigned close colleagues of Yoon to other posts. His colleagues were investigating corruption cases involving Moon's close aides, including former Justice Minister Cho Kuk. Choo's continued reassignment of people in the prosecution office has further weakened Yoon's influence. Some speculated that this is all designed to force Yoon to resign.
















Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, another moderate, had similar thoughts. Im here getting votes, Ms. Klobuchar said in an interview on Sunday. Its not something where I can just  what would be the word  transport in a bunch of ads. She called on Mr. Bloomberg to go on the shows that every other candidate goes on, on the Sunday shows and the like.

She added: I dont think Im going to beat him on the airwaves, but I can beat him on the debate stage. At a forum on Sunday focused on infrastructure, Ms. Klobuchar, who won the endorsement of The Las Vegas Sun last week, mentioned Mr. Bloomberg early on, referring to President Trumps comments about his height as she stood to speak. I am the only candidate that is 5-foot-4, she joked. I want that out there now.

The fixation on Mr. Bloomberg, the free-spending multibillionaire, reflected his rising prominence in the Democratic race, even though he is skipping the first four nominating contests and focusing on the 14 Super Tuesday states that will vote on March 3.

As early voting continued in Nevada on Sunday, some of the criticism seemed to be sticking.

Bloomberg just has bad connotations that come along with him, Leah Garwood said as she waited in line with her husband on Sunday in Las Vegas for roughly 45 minutes to vote for a different billionaire, Tom Steyer of California. Its just at the back of my mind. It makes me uncomfortable, uneasy.

Kelly Mays, an English professor who said she favored Ms. Klobuchar and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, called it a little frightening that you can buy your way in at this late date. Standing in line to vote on Sunday afternoon, she said she thought Ms. Warrens chances in Nevada were probably not great, but I also think people are counting her out way too early.
In 2010, Lavinia Brennan, 32, set up luxury, ethical womenswear brand Beulah London with her friend, Lady Natasha Rufus Isaacs, 36. Their clothes are worn by the Duchess of Cambridge, Pippa Middleton and Sienna Miller. Lavinia lives in London with her husband, Jamie, who works for Pommery champagne.

Nat and I have known each other for ever. Our grannies were great friends and my father and her uncle went to school together.

In 2009, we travelled to Delhi in India to teach English and textile skills in safe houses for women who had been rescued from sex trafficking. We saw how employment can transform lives and decided to found a fashion line to provide an alternative, sustainable livelihood for the women.

Lavinia Brennan, 32, (pictured left) who lives in London, revealed how she and Lady Natasha Rufus Isaacs, 36 (pictured right) were inspired to set up Beulah London

This was my lightbulb moment. We met with charity partners and factories out there and returned to London with dress samples wed had made up, with the goal of founding a company run between the UK and India. Beulah is a Hebrew name that means coming from darkness into light.

We design clothes in the UK, have a sample mocked up, then send it to India to be made by women who are paid a fair wage. In 2011, the Duchess of Cambridge wore our crimson poppy dress, and on her state visit to Pakistan last year, she wore a jacket from one of our early collections, which was a great example to set. I love how she re-wears so many clothes.

In 2013, we founded the Beulah Trust, which means that 10 per cent of our profits are invested in organisations that are fighting to eradicate modern-day slavery.

Designs have been worn by the Duchess of Cambridge (pictured right) and Holly Willoughby, pictured left: The Shibani scarf (95, beulahlondon.com)

Our For Freedom T-shirts (60) are made from organic cotton and sustainable wood fibres.

The embroidery and garment finishing processes provide a fair wage to migrant women working in London.

We opened our shop in Belgravia, London, last April. Nat and I have been on an amazing but slightly stressful adventure  it took six years to pay ourselves a salary.

But I also met my husband through Beulah because he kindly sponsored our first launch event.

Its lovely to see celebrities in our clothes. When Holly Willoughby wore our shirt dress on Instagram, it crashed the website.

But if Im on the Tube and see someone with one of our scarves, thats just as exciting.
Three Kashmiri engineering students, arrested on sedition charges were released after execution of a bond under Section 169 of the CrPC, police said on Sunday.

The three students studying in a private engineering college here were arrested on Saturday for raising pro- Pakistan slogans and posting it on social media on the first anniversary of the ghastly terrorist attack that left scores of CRPF soldiers dead at Pulwama in Kashmir.

The students were released after they executed a bond under 169 CrPC, wherein they come back whenever they are summoned, Hubballi-Dharwad police commissioner R Dilip told PTI.

Section 169 of the CrPc is involved when the investigating officer is of the view that there was no sufficient evidence to produce an accused before a court for remand.

On the media reports about bail given to the Kashmiri boys, the police commissioner said they got confused.

He said the police were handling the matter sensitively because the case itself was sensitive with national ramification, which may lead to trial by media.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
SCOTIA  A new, more spacious fire station costing in the neighborhood of $8 million would be constructed on a small parcel of land near the library along Mohawk Avenue in Collins Park, Mayor Tom Gifford said Saturday.

Gifford said the proposal, which the village and the engineering firm it hired will publicly unveil at a forum Tuesday night, also calls for between $3 million to $4 million in upgrades to transform the dilapidated firehouse down the street into a more modern Village Hall with court facilities that would also continue to house the police station.

The village would pay for the projects through bonding of 30 years for the fire house and 15 years for other improvements.

Gifford said Scotia plans to hold a public vote, tentatively set for April 7, "because we don't want to offend anybody."

"The bottom line is that the village hasn't spent any real money on its fire station, police station and Village Hall in 100 years," said Gifford, a long time volunteer firefighter. "We're taking risks that we would like to not have to and it's dangerous."

The mayor said space is so tight inside the Scotia fire station that firefighters have to park so close to the walls to fit the two pumper trucks and a ladder and a rescue truck. They are forced to enter the vehicles from the passenger side and slide into the driver's seat to run them.

The fire chief's vehicle and the fire department's pickup truck have to be parked outside.

The property the engineer has recommended for the new fire station is at the community war memorial monument in Collins Park. Gifford said village leaders are looking at putting the monument behind the new fire station.

He also noted that the village, as part of the state's parkland alienation requirements, must get approval from the state Legislature to build the fire station on park land, which Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh and Sen. Jim Tedisco are working on. Parkland alienation occurs when a municipality wishes to convey, sell, or lease municipal parkland or discontinue its use as a park.

Additionally, said Gifford, Scotia is offering a parcel of land at Washington and Schonowee avenues that, once cleaned up, will be dedicated as park land in lieu of the tract they want to use for the new firehouse.

Cleanup on the derelict property, which the municipality has already secured a grant for, is slated to get under way over the summer, Gifford added.

In November, a panel studying options to deal with Scotia's village hall recommended it renovate the existing structure and build a new firehouse instead of sharing a complex with the town of Glenville.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

The seven-member citizen's facilities committee also rejected separating fire, police and administration locations and putting all the services under a single roof in one municipal center.

Glenville Supervisor Chris Koetzle had pitched the idea of a new joint facility at Dutch Meadows Lane and Route 50 in Glenville.

Gifford had previously said he favored keeping Village Hall centrally located so residents could walk there to take care of their business.

In 2002, a joint study was done and then rejected by Scotia residents for a variety of reasons -- chief among them that it would result in no real cost savings.
Princess Eugenie posted a romantic tribute to her husband Jack Brooksbank to mark Valentine's Day on Friday.

The royal, 29, took to Instagram to share a grinning photo of the two of them wrapped up in jackets in front of impressive green surroundings.

She gushed: 'This Valentine's Day I wanted to share an oldie but a goodie of Jack and I in 2010, the year we met..Happy Valentine's Day...'

The pair were in attendance to see her mother Sarah Ferguson's half-sister Alice tie the knot to her banker beau Nick Stileman in a country ceremony in Hampshire.

Princess Eugenie, 29, took to Instagram to share a romantic tribute to her husband Jack Brooksbank to mark Valentine's Day on Friday

She captioned the post: 'This Valentine's Day I wanted to share an oldie but a goodie of Jack and I in 2010, the year we met..Happy Valentine's Day...'

Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank (pictured together) tied the knot in Windsor, Berkshire on 12 October, 2018

And many of Eugenie's one million followers were quick to take to the comments section in praise of the adorable throwback.

'Lovely picture of a stunning couple,' praised one, while a second enthused: 'That's lovely, you were so young! Wishing a very happy Valentine's day to you and Jack,and many many more to come!'

A third pointed out: 'Your hat looks like a halo of hearts,' while a fourth added: 'Love this! Happy Valentines Day to you both!'

The couple invited 850 royals, aristocrats, VIPs and friends - 150 more than Harry and Meghan who married five months earlier - to their lavish ceremony in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on October 12, 2018.

The bride's V-neck dress made from a jacquard of silk, cotton and viscose blend with a low back was designed by London-based Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos. Pictured, one 12 October 2018

The bride's V-neck dress made from a jacquard of silk, cotton and viscose blend with a low back - designed to display the scars from her childhood operation for scoliosis - was designed by London-based Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos.

Jack Booksbank is a former waiter who spurned university and a job in the City to set himself up in the pub trade.

Once nicknamed 'barman Jack' in his Chelsea social circle, he has since worked his way up through some of the capital's trendiest bars and nightspots.

But the 34-year-old has moved to put any idea of his being a party animal behind him in recent years, setting up a respectable wine merchants business.

In the weeks before the couple's engagement was announced in January 2018, he was snapped with friends promoting Casamigos tequila, the brand for whom he is an ambassador, which used to be part-owned by Hollywood star George Clooney.

Jack is the son of Old Etonian chartered accountant George Brooksbank and his wife Nicola.
A firefighter who told Scott Morrison 'to get f***ed' while battling a blaze during the bushfire crisis has claimed he was sacked because of the comment.

News South Wales Rural Fire Service volunteer Paul Parker's rant went viral after his foul-mouthed criticism of the prime minister in front of TV cameras in Nelligen on the state's South Coast in early January.

An online campaign to save his job amassed thousands of signatures after reports emerged Mr Parker faced being stood down by the RFS.

However, the service denied he'd been sacked saying:

But the RFS denied he'd been sacked saying: 'We can confirm Paul remains a member of the NSW RFS and has not been dismissed'.

Asked about the issue, Mr Morrison said he was pleased Mr Parker wasn't sacked.

'There should never be any question about whether he should have been fired or not, of course, he shouldn't,' Mr Morrison said on Monday.

'I understand Paul was feeling incredibly exhausted, and incredibly drained by those events and he was working his tail off defending his community.'

News South Wales Rural Fire Service volunteer Paul Parker's rant went viral after his foul-mouthed criticism of the prime minister in front of TV cameras in early January

On Sunday Mr Parker (pictured left with his wife) claimed he had been told by a brigade chief with the state's rural firefighting service his career was over because of his comments to the TV camera. However, the RFS said he hadn't been sacked and would retain his position.

The NSW RFS confirmed at the time the firefighter had been asked to stand down from his duties, but denied it was related to his comments.

But on Sunday Mr Parker said he had been told by a brigade chief with the state's rural firefighting service he was 'finished' because of his verbal tirade.

'There were comments with gestures and arm movements saying that I'm finished - (that) it's all over,' he said on The Project.

'Another captain from another brigade within Batemans Bay come out and I asked him ''what's going on?''

'He said ''you're finished because of your allegations and foul language against the prime minister of the country while representing the RFS''.

'I didn't know you could get sacked from a volunteer organisation but apparently you can.'

Mr Parker also explained the reasoning behind his televised outburst, saying it was a response to Mr Morrison's earlier comment that rural firefighters should not be paid.

The Rural Fire Service said Mr Parker was tasked to take time off volunteer work because of exhaustion (pictured lying down on ground exhausted following rant) and the firefighter was never facing sack, but he claimed he was told he was finished

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the RFS for comment.

Since taking time off from the RFS following the fiery outburst to camera, Australians have donated hundreds of dollars to his bar tab at his local pub in the small village west of Batemans Bay.

Publican Joel Alvey told Daily Mail Australia: 'Everyone has been a great support by donating money for Paul.'

Donors have left money to shout Mr Parker a schooner, while some cash has been given directly to the hotel.

Mr Alvey said there was about $500 donated by Thursday and an additional $200 had been given on Friday morning following heightened media attention.

The publican, who was an RFS member for the past 20 years, said Mr Parker visits the hotel 'quite regularly'.

Mr Alvey thinks Australians were keen to throw their support behind the firefighter because he 'said the words everyone was thinking at that time'.

'That's Paul, he says what he thinks,' Mr Alvey explained.

'We already had a couple of weeks of fire and that was the breaking point. Everyone who was in that truck was feeling the same way.'
Democratic presidential candidate Senator Amy Klobuchar speaks to supporters at her New Hampshire primary night rally in Concord, New Hampshire, U.S. February 11, 2020.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar's campaign for president has raised over $12 million online since last week's New Hampshire debate, the Democratic candidate told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday.

Klobuchar had eyed the New Hampshire debate as a chance to further her momentum as a leading centrist candidate, while former Vice President Joe Biden falls behind the pack. She has had a strong run of debate performances, but faces competition from a crowded field of centrist candidates including Biden, former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. But as Biden has lost pace, a crack for Klobuchar appears to have opened.

Sen. Klobuchar came in third in New Hampshire's Democratic primary Tuesday, putting her behind Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Buttigieg. Both Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Biden missed the 15% threshold needed to win pledged delegates.

Klobuchar is hoping she will continue that momentum in Las Vegas, where she will take the debate stage this Wednesday.

New debate rules have opened up the chance for her to go head-to-head with Mayor Mike Bloomberg has he continues to pour money into advertisements and rises in the polls. Klobuchar said Sunday that even as Bloomberg's record-breaking ad campaign eclipses the other candidates, the playing field will be leveled at the debate stage.

"Is it daunting?" Klobuchar said of Bloomberg's ad-spend. "Yes. Because I go on your show, take tough questions, and then at the same time he's running more ads on whatever he wants at the same time, that's what life is," she said.

"I think what happens here, is he needs to go on more shows like this, which he hasn't done. He just can't hide behind the airwaves, he has to answer questions. And, of course, I think he should be on that debate stage, which eventually he will be. I can't beat him on the airwaves, but I can beat him on the debate stage."

The influential Nevada union UNITE HERE Culinary Workers Union Local 226 has said it will not endorse a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate ahead of the state's caucuses. The Las Vegas Sun endorsed both Biden and Klobuchar.
Moreover, the powerful in Chinas party-state have all but extinguished any signs of a developing civil society. Those who might have provided an early warning of the virus crisis, such as a free press, were suffocated by censorship. Mr. Xu denounces what he calls big data totalitarianism and WeChat terrorism, the latter being a vast Internet police force that is empowered by the party-state to oversee, supervise and track every statement and action made by everyone in the country. As he has before, Mr. Xu faults the autocratic president, who oversees a party-state system that has no checks or balances, nor indeed a rational allocation of duties and responsibilities, and inevitably results in the rule of a clique of trusted lieutenants. Hence you have the equivalent of a court under one strongman leader.
Without beginning of liberation of the territories it will not be possible to agree on the status, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at the panel discussions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict held as part of the Munich Security Conference, Azernews reports.

"This proposal was seriously considered by Azerbaijan. And in general we gave our agreement to that. That is the most reasonable thing to do, because it is clear that we need to resolve this conflict in phases. We cannot resolve it one and completely in one day. It should be put in phases and the first phase should be, and as the journalists said in Russian proposal, the liberation of part of the occupied territories, return of the Azerbaijani IDPs to those territories, resettlement of that territory," President Ilham Aliyev said.

"In a meantime, the process of normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the status of Nagorno-Karabakh to be discussed later, when both sides are ready. Because without the process on the ground, without beginning of liberation of the territories it will not be possible to agree on the status. Our position in the status must not interfere with territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. At the same time, we always were saying that Azerbaijan is a multi confessional and a multi-national country. There are many national minorities in Azerbaijan who live in peace and dignity. And when our territorial integrity is fully restored Armenians as national minority will enjoy all the rights and privileges as any other representative of any other nation in our country," President Ilham Aliyev added.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Late-night hosts had their work cut out for them Wednesday after the Senate voted to acquit President Donald Trump on both articles of impeachment.

Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert all had witty jabs to make at the expense of some of the biggest news moments, from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosis dramatic ripping of Trumps State of the Union speech to the disastrous Iowa Caucus.

Kimmel gave a monologue for the occasion, where he dropped many a joke at the politicians who voted to keep Trump in power  and at the conservatives who balked over Pelosis dramatic ripping.

Also Read: Fox News Stars Rail Against Romney for Trump Impeachment Vote: 'Going to Be Associated With Judas'

This is the most talked-about moment of the day, Kimmel said. That hasnt happened to Trump since his last divorce. And I will say, I didnt like that. I think tearing up the speech was a bad move. She should have rolled it up and spanked him with it.

Kimmel went on to roast Sen. Chuck Schumer and Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Minority leader Chuck Schumer said from here on, Trumps presidency will always have an asterisk next to it,' Kimmel said. And Lindsey Graham will always be there to kiss that asterisk.

He then addressed Romneys touching speech.

Romney was actually choking back tears as he explained his decision because he knows the presidents about to order the space force to attack his home state of Utah.

Then, he aired the clip of Sen. Susan Collins saying on CBS News that she believes the president has learned from this case.

Also Read: 'The Daily Show' Reimagines Trump's 2020 State of the Union Speech as a Telenovela (Video)

You do? Yeah. What hes learned is, I will do whatever I want, and you will eat it. This is a man who declared bankruptcy six times. Does that sound like someone who learns?

Watch the rest of Kimmels monologue below.

Fallon also weighed in on Trumps acquittal and the Pelosi moment.

Story continues

Of course, the biggest moment of the night was after Trumps speech when Nancy Pelosi took her copy and ripped one page after another. People were shocked cause when they heard that someone ripped one at the state of the union, everyone thought it would be Trump, Fallon joked. So between Pelosi and J-Lo, women over 50 are tearing it up this week.

Also Read: Senate Acquits Trump in Impeachment Trial, Mitt Romney Casts Lone GOP Guilty Vote

On the impeachment results, Fallon quipped, We knew the results right away, or as Iowa put it, Hey, howd you do that?'

The results werent surprising, and they were largely determined by old white men. If you want more of that, tune into the Oscars this Sunday at 8 p.m., he said.

Watch the rest of Fallons recap below.

Then there was Meyers, who took A Closer Look at Romneys speech, Trumps acquittal, and the disastrous Iowa Caucus.

Lets just say it has not been a banner week for American democracy, Meyers said. First, of course, there was the bizarre meltdown at the democratic Iowa caucus where an app designed to count people milling around in high school gymnasiums crashed and delayed the results. The app was built by a company called Shadow, which I assume is run by Christoph Waltz from the Bond films.

Meyers also likened the State of the Union address to a Trump rally, as republicans began chanting Four more years.

The only difference is Trump is squinting his way through a speech someone else wrote for him, instead of riffing about insane stuff like this, he said, bringing back a clip of Trumps famous sinks, toilets and showers speech.

Four less flushes! Meyers chanted.

Watch more of Meyers monologue below.

And, of course, there was Stephen Colbert, with perhaps the last edition of his Don and the Giant Impeach segment.

There it is, its official: Nothing means anything. Right is wrong, up is down, Missouri is Kansas, Colbert said about the acquittal. Now we know that asking a foreign power to interfere in our election is the new normal. The Democrats have no choice but to do the same thing.

Then, in what sounded like an impersonation of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Colbert said Russia, if youre listening, I could really use that pee pee tape. Milk milk, lemonade, around the corner justice is made.

Watch Colberts monologue below.

Read original story Late-Night Hosts Rip on Impeachment Results That Were Largely Determined by Old White Men (Videos) At TheWrap
Fifty six of the 60 people, who



have been quarantined in Maharashtra so far for suspected exposure to the novel coronavirus, have tested negative, with 50 of them being discharged from hospitals, a state government official said on Sunday.

A person who had alighted from a Filipino cruise vessel in Mumbai and was isolated after he complained of cough and fever has also tested negative for the virus, the official said, adding that the ship has now reached Porbandar in neighbouring Gujarat.

"Of the 60 people who were kept in isolation wards, 56 have tested negative and 50 of them have been discharged. The test results of the other four are yet to arrive and is expected in the next two days. All samples were tested at Pune's National Institute of Virology," he said.

A Maharashtra government release said 36,028 people have undergone screening at the Mumbai international airport since January 18.

It said 216 people have returned to Maharashtra from Covid-19 affected areas in China, of which 137 have completed their 14-day follow up period.

Those arriving from China and other areas affected by the virus are being kept under observation for a period of 14 days, the release said.

Maharashtra, where no positive case for the virus has been reported so far, has set up 39 isolation compartments comprising 361 beds.

The death toll in China from the epidemic has climbed to 1,665 on Saturday after 142 more people died, mostly in the worst-hit Hubei Province, and the confirmed cases jumped to 68,500.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
From ELLE

Fashion week officially started yesterday, and Zendaya spent the first night feting an incredible new achievement. The Euphoria actress has just been tapped as one of Bulgari's new ambassadors. She attended the Brooklyn party for their new unisex B.zero1 Rock line and to celebrate the new role. Naomi Scott, EXO's Kris Wu, and Lily Aldridge are the brand's three other faces.

Zendaya naturally wore a ton of diamonds to the event. Her exquisite necklace was the centerpiece of her outfit, and she wore a belted organza shirt dress and black pants by Rahul Mishra with it.

Photo credit: Bennett Raglin - Getty Images

Chief executive officer Jean-Christophe Babin explained why Zendaya, Wu, and Scott were tapped as faces of the brand in an interview with Women's Wear Daily. We decided for the first time to have a man as the protagonist for this campaign and had gone through a roster of very complementary talents," he said. "Zendaya is epitomizing the Generation-Z spirit, Naomi Scott is British and Indianits this combination that is evidence of the diversity of Bulgari. Its not a brand only for Americans or Chinese. Its a global economy with global diversity and we are acknowledging the universal appeal of the brand."

This isn't the only New York City fashion event Zendaya has attended this week. She also went to a Fendi event on Wednesday night. Her reported boyfriend and Euphoria co-star Jacob Elordi also attended the Fendi partyalbeit separately from her.

Photo credit: Noam Galai - Getty Images

Photo credit: Noam Galai - Getty Images

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JERUSALEM - The Israeli military on Sunday said it has thwarted an attempt by the Hamas militant group to hack soldiers phones by posing as young, attractive women on social media, striking up friendships and persuading them into downloading malware.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told reporters that the phones of dozens of soldiers had been infected in recent months, although he said the army detected the scam early on and prevented any major secrets from reaching the Islamic militant group.

We do not assess there is any significant breach of information, the military spokesman said.

Conricus said this was the third attempt by Hamas to target male soldiers through fake social media accounts, most recently in July 2018. But he said this latest attempt was by far the most sophisticated.

He said Hamas used a number of social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Telegram, to make contact with unsuspecting soldiers. Posing as young women on social media, the group struck up friendships with the soldiers, sending photos, texts and voice messages to them.

The women claimed to be new immigrants to explain their poor Hebrew, and even claimed to be deaf or hard of hearing as an excuse for texting, instead of speaking directly on the phone, Conricus said. The profiles appeared on multiple platforms, and he said the photos were disguised to make it difficult to reverse track them, giving the accounts additional authenticity.

We see that the level of social engineering is much higher and much more advanced and sophisticated when compared to previous attempts done by Hamas, he said. We see that theyre of course learning and upping their game.

Eventually, they sent the soldiers links to seduce them into downloading what they said was a Snapchat-like app to exchange photos that could quickly disappear, Conricus said. In reality, the links were to three malware programs  Catch&See, ZatuApp and GrixyApp  that allowed Hamas to gain access to the soldiers phones.

He said it was very clear that Hamas was behind the effort. He said the malware linked to known Hamas servers and at least one of the profiles had been used in a previous Hamas scam. There was no immediate comment from Hamas

Conricus declined to say how many soldiers had been targeted. But he said that dozens had downloaded the malware. He said soldiers had reported the suspicious activity relatively early on, allowing the army and the Shin Bet internal security service to monitor their phones. It is now in the process of removing the malware, he said.

Israel and Hamas, an Islamic movement that seeks Israels destruction, are bitter enemies that have fought three wars and numerous skirmishes since the group seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

The enemy sides have been holding indirect talks through Arab and U.N. mediators aimed at reaching a long-term truce under which Israel would ease a blockade on the Gaza Strip in exchange for Hamas assurances to maintain quiet.

But low-level fighting has persisted. Early Sunday, Israel carried out a number of airstrikes on Hamas targets in Gaza in response to the firing of two projectiles from Gaza into southern Israel. No casualties were reported on either side.
New Delhi, Feb 16 : Vodafone Idea could be the largest bankruptcy ever in India as the inability to pay dues under the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) may push the Vodafone Plc and Aditya Birla joint venture in that direction.

If the promoters and management of Vodafone Idea file for bankruptcy, it will be an earthquake for India Inc. However, one legal view is that filing under IBC in the NCLT after the Supreme Court order will be to circumvent contempt of court.

Vodafone Idea, promoted by British telecoms giant, Vodafone Plc and Aditya Birla group, has said it will repay some of its obligations under AGR in the next few days. However, it has not disclosed how much the amount will be paid.

"The company is currently assessing the amount that it will be able to pay to Department of Telecommunications (DoT) towards the dues calculated based on AGR, as interpreted by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in its order dated 24 October 2019. The company proposes to pay the amount so assessed in the next few days", Vodafone said in a regulatory filing.

While the Supreme Court has come down heavily on telcos for non-payment of dues, it is not yet clear how much Vodafone Idea will pay and when. The company owes about Rs 44,000 crore, which is required to be paid before the court's next hearing on March 17.

In end-December, the company had cash and cash equivalents worth Rs 12,530 crore. The cash in hand for the company will be only one-fourth of the dues payable, making the situation grim and uncertain.

The Modi government's earlier stance to go easy on telecom operators, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Tata Teleservices on adjusted gross revenues (AGR) has once again revived the chants of a 'suit boot ki sarkar' and allegations of crony capitalism from the Opposition.

As it turns out, the three parties are also big donors to the BJP as accessed in electoral bonds data, further lending credence to the allegations of crony capitalism by the Opposition.

The Congress had on Saturday alleged a quid pro quo in the decision of the Modi government to allow a breather for telcos. Randeep Singh Surjewala, in-charge, Communications, AICC said in a statement that what is the quid pro quo for Modi government to defer recovery of Rs 1.02 lakh crore from telecom companies as per order dated 23rd January, 2020 over which Supreme Court has now issued contempt and deferment of recovery of Rs.42,000 crore from telecom companies vide Cabinet decision dated 29th November, 2019.

Surjewala also asked as to why Modi government is extorting Rs 1.60 lakh crore from the pockets of 112 crore prepaid cell phone users as tariffs have been raised by 30-40 per cent.

Surjewala also asked if the increase of 40% in cell phone tariff and data usage charge a method to recover Rs 1.02 lakh crore payable by telecom companies from the pockets of ordinary Indians.

On January 23, Surjewala said the Modi government issued an order for not recovering Rs 1.02 lakh crore from telecom companies and not to take any coercive action by stating "not to insist for any payment pursuant to the order passed by Supreme Court and not to take any coercive steps till further orders." In 2017-18, for the BJP, 38 per cent of all its donations came from two donors -- Prudent Electoral Trust (Rs 154.30 crore) and Ab General Electoral Trust (Rs 12.5 crore).

As per media reports, the BJP raised well over Rs 800 crore between April 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019 before the Lok Sabha elections and the biggest single contribution came from the Tata group backed Progressive Electoral Trust, which donated Rs 356 crore.

Prudent Electoral Trust, predominantly funded by Bharti Airtel, DLF and the Hero group, sent in over Rs 67 crore to the BJP and Rs 39 crore to the Congress in 2018-19. The Aditya Birla General Electoral Trust has sent in over Rs 28 crore to the BJP and they donated Rs 2 crore to the Congress.
At least 31 people were killed and 12 others were injured here in the al-Maslub district in airstrikes by the Saudi-UAE-led military coalition on Saturday.

"Preliminary field reports indicate that as many as 31 civilians were killed and 12 others injured in strikes that hit al-Hayjah area of the al-Maslub district in al-Jawf governorate," said a statement from the office of the UN resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator for Yemen.

According to Al Jazeera, the airstrike was conducted hours after the Yemeni Houthis said that they downed a Saudi fighter jet in the same region.

Commenting on the air raids, Lise Grande, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said: "We share our deep condolences with the families of those killed and we pray for the speedy recovery of everyone who has been injured in these terrible strikes."

"So many people are being killed in Yemen - it's a tragedy and it's unjustified. Under international humanitarian law, parties that resort to force is obligated to protect civilians," Grande was quoted as saying.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The BBC's under-fire editorial director Kamal Ahmed has been hit with fresh claims of profiting from lucrative corporate speeches.

A 1.2billion property developer and a bank both paid the Corporation executive to speak at their events last year, according to the Sunday Times.

Mr Ahmed was this week shamed into handing back 12,000 to a hedge fund amid outrage he was using his 200,000 taxpayer-funded role to line his pockets.

Last night's revelations he also took paid engagements for a dinner at St Modwen Properties and a British Business Bank breakfast event fuelled further fury.

The BBC's under-fire editorial director Kamal Ahmed has been hit with fresh claims of profiting from lucrative corporate speeches (pictured in 2017)

It comes at a delicate time for the BBC, which has announced swingeing job cuts to its news division to make 80million worth of savings.

The 450 redundancies, announced by Mr Ahmed, 52, has intensified the scrutiny on Mr Ahmed's personal money-making.

His agent Mary Greenham told the newspaper her client had spoke at St Mowden on March 21 after a colleague pulled out a the eleventh-hour.

She also confirmed he moderated a breakfast panel at a finance conference run by the government-owned British Business Bank on February 11.

A statement from the broadcaster said their journalists are allowed to 'carry out external speaking, or chairing, engagements as long as they maintain objectivity and impartiality'.

It comes at a delicate time for the BBC, which has announced swingeing job cuts to its news division to make 80million worth of savings (Mr Ahmed, right, pictured making the announcement)

Mr Ahmed's speaking fee for these two events is being kept secret, but he is listed on the Speakers Associates website in the 10,000 to 25,000 per appearance category.

Last week, the Mail on Sunday revealed how Mr Ahmed took home 12,000 for a 40-minute appearance at the Aberdeen Standard Investment's earlier this month.

He took part in a panel discussion hosted by Steph McGovern, his former BBC colleague who now works for Channel 4.

He later apologised for taking payment, returned the money and vowed that he will not be taking any money from organisers.

Mr Ahmed is among the runners and riders to replace Lord Tony Hall as the BBC's next director general.

The BBC is also bracing for an onslaught from Downing Street, which has mooted axing the licence fee.

A source told the Sunday Times the BBC could be forced to sell off most of its radio stations in a 'massive pruning back' of its activities.

But Transport Secretary Grant Shapps today said that while there was a consultation under way into decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee, there were no 'preordained' decisions on future funding models.
Trace Matters Scientific today introduced SPion  -a revolutionary technology that enables the world's most sensitive and versatile remote analysis with mass spectrometry. Until now, a lack of proper instrumentation for efficient ion transfer from a remotely located sample to the mass spectrometer made sensitive in situ analysis for such a sample nearly impossible. SPion overcomes this major roadblock by redefining the front-end architecture of a mass spectrometer and transforming it into a simple lightweight handheld probe. SPion allows scientists to bring the accuracy and specificity of a mass spectrometer to their sample in native state, and experience unprecedented sensitivity in remote analysis. This allows for, amongst other applications, in vivo or living sample molecular profiling. This will be revolutionary for health and biological sciences including cancer surgery because the tissue or sample doesn't need to be altered or treated to sensitively measure the biomarkers.

SPion addresses one of the significant challenges that had remained unsolved for many decades in the field of mass spectrometry: the capability to efficiently transfer ions over relatively long distances, similar to how photons are contained and guided through optical fibers. Mass spectrometry is one of the most powerful techniques for capturing molecular information and is a power tool for precision and personalized medicine. The capabilities that SPion brings to the table extends the use of mass spectrometry to even more applications, importantly, point-of-care in vivo direct tissue analysis. Our goal is to turn a mass spec into a medical device -a tool that will provide highly accurate tissue biopsy results in real-time in the operating room." Mazdak Taghioskoui, Ph.D., Trace Matters Scientific's CEO and the inventor of the technology

The in vivo sample analysis capability is a game changer because it allows observing the biology and chemistry of living tissue without disruption. Typically, samples must be removed for analysis, and in the process, a great deal of time and accuracy is sacrificed. In addition to producing more relevant data via in vivo analysis, SPion addresses many problems associated with ex vivo techniques, such as tedious sample preparation, cross-contamination, bias trends, and instability of analytes. With SPion, it is now possible to produce molecular information directly from a living tissue with the same sensitivity of a standard mass spectrometer.

In the first ever implementation of this technology, Trace Matters is working with Nathalie Agar, Ph.D., Department of Neurosurgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School to demonstrate the technology in cancer surgery. "Over the past decade, the focus of my research has been on the potential of mass spectrometry in supporting and guiding surgical decision-making, with the goal of fully integrating mass spectrometry in the clinical setting," said Professor Agar, the director of the Surgical Molecular Imaging Laboratory at the Brigham. "We are happy to have the opportunity to work on validating, optimizing, and implementing this new exciting technology."

Trace Matters is planning to present the results at the 68th ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics (ASMS) 2020 in Houston, TX.
TRIP REPORT

INDEX



Written by Chris Matteo





I recently flew Air Serbia from Amsterdam to Belgrade, connecting onward to Tirana, Albania.





I purchased a very reasonable economy class ticket last minute (discount economy - hand luggage only) but opted to bid for an upgrade to business class on the outbound segment. I submitted a bid (the minimum amount) of $75 USD roughly 4 days before departure, and my offer was accepted within 24 hours. I found that to be a very reasonable price, especially since I had always wanted to try out Air Serbia's business class. Do note, the bid upgrade does not entitle you to an additional baggage allowance. Nevertheless, it seems Air Serbia is pretty liberal with what they allow you to bring on board (officially 8 kg of hand luggage plus a small personal item), and as I was only traveling for 2 nights, I had no need to take a checked bag anyway.





Additionally, the bid was only for one segment. The segment from BEG-TIA was not offered for an upgrade as it was operated on a ATR-72 aircraft, an all economy class aircraft. With the upgrade, you are now allowed to choose your seat online in business class. Otherwise with the basic economy fare, a seat is automatically assigned to you at check-in, and you must pay if you would like to change it (even to an aisle or middle seat) during online check-in.





I was able to check-in for my flight online 36 hours prior to departure, thus being able to proceed directly to the security checkpoint at Schiphol with my mobile boarding pass. As I was traveling in business class, I was also granted access to the priority security lane, saving a great deal of time as Schiphol can be quite hectic in the mornings due to all of the Transatlantic departures. After roughly 20 minutes to get through security and passport control, I proceeded directly to the lounge that Air Serbia utilises at Schiphol, Aspire Lounge 41. This lounge can get quite crowded as it is open to all non-SkyTeam business class travelers plus Priority Pass card holders. However, Priority Pass card holders were not being accepted this particular morning, only business class travelers, and I was able to gain access. The lounge is nothing over the top, and again, can be quite congested, but I found the food/drink offerings to be sufficient. Additionally, there is a nice view over the D & E aprons.







After a coffee and a small snack, I proceeded to the gate. It was located all the way at the end of the D pier so it can be quite a hike if you are not prepared! Upon my arrival, boarding was ready to commence, and I proceeded to queue in the priority lane. I was the first to board the aircraft and immediately found my seat, 1A. I was greeted by a very friendly purser and a young steward who would be taking care of me for the rest of my flight. After a coffee and a small snack, I proceeded to the gate. It was located all the way at the end of the D pier so it can be quite a hike if you are not prepared! Upon my arrival, boarding was ready to commence, and I proceeded to queue in the priority lane. I was the first to board the aircraft and immediately found my seat, 1A. I was greeted by a very friendly purser and a young steward who would be taking care of me for the rest of my flight.

Boarding took roughly 25 minutes, and the cabin crew was very helpful in assisting passengers in placing their hand luggage into the overhead bins as the flight was quite full this morning. Business class consisted of 3 rows with the middle seat blocked and was about 75% full this morning. The legroom was sufficient and with the middle seat blocked (and no one in 1C), it made for a comfortable flight.

After boarding was completed, the young steward came around to distribute menus and ask us for our choice of meal and drink for the 2.25 hour flight to Belgrade. I opted for the sunny side up eggs with bacon along with a glass of orange juice and some rakia to mix with it (it was Saturday after all!). Luckily, we had a quick taxi and were off to Belgrade.





About 15 minutes after takeoff, the flight crew began their service to business class passengers. The service was quite personalized, and their were no carts used during the entire flight; each meal and beverage was served directly to the passengers by the young steward and purser. I found this a nice touch as many airlines, even KLM, use their carts for the business class service on short haul routes.





The food was quite delicious. The eggs were cooked nicely, the bacon was not greasy, and the fruit was fresh. The orange juice and rakia proved to be a nice combination as well. After finishing my meal, I asked for a coffee and sparkling water which was promptly served to me.

I found the aircraft to be in overall good condition; it was incredibly clean and did not really seem to show its age minus a few small details. The lavatory was clean and tidy with a few additional items that I assume were not present in the aft ones. There was no WiFi available on this aircraft.

The flight progressed quickly and before I knew it, we had begun our decent into Belgrade. After landing, we had a quick taxi and pulled up next to the Air Serbia A330 bound for JFK. Within 5 minutes, I was in the terminal and off to the Air Serbia Premium Lounge.

Overall, I was very impressed with Air Serbia and its business class. The bid upgrade was incredibly reasonable (especially since the ticket was so cheap), and I found the amenities offered (priority security & boarding, lounge access, and catering) to be quite generous. The crew was incredibly friendly, professional, and efficient, constantly smiling and coming around to see if passengers needed anything. The only downsides, I would say, are that the bid upgrade does not entitle you to additional baggage (checked or hand) nor additional mileage; you earn the initial booking class mileage. I would definitely try Air Serbia again in the future, especially in business class.

Share your travel experience by submitting a trip report to exyu@exyuaviation.com
Joe Swash offered condolences to the family of Caroline Flack on Sunday evening after performing in the latest episode of Dancing On Ice.

Caroline, 40, was found dead inside her London home by her father Ian on Saturday after taking her own life while the friend who was staying with her 'popped out to the shops'.

And Joe, who shared a close friendship with the former Love Island presenter, was visibly distraught as he addressed hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, admitting it had been a 'tough day'.

Devastated: Joe Swash offered condolences to the family of Caroline Flack on Sunday evening after performing in the latest episode of Dancing On Ice

Moments earlier the star had skated to Robbie Williams' hit Candy, and professional skating partner Alex Murphy revealed their routine's uplifting tone made Joe's appearance on Sunday even more difficult as he struggled to process the news of Caroline's death.

'This was really hard to get through and do a happy number when he feels the way that he feels, so Im so proud of him,' she said.

Addressing Joe, Schofield added: Weve got to point out to everyone that you were very, very close to Caroline. Its been an amazingly tough day and shed be so proud of you.'

'I just want to send my love to her family and friends,' Joe said as the studio audience broke into applause.

Tragic: Caroline, 40, was found dead inside her London home by her father Ian on Saturday after taking her own life while the friend who was staying with her 'popped out to the shops'

Moving: Joe, who shared a close friendship with the former Love Island presenter, was visibly distraught as he addressed hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby

We did it: Professional skating partner Alex Murphy revealed their routine's uplifting tone made Joe's appearance on Sunday even more difficult

Taking to Instagram on Saturday evening Joe fought back tears as he revealed his sadness that she didn't reach out for help.

Speaking into the camera, a clearly devastated Joe said: 'I want to send a message to everyone and let everyone know that Caroline Flack was the most amazing person you could ever come across.

'She was funny, super talented, and she had the most infectious laugh.'

Struggling to contain his emotions, he continued: 'I wish that she could have asked for help because there's so many people that love her and I am going to miss her so much.

'We can't let this happen, we can't let this happen to anyone else.'

Supportive: 'This was really hard to get through and do a happy number when he feels the way that he feels, so Im so proud of him,' she said

It emerged earlier today that paramedics were scrambled to Flack's north London home the day before she killed herself - but didn't take her to hospital after a clinical assessment.

Sources told MailOnline that ambulance crews were sent to the former Love Island presenter's Stoke Newington flat over 'concerns for her welfare', but decided against taking her to hospital after checking her over.

Caroline took her own life after a worried friend who was staying with her went to the shops, leaving her alone at her London flat.

The producer friend couldn't get back into the flat when she returned.

She called Flack's father Ian who gained entry to the flat where he found the star's body.

Thinking of you: 'I just want to send my love to her family and friends,' Joe said as the studio audience broke into applause

Her management team have since described her as 'vulnerable' and criticised the CPS for pushing ahead with a pending court case despite her boyfriend Lewis Burton saying he did not want to press charges.

He had said she hit him with a lamp at her former home in Islington in December and as part of her bail conditions the pair were banned from contacting each other.

On Sunday Lewis shared a picture of the couple on holiday together on Instagram this morning, saying his 'heart is broken' and promising to 'be her voice'.

His post read today: 'My heart is broken, we had something so special. I am so lost for words I am in so much pain I miss you so much I know you felt safe with me you always said I don't think about anything else when I am with you and I was not allowed to be there this time I kept asking and asking.

'I will be your voice baby I promise I will ask all the questions you wanted and I will get all the answers nothing will bring you back but I will try make you proud everyday. I love you with all my heart.'

He then re-posted a picture Caroline uploaded to Instagram on December 5 that read: 'In a world where you can be anything, be kind', with the caption 'I will love you forever'.
The Oregonians weekly look at the numbers behind the states economy. View past installments here.

People keep moving into Oregon  and relatively few are leaving.

Newly released Census data shows Oregon had the nations 10th-fastest rate of net migration from 2018 to 2019, growing at a rate of 6.9 per 1,000 residents. Thats nearly 4 times faster than the national rate.

Nearly all the new arrivals came from another part of the U.S.; immigrants accounted for less than 12% of Oregons net migration.

The influx likely reflects Oregons robust economy and relatively low housing costs  compared to Seattle and the Bay Area, anyway.

The migration may also reflect Oregons proximity to California, the largest state in the nation and also one of the places people are leaving. Oregons southern neighbor had a net outmigration rate of 3.3 last year.

Migrants have been key to Oregons economic growth, bringing educated workers with skills the state hasnt developed on its own.

Population growth brings challenges, too, of course, chief among them more competition for housing and more vehicles on the states roads.

Oregons population grew by just over 10% from 2010 through 2019, according to Census data, 11th-fastest in the nation during that stretch. Migration accounted for three-quarters of that growth.

Still, Oregon economists worry migration may actually be slowing  with potentially serious consequences for the state.

Oregons stronger long-run economic growth historically is tied to migration and faster working-age population gains, state economists wrote in the quarterly revenue forecast released Wednesday. The primary risk to the local outlook is the available labor supply, particularly as recent population estimates indicate migration is slowing more than expected.

-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA)  Except the supporters of the former regime of Mouamar Kaddafi, the majority of Libyans consider the 17 February revolution of 2011 as a major salvation event, despite a tragic consequence and the insecurity which the country is facing today and the celebrations marking the 9th anniversary on Monday show two visions of Libya
She is one of the few plus-size women to ever star in a romantic comedy blockbuster.

And Isn't It Romantic? actress Rebel Wilson has taken a swipe at Hollywood for failing to cast larger women in leading roles.

Speaking to Stellar on Sunday, the curvaceous blonde said: 'I am the average size of the American and Australian woman.'

'Its still unfair': Rebel Wilson has blasted Hollywood for refusing to cast plus-size actresses in leading roles

She continued: 'And yet plus-size actresses have less than one per cent of all leading roles, I think, even though they are the majority of women.'

Speaking of the importance of diversity on screen, Rebel explained: 'Its still really important to have representation like me in those type of leading-lady roles because its still unfair.'

It comes after the actress revealed she'd lost 3.6 kilos in just four days while shooting the musical movie Cats.

'I am the average size of the American and Australian woman': Rebel told Stellar that, despite the fact that most women are considered plus-size, less than one per cent of leading roles are given to plus-size women in Hollywood

Speaking to ET last December, Rebel said that her slim-down was thanks to the physically taxing dance routine she performed in the movie, and the fact that the set of Cats was extremely hot.

'I lost eight pounds (3.6 kilos) shooting my number, in four days,' she said.

'One, because theres a lot of physicality but also, they heated up the set very high, to almost 100 Fahrenheit, so that we could never cool down.'

'Theres a lot of physicality': It comes after the actress revealed she'd lost 3.6 kilos in just four days while shooting the musical movie Cats (pictured)

On January 2, Rebel said she was focusing on her health in 2020 in an effort to make 'some positive changes'.

'Okay so for me 2020 is going to be called 'The Year of Health' - so I put on the athleisure and went out for a walk, deliberately hydrating on the couch right now and trying to avoid the sugar and junk food which is going to be hard after the holidays I've just had but I'm going to do it!' she wrote.

'Who's with me in making some positive changes this year?' she added.
Boris Johnson is facing an extraordinary Commons rebellion by Tory MPs angered by the ruthless behaviour of his all-powerful adviser Dominic Cummings.

The resignation of Chancellor Sajid Javid  who was effectively ousted by Mr Cummings  has stoked anger on the backbenches over what one MP described as the 'regal arrogance' of the 'court of King Boris'.

Now a group of rebels are planning to vote against measures in the Finance Bill when it is introduced into the Commons after the Budget, which is due to be delivered next month by new Chancellor Rishi Sunak following Mr Javid's shock defenestration in last week's Cabinet reshuffle.

With a majority of 80, Mr Johnson does not need to fear losing the votes  but the rebels say they are determined to remind him that he is not an 'absolute monarch'.

Boris Johnson is facing an extraordinary Commons rebellion by Tory MPs angered by the ruthless behaviour of his all-powerful adviser Dominic Cummings

It comes amid growing disquiet among Whitehall colleagues about Mr Cummings' behaviour.

Mr Javid quit after Mr Cummings ordered his advisers to be sacked and replaced by Downing Street appointees as part of his power grab over No 11. It was the culmination of long-running tensions between Mr Javid and Vote Leave architect Mr Cummings, dating back to Mr Javid's declaration in The Mail on Sunday before the 2016 EU referendum that he would vote Remain  despite holding pro-Brexit views.

The situation deteriorated rapidly over recent months after No 10 and No 11 engaged in a briefing war over economic policies. Fatally for Mr Javid, he also clashed with Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill  whose complicity was required when No 10 moved to assert its control over the Treasury by establishing a 'joint economic unit'.

Mr Sedwill was infuriated at the start of last year's Election campaign when Mr Javid's advisers tried to use Treasury officials to calculate the cost of Jeremy Corbyn's manifesto promises, in violation of the civil service's traditional neutrality: the final figure of 1.2 trillion was subsequently splashed over newspaper front pages.

Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid leaving his south London home following the Cabinet reshuffle

The backbenchers, who number between 20 and 30 and do not wish to be identified, say they plan to vote against expected measures in the Bill closing tax loopholes for the self-employed as a protest at Mr Johnson's promotion of 'compliant yes-men' and 'ministerial retreads'. More than 80 per cent of the new Government frontbench in the Commons were existing Ministers or had served as Ministers previously.

George Freeman, who was sacked by Mr Johnson as a Transport Minister, criticised the Prime Minister in his resignation letter, saying the country needed a Government 'that supports its Ministers'. He added: 'If taking back control means iron-clad centralisation via Whitehall control, it will fail to deliver the real empowerment we need and promised.'

Another MP said the backbench anger was 'genuine and justified'. He added: 'It looks as if the criteria for a job is a proven track record of being ready to do whatever Boris  or more likely, Dominic Cummings  tells you.

Boris Johnson's key adviser Dominic Cummings leaving his north London home. Mr Javid quit after Mr Cummings ordered his advisers to be sacked and replaced by Downing Street appointees as part of his power grab over No 11

Tensions over Mr Cummings' treatment of the aides boiled over on Friday night when he was confronted about his 'cruel' and 'unkind' behaviour by defence adviser Lynn Davidson (pictured)

'We all thought Boris was leading a new-broom, new-look administration which would bring about real change in the country. But instead, it looks like the main qualifying criteria to be a Minister under Boris is that you already were under him, Theresa May or David Cameron.

Has the first of Dominic Cummings 'weirdos' been hired? Downing Street is braced for a row over a controversial adviser brought in by Boris Johnsons right-hand man Dominic Cummings. Andrew Sabisky, 27, wrote on Mr Cummings website in 2014: One way to get around the problems of unplanned pregnancies creating a permanent underclass would be to legally enforce universal uptake of long-term contraception at the onset of puberty. Vaccination laws give it a precedent, I would argue. A self-described super forecaster, Mr Sabisky, has been brought in to No 10 as a contractor following an appeal for assorted weirdos to work for the Government. On another blog post discussing female genital mutilation, he claimed: It is still unclear to what extent FGM represents a serious risk to young girls, raised in the UK, of certain minority group origins. Much of the hue and cry looks more like a moral panic. His comments were made in response to the Home Affairs Select Committee calling the issue a national scandal. Since his appointment, Mr Sabisky has deleted several tweets, including one dismissing female Labour politicians Yvette Cooper, Angela Rayner and Rebecca Long Bailey as dim. In another tweet, Mr Sabisky said: I am always straight up in saying that womens sport is more comparable to the Paralympics than it is to mens. Advertisement

A self-described super forecaster,' Andrew Sabisky, (pictured) has been brought in to No 10 as a contractor following an appeal for assorted weirdos to work for the Government

'Plus, it helps if you've demonstrated you can take orders from civil servants, as it was in the past, and from Dominic Cummings, as it is now.'

The MP added: 'You ask for something from a Minister and they'll say: 'Can't do that, breaks the rules, civil servants will never wear it.' Mention Cummings likes it and the chance is you'll get a phone call later saying it's all agreed. It's not one particular batch of MPs that's being ignored  there are very good people elected in 2010, 2015 and 2017 who for some reason don't pass the smell test of Boris or Cummings.

'The rebellion will be about putting a marker down to Boris that we're not cannon fodder.

'Given his words about Brexit and restoring the importance of our Parliament, he'd be wise to pay attention to it.'

Allies of Mr Johnson hit back last night by claiming the 'absurd' attacks were nothing more than the usual 'sour grapes' from people not given jobs last week.

But former Tory Cabinet Minister Michael Forsyth agreed that Mr Johnson should put Mr Cummings 'back in his box'. Lord Forsyth said: 'The idea of Dominic Cummings having meetings with 100 special advisers or so, and telling them what to do, is not a very good thing for the good conduct of government or for democracy. I don't think it's helpful.' In a bid to quell growing concern, Mr Johnson barred Mr Cummings from being present while he fired  and then hired  members of his frontbench team during the reshuffle.

After Ministers had been appointed by the PM in the Cabinet room, some  including Justice Secretary Robert Buckland  were ordered to a side room to meet Mr Cummings.

One Cabinet source said: 'There was a b******ing list, with Dom tearing strips off those he did not like, even if they had just been lavished with praise by the PM.'

Tensions over Mr Cummings' treatment of the aides boiled over on Friday night when he was confronted about his 'cruel' and 'unkind' behaviour by defence adviser Lynn Davidson.

She accused Mr Cummings of using previous meetings to humiliate advisers.

Mr Cummings initially defended his robust approach but conceded he would 'go away and think about' what she had said.

He then admitted that other colleagues in Downing Street had also criticised his behaviour.
A reporter walks near the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship in Yokohama, near Tokyo on Feb. 11, 2020. (Jae C. Hong/AP)

40 Americans on Quarantined Cruise Have Coronavirus: Top US Official

About 40 Americans who are being kept on a quarantined cruise ship held off the coast of Japan have contracted the mysterious new virus that has triggered mass lockdowns and supply-chain shutdowns in China.

Forty of them have gotten infected, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, in a Feb. 16 interview with CBSs Face the Nation, referring to the U.S. citizens on board the Diamond Princess.

They are not going to go anywhere. Theyre going to be in hospitals in Japan.

As he made those comments, U.S. officials were working to evacuate hundreds of Americans who were aboard the vessel, which has been held in isolation since early February.

Over the weekend, another 70 cases of the coronavirus, or COVID-19, were confirmed on the ship, bringing the total to 355, Japanese health officials said. There are about 3,700 passengers and crew members on board.

Outside of mainland China, where the virus is believed to have originated, the Diamond Princess has the most confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world.

Before the Americans are evacuated, theyll be screened, and those who have symptoms will have to stay in Japanese hospitals, Fauci told the news outlet. But other passengers will be evacuated starting immediately, he said, adding that passengers who develop symptoms on the chartered flights will be segregated.

The cruise ship Diamond Princess is pictured beside a Japanese flag as it lies at anchor while workers and officers prepare to transfer passengers who tested positive for COVID-19, at Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama, south of Tokyo on Feb. 12, 2020. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/ Reuters/File Photo)

The passengers will be chartered to Air Force bases across the United States for a 14-day quarantine.

The reason for that is the degree of transmissibility on that cruise ship is essentially akin to being in a hot spot, he said.

The U.S. State Department confirmed that a chartered flight was scheduled to arrive in Japan to evacuate Americans late on Feb. 16, local time.

Should you choose not to return on this charter flight, you will be unable to return to the United States for a period of time, the U.S. Embassy told the Americans in an email. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will make a final determination on this matter.

Tens of thousands of people are reported to have been sickened with the new coronavirus in mainland China. Critics have accused the regime of lacking transparency in its reporting on the virus.

COVID-19 has spread to about two-dozen other countries, including the United States, where 15 cases have been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some of the confirmed virus cases to date are on their second or even third transmission, Fauci told CBS, adding that COVID-19 isnt technically classified as a global pandemic. However, it appears to be moving in that direction, he said.

The [World Health Organization] wouldnt be calling this a global pandemic, he said on the program. But it certainly is on the verge of that happening reasonably soon unless containment is more successful than it is right now.

Outside of mainland China, five deaths have been reported. One death was reported in Taiwan on Feb. 16, and another was reported in Francethe first coronavirus death in Europe.

Taiwanese officials said a taxi driver who ferried people from China, Hong Kong, and Macau succumbed to the virus. He also suffered from diabetes and hepatitis B. In France, an 80-year-old Chinese tourist died after testing positive, said officials.
Describing US President Donald Trump's upcoming visit to India as timely that could open a new period in bilateral ties, a former top American diplomat has said that it is important for the leaders of the two countries to embrace and reaffirm common values of commitment to democracy, human rights, diversity and rule of law.

President Trump will pay a state visit to India on February 24 and 25 at the invitation of Prime Minister Modi. He would be accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump.

"Only six sitting US Presidents have visited India since India's independence in 1947, so President Trump's visit is important, timely and has the chance to open a new period in bilateral ties," former US envoy to India Rich Verma told PTI in an interview ahead of the presidential visit.

"The visits of the last three US Presidents have celebrated not only our security and economic potential, but also focused on our deeply held shared values, our commitment to democracy, to human rights, to diversity, to the rule of law and to a more peaceful and open Indo-Pacific. This is the aspect of our partnership that makes it stand out and gives it special significance," said Verma, who served as the US Ambassador to India from 2015 to 2017.

Noting that there are threats to that vision, he said that it would be important for both the leaders to embrace and reaffirm those values. "I hope the President goes even further to reaffirm that America remains a land of immigrants, a welcoming nation committed to diversity and inclusion," he said.

"That's the America that my parents came to from India nearly 60 years ago. It's the America that allowed their son to return as Ambassador, and the America that lifted up millions of newly arrived immigrants over our history wanting to pursue the American dream," said the first-ever Indian-American to be posted as US Ambassador to India.

Verma, 51, who is vice chairman of the Asia Group, said that President Trump can draw upon this bipartisan traditions to reaffirm these shared values and bring the two nations even closer together.

"If he does, then the world will indeed be a safer and more prosperous place one where two natural allies defend and advance freedom for hundreds of millions across the globe," Verma said.

He said that the previous presidential visits led to new areas of cooperation, demonstrated the appreciation and affection that the American people feel towards India, and reflected the true bipartisan support for a stronger partnership.

President Obama was the only US President to visit India twice during his tenure in office, and the only President to attend India's Republic Day. His visits led to historic progress in defense, energy and trade. "I was proud to witness that progress first-hand," he said.

"We remember President (Bill) Clinton's historic visit in 2000, where in a memorable address before the Indian Parliament he called for a new chapter in US-India ties, one that finally lives up to our desire to be 'natural allies'," he noted.

He said President George W Bush's visit cemented historic progress on civil nuclear cooperation and in sealing an important strategic defense arrangement with India.

"We cannot forget the words of President Eisenhower, the first US President to visit (India), where he predicted the Indian and American people, not the governments, would show us the way forward. It was a wise observation," Verma said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The United States provides Ukraine with military assistance to protect it from aggressive actions by Russia. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated this on Saturday, February 15, during a speech at the Munich Security Conference, DW reports.

"Russia has captured Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine and Georgia. The US is arming Ukraine to help this brave country defend itself against Russian aggression," - he said.

The US Secretary of State also recalled how, during his official trip to Kyiv in late January, he visited a military hospital where a wounded Ukrainian officer presented him with a patch of his military unit as a keepsake. "And it reminded me that for the sake of sovereignty, you need to fight and fight together," said Pompeo.

He also criticized the actions of Russia, Iran, and China. "Some countries are still striving to create empires (...) Now, more than thirty years after the fall of the (Berlin) wall, countries that do not respect sovereignty still threaten us," said Pompeo. He also noted that Russia is engaged in misinformation, "trying to set our citizens against each other."

As we reported before, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker will accompany Mike Pompeo during the Munich Security Conference on February 14.
Whether its a fairy-filled love story or pirates clashing in Neverland, physical intimacy is everywhere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

This year, the southern Oregon theater company has taken all that physicality to a new degree of seriousness with the hiring of its first full-time intimacy director.

That title has gone to Sarah Lozoff, a choreographer and movement director who worked with the festival for eight seasons. Previously hired on a show-by-show basis, Lozoff now is available to work on all 10 of this seasons productions.

Her job? To help ensure the safety and wellbeing of performers, and to help choreograph any scenes that are physically intimate, whether its a sex scene or a fight scene.

Its definitely something weve needed for a while but werent acknowledging, Lozoff said. We didnt have words for it.

While in the throes of a performance, actors can sometimes allow their impulses to cross boundaries with their scene partners, she said. Actors often keep their concerns to themselves, for fear of losing the role.

With an intimacy director in place, those concerns can be voiced to make sure boundaries are never crossed in the first place.

Sarah Lozoff is the first full-time intimacy director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

While every intimacy director has their own technique and style, Lozoffs approach is to first create a safe container around an intimate scene, where boundaries are discussed between actors (no hands in certain places, no tongue in the kiss). Inside that container, actors can feel free to explore their characters actions and impulses, which Lozoff then curates to choreograph a finished scene for the production.

Far from stifling the creative process, she said this approach resulted in a safer and sexier performance for all involved.

We are making sure we know what those moves are, where are our faces are supposed to go, where our hands are supposed to go, Lozoff said. I want to make sure that everyone who is helping to tell this story is fully consenting.

She makes a point of telling actors that its not about avoiding discomfort, which is a major part of the creative process in theater. What shes trying to ensure is a feeling of safety within that process.

Its easy to link the new intimacy director role to the recent Me Too and Times Up movements. While Lozoff acknowledged the importance of that cultural shift, she said intimacy directing had been gaining steam during the last two decades.

Intimacy Directors International, a nonprofit organization where Lozoff also works as an education coordinator, was founded in 2016 to help promote the practice and certify people for theater, TV and film productions. The organization offers guidance on nudity, simulated sex and the wide variety of intimate scenes you might find, for example, at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

In Ashland, where actors are engrossed within their roles for most of the year, taking care of their most-intimate moments on stage is a big deal, Lozoff said. By hiring her, the festival is signaling a dedication to the wellbeing of its company.

I actually think we could make some pretty big cultural change here within our organization to begin with, then on the broader theater scape, Lozoff said. I think were all curious, myself included, as to where this can go and what comes next.

- Open to the sky, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre seats 1,200 people. Featured in the photo is the 2017 set and ensemble in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Kim Budd, Oregon Shakespeare FestivalKim Budd, Oregon Shakespeare Festival

2020 OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL SHOWS

Tickets are $40 to $120, depending on the sections, with discounts for youth, members and during previews. Buy tickets online at osfashland.org or by calling 800-219-8161.

A Midsummer Nights Dream

March 6 to Nov. 1 (previews Feb. 28, March 3)

Shakespeares classic comedy follows the strange and complex love affairs between humans and the immortals of Fairyland, urged on by the trickery of Puck. This seasons production is described as joyful and music-laden.

The Copper Children

March 6 to Nov. 1 (previews Feb. 29, March 4)

A world-premiere play based on the true history of orphan trains that brought mostly Irish immigrant children to the West, The Copper Children touches on children, law, race, class and religion, as good intentions collide with bad behavior.

Peter and the Starcatcher

March 8 to Nov. 1 (previews March 1 and 5)

A prequel to the beloved story of Peter Pan, Peter and the Starcatcher follows a ragtag group of orphans as they fend off brutal pirates in Neverland. The show had a successful run on Broadway, after premiering in 2009 at the La Jolla Playhouse in California.

Bring Down the House, Parts I and II

March 6 to Nov. 1 (previews March 3, 4 and 5)

An epic two-part adaptation of Shakespeares Henry VI trilogy, Bring Down the House is full of political intrigue and conflict, leading up to the War of the Roses. The production is directed by Rosa Joshi, who has assembled a diverse all-female and non-binary cast.

Confederates

April 12 to Oct. 31 (previews April 8, 10 and 11)

Bouncing between the stories of two black women living 160 years apart, Confederates examines the ongoing legacies of institutional racism and gender bias in America. The world premiere production is the work of playwright Dominique Morisseau, directed by Oregon Shakespeare Festival artistic director Nataki Garrett.

The Tempest

June 5 to Oct. 18 (previews May 26, 29 and June 2)

Thought to be one of the last plays Shakespeare wrote alone, The Tempest tells the story of an exiled sorcerer on a mystical island, who uses his powers to exact revenge. This seasons production features a cast of experienced OSF actors, with Kevin Kenerly in the lead role.

black odyssey

June 6 to Oct. 16 (previews May 27, 30 and June 3)

A reimagining of Homers epic, black odyssey follows modern-day soldier Ulysses Lincoln as he travels back home to his family, from war in Afghanistan to Oakland. The production, which will be done at the outdoor Elizabethan Theatre, is billed as a journey through personal, cultural and national history.

Bernhardt/Hamlet

June 7 to Oct. 17 (previews May 28, 31 and June 4)

Based on the true story of French actress Sarah Bernhardts ambition to play the role of Hamlet, Bernhardt/Hamlet is a comedy that blends fact with fiction to tell the story of a legendary woman who broke through one of theaters greatest glass ceilings.

Poor Yella Rednecks

July 5 to Oct. 31 (previews July 2, 3 and 4)

Poor Yella Rednecks tells the story of Vietnamese refugees Tong and Quang, as they settle in El Dorado, Arkansas, with their 5-year-old son. Language barriers, money woes and Quangs first wife quickly complicate their new life. The play is a sequel to Qui Nguyens popular Vietgone.

Everything That Never Happened

July 25 to Oct. 31 (previews July 21, 23 and 24)

Filling in the gaps between Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice and the realities of Jewish history, Everything That Never Happened follows Jessica, daughter of Shylock, as she leaves her culture, religion and family behind to marry Lorenzo, a Christian.

--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB
Enterprises in HCM City, Binh Duong and Dong Nai complain that they have not been able to recruit workers since Tet.

Thanh Nhan Company in Thu Duc district, HCM City, a shoemaker, still has not found enough workers even though it began looki g for workers before Tet.





According to Tran Van Hung, a representative of Thanh Nhan, candidates are not required to have experience. The minimum wage the company offers is VND5.2 million a month and A 5 percent increase is expected every year, while the real income may be as high as VND8-10 million.



Despite attractive offers, we have only found half of the 500 workers needed, Hung said.

Enterprises in HCM City, Binh Duong and Dong Nai complain that they have not been able to recruit workers since Tet.

Tien Phong reported that enterprises in industrial zones (IZs) and export processing zones (EPZ) in HCM City all are thirsty for workers.

Nguyen Thi Ha, HR director of Tosok in Tan Thuan EPZ, said the company has been looking for 1,000 electronic component assembly workers, with pay of VND6.4-8.5 million, for the last three months.



As its difficult to find local workers, the company plans to seek workers from Mekong Delta provinces and the central region.



According to Tran Le Thanh Truc, director of the HCM City Center for Human Resources Forecast and Labor Market Information, HCM City needs 323,000 workers in 2020. Of these, the demand for trained workers accounts for 85 percent (workers finishing elementary vocational school account for 25.68 percent, intermediate school 21.53 percent, junior college 17.99 percent, and bachelors degree 19.8 percent).



In Binh Duong province, SS Vietnam, Daeseung SGN, Hung Kiu Vietnam Garment and Poong In Vina 5 also say they cannot find workers though they offered the high wage of nearly VND10 million a month. Textile and woodwork industries now need thousands of workers.



Binh Duong needs 60,000 workers in 2020, with unskilled workers accounting for 75 percent.



According to Le Minh Cuong, director of Binh Duong Department of Labor, War Invalid and Social Affairs, 92 percent of workers returned to work after Tet, but enterprises still lack workers. The provinces job center has joined forces with Dak Lak and Kon Tum provinces in the central region to recruit 1,000 unskilled workers. It also cooperated with provinces in the western part of the southern region to attract 5,000 workers.



In Dong Nai province, Le Nhat Truong from Pousung Vietnam said the company is seeking 10,000 workers to expand production. About 50 workers are recruited each day.



Cao Duy Thai from the Dong Nai Department of Labor, War Invalid and Social Affairs said local enterprises have registered to recruit 75,000 workers, but the real figure could be higher.



According to Thai, the demand for workers in the province has been increasing in recent years, mostly because enterprises are expanding production.

Le Ha

Promote the role of all parties in collective labor agreements Negotiating and signing collective labor agreements (CLAs) by professional category is among the trends to perform the duties of representing and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of trade union members and workers.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 22:57:50|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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HARTFORD, the United States, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- One person is dead and four others are injured following a nightclub shooting in the northeastern U.S. state of Connecticut early Sunday, local police have said.

"Shooting investigation underway at south-end nightclub. Preliminary info, 5 people shot/451 Franklin Ave, 1 fatally. MCD/CSD and support units on scene," Hartford police tweeted.

The dead victim was a 28-year-old man, the Hartford police said on Twitter.

Two of the wounded were still in surgery as of 7:30 a.m. (1230 GMT), the tweet said, while the two others were "stable."

Hartford police Lieutenant Paul Cicero told the Associated Press that police left the scene at around 7 a.m. (1200 GMT), amid a "long, complex investigation."

Further details, including information about the shooter, were not immediately available.
CLOUD COUNTY, Kan.  Across this central northern county, wind turbine blades slowly slice the cold air over winter-brown fields. The 67 wind turbines of the Meridian Way Wind Farm straddle dozens of farms and ranches, following the contours of the land and the eddies of the wind above it. The turbines are tall enough that their size is hard to gauge from cars driving by.

Their impact on the surrounding landowners is less hard to measure.

I would say the absence of financial stress has been a real game-changer for me, said Tom Cunningham, who has three turbines on his land and declined to give his age, saying only he is "retired." The turbines make up for the (crop) export issues weve been facing.

In an increasingly precarious time for farmers and ranchers, some who live in the nations wind belt have a new commodity to sell  access to their wind. Wind turbine leases, generally 30 to 40 years long, provide the landowners with yearly income that, although small, helps make up for economic dips brought by drought, floods, tariffs and the ever-fluctuating price of the crops and livestock they produce.

Each of the landowners whose fields either host turbines or who are near enough to receive a "good neighbor" payment, can earn $3,000 to $7,000 yearly for the small area  about the size of a two-car garage  each turbine takes up.

Cunningham's lease payments allowed him to pay off his farm equipment and other loans. The median income in Cloud County is about $44,000, according to the 2018 U.S. Census.

Some of the farmers around here refer to the turbines as their second wife. Thats because a lot of times, farm wives have to work in town to make ends meet, he said.

Rural areas across the USA have long experienced population declines, slow employment growth and higher poverty rates than urban areas, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Things have been especially difficult recently. U.S. farm bankruptcy rates jumped 20% in 2019, to an eight-year high. Wisconsin saw 48 Chapter 12 filings, or family farm bankruptcies, over the 12-month period ending in September, the nation's highest rate. Georgia, Nebraska and Kansas were next, each with 37 filings. Minnesota, California, Texas, Iowa, Pennsylvania and New York rounded out the top 10 states for farm bankruptcies.

Story continues

A trade war between China and the United States, brutally low prices for commodity crops and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns have all contributed.

"Farm incomes have been down for a couple of years," said John Newton, chief economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation.

For some, lease payments to a wind farm to put up a turbine increasingly provide a cushion against the harsh economics of farm life.

Across Kansas, wind turbine lease payments are $15 million to $20 million a year, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Nationally, it's $250 million.

The money matters. About 180 miles south of Meridian Way is the Elk River Wind Farm. Pete Ferrell, 67, of unincorporated Butler County, said wind helped save the ranch, just as oil helped save it back in his fathers day.

Dad allowed oil production here. There was a big drought in the 1950s. He said, In all honesty, it was the money from the oil that got us through,  he said.

To Ferrell, harvesting the almost constantly blowing Kansas wind is another way to make a living out of the land. Elk River's 100 turbines sport enormous blades, each 125 feet long, that sit atop 260-foot towers.

From any distance away, they appear silent as the raw winter wind whips by. From directly underneath, their susurrations combine the sounds of flags snapping in a strong breeze and the whir of a rumbling ice cream maker. The nearby air fills with the electric motor thrum of the oil pump jacks they are interspersed with.

A turbine on Meridian Way Wind Farm, operated by EDP Renewables, is capable of producing 3 megawatts of electricity. Meridian Way has 67 of them.

For Ferrell, leasing land for wind turbines is reminiscent of the side jobs and town jobs many farmers and ranchers have always needed to get by.

I really wasnt going to survive as a rancher without outside income, or I was going to work myself to death doing 15-hour days," he said.

It's that way across the Midwest, said Kerri Johannsen, energy program director with the Iowa Environmental Council. "Its not so much about green energy at all, but economics."

Iowa is a state that produces things from the land. She said wind is "just another crop, another opportunity to capture resources.

Wind energy is cheap and growing

The phrase "wind farm" is confusing because wind farms don't look much like farms, or even traditional power plants. They typically consist of 50 to 100 turbines connected by buried wires that link up to a central transmission and one or two low-slung maintenance buildings. Each three-bladed turbine is set on a high tubular metal tower. The turbines run in offset lines, usually about half a mile apart so they don't steal each other's wind. Underneath them, cattle graze or crops are grown.

Wind went from 2.3% of the U.S. electricity mix in 2010 to almost 7% in 2019. Its one of the cheapest ways to produce energy, sometimes even less than natural gas.

A schematic diagram of the Elk River Wind Farm near Beaumont, Kan., shows the farm's 100 turbines, their real-time output and their layout across the landscape. Turbines are placed in staggered lines far enough apart that they don't steal wind from one another.

They're increasingly part of America's rural landscape, in part because the Great Plains is very windy, there's ample ground and little to get in the way of the river of air that flows above the fields.

Kansas is expected to have 40 wind farms by the end of this year, said Dorothy Barnett, executive director of the Climate + Energy Project, a nonprofit clean-energy organization in Hutchinson, Kansas.

The Sunflower State is the nations fourth-largest producer of wind energy, and in 2018, it generated more of its total electricity from wind than any other state, 36.4%, according to the American Wind Energy Association. All told, Kansas produced almost 20 gigawatts of electricity from wind in 2018, the most recent year for which numbers are available.

At Meridian Way, things started in 2007 when Jim Franey and his neighbors were invited to a smothered steak dinner at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Parish Hall to hear about a possible wind farm in their area. In the end, 67 of 68 landowners signed up.

Kolt Ringer, a lead wind service technician with Vestas Wind Systems, works at the Meridian Way Wind Farm near Concordia, Kan.

A lot of people were concerned about the aesthetics," said Franey, 72. "I said to em, Sign up. Because if its on your neighbors land, youll see it, but you wont get a check. Might as well get a check. 

Meridian Ways 67 turbines produce 201 megawatts hours of electricity annually, enough to power 59,000 homes each year. Meridian Way is owned by EDP Renewables North America, based in Houston. The company develops, constructs, owns and operates wind farms and solar parks throughout North America. It's owned by a Spanish company, EDP Renovaveis, which is the world's fourth-largest wind energy producer.

A sometimes controversial form of energy

Wind turbines produce cheap, pollution-free energy as more than 30 states have set goals requiring 2% (South Carolina) to 100% (California, Hawaii, Maine and Washington) of their energy be from renewable sources.

The turbines are increasingly controversial. Some people dont like how they look, others point to theories that they cause cancer and other ills  a statement President Donald Trump echoed last year in a speech, although more than 25 scientific studies found no correlation between living near a turbine and risks to human health.

In November, the largest study looking at the feelings of people who live within 5 miles of wind turbines found high overall acceptance of wind power projects. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and conducted by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, researchers surveyed 1,705 people, 36% of whom lived less than half a mile of a turbine and 30% who lived within a mile.

Roughly 57% had positive or very positive attitudes about them, 34% neutral and 8% negative or very negative.

For people who lived within half a mile, 75% had either neutral or positive feelings about the wind project while 25% had negative or very negative attitudes.

Efforts to stop new wind farms have ramped up in the past few years. An 80-turbine project in Reno County, Kansas, was voted down by the County Commission last year because of homeowner concerns about property values and possible health effects.

Although the U.S. wind belt includes much of the Midwest, an area that is generally conservative, wind power isnt generally seen here as either liberal or conservative.

Remember, 90% of the wind farms in this country are in red states, said Ryan Orban, plant manager at the Elk River Wind Farm where Farrells ranch is located. The turbines take up slivers of land on the five ranches whose fields they dot. The wind farm is owned by Avangrid Renewables, based in Portland, Oregon. It is part of Iberdrola Group, a Spanish energy company.

For many, its simply about property rights.

I dont want anybody telling me what I can or cant do with my land, said Jack Thimesch, a farmer and rancher in Kingman County, Kansas, whos a Republican state legislator.

Hes got one turbine on his 800 acres, right where he raises cattle and farms wheat.

EDP Renewables operates wind turbines on Meridian Way Wind Farm.

My brother got one and I got one, we have ground right next to each other, he said.

It makes for a pretty nice check every year, one that helps keep everything afloat, he said.

Some of his neighbors said no when the wind company first came through to site the farm, something he said they regret.

There isnt a person out here who wouldnt have sited more on their land if they could, he said.

Many of the objections he hears  that the turbines are noisy or scare animals  come from people who clearly dont have firsthand experience, Thimesch said.

Of his own turbine, he said, I can hear the motor humming. But I can also hear the irrigation running from my neighbors fields, and thats louder than my turbine.

He said his cattle actually love it. When its hot out, they come and line up in the shade from the turbine tower, he said.

When the weather is hot, cattle at the Arbuckle Mountain Wind Farm in Murray County, Okla., line up in the shade of the "bovine sundial," a wind turbine tower, and slowly shuffle to the side as the shadow moves with the sun.

The formation is called a "bovine sundial" and multiple ranchers USA TODAY interviewed described the same phenomenon on their land. The cattle bunch up in the line of shade, slowly shuffling from west to east as the sun moves across the horizon.

Wind power doesnt benefit everyone

One issue all wind farms face is the economics of an unevenly distributed resource, a reality that can make for bad blood in communities.

Wind farms generate taxes or payments to government, which many counties use for roads and other infrastructure, hospitals and schools. But thats different from not getting a yearly check when your neighbors do.

EDP Renewables operates wind turbines near a rancher's cattle on Meridian Way Wind Farm on Jan. 31 in Concordia, Kan.

The problem with wind, like the problem with oil, is that not everyone ends up with a turbine or a pump jack on their property because not every bit of land is right for wind or oil extraction.

That can create bitterness, Thimesch said. The ones that didnt get one dont see value. The ones that got em, see value, he said.

In some areas, wind farms have begun making smaller payments to landowners who dont have turbines sited on their land but who are near a farm, just to even things out.

In Michigan, youve seen some companies try to offer some modest amount of payment to nonparticipating residents as a way to help establish buy-in, said Jason Brown, a research and policy officer in the economic research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

At Meridian Way, the developers did the same thing. Landowners who dont have turbines on their land but who are within a certain distance, about half a mile of one, get annual compensation.

Some in Concordia, Kan., reap the profits of wind energy.

Its the good-neighbor clause, said Michelle Graham, Meridian Ways operations administrator.

Another issue is even on land with a turbine, the money doesnt necessarily go to the person farming or ranching the land.

Thats because many U.S. farmers and ranchers rent or lease at least some of the land they work rather than owning it. Nationwide, 40% of all agricultural land is rented, according to the USDA Census of Agriculture. In some wind-rich states, the number is higher.

In Iowa, for example, 55% of the land that's farmed is rented, said Dave Swenson, a regional economist at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. Although the turbines provide a nice annual income stream to the landowner, the money doesn't always go to the person who lives there.

Wind energy is beneficial to only a small subset of landowners and not necessarily farmers, Swenson said.

Thimesch noted that although the person farming the land might not receive the checks, the owners often stay in the area. He sees neighbors retiring and renting out their land and living off the rental income and the supplementary income from the turbines.

To them, that is priceless. For the next 30 years, they know theyre going to draw an income, and it will be handed down to their kids, he said.

Wind alone can't fix rural America

Cloud County Community College offers a wind turbine technician training program.

What wind power wont do is revitalize rural America, economists said. Though money to landowners goes into the tax base and helps generate local income and economic resilience, its unlikely to be transformational, said Brown of the Kansas City Fed.

Im not sure that wind power  or any one-off rural development  is going to make a big difference, he said.

State officials are careful to say that wind energy is just one piece of their economy.

Im not sure I would call it a revolution, but in terms of supporting rural Kansas, it is a really important development, said Randi Tveitaraas Jack, a development manager with the Kansas State Department of Commerce.

There are turbine manufacturing and assembly plants in 42 states, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Onsite and traveling wind technicians, who typically have a two-year degree and earn upward of $50,000 straight out of school, bring solid jobs to rural areas, according to the association.

That cant make up for decades of rural decline. Wind money isn't enough to change outcomes, in terms of the durability and stability of rural life, in places such as South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and the like, said Swenson of Iowa State.

Its great in the short run, and were going to welcome it. But in terms of stabilizing rural economies, its not even close, he said.

Keeping families in the farming business

That said, research shows that for farmers who own and farm land with turbines, wind makes a tremendous difference to their long-term plans.

First, theyre more likely to have a succession plan in place on their property, said Sarah Mills, a public policy researcher who looks at land use and energy policy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She wrote her dissertation on what farmers do when they get money from wind turbines.

What they told me was that the guaranteed income that comes from hosting a turbine was convincing their kids that farming wasnt such a risky business, she said.

Her research found that farmers with turbine income invested more in their barns, tractors and other farming operations than neighbors who didnt.

The sense was, I can take a loan out now because I know Im going to be able to pay it off in the future,  she said.

Tom Cunningham says the income from leasing his land has helped him to retire. Big businesses build and expand their wind turbine systems on the land of Kansas farmers, specifically in Concordia. Some of these corporations compensate the farmers and surrounding communities.

For Tom Cunningham, whos been farming between Glasco and Concordia, Kansas, for 40 years, the Meridian Way Wind Farm income has made an enormous difference.

Before the wind turbines, things were rough, he recalled. Depending on the national and international economy, some years he broke even, some years he made money and, for more years than he cares to think about, he was on the edge. He had to take a job in town to make ends meet and for a time was what he calls functionally bankrupt.

This isnt money that other people would think is very much, he said. But it made an enormous difference to us.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Wind energy can help American farmers earn money, avoid bankruptcy
Investors and fund managers are optimistic reporting season will continue to show consumer bright spots this week as some of the ASX's biggest companies including Wesfarmers, Crown and BHP reveal their numbers and potential impact from the coronavirus.

The positive sentiment comes as the S&P/ASX 200 nudges near record highs and speciality retailers such as JB Hi-Fi reported stronger than expected numbers last week, despite broader concerns about the retail market.

Crown Resorts will unveil half-year numbers on Wednesday in a week focused on retail, energy and consumer spending. Credit:Getty Images

"It looks like Australians are still spending ... and all of a sudden expectations have turned on a dime," said Lincoln Indicators executive director Elio D'Amato.

Pengana Capital emerging companies portfolio manager Ed Prendergast said retail had not been "universally positive by any stretch" but some brands such as Kathmandu-owned Rip Curl last week revealed better than expected results.
New Delhi, Feb 16 : Displaying political propriety Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal exchanged good-natured remarks, here on Sunday.

While the Prime Minister congratulated the Chief Minister for taking oath, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said they must work together to make the national capital a 'pride city'.

"I congratulate Arvind Kejriwal on taking oath as Delhi's CM earlier today. Best wishes to him for a fruitful tenure," Modi said. Responding to the PM's tweet, Kejriwal said he wished Modi could have attended the oath ceremony.

"Thank you for the warm wishes sir. I wish you could come today, but I understand you were busy. We must now work together towards making Delhi a city of pride for all Indians," the Chief Minister said.

Kejriwal on Sunday took oath as the Chief Minister for a third time. Though Modi was invited by the AAP to the ceremony, he could not make it due to his pre-decided schedule. Modi was to visit Varanasi, his Lok Sabha constituency.

Kejriwal said this in his address after the swearing-in ceremony. "I want to work with the central government to make Delhi a world-class city. I had also invited the PM for the oath ceremony, but I guess he could not make it because he is busy. I want the PM to bless us so that we can work for development and progress of Delhi," he said.

Modi had congratulated Kejriwal on February 11, when his party won 62 of the 70 Assembly seats. Similarly, when Modi was re-elected as the Prime Minister, the Delhi Cheif Minister had congratulated him.

Given the unique status of Delhi, the Centre plays a big role. During the previous term, Kejriwal had accused the Centre of creating hurdles in his work. However, this time he hopes for a fruitful term.
Efforts to put together a trade agreement for announcement during President Donald Trumps February 24-25 visit to India have suffered a setback after the US informed New Delhi of its top trade negotiators inability, for now, to visit the country for end-stage discussions to wrap up the deal.

India had expected to finalise the deal this week in talks with Robert Lighthizer, the top US trade administrator and negotiator who has a reputation for playing hardball. But he is understood to have conveyed his inability to travel to India in a Thursday night phone call with Union minister Piyush Goyal.

In New Delhi, diplomatic and trade stakeholders said the Narendra Modi government had some red lines on trade that it will not cross despite the US trade representatives intensive lobbying with Goyal. India has made a full offer to the US on the proposed trade deal and the two sides were in 90% agreement before Lighthizer decided not to go ahead with the visit.

We have made an offer to the US with the discussions moving far beyond the usual medical devices, dairy and agricultural products. It is now the USTRs call to make the deal possible to make the US Presidents visit very successful, said one of the key Indian officials involved in the negotiations.

New Delhi offered to help reduce the US trade deficit with India by doubling its shale oil imports from America from the current six million tonnes per annum. This move will also be in Indian interest given the escalation of political tensions in West Asia.

Although the Modi government will do its utmost to showcase the Trump visit with sizeable public participation in Ahmedabad and in New Delhi, it has moved away from measuring the success of the visit only on whether the two sides close the trade deal.

Still, Indian officials are not writing off the possibility of a deal, acknowledging its importance for President Trump. They felt frustrated, at the same time, about the United States changing goalposts constantly  a new wrinkle was added every time a deal seemed in sight.

Failure to get a deal, it is being said, will rob the visit of everything but optics and, more significantly, deliver, according to a US official, a big setback to bilateral ties.

The two countries are working towards a limited trade agreement that addresses some basic concerns and leaves the more intractable one for a later date, such as a Free Trade Agreement.

But their failure to agree on such a small deal has been noted for how poorly it may reflect on the visit.

If a deal even as modest as the one being envisaged does not materialise, this visit will be primarily about optics, said Milan Vaishnav, a South Asia expert at Carnegie, a leading think tank.

Precise details of the negotiations are hard to come by as both sides have kept a tight lid on them, and it could not be immediately ascertained what forced Lighthizer to call off the visit indefinitely. On Wednesday, it was the US demand to level the playing field for credit card companies  that India should have the same rules for US companies, MasterCard and Visa, as Indias government-backed RuPay, according to people familiar with the discussions.

A sense of despair has set in, as a result, among those involved in the trade discussions and scores of others who have closely followed them, in the last few days. Messages and texts flying between New Delhi and Washington DC have ranged in despondency from hopes fading to the deal is dead.

The more optimistic among them, however, held on to the hope that the the top leaders, Prime Minister Modi and President Trump, might step in at some stage to fix it.

President Trump has indicated he would not settle for anything but the right deal and has seemed more excited about the rally he is scheduled to address in Ahmedabad, where he expects to see millions of people. Crowd size matters to him, but trade matters more, and he is willing to come back empty-handed rather than settle for a weak deal.

At the same time, US officials have warned that the failure to announce a deal during the presidents visit will reflect poorly on relations between the two countries and one of them said it will be a big setback, seemingly putting the onus for its failure, or its unlikely success, on India.

But people familiar with the discussions said India has tried to accommodate as many of US demands as it can. It has conceded, for instance, a key US demand for removing the cap on prices of medical devices such as stents for hearts, despite the cess announced in budget.

We have made an offer to the US with the discussions moving far beyond the usual medical devices, dairy and agricultural products. It is now the USTRs call to make the deal possible to make the US Presidents visit very successful, said one of the key Indian officials involved in the negotiations.

India has also agreed to US demand for importing $6.5 billion worth of US goods annually in exchange for restoring special trade benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences, which were withdrawn last summer. India had first agreed to meet that figure with energy purchases, but readjusted to accommodate a US demand to buy agricultural produce from certain states such as cherries from Utah and corn from Iowa.

India has not been without blame though  slapping a cess on medical devices in the budget, for instance, was seen as a curious move in the light of how central the pricing of medical devices was to trade talks with the United States, and then duty on shelled walnuts that are imported mostly from America.

Despite the trade hiccups, bilateral defence relations are on an upswing with Boeing now approaching the Pentagon for a licence so that it can offer the latest F-15 EX fighter plane to India. Although the Modi government is totally focused on Make in India in the defence sector, the F-15 Eagle has a kill ratio of 140 : 0 and carries the weight of the F-16 in armaments. Apart from this India will be looking towards the US for armed drones, multi-purpose helicopters, multi-mission P8I aircraft and an additional six Apache attack helicopters.

Trump and Modi are expected to have one-to-one discussions in Ahmedabad and in New Delhi with the focus being on the Af-Pak region, China, West Asia and the Indo-Pacific. With Beijing securing its flanks in both the South China Sea and in the Indian Ocean through the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka and Gwadar in Pakistan, India needs to dominate the Indian Ocean Region first before it expands its footprint beyond Malacca, Sunda and Lombok straits.
The Kerala Police have issued a notice to those protesting in front of state secretariat extending solidarity to Delhi's Shaheen Bagh protest.

The notice has asked the protesters to remove the pandal within two days as it causes traffic problem and is located in the high-security zone.

Protestors said that they will not go back from protest and appealed to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan not to have them removed from there.

They said the move by police is surprising as they are protesting peacefully.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tehran: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that he doesn't believe the US will pursue war with his country, because it will harm US President Donald Trump's 2020 re-election bid.

Rouhani said that Trump knows that war with Iran will "ruin" his chances of winning the 2020 US presidential election.

The Iranian leader added that war would be harmful to US interests and those of its regional allies, as well as Iran.

"I think the Americans aren't after war since they know what harm it could do them," Rouhani said in a news conference.
Police in Pakistans southern province of Sindh have found the dead body of a local journalist in an irrigation waterway.

Aziz Memons body was found in Naushero Feroz district on February 16, officials say.

The initial investigation suggests that Memon was strangled to death before his body was thrown into the canal.

The journalist was working for the Sindhi-language Kawish Television Network (KTN) and thee Kawish newspaper.

Months ago, Memon released a video message saying he was receiving threats for his coverage of a news story.

In October 2019, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists reported 16 unsolved killings of journalists in Pakistan over the previous decade.
MANEZ, Albania  In a valley in the Albanian countryside, a group of celibate Iranian dissidents have built a vast and tightly guarded barracks that few outsiders have ever entered.

Depending on whom you ask, the group, the Mujahedeen Khalq, or Peoples Jihadists, are either Irans replacement government-in-waiting or a duplicitous terrorist cult. Journalists are rarely allowed inside the camp to judge for themselves, and are sometimes rebuffed by force.

But after President Trumps decision to assassinate Qassim Suleimani, a powerful Iranian general, it seemed worth trying again. Would a group that claims to want a democratic, secular Iran allow a reporter inside their camp?

The groups loudest allies include Rudolph W. Giuliani, the presidents personal lawyer, and John R. Bolton, his former National Security Adviser. Both have received tens of thousands of dollars for speaking at the groups conferences, where these influential Americans describe the Peoples Jihadists as Irans most legitimate opposition.
Photo credit: Andrew Morales/WWD/Shutterstock

From ELLE

I was the first in my family to be born in Australia. My parents came from South Sudan as refugees; the South Sudanese Civil War was really hard, and my dad wanted the best for us. He came over first with a few friends, and the rest of the families followed. (My mother was pregnant with me when she left South Sudan.) My grandpa was an English teacher so my dad was fortunate enough to be able to understand the paperwork; not many people in South Sudan could.

When I was maybe 5 or 6, more families started coming to Australia from South Sudan. We let many of them live with us so that they could ease into Australian culture. Because my dad spoke English, he could help them with their papers as well. Going from war to such a put-together country is a really difficult transition, and we tried to make that as easy as possible for them.

Though we lived in Melbourne, I grew up in a South Sudanese household. I spoke Nuer, the language of my tribe, and I learned English at the same time. I felt disconnected from my familys home country because I didnt know too much about it, but my parents did a lot to keep the culture alive; wed attend community events and classes on Saturday, where wed learn cultural dances, and wed hold traditional wedding ceremonies. Its a very different culture, but its part of who I am. Im grateful for that. My parents didnt want me to lose that side of myself while growing up in Australia.



I went to a private school where there werent many people of color. When we were growing up and people started wearing makeup, I could never find a shade for me, which was difficult to deal with. I remember being in a shopping center, and I couldnt find a single person who looked like me on a billboard. That moment made me want to get into fashion. I learned about modeling through my older sister, Nikki, who had signed with a small boutique agency in Melbourne. I would go to set with her, and the more I watched, the more I just loved it.



Story continues

I was at one of her gigs when I got scouted to do Australias Next Top Model. I was only 15 at the time, so they told me to come back when I was old enough. I was on the show when I was 17 for their eighth cycle. Tyra [Banks] made the show so big in the States, and it was so big in Australia as well, so when they asked me to participate, I was thrilled. But filming was difficult. We had limited access to speak to our families and we werent allowed to go out, and, you know, as teenage girls that is a little bit tough. But I ended up finishing in third place.

Photo credit: Peter White - Getty Images

After that, I tried to find gigs in Australia, but I didnt get much work, I think due to a mixture of things. I hadnt found my groove yet. When youre not confident in what you want, that plays a huge part in modeling. There was also a lot going on in my life at the time. I was in school studying chemistry (I hated it) and Id just lost one of my seven siblings. When somebody passes in our culture, theres a weeks-long mourning process and that hit me hard. It took a toll on me, and I started to fall behind in school. That experience is what made me decide I was going to give modeling another crack.

My mom thought I was crazy, but I already had my visa in my hand; if you want to make it as a model you go to New York. In August 2016, I moved to New York City with $400 in my pocket. At the time, I really underestimated how hard it would be, and I underestimated the consequences of coming with so little. I lived in a models apartment with a bunch of girls, and as soon as I got off the plane, it was running around to what felt like a billion castings. I was very emotional and cried a lotI didnt know if I could do it. Looking back, Im grateful for that experience because it taught me how to toughen up.

Two weeks after arriving, I was on my way out of a castingI think for Ralph Laurenwhen a casting director ran out after me. She worked for Kanye Wests team and said, Kayne is in the building, and he would love to see a fresh face. I was freaking out, but I went and met him and saw his collection with Jackie Nicholson. It just so happens that same day I also met Pat McGrath. It all flowed from there: I did Kaynes show that September and started working with Pat right away. Since then, Ive been able to pick who I want to work with, like Tim Walker. I shot his Pirelli Calendar in 2018 as the first black Alice in Wonderland, and Im always going to be proud of that moment.



Photo credit: JP Yim - Getty Images

My upbringing definitely shaped my modeling career. My dad shared the lessons he learned growing up in Africa and moving to Australia, and that helped in my move to New York. He would always tell me to be stronger and to make my voice heard as a black woman.

The beautiful thing about fashion is its an always-changing industry [in terms of diversity]. Were at a point right now, especially the younger generation, where everybody needs our voice and needs us to say what we want the fashion industry to look like in five years. Remember that billboard I couldnt find when I was younger? Today, there are women of color on billboards everywhere. At airports, every shopping center in every country I go to. Its so important and so necessary, and Im so happy that other girls can see themselves now. When it comes to diversity in the industry, Im happy to be a part of that change. My dad used to say, Be true to yourself, and the answers will come. I really try and live by that principle.

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said the idea behind introducing second alternative tax slabs sans exemptions is to take the country towards "a simplified, exemption-free and reduced rate of tax regime."

However, there was no timeframe set by the government to remove all exemptions, she told reporters here after an interactive session with trade representatives and intellectuals on the Union budget.

"At the moment we only started a second alternative with some exemptions removed or some exemptions included, although the original intention was to remove all exemptions and give a clear simplified reduced rate of income tax," the finance minister said.

The budget 2020-21 has introduced more tax slabs and offers higher limits provided the taxpayer is ready to forego all the existing exemptions and deductions including home loan interest, other tax savings investments.

"We have not made up our minds as yet (on the removal of all exemptions)... We are trying step by step, move forward and no particular timeline given," she said when asked if there is any timeframe for removing all income tax exemptions.

Addressing a post-budget press conference on February 1, Sitharaman had said the government intended to remove all I-T exemptions in the long run.

Also Read: FM Sitharaman reaffirms India's fiscal deficit won't be compromised

On Sunday, she said that based on a simulation and assumption, 69 per cent of taxpayers would have benefitted and probably 11 per cent would have been "attracted" had the new tax regime been introduced last year.

When asked about the Supreme Court order on telcos' payment of dues and the concerns expressed by some bankers, Sitharaman said it may not be proper for her to comment on the matter as there is a Ministry concerned looking into it.

Also Read: PM Narendra Modi inaugurates Rs 1,200 crore development projects in Varanasi

"The concerned Ministry is looking into it. So, it may not be proper for me to comment on it" she added.

To a query on allegations by the Telangana government that there was a decline in devolution of funds to states from the Centre, she said the allocation is followed as per the recommendations of the Finance commissions and it is not true that the centre is not cooperating with states.
The Government Railways Police (GRP)s special investigation team (SIT) has sought reports from the Amritsar municipal corporation (MC) on the action taken against its seven officials who were held responsible for the October 2018 Dussehra train tragedy that left 61 persons dead.

A speeding train had mowed several people who had gathered on the railway tracks to watch the burning of Ravanas effigy at Dhobi Ghat near Jaura Phatak in Amritsar.

Of the three probes into the tragedy, two have been completed and one is still underway. The first probe was conducted by chief commissioner (railway safety) SK Pathak, while the second (magisterial inquiry) was led by Jalandhar divisional commissioner B Purushartha on order of Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh.

The third probe is being conducted by the GRP SIT led its assistant inspector (AIG) Daljit Singh Rana to fix criminal responsibility for the lapse that led to the incident.

The SIT has written to Amritsar MC commissioner Komal Mittal to provide the details of the reports pertaining to the action taken against the seven officialsSushant Bhatia (secretary), Kashmir Singh (additional divisional fire officer), Pushpinder Singh (superintendent), Girish Kumar (superintendent), Kewal Krishan (inspector), Kamaldeep Singh (supervisor) and Arun Kumar (clerk).

The reports are required to probe the officials role in the criminal case registered after the tragedy, the SIT letter reads.

The SIT was formed to probe the case registered under Sections 304-A (causing death by negligence), 337-338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code against unidentified persons at Amritsars GRP police station.

Mittal said she received the letter on Friday and the required reports would be furnished within two to three days.

The GRPs SIT had to complete the probe in three months after the incident.

The magisterial probe had indicted 23 persons, including organisers, policemen, railway employees and MC officials.

After the probe, the MC had asked its indicted officials to reply before initiating departmental action against them. On January 13, finding the reply of the officials unsatisfactory, the state government had ordered another probe to ascertain their role in the case and deputed additional district and sessions judge (retd) Amarjit Singh Katari as the inquiry officer.

The order issued by additional chief secretary Sanjay Kumar had asked the probe officer to submit the report within two months.
by Linda Harvey, founder, Mission: America

Pushing the boundaries of the law is a specialty of the Left, particularly on sexuality. Invent new issues, push the limits, and then use liberal activist judges to back up illegitimate actions.

Ohio is one of twenty-six states where abstinence sex education is not only required by state law, but where it must be stressed in sexually transmitted disease education. The states abstinence-until-marriage bill was a huge victory for conservatives in 2001. Diligent parents exposed the Ohio Department of Healths use of Center for Disease Controls sexuality curricula called Programs that Work, which were replete with detailed advocacy of contraceptive use and promotion of abortion.

So one would think that individual school districts in Ohio would be eager to cooperate with Ohio law, right? Not if groups like Planned Parenthood, GLSEN  the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, Human Rights Campaign and NARAL-Pro-Choice Ohio can sneak in explicit comprehensive sex education under the radar, especially in big-city, more liberal school districts.

In violation of Ohio law, schools are promoting a graphic and comprehensive sex education (CSE). Ohio children are being harmed as they are drawn into premature sexual activity in all directions through instruction that tells them all sex is normal and manageable.

Ohio Value Voters investigated in June 2019, issued a detailed report. OVV found that curricula are being taught to Ohio children that unfortunately line up with the 15 Harmful Elements of CSE programs, a set of criteria identified recently by the national Protect Child Health Coalition.

These elements are sexualizing children at an early, nonconsensual age and encourages statutory rape. This curriculum does the following:

teaches children to consent to sex

normalizing anal and oral sex

promotes homosexual/bisexual behavior

teaches children sexual pleasure

promotes solo or mutual masturbation

eroticizes condom use

promotes early sexual independence

fails to establish abstinence as the goal

promotes gender confusion

teaches abortion and contraception

promotes peer-to-peer sex education

advocates for sexual rights

undermines and violates traditional values and beliefs

undermines parental rights

refers children to use harmful resources

For instance, OVV found that in Cuyahoga County in Cleveland area, schools and educational programs are using radical curricula like Draw the Line/Respect the Line, FLASH, Making Proud Choices and Planned Parenthoods Get Real, among other jaw-dropping CSE lessons. These programs violate most or all of the 15 Harmful Elements mentioned above.

Draw the Line teaches 8th graders in small groups exactly how to use a condom, suggests couples put them on together and that this can be pleasurable. The teachers manual advises, During classroom demonstration and practice, unroll the condom over the index and middle fingers of your hand. The students are told where to obtain condoms and advised that anyone can buy condoms regardless of age or gender.

FLASH normalizes deviant behaviors and fails to disclose risks. In Lesson 12, high school students are told, Once the condom is on, the couple has vaginal or anal sex. In one of many sex-enabling scenarios given to students is this one featuring two boys: Jorge and Luis want to stay abstinent, but things have been getting heated. The solution is, of course, to have protected sex. This curriculum also normalizes gender confusion, teaching students, When a persons gender identity is not the same as their assigned sex, it is often called transgender.

Making Proud Choices, developed for middle school students, uses actual penis models and urges students to find ways to make condom use more pleasurable. Among the many astonishingly inappropriate messages, one lesson will have students introduce themselves and state which pronouns they would like to be called.

In a scripted role-play, a girl is high on drugs and has unprotected sex. She is urged to go to a reproductive health clinic as soon as possible and obtain emergency contraception. Nowhere are the students told that if fertilization has occurred, this medication acts as an abortifacient (a chemical abortion). Making Proud Choices also advocates abortion by stating that if pregnancy occurs, among her choices, she can have an abortion. Because the pregnancy is happening in her body, the woman gets to make this decision independently.

Get Real is for middle school, children ages 11 to 14. One scenario given to students is this one: You got pretty buzzed at a party and were having lots of fun. Youd heard a lot about oral sex but had never had it before. When the opportunity presented itself at the party, you decided you were having so much fun . . . why not? You figured that it wasnt really sex, and everyone was wasted and hooking up.

As with the other programs, Get Real arm-twists young adolescents, even to the point of public shaming, to embrace LGBT indoctrination, as in this instruction from the 8th grade teachers manual: Two of the scenarios are written about a relationship between characters of the same sex, which may cause students to struggle. If this happens, it is the perfect opportunity to remind students of the message from Lesson 7-3 and 7-4 about becoming an ally and creating a safe school environment. In other words, it is not safe to have any objections to homosexuality  students must become allies.

Cincinnati schools are using the National Sexuality Education Standards, which follow CSE programs and advocate teaching the 15 Harmful Elements as well. Columbus area schools are partnering with Syntero, an outside group that brings the CSE curriculum Healthy Bodies/Healthy Futures before student groups.

All of the above and much more are detailed by Ohio Value Voters in its report.

So whatever happened to the Ohio law mandating abstinence as the standard? Certainly a prompt remedy is needed at the administrative or legislative level to bring these non-compliant districts into line.

Or else the children of Ohio will continue to be harmed by the misleading, obscene, and unhealthy elements of these programs.
The Valley Shore Toastmasters: meets from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Madison Senior Center (cafe), 29 Bradley Road. Email valleyshoretm@yahoo.com or visit http://valleyshore.toastmastersclubs.org.

Tuesday

The Milford Chamber of Commerce Tuesday Morning Leads Group: meets at 8:30 a.m. at the Chamber, 5 Broad St., Milford. Call 203-878-0681.

The Rotary Club of Hamden: meets each Tuesday. For meeting time and location please visit the calendar section of their website at www.hamdenctrotary.org.

The Nutmeg Chapter of Toastmasters International: meets at 7 p.m. at The Willows Care and Rehab Center, 225 Amity Road, Woodbridge. Visit http://764.toastmastersclubs.org.

The Rotary Club of New Haven: meets at 12:15 p.m. at the Graduate Club, 155 Elm St. Call 203-624-3197.

The Rotary Club of North Haven: meets at 7:15 a.m. at the Breakfast Nook, 448 Washington Ave. Visit www.nhrotary.org.

Wednesday

The Rotary Club of Branford: meets from 7:15 to 8:30 a.m. at the Parthenon Diner, 374 E. Main St., Branford. Call 203-315-2444, ext. 450.

Cheshire BNI Networking Chapter: meets at 7 a.m. at Temple Beth David, 3 Main St., Cheshire. Call Bob Davidson, 203-271-7991.

The Devon Rotary: meets at 7:30 a.m. at the Bridge House Restaurant, 49 Bridgeport Ave., Milford. Visit www.devonrotary.org.

The Milford Chamber of Commerce Wednesday Morning Leads Group: meets at 8:30 a.m. at the Chamber, 5 Broad St., Milford. Call 203-878-0681.

The Rotary Club of Guilford: meets at 12:15 p.m. at The Maritime Grille, 2548 Boston Post Road, Guilford. Call 203-453-0774.

The Greater New Haven Business & Professional Association: meets at 11 a.m. at 192 Dixwell Ave. Call 203-562-2193.

The Rotary Club of Wallingford: meets at 12:10 p.m. at the Library Wine Bar and Bistro, 60 North Main Street. Call 203-235-3816.

North Branford Rotary: meets at 6 p.m. at Nataz, 2025 Foxon Road. Call 203-484-7707.

The Greater New Haven Breakfast Club: meets at 8 a.m. at Clarks Pizza & Restaurant, 68 Whitney Ave., New Haven. Email info@rosnerdoherty.com.

The Rotary Club of West Haven: meets at 12:15 p.m. at Apps Ristorante, 283 Captain Thomas Blvd.

Thursday

The Seymour Oxford Rotary Club: meets at 7:15 a.m. at Route 67 Diner, Klarides Village, Route 67 in Seymour. Fellow Rotarians and all interested persons are invited to attend. Contact Nancy Valentine at nvbv@hotmail.com or 203 734 6945.

The New Haven Lions Club: meets at 7 p.m. at Brazis Italian Restaurant, 201 Food Terminal Plaza. Public is invited; for information, call Jim Traester at 203-288-6648.

The Madison Rotary Club: meets at 8 a.m. at the Madison Senior Center, 29 Bradley Road. Call Robert Anderson, 203-907-9032.

The Orange Chamber of Commerces Health & Wellness Council: meets at 8:30 a.m. at the chamber, 605 Orange Center Road. Call 203-795-3328 or email info@orangetchamber.com.

The Clinton Rotary Club: meets 6:30 p.m. at Clinton Country Club, Old Westbrook Road. Call Dee Tully at 860-388-7013.

The East Haven Rotary Club: meets at 5:45 p.m. at Twin Pines Diner Restaurant, 34 Main St., East Haven.

The Milford Rotary Club meets: from 12:15-1:15 p.m. at Gusto Restaurant, 255 Boston Post Road. Visit www.milfordrotary.org.

The Cheshire Rotary Club: meets at 6:30 p.m. at the Waverly Inn, 286 Maple Ave., Cheshire. Visit www.cheshirerotary.org.

Friday

The Orange Rotary Club: meets at 12:15 p.m. at Racebrook Country Club, 246 Derby Ave. Call 203-799-2327.

The Woodbridge Rotary Club: meets at 7:30 a.m. for a breakfast meeting at Country Corner Diner, 756 Amity Road, Bethany. For more information, call Mary Ellen LaRocca at 203-389-3429.

Discover the Greater New Haven Chamber: meets 8-9 a.m. at Greater New Haven Chamber, 900 Chapel St., New Haven. Call 203-782-4342 or visit gnhcc.com.

The Milford Chamber of Commerce Friday Morning Leads Group: meets at 11 a.m. at the Chamber, 5 Broad St., Milford. Call 203-878-0681.

Send notices of business events to Business Datebook, New Haven Register, 100 Gando Drive, New Haven 06513 or email to business@nhregister.com, at least a week before the event.
Songs and dances are an integral part of the annual Lui Ngai Ni festival celebrations in Manipur. But this year along with the usual festivities, something very topical and relevant took centre stage.

On Saturday, Manipurs popular musician Guru Rewben Mashangva took to the stage and performed a song on coronavirus and urged the people of China and Wuhan city, from where the outbreak spread, to stay strong.

The song written two days earlier by lyricist Ngachonmi Chamroy was hurriedly composed by Mashangva and performed in front of an audience of around 3000 at Ukhrul, the venue of the two-day seed-sowing festival celebrated by the Naga tribes of Manipur.

A friend of mine, Seth Shatsang, called me up on February 13 and suggested we should use the platform of the festival to convey our concern for the suffering neighbours in China. I wrote the song in just 30 minutes, said Chamroy.

At least 1662 people have now died from the coronavirus outbreak that first emerged in Hubeis capital, Wuhan, in December and spiralled into a nationwide epidemic. More than 68,000 people have now been infected, with most deaths occurring in Hubei.

More than 580 cases have been confirmed outside mainland China and four deaths, one each in the Philippines, Hong Kong, France and Japan.

The song China, be strong. Be strong Wuhan, which mentions fear and despair on the empty streets of Wuhan also has lines in Chinese, Tangkhul and Nagamese languages.

Video of the song has gone viral through social media and we are getting calls from the US, even China and Tangkhul friends from all over. Some are saying that the festival has been overshadowed by the song, said Chamroy.

Shatsang, who gave the idea for the song, was also crucial in getting permission from United Naga Council (UNC), the organisers of the festival, to include it as a last-minute entry in the programme list.

Idea about the song came from the heart. The disease has separated families in Wuhan and people are going through difficult times. As human beings, it is the right time to show our solidarity as it can happen anywhere, said Shatsang, a former president of All Naga Students Association, Manipur (ANSAM).

While the song was written in a jiffy, Guru Rewben Mashangva also had to hurry with composing the music as there was not much time available to prepare ahead of Saturdays event.

I got the lyrics on the morning of February 13. I composed the music the next day and since I had no knowledge of the Chinese words, I took help from my children who used their phones to get the right pronunciation. The music was arranged on the night of February 14, said Mashangva.

While Mashangva was performing the song, several of those present held placards saying Stay strong Wuhan, we are with you.

The response from the audience to the song was very good. Later this month, the Tangkhul Music Association has decided to organise a show particularly highlighting coronavirus at Ukhrul, said Milan Shimray, general secretary, UNC.

Mashangva and Chamroy are planning to do a proper recording of the song along with a video in the next few days and release it to a wider audience so that the message of solidarity can spread further.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Utpal Parashar Utpal is an assistant editor based in Guwahati. He covers all eight states of North-East and was previously based in Kathmandu, Dehradun and Delhi with Hindustan Times . ...view detail
Bode George, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says the ban of okada and tricycles in some areas of Lagos will only...





Bode George, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says the ban of okada and tricycles in some areas of Lagos will only increase the spate of armed robbery in the state.





On February 1, the government of Babajide Sanwo-Olu restricted commercial motorcycles and tricycles in 15 local government areas and local council development areas.





The action was received with widespread criticisms among Lagosians.





Commenting on the ban during an interview with PUNCH, George, a native of the state, said the action would only expand the kingdom of armed robbers.





He said the ban is inimical to anything that makes sense, asking if any alternative employments have been put in place for those affected.





He advised Sanwo-Olu, whom he described as his younger brother, to revisit the law.





How can they (state government) do that? Let us forget about politics, the governor is my younger brother and his uncle is my friend. I talk to him like an elder. He should sit down and revisit that law, George said.





It is inimical to anything that makes any sense at all. Most workers in Lagos work in the Island, how do they get to their offices early now? Must everybody buy a car? Which alternative employment do they have for the people that they have stopped from riding a commercial motorcycle? So, how do they survive?





They are only expanding the kingdom of armed robbers. The number of people out of job is unbelievable and you are adding to it. Get the Amotekun to be in every area and they will monitor the movement of these people (okada riders).





Speaking on the 2023 presidency, George said ideally, the PDP should zone the ticket to the south-east.





He added that if Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), should contest the election, then he would challenge him in the race.





George described a Tinubu presidency as disruptive, vowing to denounce his citizenship if the APC leader emerged as president.





I had said it before that ideally, from our party, once it comes back to the South, it must go to the South-Eastbecause they have never had it, but if the name Tinubu pops up in the APC, I would go all out to contest with him, he said.





Let us get out there because it would be the greatest disservice for our nation to have him contest as a presidential candidate.





It would be the most illogical and most disruptive issue to have him (Tinubu) elected as President. If this happens, I will disown Nigeria to take the citizenship of Togo or any other country.





On the widespread insecurity across the country, George said sacking the service chiefs would not put an end to the problem.





According to him, insurgency is as a result of mistrust between people of different faiths and tribes.





Nigerians are now getting involved, is it the problems of service chiefs that is responsible for all these? What we have right now is the insurgency largely as a result of mistrust between people of different faiths and tribes, he said.





The service chief is just one man and a tree does not make a forest. It does not mean that if you change one man all is well.





The issue is a collective responsibility. Their loyalty to the country must outshine everything they think of.




Former US Vice President Joe Biden took on White House rival Bernie Sanders on Saturday night for his past vote to exempt gun manufacturers from liability for shootings.

Biden devoted the majority of his speech at a Democratic gala on the Las Vegas Strip to deliver a fiery charge against the National Rifle Association and gun manufacturers, vowing to hold gun makers accountable if elected president.

He didn't cite Sanders by name when referring to a 2005 federal law that shields gun makers from liability in most crimes, but said, some of the people running for office voted for that exemption.

Sanders, who was the first to take to the stage, focused on the minority votes, saying that to win the Democrats needed the support of "the African-American community, the Latino community, the Asian community and the Native American community."

Elizabeth Warren, reeling after a weak performance last week in New Hampshire, took the stage with a raggedy voice, having lost it after a day barnstorming the city.

Warren said she has spent a career fighting powerful interests on behalf of typical Americans.

In his address to the audience, former mayor Pete Buttigieg said his candidacy would shake up the establishment and would "bring new thinking to Washington."

The speeches were all made after a frenzied Saturday of campaigning across Las Vegas on the first day of early voting in Nevada's Democratic caucuses.

While the state's formal presidential caucuses are still a week away, Democrats opened the first of four days of early voting across more than 80 locations.
How does Gary Painters legacy factor into the Sheriffs Office leadership moving forward and should it? Which areas will you seek to differentiate yourself from Painter?

I would like to start by saying Sheriff Gary Painter was a great man. He was my neighbor and I consider him a good Christian man and a dear friend. When elected sheriff, I will make sure that, his legacy and the great contributions he made to Midland County will never be forgotten. I have a great deal of respect for his devotion to our residents in Midland County.

The Midland County Sheriffs Office has come to a crossroad from its past. The Sheriffs Office is stuck in the 1980s style of law enforcement, and it has crippled the department operationally. We have to move away from the good ole boy way of doing things. The policy manual is from 1985, there is no formal promotional process, moral is very poor, and we have a jail system that is mismanaged and out of control.

My first day as sheriff, I will start working on an updated policy manual and a formal promotional policy. I will begin to meet one on one with each employee to develop a dialog and determine which issues are important to our employees. Midland County has my commitment to work hard to make the Midland County Sheriffs Office a premier law enforcement[TH1] agency that the employees and residents of Midland County can be proud of. I will work to restore the moral within the Sheriffs Office and its employees.

I will differentiate myself from Painter on many fronts. I will have an open-door policy with both residents and Sheriffs Office employees  I will be upfront and transparent to both. I will immediately work to repair/develop relationships with the Commissioners Court, Justice of the Peace Courts, the District Attorneys Office and other law enforcement agencies. We must work with community organizations and governmental agencies to best serve the residens.

I will immediately work to identify the issues within the jail operation. Once these issues are identified, corrective actions will be immediately placed in effect. Transparent relationships with the media and the public will immediately improve, especially with issues concerning the jail along with the department as a whole.

The Sheriffs Office has many great men and women who work hard on a daily basis to make Midland County a safe and inviting community. I believe the employees need a leader who will support them, restore moral and provide direction offering them a positive work environment. I want to make every employee feel part of a progressive and well-respected 21st century law enforcement agency.

Working with the Commissioners Court and other entities to improve and ensure that Midland County Sheriffs Office has the proper radio equipment is imperative. As a modern-day law enforcement organization, communications with area law enforcement agencies is paramount. I will immediately work with the administration of the Midland Police Department to improve upon and provide access to MCSO radio channels.

I believe the sheriff of Midland County should not be a 9-to-5, Monday-through-Friday position. I will be committed to working during weekends and at night to stay abreast of problems in the community, seeing first-hand issues that patrol deputies and jail staff are facing. This will also allow me to have firsthand knowledge of how our policies and procedures are actuating working in the day-to-day operation.

I have always believed that I am a husband, father, grandfather and a resident of Midland before being a law enforcement officer. I believe this helps keep me grounded and keeps me seeing issues through the eyes of our citizens.

If, you want a progressive, 21st century, community-oriented Sheriffs Office that is well respected, please vote for Tom Hain on March 3.
A control checkpoint for the new coronavirus disease in Son Loi Commune, Binh Xuyen District, Vinh Phuc. Photo by VnExpress/Hoang An.

10,600 residents of Son Loi have to get their temperature checked twice a day and each time they leave and re-enter the commune.

However, they accept these and other inconveniences as necessary safety measure and believe that they will be effective in containing the novel coronavirus epidemic.

In the commune in northern Vinh Phuc Province 's Binh Xuyen District two ambulances are always on standby next to the local medical center: one for transporting patients in an emergency as well as those with chronic diseases who need to be moved to a higher-level hospital; and one exclusively for transporting those suspected of the carrying the Covid-19 infection.

Teams of medical staff and military doctors carry containers of disinfectant to periodically spraying every nook and cranny in the commune to clean and disinfect the area.

Ever since a three-month-old baby in the commune contracted the virus from a company employee whod returned home from China's Wuhan City  the epicenter of the virus outbreak  the health of every commune resident is monitored every day so that any infection can be detected early and treated in a timely manner.

Son Loi Commune is home to half of 16 confirmed Covid-19 cases in Vietnam. It was placed under lockdown last Thursday as an emergency attempt to contain the spread of the virus.

"If anyone develops symptoms such as coughing, fever or body pain, we'll take them to the quarantine zone," Tran Nhu Duong, deputy head of the National Institute Of Hygiene And Epidemiology and head of the Ministry of Health's special working group, said at a meeting in Binh Xuyen District on Saturday.

"They will have their samples taken and tested to determine whether they have Covid-19 or not," he said.

Those suspected of contracting the virus from those who have returned from China (F2 generation) would be quarantined at centers managed by the military; while those suspected of contracting it indirectly (F3 generation) would be quarantined at home.

Medical centers in the commune have also established a screening area for Covid-19 patients.

Nguyen Thi Thuy, a local medical worker, said the lockdown was not so severe that no one can leave or enter. The authorities have only set up checkpoints to measure people's body temperature and spray disinfectant.

About 10 checkpoints have been set up in the commune with 96 medical workers taking turns to day and night.

Improved awareness

The mobilization of doctors from provincial and central hospitals, radio broadcasts and leaflets with relevant Covid-19 information have helped raise locals' awareness on disease prevention measures.

Nguyen Van Thuan, a resident of Ngoc Bao Village, said he had been washing his hands regularly, wearing a face mask when going out and disinfecting his house regularly.

Dang Thi Yen, another local resident, also found the authorities' prevention measures necessary despite the inconvenience involved.

"Having to stop to have body temperature checked and disinfected when going in and out of the commune, then having to make health reports everyday is inconvenient, but I feel more at ease. I believe these measures will help us avoid being infected with nCoV," Yen said.

However, not everyone in the commune has been accepting of the restrictions.

315 local residents have left the area since the quarantine came into effect and local authorities are working to bring them back for mandatory quarantining, said Nguyen Thanh Hai, director of Vinh Phuc's health department.

The quarantining of Son Loi Commune and of residents suspected of carrying the Covid-19 infection in Vinh Phuc's other localities will be in effect for 21 days, and would end if no new infection is confirmed during this period.

Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen visited Binh Xuyen District Saturday to inspect the locality's Covid-19 prevention and control measures.

He emphasized the need to perform well the zoning and screening of infected patients so they are isolated, treated and their living environment disinfected.

"We need to keep the people informed so they won't be confused and panic but remain vigilant instead. Health officers need to continue screening carefully so as not to overlook anyone that needs to be quarantined," Tuyen said.

Other communes in Binh Xuyen District have also asked residents to remain calm and vigilant, and avoid traveling to areas with infection risks.

"Over the past few days, people in Binh Xuyen District and Son Loi Commune have been going on with their lives as usual. The epidemic is still under control. We are proactive in zoning, controlling and trying to extinguish the epidemic," said Vinh Phuc Chairman Vu Viet Van.

Vietnam declared the novel coronavirus outbreak an epidemic on February 1.

So far, the country has confirmed 16 infections, seven of whom have been discharged from hospitals.

As of Sunday the global death toll has climbed to nearly 1,700, including five outside mainland China.
On Jan. 28, Strom, who doesn't own the theater, told The Times the theater has dealt with everything.

"Some of the purchases go back to shows that were planned in April, May, where they weren't able to go back the traditional route so we had to go back," Strom said. "We can confidently say that every refund that's been requested will be completed in the next, I think it's two weeks, but it could be three."

Attempts to reach Strom for an interview by phone and text message have been unsuccessful. When a Times reporter noticed the lights were on at the theater on Jan. 27, they knocked but no one answered.

Currently, the theater is owned by TSA Properties LLC, where Crown Points assistant city attorney, Alexander Kutanovski, is listed as the registered agent and member.

Kutanovski has previously said he doesn't own the building, rather his law firm represents TSA Properties. The LLC, he said, doesn't operate the theater, which has been under contract for sale, "for some time," he added.
A HIGH-TECH software company has won a prestigious technology award.

Trackplan Software, based in the Hartnett Enterprise Acceleration Centre, won the category of Innovation in Technology and Systems  Providers at the annual facilities management awards.

Headed by Mark Cochrane, Trackplan provides facilities management software and has contracts with companies across the world.

His entry impressed a judging panel made of of eight experienced professionals from organisations like Arup, Dalata, JLL and LinkedIn.

Mr Corhrane said: We are very proud to receive this award and the recognition from our peers for our innovative and hard work over the last number of years as we grow our company. Combining our strengths in facilities management and leading cutting edge technology with a very clear customer centric focus enables us to add significant value to growing customers businesses. We are grateful for all the support over the years and thank our customers for their engagement and trust as we grow an exciting global company

The panel of judges commended Trackplan for its progress to date.

The company has already won a number of awards previously, including the Start-up of the Year in 2017 and 2018.

Among Trackplans clients are the Australian Open, Talleys, the largest food producer in New Zealand, Cumberland Farms in the USA with over 500 food retail store, and around 50 restaurants in Britain.

Trackplans software helps organisations manage reactive and planned maintenances, their engineers, contractors, buildings and assets.

Differentiating features include their range of mobile apps for managers, contractors and clients and electronic forms enabling users to design their own forms for inspections, meter readings, surveys and more.
Police in Chandigarh on Sunday claimed that the two criminals held in connection with a drug trail exposed after the arrest of dreaded gangster Sukhpreet Singh, alias Budha, had links with the big fish in Pakistan.

Jagdeep Singh, alias Jagga, and Gurvinder Singh (Pehalwan) were arrested three days ago with Pakistani sim cards in a joint operation of the organised crime control unit and the SAS Nagar police, a Punjab Police spokesperson said.

Both belong to Kot Dharam Chand Kalan village in Tarn Taran district. Wanted gangster Sukhpreet Singh, alias Budha, was deported from Armenia and arrested when he landed at the Delhi airport in November 2019.

Investigations so far have revealed that Jagga and Pehalwan, who had been absconding since 2014-15, had received a large quantity of heroin and fake Indian currency from Pakistan through various routes.

They were wanted by the Directorate Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Rajasthan Police and the Punjab Police for receiving huge consignments of heroin from Pakistan, the spokesperson said in a statement. Both Jagga and Pehalwan had evaded arrested for the past five years by operating as transporters on the route from New Delhi to Madhya Pradesh.

They had set up their own empire with the drug money and had purchased a house at Makhu district in Ferozepur, along with five new trucks from New Delhi. They had also purchased about four acres of agricultural land at Kot Dharam Chand Kalan village, he said.

Investigations have revealed huge money transactions in their bank accounts, said the spokesperson. He said the accused received drug money from Pakistan dealers through hawala.

READ | Punjab Resident Among 12 Drug Peddlers Arrested In J-K

Jagdeep Singh, alias Jagga, was involved in the cross-border smuggling of heroin since 2008, when he first started using Pakistan sim cards.

Jagga received the drug consignments from Jecka Pehalwan and Abad Ali, both Pakistanis, in Rajetal and Mahawa villages near the Attari border by using Pakistan sim cards, which were functional in the region. He also used to procure drug consignment from Bodi Lamma, a resident of Pakistan, near the Fazilka-Ferozepur border, the spokesperson said.

According to the spokesperson, Jagga came in contact with Malik, a resident of Narwad villaqge of Pakistan, in 2015 and had been receiving huge consignments of drugs from the latter since then. He received most of his drug consignments from Pakistan through the Ravi river and from the fencing in the plastic tubes.

The drug money was transferred by Pakistan dealers through the hawala route, he said. After his arrested twice in drug cases, Jagga started using WhatsApp on an international number.

He was initially arrested in a drug case involving the seizure of 13-kg heroin in 2009. He was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2011 but jumped parole in 2014. He was again arrested by the DRI in a case involving the recovery of 42 kg of heroin in January 2015. He fled from police custody during in October 2015 and was absconding since then.

Pehalwan had been absconding since 2014 in a case involving the seizure of 10-kg heroin seizure. To evade arrest, he had changed his appearance and had started tying a turban, the police spokesperson said.

READ | Two Women Held For Possession Of Drugs In Kullu

READ | Four Drug Peddlers Held In J&K's Ramban And Samba; 460 Kg Poppy Straw Recovered
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Tyler Bey scored 21 points to lead No. 16 Colorado to a 69-47 victory at Oregon State. The Buffaloes moved into sole possession of the first place in the Pac-12 Conference. McKinley Wright joined Bey in double figures for Colorado with 13 points. Ethan Thompson led the Beavers with 17 points. Tres Tinkle added 10 points and set a school record with 90 consecutive double-figure scoring games.
The Daily Beast

Fox News White House correspondent and perpetual nemesis of Jen Psaki thought he had Joe Bidens press secretary cornered on Monday when he asked her why the president is still referring to COVID-19 as a pandemic of the unvaccinated when so many people are getting breakthrough infections. He was wrong.I understand that the science says that vaccines prevent death, Doocy began, before undercutting that basic truth. But Im triple-vaxxed, still got COVID. Youre triple-vaxxed, still got COVI
What you see: At La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve, historic ranch roads are routed down to ravines, through valleys and up to hilltops. Along the way, the payoffs include a pretty creek in a deep ravine and ridge-top views across rolling hills to the east and west to the San Mateo County coast.

Location: The preserve spans 6,100 acres with access in La Honda on the north side off Highway 84 in western San Mateo County.

Cost: Parking, access free.

The hike, Part 1: At the start, you take the Harrington Creek Trail, a ranch road, that is routed north through rolling hills, and then descends 150 feet to a ravine and pretty Harrington Creek. Its roughly 2 miles to the creek.

The hike, Part 2: From the bridge over Harrington Creek, the trail climbs 400 feet, and at 3.2 miles in, you top out at a 1,000-foot ridge and reach the junction with the Folger Ranch Loop Trail. The views are best looking back to the east toward Skyline Ridge. Many turn back here for a 6.4-mile round-trip.

The hike, Part 3: At the fork with the Folger Ranch Loop (reopened last week), for the coastal view turn right. You make a short descent then climb up another ridge. This is the coastal payoff-view site. You can hike it out 1.3 miles, then return on the Harrington Creek Trail. Round-trip from parking, 8.8 miles.

Facilities: Parking with space for 22 cars, restroom (no running water), information billboard near trailhead.

Dogs: No dogs in the featured area of the preserve, Lower Honda Creek. On-leash dog access is permitted at Upper La Honda Creek (access on Allen Road), with a no-fee permit required to park inside the gate at the trailhead.

Rules: No smoking; hikers must stay on trails/roads. No mountain bikes (access is expected in next phase of park operations).

The future: The next phase of opening the preserve will include access near the Red Barn along Highway 84 (between Sky Londa and La Honda) and access for mountain bikes and horseback riding.

Cows/gates: The parkland includes historic cattle ranching. When you encounter gates, leave them as you find them, open or closed.

Contacts: Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, 650-691-1200, www.openspace.org.

How to get there

GPS: Use 900 Sears Ranch Road, La Honda

From San Francisco/Peninsula: Take Interstate 280 to exit 24 (above Menlo Park/Stanford) for Sand Hill Road. Take that exit to Sand Hill Road, turn west and drive 1.9 miles to Portola Road. Turn right on Portola Road and go 0.2 of a mile to a fork, bear left (still Portola Road) and drive 0.6 of a mile to Highway 84. Turn left (very sharp turn, use extreme care for cross traffic and downhill cyclists) and drive 3.4 miles to Sky Londa and a stop sign at Skyline. Continue straight (crossing Skyline) and drive 6.2 miles to La Honda and Sears Ranch Road. Turn right and drive 1 mile to end of road, parking and trailhead.

Note: Other routes available via Highway 84, Highway 35 and Highway 1.

Distances: 1 mile from La Honda, 12 miles from Woodside, 20 miles from Half Moon Bay, 36 miles from San Jose, 45 miles from downtown San Francisco, 51 miles from Sausalito, 56 miles from Dublin, 57 miles from Berkeley.

 Tom Stienstra
A new set of OnLeaks renders are based on a fresh Galaxy A70 variant. It has a triple rear camera, a rear-facing fingerprint reader - and epic, blocky screen bezels worthy of an up-to-date iPhone. The display in these images has both a pronouced chin and a waterdrop notch, thus hinting at the budget nature of this putative phone.

Working For Notebookcheck Are you a techie who knows how to write? Then join our Team! English native speakers welcome! News Writer (AUS/NZL based) - Details here

The latest set of OnLeaks renders concerns rumors the leaker has apparently heard about a phone called the Samsung Galaxy A70e. The images, published as a result of an exclusive partnership with CompareRaja, show a phone that may be best served aiming for the lower end of the market.

Then again, this design is also graced with a rear-facing fingerprint sensor and 3 rear cameras. However, the renders also suggest where Samsung may have cut corners with this phone: the screen. This allegedly upcoming phone has definitely noticeable bezels, as well as a chin with which the orginal A70 is not saddled.

Therefore, the screen as a whole may recall some recent iPhone variants, which also have surprisingly strong screen edges, as well as a notch that cuts into their display real-estate. OnLeaks and CompareRaja also assert that the phone measures about 156.8x76.45x9.4 millimeters (mm), which may mean its well-bordered screen could be about 6.1 inches in diagonal length.

Furthermore, the "A70e" is now linked to a microUSB port - although it may also have a headphone jack. It may confuse some readers as to why this device is even rumored to exist: its series has now distinctly moved on to Ax1 variants; in addition, the A70s exists.

On that note, the upcoming Galaxy A11 is also said to have triple cameras, although it may also have a smaller screen. Time may tell where the postulated new budget phone will fit into Samsung's release scheme this year.
By Hilary Russ and Sophie Yu

NEW YORK/BEIJING (Reuters) - With the coronavirus outbreak in China continuing to spread, McDonald's Corp, Starbucks Corp and other fast-food companies are ramping up "contactless" pickup and delivery services to keep their workers and customers safe, the companies said.

McDonald's has implemented contactless pickup and delivery of Big Macs, fries and other menu items across the China as the outbreak has unfolded.

Customers order remotely  on mobile phones or by computers in store  and employees seal the meals in bags and put them in a special spot for pickup without human contact, McDonald's says on its website.

For delivery orders, drivers drop McDonald's packages at building entrances, disinfect their delivery bags and wash their hands more frequently. Drivers carry ID cards showing that they - and the people who made and packaged their food - had their body temperature scanned to prove they do not have a fever.

"While we look at how to further improve the process, the stepped-up preventive measures apply to all of our servicing channels," McDonald's said in a statement to Reuters.

The flu-like virus has infected more than 68,500 people globally and killed 1,665 as of Sunday, mostly in the central Chinese province of Hubei. Some major Chinese cities still resemble ghost towns as China struggles to get its economy back on track after a prolonged Lunar New Year holiday.

In early February, 83% of all stores on the Meituan-Dianping delivery platform - one of the largest in the country - were closed, according to Beijing-based data firm BigOne Lab.

Earlier this month, China's National Health Commission recommended that deliveries limit contact.

Starbucks suggests customers order coffee via its app and then wait outside its cafes until they get a pick-up notice. Orders are placed on tables just inside cafe entrances.

If they do enter Starbucks locations, customers have their temperature taken at the door, as fever is one of the main symptoms of infection, and baristas wear masks.

Story continues

For delivery, Starbucks said it regularly sterilizes containers and that its delivery people have their temperature taken daily. Indoors staff must wash hands every 30 minutes, and public areas are sterilized every 2 hours.

Starbucks delivery is provided by ele.me, owned by ecommerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

The measures illustrate how companies are quickly adapting in order to sell prepared food while keeping people safe.

Yum China Holdings Inc rolled out contactless delivery on Jan. 30, with contactless pickup coming two days later at its KFC and Pizza Hut locations, the company said.

CHANGING HUMAN TRANSACTIONS

There had been contactless delivery in China prior to the crisis, when couriers would drop packages at a consumer's door or lobby or place parcels in lockers for later pickup.

But since the outbreak, many residential compounds are limiting access for drivers and asking customers to pick up their own packages.

In transactions that previously would have involved one person handing a package to the other, the driver now puts the food down  on the back of a moped, for instance  and then steps back and waits for the customer to take it and leave.

One customer, for example, asked a delivery person to put a parcel in the elevator and press the button for the designated floor. The customer grabbed the package when the doors opened - unaccompanied by the courier, according to a post on CCTV News' social media account on Weibo, said Allison Malmsten, a marketing strategy analyst at Daxue Consulting in Shanghai.

The outbreak "redefines contactless food delivery," Malmsten said via email.

Since the start of the outbreak, Yum China has closed more than 30% of its locations. There have been "significant interruptions," with sales off as much as 50% in those that remained open since the Lunar New Year holiday, versus the same time last year, Chief Financial Officer Ka Wai Yeung said in a Feb. 5 earnings call.

The crisis has accelerated the rollout of Yum China's contactless services in China, it said in a statement.

"These services have been well-received by customers and are playing an important role in ensuring that our delivery business continues to hold up during this period of significantly reduced dine-in traffic," it said.

Early during the epidemic, meal delivery took a hit because customers feared contact with drivers would put them at risk of infection, according to news reports.

Cases of couriers being diagnosed with the virus after working for days arose in Shenzhen and Qingdao cities.

The companies' reliance on pickup and delivery to offset some losses does, however, have limitations.

Malmsten said many drivers cannot return to work due to travel restrictions, and those who can return face long hours and physical and mental fatigue. As a result, SF Express, the second-largest courier in China, has ramped up hiring, she said.

(Reporting by Hilary Russ in New York and Sophie Yu in Beijing; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Dan Grebler)
At least six people were arrested for allegedly beating up a Police Inspector in Uttar Pradesh's Jalaun.

The incident took place on the night of February 15.

"We received information that some drunk people were fighting and beating up a police officer. We despatched a team and six people were arrested in connection with the case. They will be questioned after they are examined," said Superintendent of Police (SP) Satish Kumar on Saturday.

"The police officer who was attacked is currently receiving treatment at a hospital," the SP added.

Further investigation is underway.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sir - The recent General Election has seen a disparate group of newly elected people, who will go to Dail Eireann. The reported comments and antics of some of those elected persons must deeply concern all reasonable and responsible citizens of this country.

We had a newly elected TD shouting his support for an illegal army and there were other disrespectful acts in count centres which were checked by responsible returning officers.

I propose that all TDs swear a properly worded oath of allegiance to this State, to state that they will respect its Constitution, its Army Oglaigh na hEireann, its police An Garda Siochana and all statutory law.

I believe such a comprehensive oath of allegiance to the Republic of Ireland to be necessary and I further believe that it could only objectionable to persons who would seek to subvert our State.

Tony O Donnell,

Moycullen, Co Galway

Voters turned blind eye to hypocrisy

Sir - Even though the hard slog of choosing a working coalition has only just begun, business leaders and supporting organisations have already expressed concerns about the likely shape of the new government.

The unprecedented success of Sinn Fein last week has also created a climate of uncertainty around inward investment and the creation of new jobs.

But aside from those important and immediate concerns there is a serious question mark over the nakedly immoral stance of those thousands of mainly younger voters who totally ignored the skeletons in the Sinn Fein cupboard, choosing instead to vent their spleen on the hapless centrist parties.

There is simply no excuse for turning a blind eye to the sheer hypocrisy of that party and its dealings with subversive elements.

More than any other party, Sinn Fein has regularly benefited from less than rigorous examination of its internal procedures and governance. While much of this may be down to its role in the Stormont Assembly, it can never justify a get-out-of-jail card here in the Republic. There are too many questions and too few answers. Lies followed by apologies have been commonplace over the years and have been well documented and widely publicised.

The level of frustration and anger out there is understandable. Many hard-working people have suffered at the hands of government ministers who felt obliged to stick to rigid monetary policies. That could and should have been dealt with with more haste... But Sinn Fein's promises - to be all things to all people - is not the answer. It is a party of protest and its monetary policies make little sense in the real world.

Housing and health care are perennial problem areas in almost every country in Europe. They take time and consume massive amounts of taxpayers' money. Any party that claims to have a quick fix solution that involves tax cuts and a building bonanza is lying through its teeth!

But then, most of the thinking electorate already knew that!

Niall Ginty,

Killester, Dublin 5

The politics of old must be cast aside

Sir - It did not take Sinn Fein long to show their true colours. I was appalled to hear David Cullinane in Waterford shouting "Up the 'Ra" - and even more appalled when he tried to defend his bellicose yelling.

And we also heard their supporters singing IRA songs in Kerry and Dublin when their candidates got elected.

What kind of a message does that send out?

Sinn Fein is a party of hypocrites. They refuse to take their UK seats - but take the salaries and allowances. To me that is sheer hypocrisy.

We all know the IRA has not gone away. Since the Good Friday Agreement was signed, they have beaten up and killed people, they robbed the Northern Bank. Since the 1970s they have killed members of the Garda and the Defence Forces.

I'm right to be worried about the security of the State. It took Gerry Adams 17 years to admit that the IRA killed Garda Jerry McCabe - who was shot in the line of duty.

How can they defend that?

I am sure a lot of people who voted Sinn Fein will also be appalled with David Cullinane's yelling last week.

So where does the blame lie?

Fianna Fail left the country penniless and left Fine Gael with a poisoned chalice. And I feel Fine Gael lost touch with the people over the last three years.

It is about time Fianna Fail and Fine Gael had a good hard look at themselves and realise that the people of today will not put up with the politics of old.

Micheal Martin and Leo Varadkar should resign and let the parties start afresh.

Patrick Flynn,

Cork

Never forget the years of killing

Sir - On numerous occasions during the elections Micheal Martin promised that under no circumstances would he go into a coalition government with Sinn Fein/IRA. If he had, he would have lost all credibility and no one would believe a word out of his mouth ever again.

We should remember the terrible atrocities Sinn/IRA were responsible for during 30 long years. In that time their members murdered more than 1,800 people - men, women and children. It would be a dreadful insult to the families of all those killed by these terrible people were we to accept them as a normal political party. We should remember the damage this organisation did to our economy for 30 long years.

I cannot understand why these issues were not highlighted during the election to make our younger generation aware what Sinn Fein did to our country.

The best thing for Fianna Fail to do is go into a coalition with Fine Gael and the Green Party.

Noel Peers,

Torremolinos, Malaga, Spain

Ireland needs solid party of the centre

Sir - A claque of excitables has been overreacting to the result of the election, one national organ hailing it as a ''victory'' for Sinn Fein.

Victory? What victory? Sinn Fein - as a result of a slate of flaky Corbynite promises - gains less than a quarter of the popular vote... as do the old workhorse parties. Sinn Fein also rashly stokes the fire on moves towards unification, which the ill-informed young seem to have been exercised by.

The reshaping of Ireland's political landscape that needs to flow from this bizarre outcome must surely be the ending of the Civil War rift that produced two ideologically overlapping parties. What separated them was what still separates those who believe, or did believe, in physical force solutions.

It is time for Ireland to have, not a coalition, but a solid party and government of the centre.

Let those elements who identify with Sinn Fein, and its "Up the 'Ra" mindset, cleave to Sinn Fein.

Paddy McEvoy

March, Cambridgeshire, UK

It's time to forget civil war politics

Sir - Any political party in Ireland that condones its elected representatives shouting "Up the 'Ra" or taking part in publicly singing "come out ye Black and Tans" does not deserve to be in government.

Furthermore, Sinn Fein's boast that it won the popular vote is not correct. It won 24pc of the vote and seems to overlook that the remaining 76pc voted elsewhere.

It is about time that Fine Gael and Fianna Fail forgot about civil war politics and got together with the Green Party to give us honest and steady Government for the future years.

Any other combination of parties risks destroying the economy and the future prosperity of this country.

We can only live in hope.

Michael O'Connell,

Cleveragh, Listowel

Disillusioned older voters

Sir  I wonder if I am alone in feeling disenfranchised by the options available in last weeks General Election?

I am just as disillusioned as younger generations with the results of 100 years of the back and forth Fianna Fail/Fine Gael duopoly and would like to see a change in how we do things, so that we might finally attain the ideals of a republic: a country run by the people, for the people.

While recognising change is needed, as someone who lived through the regular atrocities perpetrated by the IRA (and others) from the 1970s onward, I simply cannot bring myself to vote for Sinn Fein  whose version of republicanism is so much different to mine.

Its still too raw, in my mind at any rate.

The remaining parties are too far to the left and espouse policies I could never agree with, such as nationalising the entire building industry.

Yes, I voted  as I have always done since I came of voting age  but really I was just going through the motions.

To answer my own opening question, I am pretty sure that I am not alone in this  and I wonder does it explain the low turnout among older voters, who didnt vote because they felt they simply had no one to vote for?

D Lane,

Dublin 15

SF vote is insult to peace process

Sir  Congratulations to the young voters of Ireland who managed to reverse the ideals of the peace process in one day.

Unfortunately, this charade is doomed to failure. Sinn Fein will not be satisfied until they see another election in order to secure an overall majority, so this is where we will require a strong and effective opposition.

Obviously the present opposition parties are incapable of fighting their way out of a paper bag, so new blood is needed. My proposal is for completely new parties and independents to enter the fray.

Name and address with Editor

What fools voted for a bomb-maker?

Sir  Poll-topper Dessie Ellis of Sinn Fein was indeed having a ball, yahoo-ing all over the place at the count centres last week.

What short memories we Irish have. I remember when Dessie served 10 years in Portlaoise Prison for explosives.

Is he now become a hero among the forgetful Irish electorate?

Robert Sullivan,

Bantry, Co Cork

Delaney has last laugh over critics

Sir  Now that the votes have been totted up, I wonder if John Delaney is having the last laugh at the politicians who were set on getting him out of office: Noel Rock and Shane Ross? Maybe he even had a snigger at the expense of Leo Varadkar, following the Fine Gaelers snide reference to John during the leaders debate.

John may not have done everything by the book, but he did his bit for rural Ireland.

Sean Lynch,

Innishannon, Co Cork

Minority view of true democracy

Sir  It is clear that Sinn Fein holds a majority of seats in the Dail with 23.25pc of TDs  as the other 76.75pc of TDs dont count in a Sinn Fein democracy and are only elected so as to put Sinn Fein into government.

This is the same maths that Mary Lou used when she claimed that the vacant sites tax would raise 107m if it was raised from 8pc to 15pc. (At 8pc it raises 800,000  so clearly they are planning on a lot of vacant sites.)

Liam Nicholas,

Tulla, Co Clare

Fine Gael has had this coming a while

Sir  The writing had been on the wall for Fine Gael for some time.

The idea of children doing their homework in hotel bedrooms or sick octogenarians laid out on trolleys in hospital corridors was enough to churn the stomach of the most weather-worn individual.

They showed great mercy to the banks but very little to the homeowners who fell foul of them, favouring instead greedy landlords and vulture funds who cashed in on the misery of the masses, decent law-abiding people who got caught offside when the tide went out on their livelihoods due to an unforeseen economic crash.

Enda Kenny presided over a government which saw an unprecedented number of people losing their homes  all the more ironic when, a century earlier, the great Co Mayo man Michael Davitt did all in his power to keep people in their homes and small holdings with his three Fs. Remember the fair rent, fixity of tenure and freedom of transfer?

Fianna Fail is no better. It spent its last period in opposition with the confidence and supply plan washed and rinsed by Fine Gael. The failure of both of them to appease the middle third could well have forfeited the fortune of the nation.

Jim Gallagher,

Dundalk, Co Louth

France leads way on tackling FGM

Sir  Maeve Sheehans article on female genital mutilation (FGM) in Ireland is welcome.

In her piece, one activist says that education and awareness is key to stopping this barbaric ritual custom.

However, according to Linda Weil-Curiel, the lawyer whose work has led to more than 100 FGM convictions in France, only medical examination protects at-risk girls.

Unlike politically correct Ireland, the French take a proactive approach to FGM. There, all children at risk undergo regular genital checks until the age of six, and doctors and nurses have to report any cases of FGM or other abuse up to the age of 18.

Frances zero-tolerance approach appears to be working. According to Koudedia Keita, the Malian-born president of the anti-FGM Corps en Marche group it is my impression that female mutilation has been reduced enormously in France.

Karl Martin,

Bayside, Dublin 13

Thank you for your Irish hospitality

Sir  Greetings from Wales!

On Wednesday morning, at 3am, I finally arrived home to Cardigan Island, having been in Dublin since the previous Thursday. My fellow farmer Richard and I had a most enjoyable time.

Many of your readers may have spotted me, since I was wearing a pullover with a large grey seal on it emblazoned with the name of Cardigan Island Coastal Farm Park. I also had a couple of badges stating 73, since it was my 73rd birthday on the day of the match.

Id like to thank the Irish people for their courteous hospitality and friendliness. An Ulsterman sitting in front of me in the Aviva brought me back a pint of lager at half-time after seeing it was my birthday, and a nice couple from Portmarnock gave us a lift back to the quays on their way home, after I had asked about the quickest walking route from the stadium.

Of course, apart from the rugby, we noticed there was the small matter of an election in Ireland. Consequently, I have penned a few lines, in the poetic style of one of your most famous rugby-loving cities:

So now it is Eires Sinn Fein,

That is singing the Irish refrain,

Farewell Fine Gael,

Blown away by a gale,

As Leo is washed down the drain!

Slainte! Iechyd Da! Cheers!

Lyn Jenkins,

Gwbert, Cardigan, Wales
Manama

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa yesterday received, in the presence of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, senior Royal Family members on the 19th Anniversary of the National Action Charter.

Senior Royal Family members extended to HM the King deepest congratulations on the glorious occasion, expressing utmost pride in the landmark achievements attained by the kingdom in all fields and the distinguished position it has reached at the international level thanks to HM King Hamads leadership. They praised the tremendous efforts exerted by HM the King to enhance Bahrains relations with brotherly and friendly countries, as well as to promote its honourable stances at global gatherings and strengthen its leading role at the Arab and international levels.

They prayed to Allah the Almighty to guide HM the King on the right path, and to bless him with abundant health and happiness to continue leading the progress march witnessed by the kingdom during his prosperous era. HM the King welcomed senior Royal Family members, and exchanged with them congratulations on the dear national occasion, expressing thanks and appreciation to them for the their noble patriotic feelings and supplications. HM King Hamad said that the glorious historic day is an opportunity to recall with pride the patriotic stances of the beloved Bahraini people on the referendum day, noting that the adoption of the National Action Charter paved the way for embarking on a promising march of building the Kingdoms institutions and constitutional branches, in line with the aspirations of the Bahraini citizens whose unprecedented consensus, HM the King said, embodied the all-inclusive Bahraini identity that seeks development and civilisational progress.

HM the King underlined the importance of adherence to the essence and principles of the National Action Charter by preserving what has been achieved so far, and carrying on dedicated efforts to build on hard-won national gains and increase them. HM the King stressed the importance of continuous and constructive co-operation between the Executive and Legislative branches, expressing appreciation for the members of the two branches for their constant keenness to place the interests of the nation and the citizens at top of their priorities.

In this regard, HM the King lauded the achievements of the bicameral National Assembly, and its success in playing the role assigned to it to the fullest. HM King Hamad affirmed that the Bahraini citizens will always remain the focus of the development march and its ultimate goal, expressing pride in the solidarity among all Bahraini citizens, as well as their cohesion and unified stances, citing the tireless efforts of Bahraini competencies to enrich the national march and increase the Kingdoms pioneering achievements at various gatherings.

HM the King affirmed the kingdoms steadfast determination to continue enhancing its progress march to further strengthen its status among developed countries and meet its citizens aspiration for more progress and prosperity. HM King Hamad performed Friday Prayers at Al Sakhir Palaces mosque. HM the King also hosted a lunch banquet in honour of those present marking the glorious national occasion.
The world is yet to have a solution to the ongoing coronavirus which has spread to 25 countries and has killed over 1,500 people since it was detected in Wuhan, China, in December.

Nigeria is also faced with battling the Lassa fever outbreak while trying to prepare against the importation or in case of eventuality of an outbreak of coronavirus.

While still seeking a solution, the new disease was renamed Covid-19.

Here is a round-up of some of the stories which made headlines last week.

Egypt confirmed on Friday its first case of Covid-19 (coronavirus) in a foreigner who had been put into isolation in hospital, Reuters reported.

The health ministry said in a statement that it had immediately informed the World Health Organisation and had taken all necessary preventative measures.

It, however, did not give the nationality of the affected person, or any other details.

Confirming the case, WHO Eastern Mediterranean said the person was carrying the virus, but had not shown any symptoms and was in a stable condition.

The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Edo Chapter, has urged the federal government to build isolation centres at point of entries into the country to check viral diseases.

The chairman of the chapter, Valentine Omoifo, said that an isolation centre could prevent coronavirus and other diseases from coming into the country.

The government should be proactive because we are lucky that the virus is not in Nigeria.

Over 10.522 kilogrammes of compressed cannabis sativa also known as wee wee was allegedly uncovered in a concealed warehouse in Maiduguri by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Borno State Command.

The Chairman, NDLEA, Muhammad Abdallah, said in a statement signed by the Head, Public Affairs of the agency, Jonah Achema, said that one suspect was also arrested in connection with the drugs.

The ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo remains a public health emergency of international concern, the World Health Organisation has said.

The UN health agency said this on Wednesday after a deliberation by the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on Ebola.

READ ALSO:

Reconfirming the status of the disease, Mr Ghebreyesus said he accepted the emergency committees advice that the Ebola outbreak in DRC continues to be a public health emergency of international concern.

Official Says US Health Authorities Shipped Faulty Coronavirus Test Kits Across Country

A number of test kits sent out by U.S. health authorities to labs across the country to diagnose the deadly novel coronavirus are faulty, a senior official said Wednesday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began shipping 200 test kids nationwide on February 5 to speed up the diagnosis of US cases of COVID-19, which currently number 13.

But the labs reported that while performing a verification procedure, they realized the kits were returning inconclusive results, meaning neither positive nor negative, said senior CDC official Nancy Messonnier

The Lassa fever death toll has risen to 70, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control said on Tuesday.

The Nigerian health agency, in its weekly situation report on the status of the disease, said since the beginning of the year, more suspected and confirmed cases have been reported.

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In the reporting week, it said there were 482 suspected cases of the disease with 104 new confirmed cases and eight deaths reported.

Britain on Monday declared the new coronavirus a serious and imminent threat to public health, giving the government additional powers to isolate those suspected of being infected.

Britain has recorded four cases of coronavirus so far while British nationals, who have been flown back from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the epidemic broke out, are being quarantined for 14 days.

The virus has killed more than 900 people, all but two in mainland China, and has spread to at least 27 countries and territories.

A Chicago-area pediatricians suicide note has prompted an investigation into his vaccination practices and record keeping, according to the Cook County Sheriffs Office.

Van Koinis, found dead of suicide in September 2019, left behind a note that raised questions about the record keeping of vaccinations at his medical practice, the sheriffs office said in a statement.

Based on the investigation, including issues presented in the note, authorities have been unable to determine which of Koinis patients were vaccinated and which were not, the statement said.
Controversy over the future of a key asset owned by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust is set to intensify, with a private philanthropy group unveiling a bid to lease and "re-imagine" the whole of heritage-listed Cockatoo Island for at least 50 years.

The Cockatoo Island Foundation Limited wants to transform the prize Commonwealth-owned site into a "permanent art island for Sydney", complete with major art installations, permanent and temporary art exhibitions, "immersive" visitor experiences, food and beverage offerings and other unspecified "potential uses".

Cockatoo Island is one of the sites that belongs to the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust.

The foundation says a new body, not the trust, should manage the site, because the island has been "severely underused" and is a "missed opportunity for Sydney and Australia".

"Our observation is that there is no clear vision for the future of the island, and no clear sense of what its owners and stakeholders want the island to be" it says, in its submission to a review commissioned by federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley.
A 19-year-old man was arrested on Sunday in connection with the alleged molestation of students during a cultural festival at the all-women Gargi College here last week, taking the number of people held in the case to 15, police said.

On February 6, a group of men broke into the college and allegedly groped, harassed and molested girl students.

The attack took place during their college festival 'Reverie'.

The students alleged that the men, in their 30s and drunk, groped and dragged girls and performed obscene acts, while security and Delhi Police personnel stood by like mute spectators.

They also alleged that they were threatened by the intruders, who also made objectionable remarks and used cuss words.

The incident came to light after some students took to Instagram to narrate their ordeal.

The accused were reportedly outside the college when the fest was underway. They gathered outside the gate of the college, vandalised a car and then broke in.

They allegedly jumped over the barricades placed by the college security staff, outnumbered them and then misbehaved with the women students, police added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
South Korea reported another confirmed case of the new coronavirus Sunday, involving an 82-year-old man with no record of overseas travel, bringing the total to 29 after a five-day lull in new cases, Trend reports citing Yonhap.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said the new patient tested positive for the virus after visiting Korea University Anam Hospital in Seoul with a heart problem and is currently quarantined at Seoul National University Hospital in Seoul, one of the facilities designated by the state for the treatment of the virus.

The KCDC said he didn't go to a separate screening clinic for the virus since he had no symptoms of fever or respiratory problems upon his visit to the Anam hospital's emergency room. However, doctors there ran the coronavirus test after finding out that he had pneumonia.

The emergency room of the Korea University hospital is currently closed, according to the KCDC.

The KCDC believes that the latest patient had no contact with the country's other virus-confirmed patients at this moment, adding that health authorities are still investigating where and when he contracted the virus.

This is South Korea's first novel coronavirus case since Tuesday, when the country reported its 28th COVID-19 infection after a 30-year-old Chinese woman tested positive for the virus on Monday.

The number of people being checked for the virus under quarantine came to 577 as of early Sunday, the KCDC said in a statement.

South Korea has tested a total of 7,890 people for the virus since Jan. 3, with 7,313 testing negative.

The country has so far decided to release nine patients who have recovered from the virus from quarantine, with eight of them already discharged from their hospitals. One patient, a 46-year-old man, will be allowed to leave his hospital soon, according to the KCDC.

The KCDC said the 20 patients currently being treated for the virus at hospitals are in a stable condition, although one is receiving oxygen therapy for pneumonia but is not in a severe condition, it added. The condition of the 29th patient has yet to be made public.

Earlier in the day, the government released the second group of 334 South Koreans it evacuated from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, following a two-week quarantine after they have all tested negative for the novel coronavirus.

The evacuees were airlifted out of the central Chinese city of Wuhan on South Korea's second special chartered flight and arrived in the country on Feb. 1.

The first group of 366 evacuees, who arrived in South Korea on Jan. 31, were released from quarantine and returned home on Saturday.
A gas station convenience store was robbed Saturday evening in Luzerne County, according to state police.

Pennsylvania State Police in Hazleton said the incident happened at 8:24 p.m. at the Dorrance Sunoco, 7018 Blue Ridge Trail in Dorrance Township. A cashier reported to police the robber showed a silver object and demanded cash. He then fled with approximately $246 in cash from the register, according to police.

The suspect is being described as a white male, 5 feet, 10 inches to 5 feet, 11 inches in height, thin build and wearing a black hooded coat, denim jeans, yellow gloves and a gray cloth covering his face. He was last seen heading north of the gas station.

Those with information are asked to call Trooper Christopher R. Tobias at the Hazleton station at 570-459-3890.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
The Presidency has accused some leaders of the opposition of orchestrating protests against heads of military institutions with the intention of embarrassing the government of President Muhammadu Buhari

Garba Shehu, spokesman to President Muhammadu Buhari, who disclosed this in a statement on Saturday, said the imminent gathering scheduled for Monday is the latest in a series of demonstrations orchestrated by the opposition to embarrass the government.

As part of this overall scheme, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, with its belligerent politics, has been marching from one embassy to the other in protest against the Buhari administration and the nations highest court of justice, the Supreme Court, the statement added.

They are keen to give the impression that Nigerians are in support of them as they take to the streets, and they will go to any length to promote this false narrative.

The recent incident in Maiduguri, Borno State, where an overwhelmingly cheering crowd gathered to welcome President Buhari, while a handful were recorded booing him, is a part this elaborate scheme.

It is misleading, as some analysts have tried to do, to read this as verdict against President Buhari, who emerged winner with 94 per cent of the votes cast in the Presidential election in the state in February last year.

This was clearly a hired few, but the news was promoted by the opposition who had of course positioned themselves to record the booing  all just to embarrass the President.

We urge the media to remain unbiased and discerning in their reporting, instead of becoming unwitting tools in the hands of the opposition.

A group of politicians and beneficiaries of the Boko Haram insurgency is right now paying for people to join their planned protest against our countrys service chiefs, and they will no doubt seek the medias collaboration on this as usual.

But there is news and there is promoted content  two very different things, one of which should never make the headlines as these recent fake protests have done, he said.
Powerful City investors have raised fears over delays in appointing a new chief executive for HSBC as the banking giant launches an overhaul of its strategy.

Three investors expressed concerns after it emerged that the bank is unlikely to announce its next leader when it reports its annual results this week.

The bank had been expected to name a successor to John Flint  who was ousted unexpectedly last summer  because it is also due to launch a radical new strategy.

One institution said it was wrong to allow interim boss Noel Quinn to start an overhaul without giving him the top job.

Concerns: One institution said it was wrong to allow interim boss Noel Quinn to start an overhaul without giving him the top job

It said it was unusual for a bank to commit to push through radical changes without having a permanent boss to 'stand behind it'.

Another City institution urged the board to show 'unity' behind one candidate, while a third warned that the delay posed a risk to the share price.

Sources also suggested that the delay could signal that chairman Mark Tucker was the real driving force behind the strategy, which could see up to 10,000 jobs axed.

It is thought that jobs could go across HSBC's US division, its investment bank in London's Canary Wharf and its retail bank in France.

The bank is also considering offloading its west coast branches in the US, according to reports.

But HSBC, which makes most of its money in Asia, is committed to its retail bank in the UK.

HSBC declined to comment.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday cautioned U.S. allies against allowing Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei to develop their 5G networks, arguing at the Munich Security Conference that doing so is akin to choosing autocracy over democracy," CNBC reports.

Why it matters: Pelosi's hawkish stance marks a rare area of agreement with the Trump administration, which believes Huawei is a national security threat because the Chinese government may be capable of accessing its equipment for espionage.

The Justice Department last week also announced a 16-count superseding indictment against Huawei and its CFO for racketeering and conspiracy to steal trade secrets.

IP theft by Chinese companies is among the many issues that prompted President Trump to launch his trade war against China.

What she's saying: This is about choosing autocracy over democracy on the information highway, Pelosi said during a press conference, according to CNBC.

It is about putting the state police in the pocket of every consumer in these countries, because of the Chinese way. And so, you ask about an alternative, and what I said a couple of days ago and yesterday, is that it should not be a Sinofication of the information highway but an internationalization of it.

It is a big price to pay in terms of national security, in terms of economy and in terms of our values and our governance. And that is why we have bipartisan support for this position. It is not about an economic advantage, it is about a values urgency: autocracy versus democracy. And we choose democracy.

The big picture: White House national security adviser Robert O'Brien and other officials claimed recently that the U.S. can prove that Huawei can covertly obtain data from networks that use its equipment. U.S. officials have been so far unsuccessful at convincing allies not to do business with Huawei.

The United Kingdom in January, despite repeated warnings from the U.S., announced that it is allowing Huawei to construct "non-core" parts of its 5G mobile networks, while banning the company from "sensitive locations" such as military or nuclear sites.

Lawmakers from German Chancellor Angela Merkels ruling Christian Democratic Union Party last week backed tougher rules on foreign vendors' access to the country's new mobile networks, but stopped short of banning Huawei as the U.S. recommended, Reuters reports.

Go deeper:
Grandmother arrested after abducting granddaughter at gunpoint from hospital originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

A 12-year-old girl who was abducted from a hospital room by her armed grandmother has been found unharmed.

Evelyn Miller, 66, was arrested by the Washington Parish Sheriffs Office at a hotel in Bogalusa, Louisiana, and her granddaughter, Adreana Miller, 12, was found with her after Evelyn Miller allegedly took Adreana from Ochsner Hospital at approximately 5 p.m. on Valentines Day.

Authorities say that Evelyn Miller entered Adreanas hospital room in an attempt to remove her from the hospital but when hospital staff intervened and tried to stop her she allegedly pulled out a gun and pointed it at them.

In making her escape from the location, she pushed one nurse to the ground and struck a security guard with her vehicle, said the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office in a press release on social media. No one was physically injured.

Elderly woman scammed out of money and stranded across country saved by cop's good deed

PHOTO: A 12-year-old girl was found unharmed and her grandmother, Evelyn Miller, 66, shown here, allegedly took the child from a hospital at gunpoint. Miller was arrested on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office)

MORE: Church volunteer allegedly steals more than half a million dollars, makes thousands of online purchases

Police obtained a warrant for the arrest of Evelyn Miller after the incident for charges of simple kidnapping, five counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, two counts of simple battery, and violation of a firearm-free zone.

Miller fled with Adreana from Ochsner Hospital in a 2019 Toyota Sienna which was recovered a short time later.

Miller and her granddaughter were located approximately 24 hours later at a hotel in Bogalusa, Louisiana, about 70 miles north of the New Orleans hospital she was taken from.

We extend our appreciation to our partners in law enforcement who assisted with this investigation, including the Louisiana State Police and the Washington Parish Sheriffs Office, and to our local media and members of the public who shared the information about the incident and helped us bring it to a swift closure, said Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office.

While the girl was the subject of a statewide "child endangerment alert," authorities said, it is currently unclear what Millers motivations were in taking her granddaughter.
After winning the 65th Filmfare Award for his character of a police officer in Anubhav Sinha's 'Article 15, actor Ayushmann Khurrana penned a heartfelt post on social media.

Khurrana won the Best Actor award in critics category on Saturday evening after which he shared a picture of himself with the black lady.

"When I wrapped up 'Article 15' I had posted a caption on my social media platforms stating that I just wrapped up the most important film of 2019. And Jitesh Pillai had asked me don't you think you're being too pompous," read Khurrana's caption.

"Tonight at this moment I stand corrected and validated. Thanks for your unconditional love Jitesh," he further wrote.

The actor extended his gratitude towards the director, Anubhav Sinha, and wrote, "Article 15 also won the best film in critics tonight. Thank you Anubhav sir, your new 2.0 version is that of legend. Kisi ne nahi socha tha ki main uniform mein achcha lagoonga (Nobody thought I could look good in uniform). Aapki vision ko salaam (Salute to your vision)."

"Film ke co-writer Gaurav Solanki ke lekhan ko salaam (Salute to co-writer Gaurav Solanki's writing). Bharat ke sanvidhaan ko salaam. Hindustan ki badalti awaam ko salaam (Salute to the Constitution of India and to the transforming Indian citizens," the actor wrote.

The film, directed by Anubhav Sinha, is loosely inspired by the heinous Badaun rape incident where two teenage girls were gang-raped and gruesomely murdered by hanging them while they were still alive.

The movie highlights the caste discrimination in the country through a mix of various incidents. The film's title derives from Article 15 of the Indian Constitution which prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, and place of birth.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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There are many reasons to go to church as a Christian: it was the example given to us in the New Testament and there are numerous scriptures (such as Hebrews 10:24-25) that encourage us to gather as believers. Or there is Pauls writing in 1 Corinthians 12 that compares a beautifully diverse community of believers to the segments of a body. When we each bring our unique gifts together we form a strong, whole and healthy community.

Nevertheless, church attendance among Christians has steadily decreased over the past 20 years. And the reasons arent straight forward. I personally have multiple friends and family members who are serious about their faith, but for reasons varying from work schedules to young children havent been able to invest in a church community.

So the question becomes increasingly relevant: how can you continue to grow your faith when you dont have a home church? Thankfully, though church is an important part of Christan life, it isnt the only way to stay strong and grow your faith.

1. Friendship with God

This means connection. At the end of the day, Christianity is first and foremost about a relationship with God. The essence of Jesus sacrifice was so that there would be no distance between us and Himself. Setting aside time to connect with God can be challenging, especially for families with young children. But one of the perks of God being omniscient and omnipresent is we can connect with Him literally anywhere and at any time!

Treat God like a friend  spend time with Him, talk with Him, ask Him questions, invite Him into moments of your everyday life and He will meet you there.

2. Worship

This doesnt have to look like putting on a certain kind of Christian music or singing, although if that helps you connect, go for it! Worship can be stirred up in many ways. Maybe getting out in the beauty of nature stirs your heart to worship. Perhaps making a list of what you have to be grateful for moves your heart. Were all wired differently, figure out what draws your heart into worship and make it a practice.

We were created to connect to the heart of God and worship helps us get to that place of connection. It is what transforms us by placing our eyes on His higher ways (Isaiah 55:9).

3. Get into the Bible

The effects of spending time in the Bible are powerful. A recent study by the Center for Bible Engagement showed that people who spent time in scripture four or more times a week saw significant changes in their lives. These changes included feelings of loneliness dropping 30%, anger issues dropping 32% and bitterness in relationships dropping 40%. Whoa. Talk about motivation with these stats!

Not only is regular Bible reading a way to grow spiritually, but it also has measurable effects on quality of life. If you find yourself feeling unmotivated, indifferent or even resistant to reading the Bible, its worth digging into and understanding what belief is forming that reaction. Especially when there is so much to gain!

4. Keep investing in the spiritual relationships you have

We werent designed to be isolated  we thrive when in community. So when you dont have a church community in your life, its so important to invest in the spiritually grounded friendships. Take an inventory of your relationships: what friends do you have with evidence of good fruit in their lives? What friends are equally willing to speak encouragement and truth into your life  even when its hard?

Having several relationships you can count on for encouragement and accountability is key to not stagnating. As Proverbs 27:17 puts it, As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. Relationships with depth require investment, but the return on that investment is worth it!
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 07:30:27|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi makes a speech at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany, on Feb. 15, 2020.(Xinhua/Lu Yang)

"We hope the U.S. as a superpower would not lose too much self-confidence or reason," says Wang Yi, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister.

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi responded to two U.S. officials' allegations on Saturday, saying that all U.S. accusations against China are lies, and not based on facts.

In the Q&A session after his speech at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2020, Wang was asked by Chairman of the MSC Wolfgang Ischinger to comment on the current Sino-U.S. relationship and its prospect, right after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper attacked China at the conference.

"It seemed that wherever they go, they will repeat their complaints," Wang said. "All U.S. accusations against China are lies, not based on facts."

"But if we change the subject of the lies to the U.S., these lies would become the truth, based on the facts," Wang said.

"We hope the U.S. as a superpower would not lose too much self-confidence or reason," he said.

China and the U.S. established their diplomatic ties over 40 years ago, and there have been some problems in bilateral relations, some of which arose autonomously from bilateral exchanges, whereas others were entirely man-made, Wang said.

The root cause of those problems, Wang said, lies in the fact that some people in the U.S. are reluctant to accept the rapid development and revitalization of China as a socialist country.

"But this is unfair. China has the right to develop itself and the Chinese people have the right to live a better life," Wang said.

China's modernization is an inevitable historical trend, which Wang said represents the advancing direction of human civilization, and cannot be stopped by any force.

China's development strengthens forces to safeguard world peace and contributes to global stability, which should be welcomed by the international community, said Wang.

He underlined China is willing to work with the U.S. to advance bilateral ties featuring coordination, cooperation and stability, on the basis of equality and mutual respect.

An important task now, Wang said, is that both sides should sit down for serious dialogues and find out an interactive mode which allows the two big countries with different social systems to coexist peacefully and have win-win cooperation.

China is ready for that, Wang said, urging the U.S. to meet China halfway.
The Crown's Vanessa Kirby and Emma star Callum Turner have split up.

According to The Sun, reps confirmed on Saturday that the actor couple had parted ways, with a source telling the publication: 'Vanessa and Callum are both rising stars in the acting world and in the last few years they have been flooded with offers.

'It's a really exciting time for them both. But as their careers have taken off, their relationship has suffered and they have gradually grown apart. It's very sad as they were once so close.

Split: The Crown's Vanessa Kirby and Emma star Callum Turner are no more [pictured in October 2017]

'Last year they made the difficult decision to go their separate ways and they both think its for the best. It's all very amicable - things just weren't working out.'

MailOnline has approached the pair's reps for comment.

Vanessa, 31, attended the BAFTAs two weeks ago - without Callum, 30.

She presented an award for special effects alongside fellow British TV star Emilia Clarke.

Over: They met when they starred in 2014's Queen And Country, getting together the following year

A source said: 'Last year they made the difficult decision to go their separate ways and they both think its for the best. It's all very amicable - things just weren't working out'

She was seen in great spirits backstage with Emilia, clearly not letting the split from Callum get her down.

She met him when they starred in 2014's Queen And Country, getting together the following year.

It wasn't until 2017 that they went public, however, after Vanessa was linked to Tom Cruise.

On-screen: It wasn't until 2017 that Vanessa and Callum went public, after Vanessa was linked to Tom Cruise [pictured in Mission: Impossible - Fallout]

She was shooting scenes with the Hollywood action star for Mission: Impossible - Fallout, in which she had to share a passionate kiss with him.

Those witnessing it believed it was a little too convincing and wondered whether the pair were involved off-screen too.

But to shut down these rumours, Vanessa explained she was dating Callum - revealing he was getting texts from friends asking if he was okay.

She also described him at the time as 'completely wonderful' and her 'best friend'.
(Photo : Screenshot from: CNBC Official Website) (Photo : Screenshot from: CTV News Vancouver Island Official Website) (Photo : Screenshot from: The Verge Official Website)

Millions are pursuing mobile games as everyone tries to avoid getting exposed to the coronavirus or as been named "COVID-19."

According to Sensor Tower, China's App Store now has 45% more first-time installs of games compared to the same period in 2019, and spending on gaming applications reached up to 23% as mobile gaming looms over China amid coronavirus outbreak. Some players, young adults, and even parents are turning to mobile games to kill off time they spend just sitting at home waiting for good news to arise. This news would indefinitely make them spend more money as they become invested in these popular games such as Game for Change, Honor of Kings, and Brain Out, to name a few of these top-performing gaming applications.

Read Also: [BREAKING] AIRBORNE CORONAVIRUS CONFIRMED: MWC 2020 in Serious Jeopardy

Education and Business apps are rising as well

Not only are Mobile Games dominating China, but as citizens stay home from school and work, educational apps for children and teens, and business apps for company owners and employees, are also rising on top of the free application charts. Parents are now using these apps to try and help their children learn new things or at least what they have been missing from school. Even working from home, Chinese employees expected to do as much work as they possibly can, making working apps like WeChat, Tencent Conference, and DingTalk have their numbers grow as well over the last month.

Travel app usage has gone down

As gaming, educational, and business apps are currently rising, travel apps, however, have been contracting, bringing the numbers down to an unusually massive decline of 36%. Although, during the Chinese New Year celebration, travel apps did skyrocket as expected, eventually fell on Jan. 25. Contributing to this is the constant cancellation of flights from different countries to China, and vice versa, as travelers try to avoid the outbreak, making these travel apps much less of use. Another contributing factor is the travel restrictions that have been implemented over the month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC. They have expanded screenings for the said virus to an additional 15 ports of entry, bringing it all up to 20 for the count. These screenings are all happening at five different U.S airports such as JFK in New York City, San Francisco International, Los Angeles International, Hartsfield Jackson International in Atlanta, and O'Hare in Chicago.

Read Also: Coronavirus is Airborne, So What? MWC 2020 Will Go On Despite Various Tech Giants Backing Out

As for passengers and travelers arriving in the United States from China, several of these screenings will involve questionnaires being handed out to everyone, asking about information on their trip, symptoms that they might have or experiencing, and some general contact information. Infrared thermometers are also being used by officials at viral screenings to scan each passenger.

Read Also: U.S Postal Service Confirms 'No Import Ban' on Chinese Products Amid Coronavirus Spread

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.They could practically hear each others dogs barking at night, their farms were that close in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

They had quick, creative and analytical minds, so when the three neighbours visited each others farms, the chess board was soon at play.

They relied on chess and each others friendship to ease their busy minds because the three men were also the third, fourth and fifth presidents of the United States.

Among other things shared by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe: They were slave owners.

For many years, the slave ownership by the three presidents, plus George Washington, was played down in Americas history books. But today on the three plantations, there is extensive and deep research trying to identify the slaves who lived, worked, were born and died on the presidential properties.

And visitors can see the three presidents unique plantation homes for themselves. They travelled along picturesque rural roads that twist and turn under a canopy of large elms to reach their estates in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Jefferson, Madison and Monroe were Founding Fathers of America and best of friends, living within 50 kilometres of each other near Charlottesville, Va.

Much of what you see on their magnificent plantation estates today was built by slave labour. Homes on Madisons eight-square-kilometre estate were built using nails manufactured by slaves on Jeffersons estate, once about 20 square kilometres in size.

And yet Jefferson wrote one of Americas most exhilarating proclamations. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Thats the opening paragraph of Americas Declaration of Independence, written by Jefferson.

He fathered several of the slave children born on his estate, the famous Monticello, which is Italian for small mountain. His unique house sits atop a 260-metre hill just outside Charlottesville.

All three men advocated greater freedom and independence for their own slaves and others, but were reluctant to start and push such a movement, fearing it would trigger a slave revolt.

Archeologists are digging at all three plantations to trace the history of the people who lived there in 1776 and even in modern times.

At Montpelier, the archeologists scouring the Madison estates eight square kilometres operate out of an old cabin, and youre invited to drop in to talk with them about what they found, where they found it, how they found it, plus peruse their precious artifacts.

Madison spoke four languages fluently, introduced Americas Bill of Rights and had one of the brightest minds in the new government  yet he never wrote down the last names of the slaves on his property  even the principal servant in his mansion.

In the basement of that mansion today, a crew of researchers is trying to trace the identify of those unnamed slaves.

Their best source of information is the slaves themselves, who told their children and their grandchildren, even great-grandchildren, about their days at Montpelier working for a president. Those stories got passed down through the generations. Thus, some names and heritages are going up on the walls of the mansion.

Outside in the backyard, researchers are rebuilding the log cabins in which slaves lived, using information their tiny trowels and whisks and small ice-picks have extracted from the grounds, plus a technique called LiDAR. It involves a camera mounted on an airplane that shoots millions of light beams at the ground that can detect changes in soil structure below the current surface.

At six-foot-two, Jefferson was a tall man for his era. You can stand beside a statue of the man to compare heights before boarding a bus to ride up the monticello (small mountain) to his mansion at the peak.

Jefferson designed the house himself, as well as many of the oldest buildings at nearby University of Virginia and the Virginia state capitol in Richmond. He studied and admired the architecture he saw in Europe when posted there by president George Washington as the U.S. ambassador to France. He sure liked Corinthian pillars. Youll see them on most of his designs.

He had a very inquisitive and eclectic mind and collected souvenirs to match his thoughts. Many of those artifacts are on display in his home, such as animal skulls, Indigenous weapons and headgear, scientific instruments, etc. It is the only private home in America to be listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

He was a brilliant politician and natural leader, but a lousy businessman. His large plantation rarely produced a profit and the huge library that Jefferson collected and devoured had to be sold off to cover his expenses after he left the White House.

Friends bought his books, got him to autograph them and then gave them back. Thats why many are on display at Monticello today.

Monroes eight-square-kilometre estate, which he called Highland, was almost adjacent to Jeffersons land. He owned 40 slaves to work the plantation.

The land has changed hands many times since Monroes day, but he kept extensive records on what structures stood on his land and those documents are the basis for most archeological studies and rebuilding projects conducted on the site today, which has dwindled down to about two square kilometres.

The nearby College of William & Mary, where Monroe earned his law degree and which is the second-oldest post-secondary school in America, now owns his estate, where it hosts many weddings, musical concerts and outdoor banquets.

Monroe as president advocated the creation of Liberia in Africa as a new country for freed American slaves and contributed government money to make it happen. Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, is named after him.

The power behind the throne in those early presidential days was wielded by Dolley Madison. Jefferson was a widower when he reached the White House and borrowed Madisons wife, Dolley, to be his official first lady and social convener. She introduced bipartisanship to the White House. She invited Jeffersons political opponents as well as his supporters to White House events and did the same when her husband followed Jefferson into the White House.

And Dolley Madison knew the names of her personal slaves. As torch-carrying British soldiers approached the White House during the War of 1812, she sent her slave Paul Jennings back into the abandoned White House to rescue a large painting of George Washington. The eight-foot-high painting had to be cut from its frame, but it still stands in the White House today.
Seven has appointed Julia Lefort to a newly-created role of Director of Corporate Affairs and Publicity.

She was most recently as Director Communications at the Department of Premier and Cabinet, NSW.

Prior to this, she led corporate affairs at Scentre Group and held senior corporate affairs and public relations roles at Westfield Group, as well as roles at Pacific Magazines and Opera Australia.

Chief Marketing Officer Charlotte Valente said: Im thrilled to welcome Julia to the team. Her experience in shaping and leading communication strategies across both corporate and consumer stakeholders will be key as we continue to transform Seven West Media into an audience-centric business.

Julia is perfectly suited to lead both our corporate affairs and publicity teams, driving strategy and ensuring synergistic messaging across both functions.

Julia Lefort said: Im delighted to be joining Seven West Media at such an exciting moment. The Seven brand is a tremendously powerful one, reaching 18 million Australians each month and I am looking forward to shaping and driving the way with communicate with our audiences into the future.

Im excited to be working as part of the SWM team as we continue to transform the business.

Seven previously had two roles as Director of Corporate Affairs (Simon Francis then Stephen Browning) and Director of Publicity (Susan Wood).

Lefort commences immediately.
A city in Florida closed off part of a park after residents spotted dozens of snakes which had apparently gathered for their annual coupling. "It appears they have congregated for mating," the City of Lakeland Parks and Recreation Department said on Facebook with a photo of one of the serpents seen in the park by Lake Hollingsworth, southwest of Orlando. Officials on Thursday sealed off an area where the amorous reptiles had gathered for their pre-Valentine's Day tryst with caution tape. "This is for the protection of the public and the snakes," the department said. "They are non-venomous and generally not aggressive as long as people do not disturb them. Once the mating is over they should go their separate ways." The slippery customers were identified as harmless native Florida water snakes. "They are generally found resting in tree limbs over water or basking on shorelines. They are an important part of the ecosystem and should not be disturbed," the department said. Resident Tim Newberry, whose Facebook photos of snakes in the park alerted city authorities, told 10News he saw about 25 that day. One resident said he saw around 25 Florida water snakes gather at a park in Lakeland, southwest of Orlando
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has kicked off a four-day visit to Islamabad, praising Pakistan as a reliable and generous partner for hosting millions of Afghan refugees.

Despite its own challenges, Pakistan has sheltered and protected Afghan refugees with limited support from the international community," Guterres said on February 16 in the Pakistani capital, where he was set to address an international conference on refugees fleeing conflict in neighboring Afghanistan.

He called on other countries to support Pakistan and show similar leadership in handling refugee flows across the world.

Pakistan is home to an estimated 2.4 million registered and undocumented people who have fled neighboring Afghanistan after their country was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1979 or during later conflicts.

Many live in camps, while others have built lives for themselves in Pakistan's cities.

Islamabad will host a two-day international conference, starting from February 17, to mark 40 years since hundreds of thousands of Afghans found refuge in the country.

The event, co-organized by Pakistan and the UN refugee agency UNHCR, will be inaugurated by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Ahead of his visit, Guterres tweeted that Pakistan was one of the most consistent and reliable contributors to peacekeeping efforts around the world.

I am travelling to Pakistan, where I plan to express my gratitude to the people #ServingForPeace, he wrote.

Based on reporting by dpa, AFP, and AP
Cali Cali, a health food brand launched by Tom Gannon and Niall McGrath, co-founders of Fulfil protein bars, has started exporting its products to Iceland.

The brand started selling there following an agreement with Netto, a Danish retail group, and Icelandic chain Hagkaup.

It started shipping its sauces, including Tijuana Hot Sauce, to Iceland in early January. The buyers are looking to test its range of crisps in the market further down the line.

McGrath, a co-founder of Cali Cali, said the deal came about through a distributor contact from his time with Fulfil. "It's been exciting because this move was totally organic," he said.

In addition, McGrath confirmed Cali Cali would be targeting further international growth. It is planning a phased entry into the UK market for the second half of this year.

McGrath said Cali Cali would soon be launching share bags of its Cali Cali crisps, which it hopes will boost export sales.

It hopes to start in health stores and progress to British supermarkets.
A Louisiana woman is facing a slew of felony charges after she abducted her 12-year-old daughter at gunpoint from a hospital.

Evelyn Miller, 66, was arrested at a hotel in Bogalusa on Saturday evening, roughly 24 hours after she kidnapped her granddaughter Adreana from Ochsner Hospital in New Orleans.

Adreana was found unharmed with her grandmother.

Evelyn Miller, 66, (left) was arrested after she kidnapped her 12-year-old granddaughter Adreana (right) at gunpoint from a New Orleans hospital on Friday evening. Adreana was found unharmed with her grandmother at a hotel in Bogalusa 24 hours later

Authorities say Miller had entered Adreana's hospital room at about 5pm Friday and attempted to remove the girl, at which point staff intervened to stop her.

Miller then allegedly brandished a firearm and pointed it at the staff.

'In making her escape from the location, she pushed one nurse to the ground and struck a security guard with her vehicle,' the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said in a press release. 'No one was physically injured.'

Authorities put out a statewide 'child endangerment alert' for Adreana, who was described as approximately 4'7" and 135lbs and was wearing a hospital gown at the time of the abduction.

The pair were discovered about 70 miles away at the hotel in Bogalusa.

Authorities say Miller entered Adreana's room at Ochsner Hospital (pictured) at about 5pm Friday and attempted to remove the girl. She allegedly pulled out a gun and pointed it at hospital staff when they tried to stop her

Miller was booked on charges of simple kidnapping, five counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, two counts of simple battery and violation of a firearm-free zone.

It is unclear what her motivations were in taking the child.

'We extend our appreciation to our partners in law enforcement who assisted with this investigation, including the Louisiana State Police and the Washington Parish Sheriff's Office, and to our local media and members of the public who shared the information about the incident and helped us bring it to a swift closure,' the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's office said.
Photo: The Canadian Press A bus leaves a port where the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship is docked Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020, in Yokohama, near Tokyo. A viral outbreak that began in China has infected more than 67,000 people globally. The World Health Organization has named the illness COVID-19, referring to its origin late last year and the coronavirus that causes it. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

An elderly Quebecois couple from Gatineau, Que., aboard the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, their daughter said on Saturday.

Diane, 73, and Bernard Menard, 75, are confined to their cabin and awaiting transportation by ambulance to a military hospital where they will be kept in isolation until they no longer test positive for the virus, Chantal Menard says in an interview.

"They are very fragile and weak," Menard said. "It's been two days, they are resting ... they have fever. My mother is coughing a bit."

She said her parents' symptoms are similar to those of the common cold.

The couple are among the 67 new positive cases of COVID-19 virus detected aboard the ship, which has been under quarantine at a port city southwest of Tokyo since Feb. 5, according to a statement issued Saturday from Jan Swartz, president of the cruise line.

Swartz said a total of three Canadians were part of the 67 new cases discovered on the Diamond Princess. In total, 285 people have tested positive on the ship, following the new cases discovered Saturday.

Theresa Tam, chief public health officer at the Public Health Agency of Canada, said on Saturday that 15 Canadians on the Diamond Princess have tested positive for the virus.

Tam told reporters during a media conference call the Canadian government has deployed three officials from the country's public health agency to help the Canadians who are under quarantine on the boat and in Japanese health facilities.

Menard said her parents were on the last day of their month-long tour of Asia when they learned the boat was under quarantine. "They had packed their suitcases, went for dinner, and when they got back the ship's authorities had put their suitcases back in their rooms," she said.

"It's very difficult for us, very difficult," Menard said of the toll the news of her parents' health has taken on the family. "They are elderly. We are very worried. They are on the other side of the world and we feel helpless."

Meanwhile, there are about 400 Canadians under quarantine at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in southern Ontario. They were repatriated by Canada from the Chinese province of Hubei, which includes the city of Wuhan, considered as the epicentre of the outbreak.

"I am pleased to report that everyone quarantined at CFB Trenton is healthy with no symptoms of novel coronavirus infections," Tam said. Should that continue, she said, those who arrived at the base on Feb. 7 will be able to leave on Feb. 21, while those who arrived on Feb. 11 can leave Feb. 25.

Tam said there are eight people in Canada who have tested positive for the virus, following news on Friday that a new case was discovered in British Columbia. There have been three cases in Ontario and five in B.C., pending confirmation of the latest case by a laboratory.

Tam said the risk to people in Canada remains low: "The fact we've been able to quickly detect these cases and prevent the spread of the virus in our community shows that our health system is working as it should."

The viral outbreak that began in China has infected more than 67,000 people globally, mostly in the central Chinese province of Hubei.
Munich, Feb 16 : Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi has met the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus here in Germany on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

Yi said on Saturday whenever an epidemic occurs, rumours spread and cause panic, and there should be someone to be impartial and tell the truth.

As head of WHO, the Director-General has treated the novel coronavirus epidemic with professionalism and scientific attitude, affirmed the effective measures which China has taken, and called for all parties to maintain confidence, resist rumours and strengthen cooperation. "We appreciate it," Yi said on Saturday, Xinhua reported.

No epidemic is invincible, and this one is no exception. With the great efforts of the Chinese people, the prevention and control of epidemic is heading in a positive direction, Yi said.

China welcomes the visit of WHO expert team and is willing to work closely with the WHO to defeat the epidemic as soon as possible, not only safeguarding the lives and health of Chinese people, but also contributing to international public health cause, he noted.

Wang said he believed that the mutual trust and cooperation between China and the WHO will be further consolidated through the fight against this epidemic.

For his part, the WHO chief said epidemic knows no borders, and the international community must unite against this common enemy of mankind.

Ghebreyesus said he has called for all countries to unite and cooperate in the scientific approach and on the basis of factual evidence, instead of spreading fake news and stigma.

Given the misinformation about the novel coronavirus epidemic, WHO has communicated with some companies including Google to ensure that the public will get the authoritative information from the WHO, Ghebreyesus noted.

The WHO highly appreciates the tremendous efforts China has made to contain the epidemic, Ghebreyesus said.

He said China protects not only its own people but also people from other countries in the world. The WHO sent experts to China not because China lacks capacity but to show the solidarity and cooperation.

These important facts need to be understood by the world, and China's efforts and sacrifices deserve appreciation and gratitude from all countries, Ghebreyesus said.

The WHO will continue to uphold the truth, adhere to the principles, stand firmly with China and provide all possible help. WHO is confident that the epidemic will be overcome at an early date, he said.
Security forces detained opposition supporters as they were gathering to protest outside Azerbaijan's election commission building in the capital, Baku, on February 16. A candidate for the opposition Musavat Party, Faraj Karimli, was detained while speaking to journalists. The demonstrators decried reported violations in the February 9 parliamentary elections. According to police, the protest was not officially sanctioned, but the opposition says the constitution does not require any official permission to demonstrate.
Sen. Ron Wyden and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown pledged to support the ongoing recovery from widespread flooding in Eastern Oregon during separate visits by the two Democrats to the area Friday and Saturday.

The historic flooding earlier this month killed one woman, destroyed dozens of homes and temporarily inundated Interstate 84. The total price tag from the damage is not clear.

In Pendleton, where heavy rain and snowmelt pushed the Umatilla River over its banks, city officials have estimated nearly $2 million in costs to repair a levee in time for typical spring snowmelt starting in April.

Its really stunning whats happened here and how resilient this community is, Wyden told The Oregonian/OregonLive after a Saturday afternoon meeting with local officials and emergency responders in Pendleton. Its going to be a tough few weeks. They have so many people whose lives have been upended.

Sen. Ron Wyden visits with American Red Cross volunteers at a shelter for flood victims in Pendleton. (Courtesy photo)Courtesy photo

The Umatilla, Grande Ronde and Walla Walla rivers all flooded before the typical spring runoff season. Pendleton, Hermiston, Walla Walla and Milton-Freewater were hit with flood waters, prompting a major search-and-rescue effort with dozens of National Guard rescues across the region. If Milton-Freewater hadnt shored up its levees with rocks, they couldve lost the whole town, Wyden said.

Wyden, who met later Saturday with Red Cross volunteers in Pendleton, said he would make it clear how urgent this is to the higher-ups in Washington, D.C., with an array of federal agencies that play a role in recovery.

Its flood season, Wyden said, theyll have a lot of things coming at them.

Brown, who declared a state of emergency in Umatilla, Union and Wallowa counties on Feb. 7, called the flood damage extensive during a Friday visit. Brown toured the area in a National Guard helicopter and pledged the states continued help with the recovery after meeting with flood victims and business owners.

A spokeswoman for Brown said assessments are now beginning to identify specific recovery needs.

Given the scope, scale, and nature of damages, we expect the federal government to provide significant funding via federal disaster relief programs, Browns spokeswoman, Kate Kondayen, said Saturday. However, Governor Brown is committed to ensuring all possible complementary aid from a state level.

Browns spokeswoman said the state would ensure aid moves to Eastern Oregon as quickly as possible.

Today I surveyed the devastating flood damage in Pendleton. I'm proud of how Oregonians are coming together to help: @TeamRubicon doing veteran-led disaster response, Tracy Curtis of @WellsFargo donating $100k in aid, and the heroic @OregonGuard for rescuing 54 people. pic.twitter.com/q4iddrcO4q  Governor Kate Brown (@OregonGovBrown) February 14, 2020

 Rob Davis

rdavis@oregonian.com

503.294.7657; @robwdavis

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Photo: Michael Putland/Getty Images

Huge win for the prog rock community. Emerson, Lake & Palmers half-hour epic Karn Evil 9 is being turned into a sci-fi film, with the lyrics serving as the narratives overarching inspiration. Per Deadline, the movie will revolve around how the annual Karn Evil  a macabre rite of passage  is a young persons once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience unbridled freedom, before subjugating themselves to the ruling class. However, when these youngsters mysteriously stop returning from their Karn Evil experience, fear drives a revolution to topple the status quo and the artificial intelligence discovered at its heart. Carl Palmer, whos the only surviving member of the band, hyped up the news on social media, also teasing that it may even set up a film franchise. And yet, Hollywood continues to remain silent about the power of Rushs 2112, where the Temples of Syrinx remains ripe for adaptation.
SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (AP)  The cruise ship that was allowed to dock in Cambodia after being turned away at five other ports by authorities fearful of the spread of the deadly new virus from China disembarked passengers for a second day on Saturday so they can fly home.

After being stranded at sea for two weeks, the MS Westerdam was allowed by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to dock for what he said were humanitarian reasons.

Malaysia said an 83-year-old American woman who was a passenger on the ship has tested positive for the virus. The health ministry said 145 passengers from the ship flew to Malaysia on Friday.

The woman and her 85-year-old husband were found to have symptoms upon arrival at the Kuala Lumpur airport and were taken to a hospital for further tests. The woman was diagnosed with the virus Saturday. Her husband tested negative but was still under observation. The woman's case raised Malaysias total number of cases to 22.

According to Holland America, all crew and passengers were individually screened for elevated temperatures on Feb. 10; no one at the time had a fever.

"We are in close coordination with some of the leading health experts from around the world," said Dr. Grant Tarling, Chief Medical Officer for Holland America Line, in a statement. "These experts are working with the appropriate national health authorities to investigate and follow-up with individuals who may have come in contact with the guest."

Cruise passengers who have already returned home will be contacted by their respective local health departments for next steps, the Holland America statement says.

The first batch of hundreds of passengers from the ship who disembarked Friday saw Hun Sen arrive by helicopter and then personally hand them flowers as they made their way to land.

Many were taken to the airport in the port of Sihanoukville from which they were flown to the capital, Phnom Penh, to make onward connections to home.

The ship's earlier appeals to land in Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and Guam had been rejected.

"The one thing I can say is we're very, very grateful that Cambodia has opened literally its ports and its doors to people in need," U.S. Ambassador W. Patrick Murphy said Saturday at a dockside news conference.

We think this sends a strong message, said the envoy. We all have to help each other. And the passengers here are just average citizens from many different countries trying to make their way home. And this model is good and we hope that other countries can be equally as helpful to people in need.

According to Murphy, of the 1,455 passengers, more than 600 are American citizens.

British passenger John Stanley said that in addition to the Americans, there had been about 150 people aboard from the U.K., along with other travelers from Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands and Germany. The European Union Delegation to Cambodia said there were 260 EU citizens from 20 different EU members states aboard.

They're from all over the world. It's a logistical nightmare to get us out of out of your country, Stanley told said, referring to arrangements to get all of them home.

All the passengers were expected to have been sent on their way by Sunday.

Those passengers who had not already left Sihanoukville were looking for ways to occupy themselves. Hun Sen had said the passengers were free to go to the beach, go sightseeing in the coastal city, or even visit the famous centuries-old Angkor Wat temple complex in the country's northwest.

"We're stuck on this ship for now," Lydia Miller from Washington State said in a text message. Hoping to go to town for coconut water and a massage before we leave.

Some other cruise ships in the Asia Pacific region remain in limbo, barred from some ports and allowed into others. Two cruise ships that were set to disembark passengers in Vietnam on Friday were not allowed to do so.

The Cambodian leader's decision regarding the Westerdam won praise from President Donald Trump, who tweeted: Thank you to the beautiful country of Cambodia for accepting the @CarnivalCruise ship Westerdam into your port. The United States will remember your courtesy!

___

Peck reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writer Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.
A Nebraska woman says her sister legally kidnapped their mother.

Colleen Eames said it ended her once-happy family and started an ongoing legal battle she never saw coming.

"As a family we really did get along. We have lots of great memories," she said.

Eames said a doctor diagnosed her mom, Patricia, with early dementia in 2011. She said her mom's condition got worse over the next two years.

"We noticed she was just starting to fail a bit on some things," she said.

At the time, Eames' mom and disabled brother Rick lived in Beatrice, Nebraska. Eames said she planned to move them to her sister's home near Chicago. But she said her sister came in February 2013, months before the scheduled move.

"They told them they'd take them out for their birthday to Lincoln," she said.

Eames said she got a call hours later and learned they were not coming back.

"I remember that day, because they never got to say goodbye to me and I never got to say goodbye to them and they literally were kidnapped," she said.

Eames said the family dynamic was strained after that. She said her mom and brother shared concerns about their life in Illinois.

"Paying rent, they never got a key to the house, they were never able to get a cellphone to talk to people separate from being monitored," she said.

Eames said the last time she saw her mother was on the Fourth of July in 2015. During the visit, Eames asked her mom and brother if they were okay living in Illinois.

"They said they're fine, and I think they were scared to say too much more," Eames said.

She said her sister sent her an email at the end of the month, saying Patricia and Rick no longer wanted to see her.

Then she got letters from her sister's lawyer, threatening to arrest her if she or other members of her family stepped foot on their property. So Eames stepped into court instead, and tried to gain guardianship.

"If my sister had my mom's best interest in mind, she never would have isolated her from myself," she said.

In 2018, with the legal battle still ongoing, Eames said that the court's guardian ad litem told her that Patricia had been moved again, this time to Las Vegas.

"There's been wellness checks at this place and no one comes to the door," she said. "It's disturbing, it's concerning because I don't know where my mom is."

Eames began to wonder if her mother was even still alive. So she went to Las Vegas herself.

"The missing persons detective told me there had been contact made with my mom, but he's not able to share with me where my mom is or who found her," she said.

Unsure of what her next steps might be, Eames reached out to the Kasem Cares Foundation in Orange County, California.

Kasem Cares was founded by Kerri Kasem, daughter of radio personality Casey Kasem. When his health started to fail, his then-wife created legal roadblocks that prevented his children from visiting him.

Now, the foundation focuses on raising awareness for elder abuse and helping people like Eames navigate the court system.

Guardianship reform advocate Julie Belshe served as a support system for Eames. Belshe said that unfortunately, many people are confronting a similar battle all across the country.

"You have to move forward and be productive and put the emotions aside," she said. "Do whatever you can in your power to see your grandmother, grandfather, your aunt or whoever it is."

After five years of shuffling motions, filings and briefs back and forth, Eames said her fight is far from over. Unless her mom goes to court in person, Eames knows she can't win guardianship. And she knows her daughters are losing time with their grandmother.

"Even the other night they made some pretty little pictures and said we'd really like to send this to Grandma Pat," she said. "They just don't understand what's happened or what's going on."

But she still has hope they'll be together again someday.

"She's always with me, every day."
I went to Scoil Oilibheir in Ballyvolane, Cork, for primary school. My dad was in fact the vice principal there, so any time I ever got remotely close to doing something that would get me in trouble, he would miraculously appear. It was a huge school. In Junior Infants there were 44 children in my class and I remember the teacher looking around and saying Jesus, youre everywhere.

I was outgoing as a child but I was quite suspicious. I was both outgoing and shy at the same time, so Id suss somebody out and take a while to decide whether I liked them or not. If I liked them then I was all over them like a rash.

I was a very good little girl and not in any way rebellious. Any time I did get into trouble it was usually for something craic-related. So Id get into awful trouble for chatting too much a lot.

My mam and dad were both teachers. The had this ethos, which I think is great, that they never helped us with homework; they were just our parents. Anything that happened in school, stayed in school. So if I got into trouble, then dad wouldnt talk about it again when we got home.

I loved school. Primary school in particular didnt knock a feather out of me and I enjoyed it. I am the youngest of three so I definitely had a slight emphasis on having the craic, but I just happened to be quite academic too.

I went through every kind of friend. By the end of school I think I had been friends with every group and person at some stage. I think primary school is funny in the sense that it would want to be a very solid friendship to last the distance, but its rare enough.

I think in primary school you kind of experiment with emotionally dealing with groups. I remember there being a group of three of us and there would nearly always be one day where you would be odd with one of them.

Growing up in a trio, I guess that gave me extra skills to deal with this kind of thing  my brother and sister used to speak Irish to each other when they didnt want to speak to me.

I fancied every single boy in primary school, towards the end. I loved them. There was one boy who I had fancied through fifth and sixth class.

We were good old buddies but I dont think that there were reciprocal feelings on his end. I remember on the last day trying to build up the courage to give him a hug. And I didnt do it! Now he wasnt my first love. When I turned seven, on my birthday I got married to one of the lads in the class. My sister was the priest. It wasnt a long marriage  he left the school two weeks later.

I knew that I wanted to go into the creative arts from second class and thats down to my teacher Mrs Ann Horgan. She did everything through drama. So when she was teaching us long multiplication she would make us stand up and physically carry the one. She was an amazing teacher  I remember she did Cinderella through Irish with us and it was the first time that I realised that acting was a thing that you could do for a job.

I said to my mam and dad then that I wanted to do acting. I think they thought that it might go away after a while but it never, ever left me. I always pinpoint it to Mrs Horgan. She opened up this world to me that changed my life. I still have contact with her, and she is a great support to me still.

I went to Colaiste an Phiarsaigh in Glanmire then for secondary school. I loved learning and despite the fact that I wanted to pursue acting, I wanted to be clever. I didnt want anyone to think that I was just coasting. The great thing about Colaiste an Phiarsaigh is that if you are a good student or if you are willing to represent the school in something, they just let you off  there is no limit on you.

In secondary school the biggest complaint was that I talked too much  that would come up in every parent teacher meeting. I can envisage this happening with my little girl and I will be dug out of anyone who says she talks too much.

I think its great for children to talk and I will stand up for her to the bitter end. I think that school-age Laura would be quite happy with the way things have turned out. I think I would like to tell her that life will be grand, not to worry too much and that somebody will love her and she will have a lovely time altogether.

Laura OMahony brings her hilarious show, The Peoples Princess to The Everyman Theatre on Saturday March 14. Tickets cost 18 and can be purchased at everymancork.com
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is expecting around one lakh people at Arvind Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony at the Ramlila Maidan, here on Sunday, as the Delhi Chief Minister for third time.

Speaking to IANS, Gopal Rai said around one lakh people were expected at the ceremony. They would be allowed in from six gates -- 4,5,6,7,8 and 9, he added.



According to senior officials, around 5,000 police personnel, 125 CCTV cameras, 12 LED screens and 45,000 chairs will be there. There would be enough space for people to stand and watch the event, the official said.



"Kejriwal is loved by all the people in the city. The mandate proves that. We have invited the entire city for the event," Rai said. Kejriwal will be taking oath at the Ramlila Maidan for the third time.





Kejriwal has also invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seven Lok Sabha MPs from Delhi and all eight newly elected BJP legislators. The AAP has also invited all the municipal councillors of Delhi. The new cabinet is also expected to be sworn in at 10 a.m.



However, Modi is unlikely to attend as he will be visiting Varanasi, his Lok Sabha constituency, to inaugurate several projects.



No political leaders from outside Delhi has been invited for the ceremony. "The people of Delhi gave us this mandate and they are our priority," Rai said.



"We have also invited the state party chiefs of the main political parties," AAP leader Jasmine Shah told IANS.



Avyaan Tomar, known as 'Mini Mufflerman' and 'Baby Kejriwal', will also be there at the oath ceremony. The one-year-old, dressed up like Kejriwal, was spotted at the AAP office on the results day. But he could not meet Kejriwal.



The Directorate of Education has also invited teachers to the ceremony. The AAP has also invited 50 representatives, from different sectors contributing to the governance.



They included angandwadi and doorstep delivery workers, representatives of education, healthcare and infrastructure sectors, safai karamchari, public transport staff, bus marshals and farmers.



The AAP begged 62 of the 70 Assembly seats in the February 8 elections. The results were declared on February 11.
The European Union and Morocco share the same determination to further develop their economic and trade partnership, notably through a deep and comprehensive free trade agreement.

This shared determination was expressed by European Commissioner for Trade, Phil Hogan, and Moroccan Minister of Industry & Trade Moulay Hafid Elalamy, at a meeting held Friday in Brussels.

The two officials, who were meeting for the first time since Phil Hogan took over the position of Commissioner for Trade, discussed means to resume negotiations between the European Union and Morocco in trade and other areas and agreed to move forward in this process.

Phil Hogan said following the talks he expects progress in negotiations with a view to deepening EU-Morocco relations.

Hogan, while expressing satisfaction at the level and quality of cooperation between the two parties, underlined the need to further strengthen bilateral cooperation, notably through a deep and comprehensive free trade agreement.

The European Commissioner is planning to visit Morocco shortly.

Echoing his European interlocutor, Elalamy said the two sides are optimistic as to the future of their partnership.

We have exchanged several ideas with the aim of strengthening our partnership in the next few years and we are very optimistic, Elalamy pointed out.
Romania's objective to finalize the process of joining the Schengen Area was highlighted by Prime Minister Ludovic Orban at a meeting held on Saturday with the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, informs a press release of the Government sent to AGERPRES.

"The dialogue between the two high dignitaries highlighted the promising prospects of cooperation between Romania and the Netherlands, in the anniversary context of the bilateral relationship - the 140-year anniversary, this year, since the establishment of diplomatic ties - with an emphasis on the dynamic of economic relations, of bilateral trade and Dutch investments in Romania, included. Prime Minister Orban argued for the increase of Dutch investments in Romania, broadly presenting the opportunities offered by the Romanian economy," reads the release.As regards cooperation at European level, the quoted source mentions that the Romanian prime minister highlighted the opportunity to intensify the dialogue between the two states on different European files of common interest, an approach agreed by the Dutch counterpart."At the same time, Prime Minister Orban highlighted Romania's legitimate objective to finalize the process of joining the Schengen Area, for which Romania is fully prepared," the Government release shows.The Romanian prime minister also expressed support for the EU enlargement policy, including the opening of the accession negotiations with Albania and the Republic of North Macedonia.
Detectives are investigating the fatal shooting of a man in Mattapan Saturday night.

Officers were called to the area of 12 Colorado St. in Mattapan around 9:40 p.m. Saturday for a report of a shooting.

When police arrived on scene, they located an adult male who had been shot. The victim was taken to an area hospital where he died, according to police.

Investigators and a police dog were canvassing the street while searching for evidence Saturday night after the shooting, according to the Boston Globe.

The victims name was not publicly released Sunday morning.

Authorities ask anyone with information to contact Boston Police Homicide Detectives at 617-343-4470.
A group of protesters at Shaheen Bagh are planning to march to Union home minister Amit Shahs residence on Sunday to hold talks with him over the recently amended citizenship law. This comes after Shah reportedly said he would give time to those willing to discuss the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, including Shaheen Bagh protesters.

Officials at the home ministry, however, said no appointment had been sought so far.

Instead of a delegation, a large group protesters at Shaheen Bagh will go to meet the home minister on Sunday afternoon. We will march from the protest site at 2pm, said Sajid Mojib, a protester. He added that discussions on the meeting took place on Saturday night. The announcement was made from the stage at the protest site on Saturday morning, as another faction said it would not march pending a consultation with anti-CAA protesters across the country.

We are going as the home minister himself invited us, and that we could speak to him within three days, said Sarvari, an elderly woman protester, more commonly known as one of the Dadis of Shaheen Bagh. She was also a part of the delegation that went to meet Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on January 21.

Mehrunnisa, a protester at the site who has been on a hunger strike for over a month, said, We will march to meet our home minister and ask him to repeal the CAA.

Residents of Shaheen Bagh have been on a sit-on for over two months now, demanding a repeal of the CAA, which they claim is unconstitutional. The ongoing protests, which are largely leaderless, have led to the closure of the arterial Road 13A, which connects Delhi with Noida and Faridabad.

However, not all protesters are on board with the idea of meeting Shah. Another group has raised objections to the rally, saying there will be no dialogue behind closed doors.

All our protesters want to meet the home minister and have an open dialogue with him instead of having discussions with a delegation behind closed doors, said Abid Sheikh, another protester.

Several protesters at the site also said they wanted the government representatives to come and speak to them.

There is not just one Shaheen Bagh which has issues with the CAA. There are several other protests like this across the country. We need to get everyone on board and hold consultations before meeting the home minister, said Hena Ahmed, another protester.

The protests were raked up several times during the recently concluded Delhi assembly elections, with several Bharatiya Janata Party leaders bringing up the anti-CAA agitation during public meetings and campaigns.

Shah had also said voters should press the button on the voting machines so hard that its current is felt in Shaheen Bagh.

On counting day, February 11, protesters abstained from making any comments owing to a silent protest over the clashes that had taken place in Jamia the day before, leaving several students injured. We do not support any political party, read a protest sign at the spot.

RP Meena, deputy commissioner of police (south-east), said there was no intimation from the Shaheen Bagh protesters about their plan. We havent received any message from them yet, but we are trying to communicate with them to identify if there is any identified delegation that will meet the home minister, Meena said.

He said that once a delegation is identified, which wont be allowed to have more than seven or eight members, the plan will be discussed with them. He also confirmed that a larger number would not be allowed to be a part of the delegation.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 22:25:46|Editor: xuxin

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TEHRAN, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- A 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit Laft region in Iran's southern province of Hormozgan on Sunday, according to Iran's Seismological Center.

The earthquake took place at 4 p.m. local time (1230 GMT), with the focus at the depth of 13 km, 26.925 degrees north latitude and 55.875 degrees east longitude.

No immediate reports are available about the casualties, Abdolhamid Sadini, director general of Crisis management of Hormozgan, told official IRNA news agency.

According to Sadini, teams have been dispatched to the quake-hit region to assess the possible damage.
Dozens of protesters clashed with security forces in al Khlani Square in central Baghdad on Sunday.

Gunshots were heard during clashes, and anti-riot police used teargas and smoke bombs to disperse the protesters.

A number of those demonstrating were injured during the clashes, and were treated by volunteer medics on the street, while others were taken to hospitals.

Tents belonging to those occupying the square were set on fire on Saturday night by security forces, according to claims by protesters.

Mass anti-government protests erupted late last year, when thousands of Iraqis took to the streets in Baghdad and the predominately Shiite provinces in southern Iraq to decry what they call rampant government corruption, poor services and lack of employment.

At least 500 people have died under fire from security forces who have used live rounds and tear gas to disperse crowds.
It's an area global fashion brands from Tommy Hilfiger to Target have been dabbling in and closer to home, the world of inclusive and adaptive fashion is just getting started.

"There was just this forgotten group of people...and the space has changed dramatically, in that when I started, the internet wasn't available," the founder of Petal Back clothing, Linda Dugan, says.

Petal Back clothing founder Linda Dugan. Credit:Simon Schluter

Dugan, a former fashion buyer for Myer Grace Brothers, started Petal Back more than two decades ago after designing sleepwear for her grandmother who required daily care and needed assistance to dress.

Nursing staff asked Dugan to help by cutting her grandmother's nighties up the back to help the dressing process. She went one better by designing a wrap around structure that crossed over at the back like petals.
Maharashtra minister and senior



Congress leader Ashok Chavan on Sunday said Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has the right to overrule the state Home Minister over the transfer of Elgar Parishad case to the National Investigating Agency (NIA).

He, however, said that the Centre must talk to the state government before taking decisions like the transfer of case to the NIA.

Chavan's remarks come days after the Maharashtra government changed its stand and said that it had no objection to the NIA taking over the probe into the Elgar Parishad case, in which human rights activists have been arrested for their alleged Maoist links.

The Centre had last month transferred the probe in the case from the Pune Police to the NIA, a move then criticised by the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in the state.

Talking to reporters here, Chavan said, "Although law says that the Union government can transfer such a case to NIA, it (Centre) must talk to the state government before taking such decisions."



When asked whether the chief minister had consulted the cabinet over the issue, he replied in the negative.

"It is not a policy decision and the CM has the right to overrule the home minister," the PWD Minister added.

After the Maharashtra government's change of stand, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had said that the Centre should have taken the state government into confidence before transferring the Elgar Parishad case probe to the central agency, but added that the CM had the right to overrule him.

"The state agencies were investigating the Koregaon Bhima (Elgar Parishad) case. But, the Centre handed over the investigation to the NIA. As Home Minister, my stand was that the Centre should have taken the state government into confidence before taking the decision. We were putting up our stand in the court in this direction. The Chief Minister has the right to overrule my stand," Deshmukh had said.

The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave, held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed, triggered violence near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in the district the next day.

The Pune police have claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists.

During the probe, the police arrested Left-leaning activists Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Varavara Rao for alleged Maoist links.

These nine activists, currently in jail, are among 11 people booked by the NIA in the Elgar Parishad case.

A court in Pune on Friday allowed the NIA's plea for transfer of case papers, court records and proceedings to a special NIA court in Mumbai.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  For I.S. Leevy Johnson, the Democrats search for a challenger to take on President Donald Trump is personal.

"There is what I call an 'ABT mood' in the black community: Anybody but Trump," said the 77-year-old who was the first black graduate of the University of South Carolina's law school. "It has people of color very motivated and excited about voting this time because they know how his administration has adversely affected them."

Now, as the election calendar turns to Nevada and South Carolina, states with substantial minority populations, that "anybody" moves closer to being identified. But the next stage in the nominating fight will test candidates such as Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Their success thus far has come in front of overwhelmingly white electorates in Iowa and New Hampshire.

It's also a potential last comeback opportunity for former Vice President Joe Biden. He finished poorly in those first two contests but argues he has durable support among the minority voters who will soon make their choices.

Nevada's caucuses are this coming Saturday and will feature a growing population of Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Yet no single place in the early going is as important as South Carolina. Up to two-thirds of voters in the Feb. 29 primary could be African American. Biden, more than any other candidate, must show he can win their allegiance.

One candidate who will not be tested in Nevada or South Carolina is Mike Bloomberg, the former New York mayor and billionaire owner of a financial services and media empire. Bloomberg has spent heavily from his personal fortune in states with sizable minority populations that will vote in the March 3 primaries. The Super Tuesday contests are the first where his name will appear on the ballot.

It adds up to a muddled field that lacks clarity even after Iowa and New Hampshire had their turns., Moderates have splintered their votes and created space for Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, to take on the mantle of a front-runner without having reached 30% in either of the first two voting states.

That intensifies the spotlight as minority voters in Nevada and South Carolina in trying to clarify the party's search for "anybody" to match against Trump.

"The system is garbage," said Jason Johnson, a professor at Morgan State University and a high-profile African American political commentator. He argued that the primary calendar should immediately subject candidates not just to racial and ethnic diversity but also regional and ideological differences, and the full city-to-farm spectrum. "I'm not sure this process actually can identify the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump," he said.

Jason Johnson said he doesn't blame the candidates because they are merely reacting to a process "that harms everybody." But I.S. Leevy Johnson, the South Carolina businessman and lawyer, said it too easily makes key constituencies in the party an afterthought. "People of color are tired of these promises that candidates are going to do things, and when they make those promises, when they get elected, they don't perform," he said.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., stands at the South Carolina Statehouse before a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day rally Monday, Jan. 20, 2020, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)AP

Even belatedly, the remaining candidates certainly are trying.

Sanders fell short in 2016 to Hillary Clinton for the nomination in no small part because of his struggles to attract older nonwhite voters. For 2020, he has hired as a senior adviser one of the top Latino strategists in the party, Chuck Rocha.

Sanders lead surrogates include Nina Turner, a former Virginia state lawmaker and leading black progressive, and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the young progressive icon. Sanders campaign, buoyed by strong grassroots fundraising, has invested heavily in social media and radio advertising targeting black and Latino audiences, including stations on Spotify and Pandora.

"I think we're going to do very well in the African American community," Sanders said in a brief interview. "I think we're going to do well among working people of all races."

In Nevada, Biden campaigned on Saturday in a high school gymnasium covered in signs that read: "Biden Trabajando por Nevada" (Biden Works for Nevada). "The reason why we are here: 99% of the African American vote hasn't spoken yet and 99% of the Latino vote hasn't spoken yet." He hammered away at Trump's immigration policies and rhetoric.

But Biden has embraced South Carolina especially, even skipping out on his New Hampshire primary night party last Tuesday for a hastily arranged event in Columbia, the South Carolina capital.

Biden is banking on voters such as Jean Hopkins, an 88-year-old retired nurse, who came to hear him. "You'll lose some but you may gain more," she said of his losses in Iowa and New Hampshire. "And he's not going to stop. ... He needs our help."

Democratic presidential hopeful Tom Steyer speaks at a campaign town hall event, Monday, Feb. 10, 2020, in Rock Hill, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)AP

Biden and Sanders lead in endorsements from members of South Carolinas Legislative Black Caucus. Biden also promotes a network of black religious leaders who back his candidacy. But hes facing a push from California billionaire Tom Steyer, who has spent considerable sums on advertising in South Carolina.

"We are really serious about South Carolina. We are really serious about Nevada," Steyer said on CBS' ``Face the Nation" on Sunday. He said those states "reflect the kind of diversity that is America and that is the Democratic Party. And I think whoever is going to be the candidate has got to be able to show that he or she can pull together that diverse big tent that is the Democratic Party."

In Nevada, Biden has the backing of the state's lone black congressman, Steven Horsford, and Dina Titus, who represents the diverse Las Vegas-based district.

But there's a wild card in South Carolina.

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the highest-ranking black member of Congress, is close to Biden but hasn't said whether he will endorse at all. Clyburn is the rare political figure whose public blessing could matter to voters.

"I think that we're going to have a real spirited contest," Clyburn told CBS' "Face the Nation'' on Sunday. He said Steyer was "doing an incredible job. ... Money makes a difference. Steyer has it. He's been spending it. And he's reaping the rewards.'' Clyburn added that Buttigieg is doing "very good" and Biden "is leading among African-American voters in South Carolina by a wide margin."

Buttigieg is dispatching minority surrogates such as Mayor Quentin Hart of Waterloo, Iowa, and former Iowa state Rep. Deborah Berry. Bloomberg, in the same week he spent confronting criticism of his record on race, launched a "Mike for Black America" effort alongside black endorsers including Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C.

The chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, Gilberto Hinojosa, whose state is among the biggest delegate prizes on Super Tuesday, praised all the remaining candidates. But he lamented that several minority candidates, including some political heavyweights, were forced from the field either before voting began or after the first two contests. Among them: Julian Castro, a former Obama Cabinet secretary; Kamala Harris, a California senator; Cory Booker, a New Jersey senator; and Deval Patrick, a former Massachusetts governor.

In South Carolina, I.S. Leevy Johnson offered similar laments, noting that he had supported Harris and now must hope a white nominee selects her or another person of color as the vice presidential nominee. Regardless, Johnson projected optimism.

"I just don't think people should misinterpret the impact of those two outcomes" in Iowa and New Hampshire, he said. Now, he said, the "sleeping giant" of nonwhite voters can emerge. "If the giant rises up and goes to battle in November, someone opposing Trump will be victorious."

-

By BILL BARROW and TOM FOREMAN Jr., Associated Press

Barrow reported from Las Vegas and Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press reporters Alan Fram in Washington and Meg Kinnard in Columbia contributed to this report.

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A mother who rorted more than $26,000 from Centrelink broke down in tears while being jailed for nine months.

Melka Jane Krunes, 35, from Mount Louisa in Townsville, swindled $26,018 from the government agency over the space of nearly seven years.

Krunes was already serving a three-year good behaviour bond for scamming social security benefits when she fraudulently received more money from 2011 until 2017.

The mother-of-one was paid more than $70,000 after making 156 false reports to Centrelink, the Courier Mail reported.

Melka Jane Krunes, 35, from Mount Louisa in Townsville, swindled $26,018 from the government agency over the space of nearly seven years

On 16 occasions Krunes declared having no income, despite working at least four different jobs.

But in May 2016, the Australian Tax Office detected Krunes' fraudulent activities.

She declined to take part in a recorded interview as part of their 2018 investigation.

Krunes pleaded guilty to three fraud charges at Townsville Magistrates Court on Thursday.

Federal prosecutor Catherine Ferguson told the court that offences of this nature are 'serious, prevalent and relatively easy to commit.'

'The social security system relies upon the honesty of recipients because a stricter scheme  would be enormously expensive and would delay payments to genuine applicants,' she said.

Krunes' defence lawyer Phil Rennick said she paid back all the fraudulent money, and argued against jail time as she is the primary carer for her daughter and mother who suffers from chronic depression.

But Magistrate Viviana Keegan said the public needed to be made aware of the tough consequences of rorting the system for financial gain.

'You're stealing from every taxpayer in the country and diverting resources away from people that genuinely need them,' Ms Keegan said.

Krunes cried in her mother's arms while being sentenced to nine months behind bars.

However she will be released after just three months.

She was also ordered to repay $2,000 and given a three-year good behaviour bond.
Only curmudgeons would begrudge living things kindness, and only grumps would oppose laws to protect those living things.

But a bill in the Illinois Senate, while clearly being proposed with good intentions, might be overdoing it.

Illinois Humane Care for Animals Act already prohibits rabbits, ducklings and baby chicks as carnival prizes, but Senate Bill 2472 would expand the laws protections to all animals, including the goldfish that winners can take home in a plastic bag.

Sen. Suzy Glowiak Hilton, a Democrat from Western Springs, introduced a bill that would expand the Illinois Humane Care for Animals Acts protections to all animals. Existing law already prohibits rabbits, ducklings and baby chicks as carnival prizes. Glowiak Hiltons bill would extend that protection to all animals, including reptiles, hermit crabs and fish. Like goldfish, a carnival tradition. Bounce a ping pong ball into a bowl and take home the fish swimming inside.

This isnt just a goldfish bill,  Glowiak Hilton said. Carnivals across the country give out other animals as prizes, specifically iguanas and other exotic reptiles.

But the goldfish make a good target for the romantics and those who grow weary of regulation of every phase of life. Our understanding of the lives of hermit crabs and reptiles have made us realize that to keep them as ideal healthy pets requires more than a passing amount of work.

Goldfish are probably the easiest starter pet we have available. People can learn quickly whether theyre willing to follow through on the commitment needed to care for another living being. Since goldfish live in a world completely unlike our own, that care can also come without an overwhelming personal attachment.

Glowiak Hiltons bill does not apply to fairs, but shes planning on an addendum.

As we dig deeper into the story, it becomes a little ridiculous. Glowiak Hiltons bill suggests a coupon or voucher to be exchanged at a licensed pet store, which means for starters at least one additional trip somewhere, and probably not on the same day. That suggestion also takes away the immediate pleasure of walking away with a prize after a victory.

Ken Tyrrell, president of the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs, suggests outlawing fish giveaways would be an economic hardship for carnival workers and a disappointment to nostalgic carnivalgoers would who miss the traditional competition.

Maybe relax the bill a bit, Sen. Glowiak Hilton. If the time comes that we learn about the terrors of goldfish in captivity, then the idea can be revisited.

 Herald & Review, Decatur
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-15 15:31:58|Editor: xuxin

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Photo taken on Feb. 15, 2020 shows a damaged vehicle at the site of an airstrike in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. Eight local villagers, including a child, were killed following airstrikes in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar on Friday, a provincial official said on Saturday. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Eight local villagers, including a child, were killed following airstrikes in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar on Friday, a provincial official said on Saturday.

"Two running vehicles carrying villagers were struck by a missile fired from an airplane in Surkh Rod district Friday evening. The victims were back on their way from a local bazaar before their vehicles being struck," a local official told Xinhua anonymously.

In the meantime, provincial government spokesman Attaullah Khogiani told Xinhua that airstrikes conducted by NATO-led coalition forces targeted two vehicles in Surkh Rod.

"Local officials are visiting the village where the incident occurred. The initial information found that the victims were civilians but more time is needed to find more facts about the incident," he said, adding that more information will be released soon.

He said one child was among the killed and two vehicles were also damaged in the strikes.

More than 2,817 civilians were killed and over 7,955 others injured in conflict-related incidents in Afghanistan in 2019, according to the figures released by Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).

The IED explosions, ground fighting, and suicide attacks were the leading cause of civilians' casualties in 2019, followed by targeted attacks and pro-government forces-related airstrikes, according to AIHRC.

The AIHRC has attributed 71 percent of the civilian casualties to the Taliban militants, 5 percent to Islamic State (IS) militants, and 14 percent to Afghan security forces and foreign troops over the period while 10 percent were caused by other reasons.

Out of the total casualties, 445 children were killed and over 2,200 injured last year in separate incidents, according to the agency.
The son of ex-Armenia president Robert Kocharyan called on the National Security Service to avoid double standards and discover a user who shared a post urging to condemn Artsakh government for soldiers deaths.

Yesterday, a post of this user appeared on the Web, which is widely distributed on social networks. Such a message is an attempt to provoke contradictions between Armenia and Artsakh, which is an obvious threat to our security. I urge the National Security Service of Armenia to find this user and find out his political connections with the same energy and fast enough as they acted in previous cases. I hope that we will not again witness double standards, Levon Kocharyan said.

He added that those making such calls are sowing hatred.
RTHK: Virus experts hold meetings with China counterparts

International experts have begun meeting with their counterparts in China over the new coronavirus epidemic, whose future path is "impossible" to predict, the World Health Organisation said late Sunday.

The number of new cases from China's coronavirus epidemic dropped for a third consecutive day, but global concern remains high about its spread, emphasised by a US announcement that more than three dozen Americans from a cruise ship quarantined off Japan are infected.

The virus first emerged in China's central Hubei province in December, and this weekend claimed its first reported death outside Asia, in France.

The death toll jumped to 1,665 in mainland China after an additional 142 people lost their lives. More than 68,000 people have now been infected -- but the number of new cases of the Covid-19 strain continued to decline.

"International experts participating in the @WHO-led joint mission with (China) have arrived in Beijing & have had their first meeting with Chinese counterparts today," World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter.

"We look forward to this vitally important collaboration contributing to global knowledge about the #Covid19 outbreak."

In hardest-hit Hubei, the number of new cases slowed for a third consecutive day and, at 139, the number of deaths was level with Saturday's toll.

New cases in other parts of the country have dropped for 12 straight days.

Mi Feng, National Health Commission spokesman, said on Sunday that the figures were a sign that China was controlling the outbreak.

"The effects of epidemic prevention and control in various parts of the country can already be seen," he told reporters.

On a visit to Pakistan, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed confidence that the "gigantic effort" by China "will allow for the progressive reduction of the disease."

But Tedros warned it was "impossible to predict which direction this epidemic will take."

"We ask all governments, companies and news organisations to work with us to sound the appropriate level of alarm without fanning the flames of hysteria," he said at the Munich Security Conference.

The UN health body has asked China for more details on how diagnoses are being made.

The scale of the epidemic ballooned on Thursday after authorities in Hubei changed their criteria for counting cases, retroactively adding 14,000 cases in a single day.

Chinese authorities have placed about 56 million people in Hubei and its capital Wuhan under quarantine, virtually sealing off the province from the rest of the country in an unprecedented effort to contain the virus.

Even as China insisted the epidemic was under control, Hubei authorities announced on Sunday a tightening of movement across the province.

This includes broad instructions that residential compounds and villages be "sealed off" from unnecessary visitors, with tenants' outings "strictly managed," as well as recommending bulk purchases of daily necessities.

All non-essential public spaces will also be closed.

Local authorities elsewhere in China have also introduced measures to try and stop the virus spreading.

Beijing's municipal government has enacted a rule requiring people coming to the capital to self-quarantine for 14 days, according to official media.

Outside mainland China, an 80-year-old Chinese tourist in France was the first person to die from the new coronavirus outside Asia. Other deaths have occurred in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan.

The biggest cluster outside China is on a quarantined cruise ship off Japan, with 355 infections confirmed.

A top US health official on Sunday said 40 Americans from the ship have become infected and would be treated in Japan. Other Americans left the Diamond Princess into the early hours of Monday for chartered jumbo jets that would fly them home -- and into further quarantine.

Malaysia on Sunday said it would not allow any cruise ships departing or transiting Chinese ports to enter the country, following the discovery of a US citizen with the coronavirus.

The virus spread last month as millions travelled across China for the Lunar New Year holiday, which was extended to try and prevent more infections.

People have slowly started to return to work in the past two weeks, though many are doing their jobs from home and schools remain closed.

With the government facing criticism over its handling of the crisis, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the government must "increase use of police force and strengthen the visible use of police" during the crisis. He made the comments in a February 3 speech published by state media on Saturday.

A number of local officials have been sacked for their role in mishandling the outbreak.

On Sunday, a host of new reprimands were made against officials in the virus-hit region, including one who "cut corners and worked around the centralised quarantine order," according to Hubei authorities.

"When a crisis like this happens, it becomes politically important -- it's about China's international image, it's about the Party's legitimacy," said Zhou Xun, a historian of modern China at the University of Essex.

China's health system is "overloaded, inefficient, expensive and chaotic," she added.

"That's one of the things (that) made the current crisis even worse." (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2020-02-16. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
The Foreign Ministers of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova signed a joint appeal to the European Commission on the importance of proper financial support for the Eastern Partnership region as a part of the following EU Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027, which is currently being formed in the EU institutions, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry website informs.

"The foreign ministers of the three associated members called on the EU to take into account the scope and ambitiousness of the reforms implemented and planned by Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova in the process of European integration, within the framework of strategic budget planning for the next 7 years," RIA Novosti reports.
By Tuvan Gumrukcu and Polina Ivanova ANKARA/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Turkey dismissed on Saturday Russian accusations that it has flouted de-escalation agreements with Russia and Iran in Syria's Idlib province, and threatened to take military action in the area if diplomatic efforts with Moscow fail. Turkey and Russia, which back opposing sides in Syria's war, agreed in 2018 to set up a de-escalation zone in the northwestern province.

By Tuvan Gumrukcu and Polina Ivanova

ANKARA/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Turkey dismissed on Saturday Russian accusations that it has flouted de-escalation agreements with Russia and Iran in Syria's Idlib province, and threatened to take military action in the area if diplomatic efforts with Moscow fail.

Turkey and Russia, which back opposing sides in Syria's war, agreed in 2018 to set up a de-escalation zone in the northwestern province. But their fragile cooperation has been disrupted by a Syrian government offensive in Idlib, in which 13 Turkish soldiers have been killed in the past two weeks.

Ankara has said it will use military power to drive back the Syrian forces unless they withdraw by the end of February, and President Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey will strike government forces anywhere in Syria if another Turkish soldier was hurt.

Erdogan discussed the situation in separate phone calls on Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump but there was no immediate word of a diplomatic breakthrough.

Russia, which backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, says Turkey, which has poured military forces into Idlib, has aggravated the situation and failed to neutralise militants there.

But Turkey blames the situation on the advances by Syrian government forces in Idlib.

"We cannot overlook the cruelty happening in our neighbour," Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay told broadcaster NTV. "Turkey has fulfilled its responsibilities in Idlib."

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey wanted to resolve matters with Russia over Idlib through diplomacy. But, speaking during an international security conference in Munich, he added: "If it won't work through diplomatic channels, we will take the necessary steps."

Ankara has been angered by the seizure by Syrian government forces of Turkish military observation posts established in Idlib under the 2018 deal.

"It is impossible for us to remain silent against their siege. We are doing what is necessary against them," NTV quoted Erdogan as saying on a flight back from Pakistan.

Erdogan also chided the United States, a NATO ally, saying U.S. statements of support did not instil trust.

TALKS

Despite the tough rhetoric, Russian and Turkish officials are talking behind the scenes. Turkish and Russian officials held talks in Ankara on Saturday and Cavusoglu said a Turkish delegation would go to Moscow on Monday for talks.

Cavusoglu also had talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Munich on Saturday - the first ministerial level meeting between Ankara and Moscow since the situation deteriorated in Idlib.

Cavusoglu tweeted that he had a "positive meeting" with Lavrov but that Turkey would not be "making an evaluation" until after Monday's talks in Moscow. Lavrov said Russia had very good ties with Turkey, but the sides did not always agree on issues.

Cavusoglu was also quoted by Russian news agencies as saying differences over Syria should not affect Ankara's relations with Moscow or disrupt a contract for the purchase of Russian S-400 missile defence systems which has strained Turkey's ties with Washington.

Erdogan said his phone call with Putin - his second since the Turkish troops were killed - had been positive and that statements by other Russian officials that criticised Turkey did not reflect the tone of the call.

In the conflict in Syria, which began in 2011, Turkey has supported rebels looking to oust Assad. Erdogan said this week the Turkey-backed rebels launched an offensive to retake some areas they had lost to Syrian forces.

State-run Anadolu news agency said buses carrying commandoes and trucks with more military equipment had been sent to reinforce the Turkish observation posts.

The increased violence in Idlib has caused hundreds of thousands of people to abandon their homes and head north to the Turkish-Syrian border. Turkey, which hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees, has said it cannot handle a new influx.

Syrian state media said Syrian troops had began clearing barricades from a highway between Damascus and Aleppo after recovering full control of the road for the first time in more than seven years.

Syrian state media also reported advances by Syrian government forces towards rebel-held Atarib, some 24 km (15 miles) west of Aleppo, and three towns to its northwest.

On Friday, Turkish and Syrian state media reported Turkish-backed Syrian rebels shot down a government helicopter west of Aleppo in the Idlib region.

(Additonal reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut and Umit Bektas in Istanbul; Editing by Edmund Blair, Helen Popper and Timothy Heritage)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
On This Day The Day Myanmar Honored an UK MP for His Panglong Efforts

Arthur Bottomley and General Aung San at the Panglong conference in 1947.
Laws requiring clergy to report child abuse to authorities  even if it's heard in the confession box  will come into effect on Monday, ending the "special treatment" for Victoria's religious institutions.

The seal has now been lifted for the suspected sexual abuse of children, with spiritual and religious leaders required to report the abuse or face up to three years in prison.

The laws requiring clergy to report abuse - even it is heard in the confession box - will come into effect on Monday. Credit:Michael Rayner

"From [Monday], our promise to put the safety of children ahead of the secrecy of the confession is in full effect and there is no excuse for people who fail to report abuse," said Attorney-General Jill Hennessy.

The changes bring religious and spiritual leaders in line with teachers, police, medical practitioners, nurses, school counsellors, and early childhood and youth justice workers, who are required to report the abuse and mistreatment of children.
New Delhi, Feb 16 : Music composer Vishal Dadlani who composed Aam Aadmi Party's viral campaign song 'Lage Raho Kejriwal' on Sunday was part of the swearing in ceremony of Arvind Kejriwal who took oath as the Delhi Chief Minister for the third time.

Dadlani was seen witnessing the Delhi Chief Minister's oath-taking from among the crowd interacting with people around him and also discussing the points raised by Kejriwal during his maiden speech after taking the oath.

Before the ceremony began, Dadlani entered the media box and spoke to the media. He said, "When elections are fought on people's issues, this is a great sign for India." He also said, "Kejriwal government's challenge is to match the expectations of people and hopefully it will succeed in doing so." The Aam Aadmi Party had in January launched the audio and video of its official song 'Lage Raho Kejriwal' as part of its campaign for the Delhi Assembly election.

The song, composed by Dadlani, was launched by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh at the party headquarters here.
ADULT FICTION

Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano: One summer morning, 12-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, their parents and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles. Among them are a Wall Street child prodigy, a young woman coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, an injured veteran returning from Afghanistan, a business tycoon, and a free-spirited woman running away from her controlling husband. Halfway across the country, the plane crashes. Edward is the sole survivor. Edwards story captures the nation, but he struggles to find a place in a world without his family.

ADULT NONFICTION

The Art of Resistance by Justus Rosenberg: In 1937, as the Nazis gained control and anti-Semitism spread in the free city of Danzig, a majority German city on the Baltic Sea, 16-year-old Justus Rosenberg was sent to Paris to finish his education in safety. Three years later, France fell to the Germans. Alone and in danger, penniless, and cut off from contact with his family in Poland, Justus fled south. A chance meeting led him to Varian Fry, an American journalist in Marseille helping thousands of men and women, including many artists and intellectuals  among them Hannah Arendt, Marc Chagall, Andre Breton, and Max Ernst  escape the Nazis. Justuss story is a powerful saga of bravery, daring, adventure and survival with the soul of a spy thriller.

DVD

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch: After nearly 10 years of research, the Anthropocene Working Group, an international body of scientists, argue that the Holocene Epoch gave way to the Anthropocene Epoch in the mid-20th century because of profound and lasting human changes to the Earth. At the intersection of art and science, this film witnesses a critical moment in geological history  bringing a provocative and unforgettable experience of our species breadth and impact.

JUVENILE GRAPHIC NOVEL

Goosebumps: Horrors of the Witch House by Denton Tipton: The kid-friendly horror series returns with all new stories for a new generation, bringing the terrifying world of R.L. Stine to graphic novel form. All the kids in Beaver Creek know the old Whaley House is haunted, so when young Veruca Curry moves in, there is concern. As three kids learn the truth about Veruca, can they protect Beaver Creek and put a stop to her sinister plans?

JUVENILE FICTION

Ali Cross by James Patterson: When you are Alex Crosss son, solving mysteries is a family business. When Gabe Qualls goes missing, Ali uses all the skills his dad has taught him. The one skill he does not have is patience. Can he find Gabe before it is too late?

Did you know?

The library will host a screening of the film Downton Abbey at 2 p.m. Saturday. Written by series creator Julian Fellowes and starring the original cast, this grand cinematic experience will have you cheering for your favorite characters all over again.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Feb. 16

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Turkmenistans state budget revenues amounted to 1.9 billion manat, and the expenditures amounted 1.1 billion manat in January 2020.

The remarks were made at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan, Trend reports referring to the Turkmen government.

The major part of the budget revenues are formed by such important industries as oil and gas, chemical sector, electricity, and construction.

The agricultural sector, transport and communications, as well as textile and food industries are also developing further.

Turkmenistan ranks fourth in terms of natural gas reserves in the world and at this stage exports it to China and Russia.
H Texas Magazine has awarded Top Lawyer recognition to each of the staff attorneys of Houston-area personal injury law firm Simmons and Fletcher, P.C. The magazine featured the award recipients in the November 2019 issue.

The Top Lawyer award recognizes Houston-area attorneys who excel in their area of practice. Nominees are submitted from peers and clients. The magazine holds an election, selecting the top 2 percent of attorneys in each category to receive the honor.

The following Simmons and Fletcher attorneys received the H Texas Magazine 2019 Top Lawyer Award:

Robert S. Simmons  Personal Injury

Robert S. Simmons earned a law degree from the University of Houston Law Center in 1966. He founded the law firm that became Simmons and Fletcher, P.C. in 1974. He previously received the Top Lawyer Award from H Texas Magazine in 2014 and 2015.

Sharon Simmons-Cantrell  Personal Injury

Sharon Simmons-Cantrell leads the pre-litigation division at Simmons and Fletcher, P.C. She has practiced law for 19 years and has received the Top Lawyer honor from H Texas Magazine every year from 2013-2019.

Paul H. Cannon  Personal Injury

Paul H. Cannon joined Simmons and Fletcher, P.C. in 1995. He is a board-certified Personal Injury Trial Lawyer. Paul has contributed legal expertise and commentary to numerous publications including the Texas Bar Journal and Lawyer.com. He previously received H Texas Magazines Top Lawyer Award in 2013.

Christopher K. Fletcher  Personal Injury

Christopher K. Fletcher received his law degree with a special concentration in civil litigation from Baylor University School of Law in 2009. The National Trial Lawyers has recognized him in their Top 40 Under 40 list since 2016. H Texas Magazine has awarded him a Top Lawyer honor every year since from 2013-2019.

Rebecca L. Todd  Personal Injury

Rebecca L. Todd earned a law degree from South Texas College of Law in 2016. Rebecca has been published in the Texas Journal of Business Law and was a finalist in the Closing Argument Competition at Harvard Law in 2015. This is the first time she has received the Top Lawyer Award from H Texas Magazine.

About Simmons and Fletcher: Simmons and Fletcher, P.C. is a Houston-area personal injury law firm committed to representing personal injury victims and their families with compassion and ethics rooted in Christian values. As a Christian law firm, Simmons and Fletcher, P.C. is committed to serving God by resolving personal injury cases for clients in a prompt and caring manner, seeking to maximize their recovery while modeling Christian attitudes and behaviors.
Wearing a maroon head scarf, jeans and a diamante nose stud, Shamima Begum could be sitting in a living room in England.

The former London schoolgirl, now 20, has furnished her makeshift tent in al-Roj camp in Northern Syria and decorated it for Valentine's Day.

She was pictured for the first time without her usual black burqa, which has been banned in the camp as part of attempts at de-radicalising the women and children.

Her tent, which she shares with US-Canadian citizen Kimberly Polman, has heating, electricity, satellite TV and cooking appliances. The women have decorated it with hearts and fairy lights for Valentine's Day.

They have made a small sofa from blankets given to them by the UN and Miss Begum has a knitted cushion with the UK flag, made for her by her roommate.

The tent has poems about love and hangings with inspirational quotes.

Shamima Begum pictured for the first time without her usual black burqa, which has been banned in the camp as part of attempts at de-radicalising the women and children

The tent where Shamima Begum and her roommate Kimberly Polman live. It has heating, electricity, satellite TV and cooking appliances

Begum was stripped of her UK citizenship by former home secretary Sajid Javid after she left the UK with two school friends Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase five years ago at the age of 15 to join Islamic State in Syria.

Ten days after arriving, she married Yago Riedijk, a Dutch convert to Islam who was 23 years old at the time.

Riedijk is being held at a Kurdish detention centre in northeastern Syria. Begum gave birth to their son in the refugee camp last year. The child later died, as had her previous two children.

The 20-year-old was dealt a blow this month when she lost the first stage of her appeal against the Government's decision to remove her citizenship.

She told the American network ABC News that her 'whole world fell apart' when she was stripped of her citizenship last year.

A tribunal ruled she could be stripped of her citizenship because she had not been left stateless.

Britain has refused to take back dozens of British women and children from Syria out of fear they would present a security risk back in the UK.

Normal life: Shamima Begum (right) now wears a maroon headscarf. She is pictured alongside her Canadian roommate Kimberly Polman (centre)

But the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) said Begum could however turn to Bangladesh for citizenship, where her father is from.

She said: 'When my citizenship got rejected, I felt like my whole world fell apart right in front of me.

'You know, especially the way I was told. I wasn't even told by a government official. I was told by journalists.'

She added: 'I thought I would be a bit different because I had not done anything wrong before I came to Isis.'

Asked about her previous comments to the Times where she appeared unrepentant after being found in Al-Hawl camp after fleeing the village of Baghuz, she said she was 'afraid for my life'.

She said: 'I had just come into the camp. I had just given birth. I was hearing all these stories about women threatening other women, you know, folk uncovering their faces or speaking to men or doing interviews, or anything like that.

'I just was afraid for my life.'

:: The full story airs on ABC News this week in a special programme on the camps and prisons.
A crocodile hunter has flown to Indonesia to help locals catch a 13-foot beast with a tyre stuck around its neck.

Matt Wright, dubbed Australia's 'Outback Wrangler', wrestles with deadly crocodiles deep in the Northern Territory.

He was sent to the Palu River in northern Indonesia last week with his right-hand-man Chris Wilson to try and capture a four-metre long crocodile with a tyre stuck around its neck.

Mr Wright and his team are working with the Central Sulawesi Natural Resources Agency (BKSDA Jakarta) and the Indonesian government to catch the crocodile, but despite several close calls, they have been unable to rein him in.

Australia's Outback Wrangler Matt Wright is in Palu trying to catch a crocodile with a tyre stuck around its neck (pictured)

Mr Wright (pictured with his wife Kaia) was tasked to the area after reports the tyre was tightening around the crocodile's neck and restricting its breathing

After four unsuccessful nights on the water, the Indonesian team are being stretched to their limits, and Mr Wright has started a GoFundMe page to keep the team active and catch the crocodile.

'I did get a couple really good shots last night, but wasn't on my game and missed,' Mr Wright posted in an Instagram update.

'It's all about getting the right opportunity to get a good run at catching him and they're far and few between.

'I'm only here for another couple of days now, so if we catch him, we catch him, if we don't, it's going to be an ongoing process.

'We're going to keep on trying to catch this croc over the next twelve months.'

Mr Wright has been watching the saltwater crocodile for the past 18 months, and made the trip after reports the tyre was restricting the crocodile from breathing.

Mr Wright says that the animal has been living with the tyre around its neck for nearly five years

'I believe the tyre has been around the croc's neck for a few years now with the croc being able to survive and live unaffected,' Mr Wright posted on Instagram.

'However, our contacts in Indonesia have shared recent pictures of the crocodile which show the tyre looking tighter than ever before with the poor fella gasping for air and officials now fearing the tyre is slowly killing the beast.'

The team have set up multiple traps in the river, but the bounty of food moving down the river has made getting the crocodile to move to where they want him a difficult job.

'I think he's just so used to people and there's a huge food source coming down this river that he's just not hungry,' Mr Wright told Today.

'It's making efforts a bit more difficult to lure him into a trap or get him to come to where we want him to catch him.'
Travel firm Clickandgo.com is planning to spin off or licence its travel platform, targeting similar companies offering package holidays.

Clickandgo offers holidaymakers a one-stop shop for sun holidays or city breaks, including hotel, flights and transfers.

According to chief executive and co-founder Paul Hackett, its back-office platform Travelsmart is the engine that seeks the best rates for customers when they conduct a search on its website and it is an ideal solution for other travel companies to provide this functionality.

"Our back-office system has been developed in-house so one of our current projects is looking at how we could monetise that opportunity by selling or licensing that technology to other travel firms," he said. The Dublin-based company is looking for a suitable partner to take the platform to market by 2022.

Clickandgo turns 10 this year and now has a workforce of 70 people and turnover of 35m. The company is looking for new markets after entering Poland in 2018, which has proved challenging.

"Poland was a tough market to break into, it is taking us longer to make progress, but it is our first international expansion so to some extent we had been too optimistic.

"We need to get Poland to profitability and then we will start looking at the next set of target markets, but we are very keen to expand into Scandinavia, Belgium and Holland," he said.

According to Hackett, one of the company's unique selling points is its 1 deposit offer.

"Our USP, and it's totally unique to us, is our 1 holiday deposit. It's a significant cost for the business but we manage it very effectively and our customers love it, especially in January when we're all broke," he said.

The company has a call centre open seven days a week, added Hackett, who has spent 30 years in the travel industry.

He established Clickandgo with Bob Haugh, former owner of the Travel Department. Independent News & Media, publisher of this newspaper and others, invested in the firm in 2013 and has a 30pc stake in it.

On the home front, one of the biggest challenges facing the business is the cost of insurance.

"Having to work through the craziness that is getting public liability insurance cover in Ireland is challenging. Our premium is 400,000 a year, up from 50,000 two years ago. This impacts our ability to create more jobs and further develop our brand. I am very much an optimist and I'm sure there have been lots of other challenges but once they are sorted you just move on and forget about the crap."

The ultimate challenge for the company and the industry, though, is convincing the holidaymaker to book through Clickandgo when they can book a holiday themselves, according to Hackett.

"That is always the number one challenge but the 500,000 holidays we have sold since we launched Clickandgo back in 2010 are a testimony to the fact that we are doing something right," he said.
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A conservative British politician has echoed an Australian warning about Chinese technology giant Huawei in another sign of the dispute between the "five eyes" allies over the security of new mobile networks.

The chairman of the British Parliaments foreign affairs committee, Tom Tugendhat, warned of security holes with Huawei equipment in the past, provoking a furious response from the company and one of its key Australian customers.

Chairman of the British Parliaments foreign affairs committee, Tom Tugendhat has echoed an Australian warning over Huawei. Credit:Fairfax Media

The remarks followed a warning to British foreign secretary Dominic Raab from members of the Australian Parliaments peak security committee in recent weeks, telling him his government was wrong to allow Huawei into new 5G mobile networks.

Mr Tugendhat said the British government should not "take back control from Brussels only to hand it over to Beijing" by using Huawei equipment because of security concerns about the company.
A magnitude 5.8 earthquake has hit in the vicinity of Iran's Qeshm Island in the Persian Gulf, Iranian media reported on February 16.



"So far, there has been no loss of life reported," the governor of Qeshm, Alireza Nasri, told the official government news agency IRNA.



"The damage to buildings has been at the level of cracks in walls."



The United States Geological Survey said the magnitude of the quake was 5.5.

Based on reporting by Fars, ISNA, and Reuters
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) rips up the speech of President Donald Trump after his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Feb. 4, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Pelosi Defends Ripping Trumps Speech: You Have to Get Attention

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she ripped President Donald Trumps State of the Union address earlier this month to get the medias attention because we have very little press on a number of issues that she feels are important to Americans.

I had no intention of doing that when we went into the State of the Union, she said during a Saturday interview. But when she read the speech, she made a nitch on a couple of pages, thinking I ought to remember whats on this page, on this page, Pelosi remarked.

Then I realized that almost every page had something in it that was objectionable. So it wasnt a planned thing, the House speaker told CNN.

Pelosi said that the media hasnt focused on legislative items including minimum wage, gun violence protection, childrens issues, and a number of other issues. The list goes on, she said.

We have very little press on it. And it seems if you want to get press, you have to get attention. I thought, well, lets get attention on the fact that what he said here today was not true, Pelosi said in the interview.

Trump delivered his address just one day before he was acquitted in the Senate on two articles of impeachmentabuse of power and obstruction of Congressfollowing a monthslong inquiry in the House of Representatives. In September, Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) announced the inquiry after a report from the Wall Street Journal detailed a whistleblower tip about Trumps July 25 phone call with Ukraines president.

Her move to tear the speech drew widespread condemnation from Republicans as well as Trump administration officials. Her rival, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) claimed she had no right to destroy this document. It was later confirmed to be a copy of the speech.

Whether she likes it or not, these great American stories will be remembered by history, not erased by the speaker, he said on the floor of the House a day after the speech.

In the interview, the House speaker suggested that Democrats need to unify behind a 2020 candidate to ensure that Trump doesnt win a second term in office.

We have to have our own vision for the future, but everybody knows that we must be unified in making sure that he doesnt have a second term, Pelosi told the network. She hasnt endorsed a candidate but added she believes any of the candidates would be a better option.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkey has "no intention to invade or annex the Syrian territory."

Speaking at an event of his ruling party in Istanbul, Erdogan noted that the problem in Idlib, the last rebel-held stronghold in Syria, would not be resolved until the government forces are drawn to the limits set by the Sochi deal.

"Otherwise, we will handle it before the end of February," the Turkish president stressed.

Earlier in the day, Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump exchanged views by phone on ending the crisis in Idlib as soon as possible, Turkey's Directorate of Communications announced on Twitter.

The two leaders agreed that the attacks of the Syrian government forces against the Turkish soldiers in Idlib were unacceptable.

On Monday, five Turkish soldiers were killed and five others wounded in a Syrian government forces' artillery attack in Idlib.

Earlier in February, the Syrian forces killed eight Turks, including five soldiers, in another artillery offensive in the region.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Herbalnet.co.za scored 55 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 3/5.0 Stars by Social Team

This CoolSocial report was updated on 27 Nov 2012, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.

This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the herbalnet homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if herbalnet has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the herbalnet homepage on StumbleUpon. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the herbalnet homepage on Twitter + the total number of herbalnet followers (if herbalnet has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the herbalnet homepage on Delicious. The total number of people who shared the herbalnet homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button.

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PAGE TITLE Weight Loss Durban, Herbalife Products & Nutrition DESCRIPTION Weight loss Durban specialise in herbalife products, nutrition, at exceptional prices. Look no further, Herbalnet is here for you. KEYWORDS Weight loss Durban, Herbalife Products, Herbalife Nutrition, Herbalife products Durban, Herbalife nutrition Durban, Herbalife Durban, Fibre and herbs durban, healthy breakfast, Target nutrition durban, health care, 5gyx8wY9yQiWz9gOZZZYW1wk7nc lose weight, OTHER KEYWORDS



The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The title found in the head section of the homepage. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site.

Domain and Server

DOCTYPE HTML 4.01 Transitional CHARSET AND LANGUAGE ISO-8859-1 DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER Apache (PHP/5.3.3-7+squeeze14) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Linux Linux

Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Character set and language of the site. Operative System running on the server. Type of server and offered services. The language of herbalnet.co.za as detected by CoolSocial algorithms.

Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world.

Referring domains for herbalnet.co.za by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines.

Facebook link

FACEBOOK PAGE LINK FOUND FACEBOOK PAGE www.facebook.com/gebersohn1 DESCRIPTION d': '100004100103454 LIKES d': '100004100103454 PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT 103454 PAGE TYPE 100004100103454 TIMELINE PAGE TIMELINE

The URL of the found Facebook page. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The type of Facebook page. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days.

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The new flood has created yet another test for Mr. Reeves, the Republican who took office just over a month ago and has already faced a spell of destructive weather, including heavy rains and tornadoes, and a crisis inside the states prisons that escalated after a surge of violence and discord in recent weeks.

As the severity of the flood grew more evident on Saturday, Mr. Reeves joined local officials in beseeching residents in the potential flood zone to head out while they could still do so without the help of rescuers. The water is coming, Mike Word, the director of emergency operations for Rankin County, said in a televised briefing before the spillway was opened. We have told you and told you and told you this. So please, heed our warnings.

Before the worst of the flooding and the return of rainfall on Saturday night, officials were worried that residents would ignore the warnings because the weather had cleared briefly, with sunshine and temperatures in the 60s. Do not let that lull you into a false sense of hope, the governor warned.

But many in Mississippi have grown accustomed to natures wrath. Floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, said Wanda Webb, who drove north to Jackson from Pascagoula, on the Gulf Coast, to supervise a shelter opened by the American Red Cross. She joined the organization in 2005, after its volunteers brought her food and water when her home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Were here to meet the needs of these people the best way I know how, Ms. Webb said, noting that more people might arrive at the shelter as the flooding spreads. It is kind of rough, but it might get a bit rougher.

By Sunday afternoon, just over 30 people had come to the shelter, which had been set up inside the Jackson Police Departments officer academy. Rochelle Watson, 31, brought her four children on Saturday. For months, she said, her family had been itinerant, traveling from Oklahoma to California and Nevada before recently moving to Jackson, persuaded by a friend.

Ms. Watson said she had found a house that she liked and had hoped to rent, but it was damaged by the flood. God blessed me with this beautiful home, and it ended up going in the water, she said.
By Finian Cunningham

February 15, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - Maybe the Democratic Party should sometimes listen to President Trump for a change instead of reflexively deriding him at every turn. The party is desperate to beat the Republican incumbent whom it hates with a vengeance. So as the Democrats prepare to nominate their presidential candidate from a crowded field, who gives them the best chance at winning the election in November?

According to the president himself, it is Bernie Sanders, whom he fears most.

Asked whether Trump would prefer to run against Sanders or billionaire tycoon Michael Bloomberg, the president said this week: Frankly, Id rather run against Bloomberg than Bernie Sanders, speaking to reporters at the White House. Because Sanders has real followers, whether you like him or not, whether you agree with him or not. I happen to think its terrible what he says. But he has followers. Bloombergs just buying his way in.

Bloomberg, a former mayor of New York City and media mogul, is spending tens of millions of dollars to promote himself as the Democratic presidential candidate. The party will nominate its candidate at a convention in Milwaukee in July.

But as the Democrat primaries get underway across the US, it is Bernie Sanders, the 78-year-old senator from Vermont, who has shown the early lead. The self-declared socialist won the popular vote in Iowa last week despite a debacle over delegate counts. This week, Sanders topped the ballot in the state of New Hampshire.

Later this month, the Democrat campaign moves on to Nevada and South Carolina before the Super Tuesday races take place in heavyweight states like California and Texas.

In his victory speech in New Hampshire, Sanders told ecstatic supporters: Were going to Nevada, were going to South Carolina, were going to win those next as well Let me say that this victory here is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump.

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Sanders confidence about doing battle against Trump for the White House is due to the same reason that Trump fears him: Sanders has got a formidable grassroots movement of supporters and campaign organizers. No-one among the other Democrat candidates has inspired the same verve among supporters. Sanders has tapped into crucial demographic groups of youth, students, workers and ethnic minorities. He seems to have galvanized that enviable vital power  popular momentum.

Another key political weapon is policy relevance. As Sanders said: Our agenda speaks to the pain of the working families of this country.

After Iowa and New Hampshire, the electoral stars of Senator Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden, the former vice president under Obama, have faded.

However, Pete Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar have emerged as two candidates vying with Sanders for the Democratic ticket. They came in second and third, respectively, in the New Hampshire primary.

Both of these candidates have been relatively unknown until recently. Klobuchar even jokes that voters dont know how to spell her name most of the time. While Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has a boyish image and an opaque military career as a soldier in Afghanistan with alleged links to CIA covert ops.

There is more than a suspicion that the Democratic Party hierarchy is grooming Buttigieg and Klobuchar to stand as the centrist candidates in a bid to maximize appeal for mainstream voters.

As the New York Times put it this week: The Democratic contest seems to be coming down to the question of whether the party will move to the left with Mr Sanders, a democratic socialist, or to the center with Mr Buttigieg or even Senator Amy Klobuchar, who was in a strong third.

The newspaper let slip the possibility of a party stitch-up against Sanders when it admitted, the traditional structures of the Democratic Party are set to mobilize against Mr Sanders out of fear of his revolutionary brand of democratic socialism.

This is where the tactical and anti-democratic machinations of 2016 are in danger of repeating with disastrous consequences. Back then, Bernie Sanders had energized youth and workers for radical change in Washington, similar to the way he is doing again in this electoral cycle. But the Democratic grandees thought they knew better four years ago by backing Hillary Clinton as the presidential candidate. The fetid cronyism of the Democratic Party hierarchy could not see that Clinton was despised by many ordinary Americans for her bland centrism and connections to big business.

By denying Bernie Sanders the chance to run for the presidency in 2016, the Democratic Party machinery not only snubbed the democratic wishes of ordinary party members and wider voters, they inevitably let maverick Donald Trump scoop up the massive voter-discontent among American citizens who are sick of the warmongering duopoly in Washington, also known as the swamp.

This time around, incredibly, there is no sign that the corrupt Democratic hierarchy has learnt anything about their flawed concept of centrism.

To win an election, what is needed is a politician who speaks to peoples grievances and passions. Trump managed to do that in 2016, albeit under false pretenses as a demagogue.

Given the appalling economic inequality and social collapse in the US, what is needed is a candidate who can fire up popular anger at the crumby predatory capitalist state of the US oligarchy. Thats not possible by being a safe, mediocre centrist. A full-on political assault against the rotten system is required.

In an interview with Britains Independent, Bernie Sanders older brother Larry gave the following insight for why he is the man to take on Trump.

Larry (84), a retired academic and political activist who lives in Britain, said: The election will be fought on those great issues: the issues of who gets what, of whether your wealth and income is geared towards billionaires, or whether everybody gets the chance of a decent life. Within that, the Democrats  if theyre led by Bernard  will win. If they are led by some soft middle-of-the-roader, theyll have a much harder time. Because we got Trump because we had decades of middle of the road. Middle of the road doesnt mean the middle, it means the people with power are not challenged.

Bernie Sanders, it seems, has captured the winning zeitgeist. And Trump knows it  unlike the Democratic Party bureaucrats.
A legend. A giant among Texans. A true wildcatter.

Pick your superlative, because they were in abundance for those remembering Clayton Williams, who passed away Friday evening at the age of 88.

It was stated he was surrounded by family and friends when he took his final breath. Truth be told, one could fill Chaparral Center with those in the community impacted by Claytie and touched by the charitable nature of him and his wife, Modesta. His signature smile and trademark kindness were there for longtime friends or those meeting the icon for the first time. If one was graced with ties to Texas A&M, there was a howdy and Gig em in their future.

Williams reportedly died from complications from pneumonia. His obituary in the Reporter-Telegram states he is survived by Modesta, their five children, nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

RELATED: Williams was a true Texas legend

Visitation is scheduled for 5-7 p.m. Tuesday at the Branch at Nalley-Pickle & Welch, 3800 N. Big Spring St. Funeral services are set for 11 a.m. Wednesday at First Presbyterian Church. There will be a private family burial.

Claytie Williams was a giant among Texans and will be remembered for his incredible business acumen and philanthropic acts, Gov. Greg Abbott stated in a press release sent to the Reporter-Telegram. His impact on the Permian Basin will be lasting and his legacy will live on as a man who helped drive the American oil and gas boom-- leading to our nations energy independence. Claytie and Modesta transformed Midland with their ingenuity, warmth and kindness. Cecilia and I are deeply saddened by the news of his death and ask that all Texans keep Claytie and his family in their prayers.

Close friends started to remember Williams -- a hall of famer in the oil industry and one of the greatest characters in the history of Texas politics -- on social media Friday evening. Williams ran for governor in 1990, losing a spirited race to Ann Richards. Still, Williams remained a loyal Republican and an even more dedicated graduate of Texas A&M.

Williams, A&M class of 1954, received a degree in animal husbandry and was a member of the schools Corps of Cadets. His generosity over the years earned him high praise from his alma mater. In 1981, he was named an Association of Former Students Distinguished Alumnus. A&M named the schools alumni center in his honor.

Claytie is a legend, a true wildcatter. He was a dear friend and mentor of mine, stated Tim Leach, CEO of Concho Resources and a member of the Texas A&M University Systems board of regents. His enthusiasm was limitless, and he was a tireless supporter of our community and Texas A&M. He had a big vision, and he challenged me to be involved and give back to our community.

Wildcatter was a term used often by those communicating with the Reporter-Telegram or by others commenting on social media. He will go down in the history books as one of the greatest. A true Texas legend is how Ben Shepperd, president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, described Williams.

In 2002, Williams was named as the honoree of the Permian Basin International Oil Show. He was inducted into the Permian Basin Petroleum Museums Hall of Fame in 2005. The Permian Basin Petroleum Association also honored Williams with its Top Hand award.

In January 2017, Noble Energy purchased Clayton Williams Energy in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $2.7 billion.

TRIBUTE: A&M pays tribute to one of its most distinguished alumni

He was a real true conservative but a wildcatter at heart, state Rep. Tom Craddick said of Williams in a release on Saturday. Claytie was a pioneer, entrepreneur and leader not only for the oil and gas industry but also for Texas.

In the political arena, Williams supported Republican candidates at many levels and didnt apologize about his conservativism. In 2012, after President Barack Obama commented that many wealthy Americans agree with his tax proposal because they know they had help in becoming successful, Williams countered with two signs on his ClayDesta Plaza that read, I built this business. Obama can kiss my Rig.

Williams later told the Reporter-Telegram about the signs, He made a dumb statement. I made kind of a fun answer.

The lack of a filter was endearing to many. It also likely cost the Midlander the governors seat. His campaign in 1990 is remembered by many for Williams miscues whether it was the infamous comparison of weather to rape, the decision not to shake Richards hand after a debate or the comment that he didnt pay any income tax in 1986.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Bud Kennedy wrote in 2016 that The headlines the next day were published in big, stark letters: Williams Didnt Pay 86 Taxes. The next week, Democrat Ann Richards came from 5 points down to win the 1990 Texas governors race.

The loss to Richards was a political blow. As Austin American-Statesman columnist Ken Herman once wrote, it also created one of the greatest what ifs in Texas politics, specifically What if Clayton Williams would have won. Even Williams recognized years later that his loss in 1990 set the table for George W. Bush to beat Richards in 1994 and start his ascension to the presidency.

That loss didnt stop Williams from staying committed to the party, raising money with the best of them.

REACTIONS: Local, state leaders respond to Clayton Williams' passing

From his many ventures in the oil and gas community to commercial construction in his namesake to his support in the Republican Party, Clayton Williams made an important impact at every turn, said Karen Hood, president of the Midland County Republican Women. There are not many great men like Clayton Williams. Our community will not soon forget what he has achieved and accomplished in and for Midland and Texas. Job well done, Mr. Williams.

Williams impact on Midland was greater than just oil and politics. His name lives on in the office complex he developed  ClayDesta, located northwest of the intersection of Wadley Avenue and Big Spring Street. The complex was named for Williams and his wife, Modesta.

The couple were giving of the community where they made their fortune. Both Clayton and Modesta were on hand as recently as November when the Association of Fundraising Professionals Permian Basin Chapter honored them as its Outstanding Philanthropists during the AFPs National Philanthropy Day luncheon at the Petroleum Club.

One such philanthropic entity was Show of Support, which honors wounded veterans. In the obituary in todays edition, it states Williams felt privileged to be part of that effort.

Clayton Williams is one of those rare individuals who makes a mark in whatever he does, said Terry Johnson, the county judge for Midland County and president/Founder of Show of Support. A true West Texas icon cut from the cloth of what it means to be a Texan. His legacy will live on in so many things he touched but never more than his support for those who serve to protect us. Not only did his monetary investments but his personal involvement enrich the lives of our warriors.

The story of Clayton Wheat Williams Jr. started in Alpine, where he was born, continued in Fort Stockton, where he grew up and became an Eagle Scout. Life took him to Aggieland, where he left his mark, as every student who picks up their Aggie ring does so in the Clayton Williams Jr. Alumni Center.

Chapters will include time spent in the U.S. Army, a lifetime involved in the energy business and 55 years of marriage to Modesta, his partner whether it was inside the political and philanthropic arenas or traveling the world.

Yes, there is much to know about Clayton Williams, and for those who had the opportunity to come across the larger-than-life West Texan, the superlatives make all the sense in the world.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 19:13:26|Editor: huaxia

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Combo photo shows Chinese musician Tan Dun showing a gong (a traditional Chinese musical instrument) of Wuhan at the rehearsal of "Sound Pagoda -- The 12 Sounds of Wuhan" in Antwerp, Belgium, Feb. 14, 2020. The premiere of renowned Chinese musician Tan Dun's new composition, "Sound Pagoda -- The 12 Sounds of Wuhan," was performed by the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra in the Queen Elizabeth Hall here on Saturday. The concert, conducted by Tan, was the first held by the international music community to extend love, care and support to the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng)

ANTWERP, Belgium, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The premiere of renowned Chinese musician Tan Dun's new composition, "Sound Pagoda -- The 12 Sounds of Wuhan," was performed by the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra in the Queen Elizabeth Hall here on Saturday.

The concert, conducted by Tan, was the first held by the international music community to extend love, care and support to the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, which has so far caused over 1,600 deaths and infected more than 68,000 people in China.

Around two pools of clean water in the center of the stage were placed 12 gongs, one of the many kinds of Chinese musical instruments which first made its way into Western orchestras.

Dedicated to supporting Wuhan's battle against the epidemic, Tan, who has won Academy and Grammy Awards for his original piece for the Oscar-winning blockbuster "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," created the new composition during his flight from New York to Brussels earlier this week.

The composition was written to honor Wuhan's percussion instruments as the city is known for its cymbals and gongs throughout the world. The Antwerp Symphony Orchestra has three Wuhan gongs which were played in the performance.

"The Wuhan gongs, which have left a deep impression around the world, are a must for symphony orchestras," said Tan. "Without the Wuhan gongs, there would be no such wonderful classical music like Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' or Mozart's 'Requiem.'"

"This is why Wuhan and the people of Wuhan hold a special meaning for musicians," Tan said in front of a large gong.

It was no coincidence for Tan to choose 12 large gongs to perform his new composition. "'The 12 Sounds of Wuhan' symbolizes not only the 12-hour life cycle, 12 Chinese zodiacs and 12 months, but also spiritual culture and harmonious coexistence between man and nature, calling on the world to fight COVID-19 (abbreviation for the novel coronavirus disease)."

"I hope that we can commemorate our friends of Wuhan and let the world remember the fabulous music brought by Wuhan through the sound pagoda built by 12 Sounds of Wuhan," Tan said. "These 12 gongs are no longer physical instruments, but a sound bridge connecting Wuhan to the world."

Filip Stuer, director of communications and marketing of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, said that "I believe that the fight against COVID-19 is a global fight, and not only China's to win. I firmly believe that we are capable of winning through concerted efforts and cooperation."

"I feel honored to be able to organize this concert. We would like to offer our sympathy to all those involved, as well as our support to the doctors and scientists, and to all those who are helping to contain this epidemic," said Stuer.

Zhang Ming, head of Chinese Mission to the European Union, told Xinhua after the concert that "Tonight's performance is the artist's support for the people of Wuhan and their fight against the epidemic."

Tan conveyed a heartwarming message for Wuhan at the end of the piece. "Dear Wuhan, I promise to perform 'The 12 Sounds of Wuhan' and Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' for you at home once the epidemic is over."
A key metric of pension assets in Ireland has failed to keep pace with growth in overall retirement funding levels in other countries, according to a new international report.

The ratio of pension savings to the size of the Irish economy lags well behind other developed economies, found the Thinking Ahead Institute's Global Pension Assets Study.

Pension assets as a proportion of GDP in Ireland are estimated at 48pc, much lower than the 126pc ratio in the UK, which has a similar pensions landscape. That is just 4pc higher than where it was 10 years ago, according to the research arm of advisory firm Willis Towers Watson.

Pensions have been pushed back on to the political agenda here by pre-election promises to reverse the raising of the pension age.

In 2019, Irish pension assets grew by 14.8pc to reach an estimated $184bn (164bn), up from $103bn since 2009. But it showed that, despite this faster than average growth among the 22 countries surveyed, Irish pension assets are not keeping pace with the growth in the economy.

The ratio of pension assets to GDP went from 87pc to 126pc in the UK, 110pc to 151pc in Australia, 81pc to 111pc in Canada, 95pc to 136pc in the US and 114pc to 187pc in the Netherlands.

"We hope to see the Irish figure grow strongly in the years ahead," Joseph O'Dea, head of investments at Willis Towers Watson in Ireland, who welcomed the introduction of auto-enrolment from 2022 as "a good step in the right direction".

"Compulsory pension savings were introduced in Australia in 1992, and pension savings there now amount to 151pc of GDP," said O'Dea.

"The recent political debate in Ireland over moving the retirement age back to 65 is an example of the dilemma of, and the conflict between, short-term versus long-term planning for governments and for society as a whole," he said.

The study is somewhat distorted because it uses GDP for consistency across countries even though GNP, which factors out foreign transfers, is more relevant to Ireland. But, he said, when calculated using GNP, the ratio of pension assets to the economy is still only about two-thirds.

"This is still significantly behind the UK," he said. "To an extent, this is explained by Ireland coming later to the table as a developed economy. The UK, with a more mature industrial history, has simply had more employment-related pension savings for much longer.

"The state pension is significantly higher in Ireland than the UK so, in practice, some of the difference is made up for by the state paying higher pensions funded from taxation. Whether this will always be the case is unknown and there is no getting away from the fact that, as a nation, Ireland has saved less."
The management of Adamawa State University has banned a students press club operating in the institution for three months for allegedly posing a threat to the security of other students on campus.

In a letter forwarded to the president of the press club, signed by the Acting Registrar, Ahmed Ghaji, which was made available to PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Ghaji said, Management has received with dismay the report on the activities of the Press Club and the threat it poses to the security of other students on campus

According to the statement, the press club was banned from operating on campus for three (3) months with effect from January 27.

Mr Ghaji directed the press club to immediately stop every activity and ensure strict compliance by all members.

The National Union of Campus Journalists (NUCJ) has condemned the banning of the press club.

In a statement posted on NUCJ official twitter page, the union described the ban as illegal.

NUCJ totally condemns the illegal ban of Press Club in Adamawa State University, for three months. Findings reveal that the university management has no good-enough reasons to ban the student journalists for exercising their rights.

Incessant clampdown of media space in tertiary institutions

The clampdown of media space in tertiary institutions by the schools management is on the rise.

READ ALSO:

In May 2019, a student of Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU), Ikot Akpaden, was suspended indefinitely from the school for allegedly calling the university vice-chancellor foolish on Facebook.

In February 2019, six students of the Madonna University, Okija, Anambra State, were arrested and detained for posting offensive messages on Facebook. They have been released on bail.

In October, PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Taraba State University expelled a first-year student, Joseph Israel, after he repeatedly criticised the state governor, Darius Ishaku, on Facebook.

In November, the management of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, (FUNAAB) in Ogun State, expelled one of its students over a Facebook post drawing the attention of the public to the alleged indiscriminate arrest of his colleagues by the police and incessant robbery attacks on campus.

Recently, the State Security Services (SSS) arrested and charged Ayoola Babalola, a campus journalist, to court for allegedly publishing articles in a campus newspaper called GAPOSA Trumpet in which he served as the editor.

Mr Babalola was remanded in Ibara Maximum Prison in Abeokuta.
" " Not only do Australian cigarette packages lack branding, but they also serve up some pretty gruesome images as health warnings. Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Have you heard the news? Smoking is bad for you! No, like really, really bad for you. Why not quit? There! Problem solved.

Er, if only it were so easy. While some smokers are no doubt proud users and would only have cigarettes pried from their cold, dead (slightly stained) fingers, a lot of folks who smoke really want to quit. In fact, the American Cancer Society cites that 2 out of 3 smokers want to quit, and about half try to quit each year. But nicotine can be as addictive as heroin and cocaine. New research based on recent Australian legislation shows that banning branded tobacco-product packaging makes quitting a bit easier.

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Australia introduced the new packages in 2012 to discourage new people from picking up the habit, and has seen significant declines in smoking since. It turns out that plain packaging  that is, packaging with no identifiable branding, the same standard fonts and large graphic warnings, to boot  lowers the brand loyalty of a smoker, which in turn reduces smoking intensity and strengthens intentions to quit.

There have been arguments against plain packets, including criticism that plain packs are easily counterfeited and would cause an increase in smuggling. But the new research found that 178 smokers were less likely after the "unbranding" to smoke and identify with their preferred brand, and to attribute positive traits like sophistication and confidence to people who smoked that brand. The researchers even controlled for socioeconomic status, education, perceived effectiveness of the warning labels, and other factors that could have influenced the decrease in smoking behaviors.

By breaking down brand identity and loyalty, the researchers surmise, the plain packaging dampens the feeling that smoking certain cigarettes will give smokers qualities they desire. And without that, it seems, people are more eager to give smoking up.

Now That's Interesting Other countries are keen to follow Australia's example and change cigarette packaging to nonbranded (and quite graphic) images. Legislation in the U.K. and Ireland banning tobacco branding passed in May 2016, and is set to be compulsory by May 2017.
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Linkedin Yussel Gonzalez (Agence France-Presse) Mexico City, Mexico  Sun, February 16, 2020 13:08 695 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2064d65b6 2 Environment panda,Mexico Free

Xin Xin and Shuan Shuan are the main attractions at the Chapultepec zoo in Mexico City but what makes them truly unique, zoo officials say, is that they're the only giant pandas in the world not owned by China.

They were born in captivity in Mexico and although they have Chinese names, "they belong to Mexico," Rafael Tinajero, a manager at the zoo, told AFP.

Many young pandas born abroad in captivity are later repatriated to China, where the species originates.

But Xin Xin and Shuan Shuan, with their plump bodies and tender expressions, will be staying put.

They are the last in the line of a panda couple -- Ying Ying and Pe Pe -- loaned to Mexico by the Chinese government in 1975.

Since 1980, China has operated a different policy in which it only lends pandas for a short time and in return for a payment towards wild panda conservation efforts.

Read also: A life of a panda breeder is no walk in the park

The panda is considered a vulnerable species.

As Ying Ying and Pe Pe arrived in Mexico before China changed its policy, Xin Xin and Shuan Shuan will stay in Mexico.

"With that, Mexico became the first country outside of China to have had a successful natural reproduction of pandas outside their natural habitat, in captivity conditions," said Tinajero.

He said eight more pandas were born in Mexico between 1980 and 1990 but only four of those survived.

Giant pandas typically live until about 20 in the wild and 30 in captivity.

They average around 100-115 kilograms and adults stand between 1.2 to 1.9 meters tall. Males can weigh as much as 160 kilograms.

Topics : panda Mexico
The American government had last week approved the Integrated Air Defence Weapon System (IADWS) for around USD 1.9 billion including different types of radars and missiles systems on the request of the Indian Air Force under a government-to-government Foreign Military Sales request.

"The project has been approved by the Americans at around USD 1.9 billion which is almost double the price at which we were anticipating it to be. We are concerned over the high cost of acquisition and we may have to look at other options also," government sources told ANI here.

India had expressed interest in buying the system to replace the existing Russian systems which have been deployed for many years now for protecting the possible targets including VVIPs in New Delhi as part of Indian Air Force's (IAF's) Delhi Area Defence project.

Sources said the issue is expected to come up for discussion with the American side during the visit of US President Donald Trump who is visiting Ahmedabad and New Delhi on February 24-25.

Sources said the high cost of the American weapon systems in a cause of concern in other projects too like the acquisition of 30 Predator drones which will cost more than USD 100 million each with options of being used in a weaponised version as well as the reconnaissance roles.

The approval by the Americans for the NASAMS missile shield includes five AN/MPQ-64Fl Sentinel radar systems, Fire Distribution Centers (FDC), Electrical Optical/Infrared sensor systems, and Multi-spectral Targeting System-Model A (MTS-A).

It also includes 118 AMRAAM AIM-120C-7/C-8 missiles, three AMRAAM Guidance Sections, four AMRAAM Control Sections, and 134 Stinger FIM-92L missiles, along with Dual Mount Stinger Air Defence Systems and Vehicle Mounted Stinger Rapid Ranger Air Defence Systems, canister launchers and high mobility launchers.

In 2018, when an Indian team had visited Washington DC, they were not allowed to witness the functioning of the NASAMS systems as it was deployed in the middle of an American Army base.

India and the US would now discuss the cost of the missile defence system during the contract negotiations between the two governments.

The Defence Acquisition Council has also approved the cost of the project around USD one billion in July 2018.

During the Trump visit, India and the US are likely to take forward their deals on the acquisition of 24 multirole helicopters for the Indian Navy and six Apache attack choppers for the Army.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WASHINGTON  George T. Conway III has described the work of his wife, Kellyanne Conway, for President Donald Trump in terms usually reserved for hostage situations: brainwashed by a cult, suffering from Stockholm syndrome, an overwhelmed mother protecting a destructive man-child.

And if you think its all shtick, some wink-and-nod act by a couple who fights by day and snuggles by night, planning a payday after Trump leaves the scene, think again, say some people close to Americas oddest political couple.

Those who think this is a 14-dimensional chess game are mistaken, said Rick Wilson, who with George Conway and several other Republicans formed the Lincoln Project, an effort to beat Trump in the 2020 election.

George Conway has taken unequivocal and irreversible actions that have established his bona fides as someone who opposes Donald Trump, and shes going to be for Donald Trump until the last dog dies, he said, adding a question that many Americans have asked themselves about the Conways: Who knows the secrets of the human heart?

In a sense, the passions in the Conway household have come to represent the societal agonies of the Trump era, a couple and a nation deeply divided, unsettled by the storms around the presidency and asking themselves, when its all over, can there be reconciliation?

The Conways bring to mind a previous Washington It couple: Mary Matalin, who worked for President George W. Bush, and James Carville, the Democratic strategist who helped engineer President Bill Clintons 1992 victory over Bush. Matalin and Carville turned their political dissonance into a lucrative brand, joking about their vast differences.

The Conways agree politically on most things because George Conway, for all his anti-Trump activities, remains deeply conservative. But the couple does not appear to be having much fun.

Coming of political age in 1992 is significantly different than coming of age in 2017, Carville said. Trump people have much more of a sense of personal assault or grievance, and the Trump opponents have a high, high dose of doing the right thing for the country. You can hardly even tell jokes about it anymore.

Kellyanne Conway, 53, Trumps senior counselor and 2016 campaign manager, has largely held her tongue about her husband, though she told The Washington Post in 2018 that his sniping disrespects his wife.

In recent months, George Conway, 56, a constitutional lawyer by trade and Trump opponent by conversion, has become more embittered and more public. During the presidential impeachment, he took to CNN and Twitter as a commentator, calling Trump a criminal, pathological liar and Idiot-in-Chief.

To mark Trumps acquittal by the Senate, George Conway wrote a sarcastic, bitter column, concluding, I believe the presidents call was perfect. I believe he is deeply concerned about corruption in Ukraine. George Conway live-tweeted his derision as the president celebrated last week in the East Room of the White House. Let it out, @realDonaldTrump. Let it all out, he mocked.

For someone who labored in Republican legal vineyards for decades  in the 1990s, he was a lawyer for Paula Jones, who accused Clinton of sexual misconduct  George Conway did not cut much of a swath in Washington social circles. He rode his wifes coattails into the nations capital.

But of late, he has surpassed her on Washingtons party circuit.

She was the superstar for 2 1/2 years, and now George is the superstar, said Sally Quinn, a journalist, author and Washington hostess who has been inviting George Conway, but not Kellyanne Conway, to her parties in Georgetown.

The Conways met in the summer of 1999, when George Conway was a securities lawyer and partner at the New York firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Kellyanne Conway was a Republican pollster who appeared frequently on television. George Conway told a mutual friend, conservative commentator Ann Coulter, that he wanted to meet Kellyanne, known then by her maiden name, Kellyanne Fitzpatrick. She drove out to a Hamptons beach house, rented by Coulter, and the couple remained planted at the houses kitchen table, chatting for hours.

They married in 2001 and moved into a Trump tower in Manhattan. George Conway impressed the future president by taking his side in a condo board battle over removing the name Trump from the building, and he introduced Kellyanne Conway to Trump.

Politics was less bruising then. In 2005, Kellyanne Conway teamed up with Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster, to write a book about how American women were erasing political lines. By reputation, Kellyanne Conway was smart and empathetic, the type who remembered birthdays and weddings.

The Conways now have four children: the twins, George IV and Claudia, 15; Charlotte, 11; and Vanessa, 10; and a pair of corgis, Skipper and Bonnie, which George Conway nicknamed Concerned and Troubled after the terms that Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has used to describe her reaction to Trumps behavior.

Friends say the Conways are staying together for their children, although the couple is not always in the same city. George Conway spent chunks of time last year in New York before leaving his firm, while Kellyanne Conway remained in Washington, where the Trump crowd has largely blackballed her husband.

In November, George Conway attended a Resistance party at the New York apartment of Molly Jong-Fast, an author and daughter of Erica Jong. Comedian Kathy Griffin posted a photograph on Instagram of George Conway hiding coyly behind liberal journalist Soledad OBrien. Nearby were E. Jean Carroll, a writer who has accused Trump of rape, and the Hillary Clinton stalwart Philippe Reines.

In Washington, George Conway tends to hole up in his home office, writing opinion pieces and firing away on Twitter. In a July piece titled Trump Is a Racist President, he wrote about the first time he heard someone tell his mother, who emigrated from the Philippines, Go back to your country.

The gulf between the Conways developed slowly before turning into a chasm. After Trumps victory, the Conways jumped into Washington with both feet, buying a 15,000-square-foot house with 8 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms. Kellyanne Conway Just Bought This $8 Million D.C. Mansion, blared Town & Country magazine, though George Conways legal partnership accounts for most of the couples net worth of about $40 million.

George Conway wept for joy on election night and called his wifes achievement the best thing that ever happened to her. He turned down two potential posts in the Justice Department, calling the administration a dumpster fire, though he told the president at the time that he supported him.

In those days, Kellyanne Conway went out alone, or with Adrienne Arsht, a philanthropist and arts patron with homes in Miami and across the street from the Conways. Arsht, who calls Kellyanne Conway a lovely neighbor, a great mother and a fabulous cook, played down their relationship.

Our garages face each other, so why not go out together to save on emissions? she asked.

Early on, George Conway tweeted his disapproval of the presidents tweets about the travel ban, then hastened to tweet his support for the president and my wonderful wife.

In February 2019, at a British Embassy party for female members of Congress, Kellyanne Conway approached Quinn, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd and NBC News journalist Andrea Mitchell.

It was like, Oh, I love your shoes, and what a great bag, blah blah, Quinn recalled, until she asked Kellyanne Conway about her husband, and Kellyanne Conway, she said, grew angry that Quinn had even brought him up. She just took off on all three of us, Quinn said. She really went crazy.

I said, Kellyanne, youre married, and youre working for the president, and hes writing against the president, Quinn recalled. Guess what? This is a story.

The next month, the Conway marriage appeared to have become an issue in the White House. Trump had spent the weekend of March 16 retweeting conspiracy theorists and insulting Sen. John McCain when George Conway tweeted, His condition is getting worse.

The next day, Brad Parscale, who now manages Trumps reelection campaign, tweeted that George Conway hurts his wife because he is jealous of her success. The president piled on, A total loser!

George Conway then gave an interview to The Washington Post, saying that he tweets so I can get it off my chest and move on with my life that day. He added, referring to his wife, Frankly, its so I dont end up screaming at her.

Trump clapped back: George Conway, often referred to as Mr. Kellyanne Conway by those who know him, is VERY jealous of his wifes success & angry that I, with her help, didnt give him the job he so desperately wanted. I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!

It fell to Kellyanne Conway to spin Trumps attacks on her spouse.

He left it alone for months out of respect for me, Kellyanne Conway said of the president in an interview with Politico. But you think he shouldnt respond when somebody, a nonmedical professional, accuses him of having a mental disorder?

George Conway has not let up. In October, he used clinical terms in The Atlantic to say Trumps narcissism made him unfit for office.

At Quinns home recently, George Conway and William F. Weld, the former Massachusetts governor and Trumps long-shot 2020 primary challenger, embraced like lost brothers, then posed for a photo with former Democratic presidential candidate and self-help author Marianne Williamson.

George Conway was one of the last to leave, Quinn recalled. He was just glowing, you know?

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Martin Haugh (right) is among the ex-Jehovah's Witnesses who have testified for a Pennsylvania grand jury that is investigating allegations that the church's leaders have covered up widespread reports of child sex abuse. Haugh and his wife, Jennifer, told The Inquirer in 2018 about abuse their daughter suffered as a small child. Read more

A Pennsylvania grand jury investigation is looking into widespread claims of sexual abuse within another religious denomination. On the heels of a 2018 probe into the Catholic Church, this investigation has set its focus on Jehovahs Witnesses  the often-misunderstood denomination founded in the state in the 1870s.

Also, advocates are asking Gov. Tom Wolf to do for Philadelphia School District students what he did to combat the opioid crisis years ago. They want him to issue a formal disaster declaration over asbestos.

 Ray Boyd (@RayBoydDigital, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

Recently, the existence of a Pennsylvania grand jury investigation into sexual abuse within Jehovahs Witnesses came to light. This week, The Inquirer interviewed five ex-Witnesses who have already testified before the grand jury in an investigation that aims to shatter the wall of silence that has long surrounded the religions leaders.

They are dead serious about going after [the Witnesses leaders] in any way they can, similar to the Catholic Church," said Jeffrey Fritz, a Philadelphia attorney who represents several ex-Witnesses. The faiths stated follower count is about eight million, with more than 7,000 in Philadelphia.

Court documents reveal ex-Witnesses who have detailed horrific sexual assaults suffered as minors and the churchs efforts to keep those stories from becoming public.

So far this school year, nine Philadelphia schools and an early-childhood program have been closed because of asbestos. Now, federal and local officials want Gov. Tom Wolf to issue a formal disaster declaration for the School District.

If Wolf issues the declaration, it would allow authorities to apply for federal disaster funding to expedite the cleanup and reopening of shuttered schools. Jerry Jordan, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president, said a Philadelphia declaration was necessary because we need something to happen now."

Wolf last month proposed approving $1 billion in state funding to schools for the remediation of asbestos and lead. But that is still just a proposal and might not find success in the Republican-controlled legislature. This week, Wolf said that Philadelphias asbestos problem has to be addressed quickly.

Inside their Main Line rug store, the Tehrani brothers are concerned about the drift of American feelings against Iranians  prompting them to remove their name from the shop. But theyre even more fearful of the disastrous trends facing the family business.

Their biggest problem: how to rejuvenate a high-end rug business in a world where buyers are opting for more modern and cheaper designs. The market for fine Persian rugs is not what it used to be. A rug that would have sold at the shop for $100,000 a decade ago might go for $40,000 today if not less.

Despite the struggles in the changing industry, the Tehrani brothers are sticking with it. Their love for the business drives them and it wont be swept under the rug.

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 Now thats a commuter perk right there. Thanks for sharing, @nickjmalf.

Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and well pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out!

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Proponents say public banks will offer fairer loans, and invest in community growth in ways private banks do not. But opponents counter that public banks are expensive to start. ... Should Philadelphia start a public bank?  The Inquirer opinion team turns experts on both sides of the issue to debate that question.

U.S. Attorney William McSwains remarks comparing sanctuary cities to slaveholders were offensive and bizarre, writes the Inquirer Editorial Board.

Columnist Albert Eisenberg breaks down and offers support for President Donald Trumps latest plan to offset carbon emissions and rebuild forests worldwide.

What were reading

In recent years, theres been a noticeable uptick of urgent care centers in Philly. But are they making the city healthier? Billy Penn has that story.

In the Atlantic, David Brooks takes a close look at the nuclear family  the idealized American household unit  and wonders what other family structures might serve people better.

Former NBA player Eddy Curry knows hes often the butt of jokes. Writing for the Players Tribune, he details a phone call he received in Philly that changed his life forever  and was the furthest thing from funny.

Your Daily Dose of |  & 

Besides keeping patrons well caffeinated and fed, Bennas Cafe in South Philly has a reputation for helping people find the loves of their lives  perhaps a good stop to make this Valentines Day.
Several shops in a congested market area were gutted after a fire broke out at Rajabazar area in central Kolkata on Sunday, fire department officials said.

Officials in the fire department said that the fire started around 2:10 pm. At least 12 tenders were pressed into action. The fire was brought under control by 4 pm.

The fire was brought under control after two hours. There were no injuries. The fire could have spread but 12 tenders brought it under control, said Sujit Bose, state fire and emergency services minister.

A senior official of the fire department said that fire first broke out in a shop which dealt with lamination. As it was a congested market area and shops were stacked with all kinds of inflammable articles including plastic, paints, adhesives, jute bags and stationery items the fire spread very fast.

Several LPG cylinders which were stored in the market exploded which helped the fire to spread. We managed to bring out some of cylinders, said a fire brigade official.

As it was a Sunday the market was closed and hence chances of anyone sustaining injuries were remote.

Around 2 pm some locals spotted smoke billowing out and informed the fire brigade. Locals rushed to the spot before the fire brigade arrived and started dousing the flames by pouring buckets of water.

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Vietnamese authorities on Thursday (February 13) quarantined a community of 10,000 people near the capital, Hanoi, for 20 days because of fears the coronavirus could spread there, two local officials told Reuters.

The rural commune of Son Loi, in the northern Vietnamese province of Vinh Phuc, 44 km (27 miles) from Hanoi, is home to 11 of the 16 coronavirus cases in the Southeast Asian country, including a three-month-old baby.

"The epidemic has affected the life of the villagers badly, especially farmers like me. We cannot sell our goods. No one would buy anything from us once they know we are from Son Loi, then they would avoid us as if we were spreading leprosy," a despondent local resident who chose to stay outside the quarantined zone before the lockdown, told Reuters.

The southeast Asia country has made plans to quarantine hundreds of its citizens returning from China, including 950 at military camps outside Hanoi, and another 900 at temporary facilities on the Vietnam-China border.
An employee walks past a Boeing 737 Max aircraft seen parked at the Renton Municipal Airport in Renton

By Eric M. Johnson and David Shepardson

SEATTLE/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co <BA.N> told the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration it does not believe it needs to separate or move wiring bundles on its grounded 737 MAX jetliner that regulators have warned could short circuit with catastrophic consequences, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

The FAA confirmed Friday it had received a proposal from the planemaker regarding the wiring issue.

The FAA will "rigorously evaluate Boeing's proposal to address a recently discovered wiring issue with the 737 MAX. The manufacturer must demonstrate compliance with all certification standards," the agency said in a statement.

The U.S. planemaker and FAA first said in early January they were reviewing a wiring issue that could potentially cause a short circuit on the 737 MAX, and under certain circumstances lead to a crash if pilots did not react in time.

A Boeing spokesman referred all questions on wiring to the FAA, saying the agency would make the final decision and that the company is answering questions from the FAA.

Boeing's 737 MAX was grounded worldwide last March after two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people within five months.

Boeing has spent months updating the stall-prevention software known as MCAS linked to both crashes, but fresh issues have surfaced, complicating regulators' efforts to re-approve the plane.

Given intense scrutiny of the 737 MAX, Boeing is sure to face questions about whether the MCAS system makes it harder for pilots to react in the event of a short circuit.

There are more than a dozen different locations on the 737 MAX where wiring bundles may be too close together. Most of the locations are under the cockpit in an electrical bay.

If the bundles pose a potential hazard, regulations would typically require separating the bundles or adding a physical barrier.

Boeing has noted in talks with the FAA that the same wiring bundles are in the 737 NG, which has been in service since 1997 and logged 205 million flight hours without any wiring issues.

Story continues

New safety rules on wiring were adopted in the aftermath of the 1998 Swiss Air 111 crash.

A company official told Reuters last month Boeing had been working on a design that would separate the wiring bundles, if necessary. Moving the bundles could pose further delays to the return of the MAX, however, and Reuters reported Thursday that a key certification test flight was not expected until April or later.

Three U.S. airlines this week pushed back the resumption of 737 MAX flights from June until August or later. Boeing has estimated U.S. officials would lift a safety ban on the aircraft around mid-year.

It is unclear whether the European Union Aviation Safety Agency will demand the MAX wiring bundles be separated. A spokeswoman for the agency on Thursday said regulators were "waiting for additional information from Boeing."

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese and Tom Brown)
South Korea announced on February 16 that it would evacuate Koreans that were quarantined on a Coronavirus stricken cruise ship in the Japanese port of Yokohama, according to the reports. This step was taken amid fears after 355 people were found to be infected with the virus.

The Minister of Health and Welfare Park Neung-hoo briefed that the government has decided to bring the Koreans home if they test negative from thermal screenings to be conducted by the Japanese authorities. The Diamond Princess operated by Carnival Corp has been quarantined since arriving in Yokohama on February 3 after a man who disembarked in Hong Kong before it travelled to Japan was diagnosed with the deadly virus. It was carrying a total of 3,700 passengers and crew on board, as per the reports.

READ: Coronavirus Outbreak: After Disappearing For Weeks, Kim Jong Un Attends Public Event

Canada to evacuate its citizens

Meanwhile, the Canadian government has said on February 15 that it has chartered a plane to evacuate Canadians on board the cruise ship Diamond Princess quarantined off the Japanese coast. The Japanese authorities had quarantined the cruise ship in Yokohama on February 4 after a previous passenger was tested positive for deadly Coronavirus.

The Canadian government has stated that the Diamond Princess which has nearly 3,700 passengers, includes 255 Canadians. The deadly virus now has killed at least 1,665 in China and more than 68,500 have been infected in China.

READ: Two More Indians On Board Cruise Ship Off Japanese Coast Test Positive For Coronavirus

US all set to evacuate its citizens

On the other hand, US government is also set to evacuate all American citizens from Diamond Princess, the cruise ship which quarantined on the Japanese port since early February, the US embassy in Japan said on Saturday. About 380 Americans are aboard the ship which has been quarantined on Yokohama, a port city near Tokyo.

READ: Amid Coronavirus Outbreak, Hong Kong Protesters Demand Full Closure Of China Border

A letter addressed to the passengers, which was posted on the US Embassy's official website read, "The aircraft will arrive in Japan on the evening of February 16. Buses will move you and your belongings from the ship to the aircraft. Passengers will be screened for symptoms and we are working with our Japanese partners to ensure that any symptomatic passengers receive the required care in Japan if they cannot board the flight. The aircraft will land in the United States at Travis Air Force Base in California. Some passengers will then continue onward to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. We will provide information about your final destination prior to boarding the plane."

READ: Nepal Government Evacuates 175 Nationals From Coronavirus-hit China

(With Agency Inputs)
While the nation has always experienced political divide, tensions, vitriol and uproar spiked after the 2016 presidential election, leaving citizens unsettled and less than civil to those on the opposite side of the spectrum.

Nearly four years later, the red-blue disconnect is as blatant as ever, but an organization called Better Angels is hoping to be part of solution, gathering Republicans and Democrats at workshops across the country for imperturbable, constructive conversation.

The intent is not to sway views on key issues but to better understand each other and how ones values and experiences inform their political philosophies. Most importantly, the goal is to recognize our common humanity.

Hosted by Great Rivers United Way, Better Angels will facilitate two free civil discourse workshops in La Crosse, with Depolarizing Within offered from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 23, at English Lutheran Church, 1509 King St., and a skills training from 2:30 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 10, at the Lunda Center, Western Technical College, 319 Seventh St. N.

United Way is known for connecting people and resources to bring about positive change, said Mary Kay Wolf, Great Rivers United Way executive director. Especially when we look at issues such as homelessness, substance abuse and mental health, we want people to focus on what unites them, not what divides them.

Depolarizing Within, led by Better Angels Wisconsin state coordinator Cameron Swallow, will help participants recognize ways they may be unwittingly contributing to polarization when speaking with those who share their views, and offer tips on thinking and expressing critically without being dismissive, stereotyping or demonizing specific groups.

We will (teach) practical techniques for when you find yourself being lit up  how to step back and get your blood pressure down and the temperature down in the discussion and take it into productive territory, Swallow says.

The skills training will be conducted by Better Angels Wisconsin co-director Susan Vergeront and will teach participants how to engage in non-polarizing discussions with those who disagree with them politically, as well as offer an opportunity to practice the skills onsite.

We want to see all citizens invested in the political process, says Mary Nugent, president of the League of Women Voters of the La Crosse Area. These workshops offer an opportunity for people of any political persuasion to think about the issues that matter to them and to have the skills to talk about them in a constructive manner.

Better Angels was founded shortly after the 2016 election, when Institute for American Values founder David Blankenhorn, living in New York, called Ohio-based friend and research fellow at the Institute for Family Studies David Lapp, hoping to gather a mix of Trump and Clinton supporters for a weekend of discussion.

The meeting was a success, and the group went on to train moderators across the country to hold Better Angels workshops, named for the line in Abraham Lincolns inaugural speech about appealing to the better angels of our nature.

Among the organizations and individuals eager to bring Better Angels to the Coulee Region were LeaderEthics Wisconsin, political analyst Joe Heim, UW-L political science assistant professor Anthony Chergosky, English Lutheran Church, Western Technical College and the League of Women Voters of the La Crosse Area.

In a release for the workshops, organizers refer to a spring 2019 poll from the Wall Street Journal and NBC, in which 57% of respondents agreed that social media sites do more to divide the country, and approximately a quarter of them had blocked someone on social media because of their political opinions. A fall 2019 poll from Pew Research found 81% of Republicans and Democrats find those belonging to the other party equally unfavorable.

Civil discourse has always been important and always been needed, but certainly its reached a crisis point, says Swallow, herself a blue raised by red.

Though liberal, Swallow leads Better Angels workshops from a neutral stance, as does Vergeront, a conservative. The goal is building bridges, Swallow says, and re-humanizing each other.

Most Better Angels attendees, Swallow notes, come ready to accept the premise of the workshops, but, thats doesnt mean everyone comes in arms open and ready for kumbaya and a hug.

Some people leave thrilled with a new technique, and some people leave nodding slowly, rubbing their chins and saying, Im not sure Im ready to try this yet, Swallow says.

Swallow admits the quest for political civility seems slow and arduous, but she fully believes face-to-face interaction is the most effective path.

Were not trying to change peoples minds about the issues, she says, referencing the Better Angels motto. Were trying to change peoples minds about each other.

To register for one or both Better Angels workshop, visit www.gruw.org/angels.

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Continuing with their probe into the drugs trail exposed by the arrest of dreaded gangster Sukhpreet Singh @Budha, the Punjab Police have traced further links of Jagdeep Singh alias Jagga (Billa) and Gurvinder Singh (Pehalwan), who were arrested three days ago, to expose a powerful nexus of the big fish leading to Pakistan links.

Pakistan sim cards have been recovered from the duo, both r/o village Kot Dharam Chand Kalan P.S Jhabal, District Taran Taran, according to a police spokesperson, who disclosed that the accused were arrested in a joint operation of the Organized Crime Control Unit (OCCU) and SAS Nagar Police. They were booked in FIR no. 61 dated 13-02-2020 under Section 21 of NDPS ACT PS City Kharar, along with 1kg heroin.

Read: Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) busts 1300 cr drug cartel operating internationally

The investigations into the racket, in which around two dozen big fish have been apprehended so far, are led by DSP Bikram Brar under the supervision of Gurmeet Chauhan, AIG SSOC and RN Dhoke, ADGP IS.

Investigations so far have revealed that the duo, who had been absconding since 2014-15, had received a large quantity of heroin and fake Indian currency from Pakistan through various routes via different modes. They had been wanted by Directorate Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Rajasthan Police and Punjab Police in cases related to receiving huge consignments of heroin from Pakistan.

Read: India is vulnerable to trafficking of narcotics: Officials

Link with Pak dealers through Hawala

Both Jagga and Pehalwan had evaded arrest for the past five years by operating as transporters in through their own Dhillon Transport company, with a transport route spanning New Delhi to Madhya Pradesh. They had reportedly set up their own empire with the drug money and had purchased a new house at Makhu district in Ferozepur, along with five new trucks bought from New Delhi. They had also purchased about 4 acres of agricultural land at Kot Dharam Chand, Dist Tarn Taran.

Investigations have revealed huge money transactions in their bank accounts, said the spokesperson, adding that the initial interrogation of the men had shown that they received drug money transferred by Pakistan dealers through Hawala.

Jagdeep Singh @ Jagga had been involved in cross-border smuggling of heroin since 2008 when he first started using Pak SIM cards too. He came in contact with Gurvinder Singh @Pehalwan the same year, and later connected with Abad Ali @Baadi @ Baadli of Pakistan.

Read: Zero tolerance policy towards narcotics: HM Amit Shah

Jagga received the drug consignments from Jecka Pehalwan and Abad Ali, both Pakistanis, in the area of villages Rajetal and Mahawa drain near the Attari border by using Pakistan sim cards, which were functional in this region. He also used to procure drug consignment from Bodi Lamma r/o Pakistan, near Fazilka-Ferozepur border.

Drugs transported from Pak via river route

According to the spokesperson, Jagga came in contact with Malik, r/o village Narwad of Pakistan, in the year 2015, and had been receiving huge consignments of drugs from Pakistan from the latter since then. He received most of his drug consignments from Pakistan through the Ravi River and from the fencing in the plastic tubes. He used Alto, Lancer, Swift, Truck and Tata Sumo vehicles of his associate Mahinder Singh @Minda for transportation of the drugs. In Tata sumo, he had made hidden boxes below the rear seat to conceal the drugs. The drug money was transferred to Pakistan dealers through Hawala.

After his arrested twice in NDPS cases, Jagga started using WhatsApp on an international number. He was initially arrested in a Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) case of 13kg heroin registered in the year 2009. He was convicted to 10 years imprisonment in 2011 in this case but jumped the parole in 2014. He was again arrested by DRI in a 42kg heroin case in January 2015. He fled from police custody during his court appearance at Tarn Taran in this case in October 2015 and was absconding since then.

Incidentally, Gurdev Singh, father of Jagdeep Singh @Jagga, was also convicted for 11 years imprisonment in a drug case of 2005. He got parole and jumped the parole in 2014 and is still absconding.

Pehalwan, a cousin of Jagga, had been absconding since 2014 in a case of 10 kg heroin seizure. To evade arrest, he had changed his appearance and had started tying a turban.

Read: Three held with narcotics

(Image Credits-PTI)
She loves to documents her romantic life and grueling fitness routines with her 7.2million Instagram followers.

And Sarah Hyland fans got a double dose of the starlet for Valentine's Day Friday.

The Modern Family star was seen making some silly faces while stopping by her usual gym haunt, the Dogpound in Los Angeles, California.

The incredibly candid star, 29, also took the occasion to load up her Instagram with both a multi-picture gallery as well as a sprawling Instagram Story showing several smoochy photos of her and her fiance Wells Adams locked in various romantic embraces.

Turn that frown upside down: On Saturday, Sarah Hyland was seen at her usual gym haunt, the Dogpound in Los Angeles, making some silly faces while holding her phone

Sarah's gym outfit consisted of a red sweatshirt brandishing the words 'Humanity, love, equality, hope, acceptance, pride' and black leggings, along with black Nike trainers.

Her hair was in a messy bun, and she wore her habitual large spectacles.

Hyland also carried her black purse on her shoulder, along with a tote bag decorated with a ballerina.

On her Instagram Story, the actress greeted fans from the gym, with a photo of herself squatting under a handlebar.

Athleisure: Sarah's gym outfit consisted of a red sweatshirt brandishing the words 'Humanity, love, equality, hope, acceptance, pride' and black leggings, along with black Nike trainers

Mulling things over: Her hair was in a messy bun, and she wore her habitual large spectacles

Over the image, she wrote, 'Happy Valentine's Day  love, a @dogpound gym rat'

After several additional snippets showing her intense gym routine, Hyland's Story changed when she got home, to find a swanky pink Gucci gift bag.

'I come home to THIS?!' she exclaimed in the image. 'I have the most amazing fiance/Valentine everrrr'

Gym rat: On her Instagram Story, the actress greeted fans from the gym, with a photo of herself squatting under a handlebar

What's inside? After several additional snippets showing her intense gym routine, Hyland's Story changed when she got home, to find a swanky pink Gucci gift bag

What followed was a stream of romantic pictures of the couple kissing in various settings, including Paris, France.

Wells also posted the smoochy slideshow.

Additionally, Sarah posted a sweet gallery to her feed, showing further snaps of her and Adams in various poses and embraces, along with a heartfelt caption.

Lots of love: What followed was a stream of romantic pictures of the couple kissing in various settings, including Paris, France

'My Funny Valentine  You bring so much laughter and love to everyone you meet, and I cant believe I get to marry the most amazing man in the world. How did I get so lucky? To Pluto and Back Baby. '

The Bachelor in Paradise hunk and the Modern Family star got engaged last July, but a specific date has not yet been set.

The pair met over social media, when Wells started flirting with Sarah over the summer of 2017 on Twitter, after she publicly said she was crushing on the Bachelorette star on the same platform.

It keeps coming: Additionally, Sarah posted a sweet gallery to her feed, showing further snaps of her and Adams in various poses and embraces, along with a heartfelt caption
16.02.2020 LISTEN

The President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo-Dankwa Akuffo Addo on Saturday 15th February 2020 joined members of his party to mourning with the family of Rev. Alex Acheampong, Chairman of NPP Germany during the final funeral rites of his late wife, Mrs. Irene Acheampong at NARPO Hotel, Achimota in the Greater Accra region.

The President was accompanied by the General Secretary of the Ruling NPP, John Boadu and other dignified members of the party including Hon Ken Agyepong, Assin Central MP, Mr. Stephen Ntim, Board Chairman of Lands Commission, Hon Hopeson Adorye, NPP Parliamentary Candidate for Kpone Katamanso, MR. Emmanuel Attafuah-Danso, Director of International Affairs, Hon Peter Mensah, DCE of Techiman North, and the Women's wing of NPP led by Volta & Greater Accra Regional Women's Organizer.

The Loyal Ladies were there in their numbers to do their best of service as Ushers for the entire funeral process.

The President received resounding cheers from the entire gathering at the funeral in an expression to their uncontrollable love for President Akuffo Addo for fulfilling his campaign promises.

A statement read on behalf of the President emphasized that indeed the President and for that matter, the NPP fraternity home and abroad acknowledges the tireless contribution of Rev Alex Acheampong as leader of the NPP Germany especially before, during and after the 2016 general election as well as his continuous support to the President and the NPP to actualize its mandate of transforming the lives of all Ghanaians.

The capacity of Rev Alex Acheampong as a diaspora chairman drew the Executive members of almost all the External branches of the New Patriotic Party including USA, Italy, Germany, China, Spain, South Africa to give a very triumphant representation to support Rev Alex and his family to mourn his late wife.

The family of the bereaved chairman of NPP Germany expressed their profound appreciation to the President and the entire NPP fraternity home and in the Diaspora for showing great love and support for Rev Alex Acheampong during this trying moment.

---Kwabena Antwi/ThepressRadio.com
RCMP began enforcing an injunction earlier this month that prevents interference with construction of a $6.6-billion natural gas pipeline in northern British Columbia.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/2/2020 (695 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RCMP began enforcing an injunction earlier this month that prevents interference with construction of a $6.6-billion natural gas pipeline in northern British Columbia.

Here is a timeline of the dispute, along with rail disruptions by people showing solidarity with the hereditary Wet'suwet'en chiefs opposing the Coastal GasLink project:

Dec. 31, 2019  The B.C. Supreme Court grants Coastal GasLink an injunction calling for the removal of any obstructions including cabins and gates on any roads, bridges or work sites the company has been authorized to use.

Jan. 1, 2020  The Wet'suwet'en First Nation serves Coastal GasLink with an eviction notice, telling the company workers are "currently trespassing" on their unceded territory.

Jan. 27  The British Columbia government appoints former New Democrat MP Nathan Cullen as a provincial liaison with Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs in the LNG pipeline dispute.

Jan. 30  The hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en agree to seven days of meetings with the province.

Feb. 5  The talks that were intended to de-escalate the dispute fail after just two days.

Feb. 6  Protesters in Belleville, Ont., east of Toronto, start holding up railway traffic.

Feb. 7  Via Rail halts service along one of its busiest routes because of the Belleville blockade. All travel between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal is cancelled. Canadian National Railway obtains a court injunction to end a demonstration by members of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory near Belleville. Protesters also begin disruptions at ports in Vancouver and Delta, B.C.

Feb. 8  Protesters in Toronto disrupt Canadian Pacific Railway traffic moving through the downtown.

Feb. 9  Kahnawake Mohawk community members south of Montreal erect a blockade on a CP rail line.

Feb. 10  Demonstrators in the Montreal area disrupt commuter train service on the Exo Candiac line. A shuttle bus service is in effect for affected rail stations.

Feb. 11  CN stops transport between Prince George, B.C., and Prince Rupert, B.C., because of a blockade near Hazelton, B.C. The company says it has halted more than 150 freight trains since blockades started on Feb. 6.

Feb. 12  The Manitoba government says it may seek a court injunction to end a blockade on a rail line west of Winnipeg, but CN obtains its own court order. The RCMP also formally end enforcement operations in a region of northern B.C. that's at the centre of the pipeline dispute. Two hereditary Wet'suwet'en chiefs start a constitutional challenge of fossil fuel projects, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls for demonstrators across the country to observe the rule of law.

Feb. 13  CN shuts down its operations in Eastern Canada. The railway says blockades have ended in Manitoba and may come down soon in British Columbia, but the orders of a court in Ontario have yet to be enforced and continue to be ignored.

Feb. 14  A rail blockade that halted train traffic to and from the Port of Prince Rupert is lifted as First Nations leaders agree to meet with federal and provincial politicians. A date for that sit-down is to be arranged. CN spokesman Jonathan Abecassis says the blockade was removed overnight.

Feb. 15  Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller says "modest progress" was made in talks with the Mohawk First Nation over a rail blockade that's shut down train service across much of Eastern Canada. But Miller declined to say what progress was made after nine hours of meetings on Tyendinaga Mohawk territory near Belleville, Ont., saying he would deliver that message to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directly.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2020.
London-based Kite Lake Capital took out a short position in shopping centre owner Intu

A hedge fund which cashed in on the collapses of a string of high-profile companies has bet against embattled shopping centre owner Intu Properties.

London-based Kite Lake Capital took out a short position in the owner of the Trafford Centre in Manchester and Lakeside in Essex earlier this month, according to FCA data.

Intu is struggling to raise 1billion to trim its 4.7billion debt pile despite having a market value of just 165million.

Last week, Hong Kong investor Link Real Estate Investment Trust pulled out of a deal to lead the fundraise.

Intu claims to be optimistic that it can raise the funds and its largest shareholder Peel Group is said to be supportive.

Kite Lake, whose bet against Intu is worth about 1.1million, is a small hedge fund which launched in 2010.

It has 'shorted' shares in tour operator Thomas Cook, construction giants Carillion and Interserve, and oil firm Afren, making millions of pounds as each went to the wall.

Short-selling is when investors borrow shares, sell them, buy them back for a lower price, then return them to the original owner for a profit.

Others betting against Intu include Brexiteer Crispin Odey, whose hedge fund has a short position accounting for more than 3 per cent of the firm.

Intu declined to comment. Kite Lake did not respond to requests for comment.
A billion dollar industry dependent on one factory in California? Thats physical manufacturing, so perhaps not. The factory, where 75 percent of the worlds blank lacquers were made, burned in early February. Pressing plants and mastering engineers are assessing the future. Some have expressed fear that the fire will disrupt the global production of new album releases and slow the seemingly endless supply of reissues that major labels churn out.  Los Angeles Times
A mother-of-three is stranded in the Dominican Republic after her toyboy husband whom she met on Facebook allegedly conned her out of her life savings.

Claire Alcantara, 46, from Dudley, West Midlands, fell for student Franklin Alcantara, who is 12 years her junior, after they connected online in 2013.

Despite her daughters' warnings, the former teaching assistant moved him into her home and even ditched her British passport to become an Irish citizen and secure him a spousal visa.

After two years she sold up and moved to his home country in the Caribbean and claims to have funded the renovation of his family's home.

She said she bought Franklin a 10,000 Jeep and pumped money into their 'joint account', which she says later transpired to be solely in his name.

Claire Alcantara, 46, from Dudley, West Midlands, fell for Franklin Alcantara, who is 12 years her junior, after they connected online in 2013

After announcing he was going to be working away for several months, Franklin disappeared - and is now living illegally in the UK with another woman.

Meanwhile Claire is stuck in the Dominican Republic 'penniless and heartbroken', with no money to pay for a ticket home.

She told the Sunday Mirror: 'I spent all my money on Franklin and can't afford the flight. I should never have sacrificed a thing for him.'

Claire told how she and Franklin began messaging on Facebook after he liked one of her photos.

Having just come out of a 'terrible' divorce, she described him as 'good-looking' with the 'body of a god' and they started talking on Skype daily.

After six months, Claire applied for a tourist visa for Franklin to visit the UK, but her application was rejected.

After announcing he was going to be working away for several months, Franklin (pictured with Claire) disappeared - and is now living illegally in the UK with another woman

Instead she flew to the Caribbean for a month, where she claims she began spending money on doing up his family home.

The couple got married in the Dominican Republic in October 2013 - despite Claire's adult daughters warning her against it.

After receiving a series of rejections to bring Franklin to Britain by immigration, Claire decided to apply for an Irish passport - the country of her father's birth.

She told how she was advised UK law would override EU law, so she opted to give up her British citizenship to became an EU citizen living in the UK, meaning Franklin was granted a UK visa as the spouse of an EU worker.

Claire moved her husband into her home in June 2014 and opened a joint account in the Dominican Republic to fund the building of a flat on top of her father-in-law's house, costing 15,000.

The couple moved to the Caribbean for good in December 2017, with Claire selling her home in the UK.

Despite her daughters' warnings, former teaching assistant Claire moved Franklin into her home and even ditched her British passport to become an Irish citizen and secure him a spousal visa. Pictured: Claire on her wedding day with her friend Angelo Belen, who acted as a witness

In March 2018, after a series of rows with Franklin, Claire contacted the British Embassy for advice and was informed their joint account was in her husband's name - which she said caused her to faint with shock.

When she confronted him, she said he told her it was a misunderstanding, but days later announced his plans to work abroad.

When three months became six, Claire got suspicious and investigated, only to discover her husband had moved to the UK and set up home with another woman.

She is now living in a shack with a new boyfriend in Santo Domingo, working a 'very low-paid job', after Franklin's family allegedly evicted her for reporting him to immigration.

Franklin told the Sunday Mirror he is due to be deported next month, adding that he had a good relationship with Claire until they moved to the Dominican Republic because she 'couldn't live with her daughter'.

Claire moved her husband into her home in June 2014 and opened a joint account in the Dominican Republic (pictured: stock image) to fund the building of a flat on top of her father-in-law's house, costing 15,000

'I wanted to stay in England,' he said, adding that Claire was the one who suggested they renovated his father's home, at a cost of 6,000.

He went on to admit he did lie about going to Punta Cana to work when he returned to the UK, claiming Claire would have refused to go with him because it's 'too cold'.

Franklin said his new girlfriend dumped him after Claire got in touch with her and refuted her claim she spent 40,000 on him, adding that he had a house and a job but now his ex has 'ruined everything'.

He said they bought the car together, insisted he gave her 3,000 back after their split, and denied the joint account was only in his name.

'She spent all the money but not on me,' Franklin told the publication.
(CNN)  The UK has been battered by gale force winds and heavy rains for the second weekend in a row as a cluster of storms continues to cross the Atlantic.

Storm Dennis has seen flood warnings across large parts of the country as the storm picked up Saturday and lasted into Sunday.

There were wind gusts as high as 91mph (146km/h) and more than half a month's worth of rainfall in some areas, according to a tweet from the Met Office.

More heavy rain and "very strong winds" are forecast through Sunday, said the UK's official weather forecaster.

By early Sunday morning there were 198 flood warnings in place across the country, reports PA Media, which mean immediate action must be taken. There were also a further 326 flood alerts, which warn the public to be prepared.

South Wales is one of the worst-hit areas and the situation is said to be "life-threatening." The Met Office has issued a red warning after heavy rainfall raised the risk of flooding.

"The forecast is for very significant levels of rain, especially in the eastern valleys of South Wales," said Jeremy Parr, head of flood and incident risk management for Natural Resources Wales.

"Impacts could be severe overnight, and everyone should take the warnings extremely seriously."

High winds are also possible on Sunday in Belgium, Denmark, France and Germany.

British Airways and easyJet grounded flights for safety reasons, with the budget airline confirming 230 cancellations on Saturday, according to PA.

Last weekend Storm Ciara caused hundreds of flights across Europe to be canceled, with two of Europe's busiest airports -- Frankfurt, Germany, and Amsterdam, Netherlands -- each grounding more than 100 flights due to the storm.

This story was first published on CNN.com. "Storm Dennis strikes UK sparking flood warnings and evacuations."
Despite virus being detected in more than two dozen countries, one of Asias most populous nations is yet to report a single case.

The latest coronavirus, COVID-19, has now been detected in more than two dozen countries, but one of Asias most populous nations is yet to report a single case.

Indonesians who were evacuated from Wuhan have been released from quarantine with a clean bill of health.

But as Al Jazeeras Jessica Washington reports from Bali, concerns are growing over high-transit areas in the country.
InterUrban ArtHouse in downtown Overland Park will receive the Arts Innovation Award from ArtsKC at its 17th annual awards luncheon Feb. 20 at the Kansas City Convention Center.

Local Jewish artist Nicole Emanuel founded InterUrban ArtHouse in 2011 and is its artistic director. Its mission is to enrich the cultural and economic vibrancy of the community by creating a place where artists and creative industries can work and prosper in an affordable, sustainable and inclusive environment, according to its website (interurbanarthouse.org).
The Israeli military today said it had thwarted a honey trap phone hack by Hamas militants posing as glamorous young women on social media to seduce its soldiers.

Smartphones of dozens of soldiers were targeted by the Islamists, but the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said the catfishing was detected early and no major secrets were leaked by its men.

The terrorists attempted to seduce the men into downloading a Snapchat-like app where racy photos could be exchanged, but this was actually a malware virus which would steal data from the phones.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told reporters on Sunday: 'We do not assess there is any significant breach of information.'

The Israeli Defense Forces tweeted this morning: 'Hamas created fake social media profiles, using photos including this one, in an attempt to hack the phones of IDF soldiers. What Hamas didnt know was that Israeli intelligence caught onto their plot, tracked the malware & downed Hamas hacking system. #CatfishCaught'

A fake Facebook profile deployed by Hamas to lure Israeli soldiers into a honey trap designed to seduce them into installing malware on their phones

Conricus said this was the third attempt by Hamas to target male soldiers through fake social media accounts, most recently in July 2018. But he said this latest attempt was by far the most sophisticated.

He said Hamas used a number of social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Telegram, to make contact with unsuspecting soldiers.

Posing as young women on social media, the group struck up friendships with the soldiers, sending photos, texts and voice messages to them.

The 'women' claimed to be new immigrants to explain their poor Hebrew, and even claimed to be deaf or hard of hearing as an excuse for texting, instead of speaking directly on the phone, Conricus said.

The profiles appeared on multiple platforms, and Conricus said the photos were disguised to make it difficult to 'reverse track' them, giving the accounts additional authenticity.

The 'women' claimed to be new immigrants to explain their poor Hebrew, and even claimed to be deaf or hard of hearing as an excuse for texting, instead of speaking directly on the phone, Conricus said

The profiles appeared on multiple platforms, and he said the photos were disguised to make it difficult to 'reverse track' them, giving the accounts additional authenticity.

'We see that the level of social engineering is much higher and much more advanced and sophisticated when compared to previous attempts done by Hamas,' he said. 'We see that they're of course learning and upping their game.'

Eventually, they sent the soldiers links to 'seduce' them into downloading what they said was a Snapchat-like app to exchange photos that could quickly disappear, Conricus said.

'We see that the level of social engineering is much higher and much more advanced and sophisticated when compared to previous attempts done by Hamas,' Conricus said. 'We see that they're of course learning and upping their game.'

Hamas used a number of social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Telegram, to make contact with unsuspecting soldiers

In reality, the links were to three malware programs - Catch&See, ZatuApp and GrixyApp - that allowed Hamas to gain access to the soldiers' phones.

He said it was 'very clear' that Hamas was behind the effort. He said the malware linked to known Hamas servers and at least one of the profiles had been used in a previous Hamas scam. There was no immediate comment from Hamas

Conricus declined to say how many soldiers had been targeted. But he said that dozens had downloaded the malware.

He said soldiers had reported the suspicious activity relatively early on, allowing the army and the Shin Bet internal security service to monitor their phones. It is now in the process of removing the malware, he said.

The links were to three malware programs - Catch&See (pictured), ZatuApp and GrixyApp - that allowed Hamas to gain access to the soldiers' phones

Israel and Hamas, an Islamic movement that seeks Israel's destruction, are bitter enemies that have fought three wars and numerous skirmishes since the group seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

The enemy sides have been holding indirect talks through Arab and U.N. mediators aimed at reaching a long-term truce under which Israel would ease a blockade on the Gaza Strip in exchange for Hamas assurances to maintain quiet.

But low-level fighting has persisted. Early Sunday, Israel carried out a number of airstrikes on Hamas targets in Gaza in response to the firing of two projectiles from Gaza into southern Israel. No casualties were reported on either side.
FREEPORT, Minn. -- An 82-year-old man died in a house fire early Friday, Feb. 14.

Emergency personnel responded to the fire just south of Freeport at about 9 a.m. Friday, according to a release from the Stearns County Sheriff's Office.

When they arrived the house was on fire and soon was fully engulfed, the release said. Witnesses who called in the fire said they believed the homeowner was still inside. After the fire was put out, firefighters found the body of Harvey Mayers inside the house. The state Fire Marshal is investigating the cause of the fire. No one else was injured.
Ranveer Singh's stylist Nitasha Gaurav once said in an interview that the actor refuses to keep it conventional when it comes to styling his outfits. He makes sure that he's wearing something bizarre and out of ordinary. Now, here's the thing. The inspiration comes from everything around him is what makes his outfits, even more interesting. The fact that you'll never see him in something regular like his fellow Bollywood actors, has become his signature.

Case in point: pulling off an outfit inspired by Arthur Fleck in Joker or even Queen. For a recent outfit, Ranveer dressed in an outfit of what seemed like golden tin foil used to wrap sweet boxes.

Take a look here:

 Twitter

For 65th Amazon Filmfare Awards 2020, while everyone was dressed in formals, Ranveer chose to wear a head to toe Louis Vuitton outfit that consisted of a gender-fluid golden blazer and loose breezy pants along with a black hat to complete the look.



The whole vibe of the outfit was very different from what we've seen before. It looked like the actor was aiming to dress up as a character as one would do in a Halloween party. The outfit also looks like a sweet box that people get as return gifts from a wedding, quite literally!

 Twitter

But, this is not the first time Ranveer has donned something out of the box. He's also previously worn the famous Joker suit. In fact, he's set the tone when it comes to maximalist fashion and has made these trends acceptable.


BART's El Cerrito del Norte station was closed much of Saturday afternoon and night as BART police detectives investigated an officer-involved shooting that left a young adult male with "life-threatening injuries," BART police chief Ed Alvarez said.

Officers were called at about 2 p.m. Saturday for a report of a domestic disturbance on a northbound train involving a young man and a young woman, Alvarez said during a news conference outside the El Cerrito del Norte station. The two were having an argument, Alvarez said, and the caller to police said she saw a handgun in the suspect's waistband.

BART officers boarded the train and confronted the suspect at gunpoint, Alvarez said; the suspect then ran out of the train, onto the station platform and then onto the tracks. Alvarez said the suspect displayed a handgun while on the trackway, and police fired at him at that point, Alvarez said.

The suspect was then taken to a nearby hospital, where he was being treated for life-threatening injuries Saturday night.

Two BART officers were directly involved with the incident, Alvarez said; it wasn't immediately known how many shots were fired.

"Our officers reacted the way they were trained to react," Alvarez said. "They did a good job."

The El Cerrito del Norte and Richmond stations reopened at about 10 p.m. Saturday.

A 23-year-old Brentwood man was killed Saturday night when the car he was driving veered off Fairview Avenue and into a tree, police said.

The accident, reported about 5:10 p.m. Saturday, happened on Fairview between Central Boulevard and San Jose Avenue. The driver, the only occupant of the vehicle, was found unresponsive and had to be extricated from the vehicle. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

The victim's name was being withheld pending notification of family.

A preliminary investigation suggests no other vehicles were involved, and that alcohol does not appear to have been a factor in the accident.

North County Fire Authority firefighters at about 10:15 p.m. Saturday knocked down a two-alarm blaze at a house at 1137 Hanover St. near Crocker Avenue on Daly City's northeast edge, fire officials said.

The fire was first reported at 9:17 p.m. Saturday, and caused serious damage to the main section of the house, firefighters said.

The North County Fire Authority, which provides fire protection in Brisbane, Daly City and Pacifica, has asked the public avoid that area "for the next several hours."

There was no immediate word on injuries.

A 75-year-old man on Death Row at San Quentin State Prison in connection with a January 1991 first-degree murder died Saturday morning at a hospital away from the Marin County prison, of unknown causes, the California Department of Corrections said.

John Abel had been in prison since 1992 on multiple armed robbery counts when, in 1995, he was connected to a fatal January 1991 shooting at a Tustin bank. An Orange County jury sentenced Abel to death on Sept. 26, 1997 for first-degree murder during the commission of the Tustin robbery and for lying in wait.

The cause of Abel's death is unknown pending the results of an autopsy, but the CDC said Saturday that foul play is not suspected

Since 1978, when California reinstated capital punishment, 82 condemned inmates have died from natural causes, 27 have committed suicide, 13 were executed in California, one was executed in Missouri, one was executed in Virginia, 14 have died from other causes and seven - including Abel - are pending a cause of death.

There are currently 728 people on California's death row.

A pedestrian was seriously injured Saturday night near the intersection of Lombard and Steiner Streets in San Francisco's Cow Hollow neighborhood, police said.

Police were called about 8:27 p.m. Saturday to that intersection on a report of a vehicle collision, said police Officer Robert Rueca. Officers arrived to find a pedestrian with life-threatening injuries. That pedestrian was taken to a local hospital.

The driver involved in the collision remained on the scene, Rueca said, and it had not been determined as of late Saturday night whether drugs and/or alcohol played a part in this accident.

Nonprofits planning events in Santa Rosa are being encouraged to apply for grant funding if that event helps promote the city and its residents.

The City Council has a budget of up to $125,000 in Community Promotion Funding that can take the form of cash or city services for events.

The events must take place within the city between this July 1 and June 30, 2021, should generate revenue for local businesses, have broad-based participation and be open to the public. This Community Promotion grant cannot be the event's sole source of funding or go toward salaries.

The deadline to apply for a grant is 5 p.m. on March 5. Applicants will be notified of their status after the City Council's budget hearings in June.

More information about the grants can be found online at https://srcity.org/1372/Community-Promotions-Funding.

Urgent repairs to a bridge on Old Stage Road at El Gabilan Creek in Monterey County will begin on Tuesday and continue through the end of the month, the county Resource Management Agency announced.

The column on the 71-year-old bridge, about 1-1/4 miles from the Old Stage Road and Crazy Horse Canyon intersection, has degraded to a degree that the allowable weight limit to five tons.

Temporary bracing will be installed to bring the bridge back to its previous weight capacity.

Work will be done from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays through Feb. 28, and the county said it will try to avoid lane closures during peak morning and afternoon travel hours. Drivers should expect periodic lane closures and other delays of up to five minutes.

Sunday will be mostly cloudy. Highs will be in the mid 50s to lower 60s. West winds will be 10 to 20 mph.

Sunday night will be mostly cloudy. Lows will be near 50 degrees. West winds will be 10 to 20 mph before switching to north winds of 5 mph after midnight.

Monday will be partly cloudy in the morning before becoming sunny. Highs will be in the upper 50s to the mid 60s. North winds will be 10 to 20 mph.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Teenager, 16, Shot Dead In Sydney May Have Been Targeted Police Say

New South Wales police on Feb. 16, said they have launched an investigation into a shooting which took place in Sydneys west over the weekend.

Officials said emergency services were called to Cabramatta Avenue in the suburb of Miller following reports of a shooting just after 11 p.m. on Saturday Feb. 15 and officers from Liverpool City Police Area Command attended and found a 16-year-old male with a gunshot wound to his chest.

Ambulance paramedics attempted to revive the teenager, who officials did not name, but he died at the scene.

According to The Australian, the victim is Omar Elomar, a relative of notorious ISIS terrorist Mohamed Elomar and his Sydney-based brother, Ahmed Elomar. The teenager, however, has no criminal history.

Mohamed Elomar left Sydney to fight for the terrorist group in 2013 before he was killed by a coalition air strike in Syria two years later. Ahmed Elomar served three years in jail for assaulting a police officer during the 2012 Hyde Park riots.

Omar Elomar worked in accounting at a business run by his family. His cousin Saad Aboulhaf told The Daily Telegraph he was just an innocent kid who had no interest drugs, alcohol, or partying.

Every day I picked him up, took him to work, hes just a nice blokek mate, Aboulhaf told the news outlet.

This is a kid that goes to work every day, starts at six in the morning, goes till about three-thirty or five oclock and goes home.

Meanwhile, Chief Superintendent Adam Whyte from the Liverpool City Command said the shooting appeared to be targeted and urged anyone involved should turn themselves in as soon as possible.

The incident is not randomit was targetedhowever, at this stage it is very early in the investigation, Superintendent Whyte told reporters.

My message to all those involved is, youre best to hand yourselves in to Liverpool police. Its a tragic crime, any sort of firearm or violent crime is tragic. We will investigate it thoroughly.

Whyte also thanked passersby at the scene who initially gave the victim CPR.

Following his confirmed death, Omar Elomars sister Shayma posted a heartfelt tribute on Facebook to her brother, saying he was a beautiful soul whos smile could light up any room.

Last night somebody thought it was ok to take away one of the two and only brothers that I have. I have no more ambition for life! I no longer believe in this cruel world! You took our hearts with you!, she wrote.

Anyone who knew this beautiful soul knew how happy and amazing he was, his smile could light up any dark room!! Omar wanted to be a lawyer! Omar was going places in life!!
Update: March 11, 2020  US Department of Commerce has extended the Temporary General License (TGL) for HUAWEI through May 15, 2020 and said that it has provided this opportunity to receive input from public.

Earlier: According to an announcement made by the US Department of Commerce, HUAWEI will be allowed to continue operation in its network communication systems for another 45 days compared to 90 days usually. This Temporary General License (TGL) was extending to give rural telecommunication providers more time to identify alternatives to HUAWEI for future operation.

It seems as though telecommunication companies in the US are struggling to find other secure network alternatives to HUAWEI, especially rural companies. The Department of Commerce had already extended TGLs in the past, the most recent one being in November which extended the license for another 90 days. During this time, HUAWEI and foreign affiliates will not be allowed to acquire any American technology or used in a manner that undermines U.S. national security or foreign policy interests.

HUAWEI was added on to the Entity list last year by the USA Department of Commerce. The reason provided by the US government was that they concluded the company posed a significant risk of involvement in activities that compromised national security or foreign policy interests of the United States. These conclusions were made after multiple reports arose claiming that HUAWEI gave a backdoor access in its network infrastructure to the Chinese government and was likely leaking sensitive information to them. Another factor in this decision was the ongoing trade war between the US and China governments.

It is unclear as to whether HUAWEI will ever be removed from the entity list at all or whether they have to completely withdraw operations once US companies find alternatives to them.

Source
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The 66-year-old woman who abducted her granddaughter at gunpoint from Ochsner Hospital in Jefferson Parish on Friday has been found, Jefferson Parish officials said.

Evelyn Miller was found at a hotel in Bogalusa around 5 p.m. Saturday, said Capt. Jason Rivarde, spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, and she was arrested by the Washington Parish Sheriff's Office.

Metairie woman takes granddaughter at gunpoint from Ochsner hospital Friday evening: JPSO Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office deputies are searching for a woman who brandished a gun at Ochsner Medical Center staffers while demanding t

Miller's 12-year-old granddaughter, Adreana, was found during the arrest and was unharmed.

Rivarde said Miller will be extradited to Jefferson Parish.

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Miller pointed a gun at a security guard and other staffers while demanding her granddaughter's release from the hospital on Friday, the JPSO said.

While escaping with the child, Miller pushed one nurse to the ground and struck a security guard with her vehicle, deputies said. However, no one was injured.

Louisiana State Police issued a Level II child endangerment alert after the two left the hospital around 5 p.m.

'Child endangerment alert' issued after woman takes granddaughter at gunpoint from Ochsner Louisiana State Police have issued a Level II child endangerment alert and are asking for the public's help to find 12-year-old Andreana Mille

An arrest warrant was issued for Miller for simple kidnapping, five counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, two counts of simple battery and violation of a firearm-free zone, deputies said.
Scio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked the Federal Government to disclose within 7 days of the receipt and/or publication of our Freedom of Information requests the exact amount of public funds stolen by a former military head of state, Sani Abacha and details of spending of about $5 billion recovered loot since the return of democracy in 1999.

SERAP is also asking the Federal Government to disclose details of projects executed with the Abacha loot and their locations, details of companies and contractors involved in the execution of any such projects, details of all the agreements on the loot, the roles played by the World Bank and other actors, as well as the implementation status of all projects since 1999.

In two Freedom of Information requests sent to Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning and Mr Abukabar Malami, SAN, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, SERAP said: We are concerned that substantial part of the estimated $5 billion returned Abacha loot since 1999 may have been diverted, re-stolen or mismanaged, and in any case remain unaccounted for.

In the FoI requests dated 14 February 2020 and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organization said: Publishing the details of projects on which Abacha loot has been spent would allow the public to know the specific projects carried and the areas of the country in which the projects have been implemented as well as the officials that may be responsible for any alleged diversion or mismanagement of the loot.

According to SERAP: Getting to the root of the exact amount of the Abacha loot and how the returned funds have been spent is important for the success of the governments fight against grand corruption and would reassure Nigerians that the government is truly committed to ensuring full accountability for the alleged corruption and mismanagement in the spending of the funds.

Any failure or refusal to provide the information requested will be clearly inconsistent with the letter and spirit of the FoI Act. The accountability of government to the general public is a hallmark of modern democratic governance, a norm of human rights and a tool to curb corruption.

The FoI requests read, in part: If we have not heard from you within 7 days as stated, SERAP shall take all appropriate legal actions under the FoI Act to compel you to comply with our request. Access to the details sought would allow Nigerians an opportunity to assess the impacts of any projects carried out with the funds.

SERAP is concerned that the allegations of corruption and mismanagement involving the use of Abacha loot may be responsible for the increasing level of grand corruption over the years and the entrenched impunity of perpetrators.

Publishing details of spending of Abacha loot by successive administrations would also ensure that persons with public responsibilities are answerable to the people for the performance of their duties including the management of Nigerias commonwealth.

Transparency and accountability enable citizens to have a say about issues such as the spending of returned Abacha loot, that matter to them and a chance to monitor and influence how the funds are spent as well as hold those managing the funds to account in cases of diversion or mismanagement.

The government ought to come up with an Abacha lootscoreboard to determine the exact amount stolen and the extent of transparency andaccountability of the returned loot since 1999.

If there is any indication that any of the recovered Abacha funds have been diverted, re-stolen or mismanaged, for such cases to be immediately referred to appropriate anti-corruption agencies for effective investigation, and prosecution if there is relevant admissible evidence.

A scoreboard for the actual amount stolen and the spendingof returned loot by each administration since 1999 would encourage moretransparency and accountability and ensure that the funds reach the realvictims of corruption as well as reduce concerns by Nigerians, the holdingstates and other partners about the returned loot being diverted, re-stolen ormismanaged.

According to our information, a special panel set up on 23 July 1998 by the former head of state General Abdulsalami Abubakar to probe the late military dictator General Sani Abacha stated that he stole over $5 billion between 1993 and 1998 when he was in power. Much of the stolen public funds have been returned to Nigeria.

The report by the panel shows that the government recovered some $635 million, 75 million, DM 30 million and N9 billion as well as several vehicles and properties in Abuja, Lagos and Kano together with 40% interests in West African Refinery in Sierra Leone. Other assets were recovered from the Abacha family and associates.

Furthermore, former president Olusegun Obasanjo administration also reportedly recovered over $2 billion of Abacha loot. Mr Obasanjo would seem to confirm this fact when he stated in the second volume of his book titled My Watch that: by the time I left office in May 2007, over $2 billion and 100 million had been recovered from the Abacha family abroad, and N10 billion in cash and properties locally.

Similarly, former president Goodluck Jonathan administration reportedly recovered $226.3 million and 7.5 Million from Liechtenstein. Some 22.5 million was also recovered from the Island of Jersey while $322 million and 5.5 million from the Abacha loot were reportedly returned to the government.

The government of president Muhammadu Buhari has also recovered several millions of dollars of Abacha loot since assuming office in May 2015, including $321 million from Switzerland, and $300 million from the US and Jersey.

SERAP therefore urged the Federal Government to:


MONTREAL - Bombardier Inc. has reached a preliminary deal to sell its train division to French rail giant Alstom SA for more than US$7 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/2/2020 (695 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Bombardier logo is shown at a Bombardier assembly plant in Mirabel, Que., Friday, Oct. 26, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

MONTREAL - Bombardier Inc. has reached a preliminary deal to sell its train division to French rail giant Alstom SA for more than US$7 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

The news outlet quotes unnamed sources as saying the deal could be announced as soon as Monday.

Bombardier and Alstom did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday from The Canadian Press.

The reported deal with Alstom would come after Bombardier, which is carrying long-term debt of US$9.3 billion, announced last month it was studying its options to accelerate its deleveraging, or reducing debt by selling assets.

Bombardier reported a loss of US$1.61 billion for 2019.

The sale of its train division would add to the list of assets the company has sold in the last five years, which includes Q400 turboprop planes, the CRJ regional jet program and the former C Series aircraft.

The sale would mean the Quebec company, which was founded in Valcourt, Que., in 1942 as a snowmobile manufacturer, will focus its business on high-margin private jets.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Paris-based train maker is expected to use mostly cash and some stock to complete the transaction.

Quebec's pension fund manager, the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, has reportedly agreed to sell its 32.5 per cent stake to Alstom in return for a minority stake in the combined company, according to the sources quoted in the article.

On Sunday, a spokesman for Caisse refused to confirm the information.

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"The Caisse never comments on rumours or the trading opportunities it may or may not consider," Maxime Chagnon wrote by email.

Bombardier Transportation is based in Berlin and employs some 1,000 workers at factories in Quebec's Bas-St-Laurent region and in St-Bruno-de-Montarville, on Montreal's South Shore.

Claude Michaud, the head of the union representing employees at the plant in La Pocatiere, Que. said by telephone on Sunday that he had not been informed of the deal by the employer.

Bombardier announced last week it had sold its remaining stake in the A220 jetliner program, which represented its last commercial aviation venture.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 16, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:BBD.B)
Photo: The Canadian Press Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller looks back during meeting with protesters.

The federal Indigenous services minister held meetings Saturday with representatives of the Mohawk Nation to discuss a rail blockade that has shut down rail services across Eastern Canada.

Marc Miller didn't want to predict the outcome of his meetings, saying dialogue between the two sides is needed as members of the Mohawk Nation block the line in support of the hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en in their opposition to a natural gas pipeline across their traditional territory in northern British Columbia.

"This is a situation that is very tense, very volatile, there are some people that have been standing out there for days, so today is a chance to talk and have a real discussion," he said.

"We're a nation of people who have stopped talking to each other. We tweet, we make statements on Facebook, we go around asking, condemning, but we're not talking."

He met with protesters at the blockade before travelling further into the First Nation for a private meeting, which was still going Saturday evening.

The blockade on Tyendinaga Mohawk territory near Belleville, Ont., was in its 10th day on Saturday.

Miller requested the meeting to "polish the silver covenant chain," which the Mohawks say refers to one of the original agreements between the First Nation and the Crown.

Similar blockades across the country have cut both passenger and freight rail services, with pressure mounting on the federal government to end them. A protest at Canadian National Railway's McMillan Yard just north of Toronto and another on a rail line in east Vancouver on Saturday were among those affecting train services.

As he arrived in Tyendinaga, Miller said the blockades have been divisive.

"All of Canada is hurting," he added. "The economy is slowing down. Everyone knows the reports about supply shortages, but we can't move forward without dialogue."

He also acknowledged that First Nations have felt alienated in Canada.

"I can't guarantee what the outcome will be. It isn't mine to judge," the minister said. "And so I'm here to discuss in peace and friendship with a bunch of people that haven't felt part of this country."

CN obtained a court injunction to end the demonstration on Feb. 7, but the Ontario Provincial Police have not enforced it.

An injunction in B.C. was enforced earlier this month by the RCMP to give Coastal GasLink access to a work site for the pipeline, which is part of a $40-billion LNG Canada export project in Kitimat.

Coastal GasLink has signed agreements with all 20 elected band councils along the pipeline route. However, Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs assert title to a vast 22,000-square-kilometre area and say band councils only have authority over reserve lands.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney maintained his criticism of the protests.

"Fascinating to see champions of wokeness suddenly embrace hereditary patriarchy as a preferred governance model," he tweeted.

A growing number of business leaders and industry groups called for government or police intervention in the shutdowns.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected a suggestion from federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer to have the public safety minister use his authority under the RCMP Act to end what he called the "illegal blockades."

Trudeau said the dispute must be resolved through dialogue, while acknowledging the blockades have caused disruption for travellers and businesses.
The Green Party intend to tease out red lines among parties for coalition options this week as they begin a series of bi-lateral talks around six key policy areas.

Leader Eamon Ryan warned that the Greens were willing to go into opposition and potentially abandon coalition options if other parties only gave a "veneer" about implementing significant change.

His comments came as attention turns towards the Dail vote for Taoiseach this week and ongoing backroom talks between parties to agree on some kind of coalition to lead the next government.

Mr Ryan's party has secured agreement from the civil service and state agencies to vet policies in the talks and to analyse different party approaches to voter concerns, such as housing and climate change.

The Greens will ask each of the parties vying to be in government to take part in meetings that will last a day and a half, to iron out differences in areas, including:

meeting climate and biodiversity targets

solving the housing crisis

implementing health reform and Slaintecare

funding increases in public service

all-island, Brexit and European dimensions to changes

better supporting community development to help improve services.

With coalition talks expected to become more intense this week with the Dail resuming on Thursday, many see the Greens as potential kingmakers in any new government formation.

A priority for the party in its initial talks last week with others was how to ensure Ireland can meet its proposed carbon emissions reduction of 7% annually by 2030 across sectors and society.

With Sinn Fein now ruled out for coalition by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, the latter two will need the Greens to cobble together a three-way coalition with over 80 Dail seats.

Mr Ryan said this was the third time his party had been involved in government formation talks and that it would take several weeks to get the detail right".

Speaking to RTE's This Week, he cautioned against parties just having just a veneer to implement significant changes in housing, health or transport policies and admitted his party was prepared to stay in opposition.

It can't be just forming a government for the sake of making up the numbers, added Mr Ryan.

He said he hoped the proposed six-strand approach to bi-lateral talks would be fill an unhealthy gap, given the focus on numbers and allegiances in recent days.

Earlier, Green Party Dublin-Final TD Joe O'Brien signalled that significant carbon emission cut targets, in the order of 7.6%, would have to be part of any new government's agenda and that this would mean changes in variety of ways in society. He added:

We need to tackle climate change.
All entry gates being monitored: Official assures of tight security at venue

Arvind Kejriwal takes oath as Delhi chief minister for the third time

Manish Sisodia takes oath, followed by all other 5 ministers

'We will keep up the work we have done in 15 years': Delhi CM

'I want PM Modi's blessings to be able to work for Delhi's welfare': CM Kejriwal

'Delhi has set new standards for Indian politics': CM Kejriwal

Delhi CM praises all 'special invitees' for their contribution in Delhi's development

'All things that have value are for free': Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi CM concludes his speech with a song about success

No women in Arvind Kejriwal's new cabinet

Want to work with Centre to make Delhi number one city: Arvind Kejriwal

Arvind Kejriwal took oath as Delhi's chief minister at Ramlila Maidan on Feb 16, 2020.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal took oath as chief minister for his third consecutive term today. The AAP won 62 seats in the 70-member Delhi Assembly, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged the remaining eight seats.

All six ministers who served in his cabinet in the previous term- Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Imran Hussain, Gopal Rai, Rajendra Gautam and Kailash Gehlot- have been retained by him. These ministers were also sworn-in along with the chief minister.
One extreme weather event happened almost every month in India in 2018 and 2019, according to the State of Indias Environment 2020 report, released by the Centre for Science and Environment and Down To Earth, last week. In terms of deaths, 48% of the deaths in Asia due to extreme weather events happened in India (2018-19). In 2019, there were more deaths in India, even though the number of such events was fewer: 2,038 people died in 2019 due to extreme weather events, compared to 1,396 in 2018. While such events have always occurred, the report added, their character is changing, and there is now a clear imprint of global warming on them.

While the impact of the climate crisis is being seen across sectors  affecting health, education, livelihoods  several studies point out that a clear link is emerging between the climate crisis and social instability. A 2018 study, Climate Change and Violent Conflict: Sparse Evidence from South Asia and Southeast Asia, by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said that as the effects of climate crisis on livelihoods become more pronounced, support for rebel groups is likely to shoot up.

In India, climate migration is leading to a complicated and challenging situation. There is growing nativism and competition for resources on one hand, which has led to an anti-migrant sentiment, even when it comes to citizens from elsewhere in the country. But on the other, the climate crisis is leading to greater migration and mobility. These two parallel developments can lead to a crisis unless handled with care.
Joe Biden said he isn't concerned about black voters switching their support from him to Mike Bloomberg, as he claims his fellow Democratic primary contender can't 'erase' his record with the black community.

'The point is that $60 billion can buy you a lot of advertising, but it can't erase your record. There's a lot to talk about with Michael Bloomberg,' Biden told NBC's Meet the Press in an interview that aired Sunday morning, referencing the billionaire's net worth.

'You all are going to start focusing on him like you have on me  which I'm not complaining  like you have on me the last six months,' Biden continued, claiming the media would start to up its coverage of Bloomberg as he continues to spend money on ads and rise in polls.

'You're going to focus on him. His position on issues relating to the African American community, from stop-and-frisk to the way he talked about Obama,' the former vice president said.

Joe Biden dismissed concerns that Mike Bloomberg could take away some of his support from the black community. 'The point is that $60 billion can buy you a lot of advertising, but it can't erase your record," Biden said

The former vice president slammed Bloomberg for not endorsing Barack Obama for president and implementing stop-and-frisk policies while he was mayor of New York City

Bloomberg has used Obama's comments abut him in campaign adds, where he puts the former president's voice praising him over images. These ads mostly are targeted at Super Tuesday states

While Biden told NBC's Chuck Todd that Bloomberg was an ally to the first black president on gun issues, he insisted that he was more of a hindrance on the administration where Biden served as Obama's No. 2.

'On several issues, like guns, he was a real ally. He was a real ally, ' Biden conceded. 'But if you notice, he wouldn't even endorse Barack in 2008. He wouldn't endorse him. You know, he endorsed Bush. He endorsed, you know, the Republican before that. All of a sudden he's his best buddy. You know, I mean  and he would not endorse him.'

Bloomberg has spent hundreds of millions of his own money on advertisements to increase his reach as a latecomer to the Democratic primary race  and one of those ads included a voice over of Obama praising Bloomberg for being a voice for stricter gun control legislation.

But Biden also took a hit at the former Republican Mayor of New York City for his stop-and-frisk initiatives, which caused law enforcement to disproportionately target the black community.

'You take a look at the stop-and-frisk proposals. You take a look at his ideas on redlining he's talking about. You take a look at what he's done relative to the African American community,' Biden continued his attack on the billionaire. 'I'm anxious to debate Michael on the issues relating to, you know, what we're going to face in Super Tuesday.'

Bloomberg's campaign has focused solely on Super Tuesday, when 13 states will vote in the primary, and has virtually ignored the first four early primary contests in Iowa and New Hampshire and the upcoming caucuses in Nevada, followed by the primary in South Carolina.

Biden has boasted that he is the candidate with the most support among minority communities, and he even left New Hampshire before the polls closed and headed instead to South Carolina, where one-third of the Democratic primary electorate is black.

Biden's support among the black community has faltered in the last month, going from 26 per cent to 17 per cent

Bloomberg, however, has gained support with that demographic, going from 8 per cent to 15 per cent, and is now only 2 points behind Biden

The former front-runner candidate, who performed surprisingly poorly in the Iowa and New Hampshire, which are vastly white, has swiftly lost support among black voters.

According to a poll taken before the Iowa caucuses earlier this month, Biden held 26 per cent support among the black community, but the night before the New Hampshire primary elections, the former vice president dropped to 17 per cent support.

He previously was the No. 1 candidate among black voters, but in the November 10 poll he dropped to No. 2 behind Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

The same poll shows that Bloomberg went from just 8 per cent support from the black community in the beginning of February, and by the middle of the month holds 15 per cent support among that demographic.

The day after the New Hampshire primaries, the last black Democratic primary candidate, former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, dropped out of the race.

'I have overwhelming support. You can't win  you can't take it for granted. Last time we ran it was basically taken for granted,' Biden said regarding his support from the African American community.

Biden ran unsuccessful bids for president in 1988 and 2008.

The former vice president said he wants to do well in South Carolina, but said that doesn't necessarily mean he has to win the state.

In Iowa, Biden came in fourth place and he dropped to fifth in New Hampshire.

Biden has boasted he has the most support from the black community, and has rode on the wings of his time as the first black president's No. 2

Biden left New Hampshire before the polls closed and instead headed to South Carolina, where one-third of the Democratic primary electorate is black

'Is there such a thing as doing well without winning for you?' Todd asked his guest.

'Well, I think so. But look it's, I'll be, look, right after that going into all the states, which the polling data is now showing me doing incredibly well,' he said, claiming he would come out victorious on Super Tuesday.

'Whether it's North Carolina or Georgia or Texas or any of these other places. So look, it's not an apt comparison, but Bill Clinton lost his first eight, ten, 12 primaries and caucuses before he won one,' Biden said, referencing his past failed attempts.

'I don't plan on taking that long. But we're just getting to the meat of getting to the number of delegates you need to be able to win this election. And I'm confident we're going to be in good shape,' he said.

'Is your goal to be the presumptive front runner?' Todd questioned.

'Yes,' Biden said.
Yet in the face of the countrys mounting challenges  from a changing climate to the indiscriminate violence of terrorism  young Somalis are increasingly getting organized and bootstrapping their way out of crises, rather than waiting on help from their government or its foreign backers.

Government officials say they do respond to the countrys emergencies, including establishing a national committee to aid the victims of the Dec. 28 attack. Turkey and Qatar airlifted dozens of the badly injured. But many youth activists in Somalia say that the response from the authorities is often tardy or inadequate, making it all the more essential for citizens like themselves to jump in and help fill the gaps.

Somalia has experienced one degree or another of chaos for almost three decades, bedeviled first by clan infighting and then by violent extremism. But through it all, Somalis have found ways to not only establish thriving businesses, but also take on core state services like building roads and providing health care and education.

This independent spirit was amplified after militants with the Shabab, a terrorist group affiliated with Al Qaeda, surrendered control of Mogadishu in 2011, effectively leaving the capital in the hands of an internationally-backed but weak government that has often been unable to secure the capital, much less the country.
Lebanons Hezbollah Saturday unveiled a statue of Irans slain Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani near the Israeli border, to mark the 40th day of his killing by the United States.

Soleimani who was dubbed as the worst terrorist by U.S. officials was killed by a drone as he was leaving the Baghdad International airport in the early hours of January 3, by the order of President Donald Trump.

Qods (Quds) Force the extraterritorial military and intelligence arm of the Islamic Republic, organizing and supporting numerous proxy forces in the region and beyond, including the Hezbollah. It played an important role in the Syrian civil war supporting Bashar Assads forces and also assists Houthi forces in Yemen.

Images released by Iranian websites close to the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) show a statue at a high point pointing toward Israel, in Maroun al-Raas in the Nabatiyeh region of Lebanon close to the Israeli border.

Hezbollah has fought many battles with Israeli forces in this area in the past three decades, including in the 34-day war in 2006. Hezbollah has a track record of erecting monuments in southern Lebanon to anger Israel.

In the unveiling ceremony of the statue Hezbollah officials praised Soleimani and the commander of Iraqs Hashed al-Shaabi Abu Mehdi al-Muhandes who was killed in the same drone attack with the Qods Force commander.
Chief minister Yogi Adiyanath on Sunday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was realising the dream of Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya by extending the benefits of different schemes to the poor and giving them houses.

Addressing a gathering at Pt Deendayal Upadhyay Memorial Centre in Varanasis Padao area, Adityanath said Upadhyaya dreamed of integrated humanism several decades back and wished that people on the last rung of development should be brought into the mainstream.

The prime minister had launched the Ayushman Bharat scheme so that the poor could get free treatment up to Rs 5 lakh free, the chief minister said, adding a large number of people benefitted from housing, Ujjwala LPG and other such schemes.

During his visit to Varanasi over 100 years ago, Mahatma Gandhi had expressed disappointment with the filthy condition of the lanes around the Kashi Vishwanath temple but no one paid attention to the problem for 70 years since independence, Adityanath said.

It was only PM Modi who decided to change the situation and Kashi Vishwanath Dham, also known as Kashi Vishwanath Corridor Project, was now being built at his initiative, the chief minister said.

At the Kashi Ek, Roop Anek event, Adityanath said the state government had started the innovative One District-One Product (ODOP) scheme in 2018 to support traditional entrepreneurs.

The prime minister is working towards making India a $5 trillion economy. Our traditional entrepreneurs are committed to working towards making Uttar Pradesh a $1 trillion economy, the chief minister said.

In this programme, along with loan disbursement of Rs 5,000 crore, tool kits were also distributed to 5,000 entrepreneurs.

Adityanath said over five lakh youths had established their own ventures under ODOP by receiving loans under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, Stand Up and Startup India. Earlier, there was no support for craftsmen and entrepreneurs associated with traditional enterprise, he said, adding that PM Modi had always maintained that small, micro and medium enterprises could become the foundation of big industries. Today over 90 lakh small, micro and medium units were doing business efficiently in Uttar Pradesh, he added.

He said through one district-one product, the state government was helping craftsmen in designing, marketing, and branding their products.

An innovative scheme, Vishwakarma Shram Samman Yojana, was launched to support traditional entrepreneurs, he added.
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey wants to solve issues with Russia over the northwestern Syrian region of Idlib through diplomacy but will take other steps if necessary, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Saturday.

Turkey and Russia back opposing sides in the conflict, but have collaborated to reach a political solution. A Syrian government offensive disrupted Ankara and Moscow's fragile cooperation, after 13 Turkish troops were killed in two weeks.

Speaking to reporters during the Munich Security Conference, Cavusoglu also said a Turkish delegation would go to Moscow on Monday to hold talks over Idlib, adding that he would also meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov later on Saturday.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Edmund Blair)
In this weeks deep dive into the archives of The Birmingham News, Huntsville Times and Mobiles Press-Register, we find Alabama fans on a train ride to the 1938 Rose Bowl, a musical band of Birmingham firefighters and some 1970s-style disco dancing awesomeness.

We also see what happened in 1973 when a heavy rain flooded downtown Huntsville and get a glimpse of Pete Mitchell, the so-called King of the Gypsies beside a sign many Bessemer folks will likely remember well.

Theres also students raising the American flag over a newly desegregated Jefferson County school in 1970 and a cigarette-smoking mailman delivering packages by water in Dauphin Island in 1938.

For more historic Alabama photographs, visit our Alabama Vintage Instagram account.

Any topics youd like us to explore on our Vinatage Insta or an old photo you would like us to find? Drop me a line at jgray@al.com or leave a note in the comments section.
Kate Bosworth showed plenty of love for husband Michael Polish on Valentine's Day.

But the couple opted to celebrate the holiday with friends, as they stepped out for a group dinner.

She was spotted cutting a cute look as they met up with their crew at a restaurant Friday in Los Angeles.

Double date: Kate Bosworth was spotted cutting a cute look as she and husband Michael Polish met up with their crew at a restaurant Friday in Los Angeles

The youthful-looking 37-year-old sported a chic black coat, which she paired with a lilac blouse, layered over a white T-shirt.

The look was complemented with a pair of faded jeans and some black jeweled kitten heels.

She carried a black leather handbag with a silver chain strap over her shoulder as they arrived at the restaurant.

Bosworth kissed her friend on the cheek as Polish, 49, stepped out in double denim, rocking a shearling jacket.

Layered look: The 37-year-old sported a chic black coat, which she paired with a lilac blouse, layered over a white t-shirt

Blue jean baby: Bosworth kissed her friend on the cheek as Polish, 49, stepped out in double denim, rocking a shearling jacket

The Blue Crush star took to Instagram earlier in the day with a photo of her and her husband sharing a smooch.

She captioned the image: 'When my now husband says to his friend within 5 minutes of meeting me "she doesn't know it yet, but I'm going to marry that girl..."

'Yeah we've never been practical but always soulful. Love you My Valentine, loving you is like touching the Divine.'

Bosworth and Polish began dating in 2011, after he directed her in the Jack Kerouac-based movie Big Sur.

The couple announced their engagement in 2012, tying the knot the next year in Philipsburg, Montana.
Forty Americans are among hundreds infected with the new coronavirus on a cruise ship quarantined off Japan, a US official said on Sunday, after other Americans on board left for chartered flights home.

The evacuation coincided with stepped-up warnings from Japanese authorities over the deadly outbreak, urging citizens to avoid crowds and non-essential gatherings.

The Diamond Princess was placed in a 14-day quarantine in early February after a former passenger tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

But US authorities announced on the weekend they would offer American passengers the option to leave and fly home, where they will face another 14-day isolation period. Several other governments also have announced plans to remove their citizens from the ship.

More than three dozen Americans are not going home, however, Anthony Fauci, a senior official at the National Institutes for Health, said on CBS.

Forty of them have gotten infected, Fauci said. Theyre going to be in hospitals in Japan.

It was not immediately clear whether the 40 Americans were among the figure of 355 people from the ship which Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato earlier Sunday said were infected.

He said that 1,219 people on the vessel had been tested.

Late Sunday and into the early hours of Monday, Americans who opted to leave were brought off the ship in groups. They passed through a makeshift passport control but underwent no health checks, American passenger Sarah Arana told AFP.

They boarded buses driven by personnel in head-to-toe protective suits and were told that the more than a dozen vehicles would travel in a convoy.

I am happy and ready to go, Arana told AFP before leaving the ship. We need a proper quarantine. This was not it.

The US government should have intervened much sooner, at the beginning, the 52-year-old medical social worker said.

This was too much for Japan, and they shouldnt have had to bear the burden, she added. The people of Japan did not deserve this. I am full of gratitude.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Saturday that 400 Americans would be flown home.

Declining to leave

Other Americans on board declined the evacuation, despite being warned they will still have to wait two weeks and test negative for the virus before being allowed back to the United States.

My health is fine. And my two-week quarantine is almost over. Why would I want to be put on a bus and a plane with other people they think may be infected when I have spent nearly two weeks isolated from those people? tweeted Matt Smith, an American lawyer on the ship with his wife.

He described a fellow American passenger standing on her balcony chanting USA, USA as buses arrived to collect them.

Of course, in contravention of the rules of quarantine, shes not wearing a face mask, and shes talking with a passenger on the adjacent balcony... And you wanted me to get on a bus with her?

Japan has not been able to test all those on board the ship due to limited supplies of testing kits, facilities and manpower, which are also needed by authorities tracking the spread of the virus on land.

A new phase

Hong Kong also said it plans to charter a flight for 330 city residents on the ship. Canada announced a similar decision, and on Sunday Italy said it wants to quickly get its roughly 35 citizens off the ship.

We will be next, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said, adding a meeting is to be held on Monday to decide how to bring them back.

The death toll jumped to 1,665 in mainland China after 142 more people died from the virus. More than 68,000 people have now been infected.

In Japan, the number of new infections has continued to rise, with six new cases reported on Sunday. At least 59 cases have now been confirmed, including more than a dozen among the hundreds of Japanese nationals and their relatives repatriated from Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the outbreak.

Japans fifth chartered flight out of Wuhan, carrying 36 Japanese and 29 Chinese -- including spouses -- was due back in Tokyo shortly after 7:00 am (2200 GMT Sunday), public broadcaster NHK said. This is the last flight for now, NKH cited the government as saying.

With the rise in local infections, Kato warned the country was entering a new phase.

We are seeing infection cases that we are unable to trace back their transmission routes, he told reporters.

We want to ask the public to avoid non-urgent, non-essential gatherings, Kato added.
Patrick Carr and Dennis Liberty are a couple of heavy-hitting guest artists at The Gallery ABQ through Feb. 29.

Their gorgeous exhibition Terra Incognito: Explorations in Unknown Territory features subconscious journeys of the modern mind in mixed media by Carr and beautifully painted treks through New Mexicos high desert by Liberty.

Carr is a highly sophisticated painter/printmaker who helps us explore our nocturnal psychological interstices as he walks viewers through a dreamworld that comes alive when the sun sets.

If Rembrandt, Giorgio de Chirico and H. R. Giger spawned an aesthetic lovechild he would produce Carrs imagery. Not that Carr concerns himself with alien creatures a la Giger but the Swiss artists occult view of life is not-so-subtly echoed in many of Carrs renderings.

From Rembrandt, Carr extracts dramatic lighting and a rich high calory earthen palette and from de Chirico he taps the roots of surrealism.

In Regarding Sanity While Enjoying an Irish Night, Carr beautifully renders a no nonsense building against a blood-red night sky. A single light in the attic window symbolizes an awakening like a Monk in his medieval cell finding epiphany as he skillfully illuminates scripture for the Book of Kells.

Carr revisits emblematic architecture in Confusing Choice Interrupts Evening Stroll, a depiction of a lone figure facing a building featuring a series of adjacent doors. Since the scene is outside offering a broad landscape to explore the paintings subject is nevertheless seduced by a possible interior journey maybe even an interdimensional one.

Carr takes us back to Giger in Choosing a Less Monotonous View, a sci-fi meets de Chirico on steroids landscape vista that makes the aurora borealis seem tame. Carrs mind-expanding extravaganza takes viewers to a world we may not choose to live in.

Liberty is a multi-media adventurer who was once intimidated by the Sandias but got over it. His selected works include two series, Water Over Stone and his Utagawa Hiroshige (101 Views of Mount Fuji)-inspired 101 Views of the Sandia Mountains.

In East Side Windfall, Liberty invites the viewer to witness a high-country early fall within a group of trees representing a forest family of deciduous and evergreen beings that both tolerate and enhance their differing life cycles.

Though a realist painter by trade, Liberty unveils the fiction of realism in his Artists Journal commentary.

Representational painting is a tricky activity. First, it is a fraud  to trick the viewers into thinking that three dimensions are present when they are really looking at a flat surface covered in different colors of paint, Liberty wrote.

Be that as it may, Libertys prestidigitation is quite advanced in Infinite Variety, Water is Life and Veil Dance which convincingly range from closeups of moving water to an ambitiously clouded sky and landscape panorama that tantalizingly obscures the Sandia Mountains.

Libertys slight-of-hand and brush performance would garner a standing O from most audiences even after Liberty explained the trick. Bravo!

The Gallery ABQ is a successful co-op that over the years has become an outstanding venue for a variety of artists and media. While visiting, the beautifully rendered POP art oils by Jeff Warren, who hails from the SoCal film industry, caught my eye, as did the lovely figurative monotypes by longtime New Mexico printmaker Sarah Anderson.

There are a lot of solid works on display throughout the space. Two thumbs up.
A 61-year-old woman from Clinton was killed in a crash Friday in Boylston.

The victim was identified by Boylston police as Jean Tollis.

Officers were called to the area of Route 70 and Main Street Circle around 3:54 p.m. Friday for a report of a two-car crash.

Authorities said Tollis was driving a 2016 Hyundai sedan north on Route 70 when the car abruptly crossed the double yellow lines into the southbound lane and struck another car head-on.

The other car was driven by 29-year-old Zachary Bailey of Worcester, according to police.

Tollis was extricated from her car and transported by Boylston EMS to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester where she was pronounced dead.

Bailey was taken to the same hospital where he was treated and later released.

The crash remains under investigation.
Tullamore Credit Union has teamed up with a world leader in banking software for its new Community Banking system.

Temenos, the banking software company, today announced that it has signed three new Irish credit union clients for its Community Banking offering. These include Tullamore Credit Union, Dublin based Capital Credit Union and Meath based Credit Union Plus. All three will be moving from legacy, on-premise systems to Temenos front-to-back Software as a Service (SaaS) offering in order to digitally transform their business and prepare for growth.

Tullamore Credit Union expects that the new Community Banking platform will add a further 10% per annum to their already strong loan growth rates. They also believe it will attract many new members.

Across Ireland, 3.4 million people are members of 241 credit unions, accounting for 18.3 billion in assets. Credit union assets are on the rise, increasing 31% (up from 14 billion) between 2011 and 2019.[1] However, for credit unions to aggressively compete with banks and fintech providers and attract the next generation of members, they need to be able to deliver seamless, personalized experiences more efficiently and they need technology that supports their future growth and innovation.

The Community Banking platform, powered by Temenos SaaS, offers pre-packaged front-to-back credit union products, processes and channels, built on modern cloud-native, cloud-agnostic and API-first technology. This will enable the credit unions to offer an outstanding digital experience to their members, while enabling them to quickly launch new products and services in response to new market opportunities. The credit unions CEOs envisage that the technology partnership will fast-track the delivery of a number of new products, including revolving credit, a wider range of home loans, SME loans and a suite of green, or climate-related, loans.

Temenos Community Banking will provide an additional key benefit by reducing the time that staff spend on administration and back-office functions, enabling them to spend more time on value-added activities like offering financial advice and support to credit union members.

Dennis Daly, CEO, Tullamore Credit Union, commente, Once the community banking system is fully operational, all our members will benefit from reduced paperwork, increased transaction speeds and an expanded services offering. While members are incredibly loyal to their community credit unions, many also feel the need to have accounts with a large bank and/or new fintech entity. This new system is intended to satisfy members full range of banking service needs, thereby negating the need to have accounts elsewhere.

Des Noctor, Regional Director, UK and Ireland, Temenos, said, Financial institutions of all sizes, from innovative community credit unions to high street banks, are recognizing that they need to digitally transform. This is why we are delighted to announce our partnerships with Capital Credit Union, Credit Union Plus, and Tullamore Credit Union as they continue to grow and offer their members hyper-personalized experiences and modern cloud-native, cloud-agnostic technology. We are delighted to expand our presence and leadership in Ireland, and bring revolutionary technology that drastically reduces time-to-market, cost, and operational complexity, to more financial institutions. The flexible deployment capabilities of our Community Banking solution are ideal for the Irish credit union market, delivering the opportunity for a fully managed service that is secure, future proof and affordable. For those that want to deploy on-premise, all of this is also available to their in-house team. We look forward to offering this market-leading technology to many more credit unions in Ireland and around the world.

The agreement was facilitated by the Credit Union Development Association (CUDA), a credit union-owned body that enables credit unions to collaborate on beneficial activities and projects, which may not be possible as single stand-alone entities.
New Delhi: India has decided to send medical supplies to China in solidarity in the wake of Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak there, saying New Delhi will do everything within its means to support the people of China in this hour of crisis. Noting that the people of city of Wuhan and the province of Hubei are the worst affected by the epidemic and that they have a very special place in the hearts of the Indian people, the Indian Embassy in Beijing tweeted with courage, persistence and effective measures we will be able to overcome the crisis.

The Indian Embassy tweeted, Ambassador @VikramMisri (Ambassador in Beijing Vikram Misri) expresses his solidarity with the Chinese people and the government in the fight against #NovelCoronavirus epidemic. As a concrete step to tackle the outbreak, India will soon send a consignment of medical supplies to China. The people of Wuhan city and the province of Hubei are the worst affected by the epidemic. They have a very special place in the hearts of the Indian people. With courage, persistence and effective measures we will be able to overcome the crisis. India will do everything within its means to support the people of China in this hour of crisis.

In other developments, all 406 people, who are housed at an ITBP quarantine facility here after being brought back from Wuhan, have tested negative for novel Coronavirus in the latest sample examination and will be discharged in a phased manner beginning Monday, officials said.

The final samples of all the people quarantined at the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) facility here were collected by a team of doctors on Friday. According to news agency reports, the Union health ministry has constituted central teams of experts for examination of villages bordering Nepal for novel coronavirus infection. Villages bordering Nepal in the states of Uttarakhand, UP, Bihar, Sikkim and West Bengal will be inspected by central teams for community-level Information Education Communication activities for Coronavirus in regard to the novel coronavirus, an order by the health ministry reportedly stated.
The Americans boarded two chartered flights to the United States, which departed Tokyo at 7:05 a.m. Monday, according to a statement by the United States Embassy in Japan.

As the passengers prepared to leave the country, Japanese health officials said the number of confirmed coronavirus cases found on the ship, the Diamond Princess, had grown by 70, to 355.

Cant get off here fast enough, said Sarah Arana, 52, a medical social worker from Paso Robles, Calif.

Only American passengers who were screened and did not show any symptoms of the illness were allowed to board the flights, according to a statement from the State Department.

Once in the United States, passengers will undergo a 14-day quarantine at either Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif., or Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio.

The embassy said that those who did not take the charter flights would not be allowed to travel to the United States until March 4, two weeks after they would otherwise be allowed to leave the ship.
Storm Dennis, one of the deepest low-pressure centres to have formed in recent years, has brought severe weather to Iceland and many western and central parts of the UK.

Some of the regions now being affected by Dennis were also hit by a preceding storm, Ciara, which brought stronger winds than Dennis but less rain. Nevertheless, rivers were already full and the ground saturated before Denniss arrival.

The UK Met Office warned of rainfall totals of 50 to 100 millimetres in many areas.

The military has been called in provide assistance in parts of northern England, where rivers have overflowed in recent days.

There are no reports of significant damage along the western coast although rough seas extend across much of the North Atlantic with wave heights of up to 20 metres, 300 kilometres west of Ireland, being reported on Friday.
In regard to the articles, "Rapid City Diocese: 21 priests credibly accused of sexual abuse, "as well as the recent Frontline/Wall Street Journal story, "A Pedophile Doctor Drew Suspicions for 21 Years: No One Stopped Him, we must stop and examine what these two tragedies have in common.

In both cases, the sexual abuse went on for years and both tragedies occurred in South Dakota, which is one of only a minority of states where chain of command reporting of child abuse is allowed. This form of reporting is the common denominator in every major sexual abuse scandal in recent history including: The Penn State Scandal, USA Gymnastics; USA Taekwondo, the Catholic Church, as well as the Pine Ridge, SD scandal.

Chain of Command reporting means that a mandatory reporter (MR) of child abuse must report the suspected abuse to his/her supervisor or another designated person, trusting that the higher up does the right thing, and reports the abuse directly to CPS or law enforcement. However, often the reputation of the institution/individual supersedes the safety of children, and the higher up fails to report and/or the MR who does report experiences retaliation such as an adverse employment action.

In the Pine Ridge tragedy, a fellow doctor and MR who reported the pedophile doctor was retaliated against by being transferred to a job in North Dakota, which meant a large pay cut. Another professional involved, Mr. Pourier, said he did not report outside of the chain of command for fear of losing his job. In many cases, MRs who are legally mandated to report child abuse either face retaliation or are scared into silence.

Chain of command reporting is outdated and inefficient. If we are serious about ending the shameful practice of serial sexual abuse in our state, chain of command reporting must be eliminated in all settings/institutions. It is time to prioritize the safety of our children above all else.

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South Korea reported another confirmed case of the new coronavirus Sunday, involving an 82-year-old man with no record of overseas travel, bringing the total to 29 after a five-day lull in new cases.



The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said the new patient tested positive for the virus at Korea University Anam Hospital in Seoul and is currently quarantined at a state-designated hospital in Seoul for treatment.



This is South Korea's first novel coronavirus case since Tuesday, when the country reported its 28th COVID-19 infection. The number of people being checked for the virus under quarantine came to 577 as of early Sunday, the KCDC said in a statement.



South Korea has tested a total of 7,890 people for the virus since Jan. 3, with 7,313 testing negative.



The country has so far decided to release nine patients who have recovered from the virus, with the latest set to be discharged from hospital soon, according to the KDCD.



The KCDC said the 20 patients currently being treated for the virus at hospitals are in a stable condition, although one is receiving oxygen therapy for pneumonia but is not in a severe condition, it added. The condition of the 29th patient has yet to be made public. (Yonhap)




Newbridge man Aaron Duane has been awarded a prestigious fellowship to conduct cutting-edge research into artificial intelligence.

The former Newbridge College student, 29, hails from the Green Road.

He is the son of Deirdre and Brendan Duane, who is well-known as a former teacher at the Holy Family secondary school in Newbridge.

After graduating from DCU with a BSc in Multimedia, Aaron joined Insight, a researcher centre at the university.

In a sense I very much fell into this line of research rather than sought it out, he said. I came to realise from working at Insight that data science and artificial intelligence were in everything we interacted with  our phones, our computers, our favourite applications. From realising how relevant and pervasive it was, I decided to take it more seriously and do a PhD on the topic, specifically with a spin on using virtual reality as method of exploring the data , just to make it a bit more novel.

He was encouraged to apply for the Marie Curie Individual European Fellowship as he was finishing his PhD  but says he never expected to get it. About 10,000 researchers apply each year for the lucrative fellowship, which is provided by the EU as part of the Horizon 2020 fund  but only 10% receive the award.

The fellowship allows experienced researchers with PhDs to travel abroad and work on a project of their own choosing.

Aaron will travel to IT Copenhagen in Denmark in September for a two-year period while he carries out his work.

My specific expertise relate to artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction. For my proposal, I am looking at developing a method of exploring large multimedia datasets, like Google or YouTube for example, in virtual reality.

The simple idea is that if you were looking for one specific and obscure video on YouTube and you didnt know the name of it, you would really struggle to find it. This isnt a problem that YouTube or Google have really solved and Im looking at trying to apply interaction techniques in virtual reality and artificial intelligence to see if I can try tackle it.

On completing his research, there will be several career paths which the Kildare man might choose.

There will always be an option to return to a research centre like where I began and this time take the lead on a large EU funded project. There is also the option to just become a full-time lecturer at a leading university. For the moment, I think I envision eventually leaving academia to pursue a research career in industry and hopefully I might eventually lead a team in the research department of some global corporation like Google, Amazon the like. Who knows?
A priest, a rabbi and an imam walk into a bar. The bartender gives them a drink on the house, and then another. Next thing, they're demanding a free keg, hijacking the karaoke machine and abusing the bartender.

Substitute the bar for Federal Parliament, and there's Australia's brawl over religious freedom legislation distilled.

I know, the imam's religion forbids alcohol. It's a joke. Notwithstanding the terrorist attack at the French satirical journal Charlie Hebdo five years ago, I'm confident that, overwhelmingly, followers of Islam can take a joke. But I've been troubled by recent events in France where a teenage lesbian has been targeted for lashing religion. The case is instructive; more on this later.

Illustration: Dionne Gain Credit:

As a salve for losing the fight against same-sex marriage, and in the wake of the Israel Folau controversy, the federal government offered the bruised religious lobby an anti-religious discrimination bill that entrenches their right to discriminate in the name of religion. That's the first drink on the house. Conservatives of faith revolted, insisting the religious protections didn't go far enough. The faithless complained the bill expanded the devout's right to discriminate and behave obnoxiously, but their voices were largely drowned out. Even I skimmed over their grievances. After all: it could have been worse. The bill could have been explicitly framed around a "positive" right of religious freedom.
Bengaluru: Ahead of the Karnataka legislature session beginning Monday, the Congress and JD(S) are in disarray. They are in no position to put the ruling BJP on the mat over a number of issues including the reduced devolution of funds on the state, the alleged involvement of revenue minister R. Ashok's son in a road accident that left two people dead, and the appointment of a tainted mining baron as forest minister.

One prime reason for this is groupism in the Congress which has reportedly affected plans to field a common candidate with the help of the JD(S) against deputy chief minister Lakshman Savadi in the Legislative Council elections. Savadi is not a member of either House at present.

The failure to find a successor to Siddaramaiah who resigned as Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader after the party's rout in the December bypolls and the tussle for the KPCC presidents post vacated by Dinesh Gundurao, have only added to the confusion within the Congress. In this situation, Siddaramaiah is expected to continue as leader of the opposition in the Assembly and CLP leader through the session.

The inability of the high command to find leaders who can occupy the vacant posts could however come in handy for younger Congressmen like Krishna Byre Gowda and Rizwan Arshad to prove themselves and help Siddaramaiah to whom their loyalty is well known," a senior leader observed.

The session is expected to help second-generation leaders sharpen their skills in the event senior leaders choose to remain silent or not co-operate with Siddaramaiah.

The stance the JD(S) takes vis-a-vis the Congress after the break-up of their coalition in July last year will also be keenly watched. In the past there have been instances when Siddaramaiah raised a particular issue and JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy deflected attention by focusing on others. "It remains to be seen if Kumaraswamy backs Siddaramaiah on every issue he takes up," a JD(S) leader told this newspaper.

Six bills are expected to be tabled during the session, including an amendment to the Lokayukta Act to allow the incumbent to recuse from a case if it involves a conflict of interest. Governor Vajubhai Vala will address the joint sitting of the Assembly and Council on the first day and the current session will conclude on February 20. It will then meet for the budget session from March 2 and the state budget will be presented on March 5.
Saturday, February 15, 2020 at 10:00PM

by Nathaniel R

The mania of Oscar season completely detached us to what people might have actually been streaming at home. So let's get back to that with a short round of Streaming Roulette. If you're new to the site that's how we share new streaming offerings. We select a handful (or two) of titles and just randomly hit a place on the scroll bar to see what the film looks like - no cheating.

If you'd like us to write up any of the new to streaming pictures (there's a huge list after the roulette) please share what you'd most like to talk about in the comments. Maybe we'll get to 2 or 3 of them? Ready? Let's stream...

The reviews were... like, I murdered their children or something.

28 Hotel Rooms (2013) on Hulu

The only thing I remember about this movie is that it's a rather naked Chris Messina romp (and a low budget but high acting showcase). MmmmMessina.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, performing for you live without a net, Henrietta Le Fowl... world's first daredevil chicken!

Honey Boy (2019) on Prime

It was so pleasing that this very personal (if fictionalized) feature about Shia Labeouf's childhood as a child star with an alcoholic father (he plays his own dad) got a cinematography nod from the Spirit Awards and a "spotlight" nod from the ASC. It didn't win either but I think we can safely say that DP Natasha Braier (who also shot the great looking if widely hated movie Neon Demon) really ought to be swamped with work offers by major auteurs. Shia Labeouf and Noah Jupe were so good in this one as father and son.

Closely Watched Trains (1966) on Criterion Channel

They have several Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar winners available right now including this famous one from the Czech New Wave about a dispatcher at a railway station looking for sex and oblivious to the war around him.

[no dialogue]

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2019) on Netflix

Given the Oscar nomination for the original Shaun the Sheep movie shouldn't they have tried to qualify this one for the Oscar race last year? It wasn't even on the eligibility list. What a mystery. Unless this is bad. Have any of you seen it? Aardman visuals always delight, though.

Let me put your groceries away for y---oh, you got your shirt all wet.

Cookie's Fortune (1999) on Netflix

You guys. I have no recall whatsoever of this Robert Altman picture but I remember it almost made my top ten list that year. That said I was in an intense Altman phase. I don't remember this at all except that Liv Tyler, Julianne Moore and Glenn Close are in it.

I'm still not sure what happened."

Henry Gamble's Birthday Party (2015) on Hulu

The films of Stephen Cone don't get much attention but they should. They're so modest but authentic and lovely and they don't feel like "Hollywood" movies at all but regionally specific and middle America queer. This one is good but Cone took it up a transcendent notch for his follow up, Princess Cyd (2017) which is also streaming on Hulu.

[no dialogue]

Gate of Hell (1954) on Criterion Channel

This 12th century set Japanese film about a samurai eager to kill a rival in order to have his wife has some notable Oscar history. It won Best Foreign Film and Best Costume Design, the first foreign language film ever to win more than one statue. It was also the first foreign language film to ever win Costume Design though it shared "first to be nominated" honors in a tie with The Earrings of Madame de... (from France) which was nominated in the black and white category this same year (the two costume design categories would merge into one in 1967). Japan's Sanzo Wada was the first Asian ever nominated for costume design and also the first to win.

Costume Design would go on to become the category with the most non foreign wins (outside of the "international" category of course). Seven subtitled films in total have won Best Costume Design: Gate of Hell, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, Fellini's Casanova, Fanny & Alexander, Ran and Cyrano de Bergerac. (The runner up category for most foreign films wins is Original Screenplay which has had 6 non-English language winners over the Academy's history including Parasite just last weekend.)

ALSO STREAMING IN RIGHT NOW...

Newly streaming for February: Sidney Poitier films, various Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winners, movies about movies, and more. US films unless otherwise noted

Long Day's Journey Into Night (China, 2019)

The Naked Prey (1965, South Africa)

Nights of Cabiria (1957, Italy)

The Official Story (1985, Argentina)

The Player (1992)

Rashomon (1950, Japan)

A Raisin in the Sun (1967)

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) - DANNY KAYE COMEDY

Some Like it Hot (1959)

Sunset Blvd (1950)

The Tin Drum (1979, Germany)

To Sir With Love (1967)

Two Weeks in Another Town (1962)

Vanya on 42nd Street (1994) - VERY EARLY JULIANNE MOORE MAGNIFICENCE

The Virgin Spring (1960, Sweden)

War and Peace (1966, Russia)

later this month - a selection

The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978, Germany) on February 17th - FASSBINDER

Gas Food Lodging (1992) on February 19th - INDIE CLASSIC

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987, UK) - WITH MAGGIE SMITH & WENDY HILLER

MONTGOMERY CLIFT TRIPLE FEATURE - February 24th

SHORT FILMS OF MATI DIOP (ATLANTICS) - February 26th

newly streaming for February

Back to the Future III

A Bad Mom's ChristmasThe Ballad of Lefty Brown

Better Call Saul S4

Blade Runner: The Final Cut

Cable Girls: Final Season

Cagaster of an Insect Cage (Netflix anime)

Camino A Roma (documentary)

Captain Underpants Epic Choice-o-Rama (Netflix family)

Center Stage

The Coldest Game

Cookie's Fortune

Dear John

The Dirty Dozen

Dirty Harry

Dragon Quest Your Story (Netflix anime)

Dragons Rescue Riders S2 (Netflix Family)

Driving Miss Daisy

Elizabeth / Elizabeth the Golden Age

Fools Rush In

Good Time

Hancock

Horse Girl

Isi & Ossi

A Little Princess

Locke & Key (Netflix Original)

Love is Blind (Netflix Original)

Love Jacked

My Holo Love (Netflix Original)

Narcos: Mexico S2

The Notebook

The Other Guys

The Pharmacist (documentary)_

The Pianist

Polaroid

Police Academy (the first seven movies)

Purple Rain

Q Ball

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

Scary Movie 2

Sex and the City 2

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (Netflix family)

She Did That

Sordo

Starship Trooper

Team Kaylie: Part 3 (Netflix Family)

To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You

Tom Papa: You're Doing Great (Netflix Original)

Uppity: The Willy T Ribbs Story

Who Killed Malcolm X?

later this month (selection)

System Crasher (Germany's most recent Oscar submission!) on February 21st

Altered Carbon Season 2 on February 27th

Jerry Maguire (90s Oscar gem) on February 29th

newly streaming for February

300

28 Days Later

28 Hotel Rooms

Adam

Alive

All about E

American Ultra

Anchor and Hope

Angel of Mine

Beverly Hills Ninja

Bridget Jones (all three movies)

Buffalo 66

Cabin in the Woods

Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter

Cheech & Chongs Still Smokin

Cherry Pop

David Crosby Remember My Name

Disaster Movie

Earth Girls Are Easy

For Colored Girls

From Hell

The Fugitive

Getting Go: The Doc Project

Ghost

The Girl King

Hitch

Henry Gambles Birthday Party

Hot Guys with Guns

Into the Dark: My Valentine (Hulu Original)

John Q

Judgement Day

The Last Stand

The Last Warrior

Liz in September

Lord of War

A Madea Family Funeral

The Man Who Could Cheat Death

Margarita with a Straw

Ms. Purple

Menace II Society

Mimic

Mister America

Monogamy

National Lampoons Vacation (multiple movies)

Naz and Maalik

The Phantom of the Opera

Precious

Princess Cyd

Racetime

Radio Flash

Robin Hood

Say Anything

Southie

The Spy Next Door

Those People

Touched with Fire

Utopia Halls (Hulu Original)

Vegas Vacation

Villains

Warrior

When Harry Met Sally

Where We Go From Here

Where'd You Go Bernadette

Wrinkles the Clown

newly streaming for February - a selection only since they often shared titles with the other services

Absentia (Prime Original)

The Big Lift (1950) - MONTGOMERY CLIFT MOVIE!

Dick Tracy (1990) - WARREN BEATTY, MADONNA, AND MORE...

The Expanse S2

The Farewell (2019) - SPIRIT AWARD WINNER BEST FEATURE

The Good The Bad and the Ugly (1967)

Good Time (2017)

He Said, She Said (1991)

Honey Boy (2019) -SPIRIT AWARD NOMINEE

Human Flow (documentary Ai Weiwei)

Logan Lucky (starts tomorrow)

Manhattan (1979)- 2 OSCAR NOMINATIONS

Manhunter (1986)

Mermaids (1990) - WINONA RYDER'S FIRST GLOBE NOMINATION

Mozart in the Jungle S4 (starts tomorrow)

My Dead Boyfriend (2016)

Precious (2009) - BEST PICTURE NOMINEE

Rustlers' Rhapsody (1985)

Star Trek (the reboot from 2009)

Terms of Endearment (1983) - BEST PICTURE WINNER

The Warriors (1979)

newly streaming for February
CLSA head of Korea research Paul Choi / Captured from CLSA Twitter

By Park Jae-hyuk



A Hong Kong-headquartered investment bank has warned global investors of the possible negative impact of a victory by the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) in the forthcoming April 15 general election



Given that the bank has affected foreigners' investment strategies significantly, there are fears that the Korean market could stumble if such a scenario takes place.



Paul Choi, head of Korea research at CLSA, said Thursday in a report, "Inside the minds of Moon supporters," that more power for the ruling party would be negative for the market.



"We made our best effort to get inside the minds of those that still support Moon. Our findings explain unwavering support and implies the ruling party is likely to win," he said.



"Such an outcome has negative implications for the market as investors brace for the continuation of socialist policies."



In a previous report published in December, the analyst defined the Moon Jae-in administration's regulations as "socialist" policies, warning that a series of anti-business regulations could dampen economic confidence and result in an exodus of capital and firms.



In the recent report, he proposes that those policies have even "backtracked democracy."



"An important political development has gone unnoticed, due partly to the coronavirus, where the current ruling power has been centralizing power by what seems like an effort to undermine the independent investigative power of the prosecutors' office," he said.



"Such efforts, along with increasing state-control of the economy, press and education, is reversing Korea's decades-long progress toward a more free and pluralistic society."



Choi said, however, Moon supporters have extended full and unanimous support for almost all government policies, because they believe the DPK, despite its mistakes, is the only power that genuinely cares about them and is trying to restore social fairness.



"What economists may think is irrational policy can be a perfectly rational thing for the ruling power to do to maintain its power. This is classic populism in play," he said.



"As far as corporate profit and market valuations are concerned, the continuation of the current regime, which increases state control of the market and inhibits creative destruction, is deemed negative."



Denying his report had a political purpose, the researcher emphasized the overall comments on his report were made for the sake of his clients, most of whom are large investors worldwide.



"We are not a judge of ideologies but of the market," he said.


(Bloomberg Opinion) -- This weeks release of President Donald Trumps budget, with its draconian cuts to the social safety net and unrealistic projections of future growth, has again shined a light on our fiscal challenges. The U.S. clearly needs additional tax revenue to fund vital programs and investments that underlie future economic growth. As no single tax instrument, by itself, is likely to suffice, a number of incremental measures will be required. In this spirit, three Democratic presidential candidates have proposed a financial transaction tax (FTT) to help fund their proposed investments in health care, education, and infrastructure. If properly designed, an FTT would raise substantial revenue, in a progressive fashion, without impeding price discovery or the efficient allocation of capital.

An FTT is a small tax that would apply to trading in stocks, bonds, and derivatives. For example, an FTT of 10 basis points (0.10%) would result in a $10 tax for every $10,000 in stock sold.

This idea is not new. The United Kingdom has had an FTT in the form of a stamp duty since 1694, and several other countries have a version of an FTT now. There are notable successes. Hong Kong raises significant revenue, equivalent to more than 1% of gross domestic product, through its FTT while serving as a critical global financial center. Badly designed FTTs have also produced infamous failures, such as in the case of Sweden, which repealed its excessive FTT in 1991.

The United States can learn from these examples. As set forth in a proposal I recently co-authored with Laura Kawano of the University of Michigans Ross School of Business, we recommend a tax of 10 basis points on the trading of equities and most bonds and derivatives. There would be some exclusions, notably for Treasuries and money market instruments. The FTT would include provisions to limit tax avoidance through offshore trading and should be implemented in coordination with other countries. Administrative costs also should be relatively low. In the case of equities, systems already exist to collect a small fee that funds the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Story continues

Because the United States does not have recent experience with a nontrivial FTT, we recommend the tax be phased-in over four years, starting at 2 basis points and increasing annually. This lag would allow policymakers to calibrate the FTT based on actual data on market effects and avoidance techniques that will inevitably arise.

Why 10 basis points? The FTT is a transaction cost, and relative to current costs, most markets appear capable of absorbing the increase over time. In fact, in many markets a 10 basis point FTT would be less than recent declines in transaction costs. As such, it may simply return costs to levels that prevailed less than a decade ago. While some have argued for an FTT as high as half a percent, such levels appear too high relative to current costs and are unlikely to increase revenue, as an analysis by the Tax Policy Center suggests.

Even at 10 basis points, an FTT would raise significant revenue due to the high volume of financial market transactions. Estimates by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center suggest that the FTT we propose would raise just over $500 billion in its first 10 years and, once fully phased in, $60 billion annually.

Moreover, despite claims by industry lobbyists that an FTT would be a tax on middle-class savings, it would be highly progressive. While not quite a Robin Hood tax, taking only from the wealthy or from financial services firms, the FTT falls predominately on those at the top of the income distribution. The effect on lower-income households would be limited: The bottom 20% would face an estimated annual cost of $10, the next 20% a cost of $60, and the middle of the distribution would pay $160 on average. That compares with $12,000 for the top 1% and nearly $48,000 for the top 0.1%. In addition, foreign investors, who are significant holders of U.S. financial securities, also would be subject to the FTT.

The costs incurred by middle-income families could be even lower if an FTT induces them, or the funds through which they invest, to shift to lower turnover, buy-and-hold investments. Most middle-income families make their investments through mutual funds and retirement plans and do not trade directly in individual securities. For a low-turnover index fund, the implied increase in the funds annual trading costs due to the FTT, if fully passed on to the investor, is less than 1 basis point. That equates to less than $5 for an average middle-income family with approximately $50,000 in investments.

A fair question is whether, in addition to raising revenue, the tax would actually improve markets by discouraging undesirable activities. Contrary to some claims, there is no strong evidence that an FTT would substantially reduce financial market risks or the probability of future asset price bubbles.

But there is a possible benefit. Trading volumes have exploded over the last two decades, increasing eight-fold in equities. Thats driven to a large degree by innovation  high-frequency trading, algorithmic and quantitative strategies and the like.

A 10 basis point FTT would likely result in a more than 50% reduction in trading volume. If you think high-frequency trading and other trading innovations have been helpful to the efficient allocation of capital, you might not like that result. On the other hand, if you think a lot of that activity is essentially rent-seeking behavior that doesnt particularly enhance fundamental price discovery or the allocation of capital in the economy, you might be perfectly content.

There are grounds to believe that a reduction in high frequency and algorithmic trading could be a positive development, or at a minimum have limited costs. A study recently published by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK suggests that some forms of high-frequency trading act as a small tax on investors. And theres little hard evidence that the explosion in trading activity has done much to enhance the efficiency of capital allocation or increase economic growth.

A properly designed FTT would not, as critics claim, impede the functioning of U.S. markets or threaten our role as a source of innovation or capital formation. Given the significant revenue it could raise, and its strongly progressive distribution, an FTT should be part of any revenue package to fund the public investments that all the current candidates for president, including the incumbent, say they want to make. If its not already part of their campaign platforms, it ought to be, for the good of all Americans.

To contact the author of this story: Antonio Weiss at antonio_Weiss@hks.harvard.edu

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Gibney at avalbrun@bloomberg.net

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Antonio Weiss, a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy Schools Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, served as counselor to the secretary of the Treasury until January 2017.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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2020 Bloomberg L.P.
New Delhi: The sprawling Ramlila Maidan will once again reverberate with sounds of hundreds of people cheering for AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal who is all set to take oath as the Delhi Chief Minister for the third straight time on Sunday morning.

Kejriwal is scheduled to be sworn-in along with his Cabinet at 10 am, days after the AAP romped to a magnificent victory in the Delhi Assembly election, in which the party won 62 seats in the 70-member House for the second time since 2015.

Ramlila Maidan served as the battleground for the 51-year-old bureaucrat-turned-politician during the India Against Corruption movement in 2011. Million of Indians from all walks of life had thronged the historic ground rallying for a series of measures to tackle corruption during the tenure of the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), which also included the passage of a Jan Lokpal Bill.

While the ground draws its name from the Ramlila that is staged there every year, AAP's association with the place dates back to 2011-12. The venue holds significance in the life of Kejriwal and the birth of the AAP -- or the 'Common Man Party' -- whose interests the activist-turned-politician wanted to represent.

The ground, located in the heart of the national capital, can accommodate over a lakh people. The venue has witnessed several events which shaped the landscape of Indian politics, be it former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shashtri coining the famous 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan' slogan in 1965, socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan addressing a gathering during the 'Total Revolution' movement in the 1970s, and several anti-Congress leaders coming in unison to form the Janata Party just after Emergency in 1977.

But, the India Against Corruption movement, which was led by social activist Anna Hazare and his deputy, Kejriwal, at Ramlila ground, is considered a watershed moment for Indian politics in recent times. The crusade, included Manish Sisodia and Gopal Rai, are all founder members of AAP, which made an impressive debut in the 2013 Delhi Assembly elections. It also included Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, who later left AAP after a fall out with Kejriwal.

Interestingly, this is also the third consecutive time when Kejriwal will be sworn-in at the historic ground. He had earlier taken the oath of office in 2013 and 2015 at the same venue.

Ramlila Maidan has indeed turned the life of Kejriwal around -- first as an activist and then becoming the youngest Chief Minister of Delhi to take office.

When Kejriwal was sworn-in for the second time in 2015, he had promised an end to VIP culture, vowed to eliminate corruption and continue to stand for the aam aadmi, much to the raucous cheers of thousands of supporters. Notably, the oath ceremony was held on February 14, coinciding with Valentine's Day.

Fast forward to 2020, Kejriwal, who will receive a hero's welcome at the sprawling ground, has urged the people of the city to witness "the son of Delhi" taking oath on Sunday.

The AAP nearly repeated its 2015 performance, sweeping the Assembly polls, garnering 62 of the 70 seats in the face of a high-voltage campaign by the BJP, which fielded a battery of Union Ministers and Chief Ministers in its electioneering, spearheaded by Home Minister Amit Shah.

The BJP marginally improved its tally, managing just eight seats from its 2015's tally of three seats. The Congress failed to open its account in the second successive election. The AAP's stunning triumph came in the backdrop of anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests being held at several places in Delhi including at Jamia Millia Islamia and Shaheen Bagh, which the BJP had used as a poll plank in its campaign.

In his victory speech at the AAP headquarters here, Kejriwal said that the Assembly polls' results marked the beginning of a "new kind of politics" and asserted it was the victory of the Delhiites and not his.

Earlier on Wednesday, Sisodia extended an invitation to all to attend the swearing-in ceremony. "Delhi's son Arvind Kejriwal and the new government under his leadership will take oath on February 16 at Ramlila Maidan. I appeal to all of you to reach there by 10 am to bless your son and encourage him," he had tweeted.
In The Clergymans Wife, Lizzie Bennets very plain friend Charlotte Lucas makes the pragmatic decision that contenting herself with marriage to the frightful Mr Collins will be preferable to life as a spinster with no money, and, as in the original, she makes the best of it. But then along comes the humble but kind and physically strong Mr Travis, a local farmer, and the story threatens to turn into a more decorous version of Lady Chatterleys Lover. Molly Greeleys novel is a slow-moving but gently told story that maintains the characterisation of Charlotte in the original, as a sensitive and intelligent realist. Credit: It adds a few extra dimensions of complexity to Mr Collins, though it maintains the spectacular awfulness of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and towards the end reminds us that the uncertain fate of the five Bennet sisters has always turned on the fact that Longbourn is entailed, which means that when Mr Bennet dies, Mr Collins will inherit  and his wife Charlotte will become mistress of  the Bennets former home. The Other Bennet Sister turns the spotlight on poor Mary, whom Austen calls the only plain one in the family. Janice Hadlow moves her to centre stage and gives her a vivid and convincing inner life, and seeing the characters and events of Pride and Prejudice through Marys eyes is an eye-opening testament to the skill of the author.

Hadlow is a historian and biographer and has been an award-winning producer and senior executive at the BBC, skilled in the art of storytelling and verbal portraiture. Her intelligence, inventiveness, and understanding of history give this novel some real distinction. All the other sisters are married off by the end of part one of this four-part book, and from there Hadlow strikes out on her own, picking up Marys story thus far and spinning it into the future. Credit: Hadlow has worked out a complex Austenesque plot for Marys subsequent life but it eventually gets somewhat bogged down, as though removing the invisible corsetry of Austens own plot framework had left it to bulge and sag. But there are moments of real drama and psychological acuity. The original version of the scene in which Mary ill-advisedly draws out her mediocre musical performance at the Netherfield Ball is told by Austen through the eyes of Lizzie, who is full of anguish at her familys behaviour. Lizzie makes wordless signals to her father, who takes the hint and says to Mary: That will do extremely well, child. You have delighted us long enough. Let the other young ladies have time to exhibit.

This has delighted, in its turn, two centuries of readers. But seen from Marys point of view, its an excruciatingly painful public humiliation at the hands of a much-loved father and sister. What Hadlow brings to the fore in her recreation of this scene is the fact that, in addition to his other shortcomings as a father, Mr Bennet is also a bully. Permanently wounded by this moment and painfully conscious of the fact that her mother cares nothing for her, Hadlows Mary is left to pick up the pieces of a loveless life as best she might. Miss Austen and Jane in Love both take their subject matter not from Austens fiction but from her life. Credit: Miss Austen focuses on Janes older sister Cassandra and the fact that Cassandra is known to have burned many of her late sisters letters not long before her own death, and Hornby offers some speculations about the reasons Cassandra might have done so. Chief among these is a view of Jane's life that has a revelatory ring of truth about it. But Hornby struggles with a problem that many writers have when attempting to fictionalise true stories and real people. An inability to see which parts of the source material are vital to the story  usually the result of a desire to stay faithful to known facts  can result in a confusing plethora of detail about names, places, and motivations.

The great achievement of this novel is its characterisation of Cassandra as a strong and capable woman in her own right, protective of Jane, content to play Martha to Janes Mary, and courageous enough to take matters of posterity into her own hands. Jane in Love is pure romp and is the closest of these four novels to the playful spirit of fanfic. Credit: From her life in Bath in 1803, the 28-year-old Jane Austen involuntarily time-travels to the contemporary world, where she materialises on a movie set at the feet of Sofia Wentworth, an ageing actress having a panic attack about her unbecoming costume as an unappealing minor character in an adaptation of Northanger Abbey. What follows is a sequence of very funny misunderstandings, the most significant of which is Janes growing devotion to Sofias brother Frederick, a history teacher with the appearance and personality of a Hemsworth brother.

Rachel Givney is a screenwriter with a highly developed understanding of plot structure and narrative drive, and there are some hilarious scenes as Jane comes to terms with electricity, internet technology, and flush toilets. In the end, she is faced  thanks to the relentless logic of time-travel  with a dilemma many female writers have encountered: a forced choice between art and love. Historian Hilary Davidson is coming from a very different place in her beautiful, thoughtful book on the clothing of the Regency era. Credit: Combining meticulous scholarship and intellectual heft with an engaging, approachable style is one of the most difficult writing tasks there is, but Davidson makes it seem effortless, using the life, the letters and the novels of Austen as an entry point into her exploration of clothing, its modes of production, its aesthetics, and its social meaning. The structure is inspired, organising the material not chronologically but rather as a series of concentric circles; the chapters are headed Self, Home, Village, Country, City, Nation, and World, with each chapter examining personal, social, national or global aspects of the material history of clothing in Austens time. Davidson herself is both an experienced curator and a skilled needlewoman, and she brings a great depth of practical knowledge to her subject.
Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan met with his Maltese Minister for European and Foreign Affairs Evarist Bartolo on the margins of the Munich Security Conference.

The Foreign Ministers hailed the dynamics of cooperation and reaffirmed their willingness to take joint efforts to enhance it, including through high-level visits and meetings, as well as consultations between the ministries. Prospects of cooperation in education, culture, trade, economics, smart agriculture and waste management were discussed.

The ministers underlined the role and importance of interparliamentary ties. Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Evarist Bartolo praised effective cooperation and mutual support within the international agencies.

They also exchanged views on international and regional challenges.
.                     ,  " ".                    ,      -   .   ,           ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said on Friday there were no investigations into Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, the former National Security Council aide who testified in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial and was fired by the White House along with his twin brother.

On Tuesday, Trump said the military may consider disciplining Vindman, who provided some of the most damaging testimony during an investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives of Trump's dealings with Ukraine.

"There's no investigations of him," McCarthy said during an event at the National Press Club.

Vindman is back at the Army and will be heading to a military college in the summer.

Vindman was escorted from the White House last week as was his twin brother, Yevgeny, who worked as a lawyer at the NSC and is also a lieutenant colonel.

"We sent him on his way to a much different location and the military can handle him any way they want," Trump said.

Asked if he was suggesting that Vindman face disciplinary action, Trump said that would be up to the military.

"If you look at what happened ... they're going to certainly, I would imagine, take a look at that," Trump said.

Vindman, then the NSC's top Ukraine expert, testified that Trumps request for an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential Democratic political rival in the 2020 presidential election, and his son Hunter during a July phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was improper.

The call led to the Republican president being impeached in the Democratic-controlled House and later acquitted in the Republican-majority Senate.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who was formerly the army secretary until taking the top Pentagon post, said in November that Vindman should not fear retaliation over his testimony.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Tom Brown)
 Flash

The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Saturday called for solidarity in fighting the epidemics at the 56th Munich Security Conference (MSC).





"We must be guided by solidarity, not stigma," he reiterated, adding that the greatest enemy is not the virus itself but the stigma "that turns us against each other."





"We must stop stigma and hate," he stressed.





"The outbreaks of Ebola and COVID-19 underscore once again the vital importance for all countries to invest in preparedness and not panic," he told the MSC audience.





The WHO chief said that world spends billions of dollars preparing for a terrorist attack, but spends little preparing for the attack of a virus, which could be far more deadly and far more damaging economically, politically and socially.





"This is frankly difficult to understand and dangerously short-sighted," he said.





In addition, the WHO head said that he is encouraged about the steps China has taken to contain the outbreak at its source, which are slowing the spread of the epidemic to the rest of the world.





He is also encouraged that international experts are now on the ground in China, working closely with their Chinese counterparts to understand the outbreak and to inform the next steps in the global response.





Talking about his praise for China, he said he has given credit where it's due.





"I will continue to do that, as I would and I did for any country that fights an outbreak aggressively at its source to protect its own people and the people of the world, even at great costs to itself."




San Francisco, CA (UroToday.com) In this panel discussion led by Drs. Kleutz and Morgans, with open discussion by the entire panel consisting of members of the genitourinary oncology group at the US FDA, a discussion was had surrounding the development of the metastasis-free survival endpoint and its use in the three trials that have led to drug approval for non-metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (nmCRPC)



The timeline discussed by the panel is shown below.







In 2011, there was interest in evaluating multiple new anti-androgen therapies earlier in the disease course of advanced prostate cancer. Previously, the standard endpoints for evaluating the efficacy of drugs in this space were overall survival as well as patient reported pain. To get feedback from the clinical oncologic community on how to think about appropriate endpoints, the FDA convened an oncology drug advisory meeting (ODAC). These meetings are held typically to either (1) get feedback from the oncologic community on the risk/benefit of a specific product or (2) discuss a drug development challenge such as redefining endpoints.

Dr. Kleutz drew from specific quotes from experts present at that meeting to illustrate how the attendees at the meeting had detailed discussion about the patient population affected by non-metastatic disease, what their symptoms were, what defined high-risk patients within that subgroup, and what endpoints within what time frame would be meaningful for these patients. To this last point, it was felt that a clinical change that would lead to either new significant symptoms outweighed by side effects of the drug, new therapies, or accelerated clinical course were reasonable thresholds for regulatory approval.

Out of the discussion at the ODAC, the surrogate endpoint (surrogate for overall survival) of metastasis-free survival was created. This was defined as time from randomization to death or first evidence of extra-pelvic radiographically evident bone or soft tissue metastasis as decided by blinded central independent review. There was much debate about whether local progression should be included, but ultimately it was felt that local progression would increase the number of events without necessarily reflecting accelerated clinical course or significant symptoms. MFS was subsequently used for the SPARTAN, ARAMIS, and PROSPER trials in the non-metastatic castration resistant clinical space. Interestingly, during this time, denosumab was submitted for approval in this same clinical space based on data showing a 15% risk reduction (median time to bone metastasis increased from 25.2 months to 29.5 months) for developing bone metastasis. Approval here was rejected by FDA given the ~5% risk of osteonecrosis of the jaw and concerns about giving this drug longer term and thus increasing the risk of ONJ.

There was also extensive discussion of secondary endpoints during the design of these trials. These were instituted in a variable fashion by the sponsors of each trial, with a summary shown below. The selection of secondary endpoints can be challenging, especially when using a new primary endpoint, because you have to appropriately power your study to detect outcomes.









The panel then discussed that although these trials all showed signal towards improved MFS, approval for these agents were based on an overall survey of the trial results, including numerical trends favoring overall survival for the studied interventions. The number of events required to analyze overall survival had not been reached at the time where there was clear MFS improvement. Indeed, overall survival remains critically important. In its guidelines to industry sponsors for trials including MFS as an endpoint, the FDA mandates two things: (1) At the time of final analysis of MFS, an overall survival analysis is required and should show numerical trend towards favorability and (2) The FDA expects continued follow-up to confirm overall survival data. The FDA analysis of efficacy for each of the trials in the non-metastatic CRPC space are shown from the time of approval.









The panelists also discussed the obvious importance of safety analysis, perhaps even more important in the non-metastatic setting because patients are otherwise relatively asymptomatic and so it was critical to ensure safety in the intervention arm. After seeing such as that shown below for SPARTAN, the FDA was much more reassured that the intervention was both effective and reasonably safe.









Along with Dr. Morgans, there was then a discussion of patient reported outcomes (PRO). The panelists commented that they tend to focus more on core outcomes of symptom reporting and physical function as these are viewed as relatively less subjective. The considerations for PRO analysis are shown below. The panelists noted that over the past several years, reporting rates of PRO have improved significantly.









The PRO assessments used in each of the nmCRPC trials are shown below. As can be seen, there were many different questionnaires used, and in total this represented a significant amount of work that the patients enrolled had to undertake somewhat frequently.









Dr. Morgans noted that there are likely overlapping domains covered by these questionnaires, and the FDA panelists agreed with the comment that they are working to narrow down questionnaires to optimally and efficiently capture patient reported outcomes efficiently. One example of how they are trying to narrow down questionnaires is limiting the ways sexual function is assessed, as this patient population is undergoing continuous testosterone suppression and the interventions being tested are not likely to improve sexual function.

The panel then discussed how trialists can get guidance from the FDA regarding how to approach PROs. There is actually a group at the FDA that one may consult with either in the form of an IND-type meeting or by a submission that receives only a written response.

A summary of how the FDA utilized PRO data in the nmCRPC trials is shown here:







After the initial discussion, there were many interesting questions, some of which are summarized here.

How does the panel anticipate novel imaging findings such as PSMA-PET impacting the use of surrogate endpoints such as MFS? This remains to be seen as the original endpoint was defined to reflect a point where patient symptoms and treatment change. Since it is unclear still how identifying asymptomatic metastatic disease that was otherwise not visible on conventional imaging will impact patient care, only time will tell how the MFS endpoint will need to be adapted.

Will PSA or some PSA property such as doubling time ever become a regulatory endpoint?

The data on PSA as an endpoint is mixed. It seems to be decent when examining the efficacy of androgen-targeting agents potentially, however it is not as useful for alternative therapies like Provenge or Radium. PSA, like MFS, would be a surrogate endpoint, but would be one step removed from things that impact clinical course since treatment is not often changed in the advanced disease setting only based on PSA level. PSA may have more of a role to play as a surrogate endpoint for drug approval in earlier disease settings such as biochemical recurrent, but it would still likely need to be associated with other clinically important surrogate outcomes.

How are PROs weighed along with adverse event data?

Patient reported outcomes on tolerability are a different readout of adverse events. For example, you wont often see symptomatic bone marrow suppression, but this is an important adverse event that needs to be identified. The panel also noted that not all PROs that are requested by the FDA reflect what clinicians administering the drug may want to know for their practice. For example, a questionnaire may have a ceiling effect on its ability to measure specific outcomes, and so it may be prudent in trial design to include alternative PROs.

How do you consider PFS2 as an endpoint?

For the nmCRPC trials, PFS2 was viewed as a sort of safety endpoint. There was initial worry that if you used potent anti-androgen therapies earlier in the disease course, you may reduce the effectiveness of subsequent therapies. Fortunately, the PFS2 data did not support that worry, which was reassuring.

What other regulatory endpoints are to come?

Other regulatory endpoints that have been used are radiographic progression free survival, though like with MFS it is helpful and important to have other surrogate endpoints to tell a story in total about the efficacy of the drug. The panelists gave credit to the Prostate Cancer Working Group regarding input on how to best define radiographic progression free survival.

What is the role of the FDA in asserting what the control arm in a trial should be?

The regulatory framework that the FDA works within suggests that a drug must be safe and effective for the indication it is seeking. At the current time, the FDA does not have a comparative efficacy framework, and can only really mandate specific comparators if there is an overt safety reason with the control arm. It seemed from this discussion that this would need to be addressed at a higher level, perhaps by legislation.





Presented by:

Alicia Morgans, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois

Paul Kleutz, MD, US Food and Drug Administration

Jamie Brewer, MD, US Food and Drug Administration

Elaine Chang, MD, US Food and Drug Administration

Daniel Suzman, MD, US Food and Drug Administration
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Sunday rejected an offer of mediation proposed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Kashmir, saying the focus instead should be on getting vacated the territories that are "illegally and forcibly occupied by Pakistan".

"India's position has not changed. Jammu and Kashmir has been, is and will continue to be an integral part of India. The issue that needs to be addressed is that of vacation of the territories illegally and forcibly occupied by Pakistan. Further issues, if any, would be discussed bilaterally. There is no role or scope for third party mediation," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in response to a media query regarding comments made by Guterres in Islamabad.

"We hope the UN Secretary-General would emphasise on the imperative for Pakistan to take a credible, sustained and irreversible action to put an end to cross-border terrorism against India, which threatens the most fundamental human right - the right to life, of the people of India, including in J & K," he added.

The UN chief, who arrived in Pakistan on a four-day visit, addressed a press conference along with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, wherein he also expressed his "deep concern" over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and tensions along the Line of Control (LoC).

Guterres also said that it was important for India and Pakistan to de-escalate "militarily and verbally" and exercise "maximum restraint", amidst tense relationship between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

"I have offered my good offices in relation to the dispute. He further noted that he exchanged thoughts with Qureshi on the security situation in South Asia and that mediation, as well as talks, were the only solution to regional conflicts," the Secretary-General said.

Tensions between India and Pakistan spiked after New Delhi abrogated the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5 last year. India''s decision evoked strong reactions from Pakistan, which downgraded its diplomatic ties with India.

However, India has defended its move, saying that the special status provisions were revoked in order to bring development in the region and reduce cross-border terrorism.

A proposal of mediation was also offered last year by US President Donald Trump in the presence of Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan at a joint press conference during the latter's visit to Washington in July.

Meanwhile, during his meeting with the president, a day after Trump held bilateral talks with Khan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India is not shying away from talks with Pakistan and has urged it to take concrete steps to tackle terrorism but they have not made any efforts to combat the menace.

New Delhi has repeatedly maintained that dialogue with Pakistan will not initiate until it takes concrete action against terror emanating from its soil.

Putting forward his perspective on terrorism, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had further conveyed to President Trump that 42,000 lives have been lost in terror attacks in the last 30 years and that it is imperative for the international community to join the fight against terror.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
While several sectors are being hit by the coronavirus outbreak, the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry is taking an advantage, with numerous expansion strategies among players being placed in the gun barrel.

Pharmaceutical firms are among the few who could profit from recent global events and are planning to extend operations further





According to the latest report on the novel coronavirus (nCoV) crisis from BIDV Securities, there are positive signals for companies in pharmaceuticals and healthcare, with them expecting to be one of the beneficiaries from the outbreak. Conversely, aviation, oil and gas, tourism, and other sectors that consist of strong exports to China are set to suffer the most.

Shares of pharmaceutical firms have gained in recent days, with Imexpharm Pharmaceutical JSC (IMP), Hau Giang Pharmaceutical JSC (DHG), and OPC Pharmaceutical JSC being the most impressive. IMP, DHP, and Ha Tay Pharmaceutical JSC are gaining from an increase in demands for antibiotics, while Binh Dinh Pharmaceutical and Medical Equipment JSC and OPC Pharmaceutical JSC are benefiting from bactericides.

The drug firms trading via the over-the-counter (OTC) channel and with a high rate of products related to the nCoV outbreak will gain as local demands are growing, the report stated.

IMP, DHG, OPC, and Traphaco JSC are among the biggest drugmakers in Vietnam. Traphaco now has one distribution company and 28 distribution branches, while DHG has 37 distribution branches and OTC is one of their main business lines.

In addition to growing demands, the governments newly-approved policy that gives an exemption from import duty for medical masks, materials for local healthcare mask production, and water disinfection to further efforts to prevent and fight against the nCoV outbreak will become another boon for those trading these products.

A representative of Dai Uy Pharmaceutical JSC, which produces masks, said that it has about six quintals of filters for gauze mask production. If its factories run at the maximum capacity of three shifts a day, they can produce nearly 100,000 units on a daily basis. However, this means they will run out of filters within the next 10 days.

In this trend, along with domestic drug makers, multinational corporations (MNCs) are also earning an advantage. 3M Vietnam, established in 1994 as a leader in personal protective equipment, has been growing steadily in the country. In recent days amid the nCoV epidemic, 3M-branded gauze masks have been the most sought-after in Vietnam. 3M is increasing global production of respiratory protection products as quickly as possible in response to the outbreak, a representative of 3M told VIR.

Novartis, Sanofi, GSK and Pfizer, which are the leading producers of medicines and vaccines, are also important players in the medicine supply chain. The epidemic does not affect our operations in Vietnam. We are working to ensure the supplies of brand-name drugs and necessities for patients, said Roeland Roelofs, country president at Novartis Vietnam.

In 2019, the value of Novartis medicines in Vietnam reached more than $120 million.

To expand in Vietnam, Novartis last month inaugurated its new legal entity in the country, Novartis Vietnam Co., Ltd., becoming one of the first MNCs in the country to successfully transform from a representative office to a foreign-invested enterprise importer. This new move will enable the firm to ship more branded drugs to Vietnam.

Similarly, at a regional and global level, Sanofi is currently leveraging its unique expertise in infectious diseases to help China and the rest of the world combat the emerging outbreak.

At this moment, our focus is ensuring there is no discontinuation in the production and distribution of our medicines and vaccines in China by closely monitoring the situation, said Haissam Chraiteh, general manager of Sanofi Indochina.

After 50 years of presence in Vietnam, Sanofi developed a leading position in the national pharmaceutical market. In 2019, Sanofi made a significant contribution to developing the local healthcare industry by providing around 50 scientific training sessions, offering integrated care solutions to help millions of Vietnamese patients prevent and treat ailments, and bringing millions of vaccine doses to help protect adults and children from infectious diseases.

Last year also marked an important one for Sanofi after it received an import license from the Ministry of Health, thus enabling it to ensure and stabilise product supply to Vietnamese consumers.

Vietnam is now open to receive many kinds of branded pharmaceuticals and vaccines produced in third countries. MNCs tend to produce branded drugs and vaccines in related nations to reduce costs and to tap into local advantages and Vietnam, where drug spending per capita rose 10.6 per cent on-year in 2018, and is forecast to increase further in the coming time.

With two-digit growth forecast in the next five years, reaching an estimated $7.7 billion in 2021 from the current $5 billion, Vietnams lucrative pharmaceutical industry continues to be on the radar of many MNCs.

Vietnam is likely to see strong business and investment activities from such groups in the near future, driven by the enforcement of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement. VIR

Bich Thuy

Pharmaceutical stocks benefit from disease spread Pharmaceutical stocks are experiencing an upsurge as fears of coronavirus have boosted demand for healthcare products and services, lifting demand for shares.
NASSAU, The Bahamas:--- Trinidadian Brian Frontin is the newly elected President of the Caribbean Society of Hotel Association Executives (CSHAE).

Over his two-year term, Frontin said: "considerable emphasis will be placed on enhancing the profiles of CSHAE and all of its Association Executive (AE) members."

The incoming leader also wants to strengthen the capacity of national hotel and tourism associations (NHTAs) and their staff leadership to increase their value proposition and to review and redefine the role of CSHAE within the governance framework of the umbrella Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA).

Meeting in The Bahamas, the CSHAE Executive and Board crafted an Action Plan to address priorities and convened working committees to execute various items over the next six months.

Frontin was confident that the CSHAE transformational agenda underway would yield positive results for the benefit of AEs, NHTAs, and CHTA.

For his 2020-2022 tenure, President Frontin is supported by an Executive Committee comprising Stacy Cox (Immediate Past President/Chairman), who serves as CEO of the Turks & Caicos Hotel & Tourism Association; Noorani Azeez (Vice President/President-Elect), who is Executive Vice President of the Saint Lucia Hospitality & Tourism Association; Miles B. M. Mercera (Treasurer), CEO of the Curacao Hospitality & Tourism Association; and Veronique Legris (Secretary), Executive Director of the Saint Martin Hotel Association.

The Executive Committee will be supported by CSHAE Board members Senator Rudy Grant, CEO of the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association; Tisa LaSorte, CEO & President of the Aruba Hotel & Tourism Association; and Stephen Todd, CEO of the Bermuda Hotel Association.

CSHAE is an independent organization established by CHTA to support the professional development of national hotel and tourism association executives from the 33 CHTA member NHTAs.

The organization serves as a network for the region's associations by supporting the professional development of the staff and voluntary leadership; facilitating the gathering and flow of information; advancing programs in support of regional advocacy and product improvement efforts; and serving as a two-way conduit with CHTA in achieving mutual goals.
While the Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, insists that Tehran and Riyadh have exchanged messages, his Saudi counterpart says that there is no direct contacts between the Islamic Republic and the Persian Gulf kingdom.

Zarif also asserted on Saturday that countries such as Saudi Arabia do not seek the de-escalation of tensions in the region.

"If there is a will for reducing tensions, there are many ways, but I believe that countries such as Saudi Arabia do not seek the de-escalation of tensions," Zarif told the Munich Security Conference.

Speaking in a session on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Zarif disclosed that Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan had called upon Iran to negotiate with Saudi Arabia.

Furthermore, Zarif claimed he had agreed with the former Qods Force Chief Commander Qassem Soleimani to relay a message on Iraq and Yemen to the Saudis. However, according to Zarif, Saudis responded that conflicts between Arab countries were none of Irans business.

Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone attack on January 3, outside Baghdad international airport, almost immediately after the Qods Force-backed militia attacked Washington's embassy in Iraq.

Meanwhile, without elaborating on a date, Zarif also reiterated that although he replied to the Saudis' response, he received no further messages.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said on Saturday no private messages or direct contact had taken place to ease tensions with Iran and that Tehran first needed to change its behavior before talks can happen.

"Until we can talk about the real sources of that instability, talk is going to be unproductive," Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, fired back at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, February 15.

However, Tehran's ambassador to Baghdad, Iraj Masjedi, has also asserted that Soleimani, was carrying a message for Saudis, saying Tehran was ready to address its disputes with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Saudi Arabia as soon as possible.

Furthermore, the U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo met with Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan in Washington last Wednesday and discussed the Islamic Republic's destabilizing behavior in the region.

Immediately after the meeting, Pompeo reiterated in a tweet, "U.S.-Saudi partnership is critical as we confront Iran's destabilizing behavior. We also share an interest in de-escalation in Yemen."

With reporting by Reuters, DPA
ONAWA, Iowa -- Every day, at least one of Sheriff Jeff Pratt's deputies is transporting a jail inmate to or from another county rather than patrolling the roads and highways in Monona County.

It's not an ideal situation, but Pratt has little choice when the population in Monona County's jail regularly exceeds 12, the number of inmates it was designed to hold when it opened in 1974.

The overcrowded conditions at times prevent the separation of serious offenders from those jailed on minor offenses as required by state law. When there are too many inmates, deputies drive them to neighboring counties to be confined.

"We just do the best we possibly can, but a lot of them we are not able to accommodate," Pratt said.

To solve the overcrowding issue, the Monona County Board of Supervisors has proposed a $6.2 million bond issue that goes before voters on March 3. If approved, the measure would provide funding for a new Public Safety Center containing a 32-bed jail that could be expanded to 66 beds in the future. The measure needs a 60 percent majority to pass.

The current 46-year-old facility is inadequate, the state's jail inspector has said, and the overcrowded conditions create serious safety and security concerns for inmates and staff.

"The Monona County Jail is an older facility that does not meet the current needs of the prisoners, staff or citizens of Monona County," Delbert Longley, the Iowa Department of Corrections' chief jail inspector, wrote after his July 10 inspection, directing the county to develop a plan to correct overcrowding and other shortcomings at the facility, which is currently grandfathered in under old jail standards.

Overcrowding began to worsen in 2015 and 2016, Pratt said, when an increase in arrests began filling the jail on a regular basis, forcing him to send inmates to neighboring counties. Pratt said he spent $15,000 last year housing inmates outside of Monona County, and that total likely will be higher this year. Pratt also has a backlog of 96 offenders waiting for beds to open so they can serve their jail sentences.

The building's limited space causes other challenges.

The jail's booking area also is used for attorney visits with inmates and psychological evaluations. If officers bring in a person who has been arrested, the offender must wait outside the room if the booking area is being used for one of those other purposes. Jail and law enforcement supplies are stashed in closets and offices throughout the building.

"We utilize every piece of space that we can," Pratt said.

In seeking a solution, a jail committee made up of law enforcement officials and private citizens has spent more than two years looking at options that included remodeling and adding on to the existing facility, closing the jail permanently and housing the county's inmates elsewhere and building a new jail. Pratt said remodeling and adding on ultimately would have cost about the same as a new jail. The cost of housing inmates in other counties also adds up.

"The best fit we found was the option we picked," Pratt said.

If approved, the new Public Safety Center would be built northeast of the Monona County Courthouse and connected to it. Like the current center, it would house the sheriff's office, Onawa Police Department and Monona County Emergency Management Agency. The county's communications center would be located in the center of the jail, where communications operators, who are also licensed jailers, could observe inmates through windows rather than on monitors from their basement office as they currently do.

If construction estimates come in under the $6.2 million provided by the bond issue, Pratt said, unfinished space that's part of the current plans could be furnished to add more beds.

If approved, the bond issue would increase property taxes on residential property assessed at $100,000 by an estimated $28.02 per year. Commercial property assessed at $100,000 would see an annual tax increase of $45.80 per year and 40 acres of agricultural land would see an annual increase of $26.01 per year.

During an ongoing series of information meetings throughout the county, Pratt said he's heard from people who aren't in favor of raising taxes, but they also understand the need to improve the county's infrastructure.

"The majority of people are supportive," he said. "I hope that's the impression that I'm getting."

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President Donald Trump pushed the CIA to hunt down Osama bin Laden's son instead of chasing more high priority terrorists because he was the 'only name he knew' and he wanted a 'celebrity killing', according to a new report.

During Trump's time in office he has been briefed by intelligence officials on the nation's biggest terror threats, but fixated on taking down the youngest son of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, two people familiar with briefings said.

'He would say, "I've never heard of any of these people. What about Hamza bin Laden?"' one former official said to NBC. 'That was the only name he knew.'

The CIA regularly reported to Trump about senior terror figures they were working to find and kill such as al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri.

However, Hamza bin Laden wasn't high on the CIA's list of potential US targets and was not believed to be planning out any attacks.

In the end the US carried out an airstrike that killed Hamza in 2018, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter.

President Donald Trump pushed the CIA to hunt down Osama bin Laden's son Hamza bin Laden (right) instead of other more high priority targets and threats. One former CIA official said it was because Trump wanted to boast about a 'celebrity' killing

Ex CIA official Douglas London says Trump was obsessed with hunting down Hamza, the son of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden (above) because he wanted a 'celebrity' targeted killing

After 9/11 Hamza along with other bin Laden family members hid in Iran for a number of years. In August 2015 he emerged in a video with terror group leader al-Zawahri who introduced Hamza calling him 'a lion from the den of al Qaeda.'

Though Hamza did appear in the video himself, he said in an audio-only portion: 'What America and its allies fear the most is that we take the battlefield from Kabul, Baghdad and Gaza to Washington, London, Paris and Tel Aviv, and to take it to all the American, Jewish and Western interests in the world.'

From there he became common name and reference in al Qaeda messages and news outlets reported he was being groomed to be the next leader of the terror organization.

Former CIA official Douglas London, who led an agency unit targeting senior terrorists in 2018, said that Trump's 'obsession' with bin Laden's son 'is one example of the president's preference for a "celebrity" targeted killing versus prioritizing options that could prove better for US security.'

'CIA had not overlooked the value in Hamza's name recognition, nor his musings posted by al Qaeda's media cell, but he was young, lacked battlefield experience, and had yet to develop a serious following,' London wrote in a piece for JustSecurity.com, which he says was reviewed and deemed unclassified by the CIA.

Though Hamza was not a top threat, he was urging attacks on Americans in the name of al Qaeda and was seen by experts as the possible future leader of the terror group.

'Despite intelligence assessments showing the greater dangers posed by Zawahiri  and the unlikelihood Hamza was in the immediate line of succession, the president thought differently,' London wrote.

Former CIA official Douglas London said that Trump's 'obsession' with bin Laden's son 'is one example of the president's preference for a "celebrity" targeted killing versus prioritizing options that could prove better for US security'

'He regularly demanded updates on Hamza and insisted we accelerate our efforts to go after him.'

Trump's wishes 'necessarily influenced the alignment of the Intelligence Community's focus and resources,' London said.

In March 2019 the US government announced a $1million reward for information to help locate Hamza bin Laden because officials were unable to confirm his death. Intelligence sources told NBC that he actually died in 2018 strike.

On September 14, 2019 Trump announced that Hamza bin Laden was killed in a US counter terrorism operation in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region and no further details were disclosed.

Trump's decision to target Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January, which erupted tensions between the US, Iran and Iraq, is a further testament to the high-stakes impact that the Commander in Chief's decisions holds. After the Soleimani strike the Iranian military launched missiles at US bases in Iraq, but no lives were lost in the attack

A former senior US official familiar with the matter said the Pentagon, the Department of State and various intelligence agencies all gave input in the process of nominating lethal action against Hamza, one source said.

While the choice to target Hamza bin Laden didn't shake geopolitics, it shed light on Trump's power in naming and pursuing America's enemies.

Trump's decision to target Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January, which erupted tensions between the US, Iran and Iraq, is a further testament to the high-stakes impact that the Commander in Chief's decisions holds.

Trump targeted Soleimani despite intelligence warnings that such a move would lead Iran to retaliate by killing Americans.

Following the Soleimani strike the Iranian military launched missiles at US bases in Iraq, but no lives were lost in the attack.

Trump has proudly professed that he acts on instinct.

'I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else's brain can ever tell me,' he said when answering a question about the economy in November 2018.

Osama bin Laden pictured with his successor Ayman al-Zawahri who took over as leader of al-Qaeda. He is still alive and has been a leader of the terror group since June 2011

Trump green-lighted a successful strike on ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (left) and Yemeni al Qaeda chief Qasim al-Rimi (right), two prominent names on the CIA list of potential US targets, in October 2019

Still, many military officials are in his corner.

'The president's highest priority is keeping Americans safe,' a senior administration official said speaking on the condition of anonymity.

'He and his administration have successfully targeted the most dangerous and deadly terrorists in the world in order to protect the American people, including Hamza bin Laden, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Qassem Soleimani, and Qasim al-Rimi. These and countless other measures that have removed dozens of high value targets exemplify this administration's resolve to defeat terrorism.'

Trump did end up following the CIA's suggestions and green-lighted a successful strike on ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Yemeni al Qaeda chief Qasim al-Rimi, two prominent names on the CIA list of potential US targets, in October 2019.

They were at or near the top of every intelligence priority list, officials say.

The strike was announced by the White House on February 7.
Emma Cert: U, 2hrs 4mins

Rating:

Before it hits what eventually turns out to be its totally delicious stride, there are moments  more than a few of them  when this new production of Jane Austens Emma looks as if its simply going to be too much.

All that verdant English countryside, all those young women bustling around in dresses that look like nighties, all those carriages busily rushing to and fro. Throw in Isobel Waller-Bridge and David Schweitzers prettily jaunty music, Bill Nighy in a succession of frock coats, and its like walking into a Jane Austen theme park.

But slowly  and the stressed or slightly Austen-averse will need to give it a good 20 minutes  it settles down, helped by the enduring appeal of Austens much adapted plot (shallow, vain young woman mistakenly believes she has a gift for matchmaking but causes only mischief and misery) and by a handful of wonderful supporting performances.

Mia Goth needs to take a bow, because it is thanks to her early efforts that we slowly come to realise how good Anya Taylor-Joy is as Austens unsympathetic heroine, Emma Woodhouse

Nighy, Johnny Flynn and particularly Mia Goth all need to take a bow, because it is thanks to their early efforts that we slowly come to realise how good Anya Taylor-Joy is as Austens unsympathetic heroine, the handsome, clever and rich Emma Woodhouse.

Swapping her customary dark tresses for a veritable frenzy of blonde ringlets, the Florida-born but London-raised actress is a delight in a role that in the past quarter-century has been played by the classy likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Beckinsale and Romola Garai.

It cant be easy playing someone that even Austen thought no one but myself will much like but Taylor-Joy, who to date has been something of a horror specialist, gets it pretty much spot-on.

When a young local farmer proposes to Harriet Smith (Goth), Emma believes her friend can do better  maybe the vain local cleric, Mr Elton (Josh OConnor, above)?

In early scenes we can see the characters essential vacuity and deluded self-centredness as she takes full credit for the marriage between her former governess and the widowed local landowner Mr Weston.

But we can also see the underlying charm and spirit that have made Emmas handsome neighbour, George Knightley (Flynn), an almost daily visitor to Hartfield, the fine country house she shares with her nervy, draught-sensitive (Can you feel a chill?) but fabulously well-dressed father (Nighy).

All she needs to do is a little growing up, and to discover that love is not the simple game she believes it is. But then she has lived only nearly 21 years.

We can see the underlying charm and spirit in Emma that has made her handsome neighbour, George Knightley (Johnny Flynn, above with Taylor-Joy), an almost daily visitor to Hartfield

While Nighy makes us laugh and the smouldering Flynn looks hugely dashing in riding boots and sideburns, it is Goth, who co-starred with Taylor-Joy and 1917 star George MacKay in The Secret Of Marrowbone, who gives this adaptation its beating heart.

She is touchingly brilliant as the lowly-born Harriet Smith, totally enthralled by her prettier, cleverer, richer friend but dreaming of a true love of her own.

When a young local farmer proposes, she thinks she has. But Emma believes her friend can do better  maybe the vain local cleric, Mr Elton (Josh OConnor)? Only were pretty sure his romantic interests lie elsewhere.

And so this almost Shakespearean comedy of mismatched romance and misunderstandings begins

IT'S A FACT Anya Taylor-Joy almost missed becoming a model at 16. She thought the scout tailing her was a stalker and tried to run away. Advertisement

The film may be produced by Working Title and have all that companys extraordinary film-making expertise to call on, yet it is directed by an American, Autumn de Wilde, best known for her photography and music videos, and here making her feature-film debut.

And a very a good job she makes of it, delivering a film that always looks gorgeous and drawing wonderful performances from a talented cast that soon also includes Miranda Hart as the garrulous but lonely busybody Miss Bates.

Look out particularly for some wonderful dance scenes sizzling with erotic potential in a way thats tempting to describe as definitely non-Austen-like but probably isnt.

Novelist Eleanor Catton, who won the 2013 Man Booker prize with The Luminaries, supplies a likeable and enjoyably amusing screenplay that remains reasonably faithful to the book but, rightly, makes the most of modern resonances about the position of women  and clever women, in particular  today.

In a film that features bottoms, a perfectly timed nosebleed and a very funny piano scene, the only slightly jarring note is hit by its conspicuous lack of ethnic diversity. The recent adaptation of David Copperfield by Armando Iannucci showed just how effective so-called colour-blind casting can be, but here, by conspicuous contrast well, lets just say you can see it earning the unwanted hashtag #emmasowhite.

Which is a shame because its #emmasogood too.

ALSO OUT THIS WEEK

Sonic The Hedgehog (PG)

Rating:

Nine months ago, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu set the bar very high indeed for live- action films designed to reinvigorate old video-game characters that were huge in the Nineties but in danger of being forgotten.

Alas, the new film designed to do just that for Sonic the Hedgehog  best known for being alien, blue and running at very high speeds  doesnt come close. Where the Pokemon reboot oozed class and revelled in its film-noir feel, this seems like a tired old road-trip movie for which most of the budget has been spent on some familiar-looking visual effects (lots of drones) and persuading Jim Carrey to take on the part of Sonics nemesis, Dr Robotnik.

What happens? Well, Sonic  now furrier, definitely with two eyes but still small, fast and blue  is perfectly happy with his quiet new life in small-town America.

Sonic, above  now furrier, definitely with two eyes but still small, fast and blue  is perfectly happy with his quiet new life in small-town America

But then, and this is complicated, he has a run-in with local cop Tom Wachowski (James Marsden), drops his magic rings when Tom is thinking of San Francisco and, suddenly, said vital rings are on the top of that citys Transamerica Pyramid.

Which leaves Sonic and Tom little choice but to pile into his pick-up, head to the West Coast and, we hope, become buddies along the very long way.

Its clearly aimed more at children than accompanying adults, but in an under-developed, underwritten way that soon proves wearing.

Spycies (PG)

Rating:

Remember Zootopia, the rather good 2016 cartoon about a young police officer who happened to be a rabbit? Or last years Will Smith animation about a secret agent who was turned into a pigeon, Spies In Disguise?

Well, Spycies is quite like both of them, with Vladimir, a secret agent who just happens to be a cat, teaming up with Hector, ditto but a rat, to recover a powerful energy-producing material stolen from the deep-sea platform they were guarding.

So far, so anthropomorphic and familiar. But while this may enjoy decent animation, it suffers from a convoluted story that tries  and fails  to combine espionage with global warming.

Vladimir, a secret agent who just happens to be a cat, teams up with Hector, ditto but a rat, to recover a powerful energy-producing material stolen from a deep-sea platform

Theres also a baffling oddness that involves a bee film star who wants an antennae reduction, a mammoth whos been shaving his fur to pass as an elephant, and a snake that turns into a fire-breathing dragon when it drinks coffee.

Not nearly as much fun as it sounds.
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Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 13:02:53|Editor: Xiaoxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Four satellites of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) have recently passed tests in orbit and started operation in the network, according to China's Satellite Navigation System Management Office.

The four satellites include the 41st, 49th, 50th and 51st satellites of the BDS family.

The 41st BDS satellite, launched on Nov. 1, 2018, is operating in geostationary orbit, and the 49th satellite was sent into inclined geosynchronous Earth orbit on Nov. 5, 2019. Both of them were developed by the China Academy of Space Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

The 50th and the 51st BDS satellites, launched on Nov. 23, 2019, are operating in medium Earth orbit, and were developed by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Over the past two years, China has successfully sent 28 BDS-3 satellites and two BDS-2 satellites into orbit.

China plans to launch another two BDS satellites into geostationary orbit in the first half of this year to complete the global network.
Namibia should by rights feel little concern about the coronavirus outbreak given that the sparsely-populated desert country is 12,000 kilometres from China and without a single confirmed case. But like many countries on the continent, the southern African nation hosts a big Chinese retail business community with close links to home. And as the fear of infection spreads, businesses are taking things into their own hands. A notice in Chinese and English taped to an aluminium shutter on a Chinese-owned shop in Windhoek's Chinatown spells it out: Any merchant returning to Namibia from China "must be quarantined for 14 days and keep the shop closed for that period", state the typed instructions signed by the Chinatown management. Many shop owners who travelled to China for the year-end break have opted to stay put instead of returning to Windhoek's Chinatown, a vast complex of nearly 200 retail, wholesale, food and electronics outlets in the northern industrial district of the capital. - Not coming back - In one block of 90 shops, 20 stores have not re-opened. The Chinese community, their embassy and Chinese Chamber of Commerce are trying their "very best to prevent people from returning from China to Namibia ... during this period," said Brian Lee, a businessman. For those who travel nonetheless "we have already set up a quarantine place outside of Windhoek" where they will be kept until cleared of the virus, but nobody has been taken there yet. "I think everybody is panicking, not just Namibians, also the Chinese community here is panicking as well," said Lee. Chinatown is usually teeming with shoppers, but not on this Friday afternoon. Shop owner Miang Li points to people's fear of contracting the virus from the Chinese as a reason for the dropping footfall, although he says mid-month blues -- due to low funds between pay cheques -- may also be to blame. "People who come here shout, 'coronavirus, coronavirus'," he told AFP at his clothes store. Li said inventories are dwindling because owners would rather not travel to China for their usual re-stock runs, instead clearing last year's stock at marked down prices. "Many of us here only go back in February or March for stock, now it is dangerous to go and come back," he said. "If you go now, you don't know if this country will let you come back." Chinatown caters to retail shoppers but also sells bulk to online and bricks-and-mortar boutiques in other parts of Namibia. "Clients from Walvis Bay, Swakopmund and Oshakati are not coming for now because we only have old stock," said the 52-year-old who has worked in Namibia for nine years. To make matters worse, some local staff are reluctant to continue working for the Chinese. - Not worth it - Shop attendant Matilda Ndinoshisho, 28, said a workmate had stopped showing up. "Her uncle and aunt told her the Chinese bosses will give her the virus that is killing all the Chinese and that a N$800 (US$54) salary is not worth losing her life or infecting the rest of them in the house," and so she quit, said Ndinoshisho. Namibia has had only one suspected case of coronavirus which turned out to be a false alarm. Health Minister Kalumbi Shangula said the government had medics screening visitors at all entry points into the country. "Every passenger who is coming into Namibia, whether from China or from any other country in the world, is subjected to a thorough screening," the minister told AFP. "If anybody displays symptoms of being infected with the virus, that person is isolated immediately and monitored." Now known by its official designation COVID-19, the virus emerged in central China at the end of last year and has spread across the world. It has killed more than 1,600 people and sickened 68,000 in China. Many Chinese business owners have delayed their return to Namibia after their year-end break in China It's not usually this quiet in Windhoek's Chinatown Stocks are running low at Chinese businesses in the Namibian capital Windhoek
TAIPEI, TaiwanThe Centers for Disease Control announced on Feb. 16 two new cases of COVID-19, including one who has already died.

The death marks the fifth outside of mainland China. Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, and France have each reported one death.

In Taiwan, a local man in his 60s died on Feb. 15 due to pneumonia and septicemia. The man began to have a cough on Jan. 27 and was hospitalized on Feb. 3.

The man, who also had hepatitis-B and diabetes, did not travel outside of Taiwan recently. Neither did he come into contact with anyone who had been infected with the virus.

The second case involves a man in his 50s, who is a relative of the dead man.

The pair constituted Taiwans first local transmission cases, Taiwans health and welfare minister Chen Shih-chung said on Sunday.

He explained that the dead man was a taxi driver. Most of his passengers were Taiwanese businesspeople who returned to the island after visiting China, Macau, and Hong Kong.

Chen added that 73 people who had close contact with the dead man have been located. Among them, 60 had tested negative for the virus and 12 are awaiting results. The mans relative mentioned above was the only one who tested positive.

With the two new cases, Taiwan has 20 known cases of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, international experts are concerned about the continuing increase in the number of cases in China, head of the World Health Organization Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday. So far, the Chinese regime has reported over 68,000 infections and more than 1,500 deaths, but experts and eyewitness accounts suggest the true numbers are likely higher.

Ghebreyesus also warned that it is impossible to predict which direction this epidemic will take.

From The Epoch Times
IDANHA, Ore.-- A fuel tanker crash closed a more than 20 mile stretch of Highway 22 just east of Idanha, and a hazmat team worked to clean the spill.

According to Oregon State Police, a fuel tanker overturned just after 7:40 a.m. Sunday, closing the highway eight miles east of Idanha all the way to Santiam Junction.

Officials said the highway would be closed indefinitely.

According to the Department of Environmental Quality, the truck, owned by Space Age Fuel, was carrying more than 10,000 gallons of fuel, spilling about 6,500 gallons of gasoline into a roadside ditch. An unknown amount of the gasoline seeped into the North Santiam River, which provides drinking water for the city of Salem.

The truck also contained diesel. It is unclear how much, if any, was spilled.

Crews are working to pump the remaining fuel out of the truck and prevent more from entering the river.

The driver was treated for minor injuries.
PHILADELPHIA The American Red Cross is facing a national blood crisis  its worst blood shortage in more than a decade. Dangerously low blood supply levels are posing a concerning risk to patient care and forcing doctors to make difficult decisions about who receives blood transfusions and who will need to wait until more products become []
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said harmful online content should be regulated, adding that his company should be treated with a framework in between those used for existing media and telecoms companies.

'I do think that there should be regulation on harmful content ... there's a question about which framework you use for this,' Zuckerberg said on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.

'Right now there are two frameworks that I think people have for existing industries - there's like newspapers and existing media, and then there's the telco-type model, which is 'the data just flows through you', but you're not going to hold a telco responsible if someone says something harmful on a phone line.'

'I actually think where we should be is somewhere in between,' he said.

CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg makes a speech as he attends the 56th Munich Security Conference at Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich, Germany on Saturday

Facebook and social media giants including Twitter and Alphabet's Google have come under increasing pressure to better combat governments and political groups using their platforms to spread false and misleading information.

Zuckerberg said he now employed 35,000 people to review online content and implement security measures.

Those teams and Facebook's automated technology currently suspend more than 1 million fake accounts each day, he said, adding that 'the vast majority are detected within minutes of signing up.'

'Our budget is bigger today than the whole revenue of the company when we went public in 2012, when we had a billion users,' he said.

'I'm proud of the results but we will definitely have to stay vigilant.'

Zuckerberg said harmful online content should be regulated by the government

Zuckerberg also threw his support behind international reforms that would require Silicon Valley tech giants to pay more tax in Europe.

Zuckerberg said at the conference that he's backing plans for digital tax reform on a global scale proposed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

According to an excerpt of his speech provided in advance, Zuckerberg said, 'I understand that theres frustration about how tech companies are taxed in Europe.'

Zuckerberg will tell the conference that he's glad that that the OECD is looking at tax reform, which Facebook also wants.

'And we accept that may mean we have to pay more tax and pay it in different places under a new framework.'
New CCTV footage from Dec 15 shows cops thrashing students at Jamia Millia Islamia Library

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Feb 16: A new video, purportedly of the CCTV footage from inside the Jamia Millia Islamia's library showing security personnel beating up students, has been shared thousands of times on Twitter.

Police said the video has come to their knowledge and they will investigate it as part of their ongoing probe, Special Commissioner of Police (Intelligence) Praveer Ranjan said.

The video, shared by the Jamia Coordination Committee, on Twitter has important details such as the date, time and day. Check out the tweet:

The 48-second video footage that has gone viral on social media shows ome seven to eight paramilitary and police personnel entering the Old Reading Hall and beating students with batons. People sitting at desks are seen being approached by security personnel and hit with lathis and chased out of the area.

New Jamia video: Priyanka Gandhi says govt's intentions would be exposed if no action taken

On December 15, the university had turned into a battlefield as police entered the campus to look for outsiders who were involved in incidents of violence and arson a few metres away from the educational institute during a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Police had faced flak over its alleged action on students in the library.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Sunday, February 16, 2020, 13:00 [IST]
Associated Press

SANTA FE  It was 1970, the U.S. president was Richard Nixon and members of a small Native American community in northern New Mexico traveled to Washington to press their case for reclaiming a sacred alpine lake from federal control.

The story of the return of Blue Lake and 75 square miles of surrounding national forest land to the people of Taos Pueblo  finalized with Nixons signature in December 1970  is being retold 50 years later, as tribal leaders and state legislators look for ways to preserve documentation and memories of the landmark victory for indigenous rights.

A legislative proposal would devote $350,000 from the state general fund to help preserve photographs, transcripts and news articles and develop exhibits and educational lessons about the campaign to reclaim Blue Lake, a site prized as an integral part of Indian pueblo culture and ceremonial traditions. The lake is in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains more than 2 miles above sea level.

Bill sponsor Sen. Bobby Gonzales, a Democrat from the adjacent town of Taos,recently described the decades long effort to reclaim the Blue Lake site, culminating in the halls of Congress with a battle of persuasion and public relations. The area first fell under direct U.S. management as forest land in 1906.

In testimony to a state Senate panel, Taos Tribal Council member Gilbert Suazo described the return of Blue Lake as a turning point in the history of his people. He said its a milestone in the 20th century Indian rights movement toward greater autonomy in governance and education.

Far from Taos Pueblo in 1970, the 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay was underway, after a group of indigenous activists and supporters banded together to take back land that they felt didnt belong to the U.S. government.

The Blue Lake story is entirely different, Suazo said.

It was not like a radical kind of thing. It was actually a tribal cause, a tribal matter, and thats the way we worked it, said the former Taos Pueblo governor, who testified before a congressional committee in the summer of 1970.

A breakthrough came after a meeting with U.S. Rep. Manuel Lujan Jr., a newly elected New Mexico Republican who would go on to serve as interior secretary under President George H.W. Bush.

Ill look into it; Ill let you know was the initial answer, said Suazo, who was in his mid-20s at the time. And then he actually wrote a letter back.  He said, I will do what my heart tells me to do and I will support this. 

Taos claims to ancestral lands were competing for attention with movements to reclaim land grants dating back to the Spanish colonial era and Mexican rule.

He was a Hispanic congressman, and there were Hispanics that were against the return. For him to step out like that was very significant, Suazo said.

Newly proposed state legislation would provide funding for commemorative celebrations, a short documentary film and educational materials that eventually may reside at a heritage center at Taos Pueblo.
Young and Old Face Ageism in the Workplace



Too Experienced or Not Experienced Enough



TORONTO, Feb. 12, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ageism, prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person's age, remains very much an issue in hiring according to a new Express Employment Professionals survey of businesses leaders and job seekers. It is an issue that continues to persist despite Canadas near record low unemployment rate and high demand for skilled workers.

In the survey, 81% indicated they believed their age was a consideration in the hiring process; only 16% said no. Nearly half of those that thought ageism was an issue were in the 55-to-64 years old category.

Michael Elliott, an Express franchise owner in London, Ontario, was asked whether he sees examples of age discrimination during the hiring process. Even with todays tight labour market, he argued that it exists at both ends of the spectrum.

Older workers may not be considered for emerging sectors since their pay expectations are typically higher, and their job skills and experience may not align with the new generation skillsets in these sectors. Younger Millennials and Gen Zs are unfairly cast as difficult to place in traditional work environments, where experience still trumps enthusiasm and creativity, Elliott said.

Survey respondents also reported real-life examples of perceived ageism, including:

I was told by the hiring supervisor, I believe you are just too old to give us much time here. You'll probably want to stay home and sit by the pool with the grandkids within a year.

I've been interviewed by several job offering companies, and when they realized how experienced I was and the number of years that I have been working, the inevitable statement was, You are too experienced for the position.

In my 20s, I was the top candidate for a position, but it was never offered. I later asked the employer why, and they stated that while I had all the education and experience, I did not have enough whiskers.

Im still young and inexperienced, and employers do not like that. They dont want to have to waste time training the new guy how to do something.

Story continues

Elliott suggested that attempting to define a group by common characteristics doesnt give credit to those who have upgraded their skills to become more tech-savvy or who have learned through experience to flex their work skills to adapt to any generation.

Elliott noted that bringing different age groups together is a good thing, making the culture at work more interesting and diverse.

Unfortunately, not everyone sees hiring the same way; nearly 20% of all workplace human-rights claims filed in Ontario allege age discrimination. This statistic is similar in other provinces, and these claims are on the rise.1

Age discrimination can have a negative impact on a companys brand and could mean costly mistakes due to inexperienced workers, according to Patty Smith, vice president of Human Resources and Compliance at Express International Headquarters. Businesses should avoid crafting job descriptions with phrases such as young and energetic and use motivated and driven instead.

When interviewing candidates, businesses should have an age-diverse panel and evaluate a prospect on the knowledge, skills and behaviors required for the job. And if the time comes to lay off employees, decisions should be made objectively, Smith added.

A successful economy is made up of workers from every generation because people of all ages bring different skills and life experiences to the table, said Express CEO Bill Stoller. Regardless of age or any other factor, at the end of the day, its important to hire the best person for the job.

The survey of 704 business leaders, decision makers and job seekers was conducted in January 2020 through the Express Refresh Leadership and Job Journey blogs.

If you would like to arrange for an interview to discuss this topic, please contact Adria Minsky at (416) 620-7111 or email adria@mapleleafstrategies.com .

About Bill Stoller

William H. "Bill" Stoller is chairman and chief executive officer of Express Employment Professionals. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, the international staffing company has more than 800 franchises in the U.S., Canada and South Africa. Since its inception, Express has put more than 7.7 million people to work worldwide.

About Express Employment Professionals

At Express Employment Professionals, were in the business of people. From job seekers to client companies, Express helps people thrive and businesses grow. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, OK, our international network of franchises offer localized staffing solutions to the communities they serve, employing 552,000 people across North America in 2019. For more information, visit www.ExpressPros.com .

1 Wrongfully fired employees can work together to help end age discrimination, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/leadership/article-wrongfully-fired-employees-can-work-together-to-help-end-age/ NOVEMBER 23, 2018



Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ec5e153c-2e27-410b-9794-e4189d7e9c3f

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/43c9d560-796e-496b-816a-eb8f7bd2ef66
Delhi's Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Joy Tirkey, probing the January 5 incident of violence at the Jawaharlal Nehru University here, and the city's Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Harender Kumar Singh are among the 42 personnel who have been awarded medals for their services.

Forty-two police personnel received Gallantry medals, the President's Medal for Distinguished Service and the Police Medal for Meritorious Service on the occasion of the 73rd Raising Day here on Sunday.

The Delhi Police organised a ceremonial parade to mark the occasion at the New Police Line Kingsway Camp Ground here where Home Minister Amit Shah was the chief guest.

Singh, who was additional DCP (North), was transferred and became the DCP (Railways) following the Delhi high court's directions after the Tis Hazari Court complex clashes between lawyers and policemen.

The announcement for Tirkey winning a medal for meritorious service was made on the occasion of Republic Day, 2019 while that for Singh winning the medal was made on Independence Day last year.

North district's Sadar Bazar bagged the trophy of the best police station in the city, while Southeast's Kalkaji and Shahdara's Farsh Bazar were the first and second runners-up respectively.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  President Rodrigo Duterte said US President Donald Trump "deserves" to be elected again for respecting the Philippines' decision to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the two nations, his spokesman said.

"It is President Trump's circumspect and judicious reaction to the termination of the VFA that made [President Rodrigo Roa Duterte] gave the following remarks: 'President Trump is a good president and he deserves to be re-elected," said Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo in a statement on Saturday.

Trump, who is gunning for a second term in the 2020 US Presidential polls, brushed off the end of the two-decade-long military pact between the US and the Philippines, saying it was "fine" because that way, his country would "save a lot of money."

Malacanang added that the President said he would have reacted the same way if he was in Trump's shoes while musing that Trump would have also ordered to end the agreement if he was the Philippines' leader.

However, Duterte in a previous speech revealed that Trump had attempted to "save" the agreement. He also called the US government rude for meddling in the country's affairs.

The VFA is the first of two agreements between Washington and Manila about the treatment of their troops when they are in the US or the Philippines.

The provisions of the 1998 deal include lax visa and passport policies for US troops, and rights of US government to retain jurisdiction over military personnel, among others.

Panelo reiterated that the President believes the Philippines should become self-reliant, at least in defense matters.

"As the President says in rationalising why we have [to] stand alone and depending on our own resources in fighting the enemies of the state: 'If not now, when?'," said Panelo.

Duterte pushed for the termination of the deal on February 11, despite opposition from lawmakers, who called for a review of the agreement instead.

He called to end the pact after the cancellation of Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa's US tourist visa. The Palace also cited the US government's move to ban entry to Filipino government officials who were involved in the "wrongful imprisonment" of detained Senator Leila de Lima. De Lima, a staunch critic of the Duterte administration, has been in jail for illegal drug charges since February 24, 2017.

Duterte also urged his Cabinet members to boycott travel to the US in January, around the same time he decided to terminate the VFA.

On Friday, Panelo maintained that the President's stand on the VFA remains unwavering, adding that lawmakers should just forget about a possible review.

The expiration of the VFA will come 180 days from the formal notice of termination from either country, as stated in the agreement.
Andhra Pradesh Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister Botsa Satyanarayana on Sunday alleged that the media misinterpreted his comments in reporting that YSRCP may join NDA.

"When a journalist asked me whether YSR Congress will join NDA, I said that if any such need arises, we will consider it and if there is no such need, we won't. Pro-TDP media misinterpreted the matter. Some sections of the English media also reported on the same lines," said the minister.

He said that a particular section of media has done so to favour TDP and to divert attention from the issue of Income Tax raids. The minister said that the issue of his Press meet at Visakhapatnam - IT raids - was not covered, instead, it was diverted to the matter of YSRCP joining NDA.

Referring to BJP Andhra Pradesh in-charge Sunil Deodhar's comments, Satyanarayana said that they are not asking for an alliance with BJP.

JSP leader and popular actor Pawan Kalyan said that he will snap ties with BJP if it allies with YSRCP. Responding on that, Satyanarayana said it was upto Pawan Kalyan whether he wants to continue with BJP or not.

The minister slammed TDP for allegedly spreading lies on IT raids issue. He said that the five years of the TDP regime were full of corruption.

"The Chandrababu Naidu government took loans of Rs 2 lakh crore but not even a single work was done. Where did all that money go?" he asked.

"Chandrababu Naidu and his party looted in the name of state capital Amaravati and Polavaram project. Our government has saved Rs 800 crore in the Polavaram project alone. Another Rs 400 crore has been saved in reverse tendering in the department of housing," the minister added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PIENIEZNO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th February, 2020) Polish authorities have ramped up efforts to falsify history in the run-up to the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, Russian Ambassador in Warsaw Sergey Andreev said on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, Russian diplomats honored the memory of Soviet Gen. Ivan Chernyakhovsky at the site of his death near the northern Polish town of Pieniezno (formerly the East Prussian town of Mehlsack) in February 1945. The monument to Chernyakhovsky, which used to stand at the site, was removed by the Polish authorities in 2015.

"The 75th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War is approaching. And as always, as the memorial date nears, the campaign to rewrite and falsify history and devalue our victory intensifies. As we approach May 9, this campaign strengthens, but we are ready for this. We are convinced of our rightness," Andreev said.

While interpreting historical events, Warsaw often forgets that modern Poland exists thanks to the Red Army, he added. Polish authorities, he went on, claim that Red Army soldiers replaced the Nazi occupation with Soviet dominance and did not bring them genuine liberty.

"This interpretation ignores one fundamental fact: if it were not for the victory of the Red Army and the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War, these countries [like Poland] simply would not be on the map," he stated.

According to the ambassador, one should accept own history "with all its good and not so good pages" and not betray it under any circumstances.

Andreev therefore said that Russia would continue giving tribute at the site of the death of Chernyakhovsky, the youngest ever Soviet general, "regardless of whether there is a monument here or not." Chernyakhovsky died from wounds at the age of 37 on February 18, 1945.
Lena Dunham has revealed how she was initially worried about her "insecurities" when asked to model in a London Fashion Week show [Image: Getty]

She wowed during her first ever catwalk appearance for London Fashion Week on Friday - but Lena Dunham has revealed that her insecurities initially made her worried about being a model.

The actress, 33, has shared a picture of herself to Instagram starring in 16Arlingtons Autumn/ Winter 2020 show.

Captioning the stylish snap -which sees her don a gold and black voluminous mini-dress for the brand - she admitted that while she had initially been overjoyed at being asked by designers Marco Capaldo and Kikka Cavenati to take part, her happiness didnt last long.

She wrote: When my friends at @16arlington asked me to walk the runway, I basically yelled YES WHEN!?

The actress said she felt "beautiful" walking the catwalk for 16Arlington on Friday [Image: Getty]

READ MORE: Victoria Beckham's family turn out in style to support her at London Fashion Week

Who doesnt want to be a supermodel!? I don't get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day, just like Linda Evangelista (JK, will work for chips.)

It was only after my initial scream of joy that I realised this would hit on a lot of my insecurities- about my body, desire-ability and general coolness.

However, Dunham insisted in the post to her 2.9m fans that the experience had ultimately been a positive one.

She continued: Marco & Federica are such sensitive, funny and wise artists and they created a show that could make any woman feel beautiful and unusual and happy in her total uniqueness.

READ MORE: Recycled dresses - All the celebrities following 2020's hottest awards trend

I loved meeting girls from all over the world (wow, your job is a lot harder than it looks- I can barely move my legs after that strut, so hats off to models) and Im so proud to call the designers my friends.

The brands co-founders first met the star last year when they dressed her for the Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood premiere.

Dunhams post received 71,000 likes and more than 1,000 comments.

One person wrote: You slayed it Lena!!!

READ MORE: The best long-sleeved dresses under 100 for spring and beyond

Story continues

Another commented: You are just so all around beautiful!!!

Meanwhile, her friend Gigi Hadid shared: Was so happy to see u werrrrking itttt.

And the brands designers added: Love you so much Lena.

Earlier this week, Dunham called on the fashion industry to include more diverse body types.

Captioning a carousel of photos of herself over the years on the red carpet, she wrote: I am getting to experience London Fashion Week for the first time.

READ MORE: 'Obscene' Alexander Wang short shorts divide opinion

While I havent necessarily been hailed as a fashion icon (thats the cute way to put it) I am obsessed with clothes.

Theres never a day where I dont get dressed with intention, even if its pajamas and bunny slippers in my bed.

As our chosen leader Rihanna once said I actually have had the pleasure of a fluctuating body type and that doesnt always lend itself to the doors of fashion opening wide - people have a lot of rules about how girls with flesh should dress (and, lets be real, rules about how every type of woman should dress- its exhausting.)

But Ive had some incredible and warmly inclusive designers make looks for me, and its a real joy to stroll through the archives and remember some of my favourite moments in my life as a mannequin...

Shout out to all the designers who have made room for my Spanx free stomach, which is almost as wide as my hips because thats one way a womans body can look.

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo Style UK:
The blazing sunshine and thick air that greeted Brisbane residents over the weekend are expected to stick around for the start of the week after heavy rain broke several records across south-east Queensland.

Humidity was about 60 per cent in Brisbane on Sunday, making the temperature feel a few degrees warmer than the 31 degrees it actually peaked at.

It will be a humid and sticky start to the week. Credit:Glenn Hunt

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Kimba Wong said Brisbane was expected to hit a maximum of 31 again on Monday and Tuesday.

"It is going to be pretty similar for the next couple of days, possibly a little bit warmer on Wednesday ahead of a trough that is approaching from the west," she said.
Sanders: Presidential Rival Bloomberg Wont Excite Voters

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) responded to the rise of rival Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloombergs rise in the polls, warning voters that the former New York City mayor wouldnt be able to generate excitement to win the White House.

The simple truth is that Mayor Bloomberg, with all his money, will not create the kind of excitement and energy we need to have the voter turnout we must have to defeat Donald Trump, Sanders told a Democratic party gala.

Bloomberg, who has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into his campaign, isnt competing in Nevada or South Carolina, instead trying to make his mark during Super Tuesday, where voters from a number of states cast ballots on March 3.

And Sanders, currently considered the front-runner, is trying to leverage his recent win in New Hampshire. During the Democratic gala, the longtime senator faulted Bloombergs policies on stop-and-frisk policing, minimum wage, and Wall Street regulations.

Democrats will not create the energy and excitement we need to defeat Trump if that candidate pursued, advocated for, and enacted, racist policies like stop-and-frisk, which caused communities of color in his city to live in fear, Sanders said Saturday, reported Reuters.

The former New York City mayors campaign issued a response to Sanderss remarks, saying Bloomberg raised taxes on the rich when he was in office.

Democratic presidential candidate, former New York City Mayor, Mike Bloomberg delivers remarks during a campaign rally in Nashville, Tenn. on Feb. 12, 2020. (Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)

As president, Mike will raise rates on high-income earners, tax capital income more equitably, close loopholes, and bolster enforcement, campaign spokeswoman Galia Slayen said. He will get it done because hes done it before.

Over the weekend, he released a plan for American workers, promising that he would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.

I started out in an entry-level job, and in building my business, I have always believed that our companys most valuable asset is our 20,000 employeesand thats why we are committed to providing good pay and the best benefits money can buy, including industry-leading paid parental leave, Bloomberg said in a statement.

Bloombergs campaign hasnt responded to a request for comment.

After declaring his candidacy, Bloomberg has apologized for the controversial stop-and-frisk policy that he implemented during his tenure as mayor.

I believe we need to end mass incarceration, and during my tenure, we reduced incarceration by 40 percent and juvenile confinement by more than 60 percent, his campaign said last week after audio surfaced from 2015 where Bloomberg was heard strongly defending the policing method.

And before he entered the primary, Bloomberg again issued a mea culpa.

I was totally focused on saving lives. But as we know, good intentions arent good enough. As crime continued to come down as we reduced stopsand as it continued to come down during the next administration, to its creditI now see that we could and should have acted sooner, and acted faster, to cut the stops, Bloomberg said last year, according to the New York Post.

Nevada holds its Democratic primary on Feb. 22, which is followed by South Carolinas primary on Feb. 29. Then, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia will all hold their presidential primaries on Super Tuesday.
President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday France was growing "impatient" with the lack of German response to its push to strengthen the European Union after Brexit. Asked at the Munich Security Conference if he was frustrated by Chancellor Angela Merkel's silence on his proposed reforms, Macron said: "I'm not frustrated, I'm impatient." "We have a history of waiting for answers" from each other, he said. "What's key in the coming years is to move much faster on issues of sovereignty on the European level." Macron has long pushed for an ambitious overhaul of the European Union in response to Britain's departure from the bloc, including deeper integration in financial and defence matters. Although Paris and Berlin are traditionally spoken of as the twin "motors" of the European project, Macron's hopes that the two neighbours could spearhead the reforms together have been dashed by German foot-dragging. Resistance from Germany and others saw Macron's flagship proposal of a common eurozone budget watered down to a tiny budget for selected projects. His recent offer to put France's nuclear deterrence at the heart of Europe's defence strategy has also met with a cool response from Berlin, wary of straying from the US nuclear shield within NATO. "I maintain that the protection of many countries here in Europe is guaranteed by the alliance with NATO," German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said in Munich. Any talk of strengthening Europe should above all be about "strengthening the European pillar within NATO," she added. But with the Merkel era drawing to close as the veteran chancellor plans to bow out in 2021, Macron may well be looking to the next German government to put his reform push back on track. At the conference, he met with leaders of Germany's surging Greens party, as well as top figures in Merkel's CDU/CSU conservative bloc.
Save the Children hosted its second annual Polar Bear Plunge on February 16, 2020 at Jennings Beach in Fairfield.

Staff, supporters and friends of the global humanitarian organization were "freezin for a reason" to support Save the Childrens efforts to give children in the U.S. and around the world a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm.
He was born Clayton Wheat Williams Jr., but he will forever be known as Claytie.

Williams, who died Friday at the age of 88, was seen as the epitome of a Texas oil and gas man, an old-school wildcatter willing to take chances. It wasnt always easy  he rose with the booms and busts cycles of the industry, but he managed to persevere.

Clayton Williams was a true Texas legend, Ben Shepperd, president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, told the Reporter-Telegram by email. He will always be remembered for his smile, his humor and his tenacity. He loved Texas. He loved Midland. He loved the oil and gas business and everyone in it. Claytie would visit with everyone on a location, no matter what their role in a project. He was a true friend and he will be fondly remembered.

RELATED: A&M pays tribute to one of its most distinguished alumni

Williams had his hands in many other businesses, from the Clayjon natural gas pipeline to telecommunications and real estate.

But he was always an advocate of the industry, once appearing before the Railroad Commission in a dinosaur costume to make his point that if regulations werent eased, hed soon be extinct.

As he rode the ups and downs of the energy industrys business cycles, he was astute enough to make acquisitions  such as Southwest Royalties in 2011  and swap assets, including with Concho Resources and Chesapeake Energy. To improve business as the shale boom began to take off, he even formed his own drilling company, Desta Drilling, which was sold to Double K Drilling in 2018.

When Williams sold Clayton Williams Energy to Noble in 2017, the sale included 2,400 gross drilling locations in the upper and lower Wolfcamp A zones and in the Wolfcamp B and C zones.

RELATED: Local, state leaders respond to Clayton Williams' passing

He was recognized for his leadership and advocacy by numerous industry organizations, including the PBPAs Top Hand Award, the Industry Leadership Award from Hart Energy and induction in the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum Hall of Fame. He also received the Hearst Energy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

He was such a character, full of the joys of life, and yet also so tenacious, creative and ambitious about all of his businesses, Leslie Haines, editor-in-chief of Hart Energys Oil and Gas Investor magazine, told the Reporter-Telegram by email.
Nestled in the lap of the Himalayas, Nepal for decades has been a magnet for adventurers, thrill-seekers and mountain lovers, but the landlocked country seeks to diversify its tourism through campaigns and art festivals and rekindle romance among Indian honeymooners.

In a bid to encourage tourism, boost employment and change perceptions, the Nepalese government launched 'Visit Nepal Year 2020' (VNY 2020) campaign in January, nearly five years after a devastating earthquake killed nearly 9,000 people and left the country's already weak infrastructure broken.

"As the country slowly started to recover from the earthquake by reconstructing the sites and restarting the passes, the Visit Nepal Year 2020 was launched to spurt its growth as tourism destination," a note on VNY 2020 says.

The campaign has been widely publicised by the government within the country and outside.

A total of 1.17 million tourists visited Nepal in 2019 via air and land routes, a slight decline from the previous year when 1.52 million



India was Nepal's top source of tourists in 2019. According to the data compiled by the Department of Immigration (DoI), a total of 2,09,611 Indian tourists visited Nepal in 2019 while 1,69,543 Chinese visitors travelled to the Himalayan nation in the same year.

Under the campaign, various events and art festivals are being organised or facilitated so that it contributes 10 per cent of the total revenue of the country even beyond 2020.

"Through these festivals, many international artistes, filmmakers, photographers, writers, and curators will visit the country and also expose Nepal to their worldwide followers," the campaign said in a statement.

Many international art festivals like Kathmandu Triennale (International Arts Festival), Photo Kathmandu (International Photo Festival), Jazzmandu (International Jazz Music Festival) and KIMFF (International Mountain Film Festival) are being organised during the year.

"The boost in tourism would also mean more employment opportunities in the country and more investments for infrastructures," the statement said.

Campaign's national coordinator Suraj Vaidya says their primary focus is to attract tourists from countries which have direct flight connectivity with Nepal like India and Malaysia.

"Malaysia is an important market for us as is Singapore," he said.

Stressing the importance of India in making the campaign a success, he said the two countries shared deep cultural and family ties, with open borders, cross border marriages and friendship.

"I am not so concerned about the numbers the VNY seeks to achieve. What I am concerned about is Nepal used to be a honeymoon destination for Indians. I need to bring the Indians back for honeymoon here," he said.

"It's our loss that we have lost Indian sentiment to see Nepal as a tourist destination. Years of internal conflict has not helped Nepal project itself as tourist destination for India. So we need to somehow bring that back. That romance back. Indians don't need a visa, (for spendings) they can use their card here. We speak the same language," Vaidya said.

He said the country also sought to change perception of it through the campaign.

"The Middle East people think Nepal just supplies cheap labours. They think why to go to a poor country. We need to change that perception. Nepal is much more. We want to promote our tourism in China also," Vaidya said.

He said the country was looking to give its visitors a "lifetime experience" by stirring their spirituality, and through adventure sports, pilgrimages, wildlife sanctuaries among others.

"Spiritually, we want to reintroduce Nepal back to people. Today a lot of people look very stressed. If you are in Delhi, you can break from work stress just by taking three days off on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We can give you that destination for a very quick break. Just refresh yourself. Spirituality is something we want to work on very much...," he said.

Besides help from the Indian people, Nepal also expects some "neighbourly support" at the government level.

"India has a system where their bureaucrats can take leave and travel in particular areas. So we want Nepal to come in that list. It's a very small step to encourage this good neighbourly thing. If something could be done on this basis. Sometimes these are gestures that change a lot," Vaidya said.

"Also, when the Indian companies arrange their regional annual meeting/conferences outside, there should be tax rebate for them if they hold their meetings in Nepal. These are all political decisions," he said.

Besides all these activities, Nepal also allows foreigners to enjoy casino experience. Even though locals are banned from taking part in it, they can be employed there.

"Casino is a business for me. I don't want be judgmental about it," Vaidya said.

Under the VNY 2020, an Indian company, which runs several casinos in Goa, opened a casino in Kathmandu on February 8.

"With The Visit Nepal Year 2020 on pursuit, the opening of this casino takes the casino-tourism landscape in Nepal to greater heights keeping in mind other aspects of tourism, thereby contributing to build the Nepalese economy," the Deltin Group said in a statement.

It said the casino had employed nearly 250 locals.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court has held that states are not bound to provide reservation in appointments and there is no fundamental right to claim quota in promotions

New Delhi: A large number of Bhim Army members took out a protest march on Sunday against the Supreme Court's ruling that state governments are not bound to provide reservation in promotions in public services.

Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad led the protest march from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar. He has given a call for a 'Bharat Bandh' (nation wide strike)on 23 February demanding that the government brings an ordinance to nullify the ruling.

Harjeet Singh Bhatti, the spokesperson of the Bhim Army, said, "The judgment of the apex court is totally against the Constitution's promise of right to equality."

The Supreme Court has held that states are not bound to provide reservation in appointments and there is no fundamental right to claim quota in promotions.

The apex court said this while dealing with pleas regarding Uttarakhand government's 5 September, 2012 decision to fill up all posts in public services in the state without providing reservations to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The government's decision was challenged in the Uttarakhand High Court, which struck it down.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 10:48:45|Editor: yhy

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A man walks past an electoral poster of a candidate for the upcoming parliamentary election in Rasht, Iran, on Feb. 15, 2020. Iran's parliamentary election campaign officially started across the country on Thursday. Iranian people will go to the ballot boxes on Feb. 21 to elect the lawmakers for 290-seat parliament. (Photo by Ahmad Halabisaz/Xinhua)
ALBANY  New York is ending its fight to stop T-Mobile's $26.5 billion takeover of rival Sprint, Attorney General Letitia James announced Sunday.

The decision came days after a federal judge in Manhattan ruled in favor of the merger, rejecting James' assertion that the union would hurt competition nationwide and drive up prices for consumers  especially those in rural areas who often have poor access to cell service. She co-led a coalition of 14 attorneys general nationwide in lodging the case against the service giants last summer.

The merger will combine the third and fourth largest wireless providers in the U.S.  which will make them a force against the largest companies, AT&T and Verizon.

"After a thorough analysis, New York has decided not to move forward with an appeal in this case," James said in a release Sunday. "Instead, we hope to work with all the parties to ensure that consumers get the best pricing and service possible, that networks are built out throughout our state, and that good-paying jobs are created here in New York. We are gratified that this process has yielded commitments from T-Mobile to create jobs in Rochester and engage in robust national diversity initiatives that will connect our communities with good jobs and technology."

Her Sunday statement was a shift from the statement she issued shortly after the judge's decision last Tuesday. At the time, James asserted that the merger "has been about massive corporate profits over all else, and despite the companies false claims, this deal will endanger wireless subscribers where it hurts most: their wallets."

James' announcement allows T-Mobile's executives to breathe a temporary sigh of relief, as California Attorney General Xavier Becerra continues to weigh his options. Following the decision last Tuesday, he asserted that "our coalition is prepared to fight as long as necessary to protect innovation and competitive costs. California's independent public utilities commission is also currently reviewing the deal.

This is a BIG win and a BIG day for the New T-Mobile!" Mike Sievert, COO and president of T-Mobile, said in a release following the judge's decision last week. "Now we can get to work finishing what we set out to do  bringing a new standard for value, speed, coverage, quality and customer service to U.S. consumers everywhere and TRULY changing wireless for good."

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

He said the companies are working on finalizing negotiations as early as April 1. The current plan is for Sprint customers to become T-Mobile customers.

Opponents of the merger have argued that combining T-Mobile and Sprint  the less-expensive alternatives to AT&T and Verizon  would cut consumers' options and increase prices, though the companies have claimed that their combined forces would allow for expanded coverage and an expedited 5G network.

The Federal Communications Commission approved the merger last year. The companies have said they don't plan to raise consumer prices for three years, but the labor group Communications Workers of America have also warned that T-Mobile's takeover of Sprint could put 30,000 jobs at risk.
By Vivek Gumaste

The tragic tale of the Hindus of East Bengal (which later became East Pakistan and is now Bangladesh) must start with the Noakhali genocide, for it was a prelude to what would unravel in the years to come. In 1946, Noakhali district in south eastern Bangladesh, was the scene of a gruesome carnage which the historian Yasmin Khan described as being defined by clear strategic organization (roads in and out of the almost inaccessible region were cordoned off) (The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan. Yale University Press, 2008); at least 5,000 Hindus were massacred, hundreds of Hindu women raped and thousands forcibly converted to Islam; many more fled to India. Even Mahatma Gandhis peace mission to Noakhali failed to quell the atrocities against Hindus which continued unabated during his stay. Exasperated, Gandhi left Noakhali, urging the Hindus there to Quit Noakhali or Die (NY Times. 8 April 1947).

DECREASING POPULATION

Gandhis words proved prescient for the entire Hindu community of East Bengal for decades to come after 1946: they either perished or fled. The Hindu population has undergone a steady attrition over the years, from 28% in 1940 to 8.96% in 2011, with especially two periods of sharp declinethe first around the time of partition and the second during the 1971 Bangladesh War that resulted in the liberation of Bangladesh. However, even after the emergence of Bangladesh, the Hindu community has contractedfrom 13.5% in 1974 to 8.96% in 2011a nearly 33% decline, which is humungous in demographic terms. These dwindling numbers are a stark indicator of the deeply hostile anti-Hindu environment prevalent in that country.

Professor Abul Barakat of Dhaka University in his recently published book, The Political Economy of Reforming Agriculture: Land Water Bodies in Bangladesh, writes that there will be no Hindus left within Bangladesh within 30 yearsThe rate of the exodus over the past 49 years points to that direction. As per his research, around 11.3 million Hindus were compelled to flee Bangladesh due to religious persecution from 1964 to 2013.

GENOCIDE OF 1971

Atrocities against Hindus culminated during the Bangladesh Liberation War. It was arguably the darkest period for Bangladeshi Hindusthey became the victims of horrendous genocide.

Senator Edward Kennedy in a report submitted to US Senate Judiciary Committee (1 November, 1971) categorically stated: Field reports to the US government, countless eye-witness journalistic accounts, reports of international agencies such as World Bank and additional information available to the subcommittee document the reign of terror which grips East Bengal (East Pakistan). Hardest hit have been members of the Hindu community who have been robbed of their lands and shops, systematically slaughtered, and in some places, painted with yellow patches marked H. All of this has been officially sanctioned, ordered and implemented under martial law from Islamabad.

In Gary Bass book, The Blood Telegram (Vintage, 2014), Archer Blood, who was the American Consul General in Dhaka, speaks of the international moral obligations to condemn genocideof Pakistani Hindus.

And David Bergman, an investigative journalist based in Bangladesh, in an op-ed column (The Politics of Bangladeshs Genocide Debate, 5 April 2016, New York Times) also refers to the Hindu genocide: There is no question that there were many atrocities, including rape, deportation and massacres of civilians, carried out by the Pakistani Army, aided at times by pro-Pakistani militias. Some of these included members of the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist party that remains a powerful force in Bangladesh today. There is an academic consensus that this campaign of violence, particularly against the Hindu population, was a genocide.

Estimates of the actual number of deaths vary from a ridiculous low 26,000 put out by the Pakistan government (Hamood-ur-Rahman Commission) to a high of 3 million circulating in the international media. The official position from Bangladesh concurs with the figure of 3 million.

R.J. Rummel, in his book, Statistics of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900 (Chapter 8) concludes: Consolidating both ranges, I give a final estimate of Pakistans democide to be 300,000 to 3,000,000, or a prudent 1,500,000.

Using these estimates, the final casualty figures for Hindus sum up to anywhere between 1.2 to 2.4 million, as Hindus accounted for nearly 80% of those killeda mind numbing figure by any standards.

CONSTITUTIONAL STATUS

For the greater part of their existence since 1947, the Hindus of Bangladesh have lived as second class citizensfirst under the Islamic theocracy of Pakistan till 1971 and subsequently under some of the governments in Bangladesh.

Sheikh Mujibur Rehman did include secularism as one of the four core governing principles in the first Constitution of Bangladesh in 1972. However, this was short-lived. In 1975, a military coup deposed Sheikh Mujibur Rehman in the name of the Islamic Republic of Bangladesh.

Subsequently, General Ziaur Rahman further fortified the religious basis of the Constitution by deleting secularism as one of the four major fundamental principles of state policy and adding an Islamic invocation above the preamble (5th Amendment, 1979). Next, General Ershad deemed Islam as the state religion by introducing Article 2A, which averred that the state religion of the Republic is Islam but other religions may be practiced in peace and harmony in the Republic (8th Amendment, 1988).

In 2011, Sheikh Hasina restored secularism to the Constitution, but maintained Islam as the state religion and made no changes to the preamble, retaining its religious invocation (15th Amendment). With an officially sanctioned state religion, secularism is reduced to naught sans any practical impactthe Hindus and other minorities continue to be for all intents and purposes second class citizens.

There have been other discriminatory orders passed by the government. In 1993, the Home Ministry asked commercial banks to regulate withdrawal of cash by Hindus and stop disbursement of loans to the Hindu community in districts bordering India.

COMMUNAL VIOLENCE AND RELIGIOUS INTIMIDATION

Their Constitutionally ordained secondary status makes Hindus vulnerable to mob violence orchestrated by fundamentalist groups especially during election times and during periods of social turmoil.

In 2001, following the electoral victory of the BNP led by Khaleda Zia, her supporters unleashed a systematic campaign of violence against Hindus that went on for about 150 days. A judicial commission probing this violence documented about 18,000 incidents of major crime; about 1,000 Hindu women were raped and 200 were victims of gang rape. Nearly 500,000 Hindus fled to India (The Daily Star, 2 December 2011; Hindu American Foundation report).

When the International Crimes Tribunal indicted several Jamaat members in 2013 for war crimes against Hindus during the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities, their supporters retaliated by attacking Hindus: Hindu properties and businesses were looted, women were abducted and raped and temples were desecrated. Overall, more than 50 Hindu temples were destroyed and over 1,500 Hindu homes were burnt spread out over 20 districts.

Hindu priests are regularly targeted and intimidated for preaching Hinduism. In February 2016, Jogeshwar Roy, a 55-year-old Hindu priest was beheaded by Islamic militants, while preparing for prayers inside the Deviganj temple in Panchagarh district.

HINDU PROPERTY

In addition to the fragility of their lives, government laws ensure that land and property owned by Hindus is not secure as well. In 1965 after the Indo-Pakistan War, Pakistan promulgated the Enemy Property Act (EPA) that gave the government unbridled powers to appropriate enemy propertya euphemism for Hindu owned assets. The new Republic of Bangladesh retained the EPA under a new name the Vested Property Act (1974) whereby the Government of Bangladesh vested itself with the enemy properties previously seized since the 1965 War and continued to use the discriminatory law to confiscate Hindu land.

In 2001, the Awami League made an attempt to restore Hindu property to its rightful owners by the Restoration of Vested Property Act, 2001; but it was nothing more than an eyewash. The requirements were too burdensome and failed to translate into any benefit at the ground level.

Approximately 1.2 million Hindu families, or 44% of all Hindu households, have been affected EPA/VPA: Hindus have been dispossessed of more than 2 million acres of land. Even after the Restoration of Vested Property Act passed in 2001, land encroachment involving Hindu land has continued but mostly during BNP governments. (Rabindranath Trivedi. Retired Additional Secretary and former Press Secretary to the President of Bangladesh. The legacy of enemy turned vested property act in Bangladesh. Asian Tribune. 29 May 2007.)

CONCLUSION

In all this oppression, the Awami League has offered a glimmer of hope and demonstrated some semblance of right and wrong by instituting a judicial probe into the post-election violence of 2001 and setting up the International Crimes Tribunal to try the perpetrators of the 1971 war crimes. It must be lauded. But overall these efforts have been insufficient. So instead of questioning the need for a CAA as Sheikh Hasina did or Bangladeshi diplomats calling off their visits to India in a huff, Bangladesh must pledge to do more to bolster the confidence its Hindu minority.

In summary, the Hindus of East Bengal have had an unenviable existence since 1947: they have been the victims of an unprecedented genocide, their properties continue to be illegally usurped, their temples continue to be desecrated and their women are fair target for their detractorsforcing them to flee the country in droves to the only land where they hope to find reliefIndia.

So, I reiterate this question to the CAA protestors that I asked recently with regard to the Hindus of Pakistan: Can anyone with even an iota of conscience deny this community refuge ?

Source : Sunday Guardian
Bernie Sanders could well be the Democrat nominee. This is far from being a lead-pipe cinch; rather, it's an informed opinion. Here's the straightforward reasoning behind it.

Sanders is on track to arrive at the Democrat National Convention, not with a majority of pledged delegates, but with a significant plurality of them. Since pledged delegates are the only ones allowed to vote in the first ballot, the results will be inclusive. That gives a contested convention. From that point on, superdelegates, which make up about 16 percent of the total, can vote. This give the establishment the opportunity to deny the Vermont socialist the nomination, especially if his plurality is slim.

But this is something Democrat, Inc. will probably dare not do. Of all the Democrat candidates, only Crazy Bernie has a hardcore, true-believing following. The only other politician who has this is Donald Trump. To deny Sanders the nomination would be to bring the roof down on the Democrat Party... maybe literally. His followers are young and passionate, and many are prone to violence. Boxed in this way, the Democrat establishment may well be reduced to bargaining with Sanders over his V.P. pick.

If so, the Democrat establishment will pressure Sanders to pick someone who passes for a "moderate" from within the party's ranks with the unspoken hope that the aged socialist with a heart condition will expire in office if he gets that far.

Such a V.P. deal could prove irresistible to Sanders. He's called Crazy Bernie for multiple reasons, but he's not completely insane. Sanders could feel that appeasing the establishment would give him the most likely path to the presidency, a perch from which he could begin to fulfill his lifelong dream of transforming America into what he calls a Denmark but critics say would be a Cuba.

Although there are a number of potential establishment V.P. picks, Hillary Clinton has certain unique advantages. (Clinton's negatives are well known and won't be dwelled on here.)

1. Hillary is still a powerful force within the Democrat establishment and has the ability to raise vast amounts of money.

2. Being a woman, she brings a degree of diversity to the ticket, and it is well known how the Democrat base prizes its diversity.

3. Clinton still has a fanatical following among old-time, hardcore feminists like those found in the abortion industry and in EMILY's List.

4. Although Hillary is not black, she has proven she can shamelessly pander with the best of them, even trying to affect a Southern black accent on occasion.

5. Even if defeat and exile, Hillary Clinton has not lost her insatiable lust for power. She knows that the presidential nomination is not hers. The V.P. slot, however, could give her a chance to sit behind the desk in the Oval Office as boss. If Hillary smells even a hint of that opportunity, she'll spare no effort to seize it. Billionaire Mike Bloomberg is already giving off hints that he might pick Clinton as his running mate if, against all odds, he becomes the Democrat nominee. That's music to the old woman's ears. All that Hillary hears is, "I'm wanted. I'm needed. I'm important."

A Sanders-Clinton ticket is a possibility. Is it a winning one? Of course not. In fact, there's nobody Sanders could pick who could propel him into the White House. The Democrats are due for a great trouncing in November, no matter who is at the top of their ticket. The good thing with Sanders as the nominee, however, is that he will sink more down-ticket Democrats than any of the others.

A Republican majority in the House would be a nightmare for the Democrats. It would be a day-and-night difference between it and the current Nancy Pelosicontrolled House or even the Paul Ryancontrolled one. Back in 2016, Trump was just starting the process of bending the GOP to his MAGA agenda. Since then, he has made great headway. Although not completely purged, many anti-Trump RINOs are gone.

If you want to see MAGA on steroids, give Trump a Republican House and Senate in 2021. Crazy Bernie with Hillary in tow could help bring that about.

Image: Marc Nozell via Flickr.
Andriy Yermak owns an apartment of 107,8 square meters, Toyota Camry (2015), a number of corporate rights and three government securities

Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Reuters

The head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak unveiled a declaration for 2019. The website of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption reports.

So, according to a published declaration, the head of the Presidents office owns an apartment of 107,8 square meters, Toyota Camry (2015), a number of corporate rights and three government securities worth $40.

In general, Yermak contributed $10,042 to the declaration for 2019, in particular, income from entrepreneurial activity, salary at LLC International Law Company, salary at the main place of employment in JSC International Law Company, fees in the European Media Group partnerships and income from the alienation of securities and corporate rights.

Also, the official declared part of corporate rights in 9 companies, including 100% in LLC "IP AI", 99% in LLC "Garnet International Media Group", 10% in JSC "Interpromfinance-Ukraine" and 50% each LLC "International Law Company", "International Pharmaceutical Group" and "Interpromfinance-Security".

Yermak also owns 60% of the rights in the Law Firm International Law Company, 33.33% in LLC AMA VISION, and 0.01% in LLC Visson Ukraine Technologies. The head of the OP is the ultimate owner of all of the above companies.

As we reported, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has fired Andriy Bohdan from the position of the head of his Office. Such decree appeared today, on February 11 on the website of the head of the state.

Former aide of Zelensky Andriy Yermak chairs the Office of President instead of Bohdan.
With one riposte, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald may have changed the course of Irish history.

It was debate night in the middle of the general election campaign, and rival party leaders Leo Varadkar and Micheal Martin were attacking her partys tax-and-spend promises, ignoring their own at times questionable economic record.

Listening to these men youd never imagine that one had crashed the economy and that the other is so fiscally irresponsible that hes producing the most expensive hospital in the world, McDonald witheringly told them, drawing wild applause from the audience.

From that moment, the campaign was transformed. A poll days later saw Sinn Feins backing surge. In the Feb. 8 election, the party won the popular vote in what has been described as a Mary Lou monsoon with voters braving storms and heavy rain to support Sinn Fein in record numbers, and putting the party on the cusp of power south of the border for the first time.

For Sinn Fein, it was a vindication of its decision to choose McDonald, A privately educated woman from an affluent corner of Dublin, to replace Gerry Adams when he stepped down in 2018. That was a decisive break with the partys Northern Irish, blue collar roots, with its deep ties to the IRA.

She represents a wider generational change at the top of the party, its no longer dominated by figures who are associated with the conflict in the north, said Diarmaid Ferriter, professor of history at University College Dublin. That makes a difference.

Sinn Feins rise fits with a wave of populism upending the established political order across the continent. In the Irish case, the nationalists surge could amplify an uncomfortable conversation around reunification, and may lead to more immediate seismic shifts, including the arrival of the countrys first woman premier and the most left-wing government in the history of the state.

The centre has been shaken, but held, Irish Prime Minister Varadkar said in a speech in Dublin on Wednesday, paraphrasing the poet WB Yeats, to say the dark future has not yet come to pass. Speaking to reporters, he hinted he might be prepared to work with other centrist parties if Sinn Fein cant form a government.

We stand by the state, he said.

In Saturdays election, Sinn Fein won 25 per cent of the first preference vote, with McDonald capitalizing on discontent with a housing shortage and an ailing health service. She also tapped into a sense it was time to topple the two-party power structure that has dominated Irish politics for almost a century.

The party took 37 seats, leaving it just one short of Fianna Fail, and placed McDonald in contention to become the nations first left of centre, female premier.

In 2016, under Adams, the party won 23 seats, making it a distant third to the established parties of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail.

Two years later, McDonald took over. Born on May Day 1969, McDonald comes from Rathgar, an affluent district in South Dublin.

Her father was a builder and member of Fianna Fail, but her grandmother, Molly, was the key figure in shaping her politics, according to Deaglan de Breaduns 2015 book, Power Play: The Rise of Modern Sinn Fein. Mollys brother opposed the treaty which split Ireland in 1921, and was executed in the Civil War that followed, de Breadun wrote

McDonald was not yet a teenager when Bobby Sands, an IRA member on hunger strike, died in 1981. The strike captured global attention when IRA prisoners led by Sands refused to eat. The men wanted the U.K. to classify them as political prisoners, not criminals, a demand rejected by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Sands was elected to the British Parliament while on the strike. His death at age 27 sparked riots and fuelled a surge of nationalist sentiment across Northern Ireland. That inspired the IRAs ally, Sinn Fein, to contest elections in the 1980s as part of a strategy known as the Armalite and the Ballot Box.

McDonald later said, that for her, 90 miles way in Dublin, the hunger strikes were a road to Damascus moment, de Breadun wrote.

Initially, though, McDonald followed the standard middle-path of life for many in South Dublin. She attended a fee-paying school, studied English at the cobbled-lined university in the heart of the city. Trinity College, worked in think-tanks and joined Fianna Fail.

By the late 1990s, she felt her nationalism and interest in social justice was out of step with the party. Inspired by a Gerry Adams speech in the Mansion House, the meeting place of the Irish parliament during the War of Independence with Britain, she joined Sinn Fein, according to de Breadun.

She quickly rose through the ranks as the party sought to broaden its appeal, and calm voter concerns about its historic links to the IRA terror group.

I wear no balaclava, she assured voters in 2004. She said she was occasionally resentful of the suggestion that she was cute but not that bright and groomed for power as the acceptable face of Sinn Fein.

That year, she was elected as an member of the European Parliament for Dublin. She then won a seat in parliament in 2011, as the party fought austerity in the wake of the nations international bailout, placing her in position to succeed Adams.

The ride hasnt always been smooth since then. In fact, her leadership was questioned after a poor performance in local, European and presidential elections.

At times, shes struggled to keep a lid on the partys more militant side as she tried to broaden its support. Last year, she apologized for walking in the U.S. behind a banner bearing a slogan that read, Get England out of Ireland.

Fearful of the partys performance in the 2020 election, she stood down party candidates, a mistake that meant Sinn Fein lost out on the chance to be the biggest party by seats in parliament.

The party itself has been taken by surprise by its swift rise, and many analysts are struggling to explain how exactly McDonald turned it around.

After the debate, she overtook Varadkar and Martin as the most popular leader, polls show, and is in the race to be prime minister, as the various parties eye coalition options.

The party seems likely to be in government, if not after this election, then after the next. Transforming a party of protest into one of government will present McDonald with a fresh challenge.

As Tony Smurfit, chief executive officer of Dublin-based global packaging company Smurfit Kappa Group Plc, put it, its very easy to criticize from opposition.
By 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, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry on February 16.

The Armenian armed forces were using sniper rifles.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, 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 Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Drug major Dr Reddy's Laboratories on Sunday said the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has asked it to initiate voluntary action at its Duvvada facility in Andhra Pradesh.

"With regard to the audit of our Formulations Manufacturing Plant at Duvvada, Visakhapatnam, we would like to inform you that we have been notified by the USFDA, that the inspection classification of the above-referred facility is determined as Voluntary Action Initiated," Dr Reddy's Laboratories said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Last week, the audit of Dr. Reddy's Formulations Srikakulum Plant (SEZ) Unit I, Andhra Pradesh, was completed with zero observation by the US FDA.

Earlier on November 5, 2015,USFDA had issued a warning letter to Dr Reddy's over deviations with current good manufacturing practices at its active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) manufacturing facilities in Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh and Miryalaguda, Telangana, as well as over violations at its oncology formulation manufacturing facility at Duvvada, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Of these three manufacturing facilities, API manufacturing facility at Miryalaguda and oncology formulation manufacturing facility at Duvvada received Establishment Inspection Reports from the USFDA in June 2017 and February 2019, respectively.

In a separate development, Dr Reddy's Laboratories on 12 February announced to acquire Wockhardt's select divisions of branded generics business in India and a few other international territories of Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Maldives for a consideration of Rs 1,850 crore.

Ahead of announcement, shares of Dr Reddy's Laboratories closed Friday's trade at Rs 3,307.50 apiece, down 0.55 per cent, on the BSE.

By Chitranjan Kumar

Also Read: Dr Reddy's inks Rs 1,850-crore deal with Wockhardt; to acquire 62 brands & Baddi unit

Also Read: Dr Reddy's awaits USFDA inspection report for Srikakulam facility after a 'good' December quarter
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of Iraq's northern Kurdish region, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference Friday.

The face to face meeting comes increased tensions and mistrust between Washington and Iraq after an American strike killed a top Iranian general and an Iraqi militia commander.

Barzani is also expected to use the conference to warn of the continued danger from the Islamic State group and urge for increased inernational participation to fight the group.

(Image: Twitter/@SecPompeo)
BEIJING  A recent speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping that has been published by state media indicates for the first time that he was leading the response to a new virus outbreak from early on in the crisis.

The publication of the Feb. 3 speech was an apparent attempt to demonstrate that the Communist Party leadership had acted decisively from the beginning, but also opens up the Chinese leader to criticism over why the public was not alerted sooner.

In the speech, Xi said he gave instructions on fighting the virus on Jan. 7 and ordered the shutdown that began on Jan. 23 of cities at the epicenter of the outbreak. His remarks were published by state media late Saturday.

On Jan. 22, in light of the epidemics rapid spread and the challenges of prevention and control, I made a clear request that Hubei province implement comprehensive and stringent controls over the outflow of people, Xi told a meeting of the partys standing committee, its top body.

Taiwan on Sunday reported its first death from the virus, the fifth fatality outside of mainland China. The island also confirmed two new cases, raising its total to 20.

Taiwans Central News Agency reported that the person who died was a man in his 60s living in central Taiwan. He had not traveled overseas recently and had no known contact with virus patients, CNA said, citing Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung.

In all, more than 71,300 people have been infected worldwide, and at least 1,775 have died. More than 10,900 people have recovered from COVID-19, a disease caused by a new coronavirus, and have been discharged from hospitals.

Xis role was muted in the early days of the epidemic, which has grown into one of the biggest political challenges of his seven-year tenure.

The disclosure of his speech indicates top leaders knew about the outbreaks potential severity at least two weeks before such dangers were made known to the public. It was not until late January that officials said the virus can spread between humans and public alarm began to rise.

Authorities in Hubei and Wuhan faced public fury over their initial handling of the epidemic. In apparent response, the Communist Partys top officials in Hubei and Wuhan were dismissed and replaced last week.

Yanan Wang is an Associated Press writer.
Arunachal Pradesh Deputy Chief



Minister Chowna Mein on Sunday emphasised on the reopening of the historic Stilwell Road, insisting that it will act as a catalyst for promoting trade and spiritual tourism between India and South East Asian countries.

Participating at the Oriah festival of the Wancho community here, he said the state government will form a committee for development of the road which connects India with northern Myanmar and China's Yunnan province via Pangsau Pass in eastern Arunachal Pradeh.

"We will appeal to the Centre for prioritising the restoration work of the road as it will be mutually beneficial for both India and Myanmar," he said.

Terming North-East region as the gateway to the ASEAN countries, the deputy chief minister said reopening of the Stilwell Road or Ledo Road will reduce travel distance and act as a "catalyst for cross border trade".

Mein said that country's Act East Policy aims at increasing trade ties, promoting tourism and developing the economic scenario of the South East Asian region through outreach initiatives.

He also raised the issue relating to creating of infrastructure and development of the border areas in the state.

"There is every possibility for Arunachal Pradesh to become the fruit bowl of the country and the state has also the potential to become one of the tourist hotspots. But the need of the hour is how to utilise these natural resources to draw more tourists," he said.

Mein said the state government is providing every possible support for the protection and promotion of the indigenous tribal cultures.

He said that the government had provided some funds to the research department last year to make documentation of traditional healing system of Idu-Mishmi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
DUBAI, UAE / ACCESSWIRE / February 16, 2020 / As the world is waiting anxiously for the Expo 2020, themed "Connecting Minds, Creating the Future" in Dubai, it won't come as any surprise that blockchain will feature prominently in this grand event whose total investment is expected to exceed 6.8 billion USD.



Equally unsurprising is the launch of OKDAX (www.okdax.com), a crypto trading platform headquartered in Dubai, just a few days ago. Working closely with Atlas Capital, a Dubai-based investment agency, OKDAX is the first crypto assets trading platform with which Blockchain Campus has formed a deep relationship. The exchange, backed by a wide industry network in Dubai while also partnering with such names as District 2020, SINOLINK INNO HUB and Dubai Blockchain Center, with a network covering MENA (Middle East and North Africa) and Asia-Pacific and extending all the way to Europe and North America, will become a new driver for blockchain growth in the Middle East. It will provide quality trading services to global users and grow in line with leading crypto projects around the world.

Government Support and Strong Partnership

In recent years, the Dubai government has been actively promoting the development of both blockchain technology and a larger ecosystem. As one of the first steps, Dubai Department of Economic Development launched the Unified Business Registry Platform (UBRP). Abdullah Hassan, CEO of the Corporate Support Services sector in the Department said: "we are proud to be in the forefront of Dubai's march to being the world's first blockchain powered government." After that, UAE announced "Emirates Blockchain 2021" and "Smart Dubai 2021" initiatives, which involve developing decentralized Apps in fields including E-government, payment system, land registry and passport-free travel for tourists, to make Dubai a leader in blockchain.

Quality crypto trading platforms can play an important role in Dubai Blockchain Strategy. OKDAX plans to open its office in the Middle East's first "Blockchain Campus" in District 2020, which will be an innovation hub for Dubai Expo 2020. District 2020 connects people and spaces in a smart and sustainable urban environment designed to encourage creativity, collaboration, and innovation. The Dubai Blockchain Center is Dubai government's blockchain center, inaugurated by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. It will bring together blockchain thought leaders, developers, investors and educators who will contribute to Dubai's blockchain strategy aimed at integrating digital services and experiences seamlessly into people's daily life.

Story continues

According to a senior manager at OKDAX, compliance and standardization is always a top priority for exchanges. OKDAX is applying for approval with Dubai Financial Services Authority in the DIFC and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority in the ADGM. It will become the most trustworthy compliant crypto trading platform in Dubai.

Top Team Taking Care of a Large Global Community

Thanks to the support of the Dubai government, OKDAX is able to extend its reach from MENA to the world, while attracting global resources, including famous agencies, investment banks, funds and traders. Its team members are based around the world in the UAE, US, Korea and HK, etc. Its business and operations team have extensive experience in strategy, investment, marketing and community development. All of the development team are from top blockchain projects and exchanges with an average of 4 plus years of blockchain development experience.

Currently, OKDAX has more than 300,000 registered users from MENA, Europe, US, Japan, DPRK and ASEAN with effective DTU (daily trading user) of more than 5000. It is also a strategic investor in two blockchain media outlets tuoniaox.com and blockmena.io, based in China mainland and MENA respectively, who will funnel traffic to projects traded on OKDAX through their media resources and user communities so that projects can accelerate their time to the global market.

Growing Fund Promises Innovation and Win-win

OKDAX has also made innovations, not only in crypto assets trading, but also in the form of a win-win mechanism.

To support the growth of projects, OKDAX has launched a Growing Fund to buy tokens from the market with 50% of its profits. It will also urge projects to withdraw outstanding tokens and help them with repurchase and destruction to create a deflationary effect of tokens. The Fund will also invest in other funds, prominent projects and asset management products.

According to Dr. Aisha Bint Buti Bin Bisher, Director General of the Smart Dubai Office, Dubai wants to become the world's smartest city and a regional and global blockchain center.

Her words were echoed by another senior manager at OKDAX, who promised that the exchange will fully mobilize its resources to keep providing quality services to users wherever they are in the world. The goal is to grow together towards a better digital world.

Company name: OKDAX

Contact name: Allan Liu

Email: envyfly@hotmail.com

Website: https://www.okdax.com/

SOURCE: OKDAX





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/576604/Dubai-based-Compliant-Crypto-Exchange-OKDAX-Ready-to-Shake-the-Industry




From a Gwalior resident who had painted slogans praising Arvind Kejriwal on his body to a supporter from Bulandshahr who wore a dual-sided billboard professing his admiration for the AAP supremo, there was striking display of affection and admiration for the Delhi Chief Minister during his swearing-in at the historic Ramlila Maidan here on Sunday.

Shatrughna Sahu, president of AAP's Bihar unit and scores of his colleagues came all the way from Patna to attend Kejriwal's oath-taking ceremony.

Chandra Bhushan, the Bihar unit's spokesperson, sported the trademark white 'aam aadmi' cap and carried a big broom in his hand.

"We have come to express our support and admiration for our leader and witness him taking oath as the Delhi chief minister. People in Bihar are also celebrating AAP's win. Loads of sweets are being distributed in my native Araria district today," he told PTI.

Fandom of Kejriwal, who led the AAP to a scintillating win in the February 8 polls bagging 62 of the 70 seats, was visible as people chose innovative ways to express their sentiments at the venue that was transformed into a sea of colours as the crowd waved party flags and the tricolours.

From the national capital, Uday Veer, a tailor from Gokalpuri in east Delhi attended the event wearing a special 'Kejripankh' made out of broom sticks.

"I made this special mayurpankh-styled accessory made of broom sticks as a tribute to CM Kejriwal. I have been following the party since its inception and I am happy that polarisation and divisive lost in the recent assembly polls. Love, equality and brotherhood should win, which did," he told PTI.

Veer, who sported the 'Kejripankh' over his pyajama-kurta, sported colourful headgear that had the 'Acche Beete 5 Saal, Lage raho Kejriwal' sticker and a party scarf around his neck, besides party badges clipped onto his kurta.

J P Kushwaha, another admirer of the chief minister, came all the way from Gwalior. He had slogans like 'Jai Hind', 'Aap Zindabad', 'Shiksha ka Kamal', 'Mohalla Clinic' and the party symbol - broom - painted on his bare chest, back, neck and arms.

He also wore a colourful wig, adding to his unusual way of expressing love and support for the AAP.

"We want a leader like this in our MP too, who talks of development. So, I came here," he said.

S P Sharma, 42, an AAP supporter, came to the historic venue from Bulandshahr wearing a twin-sided billboard which read -- 'Dil diya hai jaan bhi denge, Ae Kejriwal tere liye; Dilli mey to jeet hamari hay, abhi to dusre rajya baki hayn'.

Sharma and many other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supporters said it was time for the AAP chief to move onto the national political platform and his aim should be to change the country's with his "Delhi model".

"The 2020 Delhi polls was a victory of 'kaam' over 'kaum' (work agenda over of religion). People who did politics based on 'kaum' (religion) have lost the elections. Love wins, and we are here to show our love," he said.

Mohmmed Yunus, 23, a B. Com graduate from Moradabad, said he was excited to attend the event along with his friend Mohammed Shoaib, also 23.

"In our home state of Uttar Pradesh, religion and caste is being talked about so much since the new government took charge," Yunus alleged, and said, "politics should have the agenda of development".

Many supporters in the enormous crowd also waved banners with messages like 'Love Kejriwal', 'We Love You Kejriwal', 'Kejriwal Zindabad' and 'Lage Raho Kejriwal'. A number of supporters also chanted these slogans.

Kejriwal, in his speech after taking the oath as the chief minister, said he loves people of Delhi and Delhiites also love him.

The event, that took place two days after Valentine's Day, was full of the symbolism of the day of love. In 2015, Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony had coincided with Valentine's Day.

Ahead of the February 8 polls, many auto-rickshaw drivers had sported the 'I Love Kejriwal' slogan on the back of their vehicles to show support to the AAP supremo and his party.

In a near-repeat performance of 2015, the Kejriwal-led AAP retained power in the just-concluded Delhi Assembly polls, trouncing its main rival BJP and completely decimating the Congress in a keenly-watched battle that took place in the midst of anti-CAA protests.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Pakistan Navy has commissioned a 2300 Tonnes Corvette PNS YARMOOK (F-271)  a Damen OPV 1900  in a ceremony held at Constanta Port, Romania on 13th February 2020. Attending the event was Vice Admiral Muhammad Fayyaz Gilani HI (M), Vice Chief of the Naval Staff as Chief Guest. The ceremony was also attended by teams from Ministry of Defense Production Rawalpindi, Chief Naval Overseer (Romania) and senior management of Damen Shipyards Group.

The Pakistan Navy has commissioned a 2300 Tonnes Corvette PNS YARMOOK (F-271)  a Damen OPV 1900  in a ceremony held at Constanta Port, Romania on 13th February 2020. Attending the event was Vice Admiral Muhammad Fayyaz Gilani HI (M), Vice Chief of the Naval Staff as Chief Guest. The ceremony was also attended by teams from Ministry of Defense Production Rawalpindi, Chief Naval Overseer (Romania) and senior management of Damen Shipyards Group.

Pakistan Navy has commissioned a DAMEN 2300 Tonnes Corvette PNS YARMOOK (F-271). (Picture source Twiter account mubarakrodnani)

Damen signed the contract with the Ministry of Defence Production for two multipurpose OPVs for the Pakistan Navy on 30th June 2017, following a tender process.

Damen will deliver the Second vessel PNS TABUK (Designate) in May this year. PNS YARMOOK is capable of performing a variety of maritime operations and can transport both a helicopter and a UAV. The ship can launch two high-speed RHIBs of 11.5 meters and 6.5 meters simultaneously and also has the capability to accommodate two TEUs for special mission-based operations.

Speaking during the launching ceremony, the Chief Guest highlighted the importance of the Project for the Pakistan Navy and stated that the vessels will significantly enhance Pakistan Navys capability to safeguard its maritime borders. The Chief Guest also acknowledged the professional competence of Damen and the prospects of future cooperation in delivering cutting-edge naval technologies to the Pakistan Navy.

Damen constructed the PNS YARMOOK at its yard in Galati. The yard has built nearly 40 vessels for the defense and security segment, including the last seven complex naval vessels for the Royal Netherlands Navy and the Stefan cel Mare offshore patrol vessel, the flagship of the Romanian Border Police, showing time and time again that is a trustworthy and highly capable international player in naval shipbuilding.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

CAIRO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th February, 2020) Iran's Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani headed for Damascus on Sunday to hold talks with Syrian leadership about the recent developments in the country, media reported.

"In order to examine developments in Syria and the region, we need to consult closely with the regional countries we work with," Larijani told reporters before boarding a plane for Syria, according to Tasmin news Agency.

Larijani added that Syria has shown that the Axis of Resistance - Iran's sphere of influence in the middle East - is pursuing "good objectives," Tasnim reported.

The Syrian government's campaign to retake the last rebel-held province of Idlib has been met with resistance by Turkey, which maintains a force in the region.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara will look to clear the province, deemed a de-escalation zone in a previous agreement with Iran and Russia, from Syrian government forces and vowed to retaliate if Turkish troops were attacked.

On Friday, the Turkish Daily Sabah newspaper reported sending 400 special forces fighters to the border with Idlib to reinforce the border troops. In the last week, Turkey has been actively drawing weapons and armored vehicles to the border with Idlib.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 13:25:26|Editor: Xiaoxia

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Aerial photo taken on Feb. 8, 2020 shows members of China's 36th Antarctic expedition transfering the waste of the Great Wall station to polar icebreaker Xuelong 2, or Snow Dragon 2, to dispose them in China. The Xuelong 2 finished unloading supplies for the Great Wall station and left for Ross Sea. (Xinhua/Liu Shiping)
The childcare crisis - which saw tens of thousands of childcare workers and parents protest in Dublin earlier this month - could see more people struggle to secure it in the coming months and years.

"Over the last few years, the childcare sector has been like a pressure cooker boiling up - and it's about to explode," said Denise McCormilla, chief executive of the National Childhood Network, which aims to improve the quality of childcare provided by creches. "I've never heard so many childcare providers saying that they can't take it anymore - that they'll stay open until June, and then close after that."

Many parents are already finding it difficult to get childcare due to the recent closure of a number of creches; long waiting lists for many creches and playschools; and a shortage of baby and toddler places in many areas.

"In the last four to five months, we've heard that a lot of creches are not taking children under the age of one," said Teresa Boardman, managing director of Nanny Options, a childcare agency in Dublin. One of the reasons for this is the higher number of staff that a creche must have if it is looking after babies, according to Boardman.

As many creches are finding it difficult to recruit and hold on to staff, they may not have enough workers to be able to offer baby places.

Soaring insurance costs and staffing difficulties have put many creches and playschools under huge pressure. A lot have been overwhelmed by the increased paperwork and regulations they face. State inspections have frustrated many in the sector. Although the main aim of these inspections is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children, a number of childcare providers believe these inspections have been inconsistent.

Unless the crisis is resolved, more children could lose their places in creches; waiting lists will get longer; and more parents will struggle to get childcare and so could have to delay - or even reconsider - their return to the workplace. The rising costs faced by creches could also see childcare fees increase. "Realistically, we don't want to put the fees on parents - but we may have no choice," said Elaine Dunne, chairwoman of the Federation of Early Childhood Providers.

So for parents struggling to secure a creche place for their child, or who are concerned their creche or playschool may close, what are the other childcare options - and what do they cost?

Nanny

A nanny looks after your children in your home. It typically costs between 13 and 16 an hour to hire one in Dublin, depending on their experience and qualifications, according to Boardman. "Rates are 18 an hour at the top end," said Boardman.

Domestic workers - who are employed to work within someone's private home and include nannies and au pairs - have a right to work on average no more than a 48-hour week.

At between 13 and 16 an hour, you can expect to pay a full-time nanny around 624 to 768 a week - assuming he or she works a 48-hour week. As this is the equivalent of around 2,704 to 3,328 a month, nannies can be a much pricier option than a creche - particularly if you only need childcare for one or two children.

A nanny, however, can be a more flexible option than a creche for parents who commute or work long and unpredictable hours - particularly if they would find it a struggle to get to a creche to pick up their child before it closes.

The cost of hiring a nanny is usually cheaper outside Dublin, Cork and some parts of Galway.

Part-time nannies often expect the higher hourly rate to compensate them for the loss of income they would get with a full-time position, according to Boardman.

"Nannies usually prefer full-time hours," said Boardman. "Many parents are struggling to find a nanny for afternoons."

A nanny share - where two families with children hire one full-time nanny and share the salary and other costs between them - could be an option. "A lot of parents look at doing a nanny share with a colleague or neighbour," said Boardman.

"With this arrangement, the children are often cared for in one family's home for one week and in the other's home the next week, and so on. Both families have to work around holidays but a nanny share can work out really well."

Demand for nannies has "gone out the door" in recent months, according to Boardman.

When you hire a nanny, you become an employer - and so you must register as an employer to pay PRSI, deduct tax from the nanny's pay, and meet your other responsibilities as a boss. You should understand and honour the employment rights of your nanny. For example, a full-time nanny is entitled to a certain amount of paid holidays - as well as bank holidays off.

Au pair

An au pair looks after children in your own home and will often (though not always) live in your home too. "In-home childcare such as au pairs are the only option for shift workers in this country," said Caroline Joyce, founder of the au pair agency Cara International.

As au pairs are entitled to the minimum wage, the cost of hiring one is 10.10 an hour - if the au pair is aged 20 or older. So you can expect to pay an au pair 485 a week if hiring one for 48 hours a week.

Parents hiring a live-in au pair can deduct a small amount from their wages to cover board and lodgings. As is the case with nannies, you become an employer when you hire an au pair - and with that you take on the responsibilities and duties of an employer.

It is a criminal offence for an employer not to pay the national minimum wage, and so you could face a fine of 5,000 if you do not pay your au pair the correct rate. You could also be fined for failing to register your au pair with the Revenue Commissioners.

The paperwork involved in hiring an au pair - as well as the requirement to pay the minimum wage - has put some parents off this type of childcare. "There are no childcare subsidies or tax credits available for parents who hire au pairs [to help alleviate the cost of hiring one]," said Joyce. "This is leading to parents hiring in-home workers in the 'black economy' - which is increasing the risk of fines [for such parents]."

Childminder

A childminder cares for children in their own home and is self-employed. Childminders charge an average of 5 per child per hour, according to Childminding Ireland. Rates vary, however, and can be as high as 10 per child per hour.

It could therefore cost between 200 and 400 a week to have a childminder care for your child - based on a 40-hour week. Childminders often offer a discount for siblings.

Some of the advantages of opting for a childminder are that the child is cared for in a home environment and that the parent does not become an employer. As a self-employed individual, childminders set their own terms and conditions - including payment for holidays, sickness and other absences. Know exactly where you stand on these issues if using a childminder.

For example, do you need to cover the cost of your childminder's sick or holiday leave and do you need to pay your childminder when your child is on holiday or sick at home? Bear in mind that if your childminder (or, indeed, your au pair or nanny) is sick, you will usually have to arrange for someone else to look after your child that day.

One of the big appeals of childminders is the continuity of care, according to Mairead Hurley, head of childminding services with Childminding Ireland. "A child often stays with the same childminder from babyhood through national school and into secondary school," said Hurley.

Grandparents

Grandparents are often the cheapest and most flexible type of childcare. Grandparents are not always an option, however, as they may not live nearby or they could be very elderly or have passed away. "As people often get married in their mid-30s today [or later], grandparents may be a bit older - and so may not be available to mind the kids," said Boardman.

The future

It remains to be seen whether or not the next Government will live up to promises to ease the childcare crisis.

Either way, parents should get up to speed on the choices open to them in case they find themselves scrambling to get childcare - as the crisis won't be resolved overnight.

Financial drawbacks for stay-at-home parents

Could crisis lead to more stay-at-home parents?

The battle which many parents face to secure childcare could see more people giving up work to look after their children at home.

Women are generally more likely than men to give up their job  or take time out of the workforce  to look after their children.

Unless the childcare crisis is resolved, more professional women will be forced out of the workforce, said Elaine Dunne, chairwoman of the Federation of Early Childhood Providers. This will increase gender inequality and put women at a long-term financial disadvantage. It will also put the husband, as the sole breadwinner, under more financial pressure.

There are, of course, many parents who give up work to care for their own children because they believe that it is in the best interests of their children, and the family, to do so. However, there are a lot of financial sacrifices made by those who give up work to look after children.

How could I lose out financially as a stay-at-home parent?

The loss of salary and financial independence can be a huge shock if you have a long career behind you and have never had to do without a regular pay cheque. Relying on a partner to cover the cost of your own expenses (such as petrol, toiletries or cosmetics)  as well as larger family expenses such as holidays, childrens clothes and so on  can take some adjusting to. You will lose any employment perks you may have had with your job, such as private health insurance, gym membership, a company car, and so on.

You will also lose out with your pension. Time spent out of the workforce looking after children at home is time you will lose paying into a company pension  as well as having an employer pay into one on your behalf (if it does so). This will leave you with a much smaller retirement nest egg than would have been the case had you never given up work.

You may be able to make up for the lost time if you return to work  by significantly increasing the amount you save into your pension. You could also lose your entitlement to the full state pension. Although parents who look after children in the home get social insurance credits which protect their entitlement to the state pension, you usually only get these credits if caring for children up to the age of 12. So if you struggle to return to the workforce after rearing your children, your state pension could be a lot smaller than you had hoped. Continuing to work in some shape or form  such as through part-time work or self-employment  can help offset the financial disadvantages of giving up a full-time job.

This can also help protect your entitlements to social welfare benefits, including the state pension, and enable you to set up and save into your own personal pension.
Days after Congress leader



Jyotiraditya Scindia threatened to hit the streets against the Kamal Nath-led government over fulfilment of poll manifesto, veteran party leader Digvijaya Singh said there was no lack of communication between Scindia and the chief minister.

Singh was talking to reporters here on Saturday after attending the Madhya Pradesh Congress Coordination Committee meeting held in New Delhi earlier that day.

"The party manifesto is meant to be fulfilled in five years. Right now, the (Kamal Nath) government has completed only 15 months. Talks are on with the guest teachers over their demands and a formula is being worked out. A solution will be found," Singh said.

"There is no lack of communication between Kamal Nathji and Scindia...there is no need for any mediation," he added.

Amid reports that Scindia had left the coordination committee meeting midway, Singh said, "During the meeting (in Delhi) we discussed all the issues. Some reports showed that he (Scindia) left the meeting in a huff. But they (reports) are absolutely wrong. During the meeting that took place between 10 am and 2 pm, talks were held in a peaceful manner," Singh said.

Scindia, while addressing a public rally in Tikamgarh on Thursday, had threatened that he would hit the streets if the party's manifesto and guest teachers' demands are not fulfilled in Madhya Pradesh.

"I want to tell the guest teachers- I heard your demand before assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh. I want to assure you that your demand already stands underlined in our party's government's manifesto," he had said.

"Our turn will come, I assure you. Even if it does not come, don't worry I will become your shield and sword," he had said.

"That manifesto is our sacred text. Have patience. If all the promises are not fulfilled, do not think you all are alone. Jyotiraditya Scindia will also hit the streets along with you," he added.

Among other things, the guest teachers in the state are demanding a better pay.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Filipino community leader Roberto Lastica from St Joachim Catholic Church in Lidcombe has seen many cases of modern slavery across the country. Among them was a woman from the Philippines in her early 30s who arrived in Australia after responding to an advertisement for student nurses.

When she boarded her flight she discovered her visa described her as an architect instead of a nurse. Her recruiter told her the visa description would be corrected in Australia.

Roberto Lastica from St Joachim's parish says the new service will be a 'breath of fresh air'. Credit:Rhett Wyman

When she got here she was told she would be living in a Chinese restaurant, where she would also be working in exchange for food and accommodation, rather than wages.

Under a new Catholic Church initiative, victims of forced labour and modern slavery will be given access to free legal advice, housing assistance, health care, financial advice and welfare support.
Labour have branded Dominic Raab either 'a liar or an incompetent' over his handling of the Harry Dunn affair and the flight of his spy 'killer'.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal Harry's mother Charlotte Charles directly asked the Foreign Secretary whether Anne Sacoolas was in the CIA and claimed his answer was 'untruthful'.

Mr Raab is under mounting pressure to come clean over when he found out the American fugitive  who has admitted responsibility for the teenager's death in a car crash  was a US agent.

Under fire: Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been branded either 'a liar or an incompetent' over his handling of the Harry Dunn case by Labour

Labour have backed calls from the family of the tragic 19-year-old for a full public inquiry into the 'cover-up' after The Mail on Sunday's bombshell revelation last week that she had been a CIA agent.

The development that Sacoolas had served as a US intelligence officer sparked uproar, with Harry's family speaking of their 'devastation' and accusing Raab of hiding the truth from them.

And the exact circumstances of how Sacoolas was able to flee Britain in the wake of the fatal collision outside RAF Croughton last August have come under fresh scrutiny.

Last October, Mr Raab gave a lengthy statement to MPs about the case but gave no mention of Mrs Sacoolas's history of espionage and insisted she was merely a spouse of a diplomat.

But Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry said 'it stinks to high heaven' and accused Mr Raab of misleading the Dunn family and Parliament or being 'grossly incompetent' in allowing Sacoolas to flee in the days following the accident.

Scrutiny: Anne Sacoolas pictured in Virginia last month was originally said to be the spouse of a diplomat but it has since emerged she is actually a CIA agent

She added: 'While you're not allowed to call a fellow MP a liar in the House of Commons, all I'll say is that Dominic Raab either hadn't bothered to find out the truth about Anne Sacoolas before his October statement to Parliament, or knew the truth but chose not to share it.

'That is exactly why I agree with the Dunns in calling for an urgent public or parliamentary inquiry into the handling of Harry's case.

'So we can get to the bottom of a basic question like: when did the Foreign Office first learn what Mrs Sacoolas's real job was?

'Because if it wasn't until after they let her go, they are guilty of gross incompetence.

'But if it was before, and they still failed to stop her leaving, they are guilty of grave indifference to the terrible pain being suffered by the Dunns, and owe them both an apology and a long-overdue explanation.'

Last night, Harry Dunn's mother welcomed Labour's backing and said she was 'very, very concerned' that the Foreign Office was 'hiding things that they don't want us to know about and that of course raises our suspicions there has been a cover-up from the very off.'

Charlotte Charles added: 'If that is not the case then prove it to us. If they have nothing to hide, come forward and disclose everything.

'We don't understand why they are hiding things if they have done everything in the good and proper way.'

And the family's lawyer Radd Seiger last night said they were 'sickened' by the fallout, adding: 'It's not so much about Harry Dunn any more, it's about the next poor family that suffers this sort of fate.

'We sadly are now in a place where we don't trust anyone in Government any more.'

And he revealed Mr Raab had been asked directly whether Sacoolas was a spy during a meeting with the family.

'We asked that question specifically and he dodged it,' Mr Seiger claimed. 'He said she's an ex-state department official.

'They have a duty of candour. We now know exactly why Donald Trump is protecting her and we are deeply suspicious the UK Government waved her off at the airport.'

Ms Charles said that she was 'frustrated' at the answer Raab gave her at the meeting on January 27 at the Foreign Office in London. She added: 'His words were that she was an ex-government official.

'So he didn't lie to us but he certainly wasn't truthful either. I don't see why he withheld that information. He could have told us and he asked us to keep it confidential.'

Labour's fresh intervention comes after a torrid week for Mr Raab, with calls for him to be sacked in the House of Commons over his treatment of Harry Dunn's family.

Tragic: Harry Dunn died near RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire after his motorbike was in collision with a car being driven by Sacoolas

On Wednesday, Jeremy Corbyn used his weekly showdown with Boris Johnson to highlight The Mail on Sunday's revelation, claiming 'now we know the Foreign Secretary misled the Dunn family... will the Prime Minister commit to his removal from office tomorrow in his reshuffle?'

He added: 'I now ask the Prime Minister straight this question: is Anne Sacoolas being shielded from justice because she's a former CIA officer?'

Mr Johnson swerved the question and stuck to the Government's rigid official statement that Mrs Sacoolas was simply the spouse of a diplomat.

Today, The Mail on Sunday poses a number of key questions the Government must answer about the circumstances around Mrs Sacoolas fleeing to the US last August, why more was not done to stop her leaving and why the family of Harry Dunn were not told that she had fled for more than 11 days after Mr Raab had found out.

Fighting for justice: Andrea Leadsom has vowed to fight on in support of her constituents, the Dunn family and said she was supporting their family

Last night, sacked former Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom, who left Government on Thursday, vowed to get justice for the Dunn family  who are her constituents in South Northamptonshire.

She told the MoS: 'I am supporting Harry's family in their efforts to make sure this cannot happen again.'
Learning solutions provider



Crio.Do, which raised USD 1 million in seed funding led by Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, on Sunday said it has rolled out a free product development programme for engineering students in the country.

The programme called 'Crio Launch' is a completely free and app-based solution that promises to offer real product development experience to students and empowers them to learn relevant technical skills.

"Crio Launch focuses on software engineering foundations. Students learn foundational concepts by actually applying them in building real software products," Crio.Do co-founder Rathinamurthy R told PTI.

The participants are handpicked for the programme, which was launched last month, based on a multi-stage selection process and each stage evaluates a student's appetite to learn and grow, he added.

"The programme has been launched recently and has already garnered interest from over 500 campuses across the country, making it one of the largest experiential learning programmes for product development in India," Rathinamurthy said.

Earlier this year, the company raised USD 1 million (Rs 7.12 crore) in seed funding led by Bansal, Flipkart ex-CTO Ravi G, Flipkart ex-CPO Mekin Maheshwari and Udaan founders Amod Malviya, Sujeet Kumar and Vaibhav Gupta.

Founded in 2018, Crio.Do at present is working closely with student bodies on over 100 campuses across the country and running multiple community learning initiatives on its platform for students in those campuses.

Rathinamurthy said that every industry is getting disrupted by technology and software product developers are at the forefront of this change.

"Today's curriculum and learning methodologies are not tuned towards equipping students with the right skills and competencies to become successful product developers.

"We strongly believe that there is a need for an experiential learning platform, where developers get credible product development experience by actually building real software products. We are focussed on solving this problem in India," he added.

Citing the Annual Employability Survey 2019 by Aspiring Minds, Rathinamurthy said that over 15 lakh students graduate from Indian engineering colleges every year, but 80 per cent of them are not fit for any IT or other job whereas the IT sector faces a huge shortage of skilled techies.

The co-founder said that students graduating from 'Crio Launch' stand the chance of bagging full or part scholarships to 'Crio Launch Plus', which is Crio's flagship career-accelerator programme.

"Students who graduate from Launch Plus will be able to hit the floor running from day one in any high-paced, dynamic, product company. For tech companies, Crio Launch Plus graduates will be a unique pool of talented developers with the hunger to build technology and solve real customer problems," he added.

Rathinamurthy said both 'Crio Launch' and 'Crio Launch Plus' are extensive programmes dedicated to foster a student's product development skills in about eight-ten weeks, requiring 400-500 hours of commitment to meet the targets set in each of the programmes.

The 'Crio Launch Plus' is a paid programme, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A lot of mothers will admit they dont look back on the process of labour too fondly.

But the Duchess of Cambridge has revealed that for all three of her births she used a self-hypnosis technique that meant she actually really quite liked labour.

Hypnobirthing uses controlled breathing, visualisation and meditation to keep women relaxed during birth, and minimise pain. It has become increasingly popular among mothers-to-be seeking a drug-free birth.

The Duchess made her revelation on the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast, hosted by author Giovanna Fletcher, the wife of McFly musician Tom. The interview was done as part of the Duchesss Five Big Questions on the Under Fives survey, which aims to give every child the best start in life.

The Duchess said there was nothing hippy dippy about hypnobirthing. Im not going to say William was standing there chanting sweet nothings at me, she said. He definitely wasnt! I didnt even ask him about it. It was just something I wanted to do for myself.

So, does it work? Here, two mothers share their views...

After the Duchess of Cambridge (pictured cradling George) said she used hypnobirthing to help her overcome morning sickness, the Daily Mail asks whether it could help you

HYPNO HEAVEN: I took myself to a sun drenched beach in the Seychelles

Eimear, 38, said the method left her feeling 'grounded and calm' during delivery

Eimear, 38, is a writer and mother of Ruadhan, four, and Donnacha, two. She says:

Standing on a deserted, sun-drenched beach in the Seychelles, I inhaled, then exhaled deeply, focusing intently on the rhythmic crashing of waves on the sandy shore in front of me.

In reality I was more than 5,000 miles away, in a birthing pool at my local hospital in the rural Scottish Borders.

However, through the power of hypnobirthing  and specifically the visualisation skills Id learned at private classes in the lead-up to my due date  I was able to take my mind to a place where I felt relaxed, safe and able to cope with the pain of my contractions.

For me, it was the tiny island in the Indian Ocean where my husband Malcolm and I had gone on our babymoon  our last holiday as a couple before our baby arrived  a few months before.

Its fair to say that for the most part Im the least woo woo person youre likely to meet. Ill take a painkiller over a crystal any day, and worship at the altar of modern medicine. The moment I found out I was expecting, I knew I wanted a hospital birth, with drugs and an operating theatre within easy reach. So it was with more than a drop of scepticism that I signed up for a course of weekly group hypnobirthing classes at around five months.

They promised to impart techniques including controlled breathing and achieving a deep state of relaxation through meditation, with the aim of having an active  that is, not lying on your back  labour and, ideally, a normal delivery.

Friends had recommended them but I wasnt convinced that the mind could really triumph over the pain of labour. The idea of being relaxed made me scoff.

Fast forward to May 2015, and as the first contraction hit me like a sledgehammer, I silently whispered a prayer of thanks for the skills I had in my mental armoury.

Deep, rhythmic breathing helped me manage the pain at home for three hours before we went to hospital, where, to my delight, I was already 9cm dilated.

Fast and furious it may have been, but I felt in control.

Eimear is pictured above with her two sons Ruadhan and Donnacha. She used hypnobirthing in both deliveries

By staying on top of feelings of fear and anxiety, I stopped stress hormones affecting the production of oxytocin, a chemical that progresses labour, and I moved to the final stage quickly and with just a few puffs of gas and air.

When it was decided by an obstetrician that I required a forceps delivery  thanks to a combination of a big baby and narrow pelvis  I still didnt lose faith in hypnobirthing.

I know that for some women, unexpectedly having a medicalised birth can trigger feelings of failure. But hypnobirthing gave me a way to contribute.

Breathing through the spinal block being administered, I visualised myself with my baby in my arms while theatre staff prepped me down below  and I truly believe that using my mind helped me feel involved in my sons birth.

Despite things not going to plan, hypnobirthing meant I felt nothing but joy when Ruadhan, all 9lb 1oz of him, was laid on my chest. And needless to say, when I was pregnant again in 2017, I did a refresher hypnobirthing course and felt absolutely confident the skills could help me achieve the normal delivery I wanted.

They didnt let me down. After a seven-hour labour  most of which I spent on that lovely beach  my second son Donnacha (pictured left) was born.

It was the most peaceful moment. I was in such a deep meditative state that I barely felt any pain and despite the fact he weighed a healthy 9lb 5oz, I needed just one small stitch. I walked back to the postnatal ward a few hours later to tuck into fish and chips for lunch.

Using hypnobirthing can never guarantee a perfect birth, if such a thing even exists.

However, having used it through two very different deliveries, in both it kept me grounded and calm, and gave me a sense of ownership over my labour. I hope Kate looks back and feels the same way.

HYPNO HELL: Positive thoughts can't do much when you're in such pain

Lynn, 41, said she wouldn't try it again

Lynn, 41, is a stay-at-home mum to Eric, four. She says:

Listening to the Duchess of Cambridge describe her three birth experiences, I couldnt help but feel wistful.

Her account of an easy and stress-free labour, all thanks to the skills shed learnt in hypnobirthing classes, was exactly what Id imagined for myself before giving birth. Unfortunately, it was far from the labour I got.

It was my first pregnancy and, as I was no longer with Erics father, I knew Id be alone. It was a daunting prospect and strengthened my desire to feel in control over my labour in any way I could.

Ive always been a bit of a hippy and knew I didnt want to give birth in a hospital. The idea of using the power of my mind to control the birth process really appealed to me  and I was fairly confident it would work, having used hypnosis to help me through a previous medical procedure that normally involves gas and air.

Plus, as my home was only 12 minutes away from the hospital, I knew that if something did go wrong, I could get there quickly.

Six months before my due date, I signed up with a private company where you build up a really strong one-on-one relationship with the midwife who will be with you during labour.

They were big advocates of hypnobirthing. So, as per their advice, I attended weeks and weeks of group sessions, guided meditations and one-to-one chats, and read loads of books on it.

I did daily guided meditations using CDs, so by the time I went into labour I knew what my mind and body needed to relax. I felt really well prepared.

My baby was two days overdue when I went into labour at about midnight on December 20, 2015. Id been feeling awful all day and hadnt realised labour had started until I was about to get into bed  and felt a huge contraction.

I rang the company, only to discover that the midwife with whom Id spent months building a rapport was on holiday. Not only that, her back-up was off sick.Instead, my call was transferred to another midwife to whom Id never spoken before, who knew nothing about my birth plan. I was filled with panic.

Lynn pictured holding her son Eric after he was born. The child is now four years old

She told me I wasnt ready to have the baby and to just get in the bath and download an app to time my contractions. I tried to fumble with it but by this point I was in agony.

I tried to get into the zone several times but it was impossible. When you are in that much pain and distress, theres not much that thinking positive thoughts and trying to relax can do. Id lost control and none of my careful preparation could get it back.

Another two hours passed and by this point I was begging the midwife to come out to me. When she saw my panicked face at the door and realised I was alone, her own face fell.

After realising I was 6cm dilated and that the baby was in distress, she called an ambulance, which sped me to the hospital.

Thankfully, once I arrived, my delivery was extremely quick and Eric was fine, weighing a healthy 7lb 11oz. But while he was OK, I was left upset and traumatised.

While Id like to think that if I ever did get pregnant again Id be open-minded enough to give hypnobirthing another go, the hard truth is that my first attempt was definitely not a success, and the idea of feeling powerless like that again would fill me with dread. I had no support.

Im glad Kate had such a positive experience but Im proof it doesnt always work miracles. Giving birth is unpredictable, and sometimes the power of positive thinking isnt enough to see you through it.
Cheong Wa Dae officials have recently visited the U.S. for consultations on North Korea and other bilateral issues. Yonhap



By Do Je-hae



President Moon Jae-in is trying to resuscitate the denuclearization talks between North Korea and the United States, while concurrently gain support for his push to improve inter-Korean relations, despite mounting challenges to his "peace process."



President Donald Trump has shown little interest in restarting talks with the North in an election year, and the absence of any reference to Pyongyang in his State of the Union address, unlike in previous years, was seen as a signal of a shift in priorities. Recently, Trump also told his advisers that he does not want another a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un before the November presidential election.



The problem for Cheong Wa Dae is that Trump's dwindling enthusiasm for diplomacy with North Korea is not conducive to Moon's policy centering on engagement. Since the beginning of the year, Moon has declared his government will seek to improve inter-Korean relations.



Latest reports states that Cheong Wa Dae is in the process of lining up a series of summits with the U.S., China and Russia to convince them of the need to improve inter-Korean relations and salvage the U.S.-North Korea talks.



Moon sent his top national security adviser Chung Eui-yong to Washington last month, which was followed by another visit by Kim Hyon-chong, the second deputy director of the presidential National Security Office (NSO), earlier this month. The visits have triggered speculation that they delivered Moon's intention to push ahead with a pro-engagement policy toward North Korea and his seeking of U.S. cooperation in this regard. But the U.S. has been negative about such an approach and has maintained the need for the U.S. and Korea to be in "lockstep" on the North.



Given the wide gap with the U.S., the possibility of a U.S.-Korea summit has been raised amid added tension between the allies on various issues, such as the U.S.-Korea Special Measures Agreement (SMA) negotiations to determine Korea's share of the costs for maintaining the USFK.



The possibility of a Trump-Moon meeting is particularly gaining attention ahead of the April 15 general election, as summits have been known to be effective in increasing public support here. But Cheong Wa Dae has denied news reports linking the election with a possible summit. "The reports regarding a Korea-U.S summit are not true. It does not make sense to link diplomatic issues with the election," a presidential aide told reporters Feb. 14.



Seoul is also trying to confirm summits with China and Russia. The two countries proposed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution in December 2019 that would provide partial sanctions relief for Pyongyang.



Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said during a security conference in Germany last week that details are being discussed to arrange a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the early half of the year. Cheong Wa Dae also confirmed that Putin's visit to Korea is being arranged to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral relations.


JACKSON, Miss.  Mississippi braced on Saturday for what forecasters warned could be one of the worst floods to hit the central part of the state in decades, prompting officials to urge thousands to leave their homes or otherwise prepare for the rise in water levels expected after nightfall.

Please heed these orders to take care of yourself and your loved ones, Gov. Tate Reeves said at a news conference. Get out while you can. Do not return until officials determine that its safe.

Officials said the Pearl River was anticipated to swell to levels that had not been seen in at least 35 years, threatening Jackson, the state capital, and other communities along the river. The flooding follows heavy rainfall and tornadoes that have already battered Mississippi this month. Fears of the damage to come prompted Mr. Reeves on Saturday to declare a state of emergency.

Already, some areas have been engulfed by water, forcing road closures and trapping people temporarily in their homes. But forecasters said that the worst was expected to come after dark on Saturday, when the river was predicted to crest at 38 feet, a level last reached in 1983.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th February, 2020) Commander in Chief of the Russian Navy, Adm. Nikolay Yevmenov, will start a six-day working visit to Cuba on Sunday, the press service of the Russian Defense Ministry informs.

"The visit will take place at the initiative of the Cuban side," Head of the Navy Informational Support Section, Capt.

1st Rank Igor Dygalo said.

Yevmenov is expected to hold a number of meetings with Cuban defense officials during his visit.

The head of the Russian Navy will also visit various facilities and units of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces.
New Delhi: A model walks the ramp at the 15th edition of the Blenders Pride Fashion Tour 2019-20 in New Delhi. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: Showstopper Sara Ali Khan walks the ramp at the 15th edition of the Blenders Pride Fashion Tour 2019-20 in New Delhi. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: Showstopper Sara Ali Khan walks the ramp at the 15th edition of the Blenders Pride Fashion Tour 2019-20 in New Delhi. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: A model walks the ramp at the 15th edition of the Blenders Pride Fashion Tour 2019-20 in New Delhi. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: Designer Abu Jani, showstopper Sara Ali Khan and designer Sandeep Khosla at the 15th edition of the Blenders Pride Fashion Tour 2019-20 in New Delhi. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: Showstopper Sara Ali Khan at the 15th edition of the Blenders Pride Fashion Tour 2019-20 in New Delhi. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: Showstopper Sara Ali Khan walks the ramp at the 15th edition of the Blenders Pride Fashion Tour 2019-20 in New Delhi. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Feb 16 : The 15th edition of the Blenders Pride Fashion Tour travelled to the Capital here with the designer duo Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla showcased the concept of 'Blend, as a tribute to the unifying power of fashion and its ability to go beyond borders and geographies.

The showstopper for the evening was Bollywood actor Sara Ali Khan, whose mother is a close friend of the duo. Khan sashayed down the runway in two unique ensembles, one a traditional pink lehenga and another a rich wine hued style with billowing sleeves. Actor Ankur Rathi too made an appearance on the runway in support of the designers.

The collection was an exotic journey which seamlessly combined the classical with the "avant-garde", creating an utterly contemporary line-up.

"The concept of 'Blend' is an ode to the unifying power of fashion and its ability to transcend borders and geographies. We return to our roots, our extraordinary legacy of indigenous textiles, craft techniques and embroideries to fashion a brand-new expression which is unfettered by rules or borders... We take immense pleasure in my association with Blenders Pride Fashion Tour 2019-20, where our showcase was a tribute to the coming together of past, present and future, of multiple elements, silhouettes and moods to create a new fashion landscape," said Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla.

Moving ahead from New Delhi, Blenders Pride Fashion Tour will culminate in a larger than life finale, 'The Pride of India' in Mumbai, on February 22.
Ken Jacobsen, law professor at Temple University, attended Shen Yun Performing Arts with a companion at the Merriam Theater downtown Philadelphia, on Feb. 15, 2020. (Frank Liang/The Epoch Times)

PHILADELPHIALeaders naturally recognize and appreciate other leaders, even those in different industries and across disciplines. That may be why people like Temple University law professor Ken Jacobsen and financial industry vice president Brian Gibson were drawn to and greatly appreciated Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Merriam Theater on Feb. 15, 2020.

New York-based Shen Yun is the worlds exemplar when it comes to classical Chinese dance and music. The company is spearheading an ambitious revival of Chinas ancient culture, which is deeply spiritual and conveys profound wisdom.

Law Professor Sees At Least Three Educational Aspects to Shen Yun

The artistry, is what Jacobsen said stood out to him most in Shen Yun. I liked the beauty of the movements of the dancers, the women, with the grace that they dance with, and the men with the force and power that they dance with.

Classical Chinese dance is at the heart of what Shen Yun does, according to the companys website. Known for its incredible flips and spins, and its gentle elegance, it is one of the most rigorous and expressive art forms in the world.

Jacobsen enjoyed the stories told through dance and the bilingual emcees who gave brief introductions and context before each piece in the program.

A Shen Yun performance contains roughly 20 short vignettes, from stories told through dance to bel canto vocal soloists to ethnic and folk dances. The emcees give a brief introduction and context between each one, to bring audiences around the world up to speed with the richness and depth of traditional Chinese culture.

Being a professor himself, Jacobsen pointed out three ways that Shen Yun is educating audiences and enlightening them.

Well, I think arts in general, is important, the educational value of the show is on different levels. First of all, the music is fantastic. You know, when youre watching the dancers, its easy to overlook the fact that you have an orchestra in a pit there thats performing wonderful music. So I think thats educational.

Each of Shen Yuns seven touring groups travels with its own live orchestra. The music in Shen Yun is all original, composed anew each year by Shen Yuns artistic director for Eastern and Western instruments to perform together.

And also the dance, learning about the dance, learning about the different regions, I think its good, he said.

And also the political aspect of it, he said. You cant ignore that [Shen Yun is] not trying to conceal, you know, the political piece of this, which is that [Shen Yun] cant even perform in [their] home country.

For decades, the Chinese Communist Party has attempted to wipe out Chinas traditional culture, including its spiritual beliefs and practices. It sees such things as a potential threat to its own legitimacy and power. Shen Yuns stories include scenes from this violent campaign, including the persecution of spiritual believers.

The irony is that its a classical Chinese dance that cant be performed in China because of the government there, and thats an educational piece as well, Jacobsen added.

Leader in Financial Industry Recommends Shen Yun

Brian Gibson, also in the audience on Feb. 15, helps run a company in the financial industry. Like Jacobsen, he appreciated Shen Yuns artistry and visual magic.

Gibson said that the beauty of the dance is what touched him most throughout the performance, and that he felt positive energy from the dancers.

Gibsons reaction to learning that Shen Yun cannot perform in China due to the persecution depicted on stage is that Thats a shame, it should be. It should be allowed. Many feel the way Gibson does and hope that Shen Yun can one day perform in China, the homeland of its cultural origin.

Gibson enjoyed Shen Yuns music as well, calling the blend of Eastern and Western sounds beautiful, and praising the singing as very beautiful, too.

Gibson found some of the stories quite touching as well, including a piece titled Abetting the Wicked, about two brothers who find themselves on either side of the persecution.

I would tell a lot of people to come, yes, Gibson said. I would say that you have to definitely experience [Shen Yun] one time in your life.

With reporting by Frank Liang, Lily Sun, and Brett Featherstone.

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.
The Canada government is keen



to capitalise on Vadodara's inherent capability of business and trade and tap its potential in education and IT sectors, a senior official from the North American country has said.

A Canadian delegation was in Gujarat's Vadodara city on Friday to meet top business and industry players in a move to strengthen trade relations with tier-2 cities of India.

After the meeting, Consul and Head of Trade & Investment at the Consulate General of Canada in Mumbai, Carlos Rojas-Arbulu told PTI that the Indo-Canadian Business Chamber is also contemplating to open a representative office in Vadodara to boost trade ties with the city.

Aiming to tap potential in areas of education, Information Technology and manufacturing sector, the Canada government is eyeing to enhance two-way trade with Vadodara, the third largest city in Gujarat, he said.

"It's the time to tap the potential of cities like Vadodara that already has ties with Canada. These ties can be further enhanced and new ones can be explored," he said.

He said information and communications technology is one of the top priority areas of the Canadian government, followed by automotive sector, agriculture, clean technology and infrastructure, among others.

"There is immense potential for Vadodara to collaborate with Canada in areas of education, digitisation, food and clean tech as well as bi-lateral trade between small and medium businesses," he said.

The bilateral trade between India and Canada is about $10 billion that is estimated to grow to $60 billion in the next five years, the envoy said.

Canada also sees a huge opportunity to associate with Vadodara in the field of education, which is directly co-related to the growth of industries in the region, he said.

"In this context, Vadodara hits all the right chords when it comes to doing business with Canada. We also realise that India's drive towards becoming USD five trillion economy rests on the shoulders of important cities like Vadodara, and Canada can help the city in realising its full potential," the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
KIGALI  The governments of Uganda and Rwanda have agreed to fulfill six conditions that will end hostility between the countries and eventually reopen the border.

On Friday, senior government officials from Rwanda and Uganda met in Kigali, the capital of the former to continue efforts normalizing diplomatic relations between the two East African nations.

According to a joint statement released by both governments, number one on the list of resolutions is finding out how many nationals of either nation are detained in each others prisons.

Both parties committed to further verify the number and the status of nationals of either party detained in each others country and to report back through a Note Verbale in a three-weeks time, reads the statement that was signed of by Sam Kutesa, Ugandas Minister of Foreign Affairs and Olivier Nduhungirehe, Rwandan minister of state in charge of the East African Community.

Secondly, both nations are to protect and respect the human rights of nationals of either party.

It was also agreed that Kigali and Kampala finalize the Extradition Treaty. Extradition is the formal process of one state surrendering an individual to another state for prosecution or punishment for crimes committed in the requesting countrys jurisdiction.

This will be signed in presence of Presidents Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) and Paul Kagame (Rwanda) at the fourth Quadripartite Summit. It will be held in Gatuna/Katuna, the common border between Uganda and Rwanda on Feb. 21.

Additionally, the government of Rwanda will formally write to that of Uganda by February 15, notifying the latter about some specific issues related to the alleged destabilising activities carried out by Rwandan rebel groups from the Ugandan territory.

Uganda has to offer a response to the allegations by Feb. 20.

When the above undertakings are fulfilled, the two governments were asked to consider the normalisation of the activities and mobility of people and goods across the common borders between Rwanda and Uganda.

The border that links Rwanda and Uganda has been closed for close to a year now.

In December of last year, the Bank of Uganda said that after seven months of border closure, Ugandan traders had missed up to Shs400 billion in potential earnings.

Lastly, both parties agreed to resume the collaboration between their Defense and Security organs in order to improve the mechanisms of exchange of intelligence in the interest of their national security.

In the Kigali meet, Uganda was represented by Minister Kutesa, Minister Jeje Odongo (Internal Affairs), Attorney General William Byaruhanga, Director General of External Security Organisation Joseph Ocwet, High Commissioner of Uganda to Rwanda Oliver Wonekha, Col. Paddy Ankunda from the Ministry of Defense and Patrick Mugoya, Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Affairs ministry.

Rwanda was represented by ministers Nduhugirehe, Johnston Busingye (Justice and Attorney General), Prof. Shyaka Anastate (Local Government), Gen. Patrick Nyamvumba (Internal Security), High Commissioner of Rwanda to Uganda Gen. Frank Mugambage, Director General of External Intelligence in the National Intelligence and Security Service Col. [rtd] Anaclet Kalibata, Principal Private Secretary to the President Col. Patrick Karuretwa.

Related
A major initiative, 'Bahrain's Traders', has been launched to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It is a result of tripartite co-operation between Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), the Labour Fund (Tamkeen) and Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF), reported The Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.



For further details, visit http://www.gdnonline.com.
President Trump is capitalizing on three years of political, economic and global trends that have exceeded forecasts. He has also benefited from a run of extraordinary good luck.

Why it matters: Trumps top advisers privately marvel at how he flirts with disaster only to catch a big break, whether it's the Iranians botching their response to his military attack or Democrats embarrassing themselves in Iowa on impeachment eve.

Trump started the year by killing Iran's top military leader, Qasem Soleimani, in a move  resisted by previous presidents  that imperiled U.S. troops in the Middle East and could have provoked war with Iran.

Instead , Iranians shot down a civilian airliner and lied about it clumsily, undercutting the regime at home and on the world stage.

, Iranians shot down a civilian airliner and lied about it clumsily, undercutting the regime at home and on the world stage. On Feb. 6, Trump said the U.S. had killed Qassim al-Rimi, the al-Qaeda leader in Yemen.

Trump said the U.S. had killed Qassim al-Rimi, the al-Qaeda leader in Yemen. Trump signed the "Phase 1" trade deal with China, and the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that replaces NAFTA.

the "Phase 1" trade deal with China, and the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that replaces NAFTA. The economic and employment recovery, which the Obama administration set in motion after the 2008 collapse, built enough steam to allow Trump to build on the gains and take credit.

which the Obama administration set in motion after the 2008 collapse, built enough steam to allow Trump to build on the gains and take credit. Democrats are on the defensive after Trump's impeachment acquittal and Iowa debacle.

after Trump's impeachment acquittal and Iowa debacle. A democratic socialist  Sen. Bernie Sanders  is surging in the race, causing the establishment to flip out. The fracturing field could mean a long fight that would put the eventual nominee in an even deeper hole against the incumbent's machine.

 Sen. Bernie Sanders  is surging in the race, causing the establishment to flip out. The fracturing field could mean a long fight that would put the eventual nominee in an even deeper hole against the incumbent's machine. Some economists think that post-coronavirus, a recovery wave will push an economic surge closer to the election.

The bottom line: Trump is enjoying the same lucky breaks in politics that he enjoyed in birth and business.
Aside from the appalling human cost, investors are getting worried about the financial impact of the deadly corona-virus.

With China a major global economic player, the effect on financial markets in Asia and the rest of the world could be immense. Is it time to panic  or stay calm and ride out the storm?

Concern: If coronavirus severely impacts the Chinese economy, it has the potential to dent world growth for at least part of this year

Why is coronavirus such an issue?

China is a huge player in the global economy, much more so than at the time of the 2003 SARS outbreak.

Back then, it accounted for 4 per cent of global GDP, whereas now it's around 18 per cent. So the potential impact on other countries' economies is far greater.

If coronavirus severely impacts the Chinese economy, it has the potential to dent world growth for at least part of this year. There is also the effect on global supply chains, trade and tourism.

Anna Stupnytska, an economist at asset manager Fidelity International, says: 'The shock to global growth in the first quarter of this year has the potential to be significant.

'Even in a contained scenario of the virus outbreak, global growth could fall at least half a percentage point. The overall impact is likely to be protracted and may extend further into the year.'

She adds, rather ominously: 'It is still too early to speculate whether it will trigger a global recession.'

How have stock markets reacted?

It might seem surprising in the light of the horror headlines, but financial markets have been relatively calm.

Jason Hollands, a wealth manager at Tilney, says: 'Markets have proved quite resilient when you consider the range of potential scenarios, one of which is this spiralling into a full-blown pandemic.'

The MSCI China Index, which measures the share price performance of large and mid-cap firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock market exchanges, is up 3 per cent since the start of the year.

In terms of investment funds, the average Chinese fund is up 2 per cent since the turn of the year. The best performing Chinese equity fund is Matthews China Small Companies  up 15.7 per cent  while the 'worst' is Fidelity China Focus which is down just 1.7 per cent.

Darius McDermott, of fund scrutineer FundCalibre, says: 'Equity markets worldwide were doing OK until around mid-January, at which point they fell quite dramatically, but they have since recovered almost back to the level they started the year.

'For the moment, markets seem to have shrugged off the coronavirus concerns. But I think they are still fragile. Any sign that the virus is taking hold in any other country outside China could lead to another big fall in global stock markets.'

It might seem surprising in the light of the virus but financial markets have been relatively calm

Should investors be worried?

As with the spread of the virus, the economic and market impacts remain unclear. Stock markets worldwide have been yo-yo-ing rapidly as investors try to anticipate the effect on share prices and also vulnerable industry sectors such as airlines and tourism.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, says international companies such as Apple, Ford, LVMH, BP, Hyundai and Carnival have all told shareholders that they are seeing a slowdown in Chinese demand.

He adds: 'Companies with sales exposure to China such as Burberry, Carnival and Standard Chartered have seen their shares lag, while commodity producers have also faltered as raw material prices have sagged in response to worries over a slowdown in China.'

Companies which have big exposure to China are particularly vulnerable. For example, there was a sharp fall in Tesla shares as the closure of its Shanghai plant threatened to derail production, although the shares have since regained some value.

US coffee shop chain Starbucks has closed more than half of its 4,000-plus outlets in China to support government efforts to contain the virus  analysts estimate that China accounts for around 10 per cent of Starbucks' global sales.

Wuhan, where the virus originated, is a major automotive hub, with car manufacturing plants including Nissan, PSA, Honda, General Motors and Renault.

McDermott says: 'Luxury goods companies are likely to feel the impact as Chinese customers account for around a third of the value of luxury goods purchases.'

AJ Bell's Ryan Hughes says: 'As well as Chinese equity funds, Asian and general Emerging Markets funds have also been adversely impacted.

'Investors will understandably be concerned about what impact coronavirus is having on their portfolios but as always it is important not to panic and make knee-jerk decisions that could simply lock in losses.'

It's crucial to think long-term What should we be doing as investors? The short answer, says Emma Wall, of Hargreaves Lansdown, is 'absolutely nothing'. She explains: 'Yes, there has been a lot of volatility as markets have reacted to the constant flow of news. But if you look at markets over the past year, you'd be hard-pushed to point to exactly when the coronavirus hit. Investing is all about the medium to long-term and over that time scale coronavirus is not going to have an impact. 'It's similar to what happens whenever Donald Trump tweets about a new trade deal or tariff  there is an immediate impact but it all smooths out over the long term.' The most powerful comment is from Fidelity's Tom Stevenson. It says: 'From time to time, there is volatility in stock markets as investors react nervously to changes in the economic, political and corporate environment. Financial markets dislike uncertainty. 'Yet markets are prone to over-react to events that cloud the short-term outlook. As an investor, it is important to take a step back at these times and keep an open mind. 'Avoid trying to time the market, don't focus on short-term swings  however powerful they may seem  and instead keep investing in quality companies or funds that look as if they will deliver sustainable returns over the long term.'

Are there any financial winners?

In contrast to travel and luxury goods companies, shares in businesses whose main focus is on the domestic UK economy have generally done much better post- coronavirus outbreak  for example, house builders, construction firms and estate agents.

Some companies involved in the potential treatment of the virus have been keenly sought by investors.

For example, Interactive Investor's Richard Hunter says little-known UK company Novacyt has reported strong demand for its recently launched coronavirus detection test, resulting in its share price rising an extraordinary 600 per cent this year.

Even digital currency Bitcoin is up in price 30 per cent since the New Year.

Nigel Green, of financial services deVere Group, says: 'The ongoing upward trajectory of the price of Bitcoin correlates to the spread of the coronavirus  it is increasingly regarded as a safe-haven asset in times of uncertainty.

'We can expect Bitcoin's price to continue to rise until the coronavirus peaks, which is expected to be in late April or early May.'

Tilney's Jason Hollands says that while now is the time to 'tread with care' regarding investments, those looking to invest should consider funds such as Liontrust Special Situations and Evenlode Income, 'both of which avoid highly cyclical businesses which will prove particularly sensitive to changes in the economic environment'.
A mundane business meeting at a Singapore hotel became an event that took the coronavirus global.

Now the hunt is on to find who carried the disease to the meeting for a company that sells gas meters.

The people there then spread it to five countries and infected over a dozen people.

Dale Fisher is part of a World Health Organization response network.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) CHAIR OF THE GLOBAL OUTBREAK ALERT & RESPONSE NETWORK COORDINATED BY WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, DALE FISHER, SAYING:

"You might remember the SARS outbreak started in a hotel. So who attends hotels, who attends conferences? It's travellers around the world. That's part and parcel of life today, so if there is a transmission event in such a setting, then of course, that's a great way to export the virus around the world."

Experts say locating this so-called 'patient zero' is critcial for finding those exposed to the virus and stopping it.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) CHAIR OF THE GLOBAL OUTBREAK ALERT & RESPONSE NETWORK COORDINATED BY WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, DALE FISHER, SAYING:

"So this is about contact tracing. We do feel uncomfortable obviously when we diagnose a patient with the illness and we can't work out where it came from. Therefore the containment activities are less effective."

Fisher compares the hotel meeting to another so-called "super-spreading" event at a Hong Kong hotel in 2003.

But while the WHO has opened an investigation into the Singapore incident it says it's 'way too early to tell' if it's a super-spreading event, too.

Management at the hotel say they cleaned extensively and were monitoring staff and guests for infection but did not know "how, where or when" conference attendees were infected.

The gas meter company says it immediately responded with self-isolation for all 109 attendees.

Ninety-four of them were from overseas and had left Singapore.

But, the virus kept spreading.

One from the UK headed to a French ski resort, where five people fell ill.

Another linked case then emerged in Spain.

When the British delegate went home to the south of England, the virus gained further ground.
NSW Police found nothing in 88 per cent of the 211,000 personal searches conducted under the force's quota-based system in 2018, prompting concerns it is leading to an abuse of powers to meet targets.

More than 26,300 searches were conducted on children under 18, of which 90 per cent came up empty, data obtained by the Herald from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research shows.

In some areas, up to 37 per cent of all searches involved children and 78 per cent involved Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, with nothing found in more than 90 per cent of these. Credit:Paul Harris

In some areas, up to 37 per cent of all searches were done on children and 78 per cent on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Nothing was found in many of these cases.

UNSW Law School lecturer Vicki Sentas said: "There's a likely systemic unlawfulness around stop and search powers, really low rates of something being found are an indicator that police aren't turning their minds to whether there are grounds for reasonable suspicion.
UK 5 MHz beacon to close It has been announced that the 5 MHz (60m) beacon GB3WES at Westmorland IO84qn on 5.290 MHz will close down on March 11, 2020, when its Notice of Variation (NoV) expires



The beacon entered service on October 30, 2004. At the time it was one of a chain of three UK 5 MHz propagation research beacons, the others being GB3RAL in Oxfordshire and GB3ORK in Orkney



After GB3WES closes only GB3ORK will remain.



Source GB3WES site

http://gb3wes.g3wgv.com/




Haiti - Politic : President Moise visits the Vallee-de-Jacmel





On Saturday, President Jovenel Moise accompanied by the Prime Minister a.i., Jean Michel Lapin and other representatives of the State went to the commune of Vallee-de-Jacmel (Dept. of South-East).



The Head of State came to inspect the electrification works, which were completed in less than a month, with a view to supplying more electricity to Vallee-de-Jacmel, such as the installation of a group of 300 kilowatts, extension of the distribution network by 1.5 kilometers (wire and post), to arrive up to 4.5 kilometers, while installing prepaid meters and other infrastructure as part of the implementation of the project 24 hour power supply.



Taking advantage of his trip, the Head of State met with the Mayor of the city on several important projects such as the completion of the Vallee-de-Jacmel road, access to drinking water and the opening of the Professional Training Center...



HL/ HaitiLibre


















A 22-year-old man was arrested for allegedly committing burglary at a house in southeast Delhi's Lajpat Nagar, police said on Sunday.

The accused, Manoj Singh, is a native of Uttarakhand's Champawat district and was living in a rented house in north Delhi's Burari. He was arrested on Friday, they said.

On February 4, police received a complaint from one Agender Kumar about a burglary at his house. The lock on the main door of his house had been broken to gain entry, the police said.

Singh was seen in the footage of a CCTV camera installed near Kumar's house. He was seen carrying a black bag and was later identified through face recognition app, they said.

On the basis of technical surveillance, the police raided Singh's residence in Champawat's Kaknai village and arrested him, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) R P Meena said.

Stolen jewellery and cash worth approximately Rs 25 lakh was recovered from him, he said.

During interrogation, Singh told police he wanted to have a lavish lifestyle and was fond of premium whiskey. He often used to visit bars and cafes in Hauz Khas village and Paharganj, he added.

Singh was unemployed and committed burglaries to earn easy money. He has spent thousands of rupees of the stolen money in bars, Meena said.

He looked for houses in colonies and residential societies which would be locked in the day. He stole cash and jewellery but never things like mobile phones and laptops, fearing they could be traced, he said.

He was previously involved in five cases of burglaries, the DCP said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
GUANGZHOU, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Inside a warehouse at Bayer PH Supply Center Guangzhou Site, cargo boxes loaded with medical products are stacked over 10 meters high, ready to aid coronavirus-battered Hubei Province.

During the Spring Festival holiday, workers at the factory of Bayer in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, worked overtime to ensure supplies of medical products for Hubei and other virus-hit regions across the country.

"Now 60 percent of production capacity has recovered," said Anson Xie, manager of the site.

One of the two main products Bayer produces is anti-inflammatory medicine targeting respiratory tract infections, which saw a surging demand in February.

According to the government of Guangzhou's Huangpu District, where local manufacturing industries cluster, as of the afternoon of Feb. 13, 3,061 enterprises in the district had resumed production. A total of 1,338 are in the industrial sector, accounting for 27.8 percent of all industrial enterprises. Around 170,000 workers, nearly half the workforce in the industrial sector, have resumed work.

The multinational manufacturer Procter & Gamble also resumed operations at its plant in Huangpu on Feb. 5. Now, most production lines are running, with about 1,000 workers having returned to work, said Jason Xu, health safety and environment leader at the plant.

"Now we mainly produce shampoos and body wash products to meet people's needs," said Xu.

Amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, all the factories have taken strict measures to ensure epidemic control and prevention.

Workers at the P&G plant were given health instructions and asked to work according to strict safety rules.

Peng Rong, who returned to Guangzhou from her hometown Sichuan Province on Feb. 3, began work after a one-week self-quarantine. Now she is armed to the teeth with protective gear that the factory prepared for all the staff, and the dining hall is not as crowded as before, with food packed in advance instead, for safety.

Inevitably, the epidemic has affected some enterprises in material supply, personnel employment, production capacity and transportation.

Guangzhou Bioseal Biotech Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson that produces a product used for surgical hemostasis, has met obstacles.

Due to traffic control in other provincial regions, 5 percent of the company's workers failed to return to work, and transportation of some products to other provincial regions was hampered as well, said Huang Lisha, general manager of the company.

Whether and when the upstream enterprises resume work impacts the raw material supplies of P&G's Huangpu Plant, but the local government has been helping to coordinate between both sides, said Xu.

The government in Huangpu District has introduced policies to cut rental costs, secure production, stabilize employment and provide financial support and incentives for enterprises, with fiscal support totaling 287 million yuan (about 41.1 million U.S. dollars), said Gu Lin, an official with Huangpu District.

"Authorities in Huangpu have established a platform to coordinate supplies and production for factories, and our company was allocated a batch of anti-virus materials, which were in urgent need," said Huang.

Government officials in Huangpu District and Guangzhou Development Zone visited around 1,000 enterprises to better understand their needs and situations and help them with material supplies, plant reconstruction and production line adjustment, said Gu.
A Punjab police constable Kulwinder Singh shot dead his wife and three members of his in-laws family with an AK-47 rifle at Said Jalalpur village of Dharamkot block in Moga district on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, police said.

A 10-year-old daughter of his brother-in-law was also injured in the incident.

At the Moga civil hospital, the constables wife Rajwinder Kaur, mother-in-law Sukhwinder Kaur and brother-in-laws wife Inderjit Kaur were declared brought dead. His brother-in-law Jaskaran Singh succumbed to his injuries during treatment while his daughter is under treatment, police said.

The police have arrested the accused and a case has been registered at Dharamkot police station. Kulwinder was posted at Dharamkot in the tear gas squad and the AK-47 rifle used in the incident was issued against his name.

According to preliminary investigation, he had a land dispute with his in-laws who were trying to settle the matter. Kulwinder along with wife had reached his in-laws house on Saturday. He allegedly got drunk and had an argument for some time after which he fired at them with his rifle in a fit of anger.

Mogas Superintendent of Police (Investigations) Harinderpal Singh said that investigation is under process and a case has been registered.
To stay in Grey List or downgrade to Black List: Key FATF decision on Pak this week

FATF plenary: Pakistan likely to remain in grey list

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Feb 16: Pakistan is likely to remain in the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force. Pakistan is still not fully compliant of the 13 of the 27 actions and hence would remain on the grey list.

Top diplomatic sources however confirmed to OneIndia that Pakistan would however not be downgraded to the black list as of now. The FATF would review Pakistan's case starting today at the plenary in Paris. The plenary would be on until February 21.

The working group and plenary meetings of the Financial Action Task Force in Paris will assess the implementation of a 27 point action plan by Pakistan, which was placed in the Grey List. The plenary would be held between February 16 and 21.

Lashkar boss Hafiz Saeed may walk out of jail post FATF meet

In June, the joint group of the Asia Pacific Group in its assessment had found that Pakistan's compliance to act against 8 terror groups which include the Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Tayiba has been unsatisfactory. The report urged Pakistan to do more against these groups before the FATF comes up with its final decision.

The report states that stringent action should be taken against groups such as the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, their financial entities, Haqqani Network, Al-Qaeda and Da'esh.

In order to move out of the grey list, Pakistan would need at least 15 of the 36 FATF's members' votes. It would also require a minimum of 3 votes to keep itself out of the black list.

In April the FATF had asked Pakistan to implement a new set of constraints in its crackdown against terror funding, including documenting and regulating all gold markets.

In the past few months, Pakistan appears to have taken some action. While India considers that the action is only token, Pakistan is doing all it can to avoid being downgraded to the black list.

One key development in recent times is the UN listing of Jaish-e-Mohammad chief, Maulana Masood Azhar. The first action by Pakistan was to put his brother Rauf Asghar in charge of operations.

However, with the heat stepping up, Pakistan claimed that Asghar had been placed under arrest.

Explained: What is FATF Grey List

The FATF on the other hand had asked Islamabad to collect data of all gold markets and restrict the sale and purchase of gold items using cash. The watchdog has also demanded that the country ensure restriction on supply of gold and jewellery to banned outfits and terrorist organisations.

The FATF had urged Pakistan to collect data of all trusts operating across the country as well as their bank accounts on the district level. It has also asked the country to ensure regulation of thousands of registered trust organisations.

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Story first published: Sunday, February 16, 2020, 9:01 [IST]
Tara ONeil /Hearst Connecticut Media

BRIDGEPORT  The Red Cross is providing assistance to four families after a fire at home on William Street Saturday.

Five adults and four children were affected by the blaze, which saw smoke engulf a multi-family home Saturday evening.
Getty Images

Turkey is in favor of expanding NATO, and the Alliance should provide Membership Action Plans to aspirant countries. This was stated by the head of the republics foreign affairs department Mevlut Cavusoglu in an interview with Georgian journalists on the sidelines of the 56th Munich Security Conference, Rustavi 2 reports.

Turkey stands for the expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance. NATO has aspirant countries and they must be provided with an Membership Action Plan. This is our Turkish position, the message says.

It was reported that Zelensky on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference held a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, during which the issue of granting the Ukraine the status of a partner with advanced capabilities was raised.

Defense Minister Andriy Zahorodniuk expects that in October 2020 Ukraine will join the NATO Enhanced Opportunity Plan as TSN reported.

The accession of Ukraine to the NATO Enhanced Opportunity Plan is expected in October. It will be a great step for us. They also understand it and due to these reasons support it. There, in EOP, are a number of benefits for us, the minister underlined.

Zahorodniuk concluded on Facebook that Ukraine reached sufficient progress in the implementation of NATO standards and it is quite consistent with the military criteria necessary for accession to the Enhanced Opportunity Plan.
MUNICH  As the globe races to develop 5G networks, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned Sunday that accepting Chinese domination of the technology would be akin to "choosing autocracy over democracy."

"This is about choosing autocracy over democracy on the information highway," Pelosi, D-Calif., said during a press conference at the annual Munich Security Conference. "It is about putting the state police in the pocket of every consumer in these countries, because of the Chinese way. And so, you ask about an alternative, and what I said a couple of days ago and yesterday, is that it should not be a sinofication of the information highway but an internationalization of it."

"This is the information highway of the now, and why would we want to give license to the Chinese to direct the traffic on that information highway of the future?" she continued. "It is a big price to pay in terms of national security, in terms of economy and in terms of our values and our governance. And that is why we have bipartisan support for this position. It is not about an economic advantage, it is about a values urgency: autocracy versus democracy. And we choose democracy."

Pelosi had previously warned U.S. allies at the security forum to stay clear of Huawei, calling it "the most insidious form of aggression."

Similarly, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described Huawei and other Chinese state-backed tech companies as "Trojan horses for Chinese intelligence." Secretary of Defense Mark Esper also said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference that Beijing was carrying out a "nefarious strategy" through telecommunications firm Huawei.

Read more: Pelosi warns US allies: 'Don't go near Huawei'

Their comments come on the heels of new charges brought against Huawei by the U.S. Justice Department and underline bipartisan suspicion of Huawei.

The Trump administration is working to isolate Huawei, the world's largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer, from developing a larger foothold in U.S. partner countries. The administration has specifically worked to keep members of the "five eyes" intelligence-sharing group  the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand  from working with Huawei.

Last month, the Trump administration expressed disappointment after the U.K. announced it would allow Huawei to have limited access to some British 5G mobile networks. "The United States is disappointed by the U.K.'s decision," a senior Trump administration official wrote in a Jan. 28 emailed statement to CNBC. The official added that the Trump administration will work "with the U.K. on a way forward that results in the exclusion of untrusted vendor components from 5G networks."

U.S. officials have long complained that Chinese intellectual property theft has cost the economy billions of dollars in revenue and thousands of jobs and that it threatens national security. China maintains that it does not engage in intellectual property theft.

On Monday, a White House official told a small group of reporters on the sidelines of the Munich forum that the U.S. wants to develop partnerships with the telecom industry in order to counter Huawei's offerings.

Robert Blair, White House special representative for international telecommunications policy, also called on the U.K. to take a "hard look" at its decision to use Huawei equipment.

Vice President Mike Pence told CNBC last week that London's decision could jeopardize trade talks between the U.K. and the United States.

Read more: Vice President Pence: 'We'll see' if UK decision on Huawei is a deal breaker for a trade pact

"We're anxious to build our economic ties, but we have made it clear to Prime Minister [Boris] Johnson and to officials in the U.K., that as we expand opportunities to build out 5G across this country ... we want to see our companies meet the needs in the United States and U.K. and among all our allies without the compromise of privacy and the compromise of security that necessarily comes with Huawei and control by the Chinese Communist Party," Pence told CNBC's Wilfred Frost.
The 1970 UI grad who founded Good Vibes with two friends 49 years ago took time out to answer a few questions from Editor Jeff DAlessio in the 13th installment of our weekly speed read spotlighting local leaders of organizations big and small.
CONCERN: A doctor checks on the condition of a patient in a hospital in Wuhan last Thursday. Picture: AP

China reported 143 virus deaths and a dip in new cases yesterday.

Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organisation praised the country's efforts to contain the new disease, saying they have "bought the world time" and that other nations must make the most of it.

France reported Europe's first death from the new virus - an 80-year-old Chinese tourist from Hubei province, where the disease emerged in December.

China reported 2,641 new cases in the 24 hours through midnight Friday, raising its total to 66,492. Mainland China's death toll rose to 1,523.

The number of new cases was down from the 5,090 in the previous 24-hour period after authorities changed the basis for counting patients.

Numbers of new cases have fluctuated, fueling both optimism the disease might be under control and warnings that such hopes are premature.

UN health agency director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, urged governments to step up their efforts to prepare for the virus, saying "it's impossible to predict which direction this epidemic will take".

Tedros told a gathering of international foreign and security policy leaders in Munich yesterday that WHO is encouraged there has not yet been widespread transmission outside China and that "the steps China has taken to contain the outbreak at its source appear to have bought the world time."

"We're encouraged that an international team of experts is now on the ground working closely with Chinese counterparts to understand the outbreak," Tedros told the Munich Security Conference.

But he said the agency is "concerned by the continued increase in the number of cases in China", and by reports about the number of health workers who have been infected or died.

"We're concerned by the lack of urgency in funding the response from the international community," Tedros said.

"We must use the window of opportunity we have to intensify our preparedness," he added. "China has bought the world time. We don't know how much time."

China's government suspended most access to Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak, on January 23. Restrictions have expanded to cities with a total of 60 million people in the broadest anti-disease measures ever imposed. Restaurants, shops and other businesses nationwide were ordered to close.

The Lunar New Year holiday was extended to keep factories and offices closed, but now officials have been ordered to revive business activity as economic losses mount.

Authorities have announced measures to try to curb new infections as millions of workers crowd into planes, trains and buses to return to densely populated cities. Under the new measures, people returning to Beijing will have to isolate themselves at home for 14 days, according to a notice published last Friday. It said people who fail to comply will face legal consequences but gave no details.

COVID-19, a disease stemming from a new form of coronavirus, has spread to more than two dozen countries.

An 83-year-old American passenger from a cruise ship, that docked in Cambodia after being shunned by other countries, yesterday tested positive for the new coronavirus after being tested in Malaysia.

The woman was the first passenger from the MS Westerdam to test positive for the virus. The 80-year-old Chinese tourist, who died in France, was hospitalised on January 25 with a lung infection. His daughter also fell ill but authorities say she is expected to recover.

Last Thursday, the number of new cases reported by authorities in Hubei spiked to 15,152, mainly because China has changed the way it is counting. That included 13,332 that were diagnosed with doctors' analyses and lung imaging instead of the previous standard of laboratory testing. Health authorities said the new method would facilitate earlier treatment.

Nine more temporary hospitals have opened in gymnasiums and other public buildings, with 6,960 beds in Hubei, the National Health Commission announced. It said 5,606 patients with mild symptoms were being treated.

The ruling Communist Party is trying to restore public confidence following complaints leaders in Wuhan suppressed information about the disease. The party faced similar criticism after the 2002-03 outbreak of Sars.

Extended closures of factories and businesses prevented a flood of travel after the Lunar New Year holiday, normally the Chinese industry's busiest season, officials said at a news conference.

Reuters
Anuraag Singh By

Express News Service

BHOPAL: Devotional songs have brought animals and humans closer to each other in the dense forests on the Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh border.

The camaraderie between a pair of the wild bear and a saffron-clad hermit singing Ram Bhajans inside his hut in the dense forests in Shahdol district of MP, is attracting forest dwellers in both neighbouring states to the catch the sight of the rare wild-human coexistence.



According to forest dwellers as well as forest department staff, every morning and evening, when the hermit with flowing locks sings Ram Bhajans with the music of Ektara, the pair of wild bears come out of their nearby caves and sit patiently near the hermit -- as if to find solace in the devotional songs.

"I've been here since 2013 and since then the wild bears have been coming to me whenever I sing the Ram Bhajans with the Ektara and dumroo. They never attacked me nor have they even scared anyone while patiently sitting outside the ashram (hut) when Bhajans are sung. Every morning and evening, they only leave the place after having the Prasad (offering to God) from my hands. The bear pair and their two offsprings have become an inseparable part of my life. I've even named the pair as Lali and Lalli and their offsprings as Chunnu-Munnu, who always respond to my calls," said the 65-year hermit Sitaram Baba.

Hailing from nearby Khohra Bairak village, the hermit made the Khadakhoh-Rajmara jungles his home in 2013 and since then has devoted self to singing Ram Bhajans inside the hut named as Rajmara Ramvan Ashram, which has a river flowing close by.

"Initially when the pair of bear came near my Ashram, I got scared, but as they didn't harm anyone and sat near the hut without even entering inside even once, their fear was never felt later," claimed Sitaram Baba while sitting near the dhuni (sacred place replete with burning wood) in his hut-cum-ashram.

Vijay Kumar, a tribal dwelling in the same forest, says it's not only the carnivorous wild bear pair and their offsprings but other animals in the forest, including herbivorous monkeys and squirrels who make it sure to be near Sitaram Baba's hut and Ashram, whenever he sings Ram Bhajans and then serves them, Prasad.

Even the forest department officials confirm the unique bonding between the hermit and the wild animals, particularly the wild bear family living in caves in the vicinity of his hut.

According to the Jaitpur Forest Range Officer Saleem Khan, he too has witnessed the bonhomie between the hermit and the seemingly spiritually inclined bears and some other animals.
First President Trump questioned the existence of National Public Radio in a tweet. Then, as part of the annual budget request released last Monday, he recommended slashing federal funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the body that distributes taxpayer dollars to NPR and other public media outlets, to $0 by 2023.

Past budget proposals from Mr. Trump have apparently had little influence over the amounts that public media has received from the government. For the 2020 fiscal year, the White House recommended $30 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Congress, which has traditionally shown support for public media, ultimately decided on $465 million.

Although Congress controls how much federal money goes to public broadcasters, NPR is not taking the potential threat lightly. About 1 percent of its budget comes from federal money, but Mike Riksen, an NPR vice president, said the funding was essential to public radio.

Elimination of federal funding would result in fewer programs, less journalism  especially local journalism  and, eventually, the loss of public radio stations, particularly in rural and economically distressed communities, Mr. Riksen said. We are fully engaged with policymakers to ensure a complete understanding of federal funding and its importance to our stations and the public media system.
There was no Armenian historical legacy in Nagorno Karabakh, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at the panel discussions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict held as part of the Munich Security Conference, Azernews reports.

"Once again, I came here to tell the truth, and once again I tell. I dont know what was written in 'Argumenti I Fakti'. 'Argumenti I Fakti' is an independent newspaper, where many Armenians work. And we in Azerbaijan know the number of Armenians who run the leading Russian press so they can write whatever they want. Therefore, I refer to the official statement of the former President of Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutallibov who said that he never said that. So, now, look. The president the former president, his words and the words of one pro-Armenian or Armenian journalist which has more value? This is first thing. About Shaumyan, Mr. Prime Minister was just pointing that it was Stalin who made a decision to give Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan which is wrong because again, look at the Caucasus Bureau July 1921, when it is said to retain Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan and not to transfer it to Azerbaijan. But if he does not like Stalin so much, it is strange why he likes so much Shaumyan? Because Shaumyan was one of the Bolsheviks, he was a person who killed innocent Azerbaijanis, and todays so-called capital of Nagorno-Karabakh is named after his name. The question, if Nagorno-Karabakh is an ancient Armenian territory why does not it have the ancient Armenian name for the capital? Because the ancient name for the capital is Khankandi. The village of the khan. And the Stepanakert because Shaumyans name was Stephan, kert means city in Armenian. Stepanakert was named in the name of that Bolshevik. So that once again proves that there was no Armenian historical legacy on those territories. And coming back to from where I began, this historical issue is important for understanding how the conflict should be resolved," President Ilham Aliyev said.

----
Well, at least we now have it clear. The Australian government is not prepared to accept Australian citizens, and those with a claim to citizenship, home from detention in Syria unless they can pay a people smuggler to help them escape.

The government is making some plans in the unlikely event that the 20 wives and 47 children (including 34 infants) of Australian Islamic State fighters can escape from the squalid al-Hawl camp and make their way home. But they are not planning to bring them safely.

An Australian child sits on the ground of one of the tents among other Australian women and children in al Hawl camp last year. Credit:Kate Geraghty

In my view, this is an abrogation of the government's responsibilities. These women and their children should be given the opportunity to return to face justice, or, if no crimes can be proved against them, to reintegrate into society.

Quite understandably, many Australians have no sympathy for the women, and little for their children. The barbarism of the so-called Islamic State caliphate was extraordinary: I saw it first hand and wrote about its victims in 2017 and 2018. Some of these women were no doubt willing conscripts to a way of life that supported the most abject acts of terror.
A third person has died during Storm Dennis and two major incidents have been declared in England and Wales as high winds and heavy rain batter the UK.

The storm has lashed part of the country with a months worth of rain in 48 hours while a record number of flood warnings and alerts have been declared in England.

Police said a man, aged in his 60s, was seen entering the River Tawe in the Ystradgynlais area of south Wales at about 10am on Sunday morning.

He was rescued further along the river but despite paramedics battling to save his life he was pronounced dead at the scene, Dyfed-Powys Police said.

The force said the death was not being treated as suspicious or being linked to the bad weather.

It comes after bodies were pulled from rough seas off Kent on Saturday, before the worst of the storm hit.

Storm Dennis - in pictures 1 /65 Storm Dennis - in pictures One-year-old Blake and his mum, Terri O'Donnel, join other residents of Nantgarw in a rescue boat as emergency services take people to safety after flooding in the village in Wales PA An aerial view of the Welsh village of Crickhowell which has been cut off as the river Usk bursts its banks at Crickhowell bridge near the Bridge End Inn Getty Images Flood water surrounds the bowling club after the River Taff burst its banks in Taffs Wells, north of Cardiff AFP via Getty Images Waves pound against the harbour wall at Portreath, Cornwall PA Work takes place to repair the internet after floodwaters caused disruption on Oxford Street on February 17, 2020 in Nantgarw, United Kingdom Getty Images Rachel Cox inspecting flood damage in her kitchen at 37 Oxford street, Nantgarw, in south Wales, where residents are returning to their homes to survey and repair the damage in the aftermath of Storm Dennis PA Members of the emergency services evacuate residents and their dogs from flooded houses by resucue boat after the River Taff burst its banks in Nantgarw AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images A man and woman are rescued from a property in Nantgarw Getty Images A view of fields flooded near St Clears, Pembrokeshire, South Wales REUTERS A soldier from The Highlanders, 4th Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland in Mytholmroyd PA A coach submerged in floodwater from the River Teme on the A443 near Lindridge, Worcestershire PA A man walks through a flooded convenience store in Tenbury Wells AFP via Getty Images A firefighter carries a dog to safety as part of ongoing rescue operations due to flooding in Nantgarw PA Rescue operations continue as emergency services take families to safety, after flooding in Nantgarw, Wales as Storm Dennis hit the UK PA A woman wades through flood water after Storm Dennis in Tenbury Wells, Reuters Huge waves crash against the sea wall at Porthcawl, south Wales as Storm Dennis hits the country AFP via Getty Images Flooding in York in the aftermath of Storm Dennis PA A firefighter carries a dog to safety as part of ongoing rescue operations due to flooding in Nantgarw PA Environment agency workers help a home-owner with flood defences after the River Severn burst it's banks in Bewdley, west of Birmingham AFP via Getty Images Environment agency workers put up flood defences beside the River Severn in Bewdley AFP via Getty Images Severe fllooding in Nantgarw PA Submerged vehicles after flooding in Nantgarw PA Powerful waves break on the shoreline around the small port of Porthleven, south west England AP A lorry driver sits trapped by flood water in the cab of his petrol tanker after the River Teme burst its banks near Lindridge, western England AFP via Getty Images Waves crash against the harbour wall in Port William Getty Images Cars sit submerged in flood water after the River Taff burst its banks in Nantgarw AFP via Getty Images A car drives through a flooded road in the village of Findern in Derbyshire PA A woman looks out of her window as geese swim past in floodwater after the River Severn bursts it's banks in Bewdley AFP via Getty Images Members of the Fire and Rescue Service conduct a search operation after the River Teme burst its banks in Lindridge AFP via Getty Images Waves crash against the harbour wall on the Isle of Whithorn, Getty Images Huge waves crash against the sea wall at Porthcawl, south Wales as Storm Dennis hits AFP via Getty Images People watch waves and rough seas pound against the harbour wall at Porthcawl PA People watch waves and rough seas pound against the harbour wall at Porthcawl PA People watch waves and rough seas pound against the harbour wall at Porthcawl PA The level of the River Ouse rises in York, North Yorkshire AFP via Getty Images The level of the River Ouse rises in York, North Yorkshire AFP via Getty Images The level of the River Ouse rises in York, North Yorkshire AFP via Getty Images Soldiers from The Highlanders, 4th Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland in Mytholmroyd to assist with flood defences, in the Upper Calder Valley PA Soldiers from The Highlanders, 4th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, help to shore up flood defences Getty Images Soldiers from The Highlanders, 4th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland , help to shore up flood defences Getty Images Soldiers from The Highlanders, 4th Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland in Mytholmroyd to assist with flood defences, in the Upper Calder Valley PA Soldiers from The Highlanders, 4th Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland help to shore up flood defences Getty Images The County Ground, Swindon, where Saturday's match was called off Action Images via Reuters A woman struggles with an umbrella in strong winds on the South Bank PA People are buffeted by strong winds as they cross the Millennium Bridge, in central London PA A woman struggles with an umbrella in strong winds on the Millennium Bridge PA People clear up following Storm Ciara in Mytholmroyd in the Upper Calder Valley in West Yorkshire PA Flood defences are prepared in Mytholmroyd, in the Upper Calder Valley in West Yorkshire PA

One man was found following a huge search operation off Margate after an early-morning distress call, while another was found at Herne Bay.

South Wales Police also tweeted on Sunday afternoon: Due to this mornings flooding and severe disruption which have occurred overnight and through the course of the morning, a major incident has been declared and we are co-ordinating a multi-agency response.

Assistant Chief Constable Jennifer Gilmer, said: "I would like to reassure the public who have been affected that we are doing everything we can, and will continue to work tirelessly until all risks dissipate.

"I have very clear advice for everybody, which is not to panic, and to be sensible, stay well clear of any danger such as streams and rivers, and contact us in an emergency."

A major incident has also been declared in Herefordshire. Herefordshire Council said the county was experiencing "significant and widespread flooding".

The Environment Agency (EA)'s flood and coastal risk management executive director John Curtin said on Sunday that there were a record 594 flood warnings and alerts in force in England.

Mr Curtin tweeted: "Breaking: we now have the most flood warnings and alerts in force (594) in England than any other day on record."

The Met Office said that winds of more than 80mph were recorded across parts of the country, with the highest measuring 91mph in Aberdaron in north Wales on Saturday.

It also said that a total of 156.2mm of rain fell at Crai Reservoir in Powys in the 48 hours from Friday to Sunday, with the average monthly rainfall for February in Wales 111.1mm.

Severe flood warnings have been issued for the rivers Neath and Taff in south Wales, as well as the River Teme further north.

Pictures on social media show the Taff bursting its banks and flooding parts of Pontypridd, while rescue workers were using boats to get families to safety after further flooding in nearby Nantgarw.

Gwent Police said that residents of Skenfrith, Monmouthshire, were being advised to evacuate due to the flooding.

At about 11am on Sunday there were 250 flood warnings, meaning immediate action is required, and 344 flood alerts warning people to be prepared, covering an area from Scotland's River Tweed to the rivers of west Cornwall.

Severe flood warnings were issued for the Scottish Borders but these were no longer in force by late on Sunday morning.

The Met Office has issued amber alerts - meaning people must be prepared to change plans and protect themselves and their family from the storm - for parts of Yorkshire, Wales, Devon, East Sussex and Kent.

Rail services were suspended across south Wales after tracks were submerged by rain, while the line between Derby and Long Eaton was also closed.

Flooding saw the M54 westbound closed at Telford, along with the A616 around Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire and the A52 between Stragglethorpe and Gamston in the East Midlands, Highways England said.

Relief from Storm Dennis is still some distance away, Met Office meteorologist Greg Dewhurst said, adding that "heavy rain and strong winds" would continue across large parts of the UK on Sunday.
The soporific buzz of bees fills the abandoned train station at Kiu, a two-hour drive from Kenyas capital Nairobi. Rusting rail sleepers lie on the grass outside. A new Chinese-built rail track lies about 500m away from the old colonial-era railway station, which closed in 2012. The new high-speed trains thunder through without stopping; Kiu is just a dusty blur glimpsed through the window.

Residents of this eastern Kenya town serving 6,000 people depended on the old station and railway to get to work, or the nearest hospitals. Travelling by road is a slow and costly alternative. The new 2.5bn railway, which opened in 2017, is part of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative  a multitrillion-dollar series of infrastructure projects upgrading land and maritime trade routes between China and Europe, Asia and Africa.

The new railway sliced travel times in half for passengers and cargo travelling between the capital Nairobi and the port city of Mombasa. The non-express service takes just over four hours to make six stops but only runs once a day, a steep reduction from the 46 stops of the old service that ran twice a day.

This new railway is just for the rich. We do not benefit, says Thomas Mutevu, a welder in Kiu. He used to commute to work in Nairobi by train every day. But now the train no longer stops, he has stopped commuting. It is too far and expensive by road. Other Kiu residents who work in Nairobi now only come home at weekends, he adds.

State-run Kenya Railways said the new line has boosted local travel. Passengers surged to 1.765 million in the year to June 2019, up from 1.239 million in the year to June 2018, because people who used to travel by road or air now opt for the train. Cargo was up to five million tons last year, although some businesses complain they are being forced to use the new line.

The new rail sliced Emily Katembuas farm in half. Although she was compensated, she struggles to get to the market without the train. The government should put a station here so we can benefit since we are traders who need to travel and sell our produce, she says, surrounded by goats and sheep.

Residents must now pay about 500 shillings (3.78) to get there by motorbike and minibus, five times what it used to cost on the old rail, they said. Taxis are only for emergencies  they cost 10,000 shillings (75.50), almost a months wages for a labourer.

Children look out of the window of a train from Mombasa to Nairobi (Reuters)

Some want the old line revived as an attraction. It was dubbed the Lunatic Express when British colonialists built it more than a century ago, because it cost the lives of thousands of construction workers from British India and was considered a huge waste of British taxpayers money.

It should actually be a steam train so you can actually see the smoke, says Mohammed Hersi, the chair of the Kenya Tourism Federation, a private sector lobby. That would be something special.

Reporting by Duncan Miriri, Reuters
Chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said there is a need to change many British-era laws, considering the changing times and needs.

The CM was addressing the State Lawyers Conference 2020, organised by the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa, in Nashik on Sunday. There is a need to change many old laws. We got independence from the British long back, but the laws brought in by them still exist in the country. We are heading towards modernisation, but with changing times, we also need to see which of the laws require changes, Thackeray said, adding, I think the judiciary should organise a seminar where chief ministers from all the states, along with senior judges and other legal luminaries, should come together and discuss the changes required.

The CM also rued over the fact that the convicts in the Nirbhaya case have not been hanged yet. The Nirbhaya case which has shocked the entire nation... where trial was completed, accused were convicted, but they are yet to be executed. We had said that the case will be fast-tracked but was it really done? I dont know, Thackeray said.

The CM also assured that he will approve the setting up of the countrys first judges university in Maharashtra. I am ready to approve the proposal of setting up a judges university in the state, but on one condition that it should come up as the first in the country, he said.
Jibrin Giza, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Works in Nasarawa State, was in the early hours of Sunday abducted by yet to be identified gunmen.

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Bola Longe, confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lafia.

Mr Longe told NAN that the permanent secretary was abducted by gunmen from his residence at Shabu, a suburb of Lafia at about 12:40 a.m., to an unkown destination.

According to the commissioner, the DPO in the area had already mobilised some officers and men who are on the trail of the fleeing abductors and their victims.

Mr Longe added that he had ordered his officers to comb the area to ensure the safe rescue of the victim and arrest of his abductors.

He also vowed that the command would not rest on its oars until the victim regains his freedom.

Mr Longe further said that the abductors were yet to establish any contact with the victims family.

(NAN)
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte denied on Sunday he was looking to put together a new coalition after relations with the small Italia Viva party disintegrated, Trend reports citing Reuters.

Former prime minister Matteo Renzi, who heads Italia Viva, challenged Conte last week to put together another government if he could following a row over legal reform.

Conte saw the Italian head of state at the weekend amid speculation that he was seeking to poach senators from Renzis party to keep his administration afloat in parliament.

However, his office denied widespread media reports that he was looking for other majorities and played a conciliatory tone.

Conte is working on the governments 2023 agenda along with all the ruling parties, including Italia Viva, Contes office said in a statement released on Sunday.

While the row between Renzi and Conte seems unlikely to trigger a political crisis any time soon, it underscores the difficulties the prime minister has in keeping a stable coalition after his first government made up of the 5-Star and the right-wing League party collapsed in August.

Renzis behavior poses serious problems because it make Conte unstable and the government action insufficient, said prominent PD member Goffredo Bettini on Sunday.

This is why I recommend preparing alternative scenarios as soon as possible, Bettini added on Facebook.
In the sprawling Camp Kalma, refugees displaced by the Darfur conflict are overjoyed at the decision by Sudans new authorities to finally deliver president Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court.

Bashir, who was deposed in April 2019 following mass protests, has for the past decade flouted International Criminal Court arrest warrants on charges of genocide and war crimes in the ravaged Darfur region of western Sudan.

On Tuesday, Sudans transitional authorities agreed to transfer him to stand trial before the court based in The Hague.

There was rejoicing across the camp after people heard Bashir is being handed over to the ICC, 65-year-old refugee Adam Ali, a longtime resident of Kalma camp in Nyala, capital of South Darfur state, told AFP.

Darfuris and rebel groups have repeatedly demanded he be handed over to the ICC over alleged war crimes in a conflict which according to the United Nations left 300,000 people dead and displaced 2.5 million others.

Local community leader Yaqoob Mohamed said the decision was a victory for the victims and would go a long way towards rebuilding trust with the leadership in Khartoum.

Hundreds of thousands of those displaced by the conflict that broke out in 2003 in Darfur, a vast region made up of five states, still live in camps and remain dependent on aid provided by the UN and other international organisations.

The conflict erupted when African minority rebels rose up against Bashirs Arab-dominated government in Khartoum that they accused of marginalising the region.

To crush the rebellion, Bashirs government unleashed an armed militia of mostly Arab raiding nomads known as the Janjaweed, accused by rights groups of ethnic cleansing and widespread rape.

Thousands of the militiamen were later incorporated into the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by commander and current political powerbroker Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemeti.

 Great relief 

The decision to surrender Bashir to the ICC came after protracted talks between rebel groups including from Darfur and Sudans ruling body who took power after Bashirs ouster and arrest.

Three of his aides, including former defence and interior ministers, are also to be handed over to the court, although a timeframe has not been announced.

If Bashir and his aides are not handed to the ICC, peace will never find its way to Darfur, said Hassan Issac, another Darfuri living in Kalma.

Hassan Isaac Mohamed, a 72-year-old Darfuri, said he felt relief in the wake of a war that had decimated his family, killing his father and two brothers.

Government spokesman Faisal Mohamed told reporters on Wednesday that details of how Bashir and others will be presented in front of the ICC will be discussed with the ICC and armed groups.

Rights groups such as Amnesty International are pressing for a swift handover of the toppled strongman.

Since its creation in August, Sudans transitional government has been pushing to forge a peace settlement with rebel groups and to end conflicts across the country.

It has promised accountability and kept Bashir in Khartoums Kober prison on a string of charges including corruption.

In December, the veteran leader was sentenced to two years in a community reform centre over accusations of illegally acquiring and using foreign funds.

He was removed from power after street protests against his rule broke out in December 2018 triggering unrest that left dozens dead, hundreds wounded and thousands jailed.

We were relieved when Bashir fell but now we feel like we can finally start to recover from the impact of war, said camp resident Jamal Muhammed.
HELSINKI - Danish police say they have arrested 27 people for suspected drug smuggling after finding some 100 kilograms of cocaine on a Bahamas-registered cargo vessel plying Danish waters.

Copenhagen police said Sunday in a statement that the cocaine was seized during an internationally co-ordinated bust on Saturday on the container ship Duncan Island while it was sailing south of the town of Gedser.

The suspects, all foreigners, are charged with serious drug crimes under Danish law and may face a sentence of up to 16 years in prison. They include the vessels international crew with Russian, Latvian, Ecuadorian and Filipino nationals among others and remain in custody pending further investigation.

Were naturally very pleased that many kilos of cocaine have not hit the street. Now we are investigating further to find out who is waiting in vain for the deliveries, said Inspector Dannie Rise, the head of the special Investigation unit at the Copenhagen police.

According to Danish broadcaster TV2, the vessel was en route from Helsingborg, Sweden to St. Petersburg, Russia when it was seized by authorities. It said the cocaine is believed to have a street value of approximately 350 million Danish kroner ($50 million).
London, Feb 16 : Calling for the regulation of harmful online content, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pitched for a legal framework that encourages "democratic and open values" to control social media platforms.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday, he said that social media companies need more guidance and regulation from governments.

"I do think that there should be regulation on harmful content ... there's a question about which framework you use for this," Zuckerberg told the gathering.

"Even if I'm not going to agree with every regulation in the near term, I do think it's going to be the thing that helps create trust and better governance of the internet and will benefit everyone, including us over the long term," Zuckerberg added.

"In the absence of that kind of regulation, we will continue doing our best, we are going to build up the muscle to do it, to basically find stuff as proactively as possible".

Facebook and its family of apps, including WhatsApp are facing intense scrutiny from governments and regulators over the spread of false and misleading information.

Zuckerberg suggested a mix of existing rules for telecoms and media industries to regulate social media, reports Al Jazeera.

"Right now, there are two frameworks that I think people have for existing industries -- there's like newspapers and existing media, and then there's the telco-type model, which is 'the data just flows through you', but you're not going to hold a telco responsible if someone says something harmful on a phone line," the Facebook CEO argued.

"I actually think where we should be is somewhere in between".

Several US lawmakers and former Facebook employees have called for breaking-up the social networking giant with nearly 2.5 billion users to control it better.

Zuckerberg said Facebook has employed 35,000 people to review online content and implement security measures.

"Our budget is bigger today than the whole revenue of the company when we went public in 2012, when we had a billion users," he said.

In a New Year message, Zuckerberg called for new ways for communities to govern themselves and legitimate regulation around elections, harmful content, privacy, and data portability in the new decade.

One of the big questions for the next decade is: how should we govern the large new digital communities that the internet has enabled? "One way to address this is through regulation. As long as our governments are seen as legitimate, rules established through a democratic process could add more legitimacy and trust than rules defined by companies alone," said Zuckerberg.
 Close Sheep is freed from brambles after taking shelter in Wales during Storm Dennis

The Met Office issued a severe weather warning for Wales as Storm Dennis unleashed torrential rain over the UK.

One man died after being pulled from the River Tawe near Swansea but police said it was not related to the weather.

The Environment Agency said that a record number of flood alerts were in force on Sunday, including severe warnings for the River Teme in mid Wales.

Please allow a moment for the live blog to load.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders eked out a victory in Tuesdays New Hampshire primary, with former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar close on his heels. Former Vice President Joe Biden finished fifth, another disappointment after the gut punch his campaign took in Iowa.

Sanders strength in the early nominating contests was music to his supporters ears, but worried moderate Democrats seeking a candidate who can beat President Donald Trump. Michael Ramirez depicted Sanders win as a Pyrrhic victory -- one that will cost the party the presidency.

Cartoonists also commented on former New York City mayor Michael Bloombergs defense of the New York City Police Departments stop and frisk policy affecting minority communities; Bloombergs wealth; Klobuchars rise in the polls, as voters seek an alternative to Sanders; and complaints from Sanders partisans that the party is undermining his candidacy.

In other news, Attorney General William Barrs independence was again called into question. Roger Stone, an associate of the president, was convicted in November of obstructing Congress and witness intimidation related to his dealings with WikiLeaks and the hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee. Career prosecutors recommended a sentence of seven to nine years. Trump tweeted that the sentence was very unfair. Shortly thereafter, the Justice Department announced it would recommend a reduced sentence.

Barr said the decision had been made before the presidents tweet, but it raised the specter of political interference in enforcing the law. That narrative gained steam on Friday, when the New York Times reported that Barr has appointed an outside prosecutor to take another look at the case against former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Stone famously has a tattoo of Richard Nixon on his back. Bill Bramhall drew Barr sporting a tattoo of Trump.

Cartoons were drawn by Bramhall, Dan Wasserman, Dana Summers, Drew Sheneman, Scott Stantis, Walt Handelsman, David Horsey, Phil Hands, Joel Pett and Joey Weatherford of Tribune Content Agency; and A.F. Branco, Mike Luckovich and Ramirez of Creators Syndicate.

View more editorial cartoon galleries.
During a new large-scale exchange, Ukraine wants to return up to 200 people. It is expected that such exchange will happen before the Normandy format meeting, said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko. This is reported by Interfax.

"We are talking about a significant number of people. The president said today that we plan to exchange up to two hundred people, that is a lot. In fact, it's an almost all-for-all exchange," he said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister added that his side plans to carry out the exchange before the Normandy format meeting.

We recall that at the previous Normandy format meeting in Paris, the leaders of the countries agreed that they would hold the next summit in 4 months (in April 2020). At the same time, the Paris Package included a number of obligations:

- exchange of all established for all established persons until December 31, 2019;



- troop withdrawals in three new areas until March 2020;



- prolongation of the law on the features of local self-government in Donbas uncontrolled territories;



- a complete ceasefire by the end of 2019 and ensuring control by the OSCE mission of the entire part of the territory that is not controlled by Ukraine within 24 hours;



- implementation of the "Steinmeier formula" in Ukrainian law.
Bandits kill at least 30 in raids in northwestern Nigeria: An armed gang on motorbikes killed at least 30 people in attacks on two villages in the northwestern Nigerian state of Katsina, police said. Twenty-one people were burned to death and nine villagers were shot dead on Friday evening in the villages if Dankar and Tsauwa as the assailants made off with food and livestock. Hundreds of people have been killed in the northwest of Nigeria since last year, in attacks the government attributes to bandits  a loose term for gangs of outlaws carrying out robberies and kidnappings.
Flat Rock News Staffing shortage closes two middle schools for in-person class A staffing shortage brought on by contact tracing protocols, quarantine gudelines and employees awaiting test results forced school administrators to switch Flat Rock Middle School to virtual instruction today and Tuesday. Read Story 

Hendersonville Opinion Newest surge, workforce and testing shortage put Pardee under 'perfect storm' of stress, CEO says It is rare that I personally reach out to members of our community to share a direct message from Pardee. Usually, it would be to share some good news about an award or a new service that weve added to our system. Unfortunately, that is not the case today. Read Story 

North Carolina Four Seasons Politics N.C. Supreme Court justices won't recuse themselves N.C. Supreme Court Justices Tamara Barringer and Phil Berger Jr. confirmed on Friday that they will take part in a high-profile case involving two challenged amendments to the N.C. Constitution. Read Story 
After months of hard campaigning and countless public forums, all 10 Republican candidates for Texas Congressional District 11 basically agree on the issues of border security, immigration reform, abortion, protecting our gun rights, welfare reform, opposing the liberal agenda and support for President Trump. Heres where I stand on those issues:

In addition to these issues, I entered the congressional race, because none of the candidates were focused on another vitally important issue. As a certified public accountant with more than 20 years of actual business experience and 20 years of public accounting experience, currently as an audit partner, I am very concerned about Americas sky-rocketing national debt and our out-of-control budget deficits.

Today, our national debt is approaching $23.3 trillion and increase every second of every day. Our national debt now exceeds our entire annual gross domestic product and is more than six times our current annual federal revenue. Over the past 12 years, Congress has doubled the national debt by spending on average more than $1 trillion each year in excess of our annual federal revenues. Those deficits are funded by increased national debt.

In order to achieve a desired balanced federal budget, Congress needs to cut more than $1,000 billion from our current federal budget. That wont be easy, as Washington politicians get re-elected by spending money on pork-barrel projects, not cutting expenses. Based on a recent Congressional Budget Office report, we are borrowing 22 cents for every dollar we are spending. This has to stop. Recently, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell Chairman reported to Congress that $1 trillion deficits are unsustainable.

I agree with Powell. If we do not stop increasing our national debt, America will someday default on its national debt, triggering a massive world-wide economic catastrophe. In my opinion, Congress must take immediate steps to prevent that from happening. These $1 trillion budget deficits and our $23.3 trillion national debt cannot be corrected over night, but we must start cutting expenses in a logical prudent manner. We cannot wait 15 years, when our national debt could exceed $40 trillion, before taking Congressional action. If we do not reduce our national debt soon, we are leaving a terrible economic legacy for our children and grandchildren.

As an experienced CPA, I believe I am the only candidate with the financial expertise to go to Washington and help the president control wasteful spending, reduce our deficit spending and eventually reduce our national debt. I ask for your vote.
MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- China has always believed that the consensus between China and the European Union (EU) is greater than disagreement, and their cooperation greater than competition, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Saturday.

Wang made the remarks when taking a question from an audience on China-EU relations during a session at the ongoing 56th Munich Security Conference.

China-EU relations have withstood the test of ever-changing international situation since the two sides established diplomatic relations 45 years ago, said Wang, noting that their comprehensive strategic partnership is becoming steady and mature.

It is true that the two sides have different social systems and different perspectives on values, but this is due to the historical and cultural backgrounds, each with its own rationality, Wang said.

The right way to resolve differences is to respect and learn from each other in order to achieve progress and prosperity for both, Wang said.

He said the current world needs cooperation between China and the EU, and such cooperation is especially important at a time when a certain country gives up on international cooperation to pursue unilateralism.

Both China and the EU advocate multilateralism and disapprove of unilateralism, champion free trade and oppose protectionism, and defend a multipolar world and a democratic international order from hegemony and bullying, Wang said.

China will continue to attach great importance to China-EU relations and work together with the EU towards a common future, Wang said.




Dear Friend,As you know, INTA has been continuously monitoring the coronavirus outbreak in relation to the Associations 2020 Annual Meeting, April 2529, inSingapore. The health and safety of Annual Meeting registrants is our main priority. We are announcing today that we are working to reschedule INTAs Annual Meeting in Singapore until 2022 (date in 2022 to be announced). In addition, we will be relocating the 2020 Annual Meeting to a date in May or June and a venue in the United States. We will provide an update as soon as we confirm details.This decision follows the evolving developments, continuing uncertainty, and global concerns regarding the coronavirus, as well as guidance from the Singapore Ministry of Health to event organizers to cancel or defer non-essential large-scale events. It comes after much thoughtful discussion with our internal team and consultation with outside counsel, and in agreement with INTAs President, Officers, and Counsel. We firmly believe that we are making the most judicious decision, so as not to jeopardize the health and safety of registrants, staff, and the public.At INTA, we pride ourselves on being a community, and we hope that you understand and support our decision. We apologize for any inconvenience this necessary change in plans has caused you and your organization.As noted above, we will be rescheduling the 2020 Annual Meeting to May or June in a venue in the United States, and are moving as quickly as possible to make these new arrangements. As you can well imagine, there are significant logistics involved in planning and holding a gathering of this size. We ask for your patience and will provide an update as soon as possible.We appreciate the collaboration and flexibility of the respective government agencies in Singapore, the Singapore Exhibition and Convention Bureau, the Marina Bay Sands, and bnetwork (the official housing provider for the Meeting), and other Singapore vendors, in working with us to reschedule the Annual Meeting in Singapore. We look forward to holding our gathering in Singapore in 2022.Most of all, we hold in our thoughts all those affected by the coronavirus.Thank you for your patience as we worked through this challenging situation. We appreciate that our members and other stakeholders value the Annual Meeting, and we look forward to welcoming you to the 2020 Annual Meeting in the United States and to future gatherings. For further updates, please watch for communications from us or visit our website, www.inta.org.
French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that Russia will continue to try to "destabilise" Western democracies by interfering in elections, social media manipulation and other acts of cyber warfare. The French leader was speaking at the Munich Security Conference.

Moscow would carry out its work "either through private actors, directly through its agencies, or through proxies," Macron said.

Russia has been accused of interfering in a string of elections, most notably the 2016 vote that put US President Donald Trump in the White House, and Britain's Brexit referendum.

Macron predicted Moscow would be "extremely aggressive" in this arena "in the months and years to come".

But the French leader, who hopes to be re-elected in 2022, stressed that Russia was not alone in meddling in foreign elections.

He said "conservative actors from America's ultra-right" had sought to interfere in European elections and the French president urged European intelligence agencies to cooperate more closely.

So-called deep fake videos and information designed to mislead and divide were spreading online without accountability, Macron added, calling for an urgent response.

Europe accuses US of global retreat

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday traded barbs with European leaders over diminishing Western influence, rejecting as "grossly over-exaggerated" their claims that Washington had retreated from the global stage.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Pompeo sought to assuage European anxiety over the transatlantic bond under an unpredictable President Donald Trump, saying: "The West is winning and we're winning together."

But he was immediately contradicted by French President Emmanuel Macron, who warned of "a weakening of the West".

The annual gathering of world leaders, generals and diplomats to discuss security challenges has been dominated by fears over the West's diminishing role in the face of a more assertive stance by both China and Russia.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A Northrop Grumman Cygnus resupply spacecraft is on its way to the International Space Station with about 7,500 pounds of science investigations and cargo after launching at 3:21 p.m. EST Saturday from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

The spacecraft launched on an Antares 230+ rocket from the Virginia Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport's Pad 0A at Wallops and is scheduled to arrive at the space station at about 4:05 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18. Coverage of the spacecraft's approach and arrival will begin at 2:30 a.m. on NASA Television and the agency's website.

Expedition 62 astronaut Andrew Morgan of NASA will use the space station's robotic arm to capture Cygnus, and NASA's Jessica Meir will monitor telemetry during rendezvous, capture, and installation on the Unity module's Earth-facing port. The spacecraft is scheduled to stay at the space station until May.

This delivery, Northrop Grumman's 13th cargo flight to the space station, the second under its Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract with NASA and designated NG-13, will support dozens of new and existing investigations.

Included in the scientific investigations Cygnus is delivering to the space station are:

Better Tissue and Cell Culturing in Space

Mobile SpaceLab, a tissue and cell-culturing facility, offers investigators a quick-turnaround platform to perform sophisticated microgravity biology experiments. Such experiments are critical for determining how microgravity affects human physiology and identifying ways to mitigate negative effects.

A Close-up View

The Mochii investigation provides an initial demonstration of a new miniature scanning electron microscope with spectroscopy. Mochii will demonstrate real-time, on-site imaging and measurements of micro- and nanostructures aboard the space station. This capability could accelerate answers to many scientific inquiries and mission decisions and serve the public as a powerful and unique microgravity research platform.

Examining Bone Loss in Microgravity

Astronauts experience bone loss in orbit, stemming from the lack of gravity acting on their bones. OsteoOmics investigates the molecular mechanisms that dictate this bone loss by examining osteoblasts, cells in the body that form bone, and osteoclasts, which dissolve bone. A better understanding of these mechanisms could lead to more effective prevention of astronaut bone loss during space missions.

Fighting Bacteria with Phages

Phage Evolution examines the effects of microgravity and radiation exposure on phage, viruses that destroy bacteria without harming human cells, and bacterial host interactions, including phage specificity for a bacterial host and host resistance to specific phages. A better understanding of the effects of microgravity and cosmic radiation on bacteriophages and hosts could result in significant developments for phage technology, ultimately helping protect the health of astronauts on future missions.

(Do Not) Light My Fire

The Spacecraft Fire Experiment-IV (Saffire-IV) investigation examines fire development and growth in different materials and environmental conditions, fire detection and monitoring, and post-fire cleanup capabilities. Saffire-IV contributes to fire safety efforts in similar environments on Earth, from submarines to mines, and helps improve general understanding and modeling of fire phenomena.

These are just a few of the hundreds of investigations currently being conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory in the areas of biology and biotechnology, physical sciences, and Earth and space science. Advances in these areas will help to keep astronauts healthy during long-duration space travel and demonstrate technologies for future human and robotic exploration beyond low-Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars through NASA's Artemis program.

This is the second time two Cygnus spacecraft will be in flight at the same time, as the NG-12 vehicle remains in orbit after departing from the station on Jan. 31. The Cygnus spacecraft will remain at the space station until May before it disposes of several thousand pounds of trash through its fiery reentry into Earth's atmosphere.

The Cygnus NG-13 spacecraft for this space station resupply mission is named in honor of U.S. Air Force Maj. Robert Lawrence, the first African American astronaut selected by any program, specifically chosen for the Air Force's Manned Orbital Laboratory Program in June 1967. Lawrence died in an F-104 Starfighter aircraft accident at Edwards Air Force Base, California six months later at the age of 32.

Get breaking news, images and features from the space station on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Learn more about Northrop Grumman's mission at:

http://www.nasa.gov/northropgrumman

SOURCE NASA

Related Links

http://www.nasa.gov


Two Marines in the Marine Corps 5th Division cemetery on Iwo Jima pay their respects to a fallen comrade. United States Marine Corps Film Repository, USMC 101863 (16mm film frame)

When most Americans think of the World War II battle for Iwo Jima  if they think of it at all, 75 years later  they think of one image: Marines raising the U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi, the islands highest point.

That moment, captured in black and white by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal and as a color film by Marine Sergeant William Genaust, is powerful, embodying the spirit of the Marine Corps.

But these pictures are far from the only images of the bloodiest fight in the Marines history. A larger library of film, and the men captured on them, is similarly emotionally affecting. It can even bring Americans alive today closer to a war that ended in the middle of the last century.

Take for instance, just one scene: Two Marines kneel with a dog before a grave marker. It is in the final frames of a film documenting the dedication of one of the three cemeteries on the island. Those two Marines are among hundreds present to remember the more than 6,000 Americans killed on the island in over a month of fighting. The sequence is intentionally framed by the cinematographer, who was clearly looking for the right image to end the roll of film in his camera.

I came across this film clip in my work as a curator of a collection of motion picture films shot by Marine Corps photographers from World War II through the 1970s. In a partnership between the History Division of the Marine Corps and the University of South Carolina, where I work, we are digitizing these films, seeking to provide direct public access to the video and expand historical understanding of the Marine Corps role in society.

Over the past two years of scanning, I have come to realize that our work also enables a more powerful relationship with the past by fostering individual connections with videos, something that the digitizing of the large quantity of footage makes possible.

The campaign within the battle

Iwo Jima, an island in the western Pacific less than 1,000 miles south of Tokyo, was considered a key potential stepping stone toward an invasion of Japan itself.

During the battle to take the island from the Japanese, more than 70,000 Marines and attached Army and Navy personnel set foot on Iwo Jima. That included combat soldiers, but also medical corpsmen, chaplains, service and supply soldiers and others. More than 6,800 Americans were killed on the island and on ships and landing craft aiding in the attack; more than 19,200 were wounded.

More than 50 Marine combat cameramen operated across the eight square miles of Iwo Jima during the battle, which stretched from Feb. 19 to March 26, 1945. Many shot still images, but at least 26 shot motion pictures. Three of these Marine cinematographers were killed in action.

Even before the battle began, Marine Corps leaders knew they wanted a comprehensive visual account of the battle. Beyond a historical record, combat photography from Iwo Jima would assist in planning and training for the invasion of the Japanese main islands. Some Marine cameramen were assigned to the front lines of individual units, and others to specific activities, like engineering and medical operations.

Most of the cameramen on Iwo Jima used 100-foot film reels that could capture about two and a half minutes of film. Sgt. Genaust, who shot the color sequence atop Suribachi, shot at least 25 reels  just over an hour of film  before he was killed, roughly halfway through the campaign.

Other cameramen who survived the entire battle produced significantly more. Sgt. Francis Cockrell was assigned to document the work of the 5th Divisions medical activities. Shooting at least 89 reels, he probably produced almost four hours of film.

Sgt. Louis L. Louft fought with the 13th Marines, an artillery regiment; his more than 100 film reels likely resulted in more than four hours of content. Landing on the beach with engineers of the 4th Division on Feb. 25, 1945, Pfc. Angelo S. Abramo compiled over three hours of material in the month of fighting he witnessed.

Even taking a conservative average of an hour of film from each of the 26 combat cameramen, that suggests there was at least 24 hours of unique film from the battle. Many surviving elements of this record are now part of the film library of the Marine Corps History Division, which were working with. The remainder are cataloged by the National Archives and Records Administration.

While military historians visiting the History Division in the past have used this large library, the bulk of its films have not been readily available to the public, something that mass digitization is finally making possible.

For many decades, the visual records made by Marines have been seen by the public only piecemeal, often with selected portions used as mere stock footage in films, documentaries and news programs, chosen because a shot has action, not because of the historical context of the imagery.

Even when they are used responsibly by documentary filmmakers, the editing and selection of scenes imposes the filmmakers interpretation on the images. As a historian and archivist, though, I believe it is important for people to directly engage with historical sources of all types, including the films from Iwo Jima.

The highest and purest form

After the battle, the Americans buried their dead in temporary cemeteries, awaiting transportation back to the U.S. The film segment just before the graveside scene shows a service honoring the Americans of all backgrounds who had bled and died together.

At that service, Rabbi Roland B. Gittelsohn, the Marines first-ever Jewish chaplain, gave a eulogy that has become one of the Marine Corps most treasured texts. Noting the diversity of the dead, Gittelsohn said, Here lie officers and men, Negroes and whites, rich men and poor  together. Here are Protestants, Catholics, and Jews together. Here no man prefers another because of his faith or despises him because of his color.

Gittelsohn called their collective sacrifice the highest and purest democracy.

Connecting to the present

After the dedication ceremonies, Marines walked the 5th Division cemetery, looking for familiar names. The photographers were there, and one recorded the footage of the two Marines  names not known  and the dog, at a grave with only the number 322 as a visible marking.

The image stood out. The two Marines looking directly at the camera seemed to reach across the decades to compel a response. Researchers at the History Division identified the Marine beneath marker 322 as Pfc. Ernest Langbeen from Chicago. It felt appropriate and important to add his name to the online description for that film, so I did.

I then located members of the Langbeen family, and told them that this part of their familys history existed in the History Divisions collections and was now preserved and available online after more than seven decades.

Speaking with the family, I learned more about the Marine in grave 322. One of the two Marines in the picture may well be his best friend from before the war, a friend who joined the Corps with him. They asked to serve together and were assigned to the same unit, the 13th Regiment.

Now, family members who never knew this Marine have a new connection to their history and the countrys history. More connections will come for others. The digital archive were building will make it easier for researchers and the public at large to explore the military and personal history in each frame of every film.

The visual library of more than 80 online videos from Iwo Jima carries in it countless Pfc. Langbeens, ordinary Americans whose lives were disrupted by a global war. Each film holds traces of lives cut short or otherwise irrevocably altered.

The films are a reminder that, 75 years after World War II, all Americans remain tied to Iwo Jima, as well as battlegrounds across the world like Monte Cassino, Peleliu, Bataan and Colleville-sur-mer. Americans may find their relatives in this footage, or they may not. But what they will find is evidence of the sacrifices made by those fighting on their behalf, sacrifices that connect each and every American to the battle of Iwo Jima.

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The whole thing is best understood via a mess of metaphors. In filmmaking terms, a blank lacquer is the original negative. It's the fresh cement into which you carve your initials. Made with what Horowitz describes as "the purest of absolutely flat aluminum, ultrasonically cleaned and prepared," the disc is then coated, like icing onto a doughnut, with a micro-thin layer of lacquer made with Apollo's secret formula. After undergoing a six-week drying and curing process, followed by another six weeks repeating the steps for side B, each blank disc comes out as smooth as a mirror. A box of 25 costs about $900.
Finance Minister on Sunday said the 2020-21 union budget was prepared keeping the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) in mind even as she maintained she would be remembered for presenting the "longest prepared budget" than for "longest speech" on it.

"So in a way all these (measures) and more has been done that the FRBM, as an Act, we have to keep in mind and also comply with it. So we have not really breached the FRBM. We have not gone outlandish on it.

We have kept fiscal discipline, which is a USP for both the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and also for the Shri Narendra Modi Government," she said.

The Centre had earlier said it was committed to reduce the -- the gap between total expenditure and revenue -- to 3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2020-21 and eliminate the primary deficit as per the

The Minister was addressing a gathering of industry representatives and trade here.

Sitharaman said the budget was prepared between July last year and February this year, with inputs from all stakeholders, including various ministries. "It was probably for the first time, many people do tell me, for the first time, this was the longest speech.

I would rather be remembered in fact that it was the longest prepared budget between July and February," she said.






Outstanding Copper Leaching Results and Scoping Study Commences

Perth, Feb 17, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Cyprium Metals Ltd ( ASX:CYM ) is pleased to advise that metallurgical column test-work has progressed on the samples of the massive and semi-massive sulphides from the known copper mineralisation at the Hollandaire prospect.The performance of the copper leaching from column test-work on the Hollandaire deposit has been outstanding and the results include:- Copper extraction of 91.9% on Column A in only 34 days- Copper extraction of 91.7% on Column B in only 21 days- Columns A and B net acid producing- Scoping study commencedThis metallurgical column test-work has been undertaken to determine the viability of our unique copper leaching method, hence the optimal copper extraction method, and has leached copper into solution (refer to CYM ASX Announcement 27 November 2019).Executive Director Barry Cahill commented "We are exceptionally pleased with the results received to date. Our expectation was that our unique leaching process would have the ability to both accelerate the leach time and produce excess acid on the Hollandaire material. The rapid leach time of the copper, using our unique leaching processes and parameters, has been astounding and outperformed our expectations.The additional benefit of the leach reaction being acid producing is that it will generate surplus acid for use where the mineralised material is acid consuming, thus reducing the operating costs of the process.The initial metallurgical results, in conjunction with recent drilling success, has given the Company the confidence to bring forward the commencement of a scoping study for the project. The study will focus on a heap leach operation designed to treat the Hollandaire copper deposits. The work to be undertaken will include a mineral resource update, further resource definition and extensional drilling, metallurgical test-work and commercial analysis on the potential for a rapid project start-up. A Project Manager has been appointed and has commenced work on the study."Metallurgical Drill HolesThe metallurgical diamond drill programme (refer to CYM ASX announcement dated 14 October 2019) consisted of three holes for 320 metres into the mineralised envelope of the Hollandaire Prospect at the Cue Copper Project to provide representative samples for test-work to be undertaken as illustrated in Figure 1*.The first hole in the metallurgical diamond drilling programme, 19HOMET001, was drilled into the Hollandaire West deposit and returned disseminated copper sulphide mineralisation. The second and third diamond drill holes in the programme, 19HOMET002 and 19HOMET003, targeted representative sections of the Hollandaire deposit and returned semi-massive to massive sulphide mineralisation. The results from the metallurgical diamond drill holes included:- 10.4m @ 14.9% Cu in drill hole 19HOMET003 from 84.5m downhole including:- 4.5m @ 21.9% Cu from 90.4m;- 19.1m @ 1.3% Cu in drill hole 19HOMET002 from 85.9m downhole including:- 6.4m @ 2.1% Cu from 98.6m;- 27.9m @ 1.1% Cu in drill hole 19HOMET001 from 45.7m downhole including:- 9.0m @ 1.6% Cu from 63.2m.Hollandaire Metallurgical Test-Work ResultsAt the completion of drilling, core samples from the Cue Copper Project were received at the metallurgical laboratory in September 2019. The drill core was crushed, split and assayed for multi-element grades. Composites were then created for the Hollandaire deposit and the Hollandaire West deposit. Hollandaire samples were composited from holes 19HOMET002 and 19HOMET003 to create two column samples, Columns A and B, with copper grades of 5.10% and 5.24% respectively.Diagnostic testing and mineralogical analysis were undertaken on the samples to determine the optimal parameters to use to undertake the column test-work.The composites were then leached in separate columns with the resultant copper recovery over time under leach presented in Graph 1*.Implications for the ProjectThe initial Hollandaire metallurgical test results have shorter leach time than expected. The effect of the very short leach times on a potential project is significant as it decreases the size of the heap leach pads, and consequently reduces the capital and operating cost requirements over the life of the operation.Combined with the successful extensional resource drilling at Hollandaire (refer to CYM ASX Announcement 20 January 2020) has encouraged the Company that the critical mass of copper resource required for project development is close to being achieved.Consequently, the Company has embarked upon a scoping study based on a heap leach operation designed to treat the Hollandaire copper deposits and to produce copper metal on-site. This study will utilise the knowledge the Company has gained over the previous 6 months to determine the optimal parameters required. A Project Manager for the study has been appointed and various consultants and suppliers have been contacted for input into various elements of the study.Concurrently, planning has commenced for the next phase of drilling of the Hollandaire and Hollandaire West deposits, including the drilling of diamond core for further metallurgical testwork, as well as preparation for a mineral resource update. Future metallurgical test-work will focus on refining the operating parameters and reducing the cost inputs of the process to the lowest level possible.*To view tables and figures, please visit:About Cyprium Metals Ltd

Cyprium Metals Limited (ASX:CYM) is poised to grow to a mid-tier mining business and manage a portfolio of Australian copper projects to deliver vital natural resources, strong shareholder returns and sustainable value for our stakeholders. We pursue this aim, in genuine partnerships with employees, customers, shareholders, local communities and other stakeholders, which is based on integrity, co-operation, transparency and mutual value creation.
Ivanka Trump, daughter and senior adviser to President Donald Trump, delivers a keynote address at Global Women's Forum in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Feb. 16, 2020. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

Ivanka Trump Lauds Saudi Arabia, UAE on Womens Rights Reforms

Ivanka Trump, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, praised Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Feb. 16 for taking on significant reforms to expand womens rights.

We know that when women are free to succeed, families thrive, communities flourish, and nations are stronger, Trump, the daughter of the president, said in the keynote address at the Global Womens Forum in Dubai.

Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, hold senior advisory roles at the White House. The 38-year-old mother of three has led a number of womens empowerment initiatives at home and abroad. Some of her efforts have gained bipartisan support in Washington.

In the speech in Dubai, Ivanka Trump touted the progress of women in the United States under the Trump administration.

Today, American women are leading in every aspect of society. Last year, there were more women than men in the United States workforce, with women securing over 70 percent of new jobs, she said in her address.

Ivanka Trump, second from right, the daughter and senior adviser to President Donald Trump, prepares to shake hands with Lamia Abdulaziz Khan, executive director of the Global Womens Forum, upon her arrival in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Feb. 16, 2020. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

Trump congratulated Saudi Arabia for recent changes in the law that allow women to travel abroad and obtain a passport without the permission of a male relative. In 2018, a ban on women driving cars was lifted. The changes, spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, are part of a wide-ranging push to transform the Saudi economy and attract greater foreign investment.

Trump also lauded a handful of other Middle East nations: Bahrain for introducing legislation against discrimination in the workplace, Jordan for eliminating legal restrictions on womens ability to work at night, Morocco for expanding womens land rights, and Tunisia for introducing laws to address domestic violence.

She noted, however, that more work needed to be done, pointing out that women across the region on average still have only half the legal rights of men.

Trump lauded Emirati leaders for removing barriers to women joining the workforce and developing a national strategy that recognizes that women are central to sustainable growth.

She noted that although 70 percent of Emirati university graduates are women, only 10 percent of the UAEs total national income is derived from women.

We know that this going to grow and flourish in the years ahead, she said.

Ivanka Trump, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, visits the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Feb. 15, 2020. Ivanka Trump will deliver keynote address at Global Womens Forum in Dubai tomorrow. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

The audience for Trumps speech included Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, World Bank President David Malpass, and International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva.

The Dubai ruler is wildly popular at home and is seen as a modernizing force. He has, however, faced some criticism abroad concerning womens rights, following reports that one of his daughters tried to flee the country and was forcibly returned.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia were early supporters of the Womens Empowerment Fund, a World Bank initiative to help female entrepreneurs that Ivanka Trump supports. During the first trip abroad of her fathers presidency to Saudi Arabia, the two Gulf countries pledged $100 million to the fund.

During her two-day visit to the UAE, Trump met with women entrepreneurs and discussed a U.S. government project shes leading thats aimed at helping women in developing countries. The Womens Global Development and Prosperity Initiative was launched last year with backing by the president.

Ivanka Trump, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, visits the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Feb. 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

On the day prior to the speech, Trump toured Abu Dhabis grand mosque, visited the Abu Dhabi branch of the Louvre Museum, and met with the countrys day-to-day ruler, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Toi Te Ora Medical Officer of Health Dr Neil de Wet says that 26 people are in self-isolation for COVID-19, also known as coronavirus, in the Bay of Plenty District Health Board region.

On Saturday night, the Ministry of Health reported that there continue to be no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand.

In New Zealand, self-isolation registrations with Healthline continue to grow. A further 341 registrations for self-isolation were made on Friday and as at midnight February 14 just under 4000 people had registered since the register went live at 5pm on Friday February 7.

The people who are self-isolating have been registered with the Ministry of Health, and the local medical officer of health on call will be notified if any of them develop any symptoms that may be indicative of the virus.

Self-isolation means staying away from situations where you could infect other people, says the Ministry of Health website.

This means any situation where you may come in close contact with others, face to face contact closer than 1 metre for more than 15 minutes, such as social gatherings, work, school, child care/pre-school centres, university, polytechnic and other education providers, faith-based gatherings, aged care and health care facilities, prisons, sports gatherings, restaurants, and all public gatherings.

The BOP DHB have released their pandemic plan which is available on their website here. Lessons learned during the H1N1 (2009) pandemic have been incorporated into the plan which deals with the immediate response required for any outbreak of an infectious disease.

On Saturday afternoon, the Government announced that temporary restrictions on travel from China will remain in place as a precautionary measure to protect against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

The restrictions which prevent foreign nationals travelling from, or transiting through, mainland China from entering New Zealand have been extended for a further eight days. This position will be reviewed every 48 hours.

New Zealand citizens, permanent residents and their immediate family returning to New Zealand will continue to be able to enter, but are being told to self-isolate for 14 days upon their return.

Globally, the World Health Organization reports there are just over 49,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with only three of 1381 confirmed deaths occurring outside mainland China.

The number of passengers arriving directly to New Zealand from mainland China has decreased from approximately 2000 per day to 500 passengers or less.

The Ministry of Health is continuing to work with border agencies to ensure people who left mainland China after February 2 2020 are aware of the need to self-isolate for 14 days and register with Healthline.

Healthline's dedicated COVID-19 number, 0800 358 5453, is free and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The Ministry is encouraging anyone who has not yet registered as a result of their travel to China, to do so. This will help ensure they can regularly check on peoples welfare and wellbeing while they are in self-isolation, while supporting New Zealands overall response to novel coronavirus.

The Ministry of Health also want to acknowledge and thank the thousands of people who have responded so positively to the self-isolation process.

In addition, the Ministry is also working with Customs to enable Healthline to proactively contact all people who have arrived in New Zealand from or via China since February 2 who have not registered.

With regard to cruise ship travel, the Master or ship's doctor must tell the local public health staff if there is anyone on board with symptoms of concern. This includes symptoms of COVID-19.

There are well established procedures in place which enable health agencies to share information on cases and contacts within New Zealand and with health authorities overseas.

The Ministry of Health has issued a reminder that COVID-19 is spread by people coughing or sneezing, close personal contact and coming into contact with an object or surface with viral particles on it  and then touching your mouth, nose or eyes.

So practising good hygiene, regularly washing your hands, and practising good cough etiquette is really important in keeping yourself and the community safe. To do this, maintain distance, cover coughs and sneezes with disposable tissues or clothing, and remember to washing hands.

More information is available here:



https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/novel-coronavirus-covid-19



https://www.govt.nz/coronavirus



https://www.bopdhb.govt.nz/media/63025/bopdhb_pandemic_response_plan_feb-2020.pdf
New Delhi, Feb 16 : First things first. Food in the so called "dark" kitchens are not cooked with the lights switched off. They are called so primarily because of their delivery-only model.

The growing popularity of food delivery platforms like Swiggy and Zomato has led to a surge of such kitchens in India, which are also called "virtual" or "cloud" kitchens by some.

Some prefer to call them "ghost" kitchens as in many cases, you may not even know that they exist.

Did you know that popular eateries like Haldiram's, Chaayos, Keventers, Saravana Bhavan and Vasudev Adigas, to name only a few, have set up cloud kitchens in partnership with Zomato? They have. And that is the reason why you get to order food from these eateries even in areas near where their restaurants may not exist.

"We started this model in March 2018, when we realised that while a lot of budding entrepreneurs are setting up new restaurants and cloud kitchens, the pace of setting up new kitchen infrastructure has been lagging behind the demand for them," Mohit Sardana, Chief Operating Officer, Food Delivery, at Zomato told IANS.

"We wanted to accelerate the process of investment in kitchen infrastructure in areas facing a supply deficit and therefore, created the Zomato Kitchens model. Today, we are present in 50+ cities with 700+ kitchens that are already operational," Sardana added.

One factor that has worked in favour of the food delivery platforms is the data they have about consumers' preferences. Analysing these data allow them to gauge the nature of the demand of food a particular area generates.

Armed with these data, the food aggregators can confidently approach a restaurant business for cloud kitchen partnerships in new areas that are likely to generate handsome profits for both parties, according to people familiar with the way these partnerships tend to forge.

Swiggy launched its cloud kitchen initiative "Swiggy Access" in 2018 and since then it has created over 1,000 kitchens for its restaurant partners.

Through "Access", restaurant partners can test new markets and expand intra and intercity, with no rent or deposit charged for the premises/infrastructure, Swiggy said.

Swiggy shares valuable insights not only regarding existing customer preferences, but also on unmet food choices with partner restaurants, thereby helping them fulfil the demand-supply gaps.

Restaurant partners are also able to leverage Swiggy's insights to improve their food quality through consistent customer feedback and optimise their kitchens for factors like stock planning, demand forecasting, preparation time and order edits.

Swiggy said that it is committed to working with the restaurant partner community to bring in the necessary confidence and control to ensure there is no compromise in the safety of food.

The food delivery platform added that it mandates all restaurants and cloud kitchens operating on the platform to possess a valid Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) licence and additionally conducts hygiene audits across the restaurant partner network with credible third-party audit firms.

Zomato said that one of the biggest advantages of virtual kitchens is the relatively low investment and business risk.

"If you look at our model, we ensure the restaurateur is supported well enough to focus on what he does best -- food -- instead of being weighed down by compliances and high rentals, among other necessities. That too, with minimum investment. We also draft a customised growth plan with aggressive marketing support, which is unique to their business proposition," Sardana said.

"These are delivery only dark kitchens and are not usually set up on high streets. However, there will be a few locations which are on high footfall areas and can be easily spotted. On the app, all kitchen restaurants appear in the same manner to a user as any other delivery only outlet on our platform," he added.

Zomato said that it has set for itself "high safety and hygiene standards".

"We have invested time and energy in durable engineering to make sure that we deliver quality kitchens for our partners to use and expand into new markets, wherein with our support on compliances, they do not see the basics as a hindrance when opening up a new facility," Sardana said.
BRIDGEPORT  More than 24 hours after a deadly shooting claimed the life of 57-year-old Philip Ingram, officials confirmed Saturday that he called 911 just minutes prior to being fatally wounded.

The citys 911 service took a call at 9:03 a.m. Friday from a man who told the call-taker that a person got into a verbal altercation with him and brandished a weapon in the area of Arctic and Jane streets.

The caller, police said, then followed the individual with the weapon.

It seems that the victim had called 911 reporting a verbal altercation with another party when that party brandished a weapon, said Scott Appleby, director of emergency management/communications and homeland security, on Saturday.

On Friday, investigators were considering that the 911 caller might have been Ingram but had not yet confirmed it.

He said it was unclear what prompted the original altercation.

While officers were en route to the call of the person with a weapon, Appleby said, the citys ShotSpotter system picked up gunfire at 9:09 a.m. in the 800 block of Kossuth Street.

Appleby said the location of the shooting was a few blocks away from where the altercation was reported from.

Officers got to the scene of the reported shots fired at 9:10 a.m. and found Ingram  a Bridgeport resident  in the street suffering from critical injuries.

Medics transported Ingram to Bridgeport Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:53 a.m.

Appleby said Saturday that investigators continue to review all video in the area and ask any witnesses to come forward. He said the case remains a very active investigation.

Ingrams death marks the citys third homicide of 2020 and the first in the month of February.

By this time last year, five people had been killed in Bridgeport  four of which died from gunfire.

Anyone with information about Fridays homicide is asked to call the Bridgeport police tip line at 203-576-8477. Callers can remain anonymous.
An open discussion was held today at the Munich Security Conference between the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan.

Ilham Aliyev, who was given the right to open this event, first of all, thanked the Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Friedrich Ishinger, for organizing the meeting. He recalled that several years ago, the predecessor of Nikol Pashinyan canceled a similar open discussion in Davos. I am glad that finally, we are here to present our positions and answer questions that I think will be enough, he said.

Speaking about the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the President of Azerbaijan proposed to review the history of this issue. Nagorno-Karabakh is a part of Azerbaijan. This is a historical truth based on international law. The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is recognized by the whole world, and Nagorno-Karabakh is an integral part of our country,  Ilham Aliyev emphasized.

From a historical point of view, in 1805, the Karabakh khan Ibrahim Khan signed an agreement with Russian Empire General Tsitsianov. Under this agreement, the Azerbaijani Karabakh Khanate as an independent country was passed under the rule of the Russian Empire. This agreement was called the Kurekchay Treaty (you may check its text on the Internet), and nothing was said there about the Armenian population of Karabakh. The other two documents were signed in 1813 and 1828 - the Gulistan and Turkmanchay treaties - under them the rest of Azerbaijan became part of the Russian Empire, as did Dagestan, Georgia and Armenia. This is the historical part of the issue,  the Azerbaijani leader said.

At a time when the Russian Empire collapsed, and the Georgian and Azerbaijan Democratic Republics were created, by one the first decrees of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918 it was decided that Iravan should be transferred to Armenia and declared the capital of Armenia. And this is a historical fact. And if you give something to someone, it means that it belonged to you. In 1921, the Caucasian Bureau of the Bolshevik Party decided to leave Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan - namely, to leave, and not convey, as some Armenian historians present it. This is also a historical fact, Ilham Aliyev drew attention, adding that the decree on the creation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region within Azerbaijan, issued in 1923 by the Azerbaijan SSR, is also a historical fact.

Then the President of Azerbaijan recalled the history of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In the late 1980s, Armenia began aggression against Azerbaijan. 300 thousand Azerbaijanis were deported from the territory of Armenia. Then, in the early 1990s, Armenia unleashed aggression against the Republic of Azerbaijan, and as a result of this aggression, almost 20% of our territory was occupied, one million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced persons. Our people fell victim to ethnic cleansing. In 1992, the former Armenian authorities committed a war crime - genocide in Khojaly. As a result, 613 innocent citizens, including 106 women and 63 children, were brutally murdered, the president listed the facts.

At the end of the opening remarks, the Azerbaijani leader reiterated that the belonging of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan was recognized by the international community. The UN Security Council adopted four resolutions requiring the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied territories - these resolutions have not been implemented. Thus, any decision that will be made as a result of the peace negotiations should ensure the preservation of the internationally recognized territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev concluded.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 15:02:04|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Driven by the Belt and Road Initiative, Asia became the most popular overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&A) destination for Chinese enterprises last year, a report by the global consulting firm Ernst & Young said.

Chinese firms made M&A deals worth 22.3 billion U.S. dollars in Asia last year, up 19.1 percent year on year, accounting for nearly 30 percent of the total, the report said.

The growth came despite a broader decline in China's overall outbound direct investment, which dropped 9.8 percent year on year, it said.

By deal value, the M&A activities were dominated by the technology, media and telecommunication (TMT), consumer products, and power and utilities sectors, the report showed.

Affected by the novel coronavirus outbreak, the China outbound investment trend would need to be further observed depending on the control of the epidemic situation, said Loletta Chow, global leader of the EY China Overseas Investment Network.

Chow suggested Chinese investors pay attention to sectors that support structural adjustment, transformation and upgrading, such as TMT, health and life sciences as well as advanced manufacturing sectors.
Chicago, home to the nations busiest airport, sounded alarm bells last month when a woman contracted the virus after traveling in China and passed it to her spouse, the first person-to-person transmission in the United States. Even after the couple recovered and were discharged from a suburban hospital, signs of worry throughout the city have remained: Travelers at OHare International Airport seemed to be wearing more face masks than usual, and in Chinatown, on the citys South Side, businesses have posted signs forbidding people who have recently visited China to step through the door. (Some Chicagoans have grimly noted on Twitter that an HBO adaptation of Station Eleven, a 2014 post-apocalyptic novel about a world ravaged by a global flu pandemic, is currently being filmed around the city.)

In San Francisco, recent immigrants from China said they were worrying about the very real health threats facing loved ones who are still there, while encountering the fears of others in their own daily lives in the United States. Yihao Xie, an environmental researcher at a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization, traveled back to the United States from Lanzhou, China, his hometown, early on Jan. 30  narrowly beating the shutdown of airline travel.

Although Lanzhou is far from Wuhan, the center of the outbreak, his co-workers in the United States thought it best for him to stay home from the office for 14 days. He said he understood.

Since then, he took a walk in a nature preserve near his house to calm himself. At the grocery store, he said he felt the eyes of strangers appraising him.

A few folks were giving me looks, he said. I dont think they were malicious or hostile, but Why are you wearing a mask  are you sick?

Robert Li, a resident of San Francisco, was browsing phones at a computer store last week when he overheard an employee talking with a customer about the outbreak. Of course, if you eat raw bats, youre going to get coronavirus, he recalled hearing the worker saying.

They were basically making fun of Asians, said Mr. Li, who is ethnically Chinese. This is part of a racial trope that Chinese people eat everything.
Munich

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Saturday a truce agreement between the United States and the Taliban that could lead to the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan is not without risk but "looks very promising."

Ahead of a formal announcement of the seven-day "reduction in violence" deal, Esper said it was time to give peace a chance in Afghanistan through a political negotiation. He spoke a day after a senior U.S. official said the deal was concluded and would take effect very soon.

Expectations are that agreement will be formally announced on Sunday and that the reduction in violence will begin on Monday, according to people familiar with the plan.

"So we have on the table right now a reduction in violence proposal that was negotiated between our ambassador and the Taliban," Esper told an audience at the Munich Security Conference. "It looks very promising."

"It's my view as well that we have to give peace a chance, that the best if not the only way forward in Afghanistan is through a political agreement and that means taking some risk," he said. "That means enabling our diplomats and that means working together with our partners and allies on the ground to affect such a thing."

Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met on Friday in Munich with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who has been skeptical of the scheme, which, if successful, would see an end to attacks for seven days and then the signing of a U.S.-Taliban peace deal. All-Afghan peace talks would then begin within 10 days as part of the plan, which envisions the phased withdrawal of U.S. forces over 18 months.

I n remarks later to a group of reporters, Esper declined to say whether the U.S. had agreed to cut its troop levels in Afghanistan to zero. He said if the 7-day truce is successful and the next step toward Afghan peace talks begins, the U.S. would reduce its troop contingent "over time" to about 8,600. There are about 12,000 U.S. troops in the country.

Ghani also refused to comment on specifics of the plan but said the time had come "find a political solution to stop the war."

He said it was impossible to know whether the Taliban might take advantage of a draw down in American military power in Afghanistan to reassert its their own presence, but said the only way to find out was to "engage in the peace process."

The president rejected the idea that the Taliban could be granted greater influence in certain regions of Afghanistan, saying it was "antithetical to the Afghan vision because we are a unified country."

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

"The scope of the peace must be national. It cannot be sub-national because otherwise it will be a recipe for another round of conflict," he said.

The U.S. has not agreed to suspend or end its counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan, which have been focused mainly on an Islamic State affiliate, known as ISIS-K, and al-Qaida, said Pentagon spokeswoman Alyssa Farah, who was traveling with Esper.

"Under any agreement, General Miller retains the authorities necessary to protect U.S. national security interests, including the authorities and capabilities to strike ISIS-K and al-Qaida," she said, referring to U.S. Gen Scott Miller, the commander of American and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

The agreement was finalized last week by U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban representatives in Qatar.

Esper said Ghani was supportive of the deal and had pledged to do his best to support it.

"I think he is fully on board," Esper said of Ghani. "He wants to lead his part of the process, which if we get to that would be a a peace deal that would involve very soon afterward an inter-Afghan negotiation. He wants to be clearly a full partner in that and wants to lead on that and make sure that all Afghans come together."
Margot Robbie has come out in support of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's plans to 'step back' as senior royals - and could even be welcoming them over for dinner soon.

The Hollywood star, 29, who met the Duke four years ago, said the couple 'have their reasons' for walking away from their HRH titles and starting a new life in Canada.

And with the couple moving to the west coast, the actress plans to invite Harry and Meghan to dinner at her home in Los Angeles.

Good friends: Margot Robbie has come out in support of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's plans to 'step back' as senior royals - and could even be welcoming them over for dinner soon

'I have known Prince Harry for a while and he is a really great guy. I know as much as anybody what a big decision it is to move halfway across the world,' she told the Sun, adding that she found it difficult moving from London to LA.

'It isn't something taken lightly. If they are going to spend more time in LA, we would love to have dinner with them.'

The two-time Oscar nominee first met the Prince in December 2016 while at a housewarming party for model Suki Waterhouse.

Fresh start: The Hollywood star, 29, who met the Duke four years ago, said the couple 'have their reasons' for walking away from their HRH titles and starting a new life in Canada

But she later admitted that she had been talking to Harry 'for half an hour' and failed to recognise him.

'Actually, when I saw him in those glasses, I was like, "Oh my God, I didn't know Ed Sheeran was at the party," and he was really offended. He was like, "Shut up!"' she told Fallon.

Party snaps from the night show the pair squeezed into a photobooth with Suki, his cousin Princess Eugenie, model Cara Delevingne and actress Sienna Miller.

First meeting: The two-time Oscar nominee first met the Prince in December 2016 while at a housewarming party for model Suki Waterhouse (pictured with Suki Waterhouse, Princess Eugenie, model Cara Delevingne and actress Sienna Miller)

The pair do exchange texts from time to time and have since gone on to become good friends, with Margot describing Harry as 'the most normal guy ever'.

The Sussexes were spotted together for the first time since Megxit as they stepped off a plane in Canada on Valentine's Day.

They touched down at Victoria airport at around 4:45 pm Friday, with what appeared to be a small group of security.

The couple chose to take a commercial flight this time, having previously been slammed for preaching about saving the planet, and then flying around the world by private jet.
All 654 people who were brought back from Wuhan have tested negative for novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) in the latest sample examination and will be discharged in a phased manner beginning Monday, said officials.

The evacuees were housed at two facilities; 406 at an Indo-Tibetan Border Police facility and the remaining at an army centre in Manesar, Haryana.

Union health secretary Preeti Sudan said, All the evacuees from Wuhan under quarantine at the two isolation facilities in Manesar and Chhawla will be discharged tomorrow and day after.

The final samples of the people quarantined at the ITBP facility were collected by a team of doctors on Friday. All the final coronavirus test reports have been found negative, an ITBP spokesperson said on Sunday.

They will be discharged in a phased manner based on the advisory issued by the ministry of health with due medical procedures and protocols, he said.

A health advisory has also been issued for the people if they come across any symptoms of coronavirus after 14 days of leaving the quarantine.

The group also includes seven Maldives citizens. There are seven children including an infant in the group.

The evacuees were brought back from Wuhan on February 1 and 2 in two 747 Boeing Air India aircraft after the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus in China.

The death toll from Covid-19 outbreak in China has climbed to 1,665 after 142 more people died, mostly in the worst-hit Hubei province, Chinese officials said on Sunday. There have been 68,500 cases so far in the neighbouring country.

Passengers arriving in flights from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Japan and South Korea were being screened for possible exposure to the respiratory virus at 21 identified airports in India.

Passengers at 12 major and 65 minor seaports are also being screened. A central team will also monitor villages near the border in five states  Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Sikkim and West Bengal.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Anonna Dutt Anonna Dutt is a health reporter at Hindustan Times. She reports on Delhi governments health policies, hospitals in Delhi, and health-related feature stories. ...view detail
Democratic presidential candidates former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) shake hands as former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) look on prior to the start of the Democratic presidential primary debate in the Sullivan Arena at St. Anselm College on Feb. 07, 2020 in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Democratic Candidates Spar Ahead of Nevada Caucus

As the Nevada Democratic caucuses approach, and with the field of 2020 presidential contenders narrowing further, a few of the top candidates sought to make their voices heard Feb. 16 on the national television circuit.

Days ago, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg dominated the New Hampshire primary election, snagging nine delegates each, with Sanders gaining the most votes. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) was the only other candidate to win delegates, with six, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former Vice President Joe Biden trailed in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

Buttigieg said on Feb. 16 that his campaign would be able to improve its standing with minority voting blocks in New Hampshire, and he made an apparent dig at billionaire Tom Steyer, who has spent more than $100 million so far.

Weve seen how fluid it is. Of course, I dont have billions of dollars of my own money to pour into the airwaves, he said on Fox News Sunday.

Buttigieg said his campaign has over 100 organizers on the ground in New Hampshire. He was also asked about the high number of candidates competing for the moderate lane, which could split the moderate vote, leaving the nomination open to Sanders.

I think thats what voters right now are in the process of settling, he said. We also cant do it by telling people that their only options are between a revolution and the status quo.

Neither Sanders nor Warren appeared to be booked on any talk shows for Feb. 16. Sanders was scheduled to speak at a rally in Denver.

Meanwhile, Biden, following poor results in New Hampshire and Iowa, said on Feb. 16 that its too early to count him out, noting that he has wider support from the African American community, which is a significant proportion of South Carolinas Democratic electorate. South Carolina will hold its primary on Feb. 29.

Im the only one who has the record and has the background and has the support. They know me, Biden told NBCs Meet The Press. They know who I am, referring to African Americans.

An average of nationwide polling data aggregated by Real Clear Politics placed Sanders at the top with 23.6 percent of the vote. Behind him was Biden with 19.2 percent, followed by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg with 14.2 percent, Warren with 12.4 percent, and Buttigieg at 10.6 percent. The rest of the field polled in the single digits.

Klobuchar used some of her time on talk shows to criticize Bloombergs heavy spending in the election. Bloomberg has shot up in some of the nationwide polls in recent weeks.

I dont think you should be able to hide behind airwaves and huge ad buys, Klobuchar said on CNNs State of the Union. I know Im not going to be able to beat him on the airwaves, but I can beat him on the debate stage.

When asked to comment on reports alleging that Bloomberg objectified women, Klobuchar said Bloomberg should sit down for a television interview.

He has not come on any Sunday show since he announced, she said.

Klobuchar also said her campaign has raised more than $12 million since the Feb. 8 debates in New Hampshire.

Bloombergs campaign on Feb. 15 responded to a report that hes considering former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as his running mate.

The Drudge Report, citing a source close to the candidates campaign, reported that Bloomberg was considering Clinton after a source said that polling data revealed that a Bloomberg-Clinton combination would be a formidable force.

Bloombergs campaign didnt confirm or deny the report. In an emailed statement, the campaigns communication director Jason Schechter said, We are focused on the primary and the debate, not VP speculation. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, recently shared a Twitter post from one of his political action committees, which stated, Not a single Democrat will openly denounce socialism or a socialist candidate. This is the true Democratic Party.
Madame Freda Prempeh, Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, has commended Ejisuman Senior High School authorities for their 'swift' decision on students who uploaded a video on social media using indecent words that border on sex.



The student were sacked from the boarding house effective February 6, 2020



This, she said, was a timely action to prevent other students of the school to be influenced into such act.



The Deputy Minister made these remarks on the sidelines of the 1Billion Rising Children Campaign Against Abuse organised by IRise Ghana.



The Campaign is a platform to encourage children to speak up against all forms of violence perpetrated against them.



Mrs Prempeh, however, said raising responsible children was not just the duty of parents but schools and the community as a whole.



Using the Ejisuman Senior High School students viral video as a reference point, the Minister said there was the need for a collaborative effort among all stakeholders to curb such behaviours.



She encouraged children to make good use of smartphones and the internet and not to engage in vices.



She said gender-based violence against women and children did not only violate victims rights but affected national development.



The Deputy Minister said the Ministry had developed legal frameworks such as the Child and Family Welfare and Justice for Children policies for child protection.



"Ghana has signed and ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa and other international instruments," she said.



She reiterated that the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals, to live no one behind, cannot be fulfilled without ending violence against women and children.







Source: GNA









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THE Cebu Pacific recently launched its sustainable tourism advocacy called Juan Effect.

Pertaining to the Filipino regular Joe, or the common man, Juan encompasses the big idea that one simple daily habit done consistently and collectively by even ordinary people can make a big impact in helping preserve the environment, local culture and heritage.

Cebu Pacific partnered with the Department of Tourism (DOT) for the project. The airline, the Philippines leading carrier and one of the largest in the region, is a major enabler of tourism growth.

The multi-sectoral sustainable tourism program of the airline also gained support from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, as well as the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

The Juan Effect advocacy engages the local community, the government and tourism stakeholders, in educating travelers about their responsibilities as tourists.

After the roll-outs in Siargao and in Boracay, Bohol will be adopted as a Juan Effect destination with interventions put in place to support its sustainable tourism practices.

Bohol is one of the best island-destinations in the world and one of Cebu Pacifics most popular destinations. There is still time to preserve its beauty by flying in tourists who are aware of the impact they create when they travel.

Juan Effect Bohol will start with an information campaign through signages installed in Bohols most popular tourist attractions, such as the Chocolate Hills, the Tarsier Sanctuary and the Loboc River Cruise. These multi-lingual signages, made out of recycled wood, carry reminders of simple things to do or behaviors to observe while visiting these attractions.

The information campaign will be amplified online with Juan Effect ambassadors from different parts of the world. The Philippines Jasmine Curtis-Smith will be joined by Canadian filmmaker Lost LeBlanc, South Korean musician and artist Solbi and Australian yoga and fitness expert Sjana Elise.

Travelers are encouraged by Cebu Pacific in keeping the Philippine islands clean and beautiful by making a pledge at www.juaneffect.com. (S)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 22:22:46|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- As the battle against COVID-19 is at a critical stage, some outside noises have posed a threat of their own.

Since the outbreak, China has introduced the unprecedented lockdown of a metropolis at the center of the outbreak, applied stringent quarantine measures across the country, pulled extensive resources into hard-hit areas and shared information with the international community.

China made these efforts not only for the sake of its own people, but also for the people of the world. Viruses know no borders. Ensuring the safety of the world's most populous country is a key step to shield people in other countries from further crisis.

Faced with the spread of a contagion, relying on our community with a shared future becomes all the more vital.

Regretfully, some people outside of China have gotten the wrong message. Out of prejudice or habit, they vilify China's quarantine measures as a violation of human rights, smearing its release of information as not transparent, fanning unnecessary panic and causing overreactions.

This rhetoric played up the side-effects of the quarantine, ignored the basic laws of epidemic prevention and control in modern society, and worryingly politicized the issue of science.

In fact, China's efforts are paying off. As a professional multilateral organization focusing on public health, the World Health Organization (WHO) sees the whole picture. It praised China's hard work as unprecedented and incredible, having helped prevent large spillover effects to other countries.

Outside of China, there are 526 laboratory-confirmed cases from 25 countries and two deaths, according to Feb. 15 figures from the WHO.

The Chinese people "are protecting the world from an even faster spread through their willingness to make sacrifices and their commitment," said Michael Schumann, head of the German Federal Association for Economic Development and Foreign Trade. "They deserve our respect and our active and energetic support."

When people's lives are in peril, discussing how to protect human rights is nothing but empty talk. In the face of a virus epidemic, applying strict quarantine measures is an absolute necessity. Without quarantine, how can people's lives be secured?

The speed and transparency of China's response is also impressive. After China detected the outbreak, it isolated the virus, sequenced the genome and shared it with the WHO and the world. The government holds daily briefings and updates the numbers of new infections, deaths and recoveries. It alters the statistical method to help patients get faster access to treatment. As leaders of many foreign governments and international organizations have put it, in many ways, China is setting a new standard for outbreak response. This is no exaggeration.

Now, China is fighting two battles: containing the epidemic and restoring momentum in its economy. How to steer the world's second-largest economy through the choppy waters of the epidemic is a severe test for China's decision-makers. China contributes nearly one-third of global economic growth. Properly handling the economy in this critical period will also leave a deep impact on the global economy.

Epidemic control is a global issue. Solidarity, not stigma, is needed to fight the common enemy of mankind. Vilification, malicious attacks on China, and politicizing public health issues will only undermine our strength against the virus, risk writing off previous gains, and harm the common interests of the global community.

The battle is still intense. It is time to push unhealthy emotions aside, and let science and unity take the lead.
Resident doctors at the AMU's Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital on Sunday demanded that the charges slapped against Dr Kafeel Khan under the National Security Act be withdrawn.

Dr Khan was arrested by the UP Special Task Force from Mumbai on January 29 in connection with a speech he had delivered during an anti-CAA protest at Aligarh Muslim University on December 12.

The Resident Doctors' Association (RDA) held a protest march on the hospital campus against the slapping of the NSA against the Gorakhpur doctor after he was granted bail in connection with the alleged hate speech.

RDA president Dr Hamza Malik said the move was a "blatant attempt to crush dissent and a violation of the Constitution of india".

He said by targeting the doctor, the UP government had done a great disservice to the entire medical community.

The AMU Students' Coordination Committee also described the decision to charge Dr Kafeel under the NSA a "direct assault" on a member of the medical fraternity who is "known for his upright behaviour and a champion of free speech".

Committee spokesperson and former AMU Students' Union president Faizul Hasan said by charging Dr Kafeel under the NSA even after he got bail was "a direct violation of a Supreme Court ruling on such issues".

Hasan said Dr Kafeel's fate should serve as an eye-opener for the rest of the country regarding the democratic rights in Uttar Pradesh.

The doctor was earlier arrested for his alleged role in the death of over 60 children within an week at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur in August 2017. Short supply of oxygen at the children's ward was blamed at that time for the deaths.

About two years later, a state government probe cleared Khan of all major charges, prompting him to seek an apology from the Yogi Adityanath government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
16.02.2020 LISTEN

MTN Ghana Foundation has since the inception of the valentines day blood donation exercise obtained over fourteen thousand pints of blood.

The donation exercise which started in 2011 has enhanced the health and recovery rates of many sick people.

The Acting General Manager, Northern Business District of MTN, Adjoa Afrakoma Baah Obeng who revealed this to journalists noted that the telecoms company is now going a step further to construct a bleeding center in the Central Region.

According to her, it is all geared towards aiding sick people who need blood to gain the needed strength.

Anty Adjoa as she is affectionately called hoped that a time would come when many people would voluntarily and joyfully donate blood so that many more lives could be saved.

She was addressing the media during the Valentines day blood donation exercise held at the Kumasi Technical Institute.

At MTN we take Corporate Social Responsibility seriously and we shall continue to undertake projects that positively affect the lives of all Ghanaians. She noted.

Three centers including T.I Ahmadiya Senior High School and Katanga Hall of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology saw the exercise facilitated by the MTN in Kumasi.

The exercise which was usually held in Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi alone, was extended to all the 16 regions of the country this year.

The Deputy Chief Blood Donor at KATH Transfusion Unit, Christian Oppong Mensah commended MTN for its commitment in partnering his outfit to sensitize people to donate blood.

These exercises, he noted for the past decade has enabled the unit to store blood for emergency services at KATH.

He called for more partnerships from the corporate world to enable the unit carry out more outreach programs to sensitize the public.

"Our greatest challenge is in the area of education and we need more sponsors to support us carry out periodic education to clear the misconception many had about blood donation", Mr Mensah revealed.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: As part of its expansion plan, the AAP will launch a campaign from February 23 to March 23 in all states to connect with one crore people, senior party leader Gopal Rai said on Sunday.

Rai after taking oath along with his other ministerial colleagues at a ceremony at the Ramlila Maidan here chaired a meeting with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state office bearers at the Chief Minister's residence.

"In the meeting, it was decided that work would be done on three things.

Firstly, the state units will start the 'Rashtra Nirman' campaign from February 23 to March 23, they will run it in all states and under it, volunteers will hold meetings.

Their target is to connect one crore people with the party," he told PTI.

"Secondly, posters inviting people to join the 'nation-building' campaign by giving a missed call on '9871010101' shall be published in all legislative assembly constituencies in India," the AAP leader said.

Thirdly, the party's state leadership will hold press conferences in capitals and later in other major cities of the states to "disseminate the message of nation-building by joining the AAP", Rai said.

"Since elections to local bodies in many states are to be scheduled in the coming months, we want to take this campaign aggressively to the grassroots, so that we can contest local body elections and get good results," he said.

In the first stage of the campaign, around 12 lakh people from across the country had joined the AAP's 'Rashtra Nirman' campaign since February 11 by giving a missed call on 9871010101.

In the next stage of the campaign, Rai said the party will decide where all it will contest assembly polls.

The party has already decided to fight local polls to strengthen its hold on the ground, he said.

The AAP registered a landslide victory in the Delhi assembly polls, leaving its main rival BJP way behind and decimating the Congress in a bitterly-fought contest.

Since then the party has again started building upon its national ambition.

The AAP is at present recognised by the Election Commission as a state party.

It emerged as the principal opposition in Punjab in 2017.

However, its national ambitions suffered a setback when its campaigns in Goa and in the last two Lok Sabha elections were unsuccessful.

It won four Lok Sabha seats in Punjab in 2014 and just one in 2019, while Delhi voters rejected it in both the general elections.

Kejriwal also burnt his fingers in 2014 when he contested against Narendra Modi, who was the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, in the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat, losing by over three lakh votes.

Many saw a shift in the AAP's strategy after the party's drubbing in the 2017 civic polls in Delhi at the hands of the BJP, as it again focused on its development pitch in the national capital.
The station guard and other staff wear medical face masks as a train returns to Lao Cai Station Saturday in the northern province of Lao Cai from China on Saturday.

As the Covid-19 epidemic rages and is yet to be brought under control, all passenger trains between Vietnam and China have been suspended to prevent infections from spreading, but freight trains are still operating on two routes, Lao Cai-Kunming, and Lang Son-Nanning.

On the Lao Cai-Kunming route, there were eight daily trains going to and from on a six-kilometer section, but these days, there are just two.
Paul Strangio, a Monash University politics professor who also attended that memorial service, ticks off Cains achievements: WorkSafe, the TAC, freeing up liquor laws and retail trading hours, the sporting precinct, FOI and so much more. People looked at his record in office and suddenly appreciated Geez, he did a lot. And he says Andrews has put being an activist, assertive premier at the centre of his political persona  particularly when it comes to wearing a hardhat on a transport construction site. So what happens as Andrews heads towards the 2022 state election with his impressive list of mega-projects in apparent meltdown? On each of his biggest builds, the premier and his government now face a dizzying array of headaches: The Metro Tunnel - nine kilometres of rail tracks under central Melbourne - could see its $11 billion budget blown sky-high if the bitter dispute with the construction consortium building it reaches the courts - the cost of building the tunnels is up to $3 billion over budget. The contractors argue they have encountered unexpected problems including geological challenges, and before Christmas the dispute over who would pick up the bigger bill resulted in builders shutting down tunnel-boring machines for two days. Work has resumed on the job but the disagreement continues.

The West Gate Tunnel, comprising twin tunnels under Yarraville and a new bridge over the Maribyrnong, is a big dig by anyones standards. Missing at the moment is any actual digging. Two massive tunnel-boring machines sit dormant over a dispute between Andrews partner in the project, Transurban - which this week warned it would not meet its 2022 deadline to open the road. The two construction giants building it are in a dramatic impasse with Transurban over how they should dispose of 2.3 million tonnes of soil, much of it laced with the carcinogens PFAS and asbestos.

The pledge to remove 50 level crossings was a signature success of the governments first term, and this project continues. But it is running at least $2.3 billion over budget, and probably much more. The government disputes that this was a budget overrun, arguing that the many additional works they added  including new railway stations and better signalling that make the network function better  is what made costs jump. Despite the higher cost of the first 50 crossing removals, it was such an electoral winner that the government committed to another 25 removals in the next half-decade.

An airport rail line has been promised but, despite being discussed in Victoria since 1963, there is bubbling tension over the route it will take and whether to accept a bid led by a private consortium to build a new tunnel to run it on. The tunnel would enable a world-class service, but in the face of cost blowouts and delays on other projects, both Victoria and the Commonwealth are now considering a cheaper option. The stakes got higher for Andrews this week, when four suburban councils voted to challenge the roads environmental approval for the North East Link - the largest toll road ever to be attempted in this state - in the Supreme Court.

The government's unofficial line was that a court challenge wont hamper progress. But the councils boast two experienced silks including David Batt, QC, who represented the government on the other side of a near-identical fight over another toll road, the East West Link (that 18-kilometre toll road was abandoned by the Andrews government in 2015 at a cost to taxpayers of $1.1 billion). Michelle Giovas, president of Friends of Banyule, in Borlase Reserve in Yallambie, which will be severely affected by the North East Link. Credit:Justin McManus For a project as environmentally precarious as the North East Link  26,000 trees to go, almost 53 hectares of native vegetation to be impacted and a tunnel that cuts underneath the Yarra through one of the citys most cherished bush landscapes  a court defeat over its green bona fides would be disastrous. All these projects are needed to deal with the massive population growth Victoria continues to experience  133,000 new residents in the year to June 2019. Growth near that level has been happening for more than a decade. Daniel Andrews is in the middle of what might be thought of as his Difficult Second Term.

Its something he talks about regularly when under fire over this mega-project or that. Managing so many big projects is an enormous challenge, he said at one press conference recently. "But ultimately whats the alternative? Sit around finding reasons not to do things? Well, weve had that for, like, 40 years and its why we have got some of the congestion trouble we have now," he said. Never easy: A worker at the State Library Station site of the Metro Tunnel project earlier this month. Credit:Joe Armao "Its why frankly weve not been ready for the growth we are experiencing now. In 20 years time they wont be saying that about this government. They will be saying we got on and got things done. Was it easy? Was it simple? No, of course it isnt. Important work is never simple, is never easy. For the Opposition the talking points are clear: Andrews has bitten off more than he can chew and is promising the biggest infrastructure build in the states history without worrying about who is footing the bill.

I think hes like a general fighting the last war, says shadow transport infrastructure spokesman David Davis, who smells votes for his side of politics in the massive cost and timetable blowouts. "Its no use being the best sabre fighter if guns have appeared. Davis says that Labor cant just keep on promising bigger and bigger projects if the ones already underway are facing such serious headwinds. These projects are loose and under-scoped and consequently they are like a runaway train, he adds. When questioned about his own partys history in government, Davis points to his time as health minister. I had $4.5 billion in health projects bubbling away, he says, batting away suggestions that the Coalition cant run an infrastructure program. The Liberal Partys track record on transport projects the last time it was in power is hardly one to sing from the rooftops. The highlights? A handful of level crossing removals; finishing off under budget and ahead of time the Regional Rail Link through Melbournes west, a project that Labor had started; a broken promise to build a rail line to Doncaster; and a failed attempt to kickstart an airport rail line combined with an out-of-the-blue metro rail tunnel through the fledgling suburb of Fishermans Bend. Their current promises should they win power in 2022 are building the East West Link, continuing with the Metro Tunnel and North East Link, and weighing up the business case for the Suburban Rail Loop.

Davis says that whatever the Coalition did the last time it was in government, Labor is out of control when it comes to spending on transport infrastructure. He points to the Suburban Rail Loop project, a 90-kilometre underground link around Melbournes middle suburbs costed at a thumping $50 billion. He says that even that figure is an understatement, and floats a rumour that has come his way from a government source that the current costing is $162 billion. The proposed suburban rail loop would intersect with 10 other rail lines. Credit:Fairfax Media He agrees that cross-city links around Melbourne are in urgent need of improvement, but questions if, in the Suburban Rail Loop, the government has the right solution. Theyve certainly got the most expensive solution. Fears and failures Newly minted in 2010 as state Labor leader and faced with the task of winning back office in a single term, Andrews told the Herald Sun that the combination of failure on transport projects and rapid population growth had been Labors downfall. In the face of unprecedented growth, we struggled to keep up, he said of John Brumbys government.

Slowly, he and shadow treasurer Tim Pallas cooked up an infrastructure strategy they would take to the 2014 election to defeat Denis Napthines East West Link-obsessed government. Offering the removal of 50 level crossings and the cancellation of East West Link at no extra cost, Andrews swept to power with a strategy called Project 10,000 - the creation of 10,000 new jobs through transport building. Premier Daniel Andrews and Treasurer Tim Pallas, left, were the architects of Project 10,000. Credit:AAP Denis Napthine, who lost office to that documents promises, says todays construction frenzy is being driven by population growth and that the pressure on the system, even with all the work being done, is still immense. When he comes to Melbourne, he stays in Kensington: The amount of times I have to wait for the next train because I cant get on  and if you try and drive in it takes you an hour from eight kilometres away [from the CBD]. Napthine says Andrews should be focusing more on pumping up regional centres by shifting public service jobs to places like Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo. He also thinks Labors choice of projects has been muddle-headed.

Then premier Denis Napthine announcing land acquisitions for the doomed East West Link in 2013. Credit:Wayne Taylor Napthine maintains that the East West Link he took to the 2014 election was a great project. But even for those who didnt support the section of motorway his government wanted to build, he argues a much better alternative than the $6.7 billion West Gate Tunnel is the second stage of the East West Link, which would have traversed an entirely different part of the western suburbs. The West Gate Tunnel is the wrong project for the wrong reason, because it wont have the impact on decongesting the west. This tunnel project was driven by a secret deal with Transurban and financed in a dodgy way and has ended up in an absolute mess. (Promised in Labor's Project 10,000 was a far more modest set of West Gate Bridge ramps costed at $500 million.) Napthines transport department secretary during the East West Link days was Jim Betts, who now runs NSWs Department of Planning, Industry and Environment. For many years Betts ran public transport in Victoria, before taking on the top job in the Department of Transport. In a speech at Monash University late last year, Betts  who presented the East West Link business case to Napthine and his Cabinet in 2013, and was out of a job by the following morning  reflected on how Victoria had arrived at its current situation.

Good projects come from good plans and conversely bad projects come from a lack of planning, he said, pointing to a 2008 strategy called the Victorian Transport Plan that put projects like the Metro Tunnel and North East Link into a formal process. Betts noted that under legislation there is meant to be a formal strategy now, but there is not. Loading It may be that the projects that the government in Victoria is rolling out are the best projects. But you wouldnt know, because you dont have a plan within which to operate, he said. Betts was in charge of public transport under John Brumby in the lead-up to the 2010 election. We had the right projects but we hadnt planned sufficiently far ahead, so as patronage on the rail system ballooned, we couldn't run fast enough to keep up with the demand that was being placed on the train system, Betts recalled in his speech. It felt like an atmosphere of crisis management. [New] trains were due to arrive one a month [every month] and every time a train was two days late, it was on the front page of The Age. That sort of stuff doesnt happen if you plan decently ahead of time.
One more person was on Sunday arrested in connection with the alleged sexual assault of women at Gargi college in Delhi.

The total number of arrests made by the police in this incident has reached 15.

A Delhi court had on Friday granted bail to 10 people, who were arrested in connection with the alleged sexual assault of students during a cultural festival at Gargi College.

The Delhi Police on Monday received a complaint from Gargi College against the alleged sexual harassment of female students by a number of unidentified men during their annual cultural fest on February 6.

A case was registered at Hauz Khas Police Station and several teams were constituted to investigate the matter. The police have been looking into available evidence and visited various sites in NCR for the identification of suspects.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Medical professionals say it is not too late to vaccinate, even if you have had the flu this year.

Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital is hosting a Flu Clinic, Monday, Feb. 24.

Registered nurses Alida Merritt and Gail Simpson shared the importance of vaccinations.

There are multiple entities trying to ensure that people in the community have the right information to make informed decisions about immunizations, Merritt said. Unfortunately, there is misinformation about immunizations that despite retractions about those theories and statements, despite an abundance of evidence people still believe that (mis) information.

She said there is a younger generation that has not been immunized and medical caregivers are starting to see a resurgence of the diseases that the medical community in the United States thought it had eliminated.

Measles is one example.

Merritt said sharing information from reliable evidence-based resources is key.

As professionals, we need to share our personal investment in immunization and how it protects us, our patients and community, she said.

The flu vaccine is appropriate for anyone over age 6 months.

I think we cant start early enough to talk with parents about the importance of vaccinating their children, Merritt said. It resonates when we see the numbers of kids who died from the flu and were not immunized. Immunizations are not a 100% guarantee that you wont get the illness but your body builds a memory so if you are exposed to a disease your body fights it.

She said immunizations for influenza, measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis reduce symptoms and the reduced likely hood of complications, including death.

Children die from pertussis, children and adults die from the complications from measles, Merritt said. As a nation, we were so successful of reducing those vaccine-preventable diseases but now that we have had several years where people have not immunized, we are seeing an uptick in people developing complications that can be debilitating or dying.

She said shingles is extremely painful and the physical effects can be profound including neuropathy that never goes away.

Their quality of life is really affected, Merritt said. The shingles vaccine is geared to older people to re-boost your immunity that wanes as you get older.

Merritt said that currently, influenza cases have increased across the nation.

The advice is as long as influenza is in the community it is appropriate to vaccinate, she said.

It takes about two weeks to build up immunity after receiving a flu vaccination and Merritt reports seeing influenza cases as late as May.

The flu vaccine available locally covers four strains of flu, two strains of each influenza A and influenza B.

Having one type of influenza doesnt give you immunity against the other strains, Merritt said. Getting a vaccine even if youve had the flu protects you from getting it again. The flu vaccine exposes you to the killed flu virus components which turns on our immune system, this gives your body the ability to recognize the flu virus when exposed.

Cases of both strains have been confirmed in the community.

Historically, influenza B is harder on younger people and influenza A tends to be harder on adults, older people and those with compromised conditions, Merritt said.

Risk conditions include high blood pressure, asthma, diabetes and COPD.

Gail Simpson has and overview of the community as she manages the MDMH clinics. She reports that Victor and Darby have not had a lot of positive Flu tests.

But I know Convenient Care gets multiple positive flu results every day, she said. They have been for almost three weeks.

She said Corvallis (Family Medicine) has been giving more of the flu shots in the past two weeks.

We are pushing the Flu Clinic so people know they can get their shots on the 24th, Simpson said. People can go to any MDMH clinic to get a flu vaccination, they dont have to be an established patient. Our goal is to help provide preventative care in the community, and it is all community.

On Monday, Feb. 24, the MDMH Flu Clinic will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Bitterroot Physicians Clinic. Walk-ins are welcome or call to schedule an appointment.

We will run two stations where people can just walk in, Simpson said. They dont have to be an established patient for a Marcus Daly provider. Insurances will be billed and it will probably take five minutes per patient.

The Flu Clinic will welcome all patients age 18 years and older. Simpson said children require two doses of vaccine, two weeks apart, and she recommends children go to their primary care provider.

Its not too late to vaccinate, Merritt said. Come even if youve had influenza this season youll still benefit from the vaccine and its protective properties.

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The unhealthy attitude of certain Americans amid the public health emergency of the novel coronavirus pneumonia is becoming more and more annoying for the international society.

A recent message posted on social media by Ho Ching, wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore, drew wide public attention. Forwarding a report by U.S. media that made irresponsible remarks on Chinas political system, Ho questioned that And what about the influenza B deaths in the USA?

To contain the spread of the novel coronavirus as soon as possible, China has launched a peoples war against the epidemic, adopting the strictest and most thorough measures. Foreign governments and people across the world are also joining Chinas efforts to combat the epidemic in different ways. The World Health Organization (WHO) and global public health experts contributed constructive suggestions.

However, some U.S. politicians and media outlets have been making tart and even vicious remarks on Chinas efforts to contain the epidemic. Their irresponsible attitude presented a sharp contrast with the global efforts to support China.

They acted as on-lookers who gloated over Chinas misfortune. Some even took the opportunity to seek political gains, smelling blood in the epidemic regardless of their loss of morality.

The arrogance of these Americans is ridiculous, as if they had forgotten how their own country was coping with public health emergencies.

When the Zika virus spread over the American continent in 2016, the U.S. was one of the major afflicted areas. The White House requested the Congress to allocate $1.9 billion in February, but encountered a party conflict which was quite American Style. Because of the dispute over legislation strategies, the allocation was postponed by 7 months, and only $1.1 billion was available, even though the Democrats and Republicans both understood the importance of the matter.

At that time, there were over 23,000 infections in the U.S. and its Commonwealth Puerto Rico, including 2,000 women in pregnancy, the most vulnerable group to the virus. Besides, over 20 infants were found to have congenital defects because of the Zika virus.

The actions taken at the critical moment in the battle against epidemics are a mirror that reflects countries governance capability. National governance shall take peoples needs as a priority, and the government must spare no effort to meet peoples expectations. The delayed response of the U.S. in the epidemic control caused by party conflict is by no means reasonable.

In 2009, when facing the influenza A (H1N1) virus, the U.S. government first said there was no need for alarm, then suddenly declared it a national emergency, which many experts believed to be a misguidance for the world. As a result, the flu ended up spreading to 214 countries and regions.

Whats more, the U.S. government also paid lip service in its promise to offer vaccines for the public. It promised to have 160 million doses of injectable vaccine on hand by October that year, but only less than 30 million doses had been prepared. According to a report issued later, the downsizing and expenditure cut of public health departments weakened the countrys prevention and control work of the flu.

Some people in the U.S. can always wax lyrical when they point fingers at other countries, but turn their backs on the vulnerability of their own countrys system in coping with epidemics.

America is not a perfect country, just as many American public health experts stressed that the country is not ready for the challenges posed by major infectious diseases. Director of Harvard Global Health Institute Ashish Jha warned that epidemic is the most possible cause that can rapidly and accidentally kill millions of Americans, but also one that sees the least preparation.

Countries across the world should help each other and rely on complementary advantages in public health emergencies. The successful practices of a country may serve as a reference for others. American author Mario Cavolo recently published an article that compares the 2009 H1N1 virus in the U.S. and the 2019 novel coronavirus in China on social media LinkedIn. He pointed out that it took six months for the U.S. to declare a national emergency in 2009, and the death toll was vastly underestimated and updated not until three years later.

In the article, Cavolo said the forces attacking Chinas efforts are bizarrely negative, and the world should be applauding China's unprecedented, broad and aggressive response.

When these Americans are trying to blame Chinas endeavor in an arrogant and indifferent manner, what they really care about is not how to contain the epidemic in an early date or the lives of the people across the world. Whats in the mind of these on-lookers is indeed unpresentable calculations.

However, those who lost their sense of humanity can never prevail. To politicalize the epidemic and launch inhumane attacks will only destroy their own image.

(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by Peoples Daily to express its views on foreign policy.)
AIPAC Is Helping Fund Anti-Bernie Sanders Super PAC Ads in Nevada By Ryan Grim, Akela Lacy February 15, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is helping to fund a Super PAC launching attack ads against Sen. Bernie Sanders in Nevada on Saturday, according to two sources with knowledge of the arrangement. The ads are being run by a group called Democratic Majority for Israel, founded by longtime AIPAC strategist Mark Mellman. The Nevada attack ads, which will air in media markets in Reno and Las Vegas, follow a similar spending blitz by DMFI ahead of the Iowa caucuses. Like the ads that aired in Iowa, the Nevada ads will attack Sanders on the idea that hes not electable, Mediaite reported. DMFI spent $800,000 on the Iowa ads, while the spending on the Nevada ads remains private. AIPAC is helping bankroll the anti-Sanders project by allowing donations to DMFI to count as contributions to AIPAC, the sources said. As is typical with most big-money giving programs, the more a donor gives to AIPAC, the higher tier they can claim  $100,000 level, $1 million level, and so on  and the more benefits accrue to them. A $100,000 donor gets more access to members of Congress at private functions, for instance, than someone who merely pays AIPACs conference fee. A $1 million donor gets still more, which means that it is important to donors to have their contributions tallied. There is also status within social networks attached to ones tier of giving. The arrangement allows donors to give directly to DMFI, which is required to file disclosures naming its donors, without AIPACs fingerprints. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Rachel Rosen, a spokesperson for DMFI, said she was unaware of any AIPAC encouragement to donate to the organization. As far as we know, what you are suggesting is completely untrue, she said. But because we are a separate organization, we cant know exactly what other organizations are doing. Therefore, we are the wrong address for the the specific questions you ask  they need to [be] directed to AIPAC. AIPAC denied the arrangement. AIPAC is not and has not been involved in the ad campaigns of any political action committee, spokesperson Marshall Wittmann wrote in an email. The accusation that AIPAC is providing benefits to members for donating to fund these political ads or this political action committee is completely false and has no basis in fact.

In the past, AIPAC enjoyed broad bipartisan support in Congress. But as its cozied up to the GOP in recent years and taken a harder right-wing stance on Israel policy, reflecting a rightward drift in Israel, more Democrats are cutting ties with the group and tacking further left. AIPACs faltering relationship with Democrats was the initial spur for Mellmans new organization, founded by donors and operatives linked to AIPAC.

On Wednesday, Rep. Betty McCollum slammed AIPAC as trafficking in hate speech for a recent social media ad campaign that warned that radicals in Congress presented a threat maybe more sinister than the Islamic State, along with photos of Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and McCollum. Representatives of AIPAC spent Wednesday and Thursday on Capitol Hill apologizing in private meetings with House Democrats for those ads, claiming that they were made by AIPACs Democratic digital firm (though how that shifts responsibility from AIPAC is unclear). Omar, Tlaib, and McCollum were not invited to  nor even aware of  those meetings, despite being the subjects of the ads, Tlaib and Omar told The Intercept.

Sanders has long been one of the most outspoken critics of unconditional U.S. support for Israel and has become an even sharper critic of the alliance during his 2020 campaign. He said in October that he would condition military aid to Israel on changing its settlement policy, and redirect some military aid to humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip. DMFI sent a fundraising email in January attacking Sanders for that comment. While Sanders would certainly be more sympathetic to Palestinians than any president in U.S. history, he tends to qualify support for Palestinian rights by first prioritizing Israels security.

DMFIs anti-Sanders ads that aired in Iowa in the week leading up to the caucuses had nothing to do with Israel or the Middle East. Instead, they focused on his label as a democratic socialist and his recent heart attack. Following that ad buy, Sanders raised $1.3 million in one day.

The DMFI ads have been controversial and represent one of the first Super PAC interventions by a Democratic group against a Democratic presidential candidate in the post-Citizens United era. (Hillary Clinton in 2016 had the benefit of the group Correct the Record, which was legally a Super PAC and attacked Sanders. The group coordinated with the Clinton campaign, rather than operating independently, yet that coordination went unpunished.) But the revelation that AIPAC has been encouraging donors to fund DMFI suggests how seriously the lobby is taking Sanderss candidacy and that it is willing to intervene in the Democratic primary. On Thursday night, news leaked that a Super PAC connected to the Democratic group EMILYs List had been contemplating an attack ad against Sanders. In a statement, the group said the ad had not been approved and that it would support whichever candidate won the Democratic nomination.

Big-money groups are doing all they can to ensure that Sanders doesnt become the nominee, however, and after the Iowa caucuses, DMFI boasted that its ads had left a mark on Sanders. Now that almost all of the Iowa results are in, the incredibly close race shows that DMFI PACs ad blunted Senator Sanders momentum, the group wrote to its email list after some of the results were in. The network entrance poll proves it. Among those who decided which candidate to support before DMFI PACs ad aired, Sanders was in first place by a 6 point margin. However, among those who made a decision while the ad was airing, Sanders came in 5th, 10 points behind the leader. Conservative writer Jonathan Tobin, in a recent piece for Haaretz, discussed AIPACs posture toward Sanders in a recent column headlined, AIPAC Must Stop Bernie Sanders  at All Costs. In the lead up to the Iowa caucus, the Democratic Majority for Israel, a year-old political action group and super PAC, invested heavily in negative ads aimed at derailing the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders. Mark Mellman, the veteran Democratic strategist who leads the group, told me that its efforts  which are funded by the partys leading pro-Israel donors  helped steer late deciding voters away from the Vermont Democratic Socialists. Its in that context that the AIPAC Facebook ads that so offended Democrats must be seen. For centrist pro-Israel Democrats, the problem with Sanders is not just that he is the most critical toward Israel of all the Democrats. Its that the left-wing activist base that is fueling his candidacy is also largely hostile toward the Jewish state. Sanders is backed by Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich), who are supporters of the BDS movement and are accused of using anti-Semitic language and tropes in their criticisms of Israels supporters. DMFI denies that it has any link to AIPAC, but Mellmans firm, the Mellman Group, has close ties with AIPAC and consulted for the lobby groups dark-money cutout, Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran, as part of Mellmans work to defeat former President Barack Obamas nuclear deal in 2015. CFNI paid the Mellman Group $241,439 that year. Mellmans firm has also consulted for AIPACs educational group, the American Israel Education Fund, which organizes congressional trips to Israel. The Mellman Group was AIEFs second-largest contractor in 2015, receiving $1.3 million for program research. AIEFs biggest contractor that year was a travel business owned by Sheldon Adelson, a far-right Israel advocate and mega-donor to the GOP. At least 11 of DMFIs 14 board members have links to AIPAC as well, having either worked at, spoken to, volunteered for, or donated to the group, The Nation reported in December. AIPACs annual conference is in March. A coalition of progressive groups, including the left-leaning Jewish advocacy group IfNotNow, the Working Families Party, MoveOn, and Indivisible, launched a campaign this month to pressure presidential candidates not to attend. So far, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has committed to skip this years conference. During a town hall in New Hampshire this month, Sanders told a student that he didnt think he was going but had no objection. He, Warren, and several other candidates skipped it last year. Update: Feb. 14, 2020, 5:20 p.m. ET

This article has been updated to include a statement from AIPAC that was received after publication. This article was published by "The Intercept"- Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here

==See Also==
CLEVELAND, Ohio  One person is dead and another hurt after a Saturday shooting on the citys East Side, police said.

Few details about the fatal shooting incident were released Sunday.

The shooting happened about 7 p.m. Saturday at a home on the 4500 block of Quincy Avenue, near the intersection with Chestnut Place in the citys Central neighborhood, Cleveland police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said.

Two people who suffered gunshot wounds were taken to University Hospitals by paramedics, Ciaccia said. One shooting victim  a male  was pronounced dead.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiners Office will release the deceaseds name once his family has been notified.

No suspect or arrest information was provided Sunday. Ciaccia said more information will become available once she receives another update on the incident.

This post will be updated Sunday if new information is released.

If youd like to comment on this post, please visit the cleveland.com crime and courts comments section.
A Karnataka villager and Kambala jockey shot to spotlight overnight as he is speculated to have broken Jamaica's Usain Bolt's world record of sprinting 100 metres in 9.58 seconds. 28-year-old Srinivasa Gowda, hailing from Moodabidri in Dakshina Kannada district covered 142.5 metres in just 13.62 seconds in the traditional buffalo race of Karnataka. Gowda's swift sprint makes him the fastest runner in the history of the traditional sport breaking a 30-year-old record.

Gowda sprints 100m in 9.55 seconds

Gowda's sprint has been compared with Usain Bolt's world record. Gowda ran 142.50 meters in 13.62 seconds, people simply calculated what his speed would have been for 100 metres which turns out to be just 9.55 seconds that is .03 seconds faster than Bolts world record. However, the records cannot be compared directly as Bolt ran on a flat track while Gowda sprinted in a slushy field, which can be a speed deterrent. Also, the 28-year-old ran alongside a pair of buffaloes and his speed was amplified by the speed generated by the animals.

READ | Karnataka BJP Slams 'vulture' Rahul Gandhi's Pulwama Question; Shows Him 'benefit' Mirror

Speaking to media after achieving the remarkable feat, Gowda said that he loves Kambala and attributed the credit of his success to his buffaloes. They ran very well while I chased or drove them, he added. Gowda's super sprint left netizens awestruck as some even suggested that he should train for Olympics.

READ | BCCI Commentator Apologises On-air For Infamous 'Every Indian Should Speak Hindi' Rant

Kambala Race

Kambala is an annual buffalo race held in Karnatak between November and March. It is a traditional and entertaining sport where buffaloes are driven by a whip-lashing farmer in a slushy paddy field. The annual event draws large crowds and even the participants train hard with some building exclusive pools for the buffaloes to train in.

READ | Karnataka Min R Ashok Claims His Son Has No Relation With Fatal Bellary Car-crash; Evades

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The situation in wartorn Libya is "deeply troubling", a United Nations representative said Sunday, warning that a fragile truce was hanging "by a thread" as daily life in the North African country worsens. Speaking after talks with foreign ministers in the German city of Munich, the UN's deputy special representative to Libya Stephanie Williams said that over 150 violations had been reported since last month's ceasefire was agreed. She also slammed the ongoing breaches of a much-abused UN weapons embargo, even after foreign countries agreed in January to stop meddling in a conflict that has dragged in major regional rivals. "The situation on the ground remains deeply troubling. The truce is holding only by a thread," Williams said on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. "It is the Libyan people that continue to suffer the most. The economic situation continues to deteriorate, exacerbated by the oil blockade." Libya has been mired in chaos since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, with two rival administrations vying for power. The conflict deepened when military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who controls much of the south and east of Libya, launched an assault to seize Tripoli, the base of the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Fayez al-Sarraj. States including Russia, France, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt support Haftar, while the GNA is backed by Turkey and Qatar. World leaders agreed at a Berlin summit last month to end all meddling in the conflict and stop the flow of weapons into Libya, but little has changed on the ground since then. At Sunday's follow-up meeting in Munich, foreign ministers from over a dozen countries called the continued embargo violations "deplorable". They urged Libya's warring parties, who did not take part in the meeting, to "maintain the current truce" and step up efforts to negotiate a lasting ceasefire. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas described a recent first meeting between military representatives from both sides as "a good sign", aimed at discussing ways to end the fighting. Maas said the next so-called 5+5 meeting would take place in Geneva on Tuesday. The Libyan rivals are also scheduled to hold their first "political dialogue" on February 26. Rome is set to host the next international talks on Libya under the aegis of the United Nations. Libya has been mired in chaos since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi The UN's deputy special representative for Libya Stephanie Williams says over 150 violations have been reported since last month's ceasefire
An elementary school employee was able to break free and escape an intruders grasp during an extracurricular event on Thursday, police said.

The intruder, later identified as Daron Griffin, accessed the Walnut Street Elementary School in Toms River around 6 p.m., police spokeswoman Jillian Messina said in a statement.

The employee told police she was on the second floor when Griffin approached her and asked to use a bathroom, Messina said. When the employee directed him downstairs, he grabbed her arm and pulled her into the hallway, police said. The employee was able to break free from Griffin, who then chased her down the stairs, according to the police statement. He then exited the school through a side door.

Police were able to use security camera footage to identify Griffin as a suspect, Messina said. The 21-year-old Toms River resident was then arrested and charged with aggravated assault and criminal trespass, the police spokeswoman said.

Messinas statement does not include information on how Griffin got into the school. She did not immediately return an email seeking that information.

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One cruise ship sailed the South China Sea for days, searching for a port that would accept it as fear of the coronavirus surged.

Another ship has been quarantined in Japan for nearly two weeks, with its 3,600 passengers and crew locked down with more than 350 infected people.

And a third was stalled in Bayonne for three days, delayed as two dozen passengers were screened for COVID-19 and four passengers were tested for the newly named novel virus.

The intensifying outbreak sweeping across China is escalating fears among travelers and dealing a significant blow to tourism industry profits, especially for cruise lines.

Some travel advisors have seen losses as high as 15% since the outbreak began, as tourists cancel or postpone hotel reservations, flights and cruises. The effect has been felt in New Jersey, where some travel companies are losing business and hotels near Newark airport are seeing rising cancellations and declining reservations among Chinese tourists.

It has left travel advisors scrambling to accommodate and reassure customers as COVID-19 has infected more than 69,000 people and killed more than 1,660, mostly in China. There are 15 confirmed cases in the U.S., but no fatalities.

Alex Sharpe, president and CEO of Signature Travel Network, a retail travel agency, said the company entered the new year strong, outpacing 2019 business. But as the outbreak intensified, Signature began to see losses.

February has certainly slowed  down 10-15% versus February last year and down from January 2020 as well, Sharpe told NJ Advance Media in an email.

He said guests who have booked cruises are concerned, fearing being marooned aboard a ship with fellow passengers infected with the coronavirus.

I expect rates to hold and new demand to solidify what will be a very good year, albeit with some financial impact from the impacted Asia sailings, he said.

One hotel manager recently told The New York Times that his hotel near Newark airport has already lost more than $100,000 in cancellations and no-shows. He noted that these losses are expected to triple in the next 90 days.

Paul Grande, general manager of Hilton Newark Airport in Elizabeth, said his hotel had experienced cancellations in recent weeks.

"Small losses at this point, Grande said, noting that there were a couple of customers who recently canceled because they remain under lockdown in China, unable to return home.

Many U.S. citizens, New Jersey residents among them, have been marooned in China.

Christina Pedroni, senior vice president for Liberty Travel, a Montvale-based retail travel and cruise company, said it has taken a hit from the outbreak. The biggest losses have come from canceled trips to China.

To date, weve seen cancellations to China from customers who are traveling there for business or for a specific purpose, such as visiting family, Pedroni said in an email through a spokesperson. For those visiting China and the surrounding area simply for leisure, were seeing a lot of people rescheduling, rather than canceling, or changing their destination all together. This includes rerouting connecting flights through China.

Travel Leaders Network, a global travel agency network, recently surveyed its travel advisors across the U.S. and Canada to assess the impact of coronavirus on leisure travel bookings.

Roughly 30% of the nearly 400 travel advisors surveyed reported a high-to-moderate number of trip cancellations to China and other parts of Asia. However, advisors reported very few cancellations of trips to other destinations due to the coronavirus, such as Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico and the U.S., the network said in a statement.

The survey also found 13% of travel advisors reported a high number of cruise booking cancellations with the primary impact on itineraries that include China and other parts of Asia.

An American Society of Travel Advisors survey found 71% of U.S. travelers who booked a trip to China said they would either definitely or probably cancel those plans because of the coronavirus. And 72% of U.S. travelers surveyed said they believe everyone in the U.S. should avoid travel to China in the near future due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The travel industry at large seems to be scrambling to put customers fears at ease.

We are not minimizing the concerns of travelers or the perceived threat from the coronavirus," said Erika Richter, spokeswoman for the American Society of Travel Advisors, in an emailed statement. However, its important to note that the entire travel industry has pulled together proactively, working to ensure the safety of travelers.

She said cruise lines, airlines and land operators have instituted itinerary changes and measures to minimize the risk from coronavirus and they continue to adjust itineraries daily.

U.S. airlines such as American, Delta and United have suspended flights to mainland China on a temporary basis.

Eight planes were locked down Friday morning at Heathrow Airport in London  including a flight from California  after passengers complained they were suffering from symptoms, according to reports.

But the cruise line industry has been especially impacted by the outbreak.

Carnival Corporation has suspended trips from ports in China due to travel restrictions. Voyage cancellations will have a material impact on its 2020 earnings results, the company said in a press release.

Cruise ships have long been seen as Petri dishes for germs and disease, specifically gastrointestinal illnesses like norovirus, even though contracting such illnesses on ships is relatively infrequent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But the recent quarantining of the Diamond Princess Ship, a British cruise ship owned and operated by Princess Cruises, has impacted the industrys image. The ship has been locked down off the coast of Japan since Feb. 3 with 356 people confirmed as infected with the virus. A flight evacuating U.S. passengers is due to depart later Sunday.

Holland Americas cruise ship MS Westerdam, which departed from Hong Kong on Feb. 1, had been denied entry to port by five countries over fears of the coronavirus, even though the ship had no confirmed cases. The ship was finally accepted by Cambodia, where it docked Thursday.

And last week, Royal Caribbeans Anthem of the Seas cruise ship docked in Bayonne for three days, as more than two dozen passengers were screened by health officials for coronavirus. All of those passengers, however, were later cleared.

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'We are focused on the primary and the debate, not VP speculation,' Bloomberg's campaign has said

Bloomberg is said to be considering changing his official residence because the electoral college makes it tough for president and VP to reside in the same state

Polling found the Bloomberg-Clinton combination would be a formidable force to take on Trump in the race for the White House, Drudge Report claims

Bloomberg campaign declined to shoot down internet report billionaire presidential candidate is considering Hillary Clinton as his running mate

Michael Bloombergs campaign has not denied an internet report that the former New York mayor and current presidential candidate is considering Hillary Clinton as a possible running mate.

A spokesperson for Bloomberg told Fox News that the campaign is focused on the primary and the debate [on Wednesday in Las Vegas], not VP speculation.

Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee who eventually lost to Donald Trump, is back in the news this weekend after the Drudge Report published an item claiming that Bloomberg was mulling her as a possible vice presidential pick.

Polling found the Bloomberg-Clinton combination would be a formidable force to take on Trump in the race for the White House, the source told conservative news aggregator Matt Drudge.

Bloomberg is even said to be considering even changing his official residence from New York to Colorado or Florida - where he also has homes - because the electoral college makes it difficult for US president and vice-president to reside in the same state.

Under the Twelfth Amendment to the US Constitution, which provides the procedure for electing the president and vice president, it states that the two people could not both inhabit the same state as the elector.

Bloomberg's campaign would not confirm or deny the reports when DailyMail.com reached out for comments.

Mike Bloomberg (left) is considering making Hillary Clinton (right) his running mate, a source close to his campaign has told Drudge Report

Clinton, the Democratic Party nominee who lost in 2016 to Donald Trump, is seen above on January 30 with the cast of the hit Broadway musical Tina Turner. Clinton is standing next to the show's star, Adrienne Warren. Former President Bill Clinton is seen fifth from right standing

Hilary Clinton and Michael Bloomberg are pictured taking part in a New York City pride parade

Former New York City Mayor Bloomberg is said to be considering even changing his official residence from New York to Colorado or Florida because the electoral college makes it difficult for a US president and vice-president to reside in the same state

Clinton's primary home is in Chappaqua, New York.

This comes as two new Democratic primary polls show Bloomberg in the lead in Florida, while Senator Bernie Sanders tops the field in Texas.

Both Bloomberg and Sanders have slight leads over former Vice President Joe Biden, who took a beating in both Iowa and New Hampshire.

The Florida poll shows Bloomberg with just a one-point lead over Biden, with the ex-mayor receiving 27 per cent support from Florida Democrats compared to Biden's 26 per cent support.

Bloomberg's edge comes from having about a 10-point lead over Biden among white survey respondents. The former mayor gets the support of 28 per cent of white Floridians, versus the 18.5 per cent who selected Biden as their first choice for Democratic nominee.

Former first lady Clinton previously said she faced calls to run for president in 2020 after she lost out to Trump in the 2016 election, but she has repeatedly said she won't join the race.

However, she stopped short of denying she was considering running for vice-president alongside one of the Democratic candidates earlier this month.

'I never say never because I do believe in serving my country, but it's not going to happen,' she told Ellen DeGeneres.

In January, Donald Trump made the strange claim that Clinton had promised Bloomberg the job of secretary of state should she be elected president in 2016, to keep him from running four years ago.

Former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Michael Bloomberg pictured together in New York in 2017

'He had a deal with Hillary Clinton that he was going to become secretary of state. It was very simple. People knew that,' Trump said during an interview on CNBC filmed on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The president then suggested Bloomberg would have been double-crossed.

'Wasn't going to happen. It was going to go to Terry McAuliffe,' Trump said, name-dropping the former governor of Virginia who's been a close Clinton friend.

'I mean, so they were playing with Michael,' Trump alleged. 'And - it's too bad, but he's spending a fortune.'

Bloomberg had endorsed Clinton over Trump in 2016, saying at the Democratic National Convention in July 2016 that though 'there are times when I disagree with Hillary,' the country must unite to 'defeat a dangerous demagogue'.

'Let's elect a sane, competent person with international experience,' Bloomberg said at the time.

It's been a busy week for Bloomberg as he was forced to apologize after a recording was leaked online of him talking bluntly about his stop-and-frisk policies.

'Ninety-five percent of your murders - murderers and murder victims - fit one M.O. You can just take the description, Xerox it and pass it out to all the cops,' Bloomberg is heard saying in the recording.

Bloomberg had endorsed Clinton over Trump in 2016, saying at the Democratic National Convention in July 2016 that though 'there are times when I disagree with Hillary,' the country must unite to 'defeat a dangerous demagogue'. The possible allies are pictured here with Vogue Editor Anna Wintour

Former first lady Clinton stopped short of denying she was considering running for vice-president alongside one of the Democratic candidates earlier this month

'They are male minorities, 16 to 25. That's true in New York. That's true in virtually every city.'

'And that's where the real crime is. You've got to get the guns out of the hands of the people that are getting killed.'

President Trump tweeted 'WOW, BLOOMBERG IS A TOTAL RACIST!', as he tries to woo black voters to the Republican side.

On Thursday, Bloomberg apologized for endorsing the stop-and-frisk policy.

'There is one aspect of approach that I deeply regret, the abuse of police practice called stop and frisk,' Bloomberg said.

'I defended it, looking back, for too long because I didn't understand then the unintended pain it was causing to young black and brown families and their kids.'

'I should have acted sooner and faster to stop it,' he continued. 'I didn't, and for that, I apologize.'
In the last seven days, Apple has been fined for slowing down older versions of iPhones, two comedians have cracked jokes aimed at billionaire Jeff Bezoz and Victoria's Secret is about to be sold.

Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

Apple hit with almost GHc150 million fine for slowing down old iPhones:

Apple Inc. has been fined 25 million euros or $27 million for intentionally slowing down older versions of iPhones without informing its clients.

Frances competition and fraud watchdog, DGCCRF imposed the fine on the technology firm. YEN.com.gh understands that Apple, in 2017, confirmed that it intentionally slowed down some models of their phones in a bid to prolong the life of the devices.

READ ALSO: Bawumia makes big promises to DKM customers and others

Chris Rock and Steve Martin heartlessly crack jokes about Jeff Bezoz over divorce:

Recently divorced billionaire Jeff Bezoz was the target of jokes by comedians Chris Rock and Steve Martins during the opening monologue of the 2020 Oscars.

Rock remarked that Bezoz is so rich that a divorce settlement did little to reduce his wealth.

Bezoz was in the audience and appeared to be laughing at the jokes as the camera focused on him.

Victorias Secret attracts attention of private-equity investor; likely to be sold:

YEN.com.gh has learnt that American manufacturer of womens lingerie, Victorias Secret, is likely to be sold to a private-equity investor, Sycamore Partners.

Information available shows that the manufacturers owner, L Brands, could announce the details of the deal soon.

Business Insider reports that close ties the chief executive officer (CEO) of the company, Les Wexner, has with Jeffrey Epstein, has led to criticisms.

Ghanas economy ranked as one of Africas best options for growth:

A reporter with American media company, Bloomberg, has ranked Ghanas economy as one to watch in the near future.

Bloombergs reporter, Noah Smith, argued that the country has performed creditably on development metrics and simply needs to break free of dependence on commodities.

The report added that there are key indicators that show a country is becoming a pacesetter. =

AngloGold Ashanti sells off its South Africa mines for $297 million:

Ghanas gold producer, AngloGold Ashanti, has left South Africa after selling its mines there for $297 million.

The mining firm reached an agreement with Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited to offset its remaining assets and liabilities in the country.

Per a report by Business Insider, Harmony is expected to pay $200m in cash and $260/oz of gold from Mponeng and other underground assets included in the transaction based on production above 250,000oz/year.

Market regulator reveals Tesla may soon recall over 3000 Model X vehicles from China:

Car manufacturer, Tesla Inc, is likely to recall 3,183 cars from China, a market regulator has announced.

This follows news of a potential issue that could interfere with steering by making it harder. Per a report by Reuters, it could also lead to an increase in the risk of a crash, the regulator revealed.

OVER THE WEEKEND:

Facebook is spending $130 million to create a 'Supreme Court' that can overrule Mark Zuckerberg:

In late 2018, Facebooks Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mark Zuckerberg, announced an ambitious plan: to create an independent oversight board that could overrule Facebook's content moderation guidelines, and even Zuckerberg himself.

With over 2 billion users, Facebook has a major moderation problem on its hands.

Facebook has faced moderation issue after moderation issue across the past few years.

Facebook allows U.S. political candidates to run sponsored content:

Facebook Inc (FB.O) said on Friday it was allowing U.S.-based political candidates to run branded content on its social networking platforms, but the content would not be cataloged in its advertising library.

Political campaigns and groups can now use the social media companys branded content tool, which allows influencers to more clearly tag in an official sub-header that the post is a paid partnership.

READ ALSO: Organizers of Mobile World Congress cancel 2020 event

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Jupiter Fund Management Plc confirmed its in advanced talks to acquire rival U.K. asset manager Merian Global Investors from private equity firm TA Associates Management.

The board of Jupiter sees this as an attractive opportunity to acquire a high quality independent active manager that would represent a strong fit with Jupiter in both investment management philosophy and culture, the company said in a statement Saturday.

Bloomberg had reported that talks were under way. Negotiations have been going on for some time and while the two companies are confident a tie-up would benefit stakeholders, there was no certainty that a final agreement would be reached, Jupiter, which has about 45 billion pounds ($77.8 billion) under management according to its website, said in the statement.

Canaccord analyst Portia Patel said in emailed comments that a 500 million-pound price tag would be towards the top end of the range when compared to Merians 22.4 billion of assets under management, with the valuation likely dependent on expected synergies between the two firms.

M&A remains a necessity in the asset manager world facing the challenges of net outflows, falling revenue margins and rising costs, she said, adding that a largely share-based deal is likely given Jupiter and TA Associates history of activity together.

Representatives for Merian and TA Associates declined earlier requests for comment.

The talks come as active managers face increasing pressure to pair up amid heightened regulatory costs and intense competition from low-cost index and exchange traded funds. The idea is that bringing more assets onto a platform can help lower compliance, regulatory and back-office costs. London-based Jupiter, run by chief executive officer Andrew Formica since last year, has suffered seven straight quarters of outflows.

Competition for active managers has sent fees lower, led to thousands of job losses and forced large-scale consolidation among companies, with mixed results.

The Janus Henderson Group Plc and Standard Life Aberdeen Plc mergers were aimed at boosting assets but neither have been able to staunch outflows since their tie-ups. Banco de Sabadell SA also agreed in January to sell its asset-management business to Amundi SA for 430 million euros ($617 million). GAM Holding AG considered a sale of the company last year, Julius Baer Group Ltd. had plans to dispose of its asset manager Kairos, while a number of other banks have looked at options for their asset managers .

TA Associates, based in Boston, acquired Merian in 2018 from Old Mutual Ltd., the South African financial services conglomerate. Founded by U.K. veteran fund manager Richard Buxton, Merian had 22 billion pounds under management at the end of 2019, according to its website. Its biggest offerings are global and U.K. equities.

Before leading Jupiter, Formica built the former Henderson Group through dealmaking and eventually combined his firm with Janus Capital in 2017. He became co-CEO of the merged firm alongside Dick Weil. Formica departed the firm a year later after the board chose Weil as sole CEO.

Luring investors back to Jupiter could prove more difficult following star portfolio manager Alexander Darwalls decision to set out on his own. He ran the flagship Jupiter European Fund as well as the listed Jupiter European Opportunities Trust Plc.
An inter-ministerial group has approved sale bid documents for privatisation of India's second biggest oil refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), and a notice seeking bids will be issued after a small group of ministers approves it, sources said.

An inter-ministerial group or IMG comprising representatives from the ministries of finance, petroleum, law, corporate affairs and department of disinvestment has approved Expression of Interest (EoI) and Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) for the company.

This will now be put up for approval by 'Alternative Mechanism' which is essentially a very small grouping of key Cabinet ministers, sources privy to the development said.

Once the approval is granted, an EoI seeking interest from potential buyers will be floated, they said, adding the EoI along with PIM was likely to be out in the market within this month.

The government plans to sell its entire 53.29 per cent stake in that will give buyers ready access to 14 per cent of India's oil refining capacity and about one-fifth of the fuel market share in the world's fastest-growing energy market.

Sources said a two-stage bidding process will be followed wherein request for proposal or RFP in the first stage will be followed by due diligence-cum-bidding by qualified bidders in the second phase.

has a market capitalisation of about Rs 1.03 lakh crore and the government stake at current prices is worth about Rs 54,000 crore. The successful bidder will also have to make an open offer to other shareholders for acquiring another 26 per cent at the same price.

Privatisation of is essential for meeting the record Rs 2.1 lakh crore target Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has set from disinvestment proceeds in the Budget for 2020-21.

BPCL operates four refineries in Mumbai (Maharashtra), Kochi (Kerala), Bina (Madhya Pradesh) and Numaligarh (Assam) with a combined capacity of 38.3 million tonnes per annum, which is 15 per cent of India's total refining capacity of 249.4 million tonnes. While the Numaligarh refinery will be carved out of BPCL and sold to a PSU, the new buyer of the company will get 35.3 million tonnes of refining capacity.

It also owns 15,177 petrol pumps and 6,011 LPG distributor agencies in the country. Besides, it has 51 LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) bottling plants.

The company distributes 21 per cent of petroleum products consumed in the country by volume as of March this year and has more than a fifth of the 250 aviation fuel stations in the country.

Sources said the disinvestment process being followed for privatisation of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) is based on decision-making through inter-ministerial consultations and involvement of professionals and experts.

After in-principle consent by the administrative ministry of the state-owned company concerned, approval of the proposal to disinvest is taken from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

CCEA approved BPCL stake sale in November last year. Following this, an inter-ministerial group (IMG) was constituted. IMG appointed advisers for the transaction, including merchant bankers, asset valuers and legal advisers.

The 'Alternative Mechanism' approves reserve or base price as well as price bids. Sources said BPCL privatisation process may take six to eight months to complete.
The Delhi Police on Sunday refused permission to anti-CAA protesters at Shaheen Bagh for a spontaneous march to Union home minister Amit Shahs residence and engaged them in talks following which the protesters agreed to continue their protest at the venue till they are granted official permission for the march.

They (Shaheen Bagh protesters) told us that they wanted to take out a march (to meet HM) but we told them they cannot as they do not have an appointment call from Union Home Minister. We are talking to them and we hope that they will understand, RP Meena, DCP (South East), said according to ANI.

Following their discussion with the police, the protesters decided to continue their stir at Shaheen Bagh.

The police had laid a heavy security cordon in riot gear around the protest site.

The protest is being spearheaded by senior women who have come to be referred to as the Dadis of Shaheen Bagh. As people started to gather, the Dadis began speaking to the police.

ALSO WATCH | On Valentines Day, heres what Shaheen Bagh protesters want

After the discussion, the Dadis said they had assured the police that they will not violate any protocol (by carrying out an unauthorised march to Shahs residence) and continue the protest at the venue (Shaheen Bagh) till they get permission.

Earlier in the day, protesters insisted that all of them wanted to meet Shah instead of deputing a delegation. Police had then denied permission for the march.

A group of protestors at Shaheen Bagh had earlier indicated that they would go to meet Shah on Sunday afternoon to discuss the controversial legislation following his statement on Thursday that he was ready to discuss it and whoever wanted to discuss issues related to the CAA with him could seek an appointment from his office.

(We) will give time within three days, Shah had said.

The protesters have been insisting that the CAA be rolled back and that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) should not be implemented.

Shah had strongly defended the CAA which fast tracks Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslims illegal migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan but said there was no provision in the new law that would divest the citizenship of Indian Muslims.

Shah also said that the government had so far not taken any decision on a nationwide NRC, and made it clear that those unwilling to show their documents during the National Population Register (NPR) exercise, which gets underway on April 1, were free to do so. The NRC is aimed at identifying illegal immigrants and the NPR is a biometric repository of people resident in India.

The CAA has sparked protests across different parts of the country with many protesters replicating the Shaheen Bagh model.

Opponents of the law say it is unconstitutional, discriminatory and divisive because it makes citizenship a test of religion.
Enterprises that import automobiles equipped with navigation apps featuring maps that violate Vietnams sovereignty will have their import licenses suspended.

Cars on display at an exhibition. The Government has issued a new decree imposing strict sanctions against importers of automobiles featuring illegal maps

The Government has issued a decree amending and supplementing some articles of Decree 116 on automobile manufacture, assembly, import, maintenance and warranty services, the local media reported.

If the importers fix their violations within six months, the suspension will be lifted.

Otherwise, their import licenses will be permanently revoked and the licenses must be returned to the Ministry of Trade within five days.

The Government has also issued a decree on administrative sanctions against violations related to measurement and mapping. Accordingly, businesses that trade in products with inaccurate maps will be subject to a fine of VND30-40 million each.

Late last year, the General Department of Vietnam Customs impounded the Volkswagen Touareg CR745J automobile for displaying a GPS map featuring the illegal nine-dash line at the Vietnam Motor Show 2019 in HCMC.

In addition, World Auto Co., Ltd, the importer of the car, was fined VND40-60 million and had its operations suspended for six to nine months.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen Vietnam Co., Ltd, was fined VND20-40 million for exhibiting the car. SGT
Aaron Wan-Bissaka believes Bruno Fernandes' encouraging start to his Manchester United career is partly down to the Spanish players who were already with the English giants. Portugal midfielder Fernandes impressed on his debut during a goalless draw with Wolves a fortnight ago and is set to feature again when United face Chelsea on Monday in their first match since the Premier League's winter break. The 25-year-old Fernandes, who arrived at Old Trafford from Sporting Lisbon in a deal worth an initial 55 million euros (47 million, $61 million) that could rise to 80 million euros in add-ons. He has since got to know his new team-mates at United's training camp in Marbella, southern Spain, where the likes of David De Gea and Juan Mata have helped him adjust to life at United. "I think he (Fernandes) has settled in right," Wan-Bissaka told United's website. "He's got a few of the Spanish players looking after him and we're just looking forward to what he brings to the team," the English defender added. United had a week's break after the Wolves match before manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took his squad to the Costa del Sol. "It felt good, after the week off we had," Wan-Bissaka said of the trip to Spain. "It's good to be out in the sun and to regroup with the team. "I think it was needed, with the amount of games we'd been playing. (It's) something that helped a lot," he explained. United are currently six points behind fourth-placed Chelsea in the race for a Champions League position but have already beaten the London club twice this season. They won 4-0 at Old Trafford on the opening weekend of the league season in August and then defeated Frank Lampard's men 2-1 at Stamford Bridge in a League Cup tie in October. Settling in - Manchester United's Portuguese midfielder Bruno Fernandes
Kolkata: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal waves at the audience after taking oath at Ramlila Maidan on Feb 16, 2020. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: PK

New Delhi, Feb 16 : The "Kejriwal ka Guarantee Card", released by the Aam Aadmi Party Chief Arvind Kejriwal in January ahead of the Delhi Assembly polls, will be the top priority for the newly formed government.

Kejriwal and six of his ministers took oath on Sunday and the party leaders said that they would be focusing on the 10-guarantees promised by the Aam Aadmi Party to the Delhiites.

Among the guarantees was the promise to reduce air pollution in Delhi. "We will plant more than two crore trees to make Delhi green," the card reads.

The first 'guarantee' by Kejriwal is about electricity, which promises the continuation of 24-hour uninterrupted power supply and 200 units of free electricity for all. "The city will be freed from the web of wires and electricity will reach each household through an underground cable," the guarantee card says.

The Aam Aadmi Party promised 24-hour pure piped drinking water to each house in the next five years and said the scheme of providing 20,000 litres of free water will continue.

The third guarantee is to give a world-class education facility to each child in Delhi.

The card also promised better health facilities for all as the fourth guarantee.

Kejriwal's fifth guarantee is to have the "biggest and cheapest" transport facility for the city. "More than 11,000 buses will be on the Delhi roads and the Delhi metro will have more than 500-kilometre stretch in the city," the card says.

The AAP government will also work to improve the last mile connectivity. In the card, Kejriwal also said on the lines of free bus travel for women, students' travel will also be made free.

"The bus rides for women will continue," Kejriwal added. The sixth guarantee is about controlling the air pollution in the city. It also includes a promise to clean the Yamuna.

While the garbage management is with the MCD, the AAP said it will make the national capital garbage-free in the next five years.

His eighth guarantee is to make the city safer for women and the card said the AAP government will also deploy 'Mohalla Marshals'.

Kejriwal also promised road, water supply, sewer, CCTV and mohalla clinics for the unauthorised colonies as his ninth guarantee.

His last and tenth promise is to give "pucca" houses to people living in slums under the "Jahan Jhuggi Wahin Makan" scheme.

"I am giving ten guarantees to the city. This is not a manifesto. This is superior to the manifesto. These 10 things are the issues which affect all the people in Delhi." Kejriwal had signed the card after announcing them and said: "I will fulfil these promises in the next five years".

AAP has bagged 62 of the 70 seats here, while the BJP got eight and the Congress failed to score.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Cao Quoc Hung recently held a working session with his Indian counterpart Anup Wadhawan in New Delhi on how to bolster bilateral trade.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Cao Quoc Hung (L) at a working session with his Indian counterpart Anup Wadhawan (Photo: VNA)

He said Vietnam has high-quality and competitive products such as agro-fishery and fresh fruits, but the exports of these products are facing difficulties due to the outbreak of the acute respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in China.

He asked the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry to help with the promotion of Vietnamese agro-fishery and fruits, especially dragon fruit and basa fish, to Indian businesses and consumers.

The Deputy Minister also informed the Indian official about the outcomes of the working sessions on February 12th between the Vietnamese ministry and Indian Importers Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Indian Trade Promotion Council, and supermarket chains.

Hung said Indian firms praised the quality and taste of Vietnamese fruits such as dragon fruit, lychee, longan, and rambutan. They hoped to see more trade promotion activities to build brand for Vietnamese dragon fruit in India.

Besides agro-fishery products, Vietnam also has a developed garment-textile industry. However, in the context that China is suspending the operation of many manufacturing factories, Vietnam is facing difficulties in material supply for the apparel sector, Hung said, asking for Indias assistance in this field.

For his part, Anup Wadhawan agreed with the Vietnamese Deputy Minister to boost bilateral trade and step up trade promotion activities and business exchanges, especially in 2020  the year Vietnam and India mark the 48th anniversary of their diplomatic ties, and Vietnam holds the Chair of ASEAN.

He added that apart from dragon fruit and basa fish, Vietnam is able to boost exports of other products to India./.
Russian foreign ministry has said that Turkey should refrain from provocative statements about the crisis in Northeastern Syria amid escalating tensions over Idlib. According to international reports, Russia had said that it was perplexed by the remarks made by the chairman of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to the same statement, Erdogan's nationalist partner had tried to hold Russia along with Syrian government accountable for the death of Turkish men.

Read - India In Talks With Russia On Mega Deal For Long-term Import Of Crude Oil

While Russian foreign ministry had reportedly made those statements earlier this week on February 13, in a recent address in Istanbul, Erdogan said on February 15 that Turkey has no intention to invade or annex the Syrian territory. Turkish President acknowledged the problem in Northeastern Syria's Idlib which is the strong-hold of rebels. According to media reports, he added that the problem would not be resolved until the government forces are drawn to limits which are set by Sochi deal. Otherwise, according to the Turkish President, his country's forces will handle it before the end of February.

Russia urges 'implementation' of existing accords

While Turkey raised the importance of the existing Sochi memorandum on Saturday, Kremlin had urged Ankara on February 12 to implement the peace agreements. After a phone call between both leaders, Kremlin reportedly released a statement that Russia and Turkey 'noted the importance of full implementation' of the existing accords including the Sochi memorandum. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart reportedly discussed the de-escalation of the crisis in Syria.

Read - France's Macron Urges Better Long-term Relations With Russia

The leaders have also reviewed the different aspects of the settlement of the Syrian crisis especially in the context of the recent escalation in the Idlib de-escalation zone. It was in 2018 when both countries had agreed on a memorandum in order to enforce a demilitarized zone in Syria's Idlib region from which the 'radical' forces were asked to withdraw. However, Russia has insisted that groups of 'terrorists' have continued to fight in the same region.

Erdogan had also said on February 11 that the Syrian government 'would pay a high price', before Turkey-backed Syrian rebels downed a helicopter belonging to the Syrian government in Idlib's Saraqib. On February 10, five Turkish soldiers were killed by the Syrian Army promising a harsh retaliation. Furthermore, a Turkish official told an international agency that the forces loyal to the Syrian government had fired near Turkey's observation posts in Idlib.



Read - Russia To Lose Sochi Olympic Gold Medal In New Doping Case

Read - Russia Says Israeli Strike In Syria Jeopardized Civilian Jet

(With inputs from agencies)
A passenger wearing a mask stands on the deck of the cruise ship Diamond Princess, as the vessel's passengers continue to be tested for coronavirus, at Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, Japan Feb. 13, 2020. (Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon)

Another 70 People Test Positive for Coronavirus on Ship in Japan

TOKYOAnother 70 people on board a quarantined cruise ship in Japan have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases from the vessel to 355, Japanese health minister Katsunobu Kato said on Sunday.

The Diamond Princess, owned by Carnival Corp, has been quarantined since arriving in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, on Feb. 3, after a man who disembarked in Hong Kong before it traveled to Japan was diagnosed with the virus.

The ship, with some 3,700 passengers and crew on board, has the most coronavirus infections outside China. Those testing positive are transferred to Japanese hospitals.

No one from the ship has died of the virus.

We must anticipate a spread of infections from now and must build medical system and so on to focus efforts to prevent people from becoming gravely ill or dying, Kato said in a program on state broadcaster NHK.

We will make the people feel at ease by providing information in a timely manner, and continue to forestall measures, he said.

The United States, Canada, and Hong Kong are sending aircraft to Japan to bring back their citizens on board the ship.

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said passengers and crew on board the ship were at high risk of exposure to the virus and it recommended that its citizens get off and take one of the flights home.

This is a rapidly evolving situation and we are taking additional steps to assist U.S. citizens, it said.

The embassy said all passengers would be screened before being allowed to board the chartered flights and everyone would be quarantined for 14 days upon arrival back in the United States.

No symptomatic or infected passengers will be allowed to board, it said.

Clyde Smith, 80, who was evacuated from the ship to a Tokyo hospital after testing positive for the virus told Reuters on Sunday he had not been told if would be allowed on a U.S. evacuation plane.

Hong Kong authorities said they were also sending chartered flights to bring Hong Kong residents and Canada has also chartered a plane to repatriate Canadians on the ship, its government said.

Japan has had 53 cases of the coronavirus, apart from those on the ship, NHK reported, with one of only four deaths from the virus outside mainland China in Japan.

Hong Kong, the Philippines, and France have all had single virus deaths.
Perhaps the most critical resource available for those wanting to die at home is hospice care. Hospice is covered by Medicare (and most other insurance) for patients with an expected life expectancy of less than six months. It is designed to help caregivers take care of a dying loved one at home with 24-hour call-in numbers to answer urgent questions, visits from hospice nurses, social workers and other staff. But home hospice does not provide full hands-on service, and caregivers still carry the bulk of the responsibility. While in many cases the care of the patient can be tougher than loved ones expect, most people find hospice guidance and support invaluable.
16.02.2020 LISTEN

On 14 February 2020 armed bands of Fulani invaded the Fonfuka subdivision, Northwestern Cameroons and slaughtered all men they could find. The same day, an armed vigilante group created some pro-government elite in Donga and Mantung Division to establish a state of terror in the Ambazonia independence restoration struggle slaughtered 48 people in Ngarba, Ntumbaw Subdivision. Most of the victims were young men, the old and pregnant women.

Recently, the Fulani populations in some divisions of the northern part of the nascent Federal Republic of Ambazonia have been seen fighting alongside soldiers from the Cameroun Republic to stop the English speaking people from assuming their self-autonomy.

The first Fulani or Mbororo came to the western part of German Kamerun in 1904. The Mamada family arrived and were settled on an empty piece of land that abuts Bambili, Nkwen, and Mendankwe by Bambili after handing 14 bulls to the Fon of Bambili. In 1933, the British district colonial officers issued a certificate of occupancy settling the boundaries between these four communities and the Banjah hunters.

All other Fulani families came to the northern part of Ambazonia after the 1961 reunification of the German Kamerun. President Ahidjo settled his ethnic Fulani brothers on the green Grassfield to graze their cattle. Ahidjo also used the Fulani to claim lands and adulterate the homogeneity of this Christian and animist population.

Recently, these Mbororo have forgotten their temporal status in the region and tried to claim ownership of most villages in Northern Ambazonia. When the Ambazonia struggle started, the Mbororo were first indifferent.

The Story has changed over the last months as Mbororo have been seen actively killing people in Wum to the glee and approval of CameroUn soldiers and police. Buabua, Subum, Kimbi, and many other villages have been set ablaze and many indigenous people have been killed by the Mbororo and CameroUn soldiers.

Do these Mbororo imagine supporting CameroUn troops in destroying the northwestern civilizations would give them ownership of the lands?

It is a wrong decision for the Mbororo to abandon their customary hosts and instead ally with enemies to loot, burn and kill.

As a human rights campaigner, I abandoned my Christian Banjah brothers, who speak the Meta' language that I understand, to fight for the rights of the Mbororo and Muslim community of Banjah. Even the Mbororo Social Cultural and Development Association (MBOSCUDA) advocating for the Mbororo, abandoned the Mbororo of Banjah.

Human rights are universal. As such, I believed the Mbororo of Banjah had a right to some living space in Bamenda, thousands of kilometers from their origins in the Fouta Njalon in West Africa. Just as we recognized their right in the North West to live and graze their cattle, the Fulani of North West should not deny their hosts their right to belong to a nation.

It is a right enshrined in the statutes of the United Nations that people could change the name of their country, settle in a different country or found a new country.

CameroUn Republic is a pariah state to violate the fundamental principles of the United Nations and elect to kill Ambazonians and destroy their civilization and aspirations.

Mbororo leadership and elite should educate their people that no dictatorship has ever succeeded in quelling the aspirations of people. Sooner than later, the Federal Republic of Ambazonia would be recognized by the community of nations and would have a right to prosecute those who killed and destroyed Ambazonian communities. Ambazonia would never be part of the CameroUn Republic and CameroUn Republic would never stop AMBAZONIA from asserting their autonomy.

Mbororo must choose where they belong.
(Natural News) If the Wuhan coronavirus (CoVid-19) pandemic began from an accidental release, it sure was a happy accident for the globalists. Everything the pandemic is achieving just happens to perfectly fit the top priorities of the globalist agenda.

Consider the following:

 The coronavirus pandemic is currently on track to infect 60%  80% of the world population and kill up to 15% of those infected, according to an increasing number of doctors and scientists. Conservatively, this could kill up to half a billion people (500 million people), which would go a long way toward accomplishing the globalist goal of depopulation.

 All the governments of the world are going broke covering entitlement payments for retired workers, such as Medicare, pensions, social security, etc. Killing off the elderly helps governments stay functionally solvent while they continue to operate on debt. (No government has any use for a citizen after they stop paying taxes and retire.) Note carefully that this virus tends to kill the elderly while leaving working-aged citizens alive so they can continue to run the factories, pay the taxes and fund the tax plantations that fiscally feed governments.

 The pandemic allows governments to declare medical martial law, with gunpoint-enforced quarantines, mandatory vaccinations and government kidnapping of children from parents who refuse to go along with the medical tyranny. Its a dream come true for the CDC and the vaccine industry.

 Simultaneously, the pandemic also allows Big Tech to justify total censorship and de-platforming of anti-vaxxers, who will of course be immediately blamed for every infection and every death, as soon as a commercial vaccine is available.

 The economic collapse thats now inevitable from the pandemics effects on the global supply chain will cover up all the counterfeit money printing by the central banks and shift blame for the economic collapse to the virus instead of failed monetary policy. Yes, the global economy was already headed for a cascading debt collapse apocalypse, but now the governments can claim the virus did it.

 If they can get the virus to spread quickly enough, globalists might even be able to crash the U.S. economy in time to defeat Trumps re-election in November, removing a key enemy of the globalists and possibly even installing Hillary Clinton as Vice President (shes rumored to be the running mate of Bloomberg).

Make no mistake, this CoVid-19 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak is almost the perfect weapon against humanity that keeps the globalists in power and even increases their tyranny on a global scale.

Its almost as if  dare we say  the virus was intelligently designed with these goals in mind

Listen to my new podcast here for more details. Follow my channel at:

https://www.brighteon.com/channel/hrreport
Retinoblastoma is the most common primary cancer of the eye occurring in childhood , with a frequency of 1:14,000 to 1:20,000 live births depending on the country, and accounts for 3% of all childhood cancers. It is more frequent in Africa and India. About 80 % of retinoblastoma cases are diagnosed before 3 years of age.

Retinoblastoma is a type of cancer of the eye occurring in children. It is a malignant tumor (cancerous growth ) of immature cells of the retina (the light sensitive layer at the back of the eye) .

Untreated retinoblastoma can be fatal; in developed countries, advances in treatment have resulted in a 95 to 99% survival rate.

Retinoblastoma occurs in 2 forms  a heritable and a non-heritable (sporadic) form. Heritable retinoblastoma indicates that the tendency to develop retinoblastoma is transmitted from parents to offspring, and accounts for 40% of the cases. The differences between the two forms are listed below:

Heritable retinoblastoma Sporadic retinoblastoma Percentage of total retinoblastoma cases 40 60 Laterality Bilateral in 85 % of cases Unilateral Average age at diagnosis 12-15 months 24 months Transmissible to offspring Yes No Predisposition to second nonocular cancers Yes No Multifocal tumors(multiple growths in different parts of the retina ) Yes No Family history of retinoblastoma Present in 10-20% of cases Absent Associated with increased paternal age Present in some cases Absent

Children with the heritable type of retinoblastoma are more at risk of developing cancer (second non-ocular cancers) in other organs of the body, the most common of which are osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer), soft tissue sarcomas and melanomas (tumors of pigmentary cells). These second cancers are more common in patients who have received radiotherapy for their retinoblastoma, and even more so when this radiation has been given before 12 months of age. These second primary malignancies are the most common cause of death following retinoblastoma in developed countries.

The development of most cases of retinoblastoma may be explained by Knudsons two hit hypothesis.

Every individual has 23 pairs of chromosomes, one chromosome of every pair obtained from each parent. Genes (containing codes to synthesize proteins and thus determining various characteristics of an individual) are situated on these chromosomes. The retinoblastoma gene (or RB1) is situated on the 14th band of the long arm of chromosome 13 (13q14). This is a tumor suppressor gene. This means that presence of this gene in its normal form protects against retinoblastoma.

According to Knudsons two hit hypothesis, the DNA has to suffer two hits or two mutations for the cancer to occur.

In the heritable type of retinoblastoma, one mutation is inherited from the parent, and so all the cells in the body have this mutation (germline mutation). The second mutation occurs later after fertilization in the retinal cells, resulting in retinoblastoma (somatic mutation). In the sporadic variety, both mutations occur within a single retinal cell after fertilisation of the egg (both are somatic mutations).

Recently, another variety of retinoblastoma has been discovered, where the retinoblastoma gene was normal, but there was a high level of amplification of the MYCN gene only in the tumor cells. This does not result in heritable retinoblastoma, and these children do not have any of the characteristics of heritable retinoblastoma, including the risk of transmission to offspring.

Retinoblastoma may present in a variety of ways. However, the most common modes of presentation are -

Most common modes of presentation of retinoblastoma Leucocoria (white reflex in pupil or amaurotic cats eye reflex)

In 60% of cases The pupil that normally appears dark, now appears whitish in color due to the tumor or detached retina showing through the pupil Strabismus or squint

In 20% of cases Either an outward or inward deviation of the affected eye occurs Ocular inflammation

In 5% of cases The eye is red and whitish pus like material may be seen behind the cornea

Less common modes of presentation include blood in the anterior chamber (seen behind the cornea), cataract, increased pressure in the eye and inflammation of the tissues surrounding the eye. In neglected cases, spread outside the eyeball results in the eye being pushed forward (proptosis) and appearing very prominent.

Retinoblastoma most commonly spreads along the optic nerve and into the brain and skull bones. It spreads through the blood to the bone marrow. Other organs to which it can spread are bones of the arms and legs, spinal cord, lymph nodes and abdominal organs.

The diagnosis of retinoblastoma is mainly clinical. The classical presentation of leucocoria or whitish appearance of the pupil should be considered to be retinoblastoma unless proved otherwise. The pupil is dilated and a detailed fundus (examination of the retina) is carried out, to determine if the tumor is monofocal or multifocal. If multifocal, all the tumors should be documented. Since most children in this age group are not very cooperative, an examination under anesthesia is required in all patients for a thorough assessment of ocular disease prior to treatment.

Ultrasonography (ultrasound examination of the eye and orbit) measures the tumor size and shows the presence of heterogeneity (variations in the tumor) and calcification (accumulation of calcium in tissues)

CT (computed tomography) scan of the eye may show calcification. However, CT scan is less preferred because it exposes the child to radiation.

MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) of the eye, orbit and head is the preferred mode of imaging to evaluate the tumor in the eye and to detect possible extension into the orbit and brain. MRI can also detect if there an associated tumor of the pineal gland; this condition is referred to as trilateral retinoblastoma. MRI also helps in differentiating other conditions that simulate retinoblastoma.

If extension into the optic nerve (the nerve at the back of the eye that transmits visual signals from the retina to the brain) is suspected, a lumbar puncture (placing a needle into the back and withdrawing cerebrospinal fluid which surrounds the spinal cord) may be done.

If there is evidence of extension outside the eye, bone scans and bone marrow testing to detect the spread are required.

Genetic studies to determine heritability and the type of genetic involvement are done to help in genetic counselling.

There are a number of conditions that simulate retinoblastoma as they also cause leucocoria or a whitish appearance of the pupil. Though all of these conditions (collectively referred to as pseudoglioma) should be kept in mind and the patient must be examined to rule out these conditions, leucocoria should be considered to be due to retinoblastoma unless proved otherwise, as this condition can be fatal.

Conditions that simulate retinoblastoma Persistent hyperplastic primary vitreous ( PHPV) Developmental disorder in which there is failure of regression of primary vitreous

Unilateral in 90% of cases

Associated with a small eye Retinopathy of prematurity Retinopathy affecting premature infants exposed to high oxygen concentration

Formation of new vessels in the immature retina with fibrous proliferation to form a mass behind the lens that gives appearance of leucocoria Congenital cataract Cataract present since birth gives whitish pupillary appearance

Coats Disease Massive leak of lipids (fats) resulting in retinal detachment



Unilateral in 90% of cases

More common in boys Cyclitic membrane Organisation of exudates behind the lens following inflammation of ciliary body. The ciliary body controls the shape of the lens and secretes aqueous humor, the fluid in the front part of the eye Fundus coloboma Very large fundus coloboma (absence of tissue) may cause whitish appearance of pupil. The fundus is the part of the eye opposite the pupil Toxocara Endophthalmitis Infestation by dog roundworm or cat roundworm

Severe vitreous inflammation causes the whitish appearance of pupil Norries Disease X-linked recessive disorder in males with bilateral mass formation behind the lens

The patient may have mental retardation and deafness Incontinentia Pigmenti X-linked dominant disorder in females

Retinal vascular disease and skin pigmentation may be present Familial Exudative Vitreoretinopathy Condition that prevents blood vessels from forming at the edges of the retina

The management of retinoblastoma involves a multidisciplinary approach and involves ophthalmologists, pediatric oncologists (doctors who specialise in cancer in children), pathologists, radiation oncologists (doctors who specialise in giving radiotherapy for cancers) and genetic counsellors. The primary focus of treatment in advanced disease is the preservation of life; however modern techniques have more precise goals like preservation of the eyeball and vision as far as possible.

The treatment of retinoblastoma involves strategically choosing among the various available modalities according to the individual case. This would depend on laterality, stage of the disease, age of the child and presence of spread at the time of diagnosis. In children who present with advanced disease contained in one eye with no visual potential in that eye, that eye is surgically removed , resulting in a 95- 99% cure rate. Where there is visual potential or in bilateral tumors, chemotherapy (treatment with anti-cancer drugs) is the treatment of choice. Chemotherapy is often used in conjunction with other modalities, especially in the concept of chemoreduction, wherein the size of the tumor is reduced with chemotherapy, thus rendering the tumor amenable to one of the local therapies.

The following table lists some of the important modalities of treating retinoblastoma.

Various treatment modalities for retinoblastoma Chemotherapy (use of anti-cancer drugs) Intravenous (injection into the veins of the arms) To reduce the size of the tumor which is beneficial for additional local adjunctive treatments including cryotherapy and laser

Useful in large and bilateral tumors

Number of cycles of treatment depends on the stage Intra-arterial (injection into the ophthalmic artery which supplies the main central artery of the retina) Useful in selected cases, and in vitreous seeds (free floating groups of tumor cells in the vitreous).

Useful as primary therapy

Reduces risk of systemic toxicity (toxicity to the remaining organs in the body)

Drugs used are melphalan, topotecan and carboplatin Periocular (injection into the tissue around the eyeball) To provide extra drug dose near the tumor in advanced cases Intravitreal Injection into the vitreous of melphalan (with or without topotecan) is useful in cases of vitreous seeding following treatment of retinoblastoma Laser Photocoagulation Laser application with argon or diode laser Useful in small tumors

May be used as an adjunct to chemotherapy

2-3 sessions at monthly intervals Cryotherapy Exposure of the tumor to very cold temperatures May be used in small primary or recurrent tumors Brachytherapy Placement of a radioactive implant (Iodine-125 or Ruthenium-106) on the sclera near the base of the tumor Useful in medium- sized peripheral tumors Enucleation Surgical removal of the tumor containing eyeball Performed in eyes with large tumors (that are contained within the eyeball) and where there is no visual potential Transpupillary thermotherapy (with or without the aid of indoycanine green) Application of heat through the pupil by infrared diode laser May be used in isolation for small tumors External beam radiotherapy Application of radiation to the eyeball region from outside Used along with chemotherapy for spread of the cancer outside the eye. Very rarely used nowadays because of the danger of complications, like inducing second primary malignancies, and local facial abnormalities

Retinoblastoma is fatal if untreated due to spread to the brain and various organs of the body. Since early diagnosis and treatment is optimal in industrialised countries, the prognosis for the eyes is very good. The latest techniques of intra-arterial chemotherapy (referred to as ophthalmic artery chemosurgery or OAC) and intravitreal injections have reduced the need for removal of the eyes, and for external beam irradiation. However, long term outcomes still depend on the development of secondary tumors, predominantly bone tumors. The risk of second tumors increases with radiation for the treatment of the original condition.

Adult survivors of retinoblastoma often have subnormal visual function.

Children with unilateral retinoblastoma without a germline mutation have a very small risk of developing a tumor in the other eye. A regular clinical eye examination and ultrasound examination is recommended.

With treated bilateral retinoblastoma, clinical examinations are conducted every 3-6 months up to the age of 7 years, then annually, and later every 2 years for life not only for new retinal tumors, but also for other second non-ocular tumors.

Patients with heritable retinoblastoma should preferably avoid radiotherapy, tobacco and exposure to sunlight (agents that damage DNA and thus predispose to cancers) to reduce the risk of second non-ocular tumors.

Individuals with retinomas (non-cancerous retinal tumors) should undergo clinical examination and imaging every 1-2 years to detect malignant (cancerous) change.

Genetic counselling forms an integral part of the management of a patient with retinoblastoma. The susceptibility to heritable retinoblastoma is inherited in an autosomal dominant manner. Unfortunately, genetic counselling is very complicated in retinoblastoma and depends on the type of retinoblastoma and genetic testing. The following table gives the risk of having children with retinoblastoma, and the risk for subsequent children if one child develops the disease.

Parent has - Risk of having a child with retinoblastoma If one child has retinoblastoma, risk for subsequent children getting retinoblastoma Bilateral retinoblastoma 45-50 % 45-50 % Unilateral retinoblastoma 7  15 % 45-50 % Unaffected < 1% 5% Unaffected , but a carrier 45-50 % 45-50 %

The above table is a simplified version, and actual risks should be determined after molecular genetic testing of the blood of at risk persons.

Retinoblastoma can only be prevented by proper genetic counselling, wherein parents do not go in for more children if there is a high risk for developing retinoblastoma.

Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis may be made by testing the embryo after in-vitro fertilisation (test tube baby). If found to have the retinoblastoma gene mutation, then implantation may be deferred, thus preventing a pregnancy in which the child is at risk.

Prenatal genetic testing (during pregnancy) may be done by chorionic villus sampling (cells from placenta) before 12 weeks of pregnancy, or from amniotic fluid (after 12 weeks of pregnancy). If found to be positive for the mutant gene, then fetal ultrasound can be used for early detection of tumors, and an early delivery may be planned to start early treatment. However, non-continuation of pregnancy has certain medical and legal issues which need to be ascertained.
ST. PAUL  The 2020 Minnesota legislative session kicked off with cacophony this week as groups aiming to raise their issues to the top of the legislative priority list staked out the House of Representatives and the Senate.

With a two-year budget out of the way, state lawmakers come into the session without constitutional responsibilities. And groups pushing for gun control, drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants, ratification of the Equal Right Amendment, legalization of recreational marijuana and a host of other issues hoped to make their way to the top of lawmakers' policy priority list right out of the gate.

Some took creative measures to get lawmakers' attention by holding up signs that spelled out "Welcome Back" as legislators returned to the House and Senate chambers. Others donned wedding gowns and chains around their wrists to generate support for an effort to outlaw marriage before age 18.

And while their efforts raised the volume at the Capitol, it wasn't clear they'd raised the level of concern they were striving for in the divided state Legislature. As demonstrators shouted outside the Senate chamber Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka implored legislators to moderate their expectations with the reality of the split government in mind.

"We're going to push back and forth, but as we do that, the things that are there for us to do, that we actually have the ability to do, that we feel like there's some agreement, let's not miss them," he said.

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After one lawmaker tried in vain to close out the legislative session early to save taxpayers some money, the Legislature got to work picking up some of their top priorities for this session.

Dueling affordable insulin proposals hit the fast track in the House and the Senate, though lawmakers pushing them still couldn't reach a compromise about what a program should look like.

And with $1.3 billion in budget surplus funds hanging out for them to divvy up, lawmakers laid out their priorities for where the money should go.

Here's a look at what went down in the first days of the legislative session.

Insulin plans get fast-tracked, but no clear compromise

Two proposals aimed at improving access to insulin for diabetics who can't afford it were some of the first bills to be debated this week and legislative leaders committed to putting the plans on a fast track to House and Senate floor approvals.

But after months of behind-the-scenes conversations aimed at drawing Republican and Democrat-drafted plans closer to a compromise, there wasn't a noticeable shift toward agreement on either side of the Capitol.

Despite that, House Speaker Melissa Hortman and Gazelka said the distinct House and Senate plans would be moved forward quickly in the next couple weeks.

"It is our goal to try to work at similar speed to actually pass an insulin (bill)," Gazelka said. "I think you'll see that there's movement. I see light at the end of the tunnel."

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Hortman, a Brooklyn Park Democrat, in the first hours of the legislative session urged Republicans to support a plan put forth by Democrats, which would require insulin manufacturers to pay a fee to fund emergency insulin supplies for uninsured diabetics and those who couldn't afford the hormone. The Republican plan, by contrast, would require manufacturers to donate insulin to be supplied to diabetics in need.

"It is time for Senate Republicans to take a step toward us and acknowledge that the pharmaceutical industry has a role to play," Hortman told reporters on Tuesday. "This is a problem they created. This is a problem they profit from. It's time for them to come to the moderate middle where were standing waiting for a deal."

As that plan advanced through various committees this week, representatives from Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America said the measure infringed on drug manufacturers' constitutional rights. And they floated the possibility of bringing a lawsuit against the state if it passed.

Gov. Tim Walz on Friday told reporters that the drug manufacturers had a right to bring a lawsuit against the state if they didn't agree with the measure, but suggested that wouldn't bode well for them in the court of public opinion.

"The first week of session pharmaceutical companies are threatening to sue because we are trying to get insulin to Minnesotans who dont have it. That to me doesnt bode well at all," Walz said. "My words to them is, Bring on that court case."

Plans for $1.3 billion surplus come to the forefront

Within the first hours of the new session, legislative leaders made their opening arguments for how the state could best use a projected $1.3 billion budget surplus.

Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, made the pitch for a $500 million boost to early childhood opportunity scholarships, the state's child care assistance program and increases in rates of reimbursement for early learning and child care providers in Minnesota. They said one-time funding could help ease the child care crisis in Minnesota and improve education outcomes for Minnesota toddlers.

Meanwhile, Republicans who hold the majority in the Senate said Minnesota seniors deserve a break and that should come through exempting social security income from state taxes. Providing the tax relief to Minnesota seniors could help convince them to stay in the state and in the workforce longer, GOP leaders said.

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Decisions on how to spend the state's extra funds likely won't come until later in the legislative session. Walz said he'd have a better idea of what the state should do with the funds after state budget officials provide a clearer picture of the state's financial status later this month.

Forum News Service reporter Sarah Mearhoff contributed to this report.
Youre going to face a 35% solution or youre going to face this one, he warned, predicting that lawmakers would not make significant headway on providing property tax relief this session.

Opponents of LR 300CA argued that the measure would force huge hikes in taxes on purchases that would fall mostly on middle-class Nebraskans. They also questioned how the proposal would work.

John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, said his organization has looked at similar proposals through the years. He said lawmakers should not act on the proposed constitutional amendment without knowing more about how the new tax would be applied and what rate would be required to replace current state and local government revenues.

A study commissioned by Nebraskans Supporting the Fair Tax concluded that the consumption tax rate of 11.08% would bring in about $9.9 billion a year, which they estimated would be enough to replace individual and corporate income taxes, state and local sales taxes, property taxes and the gas tax.
A.E. Hotchner, a well-traveled author, playwright and gadabout whose street smarts and famous pals led to a loving, but litigated memoir of Ernest Hemingway, business adventures with Paul Newman and a book about his Depression-era childhood that became a Steven Soderbergh film, died Saturday at age 102.

He died at his home in Westport, Connecticut, according to his son, Timothy Hotchner, who did not immediately know the cause of death.A. E. Hotchner, known to friends as Ed or "Hotch," was an impish St. Louis native and ex-marbles champ who read, wrote and hustled himself out of poverty and went on to publish more than a dozen books, befriend countless celebrities and see his play, "The White House," performed at the real White House for President Bill Clinton.

He was a natural for Elaine's, the former Manhattan nightspot for the famous and the near famous, and contributed the text for "Everyone Comes to Elaine's," an illustrated history. Hotchner's other works included the novel "The Man Who Lived at the Ritz," best-selling biographies of Doris Day and Sophia Loren, and a musical, "Let 'Em Rot!" co-written with Cy Coleman. In his 90s, he completed an upbeat book of essays on aging, O.J. in the Morning, G&T at Night. When he was 100, he wrote the detective novel The Amazon Adventures of Aaron Broom. At 101, he adapted Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea for the stage.

He was a memorable storyteller, sometimes too memorable. Hotchner wrote an article about Elaine's for Vanity Fair that included an anecdote about director Roman Polanski making advances on a woman on the way to the funeral of his wife, Sharon Tate, murdered in 1969 by Charles Mansons followers. Polanski sued the magazine's publisher, Conde Nast, for libel and in 2005 was awarded some $87,000, plus court costs, from a jury in London.

The son of a furrier who went broke during the Depression, Aaron Edward Hotchner was born in 1917 in St. Louis, a city he would recall with deep affection despite times so dire he claimed to have eaten paper to fight hunger. Hotchner wrote about his youth in "King of the Hill," published in 1972 and adapted 20 years later into a Soderbergh film of the same name.

Clever and determined, Hotchner managed a scholarship to Washington University, where he and Tennessee Williams both worked on the schools student magazine. Hotchner then joined the Air Force, a time he recalled good-naturedly in the memoir "The Day I Fired Alan Ladd, and Other World War II Adventures." After the war, Hotchner settled in New York and became an editor at Cosmopolitan, and worked on literary fiction.

One submission was J.D. Salingers Scratchy Needle On a Phonograph Record, a World War II story the author gave to Hotchner under the condition that nothing  not a comma  be altered. Hotchner, who had been friendly with Salinger, came through  almost. The actual story was printed intact, but the magazine changed the title to Blue Melody.

Salinger never spoke to Hotchner again.

Around the same time, however, Hotchner lucked his way into literary history. Cosmopolitan wanted Hemingway to write an article about "The Future of Literature" and sent Hotchner to Cuba to track him down. So began a friendship that lasted until Hemingway's suicide, in 1961. From Spain to Idaho, they hunted, drank, attended bullfights. They lived through Hemingway's inspiring highs and fatal lows, chronicled by Hotchner in "Papa Hemingway," which came out in 1966 and has been translated into more than 25 languages.

But the book has a troubled history. Hemingway's widow, Mary Hemingway, sued unsuccessfully to stop publication, alleging that Hotchner had violated the privacy of herself and Hemingway. (She was reportedly upset that he contradicted her contention that her husband had only accidentally shot himself). Critics, meanwhile, doubted the accuracy of the many long dialogues between Hotchner and Hemingway.

"Once you learn the rhythms of speech of a person, the actual words resonate with you," Hotchner explained during a 2005 interview with The Associated Press. "I can hear him right now. `How do you like it now, gentlemen?' Things he said. You're sort of born with that I guess, a kind of tape that runs through your head."

Their relationship was also professional. Hotchner often served as his agent, helped edit his bullfighting book The Dangerous Summer and helped come up with the title for the posthumous release of Hemingways memoir about Paris, A Moveable Feast. In the 1950s and early 60s, he adapted several Hemingway stories for television, including "The Battler," which led to his first meeting with Newman.

James Dean had agreed to star as the faded ex-boxer, but he soon died in a car crash and his role was taken by Newman. He and Hotchner became friends, pranksters, fishing buddies, neighbors and business partners. When the actor wanted to sell his homemade salad dressing at some local shops, he called on "Hotch" to help out.

"That was just a joke," Hotchner told the AP in 2005. "It was something on the fly. `Let's put up $40,000 and we'll be businessmen.'"

Their caper turned into the multimillion-dollar Newman's Own nonprofit empire of salad dressing, popcorn, lemonade and assorted recipes, all proceeds going to charity, notably the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for kids with life-threatening illnesses. After Newmans death, in 2008, Hotchner wrote about his friend in Paul and Me." Other projects in recent years included a collection of letters between himself and Hemingway and a reissue of his Hemingway memoir. In 2013, he was among the commentators seen in Shane Salernos documentary about Salinger.

Hotchner was married three times, most recently to actress Virginia Kiser. He had three children and numerous animals over the years, including peacocks, pedigreed chickens, and an African parrot, named Ernie.

(Image Credit: AP)
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on Sunday visited churches in Old Goa, including the Basilica of Bom Jesus where relics of St Francis Xavier are preserved.

He also paid a visit to the Institute Mater Dei Santa Monica, a church in the Old Goa heritage complex, and the Christian Art Museum located in the premises. All these structures at Old Goa, located about nine km from Panaji, are part of the complex certified as world heritage monuments by UNESCO.

Basilica of Bom Jesus rector Fr Patricio Fernandes told reporters that he showed de Sousa the cascade containing relics of St Francis Xavier. "The Portuguese president prayed to the relics of St. Francis Xavier and went around to see the building, which was constructed in 1605," he said.

The president was "impressed" with the structure and the spiritual vibes at the Basilica, he added. The relics of Spanish saint are revered across the world by faithfuls. The Portuguese president arrived on a two-day visit to Goa on Saturday after which he chaired a function where several MoUs were signed between Goa and Portugal in sectors like education, ship-building, water and sewage management.

He also addressed a seminar on 'Urban Designs' in Panaji on Saturday before attending a dinner hosted by Goa Governor Satya Pal Malik. The Portuguese president on Saturday said he was feeling at home in India, especially in Goa because of the coastal state's "human micro-climate". He said there are no first-class or second class cultures. "All cultures are first-class cultures and civilisation," he added. Goa was under Portuguese rule till early 1960s.
Arvind Kejriwal arrives at Ramlila Maidan, where thousands have gathered to witness him, who led his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to another stunning victory in the assembly elections, take oath as the chief minister of Delhi for the third time in a row.

The AAP romped to a magnificent victory in the Delhi Assembly election, in which the party won a thumping majority of 62 seats in the 70-member Delhi assembly for the second time since 2015. The Bharatiya Janata Party got the rest of the eight seats.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to turn up at the Ramlila Maidan as Kejriwal and his ministers take the oath of office.

Heres what you need to know about the ceremony:

Who will take the oath?

Apart from Arvind Kejriwal, six of his party leaders will also take oath as part of his cabinet. Kejriwal is likely to retain all the six ministers who served his government in the previous term  Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Imran Hussain, Gopal Rai, Rajendra Gautam and Kailash Gehlot.

Kejriwal hosted a dinner meeting for his cabinet colleagues to discuss the roadmap for the future development of the national capital as well as the initiatives to be implemented by the party in the first three months of the governments term.

Who is attending the ceremony?

Kejriwal and several of his party member through from-page advertisements in newspapers and tweets have urged the people of the city to witness the son of Delhi taking oath on Sunday.

He has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seven lawmakers of the Bharatiya Janata Party who represent the city and all the eight of its newly-elected members of legislative assembly to his swearing-in ceremony. The Prime Minister, who is scheduled to visit his parliamentary constituency Varanasi, is unlikely to attend the ceremony.

A group of 50 commoners will be sharing the stage with him under the banner of Dilli ke Nirmata or the architects of Delhi.

The special invitees will include doctors, teachers, sanitation workers, bus conductors, bus drivers, marshals deployed for women security, auto-rickshaw drivers, farmers, anganwadi workers, athletes, IIT and medical students enrolled under scholarships, PWD engineers, businessmen, mobile ambulance operator, relatives of firefighters and police officials who lost their lives on the line of duty and the chief architect of Signature Bridge Ratan Jamshed Batliboi, among others.

Baby Mufflerman Aavyan Tomar, the toddler who stole hearts when he dressed up as Arvind Kejriwal on counting day, is also likely to attend the swearing-in ceremony.

Where will it be held?

The sprawling Ramlila Maidan in the heart of the city has been chosen once again by the AAP for the oath-taking ceremony.

Ramlila Maidan is associated with the AAP and the 51-year-old bureaucrat-turned-politician since 2011 when he and other members of the party took part in the India Against Corruption movement led by social activist Anna Hazare.

And, this will be the third time Kejriwal will be taking oath as Delhis chief minister for the third timefirst in 2013 and then in 2015.

What are the arrangements in and around the venue?

More than 150,000 people are expected to turn up at the Ramlila Maidan, where multi-layered security has been put in place.

As many as 3000 AAP volunteers will help in crowd management and more than 5000 security personnel, including the personnel of Delhi Police and paramilitary forces, have been deployed for the ceremony.

Police will also keep an eye on the venue through closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera. Restrictions have been enforced in the Ramlila Maidan area from 8am to 2pm on Sunday.

Traffic advisory

Delhi Traffic Police have issued an advisory regarding the movement restrictions.

Vehicles can be parked behind Civic Centre, Mata Sundari Road, Power House Road, Velodrome Road, Rajghat Road, Shanti Van Parking, Service Roads Rajghat and Samta Sthal.

OB Vans shall be parked on the footpath of JLN Marg, opposite Ramlila Maidan beyond Gate no 2 up to Kamla Market, the advisory said.

The entry of commercial vehicles and buses have been restricted in few places such as Rajghat Chowk and Delhi Gate Chowk towards Guru Nanak Chowk via JLN Marg.

No commercial vehicles and buses will be allowed from Chatta Rail towards Delhi Gate Chowk via Netaji Subhash Marg, Paharganj Chowk towards via Netaji Subhash Marg, Paharganj Chowk towards Ajmeri Gate via DBG road.

Similar restrictions are there on Ram Charan Aggrawal Chowk towards Delhi Gate chowk via Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg as well as on DDU Minto Road towards Kamla Market Chowk via Vivekanand Marg and Barakhamba Tolstoy towards Ranjit Singh Flyover.
By Doina Chiacu and Jason Lange

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidates said on Sunday billionaire Michael Bloomberg should face the same rigorous scrutiny as his rivals and they would welcome the chance to square off with him in a 2020 presidential debate.

Bloomberg, a media mogul and former New York City mayor, has vastly outspent other Democratic candidates in campaign advertisements. He was a late entry into the 2020 race for the nomination to face Republican President Donald Trump in November, and has not qualified for any presidential debates.

But Bloomberg will be included in Wednesday's event if he scores higher than 10% on one more public opinion poll.

"He just can't hide behind the airwaves," candidate and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I can't beat him on the airwaves but I can beat him on the debate stage and I think people of America deserve that to make a decision."

Former Vice President Joe Biden said he would challenge Bloomberg over his mayoral record, specifically his support for a policing strategy known as "stop and frisk" that was criticized for ensnaring disproportionate numbers of blacks and Latinos. Bloomberg apologized for it in November, shortly before announcing his candidacy.

"The point is that $60 billion can buy you a lot of advertising, but it can't erase your record," Biden said on NBC.

Bloomberg's campaign has also faced accusations he made inappropriate comments toward women and that his company, Bloomberg LP, fostered a hostile environment for female employees. His campaign has denied those allegations.

In a Jan. 15 interview with ABC's "The View," the 78-year-old Bloomberg said his company, which provides news and financial information to Wall Street, has "very few" cases of sexual harassment given its large size, and said he thinks "most people would say we're a great place to work."

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The Washington Post on Saturday published what it said was a copy of a 32-page booklet distributed at a party in 1990 that included sexist remarks by Bloomberg, reportedly compiled by his colleagues. Reuters was unable to independently view the material.

The Washington Post also chronicled numerous discrimination lawsuits filed against Bloomberg LP over the last three decades.

In one notable instance, a saleswoman filed a lawsuit alleging that when she told Bloomberg she was pregnant in 1995, his response was, "Kill it." Bloomberg has denied making the remark, and the lawsuit was settled.

"IT'S EMBARRASSING"

On Sunday, Bloomberg campaign spokeswoman Julie Wood said of the Washington Post report: "Virtually all of this has been reported over the past two decades. In any large organization, there are going to be complaints - but Mike simply does not tolerate any kind of discrimination or harassment, and he's created cultures that are all about equality and inclusion.

Asked about the Washington Post report, Pete Buttigieg, the Democratic presidential candidate and former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, told "Fox News Sunday", "I think hes going to have to answer for that and speak to it."

About 10% of Democrats and independents who are women support Bloombergs nomination bid, the same share as in the general population, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling conducted between Jan. 22 and Feb. 10.

Other Democratic candidates have faced issues involving women. Last spring, two women accused Biden of unwanted physical contact, prompting him to say "expressions of affections" were misconstrued. Last year, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders apologized to women who alleged they were sexually harassed or mistreated by male members of his 2016 presidential campaign.

In his interview on "The View," Bloomberg expressed regret over telling racy jokes in the past. "Did I ever tell a bawdy joke? Yeah, sure I did. And do I regret it? Yes. It's embarrassing," he said. "But, you know, that's the way I grew up."

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Jason Lange, Additional reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and David Gregorio)
Grandmother arrested after a 12-year-old was taken from hospital at gunpoint
The Scout movement is investigating whether a branch in Lebanon is training young people to become Islamic terrorists, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The Imam Al-Mahdi Scouts, which has 45,000 members  boys and girls  is officially recognised by the World Scouting Movement, whose mission is 'to help build a better world'.

The Lebanese group uses the famous fleur-de-lis logo adopted by Lord Baden-Powell, the British Army officer who founded the Scout movement in 1908, and members wear its traditional uniforms and scarves.

But the Al-Mahdi group is actually the youth wing of Hezbollah, one of the world's most feared terrorist groups, which is accused of slaughter and suicide bombings in Israel, Lebanon and parts of Syria.

The Scout movement is investigating whether a branch in Lebanon is training young people to become Islamic terrorists. Pictured: Imam Al-Mahdi members with a Hezbollah fighter (face obscured) in an image on Facebook

Last year, the British Government added Hezbollah 'in its entirety' to its list of proscribed terrorist organisations. The list previously included only its military wing.

This newspaper can reveal that young recruits to the Al-Mahdi Scouts are groomed from the ages of four to become supporters and fighters for Hezbollah, which is backed with funds and weaponry from Iran.

The Scouts have provided 'honour guards' at the funerals of known Hezbollah terrorists, while other members have been pictured posing with armed fighters, wearing military uniforms and headbands with anti-Israel slogans such as 'Jerusalem  We Are Coming!'

However, the Al-Mahdi Scouts continues to be an official member of the Lebanese Scouting Federation and the wider World Scouting Movement, which is championed by British explorer and TV personality Bear Grylls, Chief Scout of the UK's Scout Association.

The group has previously denied reports that older Scouts are given military training with weapons but it has admitted that many of its adolescent members go on to become fighters for Hezbollah, which has waged a guerrilla war against Israel for decades and is now is fighting alongside the brutal Assad regime in Syria.

Intelligence sources claim more than 200 former members of the Al-Mahdi Scouts have died fighting against Israel and in the civil war in Syria.

Pictured: Imam Al-Mahdis fleur-de-lis

The Facebook page of the Scout group this week promoted a 2020 calendar featuring a picture of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who last month vowed to orchestrate attacks on Western targets in revenge for the killing of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian military commander who died in an American drone strike.

Other posts by the group included images of young Cub Scouts pointing towards Israel with slogans promoting Hezbollah's so-called 'resistance' to the occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Membership of the Al-Mahdi group is limited to young Shia Muslims in Hezbollah's heartlands in southern Lebanon, Beirut and the Beqaa Valley.

Last night, the World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM) announced it had launched an investigation into this newspaper's findings.

Spokesman David Venn said: 'WOSM disapproves of any practices that misuse the Scout programme to involve children and youth in political recruitment or in using the Scout programme for affiliation with any political party.'

The World Scouting Conference, the governing body of the international scouting movement, is due to meet in Egypt later this year, where delegates could consider the future of Al-Mahdi Scouts and the Lebanese Scouting Federation.

At a 1999 conference, delegates voted to ban Iran from World Scouting.
The dark side of the human personality has long been arousing keen interest among psychologists and ordinary people. Research on human behaviour reveals that everyone has a dark side but the important factor is how to control it to avoid causing pain, anxiety and suffering to other people.

The dark side of human behaviour exists everywhere, including offices, schools, workplaces, politics and these unprofessional or negative attitudes of humans are seen as selfishness, greediness, oppression, intimidation, bullying, hired killings, etc, because those behind such evil acts are seen as people that lack empathy and sympathy.

We must understand how strong these negative forces of human behaviour control them to give us the reasons for leaders whose ambitions to be great and famous instead become failures. In the worlds political history, Mussolini of Italy, Emperor Hirohito of Japan, were classified comparisons of Hitler.

Surprisingly, in some publications, U.S. President Donald Trump, Movie director Michael Bay, Conservative talk host Glenn Beck, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Pope Benedict XVI, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Terrorist Osama bin Laden, the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. President George W. Bush, etc, have all been classified as a modern era, Adolf Hitler.

However, let us come closer to the African continent if we can find such African leaders with the lack of empathy and similar instincts of Hitler on our shores, since the wealth on the African continent, has created certain African leaders monsters and dictators, to starve their own people, persecute, loot state treasures, transfer large sums of money overseas and fill their pockets with impunity.

Some of the dead African leaders who killed their own people to hold on to power were Idi Amin of Uganda, Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic, Sani Abacha of Nigeria, Mobutu Sese Seko of Congo, while some of the living, today, are Francisco Macias Nguema of Equatorial New Guinea, Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda.

Most of the African leaders without empathy and sympathy believe that to be a successful leader, the need to rule with an iron fist is necessary but at the long run, they fail because of their inability to understand, manage relationships with people, and also to understand the needs of people, to take the necessary steps to execute effective and successful leadership.

Why is it so difficult for many African leaders gifted in everything, including oil, gold, diamond, etc, can't do what is needed in the right way? Why do African leaders who sincerely want to do everything right end up doing it wrong?

Common Africans have been fighting fruitlessly to protect their environments but the fact that some of the political leaders are among those degrading the environments to fill their pockets, nothing significant is being achieved.

Above all, why all African leaders live exorbitantly luxury lifestyles than developed world leaders, yet lack the knowledge to utilize the resources and maintain a flexible economy?

One significant mistake by African leaders, including Ghanaian leaders is that they praise ineffective achievements as effective, in this way; they cant see their failures to improve. They also polish their weaknesses to effectiveness because they fear to lose power.

But one thing most of the greedy and selfish African leaders often forget is even though they are in power, that force of power belongs to voters. Unless elections are rigged, they can easily lose that throne at any time.

It is, therefore, very important for African leaders to listen to the voices of the suffering masses, instead of being stubborn and unfriendly.
By Douglas Busvine

BERLIN, Feb 16 (Reuters) - The head of publisher Bertelsmann said its TV arm RTL should be allowed to merge with German rival ProSiebenSat.1, to give them a fighting chance against U.S. streaming giants.

Thomas Rabe's comments - in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung published on Sunday - come as European broadcasters explore ways to join forces against the onslaught from established players Netflix and Amazon Prime that are now being joined by Disney and Apple.

"It is vital that sensible partnerships, and even large mergers, are allowed in order to create national champions in television - for example between RTL and ProSiebenSat.1," Rabe said.

"Otherwise, national companies will simply have no chance in a few years against the giants from Silicon Valley," added the Bertelsmann boss, who took personal charge over its largest unit RTL last year.

ProSieben has become the focus of takeover speculation after Italy's Mediaset amassed a 15.1% stake in the Munich-based broadcaster towards the end of last year.

Mediaset, run by the son of former premier Silvio Berlusconi, has described its ProSieben stake as defensive. At the same time it is trying to persuade ProSieben CEO Max Conze to join a pan-European broadcasting alliance it is setting up.

Conze has so far resisted Mediaset's overtures, preferring to search for ways to cooperate on individual projects.

Reacting to Rabe's comments, ProSieben said: "No talks are taking place at the moment on mergers or acquisitions."

In a statement, ProSieben highlighted work on its adtech joint venture with RTL, called d-force, and repeated its earlier invitation to RTL to sign up to Joyn, its streaming venture with U.S. partner Discovery Inc.

Rabe, in his FAS interview, said it was vital to deregulate the European TV industry because the rules governing it predate the creation of platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Netflix.

Story continues

"Competition law does not take into account the forms in which the U.S. platforms are increasingly coming to dominate the media and advertising," he said.

Although he was wearing two hats as the boss of both Bertelsmann and RTL, Rabe said that did not signify the parent company would increase its 75% stake in the TV unit, nor would it seek a delisting.

"RTL Group is and will remain an independent business," he said. (Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  Sun, February 16, 2020 16:51 695 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2064dc164 2 SE Asia #USA,#coronavirus,woman,patient,Malaysia,cruise-ship Free

An American passenger from a cruise ship docked in Cambodia has tested positive for the new coronavirus a second time in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia said on Sunday, after the cruise operator sought further tests.

Malaysia said on Saturday the 83-year-old woman who had been onboard the MS Westerdam, operated by a unit of Carnival Corp , had tested positive for the virus after arriving in Kuala Lumpur from Cambodia. She was the first from the ship, which was carrying 1,455 passengers and 802 crew, to test positive.

But the cruise ship operator had sought more tests. Cambodian authorities also called on Malaysia to review its test results.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Waz Azizah Wan Ismail said on Sunday a retest was carried out on the American late on Saturday night and she tested positive again. Her husband tested negative.
The Social Democratic Party (PSD) must return to the table of the European dialogue and give up non-constructive, aimless attitudes, the party leader, Marcel Ciolacu, said on Sunday.

"I wish and strongly believe that the PSD needs to regain its dimension as European party. We must reconnect with Europe! The PSD must return to the table of the European dialogue and not go back to closed, non-constructive and aimless attitudes.We must advocate with dignity, but also with wisdom for the interests of our country. This is the PSD's path, this is Romania's path!," Ciolacu wrote on Facebook.
The government has incurred an expenditure of Rs 1.4 crores for providing security of those who are sitting on dharna against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), said Additional City Magistrate (ACM), Moradabad.

"The government has spent Rs 1.4 Crore till now for providing security to those who are on Dharna against the CAA. Imran Pratapgarhi has been warned, that if peace is disturbed due to dharna or any damage to the public or private property takes place, then the loss would be compensated from the organizers, and those participating in the protested," said Rajesh Kumar, ACM, Moradabad.

Meanwhile, a Lucknow court on Thursday found 13 people guilty of damaging public property during the anti-CAA protests in Khadra area in Trans Gomti on December 19 last year and ordered recovery of over 21 Lakhs (estimated cost of damage done to the public property) from them within 30 days.

Protests erupted in different parts of the country including Uttar Pradesh over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. The CAA grants citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Parsi, Buddhist and Christian refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 00:45:59|Editor: huaxia

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Anti-tariff posters are seen on a life vest outside the building of U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington D.C., the United States, June 17, 2019. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

"While this progress is a good first step, the administration must negotiate a Phase Two Deal that completely lifts all tariffs," said Jonathan Gold, spokesperson for Americans for Free Trade.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Americans for Free Trade, a coalition of more than 150 industry associations, has urged the Trump administration to remove all additional tariffs, as the China-U.S. phase-one economic and trade agreement takes effect on Friday.

"It's encouraging to see some of the Phase One Deal come to fruition. American businesses, farmers, consumers, and workers certainly need these (tariff) reductions, as they have been paying the price for these tariffs since the trade war began," Jonathan Gold, spokesperson for Americans for Free Trade, said in a statement on Friday.

As part of the China-U.S. phase-one trade deal signed last month, the U.S. government has agreed to cut additional tariffs on roughly 120 billion U.S. dollars worth of Chinese products from 15 percent to 7.5 percent.

China also announced last week that it would halve rates of additional tariffs on 75 billion dollars worth of U.S. products. Both of those tariff modifications are set to take effect on Friday.

"While this progress is a good first step, the administration must negotiate a Phase Two Deal that completely lifts all tariffs," Gold said.

An unnamed Chinese official with the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council also said last week that "it is our hope that both sides will work together toward ultimately removing all additional tariffs."

Multiple researches by American economists have showed that additional tariffs imposed by the United States against its major trading partners since early 2018 have led to higher prices, ultimately hurting the overall U.S. economy.

Overall, Americans have paid an additional 50 billion dollars in tariffs since February 2018 through December 2019, according to new data released by anti-tariff campaign group Tariffs Hurt the Heartland on Monday.

The U.S. trade coalition's statement came after a survey showed Thursday that members of the U.S.-China Business Council (USCBC) overwhelmingly view the China-U.S. phase-one trade deal as positive for the commercial environment and bilateral relations.

Among those with a positive view, the majority believes the agreement stabilizes their bilateral relationship and prevents imminent imposition of new tariffs, according to the USCBC, which represents over 200 U.S. companies that do businesses in China. 
The 38-year-old man charged with felony aggravated kidnapping is accused of holding a woman against her will and sexually assaulting her for several days, according to an arrest affidavit.

Police arrested Steven Rendon late Friday after the woman was able to escape and call for help.

The woman said she had gone to Rendon's house last week near the far West Side. She said she was in the Jacuzzi with Rendon when he became upset with the way she looked at him and assaulted her, the affidavit said. Rendon then threatened to hurt the woman if she attempted to leave, the affidavit continued.

Rendon took the woman's phone and locked all the doors to the home and proceeded to assault the woman for days, according to the affidavit.

After Rendon gave the woman back her phone, she answered a call from her mother but did not ask for help because she was afraid Rendon was listening. She then said she had a family emergency and had to leave for the hospital. When Rendon dropped her off at the hospital, she ran to a nearby restaurant to call for help, according to the affidavit.

Police said Rendon fled when they arrived.

Police later arrested Rendon, but gave no details on where the arrest occurred. His bail was set at $50,000.

It is unclear from the affidavit how long the woman was held against her will.

The investigation remains active, according to the police.
Katherine Tyler/MSG PhotosWhen he announced he'd be doing a residency at New York's Radio City Music Hall, Josh Groban said he wanted each show to be different. Well, it's safe to say fans who attended the kickoff show on Friday got to see a performance that definitely won't be repeated.

The Valentine's Day show opened with a video of Josh nervously getting ready for the show, with some help from his pals Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. That gave way to Josh in person -- sitting at a piano that rose up out of the stage -- singing Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind" against a gorgeous backdrop of New York City visuals.

The show continued to mix comic filmed visuals with performances -- occasionally at the same time, as when Josh serenaded his girlfriend with "Unforgettable," backed by a montage of photos and videos which were deliberately chosen to be as embarrassing as possible.

Another video piece had Josh forcing his way onto the carriage rides of tourists in Central Park, asking them personal questions and even singing for them. Most of the couples were then revealed to be sitting in the front row of the show on Friday night -- he'd given them all tickets.

Josh did more than just provide a ticket for a talented cellist who plays in the New York City subway system: He allowed the guy his very own spotlight number. The musician, known only as Eyeglasses, is actually a second-year medical student. He used a loop pedal and electric cello to perform an incredible rendition of Lewis Capaldi's "Someone You Loved," earning a standing ovation.

Josh's most unexpected guest -- but most appropriate, given that it was Valentine's Day -- was beloved 91-year-old sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer. Josh attempted to interview her, but Dr. Ruth hilariously controlled the conversation, which ended up with them duetting on "You Are My Sunshine."

And of course, between all the comedy bits, which included audience participation and a guest spot from comedian and cabaret star Bridget Everett, Josh sang. There were songs from his albums -- including "Brave," "February Song," "Symphony," "You're Still You" and, of course, "You Raise Me Up" -- as well as some number he doesn't usually sing, including The Pretenders' "I'll Stand by You," Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and Charles Aznavour's "She."

By the end of the night, Josh had his band, plus a chamber orchestra, plus guest musicians Steve Jordan, Pino Palladino and Isaiah Sharkey from John Mayer's band and an entire choir onstage with him.

Josh's final number was a rocking cover of Elton John's "Empty Sky" -- now available for streaming -- which he sang as heart-shaped confetti rained down on the audience.

Additional performances of Josh Groban's Great Big Radio City Show are set for April 18, June 20 and September 26.

Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(Bloomberg) -- Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said Russias leaders are hinting that he should accept a merger of their two countries in return for getting cheaper oil and gas, amid a squeeze on energy supplies from his giant neighbor.

Lukashenko said hes certain neither Belarusians nor Russians want to go this way, during a visit to factory workers on Friday, according to his website. He described talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi last week as peculiar.

While Putin has unveiled planned constitutional changes that may allow him to keep power in Russia beyond the end of his presidential term in 2024, when he must step down, he has also pressed Lukashenko to agree to a merger between the former Soviet republics, according to two Kremlin officials. Absorbing Belarus would offer Putin another option to sidestep term limits by becoming the head of a new Union State.

Amid a dispute over the price of Russian oil supplies to Belarus, Lukashenko said Putin questioned why he would seek crude from other countries if it was more expensive. So that we dont have to be on our knees on Dec. 31 every year, Lukashenko said he replied, in reference to annual contracts negotiated with Russia.

The Kremlin didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. Lukashenko, whos ruled since 1994 and faces re-election later this year, signed a treaty with Russia under then President Boris Yeltsin to establish a Union State in principle in 1999, but has resisted recent Kremlin pressure to bind the countries more tightly together.

Russia, which used to meet almost all Belaruss oil and gas requirements, cut supplies of crude by three-fourths in January over the pricing dispute. Officials in Moscow warned flows may stop completely if Belarus doesnt agree to market prices. Lukashenko has retaliated by declaring he wants to reduce dependency on Russian oil to about 40% and get the rest from other countries.

While theres nothing wrong with working on greater integration with Russia, this will cover purely economic questions and wont involve the creation of any supranational bodies, Lukashenko told the factory workers.

Story continues

To contact the reporter on this story: Aliaksandr Kudrytski in Minsk, Belarus at akudrytski@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net, Tony Halpin, Michael Winfrey

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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The June 2019 raid related to a series of ABC reports in 2017 called The Afghan Files, based on leaked defence documents. David William McBride, a former military lawyer, has previously admitted leaking material to the ABC that formed the basis of its reports and has been charged with a raft of criminal offences. AFP officers leave the ABC headquarters in Ultimo after the June 2019 raid. Credit:Wolter Peeters The AFP wrote to ABC reporters Dan Oakes and Sam Clarke in September 2018 and said they were suspected of criminal offences relating to the alleged receipt of information from Mr McBride. At a hearing in October, Melbourne barrister Matthew Collins, QC, for the ABC, told the Federal Court the raid was "nothing short of an intimidating attack on freedom of the press".

He said it sent a "sent a chilling message that there can be very grave consequences" for people exposing alleged wrongdoing to journalists. Loading "The warrant provided no protection at all to confidential sources," Dr Collins said. The ABC challenged the validity of the search warrant on a number of bases, including that the decision to grant it, made by a NSW Local Court registrar, was legally unreasonable. In written submissions, lawyers for the ABC said a "reasonable person" in the position of the registrar would have declined to issue the search warrant having regard to a range of factors, including "the very significant intrusion of privacy that the search warrant purported to authorise" and the "importance of the protection of sources".

The broadcaster also contended that the implied freedom of political communication in the Commonwealth Constitution served as a handbrake on the circumstances in which a warrant may be issued. Justice Abraham said the broadcaster's submission relating to the protection of sources "elevates source protection to a position which, on the current state of the law, it does not have". The protection afforded to journalists' sources was not absolute and "an informant cannot be promised or guaranteed anonymity". Justice Abraham said that while the ABC had "repeatedly stated it was not arguing for a position of immunity from investigation of offences for journalists, or for the proposition that there is a guarantee of anonymity for a confidential source", as a "matter of logic" those propositions "do underlie its arguments". The so-called "chilling effect" on the willingness of sources to come forward "would still exist" in any case, Justice Abraham said, unless the ABC was "contending for a position where no search warrant could be issued in relation to media premises (of the type and in the circumstances of this case) where there is a risk of such [confidential] information being held".

Peter Greste, spokesperson for the Alliance for Journalists' Freedom, said the decision was "a powerful reminder of the need to write the principle of press freedom into the very DNA of our legal code, so that the courts have a clear obligation to take it into account whenever they deal with these kinds of cases". "We acknowledge the important role of the security agencies in protecting national security. In seeking to enforce the narrow letter of the law, however, they have undermined the media's role in maintaining the health of our democracy, and as a result, made the entire system less transparent and less stable," Mr Greste said. Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, chair of the Senate inquiry into press freedoms, said the ruling showed our press freedom laws are broken. If the law wont protect journalists then we must have legislated safeguards to guarantee the freedom of the press and whistleblower protections. These protections must be independent of the government, she said. A government spokeswoman said: A number of Parliamentary inquiries are currently on foot in relation to freedom of the press. The Government will consider the recommendations of these inquiries.

In a joint statement, shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus and Labor spokeswoman for communications Michelle Rowland said the ruling confirmed journalists still faced the threat of prosecution and jail just for doing their job. Labor has made clear our commitment to freedom of the press and the publics right to know and we expect the government to quickly bring forward appropriate legislation to address the concerns of the Right to Know coalition [of media organisations, including the ABC and Nine]. The court heard the AFP advised the ABC months before the raid that it would seek a search warrant. In an email on January 24 last year, federal agent Ian Brumby proposed the broadcaster be given two to three weeks collate material within the terms of the warrant, which would then be collected by the AFP. Michael Rippon, a lawyer in the ABC's legal department, gave evidence in October that he had a further conversation with Mr Brumby in February last year in which the federal police agent said words to the effect of "we don't want any sensationalist headlines like 'AFP raids ABC'". The ABC declined to assist and the AFP raided the broadcaster's Sydney headquarters on June 5, a day after they executed a separate search warrant on News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst's Canberra home over an unrelated story.
Ferrets are still not legal in California, but Pat Wright of La Mesa continues to push for change.

Wright, who heads a local pro-ferret group, appealed Tuesday to the El Cajon City Council to declare the city ferret friendly, similar to what neighboring La Mesa did last year.

For more than 20 years, Wright and Legalize Ferrets, a group of California ferret owners and supporters, have been lobbying across the state to have the animal taken off the restricted species list of the California Fish and Game Commission.

They have not been successful  and have been actively seeking local support similar to La Mesas City Council, which in the fall agreed unanimously to pen a proclamation declaring La Mesa a ferret-friendly city.

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The animals are legal in 48 states. Hawaii has also banned them because of concerns about the animals being potential carriers of rabies.

The animals are restricted by some individual cities in the United States, including Washington, D.C., and New York City.

Ferret ownership can carry up to a six-month jail term and a $1,000 fine in California. Wright said that as far as he knows, No one has been fined or jailed for about five years.

Mayor Bill Wells did not promise to follow La Mesas lead, but said that he and the members of El Cajons City Council would look over information Wright shared about ferrets.

I have nothing against ferrets, Wells told Wright and Anita Higuera, another speaker who touched on the benefits of legalizing ferret ownership.

He agreed to meet with Wright to talk more about the issue, but later noted that he wanted to discuss the matter with City Manager Doug Williford and the city attorneys office.

Wright explained briefly about the ferrets plight in California and misinformation surrounding the animals. He also acknowledged that the legalization of ferrets in California is considered a joke issue by most legislators.

Wright has expressed interest in bringing the issue up for local friendly approval in Encinitas and further north in Culver City.

El Cajon, unlike Encinitas, is very fertile ground for ferret legalization, Wright said. There is at first a little incredulity as Here come the crazy ferret people, but the request and the reason behind it make a lot of sense. A proclamation from the city of El Cajon gives us credibility.

Legislators dont take us seriously. This would help a lot and we like being respectfully listened to.

Ferrets are members of the mustela family, which starting in 1933 in California were deemed wild and prohibited to be kept as pets.

The Fish and Game Commission maintains that animals like ferrets pose a threat to native wildlife, the states agricultural interests, and public health and safety.

The department permits ferrets, but only under special circumstances, such as medical research or to take confiscated or rescued ferrets out of California.

Legalize Ferrets started a ballot initiative in 2015 with a goal of 92,000 signature but didnt collect enough to move it forward. They have been pushing for regulation changes in the state since 1995.

Ferrets are the only domestic animal regulated by Fish and Game, and Wright believes the issue should instead belong under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture.

Wright said no actual numbers are kept on how many ferrets are in California homes, but he said he is certain that the state has more ferrets than any other state. He said that nearly one-quarter of the nations ferret supplies are sold to people in California.

Wright said that the moniker of a city being ferret friendly is only symbolic but hugely so.

We need legislators to take us seriously and this helps, he said.

karen.pearlman@sduniontribune.com
We need leaders like Mitt, but leaders like Mitt are what led us to Trump.

Most people probably desire a leader who is all things at once: strong, wise, smart, courageous, willing to fight, and deeply good.

But history teaches that when people feel threatened and desperate, theyll choose a leader willing to fight over one who is simply good.

Ive always liked Sen. Mitt Romney. He is probably the most decent, most generous, and most honest man to have been nominated for president by either party in the last two hundred years.

And his recent stand in the Senate proves he is indeed a man of conscience. His solitary vote among those in his party to remove President Donald Trump from office couldnt have been easy. That took courage.

But when Romney was the 2012 GOP nominee for president, when the party really needed him to stand up and be an honorable and effective fighter, he proved himself to be ... just honorable.

Same goes for the late Sen. John McCain, the Republican Partys nominee in 2008. He failed to attack Obamas bad ideas in any serious way during the campaign. McCain was also an honorable man, but he seemed more comfortable arguing with his fellow Republicans than with the Democrats nominee for president.

And same goes for George W. Bush, another good man. He wouldnt counter-punch when needed, as if it was beneath his character, as if it was beneath the office.

Many of us agree with him.

Oh, to live in a country where fighting isnt necessary because the best ideas always win the day.

Oh, to follow a leader of high, noble character who peacefully leads us to a brighter future with no opposition.

It hurts to concede, but thats not the world we live in. A frictionless future is a fiction.

But putting up a good fight doesnt mean we have to be nasty.

Shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves, as the Gospel of Matthew says. The key is to be both.

But in recent years, Republican leaders have often flown high above the fray only as doves, meaning many Americans felt like they were left to fend for themselves alone in the dirt  where they were regularly mocked and attacked.

Which may be how  beaten, bruised, and mad  many arrived at Trump.

When the wise among us wont lead, wont protect, wont defend, wont fight, it seems well look for someone  jawbone of an ass in hand  wholl just start swingin.

When leaders of high character wont punch back, its clear well settle for one of very low character who will.

Which isnt good for our country, even if, yes, Trump has done many good things in office.

I support a great deal of what the president has done, Romney said in his speech. I voted with him 80 percent of the time.

I feel the same way.

For example, Trump was the first president to attend and speak at the recent March For Life. Why was he the first? Why wouldnt Bush stand with those getting mocked in the public square?

But Trump is all punch, as his combative attitude at the recent National Prayer Breakfast showed.

Hes all serpent, no dove.

And we desperately need both: smart leaders of exceptionally high character who will fight with honor.

What does honorable fighting look like?

We should attack peoples actions and ideas, not who they are.

We should be quick to listen and quick to acknowledge good points made by the opposition -- while firmly, strongly, relentlessly arguing our own.

We should appeal to reason, as well as seek to stir the truth written on hearts.

Do you have the high character of Romney with a just-right dose of Trumps fighting spirit?

Are you serpent and dove?

Then, please. Step up. Be a leader.

We need you.

Rachel Blackmon Bryars is a Huntsville-based columnist for Al.com, co-host of Belle Curve Podcast and managing partner of Bryars Communications, LLC. Keep up with her work on her Facebook page.
Somrita Ghosh By

NEW DELHI: Vijay Kumar, a beneficiary of the Delhi governments Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana and Lajwanti, a safai karamchari (sanitation worker), would be among the 45 guests, picked from a diverse spectrum of the society, at the swearing-in of Chief Minister-designate Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet on Sunday.

While Kumar won himself a coveted ticket to IIT-Delhi, drawing the benefits of free tuition under the state scheme, Lajwanti has been labouring away diligently over the last nine years.

These special guests to the swearing-in function, to be held at the sprawling Ramlila Maidan, have been labelled as Delhi Ke Nirmaatas (makers of Delhi).

ALSO READ: Multi-level security arrangement for Arvind Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony

They include school teachers, students, Anganwadi workers, social activists, wives of slain service personnel and firefighters, PWD engineers, pharmacists, auto-rickshaw drivers, sanitation workers, farmers, bus conductors and drivers, marshals deployed on buses, athletes, beneficiaries of the states scholarship schemes, architects and agents of the governments doorstep delivery service.

This is a win for all residents who dream of a better Delhi. The chief minister has decided to invite people representing diverse sections of the society and different occupations. They will be our main guests, Manish Sisodia, AAP MLA from Patparganj, said.

ALSO READ: 'Suit Up Junior' - 'Baby Mufflerman' gets special invite for Kejriwal's oath-taking ceremony

This government has accorded me a lot of respect. I consider it an honour and privilege to represent the army of bus marshals. We strive every day to ensure security of women riding our public buses. This is government is serious about womens safety, said Arun Kumar, a DTC bus marshal who made headlines after saving a six-year-old girl from being kidnapped in the Dhaula Kuan area. He will take one of the chairs reserved for guests at the February 16 event.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will begin his daylong tour to his parliamentary constituency Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday by offering prayers at the temple of Jagadguru Vishwacharya Shankar Ji at the Jangamwadi Mutt.

At the mutt, PM Modi will participate in the ceremony of the Veer Shaiva Mahakumbh, a month-long celebration to mark the completion of 100 years of its gurukul.

Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel, chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa will accompany the Prime Minister during his over an hour-long visit to the mutt.

Jangamwadi Mutt chief Jagadguru Dr Chandrashekhar Shivacharya Mahaswami will welcome Modi and the visiting dignitaries.

A large number of followers of the mutt have come from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and several other states for the event.

PM Modi will also address the students studying scriptures and the Vedas at the gurukul. He will release a translated version of Shri Siddhant Sikhamani Granth in 19 languages and also launch Shri Siddhant Sikhamani Granth mobile application.

He will then dedicate a memorial to Deendayal Upadhyaya to the nation and unveil a 63-feet tall statue of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) thinker in Parao area on Chandauli-Varanasi border.

District magistrate Varanasi Kaushalraj Sharma said Modi will dedicate 36 developmental projects worth Rs 1056 crore and lay the foundation of 14 projects worth Rs 200 crore.

This will include a 430-bed super-speciality government hospital and a 74-bed psychiatry hospital at Banaras Hindu University (BHU).

The super-speciality hospital, built at a cost of Rs 164 crore, will serve about 200 million people from seven neighbouring states and Nepal. Modi had laid the foundation of the facility in December 2016.

He will also flag off the Mahakal Express through a video link. The train will connect the three jyotirlinga pilgrim centres of Varanasi, Ujjain and Omkareshwar. This will be the first overnight-journey private train in the country, the government said.

Then he would go to the trade facilitation centre where he would participate in Kashi Ek, Roop Anek event, showcasing local crafts at the Deendayal Upadhyay Trade Facilitation around 15km off the memorial.

He would give away solar lights and solar looms to weavers, electric chalk to potters and machine to make leaf plates to craftswomen.

UP minister Siddharth Nath Singh said that around 5000 people, including craftsmen, potters and weavers would attend the event, where PM Modi would address them.
One of Brisbane's oldest and most prestigious university colleges has welcomed female students for the first time in its 108-year history.

More than 70 young women moved into the University of Queenslands King's College on Sunday, leaving only one of St Lucia's 10 colleges men-only: St Leos.

Ashleigh Hockings, 19, is one of the first women to be admitted into King's College at the University of Queensland. Credit:Lydia Lynch

Almost half of King's College's 174 new enrolments are women, with females now making up a quarter of its 320 residents.

The college, which has had a reputation for fostering a misogynistic culture, will see a number of its O-Week initiation activities shaken up "to accommodate both men and women".
(Newser)  A woman arrested on suspicion of fatally stabbing an acquaintance during an argument in a Maryland home has been identified as the daughter of a former US ambassador, reports the AP. Sophia Negroponte, 27, has been charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Yousuf Rasmussen, 24, of Bethesda, at a residence in Rockville late Thursday, according to Montgomery County police. According to charging documents, arriving officers found Negroponte lying on top of Rasmussen, who was "suffering from what appeared to be a cutting wound," per CNN. Negroponte is the daughter of former US diplomat John Negroponte and one of five children that he and his wife adopted in Honduras in the 1980s when he served there, according to the Washington Post.

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Diana Negroponte, Sophias mother, told the Post that their daughter has their total support. We love her deeply, she said. Police spokesman Rick Goodale said Sophia Negroponte is due in court on Tuesday for a bond review hearing. Police arrested her at the scene of the stabbing. Rasmussens body was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy, police said. Detectives determined Rasmussen was stabbed during a disagreement with Negroponte inside the home, police said. In 2005, President George W. Bush appointed John Negroponte as the nations first intelligence director. He later served as deputy secretary of state. He also has been ambassador to Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines, the United Nations, and Iraq.

(Read more John Negroponte stories.)
Beijing, Feb 17 : Nearly 4 million workers from China's primary-level medical and health institutions have played an important and unique role in the fight against the coronavirus, a health official said on Sunday.

The medical institutions include both community health service centres in cities and clinics in rural areas, said Zhu Hongming, an official with the National Health Commission, adding that some of them provide round-the-clock services, the Xinhua news agency reported.

In the wake of the outbreak, medical workers at the primary level have engaged in timely detections of fever patients and suspected cases to ensure the implementation of isolation and patient transfer, while they also need to carry out daily diagnosis and treatment for common diseases and the management of chronic diseases, Zhu said.

The medical workers have conducted carpet screening alongside community workers, informing residents who need to carry out home-based isolation and checking their temperature every day, the official said.

Zhu noted that medical workers also work in places with heavy flows of people such as airports and ports to help cut off virus transmission routes at the front lines.
Caroline Flack told how she shared a life-long close bond with her twin sister Jody and the pair 'enjoyed the other's life vicariously' ahead of her death yesterday.

The former Love Island presenter killed herself at her new flat in Islington, north London hours after finding out she would face trial over the alleged assault of her boyfriend Lewis Burton, 27, last year.

While Jody kept herself out of the limelight that surrounded her sister, the pair were inseparable growing up, even sharing the same bed until they were four years old.

Caroline Flack told how she shared a life-long close bond with her twin sister Jody (pictured together in 2014) and the pair 'enjoyed the other's life vicariously' ahead of her death yesterday

Carline said: 'Jody is a mum with three beautiful children, so we have completely different lives, but we each enjoy the other's life vicariously.' Pictured: The twins when they were younger

But even though they shared a special bond, the pair 'lead very different lives', she told The Daily Express.

She said: 'Jody is a mum with three beautiful children, so we have completely different lives, but we each enjoy the other's life vicariously.'

Jody is mother to Zuzu, Willow and Delilah.

She added: 'Im very lucky to have a twin. We're very close - we shared a bed until we were four and we were in the same class at school - but we're quite different'.

While mother-of-three Jody kept herself out of the limelight that surrounded her sister, the pair were inseparable growing up, even sharing the same bed until they were four years old

Last year, the sisters went on holiday to France and Caroline shared a photo of herself embracing Jody while the pair went for a swim.

Alongside the snap, Caroline wrote: 'Spotted... Caroline with someone her own age.. her twin @jody.flack'.

In 2018, to celebrate the twins' birthdays, Caroline shared some old photos on Twitter with the caption: 'Today isnt just my birthday but its my twin sisters too!

'I cant explain what its like to be a twin because I dont know any different.

Jody was seen driving Harry Styles to the train station when he was reportedly dating Caroline in 2012

'But what I do know is that we will always look after each other and not let ANYONE or anything come between us. Shes also a complete tw** like me. Love you Jo x."

Jody was seen driving Harry Styles to the train station when he was reportedly dating Caroline in 2012.

Caroline took her own life while the producer friend who was staying with her went to the shops.

When the friend was unable to get back in, she called Flack's father Ian, who made his way into the property before discovering his daughter's body.

The tragic news of Caroline's death was confirmed by her family, who said in a statement yesterday: 'We can confirm that our Caroline passed away today on the 15th February. We would ask that the press respect the privacy of the family at this difficult time.'

Flack leaves behind Jody, her elder sister Elizabeth, her elder brother Paul, and her parents Christine and Ian.

Flack leaves behind her twin sister Jody, her elder sister Elizabeth (back right), her elder brother Paul (back left), and her parents Christine (centre) and Ian (taking the picture)

A neighbour told MailOnline emergency services were first seen outside the star's home at 1pm on Saturday, with funeral directors arriving hours later around 5pm.

They said: 'There were loads of police and ambulance there all day - all the way up the road - until they left the area about 8 o' clock'.

Later, a member of Flack's management team said the CPS should 'look at themselves' and claimed they were pursuing a trial 'without merit', which resulted in 'significant distress to Caroline'.

The saga surrounding her court case saw her 'step down' from hosting Love Island, which began its first ever winter series in South Africa at the beginning of the year and is now being hosted by Laura Whitmore.

ITV and Love Island producers will now come under scrutiny for prompting that decision and what support they gave her. Reality shows have been warned by Ofcom that they have a duty of care towards their stars.

If you have been affected by this story, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 14

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

The volume of export from Turkeys Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir cities to Azerbaijan amounted to $80.6 million in January 2020, Turkeys Ministry of trade told Trend.

In January 2020, export from Istanbul to Azerbaijan increased by 45.49 percent compared to January 2019, exceeding 69.6 million.

Meanwhile, export from Ankara to Azerbaijan dropped by 8.61 percent and amounted to $6.3 million.

According to the ministry, export from Izmir to Azerbaijan increased by 7.37 percent, and exceeded $4.6 million.

In January 2020, Turkeys export to Azerbaijan increased by 33.58 percent compared to January 2019, reaching $118.3 million.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
The first part discussed the demanding needs of this Harare congregation and we catch up with the story at this point -

Sadly, the small group couldnt raise enough to support the minister, however when he left, they continued to gather, singing songs, praying and waiting for breakthrough to come as adding donations to a locked box the former pastor had left.

Then, some ladies in the church asked Guide to preach. Somewhat forthrightly they announced that they had tasked him with preparing a sermon for the following week. Somewhat taken aback by this request, Guide told them he didnt have a Bible. The retort from the ladies was Thats why we asked you a week early!.



There was no getting around this, so taking up the challenge, Guide joined the local scripture union to find inspiration for his message and was given a Bible by one of the members. After preparing a sermon based on material he obtained, he found that he actually had a gift of preaching. The congregation were thrilled by his message! There was no going back from there, and Guide became the preacher over the next two years from age 15.

Two years after the tent crusade had completed, the original minister who preached there came to visit the village and was astounded to see that the group was still meeting! He wanted to know who was preaching, and they invited him to hear Guide speak. He was sufficiently impressed to endorse Guides role as a preacher. As a gift to the visiting minister, he received the original locked donation box the small church had been contributing to over all these years.

Guide continued to lead the church, and was eventually heard by a visitor from African Enterprise called Sheke Masila, who happened to run the youth evangelistic program. Recognising Guides ability to reach to younger people, Sheke invited Guide to join the Foxfires.

Guide became one of six Foxfire leaders, preaching in farms, cities and border towns and then he was accepted into a Pentecostal bible college.

The Principal accepted Guide in good faith, recognizing that Guide had no financial support but would pay colleges fees when he could, and he offered every service he could including food and board until Guide could achieve this. God will provide, Guide told the Principal, and indeed that came to pass, with an anonymous donor taking care over all his costs over three years.

With support funds received, he was able to assist not only his fellow students, but his sisters who needed assistance to attend school. After all the challenges , he reconciled with his dad and family and finally his dad provided some support and a new suit for his graduation day!

Guides ministry progressed as an evangelist and church planter, and he planted new congregations in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and even in the UK. He took on other roles with Bible Society (as Chairman) and leadership roles within the church and faith based organisations, before finally being appointed Team Leader of African Enterprise in 2011.

Through his varied life experiences, in obedience to the Great Commission and Great Command Guide retains his passion to see every believer have their own bible, for lives and communities to be transformed through Jesus. He wants to encourage all of us to stay strong in the faith and reach others for Jesus. Who knows if there is another budding evangelist like Guide, just waiting for the opportunity to witness to hundreds of thousands of people and bring many into the kingdom of God, through Word and Deed.

For those of us reading his story, Guide provides with some final encouraging words. God does not call the qualified but he qualifies the called, he said. Do not be limited by your background, upbringing or past experiences.

Like in my testimony, God can turn your trials in triumph, your testing in to a testimony, your rags into riches, stumbling blocks in to stepping stones, your bitter lemon into lemonade according to Ephesians 3:20.

I therefore challenge you in your sphere of influence to seriously consider giving chance and opportunity to those budding, passionate, gifted and talented people, quite promising, but lacking the means and encouragement.

More details about AE evangelists and their countries of operation are found here: https://africanenterprise.com.au/our-locations/
SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar on Saturday said that banks will "have to pay the price" in case any telecom firm files for bankruptcy, a day after the Supreme Court made it clear that telecom companies will have to pay the Rs 1.47 lakh crore in past dues.

The chief of the country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) said it is in the "wait-and-watch mode" and the onus of ensuring telecom companies' compliance with the Supreme Court order lies with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) under the government.

"If there is a negative impact on any enterprise, it impacts a larger ecosystem, whether it is banks, whether it is employees, whether they are vendors, consumers, so everybody gets impacted. So, that impact, when it comes, we will have to pay the price," Kumar said, when asked about the impact on banks if telcos move towards bankruptcy.

He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the unveiling of artworks namely 'Manasvi' and 'Tapasvi' at the Local Head Office (LHO) here. Around 400 computers, more than 2,000 microchips, over 400 keyboards and above 200 discarded credit cards were used to create the two artworks.

He added that the closure of any corporate impacts the country's economy and, therefore, the endeavour is to prevent the shutting down of any enterprise.

Asked if any telco account is currently classified as non-performing asset (NPA), he said there are two accounts, Aircel and RCom, that went into bankruptcy.

Besides, he said that SBI will not pass on the burden of the hike in premium of deposit insurance to its customers.

"We never recovered the premium from customers, we will not do it now either. As far as the impact of the rise from 10 paise to 12 paise is concerned, earlier if we were paying Rs 3,000 crore now we will pay Rs 3,600 crore premium," he said.

Following the failure of a number of cooperative banks, with Mumbai-based PMC Bank being the latest and the largest last year, the government hiked the deposit insurance coverage to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 1 lakh in the Union Budget 2020-21.

"The premium is something which, we consider, will increase from 10 paise to 12 paisa per Rs 100 for the time being. So, the impact on banks' balance sheets is not likely to be much," RBI Deputy Governor B P Kanungo said recently.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Saturday said the central bank will have internal discussions in case there are any issues arising out of the Supreme Court order regarding adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues to be paid by telecom companies.

On Friday, the Supreme Court threatened contempt proceedings against top executives of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and other telecom firms for failing to comply with its directive to pay an estimated Rs 1.47 lakh crore in past dues.

However, Das did not offer any specific comments about the order, which might have ramifications on banks in terms of their exposure to the financially-stressed telecom companies.

The payments to be made by the companies include Rs 53,000 crore by Vodafone Idea, Rs 35,500 crore by Bharti Airtel and Rs 14,000 crore by the now-defunct Tata Teleservices.
John Farnham reunited with Olivia Newton-John at the Fire Fight Australia bushfire relief concert in Sydney on Sunday.

The 70-year-old performed three songs and a duet with the Grease star, before allowing Mitch Tambo the honour of joining him to deliver a rendition of his legendary hit You're The Voice.

Mitch received a standing ovation as he sang the iconic lyrics in his indigenous Gamilaraay language.

A show to remember: John Farnham, 70, reunited with Olivia Newton-John, 71, at the Fire Fight Australia bushfire relief concert in Sydney on Sunday

Mitch, who starred on the 2019 season of Australia's Got Talent, gave his all as John happily stepped back to allow him the honour of covering his beloved hit.

Proving to be a song to remember, John, Olivia and Mitch were also joined on stage by Queen's guitarist Brian May, 72.

John also pleased his dedicated fans by performing his popular tracks Pressure Down, That's Freedom, Age Of Reason, as well as Two Strong Hearts with Olivia, 71.

Incredible moment: John allowed Mitch Tambo (pictured) the honour of delivering a rendition of his hit You're The Voice in his indigenous Gamilaraay language

All the hits: John also pleased his dedicated fans by performing his popular tracks Pressure Down, That's Freedom and Age Of Reason

Olivia looked radiant as she emerged on stage in a casual chic ensemble, finished off with perfectly styled blonde tresses and an understated makeup palette.

In a heartfelt moment, a number of male and female firefighters were also ushered on stage, in order to be recognised for their efforts.

The 10-hour charity event resulted in $9.5million raised for bushfire relief efforts.

Iconic duet: The veteran entertainer also sung his hit Two Strong Hearts with Olivia

Beautiful: Olivia looked radiant as she emerged on stage in a casual chic ensemble, finished off with perfectly styled blonde tresses and an understated makeup palette

Comedian Celeste Barber was chosen to host the televised event after she raised a staggering $52million for Australia's rural firefighters through a campaign on Facebook.

The event featured other artists including 5 Seconds of Summer, Michael Buble, Alice Cooper, Baker Boy, Conrad Sewell, Daryl Braithwaite, Delta Goodrem, Illy, Grinspoon, Guy Sebastian, Hilltop Hoods and k.d. lang.

Australia's bushfire season arrived early in October 2019, resulting in 28 deaths, and more than 2,000 homes destroyed.

It's been estimated that over a billion animals have died across the country.

All the stars: Proving to be a finale to remember, John, Olivia and Mitch were also joined on stage by Queen's guitarist Brian May (far right), 72
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  For I.S. Leevy Johnson, the Democrats search for a challenger to take on President Donald Trump is personal.

There is what I call an ABT mood in the black community: Anybody but Trump, said the 77-year-old who was the first black graduate of the University of South Carolinas law school. It has people of color very motivated and excited about voting this time because they know how his administration has adversely affected them.

Now, as the election calendar turns to Nevada and South Carolina, states with substantial minority populations, that "anybody moves closer to being identified. But the next stage in the nominating fight will test candidates such as Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Their success thus far has come in front of overwhelmingly white electorates in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Its also a potential last comeback opportunity for former Vice President Joe Biden. He finished poorly in those first two contests but argues he has durable support among the minority voters who will soon make their choices.

Nevadas caucuses are this coming Saturday and will feature a growing population of Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Yet no single place in the early going is as important as South Carolina. Up to two-thirds of voters in the Feb. 29 primary could be African American. Biden, more than any other candidate, must show he can win their allegiance.

One candidate who will not be tested in Nevada or South Carolina is Mike Bloomberg, the former New York mayor and billionaire owner of a financial services and media empire. Bloomberg has spent heavily from his personal fortune in states with sizable minority populations that will vote in the March 3 primaries. The Super Tuesday contests are the first where his name will appear on the ballot.

It adds up to a muddled field that lacks clarity even after Iowa and New Hampshire had their turns., Moderates have splintered their votes and created space for Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, to take on the mantle of a front-runner without having reached 30% in either of the first two voting states.

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That intensifies the spotlight as minority voters in Nevada and South Carolina in trying to clarify the party's search for "anybody to match against Trump.

The system is garbage, said Jason Johnson, a professor at Morgan State University and a high-profile African American political commentator. He argued that the primary calendar should immediately subject candidates not just to racial and ethnic diversity but also regional and ideological differences, and the full city-to-farm spectrum. Im not sure this process actually can identify the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump, he said.

Jason Johnson said he doesnt blame the candidates because they are merely reacting to a process that harms everybody. But I.S. Leevy Johnson, the South Carolina businessman and lawyer, said it too easily makes key constituencies in the party an afterthought. People of color are tired of these promises that candidates are going to do things, and when they make those promises, when they get elected, they dont perform, he said.

Even belatedly, the remaining candidates certainly are trying.

Sanders fell short in 2016 to Hillary Clinton for the nomination in no small part because of his struggles to attract older nonwhite voters. For 2020, he has hired as a senior adviser one of the top Latino strategists in the party, Chuck Rocha. Sanders' lead surrogates include Nina Turner, a former Ohio state lawmaker and leading black progressive, and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the young progressive icon. Sanders campaign, buoyed by strong grassroots fundraising, has invested heavily in social media and radio advertising targeting black and Latino audiences, including stations on Spotify and Pandora.

I think we're going to do very well in the African American community, Sanders said in a brief interview. I think we're going to do well among working people of all races.

In Nevada, Biden campaigned on Saturday in a high school gymnasium covered in signs that read: Biden Trabajando por Nevada (Biden Works for Nevada). The reason why we are here: 99% of the African American vote hasnt spoken yet and 99% of the Latino vote hasnt spoken yet. He hammered away at Trumps immigration policies and rhetoric.

But Biden has embraced South Carolina especially, even skipping out on his New Hampshire primary night party last Tuesday for a hastily arranged event in Columbia, the South Carolina capital.

Biden is banking on voters such as Jean Hopkins, an 88-year-old retired nurse, who came to hear him. Youll lose some but you may gain more, she said of his losses in Iowa and New Hampshire. And hes not going to stop. ... He needs our help.

Biden and Sanders lead in endorsements from members of South Carolinas Legislative Black Caucus. Biden also promotes a network of black religious leaders who back his candidacy. But hes facing a push from California billionaire Tom Steyer, who has spent considerable sums on advertising in South Carolina.

We are really serious about South Carolina. We are really serious about Nevada, Steyer said on CBS' ``Face the Nation" on Sunday. He said those states reflect the kind of diversity that is America and that is the Democratic Party. And I think whoever is going to be the candidate has got to be able to show that he or she can pull together that diverse big tent that is the Democratic Party.

In Nevada, Biden has the backing of the states lone black congressman, Steven Horsford, and Dina Titus, who represents the diverse Las Vegas-based district.

But theres a wild card in South Carolina.

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the highest-ranking black member of Congress, is close to Biden but hasnt said whether he will endorse at all. Clyburn is the rare political figure whose public blessing could matter to voters.

I think that we're going to have a real spirited contest, Clyburn told CBS' Face the Nation'' on Sunday. He said Steyer was doing an incredible job. ... Money makes a difference. Steyer has it. He's been spending it. And he's reaping the rewards.'' Clyburn added that Buttigieg is doing "very good" and Biden is leading among African-American voters in South Carolina by a wide margin.

Buttigieg is dispatching minority surrogates such as Mayor Quentin Hart of Waterloo, Iowa, and former Iowa state Rep. Deborah Berry. Bloomberg, in the same week he spent confronting criticism of his record on race, launched a Mike for Black America effort alongside black endorsers including Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C.

The chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, Gilberto Hinojosa, whose state is among the biggest delegate prizes on Super Tuesday, praised all the remaining candidates. But he lamented that several minority candidates, including some political heavyweights, were forced from the field either before voting began or after the first two contests. Among them: Julian Castro, a former Obama Cabinet secretary; Kamala Harris, a California senator; Cory Booker, a New Jersey senator; and Deval Patrick, a former Massachusetts governor.

In South Carolina, I.S. Leevy Johnson offered similar laments, noting that he had supported Harris and now must hope a white nominee selects her or another person of color as the vice presidential nominee. Regardless, Johnson projected optimism.

I just dont think people should misinterpret the impact of those two outcomes in Iowa and New Hampshire, he said. Now, he said, the sleeping giant of nonwhite voters can emerge. If the giant rises up and goes to battle in November, someone opposing Trump will be victorious.

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Barrow reported from Las Vegas and Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press reporters Alan Fram in Washington and Meg Kinnard in Columbia contributed to this report.

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Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly ``Ground Game politics podcast

___

This story has been corrected to reflect that Sanders' surrogate Nina Turner is a former Ohio state lawmaker, not a former Virginia state lawmaker
"Where have all the spies gone?" asks Joan Dalgleish of Ballina." Can anyone remember when spies became operatives? The Operative Who Came In From The Cold doesnt have the same ring somehow. And are two spies now a co-operative?"

Vivien Hughes of Eden just had a light-bulb moment. "I had been wondering what ladies' stockings had to do with climate change then realised, in that context, that 'denier' means person who denies  not the quality of nylon stockings." Given nylon was originally synthesised from coal, calling a denier a nylon seems quite fitting.

The talk of leap years (C8) and non-existent days reminded Peter Moran of Oak Flats "of September 1752, when Britain switched from the Julian to Gregorian calendar. That meant September 2 was immediately followed by September 14. Bad luck if your birthday fell between those dates." Peter added that Russia made the switch much later, which explains why their October Revolution of 1917 occurred in what we know as November.

Inspired by Malcolm Robilliard's question about silver gulls (C8), Ian Sanderson of Salamander Bay spent a large part of his daily constitutional on Birubi Beach "watching gulls persecute terns and oystercatchers attempting to make them drop morsels". It also reminded him of a notion that has intrigued him for decades: "If hot chips are so unhealthy why do gulls not plummet from the heavens in their thousands because of heart attacks?"

"Seagulls (C8) are primarily opportunistic scavengers, and will eat whatever they can get their beaks around  marine invertebrates, terrestrial invertebrates, plants, rodents, eggs, reptiles, amphibians, other birds, and, indeed, whatever they can entice humans to throw at them," observes Joel Alexander of Kensington. Joel's further observation that "seagulls can dive, but are not specialists at it", correlates with Anne Cook's observation of the gulls on the Parramatta River, where she regularly sees cormorants in a fishing frenzy. "As soon as a cormorant emerges the seagulls duck under briefly, often coming up gobbling a small fish. The cormorants seem to know where the fish are and the gulls are aware of it."
Celeste Barber has taken a savage swipe at the Australian Government while opening the Fire Fight Australia 2020 fundraiser concert at ANZ Stadium in Sydney on Sunday.

Taking the stage in the early afternoon Celeste welcomed the crowd to the event, which features a stellar line up of local and intentional artists including Olivia Newton-John, Queen with Adam Lambert and Alice Cooper.

'Man, it has been such a hectic time, hasn't it? Oh my god,' said Celeste, referring to the horror bushfires which have plagued Australia since October last year.

'We have to look after each other because people at the top don't': Celeste Barber took a SAVAGE swipe at the Australian Government as she opened the Fire Fight Australia concert at ANZ Stadium in Sydney on Sunday

'And as Aussies, we band together because we have to look after each other because it turns out people at the top don't,' she said.

'So, we need to look after each other,' she continued as the crowd erupted into cheers.

The comedian took to the stage in a short, figure-hugging top and skirt with a black denim jacket emblazoned with the slogan: 'Always was, always will be'.

Aboriginal rights: The comedian took to the stage in a denim jacket emblazoned with the slogan 'Always was, always will be'

The popular slogan has increasingly gained recognition in Australia over the last several years to campaign for increased recognition of Aboriginal sovereignty.

Celeste was chosen to host the internationally televised event after she raised a staggering $52million for Australia's rural firefighters through a campaign on Facebook.

The event features other well-known artists including 5 Seconds of Summer, Michael Buble, Amy Shark, Baker Boy, Conrad Sewell, Daryl Braithwaite, Delta Goodrem, Illy, Grinspoon, Guy Sebastian, Hilltop Hoods, Icehouse, Jessica Mauboy and k.d. lang.

Contribution: Celeste was chosen to host the internationally televised event after she raised a staggering $52million for Australia's rural firefighters through a campaign on Facebook

Less than 24 hours after tickets for the concert were released, promoters TEG Live confirmed that all the 70,000 tickets, which cost between $70 and $100, were sold out.

The ticket profits will go to several organisations assisting those affected by the recent bushfires including fire services, Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery, and the RSPCA Bushfire Appeal.

All funds raised via Fire Fight Australia's website will go directly to the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal.
KAMPALA  Uganda actress Nikita Pearl Waligwa, best known for her role Gloria in the Queen of Katwe , has died at the age of 15.

She died on Saturday night at TMR International Hospital, in Naalya, Kampala following a long period of illness of brain cancer.

Nikita Pearl Waligwa was best known for acting in the 2016 American biographical drama film Queen of Katwe the film which depicts the life of Phiona Mutesi, a Ugandan girl living in a slum in Katwe.

Nikita has been battling a brain tumour and was first diagnosed in 2016.

Consequently, she had surgery in April 2016. Shortly after the surgery, Nikita was diagnosed with cancer and she underwent radiotherapy in July 2016.

In February 2017, when she went for a review, she was declared cancer free.

However, early last year 2019, Nikita was diagnosed with another brain tumour.

A family member said Gloria was living a lot of pain.

The brain was swollen and it is exerting a lot of pressure  close family member revealed.

The movie, Queen of Katwe, is a very Disney movie in that it centers around a family and has a happy ending. But it is a very un-Disney story in that it unblinkingly examines the poverty, violence, and racism its protagonists face every day. It is, in the words of its director, a radical film for Disney in many ways.  It has beauty and barbarity side-by-side.

Related
Three women are facing assault and robbery charges after police say they beat a man Sunday morning and stole his cell phone in Boston.

The women are also accused of assaulting employees at a convenience store.

Police were called around 1 a.m. for a report of an assault in the area of 125 Tremont St.

While officers were on the way, police were told two women had also entered a convenience store in the same area and assaulted an employee inside before stealing several items, police said.

As officers arrived on scene, they observed three females punching and kicking a male on the ground, police said.

When the women saw the officers, they stopped attacking the man.

Officers spoke to the suspects who stated that the victim had approached them aggressively, asking for his cell phone, police said. The suspects stated that they did not have his phone causing the females to attack him.

The alleged victim told police he asked one of the women for a cigarette. They then suddenly attacked him, authorities said.

The victim stated that while the suspects punched and kicked him, one of them grabbed his cell phone, Boston police said. Officers asked the suspects if they were in possession of the victims phone. Two of the suspects denied they had taken the phone, but the third suspect admitted that she had in fact taken the victims phone during the assault.

The clerks from the convenience store at 125 Tremont St. approached the officers who were speaking to the suspects and the alleged victim.

The clerks said the three women had been fighting and harassing people near the store.

The clerks stated the females had been loitering in the store for an extended period of time before they were asked to leave, police said. The clerks stated the females returned to the store multiple times, throwing merchandise and assaulting them. The clerks stated the suspects left the store where they attacked another female as well.

The three women arrested by police were all charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, unarmed robbery and disorderly conduct. There were identified as: Jenna Gonzalez, 21, of East Boston; Audrina May Hebert, 18, of Malden; and Brianna Romero, 21, of Malden.

Police said they recovered a plastic bag containing cocaine from Romero while she was being booked. She was additionally charged with cocaine possession.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- If youre looking for something fun to do with your kids during mid-winter recess this week, the New York City Parks Department is hosting fun events for kids on Staten Island.

Every year we look forward to hosting Kids Week so children can enjoy free, engaging programs throughout the five boroughs, said NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver. We get a chance to put a fun spin on learning and introduce kids to new skills and experiences. Our Urban Park Rangers are experts in nature and fun, and we encourage children to come out and take advantage of their expertise first-hand.

With the kids off from school, families can head to several of the boroughs parks for free Kids Week programs with urban park rangers.

On Monday at Blue Heron Park, an event called Kids Week: All About Owls will allow kids to learn about the mysterious and nocturnal animals. Families can learn more about the special family of birds and the different types of owls.

On Tuesday at Conference House Park, the Parks Department is hosting Kids Week: Lenape Bingo from 1 to 2:30 p.m. The afternoon will feature fun games and history about Native Americans.

Kids Week: Animal Tracks will be held on Wednesday from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at Allison Pond Park. New York City is home to an amazing abundance of wildlife, from falcons and salamanders to deer and seals. Wildlife viewing opportunities exist year-round in all parks and is the perfect activity for every age.

Kids can create crafts using natural materials found outdoors with the urban park rangers during Kids Week: Winter Crafts on Thursday from 1 to 2:30 p.m. The program will be held at Blue Heron Nature Center at Blue Heron Park.

On Friday from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at Willowbrook Park, Kids Weeks Staten Island: Campfire Sing-Along, will allow kids to carry a tune with the urban park rangers and learn fire techniques, roast marshmallows, sing favorite songs and play instruments.

All are welcome to the events, but programs are geared to kids ages 12 and under. You can go to the Parks Departments website for a list of events held in all five boroughs.

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Maiduguri: An armed gang on motorbikes has attacked two villages in the north-western Nigerian state of Katsina, killing at least 30 people.

Twenty-nine people were burnt to death and nine villagers were shot dead on Friday evening in the villages if Dankar and Tsauwa as the assailants made off with food and livestock, the police said.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the north-west of Nigeria since last year, in attacks the government attributes to "bandits".

Security experts say Nigeria can ill afford more instability as it is already struggling to contain Islamist insurgencies in the north-east, conflict in central states and militant groups in the Niger Delta to the southeast.

Suspected Boko Haram Islamists killed at least 30 people on the night of February 9 in the northeastern state of Borno.
https://www.aish.com/ci/s/Presidential-Quotes-about-Jews-and-Israel.html

24 inspiring quotes from American presidents.

American presidents have long appreciated Jews and the Jewish state. Here are some inspiring quotes from presidents expressing their appreciation for their Jewish citizens and for the Land of Israel

1. Pres. George Washington, Letter to Touro Synagogue, Aug. 18, 1790:

For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protections should demean themselves as good citizens May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants, while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.

2. Pres. John Adams, Letter to Francis Adrian Van der Kemp, Feb. 18, 1809:

I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing nations. If I were an atheist of the other sect, who believe, or pretend to believe, that all is ordered by chance, I should believe that chance had ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, Almighty Sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization.

3. Pres. Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Mordecai Manuel Noah, May 28, 1818:

[The Jewish people] by its sufferings has furnished a remarkable proof of the universal spirit of religious intolerance inherent in every sect, disclaimed by all while feeble, and practiced by all when in power. Our laws have applied the only antidote to this vice, protecting our religious, as they do our civil rights, by putting all on an equal footing.

4. Pres. John Tyler, in one of the first speeches he made after taking office, 1841:

The Hebrews, persecuted and downtrodden in other regions, takes up his abode among us with none to make him afraid. He may boast...of his descent from the patriarchs of old - of his wise men in council and strong men in battle. He may even turn his eye to Judea, resting with strong confidence on the promise that is made him of the restoration to the Holy Land, and he may worship the God of his fathers after the manner that worship was conducted by Aaron and his successors in the priesthood, and the aegis of the Government is over him to defend and protect him.

5. Letter sent by Pres. Abraham Lincoln to Sec. of War Edwin M. Stanton, Nov. 4, 1862, breaking with tradition by appointing Jewish quartermasters to the US Army:

I believe we have not yet appointed a Hebrew...

6. Pres. Abraham Lincoln, responding to a visitor who proposed restoring a Jewish homeland in the Land of Israel, 1863:

I myself have a regard for the Jews My chiropodist is a Jew, and he has so many times put me on my feet that I would have no objection to giving his countrymen a leg up.

7. Pres. Grover Cleveland (after hed left office) responding to the 1903 aftermath of the Kishinev Pogroms:

Every American human sentiment has been shocked by a late attack on the Jews of Russia - an attack murderous, atrocious and in every way revolting. As members of the family of mankind, and as citizens of a free nation, we are here to give voice to the feeling that should stir...every American worthy of the name. There is something intensely horrible in the wholesale murder of unoffending, defense-less men, women and children

8. Pres. Benjamin Harrison, Annual Message to Congress, December 9, 1891:

The Hebrew is never a beggar; he always kept the law - lives by toil - often under severe and oppressive civil restrictions, is also true that no race, sect or class has more fully cared for its own.

9. Pres. William McKinley, letter to Simon Wolf, 1897:

No better class of citizens than the Jewish exists in our country, many of whom have been and are my personal friends

10. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, quoted in his autobiography (1913):

While I was Police Commissioner (in New York City), an anti-Semitic preacher from Berlin...came over to New York to preach a crusade against the Jews. Many of the New York Jews were much excited and asked me to prevent him from speaking and not to give him police protection. This, I told them was impossible; and if possible would have been undesirable because it would have made him a martyr. The proper thing to do was to make him ridiculous. Accordingly I detailed or his protection a Jew sergeant and a score or two of Jew policemen. He made his harangue against the Jews under the active protection of some forty policemen, every one of them a Jew.

11. Pres. Woodrow Wilson appointed the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis. When a friend remarked to Pres. Wilson Isnt it a shame, Mr. President, that a man as great as Mr. Justice Brandeis should be a Jew? Pres. Wilson replied, But he would not be Mr. Brandeis if he were not a Jew!"

12. Pres. Woodrow Wilson, 1917, after the Balfour Declaration affirming the Jewish peoples right to a homeland in the Land of Israel, which Pres. Wilson vigorously supported:

How proud I am that because of the teachings instilled in me by my father, it has been my privilege to restore the Holy Land to its rightful owners.

13. Pres. Warren G. Harding, in a letter to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations 1923:

One of the marvels of humanitys story has been the strength and persistence of the Jewish faith and its continuing influence and power of the Jewish people. I cannot but feel that these things are in large measure owing to the Hebrew conception of a personal God and of the individual accountability of men and women.

14. Pres. Herbert Hoover, 1932, on the 15th Anniversary of the Balfour Declaration:

I have watched with genuine admiration the steady and unmistakable progress made in the rehabilitation of Palestine which, desolate for centuries, is now renewing its youth and vitality through the enthusiasm, hard work, and self-sacrifice of the Jewish pioneers who toil there in a spirit of peace and social justice.

15. Pres. Harry Truman, in speech two days after becoming president, April 14, 1945:

This is the time for action. No one can any longer doubt the horrible intention of the Nazi beasts. We know that they plan the systematic slaughter throughout all of Europe, not only of the Jews but of vast numbers of other innocent peoples...This is not a Jewish problem, it is an American problem - and we must and we will face it squarely and honorably. (cited in Truman and Israel by Michael J. Cohen. University of California Press: 1991.)

16. Pres. Harry Truman, May 14, 1948:

This government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof. The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel.

17. Pres. Harry Truman, 1948 (cited in The Presidents of the United States and the Jews by David G. Dalin and Alfred J. Kolatch. Jonathan David Publishers: 2000.):

One of the proudest days in my life occurred at 6:12pm on Friday May 14 (1948) when I was able to announce recognition of the new state of Israel by the government of the United States. In view of the long friendship of the American people for the Zionist ideal, it was particularly appropriate that our government should be the first to recognize the new state.

18. Pres. John F. Kennedy, Speech to Zionists of America Convention, August 26, 1960:

Israel was not created in order to disappear - Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom.

19. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson, June 1, 1964:

The USA and Israel share many common objectives - chief of which is the building of a better world in which every nation can develop its resources and develop them in freedom and peace.

20. Pres. Ronald Reagan, September 1, 1982:

Israel exists: it has a right to exist in peace behind secure and defensible borders, and it has a right to demand of its neighbors that they recognize those facts. I have personally followed and supported Israels heroic struggle for survival, ever since the founding of the State of Israel 34 years ago. In the pre-1967 borders Israel was barely 10 miles wide at its narrowest point. The bulk of Israels population lived within artillery range of hostile Arab armies. I am not about to ask Israel to live that way again.

21. Pres. Bill Clinton, April 30, 1996:

The United States stands with Israel through good times and bad because our countries share the same ideals: freedom, tolerance, democracy. We know that whenever those ideals are under siege in one country, they are threatened everywhere.

22. George W. Bush, April 19, 2001:

Through centuries of struggle, Jews across the world have been witnesses not only against the crimes of men, but for faith in God, and God alone. Theirs is a story of defiance in oppression and patience in tribulation - reaching back to the Exodus and their exile into the Diaspora. That story continued in the founding of the State of Israel. The story continues in the defense of the State of Israel.

23. Pres. Barack Obama, May 21, 2015:

...Make no mistake  those who adhere to the ideology of rejecting Israels right to exist, they might as well reject the earth beneath them or the sky above, because Israel is not going anywhere. And today, I want to tell you  particularly the young people  so that there's no mistake here, so long as there is a United States of America  Atem lo levad. You are not alone.

24. Pres Donald J. Trump, December 7, 2019

The story of Israel is a tale of triumph in the face of centuries oppression and persecution. The Jewish people endured, persevered, and flourished beyond measure, building a thriving, proud, beautiful, and mighty nation in the Holy Land. The friendship between our countries is essential to achieving a more safe, just and peaceful world. That is why every single day since I took the Oath of Office, I have stood firmly, strongly, and proudly with the people of Israel.
BERLIN, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Friday that China's position on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue has been consistent and clear, urging relevant parties "not to let the window for peace close again."

Responding to a question whether China has lost patience on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue in an interview with Reuters, Wang said that the key to the issue is not China's patience, but the sincerity between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to meet each other half way.

China's position on the issue is consistent and clear. China advocates the denuclearization of the peninsula through dialogue while maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula, and in the process also settling the legitimate concerns of the DPRK, he said.

Wang said that the Singapore meeting between the U.S. and DPRK leaders reached a good agreement with two important goals, namely establishing a permanent peace mechanism on the peninsula and achieving complete denuclearization of the peninsula. Realizing the goals requires a feasible roadmap, he said.

China proposed a dual-track approach to the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue based on more than 20 years of experience, he noted. Russia supports it, and South Korea agrees with it, but there is no real consensus within the United States, Wang said.

Wang said he hopes that the United States and DPRK can reach a consensus on this as soon as possible and China will continue to play an active role in this regard.
ALBANY  Out-of-state and Canadian tourists can head to the Adirondacks next month for a free snowmobiling weekend, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced in Saranac Lake Sunday.

Visitors with registered and insured snowmobiles will be able to travel through the state's Snowmobile Trail System  which spans more than 10,000 miles across upstate New York  for free on March 14 and 15, Cuomo said. Tourists would typically have to pay $100 to register their vehicles.

"With this free snowmobiling weekend, we are encouraging visitors from far and wide to come to the North Country and points between, experience our great outdoor recreational activities for themselves and further strengthen New York's booming tourism industry," the governor said in a release Sunday.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

The announcement is part of an effort to drive up tourism in the North Country, which welcomed upward of 13 million visitors in 2018  an increase of more than 20 percent since 2011, according to the governor's office.

The state will also launch a social media effort through its tourism campaign, I Love New York, to promote the free weekend. The digital advertisements will complement New York's ongoing $4 million winter tourism campaign.
McALLEN, TexasFrom the moment Shen Yun Performing Arts started, Pedro Villagran felt a great energy radiating out from center stage.

Big-time, he said. And the music goes on, immediately you feel the energy, from the symphony, from everything that comes on board, it is beautiful.

Villagran, a senior manager of global care operations, saw the New York-based classical Chinese dance company at the McAllen Performing Arts Center in McAllen, Texas, on Feb. 15, 2020, and it did not fail to impress.

The energy was what struck him first, but immediately after that was the colorfulness of the brilliant costumes that helped portray the different dynasties and ethnicities and regions of China and the stories from 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture. Overall, he said, it was impressive.

A Shen Yun performance typically includes some 20 vignettes of mini-dramas told through dance, ethnic and folk dances, and bel canto vocal soloists. Villagran enjoyed the individual stories from ancient legends to the modern-day and felt that to his interpretation, they added up together to one great storyline that falls in place one piece after another.

I think the value is to be able to have an exposure to other cultures and the way other cultures do a lot of their drama and their arts, he said. Theres a lot of realness to it. And when you get that exposure, it brings worlds together, it brings them closer to each other and you have a deeper understanding.

To be a good teacher, you have to be a good student.  Pedro Villagran

One point of understanding for Villagran was how spiritual traditional Chinese culture is. Faith was a recurring theme, and in one particular story, he said it was a literal leap of faith between a Taoist master and his disciple.

Villagran found inspiration in it and the idea that To be a good teacher, you have to be a good student.

The cultural experience was something Villagran felt that many would benefit from.

Just the relations, the different cultural relations, I think it depicted it so well, he said. It gives you that openness if you want to see more of it.

With reporting by Sherry Dong.

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.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 22:03:44|Editor: huaxia

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TAIPEI, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan confirmed two new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number to 20, and reported the first death caused by the epidemic, the island's epidemic monitoring agency said Sunday.

One of the two new cases was a man in his 60s living in central Taiwan who had cough on Jan. 27 and had been diagnosed pneumonia and hospitalized since Feb. 3. He died of pneumonia and septicemia on Feb. 15, according to the agency at a press conference.

Since the man had not left Taiwan before he was ill nor have close contacts with any confirmed infection cases, he had not been subject to the novel coronavirus infection test until his death, the agency said.

The case was identified due to a large-scale review of serious flu-like cases dating back to Jan. 31, launched by the island's health authorities. A total of 113 cases had been put for novel coronavirus infection tests since Feb. 12 and only this one was confirmed, the agency said.

The authorities are investigating the actual infection source of the man, who allegedly had been a taxi driver.

The other new infection case is a male relative of the deceased man, who has had no symptoms as of now and stayed in an isolation ward, the agency said.

The authorities have identified 79 people having close contacts with the two men.
Fatima was sitting in the backseat and typing on her phone. They saw the light from the phone because it was very dark. Next thing I knew, they had shot her in the head, he reportedly said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  Thirteen people in Manila and Quezon City were either rescued or arrested by authorities for alleged prostitution during the Valentines Day weekend.

On Valentines Day, 9 females aged 18 to 34 years old were rescued by officers from the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Station 2 after they raided the Inflorence Spa on Roosevelt Avenue in Barangay San Antonio.

QCPD chief Brigadier General Ronnie Montejo said the women front as massage therapists and offer sexual services, dubbed as extra service, inside the spa.

Police identified the spa owner as Ivie Haller. While absent during the raid, Haller will face charges of violation of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act.

Meanwhile, 4 people including 2 alleged male prostitutes were nabbed by authorities in Manila the next night, February 15.

Officers from Manila Police District (MPD) Station 3 nabbed the pair while they were engaging in sexual acts inside the Macky Tattoo Parlor at Malabon cor. Oroquieta streets in Barangay 336 Zone 34.

After getting a tip from police assets about the alleged extra service on the second floor of the tattoo parlor, station commander Lieutenant Colonel Reynaldo Magdaluyo led officers in a raid.

Magdaluyo said the suspects took as much as P1,000 to P3,500 in exchange for sexual services. One of the arrested confirmed this, as well as admitting to taking bookings via Facebook Messenger.

MPD officers also discovered that while being registered with the trade department and having a barangay business permit, the tattoo parlor was operating without a mayors permit. Registered as a wellness center, the establishment is reportedly owned by one Francis Ambrosio Tan.

The suspects are now in police custody.
The jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane had a storied career, much of it in Philadelphia. But without intervention, the story of his Strawberry Mansion rowhouse  where he experienced a spiritual awakening, kicked his heroin addiction, and composed the album Giant Steps  will not have a happy ending.

His home is deteriorating right before our eyes. The front steps are crumbling. Drone photos show damage to the chimney, and rotting materials and holes in the exterior wall.

The John Coltrane House, built in 1903, was added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places on Dec. 18, 1985. The house was designated a National Historic Landmark, the highest level for a historic property, by the secretary of the interior on Jan. 20, 1999. While there are thousands of properties on the local register, only 67 are National Historic Landmarks, including the Academy of Music, where Coltrane first heard Charlie Parker perform in person.

But neither designation has kept the property from falling into disrepair. The John Coltrane House was recently listed on Preservation Pennsylvanias 2020 roster of at risk sites, a designation intended to draw statewide attention to the plight of Pennsylvanias historic resources; promote and support local action to protect historic properties; and encourage funding and legislation that supports preservation activities, according to the organization.

If we care about Philadelphias future, we must preserve this important part of the citys past.

At the Greater Philadelphia 2020 Tourism and Hospitality Industry Outlook gathering last month, there was a lot of talk about diversity and inclusion, and the growing number of neighborhoods that are visitor friendly. Visit Philadelphia unveiled strategies to reach diverse audiences and markets.

John Coltrane is exactly the metaphor for the diversity and inclusion that Philadelphia hopes to achieve and highlight. Coltranes Philadelphia was about intersectionality before the term  which refers to the complex and cumulative way that the effects of different forms of discrimination overlap  was coined.

In the 1940s and 50s, blacks and whites socialized on an equal basis for the first time at jazz clubs such as Downbeat, Blue Note, and Showboat. Gender bender Gladys Bentley wowed audiences at the Memphis Club, and female impersonators performed at the Checker Cafe.

The Philadelphia story is more than the Founding Fathers. Preserving Coltranes presence in Philadelphia is not solely about the past and public memory. It would be a giant step forward in telling a more complete history. It would send a message to underserved communities that they belong here.

The John Coltrane House could anchor cultural heritage tourism in North Philadelphia. In addition to historic landmarks like the Blue Horizon, Church of the Advocate, Freedom Theatre, and Uptown Theater, North Philly has the second largest cluster of Green Book sites, several of which are on Ridge Avenue in the revitalizing Sharswood neighborhood. Popularized by the Oscar-winning movie of the same name, the Green Book was a travel guide that helped African Americans navigate Jim Crow laws in the South and racial segregation in the North.

The loss of the John Coltrane House would continue the erasure of black presence from public spaces, something Ive been advocating against as chair of the Historical Marker Monitoring Committee of the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition (ATAC). Formed in 2002, ATAC successfully fought to have it recognized that George Washington held enslaved African Americans at the Presidents House at Sixth and Market Streets. Since then, weve continued to fight for the preservation of important black landmarks, including Cheyney University, the Bethel Burying Ground, and, of course, the Coltrane house.

My concerns are shared by Maxine Gordon, widow of the saxophonist Dexter Gordon. A jazz historian, Gordon has visited the Coltrane house many times. She wrote in an email: John Coltrane bought the house for his mother. It stands as a testimony to his connection to the great jazz history of Philadelphia and his family, including Cousin Mary Lyerly Alexander, who lived there and devoted her life to preserving his legacy. I urge the City of Philadelphia to support the preservation of this important monument to John Coltrane, who is revered worldwide.

A good first step in saving this hallowed house would be for Mayor Jim Kenney to use his authority to ask the Department of Licenses and Inspections to inspect the building. The house has not been inspected since 2012. The failure to act is not about limited resources; its about priorities. City employees maintain the frequently vandalized Frank Rizzo statue. City employees should conduct an assessment to determine the structural integrity of the National Historic Landmark. From there, decisions can be made about how to move forward.

The city is gearing up for the semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States. Leaders of Philadelphia250, the group coordinating the anniversary, want to go beyond Benjamin Franklins Philadelphia and illuminate the untold histories of our diverse people and neighborhoods. The world is invited to partake in a celebration of our diverse passions, interests, cultures, and creativity.

Serendipitously, 2026 is also the centennial of the birth of John Coltrane. When the countrys and Coltranes birthdays are celebrated, it is my hope residents and visitors will see a house befitting of the man who bequeathed to the world A Love Supreme.

Faye M. Anderson is director of All That Philly Jazz, a public history project that is documenting Philadelphias golden age of jazz. She leads a walking tour of Green Book sites associated with John Coltrane.
FISHHOOK  Spending the night in a culvert or a drainage tube to hide from raiding rebel forces may sound like a plot for a novel.

For Kham Sonethongkham Kurfman of Pike County, it was real life  one of the memories she has of growing up in Laos.

Escaping to Thailand at age 15, and moving to Quincy with her family at 18, Kurfman was one refugee that found safety in America as the French, who held Laos as a French territory, and the Laos Isara, a communist fraction, fought for control of the country from 1962 to 1975.

A country between Thailand and Vietnam, the country faced turmoil for more than a decade, causing a mass fleeing of Laos people to neighboring countries.

Her time in Laos and her eventual fleeing from her homeland with her family are detailed in a book she released late last year.

Kurfman and Linda Pearson co-authored the book Double Blessing: My Journey From Laos to Fishhook, sharing Kurfmans experience in Laos as a girl and how her journey and the help of the people in Quincy helped lead her to her Christian faith.

In 1979, two years after fleeing Laos for Thailand, Kurfman at the age of 18 came to America on a sponsorship by the First Presbyterian Church in Quincy, which brought her family of 10 to the country.

We were shown a lot of kindness when we came to America, Kurfman said. Every one of the people that came to help us, they loved on us the way Jesus would love his people.

Though raised Buddhist, Kurfman said it was the help of the people of the church that helped her discover her Christian faith and find safety after the violence of her past.

A past full of invasion, detainment and separation.

As a school superintendent, Kurfmans father was considered an employee of the French government, making him a target for the rebel group. Forced to work in the position under the rebel rule, Kurfman said her father was taken away, imprisoned before eventually escaping with the help of other family members.

He would be escorted by rebel soldiers to and from work, Kurfman said. We didnt realize it at the time, but he was basically under house arrest. He had no freedom. He was well respected in the community and they wanted him to join their cause.

When her father was taken away for several years, Kurfman, as the eldest, had to step up and help take care of her family.

At 15, Kurfman, after watching the older children of her community being taken away from their families, said she knew she had to leave soon, along with her family.

Rebel forces held mom at gun point a few times after my father refused to join them, Kurfman said. Almost nightly we had to take cover in a ditch or there was a drainage tube wed go to if it wasnt raining and dry.

With the help of family members, the family was able to cross the Mekong River in four groups to seek refuge in Thailand, where camps had been set up to help those fleeing their country.

Her father filled in an application for asylum in America while in the camp before being selected. He only applied to move to America.

He felt America would have the best opportunities for us, Kurfman said. We could have left the camp more quickly to go to France because he worked for the government, but he only wanted to go to America.

Pearson said helping Kurfman write down her memories, as well as those of her younger siblings, made her see her life differently.

It was just very eye-opening to hear what she went through, what her family went through, to be safe, Pearson said. This journey has been quite a ride. I learned so much.

For Kurfman, the war was just a part of the day.

You just had to live life as best as you could, Kurfman said, but in the back of your mind, you always had to be ready to run, would have to be prepared to hide.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- More than 6,000 high school sophomores from about 140 schools in New York City, including Staten Island students, were given the opportunity to learn about the diverse future job opportunities available to them in the citys corporate, financial and cultural sectors last week.

The New York City Department of Education (DOE) and the Partnership for New York City launched the first Career Discovery Week last week. Throughout the week, more than 180 companies hosted up to 100 students each for a full day of career exploration.

New York City employers are about to discover the untapped pipeline of talent in our high schools through Career Discovery Week, said Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza. This first-ever, week-long opportunity gives students the chance to learn from professionals across a variety of industries and gets them ready to fill the talent needs of the companies that make our city thrive."

Students at Port Richmond High School and Ralph R. McKee Career and Technical Education High School were able to participate and spend a full day with companies last week.

Twenty-five students from McKee were part of a daylong workplace visit with Con Edison at its 4400 Victory Blvd. location, in which the companys Underground team demonstrated how to perform a slice on a cable.

Students and Con Ed staff went outside and the Underground unit showed students how a flush truck works, which cleans out water that is around an underground transformer. The Overhead unit demonstrated how a bucket truck and Derrick truck (or a digger truck) work. Students also got a demonstration about how to apply grounds, as in electrical grounding.

McKee students were able to try on personal protective equipment that Con Ed workers use in intemperate weather conditions. They also were part of a speed mentoring session, which featured rotating five-minute sessions with 12 Con Edison employees from a variety of departments.

Sophomores at Port Richmond High School were able to go on a trip to Moodys Corporation in the World Trade Center for the day. Student-athletes at the school were able to experience different career paths and job opportunities.

Priority was given to schools in under-resourced communities that dont have strong existing relationships with employers. Schools were matched with companies based on alignment between curricula and company sector.

Many young New Yorkers are unaware of the wide spectrum of good jobs that are available to them if they study hard and plan ahead, said Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City We hope Career Discovery Week will introduce students to new possibilities for their future and encourage companies to build stronger relationships with our public schools.

FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.
A couple enjoys a Valentine's Day dinner at a Waffle House in Georgia in 2018.

David Goldman/AP

Waiters are sharing the most awkward Valentine's Day dates they've witnessed on Reddit.

They include stories of failed proposals, cheaters being caught in the act, and couples getting into fights over ice cream.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

A Valentine's Day dinner has the potential to be very romantic, but also very awkward  especially for the wait staff.

In a thread on Reddit, a user asked waiters to tell stories of Valentine's Day disasters they've witnessed. Insider hasn't independently verified the stories, but they range from some truly cringe-inducing break-ups to surprisingly sweet botched proposals.

Here's a few of the best stories that were shared on the site.

Obnoxious customers

One waiter recalled a bizarre incident that happened during an especially busy Valentine's Day when he was working at a high-end Mediterranean restaurant.

He said that the restaurant was completely booked and that walk-ins were only being seated if a reservation canceled.

"Most of the customers were pretty understanding and either waited or simply left. One dude however kept pushing and pushing asking every 10 minutes how much longer until he is seated, constantly saying how he is a regular customer; and how his date is going to be there at 7 (he got there at 6)," the user said.

At around 6:50 p.m., the user said that the guy lost it, walked up to the hostess stand, grabbed the reservation book, and walked out of the restaurant. Two of the owners ran outside to try and get the book back, but he was already gone.

The stories show how awkward Valentine's Day dinners are for both the couples and wait staff.

Lucky Business/Shutterstock

"Even better is, two hours later, chaos is still running rampant and the dude shows back up saying he has a reservation for two. Three of the five of the owners (all brothers) escorted the dude and his date out to the parking lot and banned him from the restaurant permanently. They even took a picture of him and posted it in the window saying 'Do Not Serve This Man,'" the user recalled.

Story continues

Another Reddit user said one of the funniest Valentine's Days that they worked was during their time managing hotel room service at a hotel that offered a Valentine's Day multi-course room service package.

"More than a few couples thought it was a good idea to call for the next course and then start having sex.

"I had the 'privilege' of people answering the door naked, seeing sex toys strewn around and one where the other members of the threesome were carrying on in the background.

"After complaints of similar instances from my team I had to take action. I ended up having to call the offending guests and tell them if they could not respect my team by answering the door in at least a closed dressing gown they could come down and collect the rest of their meal from the restaurant," the user wrote.

Couples who weren't on the same page

Stories of rejection and couples fighting were a common theme among the waiters' stories.

Perhaps the most bizarre incident involved a couple who playfully started dabbing some of their ice cream on each other during dessert.

The waiter said the woman "flipped out" when her boyfriend switched the flavor he was using in the play fight, dipping into the chocolate ice cream.

"You know I like chocolate the most, why would you waste it you idiot," the woman said.

"In the end she stormed out 'cause the man couldn't comprehend how much she was blowing up the situation," the waiter said.

Cheaters caught in the act

Valentine's Day can obviously be a tricky time for people cheating on their partners, and a few of the posts dealt with diners who were caught in the act.

One bar back witnessed an awkward moment when a man got up to go to the bathroom while eating with his girlfriend on Valentine's Day. A "random woman" approached the girlfriend and informed her that she had recently matched with her boyfriend on Tinder and that they had "hooked up a week earlier."

"The boyfriend returned to a drunk, sobbing and screaming girlfriend," the bar back wrote.

Another Reddit user recalled a similar incident that happened while they were waiting tables in college.

"I once saw a couple come in to eat, halfway through the dinner the man's wife shows up to surprise the couple. The wife took the wine bottle and poured the remnants on the husband's head, took off her ring and told the girlfriend she could have him," the waiter recalled.

A lot of the stories involved proposals that didn't go to plan.

YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV/Shutterstock

Proposals that didn't go as planned

Quite a few waiters witnessed men being turned down when they decided to propose to their significant other during Valentine's Day dinners.

Reddit user SpinachandChickpeas recalled watched a woman turn down a proposal, and then sit there for 20 minutes while her boyfriend tried to change her mind.

Another user worked as a pastry chef and prepared a dessert with the words "Will you marry me?" for a man who planned to propose to his girlfriend during dinner. It never saw the light of day because the girlfriend broke up with her boyfriend before they even got to the main course.

Not all of the botched proposals ended in heartbreak though. One waiter told the story of a man who came into propose and threw up on his girlfriend when he got down on one knee.

"After the shock of what just happened, she still ended up saying yes," user KindSoul1 wrote.

Awkward moments for the waitstaff

Servers said they were sometimes the source of the awkwardness during Valentine's Day service.

Reddit user Geckosandwine said that during one Valentine's Day shift, she set her hair on fire and spilled a full beer on a woman out to dinner with her husband.

Luckily the husband knew how to lighten the situation.

"Well now she has to take her pants off," he joked to the waiter.

Another server said that a guy she was dating at the time made her Valentine's Day shift one of her worst.

The Reddit user said that the guy she was seeing asked to take her out, but she declined because Valentine's Day is one of the busiest of the year and she needed to work.

So, out of spite, he took another girl out to dinner at the restaurant where she worked and sat in her section.

"He then proceeded to spend the entire evening making a fool out of himself and making his date uncomfortable as he tried to make me jealous," she wrote. "Needless to say we didn't go out again. Ever."

Read the original article on Insider
Photo credit: Hulu

From Town & Country

From The Handmaid's Tale to Catch-22, Hulu has found huge success in adapting books for television. And this spring, they're partnering with the BBC to bring a more contemporary novel to the small screen: Sally Rooney's Normal People.

Here's what we know about the series so far:

It will be a fairly faithful adaptation.

When Rooney first visited the set, she said it was like walking into the inside of my head.

And Emma Norton, one of the show's producers, made it clear in an interview with Esquire that the author's original story was paramount.

I think almost nothing has been sacrificed, she said.

Read the full summary of the Hulu series here:

Based on Sally Rooneys New York Times best-selling novel, Normal People tracks the tender but complicated relationship of Marianne and Connell from the end of their school days in a small town in the west of Ireland to their undergraduate years at Trinity College. At school, hes well-liked and popular, while shes lonely, proud, and intimidating. But when Connell comes to pick up his mother from her cleaning job at Mariannes house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers  one they are determined to conceal. A year later, theyre both studying in Dublin and Marianne has found her feet in a new social world but Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain.

The first trailer hints at a complicated modern love story.

Watch it here:

Two up-and-coming actors will star in the series.

Daisy Edgar-Jones (who is best known for her work on War of the Worlds) plays Marianne in the adaptation, while newcomer Paul Mescal stars as Connell in his first TV role.

Casting Mescal, Norton says, was the easy part.

When we started casting, we all went, Well, thats Connell, she told Esquire. I watched Paul, and I was like, Oh my God. Oh my God.

Finding Marianne was harder, but once Edgar-Jones appeared in a screen test with Mescal, producers knew they had found their leads.

Story continues

We knew immediately, immediately, thats it, producer Catherine Magee told Esquire. We have it. It was so exciting because so much pressure was on that casting, and on them to carry that show It had to be as good as they are.

Photo credit: Hulu

When will it premiere?

Hulu announced that the show, which will have 12 episodes, will premiere in spring of 2020, but an exact date has yet to be made public.

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Linkedin Fadli (The Jakarta Post) Natuna  Sun, February 16, 2020 08:35 695 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2064c6606 1 National Wuhan-coronavirus,coronavirus,evacuees,quarantine,Natuna,Riau-Islands,Terawan-Agus-Putranto Free

Given a clear bill of health, the 237 citizens and one American spouse of an Indonesian national from Wuhan and other cities in China were finally released on Saturday from a 14-day quarantine in Natuna, Riau Islands.

Forty-two members of the evacuation team and five Indonesian Embassy staffers from Beijing who assisted the operation were also released from quarantine on Saturday.

All 285 people have been declared healthy after testing negative for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

The government evacuated 243 people  comprising 237 Indonesian nationals, a foreigner and five embassy staffers  on Feb. 2 from Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as other cities in Hubei province following the emergence of the novel coronavirus. The evacuees, the evacuation team and all support staff were airlifted to Hang Nadim Airport in Batam, and then immediately transported to Natuna Island for quarantining.

Read also: Finally going home: Wuhan evacuees in Natuna to be released from quarantine on Saturday

Joint Defense Area Command I (Kogabwilhan I) commander Rear Adm. Yudo Margono, who led the humanitarian mission, said all evacuees, as well as the evacuation team and embassy officials involved in the effort, had been released and were heading back to their hometowns.

The Health Minister [Terawan Agus Putranto] will accompany the people flying to Jakarta, while I am staying here to meet with the local residents, as President [Joko Widodo] has ordered, Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy said in Natuna on Saturday.

Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto (second left) congratulates the crowd of people newly released from quarantine on Feb. 15, 2020 at Raden Sadjad Air Base in Natuna, Riau Islands. All evacuees, the evacuation team and support staff were declared free of coronavirus infection and departed the island on Saturday, where they had been quarantined since Feb. 2. (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)

The evacuees boarded two Boeing planes and a Hercules aircraft operated by the Indonesian Air Force and were flown to Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base in Jakarta. The first flight took off from Natuna at 1:20 p.m., and the third and final flight departed at 2 p.m. All three flights had arrived in Jakarta by 3:46 p.m. on Saturday.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) head Doni Monardo said that the evacuees were each provided Rp 1 million (US$73.07) in travel allowance as well as plane tickets to their hometowns.

Many were welcomed home by local officials, including East Kalimantan Governor Isran Noor, who flew out to Jakarta to escort evacuees from the province on the last leg of their journey.

The most important thing is that they can return home safely, said Doni.

Health minister Terawan said the evacuees were also given a letter that declared they had tested negative for COVID-19. The health agencies in their place of origin would continue to monitor the evacuees after they had returned home.

The surveillance is our responsibility. If they get sick after they have returned to their hometowns, we can [examine] them immediately to see if they are infected with the coronavirus, he said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Representative to Indonesia, Navaratnasamy Paranietharan, congratulated Indonesia on the evacuation as a smart move" and for keeping the evacuees "safe for 14 days.

Paranietharan also said that the evacuees could freely mingle in their communities once they got home. "Theyre perfectly fine; theres no need to worry about them, he said during a ceremony marking the evacuees' release in Natuna.

A soldier of the Joint Defense Area Command I (Kogabwilhan I) pats a child on the head on Feb. 15, 2020 at Raden Sadjad Airbase in Natuna, Riau Islands. All evacuees from Wuhan, China, were given a clear bill of health and left the air base hangar where they had been quarantined since Feb. 2. (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)

The government initially planned to evacuate 245 people from Hubei, but four people decided to remain in China. Three others were sick at the time of departure, and did not have clearance from the Chinese government to leave the country.

Terawan said the government was still awaiting information from the WHO regarding the global emergency before making furthers decisions on the Indonesian citizens who remained in China.

Most of the evacuees were Indonesian students who were studying at universities in Hubei province.

Read also: Social media users laud Batik Air for evacuating Indonesians from virus-hit Wuhan

Coordinating minister Muhadjir said the government was mulling future options for the students who had been studying in China on a scholarship, such as resuming their studies after the outbreak had ended or transferring their academic credit to Indonesian universities.

The most important thing is that these people returned to Indonesia first. As for their study programs, we will decide [the matter] later under my coordination, he said.

Yudo said that the military personnel assigned to the operation would be dismissed and resume their regular duties on Monday, while the hangar used for the quarantine would return to its normal function.

All equipment used during the [quarantine period] will be disinfected, he stressed. (kuk/vla)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 22:24:46|Editor: xuxin

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LONDON, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Storm Dennis shut down roads and flooded railway lines on Sunday as it lashed large parts of Britain with heavy rainfall and strong winds.

The Met Office issued a red warning for rain -- the highest level of its kind -- for parts of south Wales on Sunday morning.

Red warnings are issued when it is highly likely the weather will cause a high level of impact, and this warning is the first red warning for rain the Met Office has issued since December 2015.

"Whilst the heaviest rain has cleared from Northern Ireland and Scotland, England and Wales will continue to see heavy rain on Sunday, with a risk of severe flooding in places. In particular, heavy rain has led to severe flooding across parts of south Wales triggering a red rain warning, where around 140 mm of rain in total could fall, before it gradually eases this afternoon," said Met Office Chief Meteorologist Andy Page.

Meanwhile, the storm has caused disruption at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Southend, Stansted, Heathrow and Gatwick airports over the weekend, as about 170 flights were cancelled as of Sunday morning, affecting at least 25,000 passengers.

Rail services have also been suspended in south Wales and parts of England and Scotland, according to the National Rail.

There are 594 alerts currently in place, including four severe warnings in England and widespread amber alerts from the Met Office. There are also two severe flooding alerts in Wales.

Across 24 hours in South Wales, 105 mm of rainfall and gales of up to 146 kph were recorded in the area.

British experts said that Storm Dennis can bring more damage to the country than Storm Ciara, which brought as much as 184 mm of rainfall and gusts reaching 156 kph to the country last weekend, resulting in hundreds of homes flooded and more than 500,000 being left without power.
The International Red Cross has been enlisted to trace the mother of the homeless man who was crushed by a digger clearing tents from the Grand Canal last month.

The man is believed to have suffered life-changing spinal injuries and damage to his internal organs when the Dublin City Council machine moved his tent while he was inside.

He came to Ireland from Eritrea in 2005 as an unaccompanied minor and has lived here alone and without family ever since.

Gardai investigating the case are piecing together the details of his life from State and social welfare records.

The man's mother is believed to be Ethiopian and may be currently living in that country, according to sources.

The International Red Cross has been asked to help locate her, given the political sensitivities in the region.

In their search for information about him, gardai have also traced a firm of solicitors that previously represented the man on free legal aid. The man may have a significant claim against the State for his life-changing injuries.

Gardai are expecting to complete their investigation into alleged endangerment in the coming weeks, following which a file will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

They have received conflicting statements on what happened and whether and how the tent was checked, sources say.

The man was known to several services for the homeless. He had been sleeping rough in the area for at least six months to a year, sometimes in a sleeping bag on a park bench and then in a tent at the edge of the canal.

On January 14, Waterways Ireland, which is responsible for managing the canal, was removing tents along the canal to tidy up the area. An outreach worker from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) - which comes under Dublin City Council - was on site to help those sleeping rough.

How thoroughly the tent was checked for occupancy is under investigation. The driver of a hydraulic lorry lifter was given the all-clear to lift the tent during a ''clearing operation''. The alarm was raised by the man's screams, and the tent was returned to the ground.

In a statement at the time, Waterways Ireland said it was working in cooperation with DRHE to remove the tents. The DRHE said clearing tents was a matter for Waterways Ireland.

Staff with Waterways Ireland and DRHE who were present for the incident have been interviewed and CCTV has been recovered from the scene. Detectives are still taking statements from witnesses.

As well as the Garda investigation, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), Waterways Ireland and the DRHE are also reviewing the incident.

The man is still recovering in St Vincent's Hospital. His plight was raised on numerous occasions during the General Election campaign.

The incident occurred on the first day of the campaign and beneath a poster of Eoghan Murphy, the Housing Minister, on a lamppost beside the canal.
Amitav Ghosh has announced three new projects  Jungle-Nama, a verse retelling of the legend of Bon-Bibi, a Sunderbans epic; a new collection of essays; and The Invisible Hand, a work of non-fiction informed by his research for the Ibis trilogy. 'If youre a city-dweller, a story like Bon-Bibi is an oddity to you. But if youre living in the Sunderbans, Bon-Bibi is your life,' he said in this interview to Firstpost

Less than a year after the release of Gun Island and his Jnanpith win, Amitav Ghosh has announced three new projects with HarperCollins India. The first of the new trio will be Jungle-Nama, a verse retelling of the legend of Bon-Bibi, a Sunderbans epic. The second is a new collection of essays while the third, The Invisible Hand, is a work of non-fiction informed by Ghoshs research for the Ibis trilogy. Firstpost caught up with Ghosh in New Delhi recently. The following are edited excerpts from the conversation:

During our last meeting, we spoke briefly about Bon-Bibi (and books like The Honey Hunter, which also features Bon-Bibi) and her importance in the Sunderbans. Was this a story you had always intended to tell on its own terms, or was it something you realised you wanted to do while working on The Hungry Tide?

I had previously translated some parts of the Bon-Bibi story, using it at a few places in The Hungry Tide, thats true. But what was really interesting to me here was that the Bon-Bibi legend, like all the Bengali mangal-kaavyas, was written in a particular metre  the dvipadipayar.

Dvipadipayar  thats bipedal, right?

Two-footed metre, thats right. So, apart from the bits I translated, I realised that there are whole sections in the book that are actually in dvipadipayar. Its a metre that Ive always enjoyed, and now I found it very interesting to work with, too. Its very much geared towards chanting or reading aloud. Again recently, when I was reading up on the legends of Manasa Devi for Gun Island, I came back to the dvipadipayar and thought that I should tell this story. As a narrative, it conceptualises the whole balance between the human and the non-human. Bon-Bibi is a figure who mediates between them (the human and the non-human).

You dont have too many stories like that today and besides, Ive never done a full-length translation from verse before. When youre translating, youre using a certain part of your brain and when youre reading verse youre using a certain other part of your brain  and so translating from verse involves a wholly different part! It was very exciting for me.

As far as the character of Bon-Bibi is concerned  theres this tendency, especially with commentators from mainland India, to look at characters like her and project onto them a kind of well-meaning hybridity, a Hindu-Muslim syncretism. However, would you say that this isnt a particularly useful way of studying these stories, stories that come out of places like the Sunderbans (or any number of places in the North-East, for that matter) where the usual knowledge systems do not apply?

Absolutely  the Bon-Bibi legend can be called hybrid or whatever, but a hybrid of what?

The truth is that these stories come from an imagination where these distinctions (Hindu-Muslim etc) were not made in the first place, where stories of different kinds mingled.

Again, I want to stress that this is not unique to the Sunderbans. For example there are so many stories around a figure called Ghazi Pir, sometimes also translated into Ghazi Baba. You must have heard of the Satyanarayana stories  well, there are some stories featuring a figure called Satya Pir. Theyre very similar! In a sense, the culture of Bengal is so, well, hybrid that it is its own thing.

Now, of course, there are all sorts of new orthodoxies in play, from Hindus, from Muslims. Neither side particularly likes Bon-Bibi. There is an attempt to impose boundaries on an imaginative universe where these boundaries just did not exist. Then again, all belief systems change with time. I guess this (new orthodoxy) is the change were all heading towards.

Weve spoken a couple of times about the work of Raymond Williams and his concept of ecosystem people (indigenous folks living in a state of ecological balance with their surroundings), both in the context of The Great Derangement and now Gun Island  do you think that stories like Bon-Bibis come easier to Indias own ecosystem people, in Himachal Pradesh, in Assam and so on?

Yes, and part of the reason is simple: if youre a city-dweller, a story like Bon-Bibi is an oddity to you. But if youre living in the Sunderbans, Bon-Bibi is your life. When you step out of your house, there are any number of ways you could be killed. You could be eaten by a shark or a tiger. Your boat could be trapped in a storm. That sense of reliance is much more powerful when youre not a city-dweller.

In The Great Derangement, you talk about graphic novels as a powerful new way of expressing truths about climate change  a way of moving beyond the limitations that text imposes on you. Jungle-Nama is supposed to be an illustrated work, isnt it? Did you think about maybe targeting a younger readership (like young adults, or the YA segment) with an illustrated book?

Indeed, and eventually were going to release a graphic novel version of the book, too, after the initial, illustrated edition is out. This was one of the challenges of Jungle-Nama for me, that Id work with an illustrator and move beyond modes of thinking that were purely textual.

My publishers and I did think about this, actually. But we decided against it. Who is a young adult these days anyway? Is there a consensus? I mean, my 14-year-old daughter read Moby Dick, which Id have found unthinkable at her age. These categorisations are much less useful than they used to be, before the Internet came along.

About the second book youve announced, the book of essays  are they more reportage-oriented or literary?

Theres not much reportage there. The first essay from that book is actually going to be published in the Journal of Comparative Literature soon. Its basically about this: how do you write about a culture like India in one language? The challenge that this presents is something that every single writer in India is grappling with (not just Indian English writers): how do you express the realities of such a multilingual culture in one language? You see this so powerfully in the work of someone like a Shrilal Shukla or a Girish Karnad.

When I was reading Sea of Poppies about five or six years ago, one of the things that struck me about its plot was that again and again, victims of systemic oppression (along caste/gender lines, especially) looked towards capitalism as an escape route. And on every occasion, capitalism failed them. While you were researching the Ibis books, did you find that this was the case with most individual accounts you came across? Is that some of what The Invisible Hand (which refers to Adam Smiths theory of the same name about the free market) is going to be about?

Ive been circling around this book, The Invisible Hand, for a long time now. The thing that became very clear to me while researching and writing the Ibis trilogy was that China, and the Chinese trade, influenced Indian society in a deep and pervasive manner, in ways that we havent even begun to understand yet. And there arent all that many books about it, too

To be fair, there are academic books on the subject, like Amar Farooquis Opium City.

Oh thats a really good one. Theres another one, a very good book by Rolf Bauer (The Peasant Production of Opium in Nineteenth-Century India).

But you know, even Farooquis book was about the opium trades impact on the Western coast of India. And one of the things that people often dont realise with the opium trade is that its impacts on the Eastern and Western parts of the country were totally different. And I think that we can see the lasting effects of that to this daycompare the commercial dynamism of Western India to the underdevelopment of Bihar. One of the interesting things about Bauers book is that he has compared opium-growing districts of Bihar to non-opium districts. It becomes clear that the opium trade absolutely contributed to the states modern-day under-development. And thats just one example: there are all sorts of factors like these.

Regarding the interplay of capitalism and imperialism in the Ibis trilogy  a possible reading of the books plots could be that broadly speaking, capitalism begets imperialism, that out-of-control capitalists like the East India Company would inevitably grow more ambitious still, and become imperialists (while the dominant capitalists of this age havent literally done that, they have circumvented governmental authority across the globe). Do you agree with this? Why/why not?

You know, I disagree with that formulation. I think that in every sense, imperialism comes prior to capitalism (contemporary imperialism goes back to the 12th century), creating the conditions that capitalism thrives under. I think the idea that capitalism leads to imperialism is demonstrably false.

What we call capitalism, really, only comes into being towards the end of the 18th century. And by then, I think the conditions that allowed it to flourish in Asia were already very much in place (conditions that came about due to imperialism).

I also think that its very important to make this distinction  now perhaps more than ever before. Because there are a lot of voices  my friend Naomi Klein among them  who reckon that if we get rid of capitalism or make suitable modifications, that wed be able to solve problems like climate change and so on. But when I look around the planet, I see that the dynamics of climate change are still very much driven by the empires remnants. Who are the countries that are the biggest climate change deniers? Theyre all settler colonies.
Manish Sisodia, who holds the number two position in the Delhi government as well as its purse strings, took oath as a minister in the new Arvind Kejriwal-led cabinet for the third time.

Sisodia (48) is known to be Kejriwal's close confidante and has come a long way to emerge as a prominent figure in Delhi's political landscape. He is also credited with spearheading the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) agenda.

The journalist-turned-activist-turned-politician held the Education, Finance, Planning Land and Building, Vigilance, Services and Women and Child Development portfolios in the previous tenure. He also served as deputy chief minister in the previous government.

The infrastructural transformation of Delhi government schools, launching a series of curriculums like the happiness curriculum, entrepreneurship curriculum and the latest being the 'deshbhakti curriculum', introduction of 'Mission Buniyaad' for improving learning skills of children studying in state and municipal-run schools, sending teachers and principals abroad for training, were among the key initiatives taken by Sisodia.

The happiness curriculum has also attracted the interest of other states as well as the dignitaries abroad, who visited the Delhi government schools to attend the happiness classes and are exploring to replicate the model.

Born in Uttar Pradesh's Hapur district to a teacher, Sisodia doubled the budgetary allocation to amounting to nearly 25 per cent of the entire budget of Delhi.

An avid follower of Gandhian principles, Sisodia started his career as a journalist after attaining a diploma in journalism, but he was more attracted to social work. He first formed NGO Kabir and then Parivartan, along with Kejriwal.

"Not sure if I'm a politician, activist, reader, writer, journalist or.... but I'm an Indian. I like Gandhi because he always moved ahead of his own identity," states his Twitter profile.

Sisodia later quit journalism to participate in the agitation for Right To Information. Like Kejriwal, he too pitched in drafting the nuances of the Right to Information Act and was a prominent figure in the movement since the India Against Corruption (IAC) days.

He was one of the founding members of the Janlokpal agitation and part of the team which chalked out its first draft. He was arrested and sent to jail during the agitation along with activist Anna Hazare.

A three-time legislator, Sisodia won from Patparganj constituency after defeating BJP candidate Ravinder Singh Negi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) London  Sun, February 16, 2020 16:07 695 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2064dc0bc 2 Lifestyle protest,environment,London-fashion-week,Extinction-Rebellion Free

Extinction Rebellion activists on Saturday blocked traffic outside London Fashion Week to protest against the fashion industry's "exploitation" of the environment.

Dozens of demonstrators blocked the road near the main building hosting catwalk shows, which began on Friday and continue until Tuesday.

"We started by blocking the road, four people were wearing barbed wire dresses and attached themselves to the ground," XR spokeswoman Sara Arnold, 33, told AFP.

"The system is based on obsolescence, exploitation and overproduction. This affects the planet, the people, the animals. It needs systemic change."

It is not the first time "XR" activists have targeted fashion week, having covered themselves in fake blood and tied themselves to the entrance at last September's event.

The movement sent a letter on Monday to the industry lobby group British Fashion Council asking them to cancel London's fashion week in September.

Conscious of the accusations, the industry is this week showcasing its efforts in an exhibition dedicated to "positive fashion".

Many designers concerned about the impact of fashion on the environment are choosing to use renewable or recycled materials and support local craftsmanship.

But environmental activists believe this is not enough and that urgent action is needed.

The protest took place on the second day of Fashion Week, which saw the first London show of Petar Petrov, who presented his women's autumn/winter 2020/21 collection.

The designer, whose brand has just celebrated its tenth anniversary, unveiled the elegant and sober collection in the surroundings of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) listed headquarters located near Regent's Park.

The collection was marked by extra long flared sleeves and wide trouser suits held in place by thin belts.

Versatility was key, with coats worn as dresses and scarf necks and draped jackets that can be tied in different ways.

"I grew up without elegance, I grew up in a socialistic town and everyone had the same," said the designer, who grew up in Bulgaria and the Ukraine with his tailor mother.

He inherited her love of fabrics, a legacy that has become central to the company's ethos.

Other shows on Saturday include Britain's Molly Goddard, known for her voluminous and colorful tulle dresses, and Richard Quinn, who was honored two years ago by the queen with the "Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design".
No casualties were reported among Ukrainian troops.

Russia's hybrid military forces on Saturday mounted 10 attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine.

Read alsoZelensky: Over 200 Ukrainians held in occupied Donbas, more than 100  in Crimea and Russia

"The armed forces of the Russian Federation violated the ceasefire six times on February 15," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation said in a Facebook update as of 07:00 Kyiv time on February 16, 2020.

The enemy opened fire from proscribed 120mm and 82mm mortars, as well as an anti-tank missile system, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, and other small arms.

Under attack were Ukrainian positions near the towns of Maryinka and Krasnohorivka, and the villages of Pavlopil, Shyrokyne, Travneve, Orikhove, and Novoluhanske.

There were no Ukraine army casualties in the past day.

"Since Sunday midnight, Russia-led forces have attacked Ukrainian positions near Novoluhanske, using grenade launchers of various types, a heavy machine gun, and other small arms," the update said.

No Ukrainian army casualties registered on Sunday have been reported yet.
In an email he shared with The New York Times, a disease intervention specialist with the Hawaii Department of Health did not confirm that Mr. Fujiwaras friend was the one who had been diagnosed, but told him that he should contact the department if he had any symptoms before Tuesday, which would be two weeks after he saw his friend  the maximum incubation period for coronavirus.

Mr. Fujiwara said, I plan to go to dinner with my girlfriend tonight, unless things change, specifically because I have it in writing from the State of Hawaii Department of Health to continue my daily routine.

Janice Okubo, a spokeswoman for the Hawaii Department of Health, said that the man who was confirmed with the virus is not believed to have had any prolonged, close contact with Hawaii residents, but that health officials were continuing to investigate.

Dr. Sarah Park, the state epidemiologist, said the man had most likely been exposed to the virus before leaving Japan or while traveling to Hawaii. He and his wife, who was also confirmed on Saturday with the virus but did not show symptoms while in Hawaii, arrived on Maui on Jan. 28. The man was also symptom-free in Maui, but after the couple moved to Honolulu, on Oahu, on Feb. 3, he began showing signs of a cold.

A spokeswoman for Hilton Grand Vacations, which runs the hotel and time-share where the couple stayed in Waikiki, said the company was working with health officials. A letter slipped under the door of vacationers rooms provided tips on how to keep from getting the virus, washing hands being chief among them.

The man who became ill wore a mask when he was outside and while on the flight back to Japan, officials said, and was diagnosed with pneumonia, and later with coronavirus, after returning to the couples home in Nagoya, Japans fourth-largest city.
Arvind Kejriwal is a political phenomenon with very few parallels in Indian His fight against corruption to becoming Delhi's chief minister first in 2013, Kejriwal has shown his political resoluteness, which has left even his adversaries aghast.

Nearly nine years prior to leading his party to an emphatic victory claiming 62 of 70 seats in 2020 Assembly elections in the capital, Kejriwal first shot into eminence as an anti-establishment activist during Anna Hazare led India Against Corruption movement that roiled the country in 2011.

The years since have witnessed a nearly complete transformation of Kejriwal, departing from an image of a confrontational and combative politician during the initial years to staying away from the issue faced by Delhi in the past few months -- anti-CAA, NRC protests, and focussing only on issues close to the hearts of lesser mortals - quality health and education facilities along with free power and water but with a cap.

In the initial years of his tenure as the Chief Minister, he had left nothing to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi, both on and state issues, and even went on to contest against him from Varanasi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

In sharp contrast, he came down heavily recently on Pakistani Minister Fawad Chaudhry for his tweet against Prime Minister Modi, saying that he will not tolerate any interference from Pakistan in India's internal matters.

The AAP chief has metamorphosed, especially in the past few years, into a focused leader, with an eye on everyday issues faced by the people of Delhi. He became what has been described as a balanced politician, being more careful with his words and stance on issues, both big and small.

The emphatic victory of the AAP in the Assembly elections, despite losing all seven seats in the Lok Sabha polls only suggests that metamorphism is for the better for the party.

More specifically, the trademark woolly scarf that earned him the sobriquet of 'muffler man' was mostly missing during the campaign for the Assembly poll. When pointed out on this, Kejriwal responded on Twitter that he had taken off the muffler a long time back, which had probably gone unnoticed.

The political journey of Kejriwal began in November 2012, when he formally launched the Aam Aadmi Party, a name synonymous with the interest of 'common man'.

AAP decided to contest the 2013 Delhi Assembly elections with Kejriwal contesting against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. The highlight of the campaign included his call for civil disobedience, urging Delhiites not to pay what he described as illegal and inflated power and water bills.

The AAP secured 28 of the 70 seats and formed a minority government in the hung assembly. Less than 50 days later, Kejriwal resigned from the post of Chief Minister, after failing to table the Jan Lokpal Bill in the Delhi Assembly. In a dramatic turn of events, the AAP received a historic mandate of 67 seats in 2015 and the party stayed for full tenure.

In the initial years, Kejriwal was seen as an 'idealist anarchist' and a political greenhorn who launched frequent attacks on Prime Minister Modi on national and state issues alike. The initial years of his party's regime were marked by initiatives such as Janata Darbar and the long-running dispute between the CMO and the office of Delhi's Lieutenant-Governor.

As recently as June 2018, Kejriwal held a nine-day sit-in at the L-G's office, refusing to leave the premise until he directed the IAS officers to end their 'strike.' The past one-and-a-half years witnessed Kejriwal departing from his 'Dharna politics,' despite bigger national issues rocking the national capital.

Last but not the least, Kejriwal surprised all - his foes and friends as well - when he publicly kept saying that the people of Delhi should not vote for him if they think that his government has not worked in the past five years. The people chose to put their stamp on Kejri model of development, putting 62 assembly seats in his kitty. The mighty BJP could get only eight seats, while the Congress maintained its zero score.

Kejriwal has set a tall order for himself, thus becoming a bigger challenge for his political adversaries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Libraries are serene  but not silent  places. Walk into any public library, and theres a steady buzz. People come and go, kids dash to their favorite corner of the stacks, English-learners practice in a free class.

This scene can be found, too, at the south branch of the Berkeley Public Library, accompanied by, sometimes, actual buzzing.

The Berkeley Tool Lending Library is one of the Bay Areas great public gifts, a free-to-use service for Berkeley residents looking for anything from saws to ladders to a hard-to-find screwdriver. You'd think a repository of free tools, some very expensive, would disappear frequently, but supervising librarian Dan Beringhele says theft is rare. It's just that beloved.

As far as Beringhele knows, its the oldest such library in the country. He thinks theres one that may predate it in Rhode Island but, in any case, it closed a while back. The Berkeley tool library was founded in 1979 with a $30,000 federal community development grant. For decades, it was housed in a large portable trailer, then a series of trailers and, finally, its own building in 2003.

In 2018, the library sent out a community survey asking Berkeley residents which services they'd like to see at their local libraries. As if anyone needed proof of Berkeleyans' deep love for the space, among the most common requests were expanded hours at the tool library and adding a culinary collection.

Expanded hours have already arrived and, in May, theyre launching a kitchen program. Budding home chefs will be able to check out food dehydrators, Instant Pots, sous vides and ice cream makers. In addition, theyll be putting on a series of cooking how-tos; a recent fermentation workshop already drew more than 100 people.

On a recent trip to the tool lending library, the room was a gentle hive of activity, part free Home Depot and part community gathering space. As people came in, two employees, Robert Young and Angel Entes, greeted most by their first name.

Its a lot of regulars, says Young who, like Entes, has worked in the tool library for over 20 years. George comes in to drop off a cement mixer; Josh, a librarian in the childrens department, returns a wrench. A friendly woman hands over a weed wacker just as were discussing how, come spring, weed wackers are their most in-demand item.

People will wait around for someone to drop off a weed wacker just so they can get it next, Beringhele says.

Weve only got 30, Young says, which sounds like a lot but, when you consider they serve all of Berkeley, does explain the high demand.

You might expect tool lenders to be solely small, backyard project-doers, but a steady stream of professional contractors come by. Sometimes they just need an extra ladder for a job, other times 10 shovels. Once theyve done a one-time registration proving their Berkeley residency, all they need to do is show their library card and sign a waiver. Everything is free, unless something gets broken. Young says rototillers were destroyed a lot, because Berkeley soil has too much hard clay. Entes does repairs in the back, where piles of tools are stacked and awaiting his handiwork.

I enjoy helping people out, to fix their problems, Entes said. Today, there was a guy with a staple gun with a piece loose. I helped him fix it.

When asked about the most ambitious projects theyve ever seen done solely with Berkeleys free tools, Entes and Young both brought up someone who started a tiny house business with their equipment. Theres also Brian Vogelgesang, who created a stunning wood-paneled camper van. Since in-demand tools can only be kept for three days, that means a lot of trips back and forth to the library on Russell Street.

A lot of our patrons never make it to the little library next door, Young smiles. Some dont even realize it exists.

The next big project is for the Berkeley Tool Lending Library itself: where to put its new cooking section. Every available wall space and shelf is already covered in tools, and it's hard to imagine where they're going to fit shelves of crock pots. When I ask Young and Entes what their plan is, they laugh and gesture at Beringhele.

"We're going to show up to work one day and boom, he'll have figured it out," Entes says.

Beringhele gives a sheepish little shrug, but he doesn't look too worried.

Like everything here, it's no doubt a project they'll tackle together.

How it works:

 Only Berkeley residents or property owners over the age of 18 may borrow tools. One-time registration is required: Theyll need to see your Berkeley Public Library card, current photo ID and a proof of residence.

 Borrowers must sign a waiver and damaged tools will result in a fine.

 Tools may be renewed in-person or online, unless someone is on the wait list for the item.

The Berkeley Tool Lending Library is located at 1901 Russell St. It's open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday and 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday. The library is closed on Sundays.

Katie Dowd is an SFGATE Senior Digital Editor. Contact: katie.dowd@sfgate.com | Twitter: @katiedowd
Shocking footage shows the incredible moment a pilot landed his plane sideways at Heathrow airport, after battling fierce 91mph winds caused by Storm Dennis.

The clip shows the Etihad Airways jet battling the gales as it makes its unorthodox landing at Heathrow.

It was not the only plane to struggle as they tried to land in the middle of the destructive storm.

Hundreds of flights have been cancelled, while one video shows a pilot trying and failing to land at Heathrow airport yesterday.

Other clips show planes landing at Birmingham Airport, descending slowly as they battle the winds.

Several jets wobbled alarmingly in the air above the airport, but they just about managing to avoid a potential calamity and make the landing.

Others bounced on the runway after landing, sure to cause alarm among passengers.

Despite the frightening scenes, the planes were able to land successfully.

The UK is being ravaged by Storm Dennis this weekend, with three people dead and one person missing because of the storm.

Around 170 flights had been cancelled by Sunday morning, with the number rising throughout the day.

Close to 60 per cent of flights were disrupted coming in and out of Heathrow, while Gatwick experienced about 30 per cent, according to the travel news service Inrix.

Around 170 flights had been cancelled by Sunday morning, with the number rising throughout the day

This plane landed almost sideways at Heathrow, after the pilot was forced to battle 91mph winds caused by Storm Dennis

Heathrow suffered a further 26 cancellations and 133 delayed flights today, while Gatwick axed another 16 with 68 disrupted.

Gatwick Airport urged customers to set off from home early to make their flights amid disrupted rail and road routes.

Families jetting off on February half-term breaks were left stranded as the 1,200-mile wide 'bomb cyclone' battered Britain.

In dozens of towns still reeling from the devastation wrought by last week's Storm Ciara, the Army was drafted in to bolster flood defences.

A shocking video shows a plane trying and failing to land at Heathrow Airport amid Storm Dennis

The pilot abandoned the landing after battling fierce winds as he tried to land the jet at Heathrow

But experts warned this weekend's onslaught would cause further flooding.

Virgin cancelled four long-distance flights from Heathrow to Hong Kong and Boston scheduled for yesterday and today.

Passengers were booked on to other services. Meanwhile, British Airways confirmed 40 short-haul flights to and from Heathrow last night and this evening had been cancelled, with routes to Amsterdam and Glasgow the worst affected.

Under European air passengers' rights rules, airlines that cancel flights have a duty of care to provide replacement transport, as well as hotels and meals if necessary.

Other clips shows planes wobbling alarmingly in mid-air above Birmingham Airport yesterday

Despite the frightening footage, and a few bounces on the runway, the planes were able to land safely

BBC journalist Christian Fraser and his wife Topaz were among the holidaymakers whose travel plans were ruined.

They were due to fly to Gran Canaria yesterday on a 3,500 easyJet package break, but were told the flights were cancelled and given no other information.

'No one's helped us and no one seems to know what's going on,' Mr Fraser told The Mail on Sunday.

'We now don't know whether to try to get to Gran Canaria through our own means. We tried to contact easyJet for help on Friday night but the call centres shut at 8pm.'
Its easier than remembering to bring reusable bags to the grocery store.

Less time-consuming than spending an hour outside protesting fossil fuels.

And a heck of a lot less expensive than installing solar panels. In fact, its free.

But when it comes to combating climate change, it may be the most meaningful thing Montanans can do to make a difference this year. The Montana Climate Solutions Council has released a relatively concise, easily digestible plan aimed at guiding the states strategy into the foreseeable future, and its time for the public to weigh in.

So we all should set aside some time between now and the end of March, when the public comment period will close, to peruse the 37-page document and offer some constructive feedback. It is abundantly evident that the global climate is changing, and that this change affects all of us in Montana. The decisions we make now, together as a state, will determine how well we weather the rising challenges.

As the Montana Climate Solutions Plan notes, Montanas average temperatures are already 3 degrees warmer than they were a just few decades ago. Many farmers are adjusting to a hotter, drier climate by planting different crops. The state is budgeting for longer, more intense wildfire seasons as well as increased flooding due to early spring runoffs. Anyone who has lost a home to floods or fire, or struggled to breathe through a smoke-clogged summer, understands that the costs are more than financial.

And its expected to get worse. The Montana Climate Assessment estimates an increase in average temperatures of between 3 and 7 degrees within the next few decades.

Those who want to maintain the status quo will point out that no climate model, based on atmospheric measurements and temperature trends, can predict the future with 100% accuracy. Much hay was made by these folks out of Glacier National Parks recent removal of signs warning visitors that its famed glaciers would have melted away by 2020. Clearly, that projection proved inaccurate.

But its equally clear that the parks glaciers have in fact shrunk dramatically. It would be foolish to dismiss the abundant and compelling evidence of climate change in Montana just because the direst predictions have not yet come to pass. The Climate Solutions Plan quotes George Box, who said all models are wrong, but some models are useful.

Perhaps a bit belatedly recognizing Montanas need to plan ahead, Gov. Steve Bullock created the Climate Solutions Council last July to study the threats and offer recommendations to mitigate them, from forming new policies to encouraging stronger partnerships across the private, public and nonprofit sectors. The plan released by the council notes that various agencies and communities in the state have launched their own efforts to plan for climate impacts, and that much of this work draws on similar initiatives at the national level.

The preliminary recommendations forwarded by the council include:

 Supporting climate science and sharing information to create a common framework.

 Establishing a climate advisory council that makes use of the expertise within the Montana University System.

 Backing climate-smart land management strategies across ownership boundaries.

 Establishing energy efficiency standards and modernizing building codes.

 Reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

That last point is granted its own dedicated section within the plan, which goes into further detail about the statewide goal of achieving net greenhouse gas neutrality for average annual electric loads by no later than 2035, as well as a goal of eventually achieving net greenhouse gas neutrality economy-wide.

Thats a tough sell in a state still heavily dependent on fossil fuels and locked in debate about moving toward more sustainable energy. In Missoula and Helena, dozens of protesters have made regular appearances outside government offices and NorthWestern Energy buildings, calling for a shift in energy strategy to reduce reliance on CO2-producing sources. However, NorthWestern is instead trying to increase its stake in the coal facilities at Colstrip and encouraging the construction of new natural gas plants. And the all-Republican Montana Public Service Commission, which oversees the states largest energy utility, does not seem motivated to force NorthWestern to address what one commissioner called the so-called climate crisis.

Missoulas city and county government wisely didnt wait to get the ball rolling on policies to conserve energy, reduce carbon emissions and put together local climate action plans in partnership with the University of Montana and the nonprofit Climate Smart Missoula.

Yet even as communities like Missoula lead the way forward, others in the state are digging in their heels, refusing to plan for a changing climate and preferring instead to deal with emergencies as they arise.

Montana cannot go in different directions on this. The Climate Solutions Council will present a final plan by June. That plan should reflect Montanans awareness of climate change and the urgent need to take steps that effectively address it.

Exactly which steps? Answering that is the hard part. Be sure to send your answers by email to ClimateCouncil@mt.gov or regular mail to Montana DEQ c/o Rebecca Harbage/Director's Office, P.O. Box 200901, Helena, MT 59620-0901 by March 31. But first, read through the draft Montana Climate Solutions Plan, available online at deq.mt.gov/Climate.

This editorial represents the views of the Missoulian Editorial Board: Publisher Jim Strauss, Editor Gwen Florio and Opinion Editor Tyler Christensen.

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Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday taunted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its disastrous performance in the Delhi Assembly elections, claiming that the duo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah is not invincible and other political parties can take lessons from the poll results.

Raut, in his weekly column Rokthok in the party mouthpiece Saamana, said the BJPs raking up of the Ram temple issue did not help it. When the BJP realised that it will face defeat in Delhi, it almost brought Lord Ram to the field. When the Lok Sabha [parliamentary] proceedings were going on, Modi announced the Ram Mandir trust and announced the intention to build the temple. However, this did not cut ice with the voters, he wrote in his column.

The Sena leader wrote that the BJP tried to give a communal colour to the anti-Citizenship [Amendment] Act [CAA] campaign and tried to paint the elections as a Hindu-Muslim contest. Here also they failed as the BJP faced defeat even in Hindu dominated areas, Raut wrote in the column, adding, It is said that Arvind Kejriwal, the follower of Lord Hanuman, brought Ram Rajya to Delhi.

The Sena has been one of the most bitter critics of the BJP ever since it snapped all ties with the party as the latter refused to share the chief ministers post after the Maharashtra Assembly polls. The Sena then dumped the BJP and tied up with its opponents, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), to form a government led by its chief, Uddhav Thackeray.

In his column, Raut also shared his experience of his visit to the Tashkent airport in Uzbekistan when two Indians living there remarked that the BJPs balloon was slowly rupturing and even Lord Ram was refusing to bail them out. The article praised Kejriwal, saying his government really carried out developmental works in its last tenure.
The current salary for the president of the United States is $400,000, while the vice president earns an annual salary of $230,700. Although thats not chump change, some of the politicians who have held these esteemed positions have been able to parlay their time in the White House into millions through book deals, paid appearances and consulting gigs. Heres how former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden and other politicians have used their time in office to boost their net worths.

Last updated: Sept. 22, 2020

1. Joe Biden

Net Worth: $9 million, according to Forbes

Joe Biden began his political career as a senator in 1979 at the age of 29  making him the youngest candidate ever elected to the Senate, Forbes reported. He later served as Delawares attorney general and served as vice president with former President Obama from 2009 to 2017.

Keep reading to find out more about how hes made his millions.

Memoir Money

According to Bidens tax returns, he earned $71,000 in royalties and an additional $9,500 for audiobook rights after Random House published his first memoir, Promises to Keep, Forbes reported. And in the 23 months following the end of his turn as vice president, Biden earned $1.8 million from book tour events.

Millions in Speaking Fees

During that same time span, Biden earned $2.4 million in speaking fees stemming from 19 separate engagements, Forbes reported. That amounts to an average fee of $126,000 per speech.

Ivy League Professor Income

In 2017, Biden was named the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, leading the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. His turn as a professor at the Ivy League school earned him a $775,000 paycheck, Forbes reported.

2. George H.W. Bush

Net Worth (Deceased): $25 million

George H.W. Bush served as the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993. He previously served as vice president with Ronald Reagan and also had served as director of the CIA, ambassador to the United Nations, chairman of the Republican National Committee, U.S. envoy to China and U.S. Congressman. Bush died in November 2018.

Story continues

Here are some ways he made big money thanks to his time in office.

Lucrative Speaking Engagements

Toward the end of his presidency, George W. Bush told Robert Draper, author of Dead Certain, that his father, George H.W. Bush, commanded more than $50,000 or $75,000 per speech.

Other Politicians: How Much Is Elizabeth Warren Worth?

Significant Book Royalties

Bush authored and co-authored a number of books over the years, including his autobiography, Looking Forward, A World Transformed, and All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings. Although the exact amount he earned from his book deals hasnt been released, Money reported that he received significant royalties.

3. George W. Bush

Net Worth: $40 million

George W. Bush followed in his fathers political footsteps, serving two terms as president from 2001 to 2009. He was president during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, an event that challenged the nation and transformed Bush into a wartime president.

Bush has doubled his fortune since leaving the White House  he entered it with a $20 million net worth, according to a report by American University.

Heres how he grew that net worth.

Big Money From Speeches

In 2015, Politico found that Bush was paid anywhere between $100,000 and $175,000 per speech, earning him tens of millions of dollars in just a few years after leaving political office.

Millions From Book Deals

Bush has authored three books: Decision Points (2010), 41: A Portrait of My Father (2014) and an art book, Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chiefs Tribute to Americas Warriors (2017). His deal for his first book alone was valued at $7 million, according to the Daily Beast.

4. Bill Clinton

Net Worth: $80 million

Bill Clinton took office at the end of the Cold War, serving as the 42nd president of the U.S. from 1993 to 2001. He was the first baby-boomer generation president.

According to a report by American University, Clinton has done the most to monetize his post-political career. When he took office in 1993, his net worth was just $1.2 million.

Find out what he did to make all that money.

Millions From Public Speaking

According to CNN, Clinton  along with his wife, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton  have earned an average of $210,795 per speech since they exited the White House in 2001. The couple gave 729 speeches from February 2001 until May 2015, which equals a payday of more than $153 million.

A Massive Book Advance

Clinton received a $15 million advance for his 2004 autobiography, My Life, The New York Times reported. In total, hes earned $29.6 million from his autobiography and his other book, Giving.

Advising and Consulting Work

Post-presidency, Clinton formed a partnership with billionaire investor Ronald Burkle. The New York Times reported that Clinton earned somewhere between $12.6 million and $15.3 million between 2002 and 2007 as an advisor for Burkles Yucaipa Companies.

He also has worked as a consultant for the consumer database company InfoUSA, which has paid him $3.3 million over the years.

Read More: A Look at the Finances of Bernie Sanders

5. Gerald Ford

Net Worth (Deceased): $7 million

Gerald Ford was the first vice president to take on the role of president after former President Richard Nixon resigned. He took the oath of office in August 1974. Though he won the Republican presidential nomination in 1976, he lost the election to Jimmy Carter.

Even though he only served as president for three years, Ford was able to turn his time in the White House into millions. He entered the White House with a $1.4 million net worth and amassed an additional $5.6 million before he died, according to a report by American University. He was the first former president to monetize his time in the office, according to The Washington Post.

A Pioneer of Paid Speeches

Before Ford, presidents lived simple lives and were not expected to make outside income aside from book royalties. Ford changed all that by getting paid to make speeches, appearing at conventions, meetings and even the opening of a shopping center, The Washington Post reported.

Corporate Board Memberships

Ford accepted memberships on corporate boards of companies like 20th Century Fox and American Express after leaving office in 1977, according to The New York Times.

6. Al Gore

Net Worth: $300 million

Al Gore was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976 and later became a member of the U.S. Senate. He then went on to be inaugurated as the 45th vice president of the United States in 1993 and served eight years. Currently, Gore is the chairman of Generation Investment Management, which he co-founded, and the founder and chairman of the nonprofit The Climate Reality Project.

Read on to find out how he made much of his money.

Green Investments Earn Him Serious Green

Gore co-founded the London-based investment firm Generation Investment Management to invest money in businesses that were environmentally responsible. The firm raised profits of almost $218 million between 2008 and 2011, which was split between 26 partners, Forbes reported. If it were an even split, Gore would have made over $8 million during those years.

Gore has also invested $35 million in hedge funds and private partnerships.

Cashing In on a Cable Network

In 2013, Gore and his business partner Joel Wyatt sold their cable network Current TV to Al Jazeera. Gore made $70 million off the deal, Forbes reported. Gore had previously been paying himself $1.2 million a year in salary and bonuses as an owner of the network.

Numerous Book Deals

Although it hasnt been reported how much hes earned from his book deals, Gore has certainly added to his net worth with his books successes. He has written three New York Times bestsellers  An Inconvenient Truth, The Assault on Reason and An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power  and three other books.

Gore has also been the subject of two documentary movies.

7. Barack Obama

Net Worth: $70 million

Barack Obama was elected the 44th U.S. president and served two terms beginning in 2009. He previously served on the Illinois State Senate and the U.S. Senate.

Obama entered the White House with a $1.3 million net worth, and a report by American University speculates that he could earn as much as $242.5 million in post-White House income.

Heres how hes already making millions.

Six-Figure Fees for Giving Speeches

Obama is officially a part of the elite club of former presidents who demand dizzyingly high speaking fees. He agreed to give a speech at a conference run by Wall Street trading and investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald in September 2017 for a whopping $400,000, CNBC reported. The fee is equivalent to the annual salary paid to the commander-in-chief.

Multimillion-Dollar Book Deals

A little more than a month out of office, news broke that Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama had signed a book deal with Penguin Random House that likely stretched well into eight figures, The New York Times reported.

Thats money on top of what hes already earned from his previous books. Forbes estimates that he earned $6.8 million from Dreams From My Father and $8.8 million from Audacity of Hope and Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters between 2005 and 2016.

Netflix Deal

In 2018, the Obamas signed a multiyear production deal with Netflix to produce series and movies for the streaming service, Variety reported. Its unknown how much the Obamas made from the deal, but Netflix is known to pay well. The streaming giant previously struck a deal with Shonda Rhimes valued at $100 million and a deal with Ryan Murphy valued at as much as $300 million.

8. Ronald Reagan

Net Worth (Deceased): $13 million

Originally an actor, Ronald Reagan successfully made the transition to politician and went on to become the 40th president of the U.S. He served two terms, from 1981 to 1989.

Reagan was already well-off when he entered the White House, with a net worth of $10.6 million before starting his first term, according to a report by American University.

See how he grew his income outside of the office.

Million-Dollar Speeches

In 1989, Ronald Reagan served as the main attraction at a Tokyo symposium sponsored by the Japanese media conglomerate Fujisankei Communications Group. His fee for a pair of speeches reportedly totaled $2 million, according to The New York Times.

Multimillion-Dollar Books

Reagan signed a reportedly $5 million deal in 1989 to write two books for Simon & Schuster, according to the Los Angeles Times. In addition to those two books  An American Life and Speaking My Mind  he also penned The Reagan Diaries and The Notes: Ronald Reagans Private Collection of Stories and Wisdom, which were published by HarperCollins.

More From GOBankingRates

Net worths are sourced from Celebrity Net Worth unless otherwise noted. Net worths are accurate as of Jan. 29, 2020.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: How Obama, Biden and Other Elected Officials Have Made Millions by Being in Office
The girlfriend of the Russian artist Piotr Pavlensky was taken into custody Saturday night, suspected of having participated in the "invasion of privacy".

According to the Paris public prosecutor's office, she was taken into custody for "invasion of privacy" and "dissemination without the person's consent of images of a sexual nature", as part of the investigation opened Saturday following the filing of a complaint by Benjamin Griveaux.

Act of violence

Meanwhile, Piotr Pavlensky, who claims to have leaked the sex video at the centre of the Griveaux case, was arrested by French police on Saturday over an unrelated act of violence, the Paris prosecutor's office said.

The political refugee was taken in for questioning over an alleged instance of "armed violence" that took place on 31 December.

The prosecutor stressed that the case had no link to the sex video case involving French President Emmanuel Macron's chosen candidate to become Paris mayor, Benjamin Griveaux.

Too hot to handle in his home country Russia, the gaunt looking Pavlensky, 35, fled to France where he has caused uproar by putting the sex video online which forced Griveaux to withdraw from the mayoral race.

Griveaux, a 42-year-old MP, has brought a legal case against Pavlensky over the release of the video and an enquiry has been opened, the prosecutor said later Saturday.

Pavlensky, an activist and performance artist, said on Friday that he had put the video online in order to expose Griveaux's "hypocrisy", and warned that he planned to post more material on a newly-created "political porn platform".

Griveaux "is someone who constantly brings up family values, who says he wants to be the mayor of families and always cites his wife and children as an example. But he is doing the opposite," Pavlensky told the Liberation daily.

Pavlensky record

The artist has a track record of causing outrage.

He made global headlines in 2013 after nailing his scrotum to Red quare in Moscow and two years later doused the doors of the FSB secret police headquarters with petrol and set them on fire.

In October 2017, he set fire to offices of the Bank of France on Place Bastille, site of the attack on the infamous fortress at the start of the French revolution in 1789.

The bank's presence on such hallowed revolutionary ground was "historically shameful", Pavlensky said.

For that he was sentenced to three years' jail, two suspended, for the destruction of other people's property.

His hardline stance and eye watering protests have elicited a mixed response among Russian opposition groups.

Some defend his actions as a form of engaged art but others such as late rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva were blunter, branding his actions "idiotic".

The December 31 incident, for which Pavlensky was arrested on Saturday, involved a fight at a Paris apartment in which a knife from the kitchen was used.

Two guests at the New Year's Eve party suffered knife wounds, according to the Mediapart investigative website.
The Duchess of Cambridge has recently swapped her signature bouncy blow dry for a half-up hairstyle - and a celebrity stylist has explained why the updated look is perfect for a busy working mother.

Kate, 38, has sported the half-up hairdo on four separate occasions since the start of the year, including her joint outing with Prince William, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall on Tuesday.

Speaking to FEMAIL, British celebrity stylist James Johnson told how the quick and easy style is surprisingly versatile, allowing Kate to transition from formal engagements to time with the family.

The Duchess of Cambridge has recently swapped her signature bouncy blow dry for a half-up hairstyle. She wore the style to the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre this week, pictured

It also takes just minutes to achieve, meaning Kate can spend more of her precious down time with her children, rather than in the stylist's chair.

He said: 'Kate's smart yet feminine half-up hairstyle is perfect for a busy working mum juggling her three kids with public engagements.

'A style like this takes just five minutes to pull together in the morning, unlike fussier updos or her bigger, bouncier blow-drys.

'This means she has more time to spend with the children before heading out the door.

Celebrity stylist has explained the updated look is perfect for a busy working mother because it is quick and easy to do but is still elegant enough for royal engagements. Pictured, Kate while meeting Holocaust survivors in London on 27 January (left) and in South Wales last week

'The mix of the elegant slicked back portion at the front and the more relaxed looser waves at the back means it is also ideal for transitioning between formal settings like royal engagements and the casual school run.'

There is also a decidedly practical element to the switch up in hairstyle, James said, pointing out that Kate had recently braved a windy arrival at the Evelina London Children's Hospital and a blustery day on the seafront in South Wales.

'This hair is weather proof,' he continued. 'Kate has been out and about in the stormy weather and this is a style that will stay put and avoid any embarrassing windswept moments.'

A basic version of the look can be achieved in minutes, with extra time needed for curls like the ones Kate wore to Evelina Children's Hospital in London on 28 January, pictured left and right

There is also a decidedly practical element to the switch up in hairstyle, James said, pointing out that Kate braves the elements when outdoors on engagements. Pictured, with William, Charles and Camilla at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre on Tuesday

James told how anyone can copy Kate's look in just a few simple steps: 'Section the hair from ear to ear, using a hairspray sprayed onto a comb to catch any fly aways.

'Comb the top layer backwards and pin or band into a pony tail at the back of the head. For height, backcomb first or use a pintail comb to lift to desired position.'

For an even more elegant look, sections of the hair can be curled or waved. However these will likely fall out if the weather is damp or windy.
I understand there are organized groups suing the state of North Dakota because the state requires a valid address before you can vote. They claim that it discriminates against people that have no address.

I find this difficult to believe because a while ago every road had to be identified so -- as emergency personnel could promptly find the people in need. If I am mistaken about this and certain areas were left out of this, then wouldn't it be more prudent to identify these roads so they can be used for an address?

It also states that some people may not even know the address they live at. Would seem to me that the Christian thing would be to educate them and help them live a better more educated life than to organize groups to fight to keep them in their current oblivion.

Money is being spent organizing these organizations and paying for lawyers to fight in court for the organizations cause. You are not fooling everyone, it is not possible to care about people when you are openly fighting to keep them as they are. Take a small fraction of the money you are spending on your cause to helping these people.

Seems nowadays if you spend enough money in the pursuit of recognition, regardless who gets trampled on, you get recognized. What then?

Only criminals are against laws against criminals.

Jim Braun, Belfield

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 12:08:49|Editor: huaxia

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GUANGZHOU, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Inside a warehouse at Bayer PH Supply Center Guangzhou Site, cargo boxes loaded with medical products are stacked over 10 meters high, ready to aid coronavirus-battered Hubei Province.

During the Spring Festival holiday, workers at the factory of Bayer in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, worked overtime to ensure supplies of medical products for Hubei and other virus-hit regions across the country.

"Now 60 percent of production capacity has recovered," said Anson Xie, manager of the site.

One of the two main products Bayer produces is anti-inflammatory medicine targeting respiratory tract infections, which saw a surging demand in February.

According to the government of Guangzhou's Huangpu District, where local manufacturing industries cluster, as of the afternoon of Feb. 13, 3,061 enterprises in the district had resumed production. A total of 1,338 are in the industrial sector, accounting for 27.8 percent of all industrial enterprises. Around 170,000 workers, nearly half the workforce in the industrial sector, have resumed work.

The multinational manufacturer Procter & Gamble also resumed operations at its plant in Huangpu on Feb. 5. Now, most production lines are running, with about 1,000 workers having returned to work, said Jason Xu, health safety and environment leader at the plant.

"Now we mainly produce shampoos and body wash products to meet people's needs," said Xu.

Amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, all the factories have taken strict measures to ensure epidemic control and prevention.

Workers at the P&G plant were given health instructions and asked to work according to strict safety rules.

Peng Rong, who returned to Guangzhou from her hometown Sichuan Province on Feb. 3, began work after a one-week self-quarantine. Now she is armed to the teeth with protective gear that the factory prepared for all the staff, and the dining hall is not as crowded as before, with food packed in advance instead, for safety.

Inevitably, the epidemic has affected some enterprises in material supply, personnel employment, production capacity and transportation.

Guangzhou Bioseal Biotech Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson that produces a product used for surgical hemostasis, has met obstacles.

Due to traffic control in other provincial regions, 5 percent of the company's workers failed to return to work, and transportation of some products to other provincial regions was hampered as well, said Huang Lisha, general manager of the company.

Whether and when the upstream enterprises resume work impacts the raw material supplies of P&G's Huangpu Plant, but the local government has been helping to coordinate between both sides, said Xu.

The government in Huangpu District has introduced policies to cut rental costs, secure production, stabilize employment and provide financial support and incentives for enterprises, with fiscal support totaling 287 million yuan (about 41.1 million U.S. dollars), said Gu Lin, an official with Huangpu District.

"Authorities in Huangpu have established a platform to coordinate supplies and production for factories, and our company was allocated a batch of anti-virus materials, which were in urgent need," said Huang.

Government officials in Huangpu District and Guangzhou Development Zone visited around 1,000 enterprises to better understand their needs and situations and help them with material supplies, plant reconstruction and production line adjustment, said Gu.
BOSIDENG was making its debut on the official schedule of London Fashion Week this season - an historic moment for a major Chinese fashion brand. Following concern about the coronavirus in China, many Chinese designers and media had pulled out of the fashion circuit this season, with foreign media reporting that "the Chinese are absent from the 2020 international fashion weeks". However, in a positive demonstration of confidence in the strength and Chinese fashion and the resilience of the Chinese people, BOSIDENG led its foreign friends in cheering for China during this time of hardship.

As one of the four major international fashion weeks, London Fashion Week is best known for its innovative and avant-garde spirit. It attracts international brands and designers, making it an indispensable platform for creative energy. The appearance of a Chinese brand was one of the biggest talking points of this season's London Fashion Week.

The BOSIDENG show was full of references to China. Models in the new season's down jackets had Chinese flag stickers on their faces. High-impact colours such as fruit green, neon yellow and Van Gogh blue were boldly used as well as fashion touches such as reflective digital camouflage and dazzle colours. This spectacular fusion of fashion creativity and technical craftsmanship has set the pace for modern Chinese fashion.

The show closed in an upbeat defiant mood, with 54 models in red down jackets joining the designer for the finale. An international mix of guests chanted "Go China!" in Chinese and English, expressing their support both for China and for Chinese brands.

After the show, guests from home and abroad queued up to offer their support and best wishes to China. One member of the audience, from the UK, said, "This is the most special fashion week I've ever attended. Go China!" Another overseas Chinese visitor said, "I'm so proud to see our national flag at London Fashion Week. Go China!".

Multiple leading media reported how BOSIDENG's London Fashion Week statement has inspired global support for China at this challenging time.

A name with a 43-year focus on down jackets, BOSIDENG made an important statement at London Fashion Week, bringing the qualities of its brand to a global audience. Besides its excellent product quality and design, BOSIDENG has underlined its self-confidence on the international stage. In recent years, under an overall strategy of "focusing on the main channel and focusing on the main brand", BOSIDENG has received a warm welcome from young people, achieving impressive growth for two consecutive years. BOSIDENG represents the potential of Chinese fashion to thrive in the face of global competition. In China, as the whole country - in particular Wuhan - was facing significant challenges in the cold-weather season, BOSIDENG has donated 150,000 down jackets worth 300 million yuan to support front-line workers and those in need. On the international stage, this great down jacket brand has once again inspired a global message of positive energy for China. And, thanks to BOSIDENG, China has not been absent from London Fashion Week.

SOURCE BOSIDENG
Over 1,000 students from 10 primary and middle schools in Mathare Slums, Nairobi, capital of Kenya gathered at a square on Feb. 6 to show their support for China and Wuhan, epicenter of the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak.

Holding banners reading We are together with you I love you, China and Together, we can defeat coronavirus, they expressed their deep friendship with the Chinese people.

China and Africa, fighting side by side and sharing weal and woe, have forged a brotherly friendship of shared destiny. While the Chinese government and people are fighting the novel coronavirus epidemic, their African counterparts, as good friends, partners, and brothers, have expressed their sympathy and firm support for China in various ways.

Leaders of many African countries have sent messages of sympathy to China. They highly evaluated Chinas effective measures of epidemic prevention and control, and sent hope that the Chinese people will overcome the difficulties.

Recently, African foreign ministers attending the 33rd African Union (AU) summit made a unanimous voice to support the government and people of China for their efforts to control the spread of the novel coronavirus and its ramifications.

AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat noted that at this moment, Africa feels what the Chinese people feel and stands with them with solidarity.

China and Africa have always been a community with a shared future, and the African people will not just sit by and watch how the whole Chinese nation is fighting against the epidemic.

Equatorial Guinea has donated $2 million to China; the government of Ghana has sent 10,000 pieces of N95 masks to Wuhan; and staffs at the at headquarters and branches of Standard Bank Group of South Africa wore red outfits to show support for China.

In addition, a foreign student from the Republic of Benin named Glele Aho Letonghan volunteered to join the emergency team at Jinxian Hospital in southeast China's Jiangxi province, and Munyaradzi Gurure, a foreign student at Guangxi University of Finance and Economics from South Africa, started serving as a volunteer to disinfect the train station of Yulin, south Chinas Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Such assistance offered by African countries and people is warm and sincere, demonstrating the priceless relations between the two sides.

Such relations were forged at critical moments. After the Ebola virus raged throughout West Africa in March 2014, some western countries closed their embassies in three virus-hit countries and evacuated diplomats and nationals.

The Chinese government was among the first to offer help, deploying 23 charter flights to deliver emergency supplies and sending over 1,000 medics to the epidemic areas. Chinese embassies, diplomats and medical experts stayed there with the African people.

They fought side by side with the African people day and night until the final victory against the Ebola epidemic was achieved. This has left a deep impression for the African people, and explains what real friendship is.

Now, when China encounters a hard time because of the novel coronavirus, its African friends have sent messages of sympathy to express their support and care for China and the Chinese people, and extended their gratitude for Chinas selfless assistance for them to get through hardships. The heartfelt words demonstrate their sincere ties with China, and will be honored in the history of China-Africa friendship.

The mutual assistance offered by China and Africa through good times and bad has always been shining like gold. Such a friendship is deeply rooted in the hearts of the Chinese and Africans, as a solid foundation and inexhaustible strength for the building of a closer China-Africa community with a shared future.
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A boy is expected to survive after he was shot in the head or face Sunday morning by another child, who found a gun inside the home.

Houston Police Sgt. Himes told news media that the victim had a non-life-threatening injury to the face or head. Himes didnt know the precise location of the bullet wound.
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!)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 20:38:33|Editor: xuxin

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NAIROBI, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- There is a need for governments to enforce legislation and support public campaigns aimed at enhancing conservation of pangolins amid threat of extinction, campaigners said on Saturday during celebrations to mark World Pangolins Day.

"We are concerned that poaching, coupled with the pangolins' natural slow rates of reproduction, are pushing them to the brink of extinction," World Animal Protection, an international conservation lobby said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

The World Pangolins Day was marked globally amid concern about their rapidly declining numbers linked to illegal hunting for their scales and meat as well as climatic shocks.

Campaigners said the scaled and nocturnal mammal that is native to nearly 51 countries remain the most hunted and trafficked due to their scales that are considered to contain medicinal properties.

According to World Animal Protection, more than one million pangolins are believed to have been killed and traded between 2000 to 2013 for medicinal purposes.

The conservation lobby said that there were 1,270 seizures of trafficked pangolin reported in 67 countries and territories across six continents between 2010 to 2015.

It said that 120 tonnes of body parts, whole animals, scales and 46,000 carcasses were netted during the seizures in the first half of the last decade.

"Urgent action is needed to save these shy nocturnal anteaters," said World Animal Protection.

The African and Asian continents are home to eight pangolin species whose levels of poaching have outpaced one of the giant land mammals like elephants and rhinos.

Currently, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) considers pangolin so threatened that it has listed it in Appendix 1, which includes other threatened species like African grey parrots, Asian elephants and tigers.

Edith Kabesiime, wildlife campaign manager at World Animal Protection, said that a global crackdown on poaching of pangolins should also involve public education to debunk the myths about medicinal properties of their scales.

She said that illegal trade in pangolin meat and scales poses a grave public health challenge across the world.

She said that a total ban on trade in pangolin scales and meat combined with the promotion of alternative herbal therapies is key to halting their extinction.
Two people died yesterday, an 18-year-old in Kent and another man who fell overboard near Margate Harbour

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The body of a man in his 60s has been found in a river in South Wales, with the region bearing the brunt of the destructive Storm Dennis which is causing devastation all over the country today.

The discovery, which is the third confirmed death from the storm, comes after a month's worth of rain hit Britain in the space of 48 hours this weekend, with more flood alerts and warnings today than on any other occasion on record.

Police in South Wales have declared a major incident and dispatched emergency services to rescue those battling flash flooding, with Shropshire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire following suit.

Today's death came after the walker fell into the River Tawe, in south Wales, at around 10am, before powerful floods washed his body away. He was eventually found eight miles from where he'd fallen in.

A huge search and rescue operation was also launched in the early hours of the morning to find a missing woman, believed to be in her early 20s, spotted mysteriously walking into the sea in Brighton, Sussex.

Despite hours of frantic searching, which included a Coastguard helicopter, she has still not been found.

A second woman was also swept away by floodwater in Worcestershire but the search has now been called off until tomorrow.

Rescue workers save a woman and a baby as they evacuate residents from Nantgarw, Wales after flooding caused by Storm Dennis

Flood water surrounds the bowling club after the River Taff burst its banks in Taffs Wells, north of Cardiff in south Wales this morning

A high street in Pontypridd, Wales is flooded, with cars forced to wade through flood waters next to abandoned shops

Meanwhile, locals in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales watched aghast as a torrent of thick black sludge cascaded down a hillside, with today's storm triggering a horrific landslide.

The 'life-threatening' Storm Dennis has caused flooding carnage across Britain and prompted the Met Office to issue its highest level warning with heavy rain and fierce winds of up to 91mph.

By 4pm on Sunday there were 254 flood warnings, meaning immediate action is required, and 349 flood alerts warning people to be prepared, covering an area from Scotland's River Tweed to the rivers of west Cornwall.

These 614 flood alerts and warnings were the most ever recorded in a single day.

The situation was said to be particularly perilous in South Wales, where the Met Office issued a red warning due to heavy rainfall and flooding risk. It is the first red warning issued for rain since 2015.

An ambulance is among submerged vehicles floating in water after flooding in Nantgarw, Wales this morning caused by Storm Dennis

An aerial view of the Welsh village of Crickhowell which has been cut off as the river Usk bursts its banks at Crickhowell bridge near the Bridge End Inn

The 'life-threatening' downpour has caused flooding carnage across Britain, with South Wales and the village of Crickhowell (pictured) particularly affected

Crickhowell has been cut off, with police and other emergency services attempting to rescue stranded residents as the floodwaters overwhelm the village

South Wales police said emergency services were dealing with multiple floods and landslides, and have been required to evacuate residents from houses

An elderly woman is rescued from a property on February 16, 2020 in Nantgarw, Wales as flooding ravages the area

Gwent Police said that residents of Skenfrith, Monmouthshire, were being advised to evacuate due to the flooding.

One of the worst-hit areas in South Wales was the village of Nantgarw, Rhondda Cynon Taff, near Cardiff, which had seen entire streets left underwater since the early hours of Sunday morning.

Emergency teams including firefighters and volunteers had been evacuating the village's Oxford Street since around 5am and were still working midday on Sunday.

Assistant Chief Constable Jennifer Gilmer, said: 'I would like to reassure the public who have been affected that we are doing everything we can, and will continue to work tirelessly until all risks dissipate.

'I would like to thank all our emergency services and rescue partners for their assistance and professionalism.

'I have very clear advice for everybody, which is not to panic, and to be sensible, stay well clear of any danger such as streams and rivers, and contact us in an emergency.'

The force have told people in affected areas to stay indoors unless a journey was necessary, avoid waterways, and monitor local and social media for updates.

Ms Gilmer later added she felt her force had done enough to warn the public of the risk of flooding, stating that the subsequent rainfall was 'worse than people had anticipated'.

She said: 'When things began to escalate overnight we were very well placed to escalate our response and get to as many people as possible.'

Families jetting off on February half-term breaks were left stranded as the 1,200-mile wide 'bomb cyclone' battered Britain

Fields in Pembrokeshire, South Wales have been flooded, with particularly severe warnings in place for much of Wales today

Cars semi-submerged by floodwater on Oxford Street, Nantgarw after Storm Dennis hits the UK. Resident Melanie Hughes took the photo

Cars were submerged in Nantgarw, with people retreating to the upper floors of their homes as floodwaters invaded

A footbridge in Pontypridd is blocked by debris after Storm Dennis hits the UK, with the South Wales town badly affected

Flood water swept through a grave yard and surrounded headstones in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, after the River Teme burst its banks during Storm Dennis

Flooding from the River Severn in Worcester, after storm Dennis hits the Midlands. Storm Dennis is set to bring major disruption to parts of the UK for a second day amid dozens of flood warnings and hundreds of cancelled flights

Flood water surrounds a house after the River Trent burst its banks, in Lowdham, Nottinghamshire because of Storm Dennis

Items inside a flooded charity shop were left floating in muddy water after the River Teme burst its banks in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire

Several inches of water had risen on both sides of the shop front's glass window at the charity shop in Tenbury Wells leaving much of the stock underwater

Rescue operations continue as emergency services take families to safety, after flooding in Nantgarw, Wales as Storm Dennis hit the UK

Flooding hits homes in Taffs Well, north of Cardiff in south Wales, as the River Taff, on the left, bursts it's banks from the effects of Storm Dennis

South Wales Fire and Rescue Service received an 'unprecedented' 1,300 calls on Sunday alone and had carried out 76 life rescues.

Group manager Paul Mason said the scene his team had faced was the worst he had experienced in his 31-year career.

He said: 'We started getting calls at 5am.

'The water was up to the window sills in some instances, so we sent a number of boats and crews down here to assist with our partner agencies, systematically going through each of the houses, knocking on doors, trying to prioritise individuals.

'This weather is unprecedented. We haven't seen this, it's incredible, and it's right throughout the South Wales Valleys.

'In my 31 years in the service this is the worst I've ever seen. I've never experienced anything like this before.'

He said some residents had refused to leave their homes despite being encouraged to but would be monitored for their safety.

Resident Greg Curtis, 68, was rescued by lifeboat from the street around 1pm, said he and his wife were first woken by neighbours banging his home at 4am on Sunday morning, and described the incident as a 'nightmare'.

He said: 'The water was about two feet up to my house.

'It just came really quick. I feel a bit miffed but it is what it is.

'I've lived here for 46 years and we've never had anything like this here.

'When the water comes down I'll go back and then we'll get into the insurance part and fight to get whatever.'

Melanie Hughes, 38, was also evacuated by lifeboat with along with her husband and two daughters, said she was awoken by shouting and car alarms in the early hours, and said many of their family's possessions had been lost.

She said: 'Everyone's safe, which is the main thing. We were lucky.

'But our cars, kitchen, furniture, it's all gone. It's going to be a couple of months of hard work now.

'It was filthy, there was nothing to salvage.'

Members of the emergency services evacuate residents and their dogs from flooded houses by rescue boat after the River Taff burst its banks in Nantgarw, south of Ponypridd in south Wales

One-year-old Blake is handed to his mum, Terri O'Donnel, by a rescue worker as emergency services continue to take families to safety, after flooding in Nantgarw, Wales

Rescue operations continue as emergency services take families to safety, after flooding in Nantgarw, Wales

A dog and its owner are rescued by emergency services after flooding in Nantgarw, Wales after Storm Dennis hit the UK

Teme Street in Tenbury Wells is seen under floodwater from the overflowing River Teme in western England

A herd of sheep have been left marooned on a shrinking patch of grass after getting stranded by the rising floodwater in Carmarthen, Wales

An employee cleans a poundland shop in Pontypridd after Storm Dennis hits the UK, leading to widespread flooding

An employee cleans a nail salon on Market street in Pontypridd after Storm Dennis hits the UK leading to widespread flooding

Members of the emergency services check on a vehicle at Eastham Bridge wher the River Theme burst it's banks in western England

A member of the public wades through floodwaters with a suitcase after flooding in Nantgarw, Wales as Storm Dennis hit the UK

A street is flooded during a flash flood in Crickhowell, Wales, which has been cut off following Storm Dennis today

A car underwater in Pontypridd. The high street of the South Wales town was submerged in water after the storm hit today

Teme Street in Tenbury Wells is seen under floodwater from the overflowing River Teme in western England this afternoon

Katherine Murphy, another evacuated resident, said: 'Our downstairs is just a total mess. It's filthy everywhere, it smells, it's horrible.

'I went downstairs about 5am because an alarm was going, and I saw there was water coming in downstairs. It was really quick.

'Outside the cars were under water.'

Chris Davies, director of the Arc Training company in the nearby Treforest industrial estate, said the bottom floor of his business was 'totally under water', and said he was concerned whether the incident would be covered by insurance.

He said: 'My thought now is whether this is covered by insurance, because it's a natural occurrence.

'It could mean a loss of business for us. It will take weeks to get back now. By the time you get your insurance claim in, get money back in, buy all new stuff, start trading again, you're talking thousands.'

A car is surrounded by debris left by flood water, covering a road in Mountain Ash, south Wales on February 16, after Storm Dennis caused flooding across large swathes of Britain

A digger is used to clear debris from a trapped car, carried by floodwater, from the road outside the Aberdare Hotel in Mountain Ash, Wales

Flood water surrounds a clothes shop on Teme Street in Tenbury Wells, after the River Teme burst its banks in western England

A woman carries a dog and a man carries his trainers as they wade through flood water on Teme Street in Tenbury Wells, after the River Teme burst its banks

Aman wades through flood water as he passes houses in Church Street in Tenbury Wells, after Storm Dennis battered the area

The flood waters were high in the area, travelling halfway up a front door and forcing people to flee to the upper levels of their homes

Two horses have been penned into their outdoor stables by the fast-rising floodwater on a farm in Leicestershire

Flood water surrounded two abandoned cars that had been left in a flooded street in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire

One man rescued a floating plant pot from the water outside of his flood-bound house in Tenbury Wells

The worst scenes were in Pontypridd, South Wales, where the high street was left completely underwater after the River Taff burst its banks.

Ambulances were among several vehicles submerged in water with popular stores, including Costa Coffee and Boots, being blocked by the rising floodwaters.

More than 50 houses were left waist-deep in water and one councillor said was the worst flooding to hit the town since 1979  before flood defences were installed.

Plaid Cymru councillor Heledd Fychan described as 'shocking and horrendous' before adding 'there is utter devastation.

At Nantgarw, a village near Cardiff. rescuers brought people from their homes in boats, while a helicopter was seen winching someone clear of floodwater at Crickhowell on the river Usk.

Declaring a major incident, South Wales Police said in a statement: 'The emergency services, jointly with local authority planning departments, local health boards, and organisations such as mountain rescue, Natural Resources Wales and utility companies, are working continuously to ensure the safety and welfare of those affected, minimise damage to infrastructure and property, and minimise disruption.

'Some communities have been cut-off as a result, but emergency service workers are working tirelessly to put measures in place to ensure the safety of residents.

'The public can be reassured that everything is being done to ensure their safety and that while obviously under significant demand, emergency services are coping with the pressure placed upon them.'

Severe flood warning were issued for the Scottish Borders and for the River Neath in South Wales, while the River Taff burst its banks and left cars floating in roads with water rising up to invade neighbouring homes.

Homeowners say they received flood alerts at 4am telling them to take immediate action and move to safety.

One mother-of-two said: 'I was woken up by a phone call and then had a voicemail saying to get to safety. It was really frightening as I've never experienced flooding like this before.'

An ambulance was spotted stranded in the water at nearby Nantgarw following a night of heavy downpours, while a high street was also submerged and people had to be rescued.

A car passes through a flooded road as flood water rises near Yalding in Kent as Storm Dennis brings heavy rain and flooding across the country

A digger is used to clear debris, carried by floodwater, from the road outside the Aberdare Hotel in Mountain Ash, Wales

Flood water surrounds a cottage on Church Street in Tenbury Wells, after the River Teme burst its banks in western England

Flood water from the River Wharfe covers football pitches in Tadcaster, north Yorkshire as Storm Dennis ravages the country

Parts of Worcester in the West Midlands have flooded, with hundreds of flood warnings now in place throughout the country

Flood water from the River Ouse covers the pavement outside businesses in York, northern England on February 16, after Storm Dennis caused flooding across large swathes of Britain

A woman looks out of her window as ducks swim past in floodwater after the River Severn bursts it's banks in Bewdley, west of Birmingham on February 16

A car passes over Teston Bridge near Maidstone in Kent as Storm Dennis brings heavy rain and flooding across the country

A huge search and rescue operation was launched in the early hours of the morning to find a missing woman, believed to be in her early 20s, spotted mysteriously walking into the sea in Brighton, Sussex

Despite hours of frantic searching, which included a Coastguard helicopter, she has still not been found. Pictured: Search teams on the beach in Brighton

A car is surrounded by debris left by flood water, covering a road in Mountain Ash, south Wales, with work underway to clear the street

Resident were forced to walk through thick mud and debris that had been left when the floodwater receded in Mountain Ash, Wales

A man in a high-visibility overcoat clears debris from the pavement at a bus stop in Aberdare, Wales, after it was washed up by flooding caused by Storm Dennis

A cyclist rides through a flooded riverside path as the River Ouse in York continues to rise potentially causing further flooding

Waves crash over the lighthouse at Porthcawl, South Wales, with shocked people watching on and filming the spectacle this morning

The incredible images show the waves smashing the lighthouse in Porthcawl, as brave watchers stand nearby to get a photo

Flood water surrounds a garage after the River Trent burst its banks, in Lowdham, Nottinghamshire because of Storm Dennis

A lorry driver sits trapped by flood water in the cab of his petrol tanker after the River Teme burst its banks near Lindridge, western England

Sand bags and flood defences are pictures at the entrance to a business near Lowdham, after the River Trent burst its banks, in Nottinghamshire

Members of the Fire and Rescue Service conduct a search operation after the River Teme burst its banks in Lindridge todau

Authorities in Lindbridge are conducting searches for people who may have been caught up in the shocking floods today

Flood water covers fields and roads after the River Teme burst its banks near Lindridge, western England, on February 16, 2020, after Storm Dennis caused flooding across large swathes of Britain

Environment agency workers put up flood defences in floodwater after the River Severn bursts it's banks in Bewdley, west of Birmingham

Severe flood warning were issued for the Scottish Borders and for the River Neath in South Wales, while the River Taff in Pontypridd, South Wales burst its banks (pictured), causing severe floods

A commercial bin floats in the rising water in a flooded street in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told Sky News' Sophy Ridge that the Government was 'stepping up its response' to extreme weather situations.

He said it had put 2.4billion into defences over a six-year spending period, and would allocate 4billion for the next six-year period.

In Carmarthen, west Wales, the RSPCA had to save a flock of sheep who were stranded on farmland.

Jason Finch, RSPCA inspector national water rescue coordinator, said: 'We're on full alert status. We've responded to more than 50 major incidents in just the past few hours today.'

Natural Resources Wales warned the 'very high' river could have 'significant impact downstream towards Cardiff.'

Gwent Police told residents in Skenfrith, Monmouthshire, to leave their homes due to flooding. Emergency centres are also being set up in a string of towns to provide cover for those affected.

Weather station monitoring Storm Dennis winds has 4,000 of equipment blown away by the gales Staff manning a weather station on the Isle of Wight were counting the cost of the storm today. Their valuable equipment to measure wind speed was blown away and they are still trying to find it. The equipment, worth about 4,000, was checking the terrifying wind speeds when it was torn from its mountings. Isle of Wight Weather Centre meteorologist David Carrington posted online: 'The weather centre was also a causality of the storms. One of our Stevenson Screens worth over 1,000, plus 1,500 worth of equipment inside the screen, plus one of our pro weather stations attached to the outside of the screen worth another 1,500 was totally blown away by the strong winds. 'The equipment, set up as a remote station in a secure and secret location on Wroxall Downs, stopped transmitting data to us. 'We went up to have a look and it was just gone. We are gutted to say theleast.' He's hoping it will be handed back by anyone finding it and it hasn't been smashed beyond repair. Advertisement

Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council also set up centres at Merthyr and Aberfan Leisure Centre. Villagers in Tonna near Neath, were evacuated by bus on Sunday morning.

In the 24 hours to 7am, Tredegar in south-eastern Wales received four inches of rain, while the fastest gust recorded in the same period was in Aberdaron where 91 mph was measured at 6pm on Saturday.

Meanwhile, a search is also underway for a woman feared to have been swept to her death on Brighton seafront in huge Storm Dennis waves today.

She was seen in the water around 2.45am and despite hours of searching, there was no sign of her with rescuers fearing the worst. An 11-year-old boy was found safe and well in Dundee, Scotland, after going missing last night.

Nearly 30,000 homes in towns and villages across Dorset were left without electricity and heating after torrential rain and howling gales from Storm Dennis knocked out power supplies, while residents were forced to evacuate their homes in parts of the Scottish Borders and in Wales.

The Met Office has issued alerts for parts of Yorkshire, Wales, Devon, East Sussex and Kent.

Rail services were suspended across South Wales after tracks were submerged by rain, while the line between Derby and Long Eaton was also closed.

Flooding saw the M54 westbound closed at Telford, along with the A616 around Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire and the A52 between Stragglethorpe and Gamston in the East Midlands, Highways England said.

Rhondda MP Chris Bryant set up a crowdfunding page to raise a target of 3,000 for residents affected by flooding in his constituency.

The Labour MP wrote: 'Seeing the floods devastate our communities is truly heartbreaking.

'Homes and businesses across the Rhondda have been affected by the winds and rain of Storm Dennis and many families will have lost everything.

'We've been inundated with offers of support and help. At present the emergency services are advising volunteers to stay safe but will require support in the aftermath.'

It comes as two people were killed by Storm Dennis yesterday, an 18-year-old man who got into difficulty in the sea off Kent and another who fell overboard from a fuel tanker near Margate Harbour.

A firefighter carries a dog to safety as part of ongoing rescue operations due to flooding in Nantgarw, Wales after Storm Dennis hit the UK

An elderly woman is rescued from her home and carried to safety by rescue workers after getting caught up in the storm in Wales

A view of fields flooded near St Clears, Pembrokeshire, South Wales as Storm Dennis lashes the country this weekend

A man walks through floodwater near Oxford Street on February 16, 2020 in Nantgarw, Wales. Danger to life warnings are in place in Wales

A member of the public is rescued after flooding in Nantgarw, Wales as Storm Dennis ravages the UK this weekend

A husky and its owner are rescued by emergency services after flooding in Nantgarw, Wales after Storm Dennis hit the UK

A child in a onesie gives a high five to a rescuer who saved her from a property in Nantgarw, Wales after flooding today

The River Taff at Pontypridd, South Wales, near Cardiff which has burst its banks and flooded peoples homes, with cars submerged

Floods caused by Storm Dennis near Villa Park in Birmingham, threatening the match between Aston Villa and Tottenham today

Local residents remain cheerful as walk through receding floodwater in Mountain Ash, Wales as Storm Dennis hit the UK today

Houses on a street in Pontypridd, Wales, were left surrounded by flood water after the River Taff burst its banks earlier today

Flood water surrounds the bowling club after the River Taff burst its banks in Taffs Wells, north of Cardiff in south Wales on February 16

Water has flooded the Worcester New Road cricket ground. Flooding from the River Severn in Worcester, after storm Dennis hits the Midlands

A half submerged fast food van after flooding in Nantgarw, Wales as Storm Dennis hit the UK, causing a record number of flood alerts

The Tourist Information centre is seen full of floodwater from the overflowing River Teme in Teme Street in Tenbury Wells, western England

Rescue workers continue operations after flooding in Nantgarw, Wales, which has been particularly badly affected by the storm

Flood waters rise near Yalding in Kent, as Storm Dennis brings heavy rain and flooding across the country

A child's toy vehicle remains unscathed after flooding in Nantgarw, Wales, despite several cars and ambulances being submerged during the day

A man wades through flood water that nearly reaches his waist as he heads towards an ambulance in a flooded street in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire

Relief from Storm Dennis is still some distance away, the Met Office's Mr Dewhurst said, adding that 'heavy rain and strong winds' would continue across large parts of the UK today.

'South Wales will see a lot of rain fall before Dennis moves north later to Scotland and Northern Ireland.'

Earlier, the Ministry of Defence deployed British Army personnel to assist people in West Yorkshire areas badly hit by flooding during last weekend's Storm Ciara.

Flights have been grounded for safety reasons, with British Airways and easyJet confirming cancellations.

More than 230 easyJet flights in and out of the UK on Saturday were cancelled, while several sporting fixtures were also called off due to the weather.

Two bodies were pulled from rough seas on Saturday, before the worst of the storm hit.

One man was found following a huge search operation off Margate after an early-morning distress call, while another was found at Herne Bay.

Waves pound against the harbour wall at Portreath, Cornwall, as the UK is hit with weather disruption for the second weekend in a row as Storm Dennis sweeps in

Powerful waves caused by Storm Dennis break on the shoreline around the small port of Porthleven, south west England this morning

Flooding from the River Severn in Worcester, after storm Dennis hits the Midlands. Troops have been deployed to help with flood preparations in parts of West Yorkshire and some people in the Scottish Borders have evacuated their homes

Heavy waves deposit sand on the seafront in Aberystwyth in Wales, with Storm Dennis ravaging the country this weekend

A satellite image of Storm Dennis (left, top) moving across the North Atlantic, 15 February 2020. According to weather forecast, Storm Dennis will spread south and eastward across northern Europe bringing heavy rain and strong winds

Heavy waves batter the coast at Lepe Beach, Hampshire during Storm Dennis. Storm Dennis is set to bring major disruption to parts of the UK for a second day

Experts have warned that this weekend's weather onslaught would cause further flooding. Troops have been deployed to help with flood preparations in parts of West Yorkshire and some people in the Scottish Borders have evacuated their homes where severe flood warnings are in place

A man works to remove a tree blown over by Storm Dennis in Birkenshaw on the outskirts of Bradford, Leeds this morning

A tree in south London uprooted by Storm Dennis, photographed by a member of the public as the storm batters the country

Storm Dennis caused a landslip in Exeter, Devon, with a park home on the brink of falling over the edge of a cliff

Thick flood barriers are still in place outside the entrance to the Queen's Hotel as the River Ouse in York continues to rise because of Storm Dennis

Families jetting off on February half-term breaks were left stranded as the 1,200-mile wide 'bomb cyclone' battered Britain.

In dozens of towns still reeling from the devastation wrought by last week's Storm Ciara, the Army was drafted in to bolster flood defences.

But experts warned this weekend's onslaught would cause further flooding.

Costa and Boots submerged by Storm Dennis floodwaters as River Taff bursts its banks The River Taff in Pontypridd, South Wales burst its banks this morning, leaving ambulances stranded and cars floating in floodwater. Footage posted on social media shows Pontypridd High Street submerged in floodwater with Boots and Costa unreachable, as Storm Dennis ravages the nation. The fast-moving floods have also invaded homes in the town, which is near Cardiff. Homeowners say they received flood alerts at 4am telling them to take immediate action and move to safety. One mother-of-two said: 'I was woken up by a phone call and then had a voicemail saying to get to safety. It was really frightening as I've never experienced flooding like this before.' Advertisement

Virgin cancelled four long-distance flights from Heathrow to Hong Kong and Boston scheduled for yesterday and today.

Passengers were booked on to other services. Meanwhile, British Airways confirmed 40 short-haul flights to and from Heathrow last night and this evening had been cancelled, with routes to Amsterdam and Glasgow the worst affected.

Under European air passengers' rights rules, airlines that cancel flights have a duty of care to provide replacement transport, as well as hotels and meals if necessary.

BBC journalist Christian Fraser and his wife Topaz were among the holidaymakers whose travel plans were ruined.

They were due to fly to Gran Canaria yesterday on a 3,500 easyJet package break, but were told the flights were cancelled and given no other information.

'No one's helped us and no one seems to know what's going on,' Mr Fraser told The Mail on Sunday.

'We now don't know whether to try to get to Gran Canaria through our own means. We tried to contact easyJet for help on Friday night but the call centres shut at 8pm.'

Both the A14 Orwell Bridge in Suffolk and the M48 Severn Crossing eastbound between Monmouthshire and South Gloucestershire were shut due to strong winds while drivers were warned that other bridges and roads may be closed.

Two people had to be rescued after their car was swept off the road and had become wedged against a gate in a field near Newcastleton, Scottish Borders, after a nearby river burst its banks

This photo appears to show a car park flooded in South Wales, with several cars submerged underwater as Storm Dennis ravages the nation

South Wales appears to be particularly hard-hit by the flooding, with Storm Dennis depositing more than a month of rainfall in just a weekend

In the 24 hours to 7am, Tredegar in south-eastern Wales received four inches of rain, while the fastest gust recorded in the same period was in Aberdaron where 91 mph was measured at 6pm on Saturday

The River Taff in Pontypridd, South Wales burst its banks - leaving ambulances stranded and cars floating in roads with water rising up to neighbouring homes

Pontypridd war memorial park near Cardiff has been flooded after the River Taff burst its banks because of the deluge caused by Storm Dennis

In the 24 hours to 7am, Tredegar in south-eastern Wales received 105 mm of rain, while the fastest gust recorded in the same period was in Aberdaron where 91 mph was recorded at 6pm on Saturday

Rail services were suspended across South Wales after tracks were submerged by rain, while the line between Derby and Long Eaton was also closed

Gwent Police told residents in Skenfrith, Monmouthshire, to leave their homes due to flooding. Emergency centres are also being set up in a string of towns to provide cover for those affected

Homeowners in Pontypridd say they received flood alerts at 4am telling them to take immediate action and move to safety

This car in Kent was crushed by falling debris, after several bricks were dislodged by fierce winds from Storm Dennis this morning

A huge section of bricks from a house in Kent were blown away, smashing down onto a car below, though no-one appeared to have been injured

Members of the Fire and Rescue Service were forced to rescue colleagues trapped by flood water in a stranded Fire Engine after they had been attempting to help residents in Lindridge

Network Rail has imposed a 50mph speed limit on trains that will lead to some cancellations.

Emergency crews and a rescue helicopter were yesterday scrambled to Herne Bay in Kent but were unable to save an 18-year-old man who got into difficulties.

Earlier, a coastguard helicopter, a Royal Navy warship and RNLI lifeboats launched a rescue operation after a man fell from the 325ft Maltese fuel tanker, B Gas Margrethe, off Margate at 5.40am.

Desperate search for woman swept out to sea by huge waves in Brighton caused by Storm Dennis A search is underway for a woman feared to have been swept to her death on Brighton seafront in huge Storm Dennis waves today. She was seen in the water around 2.45am and despite hours of searching, there's was no sign of her with rescuers fearing the worst. The Coastguard helicopter spent more than two hours with floodlights scanning the surface of the sea between the Marina and Palace Pier. The search is resuming now it's daybreak. A spokesman for Sussex Police said 'The alarm was raised by members of the public at about 2.45am after a woman was seen in the water. 'She has not yet been located and the Coastguard are preparing to recommence their search shortly.' Advertisement

A body was found after a seven-hour search in what the coastguard described as 'very rough' seas.

In Yorkshire's Calder Valley, which was still recovering from the damage caused last week by Storm Ciara, 75 members of the 4th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, and another 70 reservists were deployed to help erect barriers and repair flood defences.

John Curtin, the Environment Agency's executive director of flood and coastal risk management, said he was most concerned about Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire.

'This storm could be a step up from what we have seen before,' he added.

'We had a big storm last weekend, [now we have] saturated catchments, snowmelt and rainfall, so it is the perfect storm.'

The Environment Agency, which issued 34 flood warnings and 246 alerts, said preparations were under way to operate defences, flood storage reservoirs and temporary barriers to protect communities.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said: 'We are fully focused on ensuring that communities are protected and have access to the support and advice they need to stay safe this weekend.'

The Met Office last night confirmed that Storm Dennis was a 'bomb cyclone', which means its air pressure has dropped by 24 millibars or more in 24 hours.

Met Office chief meteorologist Steve Willington said: 'Storm Dennis will bring another very unsettled spell of weather this weekend with a risk of flooding, particularly in parts of England and Wales and also southern Scotland, where snowmelt will add to the flood risk.

'Following Storm Ciara last weekend and further spells of rain this week, the ground is already saturated in places. Our advice is to keep an eye on the latest forecasts and weather warnings and to follow the safety advice.'

Storm Dennis has caused widespread travel disruption up and down the country as high winds and heavy rainfall sweep the nation. Waves are pictured crashing onto the seafront at Dawlish, in Devon, on Saturday

P&O Ferries confirmed they were 'expecting delays to continue throughout the day due to technical issues and forecasted weather'. A ferry is seen sailing through stormy seas as it comes into Dover yesterday

What is a 'Bomb Cyclone'? A bomb cyclone is formed when the air pressure of a storm plummets by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours, causing huge storms and wind speeds of up to 100mph. A millibar is simply a unit of measurement used by meteorologists to describe air pressure  the force exerted by the air's weight. The standard surface pressure on Earth is 1013.2 millibars, and the lower the pressure drops within a cyclone, the more severe a storm it creates. On Thursday, Storm Dennis was classified as a bomb cyclone after the pressure dropped by 46 millibars in 24 hours. The name developed in the 1940s and 1950s when experts at Bergen University in Norway began calling storms created over the sea 'bombs' because they formed far more quickly than those over land. By the 1970s, the terms 'explosive cyclogenesis' and 'meteorological bombs' were being used by Professor Fred Sanders from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in scientific journals. The term 'bomb' has proved controversial. When European researchers argued the term was too warlike, Prof Sanders asked: 'So why are you using the term front?' Advertisement

Pilot lands SIDEWAYS at Heathrow while another is forced to abort landing as hundreds of flights are cancelled amid Storm Dennis 91mph gales

Shocking footage shows the moment a pilot landed his plane sideways at Heathrow airport, after battling fierce winds caused by Storm Dennis.

The clip shows the Etihad Airways jet battling the 91mph wind as it makes its unorthodox landing at Heathrow.

Several planes struggled to land in the UK yesterday, with their pilots buffeted by fierce gales from Storm Dennis.

One video shows a pilot trying and failing to land at Heathrow airport yesterday, as winds of up to 91mph were recorded around the country because of the storm.

Other clips show planes landing at Birmingham Airport, descending slowly as they battle the winds.

It comes as hundreds of flights were cancelled because of the destructive storm.

Several jets wobbled alarmingly in the air above the airport, but they just about managing to avoid a potential calamity and make the landing.

Others bounced on the runway after landing, sure to cause alarm among passengers.

Despite the frightening scenes, the planes were able to land successfully.

The UK is being ravaged by Storm Dennis this weekend, with three people dead and two people missing as a result of the storm.

Around 170 flights had been cancelled by Sunday morning, with the number rising throughout the day.

Close to 60 per cent of flights were disrupted coming in and out of Heathrow, while Gatwick experienced about 30 per cent, according to the travel news service Inrix.

This plane landed almost sideways at Heathrow, after the pilot was forced to battle 91mph winds caused by Storm Dennis

Around 170 flights had been cancelled by Sunday morning, with the number rising throughout the day

Heathrow suffered a further 26 cancellations and 133 delayed flights today, while Gatwick axed another 16 with 68 disrupted.

Gatwick Airport urged customers to set off from home early to make their flights amid disrupted rail and road routes.

Families jetting off on February half-term breaks were left stranded as the 1,200-mile wide 'bomb cyclone' battered Britain.

In dozens of towns still reeling from the devastation wrought by last week's Storm Ciara, the Army was drafted in to bolster flood defences.

A shocking video shows a plane trying and failing to land at Heathrow Airport amid Storm Dennis

The pilot abandoned the landing after battling fierce winds as he tried to land the jet at Heathrow

But experts warned this weekend's onslaught would cause further flooding.

Virgin cancelled four long-distance flights from Heathrow to Hong Kong and Boston scheduled for yesterday and today.

Passengers were booked on to other services. Meanwhile, British Airways confirmed 40 short-haul flights to and from Heathrow last night and this evening had been cancelled, with routes to Amsterdam and Glasgow the worst affected.

Under European air passengers' rights rules, airlines that cancel flights have a duty of care to provide replacement transport, as well as hotels and meals if necessary.

Other clips shows planes wobbling alarmingly in mid-air above Birmingham Airport yesterday

Despite the frightening footage, and a few bounces on the runway, the planes were able to land safely

BBC journalist Christian Fraser and his wife Topaz were among the holidaymakers whose travel plans were ruined.

They were due to fly to Gran Canaria yesterday on a 3,500 easyJet package break, but were told the flights were cancelled and given no other information.

'No one's helped us and no one seems to know what's going on,' Mr Fraser told The Mail on Sunday.

'We now don't know whether to try to get to Gran Canaria through our own means. We tried to contact easyJet for help on Friday night but the call centres shut at 8pm.'

Soldiers drafted in as village faces being swamped for the SECOND time in a week

By Jacinta Taylor for the Mail on Sunday

They were warned to brace themselves for another storm but it was still a sight that threatened to break hearts and undermine Yorkshire grit.

Residents in the close-knit village of Mytholmroyd woke yesterday to find soldiers on their streets, the clearest sign that the Calder Valley was due for another devastating flood.

Since 2012, the village has flooded three times  the last only a week ago when torrential rain from Storm Ciara caused the River Calder to swell to a record 16ft.

Some 500 homes and 400 businesses were flooded.

Many people whose homes back on to the river have either temporarily moved out or carried everything they own upstairs and out of harm's way. Those who have chosen to stay have stocked up on food and bottled water. Soldiers are pictured placing sandbags along a river in Doncaster this week

Soldiers on the streets meant that once more, those homes and treasured possessions, potentially even lives, were under threat. Around 100 troops were helping to build temporary metal flood defences ready for Storm Dennis.

Last week's muddy brown floodwater had overwhelmed the town, prompting anger that a 30 million flood defence scheme was taking too long to complete.

Resident Cynthia Stringer, 68, said: 'They built the new wall about a foot lower than the old one  that's never going to work, is it? The water just poured over the top.'

Many people whose homes back on to the river have either temporarily moved out or carried everything they own upstairs and out of harm's way.

Those who have chosen to stay have stocked up on food and bottled water.

They certainly know the drill. First, there is a warning text message from the Environment Agency, followed by the flood sirens sounding in Mytholmroyd and other communities along the Calder Valley.

Resident Nick Ames, 51, said from his stone cottage: 'There's no point in crying about any of this  all you do is just add to the flood level. I think most people here have a 'keep calm and carry on' approach.'
A day after the 30-year-old woman



was allegedly set on fire at Lasalgaon in Maharashtra's Nashik district by a man she was in relationship with, her condition worsened on Sunday following which she was shifted to a hospital in Mumbai, police said.

The accused, Rameshwar Madhukar Bhagwat, was arrested from Yeola town in Nashik district on Sunday afternoon, they said.

However, in her statement to police, the victim, who has suffered over 65 per cent burns, said the accused did not intend to set her on fire as the petrol she was carrying in a bottle got spilled on both of them and the match stick lit by him, accidentally fell on her, an official from Lasalgaon police said.

"The incident had happened around 3.45 pm on Saturday at Lasalgaon bus stand. The victim suffered 67 per cent burn injuries in the incident and was admitted to Nashik district civil hospital," police said.

"As her condition deteriorated on Sunday, she was shifted to a hospital in Mumbai," they said.

Nashik Rural Police arrested the accused, a resident of Pimpalgaon Najik in Niphad taluka of the district, an official said.

Bhagwat was booked under IPC section 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), he added.

According to police, the relationship between the victim, a widow and mother of three, and Bhagwat had soured.

The duo had reportedly tied the knot, but his family was opposed to the marriage. The man had recently got engaged with another woman, which had soured the relationship between the victim and him, they said.

In her statement, the victim told the police she and Bhagwat had come to the bus stand to sort out the differences between them.

"We came on separate two-wheelers. As the petrol in my two-wheeler got over, I took out a bottle full of petrol to fill the fuel tank. But when Bhagwat spotted me with the petrol bottle, he thought that I would harm myself and hence he snatched it from me," the police quoted the woman as saying in her statement.

"In the process, the petrol spilled on both of us. Then Bhagwat lit a match stick and threatened to set himself on fire. But the match stick fell on me, due to which I caught fire. As Bhagwat got scared, he fled from the spot. But he did not have a motive to set me ablaze," her statement added.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who met the victim at the Nashik hospital late Saturday night, later told reporters that petrol pumps have been instructed not to give fuel in bottles henceforth and strict action will be taken against those found doing so.

"It was found that in the Lasalgaon incident, petrol was being carried in a bottle. Therefore, orders have been issued to petrol pump operators to not give fuel in bottles henceforth. But if it continues to happen, action will be taken against those involved," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mr Ramu Penthota of Sri Ram Enterprises, which sets up cellular infrastructure for major cellular networks in the city, agreed.

Hyderabad: A few days ago, Imran was at a massive protest at Dharna Chowk near Indira Park. He tried to post pictures of the protest on his social media accounts but was unable to do so. Though his mobile phone was on full signal, he couldnt even send a text message on WhatsApp.

Imran isnt the only one to face this problem. At places with large crowds such as sporting events, religious processions and protests, mobile internet often becomes useless on many phones.

Journalists often walk with their phones held above their heads to get some reception to file their copies.

The reason for this is quite simple, the demand for mobile data exceeds the supply.

Mr Narsi Reddy, a telecommunications engineer, explained that mobile phones are like WiFi routers. They have a limit on the amount of data they can send out at a particular point in time. He explained that most mobile phones are now using 4G or LTE (long term evolution) frequency bands.

On most phones, the default settings make it the only option. In a crowded place, everyone is trying to upload pictures or livestream the proceedings. This causes an excessive load in that particular network, he said.

The phone is quite confused when this happens. It knows the network is there but doesnt know how to use it, the engineer said.

Mr Ramu Penthota of Sri Ram Enterprises, which sets up cellular infrastructure for major cellular networks in the city, agreed.

A cell tower can only take on so much traffic. Most people dont understand it. Companies spend a lot of thought in deciding where they want to set up cell towers, he said.

There is, however, a workaround to this problem. Users could switch to the local 3G network when the 4G network is congested.

Mr Penthota said, Most carriers continue to maintain a 3G and 2G network. However, they are seldom used since most mobile phone phones are set to receive only 4G signals. If one digs around the settings for a few minutes, one can have a completely workable 3G or even 2G signal.

This workaround is only valid with carriers other than Jio, since the carrier offers its services in LTE.
The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs should at last very clearly explain to Armenian side that Nagorno-Karabakh is not Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh is not an independent country, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at the panel discussions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict held as part of the Munich Security Conference, Azernews reports.

"First of all, I would like to make one comment. I am absolutely sure that we came here to tell the truth. And what I said in my introductory remarks is 100 percent truth, which can be easily checked right now. Just enter the Internet find those documents, which I referred to and you will understand who is telling truth, and who is not. Second comment, I would also like to clarify situation which in Armenia unfortunately became a kind of attempt to find an excuse of what they have done in Khojaly. President Ayaz Mutallibov is in good health and lives in Baku, maybe Armenian side doesnt know it. Recently and many times he said that he never said the Khojaly genocide was organized by Azerbaijanis. This is as it is said today is a fake news which was invented by some of Armenian journalists in Russia and that was put in Russian press but he never said that. And this is absolutely true. Who committed the genocide in Khojaly, their names are well known. They were local Armenians, Armenians from Armenia and Armenians from diaspora. The names of these people are well-known, and many books and international articles were published about that. Therefore, to say that Azerbaijanis themselves brutally killed 63 children, 100 women and 1000 people are still missing, is a peak of cynicism. With respect to what international community should do, I think the most important thing is that international community-and when we talk about international community we talk primarily about the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs efforts-they should at last very clearly explain to Armenian side that Nagorno-Karabakh is not Armenia. That Nagorno-Karabakh is not an independent country. No one recognizes this illegal entity. So this is number one. The second, I think there should be more international pressure on Armenia in order to implement resolutions of Security Council, because there is no higher international body than the Security Council of the United Nations. They adopted four resolutions.It is easy to check.The numbers of these resolutions are known to specialists. What it says. It says Armenian troops should immediately and unconditionally withdraw from the occupied territories. Not only Nagorno-Karabakh but also seven districts surrounding it are occupied. Armenia wants to hide it. Seven districts where Armenians never lived," President Ilham Aliyev said.

"In the last Soviet Census of 1989, the population of Nagorno-Karabakh was identified as 189,000 people. Out of which 139,000 Armenians, 48 thousand Azerbaijanis and some other representatives of other people. So all Azerbaijanis were ethnically cleansed from Nagorno-Karabakh and from our ancient city of Shusha, then all Azerbaijanis were ethnically cleansed from seven districts, they committed the genocide against our people, against our culture, they destroyed our mosques, they destroyed our graves, they changed the name of our cities. They now publish the map of Nagorno-Karabakh which consists of all the occupied territories, and then, they say that we should agree with this realities. Therefore, international community should explain that Nagorno-Karabakh is Azerbaijan, and second, put a serious pressure on aggressor to stop. Just one minute. Prime Minister just said about peace, ok I agree, but how it correlates what happened today on the line of contact when Azerbaijani soldier was killed by Armenian sniper?," President Ilham Aliyev added.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
SCHERERVILLE  Come to life from comic book pages and movie screens, a host of characters from far, far away assembled to celebrate the host of worlds created by artists and writers over the decades.

On Saturday, 3,000 people gathered for the Northwest Indiana Comic-Con at the Halls of St. George in Schererville for the seventh year in a row.

"What's cool about this event is that it's ages 6 to 60," Brian Grabinski said. "People of all ages come here and everyone has a fantastic time."

Kelly and Brian Grabinski, the event founders, said with three new local comic book stores opening in the last year, its clear the fandom is growing in the Region.

I think the trend is that comic book collecting is coming back again, Kelly Grabinski said. Kids are getting into it and I think its a movement thats really needed for younger generations. You have kids reading and being a part of something creative and theyre looking for outlets.

The Comic Crawl was created this year to showcase local comic book stores, Kelly Grabinski said. Before Saturday, attendees were tasked with visiting four local comic book stores to get their Comic Crawl card marked to enter a prize drawing.
Kolkata, Feb 16 : The city police nabbed two notorious drug peddlers, including a woman, and recovered 322 grams of heroin from them, an officer said on Sunday.

Acting on a source's information, personnel of the Detective Department's Narcotic Cell apprehended Durga Rani Mondal alias Chaya, 55, and Radharaman Das, 37, in central Kolkata's B.B. Ganguli Street near Kolay Market under Muchipara police station on Saturday afternoon.

Kolkata police's Joint Commissioner, Crime, Murlidhar Sharma said 268 grams of heroin was recovered from Mondal and 54 grams from Das.

The contraband was contained in different transparent polythene packets, for which they could not render any satisfactory account.

While Mondal hails from Subhas Pally in 24 Parganas South district, Das is a resident of Daspara in 24 Parganas North district.

A case has been filed at the Muchipara police station against the two accused.
A girl aged eight has died of old age in Ukraine after suffering from an exceptionally rare genetic progeria disease which only affects 160 people in the entire world.

Anna Sakidons biological age was nearer to 80, said medics as they paid tribute to a wonderful girl who had to battle so many health problems.

The child reached her eighth birthday last month but only weighed 17lbs.

She died from multiple failure of her inner organs linked to her premature ageing condition, said reports in Ukraine.

Her grieving mother Ivanna had told earlier how she was ready to sacrifice everything in order to make her daughter healthy.

Timofey Nagorny, head of the Foundation of Ukrainian Volunteers which supported Anna Sakidons medical treatment, had said: Her only dream is to discover one day that the diagnosis of the doctors was wrong.

Confirming Annas death, Dr Nadezhda Kataman said the wonderful girl had been treated at Volyn Regional Children Medical Complex since childhood.

For children with progeria diagnosis one year is equal to eight-to-ten years, so her real age was between 70 and 80.

The child suffered from early ageing of her inner organs and body system.

Her bones grew slowly while her organs aged rapidly. Such patients usually die from strokes. Anna suffered several strokes, and paralysis of her limbs.

This affected the movement of her arms and legs.

She had been diagnosed with Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, a genetic condition, soon after birth.

In a video when she was three, her mother showed Anna to the world and told she could walk well from the age of ten months. By 11 months she followed her mother everywhere but was scared of light so could only go outside in the evening.

At the age of three, she was happy to hug and kiss her teddy bear but didnt like kissing people.

Research in The Netherlands indicated that the condition affects one in 20million births.

There are only around 160 known sufferers in the world.
Developer Cindy Zimmerman and her mother Judy Katzman are among the cryptocurrency communitys most quietly prolific builders.

After learning about bitcoin in 2011, Katzman worked for the early exchange BitInstant and Zimmerman moved to Panama in 2012 to work with Erik Voorhees and the other founders behind the crypto exchange Coinapult. Because Zimmerman earned part of her salary in crypto, up to 50 percent at the peak, she quickly realized the need for cash on-and-off ramps.

There were a large amount of immigrants living in Panama that had to send money back to Venezuela, Zimmerman said. Its hard to live off bitcoin. Its doable, but its hard. Knowing where a bitcoin ATM is  is safer than meeting someone in a park.

Related: Low-Volume Bitcoin Pullback Stalls at Price Support Near $9.6K

So she built one of the first ATM networks in Panama, five machines in total, which she operated until 2016, and freelanced for companies like the bitcoin ATM manufacturer Lamassu.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., her mom Katzman was also accepting a partial bitcoin salary and working with BitcoinStore, one of the first electronics stores to accept bitcoin.

The family experienced some pain points transacting across borders during Zimmermans time in Panama, but it taught them how to incorporate bitcoin into their daily lives. Then Zimmerman returned to New York in 2019, after years of freelancing for various crypto projects like Dash in Latin America, to launch her own crypto security startup called KeyFi.

Its a self-custody platform, she said, describing KeyFis multisig setup. They [clients] are going to be able to control hold their own keys and pool together with other people.

Related: For Crypto Miners, Bitcoins Halving Could Mean a Doubling in Costs

In addition to launching a startup, shes also freelancing with her mom. Both women are blockchain consultants for the 25-year-old software development company AxisPoint, which is building a royalties management platform for music industry clients like Warner Music and EMI.

Story continues

This will give music artists accountability for their income, Katzman said of the project, called RYTbox.

AxisPoint CEO Dan DiSano said the company already earns 10 percent of its income from blockchain projects, and expects offerings like RYTbox to account for 50 percent of its income by late 2020.

Earning is learning

These women opted to learn about bitcoin by working in the industry and managing parts of their household budgets with it.

Zimmerman said she hasnt contributed to Bitcoin Core because working on a project with so much value, and scant corporate controls, carries a lot of pressure. Thats not to say she lacks ambition or trust in the network. She simply prefers to earn bitcoin while coding for traditional companies.

Youre talking about large clients that have zero idea who I am, like Beyonce, even that to some degree is a lot of pressure because youre dealing with a lot of money, Zimmerman said. The amount of pressure that goes into writing that code is already very, very high.

Most freelance clients, like AxisPoint, prefer to pay her in fiat. But, perhaps counterintuitively, she said its easier to convince clients to pay her in various cryptocurrencies when the price rises and boosts industry optimism along with it.

While the younger Zimmerman is the token-curious cypherpunk in the family  using KeyFi to explore her obsession with the real user experiences related to self-custody  Katzman said she prefers to focus on enterprise use cases like AxisPoints clients. That makes Katzman an anomaly among technologists who lived through the dot-com crash.

She described blockchain technology as still at a technical level of development, with less widespread impact than earlier tech hype cycles. She believes once projects like KeyFi make security tradeoffs easier to manage, then the true boom will begin. As far as Katzman is concerned, the token boom of 2017 was only the beginning.

Its very important to fail as well as succeed, she said. Failure helps in your future successes, including investing in a coin or project that doesnt rise to the moon.

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By Jack Stubbs and Paul Carrel

MUNICH (Reuters) - The United States is seeking to rally European support for competitors to Huawei Technologies following disappointment in Washington over Britain's decision to use 5G equipment made by the Chinese company.

U.S. officials at a global security conference in Germany this week urged governments and business leaders to build an ecosystem of "industry champions" that can provide alternatives to Huawei, the world's biggest maker of mobile networking equipment.

Previous U.S. efforts to convince allies to bar the Chinese company from their networks have primarily focused on warnings that its equipment could be used by China for spying.

Huawei has repeatedly and vehemently denied the espionage allegations. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Reuters on Friday there was no credible evidence that Huawei was a threat to U.S. security.

Speaking on Saturday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told the Munich Security Conference that Washington was already working with vendors to develop and test new 5G technologies.

"We are encouraging allied and U.S. tech companies to develop alternative 5G solutions and we are working alongside them to test these technologies at our military bases as we speak," Esper said.

The United States has used high-profile events in recent years to raise security concerns about Huawei equipment, warning that allies that use it in their networks risked being cut off from valuable intelligence-sharing feeds.

Officials in Munich repeated those concerns but also struck a softer tone, emphasising the need to work with Huawei competitors to support their market position. They stopped short, however, of detailing any concrete plans or measures.

White House advisor Robert Blair told reporters the United States was already working with Scandinavian suppliers Nokia and Ericsson, as well as Korea's Samsung and other smaller firms.

"We will have some sort of a partnership with industry, we're not sure what that's going to look like but ... we will have a big tent," said Blair, White House special representative for international telecommunications policy.

Story continues

"It will be very much a U.S.-led effort but with like-minded partners around the world and we'll have to see where that discussion goes. And that's a matter of months not years."

People with knowledge of the matter said Blair had met with senior executives from both Nokia and Ericsson on the sidelines of the conference but declined to detail the contents of the conversations.

One industry executive said the U.S. arguments about alternate suppliers were not new but had been stepped up following a British decision last month to use Huawei equipment, partly due to a lack of alternatives.

"If people oppose one brand or another then they have to tell us what is the alternative, right?" British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said ahead of the UK's decision.

"The Americans are frustrated by the weak response from Britain, and worry Germany and France will think the same," said the industry executive, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations with American and European officials.

"As they see it, European leaders are not basing their statements on facts."

(Reporting by Jack Stubbs; Editing by Helen Popper)
A trip to a Boston planetarium at age 7 to see Halleys Comet set the trajectory of Nina Lanzas life.

The Mars rover and Los Alamos National Laboratory planetary geologist said she came from a family that loved exploring the natural world. Lanza grew up in Boston, and her parents took her to the planetarium where she attended a lecture and then was given the opportunity to look through a telescope.

There were all these amazing things, she said. I realized thats what I wanted to do, study these things.

Lanza is part of the labs almost all-woman team that controls the ChemCam instrument that is attached to the Curiosity rover. The instrument shoots rocks with a laser and then LANL team analyzes them. A separate team selects which of the Martian rocks to blast. The instrument was developed in conjunction with

the French space agency, the National Centre for Space Studies.

Lanza said exploring Mars can answer questions about our own planet and the universe.

Its a different world, she said. There are so many other worlds. What are they? How did they get there?

The team will also be apart of the new yet-to-be-named rovers mission. They created a new instrument, called SuperCam, that can do pretty everything the ChemCam does but this tool will also have a microphone. Lanza said this will give scientists more information and in turn a better picture of what Mars is like.

The microphone is not just to listen to what the aliens are saying, Lanza joked. It can help us further analyze the rock.

Lanza came to New Mexico in 2006 to earn a Ph.D. in planetary sciences at the University of New Mexico. She said she knew the university was working with the lab on the ChemCam and had funding for a student to work on the project. She applied and her career was launched, allowing her childhood dream to take shape.

I know this is very Star Trek of me, but it (Mars rover research) really is very final frontier, she said. You get to see things people have never seen before. Its so exciting.

Moving to New Mexico from the East Coast was a big change for the Boston native.

It was crazy culture shock but one of the best decisions Ive ever made, she said. In Boston, you do not make eye contact with strangers.  Here people would say Good morning, and I would think What? Are you talking to me? It was a friendliness I did not understand. Now Im that creeper that says Hi to everyone when I go back home.

Mars doesnt have a monopoly on providing alien rocks to analyze. Earths got something to offer too if one knows where to look.

In 2015 and 2016, Lanza traveled to Antarctica to recover meteorites from the ice. She said its a great location to find several meteorites at once because they become trapped and preserved in the ice. Over time, the wind acts as a natural excavator, revealing the extraterrestrial rocks. She said the majority of known meteorites on Earth were found in Antarctica.

We recovered 569 meteorites when we were there, she said.

UNM Earth and planetary sciences professor Carl B. Agee, who is also director of the Institute of Meteoritics at the college, was the chair of Lanzas dissertation committee. He called Lanza an outstanding scientist. He said he once joked that Lanza would be running NASA one day.

What drives her is her passion about her work, he said. Her passion to know whether Mars had life or has life now.

He said shes a great attribute to the field of science and good at communicating the work she does at many different levels. He said its a challenge to get people to care or be interested in what scientists have to say but Lanza is a successful advocate for that.

Some scientists can be extroverted and speak in jargon, he said. Nina has a wonderful, outgoing personality

She may have fulfilled her childhood dream, but her childhood enthusiasm for space and whats out there has not wavered. The feed of her Twitter account (@marsninja) is filled with tweets promoting planetary science, while her bio offers this: I shoot the lasers, pew pew.
Reporting is harder than it looks on television - apart from hostile weather conditions, the biggest challenge for reporters is dealing with the unruly public.

But an Iraqi weatherman didn't let anything bother him during his live segment for a local news channel. In a hilarious video, the reporter can be seen relentlessly attacked by passersby with snowballs.

According to reports, clip recorded near Sulaymaniyah was shared by a leading media outlet, with the caption: 'BOMBARDED: TV weatherman falls victim to a snowball attack while reporting on wintry weather in Iraq'.

From kids to grown-ups, everyone was throwing snowballs at him while he was reporting live for Rudaw. Braving the snowballs and the temperature, he continued to report and finally ended the segment.

BOMBARDED: TV weatherman falls victim to a snowball attack while reporting on wintry weather in Iraq. https://t.co/OGfKf8igd0 pic.twitter.com/bkKqNjU1V6  ABC News (@ABC) February 15, 2020





Now, that's the level of dedication and patience we must all aim for in everyday life!

For those unaware, Iraqi capital of Baghdad has been carpeted by the second spell of snow. The last recorded snowfall in the city was in 2008.

Snow in Baghdad today, the first time in a very long time  pic.twitter.com/exaSsejBlj  Hanan (@hananjx) February 11, 2020





Delighted, residents declared it an omen of peace. "It is the first time we've seen snow in Baghdad," 60-year-old Hassan Zahar told Reuters.

Iraq has grappled with months of unrest, beginning with an anti-government protest movement which engulfed the country in October, and the U.S. killing of a top Iranian general in Baghdad in early January,
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S torm Dennis shut down roads and flooded railway lines on Sunday morning as it lashed large parts of the country with rain and strong winds.

The situation was said to be "life-threatening" in South Wales, where the Met Office issued a rare red warning due to heavy rainfall and flooding risk.

"It's quite an extreme move but we have seen widespread falls across the whole region," forecaster Greg Dewhurst said.

At about 7am on Sunday there were 198 flood warnings, meaning immediate action is required, and 326 flood alerts warning people to be prepared, covering an area from Scotland's River Tweed to the rivers of west Cornwall.

Severe flood warnings were issued for the Scottish Borders and for the River Neath in south Wales, the River Taff burst its banks at Pontypridd.

In the 24 hours to 7am, Tredegar in south-eastern Wales received 105mm of rain, while the fastest gust recorded in same period was in Aberdaron where 91mph was recorded at 6pm on Saturday.

Storm Dennis - in pictures 1 /65 Storm Dennis - in pictures One-year-old Blake and his mum, Terri O'Donnel, join other residents of Nantgarw in a rescue boat as emergency services take people to safety after flooding in the village in Wales PA An aerial view of the Welsh village of Crickhowell which has been cut off as the river Usk bursts its banks at Crickhowell bridge near the Bridge End Inn Getty Images Flood water surrounds the bowling club after the River Taff burst its banks in Taffs Wells, north of Cardiff AFP via Getty Images Waves pound against the harbour wall at Portreath, Cornwall PA Work takes place to repair the internet after floodwaters caused disruption on Oxford Street on February 17, 2020 in Nantgarw, United Kingdom Getty Images Rachel Cox inspecting flood damage in her kitchen at 37 Oxford street, Nantgarw, in south Wales, where residents are returning to their homes to survey and repair the damage in the aftermath of Storm Dennis PA Members of the emergency services evacuate residents and their dogs from flooded houses by resucue boat after the River Taff burst its banks in Nantgarw AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images A man and woman are rescued from a property in Nantgarw Getty Images A view of fields flooded near St Clears, Pembrokeshire, South Wales REUTERS A soldier from The Highlanders, 4th Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland in Mytholmroyd PA A coach submerged in floodwater from the River Teme on the A443 near Lindridge, Worcestershire PA A man walks through a flooded convenience store in Tenbury Wells AFP via Getty Images A firefighter carries a dog to safety as part of ongoing rescue operations due to flooding in Nantgarw PA Rescue operations continue as emergency services take families to safety, after flooding in Nantgarw, Wales as Storm Dennis hit the UK PA A woman wades through flood water after Storm Dennis in Tenbury Wells, Reuters Huge waves crash against the sea wall at Porthcawl, south Wales as Storm Dennis hits the country AFP via Getty Images Flooding in York in the aftermath of Storm Dennis PA A firefighter carries a dog to safety as part of ongoing rescue operations due to flooding in Nantgarw PA Environment agency workers help a home-owner with flood defences after the River Severn burst it's banks in Bewdley, west of Birmingham AFP via Getty Images Environment agency workers put up flood defences beside the River Severn in Bewdley AFP via Getty Images Severe fllooding in Nantgarw PA Submerged vehicles after flooding in Nantgarw PA Powerful waves break on the shoreline around the small port of Porthleven, south west England AP A lorry driver sits trapped by flood water in the cab of his petrol tanker after the River Teme burst its banks near Lindridge, western England AFP via Getty Images Waves crash against the harbour wall in Port William Getty Images Cars sit submerged in flood water after the River Taff burst its banks in Nantgarw AFP via Getty Images A car drives through a flooded road in the village of Findern in Derbyshire PA A woman looks out of her window as geese swim past in floodwater after the River Severn bursts it's banks in Bewdley AFP via Getty Images Members of the Fire and Rescue Service conduct a search operation after the River Teme burst its banks in Lindridge AFP via Getty Images Waves crash against the harbour wall on the Isle of Whithorn, Getty Images Huge waves crash against the sea wall at Porthcawl, south Wales as Storm Dennis hits AFP via Getty Images People watch waves and rough seas pound against the harbour wall at Porthcawl PA People watch waves and rough seas pound against the harbour wall at Porthcawl PA People watch waves and rough seas pound against the harbour wall at Porthcawl PA The level of the River Ouse rises in York, North Yorkshire AFP via Getty Images The level of the River Ouse rises in York, North Yorkshire AFP via Getty Images The level of the River Ouse rises in York, North Yorkshire AFP via Getty Images Soldiers from The Highlanders, 4th Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland in Mytholmroyd to assist with flood defences, in the Upper Calder Valley PA Soldiers from The Highlanders, 4th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, help to shore up flood defences Getty Images Soldiers from The Highlanders, 4th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland , help to shore up flood defences Getty Images Soldiers from The Highlanders, 4th Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland in Mytholmroyd to assist with flood defences, in the Upper Calder Valley PA Soldiers from The Highlanders, 4th Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland help to shore up flood defences Getty Images The County Ground, Swindon, where Saturday's match was called off Action Images via Reuters A woman struggles with an umbrella in strong winds on the South Bank PA People are buffeted by strong winds as they cross the Millennium Bridge, in central London PA A woman struggles with an umbrella in strong winds on the Millennium Bridge PA People clear up following Storm Ciara in Mytholmroyd in the Upper Calder Valley in West Yorkshire PA Flood defences are prepared in Mytholmroyd, in the Upper Calder Valley in West Yorkshire PA

The Met Office has issued amber alerts - meaning people must be prepared to change plans and protect themselves and their family from the storm - for parts of Yorkshire, Wales, Devon, East Sussex and Kent.

Flood water surrounds the bowling club after the River Taff burst its banks in Taffs Wells, north of Cardiff / AFP via Getty Images

Rail services were suspended across south Wales after tracks were submerged by rain, while the line between Derby and Long Eaton was also closed.

A member of the public is rescued after flooding in Nantgarw, Wales / PA

Flooding saw the M54 westbound closed at Telford, along with the A616 around Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire and the A52 between Stragglethorpe and Gamston in the East Midlands, Highways England said.

A view of fields flooded near St Clears, Pembrokeshire, south Wales / REUTERS

Relief from Storm Dennis is still some distance away, the Met Office's Mr Dewhurst said, adding that "heavy rain and strong winds" would continue across large parts of the UK on Sunday.

"South Wales will see a lot of rain fall before Dennis moves north later to Scotland and Northern Ireland," he said.

The Ministry of Defence deployed British Army personnel on Saturday to assist people in West Yorkshire areas badly hit by flooding during last weekend's Storm Ciara.

Flights have been grounded for safety reasons, with British Airways and easyJet confirming cancellations.

More than 230 easyJet flights in and out of the UK on Saturday were cancelled, while several sporting fixtures were also called off due to the weather.

Two bodies were pulled from rough seas on Saturday, before the worst of the storm hit.

One man was found following a huge search operation off Margate after an early-morning distress call, while another was found at Herne Bay.
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Linkedin A. Kurniawan Ulung (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, February 17 2020

Personal note: Author Bambang Supriyanto poses with his book, Catatan dari Tepi Hutan (Notes From the Forests Edge) during its launch in Jakarta. (A.Kurniawan Ulung)

A new book reveals how local people exercise their local wisdom to manage forests in a sustainable way.

For people in Ammatoa Kajang village in South Sulawesi, the forest is a stairway that connects Earth and the sky through which departed spirits go back and forth.

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When Kim Kardashian first announced that she was becoming a lawyer, a lot of people dismissed the ambition. At the time, many saw it as a publicity stunt or a short-lived hobby that would fade away once Kardashian saw just how difficult it would be.

Almost a year later, however, it seems that Kardashian meant what she said and is committed to pursuing a legal education. Not only that, but shes also found some surprising ways to put that new knowledge to work for her. Lets take a closer look at how the celebrity is achieving her goal and what the road ahead looks like.

Kim Kardashian shocked the world by announcing her law ambition

Great meeting with @KimKardashian today, talked about prison reform and sentencing. pic.twitter.com/uOy4UJ41JF  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018

Back in May 2019, in an interview with Vogue, Kardashian made it clear that she had her sights set on something more substantial than simply being a reality TV star. Her inspiration for this new ambition wasnt rooted in fame and fortune. It grew out of her real-life experiences of (successfully) advocating for Alice Marie Johnson.

Kardashian met with President Trump on Johnsons behalf and ultimately helped achieve a sentence reduction for the woman who was serving a life sentence for a first-time drug offense.

The experience sparked a passion for advocacy in Kardashian. But it also made her acutely aware of how much she still needed to learn.

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, Kardashian explained.

Kim Kardashian has an unusual path to a law degree

Kardashian is not taking the typical route through law school to obtain her degree. Instead, she is participating in a four-year apprenticeship with a law firm in San Francisco.

Upon completion of the apprenticeship, she plans to take the barmost likely in 2022. She has opened up about the challenges shes faced in her studies.

Criminal law was the most interesting and engaging for her, but she struggled with studying contracts, which she often found boring.

The workload has definitely had an impact on Kardashians personal life. Shes also starting a new Oxygen show called The Justice Project. Between her studies and her film schedule, shes facing a serious time crunch when it comes to spending time with her family.

She still manages to make sure she has breakfast with her kids in the morning, date nights with her husband, and get in some time for herself. It all means that her busy social life has taken something of a pause.

All of that new knowledge has come in handy

Kim Kardashian West | Evans Vestal Ward/NBCUniversal/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

With a year of her apprenticeship behind her, Kardashian has a big hurdle coming up. Shell need to take the baby bar, a condensed version of the real thing that allows her the opportunity to continue her studies and eventually take the actual bar exam.

In an interview with Good Morning America, Kardashian seemed confident about her ability to succeed in this step, but she didnt shy away from the fact that the work is a challenge: Im about to take the baby bar in a few months, which is a necessity in order to continue on for the next three years in California. So it feels good, having finished year one. Its very hard!

The studies have also crossed over into her professional life. She explains that what shes learned about contracts, in particular, has been immediately applicable to her actual life.

I read over every contract now, she said. Its what Im studying and it makes a lot of sense, now, to me. Had I gone to school years ago when I should have, it wouldnt have meant as much as it does to me, and I wouldnt have been as into it as I am.
Mumbai, Feb 16 : "Bigg Boss 13" runner-up Asim Riaz has dismissed rumours that the show was fixed in favour of Sidharth Shukla, who won the current season.

Among those who have been vocally advocating the idea that the show is fixed is Priyanka Chopra's cousin, actress Meera Chopra. The rumours had gathered further ground when a Colors TV employee, identified as Feriha on Twitter, claimed she would quit the channel in protest because the result was rigged.

"I have decided to quit my job at @ColorsTV. I had a tremendous time working with the creative department but I can't demean myself being part of a fixed show. The channel is keen on making Siddharth Shukla the Winner despite less votes. Sorry, I can't be part of it," Feriha wrote even before the finale was played out.

However, Asim, who lost out to Sidharth and finished runner-up in the just-concluded season, has dismissed talks of rigging.

He took to social media to clarify: "Kuch bhi aisa nahin hai. Fixed kuch bhi nahin hota... audience ke pyaar ki wajah se main yahaan tak pahuncha aur wo (Sidharth) bhi jeeta hai. So, fixed kuch nahi hai... it's just real. Jo hai saamne hai toh aisa kuch bhi nahin tha. ( Nothing of that sort happened. Nothing was fixed.. I reached this far and he (Sidharth) won the show thanks to all the live of the audience. So, nothing is fixed... it's just real. Whatever happened is there before your eyes and nothing of that sort happened)." Asim's post came in the wake of a section of viewers, including Meera Chopra's continuous assertion that the show was fixed.

In the past, Meera tweeted: "I stopped watching #bigboss bcoz of biasedness of the makers to make #SiddhartShukla the hero, when hes clearly the villain. Whats the point of watching when we know its fixed! They can make siddharth win but #Asim and #RashamiDasai are the real winners of the show." Responding to Feriha's tweet, Meera posted: "We knew this since long from a very inside source.. but proud of u fr taking this stand. Its unfair on others who r inside since so long! " Sidharth Shukla won the finale of "Bigg Boss 13", to take home a prize money of Rs 50 lakh after a season wrought with ugly spats and controversies that many viewers felt were way below levels of dignified viewing.

Latest updates on Bigg Boss Season 13

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In three cases, weapons prohibited by Minsk agreements were used

Open source

Since the beginning of the day in the Donbas, February 14, fighters opened fire on the positions of the Ukrainian military four times. The press service of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported that.

The enemy used a hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher, a heavy machine gun and small arms to fired at positions in Novoluhansk. Subsequently, positions in the Novoluhansk area were shelled from with an 82 mm caliber mortar banned by the Minsk agreements; easel and hand anti-tank grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms were used, too.

In Donetsk region, militants fired 120 mm caliber mortars, heavy anti-tank grenade launchers and large caliber machine guns. They fired at the Ukrainian military near Krasnohorivka. Four mines of 82 mm caliber hit Lebedynske.

According to available information, there were no losses among the Ukrainian military on that day.

As we reported before, the plan on end of the war in Ukraine was presented at the Munich Security Conference on February 14. It was developed by three international organizations and the Russian Council for Foreign Affairs.

Besides, some experts from Ukraine joined the development - namely, Vasyl Phylypchuk, Oleksandr Chaliy and Oleksiy Semeniy. Their role is not specified. Besides, no Ukrainian organization was involved in the formation of the offer.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 16)  The Philippines is considering evacuating Filipino crew on board the Diamond Princess, which was quarantined off the waters of Japan when hundreds of passengers aboard tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Sunday preliminary talks have been conducted with Magsaysay Maritime Corporation, the company handling the Filipino crew on the ship.

Theres that big possibility na they will be evacuated, Duque told CNN Philippines Newsroom Weekend.

He said this will be discussed during the meeting of the inter-agency task force on emerging infectious diseases on Tuesday. Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Ed Mendez said the task force will meet Monday.

The United States, Canada and Italy are arranging evacuations of its citizens on the ship. The semi-autonomous Chinese city of Hong Kong is also arranging a chartered flight to bring back its residents on the ship home.

Australia, meanwhile, is examining options in assisting citizens on the cruise ship.

Eleven of the 538 Filipinos on the cruise ship have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, which has killed 1,669 and infected 69,000 worldwide.

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced Sunday that the total number of people infected with the virus on the ship has risen to 356.

All those who will remain on board will begin to be tested for the virus on February 18 and will get their results in three days. Staggered disembarkations are due to begin on February 21.

Lifting of Macau travel ban, quarantine exemptions sought

Duque said the task force will also be discussing whether to lift the travel ban to and from Macau, a special administrative region of China.

That will also be taken into consideration after a risk assessment, he said. And the result of the risk assessment will be taken up to support any consideration for the travel ban to Macau.

The Health Secretary also said that they will be discussing the Transportation Departments request for pilots and airline crew to be exempted from being subjected to a mandatory 14-day quarantine.

If they are going to be quarantined each time, they will possibly have no more pilots to operate or to fly the plane, Duque said.

CNN Philippines Correspondent Tristan Nodalo contributed to this report.
Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu attended on Saturday, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, the round table on the Three Seas Initiative, on which occasion he welcomed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's announcement on the allocation by the United States of one billion US dollars for investments in energy projects under the Three Seas Initiative, informs a press release of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) sent to AGERPRES.

According to the cited source, Minister Aurescu said that the Initiative maintains its pragmatic character, focused on the implementation of projects of major interest for the region and for Romania. In this context, he reiterated the Romanian Government's commitment to the defining principles and objectives of the Initiative, as well as the active role that Bucharest will play in furthering the development of I3M."The Three Seas Initiative was designed to meet our essential needs, at regional level, and to contribute to help accelerate the development of the region, by stimulating connectivity between the participating states. (...). The Bucharest Summit, successfully hosted in 2018, by the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, contributed substantially to the development and crystallization of the Initiative's objectives, and the set of validated instruments was then meant to facilitate and accelerate the implementation of major interconnection projects in the region. Today we can definitely say that the initiative is moving forward solidly and is starting to produce results," the head of the Romanian diplomacy said in Munich.The Romanian official also welcomed the announcement made on Saturday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo regarding the allocation of 1 billion US dollars for investments in energy projects under the Three Seas Initiative, as an important signal of the United States' concrete interest and support for the Initiative.According to the cited source, in this context Minister Bogdan Aurescu recalled the important decisions and results adopted and obtained by the Bucharest Summit (the list of priority interconnection projects, the first edition of the Business Forum, the launch of the Chamber of Commerce network, the initiation of the Investment Fund's establishment), as well as the steps recorded in the operationalization of the Initiative's Investment Fund, as well as the priority to be given to the efficient financing and implementation of the priority interconnection projects.The roundtable "The Three Seas Initiative: Completing Europe in an Era of Great Power Competition" was organized by the Atlantic Council of the United States (ACUS), on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. Other speakers included Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid and US Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette.In his address, the head of Romanian diplomacy also welcomed the organization of this event by ACUS, bringing to mind, in context, the support enjoyed by the Three Seas Initiative from the renowned American think-tank, including its contribution to the success of the first Business Forum of the Three Seas Initiative (I3M), organized in Bucharest in 2018, on the occasion of the Initiative's Third Summit, highlights the MAE release.Moreover, Minister Aurescu welcomed Estonia's efforts to host, in June 2020, a new Summit of the Initiative and the third edition of the I3M Business Forum. He expressed Romania's full support for the success of the events hosted by Estonia, stressing the importance of obtaining new concrete results in this context and encouraging the continuation of the pragmatic, results-based approach, within the Initiative, the press release further mentions.The Three Seas Initiative is a flexible and informal political platform, at presidential level, that brings together the 12 EU member states from the Adriatic, Baltic and Black Seas (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia). The Initiative aims to increase convergence and cohesion, in parallel with reducing the economic development gap between different EU areas and member states, by increasing interconnectivity in the region, in the fields of energy, transport and digital.The key principles of the Three Seas Initiative are: promoting economic development, increasing cohesion at European level and strengthening transatlantic ties.
Love defined

John chapter 13, verses 34-35 says, A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

The above is not just a verse from the Bible, but they are also Jesus words of instruction to believers. Jesus referred to the commandment as new because the original and first commandment was explained earlier in Matthew chapter 22, verses 36-37: Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law? Jesus declared, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

So, if we take these commandments in chronological order, we need to first focus on our relationship with God  loving Him with all our heart, mind and soul. To love God with our heart means to align our inner motivations. To love God with our soul means to love with our external being. To love God with our mind means that our affection is grounded in our thoughts. To love from the heart is relatively easier compared to loving from the soul, which demands a greater level of commitment right to the very core of a person. In totality, heart, mind and soul combine to mean love expressed as both an affection and devotion.

The love we have for God our Heavenly Father will naturally lead us to thinking about the heart of God and how He would want us to live our lives. Love in action for us therefore becomes the love of God working within and through us. God loves the world and the people around us. In this way, loving God has a natural expression in loving others.

2020: Bushfires

2020 is off to a rocky start. Here in Australia we have endured record bushfires which began in late 2019. As of early February, much of NSW and Victoria, along with Queensland and SA have burned. As hard as the loss of animal life and native bushland has been, we see even now, the early stages of bushfire recovery. Gods creation here in Australia has a wonderful propensity to recover from fire. Indeed, in the context of the long history of the Aboriginal people, fire has been a fact of life, being an instrument of renewal. The relationship of Australian natives to the land is a unique and prominent feature of their culture, so much so, that we from a Western-based culture do not fully appreciate that bond between the people and the land. It is through this kind of enriched understanding that I would suggest perhaps the Aborigines understand the heart of Jesus and Gods commandment to love one another  and their culture was one which enmeshed love right into their lifestyle of tending the plants and wildlife.

As Australia slowly recovers from the devastating bushfires, and we commence the long road to recovery, perhaps this is a great time for us a community to not just turn back to God and receive His love, but also, to show Gods love towards one another as we all play a part in rebuilding rural Australia?

2020: Wuhan coronavirus

As I caught up with friends over the Australia Day / Chinese New Year long weekend, we had the opportunity of laughing light-heartedly about how their earlier purchase of face masks had served an initial purpose with the bushfires and resultant haze. The conversation also then led on to the fact that the masks now served a dual purpose in protecting from the spread of the emergent Wuhan coronavirus.

This virus began from an outbreak in mid-December 2019, and is suspected to originate from a local exotic animal market in Wuhan, China. At the time of writing, it has infected over 20,000 people with close to 500 deaths. While a handful of deaths have started to emerge globally, the main impact remains within China for now, although some 170 nations report cases. Here in Melbourne, Chinese-centric locations like Box Hill and Glen Waverley have become sparse with a clear drop in traffic to these normally bustling centres of activity.

The increasing levels of actions announced by various bodies and governments that attempt to contain and control the virus are a necessary measure to protecting society. Churches, along with many group-based organisations encourage people to self-quarantine. For those of us who remain healthy and unaffected, here lies another opportunity for us to show love in a practical way. Whilst some people may be physically isolated, what is to stop us from loving our neighbours by doing shopping for them, or even dropping food off for them? Naturally, hygiene standards should be adhered to, but there is always a way to help out and demonstrate Gods love in a very practical way.

2020: Spread love not fear



While the year has begun with a greater number of challenges than most, the opportunity remains more than ever, for believers to show Gods love in practical and simple ways. Showing that we care has a greater impact given the self-quarantine and isolation that parts of our society may be practising.

As we seek God and His heavenly source of love, I pray that God will inspire you to new and creative ways to show His love for those around you. May Jesus be Jehovah Raffa, our healer in more ways than one  physically, mentally and spiritually to you all.
Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia

15.02.2020 LISTEN

Ghana has undergone considerable changes in terms of its economic structure through diversification, by shifting focus on the production of raw materials to value addition, says Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

According to him, this is a key pillar of Nana Akufo-Addo's 'Ghana Beyond Aid' agenda, which is being implemented through programmes such as Planting for Food and Jobs that has increased agricultural output for agro processing and food sufficiency.

Addressing government's accountability forum in Kumasi, the Vice-President stated that increase in productivity had led to the export of food crops such as cassava, rice, yellow and white maize, soya, plantain, cowpea and yam to Burkina Faso, Togo and Cote d'Ivoire.

He said the government had also established the Ghana Commodity Exchange, an ultra-modern trading system linked to warehouses located across the country, which is to connect markets and expand marketing and farm gate opportunities for buyers and sellers of agricultural produce.

The One-District One-Factory policy has taken off, and 79 factories under the scheme are at various stages of operation or construction. Another 35 are going through credit appraisal, he revealed.

Dr. Bawumia said the process of starting an integrated bauxite and aluminum industry is a major step in diversification He disclosed that the Ghana Integrated Bauxite and Aluminum Development Corporation law had been passed.

According to him, government has established the Ghana Integrated Aluminum Development Corporation, and that it was in the process to select the joint venture partners to undertake the aluminum refinery project.

A similar framework is being followed for the establishment of an iron and steel industry, he pointed out and added that the facilitation of the growth of an automotive industry was on course.

He said a National Automotive policy, which includes giving incentives to industries, had been approved by Cabinet, adding that Kantanka automobiles would also benefit from the incentives.

He intimated that government was looking forward to seeing the establishment of a car assembling plant by Volkswagen (VW) next month (March).

By August, we expect Toyota to do same and we will continue to give incentives to Kantanka, he noted.

---Daily Guide
India and Norway have agreed to jointly tackle concerns related to oceans, and climate matters, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said here on Sunday.

Javadekar, who was addressing a press conference here along with his Norwegian counterpart Sveinung Rotevan on the side-lines of a United Nation summit biodiversity conservation, emphasised for a shared understanding of the global problem, which cannot be solved by any one country alone.

Javadekar said: "Say No to plastic' has been an action initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India produces 20,000 tons of plastic out of which 15,000 tons is collected. However, the remaining 5,000 to 6,000 tons remain in the water bodies. India-Norway cooperation can move ahead in this arena."

Both the countries assured that they are committed to supporting global action to address plastic pollution and exploring the feasibility of establishing a new global agreement on plastic pollution.

In addition, the two sides expressed interest to continue and strengthen the mutually beneficial cooperation on the and climate between the two countries, including on ocean affairs.

Last year, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between India and Norway on 'India-Norway Ocean Dialogue' apart from an establishment of a joint task force on the blue economy.

According to the agreement, the ocean, if managed properly, holds the key to meeting many of the sustainable development goals. Integrated ocean management is central to achieving a sustainable blue economy.

Reiterating the importance of a joint effort towards the protection of the environment, Rotevatn said: "India and Norway have a long-standing and good cooperation. Our two countries shared experiences in environment management. Norway sees India as an important player in the environment. Today we had a productive meeting."

India is marking the beginning of a super year of Biodiversity with the hosting of the 13th Conference of Parties (COP) of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), an environmental treaty under the aegis of United Nations Environment Programme, from February 17-22, 2020 at Gandhinagar in Gujarat.

The Opening Ceremony and Plenary session of the COP will be followed by side events and working group meetings until the closing ceremony. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the COP 13 via video conferencing. Numerous and international organisations will showcase best practices in wildlife conservation during the course of the conference.

Representatives from 130 Parties and eminent conservationists and international NGOs working in the field of wildlife conservation will attend the UN summit.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At the Angelus, Pope Francis explains the antitheses present in the "Sermon on the Mount" with the expressions "You understood that it was said ... but I tell you". Not "formal compliance with the law", but "substantial compliance". "We can do everything, everything with the grace of God. In fact, holiness is nothing other than guarding this grace". Hatred and passions generate wars: the memory of the Syrian girl who died of cold.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Jesus "came into the world not only to fulfill the Law, but also to give us his Grace, so that we can do God's will, loving Him and our brothers and sisters" Pope Francis said today concluding his reflection before the Angelus recited with pilgrims in St. Peter's Square. Among other things, speaking of hatred, passions and sin he added off the cuff: "We think of wars, we think of the consequences of wars, we think of that little girl who died of cold in Syria the day before yesterday. Many calamities, many ". The pope was referring to a piece of news about a one and a half year old girl, Iman Mahmoud Laila, died in the arms of her father who was trying to take her on foot to a hospital in the governorate of Aleppo.

The Pope was inspired by today's gospel (6th per year, A, Matthew 5, 17-37), on the "Sermon on the Mount", which "addresses the topic of fulfilling the Law".

"Christ's sermon - he explained - is structured in four antitheses, expressed with the formula" You understood that it was said ... but I say to you ". These antitheses refer to as many situations of daily life: murder, adultery, divorce, oaths ".

Jesus - he continued - does not abolish the prescriptions that concern these problems, but explains their deeper meaning and indicates the spirit with which it is necessary to observe them. He encourages us to move from formal compliance with the Law to substantial compliance, accepting the Law in our heart, which is the center of the intentions, decisions, words and gestures of each of us. Good and bad deeds start from the heart. "

"By accepting the Law of God in your heart, you understand that when you do not love your neighbor, you kill yourself and others to some extent, because hatred, rivalry and division kill the fraternal charity that is at the basis of interpersonal relationships. By accepting the Law of God in your heart, you understand that desires must be guided, because not everything you want can be had, and it is not good to give in to selfish and possessive sentiments. When you accept the Law of God in your heart, you understand that you must abandon a lifestyle made of broken promises, as well as move from the prohibition to swear the false to the decision not to swear at all, taking the attitude of full sincerity with everyone".

But Jesus is aware that it is not easy to live the commandments. This is why he offers us the help of his love: he came into the world not only to fulfill the law, but also to give us his grace, so that we can do the will of God, loving him and our brothers and sisters. We can do everything, everything with the grace of God. In fact, holiness is nothing other than guarding this grace .
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Topless protesters have disrupted a stump speech by Senator Bernie Sanders in Nevada.

The anti-dairy protesters stormed the stage just as Sanders was beginning to address his supporters at the event on Sunday in Carson City.

First, a fully clothed woman jumped on the stage and grabbed the mic away from the candidate to deliver their demands.

'Bernie, I'm your biggest supporter, and I'm here to ask you to stop pumping up the dairy industry and to stop pumping up animal agriculture,' she said.

A protester interrupts Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders during a campaign event in Carson City, Nevada on Saturday

Topless women mounted the stage and poured colored liquids over their bodies from containers marked 'milk' to protest the dairy industry

The protesters were upset about a 2018 bill that Sanders voted for which provided emergency financial support for the dairy industry after milk prices fell

'I believe in you' she continued, before the mic suddenly went dead and security moved toward her. The campaign's live video feed of the event suddenly cut out.

Meanwhile, topless women mounted the stage and poured colored liquids over their bodies from containers marked 'milk.'

They had the words 'dairy' and 'die' written across their nude torsos, with their bosoms fully displayed.

Sanders and his wife, Jane, stepped off to the side of the stage as the women carried on. Jane laughed in amusement as Sanders looked on in peevish annoyance.

Sanders and his wife, Jane, stood to the side as the topless protest unfolded onstage

The protest caused brief chaos just as Sanders had begun addressing the crowd

Security guards intervened and dragged the topless women off the stage.

Sanders quickly resumed his speech, shrugging off the bizarre protest.

'This is Nevada. There's always a little excitement  at no extra cost. Except we have a lot of water on the stage,' he said as he returned to the stage.

It comes a week after actor Joaquin Phoenix used his Oscar acceptance speech to deliver a startling rant about the dairy industry.

'We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and when she gives birth we steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable,' the Joker star said at the ceremony last weekend.

'And then we take her milk that's intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal,' he said.

Campaign staff and security rushed onstage to coral the topless protesters

Sanders looked on appearing mystified by the bizarre protest

Security guards intervened and dragged the topless women off the stage

Sanders was introduced on Sunday by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who recently endorsed the Vermont senator after suspending his own campaign.

In his speech after the protesters were removed, Sanders was unusually direct in attacking some of his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Sanders spent most of his time lacerating billionaire and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who is spending hundreds of millions of his own money on ads.

Sanders said Bloomberg is 'trying to buy the presidency' and that Bloomberg was bored and decided he wanted to be president.

Sanders also singled out by name former vice president Joe Biden and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg as two other candidates who raise money from billionaires.

Sanders was introduced on Sunday by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who recently endorsed the Vermont senator after suspending his own campaign

In his speech after the protesters were removed, Sanders was unusually direct in attacking some of his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination

Sanders spent most of his time lacerating billionaire and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who is spending hundreds of millions of his own money on ads

He also slammed what he called the corporate, media, GOP and Democratic establishments for trying to stand in his way.

Buttigieg and Biden were both also campaigning in Nevada, trying to woo black and Hispanic voters ahead of the state's caucuses next Saturday.

Buttigieg told a largely African American audience at a luncheon for the Nevada Legislative Black Caucus on Sunday that he worked with black leaders of South Bend, Indiana, to deliver affordable housing and improve the black unemployment rate.

Biden spoke Sunday to worshipers at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in North Las Vegas. He reminded older parishioners of television footage of black protesters in Birmingham, Alabama, being attacked by police dogs and sprayed with fire hoses on the orders of city official Bull Connor.

Biden said today's racists are not 'Bull Connors, not out in overalls. They're wearing fine suits, and they're living in the White House.'

Bloomberg has largely ignored Nevada, instead focusing his vast resources on the 14 'Super Tuesday' states that hold their primaries on March 3.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 12:15:49|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Xiaomi Corp., a Chinese electronics company, became the number one brand of TV sets in terms of annual output in the world's second-largest economy last year.

Shipments of Xiaomi TV sets reached a record 10.46 million, the company said on its official microblog, adding that its sales also topped the country.

Xiaomi's market share reached 19.25 percent in 2019, according to data from China Market Monitor Co., a domestic market research company.

Apart from TV sets, Xiaomi also makes and invests in smartphones, mobile apps, laptops, bags, earphones, shoes, and many other products.
In a legally-mandated memo to Congress, the Trump White House outlined its legal rationale for carrying out the January drone strike to kill top Iranian commander Maj. Gen. Qassim Soleimani in Baghdad. The two-page unclassified memo comes after a series of evolving justifications from the White House that predicated the need to carry out the brazen assassination attempt outside the constitutional war-making powers of Congress on what Trump officials described as an imminent threat to American lives. In the memo, however, the Trump administration offered only broad security justifications for the attack, a provocation that had the potential to tip the two countries into war, but provided no evidence of an imminent threat. Irans past and present activities, coupled with intelligence at the time of the air strike, indicated that Irans Qods Force posed a threat to the United States in Iraq, the memo explains, and the air strike against Soleimani was intended to protect United States personnel and deter future Iranian attack plans against United States forces and interests in Iraq and threats emanating from Iraq.

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Article II of the United States Constitution, empowers the President, as Commander in Chief, to direct the use of military force to protect the Nation from an attack or threat of imminent attack and to protect important national interests. Article II thus authorized the President to use force against forces of Iran, a state responsible for conducting and directing attacks against United States forces in the region, says the memo that was delivered Friday to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The purposes of this action were to protect United States personnel, to deter Iran from conducting or supporting further attacks against United States forces and interests, to degrade Irans and Quds Force-backed militiass ability to conduct attacks, and to end Irans strategic escalation of attacks, and to end Irans strategic escalation of attacks on, and threats to American interests.

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That language mirrors the vagueness of the Trump administration in the days and weeks following the Jan. 3 attack. Soleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act, Trump told reporters at the time. At one point, the president claimed four American embassies had been specifically targeted. Secretary of State Pompeo told CNN after the strike that Soleimani was actively plotting in the region to take actions, a big action as he described it, that would have put dozens if not hundreds of American lives at risk. When pushed, Pompeo and the rest of the Trump White House began walking back the imminent threat claim, saying: Its never one thing.  Its a collective. Its a full situational awareness of risk and analysis.

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The Fake News Media and their Democrat Partners are working hard to determine whether or not the future attack by terrorist Soleimani was imminent or not, & was my team in agreement. The answer to both is a strong YES., but it doesnt really matter because of his horrible past!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2020

Trumps handling of the attackand his justification for itrankled both Republicans and Democrats in Congress. The Senate passed a measure 55-to-45 last week that would curtail Trumps powers to carry out a military operation in Iran. The move gained the support of eight Republican senators: Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Todd Young of Indiana.
At about 6 a.m. Thursday, the Crete Speedway was robbed again, but police said they were able to gather enough evidence for a search warrant at Mitchells residence. Officers with Crete police, ATF and the Will County gang unit recovered five handguns and two stolen vehicles.
A couple allegedly committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance in a village here, police said on Sunday.

Rahul Rajbhar (16) took the extreme step on Saturday and after the of his death reached his girlfriend Priti (15), she also killed herself, they said.

Rajbhar and Priti, who were residents of Moitra village in Rasda area here, were upset as their families did not approve of their relationship, police added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Linkedin Umit Bektas and Bulent Usta (Reuters) Istanbul  Sun, February 16, 2020 20:02 695 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2064e0031 2 Art & Culture artist,Russia,Vladimir-Putin,painting,Istanbul,Alexander-Donskoy Free

A Russian artist unveiled four giant paintings of Russias President Vladimir Putin in central Istanbul on Saturday, saying he wanted to show the good ties between Ankara and Moscow despite differences over Syria and other issues.

However shortly after Alexander Donskoy unveiled his Putin is Russia? project in Istiklal Street, authorities took down his paintings because he had not received permission to display them there.

Currently, we have an exacerbation of relations with Turkey, artist Alexander Donskoy told Reuters. So, I show here, right in the center of Turkey, on its main street where the Russian embassy is at, that Putin is Russia.

I wanted to draw attention to how Putin is taken in Russia: like a superhero. So I wrote on portraits Putin is superhero, Donskoy said.

Turkey and Russia back opposing sides in the Syrian war but have collaborated to seek a political solution, while forging close ties in the defense and energy sectors.

Read also: Indonesia among countries welcome to visit Russias St. Petersburg using free e-visas

But a Russian-backed Syrian government offensive since December in the northwestern Idlib region has disrupted ties. Ankara and Moscow have traded barbs in recent days, accusing each other of flouting agreements to curb violence in Idlib.

Media reports this week have cited the Russian ambassador to Turkey as saying he had received several death threats since tensions flared after 13 Turkish troops were killed in Idlib in Syrian government attacks.

Donskoy said he wanted to provoke emotions in people passing by the paintings and see their reactions. He said he planned to hold more exhibits elsewhere, including in the United States.

There will be more in the countries of Western democracy. So I will show that the Russian people consider sanctions against Putin like sanctions against themselves, he said.

So, I am an ambassador of peace.
San Quentin inmate John Abel, 75, was pronounced dead Saturday 10.25am. His cause of death is unknown pending the results of an autopsy; however, foul play is not suspected

Two inmates from different prisons in California have died within the space of 24 hours.

The Friday death of Joseph Martinez, 21, is being investigated as a homicide while the passing of San Quentin death row inmate John Abel, 75, on Saturday is said to be non-suspicious.

Inmates Robert A. Garcia and Brian Figueroa attacked Martinez in the Facility C general population maximum-security yard at Calipatria State Prison, officials said.

Correctional officers used chemical agents and one non-lethal 40-mm round to quell the incident and recovered one inmate-made weapon at the scene around 3pm on Valentine's Day.

Martinez was cut in his chest and back and was taken to the prison's medical facility.

He was then taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4.32pm, the department said.

The two suspects were put in an Administrative Segregation Unit at the Imperial County institution, which houses 3,021 minimum-and-maximum-security inmates and employs approximately 1,200 people, pending investigation into their involvement.

Martinez had been serving a 24-year-to-life sentence for attempted first-degree murder, the department said.

The victim had been admitted from Santa Barbara County on May 3, 2019, to serve a 24-year-to-life sentence for attempted first-degree murder with enhancements for use of a firearm, street gang activity and inflicting great bodily injury.

Garcia, 24, was admitted to prison - which provides a variety of academic, self-help and vocational programs that are certified by the National Center for Construction Education and Research - from Los Angeles County on November 9, 2018.

His sentence is 50 years to life with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder, intentional discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury or death, and vehicle theft.

Figueroa, 26, was admitted to the facility - which at 184 feet below sea level is the lowest elevation of any prison in the Western Hemisphere - on February 25, 2014 from Los Angeles County.

He was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole for second-degree murder, his second strike.

Death row inmate Abel died Saturday at a hospital outside of San Quentin prison (pictured)

An autopsy will be performed to determine John Abel's cause of death, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

Authorities do not suspect foul play in the case of Abel, who was sentenced to death row for killing a man in 1991 during a robbery at a bank in Orange County

The homicide occurred the day before a death row inmate died Saturday at a hospital outside of San Quentin prison.

An autopsy will be performed to determine John Abel's cause of death, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which did not reveal the name of the hospital.

Authorities do not suspect foul play in the case of Abel, who was sentenced to death row for killing a man in 1991 during a robbery at a bank in Orange County.

Abel, who had previously been convicted of a string of armed robberies, was sentenced to death by an Orange County jury in 1997 for the fatal shooting January 4, 1991, of a man at a bank in Tustin, the department said.

The man had just withdrawn $20,000 from the bank.

'Since 1978, when California reinstated capital punishment, 82 condemned inmates have died from natural causes, 27 have committed suicide, 13 were executed in California, one was executed in Missouri, one was executed in Virginia, 14 have died from other causes and seven - including Abel - are pending a cause of death,' the department said in a statement Saturday.

'There are 728 people on California's death row.'

Joseph Martinez, 21, died after Robert A. Garcia, 24, and Brian Figueroa, 26, attacked him at Calipatria State Prison (pictured) on Friday afternoon. At 184 feet below sea level, the facility is the lowest elevation of any prison in the Western Hemisphere
Today, he is one of the more than 200,000 African-Americans who have moved out of Chicago in the last two decades, though in some ways, he never left. For more than a year, he has taken this daily pilgrimage back to the house on Laporte, to the city where his children grew up and where two of his daughters still live.

The steady exodus of African-Americans has caused alarm and grief in Chicago, the nations third largest city, where black people have shaped the history, culture and political life. The population of 2.7 million is still nearly split in thirds among whites, blacks and Latinos, but the balance is shifting. Chicago saw its population decline in 2018, the fourth year in a row. Since 2015, almost 50,000 black residents have left.

They have been driven out of the city by segregation, gun violence, discriminatory policing, racial disparities in employment, the uneven quality of public schools and frustration at life in neighborhoods whose once-humming commercial districts have gone quiet, as well as more universal urban complaints like rising rents and taxes. At the same time, white, Latino and Asian residents are flowing in, and Chicagos wealthier, whiter downtown, West Loop and North Side have been booming. Lori Lightfoot, the citys first black mayor in decades, has vowed to stem the loss of longtime residents, and the city has collectively grasped for solutions.

The White family is a living symbol of what Chicago has kept and lost.

Members of three generations of the White family have grappled with the choice of whether to stay in Chicago or leave. Each family members story offers a glimpse into the citys shifting migration pattern. Each story reveals what has made Chicagoans decide to leave the city or made them more determined to remain.

Mr. White, who arrived in Chicago from Mississippi when he was a teenager, moved to the suburbs because of the growing needs of his wife, Velma, who has dementia. Like many Chicagoans of his generation, he left the city only reluctantly.
STAMFORD  Firefighters battled two simultaneous structure fires late Saturday afternoon in the Westside neighborhood, officials said.

The fire department responded to the Clinton Avenue side of the apartment building at 75 Tresser Blvd. at 3:25 p.m. for a report of a shed on fire, according to Deputy Fire Chief Eric Lorenz.

When firefighters got to the scene, responding units reported heavy black smoke coming from a maintenance storage locker. Units quickly extinguished the fire, which did not extend to the adjacent apartment building.

Lorenz said there were no injuries reported.

As units were responding to the Tresser Boulevard fire, other units were dispatched to 26 Main St. at 3:35 p.m. after multiple 911 calls about a fire in an apartment on the seventh floor, Lorenz said.

The first arriving units reported heavy smoke coming from a seventh-floor apartment. Lorenz said as firefighters got inside, they confirmed a kitchen fire that extended into the living room.

Units got the flames out and under control in about 10 minutes, Lorenz said.

Smoke and fire damage to the apartment rendered it uninhabitable, the deputy chief said. Red Cross personnel were called in to help relocate one occupant of the apartment.

There were no injuries in this fire either, Lorenz said.

The cause of both fires remain under investigation by the fire marshal.
N. DENDIAS: Thank you Sabri, thank you dear colleague. It was a great pleasure to be here in Algiers today.

We had an exchange of views with my colleague, first of all on our bilateral relations, which are in very good order, but there is room for improvement and we will be working for this in the future.

Also, we shared our thoughts on regional issues on the Mediterranean and of course, as you may expect, the situation in Libya.

The situation in Libya is indeed of great concern to both our countries. Both Greece and Algeria believe there should be an immediate stop to hostilities and to any foreign intervention in Libya.

However, the memoranda signed between Mr. Sarraj and Turkey move to the opposite direction. This fuels the conflict, also with the constant flow of military equipment and mercenaries and creates a huge problem in the countries of the region, in the countries of the Mediterranean.

This behavior constitutes a blatant violation of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

They pose further obstacles to the efforts of the UN Security Council and of the Special Representative Mr. Salame, but also to the ongoing efforts of the international community, namely the Berlin Process. Efforts that Greece supported from the beginning. And, I have to say that, Greece supports any effort that moves in the direction of stabilizing the situation, stopping foreign interventions and creating a functioning country and society in Libya.

As regards the memorandum of the delimitation of maritime zones, I would like to reiterate that it is null and void, entirely outside the scope of International Law and produces no effect whatsoever.

I was very interested in listening the remarks of my colleague on the fact that no entity in Libya nowadays can claim legitimacy on being able to sign accords, agreements or represent the Libyan people.

Greece, a pillar of stability in the Eastern Mediterranean, and a country with special interests in developments in Libya, remains ready to support every effort towards a political solution to the Libyan conflict.

In this regard, as well as many others, we agreed with my colleague today to remain in contact and continue exchanging views for the benefit of peace and stability in our common region.

Dear Sabri, thank you very much for hosting us here today.

JOURNALIST: [] how do you see the role of Algeria in Libya?

N. DENDIAS: First of all, the reason of my visit is to enhance bilateral relations. We are friendly countries, there is not one bilateral problem that we have to resolve between us. But we can always improve, we can do more together. We are sharing a neighbourhood; we are both countries of the Mediterranean and this is our neighbourhood and our common future.

But, on the other hand, I wanted to also discuss with my colleague the situation in Libya, in order to understand and be educated on the Algerian position on Libya. And I have to say that I was very happy with what I heard. Because I heard that Algeria is working towards the creation of a stable society in Libya, a functioning society, a functioning state, and also, that Algeria is against any foreign military intervention in the region. Really, for Algeria, this is a red line. So, this is music to our ears, this is how we think countries should function, this, I think, is the rule that should be applied in our region.

Thank you.
The People's Friendship University of Russia, one of Russia's largest internationally oriented, educational and research institutions, has marked the 60th year of its establishment with series of activities including an evening of congratulatory speeches, culminating with a grand multinational cultural concert in the Kremlin.

The congratulatory messages came from the Kremlin, the Russian government, Federation Council, State Duma, Ministries and Departments, Soviet and Russian Graduates' Associations in Latin America, Asia and Africa, and international organizations such as UNESCO and the United Nations.

From the highest officialdom, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his greetings to the faculty and staff, postgraduate and undergraduate students and alumni of Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN) on the academic institution's anniversary.

The message reads: "Exactly 60 years ago, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia opened its doors to young people arriving in Moscow from the newly independent countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, offering them a second home. I strongly believe that many graduates hold warm memories of the years they spent studying in our country, their teachers and friends.

Over these years, the university has trained tens of thousands of qualified professionals in economics, agriculture, medicine, law, history, philology and other disciplines, making a unique contribution to strengthening friendship and mutual understanding between people of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

It is marvellous that the university treasures these traditions and maintains a high standard of education as one of Russias best higher education institutions. Its noble mission helps attract talented, proactive and dedicated young people from across the world who are receptive to progressive ideas and are ready to undertake advanced programmes and projects."

In a congratulatory message, Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, noted that the university has long been known for fostering understanding between countries and cultures.

Respect for diversity is one of the strengths. This anniversary comes at a time of test for that vital work. Today's global landscape is scared by protracted conflicts, a climate crisis and the spread of hatred and disquiet. In such times, the pursuit of knowledge remains more necessary than ever.

It is encouraging to know that the mission of "uniting people of different cultures by knowledge" echoes the aim of key United Nations initiatives, including UN Academic Impact, of which the university is a valued member.

"As we mark the 75th anniversary of the United Nations and embark on a Decade of Action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, we look forward to a continued partnership in shaping a peaceful and prosperous future for all," stressed Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Professor Vladimir Filippov, Rector of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, traced the history of its establishment emphasizing the fact that the significant decision to establish the university was made 60 years ago. It has worked the way from a higher educational institution, mainly trained staff for developing countries to a comprehensive research university - from Peoples' Friendship University to RUDN University, the scientific and educational centre well-known and recognized in Russian and world rankings.

Today the university brings together students from 158 countries, and the number of RUDN University alumni increases by 5-6 thousand year by year, graduates work in almost all countries.

In 2020, RUDN University alumni are to hold events devoted to the RUDN University anniversary in dozens of countries of the world. RUDN University and its alumni are planting Trees of Friendship in many countries to commemorate its anniversary.

Professor Filippov concluded: "We are still young, up-and-coming and individual - our university is really the only one. RUDN University is more than just a degree you obtain, more than research, more than collaborations, more than the creative environment. RUDN University generation is beyond standards, we create our own history - history of a university of the new type - We are different, we are equal, we are leaders!"

Additional historical notes: The Soviet government founded the university on 5 February 1960. Its stated objective during the height of the Cold War was to help developing nations. Many students from developed countries also attended the university. On 22 February 1961, the university was named Patrice Lumumba University after the Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba, who had been killed in a coup that January.

The stated purpose for establishing the university was to give young people from Asia, Africa and Latin America, especially from poor families, an opportunity to be educated and to become qualified specialists. The organizations, as founders of the university, are the All-Union Central Soviet of Trade Unions, the Soviet Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee, and the Soviet Associations Union of Friendship and Intercultural Relationship.

The university's current Russian name is "   ", which could be translated as "Peoples' Friendship University of Russia" or, more directly, as "Russian University of the Friendship of Nations".

The English-language version of the university's website, however, uses the name "RUDN University" with the acronym RUDN derived from the Russian name transliterated into English ("Rossiiskii Universitet Druzhby Narodov"). Nonetheless, it remains most common in English to use the name "Peoples' Friendship University of Russia" or the abbreviation "PFUR" used in official documents.

*Kester Kenn Klomegah is an independent research writer and policy consultant on African affairs in the Russian Federation and Eurasian Union.
The prosecution said Zaki used social media to "disturb public order and jeopardise society's peace and security"

Egypt's general prosecutor has said an Egyptian researcher arrested earlier this month will remain in custody over "broadcasting false news" and "disturbing security and social peace," a statement from the prosecutor's office read.

Patrick George Zaki, a postgraduate student at Bologna University in Italy, is a researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), a prominent rights organisation. Zaki was detained at Cairo International Airport 7 February after he arrived for a family visit, the organisation said at the time.

The prosecution said Zaki used his Facebook account to "spread false news  with the aim of fuelling rumours and inciting against state institutions and symbols."

It also provided a detailed account of his arrest, refuting reports of torture while he was in custody.

Zaki did not tell prosecutors he had been subject to any harm or abuse during his arrest or detention, the general prosecution statement said, adding that no apparent injuries were seen on his body.

According to the statement, prosecutors questioned Zaki 8 February following his arrest in his home city of Mansoura in the Nile Delta. However, Zaki said he was arrested from the airport 7 February, pleading not guilty to all accusations.

This is not the first time Zaki has been investigated, the prosecution said, adding that prosecutors in September issued an arrest warrant and ordered the search of his home.

Zaki was abroad. However, his residence was searched by state security forces, which later presented to the prosecution printed documents of posts from his Facebook account inciting against state institutions and figures, the statement added.

On Saturday, a Mansoura appeals court rejected an appeal filed by Zaki and upheld the persecution's decision that he be remanded in custody for 15 days, according to EIPR.

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Feb 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Friday raised tariffs on aircraft imported from the European Union, ratcheting up pressure on the EU to resolve an epic 16-year-old dispute over support for airplane makers, and raising the stakes in broader talks to reach a U.S.-EU trade deal.

The World Trade Organization has found the world's two largest planemakers received billions of dollars of unfair subsidies in a pair of cases dating back to 2004 and is expected to allow both sides to impose tariffs, starting with the United States.

Here are highlights of the feud that has spawned thousands of pages of rulings, triggered threats of tit-for-tat tariffs on goods from plane parts to whisky and left both sides claiming victory while racking up an estimated $100 million in costs.

2004

The U.S. seeks talks with the EU and Airbus host nations Britain, France, Germany and Spain over alleged unfair subsidies via government loans. Washington terminates a 1992 U.S.-EU agreement covering support for Airbus and Boeing. The EU files a complaint on U.S. aid for Boeing.

2005

The WTO launches twin probes into public support for Boeing and Airbus after bilateral negotiations fail.

2006

Airbus announces a new A350 jetliner for which it will seek further government loans from host nations.

2009

The WTO issues an interim ruling that some European aid provided to Airbus violated a ban on export subsidies - a type of aid deemed most harmful and therefore automatically banned.

2010

The WTO demands a halt to unfair aid for jets including the Airbus A380 superjumbo. It says some government loans for the jet amount to "prohibited" export subsidies. But it rejects a U.S. request to include aid for the newer A350 in the case.

2011

The EU loses an appeal and is given until December to comply. However the WTO drops its finding that the A380 loans are in the "prohibited" category, softening its earlier ruling.

A separate WTO panel partially backs the EU in its counter-case alleging $19 billion of support for Boeing from the U.S. government, NASA and various states and municipalities, and rules against aid for Boeing worth at least $5.3 billion.

Story continues

2012

WTO appeal judges broadly uphold the ruling against U.S. support for Boeing.

Both sides say they have complied with the WTO's rulings, while accusing the other side of failing to do so.

2013

Boeing announces the twin-engined 777X and agrees to build it in Washington state shortly after the local legislature agrees $8.7 billion in new tax breaks.

2014

The EU opens a second front in the trade battle by launching a separate complaint against the 777X tax breaks granted by Washington state and this time chooses a faster, all-or-nothing approach by targeting them purely as "prohibited" subsidies - without the usual fallback of a second, softer claim.

2016

After a year-long lull in the main dispute, the WTO says the EU failed to comply with its earlier rulings on Airbus. It also agrees for the first time to target aid for the new A350 but rejects U.S. calls to put this in the "prohibited" category.

In November, the WTO rules tax breaks surrounding the development of the Boeing 777X - the subject of the EU's second case - did fall into the more severe "prohibited" category.

2017

WTO appeal judges reverse the ruling that the 777X tax breaks are in the "prohibited" column, bringing an abrupt halt to the EU's second case.

In the EU's main case, the WTO largely clears the United States of maintaining unfair support for Boeing but says it has failed to withdraw the earlier Washington state tax breaks.

The EU appeals this decision, but the WTO does not change its stance in a follow-on ruling, published the same year.

2018

In May, the WTO again rules that the EU has failed to halt all subsidies to Airbus and that these continue to harm Boeing. The United States threatens sanctions on billions of dollars of European products. Both sides enter arbitration to determine the scope of tariffs.

2019

In March, the WTO says the United States has again failed to halt subsidized tax breaks to Boeing in Washington state. The two sides disagree widely in public over the amount of subsidy faulted by the WTO.

Both sides accuse the other of refusing to negotiate any settlement and unveil lists of billions of dollars of proposed tariffs on each others' goods.

WTO arbitrators award the United States the right to impose tariffs on $7.5 billion of annual EU imports in its case. In October, Washington imposes 10% tariffs on most European-made Airbus jets and 25% duties on products ranging from cheese to olives and single-malt whisky. In December, the WTO rejects EU claims that it no longer provides subsidies to Airbus, prompting Washington to say it could increase tariffs on a wider range of European goods to increase pressure on Brussels to comply.

2020

The United States announced it would raise tariffs on aircraft imported from the EU to 15% from 10%.

Though the U.S. Trade Representative's Office said it was open to reaching a settlement with the EU on the issue, Washington said it could revise its actions if Brussels imposed additional tariffs on U.S. imports in connection with the aircraft subsidy disputes.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Tim Hepher; Editing by David Evans, Keith Weir and Daniel Wallis)
Ivanka Trump, daughter of U.S. President Donald Trump, on Sunday hailed the progress made on women's rights in some Arab and North African countries.

Trump praised the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Jordan, Saudi Arabia and others during the keynote address at the two-day Global Women's Forum in Dubai.

She arrived in Abu Dhabi, UAE's capital, on Saturday, where she met with women entrepreneurs and dignitaries at the city's Louvre before touring the museum.

In the U.S. earlier this week Ivanka Trump announced that Senators Lindsey Graham and Jeanne Shaheen are behind an effort to have her Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative written into U.S. law.

The proposed legislation would make the economic empowerment of women a priority of U.S. foreign policy and ensure the initiative continues beyond the Trump administration.

Ivanka Trump said the legislation is a long overdue goal.

The Graham-Shaheen bill must pass both the Republican-led Senate and the Democratic-controlled House before the president can sign it into law.
Kent Memorial Library will present a lecture series based on the musical West Side Story next month.

The series will be held March 7, 14, 21 and 28 at 2:30 p.m. at Kent Town Hall at 41 Kent Green Boulevard.

Individuals who attend three of the four programs will have their name entered into a drawing to win two tickets to the Broadway production of West Side Story April 7 at 7 p.m. at Broadway Theatre, 1681 Broadway, New York City.

All four presentations will examine all aspects of West Side Story.

After attending Leonard Bernsteins 100th Birthday Celebration in 2018 at Tanglewood, with an audience of 18,000, it became abundantly clear that he was, and still is, beloved by scores of people, said Lucy Pierpont, the librarys marketing and special events director.

Bernstein wrote the music for the musical.

Plus, most of the first half of the evening were numbers from the 1957 original Broadway production of West Side Story, Pierpont said.

The Bernstein-Sondheim-Robbins collaboration created a spectacular Broadway classic which has been enjoyed by many generations in live theatre and film, she said.

The series will coincide with the Broadway revival of West Side Story and the expected release of Steven Spielbergs new movie, West Side Story, in December.

In addition, Netflix recently acquired the rights to the untitled Leonard Bernstein film which Bradley Cooper will star in and direct.

With the success of last years To Kill A Mockingbird Lecture Series, we thought it would be fun to have an interesting exploration of another beloved classic, and West Side Story surfaced, Pierpont said.

Not only is the subject matter endearing, but in my opinion, everything about it is pure genius, she said.

Panelists Athenaide Dallett and Geoff Stewart, members of Kent School faculty, and Patrick Beer, a member of South Kent School faculty, will present West Side Story and William Shakespeare March 7.

The 1961 movie, directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, will be screened March 14.

The film is an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was inspired by William Shakespeares play Romeo and Juliet.

Music lecturer Jeffrey Engel, adjunct professor at Northwestern CT Community College, will present Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story March 21.

The series will conclude with Book Talk: Dancing Man: A Broadway Choreographers Journey with author Tom Santopietro, who will interview Kent resident and noted choreographer Bob Avian as they discuss their new book Dancing Man: A Broadway Choreographers Journey.

Avian is an award-winning Broadway choreographer known for his work on A Chorus Line, Miss Saigon, and Sunset Boulevard.

He began his career on Broadway as a dancer in such classic shows as West Side Story, Funny Girl and Hello, Dolly!

He also served as an original producer of Dreamgirls in 1981 and directed the Broadway and London revivals of A Chorus Line in 2006 and 2013.

This will be their first event to celebrate the newly published book.

For more information and RSVP to the programs, call the library at 860-927-3761.
On the 90th birthday of her grandfather, Francesca Cartier Brickell went down to the cellar in search of the perfect bottle of champagne. While rummaging through stuff, Brickell stumbled upon an aged leather trunk embellished with her grandfathers initials. The trunk housed letters that went on to reveal a story she didn't realise she'd been searching for all this while.

I traced my great-grandfathers footsteps around the world and that eventually led me to this beautiful country India. Francesca Cartier Brickell is beaming as she sits opposite me.

Her book The Cartiers: The Untold Story of the Family Behind the Jewelry Empire' has seen thunderous success.

The Cartier Brothers with their father (From L-R: Pierre, Louis, Alfred And Jacques)/Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

In that idyllic house in the French countryside, Francesca stood holding the remnants of a deep bond between three brothers. It chronicled their journey in making a name for themselves in the world of jewellery.



Along with the letters, the young Cartier also found journals that had sketches depicting the temples, the landscape and the jewellery found in India. It belonged to Jacques Cartier, one of the three founders of the iconic global luxury jewellery brand who had gone one to form a long abiding relationship with the Indian Maharajas and their families.

India held the precious stones that helped him create the timeless pieces we still admire.



Jacques Cartier/The Cartiers-The Untold Story Of The Family Behind The Jewelry Empire.

 Wherever my great-grandfather travelled, he carried a small diary. It had extremely descriptive information on what he saw in India and the temples that he visited. If he saw a certain architectural design, it would find its way into a tiara," Brickell explains.

"His journal helped me get a feel of a time that has long since gone and so have its people. It allowed me to peek into his genius.

A genius he was, just like his two brothers, Louis and Pierre Cartier. It has been famously recorded that Pierre, the middle brother bought the famed Cartier headquarters on Fifth Avenue in New York in exchange for a double-stranded pearl necklace. And Louis has been credited for making the first wristwatch for men.

Each of the three brothers brought something unique to the table. Like, Louis Cartier broke the stigma around wristwatches which were then thought of as a very feminine concept. But through this journey I have also discovered that while the world considered them geniuses, they battled the same fear and anxiety like any of us," she says.



(L-R) Louis Cartier and Pierre Cartier/The Cartiers-The Untold Story Of The Family Behind The Jewelry Empire.





The letters that Francesca found in her grandfathers trunk described the royalty of India. Jacques Cartier would make yearly trips to India with jewel-filled suitcases, hoping to make a good sale.

When Jacques met the Maharajas and their wives, he never thought that the men would be more interested in his jewellery than the Maharanis themselves. The opulence and flamboyance of it all left him amused, Brickell reveals.

And it was this love for jewellery the Indian royalty basked in that helped Cartier stay afloat during the Great Depression. It was one of the worst economic downturn and many companies were filing for bankruptcy. However, Cartier sailed through thanks to the Maharajas and their penchant for beautiful jewels cut in a European style, she adds smilingly.

Given all that travel, Jacques Cartier had interesting encounters on his visit to India. He understood the importance of networking and was quite good at it. It also helped that he was very well-read and respectful about the culture of every country he visited. All this worked to cement his friendship with the Maharaja of Baroda and his wife. He also formed an alliance with Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, one of the richest men in the world then.

When my great-grandfather met the Maharaja of Baroda they became fast friends, attending polo matches and lunches. It was during the course of this time that they decided to commission him to possibly reset their jewellery into interesting designs. Resetting was a big business for Cartier," she explains.



(L-R): Maharaja Bhupinder Singh Of Patiala and Sir Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji Jadeja/wikipedia

"Word got around. This reached the ears of the court jewellers who werent too happy about this. They escorted Jacques out of Baroda minus the commission!"

"But all ended well. The royal family and he would meet whenever they travelled to Europe. And yes, he was paid later for his work. After all, they were good friends, Francesca recalls fondly.

Even the Maharaja of Patiala is known to have given Jacques Cartier his biggest commission back when the world was in the throes of an economic slowdown. The two first met in 1911. Jacques went to his court hopeful he'd be able to sell jewellery only to have the maharaja trying to sell his own!

However, it took some time for the two parties to reach the stage of mutual admiration. One of the most significant trades happened between the jeweller and Sir Ranjisinhji Vibhaji Jadeja, the Maharaja of Nawanagar: A coloured diamond necklace that clearly was a good sale.



For Jacques Cartier, India left a strong mark on him. It was almost like he shared a spiritual connection with the gemstones that this country had to offer. Jacques Cartier was bowled over by the different hues of India. He likened it to an impressionist painting. On his return to London he would create jewellery using those very colours.

Maharaja Yadavindra Singh, son of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala wearing the necklace his father commissioned Cartiers/pinterest

Francesca Cartier Brickell took a decade to research and write a book about the people she grew up looking at in silver photo frames. The faces in the photographs seemed two dimensional to her, people whose lives had to be searched for in history. During the course of writing this book, Brickell interacted with the families of lapidarists and the Indian royalty who worked in close association with her great-grandfather.

The warmth, generosity and hospitality that Indians showered on my great-grandfather back then can still be found alive and kicking. Through the entire process of this book, I have been treated very well by everyone I came to be in touch with. I still get messages from people inviting me to spend time with them. Its like a rabbit hole, you come across a new tunnel at every turn that connects to your story, Brickell says warmly.

When Jacques Cartier spent nearly three weeks on a ship to India, he did not know what to expect of a country he may have only heard about. As he approached Bombay it appeared to him as a veiled lady on the horizon enveloped by the sky of the brightest blue in colour. Little did he know that he was about to step foot on a land that would prove highly profitable for him and his brothers, playing an important role in building an iconic brand that still breathes.
Tomatin announces latest travel retail exclusive expression

Scotch whisky distiller Tomatin has announced the latest edition to its global travel retail range.

The 21 Years Old, which is making its first appearance at floating whisky fair Cinderella, will be available in travel retail outlets at selected airports including Amsterdam, Istanbul and Sydney for 175.

The whisky has been matured in first fill ex-Bourbon casks and bottled at 46% ABV. Tomatin says it has notes of tropical fruits and croissants on the nose, apple and sweet honey on the palate and a buttery finish.

It joins an illustrious crowd in Tomatin's travel retail range, which also includes an 8 Years Old, 12 Years Old, 15 Years Old and 40 Years Old. Tomatin is seeing significant growth in global travel retail sales, clocking a 70 per cent increase in 2019.

Graham Nicolson, sales director at Tomatin, said: "Our travel retail range has won dozens of awards over the years and I'm confident that the 21 Years Old will perform incredibly well across the globe. Thanks to exciting releases like this, we are expecting continued growth in the travel retail sector in 2020."

16 February 2020 - Bethany Whymark
It was to be the pinnacle of her 35-year modelling career and Naomi Campbell planned to mark it in style.

But her speech accepting a Fashion Icon award at Londons Royal Albert Hall is thought to have prompted the biggest fallout in the fashion world for years.

The supermodel praised generations of trail-blazing black women, including her mother Valerie, at the British Fashion Awards event, but omitted any mention of British Vogue editor Edward Enninful, a friend for more than 30 years.

Downplaying the spat, magazine giant Conde Nast, which publish Vogue, insisted that Ms Campbell appears in the March issue and branded any suggestion of a bust-up as completely false.

Edward Enninful and Naomi Campbell wearing Tiffany & Co. attend the British Vogue and Tiffany & Co. Celebrate Fashion and Film Party at Annabel's on February 10, 2019 in London

But details have emerged of a bitter exchange of text messages between Ms Campbell, 49, and 47-year-old Mr Enninful in the days after the star-studded awards ceremony.

According to friends, the Vogue editors parting shot to the supermodel was a message informing her that her name would never pass his lips again.

Only last March he had described Ms Campbell as loyal, generous, kind and very sensitive. Mr Enninful said: To me she will always be a legend. But a friend of the supermodel revealed that such warm words were not a feature of their recent exchange.

These texts are like nothing youve seen before, they were really nasty, said the friend. Some of the things that Edward has said to Naomi are unbelievably nasty.

I dont know how you repair a friendship after some of the things he said.

They havent spoken since, and the chances of them doing so ever again are very slim.

The Mail on Sunday revealed three weeks ago how the friendship had cooled since Ms Campbells December 2 speech where she pointedly thanked Dame Anna Wintour, Vogues editor-in-chief.

Her speech accepting a Fashion Icon award at Londons Royal Albert Hall (pictured) on December 2 2019 is thought to have prompted the biggest fallout in the fashion world for years

Observers said the apparent slight towards Mr Enninful may have been compounded by her reading her speech from an autocue, revealing it had been carefully composed rather than being off-the-cuff.

Its the fallout of all fallouts, one fashion insider told The Mail on Sunday. It is very much filed under unfinished business.

Edward cannot get over how she didnt name check him, but you cant get everyone in. I would be surprised if Naomi appears in Vogue again while Edward is the editor, though she doesnt really care, but what she does want is an apology.

The Mail on Sunday understands that the row has become so tetchy that Naomi has removed photographs she had posted on Instagram of the pair, including one of her accompanying him to Buckingham Palace to pick up his OBE for services to fashion in 2016.

Another, of the pair partying, has also disappeared.

Friends said the dispute intensified after this newspaper reported the bust-up on January 26, revealing that Naomi could not understand why Mr Enninful had not contacted her by phone.

They say she is deeply hurt but has maintained a dignified silence, despite the fallout becoming the talk of the fashion industry.

Another friend said: Naomi is undeniably a fiery character but on this occasion, she is the wronged party.

Naomis position is further complicated by being a commissioning editor on the magazine, along with Kate Moss and Laura Bailey.

Insiders at Vogue are uncertain about her future there.

Vogue readers may notice that Ms Campbells appearance in the March issue of the magazine comes on page 314 out of 378  quite a contrast to the March 2019 edition where she was not only the cover star, but was the subject of Mr Enninfuls gushing editors letter and a 14-page photoshoot styled by him.

Duchess of Sussex and Edward Enninful share a laugh for Vogueinstagram

He praised her career as remarkable and hailed her as one of only a handful of models famous enough to go by only their first name.

A friend added: Naomi feels very wronged by all of this, Edward really has gone for her and doesnt seem particularly fair.

Naomi is no angel but she doesnt deserve to be spoken to in such a vicious manner.

Mr Enninful claims to have reignited Naomis career when he became the editor of Vogue in 2018, by giving her opportunities to feature in the magazine.

An associate of his said: Naomis career wasnt in the best of places, he has given her a place and made her relevant again  thats very much the feeling on his side of the fence.

Meanwhile, Ms Campbell is said to feel that she supported his appointment as editor when many in the fashion world questioned his qualifications for the role.

One friend said: They both feel that they made one another. Naomi feels very strongly that she was there when there were very few people to support Edward.

She backed him both publicly and privately within the industry.

Naomi was absent from a party that Mr Enninful threw two weeks ago at Mayfair nightclub Annabels after the BAFTA awards.

The pair jointly hosted the event in 2019.

Last week, the Duchess of Sussex posted a never-before-seen video of her and Mr Enninful in fits of giggles, larking around as she prepared to guest-edit last Septembers edition of British Vogue.
Free Crabbing, Clamming, Fishing on Oregon Coast This Weekend

Published 02/14/2020 at 4:08 AM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Oregon Coast)  Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) is giving everyone a present for Presidents Day Weekend: free fishing, clamming or crabbing around the state, valid Saturday and Sunday, February 15 and 16. Anywhere in the state requires no fishing license or tags, and on the Oregon coast it means clamming and crabbing does not need the usual paperwork. This is for state residents and out-of-state visitors. (Above: crabbing in Charleston, photo courtesy Oregon's Adventure Coast).

While no licenses or tags are needed, all other fishing regulations apply, such as any closures, bag limits or size restrictions. You can see these on the Oregon Sport Fishing Regulations page.

ODFW posts a recreation report every week, which includes detailed tips on various Oregon coast activities  not just crabbing and clamming  such as wildlife, tidepools and whales.

Currently its prime winter steelhead fishing season on the north and central Oregon coast.



If you are planning to fish for salmon, steelhead or marine fish, dont forget to check the zone where you are fishing in ODFWs Recreation Report for the latest on season and bag limits because regulations for these species change in-season, ODFW said in a release.

All along the Oregon coast, crabbing opened up on February 13. However, razor clamming is experiencing some issues because of elevated toxin levels, with the majority of the state now closed to recreational gathering of the shellfish  from Tillamook Head (Cannon Beach) all the way to the southern border at California. This includes all bays and beaches in that roughly 340 miles of Oregon coastline. Clamming is still open from Seaside northward, however. Bay clamming and mussel harvesting are open along the entire coast. Always call the ODA Shellfish safety hotline at 1-800-448-2474 or check ODAs Recreational Shellfish page before going crabbing or clamming. The Oregon Department of Agriculture regularly tests shellfish and closes areas when naturally occurring biotoxins get to levels that make crabs and clams unsafe to eat.

ODFW said to take safety precautions when clamming on the coast during the winter.

Watch out for rough ocean conditions and sneaker waves and dont turn your back on the ocean. More clamming safety tips.

There are some rather large waves offshore this weekend, with combined seas around 16 feet and 13 seconds period timing (space between the waves) on the north half of the coastline. That timing could create some slight hazards on the beaches. On the southern coast, combined seas are closer 11 feet over Saturday and Sunday and pose less potential dangers. See the Oregon Coast Weather page.

When it comes to fishing inland, beginner anglers should have a good time with hatchery trout, which can be found at various locations in the Willamette, southwest zones and along the mid-coast region. ODFW said all were stocked this week. See this link.

Some locations received larger three-pound broodstock trout (Henry Hagg Lake-500, St Louis Pond-500, E.E. Wilson Pond-500, Sheridan Pond-150, Willamina Pond-150).

For tips on how to fish, crab or clam and where to go, visit www.MyODFW.com

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the situation in the Middle East with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Germany, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday in a statement, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

Meeting on the sidelines of the 56th Munich Security Conference, Lavrov and Cavusoglu discussed in detail the situation in the Middle East region with a focus on resolving the crisis in Syria in the context of the implementation of the Russian-Turkish memorandums of understanding adopted on September17, 2018 and October 22, 2019 in Sochi, the statement said.

Some issues of bilateral relations were also touched upon, it added.
Munich, Feb 16 : Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi has met the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus here in Germany on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

Wang said whenever an epidemic occurs, rumours spread and cause panic, and there should be someone to be impartial and tell the truth.

As head of WHO, the Director-General has treated the novel coronavirus epidemic with professionalism and scientific attitude, affirmed the effective measures which China has taken, and called for all parties to maintain confidence, resist rumours and strengthen cooperation. "We appreciate it," Wang said on Saturday, Xinhua reported.

No epidemic is invincible, and this one is no exception. With the great efforts of the Chinese people, the prevention and control of epidemic is heading in a positive direction, Wang said.

China welcomes the visit of WHO expert team and is willing to work closely with the WHO to defeat the epidemic as soon as possible, not only safeguarding the lives and health of Chinese people, but also contributing to international public health cause, he noted.

Wang said he believed that the mutual trust and cooperation between China and the WHO will be further consolidated through the fight against this epidemic.

For his part, the WHO chief said epidemic knows no borders, and the international community must unite against this common enemy of mankind.

Tedros said he has called for all countries to unite and cooperate in the scientific approach and on the basis of factual evidence, instead of spreading fake news and stigma.

Given the misinformation about the novel coronavirus epidemic, WHO has communicated with some companies including Google to ensure that the public will get the authoritative information from the WHO, Tedros noted.

The WHO highly appreciates the tremendous efforts China has made to contain the epidemic, Tedros said.

He said China protects not only its own people but also people from other countries in the world. The WHO sent experts to China not because China lacks capacity but to show the solidarity and cooperation.

These important facts need to be understood by the world, and China's efforts and sacrifices deserve appreciation and gratitude from all countries, Tedros said.

The WHO will continue to uphold the truth, adhere to the principles, stand firmly with China and provide all possible help. WHO is confident that the epidemic will be overcome at an early date, he said.
The coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan prompts French Asians to complain of a backlash against them.

One Franco-Chinese writer referred to the hostility sparked by the coronavirus as "China-bashing"

French Asians have taken to social media to complain of a backlash against them in response to the Chinese coronavirus outbreak.

Anti-Asian racism has been reported in the UK and elsewhere, and now French Asians have complained of abuse on public transport and social media.

They have been using the hashtag JeNeSuisPasUnVirus (I'm not a virus).

There was an outcry when local newspaper Le Courier Picard used the inflammatory headlines "Alerte jaune" (Yellow alert) and "Le peril jaune?" (Yellow peril?), complete with an image of a Chinese woman wearing a protective mask.

The paper quickly apologised, saying it had not meant to use some of the "worst Asian stereotypes".

Stephane Nivet, head of Licra (the International League against racism and anti-Semitism), said no newspaper would have dared use the headline "Black alert" so it was clear there was a problem.

As the hashtag spread, one woman, Cathy Tran, described hearing two men on her way to work in the eastern town of Colmar saying; "Watch out, a Chinese girl is coming our way."

"On my way home from work, a man on a scooter passed me by, telling me to put on a mask," Ms Tran told the BBC.

Another hashtag user complained: "Stop asking if we're dangerous if we cough while all the people around us are doing so."

France is planning to send a plane to Wuhan on Thursday to evacuate about 250 people, including non-French EU citizens. The fourth case in France is said to be an elderly Chinese tourist on holiday in Paris.

Lou Chengwang appealed on Twitter: "I'm Chinese, but I'm not a virus! I know everyone's scared of the virus but no prejudice, please."

Many noted that it was not just French Chinese who were being stigmatised.

Shana Cheng, a 17-year-old Parisian of Vietnamese and Cambodian origin, told the BBC that she had faced humiliating comments on a bus in the city on Sunday from both young and old.

"There's a Chinese woman, she is going to contaminate us, she needs to go home," she heard one passenger say. People looked at her "in a disgusted way, as if I was the virus".

No-one stood up for her, she said, so she decided to ignore the comments and listen to her music. But she did cough and sniff "so as to play on their fears", she added.

Cathy Tran said she was not surprised by people's reactions and saw the coronavirus as an excuse for people to be racist. The difference this time was the degree of racism, which she had never experienced before.

"We rarely hear Asians speak about racism, because we are known to suffer in silence, but here we are all in the same basket and it's too much," she said.

Franco-Chinese writer-director Grace Ly describes the hostility as "China-bashing" and incitement to anti-Asian hatred. "Is it so hilarious with these towns in quarantine, people isolated and deaths?" she wrote.

Chinese-Canadians also fear stigma

In Canada, there are concerns among the Chinese-Canadian community that what happened during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) in Toronto could happen again.

Sars, which is caused by a coronavirus, killed 774 of the 8,098 people infected in an outbreak that started in China in 2002.

In Canada alone there were 438 suspected Sars cases - most in the city of Toronto - and 44 people died over the spring and summer of 2003.

City councillors and Chinese community leaders in Toronto urged residents, at a news conference on Wednesday, not to cast blame or discriminate against residents of Asian descent amid fears of the spread of the coronavirus.

The Sars outbreak hit Toronto financially, as tourism dropped and people stayed home. But Chinese-owned and Chinatown businesses were hit especially hard, and saw a loss of income estimated at between 40% to 80%.

"The harm was serious," Justin Kong, executive director of the Toronto chapter of the Chinese Canadian National Council, told the BBC.

"A loss of income, a loss of jobs, people losing their livelihood, losing their homes. Facing stigma at school, at the workplace."

Near the height of the outbreak, former Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien made a point of stopping for lunch in Toronto's Chinatown, to show there was no reason to shun Asian businesses.

Mr Kong says people are still trying to understand what the impact of the new coronavirus outbreak might be.

But he says there is "fear within the community about the disease and fear of the impact of discrimination in our day-to-day lives; the impact it will have on industries, workers, and small businesses and the community at large". BBC

Coronavirus: First death confirmed in Europe A Chinese tourist has died in France from the new coronavirus - the first fatality outside Asia.
The speech by US Attorney General William P. Barr hardly seems earth-shattering. But buried within its business-like announcement of the indictment of four Chinese military hackers, there is the following statement, which has huge implications for privacy:

For years, we have witnessed Chinas voracious appetite for the personal data of Americans, including the theft of personnel records from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the intrusion into Marriott hotels, and Anthem health insurance company, and now the wholesale theft of credit and other information from Equifax.

The first of the intrusions that Barr mentions took place in 2014, but was only revealed in November 2018, when Marriott Hotels admitted that it had discovered there was unauthorized access to its Starwood guest reservation database. The system held details of 500 million guests, and Marriott said that for around 327 million of these guests, the information included some combination of name, mailing address, phone number, email address, passport number, date of birth, gender, arrival and departure information, reservation date, and communication preferences. Four years is plenty of time to exfiltrate all those details.

In February 2015, the second-largest health insurance company in the US, Anthem, said that the account information of as many as 80 million customers had been subject to unauthorized access. Information held on the system included names, birthdays, medical IDs, Social Security numbers, street addresses, email addresses and employment information, including income data, according to USA Today.

In April 2015, the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) discovered that it, too, had been subject to unauthorized access for at least a year. As a detailed Wired feature on the incident explains:

The hackers had first pillaged a massive trove of background-check data. As part of its human resources mission, OPM processes over 2 million background investigations per year, involving everyone from contractors to federal judges. OPMs digital archives contain roughly 18 million copies of Standard Form 86, a 127-page questionnaire for federal security clearance that includes probing questions about an applicants personal finances, past substance abuse, and psychiatric care. The agency also warehouses the data that is gathered on applicants for some of the governments most secretive jobs. That data can include everything from lie detector results to notes about whether an applicant engages in risky sexual behavior.

In September 2017, Equifax admitted that sensitive personal information of 147.9 million US citizens had been compromised. According to Equifax, its core credit reporting databases were unaffected, but the following data had been accessed:

Most of the consumer information accessed includes names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, in some instances, drivers licenses. In addition, the following information was also accessed: Credit card numbers for approximately 209,000 consumers; and Certain dispute documents, which included personal identifying information, for approximately 182,000 consumers were accessed. On March 1, 2018, we disclosed that the incident also impacted partial drivers license information for approximately 2.4 million U.S. consumers.

Any one of those losses of important personal data would be serious. Taken together, they are catastrophic. The information they provide is ideal for committing identity fraud, and naturally this was the first thought of the companies involved. For example, Anthem stressed there is no evidence that any data impacted by the cyber attack has ever been sold or used to commit fraud, and offered two years of credit monitoring and identity protection services to all individuals whose data may have been impacted.

But now that Barr has officially linked the four incidents to the Chinese government it is clear the potential damage is far worse than simply financial losses. Given that a state actor was behind the intrusions, not common criminals, it seems unlikely that the information will be exploited simply to make money. The combined data gives China something much more important: the key details of most adults in the US. Not all of those individuals will be of interest to the Chinese government, although it will be pleased that it now has a database for the whole country. But for those most of interest it has far more highly sensitive information.

The OPM hack gave access to details of 18 million US citizens working in positions of power. In addition to basic personal information, the Chinese government also knows about their personal finances, past substance abuse, psychiatric care  maybe even risky sexual habits. Those are precisely the details that are useful in order to apply pressure or even blackmail people. Even if most resists such threats, the numbers involved are so large that a small percentage acquiescing to Chinas demands would be a serious threat to US national security.

Things are even worse than they seem from the above. A post on this blog last month noted how easy it was for Clearview to scrape 3 billion images for facial recognition purposes, and that state actors could easily do the same. This means that China can probably assign a face to most of the personal files it has harvested in the four hacks discussed above. It is also interesting that in December last year the Pentagon warned military personnel against using at-home DNA tests. One reason for doing so is that it is only a matter of time before the companies providing such tests are targeted by foreign powers in order to gain access to the highly-revealing DNA profiles they hold in order to add them to their database of US citizens.

Finally, it is worth noting that the Chinese government has made AI a priority for its researchers and companies. It is easy to imagine the entire database of exfiltrated data on US citizens being fed into powerful AI systems to extract the social graph of everyone in the US: who they are related to, who they have social connections with, who they have travelled with. The patterns that emerge would give the Chinese government unprecedented insights into the workings of US society at the deepest level.

Featured image by prostejovsky casosberac.
Congress national spokesperson Anshul Avijit on Saturday said the BJP and the Sangh Parivar were "anti-Dalit" and were working to remove reservations for SC/STs in government jobs.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the BJP government at the Centre had hatched a "sinister conspiracy" to remove reservations.

"The testimony of this sinister attempt is the plea of BJP government in Uttarakhand in the Supreme Court that there was no fundamental right of reservation in government jobs for SC/STs," he said.

In a judgement on February 7, the SC held that states are not bound to provide reservation in appointments and there is no fundamental right to claim quota in promotions.

The apex court said this while dealing with pleas regarding Uttarakhand government's September 5, 2012 decision to fill up all posts in public services in the state without providing reservations to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

"Instead of apologising to the nation for this conspiracy and correcting the historical wrong being done to SC/STs, the Narendra Modi government is misleading the country by making false accusations," he alleged.

Citing statistics, he said the number of atrocities on Dalits as per NCRB data was 43,203 for the year 2017, adding that the Congress under Rahul Gandhi would fight to ensure Dalits and other deprived classes get their due.
George Washington was a 'liar' who the other Founding Fathers couldn't wait to see the back of, claims a new biography on The Father of his Country.

Buying teeth from his slaves at a third of the market price, refusing to free them, and causing conflict that eventually led the the start of 'humanity's first world war' are among the many ethical and moral missteps the country's first president made, claims new book 'You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington' by historian Alexis Coe.

The book was released this Presidents' Day weekend, coinciding with the broadcast of the History Channel's new three-part series 'Washington', on which Coe was also a consulting producer.

'You Never Forget Your First' dives into the untold stories about stubborn, and conflict-hungry Washington, who Coe claims is misrepresented as a savvy military leader, having lost more battles than he won.

George Washington, the man the myth says couldn't tell a lie, told plenty of them during his lifetime, a new book reveals. In fact, the 'I cannot tell a lie' tale is one of the biggest myths

Author Alexis Coe has published a new book 'You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington' in which she debunks plenty of the myths around George Washington

One of the greatest myths surrounding Washington was his wooden teeth, the Founding Father famously having only one real tooth of his own left in his gums when he was first inaugurated.

'You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington' is released this Presidents' Day weekend to clear up some of the myths surrounding him

It wasn't wood that replaced his own chompers, however, but teeth he purchased from others, including those 'bought' from his own slaves.

'At the age of eleven, he inherited ten slaves from his father, and over the next 56 years, he would sometimes rely on them to supply replacement teeth,' write Coe.

'He paid his slaves for their teeth, but not at fair market value, [paying] two-thirds less than . . . offered in newspaper advertisements.'

When he couldn't purchase teeth from a slave, his dentures were constructed from 'chunks of ivory from hippopotamuses, walruses, and elephants'.

His slaves also helped Washington in powdering white his fiery red hair, as well as gathering, fluffing and curling his hair into his preferred style. While it is pretty much always claimed, no, he did not wear a wig.

While its well-known that Washington owned slaves and was not a man who fought for their equality, the extents to which he went to keep them may not be as widely shared.

George Washington talks to a slave on his Mount Vernon estate where he once hit a slave so badly that he 'whirled round like a top' for not chopping up a piece of wood the way he liked

Washington did not wear a wig as believed but had red hair his slaves powdered white

While he was alive, Washington ensured his slaves were kept working from sunrise to sunset, employing overseers to whip them as they worked six days a week, a system he declared 'very proper'.

He was also far from an easygoing overseer himself, once slapping a slave so hard that he 'whirled round like a top' for not chopping up a piece of wood the way he liked.

A slave called Isaac had told of an incident where Washington ordered him to cut a log but he didn't do it to the exact specifications.

Washington 'gave me such a slap on the side of my head that I whirled round like a top & before I knew where I was Master was gone', Isaac had told one of Washington's nephews.

Washington's slaves also had no chance of freedom as he went to extreme lengths to find loop holes that would keep them in his possession.

Washington would often send slaves back to his home in Mount Vernon, Virginia, to avoid having to give them their freedom if they lived in Pennsylvania for more than six months

The earliest authenticated portrait of George Washington shows him wearing his Virginia Regiment colonel's uniform during the French and Indian War in which he made a dire misstep

When a law was enacted in Pennsylvania during his first term as President that declared he would be forced to free slaves if they lived in the state from more than six months at a time, he would force his favorites to travel briefly to his home in Mount Vernon in Virginia to ensure they remained his property.

The first President also claimed that he disagreed with selling slaves 'like cattle' preferring the system to revolve around inheriting them but history shows that Washington was a hypocrite in that regard, having engaged in the selling of slaves in three separate occasions.

He even admitted to selling a slave to the West Indies where life for slaves was even worse than in America and 'virtually guaranteed a premature death'.

Illustration shows the death of French Canadian officer Joseph Coulon de Villiers during the Battle of Jumonville Glen against British forces led by George Washington, May 28, 1754 - Washington manipulated a Seneca chief to begin this battle and add to French/British tensions

One of the most groundbreaking revelations in the book, however, is the story of a political and military misstep which not only further tears down the image of Washington as the man 'who cannot tell a lie' but proves his part in inciting Europe's Seven Year War.

Aged 22, Washington was fighting on behalf of the British Crown and was a major in the Virginia militia.

In 1753 the British governor of Virginia Robert Dinwiddie assigned Washington on a diplomatic mission in which 'discretion and caution' were vital.

N. Coulon De Jumonville Grave Marker showing site of the grave of N. Coulon de Jumonville on Route 40, killed when Washington incited a battle when commanded to use diplomacy

Engraving of Washington and Christopher Gist meeting leader of the Seneca Tribe in 1900

Washington was to accompany local Seneca tribe allies to a French fort to assess whether they had set up on British land but he threw aside diplomacy, preferring to manipulate the Seneca chief into starting a fight.

He told the chief that the French intended to kill the Seneca tribe and achieved his 'desired affect' as a battle commenced as soon as they reached the French camp.

Ten French soldiers were killed and 21 more captured in an incident that helped intensify the ongoing war between Britain and France and eventually led to the French and Indian War, known as the Seven Years War in Europe.

'At the age of 22, Washington had committed a political misstep of global consequence,' writes Coe.

'If the American Revolution had not taken place, Washington would probably be remembered today as the instigator of humanity's first world war, one that lasted seven years.'

His own reputation would not suffer after the battle and Washington continued on to become the glorified hero of the War of Independence with thanks to his vast knowledge of the Royal Army.

Moving from war hero to President, Washington was considered more than deserving to serve as the new country's leader.

He went on to serve two terms but by the time he left office in 1797, most of the other Founding Fathers were done with him.

Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams, painted here writing the Declaration of Independence, were tired of Washington by the end of his second term as President

'The President is fortunate to get off just as the bubble is bursting, leaving others to hold the bag,' a resentful Thomas Jefferson complained in a letter sent that same year to James Madison.

'He will have his usual good fortune of reaping credit from the good arts of other.'

Their anger continued through to 1812, years after Washington's death, when John Adams branded him 'too illiterate, unlearned, unread for his station and reputation'.

The worst came in 1797, however, when James Monroe, who later became the fifth US President, penned a full 473-page critic of Washington's administration and the way in which he he US relationships with warring Britain and France.

The Seven Years War had ended in 1763 but the countries were still rivals.

Perhaps the most hard-hitting revelation in the disproved myths about Washington is that his famous 'I cannot tell a lie' line to his father when felling the family's cherry tree is completely fictitious.

The tale was made up by Mason Locke Weems, a broke itinerant parson and bookseller, for the 19th century for the book 'The Life of Washington'.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg dismissed calls by French President Emmanuel Macron to put Frances nuclear deterrence at the center of European defense strategy, saying the United States and Britain already provide an effective security umbrella.

"We have to remember that we have a European nuclear deterrent today -- 28 allies deliver that every day and it's not only a promise, but it's something that has been there for decades," Stoltenberg told reporters at the Munich Security Conference on February 15.

"It's tried and tested, we exercise it, and it's institutionalized, and it is the ultimate security guarantee for Europe," said Stoltenberg, who also called France a "highly valued ally" whose nuclear capabilities contributed to NATO's overall security.

Macron has been pushing for an overhaul of European Union security and defense matters in response to Brexit -- Britain's departure from the bloc.

Following Brexit, France is the only EU nation with a nuclear arsenal, and Macron has pressed for European "strategic autonomy" -- the ability to defend the continent without relying on Washington, although he has stated his commitment to NATO.

In a key speech last week, Macron called for dialogue among EU countries about what role the French nuclear deterrent could play as he called for a "surge" in European defense spending.

France is a NATO member but does not make its atomic weapons available to the alliance. It has long prided itself on its independent nuclear deterrent.

Germany has particularly opposed an increased reliance on Frances stockpile as a deterrence, seeing the U.S. nuclear umbrella as a key to its security.

"The issue is not for Europeans to know whether they must defend themselves with or without Washington," Macron said during his February 7 speech. "But our security derives also, inevitably, from a greater capacity by Europeans to act autonomously."

"To build the Europe of tomorrow, our norms can't be under American control. Our infrastructure, our ports and airports can't be controlled by Chinese capital, neither can our digital networks be under Russian pressure," he said.

At the Munich event, Macron reiterated those sentiments, saying, "We need a European strategy that renews us and turns us into a strategic political power."

With reporting by AFP and Reuters
Published on 2020/02/16 | Source

Hyundai and its affiliate Kia ranked sixth in global electric vehicle sales last year.

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A total of 2.21 million EVs were sold globally in 2019, up about 10 percent from 2.02 million in 2018, according to EV news website InsideEVs on Monday. The tally only included sales of all-electric and plug-in hybrid cars.

Hyundai and Kia sold a total of 126,436 cars in the global EV market -- Hyundai 72,950 and Kia 53,477.

Tesla of the U.S. topped the list with 367,820 cars sold. China's BYD (229,506 cars), BAIC (160,251 cars) and SAIC (137,666 cars) placed second to fourth, backed by brisk sales in the domestic market. BMW ranked fifth with 128,883 cars.
The number of new coronavirus infections among passengers and crew of the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo has risen by 70 to 355, the government said Sunday, while more domestic cases were also reported and experts warned the situation could worsen.

Of the 70, 38 did not show symptoms such as fever and coughing, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said. It has so far tested a total of 1,219 people aboard the ship, which currently houses about 3,400 passengers and crew.

The development came as two U.S. government-chartered planes were set to arrive in Japan to evacuate the approximately 400 U.S. citizens aboard the ship.

Canada, Hong Kong and Israel have also said they are preparing to send chartered flights to Japan to evacuate their citizens from the vessel.

Japan in the evening sent its fifth chartered flight to evacuate nationals from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. More than 700 people were repatriated on the four previous flights.
Married At First Sight has been rocked by a pregnancy scandal.

According to NW magazine, a positive pregnancy test was found on set just days after the couples had moved into their apartments at Skye Suites in Sydney.

'The cast were always ducking to the supermarket and chemist for stuff, so it's possible [the pregnancy test] was bought then,' an insider said.

Which bride is expecting? Married At First Sight has been rocked by a pregnancy scandal. Pictured: Stacey Hampton

While several couples have admitted to having sex on the show, none of the brides has taken ownership of the positive test, added the source.

To complicate matters, partner-swapping is said to be rife this season, with Cathy Evans recently confirming that the 'girl code was definitely broken' on set.

Speaking to Hit105's Stav, Abby & Matt, the logistics investigator was asked whether any of the women had slept with each other's husbands.

Baby on board? While several couples have admitted to having sex on the show, none of the brides has taken ownership of the positive test. Pictured: Vanessa Romito

'Everyone didn't have a lot of respect for each other, or for the whole process,' Cathy said.

'Rules were being broken. For some of these people who were on there, they just weren't able to take it on board.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Channel Nine for comment.

Steamy! Cathy Evans and Josh Pihlak were intimate while on their honeymoon in rural Victoria

MAFS season seven is only into its third week and a handful of couples have already consummated their 'marriages'.

Cathy and Josh Pihlak were intimate while on their honeymoon in rural Victoria.

Meanwhile, Stacey Hampton and Michael Goonan slept together during their post-marital holiday in Fiji.

Mikey Pembroke recently confirmed that he and Natasha Spencer had sex at some point during filming, but not on their honeymoon.

Intimate: Meanwhile, Stacey Hampton and Michael Goonan slept together during their post-marital holiday in Fiji

Hayley Vernon has also confirmed that she slept with David Cannon during their tumultuous union.

'It does happen. Our relationship gets to a good point in the next [few episodes],' she told The Kyle and Jackie O Show last week.

Married At First Sight continues Monday at 7:30pm on Channel Nine

'We did end up hooking up behind the scenes': Mikey Pembroke recently confirmed that he and Natasha Spencer had sex at some point during filming, but not on their honeymoon
Varanasi, Feb 16 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Sunday, will inaugurate 36 projects and lay the foundation of 14 others besides unveiling the 63 feet statue of RSS ideologue Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyay at Padao during his visit to his parliamentary constituency.

The Prime Minister will attend the Veershaiva (Lingayat) Mahakumbh at historical Jangamwadi Mutt.

He will flag off the Mahakal Express, India's third private train.

According to district magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma, after landing at Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport at 10.45 a.m, the Prime Minister will reach Banaras Hindu University's helipad from where he will go to the Jangamwadi Mutt.

He will then leave for Sujabad by chopper to unveil the statue of Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and inaugurate the initial phase of work at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) memorial site 'Antim Padao' worth Rs 40 crore.

The district magistrate said that "Besides inaugurating 36 projects worth Rs 1057 crore and laying the foundation of 14 projects worth Rs 198 crore, the Prime Minister will also flag off Varanasi-Ujjain Mahakal Express train." Mahakal Express, which is the first overnight private train in the country, will connect three Jyotirlinga pilgrimage centres of Varanasi, Ujjain and Omkareshwar.

From Padao, Modi will go to DDU-TFC (trade facilitation center) in Bada Lalpur area where he is scheduled to interact with BJP leaders and workers at TFC.
A group of nurses of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Jiangxia District of Wuhan City, give thumbs-up to cheer each other up. [China Women's News]

Seven nurses in a hospital in Wuhan, all breast-feeding moms ranging from 26 to 43 years old, weaned their babies from breast milk within three days, when their workplace, the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Jiangxia District, was designated to admit patients infected with the novel coronavirus on January 23.

The decision to stop breastfeeding was quite hard, but they are willing to devote themselves wholeheartedly to the anti-virus fight.

Personal sacrifice should be made to deal with the crisis, explained Fang Wenjun, a 30-year-old nurse with a 10-month-old baby, whom she has not seen for 18 days.

"There was a time when I was eager to see my baby. I ran back to the residential community but dared not go upstairs, so I called my husband and asked him to carry the baby to the balcony for a look, but unfortunately, the baby fell asleep, and I did not see my baby......"Fang said.

Selflessness and dedication are essential virtues for medical personnel, she added.

Peng Min, born in 1988, gave birth to her second child five months ago. She began to work in the quarantine area on January 24, the day after she stopped breastfeeding.

"People all over the country are helping Wuhan. We have to show great courage to defeat the virus," she said.

Peng has been a nurse for nine years in the hospital. She is now an experienced worker in her department.

Peng said she looked forward to the victory of the anti-virus fight so she can reunite with her family.

She also thanked her parents for their selfless support and help.

Just like Peng, 43-year-old Liu Fengmei and 32-year-old Tian Huan also have two children.

Liu, the oldest among the seven nurses, said she feels a little like an unqualified mother since she weaned her 7-month-old baby from breast milk, but she believes that the child will surely understand what she has done at the critical time when the child grows up.

She was pleased that her elder daughter supported her decision and reminded her of personal protection from the virus.

Tian cannot meet her children after work. The WeChat app is the only way they can communicate.

Though she misses them very much, she has been sticking to her post as the patients need her more than her kids do at this critical moment.

Han Si, 26, the youngest mother among the seven nurses, said she has learned that the duty of nurses is serving patients and she is always ready to help them with her vocational skills.

Fu Sihui looks after 39 virus-infected patients with her 24 colleagues every day. She never complains about the heavy work and is always encouraging the patients to be optimistic in the anti-virus fight.

Unlike the other six nurses, Peng Jieyu faced strong opposition from her family when she made a decision to stop breastfeeding and start her work at the hospital ahead of schedule.

At that moment, the 29-year-old mother was still on her maternity leave, since her baby was no more than 4 months old.

"I love my job so much that I never think of leaving it, let alone being a deserter," she said.

She added: "If you were ill, but no nurse there was willing to attend to you, what would you think?" After patiently explaining this to her parents and in-laws, they finally accepted her decision.

Peng also wanted to be a good role model for her daughter. "I should set an example for my child. When she grows up she will understand my decision," Peng concluded.

(Source: China Women's News/Translated and edited by Women of China)


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MUNICH, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Russia has good ties with Turkey but will sometimes disagree, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday.

"We have very good relations with Turkey, that does not mean we have to agree on everything. Full agreement on all issues cannot be possible between any two countries," Lavrov told the Munich Security Council.

Turkey is purchasing a Russian S-400 missile defence system in defiance of its NATO allies but the two countries support opposing sides in Libya. The fighting in northwestern Syria has led to testy exchanges between Russia, which supports an offensive by Syrian troops, and Turkey which has deployed its own soldiers to support insurgents trying to halt the advance. (Reporting by Jack Stubbs, editing by Robin Emmott)
CNLs candidate will face governing party nominee Evariste Ndayishimiye in the May 20 election.

Burundis main opposition party has picked Agathon Rwasa as its candidate for the countrys May 20 presidential election.

Members of the National Congress for Liberty, known by its French acronym CNL, approved the 56-year-olds nomination on Sunday, the party announced on Twitter.

A former rebel leader and longtime political opponent of outgoing President Pierre Nkurunziza, Rwasa was the leading opposition candidate in two previous elections in 2010 and 2015  but boycotted both of them.

In 2015, Nkurunzizas controversial decision to seek a third term plunged the country into its worst crisis since the end of a bloody civil war a decade earlier, with rights groups saying hundreds of people were killed in a crackdown by the security agencies on protesters in the months that followed the presidents re-election.

At the time, the opposition had accused Nkurunziza of violating the constitution by seeking another term. The president cited a court ruling saying he could run again.

Rwasa will run in the upcoming polls against army General Evariste Ndayishimiye, an ally of Nkurunziza who was chosen last month by the ruling CNDD-FDD party to be its candidate. On Sunday, the opposition candidate denounced what he alleged were plans to rig the vote.

As we are approaching elections, its surprising to hear that there are people thinking about rigging elections, he told delegates of his party after his appointment was announced. Burundians will not let them do it.

The United Nations has warned that human rights abuses might increase again before the elections.

Nkurunziza was widely expected to take advantage of recent constitutional changes adopted by a referendum to stand for re-election, raising concerns that Burundi would see a repeat of 2015s deadly unrest.

Last month, the countrys parliament overwhelmingly approved a bill granting outgoing presidents lavish send-off perks including a luxury villa and a one-off sum equivalent to more than $500,000.

The amount is a fortune in Burundi where more than 65 percent live in poverty and where 50 percent of the country is food-insecure, according to the United Nationss World Food Programme.
Bigg Boss 13: Paras Chhabra Wants To Break Up With Akanksha Puri And Move On In Life, Actress Claims She Moved Out Way Before
Thirty-one people were killed in air strikes on Yemen Saturday, the United Nations said, the victims of an apparent Saudi-led retaliation after Iran-backed Huthi rebels claimed to have shot down one of its jets.

The Tornado aircraft came down Friday in northern Al-Jawf province during an operation to support government forces, a rare shooting down that prompted operations in the area by a Saudi-led military coalition fighting the rebels.

The deadly violence follows an upsurge in fighting in northern Yemen between the warring parties that threatens to worsen the war-battered country's humanitarian crisis.

"Preliminary field reports indicate that on 15 February as many as 31 civilians were killed and 12 others injured in strikes that hit Al-Hayjah area... in Al-Jawf governorate," the office of the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen said in a statement.

Lise Grande, the UN coordinator, denounced the "terrible strikes". "Under international humanitarian law, parties which resort to force are obligated to protect civilians," she said.

"Five years into this conflict and belligerents are still failing to uphold this responsibility. It's shocking." The rebels reported multiple coalition air strikes in the area where the plane went down, adding that women and children were among the dead and wounded, according to rebel television station Al-Masirah.

The coalition conceded the "possibility of collateral damage" during a "search and rescue operation" at the site of the jet crash, which left the fate of its crew uncertain.

Without stating the cause of the crash, a coalition statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency said the crew, comprising two officers, ejected from the plane before it crashed but the rebels opened fire at them in "violation of the international humanitarian law".

"The lives and wellbeing of the crew is the responsibility of the terrorist Huthi militia," the statement said, without specifying whether they had survived.

The Huthi rebels released footage of what they called the launch of their "advanced surface-to-air missile" and the moment it struck the jet in the night sky, sending it crashing down in a ball of flames.

"The downing of a Tornado in the sky above Al-Jawf is a major blow to the enemy and an indication of remarkable growth in Yemeni (rebel) air defence capabilities," Huthi spokesman Mohammed Abdelsalam tweeted.

The escalation follows fierce fighting around the Huthi-held capital Sanaa, with the rebels seen to be advancing on several fronts towards Al-Hazm, the regional capital of Al-Jawf.

The province of Al-Jawf has been mostly controlled by the Huthis, but its capital remains in the hands of the Saudi-backed government.

The downing of a coalition warplane marks a setback for a military alliance known for its air supremacy and signals the rebels' increasingly potent military arsenal.

"At the start of the conflict the Huthis were a ragtag militia," Fatima Abo Alasrar, a scholar at the Middle East Institute, told AFP.

"Today they have massively expanded their arsenal with the help of Iran and its proxy Hezbollah," Lebanon's powerful Shiite movement.

Huthi rebels now possess weapons bearing signs of Iranian origin, according to a UN report obtained by AFP earlier this month, in potential violation of a UN arms embargo.

Some of the new weapons, which the rebels obtained last year, "have technical characteristics similar to arms manufactured in the Islamic Republic of Iran," said the report, compiled by a panel of UN experts tasked with monitoring the embargo.

The panel did not say whether the weapons were delivered to the Huthis directly by the Iranian government, which has repeatedly denied sending them arms.

The coalition intervened against the Huthis in 2015, in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people, most of them civilians, and sparked what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The coalition force has been widely criticised for the high civilian death toll from its bombing campaign, which has prompted some Western governments to cut arms deliveries to the countries taking part.

On Wednesday, the coalition said it would put on trial military personnel suspected of being behind deadly air strikes on Yemeni civilians.
Jason Gonnie pleaded not guilty to crimes stemming from a 17-hour hostage situation in Kachina Village involving one adult and two child victims that led to a manhunt in January around the Flagstaff area.

The 18-year-old man is now in custody and the Coconino County Attorneys Office secured grand jury indictments on several of the charges including sexual assault, kidnapping, multiple aggravated assault charges and preventing the victim from using a telephone.

However, this is not the first time Gonnie has been accused of crimes against these victims; court documents show that Gonnie also pleaded not guilty to similar crimes earlier in June 2019. Gonnie was 17 years old at the time, but was being charged as an adult. He had been released from jail after the June offense.

By breaking into the Kachina Village home again in January, Gonnie violated a court order to stay away from the victims, and an order of protection the victim had filed in December.

Due to the sensitive allegations, the Arizona Daily Sun will not be naming the victims in either case. Ken Sheffield, Gonnies lawyer, declined to comment due to how recently the charges had been filed.

January manhunt

Court documents show that in the January case, Gonnie allegedly broke into the Kachina Village home through a basement window on the night of Jan. 22.

Jon Paxton, spokesman for the Coconino County Sheriffs Office, said the victims were not physically restrained, but that Gonnie kept a close eye on them throughout the night. Court documents say Gonnie took the victims phone and smartwatch away from her to ensure she couldnt call for help.

He knew as long as he kept her with him, those kids wouldnt go anywhere, Paxton said. He restricted her movement to make sure he was always with her.

Deputies say the victim told Gonnie to leave, but he wouldnt. The adult victim alleged that Gonnie had assaulted them multiple times, including one case of rape, throughout the night.

Gonnie was armed with a knife throughout the alleged assaults, and court documents show the victim got hold of the knife and stabbed Gonnie in his shoulder to get away. While their first attempt at escaping did not work, they were able to escape on Jan. 23.

At one point, Gonnie left the victims to go upstairs and the victims ran out through the garage door. They went to a neighbors house and called 911. Paxton said deputies responded to the area at around 4:30 p.m.

We confirmed she was safe and set up a perimeter around the house within 15, 20 minutes, Paxton said, explaining that SWAT was deployed to the area.

The team entered the home with a bomb robot, unsure of what the suspect could be armed with. Finding nothing, the house was then cleared with a canine, and deputies found the home empty.

Then sheriff's deputies leaned on the community for help by sending out fliers, engaging Facebook, local media and the public to start tracking.

He lived in town. We worked those areas also, trying to determine his residence. Talk to friends, whatever you could imagine, Paxton said.

They eventually found Gonnie during a traffic stop in Flagstaff at the Fourth Street and Route 66 intersection on Saturday, Jan. 25. He was arrested without incident and pleaded not guilty on Monday.

June case

There have not been many details released about the June crimes, or details included in court documents.

The week before Gonnie pleaded not guilty in the high-profile January case, he had also pleaded not guilty in the Coconino County Superior Court for the incident in June.

The June case involved three counts of aggravated assault, one count of kidnapping, preventing the use of a telephone in an emergency, and he allegedly stole and drove the victims vehicle while intoxicated. Before the January manhunt, Judge Howard Grodman in the Flagstaff Municipal Court had overseen the case.

Grodman had let Gonnie out of jail ahead of any judgment in the case stemming from the June incident.

On Jan. 24, prosecutor Paul Rubin filed an expedited motion to revoke Gonnies release from jail. In his motion, Rubin cited media accounts of Gonnies crimes and the victim's order of protection.

The State fears the victim will perish at the hands of the Defendant if he continues to remain out of custody, Rubin said. Defendant has had the opportunity to show the Court he could comply with a court's order. The conduct documented by the exhibits shows hes unwilling or unable to do so.

Less than 20 minutes later, Grodman officially revoked Gonnies release conditions.

Now, Gonnie is in jail awaiting a resolution in his case, which has been moved up to Judge Ted Reed's courtroom in the Coconino County Superior Court.

Scott Buffon can be reached at sbuffon@azdailysun.com, on Twitter @scottbuffon or by phone at (928) 556-2250.

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BERLIN - Record high temperatures reportedly measured in Antarctica will take months to verify, the U.N. weather agency said Sunday.

A spokesman for the World Meteorological Organization said the measurements made by researchers from Argentina and Brazil earlier this month have to undergo a formal process to ensure that they meet international standards.

A formal decision on whether or not this is a record is likely to be several months away, said Jonathan Fowler, the WMO spokesman.

Scientists at an Argentine research base measured a temperature of 18.3 degrees Celsius (nearly 65 degrees Fahrenheit) Feb. 6 on a peninsula that juts out from Antarctica toward the southern tip of South America. The previous record there was 17.5 degrees celsius (63.5 degrees Fahrenheit) in March 2015.

Last week, researchers from Brazil claimed to have measured temperatures of 20.75 degrees Celsius on an island off the peninsula  beating the record for the entire Antarctic region of 19.8 Celsius in January 1982.

Fowler said both of the new measurements would need to be transmitted to Prof. Randall Cerveny, a researcher at Arizona State University who examines reported temperature records for WMO.

Cerveny then shares the data with a wider group of scientists who will carefully evaluate the available evidence (including comparisons to surrounding stations) and debate the merits and problems of the observation, said Fowler.

The evaluation normally takes six to nine months, after which Cerveny would formally either accept or reject the potential extreme, giving official WMO approval to the new record, he said.

Climate change is causing the Arctic and the Antarctic to warm faster than other parts of the planet.

___

Read all the AP stories about the impact of climate change at https://apnews.com/Climate
Bill Barr is facing pressure to resign from more than 1,000 former Justice Department employees.

In a public letter, 1,143 DOJ alumni said the attorney general should step down from his post due to his handling of the case with Roger Stone, a longtime friend of Donald Trump.

'Each of us strongly condemns President Trump's and Attorney General Barr's interference in the fair administration of justice,' the letter reads, and welcomes other former employees to join in signing the petition.

The disgruntled former employees also urged current department workers to report any unethical conduct they witnessed.

The letter is the latest in a crisis of confidence at DOJ after prosecutors recommended Stone received nine years in prison.

On Sunday, 1,143 former DOJ employees released a public letter they all signed urging Attorney General Bill Barr to resign from the Justice Department

They specifically note the recent handling of the Roger Stone case, when Barr urged prosecutors to recommend a lesser sentence for the president's longtime friend

DOJ prosecutors recommended that Stone received up to nine years in prison fro lying to Congress and obstruction of justice

But Trump tweeted that he would not 'allow this miscarriage of justice!'

Stone was convicted of witness tampering and lying to Congress about his contacts with WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign, when he was an informal Trump advisor.

Democrats accuse it was part of a 'coverup' to protect Trump.

After Barr and other DOJ leaders intervened and pushed for a lesser sentence, four prosecutors quit the case.

And some criticized Barr for only intervening after the president publicly denounced the recommendation.

After Barr urged a reconsideration, the DOJ filed an updated sentencing memo suggesting Stone should receive less prison time.

Trump went on a Twitter rant over the decision, but Barr says his decision was not influenced by the president  and even admitted that the frequent tweeting makes it harder for him to do his job.

'I'm not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody ... whether it's Congress, a newspaper editorial board, or the president,' Barr said in an interview with ABC News.

Trump went on a Twitter rampage bashing the decision, and Barr said that did not affect his decision, but did admit Trump's tweeting did get in the way of him doing his job

'I'm going to do what I think is right. And you know,' he added, 'I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me.'

White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grishman said Trump wasn't taking the interview comments to heart.

'The president wasn't bothered by the comments at all and he has the right, just like any American citizen, to publicly offer his opinions,' Grisham said to Fox on Thursday.

Those who signed the letter calling for Barr to resign were gathered by Protect Democracy, a group that has been critical of Barr's leadership at DOJ  and in particular of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES



TORONTO, Feb. 14, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Routemaster Capital Inc. (RM.V) (Routemaster or the Company) Routemaster announces that, further to the press releases dated October 9, 2019, November 27, 2019 and December 31, 2019, it has decided to terminate the proposed $2 million private placement of units of the Company.



About Routemaster Capital Inc.:

Routemaster Capital Inc. is a Canadian investment company that carries on business with the objective of enhancing shareholder value.

For further information, please contact:

James Lanthier

President and Chief Executive Officer

Tel: +1 (416) 861-1685

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release contains certain forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from results contemplated by the forward-looking statements. When relying on forward-looking statements to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward looking statements, oral or written, made by itself or on its behalf, except as required by applicable law.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act) or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.




In 2014, when word spread throughout Latin America that the Obama administration was inclined to be lenient with children who arrived illegally in America, parents anxious to get their children out of impoverished, crime-ridden countries sent them north on their own, in the company of other children, or with paid smugglers. With tens of thousands of children surging across the border, local border enforcement was reduced to packing kids into rooms without beds or putting them behind wire fences.

The photos that emerged from that time were sad because these were children, and anger-inducing because they showed how the Obama administration had turned Americas southern border into a joke. The only people getting upset about the overwhelming numbers of children suffering this way, though, were conservatives. The mainstream media didnt focus on the Obama cages; it focused on the pathetic children being deprived of the American experience thanks to cruel Republicans.

Once Trump became president, having run in part on a platform that included shutting down the porous southern border to illegal aliens, Democrats and their progressive fellow travelers began recirculating the photos. However, instead of acknowledging that the photos represented Obama-era policies, leftists contended that they showed Trump policies.

It now appears that Biden, despite having been in the White House when Obama was locking Latin American kids in cages, bought into this historical revisionism. How else can one explain his disastrous interview on Friday with Univisions Jorge Ramos?

Biden explains to Jorge Ramos why the Obama administration put kids in cages: "We kept them safe... They came unaccompanied. Unaccompanied." pic.twitter.com/r6KWD6IDiB  Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) February 15, 2020

In the interview, despite the plethora of photos showing children in cages in 2014, Jorge Ramos managed to dig up a single photograph of an unaccompanied boy and asked Biden to explain how that happened.

Biden, clearly relaxed, gave his rap about what happened:

What happened was all the unaccompanied children were coming across the border. We tried to get them out, we kept them safe, and get them out of the detention center *** that are run by Homeland Security and get them into communities as quickly as we can.

At this point, Ramos, instead of doing the polite thing and moving on now that he had an answer, no matter how vapid, doubled down instead: Many people would say they were cages, he insisted.

Figuring that the best defense is a good offense, Biden accused Ramos of lying. Look, he said, you know youre not telling the truth here about the comparison of the two things [i.e., Obamas record versus Trumps record].

To Bidens manifest dismay, Ramos kept going, pointing out that, while Trump had detained more children, the fact remained that Obama still locked them up too.

The difference, according to Biden, was that the Obama administration had pure motives. Look how quickly we got them out and got them back to families, he said. Look at how . . . we sought the relatives here, we sought to get them into safe communities. We sought to get them out of the control of Homeland Security to get them safe, but they came unaccompanied. Unaccompanied.

However, Beth Bauman reports that Bidens version isnt true either:

The former vice president seems to have forgotten that a Senate report found that "an unknown number of Central American migrant children [were placed} into the custody of human traffickers after neglecting to run the most basic checks on these so-called 'caregivers'" during the Obama administration, the Intelligencer reported.

Biden then boasted that he helped keep people in Latin America by leading an initiative to send $750 million to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador so that the situation was better in those countries.

Ramos cut into Bidens boasting to say, I remember that. They kept on coming.

No, they didnt, snapped Biden, pointing an angry finger at Ramos. They dropped off extensively. Extensively!

When Ramos pointed out that the number of children crossing the border surged again after the drop-off, Biden promptly blamed Trump for failing to continue to send money to Latin America.

The interview revealed that four years after Obama left office, Biden assumed he could still ride on Obamas coattails. Instead, Obama, by refusing to endorse Biden, has snatched those coattails away and has left Biden with nothing more than Obamas record of failures and hypocrisy on which to run.
Tokyo

The U.S. said Americans aboard a quarantined cruise ship will be flown back home on a chartered flight Sunday, but they will face another two-week quarantine.

About 380 Americans are aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which has docked at Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo. So far, 285 people from the ship have tested positive for the new virus that began in China, after 67 new cases were found Saturday.

The passengers have been quarantined on the ship since Feb. 5. That 14-day quarantine is due to end Wednesday.

A chartered aircraft will arrive in Japan late Sunday and American passengers will be flown to Travis Air Force Base in California, with some continuing to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said in a letter to passengers and crew posted online on Saturday.

Everyone will get a checkup before being allowed on the chartered flight, and those who show symptoms of sickness will not be permitted to board the plane, the embassy said.

After arriving in the U.S., all passengers will need to go through another 14 days of quarantine, the letter said  meaning they will have been under quarantine for four weeks.

"We recognize this has been a stressful experience and we remain dedicated to providing all the support we can and seeing you safely and expeditiously reunited with family and friends in the United States," it said.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

The U.S. State Department urged American passengers to return home.

"To fulfill our government's responsibilities to U.S. citizens under our rules and practices, as well as to reduce the burden on the Japanese health care system, the U.S. government recommends, out of an abundance of caution, that U.S. citizens disembark and return to the United States for further monitoring," the department said in a statement.

The letter to Americans on the Diamond Princess warns, "Should you choose not to return on this charter flight, you will be unable to return to the United States for a period of time."

Japan's Health Ministry allowed 11 passengers to disembark Friday, saying that those older than 80 or with underlying medical conditions, as well as those staying in windowless cabins during the 14-day quarantine, can stay at a designated facility on shore.
A worker (L) in Can Tho's Tra Noc Industrial Park receives face masks from the programme on February 15th (Photo: VNA)



The programme, organised by Honda Vietnam Co. Ltd, presented 20,000 face masks to workers of 62 businesses in the citys industrial parks.



It will be carried from now to March 31st at 15 key industrial parks of eight localities with strong industrial development, namely Can Tho, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang city, Hai Phong city, Thai Nguyen province, Vinh Phuc province, Bac Ninh province and Hanoi capital.

Aside from distributing 300,000 antibacterial fabric face masks, the programme will also update workers with the Health Ministrys information about the COVID-19 in Vietnam, symptoms, infection risks and preventive measures.

Facing complex developments of COVID-19, authorities of Can Tho have taken urgent measures to prevent the disease, including increasing information dissemination and providing training in disease prevention for agencies, businesses and people.

Local schools have also been closed for two weeks since the Lunar New Year holiday to protect students health.

The city hasnt recorded any COVID-19 cases so far.

Meanwhile, 16 infected cases have been reported in Vietnam, and seven of them have been cured./.
British Baroque: Power And Illusion

Tate Britain, London Until April 19

Rating:

The baroque was a big, bombastic style that largely passed Britain by. Thats the traditional view, anyway  that innate British modesty and reserve held it in check. A new exhibition at Tate Britain, however, suggests the baroque did find a way to flourish here.

The over-the-top brilliance wasnt, its argued, confined to France and Rome.

Sadly, two of the movements big names  the Flemish pair Rubens and Van Dyck  dont feature, despite both having spent important spells in London. They died before the period under consideration  1660 to 1714  though surely they warrant a place in the opening room, if only to set the scene.

In Antonio Verrios The Sea Triumph Of Charles II (above), the king is depicted as a modern-day Neptune, bestriding the ocean waves on a huge, shell-shaped chariot

The show begins with the restoration of Charles II, after the Commonwealth rule of Oliver Cromwell. The baroque was a style that wholly suited his purposes, celebrating his status as monarch in exaggerated terms.

In Antonio Verrios The Sea Triumph Of Charles II, the king is depicted as a modern-day Neptune, bestriding the ocean waves on a huge, shell-shaped chariot. Soon, other men at court were looking to celebrate themselves through baroque painting.

In James, Duke Of York (by Henri Gascar), the heir to the throne (and future James II) is depicted in the most preposterous pink robe, gold armour and jewelled sandals.

James was a Catholic, and the curators do a fine job setting out the religious tensions in Britain at the time. These came to a head with the Popish Plot of 1678, when Catholic dissidents were accused  with deadly reprisals  of plotting to assassinate Charles II.

IT'S A FACT Christmas fans have Charles II to thank. The Merry Monarch restored the festive tradition after it had been banned by Oliver Cromwell in 1647. Advertisement

Broadly speaking, baroque art was more at home in Catholic environs than in pared-back, Protestant ones.

This is an insightful show, but it has one fundamental problem: that the greatest triumphs of British baroque cant be shown in a gallery.

From St Pauls Cathedral to Blenheim Palace, these triumphs were buildings, not paintings. Our leading baroque figures were architects: Sir Christopher Wren and Sir John Vanbrugh, to name but two.

Many architectural plans and drawings are on display, but these are obviously no match for the real thing.

Hanging on the final wall is The Whig Junto, a group portrait of six chubby politicians formulating policy at a table. Its rather a muted end to a show about a movement that was anything but muted.

The painting dates from 1710, the same year Wren completed St Pauls.
The United Nations says as many as 31 Yemeni civilians died in airstrikes on Saturday (February 15) that the country's Houthi movement claims were retaliation by a Saudi-led coalition.

(SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) UNIDENTIFIED MAN, SAYING:

"This is a farmer's car who was going to Sanaa and he was targeted on the way."

In the latest flare-up in the five year Yemen conflict, the Iran-aligned Houthis claimed on Friday (February 14) to have shot down a coalition Tornado warplane in the Houthi-controlled Al Jawf province.

They also released a video purporting to show a missile hitting the jet.

The area's health ministry said women and children were among those killed in the subsequent coalition airstrikes.

The UN office in Yemen said preliminary field reports indicated 12 injured as well as the up to 31 civilians killed.

But coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki said only that a Tornado had crashed in al-Jawf, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported on Saturday.

Maliki later said rescue operations had been launched and that the possibility of quote "collateral damages" had been reported, without providing details.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 in support of the internationally-recognized government, which the Houthis ousted from the capital Sanaa in 2014.

The conflict is widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and its regional foe, Iran.
It was jointly developed by three international organizations and the Russian Council on Foreign Affairs

The scandalous plan of reconciliation between Ukraine and Russia by the authorship of three Western analytical centers and the Russian Council of International Affairs has again appeared on the website of the Munich Security Conference.

We recall that on February 14, at the Munich Security Conference, a plan to end the war in Ukraine, jointly developed by three international organizations and the Russian Council on Foreign Affairs was unveiled. The plan caused fierce criticism because of its anti-Ukrainian orientation.

After a few hours, the text of the plan disappeared from the site but is now available again.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that the plan to end the war in Ukraine, known as the 12 Steps to Peace in Donbas, announced at the Munich Conference, is a private initiative, not an official document of the event.

Earlier Volodymyr Zelensky met with Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soder on the sidelines of the 56th Munich Security Conference on Saturday. This was reported by the press service of the head of state.

So, Zelensky told Soder about the progress of reforms aimed at improving the business environment, and also invited the Bavarian business to take advantage of the investment opportunities that are opening up in Ukraine.

"We have adopted many laws that are related to fiscalization, deoffshorization. Also, laws aimed at attracting investment, for example, the law on concession," the Ukrainian leader said.

The interlocutors agreed to develop interregional cooperation and expand cooperation between the twin cities of Ukraine and Bavaria. The parties also discussed the situation in Donbas.

We want an end to the war, and therefore we are primarily interested in fulfilling the Minsk agreements, Zelensky emphasized.
Father says convicts taking advantage of loopholes, delay in Nirbhaya case disheartening.

While the Nirbhaya case gets all the attention, the Najafgarh rape case has been dragging on in the courts. (Representational picture)

New Delhi: Even after 2,928 days, justice seems to be an improbable thing for Kunwar Singh Negi whose 19-year-old daughter was abducted from Delhis Chawla village in Najafgarh area and was taken to Rewari in Haryana by three men who brutally gangraped her and then left her to die in a field. He is still running from pillar to post to get justice for his daughter who died four days after the incident on February 13, 2012.

The incident happened 10 months before the infamous Nirbhaya case and was termed as Najafgarh ki Damini and First Damini.

Talking to this newspaper, the dejected father said: If the accused in Nirbhaya case are taking advantage of the loopholes in the system, imagine what could happen in our case which is not as high profile as Nirbhaya. He reiterated that the people who are accused in these gruesome crimes are using tactics to evade their execution, which has shaken his belief in the judicial system.

Justice delayed is justice denied, this is what I feel about our system after seeing the ongoing delays in the case of my daughter who was abducted, brutally gangraped, tortured and then left to die by her three abductors, said Mr Negi. His struggle for justice is going on since then.

My daughters case has been delayed for almost eight years, it even happened before the unfortunate incident of Nirbhaya, but the case is yet to reach a logical end. Our fight for justice seems to be endless, as we do not have any support from the system, government, civil society and even media, he said.

What can I expect from our system if in the Nirbhaya case where the entire system including, civil society, national and international media are trying to take this case into a logical end, but still the accused are to meet their fate, said Daminis father.

I have limited resources to fight the legal battle but I will continue to fight until I get justice for my daughter, the father said, who is spearheading the legal battle.

Apart from the legal battle, he is also concerned about the safety and security of his family.

I have to take care of my wife who is still in trauma and two children, a 20-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter who are still studying, he added.

On 9 February 2012, Damini was on her way back from work along with three other women who lived in the same locality near Chawla village. When they were walking towards their homes three men in a red Tata Indica car approached them and started passing comments, minutes away from their house.

The women panicked and cried for help, but no one dared to help them. The accused suddenly pulled Damini inside the car and sped away.

The accused took her to a field in Rodhai village of Haryanas Rewari district where they took turns raping her. Later they poured acid into her eyes, inserted a broken liquor bottle into her vagina and mutilated her face.

Even the post-mortem report revealed that it took four days before Damini finally died on February 13. Forensic tests also confirmed that she had been violently raped before she was killed. Her disfigured body was recovered on the directions given by the accused who were arrested on February 11 and 12, 2012.

The three accused, Rahul, Vinod and Ravi are residents of the same locality and had earlier been booked for robbery. They were released from Tihar Jail a few days before the incident.

In February 2014, a Delhi court awarded death penalty to the trio but the case is still pending in the Supreme Court.

The last time Negi attended the apex court hearing was on January 23, 2020 and next date was given on February 4 but the hearing was postponed and the family is yet to get the next date.
Dozens of Texas Southern University alumni condemned the schools attempted ouster of its president, calling on the regents behind the move to resign or be removed from office during a closed-door meeting Saturday Pilgrim Congregational Church.

Texas Southerns national alumni association hosted the nearly two-hour meeting, but did not allow media inside. The associations president declined comment.

Those who spoke to the Chronicle were united in their support for President Austin Lane, who regents placed on leave in January without offering any explanation.

Dr. Lane is a wonderful person. He has not given us any reason to believe otherwise Its just unfair, its unfair to him to demolish his professional reputation like that, said Paula Johnson-Ealy, a 1991 graduate. We want the president reinstated and the regents removed.

This was a broadside. We didnt know this was coming. Were going to get to work, Johnson-Ealy added.

On HoustonChronicle.com: TSU regents start process of firing President Austin Lane

The universitys regents voted earlier this month to begin the process of firing Lane, alleging that he failed to act or inform the board about allegations of admissions fraud by a former law school official. Regent Marc Carter said that despite evidence of a law school assistant deans fraud involving a student, Lane or his subordinate allowed this student to be admitted into the university. Carter also said the dean accepted $14,000 in exchange for awarding a student a scholarship.

Lane has denied the charges and cast the investigation as a calculated witch hunt. He said the fraud allegations were already being investigated by an internal auditor when the regents hijacked the probe.

The president has 30 days to provide evidence refuting the allegations.

There is a growing opposition to the ouster among alumni. More than 6,000 people have signed a petition calling for Lane to be reinstated, and at least two letters have been drafted to send to Gov. Greg Abbotts office, asking for assistance.

Victoria Gray, who started hashtags #IStandWithDrLane and #RemoveTheRegents, said that grassroots movement will only grow stronger.

This didnt seem right. You take those gut feelings and then you do your research, said Gray. We are moving.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Sidelined Texas Southern president says school regents undergoing 'a calculated witch-hunt'

Lane has also said the regents endangered the universitys accreditation by assuming hiring and firing powers at the school. The accrediting body, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, doesnt allow such a policy, Lane argued.

That concern was echoed at Saturdays meeting.

We feel like the board has jeopardized the accreditation, said Paulette Mayfield Mouton, an alumna from the class of 1981 who serves on the alumni associations executive board. If (Lane) was doing such a great job, then what is all this about?

She said she worried for current students, whose degrees may be tarnished if the school were stripped of its accreditation. Her daughter is one such student, she said.

Her degree may be nothing, she said.

Most of the conversation, though, centered on reinstating Lane and removing the regents. Those who attended the meeting said the alumni association didnt take any official action Saturday, but the group set a strategy for how it would accomplish those goals.

Several people at the meeting bemoaned the fact that no regent received a bachelors degree from TSU.

Antrece Baggett, from the class of 1992, said the school is a staple in the community and its a shame its in this situation.

Just said. I love my institution, Baggett said. I went to the University of Mississippi for graduate school. The reality is, if it had not been for the foundation that I received at Texas Southern University, I would not be the leader that I am today.

Brittany Britto contributed to this report.
Illegal entries on forest and state land measuring over 659 acres was detected at two places in Jammu, with authorities deciding to expunge these entries from the revenue records, officials said on Sunday.

Jammu Deputy Commissioner Sushma Chauhan directed all revenue officials of the district to furnish details of illegal entries of persons over forest and state land within weeks so that the same are expunged from the revenue record at the earliest, the officials said.

Chauhan had on Saturday issued an order cancelling illegal entries on forest land measuring 618 acres at Sunjwan village in Jammu as these were in violation of the Jammu and Kashmir Land Revenue Act, and the Jammu and Kashmir Forest (Conservation) Act.

The deputy commissioner observed that illegal entries of individuals on forest land were completely "illegal, non-permissible and unsustainable" under any circumstances, according to an official.

Similarly, illegal entries of private individuals over state land measuring 41 acres at Chowadi village were ordered to be cancelled from revenue records by Chauhan, a spokesperson said.

The revenue financial commissioner had recently instructed all the deputy commissioners to have an audit of their revenue records and illegal entries upon forest and state land, besides lands reserved for fodder purposes, be expunged from the revenue records and the process is being closely monitored on regular intervals, the spokesperson added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
TICKERS: BHP; BHPLF, RRI; RVSDF, TCK

Source: Maurice Jackson for Streetwise Reports (2/16/20)

Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable talks with Rick Rule of Sprott USA and John-Mark Staude of Riverside Resources about the investment promise of project generators.



Maurice Jackson: Today we will highlight what may be the most overlooked value proposition in exploration, prospect generators. Joining us for a conversation is legendary investor Rick Rule of Sprott USA and Dr. John-Mark Staude of Riverside Resources Inc. (RRI:TSX.V; RVSDF:OTCQB).

Rick, you, along with Sprott USA, are the most trusted and respected names in the natural resource space. That reputation has been earned with a proven pedigree of personal and investment success for the clients of Sprott USA by identifying companies and sectors that are selling at deep discounts. I would like to begin by asking you a two-fold question. What is a prospect generator and why should someone reading strongly consider the value proposition they may present for one's portfolio?

Rick Rule: A prospect generator, as I define it, Maurice, is an exploration company that uses the management's technical expertise and commercial acumen to generate investment ideas and an investment thesis, stake those ideas, stake the physical terrain and then bring in other partners to share the financial riskoften to bear the financial riskin return for a carried interest in the property and or a royalty.

The idea is that the exploration business is very much like any other form of research and development business, and that the chief value is actually the intellectual capital of the management teamthe idea being, with an exploration company, that you share the financial risk of developing a project so that you don't dilute the shares and you don't, as an investor, dilute your interest in the intellectual capital, which is, in fact, the most valuable asset that many of these small companies have.

As to success, I'd like to answer the question statistically. When I was in university, I was taught that a mineralized anomaly had a 1 in 3,000 chance to become a mine. That means the value proposition offered up on Bay Street and Howe Street is that you have a 1 in 3,000 chance of a 10 to 1 returnvery poor math.

Now, the truth is that a reasonably intelligent speculator can reduce those odds somewhat by buying into companies that employ serially successful people or by confining one's speculations to companies where they've already established the third dimension. That is where they have an ore body into a deposit, but still over 35 or 40 years of speculating in exploration.

I have invested in something over 65 public prospect generators. The truth is that my memory is now foggy enough that I can't tell you how many, but I've participated in 22 or 23 economic discoveries and 20 takeovers, which means that I have been successful on, shall we say, 20 of 65 starts, versus the expected statistical average in junior mining of 1 in 3,000. We had a young intern here years ago who told me that my experience was three standard deviations better than the industry experience as a whole.

Now, that's the type of arithmetic that somebody like me can't help but pay attention to.

If you want a dramatic example, probably the most dramatic example for me [is] Arequipa Resources, where there was a superb geological team generating prospects in Peru right after the Shining Path had been kicked outin other words, after the flak jackets came on, but long before the currency was convertible. That company participated, if my memory serves me correctly, in 36 exploration campaigns, all of which were funded by other people's money. Had the company diluted itself over 36 exploration campaigns, they wouldn't have existed by the time that they made their final discovery, which was the Pierina discovery.

The upshot of that is that in the company's sort of three years of existence, they went from a $0.35 per share initial public offering to a $30 per share takeout by Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX:TSX; GOLD:NYSE). [There was] very limited dilution along the way, because the heavy lifting of their explorationat least the financial heavy lifting of their explorationwas done with other people's money.

Before I relinquish to my colleague, Dr. John-Mark Staude, I'd like to say one other thing that makes me feel comfortable about prospect generators. The truth is that I've spent hundreds of thousandsin fact, millionsof dollars on research over the last 35 yearsgeological research, engineering research, financial researchand I've paid consultants hundreds of thousands of dollars. In prospect generation the due diligence isn't done by me, it's done by major mining companies, by peers. And the people who are doing the due diligence don't send me a bill. They send John-Mark a check.

Now, whether they're right or not, the fact that they invest in the outcome of their due diligence gives me extraordinary comfort. The fact that BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP:NYSE; BHPLF:OTCPK) or Rio Tinto Plc (RIO:NYSE; RIO:ASX; RIO:LSE; RTPPF:OTCPK) or Teck Resources Ltd. (TCK:TSX; TCK:NYSE) or Barrick is doing not just the heavy lifting of the check-writing, but also the heavy lifting of the due diligence, for me gives me special comfort.

Maurice Jackson: Quite a compelling value preposition. John-Mark, you're the CEO of a successful prospect generator. Please introduce us to Riverside Resources (TSX.V: RRI | OTCQB: RVSDF) and the opportunity your company presents to the market.

John-Mark Staude: Riverside is a well-funded, value-driven prospect generator advancing a strong portfolio of gold, silver and copper properties in North America. We leverage the company's 75,000+ location database and experienced technical team to discover and acquire new exploration assets. A great example is our exploration funding agreement, announced last year, with world's largest market-cap public mining company, BHP. In this program, BHP is fully funding the exploration work and Riverside is the boots on the ground, doing the technical work.

Our market is niche is that we generate projects. Recently we spun out one of our USA copper-gold projects, which is now moved ahead very successfully, and we profit near and long term from this. We carry a royalty in the Arizona asset and we get paid in over $3M worth of shares. Therefore, we don't dilute our shareholder base. And we very proud of the fact that we keep a very tight share structure.

Maurice Jackson: And what type of resources is Riverside exploring for and where?

John-Mark Staude: We've largely focused in Mexico, as well as in Canada. We focus a lot on gold, but we also have silver and copper. Riverside really likes shallow, open-pit deposits. Theses deposits don't take much capital to find, and when you find one, and show that it's large, it creates the urgency for majors to look to acquire it.

Maurice Jackson: Does the Riverside property bank consists of greenfields or brownfields exploration plays or a combination of both?

John-Mark Staude: It's interesting. We started off mainly with greenfields, but recently, as companies have left Mexico and we've been able to focus during the downturn, [we] have been aggressively upgrading our property bank to having brownfields exploration play around existing mines and neighboring some of the large discoveries, such as SilverCrest Metals Inc. (SIL:TSX.V) and Premier Gold Mines Ltd. (PG:TSX) in Mexico.

We are also in another high value region, as we're next to Geraldton, Ontario, one of the large developing gold districts with excellent infrastructure and at feasibility stage for potential restart and expansion of the operations. Riverside went from greenfields to brownfields [around existing operations], where we know. . .we have good things that are of value.

Maurice Jackson: Rick, provide us with some background on your relationship with John-Mark and how long have you been an investor in Riverside?

Rick Rule: My first memory of meeting John-Mark was in an investment conference in Vancouver many, many years ago, when I was talking about prospect generation. And John-Mark came up afterward and introduced himself as business development for BHP. So, I immediately understood that he was ultimately a customer of mine and, of course, did my best to impress him. He moved on, if my memory serves me correctly, from BHP to Teck. At some point in time I tried to hire John-Mark. He had the very good sense to refuse me, but the consequence of that is that when he was starting his own company, Riverside. I was privileged to be one of the early investors and we've been shareholders and backers of Riverside, among others, ever since.

Maurice Jackson: Rick, you referenced these success ratios of prospect generators (PGs) versus traditional exploration companies and you're one of the biggest advocates for PGs and, in particular, Riverside. Why has your level of commitment been so strong over the years and what gives you confidence in the future of Riverside?

Rick Rule: Well, the truth is that success in prospect generation has to do with the technical acumen of the management team and their commercial acumen. I was particularly attracted to the fact that John-Mark's pedigree and the pedigrees of his team were particularly well suited to the task at hand. I've always been interested in Mexican exploration in particular and large copper gold systems. John-Mark, if my memory serves me well, went to the University of Arizona, which pioneered most of the modern exploration technology for those types of deposits.

And John-Mark, as a consequence of his Rolodex, has been able to assemble around him a very highly skilled team.

His particular advantage, though, was that he looks at deal structure from the customer's point of view because John-Mark used to represent BHP in these negotiations and after that represented Teck's interest in those negotiations. He understands something about, first of all, what the majors require in a joint venture and how to intelligently structure and price a joint venture so that it will be fair to the Riverside shareholders, but also in the interest of the customer. I think that commercial skill set is something that's lacking in some of the prospect generators that solely have great technical skills.

Maurice Jackson: John-Mark, last year Riverside announced a new strategic partner in billion-dollar market-cap BHP. Why did BHP partner with Riverside and share some of the details of the partnership?

John-Mark Staude: Yeah, we were really lucky. It turns out BHP wanted to grow into Mexico and they knew that we had done these different types of partnerships for technical programs.

There were 12 companies reviewed that were operating in Mexico, and Riverside passed all of those and was selected as the operating group. BHP is 22,000 times bigger than us in market cap. So we're really two different-size companies [with different] goals, and we showed them that we operate safely, efficiently, and can for them too. We've done strategic exploration alliances with Kinross Gold Corp. (K:TSX; KGC:NYSE), Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (CLF:NYSE), Antofagasta Plc (ANTO:LSE), Hochschild Mining Plc (HOC:LSE), continually being able to develop portfolios for the major companies. We can do it safely and effectively, and that's why BHP came in, and we're really enjoying working with them. This program is a million dollars and we've already been able to have another 50% as a new additional budget into the program each year for just the greenfield starting in the programs.

It's a $5 million spend for them to earn into the project. We like those types of situations where they put up all the money. We put up all the science and work, [and] we progress together to develop projects, as Rick says. This really can work for the discovery. Sometimes the discoveries are too small for the major, but they can still be big enough for us, and we can put together those portfolios and then spin them out or do other deals in the future. So we really like working with these major companies.

Maurice Jackson: Rick, what does that convey to the person listening, when two companies, Sprott USA and BHP, are committing capital into Riverside?

Rick Rule: Maurice, anytime that you want to mention Sprott in conjunction with BHP and expertise, you certainly have my permission to do that.

Our interests are different. I think in fairness, one of the things it says is the two different groups who benefit from prospect generationthat is to say, Sprott as a shareholder and BHP as somebody looking for exploration serviceshave narrowed the field to Riverside. One of the benefits that I think might be lost potentially on Riverside shareholders is the fact that BHP brings more than money.

What BHP might bring to me is due diligence, where they write a check as opposed to send me a bill. But after that, if you assume that John-Mark comes up with an interesting piece of terrain and an interesting exploration idea, BHP has literally hundreds of earth scientists in place. It's almost impossible that there's an assemblage of minerals somewhere in the world that somebody at BHP doesn't have familiarity with. And the fact that they pay the costs and add intellectual capital after the fact is a wonderful benefit that shareholders like myself enjoy from a company like Riverside, [which is] able to joint venture with the largest and smartest mining companies in the world.

Maurice Jackson: Switching gears, John-Mark, what is the next unanswered question for Riverside? When can we expect an answer and what will determine success?

John-Mark Staude: One of them is with the spinning out of Capitan Mining. Riverside actually is able to progress for the shareholders, giving a share of this other company to our shareholders directly.

So the next unanswered question for Riverside? Is there a potential for a giant porphyry copper discovery there? We'll be putting out news before the PDAC, which is in the beginning of March, about our exploration programs in Canada and Mexico.

Maurice Jackson: Please provide us with an update on the capital structure for Riverside.

John-Mark Staude: Riverside continues to have a tight share structure with 63 million shares, no debt, and we have over $3 million cash in the bank.

Maurice Jackson: Before we close, Dr. Staude, what did I forget to ask?

John-Mark Staude: I think one of the key things for Riverside is, when are we going to make those discoveries? That's often asked and I think right now we have four different programs going in 2020 with partner funding, and work going on with them. We're particularly, I think, interested in what can we do here in the first quarter so we'll have news flow, and that'll be a really great way for us to be able to put out those new discoveries that we're making.

Maurice Jackson: Mr. Rule, what did I forget to as, sir?

Rick Rule: Well, I don't think you forgot to ask much, Maurice. One thing that I would point out is that over the last 10 years, which have been very, very difficult years for companies in the minerals businessin the minerals exploration businessone of the beauties of the prospect generator model in general, and of Riverside in particular, is that they haven't had to dilute existing shareholders out of existence.

When John-Mark talks about his very narrow share count, one thing he might mention is that the shares are fairly closely held by people who aren't in the stock for a nickel gain. When I remember back to the last exploration bull market, which we enjoyed, which sadly was 20012002, one of the things that I noticed is that the prospect generators, when money came back into the sectors, literally had a melt-up because as buyers came into the market, there were no sellers to match them.

Now I'm not suggesting the past is prologue. What I am suggesting is that the tight share floatsclosely held companiesdo better in nascent bull markets than companies that have had to be very profligate, issuing shares to keep themselves alive during tough times. Another of the unstated perhaps advantages of prospect generators in general, and Riverside in particular.

Maurice Jackson: Rick, if someone listening wants to have their natural resource portfolio graded, can they contact you or someone at Sprott USA?

Rick Rule: Absolutely. I would love to offer readers, as I have in the past, the ability, with no obligation to have me grade their natural resource portfolios. All they need to do is e-mail me their natural resource portfolios at [email protected]sprottglobal.com. Maurice, it's important that readers put both the names and the symbols of their companies in the text, not as an attachment that my security people won't allow me to open. I will rank those companies one to ten, 1 being best, 10 worst, and comment on them where I think my comment is appropriate.

As an added inducement, I will also e-mail back a 40-year gold mining company index, which makes a spectacular case for investing in precious metals mining companies now, as well as a hundred-year commodity chart. So we'll give you two charts, one about gold mining stocks, the others about commodities, and we will, probably more importantly, rate the companies in your portfolio and return them to you.

Maurice Jackson: And in the subject line, please put in Proven and Probable. John-Mark, please share the website address and ticker symbol for Riverside Resources.

John-Mark Staude: Riverside's is www.rivres.com (TSX.V: RRI | OTCQB: RVSDF).

Maurice Jackson: Before you make your next bullion purchase, make sure you call me. I am a licensed representative for Miles Franklin Precious Metals Investments where we provide a number of options to expand your precious metals portfolio, from physical delivery, offshore depositories, precious metal IRAs and private blockchain distributed ledger technology. Call me directly at (855) 505-1900 or you may e-mail [email protected].

Riverside Resources is a sponsor of Proven and Probable and we are proud shareholders for the virtues conveyed in today's message.

Gentlemen, thank you both for joining us today on Proven and Probable.

Maurice Jackson is the founder of Proven and Probable, a site that aims to enrich its subscribers through education in precious metals and junior mining companies that will enrich the world.

[NLINSERT]

Disclosure:

1) Maurice Jackson: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: Riverside Resources. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: Riverside Resources is a sponsor of Proven and Probable. Proven and Probable disclosures are listed below.

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4) This article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.

5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article until three business days after the publication of the interview or article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own shares of Riverside Resources, a company mentioned in this article.

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In a first, researchers have developed a smart jumpsuit that accurately measures the spontaneous and voluntary movement of infants from the age of five months, an advance that may aid in the early diagnosis of neurological disorders affecting mobility.

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, noted that the assessment of spontaneous and voluntary movements is part of the neurological examination of infants.

According to the researchers, including those from the University of Helsinki in Finland, the quantitative tracking of children's motility in their natural environment has not been possible.

They said until now children have been primarily qualitatively assessed at the physician's or physiotherapist's practice.

This requires taking into account the fact that the infant's behaviour in the practice setting does not necessarily match that seen at home, the scientists noted.

"The smart jumpsuit provides us with the first opportunity to quantify infants' spontaneous and voluntary movements outside the laboratory. The child can be sent back home with the suit for the rest of the day," explained study co-author Sampsa Vanhatalo from the University of Helsinki.

According to the researchers, the data obtained from the smart jumpsuit is valuable, since the detection of abnormalities in the neurological development of infants at an early stage enables early support.

They said the ability of the human brain to form new nerve connections and facilitate new learning is at its strongest in early childhood.

These brain functions are benefited by supporting child development, which are targeted at recurring everyday activities, the scientists noted.

According to Vanhatalo, the new method quantifies infant motility as reliably as a human being would be able to do by viewing a video recording.

After the measurement, he said, the infant's actual movements and physical positions will be known to the second, after which the data is analysed using a computer.

"This is a revolutionary step forward. The measurements provide a tool to detect the precise variation in motility from the age of five months, something which medical smart clothes have not been able to do until now," Vanhatalo said.

According to Leena Haataja, another co-author of the study from the University of Helsinki, developmental disorders in today's pressure-dominated world pose a considerable risk that can lead to learning difficulties and obstacles in the competition for education and jobs.

"The early identification of developmental disorders and support for infants' everyday functional capacity in interaction with the family and the growth environment constitute a significant factor on the level of individuals, families and society," Haataja said.

The researchers believe that the smart jumpsuit can also be used in the future for the objective measurement of how various therapies and treatments affect children's development.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has made his first public appearance in 22 days, state media reported on Saturday (February 15), amid an outbreak of coronavirus that originated in neighboring China.

Kim visited the national mausoleum, flanked by high ranking party officials, to mark the 78th anniversary of his father, Kim Jong Il's birth.

North Korea has not confirmed any cases of the new coronavirus, but state media said the government was extending a quarantine period for people showing symptoms to 30 days and that all government institutions and foreigners living in North Korea were expected to comply "unconditionally".

Kim Jong Il's birth is a national holiday celebrated at the Day of the Shining Star, and the official KCNA news agency showed residents and soldiers trudging through heavy snow towards Mansu Hill Monument, to lay flowers at the statues of Kim Jong Il and his father Kim Il Sung.
New Delhi, Feb 16 : Imagine a woman wearing Patola saree from Gujarat and matching Khadi foot wears, or a trendy wrist watch of Khadi. It is not just imagination anymore because Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) is doing all that it takes to make Khadi cool and trendy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for using Khadi more, has played a crucial role in its promotion.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be given full credit for promoting Khadi post independence. He specially urged people on many occasions including in his 'Mann ki Baat' programme for using Khadi. Consequently, people started adopting Khadi," V.K. Saxena, Chairman, KVIC, told IANS.

He said that Khadi -- a precious gift of Mahatma Gandhi to the people of India, remained in oblivion post independence. "But now it is resurging after PM's call," he said.

In 1956, Khadi Commission was constituted. That time, Khadi's production was around 0.56 million square meters. After a long journey of 63 years, in 2014 its production reached 105 million square meters. In 2018-19, 171 million square metres of khadi was produced.

"Its production reached from 0.56 to 105 in 63 years while it increased by 65 million square meters within 5 years that speaks volumes about its popularity in PM's tenure," said Saxena.

Talking about the average sales of Khadi he said, "the average sales of Khadi was 6.68 per cent during 2004 to 2014. It never touched the double digit. In 2014 Khadi's growth was in minus but after 2015, it is growing at the rate of 28 per cent. He told IANS that in 2014-15 Khadi's turnover was Rs 811 crore which increased up to Rs 3,215 crore in 2019. We are now trying to take it to Rs 5,000 crore in this financial year.

Khadi India store in Connaught place is KVIC's flagship store. It has been 40 years since it was built.

"The sale never went beyond 40 lakh in one day before 2014. But last year it broke all records with sales recorded of 1.27 crore in one day on October 2. It also surpassed mark of 1 crore sales thrice in October 2019. We keep innovating and experimenting at our flagship store in Connaught Place," said the chairman.

According to Saxena, Khadi registered record sale of 1.22 crore in just one day after Modi's appeal to people for adopting Khadi in Ludhiana on 22 October 2016.

New experiments and innovations have given Khadi a very important place in youth's wardrobes.

Now-a-days, Khadi is manufacturing one of the best quality denims. Unlike the past, it is no more associated only with few sections of people like leaders or elderly.

"We are using the latest technologies and providing training to artisans which has improved the quality of the product," Saxena said, adding: "Khadi is attracting specially youths because it is the most environment friendly fabric. One serves the environment and artisans of the country in a great way by adopting Khadi. They live in remote areas, without any infrastructure but one "Charkha" or loom of Khadi generates employment opportunities for them." "Companies like Raymonds and Arvind Mills purchase millions of meters of Khadi fabric these days. We have also signed an agreement with Titan. They are manufacturing 'Khadi watches'. Such innovations have given Khadi a new platform," he Saxena said.

Khadi commission conducts awareness programmes across the country and emphasizes its importance.

But the greatest power of Khadi that it reaches out to inaccessible areas. "We have established centres in remote areas of Leh Laddakh, Sundarban islands in West Bengal, North East and have given employment to the people. This is the power of Khadi and this is what Gandhiji always dreamed of... that if our villages are strong our economy will be automatically strong," Saxena concluded.
His beloved Sotto Paga! Non Si Paga! (which, in this adaptation by Marieke Hardy, becomes No Pay? No Way! rather than its usual Can't Pay! Won't Pay!) was such a call to arms in 1974 Italy that people mimicked its action, and looted the supermarkets. That would never happen in staid old Oz. Here we let the banks, insurance companies, oil companies, utilities, big retailers, rich restaurateurs, toll companies and government all fleece us, and we grumble, but never riot.

Funny? There has to be a stronger word? Funny? If I wasn't sitting down, I'd have fallen over. I mean, at one point I was crying. Playwright Dario Fo is the master of the art of silliness, the veneer of his child-like humour thinly veiling the steel-capped boot with which he delights kicking the groin of authority in all its guises.

Fo's heroic crazies aren't so meek. When the prices double, the jobs dry up and the eviction notices arrive, they revolt. Antonia (Helen Thomson) is among an angry mob of women which loots a price-gouging supermarket, because it's the only way she can put food on the table  even if what she chooses to "liberate" from the shelves is somewhat eccentric. (Dogfood, anyone?) When news of the looting reaches her husband, Giovanni (Glenn Hazeldine), he declares he would divorce a wife who was involved. But then he collides with his own tolerance limit for oppression, and rewrites his moral code accordingly.

Catherine Van-Davies Credit:Prudence Upton

This is the wonder of Fo: while you're falling about laughing, he's giving you a pep-talk in fighting back against those lining their pockets at our expense  and Hardy can't resist pointing fingers in modern-day Oz, even if the setting remains last-century Italy. When the cast sings Bella Ciao at the end, we should be itching to link arms, storm down to Canberra and vaporise the rorting bastards with our withering glares.

Yet somehow we don't. Partly it's good old Oz apathy, and partly it's the production, which not only doesn't stir us up quite enough, but also is not as consistently funny as it should be. At their worst the writing and performances descend to the level of a very ordinary sit-com, and even in the world of Fo's extreme zaniness, the humour would sometimes benefit from less overt mugging and milking of laughs. Then after the interval comes a lumpy, almost leaden period of manic activity for precious little pay-off. I suspect it needs a cut, but the cast may iron it out during the run.

More often, however, director Sarah Giles maximises the frenzy of laughs. Charles Davis' block-of-bland-flats set raises a smile all by itself, and that's before it starts performing such revolving and flying tricks as provoke spontaneous applause. Giles is at her very best choreographing the hilarious farce scene with the closet, the copper and the coffin, and in fact the physical comedy pulverises the verbal sparring most of the time. While notable contributions come from Hazeldine and Catherine Van-Davies (as Margherita, whose husband Luigi is entertainingly played by Rahel Romahn), Aaron Tsindos steals the show in this regard. Among four roles he hits peak form as the police inspector hot on the trail of the looted goods. Tsindos inhabits this bumptious twerp with a Cleese-like combination of grandeur and absurdity, and we watch in stitches as he sets the bar spectacularly low for male ignorance of female bodies.
Flower shop owner Iris Leung wears her protective face mask as she delivers flowers with masks to customers on Valentine's Day in Hong Kong, on Friday. Photo: AP

In the high-stakes world of gift giving in Asia's financial hubs, Montblanc pens and leather folios are out - toilet paper and surgical masks are most definitely in.

As fears of coronavirus spread across the region, pharmacies and supermarkets in Hong Kong and Singapore are running out of basic supplies such as toilet paper, paper towels, hand sanitiser and especially masks.

That has created an opportunity for financial service providers looking to wow clients and bolster relationships. The Singapore arm of online trading provider IG Group gave out care packs with face masks, digital thermometers and bottles of Dettol.

What started as an amusing idea from local management quickly spiralled and now staff and clients have been receiving care packs in the office and through the post.

The gift has proved timely with some banks evacuating offices and requiring employees to work from home.

"It all started as a precaution for friends and family and then others started asking how to get the masks and other things," said Terence Tan, head of business development at IG Asia. "So we thought: Why not get these things for our staff and clients?"

American Joel Werner runs a hedge fund, Solitude Capital Management, in Hong Kong. He bought 216 rolls of toilet paper on Amazon after his family tried in vain for days to find any. The shipping alone cost $200 but he thinks it was worth it. He kept half of the bounty and plans to give the other half to friends and colleagues. "It's a better gift than wine now," he said.

Friends gathering at a restaurant in Hong Kong this week were asked to bring face masks or toilet paper for a lucky draw.

Bloomberg
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal Swearing-in Updates: Much has to be accomplished in Delhi, but it can only be done with your support, Arvind Kejriwal said, urging parties to forget all that happened during the election and the campaign period before it. 'I am ready to work with the Centre for Delhi's betterment. I want Modi's blessing too,' he said

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On Friday, President Ram Nath Kovind had appointed Kejriwal as the new Chief Minister of Delhi. According to an official notification, Kovind had also appointed six MLAs as ministers of the Delhi government following the advice of the chief minister.

The six ministers - Manish Sisodia, Satendra Jain, Gopal Rai, Kailash Gehlot, Imran Hussain, Rajendra Pal Gautam - were a part of the previous Delhi Cabinet.

In the ceremony that will begin at 10 am, six ministers apart from Arvind Kejriwal will also take oath.

According to the advisory, no commercial vehicles will be allowed from Rajghat chowk and Delhi Gate chowk towards Guru Nanak Dev chowk via JLN Marg, Chatta Rail towards Delhi Gate chowk via Netaji Subhash Marg, Paharganj chowk towards Ajmeri Gate via Desh Bandu Gupta Road, Ram Charan Aggarwal chowk towards Delhi Gate chowk via Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, DDU Minto Road towards Kamla Market chowk via Vivekanand Marg and Barakhamba Tolstoy towards Ranjit Singh flyover.

The Delhi Police had issued a traffic advisory for the day, which says that traffic regulation will be in place in the Ramlila Maidan area from 8 am to 2 pm.

The eight newly-elected BJP MLAs have been invited for the oath-taking ceremony, AAP leader Gopal Rai had told PTI on Thursday. An AAP leader had earlier said that all municipal councillors have also been invited in the ceremony.

AAP invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend Arvind Kejriwal's swearing-in. However, it is not known if the PM will attend the ceremony. Modi had congratulated Arvind Kejriwal wishing him "very best in fulfilling the aspirations of the people of Delhi".

Arrangements for other sanitation facilities like mobile toilets, are being done, the official said. Twelve large LED screens will be installed. Big banners bearing messages like 'Dhanyawad Dilli' along with the image of the AAP chief were put up on Saturday in and around the venue ahead of the mega function which is "open to public".

Forty-five thousand chairs will be installed in Ramlila Maidan. No tents will be installed so that people can clearly see the oath-taking of Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet. Officials said that besides seating arrangements, there will be provision for people to stand as thousands are expected to attend the swearing-in.

A police official told PTI that nearly 3,000 security personnel will be deployed for the swearing-in ceremony of Arvind Kejriwal and other Delhi ministers. CCTV cameras will be fitted at and outside the venue.

"Baby Mufflerman'' Aavyan Tomar, who dressed up as the AAP convenor on counting day, is a 'special invitee' at the ceremony.

Around 50 people from different walks of life who are responsible for 'Delhi nirman' will share stage with Kejriwal during his swearing-in ceremony, senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia said. He said these people would include teachers, bus marshalls, architects of the Signature Bridge and families of firefighters who lost their lives.

"People are happy with the work of the Cabinet and we won the elections on basis of our work. We will continue to build and maintain the confidence of the people," he said.

Deputy CM and senior AAP leader Manish sisodia is among the faces who will remain in the Delhi Cabinet. There is nothing wrong if Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal repayts the Cabinet, Sisodia told ANI.

An hour ahead of the oath-taking ceremony, Arvind Kejriwal tweeted to appeal to the people of Delhi to visit Ramlila Maidan and "bless their son". He will be taking oath as the Chief Minister for the third time. Along with him, six AAP ministers will also be sworn in.

At the swearing-in ceremony, 50 'Delhi nirmatas' will share the stage with Arvind Kejriwal. Among those invited are international tennis player Sumit Nagal, Delhi government school student and beneficiary of Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana Vijay Kumar, mohalla clinic doctor Alka, bike ambulance service officer Yudhishtir Rathee, bus marshall Arun Kumar, Signature bridge architect Ratan Jamshed Batliboi and Metro pilot Nidhi Gupta.

All Delhi MLAs, including 8 BJP MLAs, have been invited for the ceremony. However, prominent leaders and chief ministers from other states have not been invited in order to keep the ceremony "Delhi-specific".

Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and senior party leader and Kalkaji MLA Atishi have reached the Ramlila Maidan where thousands will witness Arvind Kejriwal being administered oath as the Chief Minister of Delhi.

Meanwhile, huge crowds have descended upon the venue, which has been witness to iconic protests and rallies.

Chief Minister-designate Arvind Kejriwal has reached the Ramlila Maidan, along with his parents, wife and children. He will shortly take oath as the Chief Minister for the third time.

Unlike mainstream netas who wear kurta pajama for official ceremonies, the AAP ministers were seen dressed in casual formals pleasantly breaking the norm.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took oath as the Chief Minister of Delhi, five days after the AAP government came into power with a thumping victory in 62 seats.

After being a aprt of the Delhi Cabinet formed in 2015, Kailash Gahlot, Imran Hussain, Rajendra Pal Gautam were sworn in again as ministers at Ramlila Maidan, after oath was administered to Arvind Kejriwal.

He called it the victory of every Delhi resident, every mother, sister, youth, student and family. He added that the AAP's intent has always been to bring happiness to the lives of every Delhi resident.

Beginning with the chant of 'Bharat mata ki jai', Arvind Kejriwal addressed the thousands at Ramlila Maidan and said, "Your son has become the Chief Minister for the third time."

He added that the people of Delhi have given "birth to new politics", which involves schools, hospitals, electricity, water, good roads and women security.

"Let's work together to make Delhi progress. I am ready to work with the Centre for Delhi's betterment. I want Modi's blessing too for Delhi's vikas," he said.

"Much has to be accomplished in Delhi, but it can only be done with your support," he said, urging parties to forget all that happened during the election and the campaign period before it.

Speaking after being sworn in, Arvind Kejriwal said that he is now the Chief Minister to everyone - those who voted for the BJP, Congress and other parties too. "I am the CM for every Delhiite. You are now my family and I will work for you irrespective of class, economic status, religion and caste," he said.

At the end of the speech in which he promised the development and betterment of Delhi and thanked the people for bring him and AAP to pwoer for the third consecutive time, Arvind Kejriwal sang the song "Hum honge kamyaab" (we will succeed).

"Of the nearly 72,000 people who live here, all the children from here go to government schools. And you can just see how their lives have changed," she added.

Kalkaji MLA and senior AAP leader Atishti told FirstPost that a good education can pull someone oout of poverty and people have voted on the basis of the agenda. "For all the talk about Shaheen Bagh, and this is a constituency which is located right next to Shaheen Bagh, we share this entire border with the Okhla constituency, it is clear that people voted for education and healthcare over polarisation and divisive politics," she said.

Huge crowd gathered at Ram Leela Maidan to witness yet another historic event. Everyone is here to bless "Delhi Ka Beta" Arvind Kejriwal. #MufflermanReturns pic.twitter.com/8gvEp5cCr0

Meanwhile, huge crowds have descended upon the venue, which has been witness to iconic protests and rallies.

Chief Minister-designate Arvind Kejriwal has reached the Ramlila Maidan, along with his parents, wife and children. He will shortly take oath as the Chief Minister for the third time.

Live from #RamlilaMaidan : Delhi Chief Minister-designate Arvind Kejriwal with the 6 ministers who will take oath with him shortly. Follow special coverage on https://t.co/Fbzw6mR9Q5 and NDTV 24x7 pic.twitter.com/fN2eKI6Nt0

Unlike mainstream netas who wear kurta pajama for official ceremonies, the AAP ministers were seen dressed in casual formals pleasantly breaking the norm.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took oath as the Chief Minister of Delhi, five days after the AAP government came into power with a thumping victory in 62 seats.

After being a aprt of the Delhi Cabinet formed in 2015, Kailash Gahlot, Imran Hussain, Rajendra Pal Gautam were sworn in again as ministers at Ramlila Maidan, after oath was administered to Arvind Kejriwal.

He called it the victory of every Delhi resident, every mother, sister, youth, student and family. He added that the AAP's intent has always been to bring happiness to the lives of every Delhi resident.

Beginning with the chant of 'Bharat mata ki jai', Arvind Kejriwal addressed the thousands at Ramlila Maidan and said, "Your son has become the Chief Minister for the third time."

He added that the people of Delhi have given "birth to new politics", which involves schools, hospitals, electricity, water, good roads and women security.

"Let's work together to make Delhi progress. I am ready to work with the Centre for Delhi's betterment. I want Modi's blessing too for Delhi's vikas," he said.

"Much has to be accomplished in Delhi, but it can only be done with your support," he said, urging parties to forget all that happened during the election and the campaign period before it.

Speaking after being sworn in, Arvind Kejriwal said that he is now the Chief Minister to everyone - those who voted for the BJP, Congress and other parties too. "I am the CM for every Delhiite. You are now my family and I will work for you irrespective of class, economic status, religion and caste," he said.

Stating the criticism he has received for winning an election based on freebies, Arvind Kejriwal said, "Nature has ensured every valuable thing in the world is free, be it Mother's love, father's blessings or Shravan Kumar's dedication. I cannot charge the students of Delhi for studies. I can't charge patients visiting Delhi hospitals. The world will soon hail India. I want to work with the Centre to make Delhi number one city."

At the end of the speech in which he promised the development and betterment of Delhi and thanked the people for bring him and AAP to pwoer for the third consecutive time, Arvind Kejriwal sang the song "Hum honge kamyaab" (we will succeed).

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal Swearing-in LATEST Updates: Much has to be accomplished in Delhi, but it can only be done with your support, Arvind Kejriwal said, urging parties to forget all that happened during the election and the campaign period before it. "Let's work together to make Delhi progress. I am ready to work with the Centre for Delhi's betterment. I want Modi's blessing too for Delhi's vikas," he said.

Beginning with the chant of 'Bharat mata ki jai', Kejriwal addressed the thousands at Ramlila Maidan and said, "Your son has become the Chief Minister for the third time." He called it the victory of every Delhi resident, every mother, sister, youth, student and family. He added that the AAP's intent has always been to bring happiness to the lives of every Delhi resident.

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Delhi labour minister Gopal Rai and Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain were administered oaths by L-G Anil Baijal at Ramlila Maidan.

Kejriwal took oath as the Chief Minister of Delhi in the presence of Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal at Ramlila Maidan. Songs like 'Rang De Basanti' played at the Ramlila Maidan and posters bearing the message "Nayak 2 is back" were on display as thousands gathered for the oath-taking ceremony of Arvind Kejriwal and six other ministers of the Delhi Cabinet. Kejriwal will return to the position for a third consecutive term.

The ceremony has officially begun, TV channels report. Kejriwal has reached the venue with his wife, mother and daughter. At least, 50 people from different walks of life who are responsible for 'Delhi nirman' will share stage with Kejriwal during his swearing-in ceremony, senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia said. He said these people would include teachers, bus marshalls, architects of the Signature Bridge and families of firefighters who lost their lives.

An hour ahead of the oath-taking ceremony, Arvind Kejriwal tweeted to appeal to the people of Delhi to visit Ramlila Maidan and "bless their son". He will be taking oath as the Chief Minister for the third time. Along with him, six AAP ministers will also be sworn in.

In the ceremony that will begin at 10 am, six ministers apart from Arvind Kejriwal will also take oath. The six ministers - Manish Sisodia, Satyendra Jain, Gopal Rai, Kailash Gahlot, Imran Hussain, Rajendra Pal Gautam - were a part of the previous Delhi Cabinet too.

A police official told PTI that nearly 3,000 security personnel will be deployed for the swearing-in ceremony of Arvind Kejriwal and other Delhi ministers. CCTV cameras will be fitted at and outside the venue. Forty-five thousand chairs will be installed in Ramlila Maidan.

AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal will take the oath as Delhi chief minister for the third time along with his cabinet at the Ramlila ground at 10 am today.

Campaigning on its work in health, education, water and electricity sector, Kejriwal's party achieved a massive mandate for the second time in the Delhi Assembly election, where it won 62 of the 70 seats. Polling was held on 8 February and the results were declared on 11 February.

According to an official notification, President Ram Nath Kovind has also appointed six AAP MLAs as ministers of the Delhi government following the advice of the chief minister-designate.

The six ministers who will take oath along with Kejriwal on Sunday are: Manish Sisodia, Satyender Jain, Gopal Rai, Kailash Gehlot, Imran Hussain and Rajendra Gautam.

Sisodia said that around 50 people from different walks of life, including teachers, bus marshalls, architects of the Signature Bridge and family of firefighters who lost their lives, among others, will share the stage with Kejriwal.

Though Kejriwal extended an invitation for the ceremony to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well, he is unlikely to attend it as he is scheduled to visit his parliamentary constituency Varanasi on Sunday.

According to reports, the swearing-in ceremony is also unlikely to be attended by any Opposition leaders or chief ministers of other non-BJP leaders.

The ceremony is scheduled at the Ramlila Ground on Sunday and traffic regulation will be in place in the area from 8 am to 2 pm, the Delhi Police said.

Kejriwal calls meet

According to party functionaries, Kejriwal on Saturday called a dinner meeting of his cabinet ministers to discuss a roadmap for Delhi's development. Kejriwal is likely to discuss with his ministers initiatives that need to be prioritised and action items for the Delhi government in the coming three months.

The meeting will also focus on developing a roadmap to make Delhi a global city, they said.

'Circular is dictatorial'

The oath-taking ceremony has already been embroiled into a controversy over a Directorate of Education circular making it "compulsory" for government school teachers to attend Kejriwal's oath-taking ceremony as Delhi chief minister.

In a tweet, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, "The Aam Aadmi Party, which has won elections by making announcement of freebies, has enough MLAs but not public support."

"With the fear of people not attending the swearing-in ceremony, the government has issued a diktat to 30,000 teachers to mandatorily attend," he added.

Delhi Congress's chief spokesperson Mukesh Sharma took to Twitter to say, "A government order has been issued asking government school teachers to reach at the Arvind Kejriwal government's oath-taking ceremony. It is clear that power is being 'misused' to gather a crowd for the swearing-in ceremony."

Sharma urged Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal to take cognisance of it.

Newly-elected BJP MLA Vijender Gupta wrote to Kejriwal on Saturday requesting him to withdraw the circular.

Gupta, Leader of Opposition in the previous Assembly, called the Friday's circular "dictatorial" that shattered his belief that Kejriwal's focus after coming back to power would be on governance and strengthening democratic ethos.

"By virtue of the order, 15,000 teachers and officials will have to attend the oath ceremony," Gupta wrote in his letter to Kejriwal.

Gupta, who has been re-elected from Rohini constituency, said he would attend Kejriwal's oath taking ceremony.

Reacting to Gupta's objection, the vice-chairman of Delhi Dialogue and Development Commission, Jasmine Shah, said teachers and principals were "architects" of Delhi's transformation in the past five years and they "deserved to be invited" for the swearing-in ceremony.

"When did BJP last think of teachers in at the centre of your 'vikas' (development) model? Never did, never will," Shah tweeted.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged the eight seats in the 70-member Assembly while the Congress drew a blank for the second consecutive time.
Former United States Vice President and current Democratic Presidential candidate, Joe Biden on Feb 15 recalled the deadliest mass shooting incident in the country's history as he addressed his supporters in the state of Nevada. While addressing the crowd at the Tropicana casino-resort in Las Vegas, standing roughly 1,000 feet away from the ground where the incident took place in 2017, Biden targetted his rival Bernie Sanders for his past vote to exempt gun manufacturers from liability for shootings.

Biden was the only one to mention the incident, wherein a gunman had unleashed a torrent of gunfire on a country music festival. Biden, in his speech, charged against the National Rifle Association along with gun manufacturers and vowed that if he becomes the President of the United States, he would hold gun makers accountable.

When Im the president, well take them on, remove the immunity and allow those parents who are trying now to sue for the pain and mayhem they have caused, Biden reportedly said on stage.

Read - NH Results Don't Worry SC Biden Supporters

However, Biden did not mention the United States Senator Bernie Sanders' name while referring to a 2005 federal law that shields the gun manufacturers from liability from most crimes. But he mentioned that some people running for office voted for that exemption.

Ladies and gentlemen that immunity was granted. Granted. And it was a horrible, horrible decision, Biden said, as per international media reports.

Read - Biden Moves On To SC: Fight Is 'just Beginning'

Democratic frontrunners for White House

While Biden tried to strengthen his campaign by mentioning the mass shooting, US Senator Bernie Sanders and Afghanistan veteran Pete Buttigieg have emerged as the new Democratic frontrunners in the White House race against the Republican US President Donald Trump.

Sanders claimed victory on February 12 in New Hampshire primary with 26% votes and former mayor of South Bend finished second with 24% votes. Last week, Buttigieg narrowly beat Sanders in the Iowa caucuses and with the two again finishing as the top two candidates among Democrats.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden reportedly tried to sound optimistic after his drowning campaign took a hit and coming in fifth place after Elizabeth Warren. Presently, there are nine Democratic candidates left in the race who will now shift their focus to primaries in Nevada on February 22, South Carolina on February 29. It will then be followed by Super Tuesday on March 3 and March 14 when the states will hold their primaries.

Read - Democrat Joe Biden Calls Himself underdog In New Hampshire

Read - Clinton Mocks Bernie Sanders' Tuition-free College Plan; Compares It To 'chocolate Milk'

(With AP inputs)
Nigerian superstar and Grammy nominee, Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu, better known as Burna Boy has reiterated that hes the best among his peer...

 If you know you danced or sang along to any Burna Boy song Or you was at any of my Shows turning up anytime from 2012-2018 and you are following these Spineless Olodos to say Ive only been here 2years or your following them to rejoice and wish me bad  Burna Boy (@burnaboy) February 15, 2020

Remember I Told you I was the African Giant and most of you laughed and said I should be grateful for small fonts. I pray that you Learn from me, I mean this in no bragging way and the Wise know that the Future of Africa depends on the kind of strength and resilience i Show.  Burna Boy (@burnaboy) February 15, 2020

You say thank God he didnt win. Because I say the Truth? And because of your twisted Fake views on humility. Ive been out here With My Family since 2012 going through unspeakable things just to get here against ALL ODDS.  Burna Boy (@burnaboy) February 15, 2020

I repeat. Nobody that is not Fela or My Family can EVER say they paved any way for me. Fuck you!  Burna Boy (@burnaboy) February 15, 2020

Nigerian superstar and Grammy nominee, Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu, better known as Burna Boy has reiterated that hes the best among his peers and no one who is not Fela or his family paved the way for him.The African Giant stated this following a twitter backlash after he declared himself the best and the one who brought Afrobeat genre to the mainstream where it is currently enjoying the western recognition.Burna said, Fact! I always knew I was and I am THE BEST since Fela Kuti. But @timayatimaya told me something a long time ago that made me not care about being the best. The World can do without the Best the world will still spin regardless.During his rant on his Twitter page, on Wednesday 12th, 2020, Burna Boy came for other artistes, among other things, he claimed that Nigerian artists were pretentious. Nigerians quickly called him out for his tweets.However, Burna boy has insisted that he did everything alone with his family, adding that he means no bragging way and the wise know that the Future of Africa depends on the kind of strength and resilience i Show.The Ye crooner also said he is aware many artistes are now happy for not winning the Grammy Award because he said the truth, adding that hes been going through unspeakable things since 2012 just to get here against all odds. If you know you danced or sang along to any Burna Boy song Or you was at any of my Shows turning up anytime from 2012-2018 and you are following these Spineless Olodos to say Ive only been here 2years or your following them to rejoice and wish me bad.I repeat. Nobody that is not Fela or My Family can EVER say they paved any way for me. Fvck you!
Doctors are fighting an application by global tobacco giant Philip Morris International to sell its "heat not burn" products in Australia, warning there is "no evidence" the product is any safer than smoking cigarettes.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and Australian Medical Association have written to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, asking the regulator to reject the application until the health impacts have been properly studied.

"Claims that heat not burn products pose a lower risk to health due to their milder exposure to toxicants have recently been refuted," college president Harry Nespolon said in a letter to the regulator, seen by the Herald and The Age.

Philip Morris International wants to sell its heated tobacco products in Australia as an alternative to cigarettes. Credit:Bloomberg

Dr Nespolon said the company's assertion that its new product was safe bore "similarities to earlier, and now illegal marketing campaigns by tobacco companies that promoted light and mild cigarettes and, filtered and low-tar cigarettes, as posing a lower health risk".
Biden didn't cite Sanders by name when referring to a 2005 federal law that shields gun makers from liability in most crimes, but said, "some of the people running for office voted for that exemption". "Ladies and gentlemen that immunity was granted. Granted. And it was a horrible, horrible decision," he said. Earlier on Saturday, the fiery progressive senator went on the offensive against his moderate competitors for accepting campaign cash from billionaires, although he declined to go after his opponents by name. "Democracy is not candidates going to the homes of billionaires raising money," Sanders charged during a rally at a suburban Las Vegas high school. Both Biden and Pete Buttigieg have aggressively courted wealthy donors over the past year. Buttigieg met with donors behind closed doors in Seattle at roughly the same time Sanders made the comments.

It was a familiar line of attack in a relatively unfamiliar setting as the 2020 primary contest descended upon Nevada for a weekend of frenzied campaigning, coloured by mobile campaign billboards cruising the Las Vegas strip and a diverse set of voters weighing in for the first time. While the state's formal presidential caucuses are still a week away, Democrats opened the first of four days of early voting across more than 80 locations. State party officials at some sites across Nevada were overwhelmed by long lines. In northern Nevada's Washoe County, a line of more than 300 people snaked through aisles of book shelves at a public library as another 100 queued up at the county party's headquarters. Dozens left without voting. A spokeswoman for the Nevada Democrats, Molly Forgey, downplayed concerns related to the large early turnout as the political world anxiously watched from afar less than two weeks after Iowa's presidential caucuses turned disastrous.

"We are happy to see the number of energised Democrats participating in our first ever early voting period," Forgey said, noting that early voters have four days to participate. "Our volunteers and staff are working to make every site runs as efficiently as possible and to ensure every voter gets to make their voice heard." Early votes cast on paper ballots will be added to in-person caucus votes made on February 22, when Democrats will attend about 2000 precinct meetings around the state. The Nevada State Democratic Party abandoned its plans to use an app like the one that caused trouble in Iowa and has scrambled to come up with a new system to tabulate results. Amid heightened concern over the process, several candidates were making urgent get-out-the-vote pushes with rallies and town halls ahead of a fundraising gala for the Las Vegas-based Clark County Democratic Party to feature a half-dozen White House hopefuls. Biden, looking to Nevada's diverse electorate to help revive his campaign after weak finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, seized on President Donald Trump's hard-line policy and incendiary rhetoric on immigration as he courted voters. "Everybody knows how Donald Trump is. We gotta let him know who we are," Biden said, drawing a roar from about 100 campaign volunteers gathered at a Las Vegas middle school gymnasium for a Latino organising event.

Biden thanked the volunteers, emphasised the importance of the Latino vote and touted his relationships with unions. He later told reporters he didn't need to win Nevada's caucuses to mount a comeback. "I just have to do well," the former vice-president said when asked what he needs out of the state. Asked whether he has to win, he replied, "No, I don't think I have to, but I think we have a shot at winning." Former senator Harry Reid, an icon in Nevada's Democratic politics, told reporters that "people should not be counting Joe Biden out of the race yet," but also offered warm words for Sanders' candidacy. When asked he downplayed concerns from some Democrats that Sanders might hurt other candidates should he become the nominee. "I care a great deal about Bernie Sanders. And he has gotten where he has by having people support him," said the 80-year-old Reid. "And so I'm not going to be critical of Bernie Sanders." Elizabeth Warren, meanwhile, also reeling after a weak performance last week in New Hampshire, looked to Nevada's women for momentum.

Loading The Massachusetts senator pitched her universal childcare plan as she addressed about 30 people, mostly women, at a downtown Las Vegas reggae and cocktail bar. After being introduced by actress Yvette Nicole Brown, Warren said her childcare plan would be paid for by a wealth tax of 2 on every dollar for fortunes of more than $US50 million ($74 million). "It's good for our babies," Warren said. "Think about what it means for every mama. Every mama who can now finish her education, even if she's just had a baby. Every mama and every daddy who could take a job." Mike Bloomberg, who isn't competing in Nevada as part of a strategy to skip the first four states voting for a nominee, was on the cusp of qualifying for Wednesday's presidential debate in La Vegas. The billionaire businessman and former New York mayor has increasingly become a target of the Democratic Party's far-left wing as national polls show suggest he is on the rise. Both Warren and Sanders criticised the role of big money in politics and billionaires seeking the presidency. Bloomberg and Tom Steyer are in that category.
Keir Starmer has insisted that Labour had the right Brexit policy despite the party suffering a crushing defeat at the December general election.

The shadow Brexit secretary, who is currently favourite to replace Jeremy Corbyn as the partys leader, said on Sunday he still backed the policy despite the heavy defeat.

I thought it was the right policy, he told Skys Sophy Ridge on Sunday.

I thought we should have gone on, by the way, and said which side we would be campaigning on if there was a referendum.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn (right) alongside shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer during an election press conference in central London. (PA)

And I warned our party that if we looked indecisive, we wouldnt look like we were leading on this issue.

When asked if he still supported the policy, Mr Starmer replied: Yes, of course, because what we were doing, we were fighting against a deal that we thought would be very damaging for our country.

On Friday Mr Starmers closest opponent Rebecca Long-Bailey  dubbed by her critics the continuity candidate for her closeness to Mr Corbyn  urged the party not to row back from the popular policies found in its election manifesto.

She said: Retreating from popular policies that provide answers to the crises facing our country is no route to victory.

READ MORE FROM YAHOO NEWS UK:

Despite her comments, Ms Long-Bailey has previously confirmed she would ditch elements of the defeated manifesto.

Along with the other three candidates in the contest, she admitted on BBC Newsnight that she would not pursue blocking a rise in the retirement age or introducing a four-day working week.

She does, however, support re-nationalising industries such as rail, water and energy, while also scrapping university tuition fees.

The shadow business secretary announced to supporters in Salford that she would look to build a counter-narrative to what she branded deliberate efforts in the press to keep Labour and its left-wing policies from power.
Cyprus' President Nicos Anastasiades, center, and Mustafa Akinci, centre right, the leader of the ethnically divided island's breakaway Turkish Cypriots, attend an exhibition of culturally significant paintings and audio visual recordings that were recently exchanged as part of an effort to boost confidence between the ethnically divided island nation's two communities, at the Ledra Palace Hotel inside the UN controlled buffer zone in divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, Feb. 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP)  Defaulted loans are a prime economic issue for Cyprus, which since a 2013 financial crisis has seen overdue payments weigh on consumers and banks. Yet a government scheme to ease the problem has not been embraced by borrowers as hoped.

Just over 5,600 applications to the ESTIA scheme were submitted by the Dec. 31 cut-off date, about half of what authorities had expected. Of those, only 1,200 applications were complete.

That accounts for 1.7 billion euros ($1.9 billion) in bad loans, compared with the 9.8 billion euros overall saddling the banking sector - almost a third of all loans.

The sum is still not insignificant for a country like Cyprus, which has the second highest private debt level in Europe.

The government came up with the relief scheme to deal with the toughest batch of the banks bad loan portfolio, loans collateralized with the debtors home.

Those seeking help are given the chance to save their homes - with an estimated value of 350,000 euros and under - from foreclosure.

The Cypriot finance ministry said the low number of applications was possibly owed to a perception that the government would come up with a more generous scheme down later, though officials have repeatedly denied they would.

Another reason is a reluctance by strategic defaulters to disclose their financial information, like their income and assets both domestic and abroad so as not to enable banks to go after them.

Some banking and government officials said that the scheme had the upshot in weeding out debtors who are purposely shirking their obligations - so-called strategic defaulters - from those who really want government help.

We will not, and should not, protect strategic defaulters, nor should we protect those who free ride on the plight of the undeserving to protect their lifestyle by living beyond their means," Panicos Nicolaou, the chief executive of the countrys largest bank, Bank of Cyprus, told The Associated Press.
Excited passengers disembark from the MS Westerdam. The cruise ship arrived in Cambodia on February 14, 2020 after being stranded for two weeks.

More tests are needed to confirm that an American passenger from a cruise ship docked in Cambodia has the new coronavirus after she tested positive in Malaysia, the MS Westerdam's operator said on Sunday.

The 83-year-old woman was the first passenger from the MS Westerdam, operated by Carnival Corp unit Holland America, to test positive for the virus.

"While the first results have been reported, they are preliminary at this point and we are awaiting secondary testing for confirmation," Holland America said in a statement.

Cambodian authorities called on Malaysia to review its test results.

Holland America said 236 passengers and 747 crew remained aboard the vessel, which is docked in the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville.

It arrived on Thursday carrying 1,455 passengers and 802 crew. It had spent two weeks at sea after being turned away by Japan, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines and Thailand.

The passengers were tested regularly on board and Cambodia also tested 20 once it docked. None was found to have the new coronavirus that has killed more than 1,500 people, the vast majority in China.

The American woman flew to Malaysia on Friday from Cambodia along with 144 others from the ship, the Malaysian health ministry said in a statement, adding that she was in stable condition.

The woman's husband had shown symptoms but tested negative, it said. The couple were the only ones among the 145 to show symptoms, the ministry said.

Cambodia's government said its own tests had been done in collaboration with the World Health Organisation and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The Ministry of Health requests the Malaysian authorities to review the results of the test," Cambodia's Ministry of Health said in statement.

There are widespread fears that cruise ships around Asia may be spreading the virus. The biggest cluster outside China has been on the Diamond Princess, quarantined off Japan's Yokohama. Out of about 3,700 passengers and crew on board, 285 people have tested positive and been sent to hospital.

Vietnam turned back two ships on Friday.

The American woman's case brings the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Malaysia to 22.

An 80-year-old Chinese tourist infected with the coronavirus has died in France, the first fatality in Europe and the fourth outside mainland China.

Most of the deaths so far have been in the central Chinese province of Hubei, where the virus is believed to have originated at a wildlife market.
New Delhi, Feb 16 : Vodafone Idea is currently assessing the AGR dues and will pay this in the next few days, the company has said in an exchange filing.

"We wish to inform that post the hearing yesterday, the company has received letters from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) directing immediate payment," Vodafone Idea said in a regulatory filing.

"The company proposes to pay the amount so assessed in the next few days. As disclosed in the company's financial statements for the quarter ending December 31, 2019, the company's ability to continue as a going concern is essentially dependent on a positive outcome of the application for modification of the Supplementary Order", it said.

The company is currently assessing the amount that it will be able to pay to DoT and it proposes to pay the amount so assessed in the next few days, Vodafone Idea said.

Though the company said it will pay up but the fact that it has again mentioned the company's ability to continue as a going concern is essentially dependent on a positive outcome of the application for modification of the Supplementary Order, also raises doubts over its long term ability over sustaining on account of huge losses and paying such large amount of dues.

The company did not disclose how it plans to raise the money and how much it would pay. This comes after the Supreme Court on Friday slammed mobile service operators and the department of telecommunications (DoT) for failing to comply with its verdict, which mandated telecom companies to pay the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues of over Rs 1 trillion to the DoT by January 23.

This came as a fresh blow for Vodafone Idea and doubts were being raised over its continuation as a going concern. As per DoT calculations, Airtel has to pay Rs 35,500 crore, Tata Teleservices has to pay Rs 14,000 crore and Vodafone Idea's dues are Rs 53,000 crore.

Airtel told DoT on Friday it will deposit Rs 10,000 crore by February 20 and for rest before the next hearing of March 17. But much of the focus is on Vodafone Idea as its extremely weak financial position with the latest Q3 losses over Rs 6,000 crore, Rs 1.20 lakh crore debt, declining customer base and revenues. Its chairman K.M. Birla has sounded out multiple times that if it doesn't get any relief from government it will have to look at shutting operations. One of the parents of VIL - UK-based Vodafone has already ruled out any equity infusion in VIL.

Vodafone Idea owes DoT over Rs 53,000 crore.
Angel Aldana had come a long way since he arrived in the United States more than two decades earlier.

The Mexican immigrant from Birmingham found himself outside the White House  as close as hed ever come to the seat of American power. Yet he felt further from it than he ever had before. Aldanas daughter had invited him to attend a 2016 Cinco de Mayo celebration. Armed with an invitation from President Barack Obama himself, she asked her father along as her guest.

But Aldana worried about his status as an undocumented immigrant.

I thought, maybe when they check my background, they say you are in proceedings so you cannot go, or you are not documented so you cannot go, Aldana said. I was sad, but at the same time I said let my son go. I stayed outside at the dinner.

This week, those worried became a thing of the past after an immigration judge in Atlanta ruled the 49-year-old should be allowed to remain in the country. The rare cancellation of removal  a kind of Hail Mary of legal arguments - only succeeds in 1 to 2 percent of cases.

I feel free, like theyve taken a lot of weight and uncertainty from me, Aldana said.

That relief only happened because of all the bad breaks that came before, the heartache, illness and graft that tested Aldanas character but never seemed to break it. The long journey began in 1991, when he traveled from Hidalgo, Mexico to Arizona in search of a better life.

After a few years as a farm laborer, Aldana moved to Birmingham and found work in Chinese restaurants. The owners offered housing to immigrant workers, who often found themselves shut out of the rental market.

He settled in Birmingham and fell in love with a woman who was also from Hidalgo. They had two children together but, after 10 years, the relationship fell apart. Aldana took custody of both children, a boy and a girl.

Single fatherhood proved difficult. His son was only two, and Aldana worked 12 hours days to provide for his family, patching together childcare from a network of neighbors and friends.

Then after several years of health issues, his son received a rare diagnosis: Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome. The disorder affects the blood vessels and soft tissues, and Aldanas son underwent several surgeries to address complications from the disorder. He traveled between Birmingham and Boston to see specialists treating the poorly understood condition.

Since both of his children were citizens, Aldana decided to hire a lawyer and pursue legal status. He turned to attorney Douglas Cooner, who filed an asylum claim for Aldana. The trouble was that Aldana didnt qualify for asylum, since hed already been in the country for more than a year and hadnt fled violence or persecution. Cooner had made similar claims for other clients in several other cases.

He was filing these kind of shell asylum cases and that would come with a work permit, said Jessica Vosburgh, an attorney and executive director of Adelante Alabama, an immigrant rights organization. So you would think he was doing a good job.

In reality, Cooner made things worse for many of his clients. He put them on the radar of immigration authorities, then ignored hearings, putting many in danger of deportation  including Aldana.

The busy father, who spent much of his spare time volunteering at church and in the immigrant community, found out hed been hoodwinked after seeing Cooner on the news. His attorney had been charged with theft and the unauthorized practice of law. By then, deportation proceedings had begun for Aldana.

Thats when Vosburgh stepped in. Shed known Aldana for years and realized his personal struggles, plus his strengths as a pillar of the immigrant community, might make him a good candidate for a narrow form of immigration relief. If she could prove his removal would cause extreme and exceptionally unusual hardship to his citizen children, he might be allowed to stay.

The federal government caps the number of cancellations of removal at 4,000 every year. Charles Kuck, an Atlanta-based immigration attorney, has handled hundreds of these cases, and said they are exceptionally difficult to prove.

Basically it has to be a situation where it would be unconscionable to remove this person from the country, Kuck said.

Many immigrants who have established strong roots in the United States put their citizenship hopes on the long shot claim, but few clear the high bar set by law. And those who fail have no other recourse.

Nope. Youre gone, Kuck said.

Simply proving his necessity wouldnt be enough. Aldana also had to show evidence of excellent character and documentation of at least 10 years of residency.

Its very hard to prove to immigration you are a good person, Aldana said. We can be a very good person in Alabama and the United States and its still very hard. Sometimes I get angry because we do everything, we work hard, we pay taxes, we do everything. And not because we want something back, but because it is our home.

Dozens of friends wrote letters in support of Aldana, who also scoured his records for receipts from the 1990s to establish the length of his residency. Vosburgh used the evidence to request a cancellation of removal, which would end deportation and allow Aldana to live and work legally in the United States, putting him on the path to citizenship.

A few years ago, this kind of relief existed in a much broader way, Vosburgh said. But over the years Congress limited it and the courts, especially courts like Atlanta, have interpreted it in a way that sets an incredibly high standard.

Vosburgh and Aldana pleaded his case in the court with the highest denial rates in the country. About 95 percent of the immigrants tried there end up deported.

Aldanas case hinged on evidence of his good character and expert testimony about the severity of his sons condition, Vosburgh said. Although he was an ideal candidate  the case wasnt a slam dunk. Aldana waited about a year-and-a-half from his hearing in 2018 to last weeks decision.

These days, he isnt thinking about visiting the White House as a guest, but actively helping to determine who lives there as president. In five years, if he applies for citizenship, Aldana would be eligible to vote.

It was sort of the perfect situation in the end, from being screwed over by this lawyer  and you can only apply for this kind of relief in immigration court, Vosburgh said. Its just sort of a last ditch. But the beauty of it is its not just getting someone out of immigration proceedings, Angel now has a green card. He will be able to vote. If anyone deserves it, its him.

Its a happy ending for Aldana, but his situation highlights the challenge for everyone else.

Were really happy for Angel, Vosburgh said. Sadly there are people who do have deep ties who are being denied.
School choice funding may be a partisan issue from Washington, D.C., to Harrisburg, but its not for parents who want the best for their kids, says U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey.

Toomey, R-Pa., visited Allentown on Friday to push for passage of a Republican proposal offering tax incentives to businesses and individuals who donate to a new $5 billion scholarship program.

Sacred Heart School, 325 N. Fourth St., hosted the visit, with Principal James Krupka explaining that the entire student population -- 84% Hispanic and 11% black -- receives scholarship assistance through Pennsylvanias Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit Program or Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program.

But what they receive only funds part of the familys financial costs, Krupka said.

Among the nearly 10,000 students who attend Diocese of Allentown schools, the two state programs provide $3.4 million to 2,800 families, said Superintendent for Catholic Education Philip Fromuth. The real need is closer to $12 million, he said.

"These two programs work," Fromuth allowed. "The children succeed. And the opportunities provided to our youth will guide them for a lifetime."

But that need to do more led to a swipe at Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf from President Donald Trump during the State of the Union Address earlier this month. About 30 minutes in, the Republican president identified a mother and daughter from Philadelphia in the audience to criticize the Democratic governor for vetoing a bill to increase the states tax credit programs by $100 million, PennLive.com reports.

What was missing was the compromise Wolf reached to increase the programs cap by $25 million, hailed by the conservative Commonwealth Foundation as the programs largest-ever increase, according to PennLive.

Earlier on the day of the State of the Union, Wolf had made waves among school choice supporters with his 2020-21 budget address. He called on lawmakers to establish a flat tuition rate for all cyber charter schools and apply the same formula used to distribute special education dollars to school districts to the states charter schools, according to PennLive. The result would save school districts $280 million at the expense of charter schools.

Wolfs budget also proposes full-day kindergarten for all public schools along with shifting subsidies for the horse-racing industry to a $200 million-a-year scholarship program for low- and middle-income state-system students who stay in-state after they graduate.

Toomey, on Friday, rejected the argument that charter schools are siphoning away money from public schools.

"I don't think it's a valid criticism because allowing money to follow the child to the school that their parents choose also means that you're diminishing the total enrollment in the public schools," he said. "So, of course, it would follow that they don't need as much money if the child is being educated somewhere else."

The Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act was first introduced a year ago, with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas among the Republican co-sponsors along with Toomey.

The proposal is an alternative to lifting the cap on Pennsylvania's education tax credit programs as a means to help families who don't want to send their children to the public school where they live, Toomey argued.

"That's why I'm really pleased that President Trump emphasized the importance of school choice at his State of the Union Address and specifically he promoted legislation that I've introduced with Ted Cruz," he said.

Similar to Pennsylvanias programs, the proposal would reduce donors federal tax obligation by $1 for every $1 they give toward eligible scholarship programs. Thats not the same as public school districts sharing their tax dollars with charter schools, he noted. It would be available to families to send students to the school of their choice, to public school parents to offset the costs of a tutor or educational software and to adults for worker training at a community college or technical school.

Pennsylvania could see an additional $150 million in scholarships under the proposal, Toomey said.

"The fact is every single child deserves a first-quality education and getting the right education for a child shouldn't depend on the child's ZIP code or the parents' income," Toomey sad. "And we've got some great public schools in Pennsylvania and across our country, but not every public school is a good fit for a child that lives within the radius that that school draws from."

"That's really what school choice is all about: It's allowing a parent to make the decision about what's best for their child," he said.

Toomey said no Democrats have signed on to the bill that expires with the of the 2019-20 legislative session, and admitted it may be hard to pass as the 2020 election season ramps up.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
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In the heartland of America, there is corruption. At Indiana University last week they celebrated the 4th Annual Sex Fest. They defended this foray into degrading sex by saying, "Our public health researchers have found some evidence to suggest that people are engaging in a broader range of sexual activities and as a result, it is the IU Health Center's mission to make sure they practice it safely."

Campus Reform noted (2/6/20), The second night offereddemonstrations, including a man whipping a tied up woman in public.

It was reported that students could choose from an appalling list that included bondage, exhibitionism, and a host of other deviant behaviors.

These things took place at Indiana University  the headquarters of the Kinsey Institute. This is the school where Dr. Alfred Kinsey taught, until he died in 1956.

Kinseys research and books launched the sexual revolution. His research is taken as gospel by many. While in college, a virgin Methodist, Hugh Hefner, thought Kinseys work was scientific, so he abandoned his religion and enthusiastically became Kinseys pamphleteer.

But the devastating scam perpetrated by Kinseys research is detailed by his most persistent critic, Dr. Judith Reisman, author of Kinsey, Sex, and Fraud. Speaking of Kinseys research, she told me, I dont call it flawed. I call it fraud. She said he was purposefully deceitful. She notes Kinsey did 86% of his research during World War II. This was a very disruptive time, and the people free to talk about their sex lives were not representative of the population as a whole during normal times.

Many of the subjects he interviewed about their sexual lives were prisoners. How is that a typical population to draw from? He also interviewed a lot of prostitutes  and, surprise!  his results showed shocking amounts of promiscuity. That too is not a representative sample.

In short, Kinsey had an atypical sample of the population reporting on their sexual behavior, which he pawned off as if it were a typical sample. Everybodys doing it, may have been true of his sample, but not the wider population. Even worse, Kinsey cites the research of pedophiles who allegedly sexually tortured children and included the data in his book, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (Tables 30-34).

Dr. Reisman, author of many books exposing Kinseys fraudulent research, has founded her own institute for the purpose of exposing such baloney.

In one of the articles for the Reisman Institute, writer Jonathon van Maren, spoke of Kinseys two books, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Female (1953): These books revealed to a shocked and somewhat titillated population things they had never known about themselves: That between 30-45% of men had affairs, 85% of men had had sex prior to marriage, that a staggering 70% of men had slept with prostitutes, and that between 10 and 37% of men had engaged in homosexual behavior.

Van Maren adds, To begin with, the integrity of much of his work has long since been called into question: among his questionable practices, Kinsey encouraged those he was working with to engage in all types of sexual activity as a form of research, misrepresented single people as married, and hugely over represented incarcerated sex criminals and prostitutes in his data. But beyond this is the simple fact that Kinsey himself was a pervert and a sex criminal.

Yet Kinseys fraudulent figures came to be considered normal  and our culture has been living down to them ever since.

Reisman has spent decades uncovering and documenting fraud in sex science and education and says it is time for the U.S. Congress investigate Kinseys research. Reisman, in conjunction with Rhonda Miller, president of the Indiana Liberty Coalition, have issued a Call to Investigate Indiana Universitys Kinsey Institute (Feb. 7, 2020). Part of the reason for the call is that the Kinsey Institute has received more than $20 million in federal funds (from 1986-2012).

In their Call, they note that 18,000 alleged interviews were done by the Kinsey Institute, but they secretly purged over 12,000 of these alleged interviews, violating all scientific protocol and standards.

They also state: Based on this defective research, the American Law Institute Model Penal Code was rewritten to lighten or remove penalties for sexual abuse of children and adults, ostensibly to lower the rate of sex crimes. By the late 1970s, most state legislators had weakened or eliminated protective laws and later exempted schools and libraries from obscenity laws.

They even recommend that Congress conduct an in depth investigation of the Kinsey Institute, including opening the Kinsey vault to determine if there has been fraud or criminal wrongdoing.

It is sad to see how degraded America has become, and I agree with Dr. Judith Reisman that Kinsey has a lot to do with that degradation.
Sir Elton John has said he was deeply upset and sorry for cutting short a concert in New Zealand after being diagnosed with walking pneumonia.

The music star, 72, was performing at Aucklands Mount Smart Stadium on Sunday when he lost his voice and broke down in tears on stage.

In footage shared by fans on social media, Sir Elton is seen crying as he is escorted from the stage while thousands of concert-goers give him a standing ovation.

Sir Elton posted on Instagram a short while later: I want to thank everyone who attended tonights gig in Auckland.

I was diagnosed with walking pneumonia earlier today, but I was determined to give you the best show humanly possible.

I played and sang my heart out, until my voice could sing no more.

Im disappointed, deeply upset and sorry. I gave it all I had.

Thank-you so much for your extraordinary support and all the love you showed me during tonights performance. I am eternally grateful. Love, Elton xx.

He shared a picture of himself accompanied on the stage by a member of the crew.

According to one fan on social media, Sir Elton had told the audience earlier in the show: My voice has completely gone, Im so sorry.

He was tended to by a medic for around five minutes earlier in the set and continued to play before he was forced to stop completely.

Story continues

Following his departure from the stage, one fan tweeted: Sir Elton John  you gave it everything you had  so sad you had to finish your concert in Auckland an hour early after your voice gave out.

Hope you feel better soon.

Lesley Warwick, from Auckland, who attended Sir Eltons concert, told the PA news agency: I was so sad for Sir Elton  the show was fantastic and he gave it everything he had.

Before his first song he forewarned the audience that he had been diagnosed with walking pneumonia earlier in the day but he was going to give it his best shot to get through the show.

Kiwis are a very understanding and compassionate lot  he was given a standing ovation as he left the stage. Dont Go Breaking My Heart played and the audience sang the lyrics as he left.

Elton John has broken down on stage in Auckland: My voice has completely gone Im so sorry  Stewart Sowman-Lund (@StewartLundNZ) February 16, 2020

Sir Elton is due to perform two more concerts in Auckland on Tuesday and Thursday as part of his last ever tour, Farewell Yellow Brick Road.

According to the American Lung Association, walking pneumonia is a non-medical term for a mild case of pneumonia.

Generally called atypical pneumonia, it can be caused by bacteria or viruses and symptoms, including a cough, fever, chest pain, mild chills and a headache, are similar to that of a bad cold.

Symptoms are usually mild enough for a sufferer to be able to continue their daily activities.

Sir Eltons Auckland show came less than a week after he won an Oscar along with his long-time writing partner Bernie Taupin for best original song for their Rocketman track (Im Gonna) Love Me Again.
Love Island bosses entered crisis talks on Sunday, as they decide whether to continue with the show or axe it for good in light of Caroline Flack's death.

Saturday night's instalment of the ITV2 dating show was pulled from the air, following the news that the show's erstwhile host had died by suicide at her north London home aged 40 just hours earlier.

And with just contestants having just seven days left in the villa before the grand final is scheduled to air on February 23, executives are now working to hammer out a definitive plan on how to handle the ratings juggernaut going forward.

Talks: Love Island bosses entered crisis talks on Sunday, to decide whether to continue with the show or axe it in light of Caroline Flack 's death. The star died by suicide on Saturday

Financial Times' Mark Di Stefano took to Twitter on Sunday afternoon to report that bosses at ITV were locked in meetings to discuss how best to respond to the TV personality's tragic death.

He wrote: 'ITV execs and programme makers are meeting now to discuss how to respond to Caroline Flack's death. Told to expect more information this afternoon on tonight's episode of Love Island and the long-term.'

MailOnline has also learned that contestants on the show have yet to be informed by show executives of Flack's tragic death.

Silence: MailOnline has also learned that contestants on the show have yet to be informed by show executives of Flack's tragic death. Pictured are Luke Trotman and Siannise Fudge

Meetings: Financial Times' Mark Di Stefano took to Twitter on Sunday to report that bosses at ITV were locked in meetings to discuss how best to respond to the TV star's tragic death

The contestants are the first to take part in the show's winter series in South Africa, which has been presented by Laura Whitmore after Flack stepped down following her arrest on suspicion of assaulting her boyfriend Lewis Burton, 27.

Her next court date regarding the charges was scheduled for March 4.

Flack tragically took her own life at her north London home while the friend who was staying with her 'popped out' to the shops.

It came just hours after she found out she would face trial next month, despite Mr Burton claiming he wanted to drop the charges.

A Love Island source on Sunday told MailOnline it's 'business as usual' in the villa, with contestants completely unaware the former host took her own life.

Tragic: Flack, pictured in 2018, tragically took her own life at her north London home while the friend who was staying with her 'popped out' to the shops

Saturday night's highlights show was cancelled as a mark of respect, but there is no indication that the rest of the show will go off air.

A spokesman for the show said on Saturday: 'Everybody at Love Island and ITV is shocked and saddened by this desperately sad news.'

The 40-year-old is the third person involved with the hit series to kill themselves.

Sophie Gradon was found dead at the age of 32 in 2018, while the body of Mike Thalassitis, 26, was discovered near his home in 2019.

On Sunday, the hashtag #cancelloveisland was trending on Twitter, with several calling for the programme to be taken off air as The Jeremy Kyle Show was following the death of a guest.

Stepped down: Flack stepped down following her arrest on suspicion of assaulting her boyfriend Lewis Burton, 27. Pictured together in October 2019

Another show Flack recorded for Channel 4, The Surjury, has been cancelled as a mark of respect.

The new series, which was set to see participants go under the knife if they were given the thumbs-up by a 12-strong jury, was set to air later in 2020.

A spokesperson for Channel 4 told Metro: 'We are shocked and saddened to hear the tragic news about Caroline Flack.

'Our deepest sympathies go out to Caroline's family and friends. Under the circumstances, we have decided not to broadcast The Surjury.'

Court: The star's next court was scheduled for March 4. Pictured at London's Highbury Corner Magistrates Court on December 23, 2019

ITV and Love Island producers have already come under scrutiny for prompting that decision, with many questioning what support they gave her.

Reality shows have been warned by Ofcom that they have a duty of care towards their stars.

Speaking on Sky News's Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps echoed the TV regulator, saying 'the duty of care should be considered' over Flack's death.

But he warned: 'Clearly people making these programmes do have a duty of care, not just to contestants but to presenters as well.

'But I don't want to jump to conclusions. We know there were circumstances involved here.'

Pal: The contestants are the first to take part in the show's winter series in South Africa, which has been presented by Laura Whitmore after Flack stepped down. Pictured in January 2019

The former presenter has been described by friends as feeling 'on her own' and that she 'couldn't see a way out'.

They claim she was struggling with her mental health and using anti-depressants before her death.

Among Flack's final Twitter likes was a post advertising suicide prevention services at Christmas, which read: 'Hard time of year for a lot of folks.

'Suicide Hotline 116 123 (Samaritans) A simple copy and paste might save someone's life. If you are struggling, please please talk to someone. XXX'

MailOnline has contacted ITV for comment.

If you have been affected by this story, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org
When Kent Garrett enrolled as a freshman at Harvard in 1959, he did so with 17 other African-Americans, the largest number of black students in one class at the school up to that time. We were headed for a campus, he writes in The Last Negroes at Harvard, that in the 1920s barred Negroes from the dormitories and had a branch of the Ku Klux Klan. Garrett went on to a career in TV news production. After retirement, he became interested in the fates of those who had been in his class, who saw the 1950s give way to the unrest and transformative changes of the following decade. With his partner and co-author, Jeanne Ellsworth, Garrett did extensive traveling to meet up with the alumni and learn what had happened to them in all the years since they were together on campus. The book is written in Garretts first-person voice for clarity, but he stresses in the introduction that there is hardly a word or idea here that isnt the product of our collaboration. Below, Garrett talks about confirming the number of his classmates, a filmmaker and friend who inspired him and more.

When did you first get the idea to write this book?

It started off as a video documentary project around 2008, and it later morphed into a book project.

Back in 1997, I finished up at NBC Nightly News after 30 years in the TV news producing business. I had this back-to-the-land urge  when I was a kid, my sister and I would spend every summer in South Carolina, where my grandfather had a farm  so I moved to upstate New York and started dairy farming. After 10 years of milking the cows every day, twice a day, I was worn out, and decided to sell the cows to a younger kid down the road and retire.

I was wondering what to do next, and you start thinking about your life and your past. One morning I got this Harvard magazine, and saw that Booker Bradshaw had died. He had had some success in Hollywood as an actor, and he was a really nice guy who everyone had liked. It got me to thinking about what had happened to everyone else in the class. So my partner, Jeanne Ellsworth, and I decided we would make a documentary about them. We got a grant, which said we would produce a short documentary and then raise money for a full-length.
Beijing: China reported on Sunday a drop in new virus cases for the third straight day, as it became apparent that the country's leadership was aware of the potential gravity of the situation well before the alarm was sounded.

There are 2009 new cases in mainland China, bringing its total number of confirmed cases to 68,500, according to the country's National Health Commission.

A Chinese worker wears a protective mask suit as he checks customers' temperatures in a shopping area in Beijing. Credit:Getty Images

The fatality rate remained stable with 142 new deaths, the commission said. The death toll in mainland China from COVID-19, a disease stemming from a new form of coronavirus, now stands at 1665. In all, 9419 people have recovered and been discharged from hospital.

The outbreak began in December in Wuhan, capital of the central Chinese province of Hubei, which has the bulk of infections.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.16

Trend:

President Ilham Aliyev taught a political and historic lesson to Armenian prime minister during the panel discussions on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Munich, Azerbaijani political analyst Arzu Naghiyev told Trend.

It was also another diplomatic lesson for Armenia, he added.

During the meeting, which lasted for about 50 minutes, President Aliyev once again demonstrated to the international community the truth about Armenia with concrete facts, he said. Pashinyan tried to conceal some historical facts about Armenia, attempting to misinterpret them. However, the concrete facts given by President Ilham Aliyev drove him into the corner and he became unable to debate.

During his speech, Pashinyan several times had to admit that Nagorno Karabakh is Azerbaijani land and after that tried to back down by using various tricks, said Naghiyev.

The political analyst noted that one of the interesting moments during the meeting was about the Khojaly tragedy.

Pashinyan tried to use Azerbaijani former presidents remarks, which were distorted by Armenian journalists, as a credible argument. However, President Aliyevs weighty rebuke cornered Pashinyan.

President Aliyev also sent a message to OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, saying that the organizations involved in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should explain to Armenia that these territories are originally and forever Azerbaijani. Referring to the historical facts of the 18th century, President Aliyev spoke about how Armenians were resettled in Azerbaijani territories. He explained to the whole world that there is only one way of resolving the problem: withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from Azerbaijans occupied lands, return of internally displaced persons to their homes. After that statements on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh will be relevant, said the political analyst.

The message of this debate to the whole world is that it is Armenia and certain forces supporting it that want to preserve the status quo in the process of settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, noted Naghiyev.

President Aliyevs remarks in these debates showed to the world that Armenia plays for time, trying to maintain the status quo. They hope for recognition of the puppet regime by any state. I believe that President Aliyevs speech became Azerbaijans most important message to the whole world. This is the foreign policy victory of President Aliyev and Azerbaijani diplomacy in general, Nagiyev concluded.
The Census Bureau is behind its goal of recruiting 2.6 million applicants, a Government Accountability Office report said Wednesday. Graphic: GAO

The Government Accountability Office, the Census Bureau's inspector general and some lawmakers doubt whether the U.S. census, which begins its every-10-year count next month, is ready for prime time, AP's Mike Schneider writes.

Why it matters: The Census Bureau plans to try out a lot of new technology, but some of it is not fully tested.

There's a mobile app for census takers who visit the homes of residents who have not filled out the forms by May. Bureau officials are still working to find out why the app sometimes needs to be restarted or reinstalled for it to work properly, according to the GAO.

Cybersecurity is another worry. The census is an attractive target for anyone seeking to sow chaos and undermine confidence in the U.S. government, as Russia did in 2016.

In a worst-case scenario, vital records could be deleted or polluted.

The big picture: The Census Bureau says "all systems are go":

"The agency promises that responses to the questionnaire will be kept confidential through encryption, and that it's working with the Department of Homeland Security and private-sector security experts to thwart cyber attacks," per AP.

responses to the questionnaire will be kept confidential through encryption, and that it's working with the Department of Homeland Security and private-sector security experts to thwart cyber attacks," per AP. The bureau is blocking foreign IP addresses and stopping bots from filling out forms.

What's next: "Between March 12 and March 20, invitations to participate in the 2020 Census will start arriving in households across the country," according to the Census Bureau.

Go deeper: Census data projects shift in states' congressional power
Bengaluru: Right-wing organizations in Karnataka kicked up a fuss Sunday as rumours circulated that three Kashmiri students who were detained for allegedly making a controversial viral video in support of Pakistan were set free on bail.

Shouting Anurag Thakur's slogan 'goli maaro gaddaaron ko,' they gathered before the Gokul Road police station in Hubballi Sunday evening, demanding that they not be released.

Officers at the police station told Deccan Chronicle that the three men had not in fact been released as the investigation into the video was not complete yet.

The three men, Basit Aashiq Sofi from Baramulla, Talib Majeed and Amir Mohiuddin from Anantnag, are being held on sedition charges for making a video in which they are seen showing appreciation for a song with the refrain Pakistan zindabad.

The three men are engineering students at the KLE Institute of Technology in Hubballi. The video was allegedly made and circulated on the occasion of the anniversary of the Pulwama attack, February 14.

Police slapped sedition charges under IPC 124 A, 153 B, 153 C, 505 (2) against them on the basis of a complaint filed by KLE College principal Basavaraj Anami.

Hubballi-Dharwad police commissioner R Dilip said the three students are being questioned but are yet to be formally arrested, which will be done only if the cops are prima facie convinced about the offence.

The police chief rebutted media reports that the youth were arrested and released on a bond under Section 169 of the CrPC. It is a very sensitive case and we have to conduct a thorough investigation from all angles. We will initiate appropriate action to detain them only if there is basis for the charge of sedition. We will not be influenced by any political pressure. We rescued them from a mob on Friday as they would have been harmed, Dilip told Deccan Chronicle.

Ashok Anvekara of the Advocates Association said, These charges against them are nonbailable sections. The students cannot get bail.
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New toy: A firefighter demonstrates the functions of the Dok-Ing MVF-5 U3 multifunctional firefighting robot in Duri Pulo, Central Jakarta, on Thursday. (JP/Riand Alfiandy)

Having joined the Jakarta firefighter squad in 2004 right after graduating high school, Jumadi, 34, said fires no longer intimidated him. To him, stepping into a life-threatening situation to save peoples lives is a noble job he wants to keep doing as long as he can.

Thank God, I have never been badly hurt in fire operations. But I lost my colleague and best friend to a fire, he said.

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My name is O. Machelle Morris.

I am 52 years of age and the proud mother of four beautiful daughters ranging in age from 26 to 17.

I earned a Bachelors Degree in Business Management from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989. I went directly to law school and earned my Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.) degree from Texas Tech University Law School in Lubbock 1992.

I was sworn in by The Honorable Judge John Hyde and became licensed to practice law in Texas in 1993. I earned my license to practice law in Washington in 2001; then moved to Carlsbad, New Mexico, and earned my license to practice law in New Mexico in 2002. My Washington license is currently inactive, but I can re-activate it at any time.

The areas in which I have practiced law cover a huge array of concentrations. For almost 20 years I oversaw legal requirements, personnel and other workplace matters, drafted and negotiated contracts with multi-national lenders, franchisees and government entities, handled all Texas and nearby litigation and oversaw outside counsel with a company in Odessa that had up to 32 corporate entities in operation. I represented all the associated corporate entities in litigation against them and have trial experience in civil matters. I have taught compliance with state and federal law to groups of hundreds of business owners. In 2001 I earned Texas Qualification as a mediator/arbitrator and have spent years honing the skills used in negotiations of all kinds. Early in my career I was a criminal defense attorney and later, in New Mexico, I provided defense to those accused of abuse and neglect of children and of domestic violence through the Bar Association defense rotation.

Chapter 41 of the Texas Government Code is clear that the duty of a district attorney is to seek justice for county residents by prosecuting crime, as well as providing legal opinions to County officials. The Texas Code of Criminal Procedure includes a mandate for the district attorney to prosecute any misuse of funds entrusted to elected officials in the County. Additionally, the DA has to be the managing partner of the law firm that is the DAs office, dealing with employment issues, delegation of duties, office policy, time management, office relations with other offices in the county, and helping to develop and implement the offices budget.

My goal is to narrow the operations of the office back to these mandates as the main focus of activities. The National Prosecutorial Standards include provisions indicating that a part of the pursuit of justice by prosecutors must include working to maintain and improve the relationship between law enforcement and the prosecutors office, and working to assist with keeping law enforcement up to date on changes in the law affecting prosecution of crime.

Your district attorney should be someone who has the ability and forethought to keep an even temperament while dealing with all situationsno matter how difficult. I have exhibited that ability and maturity over many years of negotiations, cases and handling of difficult issues. Your DA should recognize her call to serve you. At the same time, confidences must be kept, and legal privilege must be honored. Questions should be welcomed and answered freely. If an elected official cannot tell you the logic behind her position, she has no position to speak of. The DA must be genuine as well as genuinely concerned for the welfare of each member of the county. I am the mature, well-reasoned professional you deserve for our County.

Because the District Attorneys Office is one of the largest law firms in Midland, my business management degree, strong negotiating skills and years of employee management experience makes me uniquely qualified to run the office. The many years I have been practicing law in the courtrooms of Texas and New Mexico, including defense to criminal matters, provide me the familiarity with the courts necessary to handle prosecutions. Working as counsel, both in-house and outside, of businesses from mom-and-pop shops to massive conglomerates, has allowed me to manage, maintain and teach employees ranging from hourly wage-earners to business executives, and deal with budgets that also ranged from very small to multi-million dollars.

The key to handling every single situation in running a law firm, keeping a staff, dealing with the public, prosecuting criminals or receiving assistance from law enforcement is to treat each person with respect and dignity in the same way I would want to be treated. Every person has value, every person brings their own life-view with themand if you do me the honor of hiring me to run this firm, and take on the duties the law ascribes to the DA, I will bring honor, service and civility to the office.

I am O. Machelle (Mitchell) Morris. Im from Midland, and I would greatly appreciate your vote on March 3rd for district attorney of Midland County.
With over 68,500 infected across the globe and over 1,600 dead, the fear of the newly identified virus is spreading fast. Two more Indians on board a cruise ship off the Japanese cost tested positive for the virus on Sunday.

Only three cases have so far been detected in India, but a recent survey by LocalCircles shows if not contained soon it has potential to disrupt daily lives and businesses alike. Despite calls from the top deck of the government on opening up of business prospects for Indian firms due to closure of factories in China, the key concern for Indians remain the measures taken ...
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday (February 16) was on a day-long visit to his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi, reiterated his stand that his government will not bow down to pressure and said his government stood by the decisions like revocation of Article 370, the Citizenship Amendment Act despite pressure from all sides.

"Be it the decision taken on Article 370 or the Citizenship Amendment Act, it was necessary in the interest of the country. Despite the pressure, we stand by our decision and will remain so. The country has waited for years to get a decision on these things," he said while addressing a public meeting in his Lok Sabha constituency.

PM Modi in Varanasi today launched as many as 50 development projects worth more than Rs 1,254 crore, unveiled a statue of Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and flagged off the new Kashi-Mahakal Express.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi first visited the Jangamwadi Math here he offered prayers and then he made his way to Padao on the Varanasi-Chandauli border to unveil the 63-ft tall statue of Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya and also inaugurated the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Memorial Centre. The event was attended by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, Governor Anandiben Patel.

The `pancha loha` statue is the tallest statue in the country and over 200 artisans have worked for almost a year in order to complete the structure.

The PM then flagged off the new Kashi-Mahakal Express, the third train operated by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) between his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi and Madhya Pradesh`s Indore. PM Modi flagged off the Kashi-Mahakal Express via video conferencing from Varanasi.

The train will connect three places - Jyotirlinga-Omkareshwar (near Indore in Madhya Pradesh), Mahakaleshwar (Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh) and Kashi Vishwanath (Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh). It will begin its commercial run from February 20.

PM Modi also inaugurated the `Kashi Ek Roop Anek` program which is a cultural arts and handicraft exhibition, at the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Hastkala Sankul. PM said, a national logistics policy is being prepared for the first time in the country to create a single window e-logistics market, which will strengthen small scale industries.

While addressing public gatherings, he also spoke on GST and how it brought a change in the country's logistics. On GST he said, "The introduction of GST has brought about a wide change in the country`s logistics. Now this change is being strengthened further. A national logistics policy is being prepared for the first time in the country," he said, adding, "It will lead to the creation of a single-window e-logistics market. This will strengthen small scale industries and help in generating employment."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi on Sunday (February 16). During his one-day visit to Varanasi, PM Modi will inaugurate over 30 projects, including a 430-bed super-speciality government hospital.

The prime minister will also unveil a 63-feet tall statue of RSS ideologue Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya. According to the Prime Ministers Office, it would be the tallest statue of the leader in the country. It is learnt that over 200 artisans have worked tirelessly to complete the statue in last one year. The PM will also dedicate Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya memorial centre to the nation. Th one-of-a-kind memorial centre will have the engravings of the life and times of Upadhyaya.

The prime minister will also flag off IRCTCs Maha Kaal Express through a video link. IRCTCs Maha Kaal Express is the first overnight private train in the country which will connect three Jyotirling pilgrim centres of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, and Ujjain and Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh.

PM Modi is also scheduled to attend a public function, where he would dedicate over 30 projects to the nation, including a 430-bed super-speciality government hospital at Banaras Hindu University and a 74-bed psychiatry hospital, also at the BHU.

The prime minister will also inaugurate a two-day Kashi Ek Roop Anek event at Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Hastakala Sankul showcasing products from all over Uttar Pradesh. He will also participate in the closing ceremony of the centenary celebrations of Shri Jagadguru Vishwaradhya Gurukul and would release the translated version of the Shri Siddhant Shikhamani Granth in 19 languages and its mobile application.
South Africas State Security Agency (SSA) has suffered constant looting, theft, and fraud over the years, DA Shadow Minister of State Security Dianne Kohler Barnard said.

Following a recent humiliating robbery in which sensitive documents and an undisclosed amount of money were reportedly stolen from the State Security Agency (SSA) offices in Pretoria  sources have reliably informed the Democratic Alliance (DA) that there have been many more break-ins at the SSA than had previously been reported, Kohler Barnard said.

The information brought to the DAs attention points to more break-ins, fraud, theft, and looting, specifically under the State Capture years.

She added that these incidents have largely gone unreported and have been hidden from public knowledge.

Politically-motivated robbery

The most recent robbery at the State Security Agency is believed to be a politically-motivated inside job, according to a report by Independent Online.

The report stated that the robbers stole classified documents and an undisclosed amount of money from the agencys safe, along with several CCTV cameras.

The security guards who were meant to be protecting the safe were reportedly not stationed at their post at the time of the robbery.

A Hawks member told Independent Online that the robbery was an inside job, as the criminals knew the combination to the safe and stole only R150,000 out of the millions stored in foreign and local currency.

The SSA has been severely weakened by the fact that it has for years been used as a tool for political point-scoring and unrestrained looting.

It is therefore important for Minister Dlodlo to be transparent in her responses the public has a right you know the truth.

The SSA has got a long way to go both domestically and internationally to salvage its damaged reputation, and these alleged incidents of theft are more bad publicity that the SSA cannot afford, she said.

Tip of the iceberg

Kohler Barnard told MyBroadband that it is difficult to assess the damage caused by these robberies due to the secrecy surrounding the incidents.

The SSA and the Hawks are playing their cards very close to their chests, so we have no idea what damage those documents could cause.

Because of the murky nature of information around the SSA and the break-ins, there is zero clarity, she said.

Kohler Barnard added that she suspects there are far more robberies than the two publicised previously.

Additionally, I have been informed by sources that the two publicised robberies  2015 and 2020  are just the tip of the iceberg and that there have been many more.

Equally the claim that just R120,000 was stolen this time while there were millions in the safe seems farfetched.
Amid the unprecedented outbreak of deadly coronavirus in neighbouring China, North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un made his first public appearance on February 16 in over three weeks. Kim reportedly paid high tribute to his father Kim Jong II at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang that also holds the embalmed bodies of his father and grandfather.

The novel virus which has been officially named as 'Covid-19' was originated in China and has claimed more than 1,600 lives, raising alarm in North Korea which has now closed its border with China along with the suspension of flights, trains to and from its ally and neighbour. Even though North Korea has not said anything about the coronavirus cases in the country, it has still halted international tourism and extended the quarantine period to 30 days for those who are suspected to carry the virus including foreigners.

Read - Amid Coronavirus Outbreak, Hong Kong Protesters Demand Full Closure Of China Border

Kim attended event after 22 days

According to international media reports, the state media has posted photos of officials holding emergency meetings while wearing masks as well as the images of workers disinfecting the public areas such as hospitals, schools, railway stations and hair salons. The recent appearance of Kim is the first one in 22 days after he had attended the Lunar New Year celebrations. Since then, the North Korean supreme leader had disappeared from the public while the global leaders were raising concerns over the coronavirus outbreak.

Read - Amazon, EBay Sell T-shirts With Coronavirus Quotes, Latter Removes It After Outrage

Some international media reports also state that North Korea lacks efficient medical infrastructure and has a chronic shortage of medicines. The country has also taken a similar approach in previous outbreaks including Ebola virus when it banned the tourists for more than four months from October 2014 to keep out the virus even though none of its cases were recorded in Asia.

Meanwhile, China has reported a drop in new cases of COVID-19, for the third consecutive day after witnessing an increase due to change in methodology. According to Chinas National Health Commission, 2,009 new cases with 142 more deaths worldwide have been reported because of coronavirus.

The death toll of deadly coronavirus has reached at least 1,665 and nearly 68,000 confirmed cases have been detected till now. While most of the cases are from China's Hubei province and the city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, and other countries, including Japan and the Philippines, have also now reported deaths related to COVID-19.

Read - WHO Says Coronavirus Outbreak Is Still An Emergency For China

Read - Coronavirus Outbreak: China Reports Drop In New Cases For Third Consecutive Day

(With agency inputs)
After the Rahul Gandhi ordinance-trashing episode of 2013, the then prime minister Manmohan Singh asked Montek Singh Ahluwalia whether he thought he should resign, the former deputy chairman of the now-defunct Planning Commission says.

Ahluwalia says he told Singh, who was then on a visit to the US, that he did not think a resignation on this issue was appropriate.

In a major embarrassment to his own government, Rahul had denounced the controversial ordinance brought by the UPA dispensation to negate a Supreme Court verdict on convicted lawmakers. He had termed it as complete nonsense that should be torn up and thrown away.

Singh, while returning home from the US, had ruled out his resignation though he appeared piqued over the entire episode.

I was part of the PMs delegation in New York and my brother Sanjeev, who had retired from the IAS, telephoned to say he had written a piece that was very critical of the PM. He had emailed it to me and said he hoped I didnt find it embarrassing, recalls Ahluwalia.

The article was widely reported in the media with reference to the author being Ahluwalias brother.

The first thing I did was to take the text across to the PMs suite because I wanted him to hear about it first from me. He read it in silence and, at first, made no comment. Then, he suddenly asked me whether I thought he should resign, Ahluwalia writes in his new book Backstage: The Story behind Indias High Growth Years.

I thought about it for a while and said I did not think a resignation on this issue was appropriate. I wondered then whether I was simply saying what I thought he would like to hear but on reflection I am convinced I gave him honest advice, he reasons.

The incident was still a hot subject of discussion when Singh returned to New Delhi.

Most of my friends agreed with Sanjeev. They felt the PM had for too long accepted the constraints under which he had to operate and this had tarnished his reputation. The rubbishing of the ordinance was seen as demeaning the office of the PM and justified resigning on principle. I did not agree, Ahluwalia writes.

He argues that the incident highlighted an important fault line in the UPA.

The Congress saw Rahul as the natural leader of the party and wanted him to take a larger role. In this situation, as soon as Rahul expressed his opposition to the ordinance, senior Congress politicians, who had earlier supported the proposed ordinance in the Cabinet and even defended it publicly, promptly changed their position, he says.

Ahluwalia, who served as one of Indias senior economic policymakers for three decades, calls his book, published by Rupa, a travelogue of Indias journey of economic reforms in which I had the privilege of being an insider for 30 long years.

Ahluwalia, who played a key role in the transformation of India from a state-run to a market-based economy, presents the story behind the countrys economic growth in the first half of the UPAs tenure as well as its achievements in poverty alleviation.

He also discusses the successes and failures of the UPA regime during which period he served as deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, a Cabinet-level position. He mentions about the policy paralysis and allegations of corruption that came to mark the last few years of UPA 2.
Social media users have heavily criticized the Opposition NDC and its Communications team over what they say are attempts to copy the Sunday Press Briefings organized by the Ministry of Information.



In what appears to be a 360 degree turn around, the opposition NDC has switched from an initial criticism of the Ministry of Informations Sunday Press briefing and has now decided to to copy the press briefings.



The briefings which were introduced by sector Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah were heavily criticized by the NDC as unholy for a day set aside for worship. According to MP for south Tongu Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa it was unholy to host press briefings when everyone one was gone to church. The Minority MP who led the attack on the briefings further said any Press briefing on Sundays was a platform to tell lies.



In response, Minister Nkrumah defended the Sunday 1pm briefings as a necessary platform for providing regular information to Ghanaians while responding to pressing national issues. Public Relations analysts viewed it as a creative approach to defining issues ahead of the coming week.



Contrary to the NDCs initial attacks on the briefings the party now seems to have discovered its usefulness and have now decided to copy it exactly.



On Sunday February 16,2020 the NDCs communications team decided to stage its own briefing at exactly 1pm in an attempt to upstage the Ministers briefing. The briefing focused on what the party considered as a the failure of governments anti-galamsey fight.



Social media was however awash with Mockery of the NDCs copying tactic after an obvious eating back of their initial criticism of the briefings.



Some Social media comments read...



stop copying the MOI, We want to know where the NDC is going to have the airbus briefing as well ....hahahahaha



The information ministry briefings is given the opposition sleepiness nights. Today is twifo praso and next week will be inside river densu





Stop copying the information ministry and come out with your running mate



The information ministry briefings is given the opposition sleepiness nights. Today is twifo praso and next week will be inside river densu



Other social media users have applauded the Ministry of Information for developing such innovative platforms which were now forcing the NDC to copy its strategies.





One common thread among many comments was the fact that it amounted to an endorsement of the governments strategy and its effectiveness.



The Ministry of Information and government actors have regularly used the Sunday 1pm briefings to set the tone on major upcoming national activities and commence national conversations around the briefings.



It remains unclear how the government communications team will react to the attempt by the Minority to stampede its communications platforms.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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P olice are appealing after an Asian man was attacked and robbed by two teenagers as they reportedly shouted coronavirus in south-west London.

Pawat Silawattakun, 24, had just arrived at his bus stop in Fulham Road when he says two thugs hurled insults at him before breaking his nose.

Id just got off the bus at Fulham when I heard a faint sound directed at me from my left across the street, he told the Observer.

I had these noise-cancelling headphones on and took them off as these guys just shouted Coronavirus! Coronavirus! Ha, ha! in my face while filming me.

The incident took place after the victim got off a bus in Fulham Road / Google Maps

I didnt get a chance to say anything  Please stop, or Why are you doing this?  when one of them snatched the headphones from my neck.

The tax consultant chased the teens down the road, but as they reached some traffic islands, one turned around and punched Mr Silawattakun in the face.

There was blood everywhere, he added.

Mr Silawattakun said he shouted for help, but no one around him seemed to care. Eventually two people helped him take an Uber to hospital

The Met has launched an investigation into the aggravated robbery.

A spokeswoman said: The victim, a 24-year-old man, reported being racially abused by an unknown male suspect in Fulham Road.

A second male suspect then approached the victim from behind and stole his headphones, and then assaulted him. The victim sustained a broken nose and received hospital treatment.

The incident happened at around 5.15pm on Saturday, February 8.

No arrest has been made at this stage and enquiries continue.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday asserted that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act was brought in by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre out of "humanitarian considerations" and lambasted the opposition for "politicizing the issue".

The partys national general secretary in-charge for Bihar and Rajya Sabha member Bhupendra Yadav also told reporters that denial of a scheduled meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah to a delegation of Shaheen Bagh protesters was "a decision taken by the administration and police in Delhi taking into account the situation on the ground".

He, however, declined to comment on a video



purportedly a two-month-old CCTV footage - viral on social media wherein police personnel can be seen storming a library inside the Jamia Millia Islamia and baton charging the students engrossed in books.

"I am not sure about the authenticity of the video and hence it would not be proper for me to comment on it," Yadav said.

The BJP leader was here to take part in a meeting of the partys office-bearers in Bihar which was attended, among others, by state unit chief Sanjay Jaiswal and the latters predecessor and Union minister Nityanand Rai.

"I must say that the CAA was a decision taken out of humanitarian considerations (maanavata ke aadhar par). It is deplorable that the opposition has politicized the issue to the hilt," said Yadav whose party is facing the heat of country-wide protests against the contentious legislation as well as the NPR which many fear would be followed by country- wide implementation of NRC despite statements to the contrary by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"It is about granting citizenship to people, not snatching it away from anybody," said the BJP leader about the law that aims to provide Indian citizenship to Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis who entered India on or before December 31, 2014 from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, having fled religious persecution in their countries.

Yadav also disclosed that BJP president Jagat Prakash Nadda will be here on February 22 to give a pep talk to workers of the party ahead of the assembly polls due later this year.

"Nadda will inaugurate 11 newly-constructed district- level offices of the party during his visit. These offices will serve as centres for training party workers and dissemination of the partys literature," he said.

The function will be followed by a meeting of the partys core committee where the strategy for ensuring the victory of the NDA in Bihar, under the leadership of the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, will be chalked out, the BJP leader said.

This will be Naddas first tour of Patna after becoming the party chief. He last came here in November while he was the working president of the BJP during which he addressed party workers, recalled his close ties with the city where he was born and brought up, and met Nitish Kumar, who heads the JD(U), assuring him full cooperation from the Centre in running the state government.

Yadav also said, "We are also working to strengthen our party in Bihar, especially in rural areas. On April 6, when we celebrate the partys foundation day, we plan to hold functions in all Panchayats of the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The merger is seen by many as a strategy for Russian President Vladimir Putin to stay in power well past the legally mandated end of his presidential term in 2024 by becoming the head of a new state.

Avenatti convicted of trying to extort Nike

NEW YORK  Michael Avenatti, the brash lawyer best known for representing the pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels in her lawsuits against President Donald Trump, was convicted on Friday of trying to extort more than $20 million from the apparel giant Nike.

After three days of deliberations in the case, brought by the U.S. Attorneys Office in Manhattan, a jury found him guilty on all three counts, including attempted extortion and honest services fraud. Avenatti, who is scheduled to be sentenced on June 17, faces up to 40 years in prison in the case. He is set to stand trial in a separate federal case May 19.

U.S. murder suspect arrested in Rome
In Madhya Pradesh, a man had been asked to marry his minor daughter after he accidentally killed a calf. The village panchayat had issued the directive to the man to marry her daughter as a means for atonement for killing.



However, swift action by local authorities and police averted the mishap.

The local administration and police stopped the marriage in a village under Pathariya Police Station in Vidisha district, reported Indian Express.

In remote parts of Madhya Pradesh, social atonement is seen as a way to impose sanctions on people involved in an untowardly incident. In most cases, men are asked to marry their daughters irrespective of her age, because the villagers believe kanyadaan in the culprits family is the only way to ward off the curse.

Pathariya police station in-charge BD Singh told the Indian Express that the man was riding his two-wheeler when he accidentally hit the calf leading to its death. He took a dip in the Ganges and was to throw a feast to fellow villagers. But they denied and asked him to marry his daughter.

Representational Image

A team of Women and Child Development department and the police reached the village on Friday when tipped that the girl was minor, added the report.

From her Aadhaar card, it was ascertained that the girl is not even fourteen.
MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Saturday that Donald Trump deserved to be re-elected, praising the U.S. president's reaction to his decision to end a decades-old military agreement with the United States.

Trump said on Wednesday he did not mind Duterte's decision to end the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) even as his defence secretary, Mark Esper, called the move "unfortunate" as Washington and its allies press China to abide by "international rules" in Asia.

"It is President Trump's circumspect and judicious reaction to the termination of the VFA that made President Duterte give the following remarks: 'President Trump is a good president and he deserves to be re-elected'," presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a statement.

The VFA is important to the overall U.S.-Philippines alliance and sets out rules for U.S. soldiers operating in the Philippines, a former U.S. territory.

Washington has described the relationship between the two countries as "iron-clad," despite Duterte's complaints that include allegations of U.S. hypocrisy and ill-treatment.

Trump has frequently expressed a desire to bring U.S. military forces home from decades-long deployments abroad and has strong-armed some allies into paying more for the right to U.S. defence.

Trump has said that the United States helped the Philippines defeat Islamic State militants.

In his comments about the VFA on Wednesday, Trump added that he had "a very good" relationship with Duterte.

Duterte's decision, sparked by the revocation of a U.S. visa held by a former police chief who led his bloody war on drugs, could complicate U.S. military interests in the Asia-Pacific region as China's ambitions rise.

The firebrand leader, who favours closer ties with China and Russia, has said it was time for the Philippines to be militarily independent.

Some Philippine lawmakers hope the VFA can be saved in the 180 days before the termination takes effect, and expressed concern that without it, two other U.S. military agreements will become useless.

(Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Helen Popper)
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has dropped its objections to a Commerce Department proposal to further restrict U.S. technology sales to Chinese telecom giant Huawei, raising the odds that the proposals will advance, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Department of Defense had previously opposed Commerce's recommendation, saying it would ultimately hurt U.S. semiconductor companies, which the Pentagon relies on to help produce cutting-edge military tech.

But after pressure from Commerce officials and members of Congress, the Pentagon has reversed course, according to the people familiar with the government discussions, who requested anonymity to discuss confidential matters.

The proposal is expected to be discussed again at a Feb. 28 cabinet-level meeting.

"DoD supports a collaborative interagency process that allows the facts and concerns of all parties to be heard before adopting potential major regulatory changes," said Sue Gough, a Pentagon spokesperson. "We will have nothing to provide until that process has concluded and a decision on this issue has been made."

One person familiar with the discussions said the Treasury Department still has some objections to Commerce's proposals. Treasury officials didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Trump administration has spent months attempting to block Huawei's growth as a large seller of telecom network equipment and cell phones. The White House calls Huawei a security risk, saying China's ruling Communist Party could tap Huawei equipment installed overseas to spy on the West - allegations Huawei denies.

Frustrated that U.S. actions don't seem to have derailed Huawei's business, the Commerce Department recently proposed tightening the crackdown on the Chinese company.

Last year, the U.S. added Huawei to a trade blacklist, which banned exports from the U.S. to the Chinese company. Some companies skirted that rule by exporting chips and other components to Huawei from their overseas facilities.

The Commerce Department now wants to close that loophole by tightening regulations on the overseas shipments. Currently, foreign-made components may be sold to Huawei if they contain up to 25 percent American content that is governed by export controls. Commerce wants to lower that limit to 10 percent.

The Pentagon and semiconductor industry last month objected to Commerce's idea, saying it would further deprive U.S. tech companies of sales and undermine their research and development.

Huawei has been a large buyer of U.S. components for years, saying it spent $11 billion on U.S. technology in 2018, before the export ban. Since the ban, Huawei says it has shifted some of its component buying to companies in other countries and has scrambled to produce more of its own chips and other parts.

Some in the tech industry fear the ban will cause a wide swathe of Chinese buyers to shift purchases away from U.S. chip makers, which have traditionally dominated the industry, claiming about half the global market.

The Trump administration "may not like the fact that China is more than a third of American chip revenue, but there's no alternative to it and without it we simply will not be competitive," said one semiconductor-industry executive who opposes the Commerce proposal.

"We continue to urge the administration to not pursue counterproductive policies that ultimately do nothing but harm U.S. semiconductor leadership, which is critical to national security and the broader economy," John Neuffer, chief executive of the Semiconductor Industry Association, said Friday.

After the Pentagon objected, the Commerce Department's director of policy, Earl Comstock, urged Pentagon officials including Under Secretary for Policy John Rood to change their minds, one person familiar with the deliberations said.

Three Republican senators and China hawks also wrote to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper asking for an explanation on the Pentagon's reported objections.

"Huawei is an arm of the Chinese Communist Party and should be treated as such," Sens. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Marco Rubio of Florida wrote in their Jan. 24 letter.

On Friday, Senator Rick Scott, R-Fla., proposed legislation that mirrors the Commerce proposal, cutting to 10 percent the amount of American content a foreign-made product may contain if it is to be sold to a blacklisted company.

"Companies in the United States should not be allowed to sell to Huawei, and my legislation will further restrict their ability," the senator said in a statement.
Oregon State Police are testing what could be human remains found in the Hillsboro landfill on Tuesday.

Hillsboro police confirmed Sunday that the possible remains had been found and sent to the state polices lab, but a spokesperson was not immediately available to discuss the discovery further.

Police arent sure if what they have discovered in the garbage processing area of the landfill is human or a prop or educational tool, KGW reported.

Hillsboro Police Sgt. Eric Bunday told the station that the possible remains could have been brought in by a garbage truck.

A crime scene was set up at the landfill after the discovery, and detectives were called to investigate, KGW reported. Tests to determine what the material is should be completed early this week.

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052, lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Kathmandu, January 27

Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai has claimed that foreign tourists visiting Nepal need not fear coronavirus infection in Nepal. He says the government is prepared to stop the infection from becoming an epidemic here.

Speaking with stakeholders of tourism and aviation industries in Kathmandu on Monday, the minister said the entrepreneurs should also support the government from protecting the country from the epidemic. When representatives of the private sector recommended that the government take some concrete initiatives to communicate about Nepals safety, he also urged the stakeholders to play their role.

The minister also directed officials to tighten security checks at the international airport and other border points.

Bhattarai was of the view that hoteliers should send their clients to hospitals once they experience the symptoms.
A teenage relative of a slain ISIS terrorist has been shot dead in Sydney's west, while his killer remains on the loose.

Omar Elomar, 18, was gunned down by the roadside on Cabramatta Avenue at Miller, in the city's south-western suburbs, about 11pm on Saturday.

He was shot in the chest before dying in a pool of blood next to his silver Lexus.

Omar's relative Mohamed Elomar was infamously pictured holding a severed head in each hand while fighting for ISIS in Syria, before later dying in a drone strike in 2015.

NSW Police have confirmed they are treating his death as a 'targeted' killing and are on the hunt for his killer.

Omar Elomar (pictured) was gunned down in a western Sydney park on Saturday night

The 18-year-old was left to die by his silver Lexus which was towed away by detectives

Omar's relative Mohamed Elomar (pictured) was infamously pictured holding severed heads in his hand while fighting for ISIS in Syria, before later dying in a drone strike in 2015

The slain teenager's older relative Shayma posted a tribute on Facebook on Sunday in which she claimed he had a smile that 'could light up any room'.

'Last night somebody thought it was OK to take away one of the two and only brothers that I have,' Ms Elomar wrote.

'Omar I have no f**king words! I have no more ambition for life. Omar wanted to be a lawyer... (he) was going places in life.

'Anyone who knew this beautiful soul knew how happy and amazing he was, his smile could light up any dark room.'

Daily Mail Australia understands Omar is a direct relative of Ibrahim Elomar, an uncle to Mohamed and Ahmed Elomar.

Mohamed flew from Sydney to Syria in 2013 to join Islamic State and quickly rose up the ranks of the terrorist organisation, alongside fellow Australian Khaled Sharrouf.

Mohamed's brother Ahmed previously spent three years in jail for bashing a police officer during the Hyde Park riots in 2012.

Ibrahim Elomar and his brother Mamdouh, the father of Mohamed and Ahmed, were sentenced to 20 months in prison for trying to bribe officials to receive construction contracts. They were released from jail in mid-2019.

Omar embraces his direct relative Ibrahim Elomar (far left and far right), who was jailed along with his brother Madmouh Elomar (right) in 2017. Mamdouh is the father of Mohamed Elomar

His relative Shayma Elomar paid tribute on Facebook, describing how the teenager wanted to become a 'lawyer'

Liverpool Police Area Commander Superintendent Adam Whyte said it was too early to determine if the shooting had been a drive-by attack.

'It is very early stages, but what I can assure the community out here in Liverpool is that the incident is not random, it is targeted,' commander supt Whyte said.

'My message to all those involved is that you are best to hand yourself in to Liverpool Police Station.'

Police and paramedics arrived at the scene near Miller Park about 11pm on Saturday to find a member of the public desperately trying to revive the teenager.

The shooting happened directly outside the home of Raed Kalal, who told The Daily Telegraph he tried in vain to perform CPR on the teenager.

'I've heard a gunshot, ran out, called the ambulance, started doing CPR and the bloke died straight away and that was it,' Mr Kalal said.

'I tried CPR, mouth to mouth I had my phone on the ground and the ambulance they were (talking to me).

'I tried my best I'll try save any life, doesn't matter who it is.'

Forensic officers (pictured) continued to search the park - which is popular with children and located next to Miller Park Technology School - for evidence on Sunday morning

Forensics taped off the family park on Sunday morning and swarmed the area looking for evidence

Forensic officers continued to search the park - popular with children and located next to Miller Park Technology School - for evidence on Sunday morning.

Locals in the area said they heard what sounded like a 'party' coming from the park in the hours before the shooting.

Elomar's Lexus - which had red P-plates on it - and three other cars, including a black Toyota Corolla, a white VW hatchback and a purple Nissan Tiida, were seized by NSW Police detectives.

Liverpool Police Area Command are currently investigating the incident.
Melissa Duclos

Duclos is the parent of a third- and first-grader at Rosa Parks Elementary and the secretary of the PTA.

Imagine a public, neighborhood elementary school that follows a year-round calendar. Students and teachers still get the same amount of vacation time as they would on a traditional calendar, but those vacations are evenly dispersed throughout the year. Kids at the school lose less ground over the summer than their peers at other schools; they have more consistency in their lives, including better access to free and reduced meals. Their teachers have breaks when they need them, enabling them to better meet the social-emotional needs of their students, and teacher turnover rates are lower than at other schools in the same district. Would you want to send your children there?

I moved down the street from Rosa Parks Elementary School in North Portland when my children were still in preschool because my answer to that question was yes. When I made this decision, I imagined other things about Rosa Parks. I imagined Id have access to after-school care and camps that matched the school calendar. I imagined teachers would receive their curriculum on time. I imagined Portland Public Schools would seek input from teachers and administrators on how to improve the approach and work with families to address challenges like high absentee rates. I imagined they would follow through on promises to adopt the calendar at other schools within the geographic cluster, so that families would not have to straddle different schedules once older children graduated on to middle school.

In short, I imagined that having launched a bold experiment to improve academic outcomes for students at Rosa Parks, the school district would provide the long-term commitment, leadership and vision it takes to get results. It turns out I was wrong.

Over the six years since Portland Public Schools has run this experimental year-round calendar, the district has sat back and waited for the school to prove on its own that the model works. Theyve failed to provide any supports, or even to commit to the calendar for more than a three-year stretch of time, making decisions after the initial pilot on a yearly basis. This year, my fourth as a Rosa Parks parent, is no different. I have a great imagination, but Im hard pressed to picture any of this happening at a majority white, affluent school in Portland; at Rosa Parks, 95 percent of students live in low-income families and 86 percent are students of color.

Despite the uncertainty and the lack of supports like after-school care, I agree with the 71 percent of teachers at Rosa Parks who want to keep the year-round calendar. I wish I could tell you how many parents in the community support keeping the calendar, but I dont know and neither does the district. The survey they sent asked parents to identify which factorssuch as access to child care or evenly distributed vacationsthey should weigh as they decide the fate of our calendar. They didnt include any questions about what we actually want for our kids and its hard to see how a list of factors, all of which are important, are going to inform their decision.

Share your opinion Submit your essay of 500-700 words on a highly topical issue or a theme of particular relevance to the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and the Portland area to commentary@oregonian.com. Please include your email and phone number for verification.

Yet the district is done now with community engagement. The staff is preparing its recommendation to send to the school board for a vote on February 25. If they decide to revert to a traditional calendar, they will likely say the experiment failed: test scores didnt go up enough; there were too many absences over the summer. Never mind that district officials never articulated what success should look like.

Imagine, instead, if they acknowledged their own failuresto truly work with the community to assess and adjust the approach to year-round school or provide timely curriculum and child-care options that teachers and parents need. Imagine if they committed to conducting a better experiment, putting their full support behind this creative approach to providing academic and social-emotional support to children on a year-round basis.

Every parent I have ever told about the year-round calendar at Rosa Parks has responded with some mixture of jealousy and amazement. Why, they always want to know, dont more schools in the district do this? The answer is because it requires more work than just moving around some vacation days.

Imagine what would happen if the district committed to doing that work.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: The Central Crime Branch (CCB) police have arrested a Cameroon national for allegedly conning customers by offering to trade kidneys and cows online. The man, identified as Tah Bevarka Jaff, a resident of Kannur-Bagalur Main Road area in Bengaluru, would approach people saying he would offer Rs 4 crore to those would sell their kidneys, police said. He would also offer the best prices for jersey cows.

He posted advertisements in hopediaryformsltd.com, sellyourkidney.in and novelontradinggmbh.online, a senior police officer said.

If any person contacted him for kidneys or cows, he would collect money in advance and cheat them, the officer said. He said the recent arrest of six people who were in to a kidney selling racket had led to the revelation of Declans name. A case has been registered against him at Bellandur police station and investigations revealed that he had committed similar offences in Tamil Nadu and Kerala too.

It may be recalled that in perhaps the first such case in the city, a gang of six, including a Nigerian and two Sudanese nationals, had allegedly duped over 200 people by promising to trade kidneys online. The gang comprising Esene Lovely (29) from Benin city, Igueben Edo State, Nigeria, Mohamed Ahmed Ismail (24) from Khartoum, and Marwan Faisal (27) from Sannr, Sudan, Herendra Tripura (25) from Tripura and Kami Ranjan (21) and Jatin Kumar (25) both from Bommanahalli in Bengaluru had been arrested by the Banasawadi police six days ago. They had claimed to have been authorised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and had misused the name of a super-speciality hospital and reputed doctors to lure gullible people seeking kidneys for transplants.
GLEN BURNIE, Md. - Police have arrested a woman suspected of throwing a Molotov cocktail into a place of worship for Jehovahs Witnesses in Maryland, according to court records.

Heather Meisel, 43, was charged Friday after she told investigators that she damaged the Kingdom Hall of Jehovahs Witnesses in Glen Burnie to send a message, the Capital Gazette reported, citing charging records.

Meisel, a Baltimore County resident, was arrested on charges including attempted murder and defacement of religious property.

Anne Arundel County fire investigators found a door with broken glass and a Molotov cocktail made from an apple cider vinegar bottle inside the building on Thursday morning. A partially burned piece of cotton was found near the broken glass.

Police estimated the incident caused more than $1,000 in damage to the buildings front door and more than $1,000 in damage to property inside the building.

A security video showed Meisel sitting in a car parked outside the building for nearly an hour before she approached it, according to court documents. Two people walked past her car into the building while she was parked, which meant the Kingdom Hall was occupied when she threw the Molotov cocktail inside, according to charging documents.

Meisel resisted arrest and told officers she was royalty, the documents said.

Meisel has a bail review hearing scheduled for Tuesday in Glen Burnie District Court.
Chinese rideshare giant Didi is set to enter the Sydney market, ending years of speculation of when the Uber rival would take on Australias largest city.

The company, which has been operating in Australia since 2018 with more than 2 million riders, plans to launch in Sydney on March 16.

Chinese ridershare giant Didi plans to launch in Sydney next month. Credit:Dallas Kilponen

The announcement comes days after NSWs Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal indicated that rideshare growth in the state was slowing.

The tribunal's point-to-point survey found rideshare growth had slowed to 3 per cent, compared with years of double digit gains, suggesting the NSW market may be reaching capacity.
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Linkedin Fadli (The Jakarta Post) Batam/Jakarta  Mon, February 17 2020

Contagious laughter: Indonesian citizens released from a 14-day quarantine in Natuna, Riau Islands, reunite with family members at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta on Saturday after being declared free of the coronavirus. The government evacuated 243 people  237 Indonesian nationals, a foreigner and five embassy staffers  from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, on Feb. 2. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)

All of the 237 Indonesian citizens and one American spouse of an Indonesian national who were evacuated from Wuhan and other cities in China were discharged on Saturday after a 14-day quarantine in Natuna, Riau Islands, after being declared free of the coronavirus.

The 42 members of the evacuation team and five Indonesian Embassy staffers from Beijing who assisted the operation were also released from quarantine on Saturday.

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By AFP

SEOUL: North Korea's Kim Jong Un marked the birth anniversary of the country's former leader Sunday, in his first reported public appearance in over three weeks as a deadly coronavirus rages in neighbouring China.

Kim "paid high tribute" to his father Kim Jong Il at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang that holds the embalmed bodies of his father and grandfather, the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported.

The COVID-19, which originated in China and has killed more than 1,600 people, has alarmed the North, prompting it to close its borders and suspend all flights and trains to and from its giant neighbour and most important ally.

Pyongyang has said nothing about cases in the North, but it has stopped international tourism and extended the quarantine period to 30 days for those suspected of carrying the virus, including foreigners.

State media has carried photos of mask-wearing officials holding emergency meetings as well as images of workers disinfecting public places including hospitals, schools, railway stations and hair salons.

The appearance is Kim's first in 22 days after he attended Lunar New Year festivities then disappeared from the public eye amid global concern over the coronavirus outbreak.

The North has poor medical infrastructure and a chronic shortage of medicines and has taken similar action in the past -- it banned tourists for more than four months from October 2014 to keep out the Ebola virus, even though no cases had been reported in Asia.

At Mansu hill in Pyongyang on Sunday, a steady stream of North Koreans lined up to pay their own respects, placing flowers at the feet of the giant bronze statues of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, the country's founder.

The anniversaries of the births and deaths of the two elder Kims are major holidays on the North Korean calendar, with February 16 celebrated as the Day of the Shining Star.
MONTREAL, Feb. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- We are pleased to announce that in the final days of 2019, Review Tool received two awards from Finances Online. Review Tool was awarded the Premium Usability Award and the Rising Star Award in the category of online review management and reputation management software.

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For the first time in 15 years, West Texans will vote to fill the open seat for Congressional District 11, currently held by outgoing Rep. Mike Conaway. Early primary voting begins Tuesday, with 10 candidates vying for the Republican nomination in one of the safest Republican districts in the nation. We have the opportunity to choose a representative that will either join the swamp or drain the swamp.

There have been many interesting revelations and developments surrounding August Pfluger, now including an endorsement by President Trump.

Based on input from people I know and trust, it appears Trumps Pfluger endorsement resulted from a request by Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the likely Speaker if Republicans retake the House. Apparently, McCarthy asked Trump to endorse about 30 House candidates, including Pfluger.

If I put myself in Trumps place, it makes perfect sense to grant a McCarthy request to Help take back the House.

If successful, this cements Republican House support for Trumps agenda. When Republicans held the majority during the presidents first two years, their support was lukewarm at best. Endorsements give Trump the opportunity for a House that will enthusiastically drain the swamp. Thats important, particularly since we have all observed that the swamp is not eager to be drained.

So, why would Trump endorse Pfluger when its known Pfluger did not vote for Trump? Pfluger somewhat famously defended not voting during his 20 years as an active military officer because he didnt want to appear biased (even though we vote by secret ballot). Further, why would Trump endorse Pfluger in conflict with the endorsement by House Freedom Fund, founded by Representatives Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan, after Meadows and Jordan led a spirited defense of him in the House? (HFF endorsed District 11 candidate Jamie Berryhill).

Finally, why would Trump endorse Pfluger, who is supported by the With Honor Fund? This Super PAC supports candidates who it asks to pledge to work across the aisle (i.e. the House members who just impeached him) at least once per year. Why would Trump endorse Pfluger when the With Honor Fund includes donors such as Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, who entered the race to stop Trump? Why would Trump endorse Pfluger when that same Super PAC also has donations from Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Trump-hating Washington Post?

I think the simple answer is because Kevin McCarthy asked him to.

My interpretation is that McCarthy mingled together swing seats with select open safe Republican seat races in his endorsement request. He appears to have included some open safe seats where his favored candidates had viable House Freedom Caucus opponents, to avoid having a member from a cant-lose Republican district that isnt in his pocket. In a bit of palace intrigue, McCarthy has undermined Jordan and Meadows, who were swamp-drainers before President Trump was elected.

What seems clear from all of this is that Pfluger is not an independent-minded reformer. Brandon Batch has raised a lot of money. But when confronting controversy over having missed voting in an election, gave a rationale that contradicted publicly available data. This sort of sloppy dodging is consistent with the swamp culture. He might have learned this approach during his five years as a staffer on Capitol Hill. Although I watched the charismatic Batch with hope, he disappointed.

Do we, the voters of District 11, want to elect someone who will follow House leadership, climb the leadership ladder, aim to become a committee chair and succeed in the swamp? Or should we instead elect someone who will be reform-dedicated and drain the swamp regardless of who is president or who is in leadership? I think we serve the country best by electing a reformer.

If we elect a reformer, we will send someone to D.C. who will place the values of District 11 ahead of loyalty to national Republicans if and when the leadership reverts to their pre-Trump form. Today, due to Trumps success, there seems to be little to no light between the two. For this new culture to continue past Trump, we need to see more reformers, like Meadows and Jordan, elected into office.

We cannot know what any candidate will do until they are elected, particularly in the face of inevitable pressure from House leadership. However, it now seems clear three reform-focused candidates are viable to defeat the leadership options (i.e. Pfluger or Batch) in a runoff. If we want reform to be a priority for whomever we send to D.C., we should send Jamie Berryhill, J. Ross Lacy, or Wesley Virdell. These three candidates have pledged to join the House Freedom Caucus, the reform group that has been headed by Meadows and Jordan.

Congress needs to be shaken up. The president has shown us how to win. Appeasement is a losing strategy. So, I recommend we elect one of the reform candidates. That means Pfluger should be held to less than 50 percent of the primary votes and trigger a runoff with a reform candidate. In a runoff, anything is possible.

I encourage voters to support whichever of the reform candidates they believe has the best chance to win a runoff election. Here are my top three recommendations in alphabetical order:

Jamie Berryhill from Odessa has a grassroots following and some substantial supporters. He is a businessman with a ministry background, having founded Mission Messiah in Odessa. He has received the endorsement of the House Freedom Fund, founded by Meadows and Jordan.

J.Ross Lacy from Midland is from an energy family and can represent the districts energy business with firsthand knowledge. Lacy has raised the most money of the reform candidates. He is the only one of the three who has won a campaign before, having served as a Midland city councilman. He seems the most likely to be able to compete with Pflugers funding advantage. Lacy has received the endorsement of long-time conservative stalwart Louie Gohmert.

Wesley Virdell from Brady has built an impressive grassroots network without the help of endorsements, large donors or consulting firms. He is a small-business owner who connects well with voters and could conceivably continue to build a grassroots campaign large enough to counter the Pfluger funding advantage. He was motivated to run when Rep. Conaway voted for the Bush bailout.

I didnt think any of the candidates had enough of a track record to cause me to sign on to any of their campaigns early on. I have been watching and waiting. After evaluating what has transpired to this point, I now recommend support for whichever of these three we pick as the runoff candidate and send a reform-minded representative to Washington to drain the swamp  including not refilling it once the president leaves office.

I believe in the collective wisdom of the voters in District 11. West Texans are great people. And they are shrewd. I will support whoever comes out of the primary in the November general election. Regardless of who we choose, we must hold them accountable. Given the power of incumbency, now is our best opportunity to elect a representative who will be an agent of change in a culture that is risk averse and beholden to lobbyists and elites. We should take the fullest advantage of that opportunity.
Along with the three police officers, the 5-year-old boy and a 34-year-old woman were taken to Mercy Hospital & Medical Center due to smoke inhalation. A 20-year-old woman was also taken to Mercy for smoke inhalation and small burns. The age and gender of the fourth resident who was injured were not released by Chicago police, nor were details on his or her injuries.
She needs to go away.

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What's up with all these (older) women telling men to stop doing "women things"? Last year a popular host from my country uploaded a video on Instagram saying men need to stop putting on makeup because it's not manly and doesn't look good.

Geez, how about you accept that clothes and makeup are for everybody and not for a certain gender.

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IA with you. I think it's the years that make the bitterness so strong - these women spent decades performing these 'rites of womenhood', trying to be perfect at them because society told they needed to. And then men joined in and not only demonstrated that they had the same skills (meaning they ain't special), but also got more attention for them. I get it and I'm sympathetic, but I also don't understand the jealousy that's been making these women seethe.

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But yeah, i get it. Women my age are the Facebook Mums ruining things for everyone else. Im sorry. Whoa whoa, #notallolderwomen . Im 51 and I have no issue with people wearing what they want. If a man wants to wear a skirt and heels, rock it. I think de-gendering things like clothing and makeup would help a lot with toxic masculinity, teens trying to figure out their identities, etc.But yeah, i get it. Women my age are the Facebook Mums ruining things for everyone else. Im sorry.

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Is she using again?

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If men wanna wear those torture devices they invented, go right ahead



and "skirts/dresses" have been unisex since the dawn of time.



Its not that serious.

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Heels were also invented for men so lol

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Wait what tell me more

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jesus wore a dress. be like jesus.

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Wendy having shitty opinions? Must be a day that ends in y.

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MTE, we been known. I can't believe anyone supports her anymore.

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I don't get her appeal at all. She's a walking hypocrite but people still seem to overlook her crap time and time again.

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E Y E R O L L



If people want to wear shoes that fucking hurt and go all wobbly while hoping your ankles don't break, go right ahead!



But seriously tho, sometimes I see those choreographed dances on insta and my goodness, so jealous. I can barely stand in heels.

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Deplatform her!



We need to stop gendering clothes. If a man wants to wear a dress and heels then let him. Let him do whatever society deems conventionally feminine.

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This. Clothes shouldn't be male and female. Women aren't born in high heels and dresses and makeup doesn't magically appear on our faces during puberty. These are expectations forced on us and have nothing to do with being girls and women.



Let gender nonconforming people live, ffs.

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Why does WW still have a platform at all no one likes her

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Read a history book Wendy, those were invented or worn by men since both were created. What you should be getting pissed over is the fact that people think that being a woman is only about having feminine attributes. Women are more than just the sum of their parts.

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She has always had an issue with men she felt were too feminine - this, the annoyance at men in 'women's' hair salons or spas, even things like David Beckham's voice not being deep enough - and if I had to guess it's probably because she values her own femininity/being seen as feminine because she isn't dainty like her mother but that insecurity doesn't have SHIT to do with gay or femme or even non masculine men. Not to mention EricaCouture's Wendy Williams story -









I don't know where she got this strict gender rolls mindset or why she still has it but she's too damn old for this and should know better. This won't cripple her but maybe the gays can finally let her go.

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Wait, is this that same Johnny McGovern gay pimp dude?

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yep, he hosts hey qween alongside Lady Red Couture and the house musician Erica Couture

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Gay pimp?

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ya i'm p sure it's bc ppl r always saying she looks like a tr*nny or drag queen bc she has strong features and intense makeup. so she feels some type of way about men performing femininity "better"

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I mean... heels were invented for men by men, Wendy 

Imagine people telling women to not use pants, only skirts? This troll needs to go away.

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damn tan's outfit is on fire

wendy stays in the wrong as per usual

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Clothing should not be sex specific - so, one hand, if men want to wear heels (why) or spend money on makeup or waxing or whatever (also why), they should knock themselves out. But I'm not gonna pretend that clothing is not currently sexed, and that a man wearing a dress and heels (brave, political statement) is the same as a woman wearing a dress and heels (expected uniform, sex object). I'm also not going to pretend it changes anything - the status quo remains the same: men can define themselves however they want and wear whatever they want. Women - remember, the most important thing about you is the way you look.

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I didn't even bother to click that apology video.

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Fuck this lady. Im a woman and I dont wear heels or dresses or skirts. I do wear the odd kilt, but I typically dress in mens clothes because thats how I feel comfortable. Let people do their own thing and just fucking shut it.

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She on drugs, or what?

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This week on The Sound Kitchen, you'll hear the answer to the question about the new Austrian chancellor and his coalition partner. You'll hear World Radio Day greetings from your fellow listeners all over the world, great music  and of course, the new quiz question. Just click on the Audio arrow above and enjoy!

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. You'll hear the winner's names announced and the week's quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you've grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, On This Day, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music  so be sure and listen every week.

Send me your music requests! I'll make programs of your favorite music when I can't be in the kitchen to cook something up new for you  write to me at [email protected]

For our DX enthusiast and shortwave listener friends: I am sad to announce we no longer have a shortwave frequency; we have severe budget constraints which no longer permit us to broadcast via shortwave.

"Paris Live", our afternoon news program, is on-the-air Monday  Friday, from 13:00 to 14:00 UTC/GMT. You can hear "Paris Live" on our website, rfienglish.com, or on World Radio Network.

For North America: WRN broadcasts the quotidian RFI English programme three times a day from Monday to Friday, from 05:00 to 05:59, from 09:00 to 09:59 and from 15:00 to 15h59 UTC/GMT.

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In Paris, you can hear us on World Radio Paris on DAB+, Monday to Friday from 16:00 to 16:59.

To listen to our features (now podcasts only), go to our website and click on the three horizontal bars on the top right, choose Listen to RFI / Features, and you've got 'em ! You can either listen directly, or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

Teachers, take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is [email protected]

Did you know there's an RFI English newsletter? If you subscribe, you'll receive our newsletter every day. Just click on Newsletters, fill out the form, and you'll stay up-to-date with RFI English.

RFI Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni ([email protected]) and Chrystelle Nammour ([email protected]) from our Listener Relations department on all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me ([email protected]) when you write them so that I know what is going on, too. N.B. You do not need to send them your quiz answers! Email overload!

We've made a Facebook page just for you, the RFI English Clubs. It is a closed group, so when you apply to join, be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it, but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven't yet asked to join the group, go to the Facebook link above and fill out the questionnaire!!!!! (if you do not answer the questions, I click decline).

Welcome to our new RFI Listeners Club members, who are sisters! A hearty welcome to Srija and Shraddha Nomula from Hyderabad, India.

So glad you have joined us!

You too can be a member of the RFI Listeners Club  just write to me at [email protected] and tell me you want to join, and I'll send you a membership number. It's that easy. When you win a Sound Kitchen quiz as an RFI Listeners Club member, you receive a premium prize.

RFI's Planet Radio department is sponsoring an e-POP (e-Participatory Observers Project) competition. It's a video contest, with some really great prizes! This is the first year that English speakers have been invited to participate, so let's show RFI how many of you are out there, and are an active part of the RFI English service!

It's a really cool project: Planet Radio is looking for two-minute videos about climate change, told by the humans who are experiencing it first hand  the people we rarely get to hear from. Your grandfather. Your aunt. People in your community. Your video should be inter-generational: interview an older member of your family or in your community who has lived the changes climate change has brought. This project is about humans; that's the whole point of ePOP, how climate change has affected the ordinary citizen  the people we rarely hear from. Your video can be in any language  you just have to provide the translation into English to Planet Radio. And it can't be more than two minutes. It's open to everyone, although there is one prize for women under the age of 25 (Young sisters! Get to work!). Most of the prizes involve a trip to Paris, and I would get to meet you! Plus there's video equipment to be given away  as noted, the prizes are great!

Here's the link for the guidelines.

The deadline for entries is 15 March. I fully expect Planet Radio to be bombarded with entries from you, the RFI English service listeners!

This week's quiz: On 11 January, I asked you a question about Austria. Earlier that week, the leader of the country's conservatives was sworn in as chancellor, following a union with a party which had never before been in government. You were to tell me the name of the very young man who was (re) sworn in on 7 January as Austria's chancellor, and the name of the party with whom he made an alliance.

The answer is: Sebastian Kurz, and the Greens.

In 2017, 33-year-old Sebastian Kurz became the world's youngest democratically elected leader. Originally aligned with the far-right FPO party, the alliance fell apart when Heinz-Christian Strache, the FPO leader and vice-chancellor of Austria, became engulfed in a graft scandal. That led to the fall of the coalition and snap elections.

As chancellor, Sebastian Kurz will preside over a union that gives the Greens power in Austria's government for the first time. Green party chief Werner Kogler serves as the country's vice-chancellor.

The winners are: Mrs Kousalya Nomula from Telangana, India; Miroslav Siles from Kosice, Slovakia; Royse Cramton from Oak Park, Illinois in the US; Asifa Riaz  a member of the RFI Listeners Club in Sheikhupura City, Pakistan, and Sultan Mahmud Sarker, the president of the Shetu RFI Listeners Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh.

Congratulations winners!

Here's the music you heard on this week's program:Se e Tarde Me Perdoa by Ronald Boscali and Carlos Lyra, arranged by Quincy Jones and performed by the Quincy Jones orchestra; Alaska Walzer, a folk song from Austria performed by Vierklee; Inde by After In Paris; The Flight of the Bumblebee by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; The Cuckoo by Louis-Claude Daquin, performed by Gyorgy Cziffra, and Blue Light Yokohama, written by Jun Hashimoto and Kyohei Tsutsumi, and sung by Ayumi Ishida.

Do you have a musical request? Send it to [email protected]

This week's question ... You'll have to listen to the show to participate. You have until 16 March to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 21 March podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address in with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

[email protected]

or

Susan Owensby

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By text  You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country's international access code, or  + , then 33 6 31 12 96 82. Don't forget to include your mailing address in your text  and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here

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Union Minister Giriraj Singh on Sunday came out with another controversial statement claiming that the forefathers of AIMIM leader and Telangana MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi were "looters" who built the Red Fort.

"Someone from Hyderabad said that if police are removed for 15 minutes, then they will teach Hindus a lesson. Member of Parliament Owaisi's brother (Akbaruddin Owaisi) was saying that his ancestors have built Red Fort and minar. I want to say that they were not your forefathers, they were looters. Then bigger looters, the Britishers, came and you ran away," Singh said at an event here.

"A handful of Mughals came. They could come thanks to some lazy, some greedy and some traitors amongst us. We saw our Somnath Temple being looted...We became Jaichand and (Rajput king) Prithviraj Chauhan was captured. Our history goes back to thousands of years," he said.

He said that after Partition, the Hindus of India could have been left alone but that did not happen.

"They talk of cutting off the Chicken's Neck, of making Islamic State, of waging a war against the Hindus of India called Ghazwa-e-Hind. A student at AMU says that whoever has fought with their quam, he has been destroyed. He is threatening us. These are the circumstances," Singh said.

He said that Hindus of India are liberals while "they" are fundamentalists.

"We said 'vasudhai kutumbakam', they said who does not believe (in their religion) is 'kafir'. we said who observes Ekadashi is a Hindu and who eats beef too is a Hindu. They said we will wage jihad against the kafirs," the minister said.

The minister said that the new generation is being poisoned.

"A child died due to cold. But they say she was martyred," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
THE GENDERED BRAIN by Gina Rippon (Vintage 9.99, 448 pp)

THE GENDERED BRAIN

by Gina Rippon (Vintage 9.99, 448 pp)

There is a colourful scientific term for a mistaken idea that keeps reappearing, even though it has been comprehensively discredited.

They are known as 'Whac-a-Mole' myths, after the arcade game where mechanical moles keep popping up, long after you think they have been whacked into oblivion.

Here, neuroscientist Professor Gina Rippon suggests 'one of the oldest and apparently hardiest of moles is the myth of female and male brains'.

She argues that the so-called 'female' brain has 'suffered centuries of being described as undersized, underdeveloped, evolutionarily inferior, poorly organised and generally defective'.

But modern neuroscience challenges the idea that babies are born with a biological template for a 'male' or 'female' brain.

The message of this fascinating book is that our brains are shaped by our environment: a gendered world will produce a gendered brain.

THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT by Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton (Black Swan 8.99, 304 pp)

THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT

by Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton (Black Swan 8.99, 304 pp)

What does a typical firefighter look like? 'Whatever comes to mind when you think of a firefighter, I very much doubt you're envisaging someone who looks like me.'

Sabrina Cohen-Hatton has a PhD in neuroscience and likes a manicure.

She became a firefighter at 18 and is now a deputy assistant commissioner. As she points out, this makes her an anomaly: 'At present, there are more people named Chris in chief fire officer roles than there are women chief fire officers.'

More remarkably, as a teen she was homeless, living on the streets in a state of constant watchfulness  an instinct that would later prove essential when making life-or-death decisions.

This is an inspiring, vivid account of the dangerous world of firefighting.

THE SNAKES

THE SNAKES by Sadie Jones (Vintage 8.99, 448 pp)

by Sadie Jones (Vintage 8.99, 448 pp)

Family secrets haunt the latest novel by award-winning author, Sadie Jones. Newlyweds Bea and Dan are blissfully happy, although money is a worry.

Bea is a therapist, Dan an artist who works as an estate agent to make ends meet.

When they take a break from their jobs and go travelling, the difference in their backgrounds comes sharply into focus.

Dan was raised by his single mother in Peckham; Bea is estranged from her dysfunctional family, and Dan has only a vague idea they are hugely wealthy.

When they decide to visit Bea's troubled brother, in rural France, they're blissfully unaware Bea's parents are about to arrive.

Tragedy is succeeded by horror in this terrifyingly atmospheric story of the monstrous consequences of greed and power.
India will soon send a consignment of medical supplies to China to assist Beijing in combating the deadly coronavirus outbreak, Indian Ambassador Vikram Misri said on Sunday as he expressed solidarity with the people of China in their fight against the epidemic.

India expresses solidarity with China, will send medical supplies to contain coronavirus outbreak

The death toll from COVID-19 outbreak in China has climbed to 1,665 after 142 more people died, mostly in the worst-hit Hubei province, officials said on Sunday.

As a concrete step to tackle the outbreak, India will soon send a consignment of medical supplies to China, Misri said, adding that this is a concrete measure which will fully demonstrate the goodwill, solidarity and friendship of the people and Government of India with the Chinese people.

ALSO WATCH | Coronavirus: Sending medical help to China as goodwill gesture, says Harsh Vardhan

He said India will do everything within its means to assist the people of China in this time of difficulty.

Indian officials said the details of the aid required by China are being worked out and the consignment would be sent as soon as they are finalised. Also, India has lifted the ban and cleared some of the medical equipment ordered by the Chinese importers to meet the requirements.

China has said that it needed medical masks, gloves and suits especially for the medical staff attending the virus affected patients. Masks also have become scarce in China in view of the nationwide demand in the last three weeks.

During the past few weeks, the entire world has borne witness to the severity of the novel coronavirus outbreak and the tremendous challenges posed by it, Misri said in a video message released to Chinese media outlets on Sunday.

I wish to convey my solidarity and support to the Chinese people and Government in tackling this epidemic, he said.

We feel deeply for the people and the families that are affected by this epidemic. I would particularly wish to express support for the people of Wuhan City and Hubei province who have been most affected by this epidemic, and who hold a very special place in the hearts of the people of India, he said.

Hubei and its capital Wuhan have become the epicentre of the virus and most of the fatalities in China have been reported from the province.

The determination of the Chinese people and Government in dealing with this epidemic is evident to all of us. We hope that it will be effectively controlled in the near future, he said.

Misri said that India is also facing the threat of infections from the novel coronavirus epidemic and the country is working hard to safeguard the health and wellbeing of its citizens.

I once again express my support for all people in China affected by this outbreak, and I hope through courage, persistence and effective measures, we will be able to overcome this epidemic, he said.

On February 9, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote to Chinese President Xi Jinping, offering Indias assistance to China to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang appreciated Modis offer and said, Indias acts of goodwill fully demonstrate its friendship with China.
Faction fighting in Ireland lasted from the start of the 18th century to the end of the 19th, yet has received little attention from historians.

It consisted of mass brawls at Irish fairs, markets, funerals, race meetings and other gatherings.

In Days of the Blackthorn, folklore researcher Sean Moraghan provides a visceral sense of this brutal activity in Co Kerry.

In this exclusive extract, he recounts the enmity between two notorious families, the Cooleens and the Lawlers, that led to the Battle of Ballyeagh that took place on June 24, 1834, at Ballyeigh Strand, near Ballybunion

In Kerry, at least in the northern part of it, the cry of Here is a Cooleen! [at] a fair or any public place of meeting, was promptly answered by hurroo, here is a Lawlor for ever!



 The Tralee Chronicle, 11 September 1868

Of all the districts of the county, North Kerry had the greatest reputation for faction activity. There, fighting at fairs, pattern days and races was endemic.

Many of the fights in this wide area were carried out by the two most famous gangs of North Kerry, the Cooleens and the Lawlors (although there were also other factions at work, such as the Dillanes at Duagh and the Ballymacks at Ballylongford).

During the 1830s it was stated that the Cooleens and the Lawlors had been feuding for above half a century, so perhaps since the 1780s. The Lawlors fought in combination with their allies, the Mulvihills, also known as the Black Mulvihills.

The Lawlors and Mulvihills came chiefly from the northernmost barony of Kerry, Iraghticonnor, and their faction was sometimes known as the Iraghts, or the Iraght Men.

A writer in The Tralee Chronicle commented: It was a very general thing to see a man of the Lawlor faction married to a woman of the Cooleens, and vice versa; and, to the credit of the ladies  rarely have they abandoned the principles of their youth.

Thus it was that many families were divided among themselves, and, in their eagerness to gain over the husband, the leaders did not hesitate to make the wife use that awful means of influence  a curtain lecture; and if she were unable to get him to fight for her party, to endeavor, at all events, to keep him at home the day of battle.

It sometimes happened, too, that where the father of a family was not a fighting man, the sons took different sides, according as their affection inclined towards the paternal or maternal relatives.

Limerick man Richard Denihan (speaking in the 1960s on the basis of his fathers recollections) observed: There were laws too about servant-boys, as to whom theyd be with. Because very often a Black Mulvihill servant boy would be working with a Cuilin farmer.

It was later observed that sides were taken because of family connections and district affiliations but there was no specific territory completely sympathetic with either side.

(Perhaps such anomalies are reflected in a fight of 1865 in which a number of men assaulted a man named Mulvihill, who, a policeman had to explain, instead of being a Mulvihill happened to be a Cooleen.

Despite their allegiances, both parties antipathy did not necessarily spill over into daily life; apart from their dreadful fights, commented a contemporary, he had known the two opposing parties to meet and work at digging ground in the same field, converse together, and have no altercation whatever.

Different issues were later suggested to have lain at the foot of the factions long-lived hostility towards each other.

There was the story of an attempted sale of a horse to a Lawlor man in a forge in Coolnaleen:

The buyer of the horse demanded a minimum height in his prospective purchase but the horse in question was a half inch short  seemingly, the buyer in the course of the bargaining stalked from the forge in the traditional manner of all dealers, but later, on persuasion and in keeping with tradition, returned.

At this stage the seller demanded that the animal be again measured and this time the horses height measured up to all requirements.

Faction fighting between families was endemic across Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries, especially in North Kerry.

The astute buyer, however  had his eyes open and noticed a difference in the horses shoes. The dexterous smith had in his absence changed the shoes for ones with advantageous cocking that lifted the horse the required half inch.

Alternatively, the conflict may have originated from an incident where a man named Lalor was beaten by some parties from a district named Cool  and gradually large numbers of young men were enrolled on both sides.

Another tale related that the rivalry started with a row at a May fair in Listowel between some Coolnaleen men and some Lawlor men from Maghera over the comparative merits of potatoes grown in both districts.

Colourful as these stories are, the factions great enmity may have had a more banal source. The Cooleens were Kerry natives, while the Lawlors and the Mulvihills were comparative outsiders.

In the early 1600s, the Lawlors (or Lalors) had been among seven strong families (septs) transplanted from Queens County where they had been regarded as too hostile to the English plantations established there; they were subsequently settled around Tarbert, in Iraghticonnor.

Similarly, in the mid-1600s, the OBriens, lords of Co. Clare, who owned the lordship of Tarbert, settled many Clare families in North Kerry, including the Mulvihills; this created resentment among several local families, and led to many bloody fights.

The Cooleen faction mostly comprised representatives of old Kerry families, chiefly the Flahertys, as well as the Ahernes, the Bani OConnors and the Sheehys. Another account also numbered the Houlihans, the OCallaghans and the Roches in their ranks.

On the other side, the Lawlors and Black Mulvihills were supported by the Walshs, the Keanes, the OBriens, the Sullivans and the Enrights.

The Cooleens and the Lawlors often met at Listowel.

Indeed both groups were characterised in 1826 as Listowel factions.

In January 1828, they arrived there shouting and roaring and wheeling their cudgels, and with genuine whiskey courage, driving men, women, children, pigs, cows, goats, and sheep before them in sad dismay.

Afterwards, The Kerry Evening Post stated that the assistant barrister and local magistrates were determined: to suppress the horrible and demoralising spirit of faction and outrage which has long been the curse and disgrace of this country, and which in almost every instance, proceeds from an immoderate use of whiskey: and to such a pitch has this savage spirit arisen in Listowel and its neighbourhood, that a very respectable Magistrate of that vicinity, declared it was impossible with safety to carry on the ordinary business or intercourse between man and his neighbour at fairs or markets.

At Listowel bridge, in December 1831, Maurice Shea, a servant, was attacked by Patrick Sullivan, William Bourke and John Bourns.

While returning from the town fair, Shea was hurraing for the Sheas, Cantys, and Coolheens, and in what may have been a sequel to a previous fight, he used his stick to hit a cart on which a sister of one of his assailants was sitting.

A fight ensued which finished when the woman held him down on the ground while Sullivan gave him the last fatal blow with a two-handed stick.

After the inquest into his death, The Kerry Evening Post observed: It is very generally the consequence of faction and party feuds, among the lower orders of the people, that the defeated faction will seek every opportunity of waylaying and murdering individuals of the victorious party.

Sullivan was very quickly apprehended, but Bourke and Bourns went on the run. Sullivan was sentenced to transportation for seven years, while the other two men, who were eventually captured and later stood trial, were acquitted.

In 1834, it was said that scarce a fair day passed at Listowel without a serious fight.

In other episodes in Listowel, John Stokes, described by a policeman as one of those who did bad work in the country, was arrested with stones in his hands and in the act of calling out for Cooleens and factions at the fair held in August 1836.

In February 1848, both parties fought at a fair in the town. Ten years later, five men were sent to prison for violent assault and faction fighting in the Listowel area, arising out of the old Cooleen and Lawlor feud.

Their feud was not just centred in Listowel, however. Ardfert too was, for many years, the theatre of bloodshed between rival parties known as Cooleens and Lalors.

It was a Cooleen stronghold and included an area called Cuil, which was remembered as the largest street in Old Ardfert, and the brigade headquarters of the old faction fighters  it may have contributed to the faction nickname.

A fair there in June 1832 was very much impeded by a fight between two well-known factions, the Lawlors and Cooleens, which was at length put down with difficulty by the persevering efforts of William Collis  a magistrate of the County.

At a fair a month later, there was a barbarous riot in which a number of men were irrecoverably maimed and rendered forever unable to earn support for themselves or their wretched families.

At a fair in 1846 skirmishes commenced between the old rival factions, the Cooleens and Lawlors, with their mobs on this occasion amounting to several thousands. Among the participants was a woman who supported the assailants with stones from her apron during the assault.

During the event, after handcuffing a man, a policeman became separated from his fellows and was trapped and beaten by the crowd: Leahy [the policeman] was down in a saw pit and many assaulting him, still holding with a death grasp his manacled charge.

Faction fighting between families was endemic across Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries, especially in North Kerry.

A farmer from the neighbourhood of Ballyheigue intervened and, with persevering exertions, and at great personal sacrifice warded off the foolish people.

In 1857, magistrates meeting to decide the allocation of police to different districts still considered that the people of the neighbourhood were very much addicted to drinking in the public houses in the village, and to rioting and disorder.

Various other villages of North Kerry also provided platforms for the feuding parties. Fighting took place in Newtownsandes (later known as Moyvane):

Long ago people used to fight with blackthorn sticks  That fighting used to be going on in Newtownsandes between people called the Cooleens and the Black Mulvihills.

They fought after Mass on Sundays, and when they met at fairs and markets they fought also. The parish priest of Newtownsandes often tried to stop the fighting but it was of no use.

One Sunday they met to fight a terrible battle. They were fighting from about nine oclock in the morning [until] about five oclock in the evening, and at that time one of the Cooleens was dead.

At Lisselton, on Christmas Day 1828, Maurice Flaherty was attacked by three men of the Mulvihills and a man named Fitzgerald, and cruelly beaten with sticks and stones.

It appeared that a drunken fellow [,] one Fitzgerald, infuriated with whiskey, brandished his cudgel and halloed for one faction; he was instantly replied to, and a most bloody affray soon commenced.

It was asserted that Flaherty was killed under circumstances of the

most shocking and unmerciful cruelty.

John Mahony Mulvahill, a young man, was convicted of manslaughter, and, seemingly based on the terrible nature of the killing, sentenced to transportation for life, amidst the deafening shrieks and lamentations of his male and female friends.

At Ballyheigue, on the evening of St Patricks Day 1839, a crowd of about 20 people, whom a policeman believed to be Cooleens and Lawlors, struck each other as hard as they could pelt.

At Beale, Ballybunion, the pattern day was usually marked out for a faction fight between the two great factions then in North Kerry  the Cooleens and the Mulvihills, said a later folklore interviewee.

A recollection of Beale fair, which was held on 21 September, written in 1928, stated: It was the battle ground of the old faction fighters and next to Ballyeigh ranked as North Kerrys biggest event. Many and sanguinary were the fights that took place there between the rival factions that held sway in North Kerry and old men still tell tales of broken heads and bones.

The two parties also met at the pattern days held annually in Knockanure on 15 August.

In the earlier part of the nineteenth century this Pattern was the scene of many a faction-fight between what were known as the Couleens and the black Mulvihills; young and old assembled there to see the fight; the contending parties being armed with black-thorn sticks  Hard strokes were given and received, and many a young man was maimed for life.

The fortunes of war varied from year to year, the defeated party always turning up the next year with fresh men, and attacked their opponents with renewed vigour.

We must suspect that some of the earliest faction fights in North Kerry involved the Cooleens and the LawlorsBlack Mulvihills, even if there is no definitive proof.

Perhaps they were the two contending parties who fought in Listowel in 1806, or the two factions who entered the town and engaged in a furious attack on each other in 1814.

Not surprisingly, at various times and places attempts were made to put a stop to the activities of the two gangs.

This was often, though not exclusively, undertaken by the clergy, such as at Newtownsandes following the day-long fight which left a man dead: Every other Sunday after that the priest came out in the street after Mass, and ordered all the people to go home, and not to fight any more.

The two sides were advised by him, and they never again fought.

In December 1828, to reconcile contending factions, a priest had a large crowd of people from Ballylongford, Lisselton, Tarbert and the Galey walk, as a penance, from Tarbert to Tralee.

In 1832, there was an effort to persuade the two parties to cease fighting by a gentleman from Brandonwell, Ardfert, and it was reported that a cordial and sincere reconciliation has taken place between the factions of the Couleens and Lawlors.

That honest and ardent patriot, Mr J OConnor  has been chiefly instrumental in effecting this good work. Such reconciliations did not last.

FAMOUS FIGHTERS

Over the course of the two gangs long existence several notable fighters stood out, and stories about them continued to be remembered among the people of North Kerry long after the factions had ceased to exist.

By far the most famous of these men was John, known as Seon, Burns, who fought with the Cooleens. He was a well-to-do farmer from Coolaneelig, Duagh.

According to a folklore source from the Listowel area, he was a powerfully built man, standing about five feet eleven inches high with shoulders like a gint [giant] and weighing about 17 stone.

It was from his mother that Burns got the terrible strength, said another. She was a Kenny from Castle Island known here as old Mammy Kenny. Her people were known to be terrible strong.

Another Cooleen hero was Neanntanan Sheehy. [He] was famed far and wide for his strength. There was only one person stronger than him and that was Seon Burns, recalled Richard Denihan, whose father had been a member of the Cooleens:

Neanntanan Sheehy was engaged in very many factions and he was never brought to his knees by any man, but he met his doom in the end and Ill tell you how he did because I was witness to it. We were living below in Athea at that time.

Myself and my brother Tom were only garsuns about seven or eight at the time. We were sent to bed early in the night and the window of our room looked out in the street. About eleven oclock we heard some skirmish in the street and faith we jumped up to the window.

Who should be in the street but Neanntanan Sheehy  we knew his voice well and two other men. My mother, God rest her, came down to us. Who are they, Mother? says Tom. Oh, says my mother, thats Neanntanan Sheehy and two men from over in Knockanare. With that the fight started and one of them must have hit Neanntanan and knocked him for we heard one of the men saying to the other Hit him down on the head.

My mother told us to leave the window and she went away.

Next morning Neanntanan was over inside the wall and he covered with blood. He died later on in the day. My mother warned us on our life not to cough a word as to what we saw or heard. For, says she, we didnt see anyone, only heard them, and so we cant be sure.  My mother the poor woman didnt want to come into any trouble if she could avoid it.

The harm was done and she didnt want to bring the wrath of the others upon her. The place was full of police for a few days but they never took anyone for the murder, and it all passed away.

The Lawlors and Black Mulvihills also had their champions. Gearoid Mulvihill was descended from the Mulvihills of Knockanira, Co. Clare, who had the reputation of being great fighters and men of splendid physique.

He led the Black Mulvihills in many a bloody contest. Gearoid used to stuff his hat with hay so as to lessen the impact of the blows on his head. The following story about him also features a formidable fighter for the Cooleens, Sean Sheehy, from Coolaneelig, who was known as the Dailc (the hulk).

Gearoid Mulvihill had many notable victories and was held in high esteem even by his enemies. At that time the champions of different factions used to challenge each other to fight in order to see who was the better man  Big Jim Hartnett of Abbeyfeale sent a challenge to Gearoid, which he accepted. He took none of his followers with him.

It was a long hard fight which Gearoid eventually won. When the Abbeyfeale men saw their leader stretched on the ground they rushed at Gearoid and almost killed him.

The Dailc and his followers, who were present, went to his rescue and beat back his attackers. The Dailc took him to his own home and got two doctors to attend him. After a long illness Gearoid recovered, but he fought no more.

Daniel Keane was another strongman. It is told of him that he often took a sack of meal on his back from Duagh village to his home in Lybes nearly half a mile away. He was Second only to Shone Burns  he often measured his strength against Shone.

Another folklore interviewee remembered: One Sunday the Cooleens wanted to prevent the Mulvihills of going to Mass. Shone (Seon) was not there that day.

The Cooleens lined up at each side of the road and Daniel Keane led his party, and the Cooleens striking him at each side, his head was turning from side to side with the blows of blackthorn sticks, [but] he cleared the way and every man he struck fell to the ground.

Sean Doody, known as Shawn Laidir (the strongman), also fought for the Mulvihills. A tall tale was told to convey his strength: Beale strand was crowded with people as well as the usual tents & apple carts seen at a race meeting, reported a folklore interviewee of the local pattern day.

Shawn Laidir [,] wishing to clear a space for the opposing parties [to] meet on, went over to an apple cart and took the donkey which was unharnessed by the side of the cart.

Catching the donkey by the tail he raised him up & swung him around & flung him right over a tent and into the midst of the crowd scattering the people in all directions.

Women also took part in fighting for both these factions, but some of them had another role, that of bainfhile, partisan songwriters who could quickly conjure up verses to celebrate the heroes of their own faction or mock their rivals.

The pride and the passion of the Cooleens, the Lawlors and the Mulvihills, so well demonstrated in these verses, was most fiercely and fatally expressed on the field of battle at Ballyeagh strand, near Ballybunion, on Tuesday 24 June 1834.

There a huge number of men and women amassed for a conflict which transformed into a rout and left between eighteen and twenty-nine people dead, scandalised the local and national press, required two official inquiries, and resulted in transportation or imprisonment for a number of North Kerry men.

From Days of the Blackthorn  Faction fighters of Kerry by Sean Moraghan, published by Mercier. Now available nationwide @ 16.99.
Organizers of Black Hat Asia and DEF CON China security conferences announced that they put the events on hold due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

Bad news for cybersecurity passionates and experts, organizers of Black Hat Asia and DEF CON China security conferences announced last week that they have put the events on hold due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

The announcements come after the organizations of another important tech even, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, announced that the meeting has been canceled due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

Announcement: After careful consideration of the health & safety of our attendees & partners, we have made the difficult decision to postpone Black Hat Asia 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak. We still plan to host the event in Singapore this fall & will post new dates ASAP.  Black Hat (@BlackHatEvents) February 14, 2020

The organizer of the Black Hat Asia conference announced that they have decided to postpone the event in the fall this year to protect the health and safety of the attendees.

After careful consideration of the health and safety of our attendees and partners, we have made the difficult decision to postpone Black Hat Asia 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak. We understand the inconvenience this may cause and will follow up directly with all of those who are scheduled to attend and exhibit to determine appropriate next steps. reads the notice published on the official website of the conference.

Please know we are planning to host Black Hat Asia 2020 in the fall this year.

The event was scheduled between March 31- April 3 at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, where authorities raised the risk assessment DORSCON Orange, which means that the disease is severe and spreads easily from person to person.

It is not clear if the organizers will refund people that bought the tickets and will not be able to participate in the fall.

Organizers of another important cyber security conference, DEF CON China 2.0 (initially planned between 17-19 April in Beijing), already announced at the end of January the decision to postpone the event due to the coronavirus outbreak.

In light of global precautions being announced to combat the coronavirus outbreak, weve decided to postpone DEF CON China 2.0. We regret inconveniencing any of you. Know that we are committed to holding the event once its safe to do so. reads a post on the events forum.

If you want a refund on purchased tickets, please submit a refund request to your ticket broker. If youd rather that we hold your reservation for our new dates, you dont have to do anything and well keep your tickets on file.

The organizers accept refund requests from participants that have bought the tickets for the event.

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs  Coronavirus outbreak, hacking)

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LONGMEADOW Its an honor says the Rev. Charlotte H. LaForest to be the first female rector of St. Andrews Episcopal Church at 335 Longmeadow St.

Women clergy, as with women in many other fields, are still subject to questions in many places about competency or whether they can manage to perform well at work if they have young children, said the 36-year-old mother of three. But the Longmeadow church  which numbers 656  has been incredibly supportive.

In fact, the senior and junior wardens of the church  both women  have offered nonstop encouragement, she added. The congregation has welcomed me so warmly.

Married to Eric LaForest, a teacher at the Loomis Chaffee School and the Keller Family Director of the Norton Family Center for the Common Good, the new rector previously served as the assistant rector at St. Jamess Episcopal Church in West Hartford, Connecticut, and as the assistant rector at St. Johns Episcopal Church in Essex, Connecticut.

Her ministry would be incomplete without the opportunity to preach. I love to bring the stories of scripture into conversation with the issues of our everyday lives, she said. My preaching is an extension of the work I do in pastoral care and spiritual formation and is shaped by the community I serve as I listen for the Holy Spirits guidance as to the needs and concerns of those gathered.

LaForest has experience ministering with all age groups and has particular reasons to love each one: I love the holy chaos of ministry with young children and the unpredictability of questions about God and the world posed by school-aged children. I enjoy helping teenagers and young adults explore their faith, their identity and their role in the church and wider world. I love to explore how adults of all ages can support one another and connect with their faith in the midst of the busyness of career and family, sharing resources like apps and websites as well as contemplative practices and retreat opportunities to take some time out to rest, breathe and reconnect. I love the discernment of what comes next that happens around retirement and will never cease to be honored by the experience of walking with individuals and their families through their last days.

Prior to seminary she worked as a hospice chaplain in the Boston area.

Though born in Mineola, New York, she considers Jacksonville, Florida, her hometown. She majored in German and psychology at Georgetown University and earned a masters degree in social work and a masters in pastoral ministry from Boston College. She also has a master of divinity degree from Yale University and a Diploma in Anglican Studies from the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale.

As a child I knew very few female priests and no young female priests, and it wasnt until I encountered someone in ministry who was a young woman, a mom, a real person that I could relate to, that I could even conceive of being called to the priesthood myself, she said.

Her appointment as rector at St. Andrewss was effective Jan. 6.

LaForest learned of the opening for a rector at St. Andrews on Facebook. It was clear from the profile that St. Andrews is a vibrant community who wants to grow spiritually to care for each other and to seek out ways to serve the wider community, she said. The creative spirit of St. Andrews was also apparent in their willingness to try new things, such as Church Without Walls and Celtic Worship. This made me want to see what new things we could try out together in the future.

St. Andrews invites parishioners to be involved in one of six key ministry areas of parish life: caring for one another within the community, learning and growing in faith together, children and youth ministries, communications, worship ministries and mission ministry.

St. Andrews coordinates the Church Without Walls ministry in partnership with area Episcopal, Methodist and Congregational churches. Church Without Walls meets weekly in Court Square in downtown Springfield for worship, fellowship, communion and a meal with individuals who live outside in Springfield.

St. Andrews, LaForest said, faces the challenge that many churches face as the relevance of church is questioned in modern society: How to continue to share the good news of Gods love in ways that are relevant for people now?

For her, this begins with clarifying what the good news is. Rather than a list of rules to follow to have a shot at an eternal reward, the good news is the fact that you are loved beyond measure, and before time, by the God who created you and cares for you, she said. This is not a love that has to be earned. It just is. When we claim that love we are also faced with the reality that God loves everyone else God has made that way too, and so we seek to learn how to see others the way that God might see them, to love and care for them the way God calls us to. We have a perfect model for this in Jesus, who loved deeply each person who met, who was willing to do anything, even die on a cross, to show this love for the world, and who, in the resurrection, showed us that nothing, not even death, could overcome it.

When this is the message, a church cant just be about what happens within its building. Its about how we live our lives. And it includes everyone, which means all kinds of injustices in the world matter as the work of the church, she continued. Its more important than ever to speak these truths loudly, to proclaim that that love, healing, truth and freedom are possible despite the hatred and injustice that we see around us in the world.

For more information, go to st-andrews-longmeadow.org.
by Aaron Paquette , Columnist, February 13, 2020

All across America, millennials are facing off against baby boomers in a political tug-of-war. In the Democratic primary, the first millennial presidential candidate, Pete Buttigieg, is competing against four main candidates in their 70s. In the House of Representatives, a youthful freshman class in their 30s is shaking up an institution run by those in their late 70s.

And politicians and voters everywhere are trying to balance the priorities of boomers (tax cuts, lower spending, protecting Social Security and Medicare) with those of millennials and Gen Z (fighting climate change, eradicating student debt and promoting social justice).

Time correspondent Charlotte Alter investigates this phenomenon in her new book, "The Ones Weve Been Waiting For," set for release Feb. 18. Time carried an excerpt from the book in a January cover story, and its headlines are startling.

Alter is predicting a progressive youthquake as millennials and Gen Z start to vote in greater numbers. Experts say that voters experiences in young adulthood make the greatest impact on their lifelong political leanings, a sobering thought for a generation shaped by the Great Recession, endless wars, a student loan crisis, income inequality and climate change.

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According to Pew Research, 57% of millennials claim to hold liberal views, while just 12% say they have conservative values. Disapproval of President Trump tops 70% among those under 30. Millennial-led households have 34% less wealth than older generations did at their age, due to the student loan crisis and the lingering aftereffects of The Great Recession. According to Gallup, young peoples approval of capitalism dropped 15 points from 2010 to 2019. And according to Harvards Institute of Politics, in 2018, fewer than half of adults 18-29 supported capitalism, while 39% supported democratic socialism.

If a boomer is elected (or re-elected) as president in November, it will almost certainly be for the last time. Experts point to the phenomenon of the presidency skipping generations, such as when it passed directly from The Greatest Generation to boomers in 1992, skipping The Silent Generation. Even if Mayor Pete doesnt win this year, theres a good chance our president in 2024 or 2028 will be a millennial, completing the generational shift in power. Already the leaders of Austria, Finland, Ukraine, El Salvador, New Zealand and Ireland are 33, 34, 35, 38, 39 and 41, respectively.

What are the implications for marketers as teens and millennials find their political voice?

*Forget Gen X. As millennials dominate the workforce and voter rolls, look for power and influence to shift directly to them from boomers. Much like The Silent Generation, Gen X will never get its moment in the sun as a consumer and voting force.

*Promote capitalism or see it erode. Young people have little to no trust in the financial, pharmaceutical, insurance and oil industries, as well as several other pillars of the private economy. These industries and many others need to work hardand fastto get out their message, or else they face heightened government intervention. And all companies need to do a better job of practicing and promoting fair capitalism that respects and benefits all stakeholders.

*Be part of the solution. Even in industries with bad reputations, forward-thinking brands like Acorn, Marcus, Lemonade, Microsoft, Shell Oil and JetBlue are directly addressing younger consumers concerns about financial empowerment and climate change, and providing them with solutions.

Find ways to achieve and promote carbon neutrality; gender and racial parity in the C-suite and the boardroom; and equal pay for equal work. And include youthful and diverse perspectives in corporate decision-making.

As millennials and Gen Z rise to power, the most future-thinking brands can rise with them.
Reuters

By Michel Rose

PARIS (Reuters) - Europe may have lost the battle to create digital champions capable of taking on U.S. and Chinese companies harvesting personal data, but it can win the war of industrial data, Europe's industry policy chief said on Saturday.

Vast troves of data from how fast we drive our cars to how much time a robot needs to churn out products in factories have yet to be fully exploited, said Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner in charge of the EU single market.

Alarmed by the dominance of U.S. and Chinese tech companies such as Google, Amazon or Huawei, the EU is leaving behind the "laissez-faire" attitude of the early 2000s and ratcheting up regulatory pressure to protect its businesses.

The new approach will be on display on Wednesday when Breton unveils the bloc's new data and artificial intelligence strategy.

"We're entering a new phase. The battle for industrial data starts now, and the main battlefield will be Europe," Breton, a former French finance minister, told Reuters in an interview.

Breton said the EU had a unique opportunity to win the next phase of the digital revolution centered on the harvesting, management and analysis of data from industrial fields such as factories, transport, energy and healthcare.

"Europe is the world's top industrial continent. The United States have lost much of their industrial know-how in the last phase of globalisation. They have to gradually rebuild it. China has added-value handicaps it is correcting," Breton said.

"But the bulk of the industrial value chain, from large groups to SMEs, is based in Europe today. That's why all eyes are on Europe right now," he added.

"NOT NAIVE"

Breton, a former CEO of French IT giant Atos and telecoms group Orange, said the European Commission will unveil a three-pronged approach on Wednesday, consisting of strict rules, investing in infrastructure and unrolling a sector-specific approach.

Reuters exclusively reported on Jan 29 a 25-page draft document outlining the measures to create a single market in data, that could still be tweaked ahead of the Feb. 19 presentation.

It will include an array of new rules covering cross-border data use, data interoperability and standards related to manufacturing, climate change, the auto industry, healthcare, financial services, agriculture and energy.

Other rules in the coming months will open up public data on geospatial, the environment, meteorology, statistics and corporate data across the bloc for companies to use for free.

The document also proposes scrapping competition rules which hinder data sharing and possibly introducing rules to prevent large online platforms from unilaterally imposing conditions for access.

On Saturday, Breton insisted on the urgency of the task ahead. "Europe is not naive, it can very well see what's going on. That's why we have to organise ourselves now, including when it comes to the deployment of the first 5G networks," he said.

(Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Christina Fincher)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis may look like an all-American girl, but you might be surprised to learn her birth certificate states she was born somewhere other than the United States.

Giada De Laurentiis | Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Heres what we know about the celebrity chefs international background.

Giada De Laurentiis was born in Rome

The 49-year-old mother of one is a Roman citizen. She was born there and lived there until she was six years old, so when she and her family arrived in the United States, it took her awhile to acclimate to a new country with new people and a new language.

She described to Insider in 2018 what it was like to move from her familiar surroundings in Italy to California. My family takes their culture very seriously, so even when we moved to the U.S., we still lived very Italian lives. We spoke Italian at home, we only ate Italian food  and let me tell you, back in the late 70s and early 80s, people were not as proud of their unique heritage as they are now.

Her family moved because her famous grandfather, film producer Dino De Laurentiis, moved. If the patriarch went to America, they all did, as she told LItalo-Americano.

I moved to America when I was six. My family would do what my grandfather said: he left and so we all went with him.

Her favorite food memory of her grandfather

The Everyday Italian host was very close to her grandfather and food was a big part of their lives.

My first food memory is making margherita pizza with my grandfather and my very young siblings [when] I was 5, De Laurentiis told FirstWeFeast in 2016.

He would make the dough on a Sunday morning, let it rise, and by the late afternoon he would sit us all down at a counter in the kitchen, all his grandchildren, and just put out a bunch of toppings and let us do whatever we wanted with it.

De Laurentiis visits Italy regularly

The Everyday Italian star goes home to Rome frequently, with Instagram posts of la dolce vita to prove it. She brings her 11-year-old daughter, Jade, with her and clearly wants to make sure her child knows all about her rich heritage and ethnic background. Its obvious you can take the girl out of Rome, but Rome will never be taken out of her.

Every time I go back to Italy, it recharges me, she said in her conversation with LItalo Americano. Theres something special about the warmth of Italian culture, and food plays a big part in that. [Its] important for me to share that, and give people the tools to recreate that experience at home.

I had an unforgettable experience exploring the city with my mom and my daughter Jade, and it was really enlightening to see Rome through Jades eyes, too.

Read more: Giada De Laurentiis Swears By This 2020 Cleanse And It Actually Looks Good
Talks between Doha and Riyadh to resolve a two-year-old regional spat have stalled, Qatar's foreign minister has said, with diplomats and analysts suggesting the situation has hit a stalemate.

Saudi Arabia, along with its allies the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, cut all diplomatic, trade and transport ties with Qatar in June 2017.

The four governments accused Doha of backing radical Islamists, including the Muslim Brotherhood, and seeking closer ties with Saudi arch-rival Tehran -- allegations Qatar vehemently denies.

"We have always been very open for dialogue, since the start of the Gulf Cooperation Council (regional bloc) crisis," Qatar's Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

"It's been almost three years since the crisis started. We are not the perpetrators of that crisis and we've been very open and clear that we are open to any genuine intention to resolve this problem.

"We demonstrated this when there was an opening last year in November. Unfortunately these efforts didn't succeed and have been suspended at the beginning of January." Two diplomats in Doha said they did not see any indications that the nascent talks could be resumed for the foreseeable future following a flurry of engagement at the end of 2019.

The pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted a Gulf diplomat on Wednesday who suggested Riyadh pulled out of the talks because the Qatari negotiators "did not seem serious in reaching compromise".

The unnamed diplomat accused Doha's team of "prevaricating to prolong the negotiations" and added that Riyadh wanted a solution that included all of the boycotting countries.

Abdulrahman said that while Qatar was not responsible for the suspension, Doha remained open to further dialogue.

"We are trying to address the substance, to understand the root causes, and not to deal with whatever is said in the media or mentioned by non-officials," he said.

"We want to be forward-looking... so that it's not repeated again." King's College London assistant professor Andreas Krieg said the Saudis were "unhappy" that the Qataris demanded "some sign of goodwill" before engaging in reconciliation efforts.

"They already came to an agreement (on) overflight rights. The Saudis wanted to go ahead, but then Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman changed his mind while in a majlis (formal gathering) in Abu Dhabi," he told AFP.

"It runs very deep. The UAE have not taken a tiny step away from crisis mode. They can sustain this indefinitely." Krieg said the UAE's motivation to boycott Qatar was Doha's perceived closeness to the Muslim Brotherhood, while for Saudi the priority was to address Qatar's alleged closeness to Iran.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi: A shocking case has come to light. Actually, what a man did after suspecting his wife's character cannot be imagined. The accused husband glued the private part of the woman, accusing the wife of having relations with other men.

However, this case is not from India but from Kenya, where a husband committed this abominable act with his wife. According to the accused, his wife was related to four other people after which he carried out this act. The accused has been identified as Denis Mumo, 36 years old. The UK newspaper Daily Mail reported that the accused has been arrested under sections of domestic violence, assault and damage to reproductive organs.

The accused his wife in front of the police that he had seen several messages of non-men in his wife's mobile phone and a nude picture of him, which his wife had sent to other men. However, now the accused has admitted the crime and said that he wanted to save his marriage.

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UP: Woman kills her husband with the help of lover due to this shocking relationship

People beats a dalit man to death

Teacher ask girl student to take off cloth for not wearing school dress

Alcoholic 'Congress' raped woman, police investigation underway
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Ivanka Trump lauded Sunday a handful of Mideast countries, including close U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for embarking on significant reforms to advance womens rights, while speaking at a gathering of women entrepreneurs and regional leaders in Dubai.

The daughter of U.S. President Donald Trump was delivering the keynote address at the two-day Global Womens Forum held in an opulent resort overlooking the citys Persian Gulf coastline.

We know that when women are free to succeed, families thrive, communities flourish and nations are stronger, Trump said.

Her comments throughout the speech drew applause, particularly when she praised Saudi Arabia. Despite reforms there, womens rights activists and other campaigners are imprisoned and facing trial on vague charges related to national security.

The theme of the forum in Dubai was The Power of Influence. It was an apt theme for Trump, whose loyalty and support for her fathers presidency saw her and her husband, Jared Kushner, take up formal roles in the White House as his advisers.

The 38-year-old mother of three has positioned herself as an Oval Office confidante while spearheading initiatives that broadly back womens empowerment. Her husband has become a top adviser on U.S. Mideast policy.

Once the owner of an eponymous fashion line, Ivanka Trump has wielded her proximity to the president to promote policies affecting women and deliver speeches around the world about womens economic empowerment. She meets with world leaders as a key White House official. Some of her efforts even have some bipartisan support in Washington, standing in sharp contrast to the level of controversy and political division surrounding her fathers presidency.

In her keynote speech at the womens forum in Dubai on Sunday, Trump touted what she said was the progress of women in the United States.

Today, American women are leading in every aspect of society. Last year, there were more women than men in the United States workforce, with women securing over 70% of new jobs, she said in her address.

Trump made no mention, however, of legislative obstacles in the U.S. around paid family leave, which she and the U.S president support. Currently, just a few U.S. states offer paid leave.

During her speech in Dubai, Trump congratulated Saudi Arabia for recent changes in the law that allow women to travel abroad and obtain a passport without the permission of a male relative. In 2018, a ban on women driving cars was lifted. The changes are part of a wide-ranging push to transform the Saudi economy, attract greater foreign investment and ease international criticism.

Trump pointed to changes in other Mideast countries, as well. She said Bahrain had introduced legislation against discrimination in the workplace; Jordan had eliminated legal restrictions on womens ability to work at night; Morocco had expanded womens land rights; and Tunisia had introduced laws to combat domestic violence.

She said, though, more work needed to be done. She noted that across the region, women on average still have only half the legal rights of men.

The audience for her speech in the UAE included Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, World Bank President David Malpass and International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva.

The Dubai ruler is wildly popular at home and is seen as a modernizing force. He has, however, faced some criticism abroad concerning womens rights following reports that one of his daughters tried to flee the country and was forcibly returned. In previous years, Jordanian Princess Haya, with whom Sheikh Mohammed has two children, would have attended a forum of this kind by his side, but she too has reportedly fled the country and is seeking custody of their children in a British court.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia have worked to cultivate close ties with the Trump administration and were early supporters of the Womens Empowerment Fund, a World Bank initiative to help female entrepreneurs that Ivanka Trump strongly backs. During the first trip abroad of her fathers presidency to Saudi Arabia, the two Gulf countries pledged $100 million to the fund.

In her speech at Sundays forum, Trump commended Emirati leaders for removing barriers to women joining the workforce and developing a national strategy that recognizes that women are central to sustainable growth.

She noted that although 70% of Emirati university graduates are women, only 10% of the UAEs total national income is derived from women.

We know that this going to grow and flourish in the years ahead, she said.

During her two-day visit to the UAE, Trump met with women entrepreneurs and discussed a U.S. government project shes leading thats aimed at helping women in developing countries. The Womens Global Development and Prosperity Initiative was launched last year with backing by her father.

On Saturday, she toured Abu Dhabis grand mosque, visited Abu Dhabis branch of the Louvre Museum, and met privately with the countrys day-to-day ruler, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.

___

Follow Aya Batrawy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ayaelb
Ogletree Deakins, one of the largest labor and employment law firms representing management, is pleased to announce that Andre Caldwell has been elected to the position of shareholder in the firms Oklahoma City office. Caldwell focuses his national litigation practice on defending employers of all sizes in state and federal trial courts against allegations of harassment and discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other alleged violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act, Fair Labor Standards Act, and Pregnancy Discrimination Act. In addition, he has leveraged his extensive prosecutorial and litigation experience to conduct workplace and internal investigations for clients around the country. Caldwell began his career as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Western District of Oklahoma where he was assigned to the Violent Crime and Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. During his tenure, he was awarded the FBI Directors award from FBI Director Robert Mueller for his outstanding prosecutorial skills.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 07:22:26|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (1st, L) meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (1st, R) in Munich, Germany, Feb. 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Lu Yang)

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Munich, as both pledged mutual support on core interests of each other.

The two top diplomats met on the sidelines of the 56th Munich Security Conference.

Wang said that during China's ongoing fight against the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced support to China repeatedly and Russia sent aid supplies to China with a chartered flight.

Russia's response showed the high level of China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era, and the good tradition of the mutual support between the two countries, said Wang, who appreciated Russia's support and believed that the solidarity and mutual trust of the two countries will be strengthened in the process of the anti-coronavirus fight.

Wang said that a series of high-level exchanges have been scheduled this year. China is willing to work closely with Russia, in a bid to enhance the friendship and mutual trust of the two presidents and work for new progress of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination in a new era.

As both China and Russia are facing the threat of hegemonism and power politics, the two countries should continue to firmly support each other on issues concerning respective core interests. China is willing to strengthen dialogues and cooperation with Russia in the Central Asian region, in a bid to jointly safeguard the peace and stability of the neighboring regions of both countries.

In the meantime, China will also strengthen coordination with Russia on major global issues, jointly sending positive signals to the world and better safeguarding world peace and security, Wang added.

Lavrov said Russia will spare no efforts to support China's war against the epidemic and will continue to provide China with all the necessary aid. Russia appreciated China's great efforts in containing the epidemic.

Russia is satisfied with the smooth development of the Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, Lavrov said.

This year, the presidents of the two countries will visit each other again, Lavrov said. Russia will take advantage of this chance to implement the consensus reached between the two leaders and further deepen bilateral cooperation in all fields, according to Lavrov.

Russia and China have a solid foundation for mutual trust, so that all attempts trying to alienate our relations will come in vain, Lavrov said. Russia and China will continue to resolutely support each other.

Lavrov said that Russia is also willing to strengthen communication with China on issues in the Central Asian region and concerning Iran, Libya, Afghanistan and others. Russia and China will also further coordinate with their stances on international issues and jointly play their roles.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 21:39:39|Editor: huaxia

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DUBLIN, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- China has become the fifth largest trade partner of Ireland both in terms of imports and exports, according to the latest preliminary figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) of Ireland.

In 2019, the total value of the goods traded between the two countries amounted to 14.18 billion euros (about 15.3 billion U.S. dollars), up by 30 percent over 2018, showed the CSO figures.

Ireland exported a total of 8.93 billion euros worth of goods to China in 2019, up by 63.19 percent compared with the previous year, making China its fifth largest export market for the first time in the country's history.

In 2018, China was the 7th largest export market of Ireland.

In 2019, Ireland's total imports from China were valued at 5.25 billion euros, down by 3.3 percent from 5.43 billion euros in 2018. Despite the drop, China still maintained its position as Ireland's fifth largest source of imports in 2019, showed the CSO data.

The above-mentioned trade figures include Hong Kong and Macao of China, said the CSO.(1 euro = 1.08 U.S. dollars)
As Japan grapples with the expanding new coronavirus outbreak, six more people a five in Tokyo and another in Aichi Prefecture a tested positive Sunday for the deadly virus, local authorities said.

During a news conference held Sunday evening, officials at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said that two of the five were male acquaintances of a Tokyo taxi driver who tested positive Thursday after attending a party held Jan. 18 aboard a traditional yakatabune (traditional roofed party boat).

The third person was a male doctor who had contact with a female medical worker at the same hospital. She attended the same party as the taxi drivers and has tested positive, the government officials said.

The remaining two cases were one man in his 30s and the other in his 60s, the officials said, adding that their infection routes were not immediately clear.

Meanwhile, the Aichi Prefectural Government separately announced that a male resident in his 60s who lives in the prefecture has tested positive for the virus.

The man is an acquaintance of the wife of a Nagoya couple who tested positive Saturday after visiting Hawaii. He visited a doctor after developing fever of 38 degrees on Saturday, Aichi officials said. He has not visited China during the past two weeks.
Laurenthomas.com scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team

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PAGE TITLE Lauren Thomas- Actress, Model, Presenter- Perth, Western Australia DESCRIPTION Lauren Thomas is a young, dedicated and experienced actress, model and presenter currently based in Perth, Western Australia. KEYWORDS acting, actor, actress, commercial, feature film, film, girl, host, hot, laura, lauren, lauren thomas, mc, model, modelling OTHER KEYWORDS



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Isn't a 36 million, 14-bedroom Regents Park home big enough for Damien Hirsts girlfriend Sophie Cannell?

The artist appears to have snapped up another vast London property after ballerina Sophie posted a picture of a huge double-fronted house, left, with the caption New Year, New Everything.

The word is that Damien, 54, bought the pile for Sophie, 28.

But will the couple move in together?

After all, Damien has just splashed out on a basement pool at his Regents Park home after a six-year planning battle.

Artist Damien Hirst, pictured has splashed out on a new double-fronted London home for his ballerina girlfriend Sophie Cannell

The 28-year-old ballerina posed outside the luxury home and posted the image on Instagram

The talented performer captioned the photograph: New Year New Everything

Jodie kills it as a murderous clown

I predict Britain is about to be hit by coulrophobia  the irrational fear of clowns  after seeing the latest disguise of Killing Eve star Jodie Comer.

Jodie, who plays assassin Villanelle, posted these before and after shots when she was being made-up for an episode of the shows much-anticipated third series.

Villanelles style has been much lauded but Im not sure a tartan top hat is going to catch on

Kinning Eve star Jodie Comer absolutely nails it as a murderous-looking clown

It could have been a job for Meghan but in the wake of Megxit, the Duchess of Cambridge has stepped in to take on a pivotal role in the Royal Foundation, the philanthropic vehicle that was once the vision of the Fab Four.

My source says: Kate has really taken the bull by the horns. She has seen her opportunity and grabbed it with both hands. In recent weeks she has been visiting a lot of organisations, spoken to lots of experts and has soaked up a lot of information. She wants to use what shes learned to go out and bring about real change.

I hope all is well with Dame Shirley Bassey.

Im told the legendary performer, turned down any involvement at this years Brits, despite organisers offering to lay on a private jet to bring her to Britain from her Monaco home.

Shirley, 83, also rejected the chance to appear in an ITV documentary about the awards.

The Big Spender star is part of Brits history after being named Best British Female at the first ceremony in 1977.
Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP via Getty

Officials are scrambling to track down passengers who came into contact with an American woman who tested positive for coronavirus after leaving a cruise ship that was supposedly free of the bug.

The nightmare scenario linked to the MS Westerdam, which is docked in Cambodia, came as the U.S. evacuated Americans from another cruise liner, the Diamond Princess. More than 300 passengers, including 44 Americans, were infected on that voyage.

The MS Westerdam was stranded at sea for two weeks after Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Guam refused to let it dock because it had made a stop in Hong Kong.

It was finally allowed to dock in Cambodia and began disembarking passengers on Friday. An 83-year-old U.S. woman who got off with her husband flew to Malaysia with 145 other cruise passengers.

She later felt ill at the Kuala Lumpur airport and sought medical help. The Holland America cruise company confirmed Sunday that she had tested positive for COVID-19, as the new coronavirus originating from Wuhan, China, has been named.

Now health officials must track down other travelers, who have since dispersed, to make sure they get screened for the contagious illness.

Beijings Deadly Mistakes on Coronavirus

We are in close coordination with some of the leading health experts from around the world, Dr. Grant Tarling, chief medical officer for Holland America Line, said in a statement.

These experts are working with the appropriate national health authorities to investigate and follow-up with individuals who may have come in contact with the guest.

Holland America said it screened 1,445 passengers on board Feb. 10 and did not find any elevated temperatures. During the voyage there was no indication of COVID-19 on the ship, it said.

But the cruise line said it had tested just 20 patients for the virusall of whom visited the on-ship medical clinicand all were negative. But the 83-year-old American never visited the clinic and was never tested.

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If she was sick while on board the Westerdam and did not develop symptoms until later, it raises the question of whether other cruise passengers, who have gone on to final destinations, could fall into the same category.

The diagnosis underscores the continuing uncertainty about whether, and to what degree, the average patient can spread coronavirus before they show symptoms.

As the Westerdam situation unfolded, the U.S. evacuated about 300 Americans who had been quarantined on another cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, where 355 people were infected with coronavirus.

At least some of them will need to be quarantined for another two weeks once they arrive back in the U.S. Matthew Smith, who has been chronicling the on-board quarantine on Twitter, said he and his wife decided to stay behind.

COVID-19 has killed 1,770 people in China, 1o5 of them on Monday, the government announced. On Sunday, Chinese officials had been quick to point out that the number of new cases had declined the three previous day and credited their infection control measuresbut the number crept up again on Monday.

The head of the World Health Organization cautioned that it was impossible to predict which direction this epidemic will take, and that unpredictability could be seen in Taiwan, where officials revealed the first person to die of coronavirus was a cab driver, who got sick after picking up passengers from China, Hong Kong and Macau. One of the mans family members has also tested positive. Officials there are now trying to figure out who was in the mans cab.

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Again, Sanderss position is not very different from other liberals of his generation, and the likely consequence  a refusal to dispatch Marines to Caracas or cruise missiles to Tehran  doesnt distinguish him from other Democratic candidates, or (so far) Trump. Meanwhile, its worth noting that Sanders does say that military force is sometimes necessary and that terrorism remains a threat. He supports NATO, and he harshly condemned Trump for withdrawing U.S. troops from northern Syria at the expense of Kurds who fought the Islamic State.
Protestants to take Catholic communion at Calvin's Cathedral in Geneva on leap year day

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In a first since the Reformation era, Protestants are set to receive communion during a Catholic mass at a historic Cathedral in Geneva, Switzerland, John Calvin's adopted home.

The historic Swiss church, Saint-Pierre Reformed Protestant church, will hold a Catholic mass on Feb. 29, leap day, and Protestants have been invited to attend and take part, including in receiving communion.

Although open communion is forbidden by Catholic doctrine, the practice is reportedly common in Geneva, according to Protest Info, a Swiss Protestant news outlet.

The church became the home of French Protestant Reformer John Calvin, whose famous triangular chair continues to be kept beside the pulpit.

"The decision to invite Fr. Desthieux to say mass in Saint-Pierre began as informal talks followed by an ecumenical service in the cathedral, which then matured into a discussion and a council vote, said Parish Council President Daniel Pilly," LifeSite reported.

Pilly told Protest Info that he faced no opposition to the idea.

"The idea appealed because it corresponds to our desire to make the cathedral a meeting place for all Geneva Christians. A space that transcends confessional boundaries, he said.

"Protestants receiving communion is already done locally in many parishes during ecumenical celebrations where Protestants and Catholics invite each other to the Lord's Supper and to communion, he said.

Emmanuel Fuchs, president of the Protestant Church in Geneva and a pastor in Saint-Pierre, added that the invitation indicates that "the climate in Geneva is extremely favorable and fruitful with the Roman Catholic Church. We have made notable progress in terms of ecumenism, especially with the Joint Declaration, signed in 2017, which recognizes our respective ministries.

As Pope Francis said, ecumenism is achieved by walking. We are trying to walk together in the hope that when we have made enough progress, the obstacles that seem to us today insurmountable will no longer be, he said.

Catholic cardinals have long opposed the practice of shared communion or intercommunion, referring to the act of those who do not profess Catholicism but partake of communion as a "desecration" of the sacrament.

In addition to Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, where it is said that Martin Luther posted his 95 theses to the door in 1517, Saint-Pierre Reformed Protestant Church in Geneva is considered one of the most iconic sites of the Protestant Reformation.

The church began to be constructed under Arducius de Faucigny, the prince-bishop of the diocese of Geneva, around 1160, in Gothic style.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 17:04:16|Editor: xuxin

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NUR-SULTAN, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Kazakhstan will soon appoint a special representative for Afghanistan, said President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev during a meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on the sidelines of the 56th Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

According to the presidential press service, Tokayev called Afghanistan a good partner. To improve communication, a special representative from Kazakhstan for Afghanistan will be appointed.

Ghani expressed interest in further expanding trade and economic ties between the two countries.

Addressing a panel discussion, Tokayev said that the two sides are doing a lot in order to grow closer.

About 1,000 young people from Afghanistan are studying in Kazakh universities and Kazakhstan is providing scholarships to Afghan women. "I believe that the future of our cooperation is bright," said Tokayev.

More than 500 high-level international decision-makers, including over 35 heads of state or government as well as some 100 foreign and defense ministers gathered at the Munich conference to discuss current and future security challenges.
An Aspiring Parliamentary Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Asante Akyem South of the Ashanti Region, Mr. Eric Amofa has filed his nomination form with a strong appeal to the partys Constituency Executives to create a level playing field for all the aspirants ahead of the April 25 contest.

He said the executives have the primary responsibility to give equal opportunities to all the aspirants without any biases, favouritism or necessarily aligning themselves to any particular candidate.

Mr. Amofa stormed the NPP constituency office at Juaso on Friday 14th February 2020 with massive followers of enthusiastic party youth who marched through the principal streets of the town chanting victory songs for the MP hopeful.

His nomination forms were received by the Constituency Secretary, Mr. William Obeng and the Chairman, Mr. Gilbert Adarkwa Yiadom, who thanked Mr Amofa for availing himself for the contest and also appreciated him for conducting himself peacefully and maturely.

According to the UK-based Financial Analyst, he will embark on nothing but decent, mature and insult-free campaign to ensure unity in the NPP.

The Aspirant who is the Deputy Organiser of the NPP in the UK commended the Constituency Executives for their cooperation from the time he announced his intentions till the day of filing his nomination. Mr. Amofa promised to restrain his supporters from ever attacking any aspirant or engaging in indecent campaign.

About Mr. Eric Amofa Junior

He is a UK and Ghana based Social Activist and Financial Analyst born at Juaso in the Asante Akyem Municipality. He is about 40 years old. He holds Masters Degree in International Banking and Finance, Masters Degree in Social Work and BSc in Business Management from the University of Salford, Manchester UK.

Eric Amofa Junior also has HND in Marketing from Kumasi Polytechnic (Kumasi Technical University), Diploma in Public Relations -ICM UK, Diploma in Journalism and Marketing from the Institute of Business Management and Journalism, Kumasi and also attended Juaso L/A Primary School, Juaso L/A JSS and Juaso Senior Secondary School. The NPP aspirant works as a Social Worker in the UK County Council.

He formerly worked as Operational and Compliance Risk Analyst in a UK financial institution head office; worked as a supervisory committee chairman with Nottingham Credit Union head office UK; Worked as a Finance Administrator in a UK hospitality organisation; worked at the Asante Akyem Rural Bank at Juaso and Kumasi for 6 years and later joined the First Allied Saving and Loans as Credit Officer at Obuasi.

Political career and experience

Mr. Eric Amofa Junior is the current NPP UK Branch Deputy Organiser; Nottingham NPP Chapter Chairman; and Nottingham NPP Chapter Secretary from 2014 to April 2018.

He is also a Founding member of TESCON NPP- UK  2017; Founding member and National Leader: National Union of Ghanaian Student Association UK (NUGSA UK) 2017; Founder  Nottingham NPP Chapter April 2014; Manchester NPP Chapter Organiser from 2011 to 2013 and Co-Founder: Manchester NPP Chapter January 2011.
Authorities have recovered the body of a Scottsboro man from underwater at a state park in north Alabama, more than a week after he went missing.

Senior State Trooper Chuck Daniel said ALEA dispatch was notified at 1:45 p.m. today that officials at Bucks Pocket State Park had located a vehicle missing since Feb. 5.

At approximately 2:30 p.m., a diver confirmed that the missing motorist is also with the vehicle, Daniel said in a statement.

The motorist who went missing on Feb. 5 in South Sauty Creek in the park was identified as Raymond Edwards, 82, of Scottsboro. His body was recovered around 4:22 p.m.

ALEA had announced it would be using a helicopter today to continue the search, which had gone on for more than a week. Authorities were called around 2:55 p.m. Feb. 5 to Jackson County Route 452 and DeKalb County Route 174 in the park about the missing vehicle. Further searches were hampered by weather conditions.
Moody Bible Institute to sell 10 acres to Chicago high-rise developer

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Moody Bible Institute has entered into a preliminary agreement to sell off 10 acres north of the evangelical institutions main campus in the Near North Side of Chicago to a prominent high-rise developer, according to The Chicago Tribune.

Citing real estate sources, the newspaper reports that the institution has entered an agreement with JDL Development in a deal that is expected to bring thousands of new apartments to the area. However, the deal hasn't been finalized.

JDL Development was founded in 2003 and has gained a reputation as one of Chicagos premier companies focused on developing high-rise luxury apartments, condominiums as well as single-family homes.

The price of the reported agreement or what Moody Bible Institute was asking for has not been disclosed. However, The Chicago Tribune reports that offers were expected to top $200 million since the available property is located so close to downtown Chicago.

Moody Bible Institute is a fully accredited Bible college with other campuses in Illinois, Washington state and Michigan. It was founded in 1886 by Dwight Moody. Since its founding, the institutions main campus has been located in Chicagos Near North Side neighborhood.

The sale of the 10 acres follows the 2017 closure of Moody Bible Institutes Spokane, Washington, campus, a move made to preserve the institutions financial standing at a time when many private higher education institutions are facing declining enrollment and financial difficulties.

At the time, Moody also cut faculty and staff at its Chicago campus and closed an extension campus in California. Moody also adjusted undergraduate and seminary programs for cost reduction. Moody still operates its missionary aviation school in Spokane.

Amid its financial repositioning, Moody put its 10 acres of nonessential Chicago property up for sale last year and hired a brokerage firm to sell the properties located on LaSalle Street, Oak Street, Chestnut Street and Franklin Street.

A marketing flyer for the land claimed that the 10 acres could support up to 5.3 million square feet of development, according to ChicagoBusiness.com.

The school said it hired the firm to help the school steward and get the greatest value from the sale of the properties.

The Lord has strategically placed Moody in the heart of Chicago for such a time as this, and we are excited for this new season of opportunities, said Moody Bible Institute President Mark Jobe in a statement released in July 2019.

We firmly believe the Lord calls us in Matthew 25 to be wise stewards of the resources He has entrusted to us, and it is our desire to exemplify the faithful servants who invested the talents given to them by their master for a greater return.

In a statement emailed to The Chicago Tribune, a Moody Bible Institute spokesperson would not confirm or deny details of the reported deal with JDL.

Moodys real estate team has been prayerfully evaluating the merits of bids received and has narrowed the field with the expectation of entering into an agreement with a trusted and collaborative development partner soon, the statement reads.

In 2018, Moody Bible Institute underwent a leadership change following the resignations of the school's CEO and president amid allegations of questionable practices and a culture of "self-dealing."
In March, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service announced that the tax filing and payment deadline would be extended to July 15  but just because Americans have more time to file their taxes this year, it doesnt mean the process will be any easier. If filing income taxes were easy then professional tax preparers wouldnt charge customers an average of $188 to file even the most basic returns. That price moves much higher when taxpayers itemize, report multiple streams of income or start a business.

Filing taxes is rarely simple, and for many taxpayers it will get even more complicated this year. So that you can safely file your taxes, know what the problems could be this year.

Last updated: July 2, 2020

Poor Customer Service at the IRS

Budget cuts at the IRS have led to staff reductions and fewer Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TACs), making it one of the federal governments worst-performing agencies for customer service, according to a report to Congress from Bridget Roberts, the acting National Taxpayer Advocate. Because its hard to get appointments at TACs and reach live customer service reps on the phone, many taxpayers must look for help online, which doesnt always resolve issues.

Failure To Adjust Withholding

Tax changes implemented in 2018 lowered taxes for most Americans and also introduced new withholding tables. Both changes led to more take-home pay for many workers  but only if they adjusted their withholding to make sure enough taxes were taken out of their paychecks. Those who didnt make the right adjustments last year could end up owing money in 2020.

Confusion Over Health Savings Account Contribution Limits

Another recent tax change was a slight increase in health savings account (HSA) contribution limits for both individual and family coverage. The increases are minimal  only $50 per year for individuals ($3,500 total for tax year 2019) and $100 for families ($7,000 total for tax year 2019)  but if you havent familiarized yourself with the new amounts, they might create confusion at tax time.

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Outdated IRS Technology

The IRS information technology infrastructure is aging and not nearly as efficient as it should be for such a large and important agency. Plans are underway to correct that problem through investments and upgrades, but, for now, tech problems could lead to delayed refunds, security breaches or difficulty processing returns.

Find Out: The Wildest Things Your Taxes Are Paying For

Not Tracking Business Expenses Accurately

A growing number of Americans depend on the gig economy to earn money, which means more will file as self-employed. This requires a lot of additional work  including keeping accurate records of business-related expenses. If you dont keep accurate records, you run the risk of either losing out on deductions or claiming the wrong ones, which could lead to an IRS audit.

Mixing Up Personal and Business Expenses

As more Americans depend on side gigs to earn extra money, many will look to write off business expenses to lower their tax burdens. Theres nothing wrong with this  as long as you familiarize yourself with what can and cant be deducted. Writing off items that blur the line between business and personal expenses, such as a car or home office, might result in an audit. Always check the IRS rules before deducting expenses.

Delays in Processing Refunds

Recent efforts by the IRS to provide more filters to prevent refund fraud have delayed refunds for many taxpayers, including those whose returns were legitimate. According to the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) report, about 25% of returns chosen by a new filter for the 2019 filing season took more than 40 days to be processed. That could be a problem in 2020 as well.

Not Enough Multilingual Notices

The IRS has been slow to adapt to demographic changes in the U.S., including the rising population of taxpayers with limited English proficiency (LEP). The TAS report notes that despite executive orders requiring federal agencies to help LEP people access services, these people often get IRS notices that arent written in their preferred languages, which creates confusion and processing delays.

What Do You Need To File Taxes? A List of All the Documents To Have

Unqualified Tax Preparers

If your tax return is one of the 80 million or so prepared by third-party tax preparers, theres always the chance it will be inaccurate, incomplete or even fraudulent. Misconduct and incompetence among tax preparers is another problem cited in the TAS report and will likely remain so until the IRS develops a comprehensive tax-preparer strategy.

Not Paying Side-Hustle Taxes

If youve taken on a side hustle to earn extra money over the last year, one of your biggest tax challenges in 2020 will be accounting for income that hasnt been taxed yet. Since side hustles typically involve freelance work with no withholding, its your responsibility to keep track of the income and pay taxes on it.

You Might Have To Pay Self-Employment Tax

The changing U.S. employment landscape has pushed many Americans into freelance or independent contractor jobs, which requires them to learn a whole different set of tax rules. One of those rules is the self-employment tax, which is something you must pay on top of your income taxes. The self-employment tax amounts to 15.3% of your net earnings to cover your portion of Social Security and Medicare taxes.

Not Keeping Up With Estimated Taxes

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the number of self-employed workers will rise by 10.3 million during the decade ending in 2026, which means a lot more Americans will pay estimated taxes once a quarter. Failure to keep up with these payments and pay them on time will not only complicate things when its time to file your return, but it could also result in additional interest and penalties imposed by the IRS.

Learn: What Can I Write Off on My Taxes?

Underpaying Estimated Taxes

As previously mentioned, you want to make these estimated tax payments on time to avoid penalties. You also want to ensure you dont underpay. Youre responsible for keeping records and paying the right amount. If you dont pay enough, you could face a big payment at tax time.

Problems With Free File

The IRS partnership with Free File Inc., a group of tax return preparation software providers, was formed to provide free tax-prep software to more than 100 million qualified taxpayers. But as the TAS report points out, less than 2% of e-file returns were filed using the free products because of dissatisfaction among users. If you qualify for Free File, you might run into headaches figuring the software out.

Help Might Be Hard To Find

Although hiring a tax preparer carries certain risks, sometimes you cant avoid it. Youll probably need one if your return is complicated by a new business, income stream or life event. Qualified tax preparers help ensure your return is accurate, but finding one might be tough amid rising demand for their services. If you wait too long to get help, you could find yourself flying solo at tax time.

Loss of Alimony Deduction

If youre used to deducting alimony payments tied to a divorce or separation agreement, prepare for that to end. The deduction was eliminated as part of the 2018 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, but this is the first year its not deductible on returns. If youre not aware of the new rule, you might get confused come tax time. You might also lose large sums of money you once wrote off.

Be Prepared: 30 Ways To Prevent a Tax Audit

Confusing IRS Audit Correspondence

The IRS use of combination letters in about 16% of its audits in recent years has created confusion for many taxpayers and given them inadequate time to respond. These letters combine an initial contact letter and a 30-day notice, each of which serves a different purpose, according to the TAS report. Despite these problems, the IRS plans to expand its use of the letters.

Tax-Debt Relief Needs Improvement

The IRS uses an offer in compromise that lets taxpayers pay less than the full amount they owe for tax debts. This helps ensure that financially strapped taxpayers have a little wiggle room. Its also designed to ensure everyone files their returns properly and on time. However, some taxpayers find the requirements too stringent, and the National Taxpayer Advocate recommends a more liberal policy.

Cash Income Might Draw Additional Scrutiny

If you started a side hustle that deals in cash  such as a weekend food stand or seasonal pop-up shop  youll be responsible for keeping track of all your cash income and receipts. A high percentage of cash income also brings extra scrutiny from auditors, so be sure to maintain accurate records.

Appeals Might Not Go Your Way

Taxpayers can appeal IRS decisions through the agencys Office of Appeals, which is designed to settle disputes without the need for litigation. Some appeals conferences include IRS counsel and compliance teams, however, which makes it difficult for appeals officers to reach conclusions that stray from positions advocated by counsel or compliance teams. This setup runs contrary to the independent appeals process for taxpayers, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate.

Compare: The Average Refund Check in Every State

Confusion Around the Individual Mandate Penalty

Changes to the tax code made in 2018 didnt all go into effect that year. One that starts with the 2020 tax season is an end to the federal individual mandate penalty, which imposed tax penalties on those who could not prove they had health insurance. Though the federal penalty has been eliminated, some places impose state or local penalties, including New Jersey, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. Taxpayers there could get confused by the rules.

The Ever-Changing Medical Expense Deduction

The medical expense deduction has bounced around like a ping-pong ball in recent years, and it will keep bouncing in 2020. The deduction was 10% of adjusted gross income (AGI) from 2010-2016, then it fell to 7.5% in 2017 and 2018, and returned to 10% in 2019. If you plan to itemize your unreimbursed medical and dental expenses, make sure they exceed 10% of your AGI before claiming the deduction.

Scams Are On the Rise

Some taxpayers will find the 2020 tax season much more problematic than usual if they become victims of fake IRS letters sent out by scammers who want to steal Social Security numbers and other sensitive information. Tax scams involving fake correspondence, phone calls and ransomware have been on the rise in recent years. A good rule of thumb is to call the IRS directly whenever you suspect a scam.

Losing Track of Different Income Sources

In the old days, tracking your income was pretty straightforward  you worked for one company, and that company sent you a W-2. But in the gig and side-hustle economy, more taxpayers are getting outside sources of income to supplement their main sources. Keeping up with numerous income streams complicates the process and increases the risk of error.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Why the 2020 Tax-Filing Season Will Be Tougher Than Usual
Diagnosing coronavirus takes approximately one hour using current methods. A new technology, based on a combination of optics and magnetic particles, can rapidly test 100 samples of patients potentially infected with the virus and reduce the diagnostic time to approximately 15 minutes.

The time it currently takes to diagnose coronavirus poses one of the greatest challenges in treating infected patients and increases the risk of exposure. Using a new technology developed by Dr. Amos Danielli, of the Alexander Kofkin Faculty of Engineering at Bar-Ilan University, saliva tests can be analyzed within 15 minutes. The technology has already been proven to reduce the diagnostic time of Zika virus and is currently being used in the Israel Ministry of Health's central virology laboratory at Tel Hashomer Hospital.

Dr. Danielli's lab has developed a technology for sensitive detection of virus-specific RNA sequences by attaching the virus' RNA to a fluorescent molecule that emits light when illuminated by a laser beam. At very low concentrations of RNA, the signal emitted is so low that existing devices cannot detect it. "If we think of the saliva of a corona patient filling an entire room, then this laser beam can be compared to the size of a fist and at low concentrations of virus RNA, there might be only 2-3 fluorescent molecules within that fist," explains Danielli. Adding magnetic particles to the solution enables them to adhere to the fluorescent molecules. This enables a greater concentration of fluorescent molecules and a much more accurate measurement.

Two main goals guided Dr. Danielli in developing this technology - simplifying the diagnostic process and making it more accurate. "This development relies on the use of two small electromagnets, which are magnets powered by an electric current. By properly positioning them, we were able to create a strong magnetic field and collect all the thousands of fluorescent molecules from the entire solution and aggregate them inside the laser beam, thereby multiplying the signal strength by several orders of magnitude. But that's not all. Instead of pumping the solution we alternately operate the electromagnets, once on the left and once on the right, moving the molecules from side to side, in and out of the laser beam. As they pass through the laser beam they become illuminated. When they exit the light beam they are no longer illuminated. This flickering allows us, without any additional procedures, to accurately determine whether a person has been exposed to coronavirus."

The high sensitivity of the platform and its ease of operation facilitate its use in point of care applications where resources are limited. To provide doctors with an alternative method for accurate detection, Dr. Danielli's group is also collaborating with European universities to identify antibodies that the immune system produces against the coronavirus.

While Dr. Danielli develops kits to identify various diseases, such as the Zika and coronavirus, MagBiosense, a medical device company, is developing a device the size of a home coffee machine that will be based on Danielli's technology. Currently, Dr. Danielli is searching for an investor to accelerate the development of the coronavirus kit, so it can rapidly be introduced in hospitals.
A 12-year-old's hair was yanked out and was kicked in the face. Kids barge into classes to pick fights. Teachers are fed up. And the school district isnt doing anything about it. Middle school is rarely easy. But it should never be this hard. Columnist Heather Knight joins Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper on the Fifth & Mission podcast and reveals the shocking details behind the fighting, bullying and chaos that upends Aptos Middle School in San Francisco. Also, Audrey talks about her experience with bullying in middle school.
The garment industry in Udyog Vihar, which saw a major slowdown in 2019 with little hope of recovery, has a chance at revival owing to the coronavirus outbreak in China. Garment-makers are expecting a rise in the demand of finished clothes over the next few months as a result of US- and Europe-based buyers diverting business to India from China, where factories have shut down, causing a break in the global supply chain.

According to garment-makers and exporters in Udyog Vihar, Western buyers, who typically rely on Chinas advanced factories and cheap labour, have started placing orders with them instead, and several potential buyers have been enquiring about the units production capacity.

The coronavirus outbreak in China has led to a disruption in industries, even as factories and shops have shut down and flights have been suspended, multiple reports state. Exporters and manufacturers say that if the crisis continues, they expect a rise of at least 20-30% in the export of finished garments this year.

The slowdown

Udyog Vihar houses at least a thousand garment-manufacturing and export units that have a combined turnover of more than a thousand crores, according to experts.

The demand for finished garments had reduced considerably in 2019, leading to several small export units shutting shop, industry experts say. A delay of around four months in GST refunds also took its toll, garment-makers say.

Small units working with limited capital and under thin margins could not afford to keep running. The factors that led to the slowdown still persist, Ramandeep Singh, the director of a garment manufacturing unit here, says, adding that his factory faced a slump in demand of 20%-30% in 2019. Others say they saw a fall of 20% in sales last year as compared to the previous year, as they lost business to countries such as China, Vietnam and Bangladesh due to several reasonshigh labour and transport costs, lack of clear government policies and technological advancements in other countries.

According to a 2019 study published in Ideas for India, Indias share in global textile exports declined while countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam expanded their market share. It says Indias textile exports are constrained by high costs, unhelpful customs policies, and competition from abroad.

JOB MARKET

The slowdown in the industry also led to large-scale job losses and a freeze in hiring. According to labour rights activists, hundreds of workersboth men and womenwere laid off in 2019. The garment industry in India is woman-dominatedaccording to the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, 2016, of 35 million employed in the textile industry, nearly 20 million are women.

Savitri, 28, is one of 30 workers at a medium-sized factory who were temporarily suspended in September 2019. For the workers, redundancy had not been a problem earlier because they often found a new job in another factory, she says. However, she hasnt found another job yet in the industry as factories tell her they are full and cant hire an extra workforce.

Two-three years ago, factories would usually keep one or two extra staff members for backup in case of sickness or emergencies. That seems to have stopped for the last few months, Savitri, who had been working in the industry for six years, says.

Gurugram has seen thousands of layoffs in its factories since last year. It has the countrys largest automotive hub in Manesar, and more than 40,000 workers, according to labour rights activists, have been affected by the slowdown.

Companies with greater contractualisation have seen higher retrenchment, according to the workers. Many of those who have been laid off are migrant workers from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and West Bengal. After searching for jobs in vain, most of them have now returned to their hometowns, members of the workers unions at the industries say.

Workers retrenched from auto firms say they tried moving to the garment sector to find employment but were met with closed doors. Gurmeet Singh, 26, who hails from Ambala, says many units refused to take him in, saying there was no vacancy.

For several months in 2019, extra labour was removed. No hiring is taking place in the industry, Praveen Yadav, president, Gurgaon Udyog Association, says. However, industry owners say an expansion in the workforce will depend on the number of orders diverted to them in the coming month.

The health crisis as an opportunity

In an industry that has not recovered from the slowdown, garment industry owners say the crisis in China could be a huge opportunity for Indias business if the government steps in to give the industry incentives.

Satyendra Singh, the general manager at a garment-manufacturing unit in Udyog Vihar Phase-5 that employs around 300 workers, says they have received orders from at least two new customers from France since the health scare grew in China.

Many wary Western buyers have been approaching us the last one month; we expect the queries to turn into orders in the next few weeks, Singh says, adding that he is expecting a rise in exports this quarter. Their clientele, he says, is clothing brands such as GAP and Walmart, among others.

Animesh Saxena, managing director at another manufacturing unit in Udyog Vihar and president of the Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME), says they have received preliminary enquiries from Western buyers in the wake of the virus, and that if the health crisis escalates, huge amounts of business could be diverted to other South Asian countries, including India.

He adds that this could serve as a golden opportunity for the industry to revive, but only if the government responds quickly.

Others reiterated their concerns about losing business to Bangladesh in the next few weeks due to low labour costs and export-conducive policies.

Factories in Bangladesh are bigger; manpower is cheaper. Bangladesh has a duty-free import policy of raw material from India and China, which is their advantage, Ramandeep Singh says, adding that the rate of duty refund under the Central governments rebate scheme hasnt been announced and there is still no clarity on the incentive.

Earlier, a 4% incentive was available for garments under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme, which was discontinued in August last year.

According to the Apparel Export Promotion Council, Bangladeshs garment export has risen exponentially for the same reason.

In 2005, Bangladeshs exports were valued at $3 billion and Indias were at $5 billion. In 2019, Bangladeshs exports rose to $36 billion while Indias were at $16.5 billion, shows data with the council.

IS Yadav, joint director, district industrial centre, Gurugram, says the garment industry here is being provided trade subsidies, and that the state government has several schemes to boost the industry. No immediate plans to increase incentives exist, he says, adding that more than 200 units have benefited from the governments incentives.

However, industry experts say only the next two months will decide what the future of the garment trade will look like.
The National Democratic Congress says it will in the coming day petition the UN General-Secretary, Antonio Guterres, to remove President Akufo-Addo from his position as co-chair of the United Nations Eminent Group of Sustainable Development Goals Advocates.

The NDC argues that President Akufo-Addo has failed the country in his promise to protect the environment and fight illegal mining in Ghana hence its decision to push for his removal from the UN SDGs role.

Addressing the press at the banks of River Pra in the Central Region on Sunday, Communications Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi said petitioning the UN will help send a strong signal to the government that, Ghanaians are not happy with its handling of the galamsey issues.

We hereby serve notice, that the NDC shall in the coming days, petition the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, to revoke the appointment of President Akufo-Addo as Co-Chair of the SDG Advocates. Clearly, President Akufo-Addo has failed to show genuine commitment to the fight against illegal mining and the protection of the environment in his own backyard.

His corrupt government has become an active enabler and promoter of the galamsey menace and the destruction of the environment in a way that affronts the SDGs of the United Nations. He has proven to be unfit for the prestigious position of Co-Chair of the UN SDGs Advocates, for which reason he must be removed without delay. And, we are absolutely convinced beyond doubt, that the United Nations will act in the interest of the Ghanaian people, the international community and the environment, he added.

Where are the missing excavators

The NDC is also demanding from President Akufo-Addo the public exhibition of all confiscated excavators, gold, ammunitions and all other mining equipment seized during the fight against illegal mining.

The party is alleging that all items as listed at paragraph 801 of the 2020 Budget Statement presented to Parliament include 900 excavators, 2,779 weapons and ammunitions and 4,045 other mining equipment.

Missing excavators and matters arising

The Akufo-Addo government has come under fire over recent developments in the mining sector following reports that excavators and other equipment seized from illegal miners had gone missing.

In addition to the current controversy over the excavators, the Concerned Small Scale Miners Association has called for accounts of gold seized from illegal miners. Action so far

So far, six persons have been arrested in connection with the missing excavators. They have all been granted bail .

The six include the suspended First Vice Chairman of the New Patriotic Party in the Central Region, Horace Ekow Ewusi.

They have been cautioned with the offence of stealing and abetment to stealing.

According to the CID, the five others arrested individuals are alleged accomplices of Ekow Ewusi, who was contracted to take custody of the seized equipment.

citinewsroom
He said, We are not attaching the Amotekun corps to anybody or groups, no matter how highly placed. They are to tackle criminal activities such as armed robbery and kidnapping. They wont be attached to any religious centre, either church or mosque. We dont want it to be used for political reasons.
After spending last week following the Democratic presidential primary in New Hampshire, I started thinking of their nominating convention.

No, not the one the Democrats are having this summer in Milwaukee. The one they had in 1932 in Chicago.

Like their Chicago convention of 1968, it was bitterly contested, not in the streets but in the hall.

No candidate had the delegates to win on the first ballot. The voting went through the evening and into the next afternoon before Franklin Roosevelt had dispatched of his eight opponents. Heres how the great H.L. Mencken summed it up:

The great combat is ending this afternoon in the classical manner. That is to say, the victors are full of uneasiness and the vanquished are full of bile.

Thats the dream of a lot of Republicans for this years Democratic convention, which will be held in Milwaukee this July. And after surveying the field and the rules, I have concluded that my Democratic friends are headed for the sort of intramural brawl the Republicans barely avoided in the last cycle.

That contest was quite similar. The GOP field included one candidate  Donald Trump  whose extremist views were very popular with the voters but feared and despised by the party establishment. Those leaders wanted to dump the extremist and replace him with a more moderate candidate.

But the effort to dump Trump was doomed by a decision made by the same establishment that wanted to replace him with Jeb Bush or some similarly bland candidate.

That was the decision to award delegates on a winner-take-all basis. There were eight states that did so, some of them quite large. When Trump won a state like Florida, for example, he got all 99 delegates.

Compare that to how Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders performed in New Hampshire. He won the popular vote, but not by much. That meant that when the delegates were divvied up, he got nine delegates. But so did former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Things were even worse for Sanders in the Iowa caucuses. There, he again scored a narrow victory over Mayor Pete in total votes. But Buttigieg actually came out a delegate ahead under Iowas complicated rules.

At the moment, Buttigieg leads the delegate count with 22 to Sanders 21. But thats not the number that shows why this nomination process looks like its headed to a stalemate.

That number is the total delegates won so far by the three candidates vying against Buttigieg for the moderate vote. Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Joe Biden got 8, 7, and 6 delegates respectively. That also adds up to 21.

In other words, the field is almost evenly divided into thirds. There are two-thirds backing anybody-but-Bernie Democrats and one-third backing a democratic socialist, as Sanders describes himself.

If this were a two-person race, as Sanders had against Hillary Clinton in 2016, the moderates could unite behind a mainstream candidate and win. But its not.

Worse, the four anybody-but-Bernie candidates now in the running will soon be joined by a fifth, multi-billionaire and former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg.

Bloomberg is set to jump in on Super Tuesday in March. Thats the day when 30 percent of delegates will be won  or lost.

Some of my Democratic friends tell me Bloomberg will win enough of those delegates to clear the field.

I doubt it. Even if Bloomberg has a really good day, all he will succeed in doing is taking a field now divided into thirds and divide it into quarters.

Without winner-take-all primaries, even a first-place finish can produce little gain. If Iowa and New Hampshire had been winner-take-all, Sanders would be leading by a 64-0 margin at the moment.

But theyre not. After two first-place finishes, he ended up in second place.

Even if he keeps running up wins like the prior two, he will end up well short of the 1,990 needed for a first-ballot victory. (That would lead to a brokered convention at which the controversial super-delegates, mainly Democratic Party leaders, would get to vote - and would certainly not go to Sanders.)

I cant see how any other candidate gets to that magic number either.

The party leaders were hoping that former vice president Biden would take an early lead and clear the field. But now Biden is poised to be just another spoiler, even if he wins Feb. 29 in his proposed firewall, South Carolina.

Theres always the chance that one moderate will emerge from the pack and the rest of the moderates will donate their delegates to him or her. But if I were one of those moderates, Id be thinking of my chances of being the consensus choice on the second or third ballot.

Thats what happened in 1932 and it was not a pretty sight.

Perhaps some Democrat has a plan to have this turn out better.

I for one would sure like to hear it.

ADD - BLOOMBERG FACES TOUGHER ODDS THAN MANY EXPECT:

If you take a cold, hard look at the poll numbers its hard to see how Bloomberg exits Super Tuesday successfully and easy to see how he gets buried in the pack.

Thats because theres a rule in the Democratic primaries stating that no delegates go to candidates scoring below 15 percent.

The polls shown on RealClearPolitics have the former New York City Mayor well below that level in the two states that count the most in that vote on the first Tuesday in March.

Those states are California and Texas. At the moment, Bloomberg is at 4.3 and 11.7 respectively. California has 415 elected delegates and Texas has 228.

If Bloomberg scores below 15 percent in those two contests then hes effectively out of the running for a first-ballot nomination.

And its hard to hit 15 percent in a crowded field. Just ask Joe Biden, who was leading in some early polls in New Hampshire but finished up with a mere 8 percent.

Compare this to a winner-take-all system. If a gazillionaire like Bloomberg could somehow purchase enough votes to win those two states, he would have 643 delegates, more than a third of those needed for a first-ballot victory.

But under this system Bloomberg will be back in the pack unless he makes huge gains in the next two weeks. And when youre back in the pack in the current Democratic system, there is no path to the front.

Im sure Mike can do the math. And I suspect his strategy is based on getting to a second ballot.

But if Bernie is leading in delegates on the first ballot and is deprived of the nomination, I suspect the Democratic convention may look more like the 1968 Chicago convention than the one in 1932.
When the U.S. imposed, the week before last, a travel ban on Nigeria, Eritrea, Sudan and Tanzania, I think, this sort of sends a conflicting signal to American business. Certainly, the announcement that theyre considering cutting the American security assistance on the continent is also puzzling, said Witney Schneidman, the senior adviser for Africa at Covington and Burling, an international law firm. Pompeos going to have his hands full in terms of explaining the different messages coming from Washington.
Average income parents are spending more on early childhood care and education than they would sending their child to private primary schools, despite increased government funding for the sector.

A family of two adults working full-time on an average combined income of $170,000 last year paid $5949 for one year of long day care, according to calculations in the Australian Investment in Education: Early Childhood Education and Care report released on Sunday by education think tank the Mitchell Institute at Victoria University.

This is more than the average $5782 they would have spent sending their child to an independent primary school and far outstrips the $336 annual cost of a public school.
It is clear to all, including the Buhari Presidency, that Nigerians across board, have been in protest against the Buhari-led APC administration and need nobody to mobilize them to publicly exercise their constitutionally guaranteed rights any day to register their discontentment against a failed administration that has continued to live on propaganda, it said.
Retail giant Marks & Spencer has been hit by a backlash over its plan to stop distributing paper shopping vouchers to thousands of small shareholders from the end of the month.

Under a major shake-up, which will affect around half of the company's legion of loyal small investors, the group is scrapping paper vouchers and replacing them with digitally dispatched discounts.

The sweeping changes will mean that investors who hold shares through a third party stockbroker or in an Isa account will no longer receive the vouchers which were launched in 2004.

The retailer will only distribute the perk to those investors for whom it has contact details through its appointed broker Equiniti.

Demand: Shareholder Freda Pink is urging M&S to offer 'fair compensation'

Dozens of shareholders responded to The Mail on Sunday's article last week revealing M&S's decision.

One angry shareholder, who declined to be named, said he had lost 'thousands of pounds' on shares he bought more than 20 years ago.

He said cutting the vouchers after the slide in the share price  the worst in decades  was an 'affront'. 'Don't M&S care about their small shareholders any more?' he asked.

Wilson Chalmers, from Bath, said: 'We are not happy about the lack of information from M&S on the switch. We have learnt more from your article than from the company that we partially own.'

He said he wanted M&S to 'revert back to the original system'.

Investor Josephine Strong described the switch as 'deplorable'. She said: 'M&S must be saving a fortune, but it certainly has not enhanced its reputation.'

The company is unusual because it has vast numbers of small shareholders among its investors. Many are former employees or suppliers who have stayed loyal to the company for decades.

These shareholders account for 20 per cent of the company's investors by value of their shares  more than 700million. They are regarded as some of the most loyal in the stock market and were cited by the board as a key weapon in its armoury when it defended itself from a takeover attempt by Sir Philip Green in 2004.

The vouchers were launched as part of a commitment by the board in that year to 'reward our loyal shareholders'  then 320,000 individuals  after the bid was rebuffed. The discounts were worth almost 7million a year at the time.

Perk: The paper pack included 10 per cent off a single purchase, a bundle of Spend & Save vouchers for food and clothing and 2.50 to spend in any M&S cafe

The paper pack included 10 per cent off a single purchase, a bundle of Spend & Save vouchers for food and clothing and 2.50 to spend in any M&S cafe.

Anyone with at least a single share was entitled to receive them. The pack will be replaced with a single discount voucher distributed online.

The company has argued that the changes will encourage shareholders to register directly with the company  or Equiniti  for digital communications and will mean the firm will be able to engage better with active shareholders.

M&S said: 'We are undergoing a far-reaching transformation and our ambition to become a digital first retailer is at the heart of how we are changing.

'This includes how we engage with our shareholders  ensuring that, as we change, we build long-term shareholder relationships supported by accurate and informed communication.'

The firm also cited 'ever increasing print and mail costs' and 'declining voucher redemption rates'.

It is understood the firm previously sent boxes of vouchers to share dealing firms according to the number demanded by individual brokers. However, it said it could not track the vouchers and did not know how many were passed on or ultimately spent.

Accountant Anthony Shapiro, an M&S shareholder from Chelmsford, Essex, said the overhaul meant many shareholders have 'been disenfranchised by M&S, not digitally engaged by them'.

M&S said it is 'undergoing a far-reaching transformation and our ambition to become a digital first retailer is at the heart of how we are changing.'

He said: 'My family have been shareholders in M&S since at least 1984 and I am profoundly disappointed.' Shapiro said it was 'Neanderthal' that the firm could not find a more sophisticated method to communicate with all share- holders.

Many investors, chiefly those with shares through third-party brokers, said they had no idea they were eligible for vouchers until the situation was highlighted last weekend.

Clifford Pride, a retired businessman, said he and his wife bought shares in 2016 through Hargreaves Lansdown but were 'not aware' of the existence of the shareholder voucher scheme and had never received any.

Freda Pink, who is in her 60s and living in Surrey, and her partner David who bought several thousand shares in 2016 and 2017 through Halifax Share Dealing and Barclays also said they had not been given any vouchers.

'We hope there are some positive developments from this,' said Freda. 'Fair compensation would be provision of the vouchers we're entitled to plus some bonus vouchers.'

M&S said it communicates with more than 50 brokers which deal in its shares. These include Share Centre and Interactive Investor.

Many small shareholders said they have been sent vouchers by their broker or had contacted their nominees each year and were forwarded them. All of those contacted said they were very unhappy that this is destined to end.

One share dealing firm said only a 'very small number' of investors had requested the discount vouchers.

It said those shareholders tended to be those who bought the 'minimum number of shares to qualify'. They have been advised to switch to Equiniti if unhappy.

Hargreaves Lansdown said it had passed vouchers on to shareholders but could not comment on individual cases without full details of those affected. It said it would 'need to look at individual cases' before it could comment on why some appear not to have received the annual discounts in the past.

The firm said other corporations had systems in place to issue discount perks to shareholders.
lis smith

Rich Pedroncelli/AP, Screenshot via YouTube

Lis Smith, a senior communications adviser for Pete Buttigieg's presidential campaign, was accused of running a fake account that appeared to be a Nigerian Buttigieg supporter.

Screenshots of the account surfaced on Sunday that included a tweet that identified the author as Smith and matched the language of a letter the campaign sent to supporters.

Smith acknowledged the theory on her official account, and the campaign denied she was behind it.

Insider reached out to the owner of Instagram and LinkedIn accounts that appeared to be associated with the Twitter account. The owner said that he was in fact a Nigerian Buttigieg supporter who had deleted the Twitter account after fear of being doxxed.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A senior adviser for Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg got caught up in the Twitter rumor mill on Sunday when she was accused of running a fake account purporting to be a Nigerian supporter of the former mayor, but a person who claims to be behind the account told Insider it was a misunderstanding.

The theory that Lis Smith, the senior communications adviser for Buttigieg's campaign, was behind an account for someone named "Chinedu," who was described in the profile's bio as a "Pete Buttigieg supporter from Nigeria" who loves "wine and dancing," was surfaced in a series of screenshots that included a tweet from the account seemingly identifying itself as Smith.

In the one tweet presented as possible evidence that Smith slipped while running the account, the author wrote on January 30: "Team Pete. Hey. It's Lis. It's Phase 4. Time to leave it all on the floor. Phone bankers, we need you."

The language in the tweet appears to match up with some lines from an email sent to supporters from the Buttigieg campaign, which announced "Phase 4," or "time to leave it all on the field."

Story continues

After the theory began making the rounds, the "Chinedu" account tweeted to mock the allegations, blaming "Bernie Bros." The account appeared to have been deleted by Sunday afternoon.

Related Video: How Networks Treat Debates Like Reality TV

Insider identified Instagram and LinkedIn accounts with associated usernames and similar profiles to the @easychinedu account, and when reached for comment via LinkedIn message, the person behind the accounts said that they were not affiliated with Buttigieg's campaign, and had run the Twitter account before deleting it Sunday for fear of being doxxed.

The man, who said he was Nigerian and a supporter of the former mayor, also told Business Insider he had posted the "It's Lis" tweet as a joking reference to the campaign email, which he saw circulating on Twitter.

Insider confirmed the existence and identity of the man behind the accounts through requesting and receiving a photograph of the man holding a sign with the date and phrase "I am not Lis Smith" written on it.

Smith acknowledged the allegations on her official account, brushing it off as an "absurd" conspiracy theory.

Matt Corridoni, the campaign's deputy rapid response communications director, denied the allegations in a statement emailed to Business Insider.

"Nigerian shadow account conspiracy theories are the new rat emojis," Corridoni wrote. "Sad but not surprising."

When asked if the campaign was officially denying that Smith had created and posted from the account, Corridoni confirmed it was regarded as "an online conspiracy theory."

"Of course we are because this is very obviously an online conspiracy theory," Corridoni wrote in an email. "Quite shocked you'd think otherwise."

Other journalists chimed in to joke about the theory, with New York Magazine's Olivia Nuzzi referencing email scams, writing that Smith "asked me for my social security number and the name of the street I grew up on...or else I couldn't have a press credential to cover Pete."

Smith is a well-known political adviser who partially made her name as a campaign aide for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and has been credited for the media strategy responsible for Buttigieg's rise in the polls, which she has described as "going out everywhere, meeting voters where they are, [and] not turning our noses up at non-traditional outlets."

The account's identity as a black Buttigieg supporter touches on one of the campaign's widely reported points of vulnerability, as an Insider poll last fall found the former mayor was satisfactory to only 27% of black voters.

Those results came a month after a report from The Intercept said the campaign had falsely said that three prominent black figures in South Carolina supported his Douglass Plan for Black America, when only two had and none had supported him as a candidate.

Update: This post has been updated to include statements from the man claiming to have run the Twitter account.

Business Insider
Arunkumar Huralimath By

Express News Service

HUBBALLI: The Hubballi-Dharwad police have released three students from Kashmir, who were detained on Saturday on charges of sedition. The detained students were studying in the KLE Institute of Technology in Hubballi.



The police said that the students were released on a bond under CrPC Section 169 on Sunday. The students are now kept under safe custody and their parents are expected to reach Hubballi.



On Saturday, three students who hail from Anantnag and Baramulla districts of Jammu and Kashmir, were rounded up by the police after a video surfaced in which they are allegedly seen raising pro-Pakistan slogans. The video was taken by the police, along with statements of other hostel-mates. The police have also seized mobile phones and laptops of the students for investigation.



ALSO READ: Sedition case filed against three Kashmiri students in Hubballi for 'raising pro-Pak slogans'

The police said that CrPC section 169 allows release of the accused when evidence is deficient. We did not find enough evidence to arrest the three students under sedition charges. They are now released on a bond, but they have to visit the police station as and when required. Currently, they are in safe custody and soon their parents are coming to meet them. The college has already rusticated them after the video, a police officer informed.

On Saturday, after the video went viral, college principal Basavaraj Anami had a lodged complaint and the police had registered a case under IPC Sections 124-A (Sedition), 153 A and B, 505 (2) and 34. The students were released on Sunday, after a thorough investigation by the police and a team of intelligence officers.



ALSO READ: Three Kashmiri college students detained for raising pro-Pakistan slogans in Karnataka

Meanwhile, principal Anami said that the college has already rusticated the students and informed their parents, who may come here within a couple of days. The students got seats here under the Government of India quota, therefore, we will write to The Union Government in this regard, he said.

Members of right-wing organisations staged a protest in front of the Gokul Road police station for releasing the students from Kashmir. They alleged that the charges are serious and the police must arrest the trio.



There is enough evidence to prove that they hail Pakistan, said a member of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). The protesters also blocked the road, demanding the intervention of Police Commissioner R Dileep.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 05:03:15|Editor: yhy

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TUNIS, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian Prime Minister-designate Elyes Fakhfakh announced on Saturday the lineup of his proposed government.

The new cabinet is composed of 31 members, including 29 ministers and two secretaries of state.

Among the government members are six women of four ministers and two secretaries of state.

During a brief press briefing, Fakhfakh said he had agreed with President Kais Saied to continue consultations with the various parties and parliamentary coalitions over government formation until the expiry of the constitutional deadline of Feb. 20.

A few hours before the announcement of the new government, the Islamist party Ennahdha (Renaissance), announced it will not grant confidence to Fakhfakh's cabinet.

"Ennahdha will not give confidence to this government," said Abdelkarim Harouni, chairman of Ennahdha consultative assembly at a press briefing.

Ennahdha, which has a majority of 54 seats in parliament, rejects Fakhfakh's exclusion of the Heart of Tunisia party, which has 38 seats, from his new government's lineup.

In a note published on his official Facebook account earlier in the day, Nabil Karoui, head of the Heart of Tunisia party affirmed his decision to join the opposition.

Meanwhile, Abir Moussi, head of the Free Destourian Party with 17 seats in the parliament, and Seifeddine Makhlouf, spokesperson for the Coalition for Dignity Party with 21 seats, also announced their parties' decision not to vote for the new government.

From his appointment on Jan. 20, Fakhfakh would have a month to form his government and submit it to parliament for approval, where he needs at least the votes of 109 out of 217 deputies.

If the prime minister-designate failed to form a new government within the constitutional deadline, the president would have full right to dissolve the parliament and call for early legislative elections.
ALEPPO, Syria  The staff at the Idlib Health Directorate and the medical cadres in the province hospitals protested in front of the directorate building Feb. 6, denouncing the repeated attacks by Russian and Syrian warplanes targeting medical facilities and hospitals in the Idlib province and its surroundings in northwestern Syria, coinciding with the ground operation of the regime forces and their allies, Russia and Iran.

Protesters called on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to visit Idlib province himself and see the targeting of hospitals and health facilities, which threatens the lives of the 3 million people who live in the area.

In November 2019, Syrian regime forces and fighters supported by Russia and Iran began a ground military offensive against the opposition-held areas in northwestern Syria, but ground attacks escalated on Dec. 20, 2019. The regime forces have since taken control of dozens of villages and towns after they bombed them with various types of weapons, by land and air, causing hundreds of deaths and injuries among civilians, displacing thousands of others.

Russian warplanes bombed the Sarmin Health Center Feb. 4, which led to the almost complete destruction of the building. Warplanes targeted al-Huda Hospital in the town of Hoor in the western countryside of Aleppo Feb. 1, destroying large parts of the building.

Journalist Imad Zahran, director of the information office in the Idlib Health Directorate, told Al-Monitor, The number of health facilities that were put out of service as a result of deliberate targeting by Russian and Syrian warplanes has reached 49 hospitals, centers and medical points since April 2019, among which are 11 hospitals and health centers attacked in January 2020 only, and two hospitals in February, while 21 hospitals and health centers have been completely destroyed.

Zahran added, The bombing has killed and injured a number of doctors and workers in the hospitals of the Idlib Health Directorate. Some buildings have been almost completely destroyed along with their medical equipment, which prompted the directorate to relocate a number of health facilities to the places of displaced persons' gatherings near the Syrian-Turkish border north of Idlib to provide health services.

The Syrian Civil Defense has documented the targeting and destruction of 55 health facilities since the beginning of 2019, while civilians are in dire need of health centers.

Director of the media office in the Syrian Civil Defense in Idlib province, Ahmed Sheikho, told Al-Monitor, The civil defense teams are providing the necessary assistance when warplanes deliberately target hospitals full of patients and injured people.

Sheikho added, The civil defense teams have documented 12 health centers that were put out of service. Among the most prominent hospitals and medical centers that have stopped providing health services are the Maarat al-Numan Hospital, Saraqeb Hospital, Sarmin Hospital, Arihah Hospital, al-Iman Hospital in Sarjeh village and Taftanaz Hospital, as well as medical centers in Mount Zawiya and Mount Shashbo and Hoor Hospital in the western countryside of Aleppo.

Mohammed al-Hallaj, the director of the Response Coordination Group, a humanitarian nongovernmental organization working in Idlib, told Al-Monitor, The number of hospitals and health centers that have been targeted by Russian warplanes has reached 19 since the beginning of 2020 in Idlib province and surrounding opposition-held areas in northwestern Syria.

He added, The destruction of hospitals was an additional factor in pushing people to flee their towns due to the loss of medical services.

Hallaj stressed, The humanitarian situation in northwestern Syria is very bad as a result of targeting hospitals and medical points while the remaining ones find themselves unable to cover the needs of people in light of the high population density.

Civil activist Obaida Dandoush told Al-Monitor that warplanes target all public facilities, including hospitals, ambulance centers and civil defense centers, to force civilians to search for other centers for treatment, which leads to casualties among the injured. Health centers, he explained, are far from the target area and civilians who are still present in those areas targeted by the regime forces are not receiving treatment. Some facilities have stopped providing services for fear of being targeted.

Dandoush added, Health centers and hospitals located in the border areas are unable to provide proper health care because of the population density, the available medical equipment is insufficient and the majority of hospitals and medical points near the lines of engagement work to provide first aid only, since operation rooms are out of service.

For his part, the head of the secondary care department in the Idlib Health Directorate, Yahya Nehmeh, told Al-Monitor, Medical staff in the liberated areas face many difficulties, most notably the absence of safety as a result of the continued shelling, and the number of auditors increasing so dramatically. There is a shortage of consumables, medicine and medical equipment, which were never enough to begin with.

He emphasized, The high number of auditors on hospitals and health centers contributed to forming a great pressure in light of the decline in health sector support and the scarcity of organizations' work.

Nehmeh noted, Hospitals need medical equipment because theirs are worn out as a result of continuous use, and they need dialysis equipment, intensive care equipment, baby cots, beds, especially with the population increasing after escaping the military campaign by the regime forces and Russia. The truth is, the Health Directorate cannot properly cover health services for all civilians due to its weak capabilities.
Encores JDH #4A is currently awaiting connection to a gas pipeline in order to produce gas and/or oil. The Company is entering into an agreement to develop a gas pipeline for the JDH #4A and JDH #5 that should deliver gas 2.1 miles west to an existing gas market and processing facility. The Company is currently mobilizing equipment to begin drilling the JDH #5 horizontal well location targeting the upper Berea Oil Sandstone formation.

We are extremely excited about the production potential at the JDH #5 location due to the fact that the well is located off-set to reportedly the highest volume oil producers in Lawrence County and that we are working with the most proven engineering team across the entire Berea play, said Steve Stengell, Encores President and CEO. The road / location are built, crews / equipment procured and we have an approved well permit in hand, added Stengell.

Encore has already built road, location(s) and drilled a 2000 vertical section at its Fallsburg WFC #H1 location in northern Lawrence County, and plans to make the WFC #H1 the Companys 4th or 5th horizontal well project in Lawrence County with the horizontal section to be drilled later this spring or summer. The ultimate objective is to provide Encore and its partners diversification across multiple wells and lease projects, said Joseph Hooper, Encores EVP and Director.

The fact the SEC defined investors can deduct 100% of their investment against all forms of income (state and federal) further mitigates much of the risk associated with these projects, added Hooper.

Tier I horizontal Berea oil wells in this area have reportedly averaged in the range of ~100 - 150 BOPD over the initial 90 days of production where the well development costs are significantly lower, as compared to other plays across the US. Berea oil production from Lawrence County, Kentucky reportedly represents nearly 25% of the states total annual oil production.

Oil and gas investments are subject to a high degree of risk, uncertainty, unpredictability, indefinite delays, loss of investment and are suitable only for SEC defined accredited investors who are sophisticated in making business and investment decisions. No assurances can be made as it relates to production, income, distributions, reserves, profitability, prices, timelines and/or any other estimates.

The SEC definition of an accredited investor is better explained on the SECs website:

https://www.investor.gov/additional-resources/news-alerts/alerts-bulletins/updated-investor-bulletin-accredited-investors

Qualified SEC defined accredited investors (SEC Regulation D, Rule 506c) can deduct 100% of their intangible and tangible drilling costs against all forms of income (state and federal) with years of potential income from production. These tax savings mitigate a good amount of risk associated with oil and gas drilling, completion and production operations.

For more information, please contact Joseph Hooper at (270) 991-6858 and/or visit the due diligence section of Encores website:

http://www.encore-energy.com/Operations.html

Assumptions, Disclaimer and Cautionary Statement: The information herein may contain forward-looking statements, and actual results may vary. Words such as "estimate", "will," "intend," "continue," "target," "expect," "achieve," "strategy," "future," "may," "goal," or other comparable words or phrases or the negative of those words, and other words of similar meaning indicate forward-looking statements and important factors which could affect actual results. Forward-looking statements are made based upon Management's current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects upon Encore Energy, Inc. Oil and gas investments involve a high degree of risk, uncertainty and are only suitable for qualified Accredited (SEC Definition) investors who are sophisticated in making business decisions and can bear the financial loss of their entire investment, while delivering a turnkey profit to the Company for proving the prospect development, lease acquisition, drilling, completion, engineering and ongoing production operations. The Company does not provide tax advice and investors should seek the advice of their tax professional. Any tax and/or other information herein is provided for illustration purposes only and may include estimates that are uncertain and subject to change. It is impossible to accurately forecast profitability, production, reserves, income, expenses and timelines for any project. No assurances can be made as it relates to reserves, production, income, profit, prices, timelines and/or other estimates. Actual production and results are beyond the control of management. In the event that commercial production is achieved, it may take many years for the investor to recoup his or her investment. The Company's lease acreage position under is subject to change and includes acreage under lease, Farmout agreement, verbal agreement, renewals, expired terms and any other prospective acreage in which the Company has communicated and/or negotiated with the landowner the leasing of oil and gas rights, now or in the future, and the lease / mineral owner has leased or communicated their intent to lease there mineral lease rights to the Company. It is important for qualified investors to acknowledge the fact that the US government provides them with tax savings (100% IDC tax deduction) to mitigate or at least off-set some of the financial risk associated with domestic oil and gas investments. This is not an offer to sell or buy a security. An offer shall only be made pursuant to SEC Regulation D, Rule 506(c) by a private placement offering memorandum, and this is not a private placement offering memorandum.
AP

Nearly 40 more women have come forward with accusations against gynaecologist Dr Robert Hadden, after former presidential candidate Andrew Yangs wife said he had sexually assaulted her.

Before her husband suspended his campaign last week, Evelyn Yang revealed along the campaign trail that she was a victim of sexual assault in an emotional interview with CNN.

Something about being on the trail and meeting people and seeing the difference that we've been making already has moved me to share my own story about it, about sexual assault, the 38-year-old said in January.

She said she was assaulted by her doctor, who worked in the prestigious medical facilities at New Yorks Columbia University, on multiple occasions.

In one instance, she said he performed an examination on her when she was seven months pregnant without wearing any gloves.

I was in the exam room, and I was dressed and ready to go. Then, at the last minute, he kind of made up an excuse, she said. He said something about, 'I think you might need a C-section,' and he proceeded to grab me over to him and undress me and examine me internally, ungloved.

Dozens of women had already come forward with accusations against the doctor prior to Ms Yangs interview with CNN. However, her stepping forward appeared to cause a wave of previously-unknown victims to also share their stories with the Manhattan District Attorneys office.

The latest victims included at least cases involving minors, according to attorney Anthony DiPietro, who told CNN he was adding the accusers to an ongoing civil lawsuit against the doctor and Columbia University. Ms Yang has also joined that lawsuit, which now included about 70 women.

Emilia Heckman, one of the woman who came forward following Ms Yangs interview, told CNN about her appointments with the doctor: At first it was gloves on, and all of that.

And then it transitioned to no gloves, a tongue and a beard, she said, adding: I recoiled.

Story continues

Hadden pleaded guilty to two charges of criminal activity, including a sexual act in the third degree and forcible touching.

The plea deal allowed Hadden to register as the lowest-level sex offender possible. However, he can still be tried on new criminal charges depending on the individual circumstances of each case, according to CNN.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has defended the plea deal, saying in a statement: Because a conviction is never a guaranteed outcome in a criminal trial, our primary concern was holding him accountable and making sure he could never do this again  which is why we insisted on a felony conviction and permanent surrender of his medical license.

He added: While we stand by our legal analysis and resulting disposition of this difficult case, we regret that this resolution has caused survivors pain.

Read more

Andrew Yangs wife reveals she was sexually assaulted
Nepal on Sunday, February 16, reportedly evacuated at least 175 nationals from the City of Wuhan in Hubei province, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak. The citizens are being quarantined in a town near the border, confirmed an official.

Mahendra Shrestha, the spokesperson for the Health Ministry in Japan told the media that a chartered plane operated by state-owned Nepal Airlines carrying 134 men and 41 women, mostly students, landed at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport earlier on Sunday, 16 February.

According to the reports, the evacuees are being quarantined for two weeks in lockdown in the nearby town of Bhaktapur to prevent further spread of the disease due to the transmission. They are under the close observation of doctors in quarantine and will be allowed to leave and join their families in case they were found healthy and tested negative for the COVID19.

Read Government Sets Up Teams To Inspect Villages Bordering Nepal For COVID-19

Read Coronavirus Outbreak: India Says It Will Do Everything To Help China; To Send Medical Supplies Soon

Evacuees repatriated after the protests

The Nepal nationals were reportedly repatriated after the protests by parents of students studying in the Wuhan city who demanded that the government airlifted them from the Hubei province lockdown and brought them back into the territory. The parents reportedly protested in front of the Health Ministry demanding that Nepali students in Wuhan be brought home sooner.

The government said that the delay was due to the time the health authorities needed to prepare buildings and facilities to keep the returnees in quarantine and carry out medical checks. The assistance for the psychological wellbeing of the evacuees was also arranged by the government.

Nepal has only one confirmed case of Coronavirus so far, as the death toll from China's Coronavirus epidemic has reportedly climbed past 1,600 as of Sunday, February 16. The World Health Organization (WHO) praised the country's efforts to contain the new disease, saying they have "bought the world time" and that other nations must make the most of it.

Read Amid Coronavirus Outbreak, Hong Kong Protesters Demand Full Closure Of China Border

Read Amazon, EBay Sell T-shirts With Coronavirus Quotes, Latter Removes It After Outrage
In the diplomatic and other battles that have taken place between Turkey and Egypt, Egypt has always won hands down

The current feud between Egypt and Turkey has caused many to draw comparisons between how the two states conduct their policies in the ever-turbulent region of the Middle East. There are stark differences in the ways each state is handling the feud, and these allow for a better understanding of the two countries policies.

In its response to Turkeys provocative practices, Egypt has maintained a policy of resilience and followed the guidelines of international law while at the same time showing a firm stance towards the acts of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan has deliberately and repeatedly insulted Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi at different forums and in various speeches using ad hominem tactics. From the way Erdogan has described him, it might have been thought that Al-Sisi was standing for election in Ankara and not in Cairo. By contrast, Al-Sisi has refrained from even mentioning Erdogan in any forum or statement. I only deal with politicians, not with actors, he might have been imagined as thinking.

Turkeys propaganda apparatus has filled the airwaves with noise about alleged human-rights abuses and a lack of freedom of speech in Egypt  ironic, when one considers that Turkey is ranked as one of the three worst countries in the world by the Index of Press Freedom and the worst in the world in terms of the number of detained journalists. For its part, the Egyptian leadership has highlighted the fact that human rights are not confined simply to freedom of speech and the freedom of the press but also include welfare, security, proper housing and decent employment.

Erdogan has been labelled as foolish by US President Donald Trump in open letters on more than one occasion. The same administration has often saluted the president of Egypt, describing him as a brave leader who is given a massive welcome on every visit to Washington.

Turkey has been accused, with the provision of irrefutable proof, by many countries of harbouring terrorists and trading stolen oil with the Islamic State (IS) group. Erdogans own son has been mentioned as being involved in such suspicious deals. Egypt, on the other hand, has fought terrorism on its own soil, stood firmly against attacks, and managed to rout terrorists on its territory. The global powers have cooperated with their Egyptian counterparts successfully, helping them to thwart potential terrorist attacks on their own soil.

Turkey has attempted to interfere in Egyptian-Saudi relations and has expressed its dissatisfaction with the military cooperation between them, also asserting its disapproval of border agreements and the settlement of the status of the two islands of Tiran and Sanafir. Despite the pressure that some countries have exerted on Egypt to interfere in the issue of Turkeys draining of the Euphrates River in Iraq and its war against the Kurds, Egypt has refrained from any interference in Turkey, however, considering Turkish affairs to be outside the circle of its concerns in international relations.

This has been part of the message from the Egyptian leadership to its Turkish counterpart to mind its own business, but thus far it does not seem that Erdogan has got the message.

Turkeys naval power ranks 20th in the world today, according to the website Global Fire Power Index, and it has used this to threaten Egypt, Cyprus and Greece, using media propaganda in attempts to catch up with Egypts advances in signing gas extraction, liquefaction and export agreements. Fortunately, Egypts navy is ranked sixth in the world by the same Index, and it has sent naval teams on military manoeuvres to the gas fields in the Eastern Mediterranean to make its military power clear to Turkey and to declare its readiness to engage at any moment should the need to do so arise.

The Turkish president has insisted on the existence of Turkish maritime borders with Libya, defying geography in doing so and denying the existence of a border between Libya and Egypt. Turkey has also concluded naval and military deals with the besieged Libyan interim government and dispatched terrorists to threaten Egypts western borders in its attempts to steal Libyan oil.

For its part, Egypt has sent logistical and military support to the Libyan National Army led by Khalifa Haftar. The Libyan parliamentary speaker has also invoked the necessity of Egyptian military intervention to protect his country from a Turkish invasion.

The Turkish president and his representatives were ignored during the recent Berlin Conference on Libya, something which caused him to leave the event earlier than planned. The Turkish press mocked their leader as a runaway monkey as a result. By contrast, the Egyptian president was welcomed by all the leaders at the conference and managed to grab the attention of the major players, showing great diplomatic skill in uniting multiple allies.

Turkey, a country with fewer and fewer friends, has been rejected by the European Union and frowned on by the US and its neighbours in the Middle East. Meanwhile, Egypt has been able to reunite with Africa, and its relations are excellent with all its neighbours including Israel.

Turkey has harboured Muslim Brotherhood fugitives from Egypt on its soil, while providing funding to broadcast their venom through TV networks based in Ankara in Arabic to distort the image of Egypt. Egypt could have harboured Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen, an enemy of Erdogan, and his aides and opened TV channels broadcasting in Turkish to counter Turkeys false propaganda.

However, Egypt did not do so because it is a country that does not conspire against others. We are an honourable country at a time when honour can be difficult to find, as President Al-Sisi has commented.

In the contest between Turkey and Egypt, Egypt has managed to score all the goals, politically, economically, militarily and diplomatically. Turkey, on the other hand, has emerged as a resounding loser.

The writer is an expert in African affairs.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 13 February, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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A lonely stargazer looks up at the constellation of Orion, the hunter  and its dimming star Betelgeuse  in this photo captured from Portugal's Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve. (Image credit: Miguel Claro

Miguel Claro is a professional photographer, author and science communicator based in Lisbon, Portugal, who creates spectacular images of the night sky. As a European Southern Observatory photo ambassador, a member of The World At Night and the official astrophotographer of the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, he specializes in astronomical "skyscapes" that connect Earth and night sky. Join Claro here as he takes us through his photograph "Orion in the Winter Sky and the Story Behind the Fainting Star Betelgeuse."

Captured during one of my private workshops on Dec. 12, 2019, this image shows a lonely stargazer enjoying the most beautiful constellation of the winter sky: Orion, the hunter.

The photo, captured from one of the landscapes of Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve in Portugal, features the bright star Betelgeuse, which is located on the hunter's left "shoulder." Many amateur and professional astronomers since last October have been reporting a decrease in brightness of the yellow-orange star, giving space for some speculation that the star is about to explode.

Related: The dimming star Betelgeuse is acting weird. Here's how to spot it in Orion's shoulder.

According to an article published by National Geographic last December, "decades of photometric data show that Betelgeuse brightens and dims in cycles, with one notable cycle vacillating on a roughly six-year time scale and another rising and falling every 425 days or so."

Scientists suspect that the red supergiant Betelgeuse has recently dimmed quite dramatically because those two periodic cycles are overlapping at minimal brightness, according to a report published in the Astronomer's Telegram by Edward Guinan, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

Astronomers have long suspected that the star might explode sometime in the next million years. It's also possible that Betelgeuse has already exploded and we just haven't seen it happen; because the star is 600 light-years away, it takes 600 years after something happens on Betelgeuse for light from that event to reach Earth. But if and when astronomers do witness the star's explosion, it will be the most astonishing astronomy event of all time.

When Betelgeuse explodes, turning into a supernova, it will briefly shine even brighter than the full moon. Then, the star will vanish forever, leaving an "empty space" in our hearts  and in the mythic Orion constellation, which will still be visible in the night sky for us and many future civilizations. Without his left shoulder, however, the hunter will never look the same.

To capture this single shot, I used a Nikon D810A camera with the ISO set to 2500 and a 24-70mm lens set to 26mm at f/2.8. The exposure time was 15 seconds.

To get a print of Claro's amazing astrophotography, visit his fine-art prints store at www.miguelclaro.com/prints. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
The police's description of former Chief Minister as "daddy's girl" is not among the grounds for her detention under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA), according to official records.

The seven-page order served on the 60-year-old PDP chief, the daughter of party founder and former chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, has stated 12 grounds for her detention under the 'Public Order' segment of the PSA that was invoked against her on February 6.

Senior officials in the administration involved in the decision-making process explained that the police dossier is submitted to the district magistrate who, in his/her wisdom, decides the grounds for detaining any person.

Citing section 13 of the PSA, the officials said that when a person is detained in pursuance of a detention order, the authority concerned needs to communicate the grounds for detention to the person to enable him/her to make a representation against it to the government.

In its dossier, the police recommended Mufti's detention for her "dangerous and insidious mechanization and usurping profile and nature by the masses as 'Daddy's girl' and 'Kota Rani'" based on the profile of a medieval queen who rose to power by virtue of undertaking intrigues ranging from poisoning of her opponents to ponyardings.

However, the district magistrate, who is the executive officer, did not include this as a reason in the detention order against her under the PSA, the officials said.

The officials said the police dossier submitted to the district magistrate only helps in identifying the grounds for detention, and that the expressions such as "daddy's girl" and "Kota Rani" had not been used at all in the grounds for detention order served to the former chief minister on February 6.

The document also does not have any comment on the formation of PDP as a political party. The grounds for detention is a document that is used by the detenue to challenge the detention order in the appropriate forum.

The officials said that though the police dossier had used such adjectives against Mufti, but the same were never used in the final PSA order and grounds for detention handed over to the former chief minister.

Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh has apologised for using these terms in the police dossier.

The officials said that an inquiry was underway to ascertain how the document, which is classified, came into public domain.

According to the PSA order, "a number of incidents of last more than 10 years have been cited wherein the subject (Mehbooba Mufti) indulged in inciting violence thereby leading to disturbance in public order".

The order said that Mufti has "a history of making provocative speeches and charged statements leading to incitement of violence on several occasions in the the political career".

The order said that the former chief minister has given "speeches glorifying militants" and created "fears among majority population based on divisive politics among the masses".

Quoting from the reports received from police and other security agencies, the PSA order referred to her tweet on August 5 last year, the day the Centre announced withdrawal of special status of the erstwhile state and bifurcated it into union territories Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir: "That abrogation of Article 370 hasn't just made accession null and void and also reduces India to an occupation force in Jammu and Kashmir."



In the PSA order, the district magistrate said that while every citizen has a right to protest, the statement made by her "clearly reflects that a divisive attempt was made thereby provoking the political cadre of a particular area or ideology for street protests and violence".

The PSA order referred to other such statements and said "a political leader of such a standing is expected to behave in a manner which is not seen as an attempt to incite violence, disturb public order or create such division based on religion or identity which may lead to loss of life or property, as the case may be".

It said that a political leader in "21st century so brazenly inciting religion to divide the people based on religion, that too in an area with sensitive security situation...is indeed a potential threat for maintenance of public order".

Mufti's older tweet from April 2019 "every human even a militant deserves dignity after death. Armed forces use of chemicals in encounters disfiguring their bodies is inhuman. Imagine the emotions that'll overcome a boy who sees his brother's mutilated charred body. Would you be surprised if he picked up a gun?" has also been listed as grounds for her detention.

Explaining the rationale, the PSA order said her statement, notwithstanding the fact that "no such evidence was found by a commission", "reflects the deliberate attempts of the subject in causing disturbance to the public order".

"A leader is expected to invoke spirit of inquiry before making such irresponsible statement aimed at provoking sentiments and inciting violence," read the order.

It also alleged that Mufti has been "glorifying and justifying actions of anti- elements ..." and referred to her support for Jamaat-e-Islamia of the state, which has been banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and explained that it is well within rights of citizen to criticise but making statement like "division in society on religious grounds is seen as another attempt to create disturbance ...."



The PSA order said that these grounds had made it "imperative" for continued detention of Mufti under the PSA.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, February 16, 2020

After a raucous congress last week, Zulkifli Hasan has secured his second term as National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman. But the shift in political landscape caused by the general election and formation of a new government coalition may bring a new journey for the party that had been part of the government during the first term of President Joko Jokowi Widodo.

Zulkifli, who has become the first chairman to serve two periods in the party, said PAN would neither become part of the government coalition nor the opposition.

I did not support Pak Jokowi [in the 2019 election], so we cannot join [the government], let us be, he said on Wednesday while closing the congress in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi as quoted by Antara.

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Any solution which will be achieved as a result of peaceful negotiation must provide preservation of internationally recognized territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at the panel discussions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict held as part of the Munich Security Conference, Azernews reports.

"First of all, I would like to express gratitude to chairman Ischinger for organizing this event. I told Mr Ischinger now that there was an opportunity to deliver the messages from Armenian and Azerbaijani leadership several years ago, in Davos and predecessor of Mr. Pashinyan was supposed to attend but last moment he cancelled his participation. So I am glad that finally, we get to the point, so we will be able to deliver the messages and to answer the questions which I think will be enough today. So, first of all, on the resolution. In order to talk about how to resolve the conflict, first we need to go back and look to the history of the issue. Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan. This is historical truth, and this is based on the international law norms," President Ilham Aliyev said.

"The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is recognized by the whole world, and Nagorno-Karabakh is an integrated part of our country. From historical point of view, back in 1805 the khan of Karabakh Ibrahim khan signed a treaty with general of Russian Empire Tsitsianov. Under this treaty, the Karabakh khanate, Azerbaijani Karabakh khanate as an independent country became under the rule of the Russian Empire. In that treaty which was called Kurakchay treaty-the text of this treaty is on internet-nothing is said about Armenian population of Karabakh. Other treaties were signed in 1813 and 1828-Gulustan and Turkmanchay.Under these treaties the rest part of Azerbaijan became part of Russian Empire and Dagestan, Georgia and Armenia also. So, this is a historical part of the issue. Then during the period when Russian Empire collapsed, and Georgian and Azerbaijani Democratic Republics were established, one of the first decrees of Azerbaijani Democratic Republic in 1918 was to transfer Yerevan from Azerbaijan to Armenia and to announce it a capital of Armenia. This is also a historical fact. If you give something to someone that means that this something belonged to you. In 1921, the Caucasus bureau of the Bolshevik party made a decision to retain Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan, to retain and not to transfer as some Armenian historians want to present. This is also the historical fact and the other historical fact is that in 1923 the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic issued a decree on the creation of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous district inside Azerbaijan," President Ilham Aliyev said.

"So, this is a history, and then, in the end of 80s Armenia launched an aggression against Azerbaijan. 300,000 Azerbaijanis were deported from the territory of Armenia.And then in the beginning of 90s Armenia already launched an aggression against Azerbaijan Republic and as a result of that aggression almost 20 percent of our territories are under occupation and one million of Azerbaijanis became refugees and IDPs.Our people were subject of ethnic cleansing and in 1992, previous Armenian regime committed a war crime, genocide of Khojaly. As a result, 613 innocent civilians among them 106 women and 63 children were brutally killed. More than ten countries recognize the Khojaly genocide. Coming to the international law issue,once again, Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan, United Nations Security Council adopted four resolutions demanding withdrawal of Armenian troops, from the occupied territories. This resolutions are not resolved. Therefore, any solution which will be achieved as a result of peaceful negotiation must provide preservation of internationally recognized territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. I will now conclude in order not to use more time than it was planned. Thank you," President Ilham Aliyev added.

---

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Citibank Korea CEO Park Jin-hei, center, poses with Seoul YWCA chief Lee Yoo-rim, right, after donating funds raised from a campaign to support single-parent families, at the bank's headquarters in central Seoul, Thursday. The lender plans to hold the campaign every year. / Courtesy of Citibank
In the week gone by, the market witnessed volatility and ended flat amid domestic data including weak CPI and WPI numbers. Global markets were also under pressure as fear over the novel coronavirus in China intensify.

The Sensex rose 115.89 points (0.28 percent) to end at 41,257.74 in the week ended February 14. Meanwhile, the Nifty climbed 15.15 points (0.12 percent) to end at 12,113.5.

The broader market underperformed the frontliners. BSE Largecap was down 0.20 percent, while BSE Smallcap index fell 1 percent and the BSE Midcap index shed 1.53 percent.

The upcoming week will be a truncated one as the markets will remain shut on February 21 on account of Mahashivratri.

"With most of the major events now over, the market will now start focusing on Donald Trump's India visit later this month. In the coming week, the market would focus on export-oriented and automobile-related stocks. Technically, the market is heading for the levels of 12,000 or 11,950 levels. On the higher side, 12,200 and 12,250 would be hurdles," Shrikant Chouhan, Senior Vice-President, Equity Technical Research, Kotak Securities, said.

We have collated 15 data points to help you spot profitable trades:

Key support and resistance level for Nifty

According to the pivot charts, the key support level for Nifty is placed at 12,054.23 followed by 11,994.97. If the index continues moving up, key resistance levels to watch out for are 12,209.73 and 12,305.97.

Nifty Bank

The important pivot level which will act as crucial support for the index is placed at 30,595.03, followed by 30,355.27. On the upside, key resistance levels are placed at 31,255.63 and 31,676.46.

Call options data

Maximum call open interest (OI) of 27.01 lakh contracts was seen at the 12,500 strike price. It will act as a crucial resistance level in the February series.

This is followed by 12,400 strike price, which holds 21.81 lakh contracts in open interest, and 12,300, which has accumulated 21.75 lakh contracts in open interest.

Significant call writing was seen at the 12,300 strike price, which added 3.32 lakh contracts, followed by 12,200 strike price that added 2.79 lakh contracts and 12,500 strike price, which added 2.13 lakh contracts.

Call unwinding was witnessed at 12,700 strike price, which shed 72,675 lakh contracts, followed by 11,900 which shed 46,050 lakh contracts.

Put options data

Maximum put open interest of 36.91 lakh contracts was seen at 12,000 strike price, which will act as crucial support in the February series.

This is followed by 11,800 strike price, which holds 21.10 lakh contracts in open interest, and 11,900 strike price, which has accumulated 20.16 lakh contracts in open interest.

Put writing was seen at the 12,200 strike price, which added 7,875 contracts, followed by 12,800 strike, which added 300 contracts.

Put unwinding was seen at 12,000 strike price, which shed 1.39 lakh contracts, followed by 11,700 strike price which shed 1.32 lakh contracts.

Stocks with a high delivery percentage

A high delivery percentage suggests that investors are showing interest in these stocks.

11 stocks saw long build-up

Based on open interest (OI) future percentage, here are the top 10 stocks in which long build-up was seen.

64 stocks saw long unwinding

Based on open interest (OI) future percentage, here are the top 10 stocks in which long unwinding was seen.

42 stocks saw short build-up

An increase in open interest, along with a decrease in price, mostly indicates a build-up of short positions. Based on open interest (OI) future percentage, here are the top 10 stocks in which short build-up was seen.

26 stocks witnessed short-covering

Bulk deals

(For more bulk deals, click here)

Quarterly earnings: Firstsource Solutions, Bihar Sponge Iron, Kaira Can, Orchid Pharma, Huhtamaki PPL, SBEC Sugar are among the companies that will release their December quarter numbers on February 17.

Stocks in the news

Vodafone Idea: The company received letters from DoT directing immediate payment. Currently assessing amount the company will be able to pay DoT towards AGR dues as interpreted by the Supreme Court. The company proposes to pay the amount so assessed in the next few days.

Granules India: USFDA completed inspection of the company's Hyderabad unit with 2 observations.

Bharti Airtel: Bharti Airtel has told DoT that it will deposit Rs 10,000 crore by February 20, following the Supreme Court ruling that required telcos to pay their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues. The company has said that it is in the process of self-assessment to comply with the court order on repayment of AGR dues and that it expects to complete the same shortly.

ONGC: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) posted a 49.75 percent year-on-year (YoY) fall in standalone profit at Rs 4,151.63 crore for the quarter ended December 31. The state-run oil explorer had posted a profit of Rs 8,262.70 crore in the same period last year. Revenue from offshore and onshore operations declined 16.83 percent and 9.1 percent YoY to Rs 15,764.66 crore and Rs 7,945.39 crore, respectively, during the quarter under review.

SAIL: Steel Authority of India reported Rs 343.57 crore consolidated net loss for the third quarter ended December 31, mainly on account of increased expenses. The company had a net profit of Rs 638.79 crore during the same quarter a year ago, the state-run firm said in a BSE filing.

Reliance Infrastructure: The company reported an 18 percent rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 345.51 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2019. The Anil Ambani-led company had clocked a net profit of Rs 293.77 crore for the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

CG Power: CG Power and Industrial Solutions' consolidated net loss almost doubled to Rs 210.07 crore in the December 2019 quarter, mainly due to lower revenues. Its consolidated net loss was Rs 105.78 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago, according to a BSE filing. The company's total income came down to Rs 1,190.47 crore in the third quarter, from Rs 2,084.12 crore in the year-ago period.

Fortis Healthcare: The company reported narrowing of its consolidated net loss to Rs 69.32 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2019, mainly on account of robust performance in its hospital business. The company had posted a net loss of Rs 180.11 crore for the corresponding period of the previous financial year, Fortis Healthcare said in a filing to the BSE.

Maruti Suzuki: Maruti Suzuki India will not only defend its market share but also "charge" at and "chase" competitors in the wake of newcomers, such as Kia and Chinese players, intensifying competition, according to a top company official. "I am not defending, I am charging. We are charging anytime. If they are good products, we try to chase them," said Managing Director and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa.

Sun TV: Sun TV Network reported a 7.15 percent increase in consolidated profit after tax for the December quarter at Rs 384.69 crore. It had reported profit after tax of Rs 359.01 crore in the October-December period a year ago, Sun TV said in a BSE filing. However, total income dipped 7.89 per cent to Rs 914.17 crore during the quarter under review, as against Rs 992.58 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

Glenmark Pharma: Glenmark Pharma reported a 64.02 percent jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs 190.83 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2019, mainly on account of robust sales in the Indian market. Its board also approved raising of funds up to USD 400 million (over Rs 2,855 crore) through issuance of securities.

Reliance Power: Consolidated net profit dipped over 57 percent to Rs 49.39 crore in the December 2019 quarter, mainly due to lower income. The company's consolidated net profit had stood at Rs 116.44 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year, according to a BSE filing.

Muthoot Finance: The company reported 66 percent jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs 803 crore in the third quarter ended December 31. The company's net profit was at Rs 485 crore in the corresponding October-December period of 2018-19.

Srei Infra: Srei Infrastructure reported a 34.4 percent fall in consolidated net profit at Rs 60 crore for the third quarter of the current fiscal. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 91.41 crore during the corresponding October-December period of the previous fiscal.

BGR Energy: BGR Energy Systems on Friday registered over 200 percent rise in its consolidated net profits for the quarter ending December 31, 2019 at Rs 26.54 crore. Total income on consolidated basis for the quarter under review was Rs 1,171.42 crore against Rs 803.49 crore registered during the same period last year.

Intellect Design: Intellect Design Arena recorded consolidated net loss of Rs 10.67 crore for the third quarter ending December 31, 2019. For the nine month period ending December 31, 2019 consolidated net loss was Rs 23.41 crore against a net profit of Rs 89.72 crore.

Shree Cement: The company reported a consolidated net profit at Rs 311.83 crore for the third quarter ended December 2019. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 329.83 crore in the October-December quarter a year ago, Shree Cement said in a BSE filing. Its total income was at Rs 3,211.65 crore during the quarter under review. It was Rs 3,195.59 crore in the corresponding quarter.

IRB Infra: IRB Infrastructure Developers reported a 27 percent decline in consolidated profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 159.73 crore for the quarter ended December 2019. The infrastructure company had clocked a consolidated PAT of Rs 218.90 crore for the corresponding period the year-ago period, it said in a regulatory filing to the BSE.

Future Enterprises: Future Enterprises reported a 66.96 percent decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 12.06 crore for the third quarter ended December 2019. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 36.51 crore for the October-December quarter a year ago, Future Enterprises said in a regulatory filing.

Transformers and Rectifiers: Transformers and Rectifiers reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 1.56 crore in the December quarter. The company had posted a loss of Rs 1.85 crore in quarter ended on December 31, 2018, a BSE filing said. Total income rose to Rs 211.97 crore in the third quarter from Rs 197.84 crore in the year-ago period.

FII and DII data

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 704.92 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares of worth Rs 219.54 crore in the Indian equity market on February 14, provisional data available on the NSE showed.

Fund flow

Stock under F&O ban on NSE
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Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has defended the Obama administration's use of holding facilities for migrant children while he was vice president, saying it was done to keep them 'safe'.

In an interview Friday posted on Facebook, Univision journalist Jorge Ramos grilled Biden on a claim he made in September that the Obama administration never put migrant children in 'cages'.

'What Latinos should look at is comparing [Obama] to the president we have is outrageous,' Biden said in September. 'We didn't lock people in cages. We didn't separate families. We didn't do all of those things.'

'You actually did,' Ramos said Friday, showing him a picture of an 8-year-old boy in at a holding facility in McAllen, Texas in 2014.

Univision journalist Jorge Ramos grilled Biden on a claim he made in September that the Obama administration never put migrant children in 'cages'

Obama administration: Two female girls sleep in a holding cell at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Nogales Placement Center on Wednesday, June 18, 2014, in Nogales, Arizona

The facility, constructed to process the massive surge in unaccompanied minors crossing the border illegally following the DACA initiative, uses chain link fences to separate migrants by age and sex.

It and similar facilities were constructed by the Obama administration, and continued to be used in the Trump administration. But left-wing lawmakers and pro-immigration activists accused Trump of 'putting kids in cages', particularly after his administration pursued a zero-tolerance policy of arresting adults who crossed the border illegally, a policy that was abandoned after uproar.

'What happened was all the unaccompanied children were coming across the border,' Biden told Ramos. 'We tried to get them out, we kept them safe, and get them out of the detention center... run by Homeland Security and get them into communities as quickly as we can.'

'Many people would say they were cages,' Ramos said.

'You know you're not telling the truth here about the comparison of the two things,' Biden replied. 'Look how quickly we got them out and got them back to families, look at how  we sought the relatives here, we sought to get them into safe communities. We sought to get them out of the control of Homeland Security to get them safe.'

'But they came unaccompanied, unaccompanied,' he said.

Trump administration: Boys who were taken into custody related to cases of illegal entry into the United States, sit in detention at a facility in McAllen, Texas on June 17, 2018

Real America with Jorge Ramos: Joe Biden: The Interview A one-on-one conversation with Joe Biden, the former vice president and current Democratic presidential candidate. Interview starts at 1:30. Posted by Real America with Jorge Ramos on Friday, February 14, 2020

Biden mustered a similar retort when Ramos reminded him that, as a senator, Biden supported appropriations for physical border barriers.

Biden insisted he supported construction of facilities at 'legal points of entry,' where he said most drugs and terrorist activity enters. 'Making sure we modernize crossings,' Biden argued, is different than 'a wall that (Trump) wants from sea to shining sea.'

In the same interview, Biden also expressed regret over the Obama administration's deportation policies, calling it a 'big mistake' to have deported hundreds of thousands of people without criminal records.

'We took far too long to get it right,' Biden said.

The former vice president later added: 'I think it was a big mistake. Took too long to get it right.'

In written statements included as part of Bidens proposed immigration overhaul, the campaign already had acknowledged 'pain' surrounding deportations that occurred when he served as President Barack Obamas vice president. But the candidate himself had not so clearly stated his personal regrets.

The 20-minute interview was posted to Ramos' Facebook page, and Biden aides said portions would be broadcast in coming days on Univision as Biden and his Democratic presidential rivals campaigned in Nevada ahead of the February 22 caucuses, the third nominating contest and the first with a significant Latino population.

Biden emphasized to Ramos his proposals to expand legal immigration, bolster the asylum process and end construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall. The project has been President Donald Trumps hallmark anti-immigration effort.

'This is a big country,' Biden told Ramos, dismissing 'the idea we cant accommodate more people in the interest of the United States'.

He called 'legal as well as undocumented immigrants' key contributors to the U.S. economy and society.

'We stand up and act like its a burden,' he said. 'It is not a burden. Its a gift.'

Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event, Saturday at K.O. Knudson Middle School in Las Vegas

Ramos and Biden had a testy exchange during Democrats September primary debate when the high-profile Latino journalist noted Obamas deportation record and asked Biden, 'Why should Latinos trust you?' Just as he did in September, Biden rejected any suggestion that Obamas record on immigration is commensurate to Trump's.

When Ramos queried Biden this time on three million deportations, including an estimated 1.7 million people who had no criminal record, Biden initially pushed back by asserting that previous administrations had 'deported twice as many people,' a claim he could not support with federal data. Pressed again, Biden relented.

'It was painful,' Biden said. 'It took too long. But we began to get it right with the DACA program,' he continued, referring to Obamas executive order that granted legal status to immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children.

According to statistics published last year the Trump administration has deported fewer people than former President Obama.

In his first three years Obama deported 1.18 million people but as of November last year trump has deported little under 800,000, according to the Washington Post.

In 2012 the Obama administration deported 409,849, while the Trump administration has yet to deport more than 260,000 people in a year.
Watch the full tribute above

A broadcaster and close friend of Caroline Flack has paid tribute to the vivacious and loving TV presenter following her suicide on Saturday night at the age of 40.

Laura Whitmore, who has known Flack for around 10 years and replaced her as host on the current series of Love Island, said in a tearful tribute on her Sunday morning radio show that none of this makes sense.

She also criticised tabloids looking for a cheap sell during the tribute.

Flack was found dead at her east London home on Saturday.

Opening her show on BBC Radio 5 Live on Sunday morning, Whitmore  who had previously tweeted her shock that Flack was dead  said she had been debating whether I should, would or could come on air today.

Her voice cracking, she said: Yesterday we lost someone before their time.

Were going to talk about her and give her the respect that she deserves and that she didnt always get.

Flack was found dead at her London flat on Saturday after taking her own life.

Whitmore urged listeners to be kind to each other.

She also called out keyboard warriors and said they need to look at themselves, adding: To the newspapers who create clickbait, who demonise and tear down success. Weve had enough.

Ive seen journalists and Twitter warriors talk about this tragedy and they themselves have twisted what the truth is. You dont have to tear someone down to feel good about yourself.

So to listeners, be kind, only you are responsible for how you treat others and what you put out in the world.

Your words affect people. To paparazzi and tabloids looking for a cheap sell, to trolls hiding behind a keyboard  enough.

Caroline Flack pictured in 2014, the year she won Strictly Come Dancing in the UK. (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)

Whitmore said she herself has been harassed for just doing my job and this is where the problem is, and I want to use my platform to call people out because its gone too far.

Your words affect people, she added. To paparazzi and tabloids looking for a cheap sell, to trolls hiding behind a keyboard  enough.

Story continues

Whitmore  who had already tweeted her shock at Flacks death  told listeners that she had been debating whether I should, would or could come on air today.

Im trying to find the words but I cant  pic.twitter.com/FY3ppLzqsA  Laura Whitmore (@thewhitmore) February 15, 2020

Audibly emotional, with her voice breaking, she said: Yesterday, we lost someone before their time.

Were going to talk about her and give her the respect that she deserves and that she didnt always get.

Read more: 'Strictly' star Seann Walsh 'not surprised' by death of Caroline Flack

Whitmore, 34, said that anyone who knew Caroline knew she was vivacious, loving, and had a passion for life, which is why none of this makes sense.

Caroline loved dancing. Angels by Robbie Williams always reminds me of her because she danced so beautifully to it on Strictly, and Im going to play that song after Ive said what I want to say.

She said Flack loved music, she loved to dance, we shared many a dancefloor at gigs, festivals.

She was bubbly, and for such a small stature commanded a room, Whitmore added. She loved to laugh and had the most infectious chuckle.

Flack's final post on Instagram, in which she posted a collage of images of her dog, Ruby, on Thursday

She also had many struggles. Im not going to pretend shes perfect, but she lived every mistake publicly under the scrutiny of the media.

Read more: Eamonn Holmes questions future of Love Island after death of Caroline Flack

Whitmore said Flack loved to love and thats all she wanted, which is why a show like Love Island was important to her because the show is about finding love, friendship, having a laugh.

Whitmore also defending the dating show, saying: The problem wasnt the show; the show to work on is loving and caring and safe and protected. The problem is the outside world is not.

For confidential emotional support at times of distress in the UK, contact The Samaritans at any time by calling 116 123 or emailing jo@samaritans.org

For our US readers, if you or someone you know needs help, call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. You can also text HOME to 741-741 for free, 24-hour support from the Crisis Text Line. Outside of the U.S., please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention for a database of resources.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the Iran nuclear deal, as well as the situation in the Middle East, particularly in Syria, with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, the Russian Foreign Ministry informs, Trend reports citing Sputnik.

"A discussion was held on the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA] for the Iranian nuclear program. Some issues of Russian-EU relations were touched upon", the ministry said in a statement after a Saturday meeting between Lavrov and Borrell at the Munich Security Conference.

Borrell wrote on Twitter after the meeting that "as coordinator I remain committed to listen to all sides and keep the Nuclear Deal alive".

Lavrovs meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif also took place on the sidelines of the Munich conference on Saturday. The two foreign ministers discussed the strengthening of multifaceted Russian-Iranian cooperation, among other issues.

"An in-depth exchange of views also took place on a number of issues on the international agenda, including the situation in Syria and issues related to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action", the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement after the meeting.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), often referred to as the Iran nuclear deal, was signed in 2015 by Iran, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, China and the United States.
Laura A. Nodolf

Age.41

Have you ever been married and to whom? Do you have any children? Have you ever been divorced and if so, how many times? I have been married to Kurtis Nodolf for almost 19 years and we have 11-year-old twins. I have never been divorced.

State educational degrees which you have obtained and from where? I have a Bachelor of Arts from Schreiner College and a Juris Doctorate from Texas Tech University School of Law.

State where you are licensed as an attorney? Texas

Between which years have you lived in Midland County after becoming a licensed attorney? 2003 to the present, 17 years.

What areas of law have typically been the concentrations of your law practice/experience? My legal career has been entirely devoted to criminal prosecution.

Have you ever been subjected to discipline by the State Bar of Texas? If so, what was the discipline and why? I have never been subjected to discipline by the State Bar of Texas.

Have you ever been accused of, indicted for or convicted of a felony or a crime of moral turpitude? If so, what was the offense and how was it disposed of? I have never been accused of, indicted for or convicted of a felony or crime of moral turpitude.

Have you ever had a lien filed against you and why? If so, has it been fully paid? I have never had a lien filed against me.

How many felony jury trials have you tried to a verdict? I have tried over 125 felony jury trials.

What do regard to be your duties as a district attorney?

The 142nd district attorney, otherwise known as the Midland County district dttorney, is a uniquely created office. On Sept. 1, 1997, the Texas Legislature established that the 142nd district attorney has the duty to represent the state of Texas in: the prosecution of felony and misdemeanor cases; matters directly related to criminal cases, including asset and bond forfeiture, and jurisdiction over juvenile cases. On Jan. 1, 2017, I took an oath where I swore that I would faithfully execute the duties of the office of the 142nd district attorney of the state of Texas, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this state, so help me God. The magnitude of these duties and the oath I took, are not lost on me.

In order to execute these duties and to fulfill my oath, I believe I must live by the word of God who calls us to act justly, and to have mercy, and to walk humbly with him. Our duty is to not merely seek a conviction, but to see that justice is sought. We must work with our law enforcement partners to ensure that that every prosecution is conducted honestly, fairly, ethically and that there is equal justice for all.

In addition to the prosecutorial functions of the office, the district attorney administrative functions such as accounting for the funds entrusted to the office. I believe that this requires conservative use of those funds and open transparency to the public.

Describe what the temperament should be for a district attorney?

Patience and calm under pressure serve the district attorney While there are times where immediate action must be taken, most scenarios should be addressed with careful consideration and calm reflection. Additionally, every scenario must be addressed with honesty, hard work, and the ability set aside differences when they arise. Most importantly, the district attorney must always remember that they are part of a team that consists of members of the office and all stakeholders in the criminal justice process.

What special skills or talents do you possess that you believe would be helpful as a district attorney?

I have the trial and leadership experience that I believe Midland deserves. In my office stands a statute of Lady Justice as a reminder that justice must remain blind and impartial, balanced and strong. I have sought to bring these attributes to every jury and bench trial I have tried. Some of these cases were difficult and not necessarily popular. However, the decision to try those cases was not made lightly or without input from law enforcement, grand juries and the office. Additionally, I have the leadership experience maintaining the daily operations of an office of 56 in eight different divisions. This intricate knowledge of the office allows me the unique opportunity to evaluate our business practices to ensure that we are operating as effectively and efficiently as possible. If we are not evaluating our practices, the business of criminal justice becomes stagnant. Once stagnant, no one obtains justice. I have a vision that has allowed the Midland County District Attorneys Office to be a pioneer in areas like victims services and addressing root causes of criminal activity. While I may have a vision, I alone cannot accomplish it. It has been because I have a staff that is willing to commit their time and talents that we are able to make things come to fruition.

What is the most important aspect of handling the activities that take place in a District Attorneys Office?

The district attorney has a very different set of clients than most attorneys. The clients I represent are the residents of Midland County and the state of Texas. Every district attorney, I know takes this responsibility seriously. However, many district attorneys across the state simply want to maintain the status quo, ignore trends in criminal justice and be reactionary when legislative changes are enacted.

As the district attorney, I believe I have the duty to examine trends in criminal justice and to attempt to be as proactive as possible. Examining trends in criminal justice is like examining the business process of any company. Company leaders in the private sector must be willing to proactive look at their business process to determine if the business is running as efficiently and effectively as possible based on industry trends. The same applies to criminal justice trends and how they affect the District Attorneys Office. For instance, lets say the trend shows that Texas is in the process of closing prisons. It would be a disservice to this community for me to wait for the prison to close and offenders released back to Midland. Instead, I need to proactively figure out what to do with offenders to make sure our community is safe.

The examples of changing trends in criminal justice are endless. However, as the district attorney, the mantra of thats how we have always done things is not always what is in the best interest of the community. I am fortunate to have had a mentor who did not accept that motto. I believe it takes a collaborative effort between law enforcement, community supervision departments, judicial partners and the community to evaluate trends and adjust as needed and to plan. By taking this approach, Midland can be the safest community in Texas.

What current programs or methods of the District Attorneys Office would you keep and which would you do away with?

We have worked diligently to maintain relevant and effective programs. However, there are a few areas that I would like to improve on. First, addresses the diminishing number of Hot Check cases. The Hot Check Division of the Midland County District Attorney's Office is responsible for the investigation of cases involving the issuance of worthless checks and thefts or fraud involving checks. We work with merchants and check writers to recover funds lost in these cases. My vision for this department is to repurpose it to focus on other financial crimes, such as credit card abuse, fraudulent use or possession of identifying information and forgery. This would not require any additional personnel. The individuals within the Hot Check Division are already trained in conducting financial crime investigations and obtaining the necessary documentation for prosecution. Our law enforcement community is already burdened with an increase in criminal activity due to our population growth. In the past, we have agreed to take on these types of cases when other law enforcement agencies were short staffed. I believe we could alleviate some of the pressure on those agencies on a more permanent basis.

What new programs or initiatives would you implement in your administration?

Just to name a few, the following are a few programs and initiatives I would like to implement:

A Violent Offender Unit dedicated to expediting the prosecuting certain violent offenders without compromising the rights of victims or the constitutional rights of defendants. I do not believe any additional personnel would be necessary at this time.

Increase victims services that addresses are responsive to their needs and to promote crime victims rights.

Host additional victims rights fairs.

Create an online process for victims to apply for protective orders.

Create a Prosecutors Academy to foster a partnership with the office and the community to increase education and transparency.

The completion of the Mental Health Transitional Unit.

Work with the Mental Health Court and local service providers to increase mental health services.

Continue our dedication to the success of the Midland County Drug Court and assist in establishing a Driving While Intoxicated track.

Increase productivity by working with law enforcement to expedite the review and submission of cases.

Please describe in detail any administrative duties you have performed at the Midland County District Attorneys Office or another district attorneys office in another area (if another area, please be specific).

In 2009, I was assigned as the Trial Team Chief for the 441st District Court. In 2011, I was promoted to first assistant district attorney for Administration wherein I managed the administrative side of the District Attorneys Office overseeing the daily management of the support staff, implementation of software, and worked on policies and procedures for the office. I then moved to serve the first assistant district attorney for Trial where I supervised the attorneys in the office, assisted in training new attorneys and established practices to assist attorneys in their daily work. Before taking office in 2017, I assisted in creating policies and procedures for our Pretrial Intervention Program, Jail Screening Program, Protective Order forms, DWI warrant forms, written job descriptions, handled interoffice conflict, participated in terminations of employment and was instrumental in the implementation of our current software system.

Since taking office in 2017, I still have an active role in the above described activities. Additionally, I oversee and conservatively manage the budget, submit to and have passed every audit conducted by the county and the state, conducted strategic planning for the office and implemented new programs, provided legal advice when requested, and taken the lead in the prosecution of public integrity crimes.

What will it take to maintain a qualified staff?

The Midland County District Attorneys Office is blessed to have exceptional staff. All the attorneys, investigators and support staff members are dedicated to public service. In order to retain them, they need a leader who is willing to go to bat for them to secure their pay and benefits, create opportunities for growth and training, maintain clear lines of communication and create an atmosphere where they know they are valued and appreciated.

What is the amount of the largest budget you have managed and what is the largest number of employees you have managed at one time? Our current budget of $6.8 million and staff of 56 is the largest office I have managed.

When is the last time you voted and in which partys primaries have you voted in since 2010? I have always voted in the Republican primary. The last time I voted was in the Nov. 5, 2019 general election.

Are your taxes paid in full currently both on any property you own and your income taxes? Yes, all income and property taxes are paid in full.

What community service, including professional associations, have you been involved in? First United Methodist Church, PTA at Washington STEM and Carver Center, Midland County Republican Women, the Advisory Board for the Salvation Army, Board Member of the Midland Behavioral Health Leadership Team, Board Member for Midland Teen Court, The March of Dimes, The Junior League of Midland, Inc., High Sky Childrens Ranch, Midland High School football, volleyball, and track booster clubs, Donated floral design services for Buckner Family Place, Rotary West of Midland, and Bynum School. Professionally, I am a member of the Midland County Bar Association, the Texas District and County Attorney Association, member of the DWI Task Force and Legislative Committee for the Texas District and County Attorney Association.
Horsepeople are being reminded to do what they can around their properties to minimize the chance of barn fires after a blaze recently ripped through a facility that was home to five Standardbreds.

According to an article by RFD TV, a Massachusetts barn owned by John Frost burnt to the ground during the early-morning hours of Thursday, February 13.

The barn had been home to a total of six horses  five Standardbreds and a Quarterhorse  and all six were able to be rescued before the barn was completely lost.

In speaking with the Boston Globe, Frost said, Its tragic to see a situation like this. I built the barn to be low-maintenance and fireproof, and it went up in flames in less than 10 or 15 minutes.

Rehoboth Fire Chief Frank Barresi told the Boston Globe that the roof had flames coming out of it when we came down the driveway, and we had to cut holes into the barn because it was made out of metal.

Just a few years ago, Equine Guelph created and launched its Barn Fire Prevention Tool. For additional information regarding the tool, click here.

(With files from the Boston Globe and RFD TV)
Margot Robbie says she has known Harry for some time (PA)

Hollywood star Margot Robbie has said she would love to have dinner with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in LA.

The Oscar-nominated actress, who has known Harry for some time, said the couple have their reasons for moving away from the UK.

Harry and Meghan are living in Canada with their baby son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor as they prepare to drop their HRH styles and quit the monarchy in favour of financial freedom.

If they are going to spend more time in LA, we would love to have dinner with themMargot Robbie

Robbie told The Sun: I have known Prince Harry for a while and he is a really great guy.

I know as much as anybody what a big decision it is to move halfway across the world.

I still miss London a lot but I had my reasons for moving and they have their reasons for the decision.

It isnt something taken lightly. If they are going to spend more time in LA, we would love to have dinner with them.

Meghan and Harry are in Canada with their son Archie (Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA)

Harry and Meghan are due to officially start their new life outside royal duties in the spring of this year.

Video of the Day

They had initially hoped for a dual role, supporting the Queen, the Commonwealth and Harrys military associations, but the idea was deemed unworkable.
Member of Parliament for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini has described as dishonest, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia's assessment of promises delivered by the Akufo-Addo-led government.

Dr Bawumia has said the Akufo-Addo administration had fulfilled 78 percent of its 2016 manifesto promises.

In all, we made 388 promises in our manifesto. The most recent validation exercise at the end of January 2019 shows that we had delivered or are delivering on 303, 78 percent of the promises, up from the 72 percent reported earlier, Dr. Bawumia said at a town hall meeting organised by the ministries of Information and Monitoring and Evaluation in the Ashanti Region.

Mr. Suhuyini on Citi FM/TV's The Big Issue in a rebuttal however pointed out that the Vice President failed to give a true representation of promises delivered by the government.

He indicated that the Vice President had given the impression that government had delivered 78 percent of its promises when it had actually delivered just about 30 percent.

I feel sorry for Dr. Bawumias lack of candour in this whole discussion because he knows the importance of accuracy when it comes to appraisal and maybe he does this because he does not seem to understand the importance of appraisal to the things that are needed for us to do to move forward. You do not do an appraisal only to show that you are better. You do an appraisal to also show where you are, what has gone wrong and what needs to be done so in that context you need to be accurate because you are serving a nation with the measurement.

 For example, everybody in research knows that in doing an appraisal you do not measure what has not been delivered even if it has started Everyone knows this. Dr. Bawumia in his assessment pointed to a website where you can track [promises] delivered. Even on that website that is managed by the government, you find [promises] delivered to be less than 30 percent but the statistical Galamsey that he did was to add delivering to delivered and gave 78 percentIt is illegal. 

The Vice Presidents assessment for promises delivered is a higher percentage compared with the 48.78% policy think tank, IMANI Africa gave the government.

IMANI's findings were based on research it undertook to assess the extent to which promises the New Patriotic Party (NPP) made before the elections had been fulfilled.

IMANI also scored the government 54.35 percent in the delivery of its commitments on the economy, 46.21 percent on governance, and 46.44 percent on infrastructure. Government introduces website to showcase, track its achievements

The Vice President had said a new website has been introduced to solely monitor government's manifesto promises and track the successes it has chalked.

With the address name, www.delivery.gov.gh, the platform which basically provides the status report of the NPP's 2016 manifesto promises also gives data on the gains made by the government so far, three years after assuming power.

Dr. Bawumia indicated that the move is to provide more clarity on the fact that the NPP has outperformed the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the management of the country.

citinewsroom
The bodies of two missing girls and their mother have been found after an Amber Alert was issued Saturday and canceled Sunday.

The victims, Amarah "Jerica" Banks, 26, Zaniya Ivery, 5, and Camaria Banks, 4, were found in a garage.

The three were last seen early Feb. 8.

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office said it was called to the scene of a triple homicide.

Autopsies were scheduled for Monday.

Police Chief Alfonso Morales identified the victims as the mother and her daughters.

The three were all last believed to be in the company of Arzel J. Ivery, 25, of Milwaukee, who was arrested Saturday in Memphis, Tennessee.

Police said Ivery gave investigators information that led to the three bodies.

According to court records, Ivery was charged in Milwaukee County on Saturday with aggravated battery.

Morales said homicide charges would be coming.

He did not say how the victims were killed or when.

Ivery was being held in the Shelby County Jail in Tennessee on a fugitive from justice warrant.

Ivery was scheduled to be arraigned Monday morning.

Police said Banks and her daughters were initially considered missing under "suspicious circumstances."

The Amber Alert was not issued until Saturday afternoon.



Family members spent Feb. 7 consoling Banks, who buried her infant son that day.

He died from health complications, they said.



They all had plans to go to brunch on the afternoon of Feb. 8.

Banks' car was outside her sister's house, where she left it.

Her sisters said Banks had a few glasses of wine Friday night and didn't want to drive.

"She's like, 'Meka, don't forget to come get me in the morning.' I said: 'I'll come get you. I'll come get you,'" said Tameka Smith, one of Banks' sisters. "My sister, this not like her. She don't run off, she don't ignore people. No matter what she go through, she gonna reach out to me."

Banks' family told WISN-TV they do not believe she would leave without telling them, the girls' school or her place of work.

Banks' brother called WISN-TV on Thursday afternoon saying he was concerned for the safety of his sister and nieces.

"This isnt like her. She wouldnt do this. This makes no sense," David Fields said.

"She always calls (the girls' school) and the same thing about her job. If she's not going to be there, she always calls," Banks' mother, Valeria Spinner Banks, said. "Everything she does routinely was not done. So that tells you that something's not right. Something is wrong."

The family told the TV station that police did not find any sign of forced entry into Banks' home or a sign of a struggle.

No other details have yet been released.


With a single day off, you can end up with a four-day weekend this March. Here's how you can make the most of it.



Holi is here, bringing with it the potential of a long weekend. Take the day off on Monday (Holi falls on a Tuesday) and youre set for a four-day weekend. If you, like us, are in Bengaluru you could always check into a hotel for a staycation but, surely, you want to head out of town. Conveniently, we have this list of place where you can travel to on the Holi weekend from Bengaluru.

Kochi (return tickets start at Rs 3,446)

Few things can beat a staycation in Kochi, a city that has so much to offer  from history to art and laidback beaches. But if the bustle of Kochi isnt for you, head down to the hamlet of Mararikulam and check into one of the two major properties  Abad and CGH Earth  that line its pristine beach. There are several Airbnbs too but among our favourite is Samsons Homestay  a quaint bungalow thats been lovingly restored and comes with a kayak so you can sail from the bay (yes, the house as a private bay!) into the sea.

Photograph: Jan J George / Creative Commons

Pune (return tickets start at Rs 3,446)

The city of Peshwas is often overlooked when youre considering a weekend getaway. Wed like to change that and #makepunecoolagain. Fact is that Pune has never been cooler than it is now. With a vibrant nightlife and food scene and several historic sites that dot the city and its outskirts, theres really no reason to not visit Pune for a weekend. Whether its Shaniwar Vada, the seat of Maratha power or the Aga Khan Palace where Kasturba breathed her last, Pune is where history comes alive. Bonus, here are some of the best places in Pune for breakfast so you dont have to go hungry.

Photograph: Mayurthopate / Creative Commons

Visakhapatnam (return tickets start at Rs 5,042)

Were making a strong case for Visakhapatnam as a weekend getaway. Specifically, Araku which is where you should be this weekend. The valley is a couple of hours drive from Visakhapatnam but worlds apart from the beach town. Araku is known for its coffee that stands out for its unique flavour and whose buds have been named as the best in the world. Araku may not have too many touristy things to do but its exactly the kind of place where you want to be when you want to get away from the madness of Bengaluru.

Photograph: Amit Chattopadhyay / Creative Commons

Story continues

Jaipur (return tickets start at Rs 7,199)

Whats not there to like about Jaipur. The city thats been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site last year continues to offer the best there is in hospitality. Whether its a small homestay, a mid-size haveli or a palace hotel, be sure youll be welcomed with open arms and a wide smile. Explore the forts, shop your heart out and dig into the lal maas before the summer begins. You wont regret it.

Photograph: McKay Savage / Flickr

Port Blair (return tickets start at Rs 9,154)

When you land in Port Blair, spend a day exploring the Cellular Jail and Ross Island. The next day, take a ferry to Havelock Island. Stay on the Vijay Nagar side of the beach where the waters are green and literally at your doorstep. Spend your weekend slowing down, exploring the settlements, lazing on the beaches and hiking. Youre unlikely to regret it.

Photograph: Ankur P / Flickr

Colombo (return tickets start at Rs 10,041)

Sri Lanka is the new Goa. With sun-kissed beaches and a great culture, Sri Lanka has emerged as the coolest new destination for Indian travellers. Last years bombings notwithstanding Sri Lanka remains a safe option for tourism and leisure. Plus when the tickets are as cheap as they come, this could well be the best time to visit the country.

Photograph: Charaka Ranasinghe / Creative Commons
The Lawyer X scandal surrounding the police informing actions by criminal barrister Nicola Gobbo puts the integrity of the Victorian justice system at stake.

The confidential relationship between a lawyer and a client is sacrosanct. Victoria Police and Nicola Gobbo shared information in clear breach of this fundamental tenet of our justice system and this is why the Lawyer X Royal Commission had to be established.

Nicola Gobbo on the ABC last month. Credit:ABC

Despite the Commission being frustrated from day one by the broad lack of cooperation, several clear failings in Victoria Police's operations and management have become evident.

The Andrews Labor government has never had its heart in getting to the bottom of this murky mess and reluctantly established the Commission when it was left with no other choice.
Arvind Kejriwal, on Sunday, sworn-in as chief minister of Delhi for the third time. Kejriwal took oath as Delhi CM at Ramlila Maidan today. He is the first and the only chief minister of Delhi who has preferred Ramlila Maidan for his oath ceremonies, while his predecessors took oath in the Raj Niwas.

The 51-year-old leader, became the youngest chief minister of Delhi when he was sworn for the first time on 28 December 2013.

In 2013, AAP created history by winning 28 seats in the 70-member Delhi Assembly election. The party made a stunning electoral debut by defeating Delhi's three-time Congress Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

However, Kejriwal resigned after 49 days, heading the shortest tenure of a Delhi government after political opponents blocked an anti-corruption bill in the state assembly. However, in 2015, AAP got a landslide victory, winning 67 of Delhi's 70 seats.

Long before Kejriwal entered politics, he had formed an NGO Parivartan to address citizens' grievances related to Public Distribution System (PDS), public works, social welfare schemes, income tax and electricity. In 2006, he resigned from the I-T department and donated his Magsaysay award money as a corpus fund to set-up the Public Cause Research Foundation.

A social activist, political reformer and a former Joint Commissioner in the I-T department, Kejriwal is known for his commitment towards the Right to Information and struggle for the Jan Lokpal. He has authored 'Swaraj', a book on his model of local self-governance and decentralisation of administration. Kejriwal founded the Aam Aadmi Party on 2nd October, 2012.

Kejriwal is almuni of IIT Kharagpur. The AAP convener completed his B. Tech in mechanical engineering in 1989. He was selected for the Indian Revenue Service in 1993.

In 2020 Delhi polls, Kejriwal repeated his triumph in the high-profile New Delhi constituency by handing a crushing defeat to BJP's Sunil Kumar Yadav by a huge margin of 21,697 votes.

Also read: Arvind Kejriwal, 6 other ministers to take oath today at Ramlila Maidan

Also read: Arvind Kejriwal to take oath as Delhi CM at Ramlila Maidan today
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) walks through Statuary Hall to the House Chamber for President Donald Trump's State of the Union address in the Capitol in Washington on Feb. 4, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Nancy Pelosi Says Joe Biden Could Still Win Presidency

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said former Vice President Joe Biden shouldnt be counted out of the 2020 race after two losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, saying that the next two primaries are crucial.

Frankly, with all the respect in the world for Iowa and New Hampshire, Im not counting Joe Biden out, she told CNN on Saturday. There are still race[s] ahead that are much more representative of the country.

In Iowa and New Hampshire, Biden finished in fourth and fifth place, respectively, after leading nationally in the polls for months after declaring his candidacy last year. The Nevada primary election is being held on Feb. 22, while South Carolinas contest is being held about a week later.

Pelosi, in the interview, said that she believes every one of our candidates, referring to the current slate of Democrats running for president, would be a better alternative to President Donald Trump. She has not yet endorsed any of the contenders.

Democratic 2020 presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event in Gilford, New Hampshire, on Feb. 10, 2020. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

I cant even envision a situation in which hed be reelected, but you cant take anything for granted, Pelosi said of Trump.

Over the past week, Biden has said that his campaign has just started and said he is in a strong position in South Carolina.

Ive said many times, you cant be the nominee, you cant win the general election as a Democrat unless you have the overwhelming support of black and brown voters, Biden told supporters. He also rolled out a new campaign slogan: This is only getting started.

We have a tremendous opportunity to take the next great step forward. We dont feel no ways tired. Weve come too far from where we started, the former vice president is heard saying in the ad. Nobody told me the road would be easy, and I dont believe he brought me this far to stop now.

Over the weekend, Biden doubled down on the claim that Democrats need to aggressively court black voters.

Every time theyve run, whether itstake Carter or Clinton or Baracktheyve had overwhelming support from the African American community, he told NBCs Meet the Press. Theyve had overwhelming support from minorities. I have overwhelming support.

You cant winyou cant take it for granted. Last time we ran, it was basically taken for granted, he added. Im the only one who has the record and has the background and has the support. They know me. They know who I am.
COLUMBIA, S.C. - For I.S. Leevy Johnson, the Democrats search for a challenger to take on President Donald Trump is personal.

There is what I call an ABT mood in the black community: Anybody but Trump, said the 77-year-old who was the first black graduate of the University of South Carolinas law school. It has people of colour very motivated and excited about voting this time because they know how his administration has adversely affected them.

Now, as the election calendar turns to Nevada and South Carolina, states with substantial minority populations, that anybody moves closer to being identified. But the next stage in the nominating fight will test candidates such as Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Their success thus far has come in front of overwhelmingly white electorates in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Its also a potential last comeback opportunity for former Vice-President Joe Biden. He finished poorly in those first two contests but argues he has durable support among the minority voters who will soon make their choices.

Nevadas caucuses are this coming Saturday and will feature a growing population of Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Yet no single place in the early going is as important as South Carolina. Up to two-thirds of voters in the Feb. 29 primary could be African American. Biden, more than any other candidate, must show he can win their allegiance.

One candidate who will not be tested in Nevada or South Carolina is Mike Bloomberg, the former New York mayor and billionaire owner of a financial services and media empire. Bloomberg has spent heavily from his personal fortune in states with sizable minority populations that will vote in the March 3 primaries. The Super Tuesday contests are the first where his name will appear on the ballot.

It adds up to a muddled field that lacks clarity even after Iowa and New Hampshire had their turns., Moderates have splintered their votes and created space for Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, to take on the mantle of a front-runner without having reached 30% in either of the first two voting states.

That intensifies the spotlight as minority voters in Nevada and South Carolina in trying to clarify the partys search for anybody to match against Trump.

The system is garbage, said Jason Johnson, a professor at Morgan State University and a high-profile African American political commentator. He argued that the primary calendar should immediately subject candidates not just to racial and ethnic diversity but also regional and ideological differences, and the full city-to-farm spectrum. Im not sure this process actually can identify the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump, he said.

Jason Johnson said he doesnt blame the candidates because they are merely reacting to a process that harms everybody. But I.S. Leevy Johnson, the South Carolina businessman and lawyer, said it too easily makes key constituencies in the party an afterthought. People of colour are tired of these promises that candidates are going to do things, and when they make those promises, when they get elected, they dont perform, he said.

Even belatedly, the remaining candidates certainly are trying.

Sanders fell short in 2016 to Hillary Clinton for the nomination in no small part because of his struggles to attract older nonwhite voters. For 2020, he has hired as a senior adviser one of the top Latino strategists in the party, Chuck Rocha. Sanders lead surrogates include Nina Turner, a former Ohio state lawmaker and leading black progressive, and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the young progressive icon. Sanders campaign, buoyed by strong grassroots fundraising, has invested heavily in social media and radio advertising targeting black and Latino audiences, including stations on Spotify and Pandora.

I think were going to do very well in the African American community, Sanders said in a brief interview. I think were going to do well among working people of all races.

In Nevada, Biden campaigned on Saturday in a high school gymnasium covered in signs that read: Biden Trabajando por Nevada (Biden Works for Nevada). The reason why we are here: 99% of the African American vote hasnt spoken yet and 99% of the Latino vote hasnt spoken yet. He hammered away at Trumps immigration policies and rhetoric.

But Biden has embraced South Carolina especially, even skipping out on his New Hampshire primary night party last Tuesday for a hastily arranged event in Columbia, the South Carolina capital.

Biden is banking on voters such as Jean Hopkins, an 88-year-old retired nurse, who came to hear him. Youll lose some but you may gain more, she said of his losses in Iowa and New Hampshire. And hes not going to stop. ... He needs our help.

Biden and Sanders lead in endorsements from members of South Carolinas Legislative Black Caucus. Biden also promotes a network of black religious leaders who back his candidacy. But hes facing a push from California billionaire Tom Steyer, who has spent considerable sums on advertising in South Carolina.

We are really serious about South Carolina. We are really serious about Nevada, Steyer said on CBS ``Face the Nation on Sunday. He said those states reflect the kind of diversity that is America and that is the Democratic Party. And I think whoever is going to be the candidate has got to be able to show that he or she can pull together that diverse big tent that is the Democratic Party.

In Nevada, Biden has the backing of the states lone black congressman, Steven Horsford, and Dina Titus, who represents the diverse Las Vegas-based district.

But theres a wild card in South Carolina.

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the highest-ranking black member of Congress, is close to Biden but hasnt said whether he will endorse at all. Clyburn is the rare political figure whose public blessing could matter to voters.

I think that were going to have a real spirited contest, Clyburn told CBS Face the Nation on Sunday. He said Steyer was doing an incredible job. ... Money makes a difference. Steyer has it. Hes been spending it. And hes reaping the rewards. Clyburn added that Buttigieg is doing very good and Biden is leading among African-American voters in South Carolina by a wide margin.

Buttigieg is dispatching minority surrogates such as Mayor Quentin Hart of Waterloo, Iowa, and former Iowa state Rep. Deborah Berry. Bloomberg, in the same week he spent confronting criticism of his record on race, launched a Mike for Black America effort alongside black endorsers including Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C.

The chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, Gilberto Hinojosa, whose state is among the biggest delegate prizes on Super Tuesday, praised all the remaining candidates. But he lamented that several minority candidates, including some political heavyweights, were forced from the field either before voting began or after the first two contests. Among them: Julian Castro, a former Obama Cabinet secretary; Kamala Harris, a California senator; Cory Booker, a New Jersey senator; and Deval Patrick, a former Massachusetts governor.

In South Carolina, I.S. Leevy Johnson offered similar laments, noting that he had supported Harris and now must hope a white nominee selects her or another person of colour as the vice-presidential nominee. Regardless, Johnson projected optimism.

I just dont think people should misinterpret the impact of those two outcomes in Iowa and New Hampshire, he said. Now, he said, the sleeping giant of nonwhite voters can emerge. If the giant rises up and goes to battle in November, someone opposing Trump will be victorious.

-

Barrow reported from Las Vegas and Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press reporters Alan Fram in Washington and Meg Kinnard in Columbia contributed to this report.

___

Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly ``Ground Game politics podcast

___

This story has been corrected to reflect that Sanders surrogate Nina Turner is a former Ohio state lawmaker, not a former Virginia state lawmaker
The decision appears to have come just two days after President Trump praised the Big Tech giants as "MAGA."





A chilling and disturbing day in America when giant web companies such as @YouTube decide to censor speech. Protected speech, such as that of a senator on the Sen floor, can be blocked from getting to the people. This is dangerous & politically biased. https://t.co/LnbkZJOYgS  Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) February 13, 2020

Nowhere in my speech did I accuse anyone of being a whistleblower, nor do I know the whistleblowers identity. YouTube has taken it upon itself to decide what questions can even be asked in the public debate, including on the Senate floor. This is wrong! https://t.co/Czm8XobiLI  Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) February 15, 2020



From The Hill:

YouTube has removed a video from its platform that shows Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) stating on the Senate floor the name of a person who conservative media have suggested is the whistleblower whose complaint triggered the impeachment inquiry of President Trump.



The company, home to millions of hours of video content, said in a statement on Thursday that "videos, comments, and other forms of content that mention the leaked whistleblower's name" violate its community guidelines and will be removed from the site.



"We've removed hundreds of videos and over ten thousand comments that contained the name. Video uploaders have the option to edit their videos to exclude the name and reupload," Ivy Choi, a spokesperson, said in the statement, which was first reported by Politico.



The video clip removed by YouTube comes from the Senate impeachment trial, when Paul mentioned a name that has circulated in conservative media as the whistleblower. Paul did so after Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts declined to read a question he submitted including that person's name.



Paul says he does not know if the name he said on the Senate floor is the whistleblower's or not, but he said it was wrong for his speech to be censored.



"It is a chilling and disturbing day in America when giant web companies such as YouTube decide to censure speech," he said in a statement. "Now, even protected speech, such as that of a senator on the Senate floor, can be blocked from getting to the American people. This is dangerous and politically biased. Nowhere in my speech did I accuse anyone of being a whistleblower, nor do I know the whistleblowers identity."

Though Sen Paul's response above was solid, he had an extremely weak response during a conference call on Thursday, as Breitbart reports:

"I'm not for censoring YouTube, they're a private company, they can do what they want, but they should not be above criticism and they should not pretend to actually be for expansive speech," Paul said on a conference call with reporters on Thursday.



"If they're going to be a left-wing group and YouTube wants to be seen as a left-wing group, then thats their business, but they shouldn't get away with pretending to be objective or fair," he added.

Telling Big Tech to respect the First Amendment is not "censorship."



It's Big Tech and the Big Banks which are engaging in censorship by banning people from the new public square, assigning them social credit scores and closing their bank accounts for their legally protected speech.



Until conservatives get this through their heads they're just going to continue to be steamrolled.







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By Carl Golden

The national Democratic Party, with the New Hampshire primary all wrapped up, is in full panic now. Its leaders are in headlong flight like something from a 1950s sci-fi flick depicting a terrorized townspeople fleeing a 10-story tall monster crushing cars and flattening buildings.

Its not some Godzilla-like creature risen from the ocean depths, though, just a cranky, white-haired 78-year-old socialist from Vermont leading a dedicated band of followers trampling on a party establishment and reducing to rubble the philosophical pillars that support it.

Its the second coming of Sen. Bernie Sanders delivering payback to the party hierarchy he blames for rigging the 2016 presidential primary process and cheating him of the nomination.

His victory in the New Hampshire primary following a first place finish in the train wreck that was the Iowa caucuses secured his position leading the remaining viable contenders for the nomination.

If he goes on to win the Nevada caucuses on Feb. 22 -- an eminently likely outcome -- and is highly competitive, although not the winner, of the South Carolina primary on Feb. 29, Sanders will cement his frontrunner status while his competitors are forced to re-assess their positions.

Sanders -- like Donald Trump four years ago -- is an agent of change; not working at the margins and nibbling at the fringes change but bulldozing the political landscape flat and starting over change.

And, both boast dedicated, committed armies to prove their points.

Both provided an outlet for the restiveness and alienation that gripped much of the country and turned it into a rebellious movement.

Four years ago, Trumps candidacy was dismissed by the Republican Party overlords as another public relations stunt, part of The Donalds obsession to be the center of attention but not to be taken seriously.

The Sanders candidacy was viewed more seriously -- particularly since his strong showing against Hillary Clinton in 2016 -- but the smart money insisted he was little more than a gadfly promoting ideas and policies that wouldnt gain traction with voters.

His showing against Clinton was fools gold, the argument went, the result of a wretched campaign by Clinton rather than a rush to embrace Sanders.

As Trump rolled through the primaries, blustered through debates and captured outsized media attention, the resonance of his message was ignored by those at the helm of the national party.

Who in their right mind would support a thrice-married New York City real estate mogul with a history of financial chicanery, bankruptcies and a penchant for derogatory behavior toward women?

Trump succeeded by declaring his candidacy posed a choice between the tired status quo elements controlling the party and his pitch to disaffected Americans who felt ignored by an indifferent government interested only in perpetuating themselves in power.

It wasnt merely frustrations Trump recognized and played to; it was an anger simmering across the nation by Americans whod lost jobs, saw homes fall into foreclosure and their hopes for their and their childrens future vanish.

When Trump cried Make America Great Again, his listeners envisioned a return to a past when hope and optimism were genuine and hard work was its own reward.

Political correctness, he said, was the ruination of America and a mockery of traditional values.

And, they responded by electing an unproven entity whose qualifications and experience were greatly outweighed by his opponents.

Despite vast unbridgeable ideological differences, the Sanders/Trump parallels are vivid.

Sanders has relentlessly attacked the wealthy, large corporations and an uncaring, unresponsive government.

From chronic income inequality to the perils of climate change, Sanders has laid blame at the doorstep of self-serving and self-absorbed robber barons.

There should be no such thing as billionaires, he once cried to his audience.

He and his army reject criticism they are engaged in class warfare, arguing that if there is a war, the middle class and the low earners are the only casualties.

The rich, Sanders contends, have become a protected class even enjoying the approval of elements of the Democratic Party -- the party of the working class -- desperate to maintain status and power.

And, as Trump before him, Sanders message has resonated, attracting the disaffected and overlooked with a pledge that his Administration would tolerate it no longer.

The suddenly real possibility that Sanders --- like Trump --- will ride that wave of discontent to the presidential nomination has induced a panic, a fear that his candidacy built on socialism will produce an electoral disaster, costing the party a chance at regaining the White House and potentially losing control of both houses of the Congress.

The monster that now stomps the streets is leading a revolution. And, they are the ones who poked it awake.

Carl Golden is a senior contributing analyst with the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University.

The Star-Ledger/NJ.com encourages submissions of opinion. 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.
Eastern Wyoming College recently had five Veterinary Technology students sit for the Veterinary Technician National Exam (VTNE). EWC students exceeded the average for all 1st time takers (US and Canada) in all eight domains tested.

We are tremendously proud of the efforts of the five Veterinary Technology students who recently passed the VTNE as part of their credentialing and wish them the best as they move into their careers. The exemplary scores achieved by these students are testaments to their determination, work ethic, and professionalism and illustrate the important role our Veterinary Technology faculty and staff play in preparing students for this exam and their subsequent careers, said Dr. Heidi Edmunds, Vice President for Academic Services.
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has said he is proud of his marriage and his husband.

He was addressing comments from conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh about whether voters would elect him because hes been kissing his husband on stage after debates.

Mr Buttigieg, the first openly gay politician to make a serious pitch for the presidency, says America should have politics that welcomes everybody.

He added: Im not going to be lectured on family values from the like of Rush Limbaugh, or anybody who supports Donald J. Trump as the moral as well as the political leader of the United States.

Happy Valentines Day to the one I love. pic.twitter.com/HMetg3zVoV  Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) February 14, 2020

Limbaugh said this past week that he envisioned Democrats concluding that despite all the great ground thats been covered, that Americas still not ready to elect a gay guy kissing his husband on the debate stage president.

Mr Buttigieg said he came out as gay during a general election as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and received more support from voters than he did in his first race.

Mr Buttigieg, 38, spoke on CNNs State Of The Union and Fox News Sunday.

He noted that, while he loves his husband, that on stage, we usually just go for a hug.
New Covid curbs in UP: Government and private employees to work at 50 per cent capacity

Night curfew in Andhra Pradesh: Know timings, guidelines, rules; What is allowed, what is not allowed

46 Covid deaths in 5 days in Delhi, 34 patients had comorbidities, 25 aged above 60: Govt data

Contacts of confirmed cases don't need to get tested unless identified as high risk: Govt

Omicron has clear growth advantage over Delta with highest level of immune escape: INSACOG

406 Indians back from China test negative for coronavirus

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Feb 16: All 406 people, housed at quarantine facility in Delhi after being brought back from Wuhan in China, tested negative for coronavirus.

They will be discharged in phased manner from Monday, PTI reported on Sunday.

A total of 650 people were brought back from Wuhan in China on February 1 and 2 in two 747 Boeing Air India aircraft after the novel Coronavirus outbreak there.

While 406 people, including seven from Maldives, are being looked after at the quarantine ITBP facility here, rest are at an Army centre at Manesar in Haryana.

The ITBP centre is being looked after by an expert team of doctors and medical professionals. There are seven children, including an infant in the group.

India has so far reported three confirmed cases of the virus, all in Kerala.

One of the three medical students, who had tested positive for novel coronavirus infection and were treated at a hospital in Kerala, has been discharged after recovery.

Passengers arriving in flights from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Japan and South Korea were being screened for possible exposure to the respiratory virus at 21 identified airports in India.
Love them or hate them, scooters have hit their maximum in San Francisco. At least until October.

On Saturday, San Franciscos transportation agency began allowing four companies  Lime, Spin (owned by Ford), Jump (owned by Uber), and Scoot (owned by Bird)  to release 750 more scooters collectively to reach the citys 4,000 limit.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is strictly controlling the once-rogue two-wheelers that took over the streets nearly two years ago. The goal is to provide a safe, equitable, and accessible form of public transportation, and the city granted permits only to companies that pledged to abide by the rules.

We are excited to expand the range of sustainable transportation options in the city of San Francisco, including scooters, which provide a convenient, on-demand travel option for shorter trips and an alternative to driving, agency spokeswoman Erica Kato said in an email.

San Francisco scooter riders took around 8,000 trips a day in January, according to the agency. Scooters are capped at 400 in downtown areas, so the latest expansion means neighborhoods farther from the citys core will get more. Since the start of the program in October, scooters have nearly doubled in the Mission District and quadrupled in the southeastern and southwestern parts of the city, as well as the Western Addition neighborhood.

Some data suggest that scooter companies are fulfilling their vision of replacing car trips with cleaner and greener transit. Surveys by Lime and Scoot say that 1 in 3 riders rented a scooter instead of hailing a car.

The Chronicle also obtained compliance reports and complaint data submitted by scooter companies to the cities. Here is what it reveals:

Safety: Despite rampant concerns about scooters being ridden on sidewalks and blocking sidewalks, including disabled access ramps, transit agency data show bad behavior accounts for a minuscule fraction of total rides.

In monthly reports from October to December by the four companies to the Municipal Transportation Agency, 39 collisions were reported out of 515,739 rides. Most involved just a scooter, although some involved cars too. Twenty riders sustained injuries; three were reported as serious, with one ambulance called.

Companies also tracked the number of safety trainings for riders and members of the public, although that didnt translate to avoiding crashes: Scoot had the highest number of trainings (15) and the most collisions (20). Lime, which held only two trainings, had a perfect safety record until one of its scooters was involved in a crash into a cement mixer on the Embarcadero that hospitalized a 69-year-old woman with serious injuries.

The scooter companies reports didnt give many details on accidents, but an agency complaint database compiled from company reports and 311 calls did. Although the data is imperfect (not every incident was confirmed in San Francisco and some companies defined categories differently), it paints a more colorful picture of what still isnt working as the city adjusts to a new transportation method.

Inside the newsroom The Chronicle reported this story by obtaining a database that tracks complaints and monthly reports submitted to the Municipal Transportation Agency from October to December by the four scooter companies allowed to operate in San Francisco. The Chronicle also obtained reports submitted to the city by each company that tracked compliance from October to January. See More Collapse

Among the issues: Dogs peeing on scooters left unlocked. Device alarms going on incessantly. A scooter abandoned in Sausalito.

A rider hit by a passenger opening a door of a double-parked ride-hail car. A video showing a scooter rider going the wrong way down a South of Market street during rush hour. Business managers and parks employees demanding the removal of improperly parked scooters.

Parking  whether obstructing public access, private property or overwhelming bike racks  was the biggest complaint, although riding on sidewalks might be harder to report as a scooter whizzes by. Nonetheless, companies reports to the Municipal Transportation Agency suggested they had near-perfect parking records  more than 99%  compared with total rides.

Enforcing sidewalk riding laws is still an intractable issue. Companies reported 127 violations in the first three months of the program. Lime had the most (59).

The San Francisco Police Department issues moving violations for sidewalk riding, but the citys traffic court couldnt provide data on the number of offenses because vehicle violations arent scooter-specific. The Municipal Transportation Agency is responsible for making sure companies follow all the other rules and fining companies who break them.

Kato said the agencys enforcement team is out on the streets every day monitoring for compliance and issuing citations to riders of both permitted and nonpermitted scooters for improper parking. The agency issued a cease-and-desist order to unlicensed scooter operator Go X, which announced last week that it is back in business. The city said its still illegal.

The city also puts the onus on companies to educate riders and hold them accountable with fines and suspension of privileges. Companies are tackling law-breaking with 24-hour hotlines, in-app messaging, incentives for wearing helmets and safety classes.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Some of the problem comes from people not knowing how to operate the scooters, so were trying to combat that through community events and education, Spin spokeswoman Maria Buczkowski said. Some riders dont take the time to do it themselves, so its important to make sure were doing our part to educate them.

Spin has issued more than 1,200 corrections and warnings based on photos of parked scooters taken by users at the end of their ride. Spin workers patrol neighborhoods and help riders unlock scooters at key commuter locations. To cut down on bad parking, the company plans to introduce four preferred parking spots in SoMa and the Embarcadero; riders can get 25 cents off their next ride if they park there.

Making space for scooters is part of a city conversation about traffic that led to the recent car-free redesign of part of Market Street. Companies stressed that infrastructure protecting riders is vital: A Lime survey found that half of riders ranked a protected bike lane as their No. 1 choice for riding. In one complaint about illegal sidewalk riding in the database, the rider apologized for riding on the sidewalk when confronted and told of feeling unsafe in Van Ness Avenue traffic.

Lime, which introduced a sidewalk riding detection technology in San Jose and hopes to bring it to San Francisco, said it hopes to gather data about where riders are using the sidewalk to help cities know where more bike lanes are needed. Kato said the transit agency will welcome and will consider all tools to enforce proper/responsible scooter operation.

Accessibility: The city required companies to design a modified scooter by Jan. 15 to ensure that disabled San Franciscans arent shut out from the new transportation form. Although the four companies met the deadline, only Spin and Lime have received requests from riders for their modified scooters a month into the pilot program.

Spin recently got one request from a woman who uses the adapted model to deliver groceries. Lime, which unlike other companies offers to deliver its adapted scooter to a riders location on request, had 72 calls from San Francisco, Oakland, Hayward, and Alameda (two requests werent fulfilled because scooters cant be delivered outside the service areas in San Francisco and Oakland).

Equity: The city requires companies to offer discounted rides to low-income riders, as defined by the Municipal Transportation Agency. The idea is to ensure that scooters are a true form of public transportation, used by everyone.

For the first three months of the program, companies signed up 3,566 low-income riders. Scoot had the highest number (2,588), followed by Lime (635), Jump (213) and Spin (130).

Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mallorymoench
By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: Speaker of Odisha Assembly Surya Narayan Patro softened his directive on ban on media from reporting any ruckus in the House after a day-long protest by Opposition Congress and BJP members against his Friday ruling.

The House had to be adjourned several times during the day by the Speaker following protest by members in the well.

Normalcy returned to the House and Opposition members participated in the discussion on the motion of thanks for the Governors address after the Speaker clarified that his ruling was for only one day.

The Speaker convened an all-party meeting at 5 pm following repeated disruption of the House proceedings by the Opposition members demanding reconsideration of his ruling.

The House could run for only four minutes between 10.30 am and 6.50 pm even as the all-party meeting continued.

There were noisy scenes in the House as soon as the Question Hour began at 10.30 am with Congress and BJP members urging the Speaker to reconsider the ruling and allow media to report the happenings in the House.

As the Speaker did not pay heed to their demands, chaos continued, leading to adjournments, first till 11.30 am and then till 3 pm.

The Speaker in a ruling on Friday had directed both the print and electronic media not to report the ruckus inside the House and put a ban on using the names of members staging protest in the well, inviting strong criticism from BJP and Congress.

Leader of Opposition Pradipta Kumar Naik said the Speakers ruling is detrimental to the democratic rights of the legislators, and demanded its immediate withdrawal.

Deputy leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Santosh Singh Saluja said the Speakers ruling is not acceptable in a democracy. If the MLAs dont protest in the Assembly where should they go? The lawmakers have democratic rights to protest in the Assembly, he said.

Government Chief Whip Pramilla Mallick, however, maintained that Speakers ruling is based on the practices being followed in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and other State Assemblies. The House could not discuss the recent deaths of 10 persons due to electrocution in a bus in Ganjam district because of noisy scenes. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was not present in the House on Saturday.
India and Russia have begun preliminary talks on the participation of Indian companies in the Vostok Oil project in Siberia. Moscow is keen to firm up the contours of an agreement in this regard by the time Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Russia in May, people familiar with the matter said.

Cooperation in the Vostok Oil project is being seen as a follow-up to the agreement signed by Indian Oil Corporation and Russias state-run Rosneft Oil Company on February 5 for importing up to 2 million tonnes of oil a year, and will dovetail into New Delhis plans to diversify the sources of oil and gas.

Talks between the two sides have begun, and we are hopeful that the details of an agreement will be worked out by the time Prime Minister Modi visits Moscow for the Victory Day celebrations in May, said a person familiar with thinking on the Russian side.

We are hoping the final agreement for Indias participation in Vostok Oil will be signed by the time President Putin comes to India for the annual summit in October, said the person, who asked not to be named.

President Vladimir Putin invited Modi to the annual May 9 Victory Day celebrations, which commemorate the victory over Nazi Germany in World War 2, when the two leaders met on the margins of the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Summit in Brazil last November.

India is expected to host the annual summit between the two countries in October.

The recent agreement on the import of oil from Russia via Novorossiysk port was signed during a visit to India by Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin. A statement issued by Rosneft said the supply of oil is expected to start by the end of 2020.

The statement added an important subject that figured in discussions between Sechin and petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan was an increase in Russian oil supplies to India.

A separate topic of discussion was the matter of Indian companies participation in implementing the Vostok Oil project aimed to establish a new world-class oil and gas province on the North of Russian Krasnoyarsk Territory. As Dharmendra Pradhan said, the Indian side has already made a principal decision to participate in the project, the statement said.

In order to negotiate the terms of Indian companies entering Vostok Oil in the shortest time possible the parties agreed to create a regular working group of representatives of Russian and Indian companies, it added.

Given the robust status of defence and military ties, especially the recent $5.4-billion deal for S-400 air defence systems and a proposed contract for 200 Kamov helicopters, Russia has decided to focus on strengthening trade with India during 2020, including in oil and gas.

Vostok Oil projects advantage lies in its proximity to the Northern Sea Route, which can be used to supply crude to European and Asian markets.

Rosneft has been cooperating with Indias oil companies in areas ranging from production to refining and marketing. Since 2016, ONGC Videsh, Oil India Limited, Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat PetroResources have owned 49.9% of Vankorneft, the Rosneft subsidiary in Krasnoyarsk that is developing the Vankor oil and gas field, the largest reserves discovered in Russia in 25 years. The Vankor area is part of the Vostok Oil project.

Other ongoing joint projects of Rosneft and Indian firms include Sakhalin-1, Taas-Yuryakh, Far East LNG, and Nayara Energy.

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Mrs. Evelyn Ama Kumi-Richardson, the Bono Regional Minister have donated assorted items to the Sunyani Central Prisons.

The Items were handed over to Deputy Director of Prisons (DDP) Reuben Kwesi Asamoah Fenning, the Regional Prisons Commander to take care of the inmates.

They included packs of water, soft drinks, sanitary items, chocolates, pomade and hair clippers.

Mrs. Evelyn Ama Kumi-Richardson also provided food for to feed 826 inmates in the Sunyani Central Prisons. The Minister said as Valentine Day it was important to extend love and compassion to a certain group of people considered neglected such as the prison inmates.

The Regional Minister assured them that with time they would surely come out from the prisons and cited biblical quotations to back her words of motivation to the inmates.

She also advised them to take their apprenticeship training seriously in order to get skills to live on when they leave after serving term.

Regional Commander of Prisons for Bono, Bono East, and Ahafo Regions, DDP Reuben Kwesi Asamoah Fenning thanked the Regional Minister for the donations.

He was very grateful to the Minister and called on others such as CSOs, religious institutions, well-meaning Ghanaians to support the Sunyani Prisons Service to improve the living conditions of intimates.

In another development, the Regional Minister donated Cash and assorted items such as water, soft drinks, and sheep to the Sunyani Traditional Council (STC) on behalf of the former Regional Minister and current Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Mr. Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh.

Oboaman Bofotia Boa Amposem II, the Krontihene of STC who received the donation on behalf of the Sunyani Traditional Council and Sunyani Omanhene Nana Bosoma Asor Nkrawiri II thank the Minister for the donation. He thanked the Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Mr. Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh for the donation towards the final funeral rite of the Queen mother of Sunyani, Nana Yaa Nyamaa II scheduled between 25th to 28th February 2020.
Alastair Campbell's comedian daughter Grace has claimed she's spent her life competing for her father's attention with Tony Blair.

The 25-year-old, whose Yorkshire-born father served as the Downing Street press secretary as New Labour began to take shape in the mid-1990s, recalled spending much of her childhood at Number 10.

As a result she spent a lot of time with the Blairs, and told how the former prime minister once called her up to apologise after she was jeered at during a stand-up gig for the Iraq War.

She told The Sunday Mirror's Notebook magazine: 'I got heckled about who I am by a drunk woman who shouted, "You're a war criminal, you've got blood on your hands."

Grace Campbell, 25, has candidly spoken about competing with Tony Blair for her father's attention, and growing up in Downing Street

Believing the comments were unfair - as she was only nine when Mr Blair's government decided to invade Iraq - Grace went on: 'I told my Dad about it, and he told Tony Blair, and Tony rang me and said, "Oh Gracie, Gracie, I am so sorry this happened to you, this really is all my fault."

'In my show I make the joke that I have an exclusive - I'm the first person to get Tony Blair to apologise for the Iraq War.'

Recalling the day Mr Blair became the leader of the country, Grace described how she would 'rather have been at home playing with her new Furbies', but was told by her mother Fiona Miller - a one-time advisor to Cherie Blaire - that she was instead to go to Downing Street to celebrate Labour's landslide victory.

'Right from birth, I've been competing with other people for my father's attention. Specifically, with Tony Blair,' Grace told the publication.

The comedian and writer, who is the daughter of Alastair Campbell (left), recalled her far from typical upbringing

Grace's father Alastair (left with Tony Blair) served as the Downing Street press secretary after Labour's landslide victory in 1997

Grace's unconventional childhood saw her meet a host of A-list stars, from Geri Halliwell to Boris Johnson, who was Mayor of London at the time.

She shared a box at the O2 with the current prime minister during a Miley Cyrus concert, and recalled how Boris playfully introduced her father to the popstar as his deputy.

Among her memorable moments, Grace recalled going on a trip to the London Eye with the Blairs and Russian president Vladimir Putin and his wife.

She told how Mrs Putin asked Cherie Blair for shop recommendations to buy shoes for her daughters.

The 25-year-old (pictured right with her father Alastair Campbell) studied politics for her A-Levels before going on to make her television debut in the Channel 4 feminist prank show Riot Girls in 2018

As Mrs Blair began to reel off a number of high brow designers on Bond Street, the writer, who was 10 at the time, took the opportunity to tell the Russian leader's wife that she need only 'take the girls to Clarks'.

As she grew older, Grace, who studied politics for her A-Levels, went on to make her television debut in the Channel 4 feminist prank show Riot Girls in 2018.

She recently completed her debut stand-up show, Why I'm Never Going Into Politics, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The writer, who was three on the day Tony Blair became prime minister (Ieft), met a number of A-list celebrities while she was growing up including the Geri Halliwell (right)

Grace (pictured with her father Alastair and former Labour leader Ed Miliband) recently completed her debut stand-up show, Why I'm Never Going Into Politics, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

The provocative show delves into Grace's childhood in politics - and she explains why she, as the daughter of Tony Blair's former spin doctor, chose a career in comedy instead.

Grace told how she was thrilled when the London Mayor Sadiq Khan went to watch her show and 'loved it'.

Alongside her stand-up comedy, Grace is also the co-founder of the Pink Protest, which is a group aimed at engaging the power of young people and utilising online activism.
Former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg is said to be considering Hillary Clinton as a possible vice presidential running mate.

A report said the 78-year-old, famed for his use of polling and data, believed a ticket of him and the former first lady and 2016 nominee would be a formidable force.

The Drudge Report, which was the first news organisation to reveal Bill Clintons affair with Monica Lewinsky more than two decades ago, said sources within the Bloomberg campaign reported he was even considering changing his official address from New York to Colorado or Florida, because the constitution said a candidate and their running mate ought not to live in the same state.

The report comes at a time of deep anxiety within the Democratic Party as to whether it has a candidate who can beat Donald Trump in November.

While both centrist Pete Buttigieg and progressive Bernie Sanders essentially shared the honours in the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries, the first states to vote, neither has established unchallenged frontrunner status.

The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 Show all 25 1 /25 The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 Bernie Sanders The Vermont senator has launched a second bid for president after losing out to Hilary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primaries. He is running on a similar platform of democratic socialist reform Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 Joe Biden The former vice president recently faced scrutiny for inappropriate touching of women, but was thought to deal with the criticism well and has since maintained a front runner status in national polling EPA The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 Elizabeth Warren The Massachusetts senator is a progressive Democrat, and a major supporter of regulating Wall Street Reuters The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 Amy Klobuchar Klobuchar is a Minnesota senator who earned praise for her contribution to the Brett Kavanaugh hearings Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 Michael Bloomberg Michael Bloomberg, a late addition to the 2020 race, announced his candidacy after months of speculation in November. He has launched a massive ad-buying campaign and issued an apology for the controversial "stop and frisk" programme that adversely impacted minority communities in New York City when he was mayor Getty Images The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 Tulsi Gabbard The Hawaii congresswoman announced her candidacy in January, but has faced tough questions on her past comments on LGBT+ rights and her stance on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Pete Buttigieg The centrist Indiana mayor and war veteran would be the first openly LGBT+ president in American history Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Deval Patrick The former Massachusetts governor launched a late 2020 candidacy and received very little reception. With just a few short months until the first voters flock to the polls, the former governor is running as a centrist and believes he can unite the party's various voting blocs AFP/Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Beto O'Rourke The former Texas congressman formally launched his bid for the presidency in March. He ran on a progressive platform, stating that the US is driven by "gross differences in opportunity and outcome" AP The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Kamala Harris The former California attorney general was introduced to the national stage during Jeff Sessions testimony. She has endorsed Medicare-for-all and proposed a major tax-credit for the middle class AFP/Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Bill De Blasio The New York mayor announced his bid on 16 May 2019. He emerged in 2013 as a leading voice in the left wing of his party but struggled to build a national profile and has suffered a number of political setbacks in his time as mayor AFP/Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Steve Bullock The Montana governor announced his bid on 14 May. He stated "We need to defeat Donald Trump in 2020 and defeat the corrupt system that lets campaign money drown out the people's voice, so we can finally make good on the promise of a fair shot for everyone." He also highlighted the fact that he won the governor's seat in a red [Republican] state Reuters The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Cory Booker The New Jersey Senator has focused on restoring kindness and civility in American politics throughout his campaign, though he has failed to secure the same level of support and fundraising as several other senators running for the White House in 2020 Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Wayne Messam Mayor of the city of Miramar in the Miami metropolitan area, Wayne Messam said he intended to run on a progressive platform against the "broken" federal government. He favours gun regulations and was a signatory to a letter from some 400 mayors condemning President Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord Vice News The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Kirsten Gillibrand The New York Senator formally announced her presidential bid in January, saying that healthcare should be a right, not a privilege Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: John Delaney The Maryland congressman was the first to launch his bid for presidency, making the announcement in 2017 AP The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Andrew Yang The entrepreneur announced his presidential candidacy by pledging that he would introduce a universal basic income of $1,000 a month to every American over the age of 18 Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Julian Castro The former San Antonio mayor announced his candidacy in January and said that his running has a special meaning for the Latino community in the US Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Marianne Williamson The author and spiritual adviser has announced her intention to run for president. She had previously run for congress as an independent in 2014 but was unsuccessful Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Eric Swalwell One of the younger candidates, Swalwell has served on multiple committees in the House of Representatives. He intended to make gun control central to his campaign but dropped out after his team said it was clear there was no path to victory Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Seth Moulton A Massachusetts congressman, Moulton is a former US soldier who is best known for trying to stop Nancy Pelosi from becoming speaker of the house. He dropped out of the race after not polling well in key states Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Jay Inslee Inslee has been governor of Washington since 2013. His bid was centred around climate change AFP/Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: John Hickenlooper The former governor of Colorado aimed to sell himself as an effective leader who was open to compromise, but failed to make a splash on the national stage Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Tim Ryan Ohio representative Tim Ryan ran on a campaign that hinged on his working class roots, though his messaging did not appear to resonate with voters Getty The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020 DROPPED OUT: Tom Steyer Democratic presidential hopeful billionaire and philanthropist Tom Steyer is a longtime Democratic donor AFP/Getty

At the same time, the campaign of former vice president Joe Biden seems to be struggling, coming fourth in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire.

Indeed, Mr Bidens lacklustre campaign was one of the reasons Mr Bloomberg decided to enter the race, albeit very late. He has said he is prepared to spend billions of dollars to defeat Mr Trump.

Experts suggest there are few within the party who would wish to see a third presidential run from Ms Clinton, despite her recently telling British comedian and presenter Graham Norton she had been deluged by requests.

Yet her name as running mate might trigger less outcry, though it is questionable as to how many supporters of Mr Sanders would support such a ticket.

Last week, when asked by Ellen DeGeneres if she had considered a possible vice presidential slot, Ms Clinton, 72, said: Well, thats not going to happen. But no, probably no.

When she was pressed on the matter, she replied: I never say never because I believe in serving my country, but its never going to happen.

 Michael Bloomberg defends financial discrimination

Mr Bloombergs campaign refused to rule out the possibility. In a statement sent to The Independent and other media, his communications director, Jason Schechter, said: We are focused on the primary and the debate, not VP speculation.

Mike Fraioli, a veteran Democratic strategist, said he was certain a woman would be one of the two names on the partys ticket this year.

One thing you can bank on is that there is a woman on the ticket, said Mr Fraioli. Either as the candidate, or the vice-presidential candidate, there will have to be a woman on the ticket. Otherwise, we might as well pack up and go home.

In addition to the two women still seeking the presidential nomination, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, among those mentioned as possible running mates should a man win the presidential nomination race, are senator Kamala Harris and Stacey Abrams, who narrowly failed to win the Georgia governors race in 2018.

The report comes as polls show Mr Bloomberg, who decided not to contest the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, soaring away from some of his rivals.

Much of that has come after spending $350m on television adverts in the handful of battleground states likely to determine the election.

An average of national polls collated by RealClearPolitics puts Mr Bloomberg in third place on 14 points, behind Mr Biden on 19 and Mr Sanders on 23.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a mausoleum in Pyongyang to mark the birthday of the country's previous leader Kim Jong Il. State television followed its routine of broadcasting still images of the current leader's visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, without saying exactly when it took place, only that it was on the occasion of the "Day of the Shining Star".

After Kim Jong Il died in 2011, North Korean authorities named his birthday, the 16th of February, the "Day of the Shining Star".During his visit, Kim was accompanied by a familiar line-up of senior officials, including Vice-Chairmen of the State Affairs Commission Choe Ryong Hae and Pak Pong Ju, as well as Premier Kim Jae Ryong.

It's a long-established tradition for North Korean leaders to visit the palace on major holidays and anniversaries, especially those connected to the country's former leaders. North Korea observes the 16th February as the birthday of Kim Jong Il and this year is officially the 78th anniversary of his birth. North Korea normally holds larger events to mark such anniversaries at five-year intervals.

(Image Credit: AP)
The number of people infected with the new coronavirus in China passed 70,000 on Monday as international experts began meetings with their Chinese counterparts on how to tackle an epidemic that has caused global concern. The death toll jumped to 1,765 in mainland China after 100 more people died in Hubei province, where the virus first emerged in December before spreading across the country and overseas. Worries about its spread remain high and the epidemic's reach was highlighted by the US announcing that more than three dozen Americans from a cruise ship quarantined off Japan were infected. The number of new cases of the COVID-19 strain spiked last week when officials in Hubei changed their criteria for counting cases to include people diagnosed through lung imaging. The number of new cases in the province on Monday was around 100 higher than those on Sunday but still sharply down from those reported on Friday and Saturday. The latest figures came as the head of the World Health Organization said international experts in a WHO-led joint mission had arrived in Beijing and had had their first meeting with their Chinese counterparts. "We look forward to this vitally important collaboration contributing to global knowledge about the #COVID19 outbreak," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter. Mi Feng, National Health Commission spokesman, said Sunday that slowing case numbers nationally showed that China was controlling the outbreak. But Tedros has warned it is "impossible to predict which direction this epidemic will take". The UN health body has also asked China for more details on how diagnoses are being made. - Tightening movement - The scale of the epidemic ballooned on Thursday last week after authorities in Hubei changed their criteria for counting cases, retroactively adding 14,000 cases in a single day. Chinese authorities have placed about 56 million people in Hubei and its capital Wuhan under quarantine, virtually sealing off the province from the rest of the country in an unprecedented effort to contain the virus. Even as China insisted the epidemic was under control, Hubei authorities announced on Sunday a tightening of movement across the province. This includes broad instructions that residential compounds and villages be "sealed off" from unnecessary visitors, with tenants' outings "strictly managed". Local authorities elsewhere in China have also introduced measures to try and stop the virus spreading. Beijing's municipal government has enacted a rule requiring people coming to the capital to self-quarantine for 14 days, according to official media. Outside mainland China, Taipei officials reported the island's first death from the new coronavirus on Sunday, as a 61-year-old man from central Taiwan with underlying health problems but no recent overseas travel history died in hospital. He is the fifth person outside of the mainland to die from the virus, with the other deaths in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan and France. The biggest cluster outside China is on a quarantined cruise ship off Japan, with 355 infections confirmed. A top US health official on Sunday said 40 Americans from the ship have become infected and would be treated in Japan. Other Americans left the Diamond Princess into the early hours of Monday for chartered jets that would fly them home -- and into further quarantine. - Social stability - The virus spread last month as millions travelled across China for the Lunar New Year holiday, which was extended to try to prevent more infections. People have slowly started to return to work in the past two weeks, though many are doing their jobs from home and schools remain closed. With the government facing criticism over its handling of the crisis, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the government must "increase use of police force" during the crisis. He made the comments in a February 3 speech published by state media on Saturday. A number of local officials have been sacked for their role in mishandling the outbreak.
A US passenger thumbs up to reporters while arriving at the Haneda Airport, in Tokyo on February 17, 2020 after disembarking in Yokohama from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, where people are quarantined onboard due to fears of the new COVID-19 coronavirus. KAZUHIRO NOGI

The coverage on this live blog has ended  but for up-to-the-minute coverage on the coronavirus, visit the live blog from CNBC's Asia-Pacific team. All times below are in U.S. Eastern Standard Time. China's National Health Commission reported that there were 2,009 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 142 additional deaths as of Feb. 15. The total number of cases in mainland China has reached 68,500, and the total deaths has reached 1,665, according the latest statistics from the commission on Sunday.

11:30 am: American citizens begin evacuating quarantined cruise ship in Japan

American passengers quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan began evacuating on Sunday. Officials said they would be taken on a charter flight to one of two U.S. military air bases, where they will undergo a 14-day quarantine. Passengers will be screened for symptoms prior to boarding. Americans that decide to not return on the charter flight will be unable to travel to the U.S. until March 4, according to the American Embassy in Tokyo. Japanese officials said the quarantine aboard the ship should end on Feb. 19. There were 355 cases of the virus confirmed as of Sunday, with roughly 3,700 total passengers and crew on board.

10:50 am: China pharmaceutical company to sell Favipiravir drug as potential virus treatment

Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical, one of the largest pharmaceutical manufacturers in China, has received approval to start selling Favipiravir as a potential treatment for the virus, according to a company filing. The company must still continue clinical trials of the antiviral drug, which is being developed by Toyama Chemical of Japan, after it hits the market.

6:21 am: Taiwan confirms death of man with no known history of travel to China

Taiwan said a man in his 60s with a history of hepatitis B and diabetes has died of the virus. It's the first death on the island. The man died Saturday after nearly two weeks in a hospital, but does not have a known history of traveling to China. Health officials are investigating how he became infected. Taiwan has 20 confirmed cases of the virus.

3:40 am: American from cruise ship tests positive for second time in Malaysia
China reported a fall in the number of new coronavirus cases on Sunday (February 16) with a health official suggesting that intensive efforts to stop the spread of the disease were beginning to work.

Meanwhile, the number of infected continues to rise on the Princess Diamond cruise ship.

Seventy more cases were reported on the vessel, which is quarantined off Japan's Yokohama.

That took the total number of cases, as of Sunday, to 355 of the roughly 3,700 passengers and crew on board.

Those testing positive are sent to hospital and no one from the ship has died of the virus.

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo recommended that 400 U.S. citizens onboard should get off and take one of the evacuation flights it is arranging on Sunday - adding that everyone would be screened and no one who is infected or showing symptoms would be allowed on the chartered flights.

Hong Kong, Canada and South Korea also said they planned to evacuate their citizens from the ship.

The coronavirus has presented Beijing with the huge challenge of stamping out the epidemic whilst also preventing damage to the world's second largest economy.

But on Sunday, China's National Health Commission said a campaign to prevent and the control the disease was showing results.

It reported 2,009 new cases - down from 2,641 the previous day and said there were 142 new deaths, just one lower than reported on Saturday (February 15).

China has placed Hubei province and its capital Wuhan, where the outbreak is believed to have originated, under virtual lockdown.

Spokesman Mi Feng said medical support and preventative measures in Hubei had headed off more critical cases and that mild cases were being treated more quickly to prevent them from becoming critical.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 16:01:09|Editor: xuxin

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YANGON, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar authorities have seized a large haul of narcotic drugs including 6.6 kg of heroin and 89,300 stimulant tablets in Sagaing region, according to a release from the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control (CCDAC) on Sunday.

The confiscation was made by a joint police force in Indaw Township on Friday.

Soap boxes filled with heroin worth 660 million kyats (440,000 U.S. dollars) and stimulants worth 446.5 million kyats (297,666 U.S. dollars) were seized from a car.

The township police filed a case against the suspect who ran away from the scene under the country's Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law, the release said.

According to a recent release from the President's Office, a total of 971 drug-related cases were logged across Myanmar while 1,503 suspects were charged as of Feb. 8 this year, since the formation of the Drug Activity Special Complaint Department on June 26, 2018.
The Russian artist Piotr Pavlenski and his girlfriend have both been arrested as part of the on-going investigation into the publication of an intimate sex video involving Benjamin Griveaux, President Emmanuel Macron's chosen candidate for the post of Paris mayor.

The couple were taken into custody on suspicion of "invasion of privacy" and "dissemination without the person's consent of images of a sexual nature", as part of the investigation opened on Saturday following the filing of a complaint by Benjamin Griveaux.

Pavlenski was arrested on Saturday in a separate case.

That investigation, for alleged violent behaviour, has been suspended to allow for the suspect's questioning by police investigating the Griveaux case.

Under French law, he can be held for a total of 48 hours, no matter how many accusations he faces, meaning that Pavlenski must be released on Monday afternoon.

His 29-year-old partner, named as Alexandra de Taddeo, is being questioned for her alleged part in the publication of the Griveaux videos. A source close to the investigation has described De Taddeo as the original "recipient of the incriminating images", without offering further clarification.

Pavlenski promises "political porn platform"

Griveaux, a 42-year-old MP, has brought a legal case against Pavlensky over the release of the video and an enquiry has been opened, the prosecutor said later Saturday.

Pavlensky, an activist and performance artist, said on Friday that he had put the video online in order to expose Griveaux's "hypocrisy", and warned that he planned to post more material on a newly-created "political porn platform".

Griveaux "is someone who constantly brings up family values, who says he wants to be the mayor of families and always cites his wife and children as an example. But he is doing the opposite," Pavlensky told the French daily newspaper Liberation.
As took oath as chief minister of Delhi for the third time on Sunday, many Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supporters said it is time for him to go and his aim should be to change the country's politics. Now it is the time to move beyond Delhi and work towards changing the country's "toxic" political atmosphere, said Suman Rao, a construction worker from Bhopal and an AAP supporter.

"The atmosphere in the whole country has turned toxic, now the AAP should work towards changing that. It is very important to clean other parts of the country," he said.

Waving the flag at Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony at the Ramlila Maidan here, another AAP supporter Ershan Khan said there is a reason why people are carrying the tricolour and not the party's flags.

"It is because people now want to see Kejriwal as their leader. The time to go national is now. The time to remove negative nationalism is now and only AAP can do that," Khan said.

Rajshree Singh, a housewife, said the party should now plan to fight in other states and expand their reach so that the ideology of the AAP spreads to other parts of the country.

Now the good politics and the good model of governance developed by the AAP should be spread to other parts of the country too, Rajesh Sharma said.

The AAP is at present recognised by the Election Commission as a state party. It emerged as the principal opposition in Punjab in 2017.

However, its national ambitions suffered a setback when its campaigns in Goa and in the last two Lok Sabha elections were unsuccessful.

It won four Lok Sabha seats in Punjab in 2014 and just one in 2019, while Delhi voters rejected the AAP in both the general elections.

Kejriwal also burnt his fingers in 2014 when he contested against Narendra Modi, who was the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, in the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat, losing by over three lakh votes.

Many saw a shift in the AAP's strategy after the party's drubbing in the 2017 civic polls in Delhi at the hands of the BJP, as it again focussed on its development pitch in the national capital. But ever since its recent victory in the assembly polls, AAP is again aiming to go national and has decided to fight all local body elections to strengthen its hold on the ground.




Seven West Media won't be relying on fresh capital from major shareholding Seven Group Holdings as it moves into the second half of the financial year.

On Tuesday, Seven will release its first results since the multimillion-dollar restructure announced last October under new chief executive James Warburton. The restructure resulted in about 160 job losses and was expected to save the network more than $20 million.

Seven CEO James Warburton will release half-year results this week, his first set since announcing a major restructure of the business. Credit:Peter Braig

Programs including Sunday Night, Today Tonight and Queensland Weekender were among those axed as part of the changes and a new slate was announced at the end of last year. Seven planned to reinvigorate its schedule with the return of Farmer Wants a Wife and Big Brother, as well as new shows including Pooch Perfect and Holy Moley.

The network has had a challenging start to the year with flagship show My Kitchen Rules: The Rivals down by 46 per cent in the ratings compared with last year. Advertising sources said the business was under immense pressure by major brands including lead sponsor Coles to make up for the lost ratings. But Seven has been in active conversations with advertisers, ensuring they get value for money from other programming. Seven sources expect this value to be returned in the first quarter.
Mr Sharma (49), a former ABVP leader, has replaced Rakesh Singh, said to be trusted lieutenant of Union home minister Amit Shah.

Bhopal: The BJP on Saturday chose Khajuraho MP Vishnu Dutt Sharma who has been closely associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)  to head the party in Madhya Pradesh.

The development, which has taken the party here by surprise, comes amid growing concerns within the BJP here over chief minister Kamal Naths pro-Hindu pitch.

Mr Sharma (49), a former ABVP leader, has replaced Rakesh Singh, said to be trusted lieutenant of Union home minister Amit Shah. Mr Singh, who represented the Jabalpur seat in the Lok Sabha, last month organised a mammoth rally in Jabalpur in support of the CAA which was addressed by Mr Shah.

The outgoing state BJP president had often been at loggerheads with senior leaders of the party in MP, particularly former chief minister and BJP national vice-president Shivraj Singh Chouhan over party affairs. Besides, the party had fared poorly in the Mahakoshal region of MP, considered Rakesh Singhs bastion, in the last Assembly elections, causing the BJP to miss the chance to retain power in the state for the fourth time in a row.

Mr Sharma, a post-graduate in agriculture science, has been preferred over other aspirants to the party post such as Mr Chouhan and former minister Narottam Mishra at the behest of the RSS leadership, a central party leader told this newspaper. Sources said that Mr Chouhan had lobbied hard to get one of his loyalists and former ministers Bhupendra Singh and Lal Singh Arya, appointed to the post.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A backlog at the city Parks Department has homeowners across the borough anxiously waiting for inspections and repairs, hoping nobody is injured in the interim.

The city Parks Department is responsible for pruning city trees, as well as inspecting tree-related issues  tree roots that have cracked and raised a sidewalk square, for example.

As the stewards of New York Citys urban forest, our expert foresters care for our citys parks and trees and respond to more than 80,000 forestry-related service requests per year, a Parks Department spokeswoman told the Advance.

NYC Parks provides a variety of tree and sidewalk services including street tree planting, sidewalk repair, and tree removal, the spokeswoman said.

Yet homeowners say those inspections and repairs are near impossible to get, citing lack of communication and lack of city funds to perform the tasks.

The Advance has reported issues several homeowners have had with the city Parks Departments Trees and Sidewalks Program -- including a homeowner who waited 11 years for a repair.

In September 2019, the Parks Department told the Advance that funding for the program would be reduced in fiscal year 2020. In FY 2019, the program received $11.75 million in expense and $10 million in capital funding, but in FY 2020 it will be cut to $6.75 million in expense and $5 million in capital funding.

The department has a total of $15 million in capital funding for the program, the Department told the Advance.

The department has a total of $15 million in capital funding for the program, according to the spokesperson.

The tree and sidewalk issues, which are prevalent across the borough, were near the top of the questions emailed recently to Kristin Dalton (kdalton@siadvance.com), the reporter who heads our problem-solving and question-answering project -- #fyiSI.

WAITLISTED HOMEOWNERS WORRY

A Concord homeowner used caution tape in front of her home, sectioning off several sidewalk squares that were raised and cracked due to a city tree.

I have placed caution tape from my driveway to my front gate so that no one is hurt, the homeowner said.

I have been contacting [Parks Department] since 2015 only for them to say they will fix it in the next three years, which is absurd, she said.

A Parks Department spokeswoman told the Advance the location received a grade of 79/100 during a 2015 inspection and the site will be repaired by the end of 2022  seven years after the inspection -- barring any unforeseen delays.

WHAT SIDEWALK GRADES MEAN

Repairs are made based on a ranking system that includes the severity of damage, amount of pedestrian traffic, and size and condition of the tree, according to Parks Department.

Homeowners who have time-sensitive needs for sidewalk repair may wish to fix their sidewalks themselves by engaging an independent contractor, and completing a Tree Work Permit application to try and have the city reimburse them for the cost of the repair, the city said.

According to the Parks Department, sidewalk ratings fall into one of three categories:

< 80: Site does not rate highly enough to be repaired by NYC Parks at this time.

80 to 89: Site has been waitlisted: This site meets the criteria for repair. However due to a high number of requests we are only able to repair the very highest rated sites at this time. We will continue to evaluate based on capacity and funding if your site can be added to our next contract.

90 to 100: Site expected to be repaired within three years.

Homeowners who receive scores less than 80 are told to engage an independent contractor, complete a Tree Work Permit Application, and file a claim for damages with the city Comptrollers office.

Reimbursement from the Comptrollers office is not guaranteed.

Those with a score between 80 and 89 can follow the above instructions or request a new inspection in three years from the original inspection date, which could result in a higher rating.

CONTRACTORS WONT TOUCH THE TREES

An Arden Heights homeowner said he contacted a contractor to estimate the repair for his sidewalk, which is damaged in between his and his neighbors houses, and was told the roots could not be touched.

(Staten Island Advance/Kristin Dalton)

If the roots are touched, a fine from the city would be incurred. Without touching the roots, the problem would happen again.

So are we expected to keep making the same expensive repairs because the city refuses to take care of the tree situation? he asked.

The Parks Department told the Advance that the site in question received 70 out of 100 when inspected in 2015, which was not high enough to warrant a repair. The site is currently eligible for re-inspection which may result in a higher rating, the spokeswoman told the Advance.

Two requests by the homeowner were made in 2019 for sidewalk conditions, however, it has not yet been re-inspected due to a large backlog of tree service requests.

Parks Department said it cannot provide a timeline for inspections at this time.

#fyiSI -- HERES THE POINT

When #fyiSI launched in October 2018, the Advance received dozens of questions from readers about all things Staten Island.

Now, were continuing to provide answers and are asking you again to ask us anything, Staten Island -- and we mean anything.

Through #fyiSI, Im going to answer all of your burning questions  with the occasional help of my coworkers  about the borough with 479,458 residents that we all call home.

Some of the questions weve received so far include:

How can we ask for a stop sign to be added?

What happened to my favorite restaurant?

Is that a mobile speed camera?

Why is the Department of Transportation doing construction on my block?

Now I ready to tackle them all, and Im looking for more questions, Whatever it is, Ill answer it.

You might be wondering how #fyiSI differs from the average story you already read in the Staten Island Advance or on SILive.com.

Were not stepping away from the traditional news article, but instead adding social media elements like Facebook live, Instagram stories, Twitter polls, and other multimedia to help us reach you.

Well also do a lot of reporting on site.

Questions should include your name, neighborhood of residence and contact information, and can be emailed to fyi@siadvance.com or kdalton@siadvance.com.

#fyiSI questions weve answered so far
People suffering flu-like symptoms could be ordered to 'self-isolate' for a fortnight if the number of coronavirus cases in the UK rises.

Health officials are expected to change their course of action and order anyone with potential flu symptoms to remain at home if the virus is not contained, according to The Sunday Telegraph.

However this could spell havoc for workplaces with millions taking off two weeks if they are feeling under the weather.

Symptoms of the virus include a dry cough, fever and tiredness - many of which are also present for the common cold and flu.

The dramatic government strategy comes after the global death toll hits 1,666 and an 80-year-old man in France became the first fatality from the infection in Europe.

Coronavirus isolation pods that have been put in place outside Addenbrooke's A&E Department in Cambridge

A sign on the isolation pods outside Addenbrooke's A&E Department in Cambridge. Yet if large numbers fall ill with mild symptoms there would be an increased risk of the virus spreading as isolation could not be maintained

The isolation pods outside Addenbrooke's A&E Department in Cambridge are not yet operational

All NHS hospitals in England have been ordered to create secure pods to assess patients with suspected coronavirus

Senior managers have been informed that the NHS could stop testing patients once the number of UK cases reaches 100 and if there is evidence of 'sustained transmission' within the UK, the newspaper understands.

It comes after hospitals in the UK have made designated 'isolation pods' to ensure patients who are tested are kept away from others.

Sixth British national tests positive for coronavirus after staying at Les Contamines-Montjoie resort in French Alps A sixth person has tested positive for coronavirus after they are though to have contracted the infection from 'super-spreader' businessman Steve Walsh. Sales executive Steve Walsh was sent to an isolation unit at St Thomas' Hospital in London after picking up the disease from one of the 100 other delegates at a Singapore gas conference last month. Five Britons  four adults and a child  staying at the same chalet as the 'super-spreader' in France tested positive for the coronavirus. Environmental consultant Bob Saynor, 48, and his nine-year-old son were named locally as two of the Brits After the five Britons tested positive, another six were taken to hospital and put in isolation where one has now been diagnosed. A statement from the French Ministry of Health said the man's condition is not believed to be serious. Advertisement

Pictures show pods outside Addenbrooke's A&E Department in Cambridge which have been erected as a precautionary measure but are not yet operational.

Yet if large numbers fall ill with mild symptoms there would be an increased risk of the virus spreading as isolation could not be maintained.

The change of tack follows the announcement by French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn who confirmed the death of an elderly Chinese tourist, who travelled to the country from the Hubei province on January 16.

The victim, who was quarantined in Bichat hospital in Paris on January 25, leaves behind a daughter who is battling the infection but making a good recovery.

He died of a lung infection sparked by the bug which caused his condition to 'rapidly deteriorate'.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called for 'more international cooperation' to ensure that the virus does not escalate into a global pandemic.

The World Health Organisation advises countries to do in-depth investigations of at least the first 100 confirmed cases of any pandemic.

Britain's Pandemic Influenza Response Plan includes how the 'first few 100 cases' have protocols in place to ensure isolation and treatment to ensure medics can gather sufficient information about a new virus.

However the plan details how a different approach should be taken if there is 'evidence of sustained community transmission'.

The number of people in the UK tested for the virus has quadrupled in the last week from 686 to a staggering 2,992.

The NHS tested 763 patients on Thursday alone despite the capacity being 1,000 per day.

Proffesor Chris Whitty, Englands chief medical officer, told how the current approach by the health service aims to contain and delay the spread of the virus in a bid to 'buy time'.

Seventy-eight Britons face being LEFT BEHIND on coronavirus quarantine cruise ship as the US prepares to air-lift ALL its 428 citizens back to America

The 78 Britons trapped aboard a coronavirus-blitzed cruise ship in Japan will watch their fellow American passengers evacuated home tomorrow, piling pressure on the UK government to take similar action.

Two US State Department-chartered planes will airlift their 428 stranded citizens from Yokohama, where the Diamond Princess liner has been docked in quarantine for 10 days and will remain locked-down until Wednesday.

Infections on the ship continue to climb and today jumped to 285 - up 67 in the last three days.

The number of cases on board the Diamond Princess liner has rise to 218 since it first docked

The US is to evacuate 428 Americans who have been trapped on board a cruise ship in Japan (Diamond Princess pictured, with Hazmat-suited drivers leaving port)

Paul and Cheryl Molesky, from Syracuse, New York, are among those being rescued tomorrow

Amid the spike in diagnoses of the killer virus, a source said the Foreign Office is 'actively considering all options', but has not yet confirmed a US-inspired airlift.

MailOnline understands government crisis teams stationed in London and Tokyo have been working to safeguard the wellbeing of British nationals, all of whom have been contacted by officials today.

Three of those infected are British nationals, including Wolverhampton honeymooner Alan Steele.

Three of those infected are British nationals, including Wolverhampton honeymooner Alan Steele (pictured with new wife Wendy)

Increasingly desperate to leave, two of the trapped Britons David and Sally Abel appealed to billionaire Richard Branson to send a plane to rescue them.

REVEALED: THE BRITONS INFECTED WITH CORONAVIRUS - AND WHERE ARE THEY BEING TREATED? Cases in the UK and where they are being cared for: Newcastle: Two Chinese nationals who came to the UK with coronavirus and fell ill while at a hotel in York. One is a student in the city and another is a relative. They were the first two cases on British soil and were confirmed on January 31. They are being treated at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary. Steve Walsh: The first British coronavirus victim became known as a super-spreader. He picked up the virus in Singapore and flew for a ski break in France afterwards where he appears to have infected at least 11 people. He was taken to St Thomas' Hospital in London from Brighton on February 6  but was released on February 12 after recovering. Dr Catriona Saynor, who went on holiday with Mr Walsh and her husband, Bob, and their three children, is thought to be the fourth patient in the UK diagnosed with coronavirus. Her husband and nine-year-old son were also diagnosed but remained in France. She was taken to a hospital in London on February 9 from Brighton She is thought to be at the Royal Free in Camden. Four more people in Brighton were diagnosed and were all 'known contacts' of the super-spreader and are thought to have stayed in the same French resort. One is known to be an A&E doctor and is believed to have worked at Worthing Hospital. Another attended a bus conference in Westminster on February 6. They are all being treated in London. London: The first case of the coronavirus in London brought the total number of cases in the UK to nine. The woman was diagnosed on February 12 and taken to St Thomas' Hospital. She is thought to have flown into the UK from China the weekend before, with officials confirming she caught the virus there. Total in UK hospitals: Nine patients. Six Britons and three Chinese nationals British expats and holidaymakers outside the UK and where they are being cared for: Majorca: A British father-of-two who stayed in the French ski resort with Steve Walsh tested positive after returning to his home in Majorca. His wife and children are not ill. France: Five people who were in the chalet with the super-spreader. These include the chalet's owner, environmental consultant Bob Saynor, 48, and his nine-year-old son. They are all in a French hospital with three unnamed others. Japan: A British man on board a cruise ship docked at a port in Japan tested positive for coronavirus, Princess Cruises said. Alan Steele, from Wolverhampton, posted on Facebook that he had been diagnosed with the virus. Steele said he was not showing any symptoms but was being taken to hospital. He was on his honeymoon. Two more Britons have since tested positive for on a quarantined cruise ship. Total: Nine Advertisement

An Foreign Office spokesperson said: 'We are urgently speaking to authorities in Japan and the UK.

'We are working around the clock to ensure the welfare of the British nationals on board.'

The cruise ship initially had 3,700 passengers and crew, but during its quarantine in Yokahama some have been carted off the liner to be treated for the deadly infection.

Those diagnosed on board have been removed to local hospital, with people remaining on the ship told that their quarantine would be over on February 19, two weeks from when it officially began.

But a message broadcast on the ship by the captain on Saturday night local time cast doubt on that timeline.

The captain said: 'The Japanese government has informed us that they may start a new testing process for guests beginning February 18,' and warned it could take several days.

'So guests who are tested on February 18 and have negative test results may be able to disembark beginning February 21,' the message said.

Those who had close contact with anyone who tested positive would have to restart their quarantine from the date of their last close contact, he added.

When the US launched a similar rescue mission for its citizens trapped in Wuhan, it prompted the UK to follow their lead and also send a plane.

Tomorrow, the Americans will be flown to Travis Air Force Base in Sacramento, California, they will undergo a further 14 days of quarantine, sparking 'apprehension' among passengers.

Paul and Cheryl Molesky, from Syracuse, New York, are among those being rescued tomorrow.

Asked how they felt about being evacuated, Ms Molesky said they were a 'bit apprehensive' about again being quarantined on arrival to the US.

She told Sky News: 'We are relieved but we're still a little bit shocked...

'We found out that we're going to have to be quarantined for an additional 14 days in the United States, so there's some mixed emotions there.

Mr Molesky added: 'Because of the speed of what has happened here this last half hour we're a little dizzy.

The couple also paid tribute to the Japanese government and the Diamond Princess staff for making their stay 'very comfortable'.

The US embassy in Tokyo said in a letter to passengers that the aircraft would arrive in Japan on the evening of February 16 and that it recommended 'out of an abundance of caution' that US citizens disembark and return home for further monitoring.

The passengers would be required to undergo further quarantine of 14 days upon arriving in the United States.

'We understand this is frustrating and an adjustment, but these measures are consistent with the careful policies we have instituted to limit the potential spread of the disease,' the letter said.

'Should you choose not to return on this charter flight, you will be unable to return to the United States for a period of time.'

'The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will make a final determination on this matter.'

The cruise ship initially had 3,700 passengers and crew on board and was put under a two quarantine on February 5
The number of study permits that took effect has almost doubled since 2015. Most students are arriving from India, China, South Korea, France, Vietnam, Brazil, Iran, Nigeria, the United States and Japan

Canada welcomed more than 400,000 new international students in 2019

Canada welcomed more than 400,000 new international students in 2019 The number of study permits that took effect has almost doubled since 2015. Most students are arriving from India, China, South Korea, France, Vietnam, Brazil, Iran, Nigeria, the United States and Japan

Canada welcomed more than 400,000 new international students in 2019 The number of study permits that took effect has almost doubled since 2015. Most students are arriving from India, China, South Korea, France, Vietnam, Brazil, Iran, Nigeria, the United States and Japan

Canada welcomed more than 400,000 new international students in 2019 The number of study permits that took effect has almost doubled since 2015. Most students are arriving from India, China, South Korea, France, Vietnam, Brazil, Iran, Nigeria, the United States and Japan Kareem El-Assal Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

Sans Font Size A

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Canada had yet another major year in international student recruitment as it approved 404,000 new study permits in 2019.

A study permit is a document issued by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) that allows foreign nationals to study at a designated learning institution in Canada.

The number of study permits issued is a different metric from the total number of international students in Canada. IRCC has yet to release data on Canadas international student population in 2019. However, the newly-released study permit approval data strongly suggests that the population now exceeds 600,000. If this proves to be the case, Canadas international student population will have tripled since 2009, when it stood at 200,000 people.

Top 10 international student source countries

India remains the leading international student source country by a wide margin. In 2019, nearly 140,000 study permits were issued to Indian nationals, representing 35 per cent of all study permits issued.

Chinese nationals received 85,000 study permits or 21 per cent of all those issued.

South Korea was a distant third at 17,000 study permit or 4 per cent of the total.

Rounding out the top ten were France, Vietnam, Brazil, Iran, Nigeria, the United States, and Japan.

Study permits by country of citizenship and year they became effective



Source: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada; CIC News.

Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs

Where the growth is coming from

Growth in Canadas international student population is concentrated in a few source countries. Again, India leads the way, with the number of study permits issued to Indian nationals having more than quadrupled since 2015.

Growth is also coming from Vietnam. Whereas only 3,000 Vietnamese students received study permits in 2015, this figure has since grown to 12,000.

Iran is another important source of growth, with the number of study permits issued to Iranians quadrupling to nearly 10,000 in 2019 compared with 2015.

Brazil, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Colombia, Turkey, Morocco and Algeria are among the source countries that have posted growth rates of at least 60 per cent compared with 2015.

Why international students are coming to Canada

Canada now has the fourth-largest international student population in the world behind the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

According to research by the Canadian Bureau for International Education, international students are drawn to Canada by the quality of education provided by its universities and colleges.

They are also drawn by Canadas reputation as an open and welcoming society.

The relatively weak Canadian dollar is another factor. While international students pay higher tuition fees than Canadian students, the expenses they incur in Canada are more affordable than those incurred by international students in other top destinations.

Perhaps Canadas greatest advantage is its study-work-immigrate package.

International students are eligible to work in Canada to support themselves financially during their studies. Upon completing their studies, many of them are eligible to obtain a Post-Graduation Work Permit so that they can gain more Canadian work experience for a period of up to three years.

They can then apply for the more than 80 economic class immigration programs offered by the federal government as well as provinces and territories. Many of these programs give preference to former international students in their selection criteria since federal government research shows that former international students integrate very quickly into the Canadian economy.

As the global population of international students continues to grow and Canada becomes increasingly attractive as a study destination, it seems likely that the countrys international student intake will continue to experience solid gains in the coming years.

Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs

Kareem El-Assal is the Director of Policy & Digital Strategy at CanadaVisa.

 2020 CIC News All Rights Reserved
The rocket attack on a military base in Baghdad hosting troops of the international coalition for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) has resulted in no casualties, spokesperson for the US-led coalition against the Islamic State, Colonel Myles Caggins said on Sunday.

"The Coalition confirms small rockets impacted the Iraqi base hosting @CJTFOIR troops in the International Zone, February 16 at 3:24 am (Iraq Time). No casualties. Investigation ongoing," Caggins said on Twitter.

Earlier in the day, the media reported that the US-led coalition's base in Baghdad had been targeted by rockets. According to Al Arabiya broadcaster, explosions were heard near the US embassy in the "green zone" in the Iraqi capital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Opalesque Industry Update - The Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions today published a report that describes the issues and risks associated with crypto-asset trading platforms (CTPs) and sets out key considerations to assist regulatory authorities in addressing these issues. The development of crypto-assets is an important area of interest for regulatory authorities around the world and has been identified in the IOSCO work program as an on-going Board priority in 2020. The report published today, titled Issues, Risks and Regulatory Considerations Relating to Crypto-Asset Trading Platforms, describes the issues that IOSCO has identified regarding CTPs. The report sets out key considerations intended to assist regulatory authorities in evaluating CTPs within the context of their regulatory frameworks. The key considerations relate to:  Access to CTPs,  Safekeeping of participant assets, including custody arrangements,  Identification and management of conflicts of interest,  Transparency of operations,  Market integrity, including the rules governing trading on the CTP, and how those rules are monitored and enforced,  Price discovery mechanisms,  Technology, including resiliency and cyber security. Many of the issues related to the regulation of CTPs are common to traditional securities trading venues but may be heightened by the business models used by CTPs. Where a regulatory authority has determined that a crypto-asset is a security and falls within its remit, the basic principles or objectives of securities regulation should apply. Accordingly, the report states that the IOSCO Principles and Methodology provide useful guidance for regulatory authorities considering the identified issues and risks. IOSCO will continue to monitor the evolution of the markets for crypto-assets to ensure the issues, risks and key considerations identified in this report remain relevant and appropriate. IOSCO delivered the consultation report to the G20 meeting in Osaka in June 2019. The G20 issued a final communique that welcomed the "on-going work by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and other standard setting bodies and asked them to advise on additional multilateral responses as needed." To prepare this report, IOSCO issued a consultation report based on a survey of the regulatory approaches to CTPs that member jurisdictions are currently applying or considering. The final report draws on the responses to this consultation and includes a summary of the surveys findings.
In the swearing-in ceremony of AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal, six other ministers will also take oath today at Ramlila Maidan. The six ministers who will take oath along with Kejriwal on February 16 are: Manish Sisodia, Satyender Jain, Gopal Rai, Kailash Gehlot, Imran Hussain and Rajendra Gautam.

Also read: Arvind Kejriwal oath ceremony: Venue, timing, invitees; all you need to know

Manish Sisodia: Manish Sisodia won from Patparganj seat for the second consecutive time. In a neck and neck competition with Bharatiya Janata Part (BJP) rival-Ravinder Singh Negi, Sisodia defeated Negi by 3,391 votes in the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections. In AAP's 2015 government, he held education, finance, planning land & building, vigilance, services, women and child Development, art, culture and languages and all other departments not specifically allotted to any minister.

Satyender Jain: Satyendra Jain made a hat-trick after winning Shakur Basti constituency for the third time in the recently held Delhi Polls. Jain defeated BJP's SC Vats, and won by a margin of 7,592 votes. Jain held portfolios like health, industries, power, public works department, home and urban development, in AAP's 2015 government.

Gopal Rai: In the Delhi elections 2020, Gopal Rai won against BJP's Naresh Gaur in Babarpur by a margin of 33,062 votes. It was the same constituency where he won over rival BJP candidate with a margin of 36,000 votes in 2015 polls. Rai held portfolios like rural development, general administration department, irrigation and flood control and labour departments under him. He is also the Convener of the Delhi state unit of the AAP.

Also read: Arvind Kejriwal to take oath as Delhi CM at Ramlila Maidan today

Kailash Gehlot: Kailash Gehlot, who was transport minister in Kejriwal's previous government, was re-elected from the Jat-dominated rural constituency of Najafgarh in this year's Delhi polls. Gahlot defeated BJP's Ajeet Singh Kharkhari by a margin of 6,231 votes in Najafgarh constituency. Apart from transport minister, Gehlot was in-charge of revenue, law, justice and legislative affairs, information and technology, administrative reforms portfolios in AAP's 2015 government.

Imran Hussain: AAP's Imran Hussain won over BJP's Lata Sodhi and Congresses' Haroon Yusuf with a margin of 36,172 votes from Ballimaran constituency in Delhi polls 2020. Hussain received 64.65 per cent of vote share in the 2020 Dehi Assembly polls. Hussain made his electoral debut and defeated his opponent by a margin of 33,877 votes in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections. In AAP's previous government, Hussain was minister of food and civil supplies, environment and forests.

Also read: Arvind Kejriwal oath-ceremony today; here's list of invitees

Rajendra Gautam: Rajendra Pal Gautam won from Seemapuri constituency with a vote margin of 55,942, beating Sant Lal from Lok Jan Shakti Party. Gautam won by over 50,000 votes from the Seemapri seat in 2020 Delhi polls. This was his second victory from this constituency. In 2015 Delhi Assembly elelction, he won by a hefty margin of 48,821 votes. Rajendra Pal Gautam held charges of social welfare, SC and ST, gurudwara elections, water, and registrar of cooperative societies.

The oath ceremony will take place at Ramlila Maidan at 10 am on Sunday. AAP recorded a massive victory in the Delhi elections by bagging 62 of its 70 assembly seats, leaving just eight for the BJP. The Congress drew a blank for the second consecutive time.
Disney Actress Nikita Pearl Waligwa Dies at 15 of Brain Tumor

A 15-year-old child actress who appeared in a 2016 Disney film about a chess prodigy has died, according to local officials.

Nikita Pearl Waligwa, who appeared in Queen of Katwe, died on Saturday at a hospital near the Ugandan capital, Kampala, her school confirmed. Her cause of death was due to a brain tumor.

Fare thee well Nikita Pearl Waligwa. You were a darling to many and we have lost you to brain tumor at such a tender age. Nikita was in S.3. Rest in Perfect Peace dear, Gayaza High School wrote on social media.

Fare thee well Nikita Pearl Waligwa. You were a darling to many and we have lost you to brain tumor at such a tender age. Nikita was in S.3. Rest in Perfect Peace dear pic.twitter.com/ny8I9YAjsQ  Gayaza High School (@gayazahigh) February 16, 2020

It added that her community was left gutted by the development. No words can explain the pain at the moment. R.I.P Nikita, the school wrote.

According to The Associated Press, Waligwa was frequently hospitalized due to her condition. She also had received surgery in India.

A number of Ugandans expressed sadness and sympathy for her family on social media after her death.

May Nikitas soul rest in perfect eternal peace, one person wrote in the schools Twitter thread. Another added, May she rest with the angels.

The film was about a chess prodigy who lived in a poor Ugandan community, based on the true story of Phiona Mutesi, who started playing at the age of nine and competed in international tournaments. Waligwa appeared along alongside actress Lupita Nyongo, who played her mother, and David Oyelowo, who played her chess teacher.
By Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: Following the Cabinet decision to set up Andhra Pradesh Green Energy Corporation Ltd (APGECL) to harness solar energy for sustainable power, the Energy department has issued an order for formation of the same. The corporation will work on establishment of 10,000 MW solar power projects in the State, mainly to ensure nine-hour-a-day free and sustainable power supply to agriculture sector.

According to the order (MS 5) issued by ex-officio principal secretary G Sai Prasad on Saturday, the State is incurring more than `10,000 crore annually to meet agriculture subsidy, lift irrigation scheme power charges and aquaculture subsidy. Solar energy has the potential to fulfil the above requirements. In order to provide free power supply to the agriculture sector and lift irrigation schemes, the total capacity of solar plants required is likely to be 10,000 MW, the order stated. APGENCO will bear the cost of running the corporation till the latter is able to generate its own revenue. APGENCO and APTRANSCO will extend all the technical assistance needed to it.
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

A pedestrian was seriously injured Saturday night near the intersection of Lombard and Steiner Streets in San Francisco's Cow Hollow neighborhood, police said.

Police were called about 8:27 p.m. Saturday to that intersection on a report of a vehicle collision, said police Officer Robert Rueca. Officers arrived to find a pedestrian with life-threatening injuries. That pedestrian was taken to a local hospital.

The driver involved in the collision remained on the scene, Rueca said, and it had not been determined as of 10:30 p.m. whether drugs and/or alcohol played a part in this accident.

Lombard Street at Steiner was shut down as of 10:30 p.m. as police continue their investigation, Rueca said.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
The DNC ordered and paid for a security audit of the software, which was completed by NCC Group, a Britain-based cybersecurity firm. Out of the review, which also involved threat assessment conducted with the national party as well as officials in Iowa and Nevada, came directions to guard the name of the vendor, and to take the software live as late as possible to prevent it from getting into the hands of hackers, according to multiple people who participated or had knowledge of the exercises.
The oldest Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance policy thats yet to be claimed belongs to a 103-year-old man in Pennsylvania.

Taken out in 1928, the policy has been in force for 92 years.

Which means someone, a parent or a grandparent, took out that policy in that insured mans name when he was 11, says Roger W. Crandall, MassMutuals chairman, president and CEO.

Founded in 1851 and headquartered in Springfield since the beginning, MassMutual remains at the top of its industry now, as it was when its oldest active policy was issued. That kind of stability is a hallmark for the company, which turned an initial investment of $100,000 collected in Springfield in the mid-19th century into a 21st century company with more than $25 billion in adjusted capital.

That $25 billion is a lot of people leaving a little bit behind, Crandall shared during a recent meeting with reporters and editors from The Republican and MassLive.

MassMutual Chairman, President and CEO Roger Crandall speaks with reporters and editors from The Republican and MassLive Feb. 7, 2020 (Don Treeger / The Republican)

That $25 billion also represents the hard work of generations of Springfield-based workers. Work that will continue with a commitment to Springfield and to a data-science center in Amherst, where MassMutual hopes to recruit despite the challenges of a relatively small and somewhat isolated city.

MassMutual has undertaken a years-long $50 million renovation of its State Street headquarters, meant not only to update the offices to 21st century business culture but also to accommodate about 1,000 more people.

Its a balancing act, Crandall says, between the need to attract talent only available in booming Boston and the need to attract people who cannot or wont live in a major city yet need to be close enough to attend face-to-face meetings.

The MassMutual headquarters has 3,500 employees now and expects to hit 4,500 employees by the end of 2021 or early 2022. At the same time, the Enfield offices  where 1,500 people work today  will likely be closed by the end of 2021 as MassMutual migrates most of those jobs to Springfield.

MassMutuals evolution is also seeing the company building a new campus at the Boston Seaport as part of its $300 million investment in the Bay State announced two years ago and growing its presence in New York City, the nations financial heart. MassMutuals new building at Bostons Fan Pier will be done in late 2021.

MassMutual has already started migrating tech-heavy jobs from Springfield and elsewhere to Boston. MassMutual has 500 workers there now and will be at 700 there by the end of this year and eventually grow to more than 1,000.

MassMutual sold Tower Square in Springfield and no longer has a presence in the building, having moved the offices of Barings, its investment management arm, out last year.

MassMutual also closed offices in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Charlotte, North Carolina, to consolidate in Springfield and Boston.

The visit with Crandall included a tour of offices within the sprawling building first opened nearly a century ago in 1927 at what was the site of the Kalmbach and Geisel brewery founded by the ancestors of Theodor Geisel, Springfields Dr. Seuss.

Gone are rows and rows of corporate cubicles, replaced by open concept offices where employees are expected to grab a seat at a long table, high-top bench or in a restaurant-style booth and get to work. If they need privacy, MassMutuals built glassed-in booths for telephone calls. If they need to meet as a group to collaborate, employees can do it at table, a booth or in a conference room.

We have places for introverts to get away, Crandall notes. I figure at least half the people who work here are introverts.

This new no-set-place workplace goes for Crandall, too. His suite of executive offices  a space he admits was bigger than most apartments and more useful as a signifier of prestige than a functional workspace  is being converted into a more bullpen-style office space.

As for Crandall, hes got his iPad and a file cabinet with business cards and supplies in the corporate headquarters. He works wherever he happens to be.

The un-office office, Crandall says before describing his old suite as museum-like. I had the hall of dinosaurs.

Not only does Crandall think not having the classic office makes him more productive, he also is happy the changes will make more room for some of those 1,000 employees.

I can accommodate them without adding on to this building, Crandall explains, and I dont want to add on to this building.

Greg Saulmon / The Republican file

Above, MassMutuals State Street headquarters in November 2010. Below, the building in 1950.

Courtesy of MassMutual

The idea that any CEO of a Fortune 100 company  MassMutual is number 84  would be worried about finding enough space in his Springfield office building is great news for the city and the region, says Robert A. Nakosteen, a department chair and professor of operations and information management at the University of Massachusetts Isenberg School in Amherst.

Springfield has suffered over the years with its manufacturing base eroding, really since the turn of the last century, Nakosteen says. Having MassMutual bolsters its self-image. And these things, even though they are intangible, are a really important aspect of the Western Massachusetts economy.

Nakosteen remembers when American Bosch closed in 1986 and the devastation that caused for the city and the region. Its just one example.

Weve seen a lot of headquarters move, Nakosteen says. Its not just devastating to the economy. Its devastating to the economy of the area.

The presence of MassMutual has a halo effect for the economy, Nakosteen adds. It means Springfield is a player.

A good example of this is how hard Boston worked to get GE even if the direct effects are not that much given an area that might have too much else going on, he explains, but its worth it to Springfield to have that name.

John P. Jack Greeley is a professional educator in management at Western New England University and a Springfield native who spent many years in banking here and in health care management in the Berkshires.

He says MassMutual has always been instrumental in civic affairs, providing funding and the volunteer talent of its workers and executives. But it was once one of many companies, banks included, headquartered here that did the same thing. Think of Breck shampoo or Milton Bradleys games operations.

They have the ability to do really, really big things, Greeley says. It really is influential. In every domain, the more power you have that has an interest in Greater Springfield and Western Massachusetts, the better for the region.

That includes politically. Witness Crandalls advocacy for east-west rail.

Another change as MassMutual morphs is its dress code. Once a shirt-and-tie bastion of formality, the corporate dress code for the past five years has consisted of two words: dress appropriately.

Crandall said that means a persons workwear should match the days agenda. He wore an open-collard dress shirt and jeans for the interview. A meeting with Wall Street CEOs might require a suit and tie.

"If you are coding for a new app, then a t-shirt might be appropriate," Crandall said.

Besides giving employees more responsibility, the policy also helps MassMutual compete for the tech talent it needs. That competition isnt with other insurance companies, he said  its with Google, Facebook or one of 50 startups in Boston, Silicon Valley or even Tel Aviv.

The policy department at MassMutual in 1952.Courtesy of MassMutual

Nakosteen, meanwhile, says MassMutuals hidden influence includes making it easier for all employers to recruit talent to the region. MassMutual raises the regions status, he notes.

It also provides good professional jobs. Think of Baystate Health or UMass trying to hire professionals from outside the region or trying to keep professionals here as their careers progress. Often, those people are in a relationship and their life partner needs a professional job as well. And if that job is in the Pioneer Valley, it makes the decision to live here easier.

MassMutual can be one source of those jobs. And the reverse can be true of MassMutuals recruiting efforts.

Nakosteen uses MassMutual to recruit students into the programs he runs at UMass, he says. Every year, students go to MassMutual for internships or to work after graduation. He makes sure that incoming students know the opportunity is there, right down the road from campus in a city where they can afford housing and wont be trapped in Boston traffic.

Crandall cites his ability to tap into the regions colleges and universities as one reason why it makes sense for MassMutual to keep doing business in Springfield versus moving more jobs to Boston. Its the reason why MassMutuals data science lab is in Amherst, close to UMass, Smith and Mount Holyoke colleges.

He acknowledges, though, that it can be a challenge to recruit talent from outside the area to Springfield, a scenario which helped drive the decision for the Boston campus. MassMutuals run experiments, posting the same jobs twice, once for Boston and once for Springfield, he shares. The Boston posting garnered hundreds of times more applicants.

People want to be close to a big city, he says. They also want to be able to buy a house.
In a surprising move, Shaheen Bagh protesters were seen marching towards union home minister Amit shah's residence.

They are all set to take up the contentious CAA with Amit shah who extended an open invitation to the protesters at the Shaheen Bagh. However, the Delhi police has not given its nod to the march.

Latest report coming in suggest that a group of cops donning the riot gear is standing 500 meters away to prevent the protesters from moving ahead.

A senior officer told news agency ANI, We have asked protesters who are in the delegation which wants to meet home minister Amit Shah today, so we can plan a meeting. But they said that they all want to go. We have denied that, but we will see what we can do."

In a letter to the protesters, the New Delhi district police said the march will pass through two more districts and request for it has been sent to the police headquarters for further appropriate actions.

Police said they had asked the protesters at Shaheen Bagh to give the details of the delegation for its meeting with the Union home minister.

In a written response to police, they said 4,000 to 5,000 demonstrators would be marching towards Shah's residence.

The protesters, mainly women, have been staging a sit-in against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) for the past two months.
Gleb Sverdlov, CEO of Diamex Lab told Rough & Polished in his interview below about the development of IT technologies for the market of rough and polished diamonds and jewelry.

Please, tell us about your company.

Diamex Lab was set up a few years ago. The company is part of a group of companies and relies on its infrastructure. The reason for company establishment was a new interpretation of the technology for growing and improving of laboratory and natural tIIa diamonds for jewelry and industrial application. This technology was suggested by a team of scientists who work on carbon issues for oil and gas purposes. Difficulties in purchase of natural raw materials and conflict of laboratory and natural diamonds have reduced the attractiveness of the idea for the jewelry market. And exclusive industrial potential removed the project from the Diamex Lab's sphere of interest.

The next stage in companys life began with the work of mathematicians and programmers. In the process of solving the fundamental problem of protein simulation a mathematical method for dimensional object simulation was invented. This method became the basis for the development of jewelry design tool.

Today Diamex Lab is an innovative company working in the development of IT technologies for rough and polished diamonds and jewelry markets.

Tell us about the July project.

The project July was created as a testing ground. At first glance it seems that julyjewel.ru design tool represents just a beautiful picture with new consumer experience, but it is not only that. The design tool is just a front part of the concept which is capable of transforming and improving the market.

Today it takes 7 steps for a diamond to get from the earths depth to the consumer. Each step includes duplicated costs such as taxes, marketing expenditures, rent, wages, borrowed funds. The more steps, the more problems with the range, illiquid assets, receivables, storage, seasonality. Costs divert money from the market, and problems make the business less sustainable. The portion of the abovementioned may be up to 35% of the retail value of the product.

Vertical integration of our concept will allow us to optimize duplicated costs, get rid of these problems and reduce the number of steps. The number of such steps can be reduced to two for large mining companies and diamond manufacturers. Having saved the funds, the market will gain new capacity, and a consolidated marketing budget will allow to resist external competitors and instill jewelry consumption values, rather than carry out small feuds.

While solving the problems of the industry, we do not forget about the consumer. The design tool reflects consumer insights of new generations. Personalization of the offer, granting the key role in the whole process to the client, unlimited choices, purchase on any budget - these are just a part of the requests taken into account.

The project July has not yet become an independent brand, but it is striving for this. Now we are more focused on the development of new technologies and solutions that can complement what has already been created.

Among them:

 Interpretation of the results of rough and polished diamonds scanning in order to demonstrate to the consumer a real stone with real inclusions in the design tool. We believe that this tool will make it possible for the end consumer to buy jewelry with a future stone at the raw material stage and will expand the market for our equipment manufacturing colleagues.  A mathematical simulation of light for realistic transmission of stones play of color and light on screen of a computer, tablet or smartphone. It will give a new, extremely valuable consumer experience.  Dynamic fitting in augmented reality. A number of companies is already working in this direction, and they have achieved some success. We hope that we will be able to say something new in this sphere.  Determining the size of a persons body using smartphone tools. This task can be referred to the fundamental ones.

Who is your supplier of gems and diamonds?

We have tested our product three times. Once in artificial conditions and twice in real market conditions. All the three were successful. We were not involved in scaling and sales were relatively small. For this reason, we took advantage of the current market offer, without giving preference to any manufacturer. Now we are interested in the markets of ten countries. We are actively looking for partners on these territories. In four of those countries, we have made some progress.

Its not the first year that Diamex Lab has been a client of AK Alrosa (PJSC), thats why we consider its divisions - Alrosa Diamonds and Smolensky Crystal, which has recently joined the company, - as priority partners for the project July in Russia. Perhaps our cooperation with Alrosa will not be limited only to the supply of stones, we will also be glad to see the Russian company among our first licensees.

Who are your customers, what are their preferences?

If you are talking about the project July, then first of all our clients are people who are in love, who are in a relationship and have successful families. We have our own 4 C, its a pity not all of them actually start with an E: Engagement, wedding, birth, anniversary. These are the four Events in which the July brand is always happy to participate. Secondly, we are thinking about the prospects of expanding the range and reasons for communication. When the brand gains recognition and deserves the trust of its customers, we will be happy to offer a range of jewelry for such occasions as: first-tooth, graduation, important and memorable moments of our customers, their relatives and friends.

If we talk about the B2B segment, we offer the acquisition of country licenses to major market players with the subsequent integration of our solution into the structure of the company. In small markets or those where the search for a licensee is delayed, we are ready to start independently or on the basis of existing industries.

How do you control the ethical origin of the stones you use?

Thanks for the important and correct question. We support the need to control the ethical origin of diamonds. One of the important criteria for choosing a licensee is precisely its commitment to the Kimberley Process and complete transparency in this matter.

While placing high demands on others, we do not make allowances for ourselves. The architecture of our solutions contains the ability to trace the history of each stones origin. A good example and guideline for creating such solutions for us is Alrosa Diamonds, which provides their clients with complete information about the history of the stone. The choice of regional suppliers in those countries where July brand plans to develop independently also takes this criterion into account.

What do you think about diamonds grown under laboratory conditions? Do you use laboratory diamonds?

The appearance of laboratory diamonds on the market was inevitable. All precious and semiprecious stones have already been "ill" with this. And only diamonds remained unconquered, being attacked by imitations such as of moissanites and phianites. It is good that in sufficient scale this happened now, and not in the 90s, when this technology appeared in Russia. The current situation does not please me as a market participant, but I am philosophical about it. History tells us that the current state of affairs is temporary. Life will put everything in its place and natural diamonds will once again take their deserved legal position.

As part of the July brand, we do not use laboratory diamonds.

Do you think laboratory and natural diamond sectors are able to coexist without any collisions?

I think yes, they are. And this will happen not at the discretion of the jewelry market participants. The history of our company is a good example. We observe a range of breakthroughs made by our colleagues in the search for solutions for the industrial use of laboratory diamonds. Today, medical instruments, optics, electronics and photonics, and other areas create significantly greater value of laboratory diamonds than jewelry application. We are all well aware of examples where industrial consumption easily changes the cost of materials and, as a result, the picture of the jewelry market. Laboratory diamonds are no exception.

At the same time, I think that, no one should be afraid of losing the value of their natural stones, since they contain something that not a single laboratory-created diamond has - its natural uniqueness.

Alex Shishlo, Editor in Chief of the European Bureau, Rough & Polished




Four people survived a month adrift in the Pacific by eating coconuts and drinking rainwater in an ordeal that claimed the lives of eight of their companions, including a baby, reports said yesterday. The group, from Papua New Guineas Bougainville province, are believed to have spent 32 days at sea. The Solomon Star News reported the group set off from Bougainville on December 22, intending to celebrate Christmas in the Carteret Islands, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) away.

But survivor Dominic Stally said their small boat capsized and a number of the group drowned. The rest managed to right the vessel but there were further fatalities as they floated in the remote waters at the mercy of powerful ocean currents. We could do nothing with their dead bodies, we just have to let go of them at sea, he told the newspaper.

A couple have died and left behind their baby and I am the one who held onto the baby and later the baby died as well. Stally said a number of fishing vessels passed nearby without noticing them until they were finally picked up on January 23 off New Caledonia after drifting some 2,000 kilometres.

The Star News said the survivors comprised two men, a woman and a girl aged about 12. They were dropped off in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, last Saturday and were discharged into the care of Papua New Guineas High Commissioner John Balavu after receiving treatment for dehydration. The High Commissioner and medics at the Honiara hospital were not immediately available for comment.

Epic tales of survival are not uncommon in the Pacific, where tiny islands are separated by vast expanses of ocean. In January 2014, Salvadoran fisherman Jose Alvarenga washed up in the Marshalls, more than 13 months after he set off from Mexicos west coast with a companion, who died during the voyage. He survived by eating raw fish and bird flesh while keeping hydrated by drinking rainwater, turtle blood and his own urine.

His remarkable feat was initially greeted with scepticism, but he passed a polygraph test and an examination of ocean currents and boating records backed his claim. An Indonesian teenager survived seven weeks at sea in 2018 after his tiny fishing trap lost its moorings and ended up some 2,500 kilometres away off Guam.
Drivers of a trailer truck and an automobile have been jailed for causing a reversing car accident that killed five people along an expressway in the northern Vietnamese province of Thai Nguyen in late 2016.

The Peoples Court in Pho Yen Town, Thai Nguyen Province on Friday concluded the trial of Le Ngoc Hoang, 35, and Ngo Van Son, 42.

Hoang, driver of the trailer truck, was jailed for 4.5 years, while Son, who steered the automobile, was sentenced to nine years behind bars for breaking traffic regulations.

They were also required to pay over VND1.5 billion (US$64,500) in total to the victims families as compensation.

On November 19, 2016, a trailer truck collided with a compact minivan on the Hanoi-Thai Nguyen Expressway in northern Vietnam, killing five passengers in the car.

The car was carrying more passengers than allowed and was moving backward in reverse gear on the high-speed road, trying to reach an exit it had missed.

During a trial in May 2018, Hoang and Son were sentenced to eight and ten years in prison, respectively.

Ngo Van Son is seen at the trial in the northern Vietnamese province of Thai Nguyen on February 14, 2020. Photo: Danh Trong / Tuoi Tre

In November the same year, their sentences were commuted to six years and nine years, respectively, after the second-instance court considered their appeals.

Legal debate previously erupted after the verdict was reached, with lawyers arguing that Hoang should not be found guilty of failing to maintain a safe trailing distance," for it was nearly impossible to calculate such a distance when the car in front of him was moving backward.

On November 21, the Peoples High Court of Hanoi filed for a cassation review of the sentences.

The courts judicial committee accepted the cassation review on Friday and declared the cancelation of the first-instance and second-instance sentences pronounced by the Peoples Court in Thai Nguyen.

During the trial on Friday, the judge asserted that Hoang was partly responsible for the crash as he did not reduce his speed after seeing the slow down road sign prior to the accident.

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A Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) regular serviceman linked to a cluster at the Grace Assembly of God church is among three more people tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus in the city-state, its Health Ministry has said.

The 43-year-old serviceman has no travel history to China. He reported onset of symptoms on February 9, sought treatment at a general practitioner (GP) clinic the following day, and subsequently was tested positive for novel coronavirus on February 15, the Health Ministry said in a statement issued on Sunday (local time).

Prior to hospital admission, he had attended church service at Grace Assembly of God in Tanglin, a residential district located in the central region of Singapore.

The three confirmed cases have brought the total number of people infected from coronavirus in Singapore to 75, the second-highest after China, from where the virus originated. All three recent cases have no travel history to China.

Case 74 is a 29-year-old male Singapore Citizen, who too, is linked the cluster at Grace Assembly of God. He is currently warded in an isolation room at a hospital in Singapore.

Case 75 is a 71-year-old female Singapore Citizen, who is related to a person previously tested positive for coronavirus in the city-state. She was confirmed to have COVID-19 infection on 16 February morning and is currently warded in an isolation room at NCID.

Coronavirus originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, last year, and has since then killed more than 1600 people in that country alone, while cases have been registered in several countries across the world, including India.

Health and other concerned ministries in nations around the have stepped up their efforts to curb the spread of the deadly virus.

Last week, Singapore's Ministry of Health said the government will pay the hospital bills incurred by patients infected by the virus - officially known as Covid-19. This coverage does not extend to outpatient treatment at general practitioner clinics or polyclinics, nor does it apply to treatment sought at private medical facilities, the ministry said, as reported by The Straits Times.

Singapore has also raised its disease outbreak response level to 'orange' after confirmed cases with no travel history to China or links to the past cases, surfaced in the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Akufo-Addo says government is concerned about the deplorable conditions in Ghanas prisons.

The grim conditions in Ghana's prisons have been condemned by observers as dehumanizing.

However the President Akufo-Addo said government will soon roll out a program aimed at decongesting the prisons.

He made the remark at a meeting with the leadership of Amnesty International Ghana.

The conditions in our prisons have for some time not been acceptable. The building of more prisons which is the solution always goes back to the issue of the treasury and what is available but nevertheless it is something that should be addressed.

The Interior Minister said he has heard you and I have no doubt that he agrees with you as I do and we ought to do something to improve the conditions and particularly in dealing with the issue of overcrowding in our prisons.

Gov't working to improve healthcare in prisons  Bawumia

Government in Octover 2019 indicated that it is collaborating with the Ghana Health Service and other stakeholders to improve health systems in Ghana's prisons.

The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who disclosed this said in line with this programme, over forty (40) medical personnel had been posted to various prison establishments, while a national policy had also been launched to register all inmates onto the National Health Insurance Scheme.

Vice President Bawumia, who made the disclosure at the Graduation Parade of Officer Cadet Course Intake 26 of the Ghana Prisons Service added that all prison infirmaries are to be accredited to receive national health insurance claims soon.

Government is also working closely with the Service to improve the health system within our prisons. The Service has steadily increased the intake of medical personnel towards achieving the same purpose. A national policy was launched in 2018 at Nsawam to register all inmates onto the National Health Insurance Scheme. I am happy to state that 80% of inmates at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison have been covered. Under this same policy, all prison infirmaries are to be accredited to receive National Health Insurance claims. Here also, the Nsawam Medium Security Prison, Ankaful Maximum Security Prison and Koforidua Local Prison have received the necessary accreditation to receive claims. The plan is to extend the accreditation to all prison establishments and the infirmaries.

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Vietnam, as Chairman of ASEAN in 2020, has issued a statement on the blocs joint response to the outbreak of the acute respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), in the face of the complicated developments of the epidemic, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

The statement expressed the concern of ASEAN leaders abou tthe epidemic, which seriously impacts peoples life and the development of member countries, as well as the region and the world.

Stressing the ASEANs solidarity and spirit of a cohesive and responsive community, leaders affirmed their strong commitment to joining hands to control and curb the spread of the epidemic, ensuring a safe life for their people.

The statement welcomed the efforts in the framework of ASEAN medical cooperation and cooperation with partners, namely China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea.

It underlined that the bloc will enhance coordination at both national and regional levels, as well as coordinate closely with the World Health Organization and other international organizations.

The statement also affirmed solidarity and strong support of ASEAN for the tremendous efforts of the Chinese government and the international community in responding to the epidemic.

ASEAN countries will maintain the open-door policy and agree to coordinate in quarantine work at border gates of member countries. They will also work hard to fight fake information on the COVID-19 epidemic. The blocs leaders pledged to give a high priority to fighting the epidemic and called for joint efforts of the international community.

ASEAN, short for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic organization whose members include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The COVID-19 has killed 1,669 people and infected nearly 69,200 globally since it first hit the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, according to the South China Morning Post.

It has spread across mainland China and to 31 other countries and regions, according to a Reuters report.

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WASHINGTON  House Democrats, recovering from their failed push to remove President Trump from office, are making a sharp pivot to talking about health care and economic issues, turning away from their investigations of the president as they focus on preserving their majority.

Top Democrats say that oversight of the president will continue, and they plan in particular to press Attorney General William P. Barr over what they say are Mr. Trumps efforts to compromise the independence of the Justice Department. But for now, at least, they have shelved the idea of subpoenaing Mr. Trumps former national security adviser, who was a central figure in the presidents impeachment trial.

In a series of private meetings over the past week, and in written instructions she distributed to lawmakers Thursday before a recess this week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi made clear that the emphasis must shift.

Health care, health care, health care, the speaker said, describing the partys message during a recent closed-door meeting, according to a person in the room who insisted on anonymity to reveal private conversations. She said they had to be laser-focused on getting re-elected: When you make a decision to win, then you have to make every decision in favor of winning.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-16 04:24:12|Editor: yan

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RIYADH, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi-led coalition involved in a war in Yemen announced on Saturday the launch of an investigation into the possibility of collateral damage to civilians in a fighter jet crash in Yemen.

The jet crashed on Friday while carrying out back-up and support operations for the National Army of Yemen in al-Jawf district.

The possibility of collateral damage was reported during the search and rescue operation, said the coalition spokesman Turki Al-Maliki.

All documents regarding the incident will be referred to the Joint Incidents Assessment Team, he added.
It was the move which stunned the City and left commentators speechless last year. How could Kevin Loosemore take a second major job while running FTSE 100 software company Micro Focus, which was itself in desperate need of repair?

And not just any job. The job of rescuing the historic company that prints Britain's bank-notes, De La Rue, as it faced the prospect of running out of cash itself.

Earlier this month we had the answer. Loosemore stepped down as executive chairman of Micro Focus after 15 years at the helm of the company he built into a British technology giant.

Today, the IT veteran reveals in his first ever interview that his departure from the fallen software giant on Friday was no snap decision.

Former executive chairman Kevin Loosemore says leaving Micro Focus was 'no snap decision'

It was 'a long time planned', says Loosemore, who admits the news he was joining De La Rue a week after a huge profit warning at Micro Focus last August must have looked bad from the outside.

'It's been in the works since 2018. What wasn't supposed to happen is we [Micro Focus] weren't supposed to have a trading update last August, which was infinitely bad timing. By then, it had already been lined up that I was joining De La Rue.'

For someone who has typically shunned the media, he is remarkably candid as he opens up about the plight at Micro Focus  whose value has slumped since the botched 6.5billion takeover of software assets from Hewlett Packard Enterprise in 2017  and the mammoth task facing De La Rue, where he is now chairman.

A former boss of IBM's UK business, Loosemore, 61, had transformed Micro Focus into a British technology heavyweight by buying up ageing software companies and squeezing them for cash.

But at 6.5billion, the HPE deal was by far the largest he had embarked on, and it proved his undoing.

'Unfortunately, I did underestimate the challenges of integrating the HPE business,' he says frankly as he reflects on his resignation.

'Micro Focus will still end up being a very strong business with a huge cash flow, but it's not as good as it should have been, which is unfortunate.'

Micro Focus's slump last year must have been a humbling experience for a man who has been described as 'enormously arrogant'.

One former colleague described Loosemore as a 'very smart man' but an 'intellectual snob'. 'He was not a people person. He was feared, not liked,' they added.

Loosemore, who is a devout Christian and would say grace at company events, is defensive of his record at Micro Focus, which he led on to the London Stock Exchange in 2005 and then on to the FTSE 100 in 2016 before it unravelled.

Not even the mighty Goldman Sachs was able to find a buyer for some or all of the company

'If someone bought a Micro Focus share in 2006 at 70p, they would have had 16 of dividends and returns on that investment, which is not shoddy,' he says. On Friday night the shares closed at 8.02, having peaked at almost 27 in November 2017.

The shares slumped when Loosemore's departure was revealed earlier this month  but mostly because not even the mighty Goldman Sachs was able to find a buyer for some or all of the company.

Loosemore says the company 'genuinely looked at all options'.

'If someone comes along with a big enough cheque and it's right for the shareholders, it's not management's job to hold on to things,' he says.

'We believe we could probably get sales for some pieces of the business but the price didn't reflect the true value.'

He said 'lots of people wanted to talk to us' when the company announced the strategic review, but 'nothing came to a formal bid'.

He is, however, backing the company to 'get it sorted'.

'Once things get stabilised, it will still be a huge cash generating business, but it's just got to get through that,' he says.

He says American activist investor Elliott, which snapped up Micro Focus shares when they slumped in 2018 before selling six months later, was a 'fantastic shareholder' and tips them to return now the shares are low again.

Loosemore himself sold 11.6million of shares last summer for 'personal finance reasons', a year after he divorced his former wife Joy, in a move which angered investors as it came before the shares slumped.

He draws parallels between the problems at Micro Focus and De La Rue, which faces a crisis of its own.

In November, less than two months into Loosemore's chairmanship, De La Rue, which prints banknotes and famously lost the contract to make Britain's blue post-Brexit passports, warned there was 'significant doubt' about its future if its turnaround plan does not come off.

Loosemore says he contacted De La Rue last summer when the company was already under pressure and said he'd be interested in the chairman job, knowing he was already leaving Micro Focus.

He had worked as a managing director of De La Rue in the late 1990s so explains it is 'largely a kind of emotive thing' and there are 'still lots of connections there'.

'In 2000, I got a letter saying when you get to 62 you'll get a pension. I stuck it in the drawer and thought that'll never happen. But I know lots of people who are pensioners, I know lots of the staff and I thought, 'I'd like to go and see if I can fix this thing',' he says.

And he speaks frankly about fears that the business might collapse when he joined: 'That was part of the risk of taking the challenge on because I think that's the direction it was going, to be honest. At which point you may say well I'm mad.'

He says it was 'obviously a huge blow' to lose the passport contract to a Franco-Dutch company and wonders whether that would happen in 'any other country in Europe'.

He's also open about the job cuts the business needs to make to survive. 'What we've said to the staff is we've now got to get to the point where we live within our means, which is you have to earn as much as you spend,' he says.

'If you and your family spent way more than you earned, and you maximised your mortgage and sold off some of the family heirlooms, at some point you have to start living within your means. And that's kind of the reality [at De La Rue].'

He hits out at former management for not listening to outspoken investors such as Crystal Amber's Richard Bernstein, a vocal critic of former chief executive Martin Sutherland and Loosemore's predecessor Philip Rogerson.

Loosemore says he spoke to Bernstein the morning he was appointed.

'[Bernstein] expressed his frustrations that certain things had been done wrong and that Crystal Amber weren't really being listened to. And I think he was quite surprised when I said, 'Yeah, I agree'.'

He adds: 'My view of activist investors over the years has always been embrace them because if someone's got a good idea it's a good idea. Don't worry about where it came from.'

Despite his initial ire at not being consulted when Loosemore was hired, Bernstein is now backing Loosemore and new chief executive Clive Vacher to turn things around.

The trick, Loosemore explains, will be for De La Rue to start making money in the bad years and then 'really good money' in good times.

Of the task ahead, Loosemore says: 'I've seen nothing that has convinced me it won't be really difficult, but I've seen nothing that has convinced me it can't be done.'

Whatever happens, it certainly is a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire.
(Newser)  Fifty-seven years after the 1960 death of a 25-year-old beauty queen, a former priest went on trial for her murder. John Feit was convicted and in late 2017 sentenced to lifea sentence whose term ended up being just over two years. "Offender Feit was pronounced dead at 5:38am Tuesday at Huntsville Hospital" of cardiac arrest after having been found unresponsive in his cell, said the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Feit had been a suspect in Irene Garza's death from the get-go: She was last seen heading for Easter weekend confession at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen; her body was found five days later. Feit admitted hearing her confession but denied involvement in her death.

story continues below

Evidence linking him to Garza's murderspecifically Feit's portable photographic slide viewer, which USA Today reports was found near the one-time Miss All-Texas Sweetheart's bodywas found early on in the case. It wasn't until decades later that a former monk who was at a Trappist monastery with Feit in the 1960s said Feit had confessed to killing Garza, who was beaten, sexually assaulted, suffocated, and dumped in a canal. CBS News reports that former monk, Dale Tacheny, ended up being a "star witness" for prosecutors. By the time of his trial Feit had long since left the priesthood: He exited it in 1972, married and had three children, and lived in Phoenix until his 2016 arrest. (Read more cold cases stories.)
It would be interesting, if not edifying, to know whether Governor Arif Mohammad Khan learnt his history from Bharatiya Janata Party leader Amit Shah or vice versa. In any case, their commitment to what they believe Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru said about opening our hearts and doors to Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan is moving. It would have been wonderful if they followed the Mahatma and Nehru on other issues, such as compassion and secularism. Be that as it may, it would seem that neither look at history as it should be done, a study of the facts and the interpretation of those to better understand our past. But, I must say that since Khan delivers his pronouncements with the flourish of fencing, it is more enjoyable to respond to his touche.

In recent weeks, we have been repeatedly told that it was Gandhis wish and Nehrus commitment that migrant Hindus and Sikhs be provided citizenship and jobs. To set the record straight, the Partition assumed that people would choose to stay or migrate across the newly-drawn borders. But obviously, many Muslims, though certainly far from all, were expected to cross over to Pakistan just as most Hindus were expected to cross over to India.

The Long Partition by Vazira Zamindar tells us that in Sindh, the steady departure of Hindus was seen as sad, even as the stream of Muslims coming from India was thought to be unwanted. The grand vision of a Muslim homeland floundered on the waves of muhajirs (Muslim immigrants) entering Pakistan. Ultimately, the crossings at Khokhropar in Sindh were closed because more migrants could not be accommodated. In India, there was an issue of dealing with Muslims who returned after having initially migrated to Pakistan ( 95,000 registered after the Jawaharlal Nehru-Liaquat Ali Khan pact) as well as Hindus and Sikhs who took the belated decision to leave Pakistan despite Muhammad Ali Jinnahs assurances. Initially, people crossed the border without papers, then travel permits were introduced, and finally passports were issued by the two sides. At that point, the documents authorised travel, but were yet not associated with citizenship.

The problem posed by returning Muslims was that their properties had vested in the custodian of evacuee property, and in many cases, utilised for settling refugees. There was no issue about their citizenship and, therefore, it did not figure. On the other hand, there are examples such as letters written to migrants in Pakistan by Zakir Hussain, pleading with them to return home. I know of individuals who returned after some months and even wrote about one such case in my book, At Home in India. It is quite understandable that Hindus and Sikhs who might otherwise have migrated at the time of Partition chose to do so as a second thought, disappointed with conditions in Pakistan. But that applies just as much to Muslims from Pakistan, and we know that several hundred have been granted citizenship of India over the years.

The problem with the Citizenship (Amenment) Act, or the CAA, is that it seeks to create an artificial divide between Hindu and Sikhs on one hand, and with Muslims on the other, seemingly on the grounds of persecution, although the law does not require any proof of persecution. The truth is that many Muslims, particularly Qadyani, Shia and Baloch tribals face much worse persecution. We could have made a law to accommodate refugees keeping the historical and regional context in mind.

Arif Mohammad Khan has suggested that since Partition, there has been a severe drop in Pakistans non-Muslim population, although this may be an exaggeration. That still does not justify the automatic exclusion of migrant or refugee Muslims from our concern. His reference to the All India Congress Committee Resolution and concern expressed by Ashok Gehlot, the then chief minister of Rajasthan, must remain in the context of a pending issue that any reasonable person would want resolved. It certainly cannot add any ideological dimension to justify the thesis that Khan proposes. We must not forget that despite his exertions, we are not limited to the India-Pakistan binary, but are dealing with Bangladesh and Afghanistan as well. The logic applied to Pakistans treatment of its minorities might not apply to Bangladesh, and certainly not Afghanistan about which former President Hamid Karzai has said that all its citizens are persecuted because of civil war. Furthermore, the exclusion of Sri Lanka defies logic.

Having lent the CAA moral agnosticism, Khan has opted to steer clear of the response in Assam, where the people and the government have uniformly opposed the law because their concern is about outsiders who will dilute their culture irrespective of their faith. It is this that leads one to believe that the persecution story is a ruse for resolving the problem of what to do with the Hindu foreigners identified in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process in Assam.

Beyond that there is doubt that the same preferential treatment will be extended to people of a particular faith under a possible all-India NRC.

Salman Khurdhid is former Union Cabinet minister

The views expressed are personal
Minister of State at the Agric Ministry, Dr. Jule Nura has disclosed an amount of GHS 50 million has been released to the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO) to buy produce from local farmers.

Dr. Jule Nura says the move forms part of the government's drive to boost the agricultural sector. He was speaking at a forum in Accra.

By the Presidents directive, GHS 50 million has been released to the Buffer Stock to fill all their stores across the country. We can be sure that all stores that will be stocked means that farmers will not have a problem again.

To ensure the security of farmers and insulate them against losses resulting from the anticipated increases in production, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has set up the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO).

The government, in line with its mandate to accelerate the modernization of agriculture and to increase the productivity of the Ghanaian farmer , has introduced a number of interventions to achieve this mandate.

These interventions include the introduction of block farms program which has made it possible for mechanization and extension services to be spread out to cover a large acreage and a large number of farmers.

Others are increased subsidization of fertilizers and improved seeds.

Also, the injection of more tractors and other farm machinery and equipment at subsidized prices for increased mechanization was part of the agenda.

These interventions coupled with investment in irrigation over the last cropping season has led to a larger than anticipated increase in the production of cereals.

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Kartik Aaryan and Sara Ali Khan starrer Love Aajkal might not have been able to recreate the magic of its 2009 original version, starring Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone in the lead roles, but the actress who plays Kartiks love interest from the 90s, Arushi Sharma surely is getting all the right kind of attention from the release.

She has not been in the spotlight but her pious portrayal of the simple and beautiful Leena has found her a new fan following. We were naturally intrigued as well so we decided to do a little homework on her.

Turns out, Love Aajkal is not her first Imtiaz Ali movie. Being noticed and cast in an Imtiaz Ali film is like being touched by Midas and Arushi ended up impressing the brilliant director who previously cast her in a blink and miss performance for Tamasha.

In fact it was right after she shot for this micro cameo that she shared her interest for acting with him and he obviously kept her in mind while casting for this one.

She is an engineer-turned-actor. Just like other actors like Kriti Sanon and even her co-star Kartik, Arushi was pursuing engineering and gave up a 9-to-5 plush corporate job to pursue her love for acting and the craft.

If you are a fan of beautiful relationship videos that keep going viral on the internet, then chances are you have spotted her in 60 Seconds Conversation with Dhruv from Little Things.

Well, we hope to spot her doing some more interesting stuff in the future!
Full ham radio licences in the Falkland Islands Ian Abel G3ZHI asked the Falkland Islands Communications Regulator about the situation concerning the issuing of Full amateur radio licences in the islands



For many years in the Falkland Islands it has not been necessary to provide any evidence of competence to get a Full (HF) license, it is basically a form filling exercise.



Ian Abel G3ZHI emailed the Regulator expressing his disappointment that they didn't check to see if Falkland Islands amateurs were actually qualified.



Communications Regulator John Whitby replied saying:



"I am sorry to hear of your disappointment. However, given that the Regulatory Department is only myself we simply do not have the capacity to apply a qualification standard. However, it has not been completely ruled out and will be reviewed at some time in the future."



January 2020: Revalidation of Falkland Island Licences

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2020/january/falkland-island-ham-radio-licences.htm
In a country where almost everything is fine and dandy, our colleagues at 5Minutes have summarised the issues that could use some work...

It is a well-known fact that the Luxembourg economy is doing well, attracting workers from beyond its borders. However, RTL 5Minutes have found the Grand Duchy's kryptonite: housing, travel, languages... nine things the government could address to unleash the country's full potential.

HOUSE PRICES

In October 2019, Statec confirmed the trend of house prices climbing in recent years. From 2018 to 2019, the average price of older apartments rose by 10.7%. New-builds rose by 11.5%. As for house prices, these rose by 11.8%. Statec reported that housing and energy bills made up no less than 36% of residents' budgets in 2017.

Residents on lower wages are forced to rent or to move away - how can anyone invest in the Luxembourg market when it is virtually obligatory to borrow half a million euros over three decades? The country runs the risk of losing many residents to other countries, where the housing market is more affordable.

MOBILITY

Getting around the Grand Duchy can be a chore depending on the time of day... whether by rail or by road, the capital's station can't accommodate the number of trains, and the roads cannot bear the number of vehicles travelling to and from the city on a daily basis.

According to Tom Tom's traffic index, commuters to the capital lose on average 43 minutes each day to traffic - that's 160 hours per year, so almost a full week spent in traffic jams. Such conditions have knock-on effects such as accidents, late employees and students, pollution... according to a List study, traffic jams cost the country around 1.436 billion euros a year.

PENSIONS

In 2016, the director of the National Pension Fund commented that the pension reserves would be depleted by 2040.

The government launched an investigation into the matter in 2018, drawing the following conclusions: although the general pension regime is currently in a comfortable financial position, it cannot rest on the current elevated compensation levels.

Pension fund reserves are high (4.37 times the annual benefits amount) but when taking into account the growing numbers of pensioners - most of which live abroad - the current labour market and pension system would be depleted by 2041.The General Inspectorate of Social Security emphasised that it is imperative to consider all measures which could be taken to strengthen the pension system and guarantee its funding beyond this date, such as extending the working life, increasing contribution rates or recalculating pensions.

VOTING

Foreign residents living in Luxembourg can vote in local elections, but they are not allowed vote in legislative elections.This is also the case in France, Belgium, and even in Germany. But unlike its neighbours, the Grand Duchy has a population made up of more than 47% of foreign nationals, numbering around 290,000 people in 2019.

In 2015, Luxembourg citizens spoke out against the possibility for foreigners to register on the electoral lists for the legislative elections, when 78% of voters strongly rebuffed the government's proposals. Although not enough to deter foreign nationals from settling in the Grand Duchy (+10,000 foreign residents between January 1, 2017 and January 1, 2019, it is certainly an obstacle to their integration.

ROADWORKS

Is it an exaggeration to call Luxembourg a giant construction site? Perhaps slightly, but between the construction of numerous housing projects, infrastructure updates (Pont Adolphe, motorways and the tram) and the creation of new commercial spaces (Royal-Hamilius, Cloche d'Or ), the country, and especially its capital, sometimes has the appearance of an open-air construction site.

All these have in their own way contributed to the ongoing traffic issues. While the work is essential, the detrimental effects on businesses, such as those in the Gare district who have seen profits collapse, and on motorists, cannot be denied.

RISING POVERTY

The international image of the Grand Duchy is that of a rich country, with high-income residents and flattering statistics. It is estimated that the average income per adult is 3,464 per month. However, the idyllic veneers hide a dark truth: the risk of poverty. The figures increased from 11.9% in 2003 to 18.7% of the population by 2017. Almost one in five people live on less than 1,804 per month, which amounts to half the average income per person in 2017. Compared with property prices, there is reason to fear for the quality of life of residents.

LUXEMBOURGISH...

The Luxembourgish language, confirmed as the national language in 1984, to this day still lacks orthographic and grammatical codification. Thus, it poses an issue to non-native speakers, despite assistance from the government which provides companies with financial support to help teach their employees. However, the Centre for the Luxembourgish language has been working hard to standardise the language, and eradicate such issues as multiple spellings for the same words.

...AND OTHER LANGUAGES

Trilingualism is without a doubt a real opportunity and one of Luxembourg's strengths. But it can, under certain conditions, be synonymous with a source of stress for newcomers (+10,000 foreign residents in two years), particularly for parents who do not speak all three languages and have children in the local school system. Time to seek out tutors, or invest in one of the (expensive) private schools? Not an option for everyone!

BOOM IN NEIGHBOURING ECONOMIES

Luxembourg is the economic leader in the Greater Region, but its economy needs manpower - around 10,000 cross-border workers are expected to join each year until 2030. While unemployment is still relatively high in neighbouring regions (7% in Wallonia, 8.3% in France, 3-5% on the German border), residents across the border are clamouring to work in the Grand Duchy. But if the Belgian and French economies are strengthened, many cross-border workers might be tempted to drop the long commutes in favour of lower-paid jobs closer to home, which could land Luxembourg in a case of labour shortage.
Karina Bradnam, 29, (pictured) was last seen on Thursday in Titahi Bay, on New Zealand's lower North Island

A desperate search is underway for a young mother and former junior tennis star who vanished from her small town five days ago.

Karina Bradnam, 29, was last seen on Thursday in Titahi Bay, on New Zealand's lower North Island. Titahi Bay is a half hour drive from Wellington and has a population of about 7,000.

The small town is well-known for the brightly coloured boatsheds that line its picturesque bay.

The doting mother of a baby girl was seen wearing T-shirt and jeans on the day she went missing.

Karina was reported missing on Saturday.

Her sister, Makere Bradnam, was a presenter on the sports show The Crowd Goes Wild, has made a heartfelt plea for help on social media.

There are concerns for Bradnams safety and wellbeing, New Zealand police said. Anyone with information regarding Ms Bradnam's whereabouts is urged to contact police

'Instagram world.my sister is missing...last seen in Titahi Bay Wellington on Thursday,' she wrote on Instagram.

'Please let me know if you have any information or call police. We are very worried.'

Karina appears to enjoy a jetsetting lifestyle, her Facebook page is flooded with pictures of her holidaying in Fiji and Australia.

As a teenager, Karina and her sister were rising stars in the tennis world.

Ms Bradnam, who has a toddler, was reported missing on Saturday

Karina was Wellington's second-ranked woman player in the junior division in 2009, while Makere was ranked at No 3 in Wellington.

Their parents were both avid athletes. Their father, Darryl, made the New Zealand touch team, while their mother Lynette, played in the New Zealand women's basketball team.

There are concerns for Karina's safety and wellbeing, New Zealand police said.

Anyone with information regarding Ms Bradnam's whereabouts is urged to contact police.
Were highlighting some of the activities Staten Island students are engaged in -- both inside and outside the classroom.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Students at PS 35, Sunnyside, lined the hallways last month to watch a Chinese dragon dance to ring in the 2020 Lunar New Year.

Teacher Lisa Aristide said it was a tradition she began in 2019 with her students, who are English language learners. The students used math and measurements to create their own Chinese dragon costume, and celebrated the holiday at the school last year. Paraprofessional Brittanie Contrada helped to create the head of the dragon costume.

Since it was such a big hit last year, the students asked if they can perform again, now that they are in the fourth grade, said Aristide. So I pulled out all our research from last year, and had the same students create a news report based upon their area of expertise about Chinese New Year.

Students created a video to share with all classes in the school to explain the traditions and customs of Lunar New Year.

Students in the school lined the hallways to celebrate Lunar New Year and cheer on the dragon. This year, the celebration included kindergarten students dressed in traditional Chinese garments.

As part of our education column, In Class, we are highlighting some of the activities Staten Island students are engaged in -- both inside and outside the classroom. Heres a look at some additional recent education-related happenings.

Do you have a story idea for the In Class education column? Email education reporter Annalise Knudson at aknudson@siadvance.com.

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK

Students from 20 Staten Island Catholic elementary schools attended the annual Staten Island Catholic Schools Week mass last month.

The event marked the 46th anniversary of National Catholic Schools Week and was observed from Jan. 26 through Feb. 1. The mass, hosted at Our Lady Queen of Peace Church, New Dorp, was celebrated on Jan. 26.

The theme for the week was Catholic Schools: Learn, Serve, Lead, Succeed. According to the Archdiocese of New York, service and leadership are integral components of a Catholic education and the measures by which Catholic schools can be judged.

During the annual mass, students from Catholic elementary schools came together as a united community. The event began with a procession of two student representatives from each school. Parents, teachers, principals, pastors and administration of the Archdiocese of New York joined together for the celebration.

The week continued with various activities conducted at each school.

The annual Catholic Schools Week is jointly sponsored by the National Catholic Educational Association and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

STUDYING ABROAD

Vice Provost Dr. James O'Keefe taught students a course on homeland security in Rome for two weeks in January. (Courtesy/Dr. James O'Keefe)

Students at St. Johns University were able to study abroad in Rome for two weeks last month.

Vice Provost Dr. James OKeefe taught the course, Global Threats to Homeland Security, during the students studied aboard from Jan. 6-13. Students were able to take part in various events, including:

A guided walking tour of Romes Historic Center, including Piazza Navona, Pantheon, Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain.

A guided tour of the Coliseum and Roman Forum.

Attending a mass at the Vatican.

A chance to meet local law enforcement officers and distinguished professionals on Italian counter-terrorism.

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